The decoy effect as a covert influence tactic

The purpose of this research was to determine whether individuals could use the decoy effect to influence others' choices. In study 1, undergraduates (n = 50) and executive master's of business administration (EMBA) students (n = 24) read an employee selection scenario in which they were randomly assigned to prefer one of two candidates that were equal in overall attractiveness, but that had different strengths and weaknesses. They were then asked to choose one of three inferior candidates to add to the choice set that would make their preferred candidate more likely to be chosen by other decision makers. The “correct” inferior candidate was asymmetrically dominated—dominated by one of the two existing candidates, but not the other. Participants chose the “correct” decoy candidate at better than chance levels. In study 2, undergraduates and EMBA students (total n = 66) completed a set of four decision tasks, in which they were asked to choose from potential decoy alternatives that would highlight their preferred job candidate or the product they preferred to sell to a customer. Participants again chose the correct option at better than chance levels. When participants provided free‐response reasons for their choices, these responses indicated a fairly strong recognition of the influential nature of creating a dominating relationship. Implications for understanding this effect and how it may be used by hiring managers, sales personnel, and others who attempt to influence others people's decisions at work, are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrated Family Assessment and Intervention Model: A Collaborative Approach to Support Multi-Challenged Families

In this article we describe the Integrated Family Assessment and Intervention Model (IFAIM), a multi-systemic, collaborative, strength-based, and family-focused in-home approach developed and implemented in Portugal. IFAIM is designed to assess and to support multi-challenged poor families, commonly known as multi-problem families, at psychosocial risk, with maltreated or neglected children. It integrates clinical, educational, social, community and forensic concerns, and practices under a systemic, narrative, and collaborative umbrella. IFAIM’s theoretical foundations and background, its main characteristics, stages of implementation, and research directions are described and a case illustration is presented.     

The role of color information on object recognition: a review and meta-analysis

In this study, we systematically review the scientific literature on the effect of color on object recognition. Thirty-five independent experiments, comprising 1535 participants, were included in a meta-analysis. We found a moderate effect of color on object recognition (d = 0.28). Specific effects of moderator variables were analyzed and we found that color diagnosticity is the factor with the greatest moderator effect on the influence of color in object recognition; studies using color diagnostic objects showed a significant color effect (d = 0.43), whereas a marginal color effect was found in studies that used non-color diagnostic objects (d = 0.18). The present study did not permit the drawing of specific conclusions about the moderator effect of the object recognition task; while the meta-analytic review showed that color information improves object recognition mainly in studies using naming tasks (d = 0.36), the literature review revealed a large body of evidence showing positive effects of color information on object recognition in studies using a large variety of visual recognition tasks. We also found that color is important for the ability to recognize artifacts and natural objects, to recognize objects presented as types (line-drawings) or as tokens (photographs), and to recognize objects that are presented without surface details, such as texture or shadow. Taken together, the results of the meta-analysis strongly support the contention that color plays a role in object recognition. This suggests that the role of color should be taken into account in models of visual object recognition.     

Alexithymia in chronic urticaria patients

Alexithymia has been described as an important dimension in several medical and psychiatric diseases. Chronic urticaria (CU) is a chronic condition, in which treatment is difficult. Our aim is to determine the prevalence of alexithymia traits in patients with CU, and to identify the relationships between alexithymia and psychological variables and quality-of-life dimensions. Fifty-five sequential CU patients in a faculty ambulatory specialized consultation, with an average age of 44.92, were compared with 31 healthy volunteers. Both groups were studied by means of validated scales for alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale [TAS-20]), attachment (Adult Attachment Scale-R [AAS-R]), psychopathology (Brief Symptom Inventory [BSI]), personality dimensions (The NEO Five-Factor inventory [NEO-FFI]) and quality of life (Short Form-36 [SF-36]). The classification of CU reactions was obtained from the patient's history, physical examination, laboratory assessment and histopathologic findings. All the patients were under treatment with sedating H1-antihistamines, non-sedating H1-antihistamines combination of H1 and H2 blocker, 2 H1-antihistamines and 3 H1-antihistamines. High traits of alexithymia were found on CU patients (56.9%) as well as high symptom rates of anxiety. Alexithymia traits were significantly positively correlated with insecure attachment styles, with psychopathological symptoms, and with the defense mechanism turn against self. We also reported a significant negative correlation between alexithymia traits and the dimensions of quality of life. Insecure attachment styles were positively correlated with psychopathological symptoms and negatively correlated with quality of life. We did not find significant statistical correlations between alexithymia and clinical variables. CU patients present serious difficulty in dealing with emotion arousal. There is strong evidence of a psychosomatic specificity in CU, with marked alexithymic traits.     

