Interpreting the negative mood-helping literature via "mega"-analysis: A contrary view.

"Mega"-analysis was developed by M. Carlson and N. Miller (see record 1987-31249-001) as an extension of traditional meta-analytic procedures for conducting integrative reviews of existing research literatures. One such mega-analysis was conducted by Carlson and Miller to synthesize the literature on the relation between negative mood states and helping. That analysis found no support for a theoretical account (negative state relief) that had been confirmed previously by using various experimental approaches. In an attempt to reconcile the discrepancy, the logic and methods used in Carlson and Miller's mega-analysis of the negative mood-helping literature were examined, and several serious problems were found. These problems are discussed, and data are presented to show that the results of that mega-analysis, and perhaps all mega-analyses, should not be viewed with confidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low-ball procedure for producing compliance: Commitment then cost.

Examined the low-ball technique, a tactic often used by automobile sales dealers to produce compliance from customers, in a set of 3 experiments. In all 3 studies, a requester who induced Ss to make an initial decision to perform a target behavior and who then made performance of the behavior more costly obtained greater final compliance than a requester who informed Ss of the full costs of the target behavior from the outset. The low-ball phenomenon—that an active preliminary decision to take an action tends to persevere even after the costs of performing the action have been increased—was found to be reliable (Exp I), different from the foot-in-the-door effect (Exp II), and effective only when the preliminary decision was made with a high degree of choice (Exp III). In competition with 3 other conceptual explanations, a formulation based on the concept of commitment was seen to best account for the results. An ecologically derived strategy for the identification and investigation of research questions is discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consistency-based compliance: When and why do children become vulnerable?

This study examines the nature and development of behavioral consistency pressures in children. Specifically, we examined the effectiveness of the foot-in-the-door procedure in producing consistent prosocial behavior and self-attributions in kindergartners and second and fifth graders. Children were either induced to comply with a request to share prize coupons or were not given this initial prosocial experience. Those who complied either were labeled as helpful by an adult or were not. Later, children were given the opportunity to help under public or private circumstances. Moreover, children's understanding of trait stability, their internal preference for consistent behavior, and their belief that adults prefer behavioral consistency were assessed. Consistent responding began to occur within the foot-in-the-door procedure in the second grade, and this developmental shift was paralleled by a shift in children's understanding of trait stability. Furthermore, once the foot-in-the-door effect appeared among the second and fifth graders, its strength was significantly affected by the children's internal preference for consistency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When tactical pronouncements of change become real change: The case of reciprocal persuasion.

In 3 experiments, Ss' public statements of attitude change conformed to the norm of reciprocity, in that the most change on a topic was accorded to a persuader who had yielded to the S's earlier persuasive attempt on a prior topic, and the least such change was accorded to a persuader who had resisted the S's persuasive attempt. This tendency was unaffected by perceptions of the persuader's likability and intelligence, personal relevance of the topic, and strength of the arguments. Private change matched the pattern of public change only when the arguments Ss received were strong, and Ss could (mistakenly) attribute much of their reciprocation-induced change to the cogency of the arguments. Implications are discussed for the internalization of socially desirable conduct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Persuade him by email,but see her in person: Online persuasion revisited

This study replicated and expanded on earlier research on gender differences in the evaluation of computer-mediated persuasive messages. Participants discussed a counter-attitudinal topic with a same-gender confederate. Those participants made to feel a sense of shared identity (high oneness) with the communicator were the most favorable toward the proposal whereas those participants made to feel a distinct identity (low oneness) were the least favorable. However, the results were different for men and women depending on communication modality. Cognitive responses indicated that men engaged in a more rational evaluation of the persuasive message in the email condition, even when the communicator and recipient did not share an identity. Thus, one implication of this research is that email may be an effective route for men to use for interacting with one another if they share no mutual identity.     

Peacocks, Picasso, and parental investment: The effects of romantic motives on creativity.

Four experiments explored the effects of mating motivation on creativity. Even without other incentives to be creative, romantic motives enhanced creativity on subjective and objective measures. For men, any cue designed to activate a short-term or a long-term mating goal increased creative displays; however, women displayed more creativity only when primed to attract a high-quality long-term mate. These creative boosts were unrelated to increased effort on creative tasks or to changes in mood or arousal. Furthermore, results were unaffected by the application of monetary incentives for creativity. These findings align with the view that creative displays in both sexes may be linked to sexual selection, qualified by unique exigencies of human parental investment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood influences on helping: Direct effects or side effects?

A review of the literature concerning the promotive influence of experimentally generated happiness and sadness on helping suggests that (a) increased helping among saddened Ss is an instrumental response designed to dispel the helper's negative mood state, and (b) increased helping among elated Ss is not an instrumental response to (maintain) the heightened effect but is a concomitant of elevated mood. A derivation from this hypothesis—that enhanced helping is a direct effect of induced sadness but a side effect of induced happiness—was tested in an experiment that placed 86 undergraduates in a happy, neutral, or sad mood. Through a placebo drug manipulation, half of the Ss in each group were led to believe that their induced moods were temporarily fixed, that is, temporarily resistant to change from normal events. The other Ss believed that their moods were labile and, therefore, manageable. As expected, saddened Ss showed enhanced helping only when they believed their moods to be changeable, whereas elated Ss showed comparable increases in helping whether they believed their moods to be labile or fixed. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A step in the socialization of altruism as hedonism: Effects of negative mood on children's generosity under public and private conditions.

Prior research has indicated that although negative mood-induction procedures reliably lead to enhanced helping in adults, such procedures do not produce increased helping in young children. Consistent with the negative state relief model, it was expected that, relative to neutral mood Ss, children in a negative mood would be more generous if the helping opportunity offered the potential for direct reward through social approval. This expectation was supported in a pair of studies wherein 149 1st–3rd graders were asked to imagine either neutral or sad experiences and were then given the opportunity to be charitable either in public or in private. Exp II provided evidence that the enhanced public helping of negative mood Ss is more parsimoniously interpreted as an attempt to remove negative mood than to repair public image. A 3-step account of the development of altruism as a self-reward is proposed. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-presentation by association.

Prior research has shown that individuals try to manage their public images indirectly by announcing their (sometimes trivial) connections with successful rather than unsuccessful others, thereby basking in the reflected glory of another's success and avoiding the shadow of another's failure. The present research indicates that such attempts at impression management through association are substantially more varied and sophisticated than previously considered. Ss learned privately that they shared a birth date with an individual who had been described in favorable or unfavorable terms. Depending on the experimental condition, Ss announced or suppressed this connection strategically to achieve the image management goals of either modesty or compensatory favorable self-presentation. In all, for purposes of self-presentation, our subjects treated the characteristics of a superficially connected other as if they were positive or negative features of themselves. Theoretical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)