Interactive Qualifying Project in Psychological Science
Authors
Daniel Vega, Luisa Perez, Paul Beatty
Institution
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Date
March 2019
Project Overview
Social tuning refers to the tendency for individuals to align their attitudes and behaviors with those of others in order to facilitate social connection. Prior research suggests that social tuning can be driven by affiliative motivation—the desire to get along with others—and may be influenced by perspective taking, or the process of imagining another person’s thoughts and feelings.
This project investigated how perspective taking and affiliative motivation interact to produce social tuning, using a series of controlled laboratory experiments focused on explicit and implicit racial attitudes.
This project investigated how perspective taking and affiliative motivation interact to produce social tuning, using a series of controlled laboratory experiments focused on explicit and implicit racial attitudes.
Research Questions
- Does perspective taking lead to social tuning?
- What role does affiliative motivation play in the relationship between perspective taking and social tuning?
My Role
- Co-designed experimental procedures grounded in social psychology theory
- Collected laboratory data from over 180 participants
- Administered explicit attitude measures and Implicit Association Tests (IATs)
- Conducted statistical analyses and interpreted experimental results
- Co-authored the full IQP report and presented findings publicly
Experimental Design
Experiment 1: Perspective Taking and Social Tuning
Participants
- 122 undergraduate participants
Manipulations
- Perspective-taking condition vs. neutral control
- Experimenter subtly signaled political values via clothing:
- Plain green shirt
- Egalitarian “Eracism” shirt
Measures
- Explicit racial attitude scales
- Implicit racial bias (Race IAT)
- Demographic and manipulation check questions
Experiment 2: Affiliative Motivation as a Mechanism
Participants
- 65 undergraduate participants
Manipulations
- Perspective taking vs. affiliative motivation vs. neutral conditions
- Simulated interaction partner paradigm
Measures
- Explicit and implicit racial attitudes
- Affiliative motivation scales
- Perspective-taking self-report measures
Analytical Approach
- Between-subjects experimental comparisons
- Independent-samples t-tests and ANOVAs
- Analysis of explicit attitude ratings and IAT scores
- Manipulation checks to assess experimental validity
Key Findings
Experiment 1
- Perspective taking appeared to facilitate social tuning, with participants’ attitudes aligning more closely with perceived experimenter values
Experiment 2
- No statistically significant effects were detected
- However, patterns suggested that affiliative motivation may mediate the relationship between perspective taking and social tuning
Interpretation
Results indicate that:
- Perspective taking can influence attitude alignment in social contexts
- Affiliative motivation is a likely—but complex—mechanism underlying social tuning
- Effects may depend on contextual factors such as group identity and perceived social relevance
These findings align with existing literature while highlighting the challenges of isolating social-cognitive mechanisms experimentally.
Why This Matters
This project contributes to social psychology research by:
- Empirically testing mechanisms underlying attitude alignment and social influence
- Combining explicit and implicit measures to capture nuanced social processes
- Demonstrating the role of subtle social cues in shaping interpersonal behavior
It also provides a strong methodological foundation for later work in learning sciences and human-centered research.
Skills Demonstrated
- Experimental design and laboratory research
- Implicit Association Test (IAT) administration
- Quantitative data analysis and hypothesis testing
- Theory-driven research in social psychology
- Research collaboration and academic writing