Chapter 40 Quiz: Critical Thinking About Attraction Research

Instructions: Choose the best answer for each question. For short-answer questions, aim for 2–4 sentences.

1. What is a meta-analysis?

a) A very large study with thousands of participants b) A study that aggregates effect sizes from multiple independent studies to produce a more precise overall estimate c) A statistical test that corrects for multiple comparisons within a single study d) A qualitative synthesis of themes across many studies

2. In a forest plot, the size of the square for each study typically represents:

a) The country where the study was conducted b) The study's p-value c) The study's weight, usually proportional to its sample size or precision d) The year the study was published

3. A meta-analysis has I² = 82%. The most appropriate interpretation is:

a) The studies are very consistently measuring the same effect b) 82% of the variation in effect sizes is due to true differences across studies, suggesting substantial heterogeneity c) The meta-analysis has very high statistical power d) 82% of the studies found statistically significant results

4. What does a funnel plot reveal about a body of research?

a) The geographic distribution of study samples b) The timeline of effect size estimates over years of research c) Whether the distribution of study effect sizes is symmetrical, as it should be without publication bias d) The correlation between sample size and effect size magnitude

5. P-hacking is BEST described as:

a) Using too large a sample to guarantee statistical significance b) Making multiple analytic choices until a significant result is obtained, then reporting only that result c) Reporting p-values incorrectly in the manuscript d) Choosing a one-tailed rather than two-tailed hypothesis test

6. Which of the following is the primary purpose of pre-registration?

a) To increase the statistical power of a study b) To make study materials available to other researchers c) To separate confirmatory from exploratory analysis and prevent p-hacking after data are seen d) To get peer review before data collection begins

7. The Okafor-Reyes team found that their gender difference in status-cue preferences appeared robustly in some countries but not others. Which of the following best captures the methodological implication?

a) The finding should be discarded because it did not replicate universally b) The finding should be considered a cross-cultural universal because it appeared in at least some countries c) The varying pattern suggests this effect may be culturally specific rather than a universal human preference, requiring contextual explanation d) The varying pattern is probably due to sampling error and will converge with more data

8. A study of attraction in 100 American undergraduates finds p = .04, d = 0.21. A reporter writes: "Scientists Prove Physical Similarity Drives Attraction." Which specific problem with this headline is most serious?

a) The sample size is too small b) The word "prove" and the causal language are not warranted by correlational data from a single small study c) The effect size is reported incorrectly d) The study was not pre-registered

9. According to the chapter, what is the most important limit of applying attraction science to personal life?

a) Attraction science is too theoretical to be useful practically b) The science describes population-level patterns and tendencies, not individual outcomes c) The science has been too contaminated by p-hacking to be useful at all d) Individual cultural variation makes all general findings inapplicable

10. Egger's test is used to:

a) Assess whether an effect size is practically significant b) Test whether a forest plot's individual studies share a common true effect c) Formally test for asymmetry in a funnel plot, which may indicate publication bias d) Determine the optimal sample size for a replication study

11. When the Okafor-Reyes data were covered in the press as "Scientists Discover Men Worldwide Prefer Women Who Are Less Educated," what specific distortions occurred relative to the actual findings? Name at least two from the chapter's account.

(Short answer: 2–4 sentences)

12. The chapter distinguishes between "knowledge that informs reflection" and "knowledge that prescribes action." Short answer: What is this distinction and why does it matter for how students in this course use what they have learned?

(Short answer: 2–4 sentences)