Polarization as a function of meaning and consequences

Studied the effect of meaning and consequences on shifts toward extreme judgments (polarization) as a result of group discussion. Since it was hypothesized that high levels of both meaning and consequences would activate pressures to conform to the appropriate cultural norm, greater polarization was predicted under those conditions. Consequences were varied by asking subjects how willing they were to participate in another actual (high consequences) or hypothetical (low consequences) experiment. Meaning was varied by information that the proposed experiment would have high or low social and scientific significance. Sixty male college students discussed their preferences in three-person groups. Prediscussion, consensus, and postdiscussion scores were obtained; the critical polarization scores were computed on the basis of individual's movement away from the prediscussion mean of their group. Partial support for the hypotheses is provided by a cross-over interaction (p < .05) in changes from the prediscussion to consensus scores, which indicate greater polarization in the high-meaning, low-consequence condition, and in the low-meaning, high-consequence condition. The results are discussed with respect to their implications for research in which subjects do not expect real consequences to follow from their statements of opinion.     

Effects of group variance and advocated position on conformity1

A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was used to test the influence of amount of group variance, direction of advocated shift, and judgmental instruction sets on conforming responses The hypothesis predicted an interaction where conformity was maximized, with less variance under empirical validation instructions and with more variance under social validation instructions Subjects were preselected for neutral opinions on three items, which were subsequently used as experimental items Social influence was induced by making the responses of four other subjects available on each trial These responses were dispersed with either greater or lesser amounts of variance and either agreed or disagreed with the statement Instructions indicating that expert evaluation was available provided empirical validation instructions, while alternate instructions indicating lack of standardized norms provided social validation instructions Subjects changed opinions significantly more when the group advocated agreement than when it advocated disagreement on the issue The major hypothesis was partially supported by the data Responses on a postexperimental item indicated preferences for less variance under empirical instructions sets but preference for greater variance under social instructions sets The conformity results suggested that the predicted interaction may occur only if the situational context is favorable, as when the group advocates agreement on an issue     

Are children any more logical than monkeys on the five-term series problem?

Six-year-old children were tested on several versions of the five-term transitivity problem as used by B. O. McGonigle and M. Chalmers (1977, Nature (London), 267, 694–696) with squirrel monkeys as subjects. Both binary and triadic versions of the tests were administered in both verbal and nonverbal modes to help determine whether or not any major procedural differences between the monkey version and that used conventionally in research with children might account for the monkey's apparently nonlogical solution of the problem. The main result is that children showed very similar response profiles to that of monkeys in all the conditions used. In addition, “labeling”, direct seriation, and “association” post-tests suggest that nonlogical strategies can underwrite ostensibly impeccable transitive “reasoning” in child as well as monkey.     

Some Psychological and Social Attitude Correlates of Northern Ireland University Students' Contact with the Civil Disturbances

Northern Ireland university students' contact with the Northern Ireland civil disturbances was examined with regard to five dimensions: Friends' Contact; Bomb Contact; Confrontation or Riot Contact; Harassment; and Property Damage. Confrontation and Bomb contact dimensions were further investigated in terms of their personality, social attitude, and alcohol use correlates. Since analyses of variance did not differentiate Protestants and Roman Catholics in terms of intelligence, socioeconomic status, age, location of residence (rural-urban), or religious homogeneity of peer group with regard to these two contact dimensions, these two groups were combined in stepwise discriminant analyses. The discriminant analyses suggested that, for both genders, contact with the "troubles" may be conceptualized in terms of a positive feedback loop involving social dissatisfaction and helplessness combining with previous contacts to produce future contacts. Further, having been in a bombing appeared to subdue males, but to produce pro-social aggression in females. The sample consisted of 65 males and 133 females.     

Tachistoscopic applications of Micro Experimental Laboratory (MEL) used with IBM PC compatibles: Stimulus and response timing issues

IBM PCs and compatibles are increasingly used in psychological research for tachistoscopic tasks, which require precise control of timing of stimulus durations and accurate measurement of response latencies. The application of MEL in such research is discussed; several precautions which influence stimulus timing are noted, and some data on measurement error with keypress responses are presented.     

Employees High in Personal Intelligence Differ From Their Colleagues in Workplace Perceptions and Behavior

Personal intelligence (PI) involves the ability to recognize, reason, and use information about personality to understand oneself and other people. Employees in two studies (Ns = 394, 482) completed the Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI; e.g., Mayer, Panter, & Caruso, 2017a) and assessments of workplace perception and behavior. Higher PI was associated with higher perceived workplace support and lower counterproductive work behavior. These relationships continued to hold after controlling for other key variables. The results indicate the TOPI, although still in research trials, shows promise as a screening device for selecting employees and targeting individuals for training.     

Rejection sensitivity and disruption of attention by social threat cues

Two studies tested the hypothesis that Rejection Sensitivity (RS) increases vulnerability to disruption of attention by social threat cues, as would be consistent with prior evidence that it motivates individuals to prioritize detecting and managing potential rejection at a cost to other personal and interpersonal goals. In Study 1, RS predicted disruption of ongoing goal-directed attention by social threat but not negative words in an Emotional Stroop task. In Study 2, RS predicted attentional avoidance of threatening but not pleasant faces in a Visual Probe task. Threat-avoidant attention was also associated with features of borderline personality disorder. This research extends understanding of processes by which RS contributes to a self-perpetuating cycle of interpersonal problems and distress.     

Cognitive constraint on the ‘automatic pilot’ for the hand: Movement intention influences the hand’s susceptibility to involuntary online corrections

Research suggests that the reaching hand automatically deviates toward a target that changes location (jumps) during the reach. In the current study, we investigated whether movement intention can influence the target jump’s impact on the hand. We compared the degree of trajectory deviation to a jumped target under three instruction conditions: (1) GO, in which participants were told to go to the target if it jumped, (2) STOP, in which participants were told to immediately stop their movement if the target jumped, and (3) IGNORE, in which participants were told to ignore the target if it jumped and to continue to its initial location. We observed a reduced response to the jump in the IGNORE condition relative to the other conditions, suggesting that the response to the jump is contingent on the jump being a task-relevant event.     

Effects of aging on the relation between episodic simulation and prosocial intentions

Imagining helping a person in need can facilitate prosocial intentions. Here we investigated how this effect can change with aging. We found that, similar to young adults, older adults were more willing to help a person in need when they imagined helping that person compared to a baseline condition that did not involve helping, but not compared to a conceptual helping control condition. Controlling for heightened emotional concern in older adults revealed an age-related difference in the effect of imagining on willingness to help. While we observed age-related condition effects, we also found that the subjective vividness of scene imagery predicted willingness to help for both age groups. Our findings provide insight into the relations among episodic simulation, healthy aging, emotion, and prosociality. Implications for effects of episodic memory and aging on social decision-making are discussed.