Who's in Charge? Effects of Situational Roles on Automatic Gender Bias

Sixty European American male and female participants' implicit gender-related attitudes were assessed prior to engaging in a cross-gender dyadic interaction, according to one of three situational roles (superior, subordinate, or equal-status partner). Results revealed that the social roles affected male participants' gender attitudes. Specifically, male participants who anticipated an interaction with a female superior revealed negatively biased evaluative attitudes about women. By contrast, males who expected to interact with a female equal-status partner or subordinate revealed attitudes that were biased in favor of women. This finding highlights the importance of situational factors in the generation of implicit attitudes regarding social groups. Specifically, the present data point to the influence of situational status on males' attitudes regarding women. Implications of this work for integration and diversity initiatives are discussed.     

Bias? Who is Bias? Comments to Dellsén

Philosophia - (Dellsén, Philosophical Studies, 177(12), 3661–3678, 2020) argues that a positivistic defense of science’s objectivity is incoherent because bias in the...     

Avoiding Bias in Publication Bias Research: The Value of “Null” Findings

Meta-analytic reviews are an important tool for advancing science and guiding evidence-based practice. Publication bias is one of the greatest threats to meta-analytic reviews. This paper assesses the degree of publication bias in four previously published meta-analytic datasets from various fields of study in the organizational sciences. Of these datasets, one appears to be relatively unaffected by publication bias while the others seem to be noticeably influenced by this bias. Our “null” result (i.e., a prior meta-analytic estimate is unlikely to have been affected by publication bias) increases our confidence in the accuracy of our cumulative knowledge. Yet, our other findings suggest the presence of publication bias and point to the need for caution and further research.     

Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teaching: Students’ Self-Affirmation Reduces the Bias by Lowering Evaluations of Male Professors

Sex Roles - Students evaluate male professors higher than female professors. In a study that we presented to participants as a test of a new form for student evaluations of teaching (SETs), we...     

Situational factors and personality traits as determinants of college students’ mood

In the present study we measured three dimensions of mood (energetic arousal, tense arousal, and hedonic tone) using a student sample in six academic situations. The first three measurements took place during neutral lectures, the fourth and fifth before and after an exam, respectively, and the last during the two weeks after the exam when students’ grades were announced. Moreover, we also measured students’ personality traits according to the five factor model. The study revealed a few significant results. First, each mood dimension had different dynamics during the semester. Second, the most consistent personality predictors of mood were neuroticism (positive relationship with tense arousal and negative with hedonic tone) and conscientiousness (positive association with energetic arousal). Moreover, the results showed different relationships between tense and energetic arousals across situations, with the weakest association being before an exam.     

Who Abuses Their Coworkers? An Examination of Personality and Situational Variables

ABSTRACT

This study examines predictors of abusive employee behavior toward coworkers. We examined two personality variables, negative affectivity and political skill, and two situational relationship variables—team member exchange and coworker relationship conflict. We tested our hypotheses with data obtained from a sample of 232 working employees. We found that political skill and team member exchange were negatively related to coworker abuse, whereas negative affectivity and relationship conflict were positively related. Additionally, we found statistical support for the negative affectivity-relationship conflict, political skill-team member exchange, and political skill-relationship conflict interactions. Practical implications and directions for future research are provided.     

Situational specificity of trait influences on drivers’ evaluations and driving behaviour

This study explored the influence of anger and anxiety traits on driver evaluations and behaviour during a simulated drive. Forty-eight licensed drivers completed identical simulated driving tasks during which they rated levels of current anger, calmness and frustration or levels of danger, calmness and difficulty. Anxiety-prone drivers made higher difficultly evaluations and generally drove more cautiously. Anger-prone drivers gave higher ratings of anger and frustration, but their evaluations and anger tendencies were unrelated to their general driving behaviours. When driving behaviours in high and low anger-provoking situations were contrasted, in low anger-provoking situations, drivers higher in trait anger reported more anger and frustration and also drove faster and with more sideward movement. When driving situations were considered separately, although not overall, behaviour and evaluations were related: when forced to move sideward, drivers reported more frustration; when forced to drive more slowly, they reported more anger, and subsequently increased acceleration, throttle pressure and steering wheel use. These relationships were not moderated by trait anger. Irrespective of trait anger, drivers become angry when impeded, or in other anger-provoking situations, only drivers with high trait anger become angry and behaved aggressively in circumstances most would not consider provocative.     

