RISKY SHIFT:
INTRODUCTION
Week 5 Practical
RISKY SHIFT
WEEK 5 PRACTICAL
LECTURE
PRACTICAL
WEEK 1
NO LECTURE
WEEK 2
NONPARAMETRICS 1
1ST PRACTICAL
WEEK 3
NONPARAMETRICS 2
1ST ANALYSIS
NO PRACTICAL
1ST ANALYSIS (BY HAND)
WEEK 4
WEEK 5
SAMPLING DISTRIBUTIONS
2ND PRACTICAL
WEEK 6
HYPOTHESIS TESTING
2ND ANALYSIS
WEEK 7
RELATED T-TEST
2ND ANALYSIS (BY HAND)
WEEK 8
INDEPENDENT T-TEST
3RD PRACTICAL
WEEK 9
INDEPENDENT ANOVA
3RD ANALYSIS
DEPENDENT ANOVA
3RD ANALYSIS (BY HAND)
WEEK 10
RISKY SHIFT
WEEK 5 PRACTICAL
BY THE END OF THE SESSION, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
Conduct the Risky Shift practical and understand the rationale
behind the experiment.
Appreciate the way in which the study was carried out and the
hypotheses the study is testing.
Begin to explore the downloaded data set with respect to testing
the experimental hypotheses.
Make a start on writing up your INTRODUCTION and METHOD
sections for your lab report.
RISKY SHIFT
PART 1
Work alone, making sure you have a handout and
something to write with.
Read the PRE questionnaire instructions before filling
out the questionnaire itself.
You will have 10 minutes to answer the questionnaire,
so think carefully!
When you have finished the PRE questionnaire, wait
for further instructions.
RISKY SHIFT
EXPERIMENT
RISKY SHIFT
PART 2
Take a seat in the group that has been assigned to
you.
Discuss each of the five situations and reach a
unanimous decision for each one.
You will have 10 minutes to do this, so discuss
carefully (2 minutes on each).
After reaching your decisions, complete the GROUP
questionnaire and wait for further instructions.
RISKY SHIFT
EXPERIMENT
RISKY SHIFT
PART 1
Work alone again, making sure you have a handout
and something to write with.
Please complete the POST questionnaire.
You will have 10 minutes to answer the questionnaire,
so think carefully again!
When you have finished the POST questionnaire, wait
for further instructions.
RISKY SHIFT
EXPERIMENT
RISKY SHIFT
INTRODUCTION
THE RISKY SHIFT
When discussions lead group members to make riskier decisions than
they would as individuals.
(Kenrick, Neuberg and Cialdini, 2002)
Post decisions also tend to be riskier than the pre decisions.
Risky shift was evident 2-6 weeks after the group discussion.
(Stoner, 1961; Wallach, Kogan and Bem, 1962)
One possible explanation is diffusion of responsibility: each group
member dilutes personal responsibility for acting by spreading it among
all the other group members.
People feel less responsible about the decisions taken and, if things go
wrong, attribute blame to the decisions made in group.
RISKY SHIFT
METHOD
DESIGN
We have ratings collected from a within-subjects design using 3 levels.
PRE
GROUP
POST
HYPOTHESES
Our current experiment raises three hypotheses (after Wallach et al., 1962)
Q1: Is the average level of risk different across the PRE, GROUP
and POST assessments?
Q2: Is the average level of risk recorded in the PRE assessment
different from the risk recorded in the GROUP assessment?
Q3: Is the average level of risk recorded in the POST assessment
different from the risk recorded in the PRE assessment?
RISKY SHIFT
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
We’ve already collected the data for you!
DOWNLOAD AND SAVE THE FILE ‘RISKYSHIFTDATANEW.SAV’
Here is some demographic information that might be useful.
24 female, 24 male; Age range: 18-32 years;
Mean: 24 years; S.D.: 2.8 years
[This an opportunity sample of students at the University of Sussex.]
Participants were divided up into 8 groups of 6 and an equal
number of males and females were allocated to each group.
DOWNLOAD AND SAVE THE FILE ‘RISKYSHIFTDEBRIEF’
RISKY SHIFT
METHOD
DESIGN
You’ll notice some neat things about the design of the questionnaire:
RISK SCORE
1
3
5
7
9
11
11
9
7
5
3
1
Ratings are scores 1 to 11, with 1 being the most risky and 11 the least risky.
The order in which the options are presented is reversed for 3 of
the 5 of the items.
RISKY SHIFT
The first 2 columns show subject
id and group membership.
RESULTS
These columns show mean risk score
at PRE, GROUP and POST.
You will also find average risk scores for each example collapsed
over PRE, GROUP and POST.
RISKY SHIFT
DATA TYPES
Nominal
Ordinal
“Name”
“Order”
E.g. Gender
Ratio
E.g. Horse racing
Interval
“Real zero”
“Imaginary zero”
E.g. Height
E.g. Likert scale
RISKY SHIFT
WHAT TEST TO USE?
THE FLOW
CHART
RISKY SHIFT
NOTES FOR WRITE UP
INTRODUCTION
Like a funnel- all roads should lead to the rationale for the experiment.
What were the previous studies that lead up to the current one?
What were the important psychological concepts and / or distinctions?
What was the outline of the current study and what were the hypotheses?
METHOD
Must include enough detail for someone else to replicate the experiment.
Standard structure: Participants / Materials / Design / Procedure.
Refer the reader to appendices if including lengthy materials (hint hint).
Avoid bullet points or lists because the method section is prose too.
RISKY SHIFT
WEEK 5 PRACTICAL
BY THE END OF THE SESSION, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
Conduct the Risky Shift practical and understand the rationale
behind the experiment.
Appreciate the way in which the study was carried out and the
hypotheses the study is testing.
Begin to explore the downloaded data set with respect to testing
the experimental hypotheses using an appropriate test.
Make a start on writing up your INTRODUCTION and METHOD
sections for your lab report.
RISKY SHIFT
DISCUSSION
GET TOGETHER IN GROUPS OF THREE OR FOUR AND REFLECT
ON TODAY’S EXPERIENCE USING THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
Apart from diffusion of
responsibility, what else
could cause a risky shift?
Could you overhear other
groups? Were there other
problems in the way the
experiment was carried out?
If you were to carry out
the experiment again,
what would you change?