Question

Given the prompt, what potential conclusions can be drawn? Identify the variables and determine whether you can draw casual conclusions or merely correlational outcomes. Provide your evidence.

A group of high school students found that people, on average, behave more friendly, as observed by non-verbal behaviors, when they are presented neutral stimuli compared to fear-inducing stimuli.

Answer 1

The sample under consideration is of a group of high school students. The independent variable in use was the emotion inducing stimuli and the two levels mainly spoken about under IV are fear inducing and neutral. The dependent variable was of the type of behavioral response. The DV was measured in terms of nonverbal cues of friendliness. It can be said that the conclusions drawn from the given data can only be correlational and not causal. This is because there can be various other confounding variables which may have moderated or affected the dependent variable along with the independent variable. Thus, we can't say it accurately that the neutral stimulus was the sole reason behind the more friendly behaviour of the students than their behaviour with feae inducing stimulus. It can be that some of them were just in a good mood due to something which has not been manipulated or identified in the experiment. Thus, with the limited information available, it will be safer to conclude that there is correlation between nonverbal friendly behaviour in presence of neutral stimulus.