"So Batson presents subjects with a very simple experimental scenario. People who participate in his experiments come into his laboratory, and they're told that their job is to decide which of two tasks they are assigned to, and which of two tasks a second person, whom they won't be meeting, will be assigned to. One of the tasks is fun and interesting, and each correct answer that you give provides you with a lottery ticket for a lottery in which you'll win a certain amount of money.nd the other task is described as kind of dull, and each correct answer that you give will not result in your being entered in the lottery.
So people are told, you can decide to assign yourself to the fun, interesting lottery-chance task and the other person to the boring, no lottery task, or you can decide to assign the other person to the fun, interesting task, and yourself to the boring, no lottery task.
Now, what psychologists call the DV, or dependent variable, the thing with respect to which Batson is looking for differences, is the percentage of times people assign themselves to the positive task, and the other person to the neutral task. So if we were just doing it by chance, if you were literally just flipping a coin, what percent of the time would the self-positive task be assigned? What percent of the time would the person assign themselves to the positive task? Hold up the number of fingers times ten, such that it would be that percent of the time. You've got them on one hand: 50%. So if you were just merely flipping a coin, 50% of the time you would end up with the positive task, 50% of the time, the other person would end up with the positive task.So that's one of the things that Batson is measuring in his studies. And the other thing that Batson is measuring is in his studies is the point value that people assign to themselves with respect to how moral their action was. If they think their action was perfectly moral in making the assignment, then they give themselves a nine. If they think the action was perfectly immoral in making the assignments, they give themselves a one.
(...)
Here's the extraordinary next study that Batson did. He put the subjects, who are engaged in the same experimental design, in a room with a mirror. Now, if the mirror is facing away from the subject so that there's no reflection of them in it, you get exactly the same results as last time. Roughly 85% of people assign themselves to the positive condition. But if the mirror is facing towards them, so that the subject is facing the mirror [and flips the coin], only 62% of them assign themselves to the positive condition.
And, sorry, if the mirror's facing them, even when they don't flip the coin, 62% of them assign themselves to the positive condition, that is, that they're behaving almost completely fairly. And if they are facing the mirror and flipping the coin, they behave 50%: exactly as chance would predict.
What's going on here? It looks like the simple act of feeling as if one is observed, even when one is observed by oneself, is sufficient to provoke prosocial behavior."
© Tamar Gendler
Yale Lectures on Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature, 2011
[link]
So people are told, you can decide to assign yourself to the fun, interesting lottery-chance task and the other person to the boring, no lottery task, or you can decide to assign the other person to the fun, interesting task, and yourself to the boring, no lottery task.
Now, what psychologists call the DV, or dependent variable, the thing with respect to which Batson is looking for differences, is the percentage of times people assign themselves to the positive task, and the other person to the neutral task. So if we were just doing it by chance, if you were literally just flipping a coin, what percent of the time would the self-positive task be assigned? What percent of the time would the person assign themselves to the positive task? Hold up the number of fingers times ten, such that it would be that percent of the time. You've got them on one hand: 50%. So if you were just merely flipping a coin, 50% of the time you would end up with the positive task, 50% of the time, the other person would end up with the positive task.So that's one of the things that Batson is measuring in his studies. And the other thing that Batson is measuring is in his studies is the point value that people assign to themselves with respect to how moral their action was. If they think their action was perfectly moral in making the assignment, then they give themselves a nine. If they think the action was perfectly immoral in making the assignments, they give themselves a one.
(...)
Here's the extraordinary next study that Batson did. He put the subjects, who are engaged in the same experimental design, in a room with a mirror. Now, if the mirror is facing away from the subject so that there's no reflection of them in it, you get exactly the same results as last time. Roughly 85% of people assign themselves to the positive condition. But if the mirror is facing towards them, so that the subject is facing the mirror [and flips the coin], only 62% of them assign themselves to the positive condition.
And, sorry, if the mirror's facing them, even when they don't flip the coin, 62% of them assign themselves to the positive condition, that is, that they're behaving almost completely fairly. And if they are facing the mirror and flipping the coin, they behave 50%: exactly as chance would predict.
What's going on here? It looks like the simple act of feeling as if one is observed, even when one is observed by oneself, is sufficient to provoke prosocial behavior."
© Tamar Gendler
Yale Lectures on Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature, 2011
[link]
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