The emotional male victim: Effects of presentation mode on judged credibility

The emotional victim effect (EVE, i.e., that the emotionality of a victim's demeanor affects perceived credibility) is a robust research finding for female victims of rape but much less explored for other types of victims and crimes. In this article, we investigate the EVE with a male assault complainant. In addition, we vary the presentation mode via which the complainant is shown to the assessors. A sample of law students (N = 81) participated in an experiment where they viewed and assessed credibility of a male complainant who appeared either live or on video. The complainant behaved either in an emotional or a neutral manner. Result showed that the presentation mode but not the EVE affected the assessors' credibility assessments: The complainant was perceived as more truthful when communicating live, as opposed to via video. Practical implications, as well as the generality of the EVE, are discussed.     

Auditory Pareidolia: Effects of Contextual Priming on Perceptions of Purportedly Paranormal and Ambiguous Auditory Stimuli

Reality television programs that explore purportedly paranormal phenomena with pseudoscientific research approaches have emerged in popular culture. These shows commonly feature electronic voice phenomena (EVP), whereby recording devices capture audio signals that are interpreted as paranormal messages. We compared perceptions for voices in EVP with actual speech, acoustic noise, and degraded speech. Some participants were told that the experiment was about speech intelligibility, whereas others were told that the experiment was about paranormal EVP. The paranormal prime increased the proportion of trials for which participants perceived voices in both EVP stimuli and degraded speech. When a voice was detected, low agreement was found regarding the content of EVP messages. In both priming conditions, participants reported general skepticism in the paranormal. Results are discussed in the context of theoretical perspectives on paranormal events, trait‐versus‐state accounts of paranormal beliefs, and pseudoscientific approaches to research. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Values and helping behavior: A study in four cultures

Values are important factors in determining individuals' behaviours. Previous studies have examined the relations between values and helping behaviour, but usually in the context of a single culture. The current study examines the relations between personal value types and helping behaviour among university students (N = 722) in four cultures (Germany, Scotland‐UK, Israel and Turkey). Across cultures, the value types of self‐transcendence versus self‐enhancement and conservation versus openness to change were positively related to helping. Specifically, self‐transcendence values were positively related, and self‐enhancement and openness to change values negatively related, to helping behaviour. The correlations pattern did not differ significantly between cultures.     

Task-irrelevant visual motion and flicker attenuate the attentional blink

Our reduced ability to correctly report two sequentially presented targets is seen in the robust effect known as the attentional blink (AB; Raymond, Shapiro, & Arnell, 1992). One recent report (Olivers & Nieuwenhuis, 2005) strikingly reveals the AB to be virtually abolished when non-task-demanding music occurs in the background. The authors suggest that a diffuse attentional state is the mediating factor. Here, we seek to broaden the finding’s generality by determining if task-irrelevant visual motion and flicker also attenuate the AB. In our experiments, the AB task was presented together with a background field of moving dots that could moveaway from ortoward the central AB task, or flicker. In the control condition, the dots remained static. The AB was attenuated—though to different degrees—in all experimental conditions, but not in the static condition. Our findings add to the generality of the previous conclusions, and we emphasize an account based on the overallocation of attention.     

Resampling probability values for differences between two independent indices of ordinal variation and consensus

A permutation method is presented to calculate resampling probability values for differences between two independent indices of ordinal variation and consensus.     

Exact and resampling probability values for measures associated with ordered r by c contingency tables

Permutation procedures to compute exact and resampling probability values associated with measures of association for ordered r x c contingency tables are described. Comparisons with asymptotic probability values demonstrated that exact and resampling permutation procedures were preferred for sparse contingency tables.