An Investigation Into Predictive Variables of Materialism, Greed, Envy for the Student Body.

Abstract

The objective of science is to make sense of the world that surrounds us through fact and reason. When a study is conducted, results should undergo severe scrutiny before being published. A recent survey done at MacEwan University was conducted to determine if eating habits were influenced by envious or materialistic thoughts. Ultimately the study was unable to provide sufficient evidence for the hypothesis. The main conclusion was that priming questions administered in the study were unsuccessful at accomplishing their objective. More careful analysis of the data through categorical means shows that this may not be the only downfall of the study. This paper provides a further in-depth analysis that provides confirmation of the aforementioned statement as well as suggestions to improve the study design. A larger sample is recommended. One study showed promise for demographics that appear to be affected by priming questions. Suggestions are also made for different methods of priming. It is recommended that the original study be repeated to see if changes to the design still fail to provide sufficient evidence of an association between eating habits and materialistic/envious thoughts.

Discipline: Statistics

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Karen Buro