Maintenance and decay of past behavior influences: anchoring attitudes on beliefs following inconsistent actions

Three studies investigated the influence of past behavior on the stability of the attitudes it elicits. In Experiment 1, the effect of a bogus behavior feedback was long lasting when people engaged in biased scanning, presumably because this process elicits behavior-consistent beliefs. In contrast, the effect of the feedback decayed when participants were forced to consider whether the behavior might have undesirable outcomes. A second experiment using a different behavioral paradigm and a field study further supported the interpretation that individuals resolve conflict between a past behavior and subsequent beliefs about it by aligning attitudes with beliefs instead of behavior.     

The impact of domain-specific beliefs on decisions and causal judgments

Extensive evidence suggests that people often rely on their causal beliefs in their decisions and causal judgments. To date, however, there is a dearth of research comparing the impact of causal beliefs in different domains. We conducted two experiments to map the influence of domain-specific causal beliefs on the evaluation of empirical evidence when making decisions and subsequent causal judgments. Participants made 120 decisions in a two-alternative forced-choice task, framed in either a medical or a financial domain. Before each decision, participants could actively search for information about the outcome (“occurrence of a disease” or “decrease in a company's share price”) on the basis of four cues. To analyze the strength of causal beliefs, we set two cues to have a generative relation to the outcome and two to have a preventive relation to the outcome. To examine the influence of empirical evidence, we manipulated the predictive power (i.e., cue validities) of the cues. Both experiments included a validity switch, where the four selectable cues switched from high to low validity or vice versa. Participants had to make a causal judgment about each cue before and after the validity switch. In the medical domain, participants stuck to the causal information in causal judgments, even when evidence was contradictory, while decisions showed an effect of both empirical and causal information. In contrast, in the financial domain, participants mainly adapted their decisions and judgments to the cue validities. We conclude that the strength of causal beliefs (1) is shaped by the domain, and (2) has a differential influence on the degree to which empirical evidence is taken into account in causal judgments and decision making.     

Improving the future by considering the past: The impact of upward counterfactual reflection and implicit beliefs on negotiation performance

Reflecting on previous experiences and considering how things could have been better (upward counterfactual reflection) is central to learning. While researchers have identified a number of situational antecedents to upward counterfactual generation, less is known about individual differences in counterfactual reflection. We address this gap by considering how implicit beliefs regarding the fixedness or malleability of basic characteristics influence counterfactual generation. In a negotiation context, we show that individuals who believe that negotiation ability is changeable are more likely to consider how things could have been better following a negotiation experience compared to individuals who believe that negotiation ability is fixed. We further demonstrate the impact of upward counterfactual reflection on learning and performance: Negotiators who hold malleable beliefs are better able to discover creative agreements that benefit both parties in a negotiation, and these performance differences are mediated by upward counterfactual generation.     

The impact of past relationships on interpersonal behavior: behavioral confirmation in the social-cognitive process of transference

This study extended research on transference in social perception (e.g., S. M. Andersen, I. Reznik, & L. M. Manzella, 1996) into the realm of social behavior by examining behavioral confirmation (e.g., M. Snyder, 1992) in transference. Each perceiver participated in a brief conversation with a naive target participant, who either did or did not appear to resemble the perceiver's own positively or negatively regarded significant other. Trained judges rated positive affect expressed in targets' behavior. As predicted, targets expressed more positive affect in their behavior when they allegedly resembled the perceiver's own positively versus negatively toned significant other, an effect not found in the control condition. This evidence demonstrates behavioral confirmation in transference, suggesting a means by which present relationships may resemble past ones.     

The present projects past behavior into the future while the past projects attitudes into the future: How verb tense moderates predictors of drinking intentions

Three studies examined how the use of the present versus the past tense in recalling a past experience influences behavioral intentions. Experiment 1 revealed a stronger influence of past behaviors on drinking intentions when participants self-reported an episode of excessive drinking using the present tense. Correspondingly, there was a stronger influence of attitudes towards excessive drinking when participants self-reported the episode in the past tense. Experiments 2 and 3 liked this effect to changes in construal level (Liberman, Trope, & Stephan, 2007; Trope & Liberman, 2003), with the present tense being similar to a concrete construal level and the past tense being similar to an abstract construal level.     

The past,present, and future of computational models of cognitive development

Does modeling matter? We address this question by providing a broad survey of the computational models of cognitive development that have been proposed and studied over the last three decades. We begin by noting the advantages and limitations of computational models. We then describe four key dimensions across which models of development can be organized and classified. With this taxonomy in hand, we focus on how the modeling enterprise has evolved over time. In particular, we separate the timeline into three overlapping historical waves and highlight how each wave of models has not only been shaped by developmental theory and behavioral research, but in return also provided valuable insights and innovations to the study of cognitive development.     

