“凭感觉”的热情与能力：社会认知内容的生理线索

热情与能力是解析社会认知的普适性框架,同现实情境中诸多要素存在着关联。与众多明显带有社会属性的要素相比,源自面孔或者颜色的视觉、声音的听觉、身体姿态的动觉、温度变化的肤觉等生理线索,也可以跟热情与能力的社会知觉产生关联,这个过程可能基于生理–社会的知觉联结假设或者知觉启动假设而发生。以生理–社会的知觉关系为切入点,热情与能力更能发挥解析具体情境的灵活性。侧重典型生理线索的挖掘、建立生理线索同热情与能力的组态关系,以及这种关系对社会性偏向的影响,将有助于推进热情与能力融入更为广泛的社会应用之中。     

Fundamental dimensions of social judgment: understanding the relations between judgments of competence and warmth

In seems there are two dimensions that underlie most judgments of traits, people, groups, and cultures. Although the definitions vary, the first makes reference to attributes such as competence, agency, and individualism, and the second to warmth, communality, and collectivism. But the relationship between the two dimensions seems unclear. In trait and person judgment, they are often positively related; in group and cultural stereotypes, they are often negatively related. The authors report 4 studies that examine the dynamic relationship between these two dimensions, experimentally manipulating the location of a target of judgment on one and examining the consequences for the other. In general, the authors' data suggest a negative dynamic relationship between the two, moderated by factors the impact of which they explore.     

A double-edged sword: How social diversity affects trust in representatives via perceived competence and warmth

Previous research has claimed that diversity erodes trust, even though the empirical evidence is mixed and restricted to ethnic neighborhood diversity. Against the backdrop of increasing diversity within the political sphere and concurrently declining political trust, we examined the impact of social diversity on trust in groups of political representatives. In two experiments (N₁ = 109, N₂ = 248) we tested how the diversity of political parties affected citizens’ trust in them. In line with predictions of the stereotype content model, diverse parties were perceived as warmer and less competent than non-diverse parties (Experiments 1–2). Additionally, party diversity was perceived as having more benefits, but also involving more threats (Experiment 2). Consequently, diversity had both positive (via warmth and benefits) and negative (via competence and threats) indirect effects on trust. These results help to untangle previously mixed, for the most part non-experimental, findings of the relationship between diversity and trust.     

Student-teacher concordance on dimensions of student social competence: A multitrait-multimethod analysis

Teacher and self-ratings of social competence were obtained for 669 (341 males, 328 females) grades 3–6 students using the Social Behavior Assessment—Revised (SBA-R) and a self-report scale consisting of the identical items reworded in first person. Factor analysis and multitrait-multimethod matrix analysis were used to validate construct interpretations. The previous four-factor structure of the SBA-R was not replicated. However, the three-factor structure that did emerge was better defined. Although student-teacher concordance was moderate for the Self-Control/Social Convention and Academic Responsibility factors, it was minimal for the Social Participation factor. Evidence of discriminant validity was weak. As with other studies using rating scales, method bias was in evidence. Sex differences were found in terms of variance explained by each factor and convergent validity. Discussion focuses on problems associated with construct validation in general and validation of school-related social competence in particular.     

Multiple-group membership: warmth and competence perceptions in the workplace

What kinds of stereotypes are evoked when employers review a job application from a 55-year-old Arab woman? Most previous research on stereotypes has focused on single demographic group categories (e.g., race or gender) rather than on their combinations, even though people inevitably belong to multiple group categories simultaneously. The current study examines how different combinations of demographic group categories (ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and age) are perceived in the context of the workplace, with a focus on two fundamental dimensions of social perception: warmth and competence. The results reveal interesting interactions among the studied demographic group categories such that when stigmatized group categories are added to one another, it does not necessarily produce additive negative effects on warmth and competence perceptions. Rather, one category that is perceived negatively in isolation (e.g., homosexuality) can offset the negative impact of another stigmatized category (e.g., Arab ethnicity). Practical implications for stereotyping and discrimination in the workplace are discussed.

