Social psychologists arc used to hearing that their experiments are a waste

游客2025-04-25 15

问题    Social psychologists arc used to hearing that their experiments are a waste of time because they just prove the obvious, and tell us what we always knew. But there is a very simple and effective riposte to this accusation. The trouble with folk-wisdom (what we always knew) is that it tends to come in pairs of statements, both of which are obviously’ true, but which—unfortunately—are mutually exclusive. For example, birds of a feather flock together, but what about the attraction of opposites? Experiments may not be as much fun as intuitions, but they sometimes tell us which proverbs are actually true, or (moor often) in what circumstances which apply.
There is one other preconception to be removed before tackling the question of whom we like and love, whom we find attractive and make friends with: "Why bother to study an area in which we are all expert practitioners?" Well, ff you believe that, have a word with a marriage guidance counselor, a psychiatrist, or someone involved in industrial relations.
Research on friendship has established a number of facts, some interesting, some even useful. Did you know that the average student has 5-6 friends, or that a friend who was previously an enemy is liked more than the one who has always been on the right side? Would you believe that physically attractive individuals are preferred as friends to those less comely, and is it fair that physically attractive defendants are less likely to be found guilty in court? Unfortunately, such tidbits don’t tell us much more than the nature or the purpose of friendship.
In fact, studies of friendship seem to implicate more complex factors.  For example, one function friendship seems to fulfill is that it supports the image we have of ourselves, and confirms the value of the attitudes we hold. Several studies have shown that we judge them to be more like us than they (objectively) are. This suggests that we ought to choose friends who are similar to us (’birds of a feather’) rather than those who would be complementary (’opposites attract’), a prediction which is supported by empirical evidence, at least so far as attitudes and beliefs are concerned. In one experiment, some developing friendships were monitored amongst first-year students living in the same hostel.  It was found that similarity of attitudes (towards politics, religion, and ethics, pastimes and aesthetics) was a good predictor of what friendships would be established by the end of four months, though it had less to do with initial alliances.
The difficulty of linking friendship with similarity of personality probably reflects the complexity of our personalities. This of course can explain why we may have two close friends who have little in common and indeed dislike each other. By and large, though, it looks as though we would do well to choose friends ( and spouses) who resemble us. If this were not so, computer dating agencies would have gone out of business years ago.  [br] Experiments conducted by social psychologists are frequently criticized because ______.

选项 A、people believe they already know what the results will be
B、the results often disprove popular beliefs
C、they are not much fun
D、they tend to produce contradictory results

答案 A

解析

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Social psychologists arc used to hearing that their experiments are a waste

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