bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Communication Set and the Perception of Ongoing Behavior
Authors: Lassiter G. Daniel , Geers Andrew L. , Apple Kevin J.
Published: March 2007

Four studies demonstrate that communication set can affect the initial perception of ongoing behavior, which, in turn, can affect subsequent reactions to, or judgments based on, that behavior. Participants expecting to transmit information from an observed behavior sequence to another person unitized (i.e., perceptually organized) that sequence into fewer, but not qualitatively different, meaningful actions than did either participants expecting to receive information from another person or participants with no expectation (controls). In addition, transmitters (relative to receivers or controls) attributed traits to an observed actor less confidently (Study 2), recalled fewer actions from the behavior sequence (Study 3), and experienced less positive affective reactions to the sequence (Studies 3 and 4). It appears from these results that, at least in some instances, the objective of transmitters from the outset is to construct a simpler, more easily communicable summary of information, but not one that is fundamentally different in content from receivers or controls.
Increasing Helping Rates Through Information Dissemination: Teaching Pays
Authors: Beaman Arthur L. , Barnes P. Jo , Klentz Bonnel , McQuirk Betty
Published: March 2007

A group of undergraduates previously informed as to how social-psychological factors operate to inhibit helping behavior was more likely to help a victim at a later date than was an uninformed group.
Verbal, Facial, and Paralinguistic Cues to the Detection of Truth and Lying
Authors: Littlepage Glenn , Pineault Tony
Published: March 2007

Edited videotaped segments of the television program "To Tell the Truth" were presented to 47 female and 34 male students who judged truthfulness of contestants. The modes of information presented to subjects were manipulated by presenting different edited tapes to create four conditions: (1) total information, including facial, verbal content, and paralinguistic cues, (2) verbal and paralinguistic cues, (3) facial and verbal content, (4) facial cues. Results indicated that concurrent deletion of verbal content and paralinguistic cues led to decreased accuracy, while deletion of only facial cues or paralinguistic cues did not affect accuracy.
Leadership and Imitation in Children
Authors: Dollingerl Stephen J. , Thelen Mark H.
Published: March 2007

Data from 4 previously reported studies were reanalyzed to assess the influence of children's leadership status on imitation. In contrast to the literature on observer characteristics and imitation, leaders generally imitated more than non-leaders. This finding is discussed in reference to a proactive model of imitative behavior.
Perceived Attractiveness as a Function of Active vs Passive Support for the Feminist Movement
Authors: Johnson Ronald W. , Holborn Stephen W. , Turcotte Shelly
Published: March 2007

In contrast to earlier studies samples of both males and females selected more attractive photographs as being of supporters of the Feminist Movement and less attractive photos as being of non-supporters. This related to subjects' attitudes toward women but did not interact with the perception of activism within the movement.
Further Limitations in the Equity Theory Approach: A Reply to Samuel
Authors: Romer Daniel
Published: March 2007

My suggestion that equity theory only applies to "limited" resource situations has been criticized by Samuel (1978). In this paper, equity theory is examined in regard to situations involving limited and unlimited resources. Consistent with the earlier suggestion, it is concluded that equity theory is inappropriate when resources are unlimited and that it may not apply to certain cases involving limited resources.
Competence and Incompetence: Assymetric Responses to Women and Men on a Sex-Linked Task
Authors: Larrancel Deborah , Larrancel Deborah , Pavelich Sharon , Storer Peter , Polizzi Michael , Baron Beth , Sloan Suzanne , Jordan Robert , Reis Harry T. , Pavelich Sharon , Storer Peter , Polizzi Michael , Baron Beth , Sloan Suzanne , Jordan Robert , Reis Harry T.
Published: March 2007

Recent research has demonstrated that successful performance on a masculine task will be judged more deservingly if the actor is a woman than a man. This contradicts other studies showing penalties for out-of-sex-role behavior by either sex. The present experiment examined these propositions using a task with obvious social desirability. Females and males presented themselves as either competent or incompetent about automobiles to a used-car dealer. Results indicated that whereas incompetent females were not penalized for incompetence, the incompetent males were. Sexstereotyped expectations of competence at sex-appropriate activities may therefore have negative ramifications, as expectations of incompetence do.
Self-Schemata and Scripts
Authors: Kendzierski Deborah
Published: March 2007

The concept of self-schema implies an abstraction of many and varied experiences. It is argued that a self-schema differs from other structural concepts such as scripts and prototypes of persons, which represent abstractions of a more limited range of experience. This difference has implications for remembering information about one's self versus information about situations or other people. According to the levels-of-processing approach to memory, the richer the existing information base involved in cognitive processing, the stronger the memory trace and the higher subsequent retention. It was therefore predicted that self-oriented information would be better remembered than situation-oriented information. This prediction was confirmed in the present study, which utilized the levels of processing incidental learning paradigm.
The Avowal of Responsibility for Good and Bad Outcomes
Authors: Mirels Herbert L.
Published: March 2007

