Meta-analytic Integration Research Articles

Status, Expectations, and Behavior

Status characteristics and expectation states theory is concerned with the processes whereby status differentials activate performance expectations and with the effect of these expectations on behavior. The relative contributions of status and expectations to behavior have not been clearly established in previous primary-level studies. Moreover, researchers working within alternative perspectives on interaction inequality have argued that expectations are a superfluous epiphenomenon of behavior. A meta-analytic integration was therefore conducted on previous research that has examined the status expectations - behavior pattern of effects. Consistent with the formulations of the theory, the results indicate that status exerts its effects on behavior indirectly, through the effects of status on expectations and the effect of expectations on behavior.

Jaywalking as a Function of Model Behavior

A meta-analytic integration is reported that summarizes the effects of model behavior on pedestrian jaywalking. Results indicate that obedient models (models who do not jaywalk) produce a small but significant decrease in the frequency of pedestrian jaywalking. Disobedient models (models who jaywalk) produce a small but significant increase in the frequency of pedestrian jaywalking. Disobedient models are found to exert a greater effect than obedient models. Crowded sidewalks exaggerate the tendency for a disobedient model to increase jaywalking and undermine the tendency for an obedient model to decrease jaywalking. In addition, the status of the model influences the effect of the model on jaywalking behavior: Specifically, an obedient model is significantly more likely to produce a decrease in jaywalking when the model is of high status. However, a disobedient model is marginally less likely to produce an increase in jaywalking when the model is of high status. Finally, the influence of both obedient and disobedient models is greater in cities of larger size. Discussion considers the theoretical and practical implications of these patterns.

Tripling in the Dorms: A Meta-Analytic Integration

A meta-analytic integration is reported that summarizes the effects of tripling in college dormitories. Results indicate that tripling exerts significantly adverse effects of moderate size on four distinct modes or response (residential, social, affective, and behavioral). Meta-analytic focused comparisons reveal several interesting patterns of variability in these effects of tripling. For example, the adverse effects of tripling were more extreme for subject populations composed of predominately male subjects, for subjects living in dormitories with longer corridors, and among subjects participating in the earlier studies of tripling. The implications of these patterns for an understanding of the effects of tripling are discussed.

Distinctiveness‐based illusory correlations and stereotyping: A meta‐analytic integration*

This article reports the results of a meta‐analytic integration of previous research on illusory correlation in stereotyping effects. The following patterns were observed. The basic distinctiveness‐based illusory correlation effect is highly significant, and of moderate strength. Consistent with theoretical expectations, distinctiveness‐based illusory correlation effects are stronger when the distinctive behaviour is negative. Effects are also stronger as a function of the number of exemplars presented in the stimulus array. This is consistent with the effects of memory load on covariation judgement demonstrated elsewhere. Finally, subjects' judgements of covariation in the distinctiveness‐based illusory correlation paradigm are significantly predicted by the paired distinctive covariation judgement strategy. This indicates that subjects' judgements of covariation in the illusory correlation in stereotyping paradigm seem to reflect a responsiveness to the information being presented to them, and especially a reliance upon distinctive information. Discussion considers possible mechanisms for these effects, and suggests that future research examine the processes underlying the effects of the valence of the distinctive behaviours, the effects of the number of exemplars, and the strategies followed in making these types of covariation judgements.

The Privileged Position of Person Categories: A Comment on Sedikides and Ostrom

Two problems are identified with Sedikides and Ostrom's (1988) meta-analytic integration of research examining the use of person categories for unfamiliar persons. First, this previous effort made minimal use of meta-analytic model testing procedures, which might have more fully illuminated the basic phenomenon of person categorization. Second, several instances of inappropriate application of meta-analytic statistics to the hypothesis tests included in their meta-analytic database precludes the clear interpretation of the patterns reported in that metaanalysis. Accordingly, the meta-analytic database examined by Sedikides and Ostrom was reexamined, with an eye toward a more appropriate, and a more fine-grained, meta-analytic examination of the use of person categories for unfamiliar persons. Several of the statistical results contradict the patterns reported by Sedikides and Ostrom. Moreover, the patterns revealed by these analyses suggest that person categories do indeed seem to hold a privileged position in the organization of social information. However, the apparent privileged position of person categories may derive less from the special ontological status of person “gestalts” than from the tangibility and ease of use of person categories as compared to other types of categories.

Salience, motivation, and artifact as contributions to the relation between participation rate and leadership

This paper reports the results of a meta-analytic integration of research examining the relation between participation rate and leadership emergence in small groups. The following patterns were observed: Generally, the tendency for the individual with the highest level of verbal participation to be chosen as the leader was significant and of strong magnitude. This effect varied as a function of the salience of the high participator (defined in terms of proportional rarity in the group), the operationalization of leadership (judgments made by group members vs outside observers), and the reality of the group. These results are consistent with salience, motivation, and artifact accounts for the relation between participation and leadership and inconsistent with reward, leadership sign, and self-presentation accounts for this effect. Discussion considers how salience, motivation, and artifact serve as contributors to the participation-leadership effect and considers the implications of these patterns for the more general issues of the phenomenology of being in a group.

Perceptions of Ingroup and Outgroup Variability: A Meta-Analytic Integration

This article reports the results of a meta-analytic integration of previous research on perceptions of ingroup and outgroup variability. The following patterns were observed: The tendency to perceive greater variability for the ingroup relative to the variability perceived for the outgroup (relative heterogeneity) was demonstrated to be a significant but small effect. The basic relative heterogeneity effect is the result of a small shift away from the midpoint of the scale toward homogeneity for the outgroup, coupled with a smaller, slight shift away from the midpoint of the scale toward heterogeneity for the ingroup, in addition, perceptions of group variability were demonstrated to vary in predictable and interesting ways. For example, relative heterogeneity decreases as the relative size of the ingroup decreases, producing a relative homogeneity effect on the part of small minorities. Relative heterogeneity is strongest when the ingroup and outgroup comprise real, enduring groups, and weakest when the ...

Group Size, Leadership Behavior, and Subordinate Satisfaction

Abstract The results of a meta-analytic integration of previous research on the interrelations between group size, leadership behavior, and subordinate satisfaction are reported. The following patterns emerged from eight studies conducted in the United States: As the work group gets larger, the leader is more likely to engage in initiating structure behaviors but no more likely to engage in consideration behaviors, and subordinates are more likely to be dissatisfied; as the leader engages in more leadership behaviors (of either type), subordinates are more likely to be satisfied. These patterns were moderated to some extent by the average occupational income, the average age of the work group, the percent of the work group that was female, and the percent of the work group that was Black. Possible explanations for these results are discussed, and fruitful directions for future research are suggested.