Articles on the Psychology of Tipping

• van Baaren, R.B., Holland, R.W., steenaert, B. & van Knippenberg, A. (2003). Mimicry for money: behavioral consequences of imitation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 39, 393-398.
• Gueguen, N. (2002). The effects of a joke on tipping when it is delivered at the same time as the bill. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 1955-1963.
• Rind, B. & Strohmetz, D. (2001). Effect on restaurant tipping of presenting customers with an interesting task and of reciprocity. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31, 1379-1384.
• Gueguen, N & Legoherel, P. (2000). Effect of Tipping of Barman Drawing a Sun on the bottom of customer’s checks. Psychological Reports, 87, 223-226.
• McCall, M. & Belmont, H. J. (1996). Credit card insignia and restaurant tipping: Evidence for an associative link. Journal of Applied Psychology,81(5), 609-613.
• Rind, B. & Bordia, P. (1995). Effect of server’s “thank you” and presonalization on restaurant tipping. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 745-751.
• Hornik, J. (1992). Tactile Stimulation and Consumer Response. Journal of Consumer Research, 19, 449-457.
• Lynn, M. & Mynier, K. (1993). Effect of server posture on restaurant tipping. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23, 678-685.
• Stephen, R. & Zweigenhaft, R. (1985). The effect on tipping of a waitress touching male and female customers. Journal of Social Psychology, 126(1), 141-142.

Resources for this Episode

Image via Wikipedia

Resources for this Episode

Resources on Subliminal Messages

• Pratkanis, A.R., Eskenazi, J., Greenwald, A. J. (1994). What You Expect is What You Believe but Not Necessarily What You Get: a Test of the Effectiveness of Subliminal Self-Help Audiotapes, Basic and Applied Social Psychology.
• Murphy S.T. & Zajonc, R.B. (1993). Affect, cognition, and awareness: affective priming with optimal and suboptimal stimulus exposures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(5), 723-739.
• Smith, K.H. & Rogers, M. (1994). Effectiveness of subliminal messages in television commercials: Two experiments. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(6), 866-874.
• Moore, T.E. (1995). Subliminal self​-​help auditory tapes: An empirical test of perceptual consequences. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science,27(1), 9-20.
• Merikle, P.M. & Skanes, H.E. (1992). Subliminal self​-​help audiotapes: A search for placebo effects. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77(5), 772-776.
• Vokey, J. R. & Read, J. D. (1985). Subliminal messages: Between the devil and the media. American Psychologist, 40(11), 1231-1239.
• Champion, J. M. & Turner, W.W. (1959). An experimental investigation of subliminal perception. Journal of Applied Psychology, 43(6),382-384.
• Byrne, D. (1959). The effect of a subliminal food stimulus on verbal responses. Journal of Applied Psychology, 43(4), 249-252.
• The Cargo-Cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion
• THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE AD CAMPAIGN; Democrats See, and Smell, Rats in G.O.P. Ad
• Here’s a link to the book that was very useful to me in developing this episode, "Scientific Perspectives on Pseudoscience and the Paranormal" by Timothy J. Lawson:
  

This Episode’s Sponsor:

• You can find the published article here: Eastwick, P. W. and Gardner, W. L. (2008). Is it a game? Evidence for social influence in the virtual world. Social Influence.
• The research was conducted in There.com
• Here is Paul Eastwick’s homepage.
• Here is Wendi Gardner’s web page.
• The researcher who has done a lot virtual world research is Nick Yee, so you might want to check out his work as well.
• Here is the link to the article Paul mentioned which appeared in the New York Times called Reality Without The Downside by Michael Marriott.
• Here’s a brief description of the conditions in this experiment:

In all conditions, the experimenter’s avatar initiated the interaction by saying: ‘‘Hi, I’m doing a photo scavenger hunt.’’

