Week 4 - cognitive biases

Question 1

why is it important to think about biases?

Answer 1

we want construct equivalence when doing research

Question 2

construct equivalence (2)

Answer 2

o Agreement on conceptual unit and measurement method for a meaningful comparison between cultures
o You want to make sure how the cultures understand concepts before you test them
 Biases might threaten these concepts

Question 3

response bias (3)

Answer 3

o Bias: deviation, preconception, distortion
o Statistics: impurity, deviation from the expectation
o Social psychology: subconscious preference

Question 4

cognitive biases (5)

Answer 4

halo effect
mere exposure effect
anchoring
visual priming
stereotypes/cultural bias

Question 5

why do we have cognitive biases?

Answer 5

the brain tries to be efficient

Question 6

heuristics

• what are they?
• what is the consequence?
• why do we need to be aware of them?

Answer 6

 Heuristics: intuitive, rapid, automatic
 Consequence: inaccurate measurement
 You need to be aware of these when doing research because your measures might be inaccurate

Question 7

halo effect

Answer 7

the perception of a single characteristic influences the perception of different characteristics of the person or object

Question 8

mere exposure effect

Answer 8

people develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them

Question 9

anchoring

Answer 9

start from an intial value and adjust

different starting point = different estimates, biased toward the initial values

Question 10

visual priming

Answer 10

visual exposure influencing your exposure to another stimulus

Question 11

stereotyping/culutral bias

Answer 11

assessments in which we attribute characteristics to individuals on the basis of their membership to a certain group

Question 12

what is the IAT?

Answer 12

implicit association test
can be used to test for stereotypes
faster response for stereotypical associations indicates atrong implicit association

Question 13

WEIRD bias

Answer 13

research is often conducted among western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic people

Question 14

answer biases (5)

Answer 14

• Extreme response behaviour
• Acquiescent response behaviour
• Socially desirable
• Self-overestimation
• Reference group effect

Question 15

Johnson et al. (2005)

Answer 15

relationship between answer style and cultural dimension

Question 16

two response styles

Answer 16

o Extreme: tendency to answer using the extremes of the scale
o Acquiescence: the tendency to agree with the question (compliant)

Question 17

culture and answer style

Answer 17

o Some groups have the tendency to answer using the extremes of a scale more frequently (extreme response style)
 No ambiguity (clear in response): culture with high uncertainty avoidance
 Strong opinion (clear and decisive): individualistic culture
o Some have the tendency to agree with the questioner, regardless of their own opinion (acquiescent response style)
 Submissive to hierarchy: culture with high power distance
 Harmony in culture: collectivist culture

Question 18

justification of Johnson et al. (2005)

Answer 18

you want to able to compare groups (cultures) and thus avoid confounds

Question 19

hypotheses Johnson et al. (2005): extreme response style

Answer 19

o Power distance
 Need for clarity, precision, decisive (high) = extreme
 Need for equality in status (low) = middling
o Masculinity
 Need for assertiveness, daring (masculine) = extreme
 Need for modesty (feminine) = middling
o Individualism
 Need for explicitness, clarity (individualism) = extreme
 Need for harmony (collectivism) = middling
o Uncertainty avoidance
 Need for clarity, no tolerance for ambiguity (high) = extreme

Question 20

hypotheses Johnson et al. (2005): acquiescent (compliant) style

Answer 20

o Power distance
 Respect for hierarchy, conformity (high) = compliant
o Masculinity
 Modesty appreciated (feminine) = compliant
o Individualism
 Harmony, compliancy appreciated (collectivism) = compliant
o Uncertainty avoidance
 Uncertainty about opinion (low) = compliant
 Low tolerance for ambiguity (high) = compliant
 The researchers were unsure what to predict because they did not know whether avoiding uncertainty would mean giving an extreme response (clear answer) or agreeing with the statement (no uncertainty about statement)

Question 21

method Johnson et al. (2005)

Answer 21

o Research question: is there a correlation between cultural dimensions and response styles?
o Note: they are using data collected for a different purpose!
o Extreme response style: data of 19 countries
o Acquiescent response style: data of 10 countries
o Adapted Hofstede scores = countries

questionnaire

Question 22

results Johnson et al. (2005): significant predictors for extreme response style

Answer 22

 Higher power distance cultures have more extreme response behaviour (as predicted)
 More masculine societies show more extreme response behaviour (as predicted)
 Variance in the data across cultures in gender, age and tenue
• Nothing to worry about

Question 23

results Johnson et al. (2005): significant predictors for acquiescent response style

Answer 23

 Tenue: the longer you work for the company, the more you tend to agree
 All cultural dimensions were significant predictors with the response style but not necessarily in line with the predictions
• Power distance: the lower the power distance, the more acquiescent (not as predicted)
• Uncertainty avoidance: the higher the uncertainty avoidance, the more acquiescent (prediction was unsure)
• Individualism: collectivist cultures showed more acquiescent responses (as predicted)
• Masculinity: more feminine cultures were more acquiescent (as predicted)
• GNP per capita: the lower the income, the more acquiescent

Question 24

results Johnson et al. (2005): correlations

Answer 24

 Positive correlation
• Extreme response style and power distance
• Extreme response style and masculinity
 Negative correlation
• Acquiescent response style and power distance
• Acquiescent response style and masculinity
• Acquiescent response style and individualism
• Acquiescent response style and uncertainty avoidance
 For the acquiescent response style and power distance a positive correlation could be found when looking at the country mean instead of the individuals
• This highlights the fact that you need to consider whether you look at things measured at the individual level or average across the culture because then the picture can look a little bit different
• To what extent can we generalize from a cultural dimension to an individual level behaviour?

Question 25

limitations Johnson et al. (2005)

Answer 25

o Posthoc analyses
 This could mean that the questionnaire was not appropriate or ideal for this type of analysis
o Hofstede’s work is over 40 years old and his dimensions are confounded
 Only focuses on these dimensions, which are limited
o The data were form employees and therefore might not be generalised to a country’s culture on the whole
 Restricted to one company
 Questions only related to employee satisfaction
o Differences in questionnaires across countries
o Mainly European countries

strength: the fact that significant results were found even though there were 19 countries with a lot of variance might be seen as a strength

Question 26

Johnson et al. (2005): response style and cultural dimensions

Answer 26

extreme response style: high power distance, masculinity

acquiescent response style: low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, femininity