Short Paper 2
Your assignment in this short paper is to compare and contrast two academic research papers on a topic from one of the following lectures:
• Overconfidence and motivated reasoning
• Combining opinions
• Value construction
Your paper can focus on one specific aspect of these lectures – as an example, you might discuss two papers on prediction markets, or two papers on choice overload.
Your paper should be written for a general academic audience. You can assume general knowledge of psychology but avoid jargon that could only be understood by someone with expertise in the field. Your paper should make sense to someone who has not read the academic articles you are referencing.
To write your paper, you should:
1. Identify a topic of interest from one of the three lectures above.
2. Identify two academic, peer-reviewed journal articles on your topic.
a. Useful databases:
i. Psycnet: https://psycnet.apa.org/home
ii. ScienceDirect: https://www.sciencedirect.com
3. Read your chosen papers carefully.
4. Write your paper. In no particular order, you should:
a. Explain the main findings of the two papers.
b. Compare and contrast – how are the papers similar/different? E.g. methodology, results, participants, variables studied. How do these papers connect to one another?
c. Describe how these papers contribute to our understanding of the field. E.g., do they provide evidence that a phenomenon or effect only occurs in certain contexts? Does one paper not replicate an effect?
d. Describe an area of potential future research that is informed by the two papers you have discussed.
5. Include a reference list in APA format. In-text references should also be in APA format.
Your paper should be in Times New Roman 12-point font, single-spaced. You have a hard limit of three pages excluding references. Any text exceeding this limit will not be graded. (Don’t feel obliged to use the whole three pages. Brevity is a virtue!)
Your paper will be worth 25 points total (see rubric for detailed breakdown).