Got Pain? Racial Bias in Perceptions of Pain

In the days of slavery, White people assumed that Black people felt less pain than did White people. This belief was used to justify slavery; it was also used to justify the inhumane treatment of Black men and women in medical research. Today, White Americans continue to believe that Black people feel less pain than do White people although this belief has changed from its historical, explicitly racist form. Racial attitudes do not moderate the bias, suggesting that racial bias in perceptions of others' pain is not rooted (solely) in racial prejudice. Moreover, Black Americans too believe that Black people feel less pain than do White people, suggesting that the bias is no longer grounded in intergroup dynamics. Rather, contemporary forms of this bias stem from assumptions that Black people face more hardship and “thus” can withstand more pain and assumptions that Black people's bodies are not only different but also superhuman. Although this new instantiation of the pain perception bias is decidedly more “benevolent”, it can nonetheless lead to negative outcomes. Here, we consider how racial bias in perceptions of others' pain may affect racial disparities in health care and intergroup relations more generally. We also discuss potential avenues for interventions aimed at preventing this bias among children and reducing this bias among adults.     

Friends’ Accuracy and Bias in Rating Group Identification

Group identification predicts adherence to a group’s norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors. The ability to accurately perceive another’s degree of group identification may be important for predicting the other’s beliefs and actions. In two studies, we examine friends’ accuracy and bias in rating identification with social categories. Friends were asked to rate one another’s and their own identification with state (Studies 1 and 2), national, and global citizen (Study 2) social identities. Across both studies, friends were shown to be both accurate and biased in rating one another’s identification. Thus, although friends may project identification onto a friend (i.e., bias), friends are also able to accurately predict one another’s degree of connection to social groups. Furthermore, friends’ greater frequency of contact was found to increase accuracy in prediction. Together, the results provide initial evidence for future research examining person perception and intergroup interactions.     

Is the Positive Bias an ADHD Phenomenon? Reexamining the Positive Bias and its Correlates in a Heterogeneous Sample of Children

The goals of this study were to (a) evaluate the presence of the positive bias (PB) in elementary-school-aged children with and without ADHD when PB is defined at the individual level through latent profile analysis and (b) examine the extent to which several correlates (i.e., social functioning, aggression, depression, and anxiety) are associated with the PB. Participants were 233 youth (30% female; 8 to 10 years of age), 51% of whom met criteria for ADHD. During an individual evaluation, children and parents completed a battery of questionnaires to assess child competence, depression, anxiety, and aggression. Children also participated in a novel group session with same-sex unfamiliar peers (half of the group was comprised of children with ADHD) to engage in group problem-solving tasks and free play activities. After the group session, peers and staff completed ratings of each child’s behavior (e.g., likeability, rule following). The best fitting LPA model for parent and self-ratings of competence revealed four profiles: High Competence/Self-Aware; Variable Competence/Self-Aware; Low Competence/Self-Aware; and Low Competence/PB, in which the PB was present across domains. Only 10% of youth showed a PB and youth with ADHD were no more likely to display the PB than their non-ADHD peers with similar levels of low competence. Lastly, the Low Competence/Self-Aware profile demonstrated higher levels of anxiety and depression than the Low Competence/PB profile; the profiles did not differ on aggression or peer or staff ratings of social/behavioral functioning. Implications for understanding the PB in children with and without ADHD are discussed.     

Situational moderators of leader reward and punishment behaviors: fact or fiction?

One assumption shared by many contemporary models of leadership is that situational variables moderate the relationships between leader behaviors and subordinate responses. Recently, however, R. J. House and J. L. Baetz (1979 in B. Staw & L. Cummings, Eds., Research in Organizational Behavior (Vol. 1), Greenwich, Connecticut, JAI Press) have suggested that the effects of some leader traits and behaviors may be relatively invariant; that is, have the same effects in a variety of situations. One possible class of leader behaviors which may have relatively consistent effects across situations are those known as leader reward and punishment behaviors. The first goal of the research reported here was to increase our understanding of the relationships between leader contingent and noncontingent reward and punishment behaviors and subordinate responses. Contingent reward behavior was found to have the most pronounced relationships with subordinate performance and satisfaction, followed by noncontingent punishment behavior. Neither leader noncontingent reward nor contingent punishment behavior were found to be related to either subordinate performance or satisfaction, with the exception that noncontingent reward behavior was negatively related to subordinates' satisfaction with work. The second goal of the research was to examine the effects of a variety of potential moderators on the relationships between leader reward and punishment behaviors and subordinate responses. The results of this study suggest that the relationships between leader reward and punishment behaviors and subordinates' performance are relatively free of moderating effects.     

