Español (Spanish)


HOME

Visit the Places

economia-informacion.com

psicologia-informacion.com


WORKS OF THE AUTHOR:

Book:

The Theory of the Senergicons Psico-sociological aspects of the Economic Underdevelopment

Dedication, Foreword and Chapter 19 of The Theory of the Senergicons


Book:

The Theory of the Optimal Distribution of the Income


The Theory of the Optimal Distribution of the Income in Spanish can be download of this place starting from the following three documents:

1 The Theory of the Optimal Distribution of the Income Instructions (English)

2 The Theory of the Optimal Distribution of the Income (Chapters 9 to 16 and 20 Spanish)

3 The Theory of the Optimal Distribution of the Income (Complete book Spanish)


Document 3 requires key number to be open. See instructions in document 1.


The translation to the English language of The Theory of the Senergicons can be download of this place starting from the following three documents:

1 The Theory of the Senergicons Instructions

2 The Theory of the Senergicons Chapters 1 to 11

3 The Theory of the Senergicons Chapters 12 to 19


Document 3 requires key number to be open. See instructions in document 1.


The documents 1, 2 and 3 of The Neofisiocratic Theory, as well as the documents 1 and 2 and 3 of The Theory of the Senergicons open up with the program Adobe Acrobat, which is free. To acquire Acrobat Reader v4.05 you should go to the place of Adobe


TO SEND THE PAGE TO A FRIEND AND COMMENTS

To send the address of this page to a friend

Comments




FastCounter by LinkExchange
 

 

Section of this document:   2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
 

HOME
 



19.13 AN EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN TO MEASURE THE ATTITUDE TOWARD LIES

In order to measure the shame produced by telling a lie we proceed in the following way: A random sample of test subjects is obtained that is representative of the population. In the experiment there will be two groups: one that will submit to the experimental situation and that constitutes the sample, and another that will pretend to be part of the sample, but that is really constituted of collaborators with the experimentor that will help to dramatize the situation.

The people from both groups participating in the experiment are invited into a room. One member from the experimental group and four members from the confederate group are chosen each time to form a subgroup of five persons to whom the following written instructions are given:

You are going to participate in an experiment to electronically measure the taste that is produced by the different components of a weight loss product. You do not have to say anything about what you are given to taste, since an electronic recording will be made that reads the reactions of the taste papillas on the tongue.

Before you go into the room containing the samples of the weight loss product and the measuring instruments, you should first weigh yourselves on the weight scale that is in the hallway. Please remember your weight because you will be asked to give it later on.

Between the room where the individuals are waiting and the room where the experiment will take place there should be a hallway with a weight scale where the test subject can weigh himself after the four confederates have done so, producing in the test subject the impression that no one has seen his weight.

However, the weight scale will have a device that will allow it to secretly read the weight of the individual without his knowing it. The experimentor will know then, the exact weight of the test subject.

As soon as the five members of the subgroup walk into the experiment room they will find a table with sitting arrange as illustrated in figure 19.2.

Figure 19.2


The subject of the experiment is placed in the position 1 of the table and he is given a placebo, while someone pretends to take readings from the polygraph using a dead electrode that is place in the test subject's mouth. Along with the dead electrode in his mouth the other electrodes of the polygraph with which we hope to record his GSR are taped live to the rest of his body.
The same thing will be done with the four confederates seated in positions 2, 3, 4, and 5. In the case of these last four collaborators it is obvious that the electrodes installed do not have to be real.

The subject of the experiment, placed in position number 1, will hear when a second instructor who was in position 5, tells the subject that now occupies that position and that is about to leave:

Everyone that has an ideal weight of ____ or less will receive $10 dollars as a reward for being in top physical condition.
How much do you weigh?

The weight mentioned by the second instructor will be less than that of the subject of the experiment in position 1.
The individual seated in position 5 should respond by saying a fictitious weight that is one kilogram under the ideal weight mentioned.

Immediately after this, the second instructor will say: "Very good, you've just won ten dollars," which he hands him and then opens or points towards the door so that this confederate subject may leave.

