Racial prejudice predicts opposition to Obama and his health care reform plan

The present study examines the relationship between racial prejudice and reactions to President Barack Obama and his policies. Before the 2008 election, participants’ levels of implicit and explicit anti-Black prejudice were measured. Over the following days and months, voting behavior, attitudes toward Obama, and attitudes toward Obama’s health care reform plan were assessed. Controlling for explicit prejudice, implicit prejudice predicted a reluctance to vote for Obama, opposition to his health care reform plan, and endorsement of specific concerns about the plan. In an experiment, the association between implicit prejudice and opposition to health care reform replicated when the plan was attributed to Obama, but not to Bill Clinton—suggesting that individuals high in anti-Black prejudice tended to oppose Obama at least in part because they dislike him as a Black person. In sum, our data support the notion that racial prejudice is one factor driving opposition to Obama and his policies.     

Category label and response location shifts in category learning

The category shift literature suggests that rule-based classification, an important form of explicit learning, is mediated by two separate learned associations: a stimulus-to-label association that associates stimuli and category labels, and a label-to-response association that associates category labels and responses. Three experiments investigate whether information–integration classification, an important form of implicit learning, is also mediated by two separate learned associations. Participants were trained on a rule-based or an information–integration categorization task and then the association between stimulus and category label, or between category label and response location was altered. For rule-based categories, and in line with previous research, breaking the association between stimulus and category label caused more interference than breaking the association between category label and response location. However, no differences in recovery rate emerged. For information–integration categories, breaking the association between stimulus and category label caused more interference and led to greater recovery than breaking the association between category label and response location. These results provide evidence that information–integration category learning is mediated by separate stimulus-to-label and label-to-response associations. Implications for the neurobiological basis of these two learned associations are discussed.     

A comparison of video and static photo lineups with child and adolescent witnesses

In the UK video parades are the preferred method of identification employed in criminal cases. This policy implementation has been employed with little or no evidence concerning its validity. The reported research examines the effect of new video technology on children's identification evidence. The study compared 7–9 and 13–15‐year olds' ability to make identifications from either video or static photo lineups. Two hundred and fifteen participants witnessed a live event and then after a delay of 2–3 days viewed a target present (TP), or target absent (TA) video or photo lineup. For video and photo TP lineups, correct responses did not differ as a function of age. Video lineups produced lower rates of false identifications for the TA lineups, but only for adolescent witnesses. It is concluded that there is nothing contra‐indicated in the use of video identification procedures with children, and possibly certain benefits can accrue from its use. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotional Intelligence in Selection Contexts: Measurement method,criterion‐related validity,and vulnerability to response distortion

Two studies examined aspects of the validity of self‐report and performance‐based measures of emotional intelligence (EI) relevant to their use in personnel selection. In Study 1, structural equation modeling indicated that a two‐factor model with separate factors for the two types of EI measures fit better than a one‐factor solution. The performance‐based EI factor was more related to cognitive ability (R=.38) than personality (R=.26), whereas the self‐report EI factor was more related to personality (R=.85) than cognitive ability (R=.09). Although the performance‐based EI factor correlated more strongly with job performance (ρ=.24) than did that of the self‐report (ρ=.05), it provided little incremental validity beyond cognitive ability and conscientiousness. In Study 2, participants were asked to complete the measures as if applying for a job, and mean scores were then compared with those of Study 1. Results indicated that self‐report EI measures were more vulnerable to distortion than were the performance‐based measures. Implications for the assessment of EI in personnel selection contexts are discussed.     

Trait Entitlement and Perceived Favorability of Human Resource Management Practices in the Prediction of Job Satisfaction

Purpose  

Inconsistency in offerings of human resource management (HRM) practices across organizations is potentially problematic for employees with high levels of entitlement as they tend to believe they get less than they deserve. The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effect of trait entitlement on the relationship between the favorability of HRM practices and job satisfaction.     

Using perceptrons to explore the reorientation task

The reorientation task is a paradigm that has been used extensively to study the types of information used by humans and animals to navigate in their environment. In this task, subjects are reinforced for going to a particular location in an arena that is typically rectangular in shape. The subject then has to find that location again after being disoriented, and possibly after changes have been made to the arena. This task is used to determine the geometric and featural cues that can be used to reorient the agent in the arena. The purpose of the present paper is to present several simulation results that show that a simple neural network, a perceptron, can be used to generate many of the traditional findings that have been obtained using the reorientation task. These results suggest that reorientation task regularities can be explained without appealing to a geometric module that is a component of spatial processing.     

“Do Unto Others”: Effects of Priming the Golden Rule on Buddhists’ and Christians’ Attitudes Toward Gay People

The Golden Rule, a core precept of many religions, emphasizes the importance of treating others with compassion. We examined whether priming Golden Rule messages would influence Buddhists’ and Christians’ attitudes toward gay people and perceptions that homosexuality is a choice. In a priming task, participants filled in missing words for popular quotations including two Golden Rule messages that were attributed to either Buddha or Jesus. Christians ( N = 585) in the Buddha‐attributed Golden Rule condition showed stronger explicit anti‐gay attitudes and were more likely to agree that homosexuality is a choice than Christians in the Jesus‐attributed or control conditions, = .012, = .035, even after controlling for political orientation and religiosity. Buddhists ( = 394) showed no variation in attitudes across priming conditions, = .001, = .78. Our results suggest that although the Golden Rule has an important influence on believers, its message of compassion may produce more prejudice if it comes from an outgroup source compared to an ingroup source.     

The Impact of Race‐Based Performance Differences on Perceptions of Test Legitimacy

This paper examines if perceptions of test legitimacy increase when racial differences on test performance match the racial status quo or when a perceiver's in‐group performs better than expected, relative to other groups. Study 1 assesses expected performance difference for various racial groups on a GRE‐like test. Study 2 assesses White and Asian participants' perceptions of legitimacy of a test that either favors the in‐group or an out‐group. Study 3 replicates Study 2 using individuals from high‐ and low‐status groups (Asians and Latinos, respectively). The findings suggest that the desire to benefit the in‐group trumps the desire to justify the status quo in accounting for the impact of race‐based performance differences on perceptions of test legitimacy.