Precis of fallibilism: evidence and knowledge

Philosophical Studies -     

Toward a comprehensive model of face impressions: What we know,what we do not,and paths forward

A person's impression of another depends upon three sources of variance. The characteristics of the target, the characteristics of the perceiver, and the interplay between the two. Researchers have dedicated different amounts of study to these three sources of variance, and therefore they differ in how well they are understood. The present work will first review the portions of the face impression process that are understood well, then identify and discuss portions of the process less well understood. We will then question to what extent the current state of knowledge will generalize to novel targets and populations. Finally, we will review several modeling approaches that can accommodate relatively unexamined yet important sources of variance in impression formation, suggesting a clear path forward toward a comprehensive understanding of face impressions.     

Sex differences in communication with close friends: testing Tannen's claims

In 1990 Tannen reported that men have fewer close friends than women, men discuss less intimate topics with their friends than women, and men and women respond differently to close friends' problems. 168 students completed a three-page survey designed to examine Tannen's claims. Consistent with Tannen's observations, men discussed less intimate topics (politics and school or work) with their five closest friends and reportedly were less likely to comfort or listen to their friends' problems than women were. Inconsistent with Tannen's statements, these women and men did not differ in the number of close friends they reported having or in the likelihood of offering advice when presented with a friend's problem. Present self-reports corroborate other researchers who questioned Tannen's findings and concluded that sex differences in interpersonal communication are small.     

Magnitude comparisons distort mental representations of magnitude

Many cognitive processes rely on representations of magnitude, yet these representations are often malleable (H. Helson, 1964; J. Huttenlocher, L. V. Hedges, & J. L. Vevea, 2000; A. Parducci, 1965). It is likely that factors that affect these representations in turn affect the psychological processes that rely on them. The authors conducted 4 experiments to investigate whether language-expressible magnitude comparisons distort mental representations of compared magnitudes. Participants compared magnitudes and estimated those magnitudes in a variety of tasks. Experiments 1 through 3 demonstrated systematic comparison-induced distortions. Experiment 4 demonstrated that comparison-induced distortions might account for the asymmetric dominance effect discussed in the decision-making literature. Potential effects of comparison-induced distortions on other psychological processes (e.g., density effects, order effects, body-size estimation, pain estimation, and consumer decision making) are discussed.     

Global self-esteem across the life span

This study provides a comprehensive picture of age differences in self-esteem from age 9 to 90 years using cross-sectional data collected from 326,641 individuals over the Internet. Self-esteem levels were high in childhood, dropped during adolescence, rose gradually throughout adulthood, and declined sharply in old age. This trajectory generally held across gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and nationality (U.S. citizens vs. non-U.S. citizens). Overall, these findings support previous research, help clarify inconsistencies in the literature, and document new trends that require further investigation.     

Stability and factor structure of the Jackson Personality Inventory--Revised

The Jackson Personality Inventory--Revised comprises 15 bipolar scales and five cluster scores concerning an individual's interpersonal patterns of interaction, cognitive styles, and value orientation. Recent reviews of this revised version raise questions about test-retest stability as well as the factor structure on which cluster scores are based. 74 men and 33 women (29-63 years of age, M = 42.3) completed the inventory while participating in a continuing education program. Of these 45 participated in a second session 13 wk. later. Test-retest correlations are significant, with 12 of the 15 scales having correlations > or = .75. Intercorrelations among all subscales indicate that the Jackson subscales for the most part remain distinct from each other ranging from .01 to .59. A Principal Components Analysis with a varimax rotation yielded three factors that parallel the NEO big five, i.e., Openness, Neuroticism, and Extroversion and replicated previous factor structure found for both versions of the Jackson inventory. The fourth and fifth factors here were labeled Trustworthy and Organization; however, the composition of these factors across several studies appears to be unstable, suggesting optimal certainty when interpreting the clusters of subscales associated only with Openness, Neuroticism, and Extroversion. Further research may help clarify the instability associated with the other factors of this inventory.     

Young infants' expectations about hidden objects

Infants aged 3-5 months (mean of approximately 4 months) were given a novel anticipatory looking task to test object permanence understanding. They were trained to expect an experimenter to retrieve an object from behind a transparent screen upon hearing a cue ("Doors up, here comes the hand"). The experimenter then hid the object behind one of two opaque screens and after either 2 or 8s gave the "doors up" cue. Infants looked to the correct location after the two-second delay, but not after the eight-second delay. This indicates a brief memory that the object is present behind the occluder. The study provides converging evidence that infants grasp object permanence by a young age. The novel anticipatory looking paradigm helps rule out counter-explanations applied to violation-of-expectation tasks.     

Between-individual comparisons in performance evaluation: a perspective from prospect theory

This article examines how between-individual comparisons influence performance evaluations in rating tasks. The authors demonstrated a systematic change in the perceived difference across ratees as a result of changing the way performance information is expressed. Study 1 found that perceived performance difference between 2 individuals was greater when their objective performance levels were presented with small numbers (e.g., absence rates of 2% vs. 5%) than when they were presented with large numbers (e.g., attendance rates of 98% vs. 95%). Extending this finding to situations involving trade-offs between multiple performance attributes across ratees, Study 2 showed that the relative preference for 1 ratee over another actually reversed when the presentation format of the performance information changed. The authors draw upon prospect theory to offer a theoretical framework describing the between-individual comparison aspect of performance evaluation.