The effects of perceived similarity upon the use of reward and punishment

Subjects were led to perceive a trainee as either similar or dissimilar to themselves. During subsequent influence trials, subjects attempted to assess the causes of the trainee's performance and to employ rewards, punishments, or manipulations of the trainee's environment to optimize her performance. It was predicted that subjects would perceive the performance of dissimilar trainees as caused more by the dispositional factor of motivation than the performance of similar trainees, and that dissimilar trainees would thus be rewarded more upon success as well as punished more upon failure. The hypotheses were supported, and a model of reward-punishment behavior and attribution is discussed.     

Some effects of attitudinal similarity and exposure on attraction and aggression

Previous research investigating the relationship of attraction and aggression has yielded somewhat equivocal results. The present study investigated the influence of two variables, attitudinal similarity and exposure, on interpersonal attraction and physical aggression. Fifty-four subjects received differential exposure to another individual and were later given information concerning this individual's attitudes. The subject's attraction toward the stimulus person was assessed followed by measures of aggression toward the stimulus person. Analysis of variance indicated that an attitudinally similar other was liked significantly more (p < .01) and aggressed against significantly less (p < .05) than an attitudinally dissimilar other. The exposure variable had no main effect on either attraction or aggression but interacted significantly (p < .05) with the attitudinal variable in producing differential attraction.     

A negativity bias in interpersonal evaluation

Two studies were conducted to demonstrate a bias toward negativity in evaluations of persons or their work in particular social circumstances. In Study 1, subjects evaluated materials written by peers. Those working under conditions that placed them in low status relative to the audience for their evaluations, or conditions that made their intellectual position within a group insecure, showed a clear bias toward negativity in those evaluations. Only individuals who believed their audience to be of relatively low status and at the same time believed their intellectual position to be secure did not show this bias. In Study 2, subjects viewed a videotape of a stimulus person and rated him on several intellectual and social dimensions. Again, subjects believed their audience to be of either relatively high or relatively low status. As a cross dimension, they were given instructions to focus on either the intellectual or the social abilities of the stimulus person while viewing the videotape. A strong main effect of audience status was demonstrated, but only in ratings of intellectual traits; subjects who believed their audience to be of relatively high status rated the stimulus person's intellectual qualities significantly more negatively. Moreover, this effect was independent of the instructional focus subjects had been given. The negativity bias is discussed in the context of previous demonstrations of biases toward weighting negative information more heavily than positive information, as well as previous demonstrations of seemingly pervasive positivity biases in memory and judgment.     

Effect of perceived choice,expected outcome,and observed outcome of an action on the causal attributions of actors

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that actors' causal attributions for success and failure would be affected by the degree of perceived choice they had in taking an action. Actors either were assigned, or selected one of four therapeutic outlines which were expected to have either a positive or a negative effect, and which actually had either a positive or negative outcome on a purportedly phobic person. For negative outcomes, it was predicted that perceived choice would induce a sense of personal responsibility when a positive outcome was expected, and lead actors to attribute more responsibility to themselves as a result. Results supported this prediction. For positive outcomes, however, actors attributed responsibility to themselves regardless of expectancy or choice. Actors were also found to attribute generally more responsibility to themselves for positive than negative outcomes. Results were discussed in terms of self-esteem motivation and the information available to the actor.     

On the relationship between empathy and the actor versus observer hypothesis

Subjects listened to a tape recording of a dyadic interaction. It was predicted that the observational set instructions received by the subjects (to empathize with one member of the dyad or not to empathize with this person) would create evaluation effects similar to those created for attributions of responsibility by actor-observer differences: The actor would receive credit for his positive outcome and blame for his negative outcome more when evaluated by nonempathizing observers, and the social environment would receive credit and blame for the actor's outcomes more when evaluated by empathizing observers. The predicted three-way interaction was obtained. Additional results are discussed in terms of previous empathy research.     

Helping as a function of empathic responses and sociopathy

The present study reports two experiments which investigated helping as a function of empathic anxiety (anxiety in response to modeled distress) and individual differences in sociopathic tendencies. The first experiment concerned the effects of empathic anxiety, sociopathy, and perceived similarity/dissimilarity to a distressed person on helping. As predicted, subjects who experienced high levels of empathic anxiety helped more than subjects who experienced low levels of empathic anxiety. High sociopathic subjects experienced lower levels of empathic anxiety and helped less than did low sociopathic subjects. However, a path analysis disclosed that sociopathy's relationship to helping was not due to (or mediated by) empathic anxiety. The similarity manipulation did not influence empathic anxiety or helping. In the second experiment, subjects were classified as primary or secondary sociopaths (based on their levels of trait anxiety). As in the first experiment, empathic anxiety and sociopathy were significantly related to helping. Primary sociopaths displayed less empathic anxiety than secondary sociopaths, but the two groups did not differ in their willingness to help. Thus, in neither study could the sociopath's behavior be explained by empathic anxiety. The discussion concerned empathy as a mediational variable in helping and the role of personality variables in helping. A post hoc explanation of the sociopath's behavior, based on Schwartz' theory of the characteristics of helpers, was proposed.     

