Meta-analysis of raw mean differences

This article discusses the meta-analysis of raw mean differences. It presents a rationale for cumulating psychological effects in a raw metric and compares raw mean differences to standardized mean differences. Some limitations of standardization are noted, and statistical techniques for raw meta-analysis are described. These include a graphical device for decomposing effect sizes. Several illustrative data sets are analyzed.     

Beyond Beauty: Design Symmetry and Brand Personality

Our research explores connections between a fundamental element of visual design, namely symmetry, and consumer inferences regarding brand personality. In contrast to prior work focused on broad affective responses, we propose that symmetry plays an additional, nuanced role in the communication of brand personality. Results of four experiments reveal that asymmetry in visual brand elements is associated by consumers with brand excitement, and that the effect is driven in part by the experience of subjective arousal. These findings contribute to growing interest in visual design and consumer processing, while extending current understanding regarding the communication of brand personality.     

When a face type is perceived as threatening: Using general recognition theory to understand biased categorization of Afrocentric faces

Prior research indicates that stereotypical Black faces (e.g., wide nose, full lips: Afrocentric) are often associated with crime and violence. The current study investigated whether stereotypical faces may bias the interpretation of facial expression to seem threatening. Stimuli were prerated by face type (stereotypical, nonstereotypical) and expression (neutral, threatening). Later in a forced-choice task, different participants categorized face stimuli as stereotypical or not and threatening or not. Regardless of prerated expression, stereotypical faces were judged as more threatening than were nonstereotypical faces. These findings were supported using computational models based on general recognition theory (GRT), indicating that decision boundaries were more biased toward the threatening response for stereotypical faces than for nonstereotypical faces. GRT analysis also indicated that perception of face stereotypicality and emotional expression are dependent, both across categories and within individual categories. Higher perceived stereotypicality predicts higher perception of threat, and, conversely, higher ratings of threat predict higher perception of stereotypicality. Implications for racial face-type bias influencing perception and decision-making in a variety of social and professional contexts are discussed.     

Angry reactions to failure on a cooperative computer game: The effect of trait hostility,behavioural inhibition,and behavioural activation

This study describes the use of a “cooperative” computer game in which the subject has to follow directions, supposedly sent from a partner, and steer a tank to avoid invisible mines. The tank is lost if it hits a mine or does not reach base within a set time limit. The game was designed so that the majority of trials would be lost. Affective (mood self-ratings), cognitive (attribution of blame questionnaire), and behavioural (feedback sent to the “partner”) outcomes were assessed. The game significantly increased ratings of discontentedness and anger. Self-blame for task failure was correlated with the Guilt subscale of the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI), and blaming the partner was correlated positively with the Motor Aggression subscale and negatively with the empathy scale of the I7, supporting the notion of hostile attributional bias in adults. The importance of individual differences in the strength of the behavioural inhibition system (BIS) and behavioural activation system (BAS) were explored using the BIS/BAS scales developed by Carver and White [1994]. Sending negative feedback to the partner was negatively correlated with scores on the BIS. Scores on BAS drive were positively correlated with increases in discontentedness and with sending negative feedback on trials when the tank was lost due to lack of time. These results are discussed in relation to Berkowitz's [1993] model of affective aggression. Aggr. Behav. 24:27–36, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

The role of social axioms in predicting life satisfaction: a longitudinal study in Hong Kong

Data from a 1-year, longitudinal study were utilized to explore the role of five pan-cultural beliefs about the world (social axioms) in predicting life satisfaction. It was hypothesized that higher levels of social cynicism would predict lower satisfaction with life because cynical persons set in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy of unrewarding social outcomes. The negative social feedback thus engendered results in lower levels of self-esteem, which mediates the effect of socially cynical beliefs on life satisfaction. These findings were confirmed in a longitudinal study of Chinese undergraduates in Hong Kong. Their implications were explored by considering the role of beliefs about␣the world upon additional mediators of life satisfaction in different cultural settings and for engaging in therapeutic interventions with distressed clients.     

Supplementary Fit,Complementary Fit,and Work‐Related Outcomes: The Role of Self‐Construal

The current research investigated whether employees' self‐construals moderated the effects of supplementary fit and complementary fit on their work‐related outcomes (i.e. affective commitment and citizenship behavior). An organisational sample of 317 Chinese employees provided evidence that the relations between supplementary fit and these two work‐related outcomes were stronger among employees with a higher interdependent self‐construal. Conversely, the relations between complementary fit and work‐related outcomes were stronger among employees with a higher independent self‐construal. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Social pressures on organizational website adoption

Innovation adoption research has demonstrated that organizational features and perceived benefits of innovations play significant roles in explaining organizational‐level decisions to adopt new technologies. Beyond such motivations, however, social pressures operating at the interorganizational level have been proposed to influence the decision to adopt innovations, even without regard to any proven or anticipated benefit from the innovation itself. To empirically determine the influence of organizational features, perceived benefits, and social pressures on organizations' innovation adoption decisions, this study examined the decisions of 288 organizations to adopt Internet websites. Organizational social pressures were found to be the most significant discriminators of adopters and non adopters, although they were not particularly important in predicting the likelihood of future adoption for those organizations currently without websites. This finding suggests that social pressures are significant in innovation adoption, but that they may have their strongest effect during the early phases of innovation diffusion. Organizational features and perceived benefits were also reasonable discriminators of adopters and nonadopters as well as effective predictors of the likelihood of adoption for nonadopters. To a lesser degree, these factors were also predictive of the stage of adoption for those organizations that have already adopted websites.     

Decomposing the construct of ambivalence over emotional expression in a Chinese cultural context

The present study examined the construct of ambivalence over emotional expression proposed by King and Emmons ( 1990 ) in the Chinese context, and identified a factor structure different from those proposed in previous Western studies. The results of this study provided discriminant validity for this newly extracted two-factor structure of ambivalence, viz., Emotional Rumination and Emotional Suppression. Emotional Rumination was significantly predicted by the personality scales of introversion and inferiority, and the belief dimension of fate control, whereas Emotional Suppression was predicted by the personality scales of diversity, face, and harmony, and the belief dimension of social complexity. The different effects of Emotional Rumination and Emotional Suppression in predicting life satisfaction showed that emotional experience has its own specific characteristics in Chinese culture, and that responding to its emic characteristics will yield a more culturally responsive understanding of emotional experience and expression. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Academics' experiences of a respite from work: effects of self-critical perfectionism and perseverative cognition on postrespite well-being

This longitudinal study examined relations between personality and cognitive vulnerabilities and the outcomes of a respite from work. A sample of 77 academic employees responded to week-level measures of affective well-being before, during, and on 2 occasions after an Easter respite. When academics were classified as being either high or low in a self-critical form of perfectionism (doubts about actions), a divergent pattern of respite to postrespite effects was revealed. Specifically, during the respite, the 2 groups of academics experienced similar levels of well-being. However, during postrespite working weeks, the more perfectionistic academics reported significantly higher levels of fatigue, emotional exhaustion, and anxiety. The greater deterioration in well-being experienced by perfectionist academics when first returning to work was mediated by their tendency for perseverative cognition (i.e., worry and rumination) about work during the respite itself. These findings support the view that the self-critical perfectionist vulnerability is activated by direct exposure to achievement-related stressors and manifested through perseverative modes of thinking.