Four experiments and one study were conducted to test the hypothesis that stimuli associated with spending can elicit spending responses. In all experiments, credit card stimuli were either present or absent in situations in which subjects were given an opportunity to spend. Credit card stimuli directed spending such that the probability, speed, or magnitude of spending was enhanced in the presence of credit card cues. A conditioning explanation was used to interpret the results.

Credit Cards as Spending Facilitating Stimuli A Conditioning Interpretation

The effects of personality and situational variables on behavioral trust.

Expectations of Cooperation and Competition and Their Effects on Observers' Vicarious Emotional Responses

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on pervasive bias on the part of communicators to encode (transmit) messages that are pleasant for the recipient and to avoid encoding those that are unpleasant (termed as the “MUM” effect). The hypothesized MUM effect appears to have considerable intuitive validity: “Of course people don't like to give others bad news!” Nevertheless, although anecdotal evidence is plentiful, the search of the empirical literature revealed no straightforward demonstration of, nor explicit attempt to demonstrate, the effect. The chapter attempts to define it more precisely and to demonstrate its existence unambiguously. An unambiguous demonstration of the MUM effect should not be linked with obvious extrinsic differential rewards associated with telling good or bad news, nor should news valence be dependent on the recipient's prior behavior. The chapter reviews evidence attesting to its generality, empirically examine a number of hypotheses generated to account for it, and some implications have been suggested.

The Reluctance to Transmit Bad News

Bernice E. Lott

Papers

3 – A Learning Theory Approach to Interpersonal Attitudes1

The effect of delayed reward on the development of positive attitudes toward persons

Influence of classroom group cohesiveness on learning and adherence to standards.

Ethnocentrism and space superiority judgments following cosmonaut and astronaut flights