• Control condition: the experimenter then made the moderate request: ‘‘Would you teleport to Duda Beach with me and let me take a screenshot of you?’’
• Foot-in-the-door condition: a small request was made before the moderate request: ‘‘Can I take a screenshot of you?’’.
• Door-in-the-face condition: a large request was made before the moderate request: ‘‘I need to take a screenshot of someone in 50 different locations. It’s supposed to take about 2 hours of teleporting and traveling. Would you do it?’’.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Researchers find racism translates to virtual worlds as well
• How Second Life Affects Real Life

This Episode’s Sponsor:

In the "On The Folly…" article, Kerr states that,

Whether dealing with monkeys, rats or human beings…most organisms seek information concerning what activities are rewarded and then seek to do (or at least pretend to do) those things often to the virtual exclusion of activities not rewarded.

In politics, official goals…may be relied on to offend absolutely no one…The American voter typically punishes (withholds support from) candidates who frankly discuss where the money will come from, rewards politicians who speak only of official goals but hopes that candidates (despite the reward system) will discuss the issues operatively [i.e., with specifics].

• As an example of Steven Kerr’s insight into how rewards and punishment affect politics, take a look at this video from Comedy Central. Stewart’s "Generic-Off" shows how politicians are reluctant to talk specifics.

• Here is another video from The Daily Show in which Stewart points out that in Obama’s acceptance speech, he makes many, many promises with no specifics (the section of interest starts around 1:00 and goes for about a minute):

Resources for this Episode

• Here is where you can read the Kerr article online: On The Folly of Rewarding A While Hoping For B

Additional Resources

• ProCon.org is a website where you can see exactly where the presidential candidates stand on a variety of issues. Click on Election 2008.
• GlassBooth.org "connects you to the 2008 presidential candidate that represents your beliefs the best" - in other words, you fill out a brief survey of where you stand on various issues, and then this site helps you determine which candidate is most like you.

Mnemonic Devices Used in this Episode

• Cerebral Cortex: imagine a Texas cowboy hat on top of a brain. The cortex is the outer layer of the brain just under the hat where complex thinking occurs.
• Corpus Callosum: The corpus callosum is the fibers that connect the two halves of the brain. Thus, it adds the two parts together. Think of the corPLUS CalloSUM. Since the corpus callosum coordinates communication between the two hemispheres, think of corpus Call Someone.
• Thalamus: the thalamus takes sensations that come from the body and directs them to the appropriate part of the brain for processing. Thus, think of Hal and Amos - two traffic cops in the brain who direct these sensations to the right route.
• Hypothalamus: the hypothalamus regulates a number of things in the body such as body temperature, thirst, hunger, and sex drive. Think of “hypo the llamas”. Your llamas are hot, sweaty and thirsty and you use a hypo to spray water on them to cool them down and give them some water.
• Hippocampus: the hippocampus is the seat of memory. Think of a hippo with a compass. The hippo uses the compass to find his way back to the swamp because he can’t remember where it is.
• Amygdala: the amygdala controls your sense of fear. Think of either a MIG coming right at you and, of course, making you afraid, or picture a scary wig with dollars in it
• Pons: the pons helps you relax and sleep. Think of a relaxing pond.
• Cerebellum: the cerebellum helps in coordination and balance. Picture your favorite athlete with bells all over his/her body (hanging from his/her clothes, hands, feet, etc.).
• Reticular Formation: the reticular formation helps you to become alert and aroused when you need to be. Think of what would happen if you were napping and someone tickled you: your reticular formation would kick into gear to wake you up.
• Medulla: the medulla regulates the autonomic activity of your heart and lungs. Picture medals over your heart and lungs, or stick those medals into a heart.

I created a PDF which contains mnemonic devices for 24 additional parts of the brain. It also includes flashcards for all 34 images, plus 6 acronyms and 5 concept maps. If you’re taking a test on the bio-psych chapter this PDF is for you. Click on the image below to learn more.

