Mimesis and Twins
Creators: name: Buechner, Vanessa
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology

description: Preregistration Title Twins and aggression Authors Dr. Vanessa Buechner and EMPRA class students winter term 22/23 - Kristin Ansorge, Jennifer Bachl, Michael Bähr, Viola Baltzer, Carola Banning, Nadine Beckenbauer, Anna Behrendt, Hannah Brandl, Esther Bromm, Julia Bürger, Celina Eichelmann, Juliana Eller, Veronika Gemassmer, Lucia Gnatzy, Heike Gross, Eva Henning, Jule Herrmann, Franziska Herzog, Petra Hübner, Theresa Kellerer, Nina Kroll, Angelika Leithe, Sarah Lohwasser, Anna-Lena Lübben, Carolin Luksch, Johannes Maier, Janina Raith, Magdalena Rathsfeld, Leonard Reichmann, Vinzenz Röll, Anna Schwank, Sophie Uebelhör, Mona Vasiu, Yara Vorjans, Isabell Wagner &amp; Sabrina Zick Research Questions / Hypotheses Based on Girard’s Mimetic Theory any human behavior is caused by social comparison evoked by mimetic desire. This desire, however, does not describe the desire for a certain object/situation, more does it describe the desire for the identification with and similarity to the person that desires the object (i.e. the model; Girard, 2005). In particular, this means that humans simply desire an object because it is desired by someone else, independent of the valence of this object. Even though mimesis is basically good, as it represents the basis for love, development, and learning (see also e.g., Bandura, 1989), it nevertheless leads to rivalry and consequently to violence in most cases (negative mimesis; Girard, 1979). In his book „Violence and the Sacred“ (2005), Girard states that a twin- as the symbol of mimesis, leads to over-identification with the model and therefore increases the noticed similarity and consequently the aggression toward the model. The present study aims to explore whether the concept twin is implicitly (as such associations are mostly unconscious) associated with aggression in general. Sampling Plan Existing Data Registration prior to creation of data. Data collection procedures Participants will be recruited via link from each student in the EMPRA class to take the online survey (soscisurvey) for course credit. The data collection period will be approximately 4 weeks due to the EMPRA course schedule. Bayesian inference procedures will be used for hypothesis testing (see Wagenmakers et al., 2011). Sample size N ≈ 800 (40 EMPRA class students recruiting 20 participants each). Sample size rationale and stopping rule We will use a Bayesian Sequential design (see Wagenmakers et al., 2011) and collect data until our maximum number of participants has been reached (N ≈ 800). Variables Manipulated variables Participants will be randomly assigned to the experimental or control condition. Participants in the experimental condition will read the following scenario: “Denke an ein beliebiges Zwillingspaar aus deinem Umfeld. Stell dir vor wie sie aussehen, welche Haarfarbe, Gesichtsform oder Körpererscheinung sie haben. Nun denke an den Charakter dieser Zwillinge, wie kannst du diesen beschreiben. Jetzt versuche noch an eine typische Situation zwischen den beiden zu denken, zum Beispiel wie sie miteinander umgehen und wie sie sich verhalten.“ Participants in the control condition will read the following scenario: “Denke an zwei beliebige Personen aus deinem Umfeld. Stell dir vor wie sie aussehen, welche Haarfarbe, Gesichtsform oder Körpererscheinung sie haben. Nun denke an den Charakter dieser Personen, wie kannst du diesen beschreiben. Jetzt versuche noch an eine typische Situation zwischen den beiden zu denken, zum Beispiel wie sie miteinander umgehen und wie sie sich verhalten.“ Afterward, participants should describe their experiences in a few words. This procedure is expected to activate autobiographical memories. Measured variables Dependent variable: Rating of 15 Chinese characters: Participants need to specify the supposed meaning of each Chinese character. Therefore, three different words will be presented under each character (one of them is an aggressive word and the other 2 words are neutral ones). Participants need to choose the word that suits the supposed meaning of the Chinese character best. Demographics: Sex, age, mastery of Chinese characters. Design Plan Study type Experiment Blinding Human subjects will not know the treatment group to which they have been assigned. Personnel who interact directly with the study subjects will not be aware of the assigned treatments. Study design and Hypotheses Participants will be randomly assigned to a between-subjects condition (control vs. experimental). First, participants will read one of the two scenarios (see above). Afterward, they will be instructed to indicate the meaning of 15 Chinese characters, as we want to evaluate implicit associations after the activation of autobiographical memories in twins. The implicit association of twins with aggression should lead to more aggressive assessments of Chinese characters. We will contrast the number of aggressive ratings for the experimental and the control condition. We expect the experimental condition to rate more Chinese characters aggressive than the control condition. Randomization We will use classical simple randomization, where each participant will be randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. Analysis Plan Statistical models Given our directed prediction, we will test the hypotheses with a Bayesian one-tailed independent sample t-test with aggression as the dependent variable with the statistical software tool JASP (Version 0.9, JASP Team, 2018). For data analysis, we will use an uninformed Prior that follows r=.1 that is δ ~ Cauchy (0,.1). Data exclusion No exclusions. Outliers will be included in the analysis. Missing data If a participant stops the study, that participant will not be included in the analysis. References Bandura, A. (1989). Human agency in social cognitive theory. American Psychologist, 44(9), 1175-1184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.44.9.1175 Girard, R. (1979). Mimesis and violence: Perspectives in cultural criticism, Berkshire Review, 14, 9-19. Girard, R. (2005). Violence and the Sacred. New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-7718-6. JASP Team (2018). JASP (Version 0.9) [Computer software]. Available at: https://jasp-stats.org/ Wagenmakers E.-J., Wetzels R., Borsboom D., van der Maas H. L. J. (2011). Why psychologists must change the way they analyze their data: the case of psi: comment on Bem (2011). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 426-432. 10.1037/a0022790