experimental psychology speak

The new school year is almost in full swing, and I've been working on typical things. I've been learning to use a new statistics software called R. Unfortunately, it means I've had to start learning a special programming language called S that was developed just for statistics. It's really boring. I'll stop talking about it now.

Next week I'm starting a new study that's going to help figure out why modesty and false modesty are successful strategies for relating to other people. On one level, the answer is obvious. Say you're really good at tennis. If you're playing tennis with a friend and killing them, everyone knows you shouldn't say, "I'm awesome at tennis." If you want them to like you, you should say, "I got lucky today," or "You almost got me this time," or "Do you want to go get some ice cream? My treat!"

Most people intuit that this way of relating to people is successful because it makes you seem nice, or because it makes people like you. But I'm trying to get at the "why" on a deeper level. In experimental psychology speak, I'm trying to figure out the "cognitive processes that underlie this phenomenon."

I'll let you know if I ever get it figured out.