If you liked the “Tickle Me Freud” doll you saw in the episode (I got it for my wife as a present), you can get it at Amazon. Click on Freud:

Resources for this Episode

Thank you to the following for permission to use their comments:

• Dr. Debra Briihl, Dept. of Psychology and Counseling, Valdosta State University
• Dr. Dennis Goff, Chair, Department of Psychology, Randolph College
• Melissa R. Shyan-Norwalt, PhD, CAAB, Companion Animal Problem Solvers, Inc.
• Dr. Gerald L. Peterson, Professor of Psychology, Saginaw Valley State University
• Dr. Carol Devolder, St. Ambrose University

Clever Hans

• Episode 31: Lemon Slices and a New Face on Mars! Gestalt Principles at Work
• The story on the NPR site: Horse Sense: New Breed Of Executive Training
• In Wikipedia
• The Skeptic’s Dictionary
• UK-Skeptics
• Paul F. Ballantyne Ph.D website

Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation

• Evaluation of Executive Training by Glenn Crone
• Encyclopedia of Educational Technology
• Instructional System Design - Evaluation Phase - Chapter VI. From the Performance, Learning, Leadership, & Knowledge website

We do not notice what does not happen.

• Correction: I said in the podcast that it would take only a group of 23 people for you to find someone with your birthday. This is incorrect. Thanks to Doug and Leen for emailing me to remind me that I should have said that it would take only 23 people to find two people in the group who had the same birthday. (Note: this has been corrected in the audio as of 9/11/08)

Resources for this Episode

• The place to go to examine all sorts of urban myths and to check your facts is a website called Snopes. Here is the link to their page about the Lincoln and Kennedy coincidences. Check it out. Very neat site.
• Leavy, J. (1992). Our Spooky Presidential Coincidences Contest. The Skeptical Inquirer, 16 (3), 316-320.
• Martin, B. (1998). Coincidences: Remarkable or Random? The Skeptical Inquirer, 22 (5), 23-27.
• Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us stoopid? The Atlantic, July/August.
• More information about Carl Jung can be found in the journal Quadrant.
• You can learn more about Carl Jung and the concept of synchronicity on the Carl Jung Resources site.
• Doug Drinen, a Psych Files listener, sports fan and mathematician, hosts a football blog called Pro Football Reference and in one post he takes a look at the odd number of occurrences of Friday the 13 among football players in 2006. Check it out - very eerie (or just chance).

Similarities Between John McCain and Barack Obama:

1. They were both born in the month of August
2. Obama was born on August 4th and McCain on August 29 - 25 days apart
3. Obama was born in 1961 and McCain on August 29 - 25 years apart
4. McCain announced his presidency on April 25th of 2007
5. Time magazine named McCain as one of the “25 Most Influential People in America”
6. John McCain, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden were named after their fathers and Sarah Palin was named after her mother
7. Obama wrote a book called Dreams from My Father
8. McCain wrote a book called Faith of My Fathers
9. Both Obama’s father and McCain’s father served in World War II.
10. Barack’s VP candidate’s last name is Biden, McCain’s VP candidate’s last name is Palin. Both of these names have 5 letters and these names rhyme.
11. Both Obama and McCain have two daughters (of course, McCain also has two sons, but we don’t have to mention that do we?).

• Additional Audio: in the brief (48 secs) audio above, you’ll hear part of the interview with Steven Soifer in which he explains how the therapeutic technique of “in vivo” desensitization is used to help people with shy bladder syndrome.
  

  Resources for this Episode

  • Personal Space Invasions - this is episode 16 in which I first discussed this strange but memorable study.
  • The article discussed in this episode is Middlemist, R. D., Knowles, E. S. & Matter, C.F. (1976). Personal Space Invasions in the Lavatory: Suggestive Evidence for Arousal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33 (5), 541-546.
  • The popular press article which criticized the study (in an off-handed way) is called "Bathroom Behaviors" and it appeared in the APA Monitor on November of 1977, 8 (11), 21.
  • The critique by Koocher: Koocher, G.P. (1977). Bathroom Behavior and Human Dignity (1977). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35 (2), 120-121.
  • The reply by Middlemist, et al.: Middlemist, R., Knowles, E.S., & Matter, C.F. (1977). What to Do and What to Report: A Reply to Koocher. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35 (2), 122-124.
  • Many thanks to Dr. Blaine Peden of the University of Wisconson-Eau Claire for all his help in putting this episode together.
  • Thanks also to Steven Soifer, founder of the Shy Bladder Center, for agreeing to be interviewed for this episode.
  • This episode from NPR is a video on personal space in Second Life: “Avatar gender and personal space invasion anxiety level in desktop collaborative virtual environments.”
  • Question: How might this study be done today in a way that would protect student confidentiality while at the same time gathering reliable data from their bathroom behavior? Check the Resources for Teachers and Students page to find out!
  • The Shy Bladder Center website
  • The International Paruresis Association website

