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observations of the project led us to find a similar phenomenon. Those who were service-driven prior to
the project or at least willing to help others were more likely to appreciate the project. The same could be
said for those with a strong work ethic.
To test if this was a general pattern, I gave students a list of 10 traits and asked them to indicate
how well people who know them well would answer. Students then indicated a score from 1 (“Does not
have trait”) to 5 (“Has trait). The first five traits were intended to tap a set of compassionate traits; the
next five were to measure the work ethic of the student. Table 1 shows the results of a factor analysis of
the ten items. I find that there are three latent traits measured by the items. The first is a “compassion
traits” variable which is composed of the first five items. The remaining do not tap one but two sets of
traits. The first is intelligence (albeit perceived) and the second is a “hardworking trait.” I use the factor
loadings to create two variables: compassion and hardworking. I expect that students that are
compassionate or hardworking are more likely to find the project beneficial than those who lack these
traits.
[Insert Table 1 About Here]
I also expect that the type of team that the student was in should affect their evaluations. Only
two of the teams worked well (Team 2 and Team 8). Students in this team experienced the type of
research-as-service project that is expected to benefit students. Other teams—the “satisfactory” or
“ugly”—lacked one or more of the major components of a good research-as-service team. For some,
there was little research. For others, the team was a complete failure. For others, the lack of support by
the community organization led to such disorganization that the experience was ruined. Students in these
teams should have a much more negative reaction than those in the “good teams” that had the right
experience.
In addition, I include a measure of whether the student completed the volunteer hours required by
the project. If students who completed the hours are more positive about the experience, then it suggests
that the experience was positive if one completed it and that opposition is more likely to come from those
Convention