Articles

When Is the Best Time to Apologize?

By Brad Bell

Imagine that you got into an argument with your best friend.  You
said some things you wish you had not.   You told your best friend
that he or she was lazy and did not like work.  Now you realize that
you must apologize.  The apology is the best way to resolve the
conflict.  Should you apologize right away, or should you wait until
your best friend finishes expressing his or her feelings?

Frantz and Bennigson (2005) investigated the influence of the timing of an apology.  The hypothesis was that later apologies would be more effective because the person would have the chance to be understood and heard.  In their first study, participants were asked to describe a recent conflict with a person in which they had felt wronged, and the other person apologized.  Satisfaction with the outcome of the conflict was found to be positively correlated with the timing of the apology.  In other words, later apologies were associated with greater satisfaction with the conflict.  Moreover, the findings were consistent with the idea that this relationship could be explained by feeling heard and understood.  However, causal conclusions cannot be made from these findings.  Other possible explanations cannot be ruled out.

In their second study, participants were randomly assigned to read one of three versions of a hypothetical conflict situation.  They read either that a person provided an apology at the beginning of the conversation, provided an apology later in the conversation, or provided no apology.  The early apology came before the information on voicing her concerns and being understood.  In contrast, the later apology came after the information on voicing her concerns and being understood.  The findings from the second study suggest that a later apology is more effective than an early apology. These findings have important practical implications concerning when to apologize.  When apologizing it may be best to wait until a person has a chance to voice his or her concerns and feel
understood.  Before apologizing, it may be good to clearly state that you understand what the person is feeling.

References

Frantz, C. M., & Bennigson, C. (2005).  Better late than early: The influence of timing on apology effectiveness. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 201-207

Why Is Empathy Important?

By Brad Bell

Empathy may be one of the most important attributes.  Empathy involves being able to see things from another person’s perspective, as well as being able to feel what another person feels.  There may be several reasons why empathy is important.  These reasons include building rapport, reducing conflicts, and increasing helping behavior.

Building Rapport

Expressing empathy may be an effective way of building rapport.  People may wish to feel understood. Thus, expressing empathy may increase liking.  Also, if a person express empathy they may be trusted more.  This may be true because they perceive the person as more caring.   

Reducing Conflicts

Some conflicts may result from failing to see things from another person’s perspective.  This may result in hurt feelings. Stating that one understand and appreciate another person’s perspective may result in the person feeling better about the situation.  This may reduce or resolve the conflict.

Increasing Helping Behavior

There may be a number of motives for helping behavior.  One of the motives is the joy of helping others, and this may reflect feeling empathy.  This expression of empathy may involve understanding the person’s situation, and feeling what the other person feels in the situation.

Can Funny Lectures Foster Learning?

By Brad Bell

Some lectures may be hard to pay attention to.  Some subjects such
as research methods and statistics may seem very dry.  What can the instructor do to make these topics more interesting?   One possibility is to use humorous examples in the lectures.

In Garner’s (2006) experiment, all the participants viewed three
video-recorded lectures on statistics and research methods.  Each
participant was randomly assigned to one of two conditions.  In one
condition (humor condition), the participant viewed lectures with
humor segments (e.g., with humorous examples).  In the other condition, the participants viewed the lectures without the humor
segment (control condition).  Garner found that the participants in the humor condition recalled more information on the average than
participants in the control condition. (1) Humor may increase recall because it is distinctive, vivid, or it attracts attention.  Greater attention may lead to deeper processing of the concepts.

This finding has important practical implications.  Examples are
routinely used to make concepts clearer and more memorable.  It
may be beneficial for instructors to use humorous examples.

There may be some limitations of education humor and the use of
humor in the classroom.  Offensive or unrelated humor may not be
beneficial.  It is important for instructors to use appropriate humor
that is directly related to the concepts in the course.

Notes

See Garner’s article for other research findings.

References

Garner, R. L.  (2006).  Humor in pedagogy:  How ha-ha can lead
to aha!  College Teaching, 54, 177-180.



Can Exposure to Nature Influence Our Aspirations?

By Brad Bell

People have different aspirations.  Some people may wish to be
famous and wealthy.  Others may be more concerned with developing good social relationships and making a contribution to
their community.  Could exposure to nature affect our aspirations? In their first three studies, Weinstein, Przybylski, and Ryan (2009)
had participants view either slides involving natural scenes or slides
involving human-made scenes (cityscapes).  The participants were
randomly assigned to conditions.  They measured both intrinsic aspirations and extrinsic aspirations.  The intrinsic aspirations questions concerned the importance of relationships and community.   The extrinsic aspirations questions concerned the importance of fame and wealth.   A composite intrinsic aspirations measure concerned relationships and community aspirations.  A composite extrinsic aspirations measure concerned fame and wealth aspirations.

