John S. Watson

Sex and age differences in choice behaviour: the object-person dimension.

There is a popular belief that females are more socially oriented than males, while males are more nonsocially or object oriented than females. A 2 × 2 factorial design was employed to examine this, with independent variables of sex and age (young and older adults). The subjects were presented with six pairs of pictures, each consisting of an object and a person. Each presentation lasted 30 s; the time spent looking at each stimulus was taken as a measure of interest. The hypothesis that in this choice situation males and females would differ in their preference for object and person stimuli was confirmed. However, the sex difference was confined to young adults; older subjects of both sexes showed more (and equal) interest in the social stimuli than in the object stimuli. Masculinity and femininity scores on the Bem Sex Role Inventory showed some relationship with object–person preferences but failed to throw much light on the absence of a sex difference in older adults.

Taking a taxi: Front or back seat? The effects of gender and community size

A study of seat choice, front or back, of solo taxi passengers found that a significantly greater number of men than women sat next to the driver in large urban areas, but that no sex difference in front-seat choice appeared in smaller communities. Very few women taxi drivers were observed. The data were interpreted in terms of sex differences in feelings of security, with solo women feeling more vulnerable than men, particularly in large cities.

Religion as a cultural phenomenon, and national mortality rates from heart disease.

An hypothesis is developed which proposes that mortality rates from heart disease are a function of a nations dominant religious tradition, with predominantly Catholic countries having lower rates than the more Protestant countries. The hypothesis was tested on data from 24 economically developed Western countries. A significant inverse relationship of −0.588 was found between the proportion of Catholics in the 24 nations and mortality rates from heart disease, which supports the hypothesis.

VOLUNTEER AND RISK-TAKING GROUPS ARE MORE HOMOGENEOUS ON MEASURES OF SENSATION SEEKING THAN CONTROL GROUPS

A trend in the literature was noted for volunteers for psychological experiments and for participants in “risky” jobs or sports to be more homogeneous on measures of sensation seeking than control groups.

Sex Differences in Book-Carrying: Differences are Diminishing

In 1976 an interesting sex difference in book-carrying behaviour was reported; this had cross-cultural generality (Jenni, 1976; Jenni & Jenni, 1976). One style of book-carrying (Type A) involves one or both arms being wrapped around the books, with the books being clasped against the upper trunk. The other style (Type B) characteristically involves the books being supported by one arm and hand at the side of the body (Jenni & Jenni, 1976, p. 859). Jenni (1976) found amongst college students that 68% to 92% of females adopted the Type A pattern and 91% to 93% of males used the Type B style. Her data were collected between October 1974 and February 1976.

Early rearing conditions and within-group behavioral variability

Rats were maintained in enriched or isolated conditions for periods ranging from 10 to 51 days postweaning in four experiments. Animals were subsequently run in a simple maze in acquisition and extinction trials. A measure of variability, the coefficient of variation, showed a tendency for enriched groups to be more homogeneous in their performance, especially after 30 days differential rearing, a finding analogous to some of those in the differential rearing-brain changes literature. Some additional material suggests that these findings may have some generality.

On artificially selecting for the sex ratio

Abstract Attention of readers is drawn to the important early work on artificial selection of sex ratio by Helen Dean King (1918).

Taking a Taxi in Sweden: Front or Back Seat? A Study of Sex Differences among Passengers

A study of the seat choice, front or back, of single adult taxi passengers was carried out in Sweden. No sex differences in sear choice were observed, unlike an earlier Australian study which yielded large sex differences in major cities where male, but not female, solo taxi passengers exhibited a strong preference for the front seat. In both countries, female taxi drivers were a small proportion of all taxi drivers observed.

Malnutrition and group brain- and body-weight variability: Data in search of a hypothesis

Chronic malnutrition, which may be induced by a number of different experimental manipulations, appears, from a survey of the literature, to lead to greater relative whole-brain-weight variability in affected groups compared with controls; there is a tendency for the same pattern to emerge in the case of body-weight variability. A hypothesis which might throw some light on this general trend is proposed.

FEMALE VOLUNTEERS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS MAY BE MORE HOMOGENEOUS THAN NON-VOLUNTEERING WOMEN

A survey of the literature yielded a slight tendency for women who volunteered for psychological experiments to be more homogeneous on various personality measures than non-volunteering women.