bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Supposed Physical Attractiveness Bias Against Supporters of the Women's Movement
Authors: Beaman Arthur L. , Klentz Bonnel
Published: March 2007

Meta-analyses were performed on the body of literature investigating whether a bias against women who support the women's movement existed. It had been suggested that supporters were perceived as less physically attractive than nonsupporters. Yet numerous attempts to replicate the bias has resulted in a complex set of findings. The overall pattern of results did not support the existence of a bias (p = .58), and the mean effect size was virtually zero (+.01). It was concluded that people rate others with similar attitudes as more physically attractive than those with dissimilar attitudes.
Distinguishing between Perceptual and Cognitive "Groundings" for Consistency Theories
Authors: Baron Reuben M.
Published: March 2007

Abelson's (1983) analysis of the dangers involved in treating cognitive, social network, and perceptual-stimulus field-based inconsistency disturbances as equivalent is examined and extended into the epistemological realm. The present exposition focuses on three problems: (I) the utility of Abelson's basic perceptual-cognitive distinction for clarifying a range of problems within the realm of social cognition; (2) the implications of mapping tie preceptual-cognitive distinction on to a broader epistemological level of analysis involving a differentiation between rule-conforming and law-driven explanatory systems; and (3) the implications of the rule/law distinctions for a broader range of theoretical and research problems within social psychology.
A Model of the Layperson as Pragmatist
Authors: White Peter
Published: March 2007

A model of human beings aspragmatists is outlined. It is proposed that the primary orientation of laypeople is toward the various practical concerns of everyday life; and therefore to concrete, particular, and everyday information, and toward specific rather than general beliefs and heuristics. Evidence for the model is reviewed. The model is then applied to human inference and attribution research. It is argued that studies of human inference err by adopting statistical, logical, and scientific criteria as optimal for the evaluation of lay inference, when lay inferences are, infact, intended to meet practical criteria. Those studies also make insufficient allowance for the fact than lay inference is adapted to the circumstances, problems and informational availability of everyday life. It is also argued that causal attributions are made not by means of theory-neutral assessment of covariation or abstract, general concepts of causation, but by the application of specific, relatively concrete preexisting beliefs, and that attributions are made in a context of and contribute to practical concerns.
Orienting Strategies in Differential Face Recognition
Authors: Devine Patricia G. , Malpass Roy S.
Published: March 2007

We examined the hypothesis that differential orienting strategies for own -and other-race faces are responsible for the superiority of own-race over other-race face recognition. White and black subjects viewed both white and blackfaces following inferential or superficial judgement or intentional learning instructions. Experimentally inducing a superficial orienting strategy depressed both own -and other-race recognition scores well below those obtained through both inferential and intentional instructions. Recognition performance under these latter two conditions were equivalent for both black and white subjects. The orienting task manipulation influenced recognition performance, but there was no evidence that it was responsible for the differential recognition effect.
Whatever Happened to Pollyanna?
Authors: Hampson Sarah E. , Dawson W. J.M.
Published: March 2007

The Polyanna Principle (Matlin & Stang, 1978) predicts that trait inferences will be made more rapidly for evaluatively positive targets and/or traits than for evaluatively negative targets and/or traits. In contrast, the congruence principle proposed here predicts that evaluatively congruent inferences (favorable inferences for positive targets and unfavorable inferences for negative targets) will be made more rapidly than evaluatively incongruent inferences (unfavorable inferences for positive targets and favorable inferences for negative targets) regardless of the positive or negative nature of either target or trait. Decision times were compared for evaluatively positive and negative trait inferences for liked (L+) and disliked (L-) real targets. The results indicated that both the Pollyanna and the congruence principles were operating. Although decisions were made more rapidly for L+ than L-targets, supporting the Pollyanna hypothesis, congruent decisions were made more rapidly than incongruent decisions even when incongruent decisions involved L+ targets and congruent decisions involved L-targets. The most rapid decisions were made when the two principles were operating in the same direction (ie., congruent decisions for L+ targets).
Causal Attributions
Authors: Cohen Jerry L. , Dowling Nancy , Bishop Gregory , Maney William J.
Published: March 2007