In all of the first three studies they found that, on the average,
participants who viewed slides with natural scenes had higher
intrinsic aspirations than participants who viewed slides with man-made scenes.  Moreover, in all of the first three studies they found that, on the average, participants who viewed slides with natural scenes had lower extrinsic aspirations than participants who
viewed slides with made-made scenes.

In their fourth study, Weinstein, Przybylski, and Ryan (2009)
found that participants who were in a lab room with four plants
reported higher intrinsic aspirations and lower extrinsic aspirations
than participants in the lab room without these plants. (1) There may be practical implications of these findings.  It may be a good idea to have nature pictures and plants in offices.  This might lead to people placing more importance on social relationships and making a contribution to an organization or society.

Notes:

1.  See their article for information on other measures and findings.

References:

Weinstein, N.,  Przybylski, A. K., & Ryan, R. M.  (2009).  Can
    nature make us more caring?  Effects of immersion in nature on  
    intrinsic aspirations and generosity.   Personality and Social
   Psychology Bulletin, 35, 1315-1329.

Are People Influenced by Trivial Details?

By Brad Bell

Imagine that you are juror in a criminal trial in which the defendant is accused of stealing a duffle bag from a gym.  One eyewitness is positive that the defendant took the bag, and the other eyewitness is positive that someone else took the bag.  The eyewitness for the prosecution was much more detailed in her testimony.  She described minor details, such as the can of Pepsi the culprit was drinking before taking the duffle bag.  Would you be influenced by the trivial details in the eyewitness testimony?

In their second experiment, Bell and Loftus (1989) had college students read a brief summary of a criminal court case with conflicting testimony.  The prosecution eyewitness stated that defendant was the person who committed the crime, and the defense eyewitness stated that the defendant was not the culprit.  The defense eyewitness testimony varied in degree of detail.   In a low detail version, the defense eyewitness described the store items that the culprit dropped as just “a few store items.”  In the high detail version, the defense eyewitness described the store items as “a box of Milk Duds and a can of Diet Pepsi.”  The prosecution eyewitness described the store items as just “a few store items.”  However, there were two versions for the prosecution eyewitness testimony,  In one version the prosecution eyewitness is not asked whether she can remember the store items mentioned by the defense eyewitness.  In the other version, she is asked if she can remember the store items, and she states that she cannot remember them.  When the prosecution eyewitness was not asked about the store items, there was no statistically significant effect of the trivial details on judgments of the defendant’s guilt.  In contrast, when mock jurors learned that the prosecution eyewitness could not remember the store items, there was a substantial effect of defense eyewitness detail on judgments of the defendant’s guilt.  When the prosecution eyewitness stated that she could not remember the store items, 6% rendered a guilty verdict in the high detail condition, and 47% rendered a guilty verdict in the low detail condition!  The persuasive impact of trivial details was referred to as trivial persuasion by Bell and Loftus.

The findings from the second experiment conducted by Bell and Loftus (1989) suggest that the impact of trivial details on judgment of guilt is due to inferences about memory.  The detail in the defense eyewitness testimony only influenced judgments of guilt when it was clear that the prosecution eyewitness could not remember the trivial details.  In this situation, the mock jurors may have been more likely to believe that the defense eyewitness had a better memory for the culprit’s face than the prosecution eyewitness. Moreover, the defense eyewitness was judged to have a better memory for the culprit’s face in the high detail condition than in the low detail condition.

Even details that are unrelated to the crime may be persuasive.  In their first experiment, Bell and Loftus (1989) found that unrelated details in the prosecution eyewitness testimony influences judgments of a defendant’s guilt.  The details pertained to the store items that a customer dropped prior to the crime.  It should be pointed out that some studies have not found trivial details to
be persuasive.  Some findings for the influence of details were not statistically significant.  For example, Bell and Jones (1994) found that the effects of minor details on judgments of honesty were not statistically significant in four studies.

Trivial persuasion may reflect a faulty belief about eyewitness testimony. Reporting trivial details may not indicate that a person has a good memory for a culprit’s face.  For example, Wells and Leippe (1981) found that people who made an accurate identification of a culprit were less accurate in their memory for peripheral details.


Although trivial details may influence judgments in some situations, more research is needed to gain a better understanding of the influence of trivial details.  It’s possible that trivial details may be persuasive in other contexts besides the courtroom.