The effect of past behavior on variety seeking: Automatic and deliberative influences

Consumers often make multiple purchases of products to use over a period of time. In doing so, they sometimes choose their most preferred option for use on each occasion. In other cases, however, they are likely to distribute their choices over several alternatives. These decision strategies could be applied either deliberately or spontaneously without awareness of the factors that give rise to their application. Three studies examined the conditions in which these spontaneous and deliberative processes exert an influence on variety seeking.     

The impact of civility interventions on employee social behavior, distress, and attitudes

Although incivility has been identified as an important issue in workplaces, little research has focused on reducing incivility and improving employee outcomes. Health care workers (N = 1,173, Time 1; N = 907, Time 2) working in 41 units completed a survey of social relationships, burnout, turnover intention, attitudes, and management trust before and after a 6-month intervention, CREW (Civility, Respect, and Engagement at Work). Most measures significantly improved for the 8 intervention units, and these improvements were significantly greater than changes in the 33 contrast units. Specifically, significant interactions indicating greater improvements in the intervention groups than in the contrast groups were found for coworker civility, supervisor incivility, respect, cynicism, job satisfaction, management trust, and absences. Improvements in civility mediated improvements in attitudes. The results suggest that this employee-based civility intervention can improve collegiality and enhance health care provider outcomes.     

Profiles of stutterers' and nonstutterers' affective, cognitive, and behavioral communication attitudes

The purposes of this investigation were 1) to profile the affective, cognitive, and behavioral attitudinal dimensions of stutterers' and nonstutterers' communication attitudes and 2) to describe membership characteristics of each profile. To this end, 76 stutterers and 81 nonstutterers completed the Inventory of Communication Attitudes. This self-report inventory obtained ratings of different types of speaking situations, using five response scales reflecting behavioral, affective, and cognitive aspects of attitudes. Exploratory cluster analysis identified six attitudinal clusters or profiles. Some profiles were more typical either of stuttering respondents or of nonstuttering respondents, whereas one profile reflected attitudes of proportionately equal numbers of stutterers and nonstutterers. Examination of profile membership characteristics revealed two significant discriminators, classification as a stutterer or nonstutterer and an overall speech rating. Nondiscriminatory characteristics included sex, age, education, therapy experiences, stuttering severity self-rating, onset of stuttering, total therapy time, current therapeutic status, and familial history.     

Atttudes and behavior: Implications of attitudes toward behavioral alternatives

The relationship between attitudes and behavior was considered. An attitudinal model of behavioral alternatives was presented and its applied and theoretical implications explicated. Three investigations were reported that tested the initial viability of the approach. Support for the model was observed in all three investigations.     

Shared cognitive processes underlying past and future thinking: the impact of imagery and concurrent task demands on event specificity

Recent literature has argued that whereas remembering the past and imagining the future make use of shared cognitive substrates, simulating future events places heavier demands on executive resources. These propositions were explored in 3 experiments comparing the impact of imagery and concurrent task demands on speed and accuracy of past event retrieval and future event simulation. Results provide support for the suggestion that both past and future episodes can be constructed through 2 mechanisms: a noneffortful "direct" pathway and a controlled, effortful "generative" pathway. However, limited evidence emerged for the suggestion that simulating of future, compared with retrieving past, episodes places heavier demands on executive resources; only under certain conditions did it emerge as a more error prone and lengthier process. The findings are discussed in terms of how retrieval and simulation make use of the same cognitive substrates in subtly different ways.     

How do I feel about the behavior? The interplay of affective associations with behaviors and cognitive beliefs as influences on physical activity behavior.

Individuals have affective associations with health behaviors. In other domains such associations have been shown to influence behavior, but affective associations with health behaviors are not included in current health decision-making models. The authors examined whether affective associations with exercise predicted individuals' activity behavior and, if so, how they interfaced with other decision-making constructs to influence behavior. Adult participants (N = 433) reported their current physical activity behavior and affective associations with physical activity. Health belief model and theory of planned behavior constructs were also assessed. More positive affective associations with activity significantly predicted greater activity behavior. Moreover, the influence of the health belief model and theory of planned behavior constructs on activity behavior was mediated through affective associations. Affective associations were shown to play a central role in individuals' activity behavior, both as a mediator of the effects of cognitively based decision-making factors and as an independent predictor of activity behavior. The results suggest the need to include affective influences on behavior in formal models of health decision making and, potentially, to explore affectively based intervention routes to change behaviors.     

