Do representations of male muscularity differ in men's and women's magazines?

Men overestimate the degree of muscularity that is attractive to women, and women overestimate the degree of thinness that is most attractive to men. Consistent with the thesis that sociocultural input influences such body type preferences and beliefs, we postulated that magazines aimed at a male audience would portray a more muscular male body ideal than would magazines aimed at a female audience. Systematic comparison of popular magazines (Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Men's Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness) revealed that the ideal male body marketed to men is more muscular than the ideal male body marketed to women. We introduce the Physical Trait Overvaluation Hypothesis, which proposes that gender-specific media fuel emphasis on certain body parts in within-gender prestige competitions. The resulting competitive escalation creates a disconnect between the preferences of one gender and the personal aspirations of the other.     

So you think you are an ally? Effects of (in)congruence between men's self-perceptions and women's perceptions of men's values and allyship on women's inclusion and vitality

As public consciousness of sexism is increasing in the workplace (e.g., #MeToo movement), labelling oneself as an ally (e.g., UN HeforShe campaign) is becoming more socially desirable for men. However, do women agree with such men in their assessments of being allies? Importantly, how does women's agreement (or not) with men's self-assessments of allyship affect women's inclusion-relevant outcomes? Using a multi-informant design and data from 101 men–women colleague pairs, this study considered men's self-perceptions and women's other-reports of men's key allyship-relevant characteristics—justice, moral courage, civility and allyship. Polynomial regression and response surface analyses revealed differential impacts of (in)congruence between men's and women's perceptions on women's sense of inclusion and vitality. Simply, when women perceived men as higher (or the same) in justice, moral courage and civility than men reported themselves, it positively predicted women's outcomes. This suggests that humble self-presentation by men on characteristics that are parallel to allyship (but not allyship) may be ideal. Yet, both under- and overestimation by men on allyship itself predicted poorer outcomes for women, suggesting that the ideal is for men to have an accurate assessment of their own strengths and weaknesses as an ally.     

The impact of different styles of traffic safety advertisement on young drivers’ explicit and implicit self-enhancement biases

This study examined the immediate psychological impact of positive and negatively framed driving advertisements on (a) deliberative and consciously reported (explicit) and (b) automatic non-conscious (implicit) self-enhancement biases in driving ability and caution (N = 150). Positively framed driving advertisements (those that showed actors modeling safe alternatives to dangerous driving) were most effective at reducing self-enhancement biases in driving ability. This effect was, however, limited to consciously accessible deliberative self-enhancement biases. Exposure to driving advertisements (either positively or negatively framed) did not significantly alter implicit, automatic self-enhancement biases (measured using a computerized reaction-time task). These findings emphasize that positively framed messages are more effective than negatively framed messages at influencing important psychological processes underlying driving behaviour, although such effects are limited, at least in their immediacy, to deliberative fast-learning (or propositional) processes. The implications of these findings for understanding the effects of driving advertisements on the different slow-learning and fast-learning social-cognitive processes underlying self-enhancement biases in young drivers’ self-perceptions, and hence driver behaviour, are discussed.     

Risk perception and acceptance--one process or two? The impact of aspirations on perceived risk and preferences

The experiments discussed here are aimed at determining whether risk perception and risk acceptance are two distinct psychological processes. This study is motivated by the idea of a double-criterion model of choice. In particular, in line with risk-value (R-V) models, in which risk is treated as a primitive, it is tested whether risk is independent of aspirations and whether preferences depend on aspirations. In two experiments, 305 university students were presented with pairs of risky projects and were asked to compare their riskiness and select one. The aspiration level, defined as the target return on the project, was set through an explicit instruction. In Experiment 1, a within-subject designwas applied, and thus aspirations were set at two different levels. In Experiment 2, with a between-subject design, two different aspiration levels were set for each group. The results indicate that risk ordering is insensitive to changes in aspirations, but preferences are sensitive to those changes. This supports distinctness of risk perception and risk acceptance. The findings are discussed in terms of the CPT and SP/A models and the R-V approach. It appears that double-criterion models provide better and psychologically sounder predictions of subjects' preferences.     

