Vanessa has an important presentation coming up at work, but she ...

[altibaby]

Vanessa has an important presentation coming up at work, but she fears that she will do a poor job. The week before the presentation, she claims that she is feeling under the weather; she leaves work early almost every day and barely practices her presentation at all. Even though she may not realize what she is doing, Vanessa is setting herself up so that she will have an excuse in case the presentation does not go well. Social psychologists refer to this pattern of behavior as ____.
 
  a. self-regulation
  b. the self-reference effect
  c. overjustification
  d. self-handicapping

Question 2

Suppose that you work for the advertising division of a car company, and that you and your team are reviewing advertisements for a new safety feature. You are deciding between an ad with a low-fear message (which simply mentions the feature without demonstrating it), an ad with a moderate-fear message (which shows how the feature can help drivers avert accidents), and an ad with a high-fear message (which shows a horrific collision resulting from driving in a car without the feature). All else being equal, research on fear-based messaging would suggest that you should air ____.
 
  a. the low-fear ad
  b. the high-fear ad
  c. the moderate-fear ad
  d. either the low-fear ad or the high-fear ad, but not the moderate-fear ad

[matt95]

Answer to Question 1

D

Answer to Question 2

C