A closer look at first sight: Social relations lens model analysis of personality and interpersonal attraction at zero acquaintance

Based on a new theoretical framework—the Social Relations Lens Model—this study examined the influence of personality on real‐life attraction at zero acquaintance. A group of psychology freshmen (N = 73) was investigated upon encountering one another for the first time. Personality traits, attraction ratings and metaperceptions were assessed using a large round‐robin design (2628 dyads). In line with our model, personality differentially predicted who was a liker and who expected to be liked (perceiver effects), who was popular and who was seen as a liker (target effects), as well as who liked whom and who expected to be liked by whom (relationship effects). Moreover, the influence of personality on attraction was mediated by observable physical, nonverbal and audible cues. Results allowed a closer look at first sight and underline the importance of combining componential and process approaches in understanding the interplay of personality and social phenomena. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ironic imperialism: how Russian patriots are reclaiming postmodernism

This essay analyzes the recent appearance in Russian letters of ultra-nationalist fantasies about the restoration of Russia??s imperial or totalitarian status. This new trend has its roots not only in the increasingly patriotic tone of Russian society and politics, but also in the dynamics of the literary field itself. ??Imperialist writers?? such as Aleksandr Prokhanov and Pavel Krusanov have both revived and reacted against postmodern themes and motifs from earlier decades. Relying on the legacy of sots-art and stiob, the ??imperialists?? advance a new model in Russia??s postmodern tradition, one that is balanced on the very borderline between irony and ideological militancy. In playing the game of ambiguous fanaticism, these writers have been able to attract the attention of a broad and diverse public, and have moved from an intellectual periphery into the cultural mainstream.     

Lower Cancer Rates Among Druze Compared to Arab and Jewish Populations in Israel, 1999–2009

The Druze are a small ethnic minority in Israel amounting to about 130,000 residents (or 1.7 % of the total population of the country). Unlike other population groups, the Druze strive to keep their own traditions and marry mainly inside their own community. During the last decade, cancer morbidity among both Jews and Arabs in Israel has been increasing, while data on the Druze are little known and have not been analyzed and compared to other population groups to date. To compare cancer morbidity rates among Druze, Arabs and Jews in Israel during 1999–2009, gender-specific and age-standardized incidence rates of all site cancers and specific cancers of three population groups (Jews, Arabs and Druze) were received from the Israel National Cancer Registry for the period 1999–2009. Based on these rates, periodical incidence rates were calculated and mutually compared across the groups stratified by gender. As the analysis shows, the Druze had significantly lower cancer rates compared to both Arabs and Jews. Thus, for all site cancers, there were significantly higher cancer rates in Jewish males versus Druze males (RR = 1.39, 95 % CI = 1.16–1.65) and in Jewish females versus Druze females (RR = 1.53, 95 % CI = 1.27–1.85), but not statistically significant for Arab males versus Druze males (RR = 1.12 95 % CI = 0.93–1.35). Lung cancer rates in Arab males were also higher compared to Druze males (RR = 1.84, 95 % CI = 1.13–3.00). Jewish males had statistically significant higher rates of prostate cancer compared to Druze males (RR = 2.47, 95 % CI = 1.55–3.91). For thyroid and colon cancers, risks were not significantly different at the 95 % CI level; however, the risks were significantly different at the 90 % CI level (RR = 3.62, 90 % CI 1.20–11.02 and RR = 1.69, 90 % CI = 1.03–2.77, respectively). Jewish females had significantly higher rates of invasive breast cancer (RR = 2.25, 95 % CI = 1.55–3.25), in situ cervical cancer (RR = 4.01, 95 % CI = 1.27–12.66) and lung cancer (RR = 3.22, 95 % CI = 1.12–9.24) compared to Druze females. We thus observed lower cancer rates among Druze versus Arab and Jewish populations in Israel. A reason for these differences may be due to different nutritional habits. Druze still keep a less processed nutritional lifestyle, than is common in industrial society. There may also be other reasons that have not been identified yet.     

« Contexte évaluatif,règles d’équité et d’égalité. Une approche stratégique de la justice distributive. »

This article must be considered within the framework of research on distributive justice in the organisational context (Adams, 1965; Deutsch, 1975; Colquitt and Jackson, 2002). The aim is to propose an analysis from a political point of view of the orientation towards equity and equality rules. We take as a starting point the model of political decision in the organisational context by Murphy and Cleveland (1995). The political approach postulates that one cannot pertinently give an account of the managers’ decision modes without locating them in their daily context of human relations management, and their management strategy. We will examine the links between the context of immediate management and the managers’ choices for equity or equality. The results of two studies will be presented. They tend to legitimate the relevance of this approach.     