     

Influence of warmth and competence on the promotion of safe in-group selection: Stereotype content model and social categorization of faces

Categorizing an individual as a friend or foe plays a pivotal role in navigating the social world. According to the stereotype content model (SCM), social perception relies on two fundamental dimensions, warmth and competence, which allow us to process the intentions of others and their ability to enact those intentions, respectively. Social cognition research indicates that, in categorization tasks, people tend to classify other individuals as more likely to belong to the out-group than the in-group (in-group overexclusion effect, IOE) when lacking diagnostic information, probably with the aim of protecting in-group integrity. Here, we explored the role of warmth and competence in group-membership decisions by testing 62 participants in a social-categorization task consisting of 150 neutral faces. We assessed whether (a) warmth and competence ratings could predict the in-group/out-group categorization, and (b) the reliance on these two dimensions differed in low-IOE versus high-IOE participants. Data showed that high ratings of warmth and competence were necessary to categorize a face as in-group. Moreover, while low-IOE participants relied on warmth, high-IOE participants relied on competence. This finding suggests that the proneness to include/exclude unknown identities in/from one's own in-group is related to individual differences in the reliance on SCM social dimensions. Furthermore, the primacy of the warmth effect seems not to represent a universal phenomenon adopted in the context of social evaluation.     

The universality of warmth and competence: A response to brands as intentional agents

Considerable effort has been devoted towards the understanding of the ways in which people interact with brands. However, little attention has been paid to the personal differences that may impact these interactions. The framework for brands as intentional agents by Kervyn, Fiske, and Malone (this issue) is the groundbreaking application of almost three decades of research on warmth and competence as predictors of interpersonal stereotypes to the realm of brands. Our paper argues that demographic differences impact interactions with brands and offer additional explanatory power to the framework. Findings support conclusions of Kervyn et al., but they also suggest the importance of age, education, and income on warmth and competence evaluations.     

Sociable and prosocial dimensions of social competence in Chinese children: common and unique contributions to social, academic, and psychological adjustment

A sample of 6th-grade children (N = 470), initially aged 12 years, in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, participated in this longitudinal study. Data on children's sociability and prosocial orientation were collected from peer assessments. Information on indexes of adjustment was obtained from multiple sources. The results indicated that sociable and prosocial functions were 2 overlapping, but distinct, dimensions of social competence and had common as well as unique contributions to the prediction of adjustment in specific areas. Whereas prosocial orientation was mainly predictive of social and school adjustment and externalizing problems, sociability uniquely contributed to the prediction of internalizing problems and emotional adjustment. Finally, prosocial orientation and sociability might moderate the development of adjustment difficulties.     

Chimpanzee social cognition

In the late 1970s, Premack and Woodruff asked whether chimpanzees had a theory of mind. The answer to this question has remained elusive. Whereas some authors argue that chimpanzees are capable of mental state attribution, others maintain that they simply learn certain cues in ertain situations. Recent studies challenge both views. On the one hand, chimpanzees know much more about seeing than cue-based explanations suggest; on the other hand, this knowledge does not necessarily entail understanding of the mental states of others. The hypothesis I put forward here is that chimpanzees learn cues in social situations but that they are also capable of knowledge abstraction to solve novel problems.     

The effect of fee level on therapists' perception of competence and nonpossessive warmth

Therapists' fee levels generate conflict between their sense of providing nonpossessive warmth and their sense of competence. This was investigated by asking two groups of therapist trainees to self-rate their competence and nonpossessive warmth, respond to an exploratory, open-ended question, and rate a therapist in a vignette. Therapists in the high fee condition rated themselves as significantly more competent than those in the low fee condition. Fee level did not affect trainees' perception of nonpossessive warmth, however. Negative countertransference expectations are implicated in these findings, suggesting a need for greater awareness of fee issues in training, practice and supervision.     

