Developing cognitions about race: White 5‐ to 10‐year‐olds' perceptions of hardship and pain

White American adults assume that Blacks feel less pain than do Whites, but only if they believe that Blacks have faced greater economic hardship than Whites. The current study investigates when in development children first recognize racial group differences in economic hardship and examines whether perceptions of hardship inform children's racial bias in pain perception. Five‐ to 10‐year‐olds (N = 178) guessed which of two items (low versus high value) belonged to a Black and a White child and rated the amount of pain a Black and a White child would feel in 10 painful situations. By age 5, White American children attributed lower‐value possessions to Blacks than Whites, indicating a recognition of racial group differences in economic hardship. The results also replicated the emergence of a racial bias in pain perception between 5 and 10. However, unlike adults', children's perceptions of hardship do not account for racial bias in pain perception.     

Gender gaps in cognitive and social‐emotional skills in early primary grades: Evidence from rural Indonesia

This paper examines the magnitude and source of gender gaps in cognitive and social‐emotional skills in early primary grades in rural Indonesia. Relative to boys, girls score more than 0.17 SD higher in tests of language and mathematics (cognitive skills) and between 0.18 and 0.27 SD higher in measures of social competence and emotional maturity (social‐emotional skills). We use Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to investigate the extent to which gender differences in early schooling and parenting practices explain these gender gaps in skills. For cognitive skills, differences in early schooling between boys and girls explain between 9% and 11% of the gender gap whereas differences in parenting practices explain merely 3%–5% of the gender gap. This decomposition result is driven largely by children living in villages with high‐quality preschools. In contrast, for social‐emotional skills, differences in parenting styles toward boys and girls explain between 13% and 17% of the gender gap, while differences in early schooling explain only 0%–6% of the gender gap.     

Backlash for high self-promotion at hiring depends on candidates' gender and age

Previous research has shown that evaluators react negatively to intense, high levels of self-promotion during the interview, in particular when displayed by female candidates, presumably because these behaviors violate the female gender stereotype of being modest and putting others first. We expand this focus on a single social category and examine the joint effects of gender and age on reactions to high self-promotion/low modesty, as both gender and age stereotypes contain normative expectations regarding assertiveness and humility. Results of our experimental study point out two groups at risk of backlash, older women and younger men. While both older female and younger male candidates engaging in high self-promotion were seen as competent, they were regarded as less interpersonally warm, received lower interview performance ratings, and were less likely to be hired. These results provide evidence for the importance of applying an intersectional lens on the effects of self-promotion at hiring. Their implications for theory and practice as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Testing the basic socio‐structural assumptions of social identity theory in the gender context: Evidence from correlational studies on women's leadership

Given negative social identity, different perceptions of the structure of an intergroup relation (i.e., stability, legitimacy, permeability) should be related to different identity‐management strategies (i.e., social competition, social creativity, or individual mobility) depending on group identification. This is among the basic tenets of social identity theory (SIT). There is surprisingly little empirical support for these postulates in the context of one of the most central group identities: gender. Using a sample of women in leadership positions in Spain (N = 649), we tested relations between structural perceptions and identity‐management strategies in a pilot study. Structural equation modeling yielded empirical support regarding social competition, but little for social creativity or individual mobility. Identity‐management strategies were related to one organizational outcome (i.e., identification with the organization). The preregistered main study is intended to replicate and extend these findings using a different sample while improving several of the measures used.     

Gender Hierarchy in the Space: The Role of Gender Status in Shaping the Spatial Agency Bias

According to the Spatial Agency Bias (SAB), more agentic groups (men) are envisioned to the left of less agentic groups (women). This research investigated the role of social status in shaping the spatial representation of gender couples. Participants were presented pairs consisting of one male and one female target who confirmed gender stereotypes. The status of the targets in each pair was systematically varied (high-status vs. low-status job). Participants chose the target order (female/male vs. male/female) they preferred. In line with gender-status expectations (male: high-status, female: low-status), a male in a high-status job led to a spatial arrangement that favored the male/female order, regardless of the status of the female target. The female/male order was favored only when the female had a high-status job and the male a low-status job. No SAB occurred for pairs in which both targets displayed low-status jobs. The implications of status for the SAB are discussed.     

