gender and suggestibility final

Gender and Suggestibility 1

GENDER AND SUGGESTIBILITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Anjali Sankar & Samira Syal

III B.Sc Psychology

Women’s Christian College

Chennai 600 006

Nov 25, 2009


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, we would like to thank our mentor, Dr (Mrs) Sheela H. Julius, Reader and Head of the Department of Psychology, for her support, encouragement, insight and patience throughout the research study. Her constant encouragement and confidence in us has made this a much better work than it would have otherwise been.

We thank Dr. Roman Kotov, Research Assistant Professor at Stonybrook University and author of the MISS test, for being very generous with his time and for giving us the permission to use the tool. This research would not have been half as successful if not for his support and patience.

We are fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with Miss Miriam Paul, Lecturer of the Department of Psychology. The long talks after class hours and her constant pushing and prodding has without a doubt given us the confidence to pursue our ideas to this extent.

We would also like to thank Mrs S.Vijaya, Lecturer of the Department of Psychology, for uncomplainingly helping us work through our research ideas and supporting us with the necessary encouragement, advice and direction when we needed it the most.

We thank Mrs Zarina Ahmed, Lecturer of the Department of Psychology, for beating into shape our thoughts and ideas. Her help and support is humbly acknowledged and will always be cherished.

We also owe a special thanks to Mr.Pachaiappan for providing us access to all the relevant test materials in the Department.

Last but not the least for the opportunity provided by the Department of Psychology ,Christ College Bangalore.


GENDER AND SUGGESTIBILITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

1Anjali Sankar & Samira Syal

ABSTRACT

This research paper aims to study the difference in suggestibility between the genders in an Indian metropolitan city. This study was conducted on a sample of 50 men and 50 women between the age group of 18 and 21. The sample comprised of undergraduate students from various arts and science colleges in the city of Madras (Chennai). The study employs the test Multidimensional Iowa Suggestibility Scale (MISS) to ascertain whether there is a significant difference in general and consumer suggestibility between genders. The study also uses the Testimony experiment to determine whether a significant difference exists between genders in interrogative suggestibility. The results of the MISS test showed no significant difference on the basis of gender; whereas when the Testimony experiment was administered, a significant difference in suggestibility between men and women was observed.

1 III Bsc students .Department of Psychology .Women’s Christian College. Chennai.600 006


INTRODUCTION

Suggestibility is the extent to which individuals come to accept and incorporate post event information into their memory recollections. Psychologists have found that individual levels of self-esteem, assertiveness, and other qualities can make some people more suggestible than others — i.e., they act on others' suggestions more of the time than other people. This has resulted in this being seen as a spectrum of suggestibility.

Of more interest to this research are the following questions:

· Is there a gender difference in general suggestibility?

· Who is more susceptible to advertisements – men or women?

· Who is more likely to be misled by leading questions?

Suggestibility: A Definition

Traditionally suggestibility has been defined as “the extent to which individuals come to accept and incorporate post event information into their memory recollections’. This definition implies that:

1. Suggestibility is an unconscious process.2. Suggestibility results from information that was supplied after an event; and3. Suggestibility is thought to influence reports via incorporation into the memory system,

not through social pressure to lie or conform to expectations. - Rutter M & Taylor E.A, 2002

Need for the study

Studying gender difference in suggestibility seems suitable and imperative as it has a wide range of practical applications. The studies on gender suggestibility will give an insight into which sex is more likely to be susceptible to advertisements, to conform and exhibit the phenomenon of emotional contagion.

Review of literature:


The results of studies on gender difference in suggestibility have been somewhat controversial. Early studies of suggestibility indicate that women and girls are more susceptible to suggestions than men and boys, but only very slightly (Hull, 1933). On the other hand, psychologists Alice Eagly and Wendy Wood report that there is not much difference in the suggestibility levels between the genders. According to them, the differences could be a product of men’s and women’s typical social roles and personality traits (like extraversion, agreeableness etc). Also, male-female differences are not just a gender difference but also (or instead) status differences. In everyday life men tend to occupy positions of greater position and power, so we often see men exerting influence, and women accepting influence. This explains why people perceive a much greater gender difference in everyday suggestibility and conformity than that has been found in experiments that assign men and women identical roles (Eagly &Wood, 1985).

Gudjonsson (1922) has found that there seems to be some general tendency for females to score higher on suggestibility than males, but the difference has not been found to be significant. On the other hand, Powers, Andriks and Loftus (1979) found that female subjects were significantly more suggestible than male subjects. Studies that show a significant difference between the genders could be explained by (a) the tendency to associate the genders with specific traits e.g. traditionally ‘submissiveness’ was associated with suggestibility and since this trait was attributed to the female role, women were considered more suggestible (b) the idea that women have superior verbal ability compared to men( as accurate comprehension of the content of persuasive messages increases ,the tendency to accept suggestions) and (c) the idea that the stimulus materials were biased toward masculine interests (Eagly, 1987)

Hypotheses

Although different researchers declare different results, there exists a common intuition or social belief that women are more suggestible than men. Based on this review, the following null hypotheses are made:Among college students,

There will be no significant difference in general suggestibility between the genders. There will be no significant difference in consumer suggestibility between the genders. There will be no significant difference in interrogative suggestibility between the

genders

METHOD OF INVESTIGATION


Research Design:

The research is an exploratory study.

