Question

It is commonly believed that the more often we encounter someone, the more we end up liking the person. If the person “mirrors” our actions when we talk to them (e.g., smiling when we smile, touching our hair when we touch our hair), we like them even more than previous tests show. To test this hypothesis, a researcher has randomly assigned equal numbers of male (n=10) and female (n=10) students to meet with a confederate who they have never met before. The confederate was instructed to “mirror” as many of the participant’s movements as possible (e.g., if they cross their legs, the confederate crosses legs, if the participant smiles, the confederate smiles). Afterwards, the participants are asked to rate the confederate’s “likeability” on a Likert-type scale of 1-10.

a. If the Pearson’s correlation of likeability and numbers of movements replicated is

r = +.25 is there enough evidence to conclude that the greater the number to mirrored moves the greater the likelihood that you will like the person? Use α = .05, two-tailed test and show your work. Please calculate these answers using BOTH methods demonstrated in the lecture. Be sure to label each one with Easy Method or Long Method.

b.  Calculate the coefficient of determination (r2) for this correlation. Explain how we can conceptually interpret the meaning of this number.

Answer 1