Effects of preexisting moods on observers' reactions to helpful and nonhelpful models

Two experiments investigated the effects of preexisting mood on observers' reactions to helpful and nonhelpful models. The major predictions, derived from a social learning analysis of altruism and Isen's “cognitive loop” hypothesis, where that (1) subjects experiencing positive moods would be prosocially inclined if exposed to a helpful but not a nonhelpful model, and (2) subjects experiencing negative moods would accede to a request for assistance regardless of the type of model they had observed. Introductory psychology students underwent a positive, negative, or (in Experiment 1) a neutral mood induction. They then observed a model respond either positively or negatively to another person's request for assistance, and were subsequently provided an opportunity to assist the help-seeker. The results were highly consistent across the two experiments. The model's behavior had a stronger impact on subjects' help giving than did preexisting moods. However, internal analyses revealed that the intensity of moods that subjects were experiencing affected their reactions to modeling cues. The prosocial behavior of good mood subjects was positively correlated with the positivity of their moods if they had witnessed a helpful but not a nonhelpful model. By contrast, the helpfulness of subjects experiencing negative moods was positively correlated with the negativity of those moods, regardless of the type of model subjects had observed. The implications of these outcomes for the social learning analysis of altruism and the “cognitive loop” hypothesis are discussed.     

The impact of differing audience sizes on referees and team performance from a North American perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic provides a natural experimental framework to comprehensively test the effect of crowds on both referees and players. We examine this from a North American perspective, using data from three major leagues: the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey League (NHL). In all three leagues in the 2020–2021 season, matches were played either in empty stadiums or before diverse audience sizes. We find that the lockdown affects NBA and NFL results, by lowering the prospects of winning and the expected scoring points of the home team, when games are played without an audience. Conversely, the lockdown does not substantially influence the outcomes of NHL games. We also examine the effect of audience size on game outcomes using historical observations from the past decade, when no lockdown measures were in force. Interestingly, a larger audience size increases the chance of winning and the expected scoring points of the visiting team for NFL games. No significant effect of the audience size on match outcomes is observed for NBA or NHL games. Regarding referee decisions, spectators do not significantly influence referee calls of NHL matches. As for NBA and NFL, the lockdown significantly increases the total number of referee calls but does not prompt more biased decisions towards either of the teams. Finally, a larger audience leads to referee calls more favourable to the visiting team for NFL games. These results extend the literature regarding crowd pressure on the behaviour of players and officials, with an indication that the specific sports activity has a pivotal role in the response to a cheering audience.     

An experimental investigation into the effects of uncertainty on rational behaviour in two person symmetric games

This paper reports the results of two experiments to investigate the effects of payoff alterations in two-person symmetric games. The initial experiment involved 60 subjects, each of whom could earn from £0 to £15, depending on the interaction of their decisions and the unknown decisions of one other person. All decisions were made without feedback to isolate the impact on subjects' behaviour of the game's parameters. A primary aim was to see if the games had strategically distinct structures, or whether uncertainty over the choice rule of others would influence choice behaviour and lessen this independence. An alternative model of rational choice, making allowance for uncertainty in the decision environment, was proposed to capture subjects' behaviour. The results indicated that the frontiers of most of the games had no impact on choice behaviour other than through the magnitude of the change in payoffs. The model received strong support across an identifiable set of ‘frontierless’ games. However, the variety of games was not sufficient to provide a comprehensive test. A second experiment was recently held to close these gaps. Fifty subjects took part, each of whom earned from A$0 to A$24, averaging A$17. The findings provided broad additional support for the theory.     

The “Black Sheep Effect”: Extremity of judgments towards ingroup members as a function of group identification

The present study proposes an extension to the phenomenon of ingroup favouritism, based on the hypothesis that judgments about ingroup members may be more positive or more negative than judgments about similar outgroup members. It contrasts predictions issued from the complexity-extremity hypothesis (Linville, 1982; Linville and Jones, 1980), from the ingroup favouritism hypothesis (Tajfel, 1982) and from Tesser's (1978; Millar and Tesser, 1986) attitude polarization model. Our main prediction, based on Social Identity Theory, is that judgments about both likeable and unlikeable ingroup members are more extreme than judgments about outgroup members. This phenomenon, coined the Black Sheep Effect, is viewed as due to the relevance that ingroup members'behaviour, as compared to that of outgroup members, has for the subjects' social identity. Three experiments supported our predictions. Experiment I additionally showed that inter-trait correlations were stronger for the ingroup than for the outgroup. Experiment 2 showed that the black sheep effect occurs only when the judgmental cues are relevant for the subjects' social identity, and Experiment 3 showed that levels of information about the target of the judgment were ineffective in generating judgmental extremity. Results are discussed in light of a cognitive-motivational alternative explanation to a purely cognitive interpretation of outgroup homogeneity.     