Sample:

A random sample of 100 participants (50 men and 50 women) doing their undergraduate study from various arts and science colleges were selected. They were between the ages of 18 and 21.

Administration

The participants were administered by the researchers individually the Testimony experiment and the two subscales: Short suggestibility Scale and Consumer suggestibility of the Multi-Dimensional Iowa Suggestibility Scale test. (MISS)

Description of tools

The MISS (Multi-Dimensional Iowa Suggestibility Scale)

The MISS consists of ninety five items and comprises of five suggestibility subscales – consumer (11 items), physiological reactivity (13 items), persuadability (14 items), peer conformity (14 items) and sensation contagion (12items) and three companion scales – stubborn opinionatedness (16 items), psychosomatic control (15 items) and short suggestibility scale (21 items). The five suggestibility subscales can be summed to give the suggestibility total score. Short Suggestibility Scale (SSS) consists of items are drawn from the five subscales and provides an index of the general suggestibility trait. The SSS is a good index of the general suggestibility trait.

For the purpose of study, SSS and COS will be used.

The participants were asked to indicate to what extent statements in the questionnaire applied to them. The following scale was used by them to record their answers:1 = not at all/very slightly 2 = a little 3 = somewhat

4 = quite a bit 5 = a lot

COS = sum of responses of the items in the subscaleSSS = sum of responses of the items in the subscale

The testimony experiment


In the testimony experiment, the materials used were a key, a stamp, a matchbox label, a 1 rupee coin, and a monogram that were mounted on a cardboard with a flap as the cover, a stopwatch and a list of questions (four questions for each article)including 10 suggestible questions (2 questions on each article). These questions were so framed that they needed one word concepts.

For the experiment, each participant was given the following instructions “You will be shown a number of articles for a short period of time. Observe them carefully as you will have to answer questions about them afterwards.” The articles were exposed for 30 seconds to the participant. Then the experimenter called out the questions and noted the answers of the participant. The experimenter was trained not to indicate the suggestion in the questions either by a change in his/her tone or expression. The percentage of suggestibility was then calculated.

Percentage of suggestibility = Number of suggestions accepted ---------------------------------------------- * 100 Number of suggestive questions

To minimize the effect of the test over the experiment or vice versa counter-balancing was employed i.e. one half of the sample was given the test first, while the other was administered the experiment.

RESULTS


Table 1.A shows the number of individuals, mean SSS, standard deviation for the genders and the obtained t- value

Gender Number of Individuals

Mean SSS SD t Value

Male 50 44.16 11.30

*-1.41

Female 50 47.66 11.86

* Not significant

For SSS, the t statistics obtained (t= -1.41) is not in the critical region, thus one fails to reject the null hypothesis at the .05 level of significance. Hence, there is no significant difference in general suggestibility.

Table 1.B shows the number of individuals, mean COS, the standard deviations for the genders and the obtained t-value

Gender Number of Individuals

Mean COS SD t Value

Male 50 21.59 6.08

*-1.41

Female 50 23.34 8.32

*Not significant

For COS, the t statistics obtained (t=-1.23) is not in the critical region, thus one fails to reject the null hypothesis at the .05 level of significance. Hence, there is no significant difference in consumer suggestibility.


Table 1.C shows the mean number of suggestions taken, the modal percentage of suggestibility and the obtained t-value

Gender mean number t value modal percentage

of suggestions taken of suggestibility

Males 3.00 40%

*-3.35

Females 4.14 40%

p<.05

The t statistics obtained (t=-3.35) is in the critical region, thus one rejects the null hypothesis at the .05 level of significance. Hence, there is a significant difference in suggestibility when participants are interviewed.

Table 2.A shows the age, number of individuals, mean SSS &COS and modal percentage of suggestibility for males

Age Number of Mean SSS Mean COS Modal

individuals Percentage of

suggestibility

18 13 47.93 22.53 40%

19 13 42.33 21.61 30%

20 15 44.45 20.69 20%

21 9 41.37 21.32 20%


Table 2.B shows the age, number of individuals, mean SSS &COS and modal percentage of suggestibility for females

Age Number of individuals Mean SSS Mean COS Modal percentage of

Suggestibility

18 13 50.43 26.23 80%

19 13 49.76 25.56 50%

20 14 45.22 21.18 30%

21 10 44.67 20.27 40

DISCUSSION


From Table 1.A, it can be observed that the mean score of men (44.16), obtained from the SSS (Short Suggestibility Scale) is lower than that of women (47.66). However, the difference is not significant at the .05 level.