The impact of emotion on perception: bias or enhanced processing?

Recent studies have shown that emotionally significant stimuli are often better identified than neutral stimuli. It is not clear, however, whether these results are due to enhanced perceptual processing or to a bias favoring the identification of emotionally significant stimuli over neutral stimuli. The present study used a two-alternative forced-choice perceptual identification task to disentangle the effects of bias and enhanced processing. We found that emotionally significant targets were better identified than neutral targets. In contrast, the emotional significance of the foil alternative had no effect on performance. The present results support the hypothesis that perceptual encoding of emotionally significant stimuli is enhanced.     

Complaint or recommendation? The impact of customers' state and trait goal orientations on customer engagement behaviors

The importance of customer engagement behaviors (CEBs) has been widely acknowledged in marketing. CEB encompasses an interactive relationship with the engaged object. A customer's personality characteristics play an important role in the interactive process. So it is necessary to examine how customer's personality characteristics influence customer engagement behaviors. However, there has been relatively less empirical research examining the impact of a customer's personality characteristics on CEBs. Customer goal orientation (promotion orientation vs. prevention orientation) is one such important personality characteristic. This research examined how customer goal orientation influenced CEBs. We used a priming technique to examine the relationships between the customer's state goal orientation and the customer's recommendations and complaints in study 1. The results showed that customers with state promotion‐focused goal orientations initiated more recommendations than the customers with state prevention‐focused goal orientations. For complaints, the difference between these two groups was not significant. Study 2 investigated the impact of trait goal orientation on the customer's recommendations and complaints. The results showed that the trait promotion‐focused goal orientation customers were more likely to initiate both recommendations and complaints behaviors than the trait prevention‐focused goal orientation customers. The findings of the research demonstrate that customer goal orientation is an important influence on positive and negative CEBs, and state and trait goal orientations have different impacts on CEBs. This research helps companies aiming to improve their customers' CEBs by suggesting which type of customers (in terms of goal orientation) are more likely to engage. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Editorial: Harmful or helpful to learning? The impact of seductive details on learning and instruction

Most previous research found negative effects on learning outcomes when interesting but irrelevant information (i.e., seductive details) is added to an instruction. To what degree such effects are bound to specific conditions is in the focus of this special issue. Specifically, 11 empirical studies are reported within this special issue. They all address the topic of seductive details in learning and instruction by focusing either on cognitive moderators (e.g., working memory capacity and current beliefs) or on noncognitive moderators (e.g., arousal and affect) of the seductive details effect. Taken together, results from the empirical studies hint towards new moderators and suggest that the negative effects of seductive details on learning outcomes may be smaller than expected based on previous research.     

The impact of thin idealized media images on body satisfaction: Does body appreciation protect women from negative effects?

This article examines whether positive body image can protect women from negative media exposure effects. University women (N = 112) were randomly allocated to view advertisements featuring ultra-thin models or control images. Women who reported high levels of body appreciation did not report negative media exposure effects. Furthermore, the protective role of body appreciation was also evident among women known to be vulnerable to media exposure. Women high on thin-ideal internalization and low on body appreciation reported appearance-discrepancies that were more salient and larger when they viewed models compared to the control group. However, women high on thin-ideal internalization and also high on body appreciation rated appearance-discrepancies as less important and no difference in size than the control group. The results support the notion that positive body image protects women from negative environmental appearance messages and suggests that promoting positive body image may be an effective intervention strategy.     

Think, blink or sleep on it? The impact of modes of thought on complex decision making

This paper examines controversial claims about the merit of "unconscious thought" for making complex decisions. In four experiments, participants were presented with complex decisions and were asked to choose the best option immediately, after a period of conscious deliberation, or after a period of distraction (said to encourage "unconscious thought processes"). In all experiments the majority of participants chose the option predicted by their own subjective attribute weighting scores, regardless of the mode of thought employed. There was little evidence for the superiority of choices made "unconsciously", but some evidence that conscious deliberation can lead to better choices. The final experiment suggested that the task is best conceptualized as one involving "online judgement" rather than one in which decisions are made after periods of deliberation or distraction. The results suggest that we should be cautious in accepting the advice to "stop thinking" about complex decisions.     