Personality and paired-associate learning1

Eysenck has theorized that introverts are high in arousal and should show the pattern of results which has been displayed in several experiments by subjects confronted with high-arousal stimulus materials: poor performance on short-term and good performance on long-term measures of retention. Extraverts, on the other hand, are thought to be low in arousal and should show the reverse pattern as displayed by subjects confronted with low-arousal stimulus materials. The relevant experiments conducted in Britain confirm these predictions. The relevant United States studies do not. The method used in the present study, in which Americans were subjects, is that of an experiment of Kleinsmith and Kaplan (1964) which found the patterns of retention predicted on the basis of the subjects' exposure to high- or low-arousal stimulus materials. But, as in the other tests of Eysenck's predictions, arousal was measured in terms of introversion and extraversion. The results failed to support Eysenck's formulation.     

Extra-legal factors and product liability: The influence of mock jurors' demographic characteristics and intuitions about the cause of an injury

Two experiments were performed to investigate the role of extra-legal factors in a simulated product liability trial. In cases where the factual evidence was identical, subjects' liability judgments varied as a function of the case-specific factor of the alleged source of the plaintiffs injury. In deciding cases differently depending on the alleged cause, subjects relied on intuitions about what injury sources are more or less likely to cause a certain kind of injury. Juror-specific factors also influenced subjects' verdicts. There was no difference between students and non-students, but race and SEC—factors that are often correlated with student status—did affect subjects' verdicts. Low-SES and minority subjects were more likely to find the defendant liable than high-SES and white subjects. The results are considered in terms of general decision-making processes, and the implications for jury selection and mock jury research are discussed.     

Learning conditional frequencies in a probability learning task

The study was prompted by a theoretical discussion of probability learning by Estes (1976). In three separate experiments, subjects were presented with frequency information in the form of wins and losses among 3 teams, and later predicted future wins and losses. Frequencies were devised so that conditional win frequencies for a pair of teams were either inconsistent or consistent with marginal win frequencies for each team. In experiment 1, when subjects predicted future events on the basis of known past frequencies, predictions were generally based on conditional frequencies. In experiment 2 six blocks of observations were presented, with predictions following each block. What little learning did occur was in the direction of the conditional frequencies. Subjects in experiment 3 were able to learn conditional frequencies when given explicit instructions to do so. Results were discussed in terms of a two-stage hypothesis generation model that might operate within the framework of an associative theory of probability learning.     

A Strength Model of Probability Judgments for Tournaments

Fans of the National Basketball Association (NBA) assigned probability judgments to the outcomes of upcoming NBA games, and rated the strength of each team involved. The probability judgments obtained from these “expert” subjects exhibited high intersubject agreement and also corresponded closely to the eventual game outcomes. A simple model that associates a single strength value with each team accurately accounted for the probability judgments and their relationship to the ratings of team strength. The results show that, in this domain at least, probability judgments can be derived from direct assessments of strength which make no reference to chance or uncertainty.     

Implicit serial learning: Questions inspired by Hebb (1961)

Implicit serial learning occurs when indirect measures such as transfer reveal learning of a repeating sequence even when subjects are not informed ofthe repeating sequence, are not asked to learn it, and do not become of aware of it. This phenomenon is reminiscent of an experiment by Hebb(1961), who studied the repetition of sequences in a serial recall task. Two experiments investigated the relation between implicit serial learning and ideas about learning forwarded by Hebb and others who used his method. The experiments showed that implicit serial learning occurs even when the repeating sequence is intermixed with randomly generated sequences instead of being repeated continuously, that the organization of the sequence into regularly or irregularly grouped subsequences determines the extent of learning, and that the repetition effect observed does not depend on subjects' ability to recognize the repetition.     

Effects of social value orientation on expecting and learning others' orientations

The influence of an individual's own social value orientation on the orientation expected from others and on the learning of others' social orientations was examined. The subjects (N = 148) were classified according to theirown social value orientation. The orientations they generally expected from others were assessed as well. Each subject learned the choices of five other persons, representing the orientations altruism, cooperation, equality, individualism, and competition. With respect to subjects' expectations of others' orientations the triangle hypothesis was not fully supported: only individualists expected their orientation in high frequencies. The false consensus hypothesis received more support. Generally an orientation was expected more frequently by subjects who themselves had that particular orientation than by subjects with other orientations. With regard to the learning of others' orientations support was found for the predictions derived from the triangle and the false consensus hypothesis. Cooperators and individualists were the best overall learners, followed by egalitarian and maximum subjects, and at the lowest level competitors. In addition, nearly every orientation was learned better by subjects who had that orientation than by subjects with a different orientation.     