Generalized self-enhancing and self-protective attributional dispositions were investigated by having subjects indicate, in terms of percentage allocations, the extent to which "typical outcomes" in a person's life are determined by (a) the person's abilities, judgments, and actions and (b) factors beyond the person's control. In Study 1, respondents made such allocations with respect to either positive or negative outcomes in their own lives or in the lives of others. Sharp sex differences were evident in the obtained attributional patterns, with males revealing self-serving and females self-deprecating inclinations. Study 2 replicated the procedure of Study 1, with the major exception that the typical outcomes were designated as either "academic" or "social." Evidence for self-serving bias was obtained for both males and females, becoming most clearly apparent where the outcome domain was associated with high sex-related involvement (male-academic; female-social).
A Molar Approach to Social Knowing
Authors: Weary Gifford , Swanson Hal , Harvey John H. , Yarkin Kerry L.
Published: March 2007

Exemplary research in social cognition and perception is examined. It is suggested that a singular focus on internal, intraindividual cognitive and perceptual processes is not sufficiently broad to account adequately for the spectrum of social knowing phenomena. A more molar approach to social knowing than can be found in contemporary work in social cognition and perception is advocated. More specifically, it is suggested that work on molecular cognitive and perceptual processes will help elucidate basic social knowing phenomena only when such processes are meaningfully tied to the social contexts in which they, occur and to ongoing social behavior.
Impression Management in the Job Interview
Authors: Von Baeyer Carl L. , Sherk Debbie L. , Zanna Mark P.
Published: March 2007

This study was conducted to determine the ways in which knowledge of a male interviewer's stereotyped beliefs about women would influence the behavior of female job applicants. In a two-cell design, female applicants were interviewed by a male confederate whose stereotype of the ideal female applicant conformed closely either to the traditional female stereotype or its opposite. The results indicated that applicants did present themselves in a more traditionally `feminine" manner when they knew the interviewer held traditional views of women. Interestingly, this pattern of results held not only for verbal and nonverbal measures but also for measures of physical appearance.
Depth of Processing in Response to Own- and Other-Race Faces
Authors: Chance June E. , Goldstein Alvin G.
Published: March 2007

Three groups of Caucasian subjects viewed a series of portraits of white, black, and Japanese persons, respectively. They were asked to write their first thought or response to each picture. A scale was developed to score for "depth of processing" reflected in their responses. White portraits elicited deeper processing responses than did black or Japanese portraits. Expectation of a subsequent recognition memory test affected processing of Japanese portraits. The findings suggest a possible explanation of the difficulty white subjects experience when asked to recognize other-race faces.
Avoidance of Diagnostic Information in Self-Evaluation of Ability
Authors: Sachs Paul R.
Published: March 2007

In this study, conditions that led to self-handicapping strategies (Berglas & Jones,1978) were shown to generate avoidance of diagnostic evaluative information. A total of 60 male subjects received contingent or noncontingent success feedback on a test. Later, subjects selected additional problems to do from four tests that varied in diagnosticity and difficulty. The primary' hypothesis, that contingent subjects would prefer high-diagnostic problems, while noncontingent subjects would prefer low-diagnostic problems, was confirmed. There was no effect of contingency on preference for easy or difficult problems, nor were there effects for instructional set or achievement motivation variables on preferences for diagnostic or difficult problems.
Reducing the Biasing Effect of Perpetrator Attractiveness in Jury Simulation
Authors: Baumeister Roy F. , Darley John M.
Published: March 2007

Two studies showed that bias of jurors in favor of an attractive defendant was significantly reduced by increasing the factual material in the case. Our findings suggest that increasing the quantity and precision of relevant facts transfers the emphasis from judging the perpetrator to judging the crime.
Self-Focused Attention, Timing, and Helping Behavior
Authors: Brockner Joel , Altman Stephen , Chalek Helen
Published: March 2007

The present study explored the relationship between self-focused attention and helping behavior in a naturalistic setting. While waiting in an airport departure lounge, some subjects had their pictures taken whereas others did not (Control condition). In all conditions subjects were provided with an opportunity to help a needy confederate. In the picture-taking conditions, the time lapse between the picture taking process was either 45 seconds (Immediate condition). 21/41 minutes (Intermediate condition), or 4 minutes (Later condition). A fifth condition was also run (Self-Perception condition) in which subjects were helpful to the experimenter. but not in a manner that should have increased their level of self-attention. As predicted, subjects were somewhat more helpful in the Immediate condition than in all others, which did not differ. This finding was attributable, however, to the female but not the male participants. Theoretical explanations are discussed.
Attribution of Responsibility and Organizational Behavior
Authors: Muzdybaev Kuanyshbek
Published: March 2007