The concept of objective self-awareness (Duval & Wicklund, 1973) has been found to affect the attributions regarding causality of an event. Another body of research has shown that attributions are affected by the need to protect or enhance one's self-esteem so that positive outcomes will be attributed internally and negative outcomes externally. The present research factorially combined these two factors (focus of attention and self-esteem) to ascertain their effects on the attribution process. The subjects, 119 undergraduates, were given feedback concerning their performance on a simulated intelligence test in the presence or absence of a mirror in the experimental room. After receiving the feedback, subjects were asked to respond to an attributional questionnaire assessing their perceptions of their performance as being caused by internal factors (effort, ability) or external factors (difficulty of questions, luck). Results indicated that the type of feedback (negative, none, or positive) interacted with the presence or absence of the mirror in affecting self-attributions of ability. This finding is discussed in terms of how the process of self-awareness may intensify the arousal of self-esteem.
The Association between Romantic Love and Marriage
Authors: Simpson Jeffry A. , Campbell Bruce , Berscheid Ellen
Published: March 2007

In the mid-1960s, college men and women held different views of the importance of romantic love as a necessary precondition to marriage (Kephart, 1967). Women, much more so than men, reported that the absence of romantic love would not necessarily deter them from contracting a marriage. In two investigations, conducted approximately 10 and 20 years after Kephart's survey, we reassessed the role that romantic love assumes in the establishment and maintenance of marital relationships. Our results reveal that (1) a vast majority of both men and women now view romantic love as a necessary prerequisite to establishing a marital relationship; (2) since the mid-1960s, a significantly larger percentage of both men and women now indicate that they would not marry someone unless they were in love with him or her; and (3) romantic love is perceived to play a critical role not only in the establishment of a marital relationship but in its maintenance as well. These findings are discussed in the context of the dramatic social changes that have occurred in American society since the time of Kephart's first survey, many of which have had especially profound effects on the lives of women.
Prosocial Moral Judgment and Behavior in Children
Authors: Eisenberg Nancy , Shell Rita
Published: March 2007

In the past, researchers generally have examined the issue of whether moral behavior is related to moral judgment, not under which conditions the two are associated. In the present research, a potential mediator of the relation between prosocial behavior and moral reasoning (cost of the prosocial behavior) was examined. Preschoolers and third graders were given opportunities to donate both costly and less costly commodities and could assist another at a cost or little cost to the self. Moreover, prosocial moral judgment was assessed. High -and low-cost donating were not significantly related; high-cost helping was significantly correlated with only low-cost donating for older children, and with high-cost donating for preschoolers. High-cost, but not low-cost, donating was related to developmentally mature moral judgment. Similarly, low-cost helping was unrelated to reasoning; high-cost helping was related to level of moral judgment for preschoolers only. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the relation between moral reasoning and behavior.
Social Comparison Choice During Ability Evaluation
Authors: Smith Richard H. , Insko Chester A.
Published: March 2007

Using the rank-order paradigm, the effects of comparison publicity, performance feedback, and self-esteem on ability-related social comparison choices were examined. Subjects chose the highest ranked score less frequently when comparison was expected to be public rather than private, when performance feedback suggested failure rather than success, and when subjects were low rather than high in self-esteem. In contrast to previous reports of a stable tendency for subjects to select first the highest ranked score when the range of scores is unknown, the combination of anticipated public social comparison, low score, and low self-esteem created a preference for this score that was descriptively less frequent than chance. It was argued that these results provide converging evidence for social comparison choices motivated by defensive concerns.
Predictability and Timing of Self-Report in Learned Helplessness Experiments
Authors: Tiggemann Marika , Winefield Anthony H.
Published: March 2007

An experiment is reported that attempted to assess the contribution of unpredictability to the learned helplessness effect. Contrary to learned helplessness theory, performance deficits resulted from exposure to uncontrollable events only when uncontrollability was also accompanied by unpredictability. Uncontrollable but predictable outcomes did not produce the effect. The experiment also demonstrated that the timing of self-report has an influence on expressed subjective confidence ratings, a finding of some significance in view of the methodology of human helplessness experiments.
Unemployment, Relative Deprivation, and Social Protest
Authors: Walker Lain , Mann Leon
Published: March 2007

A study of a sample of unemployed people is reported in which survey interview data were used to examine the differential effects of different forms of deprivation. Two outcome variables were operationalized: the number of stress symptoms reported by the respondents and the respondents' orientation to social protest. Two different measures of egoistic deprivation (the perceived gap between personal expectations and attainments) and two different measures of fraternalistic deprivation (the perceived gap between ingroup and outgroup attainment) were also obtained. It was hypothesized that the measures of egoistic relative deprivation would predict the number of stress symptoms reported better than would measures of fraternalistic relative deprivation. Conversely, fraternalistic relative deprivation measures were hypothesized to predict protest orientation better than would the egoistic relative deprivation measures. Multiple regression analyses bore out these hypotheses. The results underline the importance of the conceptual distinction between egoistic and fraternalistic relative deprivation for explaining the social behavior of the deprived.
Encoding and Retrieval Effects of General Person Characterizations on Memory for Incongruent and Congruent Information
Authors: Pyszczynski Tom , LaPrelle John , Greenberg Jeff
Published: March 2007

