Do people who see our social blunders judge us as harshly as we judge ourselves? Present Monday Nov 21

Gilovich and friends proposed and showed that people (college-aged adults) think others are evaluating them more harshly than reality suggests. You’ll ask people to picture themselves in an embarrassing situation (or to watch someone in an embarrassing situation) and to make judgments of the actor. All this will be done by survey. We’ll test whether Gilovich’s work replicates with Hope students

Doaf! I just tripped the security alarm. I'm such a failure. Do others judge us as harshly as we think they do?

Savitsky, K., Epley, N., & Gilovich, T. (2001). Do others judge us as harshly as we think? Overestimating the impact of our failures, shortcomings and mishaps. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 44-56.

The authors basically show yes, we tend to overestimate the harshness of other people. Your task is to determine whether this finding replicates with Hope students. Find and read the above article to provide you background information. The paper describes four experiments. It’s showing that one’s perspective causes a bias. Viewing a mishap from our own perspective leads us to overexaggerate others’ opinions of us.

Your task is to test this hypothesis using a simple procedure that would take less than 10 minutes. I've attached the article for you to read. You may use their materials verbatim or create your own (be creative). You will have 3 conditions (actor, observer, others) where they evaluate a social blunder by the actor. I’ve also attached sample materials from earlier classes. The F01-111 materials describe a situation in Phelps. The F01-121 materials describe a library example. It’s best to pick one blunder and carefully word/manipulate the perspective of the evaluator. Carefully word the questions too. You should give only 1 form to one person (explain why this is a desirable method in terms of validity, in your final lab worksheet). Half your participants should be women, so 8 men/8women in each of the 3 conditions is 48 participants.

Tasks:

Things to do/Tasks:

1. Meet as a group (in class) and identify each person's strengths and tasks.
2. Discuss the project idea and specify the hypotheses (everyone's input here)
3. Design the method of the study (manipulation, materials), send materials to Inman

Discuss the way you'll present the info, what you'll say, what you'll do, debriefing, ethics. This complete information is given to Inman on the Pre-Lab Worksheet

4. Submit your ideas to Inman in writing (Pre-Lab Worksheet--see Web), then wait to get approval & materials from Inman
5. Collect your data
6. Analyze/Code the data
7. Enter the data into a computer file (following Inman's instructions)
8. Learn of the results with Inman and how you'll present them graphically. If you are shaky on stats and methods, I recommend that you make every effort to attend the meeting with Inman. If you miss this meeting, it's YOUR responsibility to get the info from lab mates who attended.
9. Prepare a 8-minute (10-slide or so) powerpoint/overhead presentation (see website) decide on speaker roles
10. EVERYONE completes the Lab worksheet about your study (see web)--individual writing here
11. EVERYONE has some speaking role in the class presentation.