Mr. Louise, a psychologist, is interested in the effect of physical attractiveness on ratings of punishment assigned to a driver in an automobile accident. Participants read an account of the accident and received a written description of a physically attractive or unattractive defendant. The manipulation of attractiveness would be an example of a _____ manipulation.

A) staged
B) straightforward
C) conjunctive
D) dependent

A straightforward manipulation involves directly manipulating the independent variable of interest, in this case physical attractiveness, in a clear and straightforward way. The other options are not applicable in this context. A staged manipulation involves creating a situation or scenario that may not naturally occur in order to manipulate a variable. A conjunctive manipulation involves manipulating two or more variables in combination. A dependent manipulation involves manipulating the dependent variable, which would not make sense in this scenario as the goal is to manipulate physical attractiveness as an independent variable.