Charles A. Salter

AUTOMOBILE COLOR AS A PREDICTOR OF DRIVING BEHAVIOR

Research on achievement motivation has shown that highly motivated people prefer cool or somber colors like blue and tend to be in a hurry, while less motivated people tend to choose warm or bright colors like red and are less time conscious. We applied these findings to automobile driving, hypothesizing that drivers of cars with high nACH colors would speed at greater velocities and run red lights and stop signs more. Unobtrusive observation in three studies of 193 highway speeders, 261 cars at stop lights, and 191 cars at stop signs showed that drivers of cars with high nACH colors did tend to speed at higher rates and to run red lights more, although they did not run stop signs more. The data partially support previous research on the behavioral correlates of color preference.

Status Comparability and Attitudes Toward a Foreign Host Nation: A Cross-Cultural Study

Summary An investigation was made of four models of the effects of status inter-relationships during an overseas sojourn on the attitudes toward the nations visited. Questionnaires were given to 158 Ss in four groups (all groups included roughly 70% males and 30% females): Italian overseas and control groups, and American overseas and control groups. For overseas Italians, superiority to the reference group in terms of prestige, intellectual, and mean status was a significant predictor of attitudes. For overseas Americans, merely present status, devoid of a referent, was significant, but only with attractiveness status. The equal status principle and status gain models were not significant with either group. Of nonstatus variables, the most significant correlate for both groups was satisfaction with the entertainment facilities. The cross-cultural similarities supported social exchange theory, and the differences supported popular stereotypes of the two cultures and a field theoretical position on insecur...

INTELLIGENCE AND BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL

Just before starting university education, 339 Ss had small, but significant negative correlations between intelligence and both traditional and avant garde supernatural beliefs. A year later, an independent sample of 241 Ss maintained the significant negative correlation with traditional beliefs but had a non-significant correlation with avant garde beliefs. Religious background was the most significant predictor of beliefs, indicating that socialization had more effect than intelligence and university education in determining beliefs of these Ss.