A psychologist was interested in the effects of different fear information on children’s beliefs about an animal. Three groups of children were shown a picture of an animal that they had never seen before (a quoll). Then one group was told a negative story (in which the quoll is described as a vicious, disease-ridden bundle of nastiness that eats children’s brains), one group a positive story (in which the quoll is described as a harmless, docile creature who likes nothing more than to be stroked), and a final group weren’t told a story at all. After the story children rated how scared they would be if they met a quoll, on a scale ranging from 1 (not at all scared) to 5 (very scared indeed). To account for the natural anxiousness of each child, a questionnaire measure of trait

Question

anxiety was given to the children and used in the analysis. Which of the following statements best reflects what the ‘pairwise comparisons’ tell us?





A. Fear beliefs were significantly lower after positive information compared to negative information and no information; fear beliefs were not significantly different after negative information compared to no information.

B. Fear beliefs were significantly higher after negative information compared to positive information; fear beliefs were significantly lower after positive information compared to no information.

C. Fear beliefs were all about the same after different types of information.

D. Fear beliefs were significantly higher after negative information compared to positive information and no information, and fear beliefs were not significantly different after positive information compared to no information.

Answer 1

Answer: D