Workers' attributions of responsibility within their organization and the relationship between the workers' self-attributions and their supervisors' ratings of actual behavior were investigated in the present study (N= 540 persons). It was found that workers' self-attributions of responsibility for specific kinds of work activities or obligations were related to the degree of their psychological distance from these various obligations. In general, the self-attributions of responsibility made by workers were weaker than were the supervisors' ratings of the workers' responsibility. Also, the degree of agreement between the workers' attributions and the supervisors' ratings of their performance varied according to the workers' degree of psychological remoteness from the particular obligations.
Social Comparison and Urban-Environmental Stress
Authors: Hansson Robert O. , Noulles Dianne , Bellovich Steven J.
Published: March 2007

A field study investigated the role of social comparison processes in mitigating stress associated with the threat of urban floods. Among residents of a major flood plain, extensive social comparison was associated with significantly greater levels of calm, confidence, and commitment to adaptive solutions, but only among persons who had not previously been flooded. Among previously flooded respondents, extensive social comparison was significantly related to heightened fear and feelings of desperation. Discussion focuses on the generalizability of social comparison predictions to the natural environment.
Judgments of Rape
Authors: L'Armand K. , Pepitone A.
Published: March 2007

In law, the social context of rape is irrelevant. Yet legal studies have suggested that judgments of rape are influenced by the victim's relationship to the rapist and the victim's sexual history. In the present study, respondents (N= 650) made judgments about a rape after reading one of several simulated newspaper accounts. Rape within either a dating or an intimate context was judged to be less serious than rape by a stranger. Rape was judged less serious when the victim's sexual history was described as either limited or extensive than when this information was not given. Female respondents judged the rape to be more serious than did males.
Predicting Behavior from Personality Trait Scores
Authors: Gormly John
Published: March 2007

In this study, 62 members of college fraternities were analyzed for the degree of association between personality characteristics and the selection of behavioral settings. There was a strong relationship between trait scores of Energetic and selecting a setting where energetic behavior could occur (r = .62; p C .001). Similarly, there was a strong relationship between trait scores of Sociable and selecting a setting where direct social interaction could occur (r = 53;-p .001). The findings indicated that selection of settings may be an area of behavior that is predictable from personality trait scores.
The Effect of Frequency Information on Actor-Entity Attributions
Authors: Mitchell Mark , Hyde Michael , Friedman David
Published: March 2007

Seeing a person repeat a given behavior may increase perceptions of consistency. Therefore, frequency information may have an impact similar to consistency information. Our model, based on associative network theory, makes the opposite predictions: frequency information will decrease actor-attributions under low-consensus, low-distinctiveness; and decrease entity attributions under high-consensus, high-distinctiveness. Predicted information type by frequency interaction was significant.
Self-Versus Other-Referent Processing at Encoding and Retrieval
Authors: Wells Gary L. , Hoffman Curt , Enzle Michael E.
Published: March 2007

The interactive roles of encoding and retrieval processes were examined in relation to self-versus other-referencing in an incidental recognition-memory experiment. At encoding, subjects made either a self-or other-referent judgment about each of a large number of traits. At test, retrieval cues were varied by having subjects make a self-referent judgment, an other-referent judgment, or no judgment about each original trait plus an equal number of new traits. The trait words were more accurately recognized when retrieval cueing reinstated the original encoding context (whether self-or other-referent) than when it instated the other context. In addition, although self-referent encoding yielded better memory than other-referent encoding in the self-referent and no-cue retrieval conditions, other-referent encoding yielded equally good memory in the other-referent retrieval condition. Although self-referent trait judgments were more consistent than other-referent judgments, consistency did not mediate the memory effects. It was suggested that the greater efficacy of self-referent encoding may stem in part from the interactive roles of encoding and retrieval operations in conjunction with a habitual tendency to process trait information with reference to the self
Conformity and Group Size
Authors: Insko Chester A. , Smith Richard H. , Alicke Mark D. , Wade Joel , Taylor Sylvester
Published: March 2007

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the group-size effect in an Asch-type conformity experiment is a function of the concern with being right and the concern with being liked. In addition to a manipulation of group size, there were manipulations of manner of responding (public or private) and of the nature of the judgments (objectively determined or undetermined). Consistent with expectations, each of the latter two variables interacted with group size. There was also a significant main effect for group size, and a significant deviation from control indicating that conformity occurs with private judgments relating to objective stimuli.
Persistence in the Face of Failure
Authors: McFarlin Dean B.
Published: March 2007

