we can spot you at twenty paces
Feb. 10th, 2009 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theladyroseMost entertaining thing I've heard all day:
My thesis advisor: We've had difficulty replicating the findings [that people in sad moods are more polite than those in happy moods; see Forgas, 1995, on his affect infusion model] because it's hard to incite our participants to be rude. Then again, Australians can be rather brash, so that might explain the variability their results...
(Apologies to the Australians on my f-list.)
Actually, it's harder to get participants to be rude on record, even if you've assigned them confidential subject ID numbers and will store their data in locked filing cabinets and password-protected computers as outlined in the informed consent sheets you gave them at the start of the study. Participants are definitely capable of being rude to you as you're conducting the study, but this is why professors convince undergrad research lackeys to actually conduct their experiments for them. Thankfully, professors and participants are generally agreeable to work with. Last Monday there was one fella in my group who seriously reminded me of a human teddy bear, like Mr. Paddington come to life except with a slight Midwestern accent.
Things like that make me ridiculously cheery, for some unknown reason.
I also have come to the conclusion that the longer I work in the gerontology building, the better I get at identifying Asian fetishists, or men you strongly suspect having a "thing" for porcelain lotus blossom geisha dolls who would love you long time. (Thankfully my thesis advisor isn't one of them, or I would've found someone else with whom to do research.) The older ones tend to give off more skeezy vibes. It's like honing your gaydar, except on a racial basis.
There's something depressing that I know I'm not the only Asian American female out there who's developed Orientaldar (damn, there isn't a witty phrase for this, is there?). But in cheerier news, I'm 90% done with my thesis proposal (just editing now) and am going home for President's Day weekend, which I'm looking forward to.
My thesis advisor: We've had difficulty replicating the findings [that people in sad moods are more polite than those in happy moods; see Forgas, 1995, on his affect infusion model] because it's hard to incite our participants to be rude. Then again, Australians can be rather brash, so that might explain the variability their results...
(Apologies to the Australians on my f-list.)
Actually, it's harder to get participants to be rude on record, even if you've assigned them confidential subject ID numbers and will store their data in locked filing cabinets and password-protected computers as outlined in the informed consent sheets you gave them at the start of the study. Participants are definitely capable of being rude to you as you're conducting the study, but this is why professors convince undergrad research lackeys to actually conduct their experiments for them. Thankfully, professors and participants are generally agreeable to work with. Last Monday there was one fella in my group who seriously reminded me of a human teddy bear, like Mr. Paddington come to life except with a slight Midwestern accent.
Things like that make me ridiculously cheery, for some unknown reason.
I also have come to the conclusion that the longer I work in the gerontology building, the better I get at identifying Asian fetishists, or men you strongly suspect having a "thing" for porcelain lotus blossom geisha dolls who would love you long time. (Thankfully my thesis advisor isn't one of them, or I would've found someone else with whom to do research.) The older ones tend to give off more skeezy vibes. It's like honing your gaydar, except on a racial basis.
There's something depressing that I know I'm not the only Asian American female out there who's developed Orientaldar (damn, there isn't a witty phrase for this, is there?). But in cheerier news, I'm 90% done with my thesis proposal (just editing now) and am going home for President's Day weekend, which I'm looking forward to.