The substitutability of physical and social warmth in daily life

Classic and contemporary research on person perception has demonstrated the paramount importance of interpersonal warmth. Recent research on embodied cognition has shown that feelings of social warmth or coldness can be induced by experiences of physical warmth or coldness, and vice versa. Here we show that people tend to self-regulate their feelings of social warmth through applications of physical warmth, apparently without explicit awareness of doing so. In Study 1, higher scores on a measure of chronic loneliness (social coldness) were associated with an increased tendency to take warm baths or showers. In Study 2, a physical coldness manipulation significantly increased feelings of loneliness. In Study 3, needs for social affiliation and for emotion regulation, triggered by recall of a past rejection experience, were subsequently eliminated by an interpolated physical warmth experience. Study 4 provided evidence that people are not explicitly aware of the relationship between physical and social warmth (coldness), as they do not consider a target person who often bathes to be any lonelier than one who does not, with all else being equal. Together, these findings suggest that physical and social warmth are to some extent substitutable in daily life and that this substitution reflects an unconscious self-regulatory mechanism.     

Voice-based assessments of trustworthiness,competence, and warmth in blind and sighted adults

The study of voice perception in congenitally blind individuals allows researchers rare insight into how a lifetime of visual deprivation affects the development of voice perception. Previous studies have suggested that blind adults outperform their sighted counterparts in low-level auditory tasks testing spatial localization and pitch discrimination, as well as in verbal speech processing; however, blind persons generally show no advantage in nonverbal voice recognition or discrimination tasks. The present study is the first to examine whether visual experience influences the development of social stereotypes that are formed on the basis of nonverbal vocal characteristics (i.e., voice pitch). Groups of 27 congenitally or early-blind adults and 23 sighted controls assessed the trustworthiness, competence, and warmth of men and women speaking a series of vowels, whose voice pitches had been experimentally raised or lowered. Blind and sighted listeners judged both men’s and women’s voices with lowered pitch as being more competent and trustworthy than voices with raised pitch. In contrast, raised-pitch voices were judged as being warmer than were lowered-pitch voices, but only for women’s voices. Crucially, blind and sighted persons did not differ in their voice-based assessments of competence or warmth, or in their certainty of these assessments, whereas the association between low pitch and trustworthiness in women’s voices was weaker among blind than sighted participants. This latter result suggests that blind persons may rely less heavily on nonverbal cues to trustworthiness compared to sighted persons. Ultimately, our findings suggest that robust perceptual associations that systematically link voice pitch to the social and personal dimensions of a speaker can develop without visual input.     

Breaking the ice: How physical warmth shapes social comparison consequences

Social judgments take place in a concrete physical context. Recent research has explored how incidental physical experiences such as warmth influence social perception and behavior. However, we do not yet know if warmth affects self-evaluation. The present research seeks to examine this possibility by focusing on a central self-evaluative mechanism, namely social comparison. We hypothesized that physical warmth induces a general similarity focus that in turn fosters assimilative social comparison consequences and tested this in three studies. Study 1 established that warmth increases the perceived similarity of object pairs. In Study 2, participants compared themselves to a physically strong or weak standard. On warmer but not on colder days, they assimilated self-evaluations towards the target. Study 3 showed a similar pattern in a controlled laboratory setting. Together, these findings demonstrate that physical warmth shapes social comparison processes and as a consequence influences self-evaluation.     

Mutual gaze and social cognition

I examine the role of mutual gaze in social cognition. I start by discussing recent studies of joint visual attention in order to show that social cognition is operative in infancy prior to the emergence of theoretical skills required to make judgments about other people's states of mind. Such social cognition depends on the communicative potential inherent in human bodies. I proceed to examine this embodied social cognition in the context of Merleau-Ponty's views on vision. I expose some inner difficulties within Merleau-Ponty's position as well as to point out the ways of resolving them by means of combined insights from developmental psychology and the analyses of self-other relations from philosophies of dialogue.