Interoceptive sensitivity (IS) is the ability to feel one’s own bodilysignals accurately. The connection between IS, emotional processingand consecutive behavior is a popular research topic. In this study, Itried to replicate a study by Piech and colleagues from 2017. Theoriginal study reported on a correlation between strong IS and beingmore altruistic. In this replication attempt, I used the same methodologyas in the original study; a dictator game as a measure of altruistictendencies and a heartbeat detection task as a measure of IS. However,I did not find a relationship between strong IS and being more altruistic.An analysis of the new data indicates that a minor methodologicaldifference for this replication - using a purely hypothetical dictatorgame - resulted in a generally larger amount of money given away inthe test. This complicates interpretation, since this new result can beinterpreted either as resulting from individual differences in respondingto a hypothetical game (as compared to a real game), or from an actualnull relationship found between IS and altruism. The strength of therelationship reported in the original study is still questioned, afterarguments are made that the data in replicating most favorably supportthe null relationship being a valid estimate.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-193668 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Nilsson, Gustaf |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Psykologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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