Past research has found that high self-esteem individuals tend to respond to failure with increased persistence, even under conditions in which such persistence is nonproductive. Janoff-Bulman and Brickman (1982) have argued, however, that high self-esteem individuals tend to make better use of information telling them when to quit and when to persist than low self-esteem individuals. This study tested whether differential sensitivity to information about the efficacy of persistence moderates nonproductive persistence. Following initial failure, high self-esteem subjects who received information linking persistence to performance on a puzzle-solving task tended to persist longer on unsolvable puzzles than did low self-esteem subjects. The reverse was true, however, when subjects received information indicating a noncontingency between persistence and performance. Results are discussed in terms of information use and general performance expectancies.
Compliance-Gaining in Marital Interaction
Authors: Dillard James P. , Fitzpatrick Mary Anne
Published: March 2007

This article focuses on how the communication behaviors of married couples correspond with the individual spouse's likelihood of gaining compliance and his or her contentment with the relationship. A sieve-coding scheme was developed to categorize the 30-minute interactions of a randomly selected sample of 51 married couples who participated in two role plays of a relational conflict. Analyses of their conversations revealed that (1) husbands' compliance-gaining behavior is more often predictably related to who wins the dispute, although wives win more frequently; (2) compliance-gaining attempts by either party show a negative association with long-term relational states; and (3) husband and wife frequency of use of individual compliance-gaining strategies is correlated for most strategies.
A Survey of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Authors: Stricker Lawrence J. , Helmreich Robert L. , Roberts David C.
Published: March 2007

The membership of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology was surveyed in order to determine its opinions about a variety of matters concerning the Society, including the relations of the Society and its members with the American Psychological Association, the Society's structure, its publications, and its convention program. How the survey was carried out is described, and its main findings are summarized.
When Stigma Confronts Stigma
Authors: Galanis Clifford M. B. , Jones Edward E.
Published: March 2007

Do blacks differ from whites in their ascription of negative stereotypes to former mental patients? Because blacks are aware that they themselves are often the victims of negative stereotyping, they might show greater reluctance to apply negative stereotypes to others marked by society as "deviant. " Black and white subjects were shown a character sketch of a target person who was depressed and had other symptoms of emotional distress. They were asked (among other questions) to decide whether he should be committed to an institution. The target person was or was not labeled a former mental patient, and the potential victimization of blacks was or was not made salient. The results showed that blacks were more tolerant of the deviant target person when he was clearly labeled as deviant and when black victimization in other contexts was made salient. Blacks were less tolerant than whites in the absence of such information.
Effects of Compliance Outcome and Basis of Power on the Powerholder-Target Relationship
Authors: Shaw Jerry I. , Condelli Laurence
Published: March 2007

To determine the effects of compliance outcome and basis of power on the powerholder-target relationship, 108 undergraduates each read six scenarios in which a powerholder influenced a target by using a different one of the French and Raven (1959) bases of social power. Compliance resulted either in all positive, all negative, or else unknown outcomes for the target across the six influence attempts. Although an expected interaction between type of outcome and power base was not found, main effects were obtained for each. Specifically, subjects perceived greater possibility for future use of power, less surveillance necessary, more attraction to powerholder by target and more private acceptance by target following positive rather than negative outcomes, with unknown outcomes in-between. Main effects for power base on these aspects of the powerholder-target relationship were primarily accounted for by coercive power, with this mean significantly lower than those of the other bases. Attributions of causality and responsibility for the compliance outcome were unaffected by power base, although higher causality was attributed to the target when outcomes were positive rather than negative. The results are discussed in view of the neglect of outcome specification in past research on the bases of social power.
Affect of the Game Player
Authors: Anderson Craig A. , Ford Catherine M.
Published: March 2007

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of playing different types of video games on players' short-term affective states. In the first experiment, college student subjects played 11 different video games and rated them on a number of characteristics. From these ratings, two games were selected for use in Experiment 2. These games differed only in the level of aggression displayed. One was highly aggressive; the other was only mildly aggressive. In Experiment 2, each subject played one of the games or was assigned to a no-game control condition. Hostility, anxiety, and depression subsequently were assessed by the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist. Hostility was increased in both game conditions, relative to the control group. The high-aggression game led to higher hostility than the mild-aggression game, but the difference was not significant. However, those who had played the high-aggression game were significantly more anxious than either those who played the mild-aggression game or those who played no game (control). As expected, the experimental manipulation of game playing did not yield a main effect on depressive affect. Finally, there was a marginally significant sex by game interaction effect on the depression scores.
Construct Accessibility and Generalizability Across Response Categories
Authors: Sinclair Robert C. , Mark Melvin M. , Shotland R. Lance
Published: March 2007