We hypothesized that general person characterizations exert different effects on the recall of characterization-relevant information, depending on whether the information is encountered before or after exposure to the characterization. We predicted that when the general characterizations are presented prior to exposure to information about specific incidents, more characterization-incongruent than characterization-congruent incidents would be recalled; we also predicted that when the characterizations are presented after exposure to specific information, more characterization-congruent than characterization-incongruent incidents would be recalled. Subjects heard an audiotape of a list of positive and negative events, some characterization-relevant (social encounters) and some characterization-irrelevant (fortuitous events), in the life of a fellow college student either before or after exposure to written information that characterized that person in either a generally positive or negative way. Subjects' recall of characterization relevant information supported both of the above hypotheses; subjects' recall of the characterization-irrelevant but affectively related events was not affected by the general characterizations. These results were discussed in terms of the differential effects of person impressions on encoding and retrieval processes.
Attributional Style and the Components of Hardiness
Authors: Hull Jay G. , van Treuren Ronald R. , Propsom Pamela M.
Published: March 2007

Recent research has suggested that individual differences in the personality variable of hardiness are related to health and illness. Although these studies suggest a connection between hardiness and health, they do not provide evidence of specific mediators of this effect. This study tested the hypothesis that attributional style is a potential mediator of hardiness effects. Specifically, it was predicted that compared to nonhardy individuals, hardy individuals would be more likely to make internal, stable, global attributions for positive events and external, unstable, specific attributions for negative events. In addition, it was predicted that this pattern would be most characteristic of the hardiness subcomponents of commitment and control. The pattern of attributions for the subcomponent of commitment provided strong support for the predictions. Similar, but weaker, effects were found for the subcomponent of control. Challenge yielded only one effect and that was in the opposite direction of the other scales. Composite hardiness yielded no significant effects. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for potential mediators of hardiness effects and the viability of composite hardiness as a unitary construct.
Don't Blame Memory for People's Faulty Reports on What Influences their Judgments
Authors: Turner Charles K.
Published: March 2007

Nisbett and Wilson (1977) provided evidence that people are unable to report the influence of external factors on their judgment processes. That article has been criticized on various grounds. In particular, it has been criticized for the use of retrospective questioning that may have allowed memory decay. In this study, three Nisbett and Wilson experiments were replicated. Some subjects used a concurrent-reporting technique designed to enable them to note for themselves the effects of stimuli on their judgment processes as they occurred. Concurrent reporting had no consistent effect on recognition of external influences on judgments.
Reflections on Gergen's "Social Psychology as History" in Perspective
Authors: Blank Thomas O.
Published: March 2007

Contrasting opinions about Gergen's (1973) article, "Social Psychology as History, "have continued since its publication. Relatively extreme early reactions to -the article appear to have given way to a consensus within mainstream social psychology that discounts the radical import of Gergen's message, places its significance in a historical context, and asserts that Gergen's pessimism is no longer warranted and the revolution he proclaimed no longer needed. The history of this controversy can be understood using concepts of assimilation/contrast and reactions to deviance. At the same time, the implicit historical embeddedness of reactions, including negative ones, and the value of a contextual approach to that history lend credence to Gergen's original radical thesis.
Social Behavior in Real Hong Kong
Authors: Lam David J. , Yang Chung-Fang
Published: March 2007

In a previous article, Wheeler made numerous statements about the Chinese in Hong Kong that were inaccurate and disparaging or simply incorrect. These statements pertained to such areas as materialism, sexuality, and feminism. The tone of his article was also frequently sarcastic. This comment is an attempt to correct the more major inaccuracies and to highlight the serious implications of Wheeler's article, which was a divisional presidential address as well as a published work.
Contributions of Basic Research to the Cognitive Theories of Depression
Authors: Dykman Benjamin M. , Abramson Lyn Y.
Published: March 2007

This article shows how the development of two major cognitive theories of depression - hopelessness theory and Beck's schema theory-were inspired by basic research in psychology. Whereas attribution theory helped resolve ambiguities in the original helplessness theory, additional social psychological concepts helped transform the reformulated helplessness theory into a hopelessness theory. For example, the current theory features situational determinants of causal attributions, a diathesis-stress component, and a specific-vulnerability component, each influenced by basic work in social psychology. The authors also draw on basic research to suggest revisions in Beck's theory. They suggest that (a) both depressives and nondepressives are capable of a full range of processing biases, (b) depressives are responsive to situational information, (c) factors other than "feature match " influence negative schema activation, (d) the "self" in depression is multifaceted, and (e) associative network models can be used to operationalize the depressive schema.
When Failure Elevates Self-Esteem
Authors: Jones Edward E. , Brenner Kenneth J. , Knight John G.
Published: March 2007

