Commitment and the Responsive Bystander: A Field Evaluation with a Less Problematic Request

Prior research on the effect of commitment on bystander intervention has focused on situations involving crime (e.g., robbery). However, the effect of commitment on less problematic situations has never been examined. In this field study, a female confederate asked (commitment condition) or did not ask (no-commitment condition) a customer to keep an eye on her grocery cart on the pretext that she had forgotten something in the store. Several seconds later, a male confederate arrived behind the first confederate's cart and began to move it in order to take her place. It was found that participants ( N = 40) intervened to stop the second confederate more frequently in the commitment condition. The results support the assumption that bystander commitment influences behavior even in a non-crime situation.

Marching into battle: synchronized walking diminishes the conceptualized formidability of an antagonist in men

Paralleling behaviours in other species, synchronized movement is central to institutionalized collective human activities thought to enhance cooperation, and experiments demonstrate that synchrony has this effect. The influence of synchrony on cooperation may derive from an evolutionary history wherein such actions served to signal coalitional strength to both participants and observers—including adversaries. If so, then synchronous movement should diminish individuals' estimations of a foe's formidability. Envisioned physical size and strength constitute the dimensions of a representation that summarizes relative fighting capacity. Experiencing synchrony should therefore lead individuals to conceptualize an antagonist as smaller and weaker. We found that men who walked synchronously with a male confederate indeed envisioned a purported criminal as less physically formidable than did men who engaged in this task without synchronizing.

Compliments and Receptivity to a Courtship Request: A Field Experiment

160 young women were solicited in the street to have a drink with a young male confederate. In the ingratiation condition, the solicitor complimented the woman regarding her physical appearance before making the request, while in the no-compliment condition, the confederate asked his request directly. Results showed that complimenting was associated with greater compliance to the request.

Do Women Prefer “Nice Guys”? The Effect of Male Dominance Behavior on Women's Ratings of Sexual Attractiveness

We examined whether or not different behavioral expressions of dominance by a male affected how introverted and extraverted women rated his sexual attractiveness. We assessed 81 women on the extraversion scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire–Revised Short Scale (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1991), and they then watched a 1-minute silent video of a male confederate in 3 dominance conditions (closed body posture [low], open body posture [medium], and open body posture with gesticulation [high]) and rated the male for sexual attractiveness. Results showed that higher dominance behavior significantly increased the confederate's attractiveness, accounting for 10% of the variance in attractiveness ratings. However, the women's personalities appeared to have no significant effect on these ratings. These results are discussed in relation to extant literature on the phenomenon that women do not select “nice guys” in preference to other men.

Men's Sense of Humor and Women's Responses to Courtship Solicitations: An Experimental Field Study

Producing humor might function as a fitness indicator associated with greater desirability during dating selection. A male confederate in a bar was instructed to tell (or not tell) funny jokes to two other male confederates. A few minutes later, when the second of two male confederates left, the first male confederate asked a female who was near his table and who had heard the funny jokes for her phone number. The previous expression of humor was associated with greater compliance with the male confederate's request and with a higher positive evaluation. The possible effects of humor are discussed from an evolutionary perspective.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique Using a Courtship Request: A Field Experiment

“Foot-in-the-door” is a well-known compliance technique which increases compliance to a request. Many investigations with this paradigm have generally used prosocial requests to test its effect. Evaluation of the effect of foot-in-the-door was carried out with a courtship request. 560 young women were solicited in the street to accept having a drink with a young male confederate. In the foot-in-the-door condition, before being solicited to have a drink, the young woman was asked to give directions to the confederate or to give him a light for his cigarette. Analysis showed foot-in-the-door was associated with greater compliance to the second request. The theoretical implication of such results with this nonprosocial request are discussed.

Low-Ball and Compliance to a Request: An Application in a Field Setting

The low-ball refers to a compliance technique in which a demand of someone to agree to a request is followed by telling the person the real cost of the request. The number of people who maintain their first decision is larger than the number in the condition in which the real cost of the request is stated prior to the initial compliance. Researches in this paradigm traditionally included a request addressed by a professor to students but was never tested between strangers. So, an experiment was carried out in which people were solicited to keep a dog (8 kg) on a lead until a male confederate returned from a visit to someone in a hospital. In low-ball condition, the confederate told the subject who agreed to the request that it would take 30 min., whereas in the control condition the confederate gave this information when stating his request. Analysis showed that low-ball technique leads people to maintain their first decision.

The Social Stigma of Menstruation: Fact or Fiction?

In a study examining the effects of a social stigma on impression management concerns, 28 menstruating and 30 nonmenstruating women were interviewed by a male confederate who either was or was not aware of their menstrual condition. Relative to menstruating women who thought the interviewer was unaware of their menstrual condition, menstruating women who believed that the interviewer knew they were menstruating perceived that the interviewer liked them less, yet were less motivated to make an impression on him. Nonmenstruating women reported more self-presentational motivation and perceived that the interviewer viewed them more positively than he did the menstruating women. These results suggest that the interviewer's knowledge of their menstrual condition inhibited menstruating women's self-presentational motivation. Implications of this social stigma for interpersonal relationships are discussed.

Shaken Confidence: The Effects of an Authority Figure's Flirtatiousness on Women's and Men's Self-Rated Creativity

Anecdotal evidence suggests that sexual harassment may cause women to doubt their abilities, attributing their success to their professor's or supervisor's attraction to them rather than to their qualifications. Two experiments assessed whether a decrease in confidence could result from something as seemingly harmless as flirting. In Experiment 1, a male confederate posing as an advertising executive asked 56 female students to draw an advertisement, which he then praised. He behaved either flirtatiously or neutrally. In Experiment 2, female and male students interacted with a flirtatious or neutral advertisement executive of the other gender. In both experiments, women's self-creativity ratings decreased significantly more from pre-to posttest in the flirtatious condition than in the control condition. Men were affected less than women by the ad executive's flirtatiousness. The results suggest that flirtatiousness by an authority figure may have negative consequences for women's self-confidence.