Investigating sexual strategies in a social community website

In this exploratory study we tried to corroborate existing findings of Sexual Strategies Theory (SST, Buss & Schmitt, 1993) by using data collected from an online community. A random sample of N = 460 German user profiles was drawn from Myspace, a social networking website. Sexual interests reported by the users were analyzed separately for men and women: “Dating” served as an indicator of short-term and interest in “Serious Relationship” as an indicator of long-term sexual strategy. Consistent with SST, a higher percentage of male than female users was interested in dating. However, men were also more interested in serious relationships, indicating that online partner search itself might be a short-term sexual strategy

I want (my) children to sleep in a safe place: Experimental analysis of human sleeping site preferences from an evolutionary point of view

Based on evolutionary assumptions of habitat selection and parental investment, we predicted that adults choose sleeping sites (1) in which children have safer bed positions than the adults themselves and (2) in which own children have safer bed positions than genetically unrelated children. Both hypotheses were confirmed in a questionnaire study (N = 220) with floor plans depicting different sleeping arrangements that were varied according to a 3 (number of children: no vs. one vs. two) x 2 (kinship: own vs. unrelated child) factorial between-subjects design

Understanding the Internet: Psychological word norms as indicators of query-specific internet word frequencies

By using existing psychological word norms obtained by rating procedures we try to predict the frequencies of search hits derived from internet search engines. We used several major search engines and repeated measurement to develop a highly reliable scale of internet word frequency. We presumed that psychological criteria like typicality and valence of nouns predict the frequencies of search-operator-specific frequencies of internet search hits. Regression analysis confirmed this assumption indicating that the verbal content of the internet as interactive mass medium can be predicted by already existing and established psychological characteristics of words

The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century on the internet – Do internet page counts provide latent indicators of scientific eminence?

Recently, Haggbloom et al. (2002) established a rank-ordered list of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century (though only the first 99 are actually reported by the authors) meticulously measured by several quantitative and qualitative indicators. We aimed at replicating this listing by simply using page counts obtained from three major internet search engines using different search queries with a five times repeated measurement. The resulting highly reliable indicators of internet frequency were consistently positively associated with the existing ranking and this correlation reached significance when the field of research was included in the query as an operator. We conclude that frequency data obtained by this method can be considered a simple and valid indicator of scientific impact and discuss additional applications of this method

Predicting the causal agent in verbally described social interactions

Implicit causality in interpersonal verbs (i.e., causal assumptions about the initiator of a social interaction) has been extensively investigated, especially in English and German language (cf. Rudolph & Försterling, 1997). The present study is the first to investigate verb causality in Danish language using a student sample (N = 96) while simultaneously examining consensus (i.e., to what extent others besides the grammatical subject treat the object like this) and distinctiveness (i.e., to what extent solely the object person is treated by the subject like this) as predictors of causal attribution to subject or object. A strong verb causality effect in Danish language emerged. Consensus proved to be a better predictor than distinctiveness for causal attribution

But next time, I will win: On the relation between irrationality and probability estimates in a game of chance

Based on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) we tested the hitherto unexplored assumption that irrationality as conceptualized by REBT (demandingness, self evaluation, low frustration tolerance), is associated with erroneous statistical reasoning. We assessed trait irrationality of 216 respondents and individual estimates of future winning probabilities in the context of the Wortman (1975) perceived control design. Results indicate that an increased (i.e., unrealistically optimistic) as well as a decreased (i.e., unrealistically pessimistic) estimation of future winnings is associated with irrationality. Findings substantiate an association between erroneous probability estimates and therapeutically relevant cognitions which do not imply any mathematical or statistical contents

Networks in Nigeria: A pilot study on network characteristics and their relation with life satisfaction in a Nigerian sample

Social relationships are a central determinant of life satisfaction. The collectivity of individual social relationships form a social network. This study examines such networks in a Nigerian sample (N = 108). Network size, proportions of positive and negative relationships within those networks, and structural characteristics (e.g., network centrality) were assessed. Furthermore, network characteristics were examined concerning their association with life satisfaction. Results indicate differential relations of network characteristics with life satisfaction. Results are discussed in terms of (1) cross-cultural assessment of network characteristics, (2) life satisfaction as related to social structural characteristics, and (3) differential associations between network types and different aspects of life satisfaction

A defiance attitude towards experts? On the influence of emphasising researcher’s expertise on participants’ causal attribution ratings in a closed-response format

Objectives. Formal features of a questionnaire influence self-reports on central psychological constructs such as causal attributions: Using open-response formats Norenzayan and Schwarz (1999) demonstrated that respondents provided causal explanations for a given event corresponding with the researcher’s communicated research field. Extending this, our research investigates the influence of emphasising the researcher’s expertise on causal attributions using closed-response formats. Methods. In a 3 (field of research: personality, social, criminology) × 2 (emphasis of expertise: yes, no) between-subjects design, students (N = 144) rated the importance of specified personality-based causal explanations for a crime. Results. ANCOVA analysis (covariates: age, gender, personality dimensions) yielded a significant disordinal medium-sized interaction: When expertise was emphasised for the personality researcher, importance ratings of personality reasons decreased, whereas these ratings increased when expertise was emphasised for the social researcher. Conclusion. Respondents oppose authority and emphasise causal attributions contrary to the researcher’s epistemic interest when expertise is emphasised

The positive impact of irrational beliefs?: A mutual connection with justice sensitivity

Rational-Emotive-Behavior Therapy (REBT, Ellis, 1962, 1994) postulates that irrational thinking implies demanding thoughts about punishing people for their evil activities. Hence, irrational thinking should be associated with increased individual sensitivity concerning unfair social events. Results of our study (N = 108) confirm this hypothesized correlation between Irrationality and Justice Sensitivity. Notably, the strongest correlation was found between low frustration tolerance, a subdimension of irrationality, and justice sensitivity from the perspective of a victim. This indicates that easily frustrated individuals are particularly prone to suffer when being treated unfairly and are, therefore, eminently susceptive to justice sensitivity

“Yes, (s)he is pretty, but...” An investigation of the simultaneous impact of endorser characteristics relevant to purchasing behaviour

Objectives. Research on advertising efficiency states, that both the attractiveness of a model endorsing a product (Halliwell & Dittmar, 2004) as well as the extent of identification with this endorser (Felser, 2001) are relevant parameters of advertising effectiveness. Surprisingly, no research has simultaneously investigated the significance of attractiveness and identification with the endorser in the field of non-celebrity endorsement (e.g., typical product users), so far. Method and Results. Using an experimental between-subjects design (N = 480) endorser’s attractiveness and gender were manipulated in print advertisements for four different products. Including pivotal determinants of purchasing behaviour (e.g., impression on product quality) multiple regression analysis showed that identification but not attractiveness had a small but significant incremental predictive value on purchasing behaviour. Conclusion. A (potentially less attractive) non-celebrity endorser with whom consumers can identify themselves might be preferred in favour of an attractive one with whom consumers cannot identify themselves