Cooperation in Mixed‐Motive Games: The Role of Individual Differences in Selfish and Social Orientation

In mixed‐motive games, people must choose between acting upon selfish interests and concerns for others. Yet, the consistency of people's behaviour across these various games is still unclear. If the same conflict between self and others is at the core of all mixed‐motive situations, three hypotheses can be stated: (1) behaviours in different mixed‐motive games should be substantially related; (2) all these games should substantially appeal to dispositional variables that probe in the psychological conflict between self and others; and (3) these dispositional variables should explain the shared variance among various games. These hypotheses were tested among undergraduate students (N = 219) who played seven different single‐shot mixed‐motive games and one sequential game. Social Value Orientation and the ideological attitudes Social Dominance Orientation and Right‐Wing Authoritarianism were included as dispositions. Our findings, however, showed evidence that did not fully substantiate our hypotheses, which calls into question the general idea that all mixed‐motive games render the conflict between selfish interests and concern for others salient. In the discussion, we focus on implications for research on mixed‐motive situations and elaborate on the role of ideology in this domain. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The Association of Cognitive Ability with Right‐wing Ideological Attitudes and Prejudice: A Meta‐analytic Review

The cognitive functioning of individuals with stronger endorsement of right‐wing and prejudiced attitudes has elicited much scholarly interest. Whereas many studies investigated cognitive styles, less attention has been directed towards cognitive ability. Studies investigating the latter topic generally reveal lower cognitive ability to be associated with stronger endorsement of right‐wing ideological attitudes and greater prejudice. However, this relationship has remained widely unrecognized in literature. The present meta‐analyses revealed an average effect size of r = ?.20 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) [?0.23, ?0.17]; based on 67 studies, N = 84 017] for the relationship between cognitive ability and right‐wing ideological attitudes and an average effect size of r = ?.19 (95% CI [?0.23, ?0.16]; based on 23 studies, N = 27 011) for the relationship between cognitive ability and prejudice. Effect sizes did not vary significantly across different cognitive abilities and sample characteristics. The effect strongly depended on the measure used for ideological attitudes and prejudice, with the strongest effect sizes for authoritarianism and ethnocentrism. We conclude that cognitive ability is an important factor in the genesis of ideological attitudes and prejudice and thus should become more central in theorizing and model building. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Effect of consonant/vowel letter organisation on the syllable counting task: evidence from English

Recent studies in alphabetic writing systems have investigated whether the status of letters as consonants or vowels influences the perception and processing of written words. Here, we examined to what extent the organisation of consonants and vowels within words affects performance in a syllable counting task in English. Participants were asked to judge the number of syllables in written words that were matched for the number of spoken syllables but comprised either 1 orthographic vowel cluster less than the number of syllables (hiatus words, e.g., triumph) or as many vowel clusters as syllables (e.g., pudding). In 3 experiments, we found that readers were slower and less accurate on hiatus than control words, even when phonological complexity (Experiment 1), number of reduced vowels (Experiment 2), and number of letters (Experiment 3) were taken into account. Interestingly, for words with or without the same number of vowel clusters and syllables, participants’ errors were more likely to underestimate the number of syllables than to overestimate it. Results are discussed in a cross-linguistic perspective.     

Openness as a Predictor of Political Orientation and Conventional and Unconventional Political Activism in Western and Eastern Europe

This study provides a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between Openness and political orientation and activism in Europe. Analyses were conducted on the 4 waves of the European Social Survey, including large representative samples in up to 26 European countries (total N > 175,000). In line with previous studies, a robust, positive relationship between Openness and left-wing political orientation was obtained in Western Europe. However, in Eastern Europe, the relationship between Openness and political orientation was weaker, and reversed in 3 out of 4 waves. Moreover, Openness yielded significant positive relationships with unconventional activism and to a lesser degree with conventional activism. The magnitude of the relationship between Openness and activism was dependent on political orientation and region. Stronger associations between Openness and activism were found for those having a left-wing orientation in Western Europe, whereas in Eastern Europe, Openness was somewhat stronger related to activism for those having a right-wing orientation. In the discussion we elaborate on the role of the geopolitical context in the relationship between Openness and political variables.     

