Short description of project
This project will empirically examine how central traits of a target person may have different impacts on the overall impression formation of the target person across cultures. Psychologists have shown that central traits are much more influential than others in impression formation, which is referred as biasing effects (Asch, 1946; Kelly, 1950; Widmeyer & Loy, 1988). However, such findings are based on North American participants only. We argued that culture would have impacts on the biasing effects because of the cultural differences in analytic vs. holistic thinking. Specifically,
Westerners may tend to focus more on the central traits and ignore other traits in impression formation because of their analytical thinking styles whereas Chinese may tend to take all relevant traits into consideration in impression formation because of their holistic thinking styles (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2011). As a result, the biasing effect may be smaller for Chinese than for Westerners. The project includes 4 empirical studies to test this hypothesis.
The student will be expected to work on other research projects as well.
Westerners may tend to focus more on the central traits and ignore other traits in impression formation because of their analytical thinking styles whereas Chinese may tend to take all relevant traits into consideration in impression formation because of their holistic thinking styles (Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, 2011). As a result, the biasing effect may be smaller for Chinese than for Westerners. The project includes 4 empirical studies to test this hypothesis.
The student will be expected to work on other research projects as well.
Information of Offered Internship
Level of Internship Hours per Month
Level 2 - 50 hours
Commencement Month
April
Duration
6 Months
Internship requirements: i.e. work, practice and training
The student would be involved in the following tasks. Training will be provided.
a. Literature review. Searching the databases and summarizing the papers.
b. Running experiments. Including running the experiments in the lab and outside of the lab. Managing the SONA system.
c. Data entry. Entering data from paper to computer.
d. Lab meeting and discussion. Participating in lab meetings.
e. Other research and lab activities, including contacting participants, etc.
a. Literature review. Searching the databases and summarizing the papers.
b. Running experiments. Including running the experiments in the lab and outside of the lab. Managing the SONA system.
c. Data entry. Entering data from paper to computer.
d. Lab meeting and discussion. Participating in lab meetings.
e. Other research and lab activities, including contacting participants, etc.