Active and passive observers' attraction to a self-disclosing other

Active observer (participant) subjects were induced to make either a high or a low intimacy disclosure about themselves to a partner. Their (videotaped confederate) partner then disclosed either intimately or non-intimately in return. The impressions and attributions of these subjects were compared to the predictions of passive observer subjects (non-participants) who were each furnished with the original instructions, heard a tape recording of a different active observer's disclosure, and watched the same videotape of the confederate that person had seen. As expected, both active observers' responses and passive observers' predictions indicated a preference for the intimate partner. In addition, passive observers' attraction predictions were less positive than active observers' reports. But contrary to the hypotheses, passive observers predicted that active observers would attribute the partner's disclosure more to personalistic causes than was actually the case, and guessed inaccurately that active observers would interpret the partner's intimacy as an indicator of attraction. The methodological implications of these active-passive observer differences for research in self-disclosure and relationships are discussed.     

The effects of self-monitoring and self-reported consistency on the consistency of personality judgments made by strangers and intimates

How consistent are strangers' and intimates' judgments of stimulus people's personalities, and how is this interjudge consistency affected by stimulus persons' assessed self-monitoring and self-reported behavioral consistency? To answer these questions, 38 stimulus subjects rated themselves on the personality dimensions of extraversion and anxiety and also rated their cross-situational consistency on these dimensions. Strangers, friends, mothers, and fathers of stimulus persons also rated them on extraversion and anxiety. The results indicated that: For judgments of anxiety there was lower interjudge consistency for high than for low self-monitoring stimulus subjects. For judgments of extraversion there was no difference in interjudge consistency for low and high self-monitoring stimulus subjects. The results also showed that anxiety was a more “private” trait in that intimates' but not strangers' judgments correlated with stimulus subjects' self-reported anxiety (r = .50 and r = .11, respectively), while extraversion was a more “public” trait in that both intimates' and strangers' judgments correlated with stimulus subjects' self-reported extraversion (r = .42 and r = .51, respectively). These results suggest that self-monitoring of stimulus persons affects interjudge consistency of peroonality judgments particularly for “private” traits such as anxiety, which are most subject to expressive control and inhibition.     

Effects of positive and negative adult-child interactions on children's social preference

The effects of positive and negative interactions on children's performance and preferences for the adults associated with each type of interaction were studied. Five children served as subjects during daily sessions in which each of three adults followed prescribed patterns of social interaction. One adult (positive) dispensed positive comments contingent upon either color-sorting or completion of arithmetic problems; a second adult (negative) mildly reprimanded the child for off-task behavior; and the third adult (extinction or nonreactive) said nothing to the child when he was present. Following each session the three adults reentered and the child chose one of them for an additional period of interaction. Three response measures (frequency, latency, and percent of time on-task) and children's adult preferences were obtained daily. The negative adult affected the most task behavior and had strongest stimulus control; the positive adult, though exerting little control over children's behavior, was the most preferred. Children's adult preferences were not specific to the task setting, but were observed across a variety of contexts.     

Modeling: An analysis in terms of category accessibility

It is proposed that many of the releasing or disinhibiting effects caused by models can be accounted for by information-processing mechanisms, without recourse to the concept of reinforcement. More specifically, it is suggested that the process of viewing a model's behavior involves the activation of an interpretive schema. This renders the information the schema incorporates more accessible for subsequent use. If the schema incorporates (or is closely related to) behavior-specifying information, that information becomes more accessible as well, thus making it more likely to influence overt behavior. Two studies are reported that assessed the plausibility of this reasoning. In Experiment 1 subjects who had viewed an aggressive model perceived greater hostility in the behavior of an ambiguous stimulus person that they subsequently encountered than did control subjects. This finding is consistent with the assumption that the model's behavior activated a conceptual schema for use in interpretation. In Experiment 2 subjects in whom an aggressive schema had been activated under a guise displayed greater aggression in their subsequent behavior in a different context than did control subjects. This finding is consistent with the assumption that activating the conceptual schema also activated behavioral information. The discussion centers on the implications of the findings.     

Ambiguous-cue learning in preschool children: A test of the dimensional characteristics of task stimuli

Sixteen preschool children were administered a two-choice discrimination problem consisting of three stimulus compounds: the consistently rewarded stimulus, the consistently nonrewarded stimulus, and the ambiguous stimulus which was nonrewarded when paired with the positive, but rewarded when paired with the negative. When both pair of stimuli, positive-ambiguous and negative-ambiguous, were presented together the subject was required either to choose or to avoid the ambiguous stimulus depending upon the stimulus with which it was paired. In Experiment 1, when each of three stimuli (positive, negative, ambiguous) varied along one nonspatial cue dimension (color), performance was better on negative-ambiguous trials than positive-ambiguous trials. In Experiment 2, when the positive and negative stimuli varied along three nonspatial cue dimensions (colors and form) and the ambiguous stimulus varied along one of these dimensions (color), superior positive-ambiguous over negative-ambiguous performance was obtained. These findings complement those reported for other subjects and confirm Berch's (D. B. Berch, Learning and Motivation, 1974, 5, 135–148) predictions regarding use of differential numbers of cue dimensions.     

