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A New Way to Look at the Data: Similarities Between Groups of People Are Large and Important

Most published research focuses on describing differences, while neglecting similarities that are arguably at least as interesting and important. In Study 1, we modified and extended prior procedures for describing similarities and demonstrate the importance of this exercise by examining similaritie...

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Autores principales: Hanel, Paul H. P., Maio, Gregory R., Manstead, Antony S. R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Psychological Association 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6428189/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30596430
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000154
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author Hanel, Paul H. P.
Maio, Gregory R.
Manstead, Antony S. R.
author_facet Hanel, Paul H. P.
Maio, Gregory R.
Manstead, Antony S. R.
author_sort Hanel, Paul H. P.
collection PubMed
description Most published research focuses on describing differences, while neglecting similarities that are arguably at least as interesting and important. In Study 1, we modified and extended prior procedures for describing similarities and demonstrate the importance of this exercise by examining similarities between groups on 22 social variables (e.g., moral attitudes, human values, and trust) within 6 commonly used social categories: gender, age, education, income, nation of residence, and religious denomination (N = 86,272). On average, the amount of similarity between 2 groups (e.g., high vs. low educated or different countries) was greater than 90%. Even large effect sizes revealed more similarities than differences between groups. Studies 2–5 demonstrated the importance of presenting information about similarity in research reports. Compared with the typical presentation of differences (e.g., barplots with confidence intervals), similarity information led to more accurate lay perceptions and to more positive attitudes toward an outgroup. Barplots with a restricted y-axis led to a gross underestimation of similarities (i.e., a gross overestimation of the differences), and information about similarities was rated as more comprehensible. Overall, the presentation of similarity information achieves more balanced scientific communication and may help address the file drawer problem.
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spelling pubmed-64281892019-03-25 A New Way to Look at the Data: Similarities Between Groups of People Are Large and Important Hanel, Paul H. P. Maio, Gregory R. Manstead, Antony S. R. J Pers Soc Psychol Article Most published research focuses on describing differences, while neglecting similarities that are arguably at least as interesting and important. In Study 1, we modified and extended prior procedures for describing similarities and demonstrate the importance of this exercise by examining similarities between groups on 22 social variables (e.g., moral attitudes, human values, and trust) within 6 commonly used social categories: gender, age, education, income, nation of residence, and religious denomination (N = 86,272). On average, the amount of similarity between 2 groups (e.g., high vs. low educated or different countries) was greater than 90%. Even large effect sizes revealed more similarities than differences between groups. Studies 2–5 demonstrated the importance of presenting information about similarity in research reports. Compared with the typical presentation of differences (e.g., barplots with confidence intervals), similarity information led to more accurate lay perceptions and to more positive attitudes toward an outgroup. Barplots with a restricted y-axis led to a gross underestimation of similarities (i.e., a gross overestimation of the differences), and information about similarities was rated as more comprehensible. Overall, the presentation of similarity information achieves more balanced scientific communication and may help address the file drawer problem. American Psychological Association 2018-12-31 2019-04 /pmc/articles/PMC6428189/ /pubmed/30596430 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000154 Text en © 2018 The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s). Author(s) grant(s) the American Psychological Association the exclusive right to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.
spellingShingle Article
Hanel, Paul H. P.
Maio, Gregory R.
Manstead, Antony S. R.
A New Way to Look at the Data: Similarities Between Groups of People Are Large and Important
title A New Way to Look at the Data: Similarities Between Groups of People Are Large and Important
title_full A New Way to Look at the Data: Similarities Between Groups of People Are Large and Important
title_fullStr A New Way to Look at the Data: Similarities Between Groups of People Are Large and Important
title_full_unstemmed A New Way to Look at the Data: Similarities Between Groups of People Are Large and Important
title_short A New Way to Look at the Data: Similarities Between Groups of People Are Large and Important
title_sort new way to look at the data: similarities between groups of people are large and important
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6428189/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30596430
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000154
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