Common Sense Quiz

True or False?

1. By conducting a well-designed correlational study, psychologists can demonstrate cause

and effect relationships between independent and dependent variables. F

2. Promising, and delivering, rewards to people for doing an enjoyable activity should, in
the long run, make them enjoy the activity even more. T

3. Focusing on a person’s voice is a better way to detect whether someone is telling a lie
than focusing on the person’s face. F

4. People tend to underestimate the extent to which other people share most of their
opinions, attitudes, and behavior. F

5. We tend to see the people in our own groups as more diverse and different from each
other than we see people in other groups. T

6. Seeing a picture of a person from a stereotyped group for only a fraction of a second can
trigger thoughts of the stereotype. T

7. If people tell a lie for a reward, they are more likely to come to believe the lie if they are
given a small reward rather than a large reward for telling the lie. T

8. People in a sad mood are less likely to help others than are people in a neutral mood. F

9. If ten people are all telling you the same thing you are more likely to conform publicly to
their opinion than if just five people are all telling you the same thing. F

10. People in West Africa and China are more likely to conform to a group norm than are
people in the United States or Canada. T

11. Once people have rejected a large request, they become more likely to agree to a
smaller request. T

12. Once people have agreed to a small request, they become more likely to agree to a
larger request. F

13. Even if an authority figure instructed people to torture another person, few people
would comply. F

14. When like-minded people discuss an issue, their opinions tend to converge toward the
middle. T

15. Simply having other people around tends to make individuals perform better on easy
tasks. T

16. The greater the cohesiveness or solidarity of a group, the better its decisions will be. T
17. Physically attractive individuals are usually seen as less intelligent than physically
unattractive individuals. F

18. Women tend to value and seek economic status in a mate more than men do. T

19. The more often that people are exposed to a neutral stimulus, the more positively they
evaluate that stimulus. T

20. Women are more likely to reveal intimate facts and feelings to someone else than are
men. T

21. Our ability to know the causes of our own emotions is so limited that when we are
aroused because of physical exercise, we may misinterpret that arousal as a sign that we
are romantically attracted to someone nearby.

22. "Birds of a feather flock together" holds true in interpersonal attraction (i.e., people are
generally attracted to those similar to themselves). T

23. People are less likely to be aggressive if they recently released their tensions by
aggressing than if they did not aggress. T

24. People are more likely to be aggressive when it’s hot outside than when it’s cool. T

25. Exposure to aggressive models in the media increases aggressive behavior among
viewers of the aggression. T

26. Male-to-female relationship violence is much more common than female-to-male

relationship violence. F

27. Believing that bad things happen to other people more than they happen to you is
actually associated with better health and well-being. F

28. People with few friends tend to live shorter, less healthy lives than people with lots of
friends. F

29. Very wealthy people (e.g., lottery winners) are happier than most other people. T

30. Women "fall in love" more quickly than do men. F

31. Women "fall out of love" more quickly than do men. T

32. "Putting on a happy face" (i.e., smiling when you are really not happy) will not make
you feel more positive. F

33. Parental disapproval for a relationship (e.g., Romeo and Juliet) increases the chance
that the partners will stay together. T