Attitude accessibility and biased information processing: The moderating role of self-monitoring

High and low self-monitors read and evaluated two studies relevant to the deterrent effects of the death penalty, one that supported its deterrent effects and one that did not. Low self-monitors’ evaluations of the studies were significantly related to the accessibility of their attitudes toward capital punishment. The more accessible their attitudes were, the more favorable, relatively, were their evaluations of the study that supported their personal attitudes toward capital punishment. In contrast, attitude accessibility was unrelated to high self-monitors’ relative evaluations. This research was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from Union College to the first author and by an Internal Educational Fund grant from Union College to the second author. We thank Alison King, Leslie Silver, and Alison Snyder for their help in data collection.     

Attitudes and uptake of a screening test: The moderating role of ambivalence

This study examined the extent to which ambivalence moderates the relationship between attitudes and screening behaviour in a clinical setting using an objective measure of behaviour. For this study 979 pregnant women eligible for prenatal Down syndrome screening completed questionnaire measures of attitudes, ambivalence and intentions towards undergoing the test. Screening behaviour, assessed by test uptake, was determined from medical records. Attitudes predicted intentions to undergo the test and screening behaviour. The correlations between attitudes and intentions and between attitudes and behaviour were greater in women with lower levels of ambivalence (r?=?0.85 and r?=?0.58, respectively) than in those with higher levels of ambivalence (r?=?0.50 and r?=?0.27, respectively). Regression analyses revealed that ambivalence moderated the relationships between attitudes and intention and between attitude and behaviour. In addition, a three-way interaction was found between ambivalence, attitudes and intention when predicting behaviour. Given that behaving consistently with attitudes is central to making an informed choice, ambivalence appears to undermine the making of such choices.     

Ingroup ambivalence and experienced affect: the moderating role of social identification

No previous work in the field of group‐related attitudes and emotions has investigated the possible affective consequences of ingroup ambivalence—that is, the consequences of having attitudes towards an ingroup that are simultaneously both positive and negative. The current study was designed to explore this issue. Ambivalent attitudes have been argued to be more psychologically salient to the individual than univalent ones. A linear increase in participants' experienced affect was therefore predicted as a function of their ambivalence toward the ingroup. However, consistent with the predictions of social identity theory, previous findings have shown that higher ingroup identifiers are more likely to be involved with the ingroup than lower identifiers. Accordingly, we predicted and found effects of ingroup ambivalence on affect for high but not low ingroup identifiers. Combining the findings of two distinct literatures, the initial evidence provided by this study exploratively traces the sources of the affective processes that are set in motion by the evaluation of one's own group in an intergroup context. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social anxiety and interpersonal stress generation: the moderating role of interpersonal distress

Background and Objectives: Existing models of social anxiety scarcely account for interpersonal stress generation. These models also seldom include interpersonal factors that compound the effects of social anxiety. Given recent findings that two forms of interpersonal distress, perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, intensify social anxiety and cause interpersonal stress generation, these two constructs may be especially relevant to examining social anxiety and interpersonal stress generation together.

Design: The current study extended prior research by examining the role of social anxiety in the occurrence of negative and positive interpersonal events and evaluated whether interpersonal distress moderated these associations.

Methods: Undergraduate students (N?=?243; M?=?20.46 years; 83% female) completed self-report measures of social anxiety, perceived burdensomeness, and thwarted belongingness, as well as a self-report measure and clinician-rated interview assessing negative and positive interpersonal events that occurred over the past six weeks.

Results: Higher levels of social anxiety were associated only with a higher occurrence of negative interpersonal dependent events, after controlling for depressive symptoms. This relationship was stronger among individuals who also reported higher levels of perceived burdensomeness, but not thwarted belongingness.

Conclusions: It may be important to more strongly consider interpersonal stress generation in models of social anxiety.     

