Category-bounded emotional enhancement: spillover effects in the valuation of public goods

ABSTRACT

We examined whether enhancing (vs. not enhancing) the emotionality of a referent public good influences the subsequent valuation of a target public good. We predicted that it would and that the directionality of its impact would depend on a fundamental cognitive process – categorisation. If the target and referent goods belong to the same domain, we expected that the effect on the target would be in the same direction as the emotional enhancement of the referent (assimilation effect). However, if the target and referent goods belong to different domains, we expected that the effect on the target would be either negligible or in the opposite direction to that of the emotional enhancement of the referent (null or contrast effect). In Experiment 1 we examined the impact of emotionally enhancing a referent public good on feelings towards a target public good, whereas in Experiment 2 on the willingness to contribute towards a target public good. The results support the predicted interaction, which was driven by an assimilation effect for same-domain goods and a null effect for different-domain goods. In doing so, the present findings highlight the interplay between cognition and emotion in the valuation of public goods. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.     

Transmission of religious beliefs in college students

The aim of the current study was to assess factors contributing to the generational transmission of religious beliefs in a sample of college students. Participants were 92 students from a small Catholic university in the southeastern United States. Students were surveyed in school regarding family relationships, communication, and religious values. Overall, results indicated that children’s and parents’ religious beliefs were significantly correlated. Furthermore, children were fairly accurate reporters of their parents’ religious beliefs. Some gender differences were found in the strength of the correlations between parents’ and children’s beliefs. Additionally, explicit communication, implicit communication, and perception of parents’ beliefs predicted children’s beliefs. The current study holds clinical and developmental significance by examining the manner in which religiosity is expressed within the familial milieu of emerging adults.     

Hope and Dread in Mutuality and Asymmetry Regarding the Analytic Setting: Reply to Commentaries

The challenging commentaries to the discussion on the analytic setting help to clarify the various meanings this concept have to us as analysts, supervisors, theoreticians, and members of the analytic community. This sharing of our thoughts, experiences, and feelings helps refine the dilemmas we share as relational analysts regarding the setting as structure or as process. As I see it, the challenge of being a relational analyst lies in the tension between affording mutuality while retaining the asymmetry that enables a deepening of the mutuality regarding the analytic setting.     

The Therapist,the Patient,and the Therapeutic Setting: Mutual Construction of the Setting as a Therapeutic Factor

The author examines several types of therapeutic action intrinsic to Davies's clinical work. Among these actions was Davies's eventual and careful willingness to ask her patient to hold affective states that the patient had previously been unable to hold; to discover a way to speak to her patient about her own struggles with the patient while risking, and actually knowing, that, inevitably, some of the patient's discovery of what the analyst feels will resonate with painful past experience; to create another countertransference space in which Davies found a way to become a different kind of bad or disappointing object to the patient than the patient's earlier disappointment with parental figures, though one that proved much more helpful and bearable than her previous experience; and eventually, though implicitly, to accept the aggressive and harsh ways in which the patient was already experiencing newness in the context of repetitive disappointment. In each of these types of action, the opportunity for mourning figures prominently.     

‘Opting out’ in theravada buddhism and medieval christianity

William James' discussion of early Quakerism profoundly affected subsequent interpretations of the group by the prominent scholar and Quaker writer, Rufus Jones. Jones utilized James as a major exponent of the divine origins of George Fox's doctrinal beliefs and social protests. The major claims of James and Jones, however, are not sustained by more recent critical scholarship on Quakerism's early days. By examining and refuting these claims, this article argues that interpretations of Quakerism (and by extension, of other religious collectivities) should be based primarily upon historically grounded, social-psychological frameworks.     

Ally or adversary: The effect of identifiability in inter-group conflict situations

People’s tendency to be more generous towards identifiable victims than towards unidentifiable or statistical victims is known as the identifiable victim effect. Recent research (Kogut & Ritov, 2007) called the generality of the effect into question, showing that in cross-national contexts, identifiability affects mostly willingness to help victims belonging to one’s ‘in-group’. The present research extends the investigation by examining the identifiability effect in inter-group conflict situations. In three experiments, employing hypothetical contributions as well as real monetary allocation in a dictator-game, we found that identifiability increased generosity towards a member of the adversary group, but it decreased generosity towards a member of one’s own group. Possible mechanisms underlying this interaction are discussed.     

Differential age effects for implicit and explicit conceptual associative memory

Older adults show disproportionate declines in explicit memory for associative relative to item information. However, the source of these declines is still uncertain. One explanation is a generalized impairment in the processing of associative information. A second explanation is a more specialized impairment in the strategic, effortful recollection of associative information, leaving less effortful forms of associative retrieval preserved. Assessing implicit memory of new associations is a way to distinguish between these viewpoints. To date, mixed findings have emerged from studies of associative priming in aging. One factor that may account for the variability is whether the manipulations inadvertently involve strategic, explicit processes. In two experiments we present a novel paradigm of conceptual associative priming in which subjects make speeded associative judgments about unrelated objects. Using a size classification task, Experiment 1 showed equivalent associative priming between young and older adults. Experiment 2 generalized the results of Experiment 1 to an inside/outside classification task, while replicating the typical age-related impairment in associative but not item recognition. Taken together, the findings support the viewpoint that older adults can incidentally encode and retrieve new meaningful associations despite difficulty with the intentional recollection of the same information.     

Can perceptions of similarity reduce the ability to see the other’s needs? The case of immigrant students’ integration policy

In this age of wide migration waves all over the world, when schools’ populations become more diverse, educators often make policies regarding groups of immigrant students (from the same origin) with unique needs. Perceptions of homogeneity of the group, as well as perceptions of similarity between the decision maker and the group members are likely to have a major influence on these policies. Although research has shown that perceptions of great similarity between the decision maker and a target group enhance empathy and promote decisions in favor of the group; results of the current research, examining immigrant students’ integration policy in schools, suggest that inaccurate high similarity perceptions (on a relevant domain) might decrease the ability to understand the targets’ diverse needs and may lead to decisions that do not serve the group, or the decision maker’s goals. Two studies were conducted to examine the effect of perceived homogeneity and similarity on immigrant integration policy in schools. In the first study, lay people recommended fewer programs for immigrants students when those where judged to be more similar to themselves and more homogenous. Similar results were obtained in the second study, examining school principals’ reports of existing programs for immigrant students in their schools. Implications on policy making are discussed.     

The singularity effect of identified victims in separate and joint evaluations

People’s greater willingness to help identified victims, relative to non-identified ones, was examined by eliciting real contributions to targets varying in singularity (a single individual vs. a group of several individuals), and the availability of individually identifying information (the main difference being the inclusion of a picture in the “identified” versions). Results of the first and second experiments support the proposal that for identified victims, contributions for a single victim exceed contributions for a group when these are judged separately, but preference reverses when one has to choose between contributing to the single individual and contributing to the group. In a third experiment, ratings of emotional response were elicited in addition to willingness to contribute judgments. Results suggest that the greater contribution to a single victim relative to the group stems from intensified emotions evoked by a single identified victim rather than from emotions evoked by identified victims in general.