On the interplay between familiarity and emotional expression in face perception

Traditional models of face perception (e.g. Bruce and Young 1986) stress independent routes for processing identity and emotional expression. We investigated the interplay between familiarity and emotional expression by systematically varying both factors. In contrast to earlier studies which used binary forced-choice decisions, participants had to judge the familiarity of the presented face and the emotional hedonic valence and emotional arousal of its expressed emotion (angry, happy or neutral), using rating scales. The results demonstrated symmetric, strong interactions between familiarity and expressed emotion. Thus, this study supports more recent models of face perception (Haxby et al. 2000) that were mostly based on brain imaging data. These data together with our behavioural results emphasize the interaction of emotional expression and personal identity and support approaches that propose a relative segregation of these processes, rather than completely independent coding (Calder and Young 2005).     

Club Drug Use and Intentionality in Perceptions of Rape Victims

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether intentionality of alcohol or club drug use would affect observer attributions of a victim and a perpetrator after a sexual assault. Participants were 198 male and female college students sampled from a small college located in the United States. In general, participants attributed less blame to the victim, more guilt to the perpetrator, and were more likely to define the assault as rape and convict the perpetrator when the substance use was involuntary as opposed to voluntary. Participants also attributed more blame to the victim and less pleasure to the perpetrator when the sexual assault involved GHB as opposed to Everclear. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The institutionalization of sociological paradigms: Three examples from early French sociology

Utilizing a model of sociological paradigms which encompasses the cogency of sociological theories, their congruence with their cultural milieu and their reinforcement through institutionalization, this paper examines three interpretations of sociology which competed for recognition in France at the end of the nineteenth century. René Worms created institutions for the new field of new field of sociology, but did not possess a viable sociological theory with which to make these institutions effective in advancing the discipline. Gabriel Tarde possessed a sociological theory and opportunities to institutionalize it, but failed to do so because of a pre-modern attitude toward science. Only Emile Durkheim was able to successfully institutionalize his conception of sociology through his teaching career and his journal, L'Année sociologique.     

The Judicialization of Religious Freedom: An Institutionalist Approach

Recent years have seen growing interest in the judicialization of religious freedom (JRF). In this article, I identify two distinct meanings of JRF, which are often conflated but which need to be kept separate. I then argue for a stronger institutionalist approach to JRF. An institutionalist approach focuses our attention on both the rules internal to courts, and the relationship of courts to administrative agencies, legislatures, and other governing bodies. I argue that there is room to strengthen our analyses of JRF by paying greater attention to these institutional dynamics. I demonstrate this by highlighting two overlooked features of courts—interpretive rules and access rules—that are particularly important for governing JRF; and by developing a framework that relates the courts to other institutional venues and political actors. In so doing, I identify a number of promising directions for future research into the causes and consequences of JRF.     

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Core social motives explain responses to collective action issues

Managing collective action issues such as pandemics and climate change requires major social and behavioral change. Dominant approaches to addressing these issues center around information provision and financial incentives to shift behavior, yet, these approaches are rarely effective without integrating insights from psychological research on motivation. By accurately characterizing human motives, social scientists can identify when and why individuals engage, and facilitate behavior change and public engagement. Here, we use the core social motives model to sort social psychological theories into five fundamental social motives: to Belong, Understand, Control, self-Enhance, and Trust. We explain how each motive can improve or worsen collective action issues, and how this framework can be further developed towards a comprehensive social psychological perspective to collective action issues.     

Asymmetrical responding to male versus female other-race categories in 9- to 12-month-old infants

Faces can be categorized along various dimensions including gender or race, an ability developing in infancy. Infant categorization studies have focused on facial attributes in isolation, but the interaction between these attributes remains poorly understood. Experiment 1 examined gender categorization of other-race faces in 9- and 12-month-old White infants. Nine- and 12-month-olds were familiarized with Asian male or female faces, and tested with a novel exemplar from the familiarized category paired with a novel exemplar from a novel category. Both age groups showed novel category preferences for novel Asian female faces after familiarization with Asian male faces, but showed no novel category preference for novel Asian male faces after familiarization with Asian female faces. This categorization asymmetry was not due to a spontaneous preference hindering novel category reaction (Experiment 2), and both age groups displayed difficulty discriminating among male, but not female, other-race faces (Experiment 3). These results indicate that category formation for male other-race faces is mediated by categorical perception. Overall, the findings suggest that even by 12 months of age, infants are not fully able to form gender category representations of other-race faces, responding categorically to male, but not female, other-race faces.