The impact of relational demographics on perceived managerial trustworthiness: similarity or norms?

Perceived trustworthiness is a critical antecedent of interpersonal trust, yet researchers have a limited understanding of how such perceptions are generated. The authors used 2 competing perspectives within the relational demography literature--similarity-attraction and relational norms--to empirically examine the effect of demographic differences. Whereas the similarity-attraction account suggests that subordinates will perceive their managers as more trustworthy when managers and staff are similar in demographic attributes, the relational norms account proposes that subordinates will perceive their managers as more trustworthy when their demographic differences follow normative expectations. Data collected from a field study of 178 manager-subordinate dyads in Hong Kong and Macau support the relational norms account in terms of education and organizational rank. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the study.     

Does the body image exist in three dimensions? The study of visual mental representation of a body and a nonbody object

Do the mental images of 3-dimensional objects recreate the depth characteristics of the original objects? This investigation of the characteristics of mental images utilized a novel boundary-detection task that required participants to relate a pair of crosses to the boundary of an image mentally projected onto a computer screen. 48 female participants with body attitudes within expected normal range were asked to image their own body and a familiar object from the front and the side. When the visual mental image was derived purely from long-term memory, accuracy was better than chance for the front (64%) and side (63%) of the body and also for the front (55%) and side (68%) of the familiar nonbody object. This suggests that mental images containing depth and spatial information may be generated from information held in long-term memory. Pictorial exposure to views of the front or side of the objects was used to investigate the representations from which this 3-dimensional shape and size information is derived. The results are discussed in terms of three possible representational formats and argue that a front-view 2 1/2-dimensional representation mediates the transfer of information from long-term memory when depth information about the body is required.     

Take a break! or not? The impact of mindsets during breaks on negotiation processes and outcomes

In the current research, we investigate the effects of breaks—temporary recesses in which participants stop interacting and withdraw from the situation—on negotiation processes and outcomes. We conducted two laboratory experiments in which participants engaged in buyer-seller negotiations. Experiment 1 (N = 140) showed that dyads reached higher-quality agreements after a break in which they were cognitively busy with a distraction task than after a break in which they could reflect upon the negotiation. Experiment 2 (N = 76) showed that competitive thinking during a break lead to lower-quality agreements than cooperative thinking during the break. It seems that the negative effects of competitive thoughts during a break can be compensated by turning one’s mind to other issues than the negotiation, or by actively engaging in cooperative thinking.     

Sad or fearful? The influence of body posture on adults’ and children’s perception of facial displays of emotion

The current research investigated the influence of body posture on adults' and children's perception of facial displays of emotion. In each of two experiments, participants categorized facial expressions that were presented on a body posture that was congruent (e.g., a sad face on a body posing sadness) or incongruent (e.g., a sad face on a body posing fear). Adults and 8-year-olds made more errors and had longer reaction times on incongruent trials than on congruent trials when judging sad versus fearful facial expressions, an effect that was larger in 8-year-olds. The congruency effect was reduced when faces and bodies were misaligned, providing some evidence for holistic processing. Neither adults nor 8-year-olds were affected by congruency when judging sad versus happy expressions. Evidence that congruency effects vary with age and with similarity of emotional expressions is consistent with dimensional theories and "emotional seed" models of emotion perception.     

Do you really expect me to apologize? The impact of status and gender on the effectiveness of an apology in the workplace

We examine the effectiveness of apology following a workplace offense, as influenced by the achieved or ascribed status (i.e., professional status or gender) of the parties involved. A total of 780 undergraduates participated in a scenario experiment. The results demonstrate that apologizing is more effective than not apologizing. Yet apology is most effective when the apologizer is a male, a manager or is a male apologizing to a female. Moreover, apology expectancy mediates the relationships between the apologizer's status and the apology's effectiveness: Apologies are less expected from managers and males than from subordinates and females, and the less expected they are, the greater their effectiveness. Apology expectancy has a unique effect unrelated to the apologizer's sincerity and perceived motive.     

