Mateo is interested in the effects of praise on cheating behavior in children. H
ID: 3467309 • Letter: M
Question
Mateo is interested in the effects of praise on cheating behavior in children. He believes that if children are praised for being smart, they will cheat more. He recruited 150 5-year olds, and he randomly assigned 50 to a condition in which the children were told that they were smart, 50 children to a condition in which they were praised for working hard, and 50 children to a control condition in which they received no praise. He then gave them a test, and during the test, the children had the opportunity to peek at the answers. Mateo and his lab assistants were able to monitor the cheating behavior.
whether the approach is experimental (causal) or non-experimental (association).
Explanation / Answer
This is an experimental approach as the attempt is to establish a cause and effect relationship. In this study, we can clearly identify the independent variable, which is praise, and the dependent variable, which is cheating. The students are also randomly assigned to different conditions of the study, which is another feature of an experiment.