Expertise and error in diagnostic reasoning

An investigation is presented in which a computer simulation model (DIAGNOSER) is used to develop and test predictions for behavior of subjects in a task of medical diagnosis. The first experiment employed a process-tracing methodology in order to compare hypothesis generation and evaluation behavior of DIAGNOSER with individuals at different levels of expertise (students, trainees, experts). A second experiment performed with only DIAGNOSER identified conditions under which errors in reasoning in the first experiment could be related to interpretation of specific data items. Predictions derived from DIAGNOSER's performance were tested in a third experiment with a new sample of subjects. Data from the three experiments indicated that (1) form of diagnostic reasoning was similar for all subjects trained in medicine and for the simulation model, (2) substance of diagnostic reasoning employed by the simulation model was parable with that of the more expert subjects, and (3) errors in subjects' reasoning were attributable to deficiencies in disease knowledge and the interpretation of specific patient data cues predicted by the simulation model.     

Match Madness: Probability Matching in Prediction of the NCAA Basketball Tournament1

Every year, billions of dollars are spent gambling on the outcomes of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. This study examines how individuals make predictions for tournament pools, one of the most popular forms of betting, in which individuals must correctly predict as many games in the tournament as possible. We demonstrate that individuals predict more upsets (i.e., wins by a higher seeded team) than would be considered rational by a normative choice model, and that individuals are no better than chance at doing so. These predictions fit a pattern of probability matching, in which individuals predict upsets at a rate equal to past frequency. This pattern emerges because individuals believe the outcomes of the games are nonrandom and, therefore, predictable.     

The effects of intergroup discrimination and social values on level of self-esteem in the minimal group paradigm

The proposition that individuals engage in intergroup discrimination to increase or maintain positive social identity and a high level of self-esteem has received some empirical support. An attempt was made to extend prior findings by evaluating whether intergroup allocation behaviour consistent with subjects' social values would lead to higher self-esteem than inconsistent allocation behaviour. More specifically, it was predicted that competitive subjects' self-esteem will be higher following discriminatory choices than fair choices and prosocial subjects' self-esteem will be higher following fair choices than discriminatory choices. It was also predicted that after subjects were constrained to make discriminatory choices, competitors' self-esteem would be higher than prosocials' self-esteem and after subjects were constrained to make fair choices, prosocials' self-esteem would be higher than competitors' self-esteem. Experiment I supported the first of these predictions when a measure of personal self-esteem was used as a dependent variable. Experiment 2 attempted to extend the generality of the findings of Experiment 1 by defining and measuring self-esteem in collective terms. The expected prior pattern of results did not occur again. Constraining subjects to make discriminatory choices increased their collective self-esteem regardless of their social values.     

The Cost-Reward Model of Helping Behavior: A Nonconfirmation1

A field experiment was designed to test several predictions derived from the Piliavin and Piliavin cost-reward model of helping behavior. Female and male subjects' reported intent to help a hemophiliac in a nearby hospital was unrelated to the costs for helping, the costs for not helping, and the order in which the subjects received the costs' manipulations. The obtained rates of helping were also unrelated to whether or not subjects reported having donated previously. Failure to obtain the predicted results is discussed.     

The Relationship of Attributional Style to Learned Helplessness in an Interpersonal Context

The construct validity of the Attributionai Style Questionnaire (ASQ), developed from Seligrnan's reformulated model of learned helplessness and depression, was evaluated in an interpersonal context rather than in the typical research context of an impersonal academic task. Forty college women who had completed the ASQ 1 to 2 months earlier interacted with potential male dates. The subjects reported their causal attributions for dating outcomes as well as their outcome expectations and depressive affect before and after in-, teraction that resulted in their rejection. Several attributional indices on the ASQ did predict subjects' causal attributions for dating failure and expectations of outcomes with a different potential date. While expectations and affect were related, neither dispositional nor situational attributions predicted affective responses to rejection. Subjects, ages and physical attractiveness were also found to influence cognitive aspects of subjects' interpersonal experience. The results were discussed in terms of the utility of the ASQ and the reformulated learned helplessness model.     

