We learned about a study in class where participants watched muted video of a woman acting nervously while talking with a stranger, either about sex or travel. Additionally, participants were either distracted or not while watching the video. According to the Gilbert's two step model of attribution, which of the following statements best summarizes the results of this study for participants who thought the nervous woman was discussing sex (a relatively high-anxiety topic of conversation)?

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Restating the scenario helps orient the analysis: participants watched a muted video of a woman acting nervously while talking with a stranger, with the topic being either sex (high anxiety) or travel, and they were either distracted or not. The question asks which statement best reflects Gilbert's two-step model of attribution for the group who thought the conversation topic was sex, a relatively high-anxiety topic.

Option 1: 'Participants made dispositional attributions that the woman was generally an anxious person, regardless of distraction.' This would imply that participants always inferred a dispositional trait (general anxiety) without considering situational factors, even when distraction might have made it harder to correct for context. Gilbert's model says that attributions begin with a quick, automatic dispositional inference, but they can be corrected if cognitive resources allow and situational cues are considered. Since distraction reduces cognitive capacity for such correction, this option overstates the dispositional inference across conditions and ignores the interaction with distraction.

Option 2: 'Participants who were distracted made more dispositional attributions about her anxiety.' This aligns with Gilbert’s two-step model: the initial automatic dispositional inference about anxiety is more likely to persist under cognitive load when participants are distracted, because they have fewer resources to adjust for the situational factor (the discussion topic being sex, a high-anxiety context). Distraction impairs the correction step, yielding stronger dispositional attributions.

Option 3: 'Participants who were distracted made more situational attributions about her anxiety.' This would indicate reliance on the situational explanation (the context of the conversation) when distracted, which runs counter to the core prediction of the two-step model under cognitive load. Under distraction, the correction process is less likely to occur, making situational attributions less likely, not more.

Option 4: 'Participants made situational attributions that the woman was anxious only because of the conversation she was currently having, regardless of distraction.' This statement asserts that attribution to the situation is immune to distraction, which contradicts Gilbert’s idea that cognitive load hinders the correction process. If anything, distraction would reduce the tendency to attribute to the situation and increase dispositional reasoning, not fix the situational anchor regardless of distraction.

In summary, the core idea is that cognitive load from distraction diminishes the ability to adjust automatic dispositional inferences using situational information. Among the options, only the second choice captures that pattern: distraction leads to more dispositional attributions about her anxiety, rather than more situational explanations or a uniform dispositional label across all conditions.

PSYCH 3325 AU2025 (37320) Practice Exam

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PSYCH 3325 AU2025 (37320) ***Practice Exam***

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