Anger and Snap Judgments Read the article entitled “Anger Can Cause Snap Judgments” and answer the following questions.
ANGER CAN CAUSE SNAP JUDGMENTS
Anger can make a normally unbiased person act with prejudice, according to a forthcoming study in the journal Psychological Science.
Assistant psychology professors David DeSteno at Northeastern University in Boston and Nilanjana Dasgupta at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, randomly divided 81 study participants into two groups and assigned them a writing task designed to induce angry, sad or neutral feelings. In a subsequent test to uncover nonconscious associations, angry subjects were quicker to connect negatively charged words—like war, death and vomit—with members of the opposite group—even though the groupings were completely arbitrary.
“These automatic responses guide our behavior when we're not paying attention,” says DeSteno, and they can lead to discriminatory acts when there is pressure to make a quick decision. “If you're aware that your emotions might be coloring these gut reactions,” he says, “you should take time to consider that possibility and adjust your actions accordingly.”
—Eric Strand
a. Is the study experimental or observational? The study in this example is experimental.
b. What is the independent variable? The independent variable in this study is automatic responses that guide our behavior when we’re not paying attention.
c. What is the dependent variable? The dependent variable in this study is discriminatory acts, such as anger, sadness, and negativity that pressures one to make a quick decision.
d. Do you think the sample sizes are large enough to merit the conclusion? Yes, I believe that the sample size is large enough to merit the conclusion.
Based on the results of the study, what changes would you recommend to persons to help them reduce their anger?
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