Subjects were induced to play the role of a reprehensible person in response to a series of moral dilemmas. They then learned from audience feedback that they had succeeded or failed in their role-playing task. High self-monitors showed higher self-esteem after success than failure; low self-monitors showed higher self-esteem after failure than success. Results are discussed in terms of the relative importance of self-presentational content in coping with the implications of audience feedback
The Personal/Group Discrimination Discrepancy
Authors: Taylor Donald M. , Wright Stephen C. , Moghaddam Fathali M. , Lalonde Richard N.
Published: March 2007

An unexpected finding that has surfaced in research on discrimination is that respondents perceive a higher level of discrimination directed at their group as a whole than at themselves as individual members of that group. The present study directly tested this personal/group discrepancy by focusing on two groups of Canadian immigrants who have been the targets of much discrimination, Haitian and South Asian women. Respondents were questioned about their personal and group discrimination on four separate dimensions: race, culture, status as newcomers to Canada, and gender Strong support was found for the generality of the personal/group discrimination discrepancy. Three possible explanations for the discrepancy point to possible avenues for future research: the denial of personal discrimination, the exaggeration of group discrimination, and information-processing biases.
Success/Failure Bias in Attributions Across Involvement Categories in Sport
Authors: Grove J. Robert , Hanrahan Stephanie J. , McInman Adrian
Published: March 2007

Studies addressing success/failure biases in attributions for sport performance have produced equivocal results. The traditional hypothesis that success will be internalized and failure externalized has been supported in some studies but not in others. A few investigations have indicated that winners do, however, make more stable and controllable attributions than losers. This study examined the generality of this effect among II 0 players, coaches, and spectators in recreational basketball competitions. Results indicated that winning outcomes were indeed attributed to more stable and controllable causes than losing outcomes. These findings were consistent across all categories of involvement (players, coaches, spectators) and were not affected by outcome margin (game close, game not close). Discussion focuses on the operation of situational norms in sport that may have contributed to these effects.
Self-Serving Attributions: The Role of Physiological Arousal
Authors: Brown Jonathon D. , Rogers Rebecca J.
Published: March 2007

Asymmetrical attributions for success and failure are an established empirical fact, but the origins of this asymmetry are still the source of some debate. The present research examined whether physiological arousal plays a role in the generation of self-serving attributional judgments. Subjects received false feedback on an achievement-related task while their skin con-ductance levels were being monitored. Subsequently, they attributed their performance to various causal factors. Although attributions for success did not vary as a function of arousal level, self-serving attributions for failure were more apparent when arousal levels were high. These findings appear consistent with the claim that attributions for failure stem, at least in part, from motivational forces. The broader implications of the findings are considered.
Gender and Age Stereotypes of Emotionality
Authors: Fabes Richard A. , Martin Carol Lynn
Published: March 2007

This study examined the content of adults' stereotypes about sex differences in both the experience and the expression of emotions and investigated how these beliefs vary with the age of the target person. Four hundred college students (200 men and 200 women) judged the frequency with which they believed males or females in one of five age groups (infants, preschoolers, elementary schoolers, adolescents, and adults) typically feel and express 25 different emotions. It was found that adults' gender-emotion stereotypes held for both basic and nonbasic emotions and appear to be based on a deficit model of male emotional expressiveness (i.e., a belief that males do not express the emotions they feel). Moreover, these beliefs about sex differences in emotionality refer primarily to adolescents and adults. It was concluded that gender-emotion stereotypes are complex and that there may be an age-of-target bias in the evaluation of others' emotions.
Temper and Temperature on the Diamond: The Heat-Aggression Relationship in Major League Baseball
Authors: Reifman Alan S. , Larrick Richard P. , Fein Steven
Published: March 2007

Archival data from major league baseball games played during the 1986, 1987, and 1988 seasons (total N = 826 games) were used to assess the association between the temperatures at the games and the number of batters hit by a pitch during them. A positive and significant relationship was found between temperature and the number of hit batters per game, even when potentially confounding variables having nothing to do with aggression were partialed out. A similar relationship was found for games played during the 1962 season. The shape of this relationship appears to be linear, suggesting that higher temperatures lead major league pitchers to become more aggressive in pitching to batters.
Individuating Processes in Competition: Interpersonal Versus Intergroup
Authors: Ruscher Janet B. , Fiske Susan T. , Mikl Hiromi , Van Manen Scott
Published: March 2007