A study of the effects of construct accessibility on impression formation was conducted to assess the generalizability of priming effects across categories of social judgments. Subjects were primed with positive or negative target-relevant trait terms and were later, in a supposedly unrelated second study, asked to rate a target individual immediately and following a 1-week delay. Priming effects were apparent only after the 1-week delay. There were no effects of prime valence on trait constructs that were related to the semantic content of the prime. Only global impressions were affected by the accessibility manipulation. The effect was discussed in terms of a model that distinguishes the semantic and affective components of constructs. External validity was also addressed. The results generalized to live targets, supporting the external validity of construct accessibility effects. Finally, new evidence was found in support of the consolidation of impressions over time.
After the Movies
Authors: Forgas Joseph P. , Moylan Stephanie
Published: March 2007

The effects of transient moods on a variety of social judgments were studied in an unobtrusive field study. Subjects were interviewed immediately after leaving film performances classified as predominantly happy, sad, or aggressive in affective tone. Questions covered four topic areas: political judgments, expectations about the future, judgments of responsibility and guilt, and quality-of-life judgments. Judgments on all four question categories were significantly influenced by the affective quality of the films. Judgments were more positive, lenient or optimistic after viewing a happy film than after a sad or an aggressive film. These mood biases were universal irrespective of the demographic background of subjects, suggesting the robustness of the phenomenon. The results were interpreted in terms of recent models of emotional influences on social cognition, and the practical implications of the findings were considered.
Social Skills and Deception Ability
Authors: Riggio Ronald E. , Tucker Joan , Throckmorton Barbara
Published: March 2007

The role of social or communication skills in the ability to deceive was investigated. Thirty-eight student volunteers were administereda number of standardized social skill instruments. Subjects were then videotaped while giving short, persuasive messages. Messages were of three types: attitude-consistent (truthful), counterattitudinal (deceptive), and neutral. The videotaped messages were viewed by groups of judges who made ratings of the subject's believability for each message. Expressive and socially tactful subjects were more successful deceivers, whereas socially anxious subjects were less successful at the deception task. These results were attributed to an honest demeanor bias in the socially skilled subjects and a deceptive demeanor bias in the socially anxious subjects. Implications for future research on individual differences in deception skill were discussed.
Responses to Violence in a Psychiatric Setting
Authors: Bond Charles F. , DiCandia Clarisse G. , MacKinnon John R.
Published: March 2007

With an archival method, we studied 453 incidents of violence at a Connecticut state psychiatric hospital for adolescents. Records revealed no difference in the number of violent acts by White and non-White patients. However, the White hospital staff physically restrained non-White patients nearly four times as often as they restrained Whites. Interracial contact reduced this differential imposition of restraints. These findings complement experimental evidence and illustrate contemporary race relations.
Depression and Social Information Gathering
Authors: Hildebrand-Saints Lorraine , Weary Gifford
Published: March 2007

An experiment was conducted to investigate depressed and nondepressed subjects' social information gathering under high -and low-utility conditions. Subjects were asked to help develop a videotape presumably concerned with interview processes. Subsequently, under conditions designed to manipulate the utility of the information, subjects selected questions to ask during the interview. As expected, depressed subjects sought more diagnostic information than nondepressed subjects. In addition, even when the information was considered to be of little usefulness, depressives asked significantly more high-diagnostic questions and fewer low-diagnostic questions. It is proposed that depressives have increased motivation to seek diagnostic information owing to feelings of a lack of control and uncertainty.
William James, the Self, and the Selective Industry of the Mind
Authors: Suls Jerry , Marco Christine A.
Published: March 2007

William James observed that there was a "selective industry of the mind, " by which he meant that people attend to and define as meaningful those stimuli and experiences that they perceive as personally relevant and as suiting their private interests. James considered "selective industry " to be integral to all basic cognitive processes but to hold a special place with respect to the self system because of its role in the formation of identity and the energization and direction of behavior. In James's discussion of the self, selective industry is manifested as (a) the selection of identities to be valued and invested in and (b) the selective processing of information to support advantaged standing on valued domains. This article discusses major developments in the contemporary psychology of the self that demonstrate and elaborate on these two forms of "industry" and discusses at least one lapse in James's thinking about the self and one of his observations awaiting exploitation.
Escaping the Self: The Moderating Effect of Self-Complexity
Authors: Dixon Thomas M. , Baumeister Roy F.
Published: March 2007