From Table 1.B, it can be observed that the mean COS (Consumer Suggestibility) score of men (21.59) is lower than that of women (23.34). However, this difference is not large enough to be significant at the.05 level.

Thus, the data does not provide sufficient evidence that the two samples are significantly different with respect to their scores on SSS and COS.

When the mean SSS and the mean COS, for both men and women, were compared to those of the undergraduate norms (given in the MISS manual), the mean SSS and the mean COS was lower than the norms (53.80 and 26.05 respectively).

Table 1.C represents the mean number of suggestions taken by both men and women on the Testimony experiment. From this table, it can be observed that the mean number of suggestions taken by men (3.00) is lower than the mean number of suggestions taken by women (4.14). This difference is significant at the .05 level.

There seems to be a difference in the results obtained from the MISS test and that from the experiment. One can see that there is no significant gender difference in suggestibility (neither in general nor in consumer) when participants were administered the MISS test, which involved them to recall a particular situation (retrospection) and also report what they were thinking and /or feeling in that situation (introspection). There was also a tendency for participants to exhibit self-serving bias, i.e. a self-deception technique that affects how people view situations and attributes responsibility for causes of events. The self-serving bias is the trend that an individual will take credit for successes and blame external factors for failures (Weary-Bradley, 1978).

On the other hand, there was a significant difference in suggestibility between the genders, when the experiment was conducted. This shows that when the suggester succeeded in concealing the suggestions in the questions, the participant not being aware of the means by which his responses were being influenced, tend to accept the suggestions. The Testimony experiment is an assessment of an individual’s level of interrogative suggestibility. Gudjonsson and Clark (1986) define interrogative suggestibility as the extent to which in a closed social interaction, people come to accept messages communicated during formal questioning, as a result of which their subsequent behavioral response is affected. Interrogative suggestibility comprises two main aspects: the tendency to be (mis)lead by leading questions and the tendency to shift initial answers in response to negative feedback (Bull, 1995). Also, the participant’s level of anxiety would have been higher during the experiment when compared to his/her anxiety levels during the test. This anxiety would have affected the suggestibility scores. Studies by Alansari and Khalek concluded that female groups had higher mean anxiety scores than their male


counterparts. Gudjonsson (1988) reported that suggestibility appeared to be significantly mediated by anxiety processes. The general finding is that situational stress (i.e. state anxiety) seems to be more important than trait anxiety. Hence the tendency for women to be more anxious than men and the positive correlation between suggestibility and state anxiety helps to explain the perceived difference (significant) in suggestibility between the genders in the Testimony experiment while not in the MISS test.

Age is perhaps the most extensively examined individual - difference factor in suggestibility research .Existing research indicates that there is a clear developmental trend – young children, especially preschoolers are significantly more suggestible than older children and adults (Ceci &Bruck, 1993, 1997). Early ideas from Binet (1900) and Stern (1926) also point out, that young children, girls especially, were more suggestible (Hull, 1933). Once children reach school age, suggestibility appears to decrease, although there is evidence that even adolescents may still be somewhat more suggestible than adults, especially when negative feedback is provided and leading questions are asked (Mc Farlane, Po &Dudgeon, 2002). There is also considerable evidence that suggestibility increases again when one grows older – those over 60 years (Ceci &Bruck, 1993)

From Table 2.B, one can observe that with increase in age, there seems to be a decrease in mean SSS and mean COS. However, in Table 2.A, there is no definite pattern of decrease among the age groups in the mean SSS and mean COS scores. Yet, when scores of participants of age 18 and age 21 are compared in Table 2.A, there seems to be a decrease.

CONCLUSION

1. There is no significant difference between the genders in general suggestibility as measured by the subscale SSS taken from the MISS test.

2. There is no significant difference between the genders in consumer suggestibility as measured by the subscale COS taken from the MISS test.

3. There is a significant difference between the genders in interrogative suggestibility as measured by the mean number of suggestions accepted, in the testimony experiment.

REFERENCES


Eagly. A.H., (2004) The psychology of gender, New York: Guilford Press

Eckes. T. & Trautner H.M., (2000) The Developmental Social Psychology of Gender, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Hull C.L., (1933) Hypnosis and Suggestibility: An Experimental Approach (3rd ed). New York: Appleton Century-Crofts

Kotov R., Bellman S.B & Watson D.B.,(2004) Multi-dimensional Iowa Suggestibility Scale-Brief Manual

Myers D.G (2006) Social Psychology (8th ed) New York: McGraw-Hill, inc

Nurmoja .M(2005)Interrogative Suggestibility ,Trait- related and Morphofeatural Characteristics of Human Phenotype, Pg 5-12

Saklofske D.H, & Eysenck. S., (2004) Individual Differences in Children and Adolescents (3rd

ed). New Jersey: Transaction publishers

Santrock (2006) Child Development (11th ed). Boston: McGraw-Hill

gender and suggestibility final

Documents

anjali sankar

short suggestibility scale

general suggestibility trait

gender male number

null hypothesis

critical region

memory recollections

samira syal