Effects of menstrual cycle phase on ratings of implicitly erotic art.

Women's perceptions of and responses to explicitly erotic stimuli have been shown to vary across the menstrual cycle. The present study examined responses to implicit eroticism. A total of 83 women provided reactions to paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe in 6 day intervals over the course of 1 month. Among freely cycling women (n = 37), 31% of their descriptions included sexual themes during the first half of their cycle, dropping to 9% of descriptions in the second half. In women using oral contraceptives (n = 46), there was no significant difference in descriptions across the cycle (13% in the first half vs. 17% in the second half). Results were discussed in terms of evolutionary psychology and social-cognitive perspectives on the relationships between hormonal fluctuations and sexuality.

Malinowski goes to college: factors influencing students' use of ritual and superstition.

Anthropologists have long noted that the use of ritual and magic is linked to conditions of risk and uncertainty. In this study, the authors examined how perceived task difficulty, participants' level of preparation, and the value of the outcome interact to influence the self-reporting of superstition and ritual. College students rated the likelihood of their using charms or rituals for various scenarios involving academic, artistic, and athletic performances. Reports of use of ritual increased as the stakes of the event increased and decreased with perceived expertise or level of preparation. Additional findings included participants' reporting frequent use of ritual while denying any causal effectiveness. The authors discuss results in terms of the rituals providing participants with an illusion of control.

Sex differences on the HGSHS:A.

Over a 28-year period, 724 men and 1148 women completed the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A. Overall, women scored higher than men. This effect was most prominent on 6 of the 12 items, most (though not all) challenge items (identified by a principal-components analysis). The overall effect size was quite small. Results are discussed in terms of differences in item difficulty.

Hypnotic susceptibility as a predictor of participation in student activities.

In this study, Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: Form A scores for 458 college students were compared with college yearbook records of their participation in student activities. Students who scored low in susceptibility showed significantly less participation in activities than others who were either moderate or high in susceptibility. Overall, females showed higher levels of participation than males, but there was no significant interaction between gender and hypnotic susceptibility. Spectral analysis showed participation scores to be somewhat more strongly related to easier HGSHS:A items than to more difficult items in the manner predicted by two-factor theory. Closer examination of the results revealed that this effect was primarily due to the fact that low susceptible subjects participated significantly less in student activities than subjects who were either moderate or high in hypnotic susceptibility. The results suggest that future research should further examine the unique contribution of low susceptibility subjects to hypnosis theory and research.

Pictorial versus textual information and the ratio-bias effect.

The ratio-bias effect refers to the perception that a low probability event is more likely when presented in the form of a larger, e.g., 10-in-100, than smaller, e.g., 1-in-10, numerical ratio. This phenomenon has been used to help distinguish between rational-analytic versus heuristic-automatic ways of problem solving. In the current study, responding in accordance with the ratio bias was more prevalent when choices were presented pictorially as opposed to textually. Results are discussed with respect to how various factors, including mode of information presentation, may affect whether problems are solved via heuristic, automatic processes as opposed to effortful, analytic strategies.

Hindsight and confirmation biases in an exercise in telepathy.

Belief in the paranormal or claims of paranormal experiences may be, at least in part, associated with systematic cognitive biases. 48 undergraduate college students engaged in an exercise in telepathy in which the color of cards was 'sent' to them by the experimenter under two conditions. In a Hindsight-possible condition, participants recorded whether their choice was correct following the revelation of the color. In the Control condition participants committed to a particular response by writing it down before receiving feedback, thus eliminating ability to alter retrospectively what 'was known all along'. Consistent with a hindsight bias, participants performed significantly better under the Hindsight-possible condition. Moreover, a statisically significant correlation was found between paranormal belief assessed on Tobacyk's 1988 Revised Paranormal Belief Scale in the Hindsight-possible but not in the Control condition, suggesting a confirmation bias. Results are discussed in terms of interactions between hindsight and confirmation biases and how they might relate to paranormal beliefs.