The present experiment measured the speed with which people escaped from a highly self-focusing situation after an initial failure or success. Consistent with predictions, the fastest escapes were found among people who were low in self-complexity and who experienced initial failure. These results support the notion that high self-complexity serves as a buffer against the threatening implications of failure, presumably because many aspects of the self-concept remain untouched by the failure. Additional findings showed that failure impaired the subsequent performance (in writing an essay about the self of people with low self-complexity, but it actually improved the performance of people with high self-complexity. These results suggest that an identical failure may have different levels of global aversiveness and may elicit different coping styles as a function of self-complexity.
Uncertainty Orientation and Recall of Person-Descriptive Information
Authors: Driscoll Denise M. , Hamilton David L. , Sorrentino Richard M.
Published: March 2007

The effect of uncertainty orientation on the processing of expectancy-relevant information was investigated. Uncertainty orientation concerns the extent to which people seek out and integrate information about themselves, others, and their environment. Uncertainty-oriented persons use this information to attain clarity and understanding, whereas certainty-oriented persons use such information to maintain preexisting belief systems. Consistent with previous findings, overall subjects recalled a higher proportion of expectancy-incongruent than expectancy-congruent information. However, the strength of this effect was a function of subjects' uncertainty orientation. As predicted, the advantage in recall for incongruent information occurred for uncertainty-oriented, but not certainty-oriented, people. Establishing a point of interface between the information-processing and individual difference perspectives, these results indicate that personality variables can reflect natural variation in cognitive processes that mediate social phenomena, thereby modifying effects assumed to be characteristic of people in general.
Self-Awareness and Attitude Change: Seeing Oneself on the Central Route to Persuasion
Authors: Hutton Debra G. , Baumeister Roy F.
Published: March 2007

On the basis of the elaboration likelihood model and self-awareness theory, it was reasoned that self-awareness should stimulate thoughtful resistance to attacks on personally important attitudes. In Experiment 1, mirror-induced self-awareness increased resistance to a message that was counterattitudinal, personally important, and based on direct experience, but it failed to increase resistance to a message that lacked those qualities. In Experiment 2, self-aware subjects showed greater resistance to weak persuasive arguments than to strong arguments, unlike subjects who were not made self-aware. These results support the view of self-awareness as a cause of biased central route processing and (hence) of selective, judicious resistance to persuasion.
A Tale of Two Curries: Counterfactual Thinking and Accident-Related Judgments
Authors: MacRae C. Neil
Published: March 2007

The present research investigated the effects of counterfactual thinking on subjects' accident-related judgments. It was predicted that the availability of counterfactual alternatives for an accident would result in differential evaluation of incident-related victims and perpetrators. The results of two studies strongly supported this prediction. Specifically, subjects awarded more financial compensation to the victim of an accident when it was preceded by exceptional rather than routine circumstances. Similarly, under these conditions the accident perpetrators were deemed to be more negligent in their behavior and a harsher fine was leveled against them.
Situational Detenninants of Shame and Guilt in Young Adulthood
Authors: Tangney June Price
Published: March 2007

Undergraduates (N = 146) briefly described three shame-inducing situations and three guilt-inducing situations. Shame and guilt situations differed in both form and content. Shame dissipations were longer but less specific in content, and respondents were more likely to use the "projective"second person when describing shame than guilt. The observed content differences were generally consistent with current theory. Guilt was typically induced by specific moral transgressions, often involving harm to others. Shame was induced by specific moral transgressions as well as by nonmetal situations and issues (e.g., failure in performance situations, social{y inappropriate behavior or dress). The analysis of interpersonal concerns indicated that both shame and guilt can arise from a concern with one's effect on another person. Concern with others' evaluations, however, were almost exclusively the domain of shame. Although there appear to be some classic shame-inducing situations and some classic guilt-inducing situations, the majority of situations appear capable of engendering either emotion.
Lay Attributions about Distress after a Natural Disaster
Authors: Yates Suzanne
Published: March 2007

This research explores how people's beliefs about problems can serve as barriers to help seeking for emotional distress. Of particular interest is the extent to which attributions about the problem (e.g., its severity and origins) are mediated by the context in which the request for help is made. Subjects read descriptions of a disaster victim. Subject perceptions as a function of the amount of property damage sustained (major vs. minor) and the victim's coping strategy (formal vs. informal vs. no help sought) were assessed. Analyses indicate that distressed victims who suffered minor damage in a flash flood were described negatively on a variety of interpersonal dimensions. Further observers attributed the victims' distress to internal causes rather than the flood. An interaction was found between coping style and damage: It is considered improper for victims who suffer minor damage to seek professional help. These findings shed light on why victims suffering from survivor guilt or distress due to intangible losses may be reluctant to acknowledge their feelings or seek help.
The Contribution of Typical Sex Differences in Facial Maturity to Sex Role Stereotypes
Authors: Friedman Heidi , Zebrowitz Leslie A.
Published: March 2007

