Hello Before we start Please read the instruction
Hello Before we start Please read the instruction on the paper And go to menti. com, Enter the code 53 03 23
The Effort Heuristic Lee Cheong Shing (3035381518) Yeung Siu Kit (3035175206)
Outline 1. Class Demonstration 1. Overview of the original article ▸ ▸ ▸ Main hypothesis Experimental Design Results 1. Discussion and Limitation 1. Future Research Direction
“ Overview of the original article
Overview of the Original Article What is the effort heuristic? ▸ It refers to our tendency to use effort as heuristic for quality ▸ Especially when the quality of the work is difficult to ascertain ▸ Appears in judgment and decision-making process of our everyday life “The more effort it took, the better it is”
Overview of THe Original Article Main Hypotheses: Participants would rate the artworks more favourably when they were told that it took longer to compose than when shorter. Independent Variables: Effort information → more specifically, the amount of time spent on creating Dependent Variables: Evaluation of the artworks → the responses to the questions regarding liking, quality, predicted others’ rating and monetary worth
Experimental Designs Experiment 1 Condition / Experiment 2 Low-effort High-effort Condition 1 / Task Condition 2 Title: Order Author: Michael Van Walleghen Age of poet: 28 yrs old Time spent: 4 hours Title: Order Author: Michael Van Walleghen Age of poet: 28 yrs old Time spent: 18 hours Painting 1: The total time spent by artist on painting: 26 hours Task Read a poem “Order” Comprehension Check Record all the information above (Title, Author, Age of poet, and time spent) Evaluation of the poem Answering 3 questions regarding the quality 1. How much do you like the poem? 2. The overall quality of the poem is … 3. How much money the poem would be likely to fetch (in US dollars) if sold to a poetry magazine? 12 Lines The total time spent by artist on painting: 4 hours Separate evaluation Evaluate the quality of the painting 1 (Four questions) Painting 2: Big Abstract The total time spent by artist on painting: 26 hours Separate evaluation Evaluate the quality of the painting 2 (Four questions) Joint evaluation Evaluate the quality of the two paintings (Six questions) The total time spent by artist on painting: 4 hours
The difference between the Experiment 1 and 2 3 additional purposes of experiment 2 1. 2. 3. To Extend the study to a different artistic domain, painting To compare the effort heuristic between non-experts and self-proclaimed experts To examine whether the effort heuristic can be applied to comparative judgments, other than absolute judgment Comparison Experiment 1 Experiment 2 Object(s) of evaluation Poem Paintings Subject(s) of evaluation Normal students from introductory psychology course Normal students versus Art students Number of object(s) 1 poem 2 paintings Manipulation of Effort information Between group difference and Within group difference Types of judgment involved Absolute judgment and Comparative judgment
Results of original study Experiment 1 Deceived Time Taken 4 Hours 18 Hours Statistics Mean Liking/Quality 5. 84 6. 43 F(1, 136) = 3. 98, p =. 048, d = 0. 34 Median Perceived Monetary Value $50 $95 F(1, 134) = 3. 62, p =. 059, d = 0. 33
Results of original study Experiment 2 Painting higher in Deceived Time Taken 12 Lines Big Abstract Mean Rating of 12 Lines 6. 69 6. 14 Mean Rating of Big Abstract 5. 96 6. 42 Median Monetary Value of 12 Lines $1000 Median Monetary Value of Big Abstract $650 $1500 Statistics F(1, 62) = 5. 99, p =. 017, d = 0. 61 F(1, 59) = 10. 21, p =. 002, d = 0. 82
Results of our class demonstration Version 1 Version 2 Low-effort condition High-effort condition Time spent: 4 hours Time spent: 18 hours Title: Order Author: Van Walleghen Age of poet upon the completion: 28 years old
“ Discussion, Implications and limitations
Discussion ● Festinger (1957) - Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Effort Justification of Personal Work) - people rate goals, results or items as more valuable if they exert significant effort to achieve → to rationalize the efforts are worthwhile ● The study explored if this also applied to evaluation of others’ work ● Generally higher-effort → higher quality of work, but not always true ● Subjective value of an outcome / product ← → Efforts (e. g. time) invested ● In evaluation of artistic work → more ambiguous → stronger effect of Effort Heuristic
Possible Implications 1) Consumer and marketing psychology - advertisers may use “(long) time spent in producing” to frame the quality as high-quality -> attract consumers (Kim & Labroo, 2011) and increase sales 1) Grading of assignments - if an assignment is perceived to take a long time to finish (more words, more detailed) -> better grading?
Limitations ● P-value very close to. 05: Experiment 1: liking and overall quality - p =. 048, “just significant”; perceived monetary worth - p =. 059, “just insignificant” ● P-values very close to. 05 should be taken with caution (Pritschet, Powell & Horne, 2016; Yu, Sprenger, Thomas, & Dougherty, 2014) ● Composite value of liking + quality was reported, but not separately ● Underpowered -> replication is important
“ Future Research direction
Future research direction Functionality vs Abstractness In the original article, Authors suggested that the effect of effort heuristic is moderated by ambiguity What if… The subject of evaluation is presented more in its functional aspect? E. g. Evaluating an electronic product, like smartphone, camera, and television etc.
Future Research Direction Condition A: 4 Hours Taken Condition B: 18 Hours Taken Difficult Task vs Easy Task ▸ ▸ How about tasks are that easy? Motivational Intensity Theory (Brehm, Wright, Solomon, Silka, & Greenberg, 1983) - level of effort expended depend on difficulty of the task, with lower efforts for easy tasks; more efforts for difficult tasks Using 18 hours to draw Matchstick Men is a waste of time Expectation: smaller gap between higher-effort work and lower-effort work if the work is easy, than if the work is difficult
Future Research Direction Culture ● ● ● Chinese culture value hard work and diligence (Harrell, 1985) Does it imply that Chinese participants are more likely to exhibit effort heuristic? Expectation: larger gap in rating between lower-effort condition and highereffort condition
Future Research Directions (from classmates)
Thank you!
Reference Brehm, J. W. , Wright, R. A. , Solomon, S. , Silka, L. , & Greenberg, J. (1983). Perceived difficulty, energization, and the magnitude of goal valence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19(1), 21 -48. Festinger, L. (1962). A theory of cognitive dissonance (Vol. 2). Stanford university press. Harrell, S. (1985). Why do the Chinese work so hard? Reflections on an entrepreneurial ethic. Modern China, 11(2), 203 -226. Kim, S. , & Labroo, A. A. (2011). From inherent value to incentive value: When and why pointless effort enhances consumer preference. Journal of Consumer Research, 38(4), 712 -742. Kruger, J. , Wirtz, D. , Van Boven, L. , & Altermatt, T. W. (2004). The effort heuristic. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40(1), 91 -98. Li, S. (2016, May 25). HK has longest working week of 71 cities. China Daily Asia. Retrieved October 25, 2018, from https: //www. chinadailyasia. com/hknews/2016 -05/25/content_15439024. html Pritschet, L. , Powell, D. , & Horne, Z. (2016). Marginally significant effects as evidence for hypotheses: Changing attitudes over four decades. Psychological Science, 27(7), 1036 -1042. Yu, C. E. , Sprenger, A. M. , Thomas, R. P. , & Dougherty, M. R. (2014). When decision heuristics and science collide. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 268– 282.
- Slides: 22
