--Original published at Site Title

The first test I took was overall my preference of young people rather than old people. It was an awkward test because the pictures moved very fast and did not give my brain time to register whether or not the person was young or old. The pictures that associated themselves with good and bad words to see what I usually associate old and young people which made the test a bit confusing too. Going into the test, the two topics were already very controversial; setting someone up to be preconditioned as nervous for the test. My results were also controversial being that the test said I preferred to be around younger people rather than older people; whereas in reality I prefer to be around older people due to the level of maturity they bring to the table. The test was interesting in the way it could tell what someone preferred just based on what the unconscious mind chooses. The choice had to be quick though, so I do not believe it was very accurate in what I truly prefer. The next test I took compared if I preferred straight people over gay people. The results came back to say I preferred straight over gay; but I do not find this to be true either. I find that I look at both gay and straight people as equals, so again it was hard to tell my true opinions based on my quickest reaction through this test. I feel that not allowing people to put thoughts into their actions and opinions gives a biased look on how people really feel towards controversial topics. Overall, the tests were given very quickly and only based on a person’s first reaction, not giving people enough time to react accordingly with their true opinions that could only come out if time was given to react the way a person truly feels fits.

Both of the tests surprised be mainly based on the results since I feel that I interact with both young and old people very nicely, as well as accept both gay and straight people into my life without hesitation. I feel that learning about the way I interact with people is indeed important, but I do not feel the tests did a good job at determining whether or not I interacted well or not. Both results came out to be the opposite of how I am, and I blame that on the speed one must do the test at and how shallow of a level the test challenges you on. It is only pictures and words that must spark thoughts in order to be tested; and I feel as if they are not enough information to conclude how someone truly feels about these topics.

--Original published at Casey's Blog Site

Option 1

Out of curiosity for both tests I decided to take the self-esteem test and the alcohol test, and one or two others just to see what the results would be. At first when I saw the titles of the 7 different tests I was somewhat confused in thinking that these tests were going to be more generalized and not so specific. For example I had never really sat down and  thought about whether or not mental illnesses were dangerous or if I favored medication over talk therapy. I suppose this is because I never had to deal with either in my life. So at first selecting a test to complete put the thought in my head of completing option 2 since none of the titles really applied to me. But I completed the alcohol test “Do you implicitly think alcohol is irresistible.” Frankly I don’t remember exactly the result word for word but I do know it basically said I believe it can be resistible. In going through the test though I thought the way that it was done was strange. All it had me do was press ‘i’ key or ‘e’ key depending if I remembered if the word that flashed on the screen was in the group of words that they had shown before the test started. To me it felt more like a memory test than a test to see if I thought alcohol was irresistible. After the flashing words it asked several other questions of what I thought of alcohol which is when I got the feeling that the test had actually started, but then there were at most only 5 questions that it had asked me so it didn’t seem like a very reliable result that was given. This made me skeptical to take another test, inevitably though I took the self-esteem one and to my surprise the result I had gotten was not what I was expecting. And although it was a different topic as well the test had the same process as the alcohol test, gave you a group of words to memorize then flashed words and asked if it was in the group, afterwards asked 5 questions and gave my result. So all in all I feel as though the tests are somewhat misleading or don’t give an accurate result on what is outside my conscious awareness and therefore not real useful for college students.

--Original published at Caitlin's corner

This is a very interesting experiment to me because most people would definitely think the people receiving $20 would do a better job, but in actuality, the people who received only $1, did a much better job of talking to the next person and actually started to believe it wasn’t boring,, In reality, it was very tedious and boring work. There have definitely been times where I’ve experienced this. Sometimes when my neighbors whom I babysitter for regularly ask me to do them a favor or something small for no compensation I end up doing a much better job of completing the task than if they said they’d pay me. I find that when I know I’m getting paid, I will start off really well and strong, but eventually I will get sloppy or lazy and just not care as much because I know I’m going to get paid no matter what. But if I’m not being compensated I see if more of an act of kindness I guess, so I really want to impress them and do them a favor. For me, money can make me really greedy and I know it, so I’d much rather do someone a favor and just be happy because of that. I’m not really sure why I’m like this, but my life is very volunteer and community service oriented since I’m involved in girl scouts, rainbow girls and other masonic groups, relay for life, etc. I really do try to focus my efforts on doing things out of the kindness of my heart rather than for compensation. Although, I will say that can get tricky because eventually, people can start to use you for your kindness and willingness to help. That has also happened to me in the past, but I ended up saying something and they knew it, so they fixed it. Sometimes people just want to see how far they can get I guess and how many buttons they can press before they have to face reality or until you stand up for yourself. I also see this phenomenon when I go back home and my parents tell me to do chores, so I hate doing them, but if they let me do it on my own time and because I want to clean and make the house look nice, then I’m more than happy to do it. Maybe that’s just me, or maybe it isn’t, but either way this is a very interesting topic.