Females are stereotypically perceived as warmer and less powerful than males, and baby-faced adults are perceived as warmer and less powerful than those with more mature faces. As women, on the average, have more babyish faces than men, it was hypothesized that typical sex differences in facial maturity may contribute to sex role stereotypes. Subjects rated adult schematic faces of both sexes on sex-stereotypic traits and roles. In a typical facial maturity condition (mature-faced males and baby-faced females), typical sex role stereotypes were obtained. However, when the natural association of gender and facial maturity was eliminated (males and females equally mature-faced) or reversed (baby-faced males and mature-faced females), sex role stereotypes were weakened or reversed.
Outcome or Expectancy? Antecedent of Spontaneous Causal Attribution
Authors: Kanazawa Satoshi
Published: March 2007

Past attributional studies have produced a consensus that negative and unexpected outcomes promote spontaneous causal search. Howwever, there is no theoretical reason to believe that outcome has an effect on spontaneous causal attribution independent of expectancy. Past studies thatfound the outcome effect all sufferfrom the methodological problems of (a) lack of spontaneity in elicited attributions and/or (b) improper manipulation. Experiment I (N = 44) introduced rigorous control of the two independent variables and showed that only expectancy has an independent effect on spontaneous causal thinking. Experiment 2 (N = 100) showed that, although expectancy is the only antecedent to spontaneous causal attribution, outcome does affect nonspontaneous causal search, giving a strong indication that the lack of spontaneity accounts for the outcome effect found in the past studies.
"Intuitive Analysis of Covariance" and Group Stereotype Formation
Authors: Schaller Mark , O'Brien Meredith
Published: March 2007

There exist actual correlations between group membership and behavior that are purely spurious, resulting from very different situational constraints on group members' behavior. Accurate group inferences require that people recognize and control for the differing situational constraints by using reasoning analogous to a statistical analysis of covariance. An initial study demonstrated that people often fail to engage in such reasoning and consequently form erroneous group impressions. A second experiment tested two hypotheses concerning the conditions that may facilitate more sophisticated covariation reasoning. Results indicated that (a) relaxed temporal constraints and (b) explicit attention to situational differences both facilitate 'intuitive analysis of covariance" and more accurate group inferences. Discussion focuses on implications for understanding the formation of group stereotypes and on factors that may inhibit stereotype formation.
Cognitive Social Approach to Dispositional Inferences: What if the Perceiver is a Cognitive Social Theorist?
Authors: Shoda Yuichi , Mischel Walter
Published: March 2007

In most research on personality inferences, it is assumed that perceivers are guided implicitly by the intuitive, lay counterpart of a global trait theory of personality. This article explores, in contrast, the possibility that perceivers may also be guided by an intuitive version of the cognitive social conception of personality. In this view, personality dispositions are reconceptualized in terms of cognitive social person variables (such as the individuals' stable expectations, goals, and values) whose behavioral manifestation is in the patterns of situation-behavior relations. Inferences about person variables then require information about characteristic patterns of person-situation interactions. Such information is conveyed by the individual's stable pattern of behavior variations over situations (person does A when X but B when 19-data that typically are available to perceivers in everyday life but seldom in research on personality inferences. The authors examine when and how perceivers focus on these more contextualized, interactive, nontrait qualities of personality that go beyond the constraints of the classic trait conception and explore the implications for theory and research on dispositional inferences.
Are Racial Stereotypes Really Fading? The Princeton Trilogy Revisited
Authors: Devine Patricia G. , Elliot Andrew J.
Published: March 2007

In this article, the authors identify three methodological short-comings of the classic Princeton trilogy studies: (a) ambiguity of the instructions given to respondents, (b) no assessment of respondents' level of prejudice, and (c) use of an outdated list of adjectives. These shortcomings are addressed in the authors' assessment of the stereotype and personal beliefs of a sample of University of Wisconsin students. In contrast to the commonly espoused fading stereotype proposition, data suggest that there exists a consistent and negative contemporary stereotype of Blacks. Comparing the data from the Princeton trilogy studies with those of the present study, the authors conclude that the Princeton trilogy studies actually measured respondents' personal beliefs, not (as typically assumed) their knowledge of the Black stereotype. Consistent with Devine's model, high- and low-prejudiced individuals did not differ in their knowledge of the stereotype of Blacks but diverged sharply in their endorsement of the stereotype.
The Role of Positive Affect in Syllogism Performance
Authors: Melton R. Jeffrey
Published: March 2007