Two experiments investigated why interpersonal competition facilitates individuating impressions of opponents whereas inter-group competition encourages stereotyping of opponents. Prior research has shown that interdependence conditions, including interpersonal competition, encourage individuation. But, unlike interpersonal competitors, intergroup competitors are inter-dependent with several persons (i.e., teammates and opponents). Because of phenomena such as in-group bias, it was hypothesized that intergroup competitors manage limited attentional resources by assigning higher priority to individuating teammates. Experiment I demonstrated individuating processes, as manifested by attention to and dispositional inferences about expectancy-inconsistent attributes, in interpersonal but not intergroup competition. Experiment 2 demonstrated that intergroup competitors use individuating processes when forming impressions of team mates but not opponents. Implications for real-world competition are discussed.
Some Detrimental Effects of Negative Mood on Individuals' Ability to Solve Resource Dilemmas
Authors: Knapp Andreas , Clark Margaret S.
Published: March 2007

This research examined the effects of induced mood on subjects' problem-solving behavior In an initial study, an experimenter induced one of three emotions (happiness, sadness, or anger) or no emotion in subjects. Shortly thereafter a second experimenter asked each subject to solve a resource dilemma problem. Subjects in the sad and angry mood conditions were less successful (i.e., they were more likely to deplete limited resources, and they achieved less profit) than subjects in the happy or neutral mood condition. Performance of subjects in positive moods did not differ from that of subjects in neutral moods. In a second study, the effect of a sad mood leading to less success than a neutral mood was replicated. The effects observed across the two studies were attributed to a decrease in subjects' ability to delay gratification, found previously to be caused by negative, but not positive, moods.
Indirect Measures of Causal Dimensions: Estimating the Reliability of a Composite of Separate Constructs
Authors: Tubbs Mark E. , James-Valutis Marsha
Published: March 2007

In 1987, Russell, McAuley, and Tarico examined the reliability of both indirect and direct measures of causal dimensions (i.e., stability, controllability, and locus of causality). Their results indicated that the reliability of indirect measures was unacceptably low and much worse than the reliability of Russell's directly measured Causal Dimension Scale. The purpose of the present study was to demonstrate that Russell and associates misconceptualized the nature of the constructs assessed in the indirect measures and, as a result, grossly underestimated their reliabilities. Findings indicated that, when properly conceptualized and analyzed, indirect measures are at least as reliable as direct measures.
Some Thoughts about Conservative Evaluations of Replications
Authors: Berkowitz Leonard
Published: March 2007

It is suggested that an unduly conservative research tradition operates in social psychology to heighten the perception of inconsistency in research replications. In large part, this tradition, producing a bias in favor of the null hypothesis, stems from a belief in "the law of small numbers" and a failure to appreciate the probabilistic nature of research results so that each replication or dependent measure is expected to be significant at better than the .05 level by itself: The legacy of R. A. Fisher's approach to inferential statistics, with its emphasis on avoiding Type I errors and neglect of the possibility of Type II errors, is also considered. It is also noted that social psychological tests of hypothesized relationships are typically low in power. he argument in favor of combining probabilities over the series of replications is supported. It may also be, however; that a good many social psychologists are also greatly risk averse, so that the possibility of a negative outcome (making a mistake) is given very much more weight than positive information (favoring the hypothesis being tested by the research).
Self-Guide Strength and Emotional Vulnerability: Birth Order as a Moderator of Self-Affect Relations
Authors: Newman Leonard S. , Higgins Tory , Vookles Jennifer
Published: March 2007

This study tested hypotheses derived from developmental extensions of Higgins's self-discrepancy theory. Discrepancies between one's actual self and ideal-other self (a self-guide consisting of attributes someone would ideally like the individual to possess) cause dejection, whereas discrepancies with the ought-other self (beliefs about attributes someone thinks one ought to ham) cause agitation. Self-guides also differ in strength (the accessibility of, coherence of, and commitment to a self-guide). Consideration of the features of parent-child interaction hypothesized to increase self-guide strength led to the prediction that first-borns would have strong "other"-standpoint self-guides and that their discrepancies would be more highly correlated with emotional distress than those of later-borns. It was also predicted that first-borns would have fewer such self-discrepancies. Both predictions were supported. Many birth-order findings are consistent with these results.
Increasingly Complex but Less Interesting Articles: Scientific Progress or Regulatory Problem?
Authors: Higgins E Tory
Published: March 2007

