Touching the base: heart-warming ads from the 2016 U.S. election moved viewers to partisan tears

Some political ads used in the 2016 U.S. election evoked feelings colloquially known as being moved to tears. We conceptualise this phenomenon as a positive social emotion that appraises and motivates communal relations, is accompanied by physical sensations (including lachrymation, piloerection, chest warmth), and often labelled metaphorically. We surveyed U.S. voters in the fortnight before the 2016 U.S. election. Selected ads evoked the emotion completely and reliably, but in a partisan fashion: Clinton voters were moved to tears by three selected Clinton ads, and Trump voters were moved to tears by two Trump ads. Viewers were much less moved by ads of the candidate they did not support. Being moved to tears predicted intention to vote for the candidate depicted. We conclude that some contemporary political advertising is able to move its audience to tears, and thereby motivates support.     

We don’t like your type around here: Regional and residential differences in exposure to online hate material targeting sexuality

What factors are related to online targeting of hate material based to sexual orientation? This study addresses that question, utilizing a sample of 968 Internet users aged 15–36. Employing a logistic regression analysis, we find that social network usage, online antagonism, informal online social control, and a lack of online anonymity increase the likelihood of being targeted. Moreover, individuals living in the southern region of the United States are nearly three times as likely to be targeted by hate related to sexual orientation, whereas those living in rural areas are more than twice as likely to face such targeting.     

The Development of Judgment and Decision Making During Childhood and Adolescence

Research on adult judgment and decision making has focused on deviations from normative models, demonstrating biases and reliance on heuristic shortcuts, thus presenting a very different picture than developmental theories that describe a unidirectional progression toward greater logic and efficiency. Recent research related to this apparent contradiction indicates that children develop competencies to reason effectively and make normative decisions, but also develop biased judgment strategies that are used inappropriately in some situations. We suggest potential explanations for the findings, highlighting the need to consider models that incorporate development in both experiential and analytic information processing systems.     

Semantic and subword priming during binocular suppression

In general, stimuli that are familiar and recognizable have an advantage of predominance during binocular rivalry. Recent research has demonstrated that familiar and recognizable stimuli such as upright faces and words in a native language could break interocular suppression faster than their matched controls. In this study, a visible word prime was presented binocularly then replaced by a high-contrast dynamic noise pattern presented to one eye and either a semantically related or unrelated word was introduced to the other eye. We measured how long it took for target words to break from suppression. To investigate word-parts priming, a second experiment also included word pairs that had overlapping subword fragments. Results from both experiments consistently show that semantically related words and words that shared subword fragments were faster to gain dominance compared to unrelated words, suggesting that words, even when interocularly suppressed and invisible, can benefit from semantic and subword priming.     

Stuart’s tau measure of effect size for ordinal variables: Some methodological considerations

The reporting of measures of effect size has become increasingly important in psychology. A Monte Carlo resampling permutation procedure is introduced to find near-optimum maximum values for Stuart’s τ _c measure for two-way ordinal contingency tables, also termed Kendall’s τ _c since Kendall introduced τ _a and τ _b . Comparisons between resampling and exact procedures demonstrate the accuracy and utility of resampling measures of effect size for two-way ordinal contingency tables. The resampling procedure is shown to be more precise than the traditional method of standardizing τ _c .     

Experiencing Alien-Nation: Effects of a simulation intervention on attitudes toward homosexuals

The authors explored psychological mechanisms underlying a teaching exercise [Hillman, J., & Martin, R. A. (2002). Lessons about gay and lesbian lives: A spaceship exercise. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 308-311] that may improve attitudes toward homosexuals. Heterosexual participants were randomly assigned to a simulation intervention or control lecture condition. In the simulation condition, participants imagined life on an alien planet that inadvertently simulated situational constraints parallel to those faced by homosexuals. The simulation (vs. control lecture) produced significantly more intergroup perspective-taking, empathy, and favorable attitudes toward homosexuals and marginalized groups. Tests of a structural equation model supported the assumption that the simulation (vs. control) provided an experience that heightened intergroup perspective-taking, which indirectly predicted favorable attitudes via independent cognitive (inclusive intergroup representations) and affective (empathy) paths. The model held after statistically controlling for prior attitudes and ideological individual differences predicting anti-homosexual bias. Implications for prejudice-reduction simulations and intergroup contact are considered.     

CHANGES IN STUDENT AND TEACHER RESPONSES IN OBSERVED AND GENERALIZED SETTINGS AS A FUNCTION OF SUPERVISOR OBSERVATIONS

Two studies are reported in which the effects of supervisor observations of teachers' performance rate and accuracy on both teachers' and severely handicapped students' behaviors were compared with baseline supervisor observations that did not specify rate and accuracy feedback. The latter observation procedure (nonspecific feedback) was more typical of the existing practices of school supervisors. The dependent variables for the teachers were rate and accuracy of teacher behaviors to student responses in individualized instructional settings involving discrete trials or task-analysis steps. The dependent variables for students were the rates of correct and incorrect responding to teacher presentations during the supervisor observation periods. Both studies used a multiple baseline design. The results of Study 1 showed that there were educationally significant changes in teacher and, in turn, student performance as a result of the use of the rate and accuracy procedure. The results of Study 2 replicated those of Study 1 while correcting limitations of Study 1. This latter study also demonstrated that the observation effects of the procedure generalized to teacher performance throughout the day. The results are discussed in terms of the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the procedure to train, monitor, and reinforce teacher effectiveness.     

Depression,self-focus,and social interaction

The accuracy of depressed and nondepressed subjects' perceptions of their own and a social interactional partner's performance was investigated. Twenty depressed and twenty nondepressed college students participated in dyadic interactions and then rated their own and their partner's social behavior. The interactions were also rated by objective coders. Depressed subjects were differentiated from nondepressed subjects on several measures by both the coders and the subjects. Depressed subjects' self-ratings were correlated with the coders' ratings more often than were the nondepressives' ratings, suggesting depressives provided more accurate self-observations. Contrary to prediction, depressives were also more accurate in judging their partner's behavior. Depressives experienced heightened levels of self-focused attention, but this attentional focus did not mediate the relationship between depression level and self-accuracy. Finally, an analysis of the verbal statements suggests that performance differences between depressives and nondepressives may be a function of the quantity, rather than the quality, of the verbal production.