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Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a relatively new website that contains the major elements required to conduct research: an integrated participant compensation system; a large participant pool; and a streamlined process of study design, participant recruitment, and data collection. In this article, we describe and evaluate the potential contributions of MTurk to psychology and other social sciences. Findings indicate that (a) MTurk participants are slightly more demographically diverse than are standard Internet samples and are significantly more diverse than typical American college samples; (b) participation is affected by compensation rate and task length, but participants can still be recruited rapidly and inexpensively; (c) realistic compensation rates do not affect data quality; and (d) the data obtained are at least as reliable as those obtained via traditional methods. Overall, MTurk can be used to obtain high-quality data inexpensively and rapidly.

Amazon's Mechanical Turk (http://www.MTurk.com) is a novel, open online marketplace for getting work done by others. Here, we describe and evaluate the potential contributions that MTurk might make in psychology and other social sciences as a site for Web-based data collection.We thank Matthew Brooks and William B. Swann Jr. for feedback on an earlier version of this article.

Some contemporary theorists contend that the desire for self-enhancement is prepotent and more powerful than rival motives such as self-verification. If so, then even people with negative self-views will embrace positive evaluations. The authors tested this proposition by conducting a meta-analytic review of the relevant literature. The data provided ample evidence of self-enhancement strivings but little evidence of its prepotency. Instead, the evidence suggested that both motives are influential but control different response classes. In addition, other motives may sometimes come into play. For example, when rejection risk is high, people seem to abandon self-verification strivings, apparently in an effort to gratify their desire for communion. However, when rejection risk is low, as is the case in many secure marital relationships, people prefer self-verifying evaluations. The authors conclude that future researchers should broaden the bandwidth of their explanatory frameworks to include motives other than self-enhancement.

Given women's communally oriented socialization and social pressures to find romantic partners, many heterosexual women may derive self-worth from having romantic relationships (relationship contingency). Across two studies, we explored whether relationship contingency heightens women's body shame. Studies 1A and 1B found that relationship contingency causes body shame among women. In Study 2, relationship contingency predicted greater bulimic symptoms, which was mediated fully by greater body shame. Using both experimental methods and structural equation modeling, these studies demonstrate a link between relationship contingency and body shame that is not explained by appearance contingency (basing self-esteem on one's physical appearance). Results are discussed in terms of self-objectification theory, contingencies of self-worth, mate preferences, and close relationships.

Do men base their self-worth on relationships less than do women? In an assessment of lay beliefs, men and women alike indicated that men are less reliant on relationships as a source of self-worth than are women (Study 1). Yet relationships may make a different important contribution to the self-esteem of men. Men reported basing their self-esteem on their own relationship status (whether or not they were in a relationship) more than did women, and this link was statistically mediated by the perceived importance of relationships as a source of social standing (Studies 1 and 2). Finally, when relationship status was threatened, men displayed increased social-standing concerns, whereas women displayed increased interdependence concerns (Study 3). Together, these findings demonstrate that both men and women rely on relationships for self-worth, but that they derive self-esteem from relationships in different ways.

Given the central role of romantic relationships in the lives of men and women and the many benefits of having romantic relationships, some people may derive their self-worth from having a romantic partner (i.e., relationship contingency; Sanchez & Kwang, 2007 ). Moreover, relationship success may be viewed as somehow related to being beautiful and attractive. Under structural equation modeling, results suggested that both men and women’s relationship contingency (N = 329) was connected to body shame, mediated by greater urgency about finding mates. In addition, greater body shame was connected to concern over romantic partners’ physical appearance. The findings are discussed considering contingencies of self-worth, rising appearance concerns for both men and women, and the perceived connection between relationship status and physical attractiveness.

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