The propensity to recall another's completed and uncompleted tasks as a consequence of varying social relationships

Two laboratory experiments are reported. Each investigates the bias that social relationships exert on a subject's propensity to recall another's completed and uncompleted tasks. Using closed circuit television, subjects in both experiments observed a bogus other working on a set of puzzles. The person working completed only one-half of the puzzles. In three of the six experimental conditions in both experiments, subjects believed that the remaining puzzles could be completed at a later time. In the first experiment, a subject's relationship to the other was determined by cooperative, competitive, or individualistic economic incentives. In the second, the relationship was determined simply by their similarity or dissimilarity on a bogus personality test. Utilizing a combination of Lewinian assumptions and contemporary theory about memory, we hypothesized that the opportunity to resume work would result in an increased propensity to recall uncompleted tasks in the competitive (or dissimilar) conditions and a decreased propensity to do so in the cooperative (or similar) conditions. Results confirmed this hypothesis. Additional data in both experiments suggest that subjects' relationships with the bogus other altered the accessibility of this information. Theoretical implications of these findings and their relationship to research on prosocial behavior are discussed.     

Opportunity for thought as a mediator of attraction to a dissimilar stranger: A further test of an information seeking interpretation

It has previously been shown that confusion, produced by an ambiguous film, leads to increased attraction to attitudinally dissimilar others. It was posited that confusion leads to a search for information that will help to structure the confusing situation, and that dissimilar others have perspectives that are of value in this regard. In the present study, subjects were exposed to either a confusing film, a nonconfusing film preceded by an explanation designed to produce confusion, or the nonconfusing film with no preceding explanation. They then were either given an opportunity to think about the film's meaning or were deprived of this opportunity through a filler task. It was argued that the opportunity to think about the film would allow subjects to gain structure, and that this would reduce their confusion, decrease their need for more information, and thereby decrease their attraction to a dissimilar other. The results supported this contention. That is, subjects exposed to either the confusing film or the nonconfusing film with an explanation and then given an opportunity for thought showed significantly less attraction to a dissimilar stranger than their counterparts who were deprived of this opportunity.     

Evaluative verbalization and delay maintenance behavior in children

An experiment is presented which examined the influence of verbalizations on children's tendencies to postpone immediate gratification in terms of increased delayed reward. Children's verbalizations were varied in terms of their evaluative valence and whether they focused upon the reward itself or the delay task. During a delay task children in experimental groups periodically verbalized evaluative statements that were either positive (I like …) or negative (I don't like …) and which focused upon either the reward itself (… the tokens) or the delay behavior (… to wait). Children who focused on reward, under conditions of either positive or negative evaluation, postponed immediate gratification less than control subjects who made no verbalization. Children who evaluated delay behavior positively postponed immediate gratification longer than silent subjects, though children who negatively evaluated delay behavior did not differ from subjects who did not verbalize. The results are interpreted in terms of the influence of evaluative valence and focus as parameters of plans for delay behavior.     

Behavioral similarity,confederate strategy,and sex composition of dyad as determinants of interpersonal judgments and behavior in the prisoner's dilemma game

The study was designed to test three distinct theoretical models relating player's attitudes toward a confederate in the prisoner's dilemma game: a reinforcing outcome model, a cultural norm model, and a social comparison model. A secondary concern of the study was to determine if player's sex, confederate's sex, and the confederate's strategy interactively influence player's choice behavior. Forty-eight male and forty-eight female subjects played 100 trials of the prisoner's dilemma game with a confederate who played either a 74% cooperative or 74% competitive predetermined strategy and then filled out the Interpersonal Judgment Scale rating the confederate. Behaviorally similar confederates received more positive evaluations than dissimilar confederates supporting the social comparison hypothesis. Further, the strategy of the confederate did not influence choice behavior in mixed-sex dyads, suggesting that sex roles may inhibit behaviorally based male-female interaction. The generality of previous gaming research which has dealt almost exclusively with same-sex dyads is called into question.     

Self-monitoring in communicative interactions: Social cognitive consequences of goal-directed message modification

The hypothesis was examined that previously demonstrated message modification and its subsequent social cognitive effects would be more characteristic of high than low self-monitors. Subjects first read an essay describing a stimulus person and were then requested to communicate a referential message concerning him to a listener who supposedly either liked (positive audience condition) or disliked (negative audience condition) the stimulus person. Subjects were subsequently given, after both a brief and long delay interval, a reproduction, impression, and attitude measure. The results indicated that high self-monitors were more likely to modify their message in a manner that was evaluatively consistent with their listener's attitude. In addition, this message modification had the predicted social cognitive consequences in that it affected the high self-monitor's subsequent impressions of (but not necessarily attitude toward) the target person. The results suggested that the responses obtained from high self-monitors in many experimental contexts may themselves be the results of a self-monitoring strategy. The implications of these results for research examining the effects of “self-monitoring” are discussed.