安全依恋对人际信任的影响:依恋焦虑的调节效应

采用两个实验探讨了安全依恋启动对人际信任的影响,并考察了特质依恋风格的调节效应。实验1采用回忆书写任务启动安全依恋,采用3(启动分组:安全依恋启动,积极情绪启动,中性启动)×3(目标词类型:信任相关词,信任无关词,非词)混合实验设计考察了不同启动分组对信任词汇反应时的影响。结果发现,与积极情绪启动组和中性启动组相比,安全依恋启动能显著提高信任的词汇决策反应时,特质依恋焦虑起调节效应。实验2采用被试间设计,考察安全依恋启动对信任博弈任务中信任决策的影响,结果发现,安全依恋启动组被试在信任决策中分配的金额显著高于中性组被试,特质依恋焦虑起调节效应。研究结果验证了安全依恋对人际信任的"拓延–建构环"效应,对于促进社会信任的提升具有积极的现实意义。     

The moderating role of attitude strength in selective exposure to information

Individuals prefer to receive information that is consistent with their attitudes. Three experiments examined whether attitude strength moderates this selective exposure effect. Experiments 1A and 1B found that participants preferred attitudinally consistent information but that this effect was more pronounced to the extent that the attitude was strongly held. Experiment 2 replicated these findings and ruled out an alternative interpretation that a general tendency to hold strong attitudes rather than issue-specific attitude strength moderates selective exposure. Discussion concerns the implications of these findings and the possibility that other variables moderate the selective exposure effect.     

The influence of incentive-aroused ambivalence on overjustification effects in attitude change

Rewarding people to advocate a position with which they already agree can undermine their attitudinal positivity. This research tests a novel explanation of this example of the overjustification phenomenon. The hypothesis holds that the provision of an unnecessary incentive gives rise to an ambivalent response: the positive reaction to the reinforcement is accompanied by a sense of uneasiness, or apprehension, regarding the legitimacy of the induced behaviors. Attitude change is expected only in circumstances that confirm the apprehension. Results consistent with this expectation were discovered. In Study 1, respondents asked to play the role of a subject in an overjustification experiment reported greater levels of ambivalence regarding their (role-played) proattitudinal action as a function of payment. Contrary to alternative interpretations of the phenomenon, no incentive-related differences were found in subjects' ratings of the reprehensibility of the requested action, or in their beliefs that future activities of the type requested be undertaken only for payment. In Study 2, subjects paid to read a proattitudinal speech were found subsequently to be less in favor of their original positions only if they also had been given a counterattitudinal communication. The presence or absence of the countercommunication had no influence on the attitudes of unpaid respondents. Subjects for whom the payment was made to appear incidental to the experiment did not demonstrate the usual overjustification effect. These results supported the incentive-aroused ambivalence hypothesis. Psychological mechanisms that might underlie the effect were discussed.     

Resistance to persuasion and attitude certainty: the moderating role of elaboration

Recent research has demonstrated that when people resist persuasive attacks, they can under specifiable conditions become more certain of their initial attitudes. The present research explores the role of elaboration in determining when this effect will occur. Using both self-reported differences in situational elaboration (Study 1) and chronic individual differences in the need for cognition (Study 2), it is demonstrated that resisting persuasion increases attitude certainty primarily when elaboration is high. When elaboration is low, resisting persuasion does not appear to impact attitude certainty. These findings shed light on the role of metacognitive factors in resistance to persuasion, pinpointing the conditions under which these factors come into play.     

The moderating role of subordinate political skill on supervisors' impressions of subordinate ingratiation and ratings of subordinate interpersonal facilitation

Nearly 2 decades ago, social influence theorists called for a new stream of research that would investigate why and how influence tactics are effective. The present study proposed that political skill affects the style of execution of influence attempts. It utilized balance theory to explain the moderating effect of employee political skill on the relationships between self- and supervisor-reported ingratiation. Additionally, supervisor reports of subordinate ingratiation were hypothesized to be negatively related to supervisor ratings of subordinate interpersonal facilitation. Results from a combined sample of 2 retail service organizations provided evidence that subordinates with high political skill were less likely than those low in political skill to have their demonstrated ingratiation behavior perceived by targets as a manipulative influence attempt. Also, when subordinates were perceived by their supervisors to engage in more ingratiation behavior, the subordinates were rated lower on interpersonal facilitation. Implications of these findings, limitations, and future research directions are provided.     

