Social psychologists throughout the years have shown that an aggression-sexualit
ID: 3064009 • Letter: S
Question
Social psychologists throughout the years have shown that an aggression-sexuality link exists not only in various animal species but also in humans. Dutton and Aron (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1974) set out to show that a more general link exists in humans, namely emotional arousal of all kinds and sexual attraction. They set up their study to compare men in a high emotional arousal situation to men in a low emotional arousal situation.
Researchers wanted to test the notion that an attractive female is seen as more attractive by males who encounter her in a fear-arousing situation than by males who encounter her in a non-fear-arousing situation. In the high emotional arousal group, men deemed to be between the ages of 18 and 35 who crossed a suspension bridge 230 feet above rocks and shallow rapids in Capilano Canyon, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and were not accompanied by a female were approached on the bridge by an attractive female interviewer. The same interviewer also approached men who fit the same criteria but crossed a solid wood bridge 10 feet above a rivulet that ran into the main river. Both groups of men were interviewed on the bridge and were told that the interview was for a psychology class project on the effects of exposure to scenic attractions on creative expression. The men filled out a short questionnaire after which the interviewer wrote her phone number down on a slip of paper and said that if they were interested in the results of the experiment they could call her. The researcher talked to 18 men on the suspension bridge and 16 men on the wooden bridge. Of the 18 men on the suspension bridge that accepted her phone number, 9 called her. Of the 16 men on the solid wooden bridge that accepted her phone number, 2 called her.
a. Causation. Does this study design allow us to assess whether the type of bridge caused a difference in the probability a man would call the interviewer? Select all that apply.
Yes, since this was a randomized experiment.
No, since the result was not statistically significant.
No, since this was an observational study.
No, since the men in the study were allowed to choose which bridge to cross.
b. A simulation-based test of these two hypotheses resulted in a p-value of 0.023.
Using a significance level of 0.01, what is the appropriate decision for this test?
Reject the null hypothesis.
Fail to reject the null hypothesis.
Fail to reject the alternative hypothesis.
Accept the null hypothesis.
Yes, since this was a randomized experiment.
No, since the result was not statistically significant.
No, since this was an observational study.
No, since the men in the study were allowed to choose which bridge to cross.
b. A simulation-based test of these two hypotheses resulted in a p-value of 0.023.
Using a significance level of 0.01, what is the appropriate decision for this test?
Question 5 options:Reject the null hypothesis.
Fail to reject the null hypothesis.
Fail to reject the alternative hypothesis.
Accept the null hypothesis.
Explanation / Answer
a) Since the interviewer randomly chose men crossing the bridge and also the data collected on the two bridges are independent of each other, we choose Option 1. Yes, since it a randomised experiment.
b) Ho: type of bridges do not affect (or are independent ) of the probability of calls to the interviewer.
H1: Not Ho
Since we see that 0.023 > 0.01, we do not reject Ho.
Therefore, Choose options 2 and 4. Fail to reject null hypothesis and Accept null hypothesis