References

Bell, B. E., & Loftus, E. F. (1989).  Trivial persuasion in the courtroom:
The power of (a few) minor details.  Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 56, 669-679.
Bell, B. E., & Jones, J. B. (1994).  Providing minor details and the
perception of honesty:  Questioning the generality of trivial
persuasion.  Psychology: A Journal of Human Behavior, 31, 26-29.
Wells, G. L., & Leippe, M. R.  (1981).  How do triers of fact infer
the accuracy of eyewitness identifications?  Using memory for
peripheral detail can be misleading.  Journal of Applied Psychology,
66, 682-687.

The Nature of Love

By Brad Bell

Love is an important concept in psychology.   Love is a word that could be defined in many different ways.   What do people believe love is?    What are the most important attributes of love? What types of love are the best examples of love?    These important questions may help us gain a better understanding of the psychology of love.

People’s Conceptions of Love

Love research findings may help in understanding love.  Some studies have addressed the concept of love.  These studies may provide us with a greater understanding of the meaning of love. In Fehr’s (1988) first study, participants were asked to list features of either love, commitment, or both.  Of the participants who listed features of love, the most frequently listed feature of love in this study was caring (43.75%).   The second most frequently listed feature was happiness (29.17%).   The third most frequently listed feature was want to be with other (28.13%).

In her second study, Fehr (1988) had participants provide judgments of features of either love or commitment.  They made these judgments with respect to how good of a feature they were of either love or commitment.   Trust had the highest average (mean) rating for love.  The attribute with the second highest average(mean) rating for love was caring.   Honesty had the third highest average (mean) rating for love. (1)

The findings above pertained to love in general.  However, there may be many types of love.  In their second study, Fehr and Russell (1991) had participants make judgments of twenty types of love with respect to how good examples they were of love.  The type of love with the highest average (mean) rating was maternal love.     Parental love was the type of love with the second highest average (mean) rating.  The type of love with the third highest average mean) rating was friendship. (2) The participants in the above studies were college students. It is not clear whether people who are not college students would have different conceptions of love. These findings on people’s conceptions of love provide some insight into the psychology of love.  These findings suggest that caring, honesty, and trust may be viewed as some of the most important attributes of ove.  Moreover, parental love, especially maternal love, can be viewed as a very good example of love.

Love Definition

It is important to define love.  What is love?  These findings on people’s conceptions of love also have implications concerning the definition of love. A simple definition of love is that it is a feeling reflecting significant caring.

Unconditional Love

 What is unconditional love?   Unconditional love can be viewed as selfless love.  This unconditional love definition suggests that love involves significant caring.   In Fehr’s(1988) first study, 6.25 percent of the participants listed unconditional as a feature of love.

Falling in Love

Falling in love can be viewed as one type of love.  It is important to gain an understanding of the process of falling in love.  There are a number of interesting questions concerning the psychology of falling in love.   What precedes the feeling of falling in love?   What are the possible consequences of falling in love?

Aron, Dutton, Aron, and Iverson (1989) conducted three studies concerning the experience of falling in love.  In the first two studies, participants provided descriptive accounts concerning falling in love.  In the third study, participants provided ratings.  The content analyses in the first two studies assessed the incidence of a number of variables which appeared to precede the attraction or was a perceived cause of the attraction.   A significant percentage of the participants in the first two studies reported reciprocal liking (90 percent in the first study and 68 percent in the second study). Moreover, a majority of the participants in the first two studies reported desirable characteristics in the person (78 percent in the first study and 56 percent in the second study).  Also, similarity was reported by some of the participants in the first two studies (18 percent in the first study and 34 percent in the second study). (3)  

Aron, Paris, and Aron (1995) conducted two longitudinal studies concerning some possible consequences of falling in love.  In their first study, they found that falling in love was associated with greater change and diversity of the self-concept.  In their second study, they found that falling in love was found to be associated with increases in self-efficacy and self-esteem.  It is possible that falling in love leads to changes in the self-concept and increases in self-efficacy and self-esteem.  However, because the findings are correlational, there are other possible explanations for the findings. (4)

Notes

1.  See the article for information on other findings.
2.  See their article for information on other findings.
3.  See their article for information concerning the findings
for the third study and information concerning other findings
for the first two studies.
4.  See their article for information on other findings.

References

Aron, A., Dutton, D. G., Aron, E. N., & Iverson, A.  (1989).
Experiences of falling in love.  Journal of Social and
Personal Relationships, 6, 243-257.
Aron, A., Paris, M., & Aron, E. N. (1995).  Falling in love:
Prospective studies of self-concept change.  Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 1102-1112.
Fehr, B. (1988).  Prototype analysis of the concepts of love
and commitment. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 55, 557-579.
Fehr, B., & Russell, J. A.  (1991).  The concept of love
viewed from a prototype perspective.  Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 425-238.