Examining awareness of privilege among midwestern college students: An analysis of race/ethnicity,gender, and religion

Dominant group members often are not aware of the privileges they benefit from due to their dominant group membership. Yet individuals are members of multiple groups and may simultaneously occupy multiple categories of dominance and marginality, raising the question of how different group memberships work in concert to facilitate or inhibit awareness of multiple forms of privilege. Examining awareness of privilege is important as awareness may be linked to action to dismantle systems of privilege that maintain oppression and inequality. Grounded in intersectional scholarship, in this study we examined how occupying intersecting categories of race/ethnicity, gender, and religion corresponded to an awareness of White, male, and Christian privilege. In a sample of 2321 Midwestern college students, we demonstrated that students from marginalized groups broadly reported greater awareness of all forms of privilege than students from dominant groups, and the difference between marginalized and dominant groups was most pronounced when the specific group category (e.g., gender) aligned with the type of privilege (e.g., male privilege). We also tested interactions among race/ethnicity, gender, and religion, only finding an interaction between race/ethnicity and religion for awareness of White and male privilege. These findings helped to clarify that multiple group memberships tended to contribute to awareness as multiple main effects rather than as multiplicative. Finally, we examined mean differences among the eight intersected groups to explore similarities and differences among groups in awareness of all types of privilege. Taken together, these findings quantitatively demonstrate the ways in which group memberships work together to contribute to awareness of multiple forms of privilege. We discuss study limitations and implications for community psychology research and practice.     

Control of voice gender in pre‐pubertal children

Adult listeners are capable of identifying the gender of speakers as young as 4 years old from their voice. In the absence of a clear anatomical dimorphism in the dimensions of pre‐pubertal boys' and girls' vocal apparatus, the observed gender differences may reflect children's regulation of their vocal behaviour. A detailed acoustic analysis was conducted of the utterances of 34 6‐ to 9‐year‐old children, in their normal voices and also when asked explicitly to speak like a boy or a girl. Results showed statistically significant shifts in fundamental and formant frequency values towards those expected from the sex dimorphism in adult voices. Directions for future research on the role of vocal behaviours in pre‐pubertal children's expression of gender are considered.     

Holistic processing for faces and cars in preschool‐aged children and adults: evidence from the composite effect

The current study compared the development of holistic processing for faces and non‐face visual objects by testing for the composite effect for faces and frontal images of cars in 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children and adults in a series of four experiments using a two‐alternative forced‐choice recognition task. Results showed that a composite effect for faces was present as early as years, and none of the age groups tested showed signs of a composite effect for cars. These findings provide the first demonstration that holistic processing is already selective for faces in early childhood, and confirm existing evidence that sensitivity to holistic information in faces does not increase from 4 years to adulthood.     

Social Anxiety and Content Specificity of Interpretation and Judgemental Bias in Children

Previous research with adult samples has demonstrated that social anxiety disorder is associated with content‐specific interpretation and judgemental biases. The present study extends our understanding of the specificity of cognitive biases in childhood social anxiety. A sample of non‐clinical children aged 11–12 years completed social anxiety and depression scales and was presented with scenarios depicting hypothetical events varying along two dimensions: relevance to self (event occurs to self or to other) and domain of activity (event is social or non‐social). Partial support for the content‐specificity hypothesis was found. Children's social anxiety symptoms were positively associated with negative interpretation ratings for ambiguous self‐referent and other‐referent events, but only when these events were in the social domain. Further, children's social anxiety symptoms were positively associated with emotional cost judgements for ambiguous social and non‐social events, but only when these events referred to the self. Both patterns of results remained significant even after controlling for concurrent depressive symptoms. Implications of the results for our understanding of maintaining factors in childhood social anxiety are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

事后聪明式偏差的理论模型及影响因素

事后聪明式偏差是指人们在得知事件结果后,会因记忆扭曲、对自身预测能力或事件发生必然性的需要的诱发,而表现出过高估计自己在事前预测能力的现象。许多研究表明,该偏差普遍存在于实验和真实情境中,很难通过实施策略而减小。该现象的理论模型主要基于认知过程和社会性动机,影响因素有研究方法、个人特质、能力变量、年龄因素、个人相关度和事件效价,在未来研究中应注重对理论的整合以及校正策略在应用中的探索     

