Who is watching Big Brother? TV consumption predicted by masked affective priming

In the present study (N=37), we assessed attitudes towards a telecast (Big Brother) with indirect (masked affective priming) and direct (semantic differentials) methods. Additionally, participants recorded their TV viewing behaviour for a period of 7 days. Implicit positivity of the telecast (assessed by the affective priming task), explicit positivity (semantic differentials), and minutes per week spent viewing the TV show were all positively correlated. Viewers of the telecast show a positive priming effect for the label of the telecast (thereby indicating a positive implicit attitude towards the show). Implications for the research and the theoretical debate on implicit attitudes are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility Indeterminate?

On the orthodox view in economics, interpersonal comparisons of utilityare not empirically meaningful, and ``hence' impossible. To reassess this view, this paper draws onthe parallels between the problem of interpersonal comparisons of utility and the problem of translation of linguisticmeaning, as explored by Quine. I discuss several cases of what the empirical evidence for interpersonal comparisonsof utility might be and show that, even on the strongest of these, interpersonal comparisons are empiricallyunderdetermined and, if we also deny any appropriate truth of the matter, indeterminate. However, the underdeterminationcan be broken non-arbitrarily (though not purely empirically) if (i) we assign normative significance to certainstates of affairs or (ii) we posit a fixed connection between certain empirically observable proxies and utility.I conclude that, even if interpersonal comparisons are not empirically meaningful, they are not in principle impossible.     

Sound induces perceptual reorganization of an ambiguous motion display in human infants

Adults who watch an ambiguous visual event consisting of two identical objects moving toward, through, and away from each other and hear a brief sound when the objects overlap report seeing visual bouncing. We conducted three experiments in which we used the habituation/test method to determine whether these illusory effects might emerge early in development. In Experiments 1 and 3 we tested 4‐, 6‐ and 8‐month‐old infants’ discrimination between an ambiguous visual display presented together with a sound synchronized with the objects’ spatial coincidence and the identical visual display presented together with a sound no longer synchronized with coincidence. Consistent with illusory perception, the 6‐ and 8‐month‐old, but not the 4‐month‐old, infants responded to these events as different. In Experiment 2 infants were habituated to the ambiguous visual display together with a sound synchronized with the objects’ coincidence and tested with a physically bouncing object accompanied by the sound at the bounce. Consistent with illusory perception again, infants treated these two events as equivalent by not exhibiting response recovery. The developmental emergence of this intersensory illusion at 6 months of age is hypothesized to reflect developmental changes in object knowledge and attentional mechanisms.     

A Lockean Argument for Black Reparations

This is a defense of blackreparations using the theory of reparations setout in John Locke's The Second Treatise ofGovernment. I develop two mainarguments, what I call the ``inheritanceargument' and the ``counterfactual argument,'both of which have been thought to fail. In nocase do I appeal to the false ideas that presentday United States citizens are guilty ofslavery or must pay reparation simply becausethe U.S. Government was once complicit in thecrime.     

Theorizing Religious Effects Among American Adolescents

A large body of empirical studies shows that religion often serves as a factor promoting positive, healthy outcomes in the lives of American adolescents. Yet existing theoretical explanations for these religious effects remain largely disjointed and fragmented. This article attempts to formulate a more systematic, integrated, and coherent account of religion's constructive influence in the lives of American youth, suggesting nine key factors (moral directives, spiritual experiences, role models, community and leadership skills, coping skills, cultural capital, social capital, network closure, and extra–community links) that cluster around three key dimensions of influence (moral order, learned competencies, and social and organizational ties).     

Inward, Outward, Upward Prayer: Scale Reliability and Validation

This study provides support for a model that conceptualizes prayers as the means to establish cognitive connections in three directions: inward (self-connection); outward (human-human connection); and upward (human-divine connections). A confirmatory factor analysis demonstrates a single general prayer factor divisible into three subfactors that are in turn comprised of eight discrete scales. Measures of general religiosity, the need for structure, religious styles of coping, well-being, life-satisfaction, and belief in the paranormal provide evidence of convergent and divergent validity for the theory of prayer as a mechanism for inward, outward, and upward connections.     

The influence of different therapists on functional analysis outcomes

Recently, researchers have demonstrated that certain antecedent variables can affect the results of a functional analysis. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of family members versus a direct‐care staff member on the occurrence of problem behaviors during three concurrently conducted functional analyses. The results of the functional analyses demonstrated that the participant's problem behaviors were maintained by positive reinforcement (i.e. access to tangible items) and negative reinforcement (i.e. escape from demands) when either his mother or stepfather was the therapist in the functional analysis; however, no problem behaviors were displayed when a direct‐care staff member was the therapist in the functional analysis. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hate Welfare But Help the Poor: How the Attributional Content of Stereotypes Explains the Paradox of Reactions to the Destitute in America1

Social scientists have documented more negative reactions to the concept of welfare versus the concept of poor, despite the fact that both labels can be used almost interchangeably in current political discussions. We believe that the most proximal explanation rests in the different attributional information contained within the stereotypes of welfare recipients versus poor people. Three studies were conducted to test this idea. The results suggest that the attributional content within stereotypes of welfare recipients, particularly their greater responsibility for their impoverished state compared with poor people, most influences the public's more negative reaction to welfare. The results are discussed in terms of how the rhetoric of stereotypes may be exploited in the political domain.