Liking persons versus liking groups: a dual-process hypothesis

Most research on liking of persons and groups has been conducted within separate paradigms, but the implicit assumption has been that the same processes govern judgments of liking or disliking regardless of the nature of the target. Departing from this assumption, we suggest a dual-process hypothesis according to which people base their liking of a target person primarily on the desirability of the person's characteristics, whereas they base their liking of a group primarily on the degree of similarity between the group and themselves. To test this hypothesis, participants were presented with either positively or negatively valenced sketches that either described an individual person or a group of people. Path analyses revealed that liking of a person was best predicted by desirability ratings, whereas liking of a group was best predicted by similarity ratings. Implications of these findings for stereotype maintenance are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Young children's responses to media representations of intergroup threat and ethnicity

Two studies are reported in which ethnic majority children's reactions to media representations of ethnic minorities are examined. In Study 1, 20 white Scottish 6‐year‐olds viewed short television stories in which white or ethnic minority children were depicted as hostile to the participants’ in‐group (threat present) or not (threat absent). A strong effect of threat on liking was obtained but no effect of ethnicity of target and no interaction. In Study 2, 4‐ and 6‐year‐old white Scottish children viewed PowerPoint displays in which Scottish people were shown only as white (traditional version) or as ethnically diverse (multicultural version). Intergroup threat was manipulated. Again, a strong effect of threat was obtained. However, when threat was absent, participants exposed to the traditional condition liked the white out‐group more than the multi‐ethnic out‐group, while participants exposed to the multicultural condition liked the multi‐ethnic out‐group more than the white out‐group. The results are interpreted as consistent with the predictions of Social Identity Development Theory.     

Interest and liking: Further sequential effects

This study was designed to investigate subjects’ interest and liking preferences for stimuli varying in type and level of familiarity. Subjects were presented with stimulus material in the form of slides, and were asked to view the slides firstly without instruction, and then twice more in order to rate the material for interest and liking. Half the subjects were asked to rate liking before interest, and half rated interest before liking. Results showed that interest ratings were relatively unaffected by the rating sequence, whereas ratings of liking were affected: when ratings of likingpreceded interest ratings, familiar items were preferred to less familiar items, but when ratings of liking were madeafter interest ratings, ratings of liking for less familiar items were preferred to more familiar items. This study forms part of the work of the Leicester Aesthetics Research Group. The work was supported by a grant from the Research Board, University of Leicester.     

Personality and judgements of abstract,pop art,and representational paintings

This study was concerned with the question of which personality variables are most predictive of judgements of particular types of painting. One hundred and twenty‐one participants rated 24 slides of abstract, pop art, and representational paintings. They then completed two questionnaires which measured sensation seeking (SS) and the ‘Big Five’ personality dimensions. Thrill and Adventure Seeking was positively correlated with a liking of representational art while Disinhibition was associated with positive ratings of abstract art and pop art. Neuroticism was positively correlated with positive ratings of abstract and pop art, while conscientiousness was linked to liking of representational art. Openness to Experience was linked to positive ratings of all three art types. Agreeableness was negatively linked to liking of pop art. It was also found that art education and frequency of visits to art galleries were linked to positive ratings of abstract paintings. Regressional analyses showed about a fifth of the variance could be accounted for by personality and demographic variables. Personality variables were most strongly linked to positive judgements of representational art and least related to ratings of pop art. Overall the sensation seeking variables accounted for more of the variance than the big five dimensions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Independent effects of emotion and attention on sensory and affective pain perception

The present study investigated whether attention and emotion independently influence sensory and affective pain ratings. Fifty-four (27 female) participants rated sensory and affective pain in response to painful mechanic pressure stimulation while exposed to positive, neutral and negative slides from the International Affective Picture System. In doing so, participants were assigned to one of three groups, which focused attention either on the pictures or on the sensory or on the affective aspects of the pressure stimulation. Consistent with the motivational priming hypothesis, sensory and affective pain ratings were generally lower during exposure to positive compared to negative and neutral slides. In line with our assumptions, attention modulated sensory pain ratings with lowest ratings in the picture focusing group and highest in the affective pain focusing group. No attention effect for affective pain ratings and no interactions between emotional and attentional effects on pain perception were found.     

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Rater Liking and Performance Ratings

This meta-analysis reviewed the magnitude and moderators of the relationship between rater liking and performance ratings. The results revealed substantial overlap between rater liking and performance ratings (ρ = .77). Although this relationship is often interpreted as indicative of bias, we review studies that indicate that to some extent the relationship between liking and performance ratings potentially reflects “true” differences in ratee performance. Moderator analyses indicated that the relationship between liking and performance ratings was weaker for ratings of organizational citizenship behaviors, ratings made by peer raters, ratings in nonsales jobs, and ratings made for development; however, the relationship was strong across moderator levels, underscoring the robustness of this relationship. Implications for the interpretation of performance ratings are discussed.     

