Raising the Price of Agreement: Public Commitment and the Lowball Compliance Procedure1

Three studies examined the effect on compliance when a requester raises the price of the request. Participants in Experiment 1 were told that they would receive a free coffee mug for donating money to a fundraiser but were interrupted before they could respond and were told that the fundraisers were out of mugs. These participants were less likely to donate money than a group told nothing about the mugs. Experiments 2 and 3 compared this interruption procedure with the lowball procedure, which also uses a small‐to‐large price progression. The results from these two studies indicate that allowing people to respond to the initial price is critical for producing the lowball effect. Without a statement of public commitment, the small‐to‐large price progression led to a decrease rather than an increase in compliance relative to a control group.     

Social Network Sites,Individual Social Capital and Happiness

Can online social contacts replace the importance of real-life social connections in our pursuit of happiness? With the growing use of social network sites (SNSs), attention has been increasingly drawn to this topic. Our study empirically examines the effect of SNS use on happiness for different subgroups of young adults. More specifically, we examine whether the effect of SNSs on happiness is moderated by individual social capital, as measured in terms of frequency of social contacts and feelings of loneliness. Using Dutch data from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences panel, we provide robust empirical evidence that there is, on average, no relationship between the amount of time spent on SNSs and happiness. However, we find a negative association between the numbers of hours spent on SNS and happiness for SNS users who feel socially disconnected and lonely. The results hold when we control for socio-demographic characteristics, trust, hours spent on other Internet sites and household income. Hence, SNSs are not a substitute for real-life social connections and, at most, complement them.     

Prototypical profiles of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale

Three prototypical profiles of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS; Overall & Gorham, 1962) were isolated using a Q-type factor-analytic strategy with a sample of homeless men with mental illness (N=165). The 3 profiles--depressed, actively psychotic, and withdrawn--were used to study changes in BPRS profiles over time in a control group and a group that received assertive community treatment (ACT). Over2 time periods (inception to 12 months and 12-24 months), the 2 groups did not differ in terms of changes in profile shape, but they did differ in terms of changes in profile elevation. The ACT group evidenced a decrease in symptom severity during the last 12 months, whereas the control group showed an increase. Although changes in profile shape in both groups did occur, there was a significant tendency for the shape of the BPRS profiles to remain stable from the inception of the study to the 12-month assessment and from that time to the 24-month assessment. We describe the uses of these prototypical profiles and discuss the applicability of this analytical approach to other assessment instruments.     

Desire for Control and the Use of Attribution Processes

ABSTRACT The hypothesis that people engage in attribution processes to obtain a sense of control was tested In each of three experiments, subjects identified on an individual difference measure as high in a general desire for control (DC) were found to engage in attnbution processes more than subjects low in desire for control In Experiment 1, high-DC subjects were more likely to utilize attributionally relevant information when describing the cause of a writer's behavior than were low-DC subjects High-DC subjects in Experiment 2 were more likely to ask attribution questions about hypothetical events than were low-DC subjects In Expenment 3, high-DC subjects gave more attributions for their performance on a test than did low-DC subjects The findings are interpreted as support for the control motivation explanation for why people engage in attribution processes     

Desire for control and reaction to proattitudinal and counterattitudinal arguments

The role of motivation for control in an individual's reaction to persuasive arguments was examined. Subjects scoring either high or low on an individual difference measure of desire for control (DC) were exposed to a position on the Equal Rights Amendment with which they either initially agreed or disagreed. It was found that more often high-DC subjects exposed to a proattitudinal message changed their attitudes in the direction advocated than did low DC subjects. Conversely, more often low-DC subjects exposed to counterattitudinal arguments changed their attitudes in the direction of the advocated position than did high-DC subjects. The findings suggest that a motivation to control events may be operative in some attitude-change situations.     

Cognitive distancing in mediated categorization in aphasia

Individuals with fluent and nonfluent aphasia and a matched group of aged normal subjects participated in mediated categorization tasks dealing with two levels of cognitive distancing. Moreover, the categorization tasks entailed the utilization of focal and peripheral exemplars. Fluent aphasic subjects had significantly more difficulty than nonfluent aphasic and normal subjects. All subjects had significantly more difficulty with pictures than actual objects. Peripheral exemplars were used less often than focal exemplars. It was speculated that some of these results may reflect a degenerative process of aging.     

Attachment Style,Assertive Communication,and Safer-Sex Behavior1

This research tested the proposition that the effect of attachment security on safer-sex practice may be mediated by communication patterns. One hundred eighty-five undergraduate students completed questionnaire measures of attachment, assertiveness, and attitudes to communication about AIDS. Eight weeks later, they reported on their practice of safer sex in the period since the first testing session. Hierarchical regressions showed that at Step I, anxiety about relationships (a measure of insecure attachment) was associated with less safer-sex practice, for all outcome measures. Attitudes to communication about AIDS added to the prediction of general reports of safer-sex practice: in line with the mediational model, anxiety about relationships became unimportant as a predictor when communication variables were included. Communication variables failed to add to the prediction of safer sex on the most recent encounter, and both anxiety about relationships and attitudes to communication about AIDS predicted condom use. Some gender differences in patterns of prediction were noted. The results are discussed in terms of attachment style and its links with the negotiation of sexual practice and relationship issues.