Toward a profile of the female voter: Sex differences in perceived physical attractiveness and competence of political candidates

Recent national attention has focused on women's voting behavior because of this group's increasing power to determine outcomes of local, state, and national elections. Research has not established whether males and females use the same decision rules in evaluating political candidates. Because of the link between perceived physical attractiveness and many positive attributes, the present study examined sex differences in ratings of attractiveness and competence of 44 men and women in the U.S. House of Representatives. Results indicated that males and females use similar rules in evaluating male politicans' attractiveness. Women show a pro-female sentiment in evaluating female politicians' competence. Physical attractiveness was positively related to perceived competence for both male and female politicians. Contrary to previous research, women voters showed a marked pro-female sentiment, and men were neutral, evaluating male and female politicians similarly.     

Absence of a sex difference in algorithms for spatial problem solving

Pairs of stimuli taken from a pscyhometric measure of spatial aptitude were shown to 36 college men and 32 college women. The stimuli in pairs were (a) either identical or mirror images, and (b) presented in orientations that differed by 0–135 deg. Individuals judged, as rapidly as possible, if the stimuli in a pair would be identical or mirror images if presented at the same orientation. Replicating previous work, there was a sex difference in the speed with which problems were solved. Of greater interest was the fact that men and women were quite alike in the frequency with which they used different algorithms to solve the problems. Most individuals solved the problems using an algorithm in which an individual encodes the stimuli in working memory, mentally rotates one stimulus to the orientation of the other, compares both determine if they are identical, and responds. Two variants of this algorithm were also used by some subjects. In one variant, if comparison revealed that the stimuli were dissimilar, individuals did not respond immediately but continued processing until a self- imposed deadline was reached. In another variation, subjects only rotated the comparison stimuli when their orientations exceeded a critical angle.     

Intonational marking of given and new information: Some consequences for comprehension

The role of intonation in conveying discourse relationships in auditory sentence comprehension was investigated in two experiments. Using the simple comprehension time paradigm, Experiment 1 found that sentences with accented new information were understood faster than sentences with a neutral intonation contour and that the presence of accent in context sentences facilitated comprehension of subsequent targets. Both experiments showed faster comprehension times in conditions in which accent placement was appropriate for the information structure of the sentence. In Experiment I, comprehension times were faster when the accent fell on the information focus than when it fell elsewhere in the sentence. In Experiment 2, faster times resulted when new information was accented and given information was not, compared to conditions in which this accent pattern was reversed. This effect held for both active and passive sentences, and whether the new information occurred in the subject or object position.     

Group shift to caution at the race track

Group and individual riskiness were compared on $2 “win” best at the race track. Using the standard pretest-posttest risk-shift design, group discussion to unanimous decision was found to produce a cautious shift in group bets.     

Attraction and altruism: With a little help from my friends

The present experiment was designed to determine whether the reinforcement value of an altruistic response is a function of attraction toward the victim and/or the affective state of the subject. Subjects (N = 95) received positive or negative evaluations from a victim or from a bystander and subsequently performed an altruistic response which terminated shock delivery to a victim on a series of 14 trials. Analyses of variance indicated that the acquisition of an altruistic response was greatest when attraction toward the victim was most positive (p < .0001) and nonexistent when attraction toward the victim was least positive. The results were consistent with the proposition that attraction rather than affect mediates altruistic reinforcement. Those subjects receiving negative evaluations from the victim failed to acquire the altruistic response, suggesting that failure to help may function as a form of passive aggression.     

Sex differences in preadolescent self-disclosure

Both amount and content of self-disclosure may vary with sex role. Both adult and preadolescent females have been reported as engaging in greater amounts of self-disclosure than males; the present study attempted to replicate these findings with preadolescents, and to investigate sex differences in the content of self-disclosure. A self-disclosure questionnaire covering a wide range of subjects was administered to 307 urban children. The sex difference on the total number of items revealed to a friend closely approached significance, with girls showing greater disclosure. When only intimate content items were examined, the sex difference reached clear significance. Content analysis showed that girls were more willing to reveal items related to emotionality, anxiety, and dependence.     

Private self-consciousness, canned laughter, and responses to humorous stimuli

Sefl-focused attention is hypothesized to (a) intensify emotional responses; (b) diminish susceptibility to suggestion; and (c) increase the consistency of self-report and behavior. These hypotheses were tested by having 82 undergraduates varying in private self-consciousness (PrSC) listen to humorous stimuli presented either with (laugh track group) or without (no laugh track group) canned laughter. Subjects' funniness ratings and overt laughter served as dependent measures. Regression analyses revealed that PrSC and funniness ratings were negatively correlated in the laugh track group, but uncorrelated in the no laugh track group. In contrast, PrSC and overt laughter were positively correlated in both groups. The association between funniness and laughter appeared stronger in high than in low PrSC subjects. Interpreted in light of research indicating that funniness ratings represent affect-free evaluations of humor stimuli, whereas laughter represents amusement, these results suggest that self-focus (a) intensified subjects' amusement; (b) decreased the extent to which their evaluations of the stimuli were biased by canned laughter; and (c) increased the consistency between their (self-reported) cognitive and (overt behavioral) affective responses (although this finding was equivocal).     

Gender differences in math and english achievement: A longitudinal study

This study investigated gender-related developmental trends in math and English achievement as measured by classroom grades and standardized test scores. The sample consisted of 30 males and 30 females followed from 6th through 12th grade. Previous research suggests that developmental trends in male and female achievement may differ as a function of assessment context. Thus, it was hypothesized that female math and English classroom grades would remain stable over time but that achievement test scores in both subject areas would decline. For males, it was hypothesized that performance in both assessment contexts would remain stable. Results confirmed these hypotheses. Results also suggest that school-related responsibility is related to performance in both assessment contexts for females but not for males. The need to consider personal goals when assessing differences in academic ability and performance capabilities is discussed.     

Self-Ratings of Personality: A Naturalistic Comparison of Normative, Ipsative, and Idiothetic Standards

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to examine some of the implicit standards that individuals may use when they rate themselves on personality dimensions Specifically, we compared ratings based on instructions that specified normative, ipsative, or idiothetic creteria with ratings obtained when subjects used their own (implicit) standards In a series of three studies, we found that each of the explicit ratings was highly similar to the implicit-standard ratings and that there were substantial individual differences in the relative similarity of each of the explicit ratings to the implicit ratings However, because the normative instructions elicited less extreme responses than any of the other instructions, there was a small but consistent tendency for them to be less similar to the ratings based on implicit standards than the ipsative or idiothetic ratings The implications of this research for personality assessment and self-evaluation are discussed