The instructor will ask the same question of individuals in position 2 through 4 when it is their turn. His answers should be the following:


1. Number 4 should state a weight four kilograms above the ideal and should win nothing.
2. Number 3 should give a weight two kilograms under the ideal and should win ten dollars.
3. Number 2 should give a weight one kilogram under the ideal and should also win ten dollars.








As the instructor is moving from the position 5 to the position 2 asking questions, the polygraph should be measuring the emotional states of the test subject before the questions from the instructor and, finally, bore the question the instructor will ask him directly.

If the individual lies, the second instructor will say: "That's a lie. According to our report (at which point he pulls out of his shirt pocket a piece of paper with information), you weighed this much (he informs the test subject of his correct weight."
The polygraph measures the test subject's reaction when he is found to be lying.

We expect the emotion that is to be recorded to basically be that of shame, with very little contamination, since the participants know, from the context of the experiment itself, that no one can be punished for lying under such circumstances. Nevertheless, if we wish to be more sure than this, once the test subject lies, the instructor tells him that the experiment is really about determining if the participants behave honestly or not, that the experiment is finished, and that he may leave. Before the test subject leaves, the instructor informs him that he was one of the participants who lied and tells him his exact weight. Meanwhile, the polygraph registers his physiological reaction. In order to confirm that it is indeed shame that the polygraph is registering, the test subject is asked if he feels shame, anger, anxiety, or fear.

Another way we could proceed in order to be more sure that the expectations of being caught lying are not affecting the readings of the polygraph would be, as in the previous experiment, to postpone the measurements for three months. In that case, the individual is allowed to go thinking he has fooled the experimentors and he is told that the experiment will be repeated in three months. Once the test subject returns for his second appointment, he is connected to the polygraph, simulating the same situation as before, and then he is immediately told he lied on the previous visit in relation to his weight and he is shown the evidence.

19.14 PREMISES OF OUR PSYCHOMETRIC MODEL

The experimental design we have elaborated to this point part implicitly from a set of premises it is important to keep in mind. It is presumed that emotions produce physiological changes and that these are proportional to the changes in the emotions. Consequently, a measurement of the intensity of emotions can be obtained, indirectly, through the physiological changes in the individual's body that, because they are autonomous, he cannot control through his will, or conceal them before the polygraph, even if he wants to. In other words, we expect physiological changes to be highly correlated to emotions, as a result, they should be a reflection of the changes that take place in emotions.

Another implicit premise in our model is the following: based on the context of an experimental design, we can determine what is the type of emotion or affective state (direction of the physiological change) that an individual experiences.

This premise allows to conclude that it is possible to measure the determinants of human behavior based not on the verbal information the individual gives us, but on the recordings of his affective state reactions, after measuring the physiological changes that are produced in the body when emotions are experienced and infer the direction of those physiological changes (type of emotion) parting from the context of the experimental model.

In addition, it is possible to use those measurements to try to predict the behavior an individual will have under certain specific circumstances.

To sum-up, the experimental design presented in the previous sections are based on three premises:


1. Emotions produce physiological changes, for example, the galvanic response of the skin (GSR), etc..
2. The magnitude, although not the direction, of the emotion is reflected in the magnitude of the physiological change produced.
3. It is possible to determine the direction or type of emotion that an individual experiences based on the context in which it is produced.








We should point out that, for the purposes of our work, it will not be necessary to suppose that the direction of the physiological change will indicate the direction of the emotional change. It is enough that the magnitude of the physiological change reflects the magnitude of the emotional change, without indicating the direction of the change.

The previous observation is important since, although there is evidence, based on the research and study carried out on this topic with respect to pupil reaction, that emotions produce physiological changes (first premise)4 and that the magnitude of the physiological change is a reflection of the magnitude of the emotional change (second premise), there is no solid evidence that the direction of the emotional change will be reflected on the direction of the physiological change. In other words, the direction of the physiological change does not necessarily reflect if the individual experiences a pleasant affective state or an unpleasant affective state.

Consequently, in order to overcome this difficulty, we have to design the experiment in such a way that we will know with enough precision, the type of emotion that the individual is experiencing and, consequently, the direction of this emotion.



HOME




Section of this document:   2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9