  

Here are the mnemonics I used in the video:

1. Bun (Trust vs. Mistrust) a "rust" colored bun
2. Shoe (Autonomy vs. Shame) an "auto" shoved inside of a shoe. The auto is driven by "shane"
3. Tree (Initiative vs. Guilt) Shia Leboef, or an Inn are sitting in a tree, which is wrapped with a quilt
4. Dinosaur (Industry vs. Inferiority) picture a dinosaur with dust (in"dust"try) sprinkled all over it. The dinosaur feels inferior because of the dust all over it.
5. Sky dive (Identity vs. Role Confusion) a skydiver's chute doesn't open and he falls on top of a car denting it. He is also very confused after hitting the car.
6. Sticks (Intimacy vs. Isolation) picture two sticks in love and one stick all by himself.
7. Heaven (Generativity vs. Stagnation) picture a generator up in heaven that died because it ran out of gas and a male deer (stag) pulling the cord to try to get it started again.
8. Plate (Integrity vs. Despair) picture grits and a pear on a plate.

You can also download this list in PDF format by clicking here.

Episodes on Mnemonics and Erik Erikson

• Episode 32 on Mnemonics
• Episode 20 on Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development

Source for this Week’s Episode

• Medvec, Victoria Husted; Madey, Scott E.; Gilovich, Thomas. When Less is More: Counterfactual Thinking and Satisfaction Among Olympic Medalists (pdf at Cornell). Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, Oct 1995, Vol. 69 Issue 4, p603-610.
• Here is the design used in this study:

Michelle Kwan - never won an olympic gold, but still the best:

Photo by Kevin Rushforth

The Classic Article Reviewed in This Episode

• Langer, E. & Rodin J. (1976). The Effects of Choice and Enhanced Personal Responsibility for the Aged: A Field Experiment inan Institutional Setting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 191-198.

“…man’s primary motivation propensity is to be effective in producing changes in his environment. man strives to be a causal agent, to be the primary locus of causation for, or the origin of, his behavior; he strives for personal causation.” - deCharms, 1968

• Mindful Learning episode.
• My grandma - one of the strongest women I’ve ever known:
  

Podcasts Mentioned in this Episode

• Professor Jonathan Mueller hosts a great site with resources on social psychology. Definitely worth checking out
• Professor Marianne Miserandino manages a wonderful site with resources on Personality psychology. Lots of resources valuable here.
• Amy Sweetman created a great site for resources on all areas of psychology.
• If you’re a school psychologist or teacher, check out the School Psychology Podcast by Dr. Gaston Weisz.

1. Make Outlandish claims with no science to back them up (ex: can cure illnesses and lose weight and stop smoking, etc.). Remember that “Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence”.
2. Depend on anecdotes and testimonials. Problems with this:
   • Self-serving bias: people take personal credit when things go well in their lives
   • Hindsight Bias: success is judged by looking backward: even psychotherapy can’t be confidently judged as having been helpful in this way (feeling better could be the result of maturation or simply cognitive dissonance)
   • Fundamental attribution error: we think other people are successful because of their internal traits
   • An article was recently published in Scientific American which sheds some light on why anecdotes and testimontials are so convincing. The article is called How Anecdotal Evidence Can Undermine Scientific Results and was written by well-known skeptic Michael Shermer. Here’s a quote:
     

     …we have evolved brains that pay attention to anecdotes because false positives (believing there is a connection between A and B when there is not) are usually harmless, whereas false negatives (believing there is no connection between A and B when there is) may take you out of the gene pool. Our brains are belief engines that employ association learning to seek and find patterns. Superstition and belief in magic are millions of years old, whereas science, with its methods of controlling for intervening variables to circumvent false positives, is only a few hundred years old. So it is that any medical huckster promising that A will cure B has only to advertise a handful of successful anecdotes in the form of testimonials.

