A researcher is interested in interpersonal attraction and the factors that affect it. She designs a study in which she looks at the effect of similarity and social warmth on interpersonal attraction. Participants in her study meet a target person who either is or is not similar to the participant (the similarity variable) and who is either friendly or is aloof (the social warmth variable). After interacting with the target person under these conditions, participants are then asked to rate how attractive they think the target person is. What is the null hypothesis in this study?
A) Similarity and social warmth have no effect on interpersonal attraction.
B) Similarity and social warmth have a positive effect on interpersonal attraction.
C) Similarity has a positive effect on interpersonal attraction, but social warmth does not.
D) Similarity has no effect on interpersonal attraction, but social warmth has a positive effect.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The null hypothesis states that there is no relationship or effect between the variables being studied. In this case, the null hypothesis would be that similarity and social warmth do not have any effect on interpersonal attraction. Therefore, any observed differences in attraction ratings would be due to chance or random variability.

A Researcher Is Interested in Interpersonal Attraction and the Factors