--Original published at Lynsey Wissler's Blog

Week 12 First Impression

Option 2-Cognitive Dissonance

Lynsey Wissler

A time in my life when I experienced a change in beliefs due to cognitive dissonance was in school. I did not necessarily change my entire belief system but I changed my behavior to suit the environment. I did this because of something that I temporarily believed to be true. In middle school and even some in high school, I knew what I believed. I had a strong sense of God in my family and was raised in a very Christian home. However, in the craziness of middle school and trying to fit in, having a strong faith was not always the most popular thing. I thought that people would not like me if they knew what I believed and if I did not act like everyone else. Although I did not change what I believed,  I definitely did not act as though I believed it and I certainly did not talk about it. I pretended faith was not a strong part of my life and changed my behavior to act like that was true. I believed that if no one knew my true beliefs I would have more friends. As I got older and realized that my faith was who I am I became more confident and decided that it did not matter. I also realized that the people I was with did not care about my religious beliefs and in fact liked me because of it. I did not experience a full change in beliefs but for a short period of time, I believed that having a strong faith was not okay and that you should hide it. That idea led to my behavior change. Now that I am older I realized that what you believe is who you are and I think that that also would be a change in my beliefs due to cognitive dissonance.

I think that not necessarily promoting cognitive dissonance but having the opportunity for it is a good idea. Allowing people to know that change is good and opinion change is also good is something that could really benefit us as a society. If people would open their minds to change there would be less hate and feuds in this world today. Avoiding cognitive dissonance I think would be like hiding something and burying it under the rug just because you already have an opinion on it. Exposing yourself to other situations and learning new things to change and “update” your opinions is how we grow and discover who we are.

--Original published at Site Title

IAT tests can show bias that you are not aware of. I chose to take 2 of the online today and they were actually pretty cool. They were given to me at random and both ended up being about differences between men and women. The first was about the association between men and women, and sport and dance. Results showed that I have a strong automatic association of men with sports and women with dance. While consciously, I don’t really believe that sports are for boys and dance is for girls, I can see where the association comes from. I play sports with all boys, the sports I watch are all boys and even sports video games are all boys. I believe that is probably the basis for that association. The second test was about the association between men and women and leading and supporting. This time the test showed a slight automatic association of men with leading and women with supporting. This one made more sense to me than the first. When I saw the results, I thought of how I handle conflicts that come up. If something happened and I needed comfort or emotional support, I would go to my mom or a girlfriend. If I needed a solution or something fixed, I was going straight to my dad. I never really gave it too much thought but after taking that test, all of that made sense. I can see this being used for a lot of things. For college students, it could be used in making a decision to pick a major or minor. Maybe the student has an unconscious preference to one or the other that the test can show. It could have the same use in your career when it comes to picking jobs. If you ever become a boss you could use it to find certain unconscious biases of people in the workplace. For example, the test could be used to see if people have negative biases towards their bosses/managers. You could use that information to make the workplace a little more comfortable.

--Original published at Site Title

Cognitive dissonance has been a prominent feeling in communication since its early development. Everyone has the privilege of free thought, yet there is a frequent need in modern civilization to say the things we need to say in order to gain something. While this may not always mean downright lying, it can still bring an inauthentic result.

An example of cognitive dissonance in my own life is actually what was a long-term experience in my life and education growing up. I grew up in the Catholic Church and never shared the same beliefs with the people around me. However, my entire social environment (my school, my church community, and my family) was Roman Catholic. I essentially had no non-Catholic social outlet until the ninth grade, therefore I had to convince my environment that I shared the same beliefs. This led me to experience cognitive dissonance daily, as my responses to questions even in class often needed to acknowledge the existence and role of God. If I did not incorporate religion into the way I communicated, there was a major social risk. Therefore, cognitive dissonance became a constant in my upbringing.

I personally think that cognitive dissonance is ultimately a positive thing, since it leads to a better sense of control when we speak. If we were not to feel that discomfort, we may end up saying something that could compromise whatever gain there would be from giving the needed response, regardless of whether or not that answer feels true to ourselves. I wouldn’t go as far as to say we should promote cognitive dissonance, but I would say we should promote strategic communication, as there are many benefits from it in our careers. Cognitive dissonance is not as deliberate as strategic communication or decision making, as that state of discomfort occurs on its own. Though we are rarely conscious of it, cognitive dissonance serves a great purpose.