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CHAPTER 2: The Scientific Method 39Recent theorists describe “competitive altruism,” in which individuals arealtruistic because being seen as prosocial and selfless enhances one’s reputationand status in society (Griskevicius et al., 2010). Thus, altruistic acts mayfunction as a “costly signal” of one’s higher status—that one has the time,energy, wealth, and other resources to behave altruistically. Considered inthis light, purchasing green products may signal the purchaser’s higher socialstatus. Griskevicius et al. hypothesized that activating (i.e., making prominent)people’s desire for status should lead them to choose green products over moreluxurious nongreen products.Griskevicius et al. (2010) conducted three experiments to test their hypothesis.In each, they manipulated college student participants’ motivation forstatus using two conditions: status and control. Status motives were activatedby having participants in this condition read a short story about graduatingfrom college, searching for a job, and then working for a desirable companywith opportunities for promotion. In the control condition, participants reada story about searching for a lost concert ticket, finding it, and then attendingthe concert. After reading the story, participants believed they were completinga second, unrelated study about consumer preferences. They identified itemsthey would likely purchase (e.g., car, dishwasher, backpack); in each case, agreen product was paired with a nongreen, more luxurious item. Griskeviciuset al. found that compared to the control condition, activating status motivesincreased the likelihood that participants would choose green products overthe nongreen products (Experiment 1). Furthermore, the preference for greenproducts occurred only when status-motivated participants imagined shoppingin public, but not in private (online) situations (Experiment 2), and whengreen products cost more than nongreen products (Experiment 3).At a theoretical level, a hypothesis may offer a reason (the “why”) for the wayparticular variables are related. Griskevicius and his colleagues found a relationshipbetween two variables: status motives and the likelihood of purchasinggreen products. Based on theories of competitive altruism, these variables arerelated because people gain social status when they are seen to behave altruistically,such as when purchasing green products. One practical implication for thisfinding is that sales of green products may be enhanced by linking these productswith high status (e.g., celebrity endorsements), rather than by emphasizingthe plight of the environment or by making green products less expensive.Nearly everyone has proposed hypotheses to explain some human behaviorat one time or another. Why do people commit apparently senseless actsof violence? What causes people to start smoking cigarettes? Why are somestudents academically more successful than others? One characteristic that distinguishescasual, everyday hypotheses from scientific hypotheses is testability.If a hypothesis cannot be tested, it is not useful to science (Marx, 1963). Threetypes of hypotheses fail to pass the “testability test.” A hypothesis is not testablewhen its constructs are not adequately defined, when the hypothesis is circular,or when the hypothesis appeals to ideas not recognized by science.Hypotheses are not testable if the concepts to which they refer are not adequatelydefined or measured. For example, to say that a would-be assassin shot a prominentfigure or celebrity because the assassin is mentally disturbed is not a