Reis and Stiller suggest that the increasing complexity of JPSP articles over the last 20years, and the perception that the articles have become les interesting, is a mark of the normal progression of good science. Although I would prefer simply to accept this upbeat conclusion, I propose that there is another factor that contributes to our published articles becoming 'more complex" but 'less interesting"-a regulatory review process that emphasizes avoiding mistakes rather than promoting advances. Several statements by Reis and Stiller about the current process and status of JPSP publication are consistent with this proposal. If this proposal has merit, then the discipline needs to assess the current situation and modify its regulatory style.
Publication Games: Reflections on Reis and Stiller
Authors: Schneider David J.
Published: March 2007

Reis and Stiller (this issue) present data on publication trends in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology for the past 25 years. They interpret these data as reflecting a greater complexity in the science of social psychology and argue that this greater complexity represents progress in scientific knowledge. Although it is hard to argue against the idea that our research papers are becoming more complex, it is by no means certain that complexity indicates progress or increase in knowledge. The Reis-Stiller data might better be interpreted as the result of publication games in which authors are pitted against editors and reviewers for use of journal pages. This argument leads to discussion of some misconceptions of the publication game and some problems that are produced when authors and reviewers and editors interpret the rules of the publication game differently.
Inferences about the Causes of Positive and Negative Emotions
Authors: Llu James H. , Karasawa Kaori , Weiner Bernard
Published: March 2007

Three experiments examined inferences about the presence of additional causes (multiple causality) when the emotions evoked by an event were either positive or negative. There were also variations in the intensity of the emotional experience, the magnitude of the eliciting event, the direction of the emotion (toward the se4f or another), and the person experiencing the event (self vs. other). It was found that when an event was major, positive emotions were more likely than negative emotions to generate inferences of additional situational and mood contributions (multiple causality). Conversely, dispositions were more likely to be inferred as an additional cause of negative than positive emotions. Further intense emotional reactions and reactions to minor events produced perceptions of more contributing causes than mild emotional expressions and emotional reactions to major events. Distinctions between positive and negative emotions are discussed, and the implications of the data for interpersonal relationships are considered.
Effects of Self-Deception, Social Desirability, and Repressive Coping on Psychophysiological Reactivity to Stress
Authors: Tomaka Joe , Blascovich Jim , Kelsey Robert M.
Published: March 2007

This study examined the relationship between psychophysiological reactivity to stress and three measures of defensiveness (self-deception, social desirability, and repressive coping). Physiological and psychological responses were recorded while subjects engaged in two consecutive, difficult mental arithmetic tasks. As expected, individuals high in self-deception appraised an upcoming novel mental arithmetic task as less threatening and were less psychophysiologically reactive during the task than low self-deceivers. In contrast, there were no effects for social desirability on task appraisal, but individuals high in social desirability were more physiologically reactive during the task. There were no effects for repressive coping, operationalized using a social desirability/anxiety typology, that were not accounted for by social desirability alone. The possible mechanisms underlying these effects are discussed.
The Focus of Judgment Effect: A Question Wording Effect Due to Hypothesis Confirnation Bias
Authors: Lehman Darrin R. , Krosnick Jon A. , West Robert L. , Li Fan
Published: March 2007

Three studies examined whetherthefocus of judgment of a rating scale question can influence responses through a hypothesis confirmation bias. Study 1 showed that focusing the question wording on one of two political parties led nonpartisan subjects who had little relevant knowledge to evaluate media coverage as more hostile to that party. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrated that askingfor the likelihood that a specified person was an engineer stimulated more engineerlike ratings in response to a personal description than askingfor the likelihood that the person was a laueryer This effect occurred only when a large amount of hypothesis-compatible information was available to subjects, when they paid close attention to it, and when they had previously been successful at interpreting information as consistent with the hypothesis implied by the question. Together these studies illustrate two focus of judgment effects and identify factors that regulate their magnitudes.
Effects of Physical Attractiveness on Affect and Perceptual Judgments: When Social Comparison Overrides Social Reinforcement
Authors: Kenrick Douglas T. , Montello Daniel R. , Gutierres Sara E. , Trost Melanie R.
Published: March 2007

Earlier theorists assumed that exposure to physical attractiveness leads to pleasant affect. However this relationship might hold only for judgments of the opposite sex. In this study, subjects exposed to opposite-sex photos showed a pattern consistent with the affect-attraction model: highest mood after attractive faces but lower mood if the series was interrupted by an average face. Those exposed to the same sex, however, showed lowered mood following attractive photos, whether or not an average face interrupted the attractive series. Further judgments of the average target's attractiveness were independent of subjects' affective states but followed a pattern consistent with a contrast model-relatively lowest ratings if the target followed attractive faces, whether or not the photos were of the same or the opposite sex. This suggests that the cognitive appraisal of physical attractiveness in others can operate independently of the affective reaction they evoke.
Dimensions of Marginality: Distinctions among those Who are Different
Authors: Frable Deborrah E. S.
Published: March 2007

