Emotional reactions to scandals: When does moral character make a difference?

A scandal can evoke public outrage when it is widely publicized and involves an individual who is perceived to have a high level of cultural representativeness. Two experiments showed that when the scandalous target's moral character was highlighted, emotional responses towards the target were least negative when the scandal was widely circulated and when the target was seen as a representative of his culture. These results suggest that when a cultural symbol is implicated in a widely‐circulated scandal, the negative emotions directed towards the scandalous individual can be alleviated when the public remains confident in his or her commitment to morality.     

Happiness: When does it lead to self-indulgence and when does it lead to self-denial?

Previous research on self-gratification in children has found that happiness, compared to a neutral affective state, sometimes causes self-indulgence and sometimes causes self-denial. Review of this research led to the hypothesis that happiness leads to self-indulgence when children have no reason to believe that excessive self-gratification is morally wrong but that happiness promotes selfdenial when children fear that excessive self-gratification would violate a moral rule. In the present study, children were first placed in either a happy or neutral mood. They were then given an opportunity to help themselves freely to a reward supply, but half the children in each affect condition were warned that excessive self-gratification would violate a moral rule whereas the other half were not. In the absence of information that excessive self-gratification would violate a moral standard, happiness produced self-indulgence, but when children were told that excessive self-gratification would be wrong, happy children denied themselves significantly more than neutral-mood children. It was suggested that happiness motivates children to try to sustain their elevated mood; the behavioral route to maintaining positive mood, however, depends on how children perceive the moral implications of their actions.     

Why does service with a smile make employees happy? A social interaction model

Drawing on the social interaction model, we examine the mediating role that the customer's display of positive emotions plays on the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the employee's positive mood. We also examine the moderating role that the customer's personality traits-agreeableness, extraversion, and emotional stability-play on the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the customer's display of positive emotions. The results show that the customer's display of positive emotions mediates the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the employee's positive mood. In addition, the customer's personality traits moderate the relationship between the employee's display of positive emotions and the customer's display of positive emotions. The customer's display of positive emotions depends less on the employee's display of positive emotions when the customer has high levels of agreeableness and emotional stability than when the customer has low levels of agreeableness and emotional stability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

What is it Like to be a Phenomenologist?

In a recent paper, 'On the Persistence of Phenomenology' (in T. Metzinger (ed.), Conscious Experience , Paderborn, 1995), Diana Raffman presents a new argument for qualia, an argument that provides new focus for the qualia debate. We think Raffman's work relocates the debate to a better neighbourhood, a neighbourhood in which what tempts us to think that there must be qualia or phenomenal information is highlighted. Raffman, we argue, locates the core thought shared by many of the friends of qualia, namely, that our conceptual resources are inadequate for capturing the richness of experience. Experience is ineffably determinate. Moreover, Raffman's argument in support of this thought seems especially embarrassing to scientific-minded materialists, since the argument relies largely on well established empirical facts. We show, however, that Raffman's argument fails. So, if we are correct that her argument highlights what is tempting about qualia, then we have also shown that it is not tempting.     

Rebutting accusations: When does it work,when does it fail?

Three studies address the question of how observers react to rebuttal statements and which variables are crucial in determining observers' evaluations of the initiator of the rebuttal. The first study showed that devaluation of the initiator of the rebuttal was higher when observers were confronted with the isolated rebuttal than when observers first learned about an existing accusation and then about the corresponding rebuttal. The second study qualified this finding by revealing that the devaluating effect of an isolated rebuttal was especially pronounced if the event in question was of high impact for observers. The third study included an additional variable, namely, the credibility of the source of the accusation. The drop in devaluation from rebuttal-only to accusation + rebuttal conditions was obtained only for high impact observers when the accusation came from a noncredible source. The findings are explained within a framework of attributional and belief perseverance notions. Implications are discussed.     

When and why is it disrespectful to excuse an attitude?

Philosophical Studies - It is intuitive that, under certain circumstances, it can be disrespectful or patronizing to excuse someone for an attitude (even for an attitude one finds objectionable)....     

Is it possible to be too happy? Happiness,personality, and psychopathology

The types of relationship between happiness, personality and psychopatholgy are assessed in an available sample (n = 321, adults, both sexes). Empirical results from two happiness scales and two questionnaires, one of personality (NEO-PI-R) and other of personality disorders (Loranger's scale), do not confirm the Diener's threshold hypothesis, that makes a distinction between optimum and maximum happiness; or the Seligman's supposition, that assumes that happiness has no limits; The main results are: a) negative affect (Neuroticism) is negatively related to happiness across its full range; b) Extraversion and Openness to experience are positively related to happiness across its full range; c) in the rest of the basic personality factors, relationships are not linear, though not in the sense anticipated by Diener, and d) in personality disorders, the tendencies observed diversify according to the type of disorder, and the type of happiness factor. On most occasions, the close relationship between personality disorders and the Neuroticism dimension is verified in a consistent manner. These results are discussed within the context of clinical psychology, and the general theory about happiness.     

