The Influence of Physical Attractiveness on Belief in a Just World.

Previous work has consistently found that belief in a just world is strongly correlated with societal privilege. In the present study, we examined the influence of physical attractiveness on belief in a just world. We hypothesized that physically attractive individuals would be stronger endorsers of belief in a just world, whereas less attractive individuals would be less likely to endorse belief in a just world.

Masculinity and intentions to perform health behaviors: the effectiveness of fear control arguments.

This study examined the impact of fear control and danger control messages on intentions to perform health behaviors. It was hypothesized that persons high in masculinity would be more influenced by messages that address fear than messages that exclusively focus on the efficacy of the behavior (danger control). To test this proposition, 172 participants were classified into high and low masculinity groups according to their scores on the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and randomly assigned fear reducing or danger control messages either encouraging detection behavior (skin cancer self-examination) or promotion behavior (sunscreen usage).

The effects of a parenting prime on sex differences in mate selection criteria.

This study tested an evolutionary hypothesis that the mere prospect of caring for a child will increase sex differences in human mate selection criteria. That is, women would adopt a stronger preference for socially dominant men when parenting had been primed and men would adopt a stronger preference for physically attractive women when parenting had been primed. Male and female university students were randomly assigned to be exposed to a parenting prime or a nonparenting prime.

The effectiveness of the door-in-the-face compliance strategy on friends and strangers.

The author examined the impact of the door-in-the-face procedure on concerns about self-presentation and hypothesized that (a) when a friend made door-in-the-face requests, the procedure would increase the participant's concern about self-presentation more than would a single request and (b) when a stranger made door-in-the-face requests, the procedure would not increase the participant's concern about self-presentation more than would a single request. Either friends or strangers presented requests to the participants. Half the requests were in a door-in-the-face format, and the other half were single requests.