The Changing Values of Children and Preferences Regarding Family Size in South Africa

Cette recherche élargit à un contexte africain avec la problématique suivante les études en cours sur les relations entre les générations et les valeurs attribuées aux enfants: dans quelle mesure la structure des valeurs projetées sur les enfants (VOC) repérée dans des études antérieures peut‐elle être retrouvée en Afrique du Sud et quelles sont les préférences des femmes concernant la taille des familles petite, nombreuse et idéale. L’échantillon était constitué de trois cohortes de femmes noires sud‐africaines originaires de la province de Limpopo. Des analyses factorielles ont montré que les dimensions de la VOC apparue en Afrique du Sud étaient un agrégat de différentes valeurs. Ont été isolées comme dimensions relatives au désir d’enfants Social/Emotionnel et Traditionnel/Utilitaire. Pour ce qui est des motifs expliquant le choix de ne pas avoir d’enfants sont apparus l’enfant comme source de contraintes et les contraintes que constitue le fait d’avoir un enfant. Les comparaisons entre les générations montrent des variations dans l’importance des dimensions des valeurs accordées aux enfants et dans les préférences concernant la taille de la famille. Les valeurs dont les enfants sont porteurs pour les jeunes mères étaient liées au nombre d’enfants que ces femmes avaient et à leurs préférences relatives à la taille de la famille. La discussion sur les résultats tient compte de l’évolution du contexte sociopolitique de l’Afrique du Sud. This study extends the ongoing studies on values of children and intergenerational relations into an African context with the following key questions: To what extent can the structure of values of children (VOC) identified in previous studies be found in South Africa and what are women's preferences regarding the size of small, large, and ideal families? The sample consisted of three cohorts of Black South African women from the Limpopo Province. Factor analyses showed that the dimensions of VOC found in South Africa are a conglomeration of different values. Identified dimensions were Social/Emotional and Traditional/Utilitarian with respect to reasons for wanting children. Regarding reasons for not wanting children, Child as Source of Constraints and Constraints to Have a Child were identified. Intergenerational comparisons showed variations in the importance of value of children dimensions and in preferences regarding family size. Values of children of younger mothers were related to the number of children these women had and to their preferences regarding family size. The findings are discussed within the changing socio‐political context of South Africa.     

Direct brain communication: neuroelectric and metabolic approaches at Tübingen

The brain–computer interface (BCI) provides users with the possibility of sending messages and commands to the external world without using their muscles, thus enabling communication to occur independent of movement. Such a possibility is of utmost importance for paralyzed patients who may otherwise lose their ability to communicate. Enhanced methodology and the development of faster computers have substantially improved applications and offer new possibilities in this field. To date, there have been over 20 BCI research groups working on different approaches. In this paper, we review our studies of BCI based on electric and metabolic activity of the brain.     

RACE DIFFERENCES IN TERMINATION AT WORK: THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY

Prior research has demonstrated that race, at least to some extent, is related to employment decisions such as selection and performance appraisals. However, little prior research has addressed the impact of race on employment termination. The current study investigates whether race is related to employment termination and highlights the importance of education, an important component of human capital, in understanding racial differences in termination. Results based on 548 employees from a large hotel chain indicate that race is related to termination; however, race is not predictive of termination when education is included in the regression analysis as a predictor. These findings support the notion that a societal level variable (i.e., education) is an important factor in reducing racial inequality in employment practices.     

Strategy Induction Enhances Creativity in Figural Divergent Thinking

Instructional effects in creative‐thinking tasks are important to understand in order to promote creative performance of individuals. In divergent‐thinking tasks, for example, instructional and strategic enhancement effects have been extensively studied for verbal tasks. However, while studies on instructional enhancement effects on creative drawing tasks exist, it is surprising that strategy enhancement in figural divergent thinking is still underresearched. In this study, we used a strategy manipulation approach to reassess the role of executive strategy implementation and the moderating role of an indicator of fluid intelligence, figural analogical reasoning, in two types of figural divergent‐thinking tasks (abstract vs. concrete). The sample comprised N = 75 high‐school students. Importantly, we found strategic enhancement effects by combining strategy instructions with a prompt to “be creative.” This combined instruction was contrasted with a standard instruction, and main effects were found for overall, concrete, and abstract creativity. Moreover, we found in a regression analysis a main effect for figural analogical reasoning on overall creativity and creativity for only the concrete object tasks. An expected interaction effect of instruction and figural analogical reasoning was not found. As another addition, the role of current motivation in figural divergent thinking was explored.     

Age-of-acquisition and subjective frequency estimates for all generally known monosyllabic French words and their relation with other psycholinguistic variables

Ratings for age of acquisition (AoA) and subjective frequency were collected for the 1,493 monosyllabic French words that were most known to French students. AoA ratings were collected by asking participants to estimate in years the age at which they learned each word. Subjective frequency ratings were collected on a 7-point scale, ranging from never encountered to encountered several times daily. The results were analyzed to address the relationship between AoA and subjective frequency ratings with other psycholinguistic variables (objective frequency, imageability, number of letters, and number of orthographic neighbors). The results showed high reliability ratings with other databases. Supplementary materials for this study may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society’s Archive of Norms, Stimuli, and Data, www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

Does the Implicit Association Test for assessing anxiety measure trait and state variance?

The stability of the Implicit Association Test for assessing anxiety (IAT‐Anxiety) is lower than its internal consistency, indicating that the IAT‐Anxiety measures both stable and occasion‐specific variance. This suggests that the IAT‐Anxiety may be not only a valid measure of trait anxiety but also one of state anxiety. To test this assumption, two studies were conducted in which state anxiety was experimentally induced by a public speaking task. However, both studies showed that the IAT‐Anxiety score did not change when a state of anxiety was induced. Thus, it seems that occasion‐specific factors other than variations in state anxiety lead to occasion‐specific variance in the IAT‐Anxiety score. Implications for the indirect assessment of personality dispositions with the IAT are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.