Biasing evaluations to appear unbiased: A self-presentational paradox

Subjects interviewed a confederate posing as a job applicant. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, half the subjects were insulted by the confederate at the end of the interview and half were not insulted. Half the subjects were observed by the experimenter during the final phase of the interview and evaluated the confederate publicly. The remaining subjects were unobserved during the interview and evaluated the confederate anonymously. As predicted, subjects who were publicly insulted were more favorable toward the confederate than were subjects who were privately insulted. Within the public/insult condition, subjects scoring high on Snyder's (1974, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 526–537) self-monitoring scale were more favorable toward the confederate than were subjects scoring low on this scale. The positivity bias occurred only on highly subjective ratings, which are most prone to the appearance of bias. The results are discussed in terms of the subjects' desire to avoid the appearance of bias by biasing their evaluations.     

Some cautionary notes regarding the use of aggregated scores as a measure of behavioral stability

The utility of the method of aggregation as a measure of behavioral consistency was examined in 26 studies involving computer-generated, repeated-measurement data. The first series of studies involved rectangular distributions in which score constant. A second series of studies used normally distributed z scores, and score consistency was manipulated by inducing a desired correlation between the scores in adjacent trials. In both sets of studies, the aggregate stability coefficient was a strictly increasing function of the number of aggregated trials, and even trivial amounts of score stability resulted in large stability coefficients. In a third series of studies, high stability coefficients occurred when computed on combined unstable subsamples which differed from each other only in central tendency. Terminal aggregate coefficients were compared with Spearman-Brown prophecy and Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficients computed on the experimental data. It was concluded that the method of aggregation produces spuriously high estimates of behavioral consistency. It was further shown that the Spearman-Brown prophecy formula and coefficient alpha accurately predict the results of the aggregation method, suggesting that aggregation is an internal consistency reliability procedure. The equating of stability with traditional notions of reliability was questioned.     

The effect of timeout on performance on a variable-interval schedule of electric-shock presentation

Responding was maintained in squirrel monkeys under variable-interval schedules of electric shock presentation when a period of timeout followed each response-dependent shock. Response rate decreased when timeout duration was decreased, and responding ceased when timeout was eliminated. These results indicate that under certain conditions, a shock-free period following each response-produced shock is necessary to maintain responding.     

Interactive effects of deprivation in the albino rat

The interactive effects of feeding and drinking schedules were investigated in three experiments. Twenty-four hour water-deprived rats consumed their entire obligatory water intake prior to feeding, whereas 24-hr food-deprived rats consumed only small quantities of food prior to drinking. This drinking was apparently due to a shift of water stores rather than an actual negative water balance. Experiment 3 investigated the effects of 24, 48, or 72 hr of water, food, or total deprivation. Water-deprived rats did not adequately suppress food intake and became thirstier than totally deprived rats. The effects of total deprivation were essentially identical to those of food deprivation. These experiments indicate the degree to which deprivation schedules impose restrictions on the reinforcement parameters of behavioral experiments.     

Multiple factors in short-term behavioral control of protein intake in rats.

The availability and concentration of dietary protein was varied in an examination of the nature of the day-to-day intake of protein solutions by 60-day-old male rats. It was found that the rats consumed a remarkably constant absolute amount of protein each day, adjusting overall caloric intake to maintain protein at a roughly constant proportion of total calories. Factors such as the time of access to a protein source or the extent of prior experience with a protein source were seen to influence the overall constancy of protein intake, whereas daily shifts in preference between two available concentrations of protein did not interfere with such short-term control. The mechanism for this behavioral control is likely to be different from mechanisms mediating the conditioned response to dietary protein, as in the response to dietary amino acid imbalance.     

When Thoughts Turn Toward Nuclear War: Stress Responses,Coping Strategies,and the Importance of Trait Anxiety in Moderating Effects on “Mental Health”1

The present investigation attempted to link the concept of Nuclear Anxiety (NA) to theory and research on stress and coping, which would predict that person variables would be extremely important in determining the amount of anxiety precipitated by the hypothetical and ambiguous nature of nuclear war. In Part I of this study, 356 undergraduates were divided into high and low NA groups on the basis of state anxiety experienced while thinking about the threat of nuclear war. Groups were compared on five personality traits (trait anxiety, death anxiety, and three locus of control variables), two “mental health” indices (psychological well-being and expectancy for future goal attainment), five nuclear war-related attitudinal measures, nine nuclear threat orientations, nine strategies for coping with the threat, and a single behavioral measure of approach toward information about nuclear war. In Part II, the relationships between key explanatory variables were explored, and a preliminary model of Nuclear Anxiety was developed. Results revealed that the two NA groups differed on 22 of the 32 dependent measures, and that four variables (i.e., sustained [nuclear] concern, death anxiety, trait anxiety, and psychological well-being) were the best group discriminators. More importantly, path analysis revealed that trait anxiety rather than nuclear anxiety was the variable primarily controlling “mental health” status. Results are discussed with regard to the resiliency and adaptability of young people in dealing with the threat of nuclear war, intergroup differences in coping styles, and questions in need of further empirical attention.     

Effects of musically evoked affect on women's interpersonal attraction toward and perceptual judgments of physical attractiveness of men

In a between-subjects design, female subjects evaluated photographs of attractive and unattractive stimulus males while listening to positive affect-evoking rock music, negative affect-evoking avant-garde music, or no music at all. Consistent with previous research, subjects evaluated attractive stimulus males more positively than unattractive males on a variety of interpersonal judgment dimensions. Furthermore, subjects responded with more positive evaluations of personal character of, and attraction toward, stimulus persons in the rock music as compared to the avant-garde music condition. Finally, assessments of physical attractiveness were influenced by the music conditions, with stimulus persons judged of greater physical attractiveness in the rock as compared with the avant-garde music condition. The results are discussed in terms of extending the Byrne-Clore reinforcement-affect model of interpersonal attraction.