Personality,Relationships with Others and Psychological Well-Being: A Pilot Study on the Gabonese Older People

Each Individual is linked to his social environment by support relationships. This concern both aid that the individual himself provides and his social resources. We studied the hypothesized mediator role, in aging, of relationship with others, including in particular perceived social support (PSS) and compassionate love (CL). PSS and CL were studied in the link between personality and psychological well-being (PWB) to Gabonese older people. The data were collected using Likert  questionnaires in a sample of 155 (94 men and 61 women) older people. Findings revealed the mediator role of CL between two dimensions of personality (agreeableness and openness) on the one hand and PWB on the other side. PSS was also found to be a mediator only between agreeableness and PWB. Our findings support the influence of relationship with others in enhancing PWB. The latter would be more fostered when individuals receive and give support. The present study has implications in nursing home as well as at home. It allows relatives to better interact and take their parents to foster their PWB. Similarly, it may contribute to health care research and provide knowledge about older people care at nursing home. It encourages the implementation of clinical interventions in a goal of promoting social interactions in which older people can give compassionate love and receive social support. Finally, the study highlights the importance of the development of person-centred practice in Nursing Home Services.     

Psycholinguistic norms for action photographs in French and their relationships with spoken and written latencies.

A set of 142 photographs of actions (taken from Fiez & Tranel, 1997) was standardized in French on name agreement, image agreement, conceptual familiarity, visual complexity, imageability, age of acquisition, and duration of the depicted actions. Objective word frequency measures were provided for the infinitive modal forms of the verbs and for the cumulative frequency of the verbal forms associated with the photographs. Statistics on the variables collected for action items were provided and compared with the statistics on the same variables collected for object items. The relationships between these variables were analyzed, and certain comparisons between the current database and other similar published databases of pictures of actions are reported. Spoken and written naming latencies were also collected for the photographs of actions, and multiple regression analyses revealed that name agreement, image agreement, and age of acquisition are the major determinants of action naming speed. Finally, certain analyses were performed to compare object and action naming times. The norms and the spoken and written naming latencies corresponding to the pictures are available on the Internet (http://www.psy.univ-bpclermont.fr/~pbonin/pbonin-eng.html) and should be of great use to researchers interested in the processing of actions.     

French normative data and naming times for action pictures.

The aim of the present study was to provide French normative data for 112 action line drawings. The set of action pictures consisted of 71 drawings taken from Masterson and Druks (1998) and 41 additional drawings. It was standardized on six psycholinguistic variables--that is, name agreement, image agreement, image variability, visual complexity, conceptual familiarity, and age of acquisition (AoA). Naming latencies to the action pictures were collected, and a regression analysis was performed on the naming latencies, with the standardized variables, as well as with word frequency and length, taken as predictors. A reliable influence of AoA, name agreement, and image agreement on the naming latencies was observed. The findings are consistent with previous published studies in other languages. The full set of these norms may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Keeping the vermin out: Perceived disease threat and ideological orientations as predictors of exclusionary immigration attitudes

Integrating evolutionary and social representations theories, the current study examines the relationship between perceived disease threat and exclusionary immigration attitudes in the context of a potential avian influenza pandemic. This large‐scale disease provides a realistic context for investigating the link between disease threat and immigration attitudes. The main aim of this cross‐sectional study (N = 412) was to explore mechanisms through which perceived chronic and contextual disease threats operate on immigration attitudes. Structural equation models show that the relationship between chronic disease threat (germ aversion) and exclusionary immigration attitudes (assimilationist immigration criteria, health‐based immigration criteria and desire to reduce the proportion of foreigners) was mediated by ideological and normative beliefs (social dominance orientation, belief in a dangerous world), but not by contextual disease threat (appraisal of avian influenza pandemic threat). Contextual disease threat only predicted support for health‐based immigration criteria. The conditions under which real‐life disease threats influence intergroup attitudes are scrutinized. Convergence and dissimilarity of evolutionary and social representational approaches in accounting for the link between disease threat and immigration attitudes are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.