Previous research has found that people in positive moods perform better than others on creativity and divergent thinking tasks but perform more poorly and/or process the available information less thoroughly on many other cognitive tasks. The present experiment examined various hypotheses concerning the process mediating the latter effect. Positive mood subjects performed significantly worse on a set of syllogisms than control subjects, even though they had ample timefor the task. Positive mood subjects were also significantly more likely than controls to select an unqualified conclusion, tended to take less time on the task, tended to diagram the relationships depicted by the premises less frequently, and tended to give more answers consistent with the atmosphere heuristic. Together; these findings argue against distraction accounts of the influence of positive affect. The results are most consistent with accounts arguing that people in positive moods expend less effort.
On-Line Evidence for Spontaneous Trait Inferences at Encoding
Authors: Uleman James S. , Hon Alex , Roman Robert J. , Moskowitz Gordon B.
Published: March 2007

Three experiments obtained evidence that spontaneous trait inferences (STIs) occur on-line, at encoding. In each, participants read many sentences on a computer screen. After each paragraph, they indicated whether it included a test probe word. Paragraphs that imply but do not contain traits should increase errors or reaction times (RTs) to trait probes. In Experiment 1, trait-implying paragraphs produced more errors than control paragraphs, supporting the hypothesis. In Experiments 2 and 3, with feedback on each trial, longer RTs supported the hypothesis. STIs had the same effects as McKoon and Ratcliff's "predicting inferences. " Unexpectedly, participants gained control over STIs and predicting inferences, so that RT differences (and error differences in Experiment 1) declined over trials. Analyses of reading times in Experiment 3 ruled out several alternative explanations. Results demonstrate that social inferences can occur spontaneously at encoding and suggest that immediate feedback may make control possible.
Influencing Probability Judgments by Manipulating the Accessibility of Sample Spaces
Authors: Hanita Makoto , Gavanski Igor , Fazio Russell H.
Published: March 2007

Two experiments are reported that evaluate predictions derived from the sample space framework of probability judgment, according to which both accuracy and error in judgments can be explained in terms of the sets of information, or sample spaces, on which they are based. Participants judged probabilities concerning fictitious individuals about whom a small amount of information was provided. The probability judgments took the form p(AIB), for which the set of B's delineates the appropriate sample space and the set of A's delineates the inappropriate sample space. The accessibility of the sets was manipulated by having participants explicitly describe typical instances from the applicable sets (Experiment 1) or by priming the relevant categories (Experiment 2). Results showed that judgments of conditional probabilities were more accurate when the appropriate set B was made accessible than when the in appropriate set A was made accessible.
Positive Mood and In-Group-Out-Group Differentiation in a Minimal Group Setting
Authors: Abele Andrea , Gendofla Guido H. E. , Petzold Peter
Published: March 2007

Two experiments examined the impact of positive mood on impression formation about in-group and out-group members. Participants performed a dot estimation task and received feedback that they belonged either to the group of overestimators or underestimators. They rated the likability of target persons characterized by positive or negative traits and, in half of the trials, by their group membership (overestimators or underestimators). These judgments were made either in an unmanipulated neutral mood state or after induction of a positive mood. Both experiments revealed a stronger in-group-out-group differentiation in a positive mood than in a neutral mood. Without group label presented, the impact of the individuating information was the same in both mood states; with group label presented, it was smaller in positive mood. Response latencies did not vary with mood. The data demonstrate a twofold impact of mood, due to both its informational function and its enhancement of the categorizing information's weight.
Comparability of Multiple Rank Order and Paired Comparison Methods
Authors: Rounds James B. , Miller Thomas W. , Dawis René V.
Published: March 2007

Two studies were conducted to compare multiple rank order and paired comparison methods in terms of psychometric characteristics and user reac tions. For both studies, stimuli from the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (MIQ) were cast in mul tiple rank order and paired comparison forms and were administered to subjects on two occasions (test-retest) in a counterbalanced design. For the multiple rank order form, item blocks of three stimuli were used in the first study (N = 158, retest after one week), and item blocks of five stimuli in the second study (N = 280, retest after two days). Individual and group item responses, preference counts, and Thurstone normal transform scale values obtained by the multiple rank order method were found to be very similar to those obtained by paired comparisons. Administration time decreased as number of stimuli in the item block increased. Two-thirds of the subjects preferred the multiple rank order method. The equivalence of the two methods is discussed, along with suggestions for further research.
Application of a Psychometric Rating Model to Ordered Categories Which Are Scored with Successive Integers
Authors: Andrich David
Published: March 2007

A latent trait measurement model in which ordered response categories are both parameterized and scored with successive integers is investigated and applied to a summated rating or Likert ques tionnaire. In addition to each category, each item of the questionnaire and each subject are para meterized in the model; and maximum likelihood estimates for these parameters are derived. Among the features of the model which make it attractive for applications to Likert questionnaires is that the total score is a sufficient statistic for a subject's at titude measure. Thus, the model provides a formal ization of a familiar and practical procedure for measuring attitudes.