Prediction of Action- and Thought-Oriented Response: Behavioral Style or Situational Demand?

Male college students (N = 72) were administered an occupations/activities preference scale as a measure of action- and thought-oriented behavior styles, and responded to seven TAT cards varying in degrees of “stimulus pull” for action and thought modes of expression. Verbs in TAT stories were assigned to action and thought categories. Mean percentages of action and thought verbs were significantly related to both Ss’ behavior styles and to TAT stimulus demands. The results support Phillips’ (1968) action-thought typology, but suggest that situational demand may be equally as important as behavior style in determining one's action or thought mode of response in a given situation. Additional results raised questions concerning the adequacy of Phillips’ developmental conceptualization of action-thought behavior styles.     

Married Women’s Situational Use of Last Names: An Empirical Study

Situational last name use was examined in a sample of 600 married women who responded to a mail survey. The sample was selected from the faculty and staff of a state university in the Midwest with over-sampling of women whose last name differed from their husband’s last name. Overall, 12% of married women reported situational last name use. Women from all last name choices (e.g., changed to husband’s, kept birth surname) reported situational surname use, but the most common occurrence of this practice was among hyphenators. Situational users were most likely to use their husband’s last name in family situations and their birth surname in professional situations. Factors that increase situational last name use included full-time employment, higher levels of educational attainment, and an older age at marriage. Situational last name use by married women can be seen as a manifestation of ambiguity over identity with family and non-family roles.     

Conformity Bias: A Fact or an Experimental Artifact?

Upon exploring social psychology’s treatment of the term social influence, a skew towards conformity is noted. This skew points to the tendency of amplifying the effect of conformity and minimizing any other form of social influence and has been termed ‘conformity bias’. This review explores the concept of conformity and tries to examine what conformity entails and how it has been understood (and often misunderstood). It is observed that conformity is not a unitary concept and has various facets to it. Besides identifying key disciplinary features such as methodology and ideology that may be possible causes of this skew, implications of this bias are discussed. Failure to identify and move beyond conformity bias may lead to failure in recognizing real social issues. Therefore, it becomes imperative that researchers be wary of this bias and take steps to consciously overcome it.     

Cultural Differences in Belief Bias Associated with Deductive Reasoning?

Norenzayan, Smith, Jun Kim, and Nisbett (2002) investigated cultural differences in the use of intuitive versus formal reasoning in 4 experiments. Our comment concerns the 4th experiment where Norenzayan et al. reported that, although there were no cultural differences in accuracy on abstract logical arguments, Koreans made more errors than U.S. undergraduates in judging the logical validity of concrete arguments. Norenzayan et al. concluded that Koreans are less likely than European Americans to decontextualize an argument's content from its logical structure, as Koreans were more likely to consider the believability of the conclusion when assessing an argument's validity (a belief bias). Notably, Korean participants were more conservative (less likely to say an argument is valid) than European American participants when assessing arguments. An analysis of the average of the hit and correct rejection rates in each of the conditions (abstract, concrete–believable, concrete–nonbelievable) revealed that, contrary to conclusions of Norenzayan et al., European Americans were no better than Koreans at determining the validity of concrete deductive arguments with conclusions varying in believability.     

Explaining Jury Verdicts: Is Leniency Bias for Real?

Laboratory research suggests juries that begin deliberation with a strong majority (i.e., 2/3 or more) usually end up choosing the verdict favored by this majority, whereas those without a strong majority generally acquit or hang. We tested the robustness of these findings in the field by examining trial and deliberation correlates of jury verdicts using data from 79 criminal jury trials held in Indiana. As expected, several trial characteristics and the first-vote preference distribution were related to jury verdicts. However, there was no evidence of leniency bias—75% of those juries without a 2/3 majority on the first deliberation vote ended up convicting. Contributions of the study, limitations, and alternative explanations for the observed severity bias are discussed.