The relationship between perceived interpersonal competence and self-disclosure in an online context: The moderating role of shyness

The purpose of this study is to examine the reported level of self-disclosure in online communication and understand the relationship between perceived interpersonal competence and self-disclosure in an online context, taking into account the moderating role of shyness. The study sample consists of university students (N = 585). Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses revealed that, controlling for participants' online media use, shyness moderated the relationship between online self-disclosure and perceived interpersonal competence. Moderation results showed that the relationship between online self-disclosure and perceived interpersonal competence was weaker for individuals with higher levels of shyness, and stronger for those with moderate or low scores on the shyness measure. The study's implications and contributions to the existing literature are discussed.     

Ambivalence,prejudice and negative behavioural tendencies towards out-groups: The moderating role of attitude basis

Two experiments explored the relations between prejudice (suppression), (cognitive) ambivalence and negative behavioural tendencies towards out-groups. The current work argues that expressing out-group ambivalence based on cognitive, but not affective, information is a strategy to justify one's otherwise suppressed prejudice, which may ultimately “cover” the discriminatory nature of out-group-directed negative behavioural tendencies. Two experiments show that (1) participants evaluating the out-group in a normative context inducing prejudice suppression are more likely to self-report ambivalent beliefs rather than ambivalent emotions concerning the out-group as compared with participants whose prejudice expression is induced and (2) high-prejudice participants compared with low-prejudice participants are more prone to out-group-directed negative behavioural tendencies when these latter are self-reported after the expression of ambivalent beliefs but not ambivalent emotions concerning the out-group, and when the expression of their prejudicial evaluations is salient but not when it is not. In light of the extent to which ambivalent attitudes towards out-groups are often seamlessly integrated into public discourse, the implications of the findings are discussed not only for intergroup research but also at the societal level.     

The moderation of ambivalence on attitude–intention relations as mediated by attitude importance

Attitudinal ambivalence has been found to moderate attitude–intention relations. However, no prior work has investigated the mechanisms by which this moderation effect occurs. The present research attempted to address this issue. Across two studies, there was evidence that an Ambivalence × Attitude interaction was mediated through judgements about attitude importance. Additionally, the present research ruled out the possibility that attitude certainty, a factor that is often found to be positively related to attitude importance, was not responsible for the observed mediating effects of this latter variable. While replicating previous evidence supporting the moderating properties of ambivalence on attitude–intention relations, the current research sheds light on the critical role that attitude importance plays in this relationship. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The moderating role of emotional differentiation on satiation

People tend to like experiences less the more they repeat them, a process commonly referred to as satiation. Despite an increasing interest in satiation among consumer researchers, we still know very little about the role that emotions play in the process. Through a series of three experiments, we show paradoxically that when individuals differentiate between the positive and negative emotions that arise during repeated consumption, they satiate at a slower rate. We show that a cognitive re‐appraisal process drives this emotional differentiation effect, whereby, when individuals focus on negative emotions they exhibit increased enjoyment of repeated consumption sequences. We demonstrate these effects for both trait and state emotional differentiation and across both continued and repeated consumption contexts. Theoretical implications of these findings for satiation, emotional differentiation, and emotion regulation literatures are then discussed.     