Master status individuals are persons whose physical appearance, behavior, or life circumstance is statistically unusual and centrally defining. In three studies, undergraduates indicated the dissimilarity among various master status groups (e.g., amputees, musical prodigies, criminals, royalty) and then rated them on semantic differential scales (e.g., good-bad, safe-dangerous, alluring-repelling). Multidimensional scaling revealed that few dimensions are needed to distinguish among these marginal individuals. The most common distinctions are evaluative connotation and visibility of the master status characteristic. It was also found that, as a group, those who are culturally stigmatized are far more differentiated than those who are culturally valued.
Attributing Dispositions to Children: An Interactional Analysis of Attribution in Socialization
Authors: Dix Theodore
Published: March 2007

This article examines research on dispositional attributions about children and its contribution to knowledge of both socialization and attribution processes. Because dispositional attributions reflect the interdependent behaviors that characterize parent-child and other relationships, they may depend as much on processes that regulate behavior as on processes that regulate inference. Attributions about children (partners) depend on the goals, dispositions, and social skills of parents (perceivers) because these systematically influence children's (partners) behavior Once formulated, adults' dispositional attributions influence (a) their reactions to children, and thus children's socialization experiences, and (b) children's views of themselves and how they should act. These effects may help explain culture and gender-specific socialization, normal and dysfunctional parenting, child effects on parent behavior, and the child's internalization of parents' values and views of the child.
Methodological Approaches to the Study of Social Event Perception
Authors: Berry Diane S. , Misovich Stephen J.
Published: March 2007

The ecological-event-perception view of social knowing differs from the traditional cognitive approach to person perception in some fundamental ways. First, the ecological view holds that veridical information about people and their interactions is available in dynamic, ongoing stimulus events. Second, perception itself is conceptualized as a dynamic process, in which an active perceiver comes to recognize the potential of the environment through exploration and behavior These tenets provide researchers with some unique methodological challenges both when selecting stimuli for study and when assessing subjects' responses to those stimuli. This article describes a number of methodological approaches taken by researchers to deal with these problems. The advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed.
Cultural Influences on the Moral Status of Reciprocity and the Discounting of Endogenous Motivation
Authors: Miller Joan G. , Bersoff David M.
Published: March 2007

Americans and Hindu Indians evaluated hypothetical situations in which helping was performed in response to prior reciprocity, in response to a monetary payment, or spontaneously. Reciprocity considerations increase the number of Indians viewing helping in moral terms but had no effect on moral judgment among Americans. Americans judged that helping is less endogenously motivated when undertaken in response to the norm of reciprocity than when spontaneous, whereas Indians viewed helping as equally endogenously motivated in those two cases. Results imply that interpersonal reciprocity is invested with a deontological moral status rather than viewed in purely utilitarian terms in cultures emphasizing interdependent, as contrasted with independent, views of the self: The findings also suggest that less of a dichotomy is drawn between communal and exchange relationships and between endogenous motivation and normative conformity in the former type of culture.
Personal Accounts of Successful Versus Failed Attempts at Life Change
Authors: Heatherton Todd F. , Nichols Patricia A.
Published: March 2007

Subjects (N = 119) wrote stories about successful or failed life change experiences. Stories reporting successful change attempts were more likely than stories reporting failed attempts to mention intense emotional experiences, external threats, and focal events that often culminated in crystallizations of discontent. These events were related to reevaluations of goals and life meaning and increased motivation to change. Social support, attributions of internal control, blaming external events for failure, and the development of a new sense of identity that incorporated the changed behavior were strongly associated with reports of successful change. Failure narratives were more likely than success narratives to describe change in terms of willpower and to indicate an active participation in maintaining the status quo. These results provide a glimpse at the phenomenology of life change attempts.
Correlated Versus Uncorrelated Social Categorizations: The Effect on Intergroup Bias
Authors: Eurich-Fulcer Rebecca , Schofield Janet Ward
Published: March 2007

Previous research has shown that independent cross-cutting social categories reduce discrimination between groups. How-ever, the effect of correlated cross-cutting categories on intergroup relations has not been studied. Female college students who were categorized into two groups on the basis of an art preference task and a dot estimation task were told that there was either no correlation, a moderate correlation, or a high correlation between the two categorizations. On two generalized measures of bias, subjects exhibited more intergroup bias as the degree of correlation between categorizations increased. Furthermore, in the high-correlation condition, subjects exhibited just as much bias against the partial out-group as against the total out-group. A situationally specific measure of bias failed to yield the same pattern of results. Overall, the results suggest that the degree of correlation between cross-cutting categorizations has an important impact on intergroup bias.
Dimensions of Adult Attachment, Affect Regulation, and Romantic Relationship Functioning
Authors: Brennan Kelly A. , Shaver Phillip R.
Published: March 2007

