Aronson and Mills (1959) conducted an experiment to see whether people's liking for a group is...

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Aronson and Mills (1959) conducted an experiment to see whether people's liking for a group is influenced by the severity of initiation. They reasoned that when people willingly undergo a severe initiation to become members of a group, they are motivated to think that the group membership must be worthwhile. Otherwise, they would experience cognitive dissonance: Why put up with severe initiation for the sake of a group membership that is worthless? In their experiment, participants were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: • Group 1 (control) had no initiation. • Group 2 (mild) had a mildly embarrassing initiation (reading words related to sex out loud). • Group 3 (severe) had a severely embarrassing initiation (reading sexually explicit words and obscene words out loud). After the initiation, each person listened to a standard tape-recorded discussion among the group that they would now supposedly be invited to join; this was made to be as dull and banal as possible. Then, they were asked to rate how inter- esting they thought the discussion was. The researchers expected that people who had undergone the most embarrassing initiation would evaluate the discus- sion most positively. In the table below, a higher score represents a more positive evaluation. Mean SD N Experimental Condition Control (No Initiation) 80.2 13.2 21 SOURCE: Aronson and Mills (1959). Results of t Tests Between Group Means Control versus severe Mild versus severe Control versus mild Mild Initiation 81.8 21.0 21 t 3.66 2.62 .29 Severe Initiation 97.6 16.6 21 p (Two-Tailed) .001 .02 NS a. Were the researchers' predictions upheld? In simple language, what was found? b. Calculate an effect size (n²) for each of these three t ratios and interpret these. Aronson and Mills (1959) conducted an experiment to see whether people's liking for a group is influenced by the severity of initiation. They reasoned that when people willingly undergo a severe initiation to become members of a group, they are motivated to think that the group membership must be worthwhile. Otherwise, they would experience cognitive dissonance: Why put up with severe initiation for the sake of a group membership that is worthless? In their experiment, participants were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: • Group 1 (control) had no initiation. • Group 2 (mild) had a mildly embarrassing initiation (reading words related to sex out loud). • Group 3 (severe) had a severely embarrassing initiation (reading sexually explicit words and obscene words out loud). After the initiation, each person listened to a standard tape-recorded discussion among the group that they would now supposedly be invited to join; this was made to be as dull and banal as possible. Then, they were asked to rate how inter- esting they thought the discussion was. The researchers expected that people who had undergone the most embarrassing initiation would evaluate the discus- sion most positively. In the table below, a higher score represents a more positive evaluation. Mean SD N Experimental Condition Control (No Initiation) 80.2 13.2 21 SOURCE: Aronson and Mills (1959). Results of t Tests Between Group Means Control versus severe Mild versus severe Control versus mild Mild Initiation 81.8 21.0 21 t 3.66 2.62 .29 Severe Initiation 97.6 16.6 21 p (Two-Tailed) .001 .02 NS a. Were the researchers' predictions upheld? In simple language, what was found? b. Calculate an effect size (n²) for each of these three t ratios and interpret these.

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Solution Quiz a If we examine at the t statistics in t test between the results of control vs severe ... View the full answer