I control therefore I am: effects of mortality salience on control attributions

Terror Management Theory posits that when individuals are faced with their own mortality, they use several defense mechanisms to reduce the existential anxiety caused by the thought of their own death. In this paper, we examined one such mechanism: Control attributions. To do so, we ran an experiment (n = 140) in which we manipulated mortality salience and type of failure (relevant vs. irrelevant consequences) with which participants were faced. Participants were then instructed to evaluate the possible causes of their failure. The results indicated that participants assigned to the mortality salience condition, compared to those assigned to the control group, were more prone to making controllable attributions. That is, even in situations in which individuals are motivated to avoid responsibility (i.e., a relevant failure), mortality salience increased perceived controllability. These results suggest that attributions might serve as a control mechanism to compensate for the sheer uncontrollability of death.     

Typical development of quantity comparison in school-aged children

Although basic numerical skills have been widely studied in the last years, very few studies have undertaken a developmental approach. The present study evaluated the development of the magnitude comparison basic numerical ability, in children from first, third and sixth grades by means of the subject's response time in numerical tasks presented in symbolic and non-symbolic formats. The results showed a significant decrease on quantities processing speed as age increases, which suggests numerical skills tend to become automatic with instruction. The differences found, concerning the general achievement pattern in each school year, might express the maturational specificities of the numerical representation system through development.     

The Catholic Church, moral doctrine, and HIV prevention in Recife, Brazil: Negotiating the contradictions between religious belief and the realities of everyday life

Religious beliefs have had a key role in shaping local responses to HIV and AIDS. As the world's largest Catholic country, Brazil is no exception. Yet little research has been conducted to document how the religious doctrine is enacted in practice among its lay leaders and followers. In this article, we present ethnographic research from Recife, Brazil, conducted to understand the way in which religious doctrines are interpreted on a local level. Contextualized within the sociology of contemporary Brazilian Catholicism, we draw on interviews with clergy members, lay leaders and parishioners in order to discuss how the Catholic Church's vision of sexuality translates into the everyday lives of its followers by. We explore the disjuncture between the Catholic ideals of fidelity and delaying sex until marriage with the everyday reality of the Church's followers, highlighting the role that gender plays in defining sexual roles and expectations. We conclude posing questions for future research and HIV prevention strategies considering the formal institutional response of the Brazilian Catholic Church to AIDS on one hand, and the social and cultural contexts in which Catholics live their daily lives on the other.     

The Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale: initial examination of its factor structure and correlates among Brazilian adults

The present study conducted a preliminary examination of the psychometric properties of a recently developed Portuguese translation of the Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale (ACSS; Henderson-King & Henderson-King, 2005). A total of 311 Brazilian adults completed the ACSS along with Portuguese translations of measures of actual-ideal body weight discrepancy, body appreciation, sociocultural attitudes toward appearance, and demographics. Results showed that the Portuguese ACSS reduced to a three-factor solution consisting of the Intrapersonal, Social, and Consider factors uncovered in the original work using the ACSS. Moreover, there were only small sex differences on these subscales. In addition, the Portuguese ACSS showed a good pattern of convergent validity. The availability of the Portuguese ACSS is expected to stimulate more in-depth, quantitative research on attitudes toward cosmetic surgery within the Brazilian context.     

Do violent video games impair the effectiveness of in-game advertisements? The impact of gaming environment on brand recall, brand attitude, and purchase intention

The present study examined whether a violent video game impairs the effectiveness of in-game advertisements compared to a nonviolent video game. Participants recalled and evaluated in-game ads after navigating identical violent or nonviolent game scenarios. Participants' brand recall, recognition, and attitudes were comparatively lower after navigating the violent video game. Also, females in the violent game condition reported lower brand attitudes in comparison to males in the violent game condition, thus suggesting that the effects of gaming environment interacts with participants' gender. The findings supported the predictions of the limited capacity model of attention and cognitive priming effects. The results also extend previous studies on how violent media impair advertising effectiveness and provide practical implications for researchers and practitioners.