Liking for happy- and sad-sounding music: Effects of exposure

We examined liking for happy- and sad-sounding music as a function of exposure, which varied both in quantity (number of exposures) and in quality (focused or incidental listening). Liking ratings were higher for happy than for sad music after focused listening, but similar after incidental listening. In the incidental condition, liking ratings increased linearly as a function of exposure. In the focused condition, liking ratings were an inverted U-shaped function of exposure, with initial increases in liking (after 2 exposures) followed by decreases (after 8 or 32 exposures). The results documented that: (1) sad music is liked as much as happy music in some instances; (2) frequency of exposure causes both familiarity (positive) and over-familiarity (negative) effects; and (3) effects of exposure on liking differ for focused and incidental listening.     

Relational Judgments in an Influence Context

We contend that communication episodes tend to focus interactants’attention on one or the other of two relational judgments: dominance or affiliation. Further, when one judgment is relatively more salient, individuals will use the salient judgment as the basis for inferring other aspects of the relationship. To test that notion, a judgment study was conducted in which participants viewed a set of influence messages that varied in degree of dominance and explicitness. The influence context was chosen because it naturally highlighted dominance. After viewing the messages, participants provided ratings of dominance, explicitness, and two aspects of affiliation: liking and involvement. When the resulting data were submitted to a structural equation analysis, it was found that judgments of liking depended on judgments of explicitness and dominance. Judgments of involvement depended on judgments of liking and dominance. Both findings support the claim that one relational judgment may provide the basis for another.     

Emotional responses in spider fear are closely related to picture awareness

Theories of emotion propose that responses to emotional pictures can occur independently of whether or not people are aware of the picture content. Because evidence from dissociation paradigms is inconclusive, we manipulated picture awareness gradually and studied whether emotional responses varied with degree of awareness. Spider fearful and non-fearful participants viewed pictures of spiders and flowers at four levels of backward masking while electrodermal activity and heart rate were measured continuously. Recognition ratings confirmed that participants’ picture awareness decreased with masking. Critically, effects of spider fear on emotion ratings and heart rate also decreased with masking. These findings suggest that effects of spider fear on emotion ratings and heart rate are closely related to picture awareness.     

Effects of experimentally induced peer-group rejection and out-group ethnicity on children's anxiety,self-esteem,and in-group and out-group attitudes

A minimal group study examined the effect of peer-group rejection on children's state anxiety and self-esteem, as well as their attitudes towards the rejecting group and an out-group that had the same or different ethnicity to the participants. Anglo-Australian children (n = 104) 7 and 9 years of age were randomly assigned to an Anglo-Australian team for an intergroup drawing competition. The competitor team had children with the same (i.e., Anglo-Australian) or different (i.e., Pacific Islander) ethnicity as their own team. The children then role-played that they had been accepted or rejected by their team members. Children's subsequent ratings indicated that peer-group rejection caused a decrease in self-esteem and an increase in anxiety, dislike for the rejecting in-group, but greater liking for the out-group, regardless of its ethnicity. Results also indicated that, regardless of peer status, children expressed greater liking for the in-group when there was a different versus same ethnicity out-group, and greater liking for the same versus different ethnicity out-group. The implications of the findings for peer-group rejection research are discussed.     

A Direct Study of Halo Effect

Five individuals were evaluated on a 7-point scale from strongly dislike (1) to strongly like (7). A week later the same people were rated on 16 relatively distinct traits, such as carefulness, sense of humor, fairness, and sociability. For three of the rated individuals, there were no extreme ratings on the general impression (liking) scale by raters, and the correlations between those scores and mean trait ratings were .26, .32, and .36. For the other two, there were sharp and extreme ratings on the general liking scale, and correlations between those scores and mean trait ratings were .60 and .76. This method provides a more appropriate and more meaningful index of halo effect than other methods because it is based more directly on Thorndike's (1920) original concept.     

视觉观点采择需要抑制控制的参与：一项负启动研究

从抑制控制模型出发,采用负启动范式考察视觉观点采择的认知机制。实验1采用自身体转换任务(N=35) 、实验2采用圆点数量判断任务(N=33)分别考察成人在完成二级和一级视觉观点采择任务时是否需要抑制控制的参与。结果发现,成人在完成两类视觉观点采择任务时均出现了负启动效应,说明当他人观点和自我观点不一致时,个体需要抑制自我的观点才能成功采择他人的观点。     

Rated preference for musical compositions as it relates to complexity and exposure frequency

Subjects heard four piano compositions that were constructed to represent differing degrees of complexity, as defined by their chordal and rhythmic properties and corroborated by subjects’ complexity ratings. In line with the predictions of an optimal complexity model of musical preference, judged liking for the compositions was a unimodal function of their complexity. After each composition was rated for liking, one of the four compositions was presented and rated an additional 16 times. Also congruent with an optimal complexity model was the finding that the affective consequences of repeated exposure varied depending upon whether the repeatedly exposed composition was more or less complex than the subject’s preferred complexity level. The latter finding suggests that repeated exposure effects are a function of both situational and individual factors.     

Participation motives of young Australian and Chinese gymnasts.