The impact of path crossing on visuo-spatial serial memory: Encoding or rehearsal effect?

The determinants of visuo-spatial serial memory have been the object of little research, despite early evidence that not all sequences are equally remembered. Recently, empirical evidence was reported indicating that the complexity of the path formed by the to-be-remembered locations impacted on recall performance, defined for example by the presence of crossings in the path formed by successive locations (Parmentier, Elford, & Maybery, 2005). In this study, we examined whether this effect reflects rehearsal or encoding processes. We examined the effect of a retention interval and spatial interference on the ordered recall of spatial sequences with and without path crossings. Path crossings decreased recall performance, as did a retention interval. In line with the encoding hypothesis, but in contrast with the rehearsal hypothesis, the effect of crossing was not affected by the retention interval nor by tapping. The possible nature of the impact of path crossing on encoding mechanisms is discussed.     

The impact of path crossing on visuo-spatial serial memory: encoding or rehearsal effect?

The determinants of visuo-spatial serial memory have been the object of little research, despite early evidence that not all sequences are equally remembered. Recently, empirical evidence was reported indicating that the complexity of the path formed by the to-be-remembered locations impacted on recall performance, defined for example by the presence of crossings in the path formed by successive locations (Parmentier, Elford, & Maybery, 2005). In this study, we examined whether this effect reflects rehearsal or encoding processes. We examined the effect of a retention interval and spatial interference on the ordered recall of spatial sequences with and without path crossings. Path crossings decreased recall performance, as did a retention interval. In line with the encoding hypothesis, but in contrast with the rehearsal hypothesis, the effect of crossing was not affected by the retention interval nor by tapping. The possible nature of the impact of path crossing on encoding mechanisms is discussed.     

Has Average Joe Got Inner Conflicts? Positioning the Self and the Meaning of Mid-Range Scores on the Big Five Traits

In this article we explore dilemmas with interpreting mid-range scores on Big Five personality traits. Using dialogical self theory, we hypothesized that mid-trait individuals would report more conflict between I-positions congruent with the trait domain concerned, for example, conflict between I-as-bold and I-as-reserved in the domain of Extraversion. A community sample of 147 participants completed a Big Five trait measure, the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), and the I-Position Inventory (IPI). The IPI contains 88 I-position statements generated from previous research and clinical assessments. Fifty-two of the statements form 26 opposing pairs (e.g., I-as-optimist vs. I-as-pessimist). To measure the most salient I-position conflicts, respondents were asked to rank these pairs (only the top five pairs were ranked). In support of the conflict hypothesis, for three of the Big Five traits, individuals who scored mid-range reported more conflict between I-positions congruent with the trait than did respondents in the upper and lower quartiles of the distribution (significant for Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Agreeableness). We argue the findings highlight problems of interpretation for mid-range trait scores that arise from the limitations of aggregation methods, but also from a compromised theoretical foundation. Trait theory masks dynamic processes as well as social contexts.     

To believe or not to believe? The joint impact of faultlines and pro-diversity beliefs on diplomats’ performance

Diversity faultlines can have a detrimental impact on team performance. To test whether this impact depends on leaders’ and members’ pro-diversity beliefs, we examined 41 leaders and 219 members of teams working for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Findings indicated that the negative impact of diversity faultlines on team performance was weakest when leaders and members held strong pro-diversity beliefs. However, we did not find support for the assumed two-way interactions between faultline strength and leaders’ or members’ pro-diversity beliefs or the mediating effect of Leader-Member Exchange. Our results highlight the joint impact of leaders’ and members’ pro-diversity beliefs for attenuating the negative consequences of diversity faultlines on team performance.     

Erratum: Bonus of rebate?: The impact of income framing on spending and saving

Bonus of Rebate?: The Impact of Income Framing on Spending and Saving. By N. Epley, D. Mak and L. C. Idson (Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 213–227, 2006). DOI: 10.1002/bdm.519 The above paper was published with an error in the title. The title should read: Bonus or Rebate?: The Impact of Income Framing on Spending and Saving.