Friday, April 01, 2005

Playing guinea pig

Various CMU departments invite students to participate in experiments to collect data for research. I volunteered to take part in an experiment at the School of Psychology for half-an-hour. And yes, I would be paid $5 to compensate for my time...

I would have to interact with another person for ten minutes, by asking each other questions from a list we were given. Before this started,, Ed Lemay, the researcher, said he would give some fictitious details about me to the other person "to gauge the importance of first impressions." I nodded smiling.

The interaction (with Mae, a psychology junior) consisted of questions like "What will you do after graduating," "what was the most frightening experience of your childhood," etc. that we would alternately ask and answer.

When I was alone after the interaction, Ed said calmly that he had told Mae I was a sensitive person who would easily take offence and feel rejected at the slightest unpleasantness! Then he gave me a questionnaire to fill up about my impressions, such as "Do you think the other person was honest with you?" and "Do you think the other person likes to start a friendship with you?" etc.

I answered the questions as truthfully as I could, with most answers neutral tending to positive. For there isn't much you can infer in a brief regulated conversation with a stranger, who was there mainly for the dough too (why else would anyone waste a wonderful evening?)...

As I handed in the form, Ed informs me nonchalantly that Mae was not another volunteer but an accomplice from the same department. No, she was not told anything "about" me in the beginning either. The aim of the experiment was to see how that kind of information would colour my feelings about the person. Pretty neat, eh?

3 comments :

maheshbalaji said...

sounds cool! pretty interesting too...if u cud,jus follow up and find out wat they inferred from this data?

Srikanth said...

Hi Mahesh, You bet it was an interesting experience! I will try to sound the researcher on what conclusions he has arrived at - Emotions are always intriguing...

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your comments on my study. I found that people in the sensitive condition perceived the other person (the confederate) as more "fake," as expressing more happiness and liking than he/she really felt. In other words, if you think someone thinks you are sensitive, you are likely to think that the person is being overly nice to you, perhaps to avoid making you upset. More broadly, this research suggests that communicating sensitivity to someone else might backfire because the communication might now provide a motive to discount any positive expressions you may perceive (e.g., "she's just saying that because she knows that I'm sensitive).

Contact me directly if you have any questions - edward.lemay@yale.edu.