Harker & Keltner (2001) examined whether emotional well being in later life could be predicted from the facial expressions of 141 women in their college yearbook photos. The predictor variable of greatest interest was the €œpositivity of emotional expression€ in the college yearbook photo. They also had these photographs rated on physical attractiveness. They contacted the same women for follow up psychological assessments at age 52 (and at other ages, data not shown here). Here are the correlations of these two predictors (based on ratings of the yearbook photo) with several of their self-reported social and emotional outcomes at age 52.

a. Which of the six correlations above are statistically significant if you test each correlation using α = .05 two tailed? If you set the Experiment wise α = .05 and use Bonferroni corrected tests?
b. How would you interpret their results?
c. Can you make any causal inferences from this study? Why or why not?
d. Would it be appropriate for the researchers to generalize these findings to other groups, such as men?
e. What additional information would be available to you if you were able to see the scatter plots for these variables?

Transcribed Image Text:

In college yearbook photo: Physical Attractiveness Facial Expression Positivity of At age 52: Negative emotionality .04 06 03 27 .22 .27 Nurturance Well-being