The use of Afrocentric features as cues for judgment in the presence of diagnostic information

Prior research has shown that within racial category, group members with more Afrocentric facial features are presumed to have more stereotypic traits than those with less Afrocentric features. The present experiment investigated whether this form of feature‐based stereotyping occurs when more diagnostic information is available. The participants were provided with photographs and information about the aggressive (or non‐aggressive) behaviour of 64 African Americans in four different situations, and asked to predict the likelihood of aggression in a fifth situation. As expected, each instance of aggression increased estimates that a target would behave aggressively in the unknown situation. With degree of displayed aggression controlled, however, targets with more Afrocentric features were judged as significantly more likely to behave aggressively than targets with less Afrocentric features. Thus, stereotyping based on Afrocentric features occurs even when other obviously‐relevant information is available. This suggests that it may be difficult to detect and avoid. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Work Values and Their Effect on Work Behavior and Work Outcomes in Female and Male Managers

A longitudinal sample of over 800 MBA graduates surveyed across a 16-year period was recruited to investigate the relationship of work values to work effort, salary levels, and other work outcomes. As predicted, certain work values were related to higher salary levels and to the number of hours worked. Changing companies more often and receiving more promotions were also significantly related to work values. Work values did not differ for women and men in the sample, except that women were higher in the value of wanting to do an excellent job. Controlling for work values did not explain significantly higher salaries for men as compared to women. Implications of these data are discussed.     

Investigating Stereotypes Towards the Outgroup: The Role of Religious Concepts and Group Membership

We examined the effects of exposure to religious concepts on stereotypes of two unique groups in Israel—Arab Muslims and Arab Christians. In Study 1, Muslim persons exposed to Jewish concepts and Christian persons exposed to Christian concepts showed increased negative stereotypes toward Jews. The findings were replicated in Study 2, additionally showing that identification with the religious ingroup has a moderating effect, which either increases or reduces stereotypes following exposure to outgroup concepts. In Study 3, a control condition was run, confirming that the religious priming effects were due to an increase in negative stereotypes. Thus, the paradox of religion may be partially accounted for by group distinctiveness, exposure to specific religious content, group membership, and identification with the ingroup.     

Effects of social isolation and environmental enrichment on atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice

Social support and a stimulating environment have been suggested to reduce stress reactions and cardiovascular risk. The aim of this study was to assess the role of environmental enrichment and social interaction for development of atherosclerosis in atherosclerosis prone mice. Male ApoE-/- mice were divided into four groups and followed during 20 weeks: (i) enriched environment (E, n=12), (ii) deprived environment (ED, n=12), (iii) enriched environment with exercise (E-Ex, n=12) and (iv) socially deprived by individual housing (SD, n=10). Plasma lipid and cytokine concentrations were measured. Atherosclerosis was quantified in cross-sections of innominate artery and en face in thoracic aorta. Plaque area was significantly increased in SD mice in the innominate artery (P<0.05 vs. all other groups), but not in the thoracic aorta. Plasma lipids were increased in SD mice (P<0.001 vs. all for total cholesterol, P<0.05 vs. E and P<0.01 vs. ED for triglycerides). Plasma concentration of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) was decreased in SD mice compared to E mice (P<0.05). Thus, social isolation increased atherosclerosis and plasma lipids in ApoE-/- mice. Reduction in plasma G-CSF levels may hamper endothelial regeneration in the atherosclerotic process. While environmental enrichment did not affect atherosclerosis, social isolation accelerated atherosclerosis.     

Neurocognitive aspects of pain perception

The perception of pain is sensitive to various mental processes such as the feelings and beliefs that someone has about pain. It is therefore not exclusively driven by the noxious input. Attentional modulation involving the descending pain modulatory system has been examined extensively in neuroimaging studies. However, the investigation of neural mechanisms underlying more complex cognitive modulation is an emerging field in pain research. Recent findings indicate an engagement of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during more complex modulation, leading to a change or reappraisal of the emotional significance of pain. Taking placebo-induced analgesia as an example, we discuss the contribution of attention, expectation and reappraisal as three basic mechanisms that are important for the cognitive modulation of pain.     

Exploring noun bias in Filipino-English bilingual children

Researchers have suggested that there is a noun bias in children's early vocabularies brought about by features of adults' child-directed utterances, which may vary across languages (E. V. Bates et al., 1994; D. Gentner, 1982). In the present study, the authors explored noun bias in 60 Filipino-English bilingual children whose 2 languages differed in how they emphasized nouns and verbs in typical syntactic forms. The results revealed a noun bias, but only in the bilingual children's English vocabulary. The noun bias in English was associated with the frequency of nouns in the caregivers' utterances and the proportion of nouns in the initial positions of the caregivers' utterances. The authors also found different associations between salient positions in the adult utterances and children's vocabularies in English and Filipino.     

Emotional Intelligence of Foreign and Local University Students in Singapore: Implications for Managers

Does intelligence alone explain our achievement at work or in life? Contrary to our belief that academic achievement matters very much in the success we have in working life, Chen et al. (1998) has shown that close to 90% of success in leadership positions is attributable to Emotional Intelligence (EI). Considering that EI can be a potential determinant of our achievement in working life, this study aims to determine if there is any significant difference in the EI of local and foreign undergraduates studying in universities in Singapore. The “Emotional IQ Test” was administered to 100 undergraduates from various fields of studies from the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, of which 31 had foreign education background. This study showed that foreign undergraduates have a higher EI score than those with local education background. In addition, by examining the relationships between variables such as age, gender, year of study and EI, it was found that males have higher EI scores than that of females. The implication for managers is that staff should be evaluated on their own merits such as their EI rather than on academic results.     

Measuring Perceptions of Gender Roles: The IAWS for Pakistanis and U.S. Immigrant Populations

A new scale called the Islamic Attitudes Toward Women Scale (IAWS) was developed and administered to a sample of 195 Pakistani adults and to a sample of 140 Muslim immigrants in the United States. In support of the construct validation of the scale, it was found to significantly differentiate between liberal and conservative Muslims in Pakistan, and in both samples, men held more conservative attitudes than women. For both women and men, more liberal scores on the IAWS were correlated with less accepting beliefs about marital violence toward women. In the U.S. immigrant sample, those who had been in the United States longer had less conservative attitudes.