Gender Bias in the Personality Disorders Criteria: An Investigation of Five Bias Indicators

This study examined possible gender bias in personality disorder criteria by considering a number of potential empirical indicators of bias: prevalence differences in a nonclinical sample; the implications of gender differences as perceived by nonprofessionals; the internal consistency of criteria as a function of gender; and the gender-normativeness of criteria. One hundred one participants familiar with the DSM-IV completed questionnaires assessing the presence of each criterion, and the perceived implications of the criteria for men and women. Results showed that the global mean self-rating for the criteria did not differ as a function of gender although there were some differences for individual criteria. Criteria that were more prevalent in one gender appeared to be viewed as a greater problem for that gender. The criteria also appeared to be measuring abnormal rather than gender-normative behaviors. Twelve criteria demonstrated differential convergence with other indicators of disorder as a function of gender, with most converging better for men than for women.     

社会同步对内隐攻击性的弱化作用: 影响注意偏向的眼动证据

社会同步作为“社会粘合剂”,能够对社会性产生明显的影响。本研究旨在考察社会同步对内隐攻击性弱化作用的认知机制。研究将45名内隐攻击性水平不同的被试随机分配为三组,完成在模棱两可情境下基于SIP模型的对敌意线索和非敌意线索的第一遍注视。研究结果进一步支持了解释优先模型。同时也表明,社会同步能够在一定程度上减弱高内隐攻击性个体的攻击性倾向,而不会对低内隐攻击性水平的个体产生负面影响。     

Irrelevant‐action imitation is short‐term and contextual: Evidence from two under‐studied populations

Across the lifespan and across populations, humans ‘overimitate’ causally unnecessary behaviors. Such irrelevant‐action imitation facilitates faithful cultural transmission, but its immediate benefits to the imitator are controversial. Over short time scales, irrelevant‐action imitation may bootstrap artifact exploration or interpersonal affiliation, and over longer time scales it may facilitate acquisition of either causal models or social conventions. To investigate these putative functions, we recruited community samples from two under‐studied populations: Yasawa, Fiji, and Huatasani, Peru. We use a two‐action puzzle box: first after a video demonstration, and again one month later. Treating age as a continuous variable, we reveal divergent developmental trajectories across sites. Yasawans (44 adults, M = 39.9 years, 23 women; 42 children, M = 9.8 years, 26 girls) resemble documented patterns, with irrelevant‐action imitation increasing across childhood and plateauing in adulthood. In contrast, Huatasaneños (48 adults, M = 37.6 years, 33 women; 47 children, M = 9.3 years, 13 girls) evince a parabolic trajectory: adults at the site show the lowest irrelevant‐action imitation of any demographic set in our sample. In addition, all age sets in both populations reduce their irrelevant actions at Time 2, but do not reduce their relevant‐action imitation or goal attainment. Taken together, and considering the local cultural contexts, our results suggest that irrelevant‐action imitation serves a short‐term function and is sensitive to the social context of the demonstration.     

Selection of gender‐incongruent applicants: No gender bias with structured interviews

Research suggests that the use of structured interviews can reduce gender bias in hiring. However, studies have been limited to gender‐neutral professions or laboratory simulations. The current study evaluated two components of the structured interview in a field sample of 691 applicants interviewing for a male‐dominated position of public transit operator. Multilevel modeling results show no significant differences in ratings across applicant gender with this highly structured interview. This relation was found in individual interviewer ratings and consensus panel ratings, as well as irrespective of interviewer gender and interviewer participation in comprehensive versus minimal training in structured interviewing. This study provided a conservative test in a male‐dominated profession to further validate the value of the structured interview for promoting equal hiring practices.     

