Everyday Research Methods

Do Animals Mourn?

This Scientific American preview piece describes the research of an anthropologist who argues that some species of animals can experience a human emotion: Grieving.

The scientist, Barbara King, paid special attention to how she defined grieving  in animals. Read the conditions she describes:

“researchers may strongly suspect grief only when certain conditions are met: First, two (or more) animals choose to spend time together beyond survival-oriented behaviors such as foraging or mating. Second, when one animal dies, the survivor alters his or her normal behavioral routine—perhaps reducing the amount of time devoted to eating or sleeping, adopting a body posture or facial expression indicative of depression or agitation, or generally failing to thrive.”

 a) is the above quote an operational definition or a conceptual definition of the variable, "grieving?"

One statement in the article states:

Occasionally the pull of anthropomorphism may overwhelm scientists’ normal caution in reporting animal responses to death.

b) What does it mean to "anthropomorphize"? Do you think anthropomorphizing could be a special example of observer bias? Why or why not?

One of the people who commented in the public comments section wrote,

Those of us who live with animals (dogs, cats, horses, cattle, etc)in long term daily life know from experience that animals DO exhibit grief and mourning beyond just curiosity.

c) Do you think that this person's observations are based on intuition, experience, or empiricism? Why or why not? What would you add to this comment to make it more scientific/empirical?

Plane crashes and the Pop-up Principle

Events like last Saturday's Asiana Airlines plane crash are not only tragic; they can also make us feel more vulnerable. Vivid images of burned planes help us form clear images in our minds, and constant, urgent press coverage helps reinforce our memories for these events. Later, when we ponder whether it is safe to fly, vivid pictures of plane wrecks become easily available cognitively. We might feel more fearful of flying than is truly warranted.

This cognitive phenomenon, of course, is covered in Chapter 2--as the availability heuristic, or the "pop up principle." What pops up easily to mind is likely to influence our thinking. In the case of a vivid plane crash, this can be a problem, because in fact people are extremely unlikely to die in a plane crash.

This blogger summarizes this research in his article, ‘How plane crashes mess with our rationality.” As he illustrates in the graph, we are statistically much more likely to die in a fatal car accident than in a plane crash, yet many of us don't think twice about hopping in the car.

As Chapter 2 explains, intuition can be biased by heuristics such as the pop-up principle. The most accurate way to assess our risk of engaging in certain activities is to look at the data—not trust our intuition. The blogger gets this too: “Bar graphs do serve as balm for the soul.” See if you can let bar graphs, not scary images, guide your gut feelings about flying.