|
I
am a personality and social psychologist with interests and research in
both areas. I also have a long standing interest in measurement and
methods in these fields. My lab is engaged in two major programs of
research. Graduate students and undergraduate students have contributed
to this research as research assistants and as co-authors. The references
below indicate which authors were graduate students (**) and
undergraduate students (*) when the research was conducted.
1.
Social Influence. One program of research studies social
influence, particularly how to influence people by identifying their
resistance to change and removing that resistance. Most practitioners and
researchers approach persuasion by trying to make an offer or position
appear more attractive or desirable. This approach can be unproductive,
costly, and frustrating when the impediment to change is not lack of knowledge
about the benefits, but rather the presence of significant sources of
resistance and reluctance. I study the nature of resistance, including
when and what factors raise it, and I study how to remove resistance
through direct and indirect measures. I call this the Omega Strategy
approach to persuasion, where the focus is on resistance. Below are
several articles that describe my approach to social influence.
2.
Biases in Self-Reports. I have a longstanding interest in the
processes that people use to answer self-report questions. People are
often quite sure of their answers, but wrong or at least inconsistent
over time. These kinds of errors in answering provide a window in the
processes that produced them. I have identified and have been studying a particular
kind of response bias, one that I call the Endorsement Bias in
self-reports. This bias occurs when people report that they have many
traits, even opposite traits. This is not a simple acquiescence or
yes-saying, because I control for that. I identify the Endorsement Bias
by asking people a balanced quartet of questions about a trait or issue.
So, for instance, I will ask people to rate themselves on I am trusting,
I am suspicious, I am not trusting, and I am not suspicious. I find that
many people, often over half of the sample, show a marked tendency to
give higher ratings to the assertions than to the negations. That is,
these people indicate that they are both trusting and suspicious, but
deny that they are not trusting and not suspicious. This is a pattern of
answers that indicates people are endorsing both traits. My research
explores this phenomenon by developing and validating an accurate measure
of it, studying how it might interfere with self-report measures, and
studying the underlying psychological and cognitive processes that
produce it. Below are several publications related to biases in
self-reports.
Representative Publications:
Knowles,
E. S., & Riner**, D. D. (2006). Omega Approaches to Persuasion:
Overcoming Resistance. In A. R. Pratkanis (Ed.), Science of Social
Influence. New York: Psychology Press.
Knowles,
E. S., & Linn**, J. A. (2004). Resistance and Persuasion. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Knowles, E. S., Nolan**,
J., & Riner**, D. D. (2006). Resistance to persuasion. In R.
Baumeister & K. Vohs (Eds), Encyclopedia of Social Psychology.
Newbury Park, CA: Sage
Knowles, E. S., Butler*, S., & Linn**, J. A. (2001) Increasing compliance by reducing resistance. In
J. Forgas & K. Williams (Eds.), Social Influence: Direct and
Indirect Processes. New York: Psychology Press.
Davis**, B.
P., & Knowles, E. S. (1999). A Disrupt-Then-Reframe technique of
social influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76,
192-199.
Pollock*,
C. L., Smith*, S. D., Knowles, E. S., & Bruce*, H. J. (1998).
Mindfulness limits compliance with the than=s-not-all technique. Personality
and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1153-1157.
Knowles,
E. S., & Condon**, C. A. (2000). Does the rose still smell as sweet:
Item variability across test forms and revisions. Psychological
Assessment, 12, 245-252.
Knowles,
E. S., & Condon**, C. A. (1999). Why people say yes: A dual-process
theory of acquiescence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
77, 379-386.
Knowles,
E. S., & Nathan*, K. (1997). Acquiescent responding in self-reports:
Cognitive style or social concern? Journal of Research in Personality,
31, 293-301.
Knowles,
E. S., Coker**, M. C., Scott**, R. A., Cook**, D. A., & Neville**, J.
W. (1996). Measurement induced improvement in anxiety: Mean shifts with
repeated assessment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71,
352-363.
Useful Links:
http://www.omegachange.com/
http://www.uark.edu/~omega/
|