‘I Remember When I Learned That!’ developmental and gender differences in children's memories of learning episodes

Eighty 4‐ to 9‐year‐old children answered factual knowledge questions in math, science and social studies during one‐on‐one interviews. Children indicated whether they had known or guessed each answer, and whether they (a) remembered the moment they learned the answer (episodic response) or (b) did not remember. For episodic responses, children provided memory narratives of learning episodes. One third of children's responses identified a learning episode. There was a developmental trend in which older children were more episodic than younger children, and when children knew and provided correct answers, there was a gender difference in which females were more episodic than males. Developmental and gender differences in the characteristics of memory narratives were also apparent. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring and Reducing Religious Bias in Post‐Conflict Zones: Evidence from Côte d'Ivoire

This article explores how religious bias, once it has been cultivated through politicization and violence, can be reduced. Using foundations from social identity theory and superordinate goal theory, I develop post‐conflict bias reduction strategies that include competing types of superordinate messages, economic and theological, as well as different sources of those messages. To test these strategies, I use video‐based information treatments coupled with Implicit Association Tests in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire. The experimental findings point to three conclusions. First, implicit Muslim‐Christian bias in the study area remains high. Second, Christians in the study tend to be more biased against Muslims than Muslims are against Christians. Third, the effectiveness of treatments depends on the subjects who receive those treatments: theological messages are most effective in reducing bias among Muslims, regardless of their source, and strategies that rely on political leaders to deliver messages perform best among Christians, regardless of the content.     

Perspective taking and member‐to‐group generalization of implicit racial attitudes: The role of target prototypicality

Actively considering an individual outgroup member's thoughts, feelings, and other subjective experiences —perspective taking— can improve attitudes toward that person's group. Here, we tested whether such member‐to‐group generalization of implicit racial attitudes is more likely when perspective‐taking targets are viewed as prototypical of their racial group. Results supported a gendered‐race‐prototype hypothesis: The positive effect of perspective taking on implicit attitudes toward Black people and Asian people, respectively, was stronger when the perspective‐taking target was a Black man or Asian woman (gender–race prototypical) versus a Black woman or Asian man (gender–race nonprototypical). These findings identify a boundary condition under which perspective taking may not improve intergroup attitudes and add to a growing literature on social cognition at the intersection of multiple social categories.     

First‐hand sensory experience plays a limited role in children's early understanding of seeing and hearing as sources of knowledge: Evidence from typically hearing and deaf children

One early‐developing component of theory of mind is an understanding of the link between sensory perception and knowledge formation. We know little about the extent to which children's first‐hand sensory experiences drive the development of this understanding, as most tasks capturing this early understanding target vision, with less attention paid to the other senses. In this study, 64 typically hearing children (M_age = 4.0 years) and 21 orally educated deaf children (M_age = 5.44 years) were asked to identify which of two informants knew the identity of a toy animal when each had differing perceptual access to the animal. In the ‘seeing’ condition, one informant saw the animal and the other did not; in the ‘hearing’ condition, one informant heard the animal and the other did not. For both hearing and deaf children, there was no difference between performance on hearing and seeing trials, but deaf children were delayed in both conditions. Further, within both the hearing and deaf groups, older children outperformed younger children on these tasks, indicating that there is a developmental progression. Taken together, the pattern of results suggests that experiences other than first‐hand sensory experiences drive children's developing understanding that sensory perception is associated with knowledge.     

Distinguishing the Ratio Bias from Unsystematic Error: Situation and Individual‐difference Effects

People often perceive the occurrence of events to be less likely when the likelihood of the event is expressed in ratios consisting of smaller numbers versus larger numbers, an effect known as the ratio bias. This work presents a theoretical framework for the conditions that need to be met for the ratio bias to occur. In doing so, we contrast effects on the ratio bias to those on unsystematic error, which have often been confounded in previous research. We find that the ratio bias is weaker (1) when both sets of numbers are relatively large than when both sets of numbers are relatively small; (2) for scenarios involving lottery tickets than for scenarios involving drawing balls from a bin; and (3) when a physical display depicting the numbers is provided to participants. Each of these factors reduced the ratio bias without reducing unsystematic error. Additionally, we show that unsystematic error is lower among people who (1) reason on the basis of proportions rather than on the basis of the numerator and denominator individually; (2) score higher on the rational scale of the Rational–Experiential Inventory; and (3) are of higher numeracy. We use these results to distinguish causes of error generally from those on the ratio bias specifically and discuss the implications for our understanding of when the ratio bias occurs. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.