Reasons for participating in gymnastics were investigated with 280 Australian and 103 Chinese youth. The participants, aged 8 to 15 years, completed modified versions of the Participation Motivation Questionnaire. Treatment of the scores by principal components analysis yielded seven factors. Further analyses showed that the samples differed significantly on six of these factors. Comparisons of individual items indicated that the Australian gymnasts rated having fun and liking the rewards as more important than did the Chinese respondents. Chinese athletes allocated higher ratings to being part of a club, having a good body, liking to win, and wanting to be popular. Both groups assigned high values to reasons associated with improving skills, being fit, and getting exercise. It was suggested that the findings reflected cultural differences between Australian and Chinese societies as well as particular characteristics of the Chinese sample.     

Recognition without picture identification: Geons as components of the pictorial memory trace

Participants viewed a list of black-and-white line drawings and were then presented with a picture fragment identification task in which half of the fragments corresponded to studied pictures and half corresponded to unstudied pictures. In addition to trying to identify each picture fragment, participants gave a rating to indicate the likelihood that the fragment came from a studied picture. When participants could not identify the picture fragments, they were still able to discriminate between fragments that came from studied pictures and fragments that came from unstudied pictures (as shown by their recognition ratings), but only when the fragments contained information about the geometric components (geons) that underlay the original pictures. No recognition without identification was found when the fragments contained only line segment information.     

The Relationship Between Creative Potential,Aesthetic Response to Music,and Musical Preferences

Previous studies have shown that creative individuals tend to prefer complex stimuli. This study examined the relationship between creative potential, aesthetic response to music, and musical preferences. Seventy-four participants completed two creative potential tests. They listened to three repertoire pieces of different complexity, and rated them on perceived complexity, liking, and interest. Finally, they completed a musical preference questionnaire. Results suggest the relationship between complexity, on the one hand, and liking and interest, on the other, differs between the pieces. Creative potential was found to be related to preference for the more complex musical pieces. Moreover, musical preferences were found to be related both to creative potential and to ratings of the three musical pieces.     

Simple lines and shapes are associated with,and communicate,distinct emotions

We investigated whether lines and shapes that present face-like features would be associated with emotions. In Experiment 1, participants associated concave, convex, or straight lines with the words happy or sad. Participants found it easiest to associate the concave line with happy and the convex line with sad. In Experiment 2, participants rated (valence, pleasantness, liking, and tension) and categorised (valence and emotion words) two convex and concave lines that were paired with six distinct pairs of eyes. The presence of eyes affected participants’ valence ratings and response latencies; more congruent eye–mouth matches produced more consistent ratings and faster reaction times. In Experiment 3, we examined whether dots that resembled eyes would be associated with emotional words. Participants found it easier to match certain sets of dots with specific emotions. These results suggest that facial gestures that are associated with specific emotions can be captured using relatively simple shapes and lines.     

Emotional responses in spider fear are closely related to picture awareness

Theories of emotion propose that responses to emotional pictures can occur independently of whether or not people are aware of the picture content. Because evidence from dissociation paradigms is inconclusive, we manipulated picture awareness gradually and studied whether emotional responses varied with degree of awareness. Spider fearful and non-fearful participants viewed pictures of spiders and flowers at four levels of backward masking while electrodermal activity and heart rate were measured continuously. Recognition ratings confirmed that participants' picture awareness decreased with masking. Critically, effects of spider fear on emotion ratings and heart rate also decreased with masking. These findings suggest that effects of spider fear on emotion ratings and heart rate are closely related to picture awareness.     

Do recognizable figures enjoy an advantage in binocular rivalry?

Five experiments examined whether recognizable stimuli predominate in binocular rivalry. It was found that a face predominated more than did a pattern equated for spatial frequency, luminance, and contrast; an objective reaction time procedure confirmed predominance of the face. The face was still liable to fragmentation as stimulus size increased. Observers tracked exclusive dominance of a picture of a camouflaged figure (a Dalmatian dog) prior to and then following discovery of the figure's presence; control observers received the same protocol with a scrambled version of the dog stimulus. Compared with control results, predominance of the dog picture was higher even before observers knew of the camouflaged figure. Inversion of the dog figure reduced its predominance. Binocular rivalry is sensitive to object-related, configural properties of a stimulus.     

Changes in liking as a function of the magnitude and affect of sequential evaluations

A study was conducted to test derivations from the gain-loss model of interpersonal attraction (Aronson & Linder, 1965). In brief, liking change was examined within negative-positive and positive-negative sequences that consisted of evaluations differing in magnitude. The results confirmed gain-loss derivations in both sequences where evaluations of minor importance were followed by evaluations of major importance (a negative-positive sequence induced increases in liking, a positive-negative sequence induced decreases in liking); supportive results were also found in one major-minor sequence. A major negative-minor positive sequence produced increases in liking but the major positive-minor negative sequence did not produce decreases in liking. The increase in liking in the former (−−/+) sequence was significantly greater than the decrease (or lack thereof) in the latter (++/−) sequence (t = 3.70). In addition, the final liking ratings showed that a positive-negative sequence induced greater liking than a negative-positive sequence (F = 7.30) rather than the reverse as the gain-loss model predicts. The results were discussed in terms of the limits they suggested for the gain-loss model.