Recent research has suggested that adult attachment style, an orientation to relationships thought to be determined by child-hood relationships with parents and subsequent experiences with important attachment figures, affects the experience of romantic love. Several hypotheses were generated regarding attachment-style differences in affect-regulation strategies (nonintimate sexual behavior, alcohol use, and eating disorders) and attachment experiences and dynamics in couples (e.g., relationship satisfaction, partner-matching on attachment style). These hypotheses were tested using seven theoretically derived attachment scales, which reveal the specific attributes of a person's attachment style. Results indicate substantial associations between attachment dimensions and relationship satisfaction, nonintimate sexuality, eating disorders, and motives for drinking, and replicate previous research showing nonrandom but weak pairing of attachment styles in dating couples.
Gestures Specialized for Dialogue
Authors: Bavelas Janet Beavin , Chovil Nicole , Coates Linda , Roe Lori
Published: March 2007

A small group of hand gestures made during conversation (interactive gestures) seem to function solely to assist the process of dialogue rather than to convey topical information. The rate of interactive gestures was significantly higher when 27 dyads talked in dialogue than in sequential monologues, whereas the rate of other (topical) gestures did not change; this difference supports the theory that interactive gestures are uniquely affected by the requirements of dialogue. A second, microanalytic study tested hypotheses about the specific functions of interactive gestures by examining the responses of the person to whom the gesture was addressed. Predictions were correct for 78 of 88 gestures sampled randomly from a large database. These results support the conclusion that interactive gestures are an important means by which speakers can include their addressees in the conversation. Moreover, these gestures demonstrate the importance of social (dialogic) processes in language use.
Justice is Still Not Colorblind: Differential Racial Effects of Exposure to Inadmissible Evidence
Authors: Johnson James D. , Whitestone Erik , Jackson Lee Anderson , Gatto Leslie
Published: March 2007

An experiment was conducted to assess whether the effects of inadmissible information in a simulated criminal trial is moderated by race. The significant interaction between information admissibility and defendant's race indicated that the effect of inadmissible information was stronger when the defendant was Black. More specifically, perceptions of the appropriate verdict did not vary as a function of race in the admissible or control condition. On the other hand, in the inadmissible condition, perceptions of the appropriate verdict were higher for the Black defendant than for the White defendant. Interestingly, subjects in the Black-defendant-inadmissible condition felt that they were less affected by the inadmissible information than subjects in the White-defendant-inadmissible condition.
Attitudes to the Right: Evaluative Processing is Associated with Lateralized Late Positive Event-Related Brain Potentials
Authors: Cacioppo John T. , Crites Stephen L. , Gardner Wendi L.
Published: March 2007

The authors recently developed a paradigm to investigate the evaluative categorization stage of attitudes using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The present series of studies extended this approach by analyzing the spatial topography of the ERP over the lateral scalp region to address complementary questions regarding the nature of operations underlying the evaluative categorization stage of attitude processing. Consistent with the hypothesis that evaluative categorizations engage mechanisms associated with hedonic or global language processing, results revealed that the standardized amplitudes of the late positive potential of the ERP during evaluative categorizations were larger over the right than the left scalp region, whereas nonevaluative categorizations were associated with a symmetrically distributed ERP across the left and right scalp regions.
"Wide-Eyed" and "Crooked-Faced": Determinants of Perceived and Real Honesty Across the Life Span
Authors: Zebrowitz Leslie A. , Voinescu Luminita , Collins Mary Ann
Published: March 2007

Structural qualities of honest-looking faces, developmental relationships between perceived and real honesty, and actual honesty of honest-looking people were investigated. Babyfaceness, attractiveness, facial symmetry, and large eyes each had positive, independent effects on perceived honesty, revealing a babyface overgeneralization effect, an attractiveness halo effect, and the metaphorical associations "wide-eyed innocence" and "crooked character. " Consistent with a self-fulfilling prophecy, men who looked more honest early in life became more honest later, particularly when appearance was stable. Women showed an "artifice"effect: Those less honest early in life became more honest-looking later. Differential accuracy in perceiving honesty in men and women accompanied these developmental effects. Honesty was accurately read in men whose early appearance of honesty was stable. Honesty was incorrectly read in women whose early real honesty was stable. When these individual differences were ignored, real and perceived honesty were unrelated.