3. Claim that "everything happens for a reason": or "nothing happens by chance". Problem: confirmation bias and hindsight bias - we look for information that confirms our beliefs.
4. Propose solutions to human problems that are too simplistic: “Happiness is a choice”, or (from the movie “The Natural”): “Losing is a disease” or, “Thoughts are habits - you just have to change your habit.”
5. Make unfalsifiable claims: “you succeed or you fail because of your thoughts” (prob: “you weren’t thinking positively enough”), “I create my reality”, “I create everything in my life.”
6. Use no references or citations: there has been a lot of research on what makes people happy. Why wouldn’t a self help book discuss some of these findings? Also, some books don’t give credit to the founders and developers of the concepts that are discussed in these books: Albert Ellis, Aaron Beck, or Martin Seligman.
7. Reference something that is not measurable: ex: law of attraction, law of abundance, law of prosperity, or refer to some “force”. The law of gravity: you can’t see gravity but you can measure it.
8. Make statements that can result in blaming the victim. Ex: “That person failed because he/she didn’t think positively enough.”
9. Make references to authority figures - the Buddha, Christ, shamans, ancient priests, Hopi Indians, etc., and claim that they would all agree with you. It’s not that such people didn’t understand some trughts about life, but is the author hiding behind these people - hoping that no one would attack them because that would mean attacking these famous people. Also, just because someone famous said it doesn’t make it true.
10. Give out ordinary advice wrapped around a lot of flowery language. Examples: “work hard”, “set high goals”, “learn from your mistakes”, “give customers more than they expect”, etc. - you don’t need to refer to a “law” or some “force” for this advice to work. It’s just plain good advice. Scientists prefer parsimony - the simplest explanation for events.
11. Have a “slick salesman” appearance: frequent requests for money or subscription to other services.
12. Mis-represent psychology: “It’s a fundamental law in psychology that you get more of whatever you focus on.” There is no such law.
13. Overemphasize the role of your thoughts. Your thoughts may not be the cause of your sad feelings. You may need to look inside and examine some emotional trauma, crisis or poor parenting. Or, if you can change some undesirable behavior your thoughts may change as a result. Or, your negative thoughts may be the result of a biochemical imbalance.
14. Claim that positive thinking can address serious mental illnesses like chronic depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders or PTSD.

Conclusion

• Why do we like self-help books? They give us a sense of control over our lives. There’s a lot of randomness in life. Bad things happen to good people. That can be a scary thought.
• It’s uplifting, it’s comforting to listen and to read these books.
• Humans are pattern seekers - we see patterns even when they don’t exist.
• We like to feel that life has meaning.
• Our biases (self-serving, hindsight, fundamental attribution error, etc.) lead us astray.
• Human behavior is multi-determined and complex
• Critical thinking is hard. There is value in being a critical thinker; in thinking like a scientist. Some self help books promote “mushy thinking” which can make you gullible. You’re less gullible when you think critically.

Recommendations

• Apply the ideas above and do your own evaluation. Lots of self-help books so have good ideas.
• Look for a book that has citations in the back or which discusses the research. You really can study happiness and a lot of research has been done on what helps to make people feel good about themselves. There is plenty of research to cite.
• Understand the limitations of self help books. They probably are not going to help with serious psychological illnesses.

Correction

My colleague professor Blaine Peden pointed out to me that there actually are more than laws in psychology than the two I mention in the episode. Some additional ones include:

• The Gestalt Laws of Perception (similarity, pragnanz, etc.): as Dr. Peden points out: “At best these are qualitative, and there status as laws is up for debate (but they are listed as such in many textbooks–both introductory and for perception courses)”. I can’t believe I forgot about these Gestalt laws. You can learn more about them in a popular video episode of The Psych Files called Lemon Slices and a New Face on Mars! Gestalt Principles at Work
• Emmert’s Law: a quantitative relationship regarding the size of an after image and its distance to a surface. Here’s a link to another description from wikipedia.
• Matching Law: Dr. Peden: Richard Herrnstein published the quantitative statement and it is supported by a large operant literature. More on this law in wikipedia, and on the Harvard University Press site.

If you like this list feel free to distribute it to colleagues, students, or friends. I only ask that you retain the information about this podcast when you give this document to others: click here to download the list in Microsoft Word format.

Click Here to Hear All My Episodes On Positive Thinking