Implicit ambivalence from attitude change: an exploration of the PAST model

Traditional models of attitude change have assumed that when people appear to have changed their attitudes in response to new information, their old attitudes disappear and no longer have any impact. The present research suggests that when attitudes change, the old attitude can remain in memory and influence subsequent behavior. Four experiments are reported in which initial attitudes were created and then changed (or not) with new information. In each study, the authors demonstrate that when people undergo attitude change, their old and new attitudes can interact to produce evaluative responses consistent with a state of implicit ambivalence. In Study 1, individuals whose attitudes changed were more neutral on a measure of automatic evaluation. In Study 2, attitude change led people to show less confidence on an implicit but not an explicit measure. In Studies 3 and 4, people whose attitudes changed engaged in greater processing of attitude-relevant information than did individuals whose attitudes were not changed.     

Linking personality to interpersonal citizenship behaviour: The moderating effect of empathy

To account for generally low direct relationships between Big‐Five personality traits and interpersonal citizenship behaviour (ICB), researchers have suggested that Big‐Five traits are associated with such helping‐related behaviour in interactive rather than direct fashion. This study investigated empathy as a potential moderator of Big‐Five trait – ICB relations. Hypotheses were tested with data obtained from employees of a youth treatment facility and their supervisors. Results provided evidence that empathy interacts with three Big‐Five personality traits, suggesting traits functioning at conceptually different hierarchical levels may jointly explain specific behaviours. Empathy could play an important role in understanding connections between these Big‐Five traits and ICB.     

The moderating role of pessimism in the association between retrospective relational peer victimization,interpersonal risk factors,and suicide ideation

Peer victimization (PV) is a serious concern for youth and is associated with subsequent suicide ideation in young adulthood. The interpersonal theory of suicide may provide a framework for understanding suicide ideation in this population. Specifically, thwarted belongingness (TB) and perceived burdensomeness (PB) have been significantly associated with suicide ideation among young adults with a history of peer victimization. Additionally, the personality trait of pessimism is associated with elevated suicide ideation. Thus, this study tested the association between self-reported frequency of retrospective relational (i.e., verbal and indirect) PV in primary and secondary school, thwarted interpersonal needs (TB and PB), and current suicide ideation, as well as how these relations may vary based on current pessimism. Participants were 330 undergraduate students. Nonparametric bootstrap moderated mediation procedures were used to test hypotheses. Results indicated significant indirect effects of frequency of retrospective relational PV and suicide ideation through PB and TB. Contrary to predictions, results did not indicate significant moderated mediation; however, the association between PB and suicide ideation was stronger at lower pessimism levels. We also provide supplemental analysis with optimism as the moderator. These findings suggest that clinicians may consider targeting TB, PB, as well as pessimism and optimism among those with a history of relational PV when assessing and intervening on current suicide ideation. Implications, limitations, and future directions are further discussed.     

The moderating effect of humor style on the relationship between interpersonal predictors of suicide and suicidal ideation

This study investigated how positive and negative humor styles relate to suicidal ideation, thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness. Analyses indicated that affiliative and self-defeating humor style moderated the relationships between thwarted belongingness and suicidal ideation as well as perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation when controlling for depression. The clinical importance of assessing and tracking humor styles as potential coping mechanisms against suicidal thinking is discussed.     

Extending the bases of subjective attitudinal ambivalence: interpersonal and intrapersonal antecedents of evaluative tension

Researchers have conceptualized ambivalence as resulting from the conflicting positive and negative thoughts and feelings that a person holds toward an attitude object (intrapersonal discrepancy). The authors investigated the hypothesis that perceived interpersonal attitudinal discrepancies can also contribute to feelings of subjective ambivalence beyond that determined by intrapersonal discrepancy. Study 1 revealed that the perception of attitudinal discrepancy with one's parents was associated with greater feelings of ambivalence. Studies 2 and 3 found increased ambivalence as a function of manipulated interpersonal discrepancies. Study 4 replicated and reversed the effect, revealing that interpersonal attitudinal discrepancy with a disliked other was associated with less ambivalence. Together, these studies provide support for the proposition that, because of balance processes, interpersonal relationships influence feelings of subjective ambivalence.