When do infants expect hands to be connected to a person?

A violation-of-expectation paradigm was used to test whether infants infer a person based on the presence of hands alone. Infants were familiarized to a pair of hands that extended out from a curtain to play with a rattle, after which the curtain was opened to reveal either a real person or a mannequin. Infants’ looking at these outcomes was compared with baseline looking at the person and the mannequin. Experiment 1 showed that 9-month-olds looked significantly longer at the mannequin than at the person after familiarization to hands. Experiment 2 ruled out a low-level feature matching interpretation by showing the same looking pattern in 9-month-olds even when the hands were covered with silver gloves. In Experiment 3, 6-month-olds showed no differential looking at the mannequin and person after familiarization to hands. Taken together, these experiments suggest that infants acquire the expectation that hands are connected to a person between 6 and 9 months of age. This finding has implications for how infants’ attribute goals to manual actions.     

When is an easy task difficult and vice versa? A reply to lane

Lane has argued that kantowitz and Knight incorrectly predicted an interaction between primary and secondary task difficulty for the variable-allocation model of attention. It is shown that such an interaction is indeed obtained if task-performance difficulty is defined in terms of capacity and only reasonable transformations of data are permitted. This interaction holds for any set of monotonic resource operating characteristics.     

Tigers and teapots: what does it mean to be alive?

The Symposium entitled 'Conceptual Knowledge: Developmental, Biological, Functional and Computational Accounts' was held at the British Academy, London, UK on 24-26 June 2002. It was funded by the British Academy with support from the Novartis Foundation, and organized by Lorraine Tyler (University of Cambridge, UK) and Tim Shallice (University College London, UK).     

When does a different environmental context make a difference in recognition? A global activation model

The effects on recognition of changes in environmental context between learning and test are examined. A context effect occurs when memory tests that take place in an environmental context that is different from the learning context produce consistent differences in performance. A formal model of context-dependent recognition within a global activation framework is presented. The model generates the predictions that (1) context effects will be present when items are tested in a new context that was not seen during learning and (2) context effects will be absent or very small when items are tested in a context that was experienced during learning but that differs from the context in which the test item was learned. Both predictions were verified in an experiment that varied the nature of the different-context test within subjects. Implications for research concerned with context-dependent recognition are discussed.     

Segregation in the classroom: What does it take to be accepted as a friend?

Research on students’ social relationships shows their preference to associate with similar peers. This study focused on the similarity in selection criteria used by students to form groups and similarity of characteristics of existing groups in schools. It compared these criteria to those of isolated students. The sample consisted of 124 students aged 14–15. The results revealed that the assessment of peers’ social skills was a relevant selection criterion, and that global self-esteem, well-being, and, physical activity were important variables in describing groups. The selection criteria and group characteristics of isolated students did not match those of the groups. The isolated students have more outspoken views on criteria and characteristics compared to the groups’ points of view.     

What is it Like to be a Group Agent?

The existence of group agents is relatively widely accepted. Examples are corporations, courts, NGOs, and even entire states. But should we also accept that there is such a thing as group consciousness? I give an overview of some of the key issues in this debate and sketch a tentative argument for the view that group agents lack phenomenal consciousness (pace Schwitzgebel 2015 ). In developing my argument, I draw on integrated information theory, a much‐discussed theory of consciousness. I conclude by pointing out an implication of my argument for the normative status of group agents.     

Is it better to be happy or to be proud at school before doing a text comprehension task? First evidence with 10-year-old children

Introduction and objective

An experiment was conducted in a school context to examine whether joy and pride, two positive emotions, can promote children's acquisition of knowledge in a reading comprehension situation.

Children’s resistance to misleading postevent information: When does it occur?

Whether or not misleading postevent information influences children’s memory has been hotly debated. The present experiment focused on the null effects of misinformation and was designed so as to partially replicate Zaragoza’s (1991) finding that preschoolers were unaffected by suggested information. Consistent with Zaragoza’s findings, no difference in recognition memory performance was observed between control and misled conditions. Item analyses were also indicative of the absence of a misinformation effect. Results are discussed in terms of event salience, interviewer credibility, and their psycholegal implications.