The impact of cognitive predispositions on exploration decisions in the minerals industry

Minerals exploration is conducted within an environment of ambiguity in the information and a high degree of uncertainty concerning success. In an extension and application of Tetlock (2005) the present research examined the impact of cognitive predispositions on the quality of minerals exploration decision‐making. Utilising instruments specifically designed to assess thinking and judgement predispositions results indicate that for this sample (n = 94) an enjoyment of rational thinking and the need for cognitive closure were predictive of lower estimated percentages of the likelihood of finding an exploitable deposit keeping geophysical data constant. Several counter‐intuitive findings related to the relationship between likelihood and amount of expenditure were also found. The findings add further support to Tetlock's (2005) call to hold experts in all fields to account for the recommendations they make and to examine not just what they think but how they think. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of personality on cognitive, behavioral, and affective political processes: the effects of need to evaluate

Need to evaluate (NE) is a personality trait that reflects a person's proclivity to create and hold attitudes; people high in NE are especially likely to form attitudes toward all sorts of objects. Using data from the 1998 National Election Survey Pilot and the 2000 National Election Survey, NE was shown to predict a variety of important attitude-relevant cognitive, behavioral, and affective political processes beyond simply holding attitudes: NE predicted how many evaluative beliefs about candidates a person held, the likelihood that a person would use party identification and issue stances to determine candidate preferences, the extent to which a person engaged in political activism, the likelihood that a person voted or intended to vote, the extent to which a person used the news media for gathering information, and the intensity of emotional reactions a person felt toward political candidates. Thus, NE appears to play a powerful role in shaping important political behavior, emotion, and cognition.     

行为经济学在养老储蓄领域的助推应用

“行为经济学之父”Richard Thaler因在行为经济学领域的突出贡献而获2017年诺贝尔经济学奖。Thaler利用行为经济学原理提出了“明日多储蓄”项目, 助推美国养老金储蓄率的提高。在初涉养老金储蓄领域时, Thaler提出采取“自动加入”的方式提高员工养老储蓄参与率; 接着提出采取“自动升级”的方式提高员工的储蓄率, 最终形成了“明日多储蓄”项目。“明日多储蓄”项目具有自由家长主义性质, 不仅能提高员工养老储蓄参与率、储蓄率, 还能优化资产投资配置。该项目产生了深远的影响：在应用层面上, 英国、新西兰等国家跟进推出了类似的养老储蓄政策; 在研究层面上, 一批后继研究者受此启发展开了个体养老金储蓄行为背后心理学机制的探索。结合中国养老储蓄三大支柱发展不平衡的现状, 我们提出可利用框架效应、心理账户、默认选项、将损失程数由双程变为单程等行为经济学手段助推中国养老储蓄的发展。国家可以考虑通过制度设计和政策制定助推全社会养老金参与率和缴纳水平的提高。     

When good decisions have bad outcomes: The impact of affect on switching behavior

Four experiments test the hypothesis that an unfavorable outcome of a good decision leads individuals to switch away from that decision due to negative emotional responses to the outcome. Negative emotional reactions led many participants to abandon the option that they recalled as having been more successful overall in the past (Study 1) and which they expected to perform better in the future (Study 2). A prompt to consider the future success rates of the two alternatives did not eliminate switching (Study 2). An experimental manipulation in Study 3 indicated that individuals switch when they focus on their affective reactions rather than beliefs about the earlier disappointing outcome. In Study 4, individuals with a general tendency to focus on cognitions (i.e., those high in need for cognition) were less likely to switch away from the better option following a disappointing outcome. These results suggest that an emotional reaction to a negative outcome can lead people to switch away from the options that they believe are most likely to be successful on the next occasion.     

Understanding biological and social influences on religious affiliation, attitudes, and behaviors: a behavior genetic perspective

Although the transmission of religiousness has been assumed to be purely cultural, behavior genetic studies have demonstrated that genetic factors play a role in the individual differences in some religious traits. This article reviews the extant behavior genetic literature and presents new analyses from the "Virginia 30,000" on the causes of variation in religious affiliation, attitudes, and practices, and relates these to personality as construed by Eysenck. Results indicate that religious affiliation is primarily a culturally transmitted phenomenon, whereas religious attitudes and practices are moderately influenced by genetic factors. Further, Eysenck's personality traits do not mediate genetic influences on religiousness, but significant negative genetic correlations are found between church attendance and liberal sexual attitudes. Implications and possibilities for future studies are discussed.