The role of perceived vulnerability to disease in political polarization on climate change

Climate change presents a serious threat to the planet. Previous research reveals an ingroup–outgroup effect in support for climate policies, with greater support by U.S. participants for policies ostensibly endorsed by their own political party, despite acceptance of climate change among most Republicans and Democrats. We investigated moderation of this effect by the behavioral immune system (BIS), a suite of psychological mechanisms that cause individuals to avoid pathogens. This system has been linked to more negative responses to outgroup members. We extended previous research examining effects on group polarization to political polarization. We predicted that support for climate change policies would show stronger effects of own-versus other-party endorsement among people higher in BIS, as indexed by perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD). We found that the ingroup–outgroup endorsement effect on policy support was moderated by PVD. However, the effect was opposite to prediction. Whereas low PVD participants showed less support for climate policies endorsed by the other party than their own, high PVD participants supported climate policies regardless of endorser. This unexpected result may be construed as consistent with high PVD individuals feeling heightened vulnerability to environmental threats, which fosters support for protective policies, regardless of endorser. We also found less support for climate policies among Republican than Democrat low PVD participants, but no party effect among high PVD participants. This suggests that feeling vulnerable to environmental threats may lead Republicans to deviate from the party norm in their support for climate policies.     

Using Big Data and Machine Learning in Personality Measurement: Opportunities and Challenges

This conceptual paper examines the promises and critical challenges posed by contemporary personality measurement using big data. More specifically, the paper provides (i) an introduction to the type of technologies that give rise to big data, (ii) an overview of how big data is used in personality research and how it might be used in the future, (iii) a framework for approaching big data in personality science, (iv) an exploration of ideas that connect psychometric reliability and validity, as well as principles of fairness and privacy, to measures of personality that use big data, (v) a discussion emphasizing the importance of collaboration with other disciplines for personality psychologists seeking to adopt big data methods, and finally, (vi) a list of practical considerations for researchers seeking to move forward with big data personality measurement and research. It is expected that this paper will provide insights, guidance, and inspiration that helps personality researchers navigate the challenges and opportunities posed by using big data methods in personality measurement. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Refraining, metaphors, myths and fairy-tales

Consideration is given to the question as to whether the change produced by refraining is mere sophistry or reflects a more fundamental alteration in the way in which a situation is construed. However, such philosophical questions touching on the nature of reality can be avoided if actions, rather than the problematical situation, are made the subject of interest. The nature of metaphor is briefly explored, exhibiting the manner in which it may be regarded as an example of refraining. Myths and fairytales may be employed as extended metaphors and can then function as vehicles for refraining. As an illustration, a case of anorexia is described where refraining occurs around a fairy-tale.     

Cares,Identification, and Agency Reductionism

Reductionists about agency maintain that an agent's causing something is reducible to states and events involving the agent causing something. Some worry that reductionism cannot accommodate robust forms of agency, such as self‐determination. One reductionist answer to this worry, which I call ‘identification reductionism,’ contends that self‐governing agents are identified with certain attitudes, and so these attitudes causing a decision count as the agent's self‐determining the decision. I argue that a prominent species of identification reductionism developed by Harry Frankfurt, Agnieszka Jaworska, Jeffrey Seidman, and David Shoemaker – according to which an agent is identified with his (deepest) cares – is inadequate.     

Do Violent Acts Equal Abuse? Resolving the Gender Parity/Asymmetry Dilemma

This commentary revisits a core dilemma in “Controversies involving Gender and Intimate Partner Violence in the United States” by Langhinrichsen-Rohling (2010), how to reconcile gender parity in the use of force by partners with the gender asymmetry in the dynamics and effects of partner abuse. This dilemma is a byproduct of a domestic violence paradigm that confounds the normative use of violence in families and relationships and the types of partner assault and coercive control targeted by the advocacy movement. I argue that the dimensions of abuse victims present at points of service contradict the basic assumptions of the paradigm and outline an alternative model of coercive control that sets violent acts in their historical, experiential and political context.     

The proportion valid effect in covert orienting: Strategic control or implicit learning?

It is well known that the difference in performance between valid and invalid trials in the covert orienting paradigm (i.e., the cueing effect) increases as the proportion of valid trials increases. This proportion valid effect is widely assumed to reflect “strategic” control over the distribution of attention. In the present experiments we determine if this effect results from an explicit strategy or implicit learning by probing participant’s awareness of the proportion of valid trials. Results support the idea that the proportion valid effect in the covert orienting paradigm reflects implicit learning not an explicit strategy.     

Performance on Stroop‐like assessments of inhibitory control by 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children

The rapid development of an aspect of executive functioning (EF), inhibitory control (IC), between the ages of 3‐ and 5‐years, leads to an increase in a child's capacity to suppress inappropriate responding and therefore activate the necessary resources to carry‐out goal‐directed activity (Psychological Bulletin, 1997, 121 , 65–94). To measure EF in children, tasks administered clinically to adults are adapted. The Day–Night Stroop (DNS) is a pictorial modification of the Stroop Test (Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1935, 18 , 642–662), developed for pre‐literate children. Although suitable as a measure of IC in 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children, ceiling effects have been reported on the DNS in slightly older preschoolers. The present study attempted to overcome this limitation by examining the suitability of two modified versions of the DNS in 4‐ to 5‐year‐old preschoolers. To investigate the executive demands made by both Stroop‐like tasks, their associations with another measure of IC (stop‐signal task) and a measure of working memory were examined. Counter to expectations, no significant association was found in performance between the two Stroop‐like tasks; however, the modified DNS developed in this study showed significant relationships with the other executive tasks. The results are discussed in relation to the different methodologies used by these Stroop measures. Implications of this study suggest that researchers should consider more test‐specific factors when assessing EF in young children. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SANLab-CM: A tool for incorporating stochastic operations into activity network modeling

The Stochastic Activity Network Laboratory for Cognitive Modeling (SANLab-CM) is a new tool that incorporates stochastic operations into activity network modeling (Schweickert, Fisher, & Proctor, 2003). In this article, we discuss the core functionality of SANLab-CM and walk through a case study that expands a previously published single, static path model of telephone operators interacting with customers via a workstation (from Gray, John, & Atwood, 1993) into a stochastic model that generates 55 unique paths with different frequencies and a variety of qualitative properties. Without SANLab-CM, it would have been easy to mistake some of the more frequent critical paths as evidence for alternative strategies for task completion. With SANLab-CM, these critical paths can be shown to be simple emergent properties of variability in elementary cognitive, perceptual, and motor processes.