Bem P. Allen

Gender stereotypes are not accurate: A replication of Martin (1987) using diagnostic vs. self-report and behavioral criteria

Women and men (58 females and 42 males) reported whether they possess each of several stereotypic and neutral traits (self-report criterion) and recorded the percentage of each gender they believed display each trait (diagnostic). Observations of subjects (57 males and 49 females) discussing controversial topics yielded the behavioral criterion. (Approximately 81% of the total sample was European-American, 8% African-American, 2% Hispanic, 1% Asian, and the remainder of “other” ethnicity.) Gender differences were larger and more inaccurate in stereotypes (diagnostic) than in “reality” (self-report criterion), but behavioral criterion results were mixed. Difficulties in specifying criteria for “actual differences,” including behavioral criteria, and recent work related to C. L. Martins [(1987) “A Ratio Measure of Gender Stereotyping,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 52, pp. 489–499] paradigm (and results) are considered. Implications of results for the importance of replication and for research on accuracy of stereotypes are also discussed.

The Effect of the Number of People Present in a Nonemergency Situation

Summary The “flat tire” paradigm (1) was extended in an attempt to determine whether the number-of-people-present effect, often demonstrated in the emergency situation, generalized to a nonemergency case. A coed and a car with a flat tire were placed on a superhighway (high traffic density) and also on a country road (low traffic density). A significantly greater proportion of people rendered aid in the country road condition; however, the average time between attempts to aid was less on the superhighway. Possible differences between emergency and nonemergency situations were discussed.

The Adjective Generation Technique: An Alternative to Adjective Check Lists:

A recently developed Adjective Generation Technique for evaluating favorability of self-description was introduced as an alternative to standardized adjective check lists. Preliminary estimates of test-retest reliability (r = .74) and construct validity (r = .53) for the technique were reported. The comparative utility of the procedure over that of the Gough Adjective Check List was discussed.

Frightening Information and Extraneous Arousal: Changing Cognitions and Behavior Regarding Nuclear War.

An experiment was designed to demonstrate that fear creates changes, that extraneous arousal modulates the effect of frightening information, and that Janiss (1967) theory may explain these effects. American students watched either a videotape depicting a nuclear attack or a nonfrightening videotape unrelated to nuclear war and were required to perform 10, 20, 35, or 100 jumping jacks. The results of the experiment demonstrated that fear was effective, especially at moderate levels of extraneous arousal, but high levels of arousal eliminated or reversed the effects.

Traits, Situations, and their Interaction as Alternative “Causes” of Behavior

Summary The present study was designed to investigate whether people are trait theorists or prefer some alternative explanation of behavior. Male and female undergraduates (N = 42) were given seven statements each defining a different “cause” of behavior, including a trait statement, a situation statement, an interaction statement, and a statement of Bem and Allens theory. Subjects were asked to indicate the likelihood that each statement is a valid explanation of human behavior. Ss were also asked to indicate the single most valid statement. Results for both measures indicated that Ss strongly favored the interaction statement over the others.

Social distance reactions to black and white communicators: A replication of an investigation in support of belieft congruence theory

The present investigation is a partial replication of a previous study which demonstrated that race is given negligible weight for the determination of a social reaction (adjective generation) to a communicator when communicator-reactor belief congruence is at a high level. The present study demonstrated that, even when communicator-reactor belief congruence is at a high level, race is a much more important criterion for social reaction than belief congruence when the highly personally involving social distance reaction is employed.

Implications of Social Reaction Research for Racism.

It was asserted that evidence for the existence of the phenomenon “racism” would be forthcoming if anti-black sentiment is shown to be manifested in social reality in some consistent manner. The “Rokeach-Triandis Controversy” was reviewed in order to demonstrate that past research yields a suggestion of a possible manifestation of racism. An experimental approach at direct confirmation of the suggested manifestation was defined. The relationship of this approach to other actual and possible approaches was described. Finally, possible misinterpretations of the specified approach to the investigation of racism were delineated.

Angles of Shadows as Cues for Judging the Distance of Shadow Casting Objects

40 participants were presented the six possible comparisons of four pictures of cylinders and their shadows. For each comparison, each participant was to decide which cylinder was most distant from a reference point. Overall 15 of the participants got all six judgments correct, an outcome that is exceedingly unlikely by chance.

Perceived Trustworthiness of Attitudinal and Behavioral Expressions

Summary It was hypothesized that because the individual, as opposed to the social psychologists, relies on past events for determining the trustworthiness of currently available information, he perceives predictions of attitude based on information about behavioral expression to be more trustworthy than predictions of behavior based on information about attitudinal expression. Results supported the hypothesis. Implications of results for the study of attitude and behavior were discussed.

LIGHTING POSITION AND JUDGMENTS OF DISTANCE OF SHADOW-CASTING OBJECTS

Participants recruited on the web performed in two experiments in which they viewed eight pictures of the same two rods in the exact same positions with shadows generated by a light source located at eight positions around the rods. In Exp. 1, participants judged how much shadows projected to the front, back, and sides of the rods facilitated the correct perception of the actual distance of the rods relative to each other. In Exp. 1 (n: 52), frontal lighting facilitated judgments more than lighting from the rear, but frontal and side lighting did not differ in facultative effects. In Exp. 2 (n: 72), Judgments of rods depicted with shadows were relative to a judgment of the rods depicted without shadows (raw scores were the value of the judgment of the shadowless rods subtracted from the value of the judgment of each of the eight sets of rods). Again, frontal lighting was more facilitative than rear lighting and frontal lighting did not differ from side lighting. However, when the average of each participants backlighting judgments was compared with his judgment of the shadowless rods, shadows generated by backlighting were more facilitative than none.