Popular Wisdom Is Often Contradictory, as with the Following Two

question 32

Multiple Choice

Popular wisdom is often contradictory, as with the following two sayings: (1) "opposites attract" and (2) "birds of a feather flock together." Research on the relationship between similarity and liking suggests that

• A) statement #1 is more accurate; people tend to be more attracted to those who are dissimilar from themselves.
• B) statement #2 is more accurate; people tend to be more attracted to those who are similar to themselves.
• C) both are right for different people; heterosexual men tend to be attracted to similar others whereas gay men tend to be attracted to dissimilar others.
• D) both are right in different conditions; people are attracted to similar others when they are interested in long-term relationships, but they prefer dissimilar others for less serious relationships without commitment.

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Definitions:

Significance Level

The probability of rejecting the null hypothesis in a statistical test when it is actually true; a threshold for determining statistical significance, usually denoted by alpha (α).

Null Hypothesis

In statistics, a hypothesis that there is no significant difference or association between specified populations, any observed difference being due to sampling or experimental error.

Mean Weight

The average mass of an object or collection of objects, obtained by adding their weights together and dividing by the number of objects.

Two Tailed Test

A statistical test used to determine if there are differences in two directions, assessing the possibility of extreme outcomes in both tails of the distribution.