The illusion of knowledge: When more information reduces accuracy and increases confidence

Intuition suggests that having more information can increase prediction accuracy of uncertain outcomes. In four experiments, we show that more knowledge can decrease accuracy and simultaneously increase prediction confidence. Participants were asked to predict basketball games sampled from a National Basketball Association season. All participants were provided with statistics (win record, halftime score), while half were additionally given the team names. Knowledge of names increased the confidence of basketball fans consistent with their belief that this knowledge improved their predictions. Contrary to this belief, it decreased the participants’ accuracy by reducing their reliance on statistical cues. One of the factors contributing to this underweighting of statistical cues was a bias to bet on more familiar teams against the statistical odds. Finally, in a real betting experiment, fans earned less money if they knew the team names while persisting in their belief that this knowledge improved their predictions.     

Experimenter—Subject Interaction: The Influence of a Request for Assistance on Subjects' Attitudes

Based on role-theory and social comparison theory, it is hypothesized that assistance deception techniques, which are sometimes used in social psychological research, can alter subjects' self-positioning on relevant dimensions of comparison and, consequently, affect connected dependent variables such as the attitude towards a task. Two experiments are reported in which subjects carried out the same task in two different status positions (ordinary subject or co-experimenter). For exploratory reasons autonomy (experiment 1) and power (experiment 2) were also manipulated. The dependent measure was the evaluation (attitude) of the task. In both experiments significant differences between high and low status were found that were generally in line with the predictions. With respect to autonomy, no support for the hypothesized relationship was found; as to the power variable, the results indicate that, contrary to predictions, both high power and high status need to be combined in order to make the subjects evaluate the task more positively. Possible explanations for the obtained results are discussed, and possible consequences for one of the types of experiments in which assistance-deception is sometimes used (i.e., dissonance experiments) are described.     

Learned helplessness and the detection of contingency: A direct test

Two studies tested a basic hypothesis of the learned helplessness model: That performance deficits associated with exposure to uncontrollable outcomes are directly mediated by an individual's perception of response-outcome independence. In the first experiment 48 subjects were exposed to noise bursts. For one experimental group, the termination of the noise was response-contingent. For five other groups, noise-burst termination was independent of subjects' responses. These five groups varied in the number of trials on which they received positive feedback: As predicted, subjects overestimated the amount of control they had over noise termination as a positive linear function of the amount of noncontingent positive feedback they received. Although subjects exposed to either noncontingent positive or negative feedback showed subsequent performance deficits on an anagrams task, the expected relation between perceived control and subsequent performance failed to emerge. These findings were replicated in a second experiment. In addition, subjects' locus, stability, and globality attributions failed to predict subsequent performance. These results call into question the central premises of helplessness theory: That perceived uncontrollability and causal attributions mediate learned helplessness.     

Levels of theory‐of‐mind reasoning in competitive games

The literature on recursive theory of mind (TOM) reasoning in interactive decision making (reasoning of the type “I think that you think that I think…”) has been pessimistic, suggesting that adults attribute to others levels of reasoning that are low and slow to increase with learning. In four experiments with college‐age adults playing sequential games, we examined whether choices and predictions were consistent with believing that others pursue their immediate self‐interest, or with believing that others reason through their own decision making, with fixed‐sum games that were simpler and more competitive. This manipulation led to higher‐level default TOM reasoning; indeed, reasoning against a lower‐level opponent was frequently consistent with assuming the opponent's reasoning to be higher‐level, leading to sub‐optimal choices. We conclude that TOM reasoning is not of a low level in all game settings; rather, individuals may display effective TOM reasoning, reflecting realistic assumptions about their opponents, in competitive and relatively simple games. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparing positive and negative patterning in human learning

In human causal learning, positive patterning (PP) and negative patterning (NP) discriminations are often acquired at roughly the same rate, whereas PP is learned faster than NP in most experiments with nonhuman animals. One likely reason for this discrepancy is that most causal learning scenarios encourage participants to treat the presentation and omission of the relevant outcome as two events of comparable significance and likelihood. To investigate this, the current experiments compared PP and NP using a predictive learning paradigm based on a mock gambling task. In Experiment 1, one outcome (winning) was made more salient by being less frequent than the alternative outcome (losing). Under these circumstances, PP was learned faster than NP. In Experiment 2, subjects learned two PP and two NP discriminations, one involved win versus no change outcomes, the other involved lose versus no change outcomes. The subjects learned PP faster than NP, but only when discriminating win from no change. We argue that a difference in difficulty between PP and NP relies on a difference in the salience of the outcomes, consistent with the predictions of a relatively simple model of associative learning.