The cross-category effect: mere social categorization is sufficient to elicit an own-group bias in face recognition

Although the cross-race effect (CRE) is a well-established phenomenon, both perceptual-expertise and social-categorization models have been proposed to explain the effect. The two studies reported here investigated the extent to which categorizing other people as in-group versus out-group members is sufficient to elicit a pattern of face recognition analogous to that of the CRE, even when perceptual expertise with the stimuli is held constant. In Study 1, targets were categorized as members of real-life in-groups and out-groups (based on university affiliation), whereas in Study 2, targets were categorized into experimentally created minimal groups. In both studies, recognition performance was better for targets categorized as in-group members, despite the fact that perceptual expertise was equivalent for in-group and out-group faces. These results suggest that social-cognitive mechanisms of in-group and out-group categorization are sufficient to elicit performance differences for in-group and out-group face recognition.     

Harm concerns predict moral judgments of suicide: Comment on Rottman,Kelemen and Young (2014)

Two prominent theories offer different perspectives on the role of harm in moral cognition. Dyadic morality suggests that harm-related concerns are pervasive, whereas moral pluralism suggests that these concerns apply only to canonically harmful violations (e.g., murder), and not impure violations (e.g., suicide). Rottman et al. (2014) contrast these two theories by examining moral judgments of suicide. They conclude that suicide wrongness is independent of harm, therefore arguing against dyadic morality and for moral pluralism. However, these conclusions may be overstated; across all these studies, a meta-analysis reveals that harm is a significant predictor of suicide judgments. Moreover, the association between harm and suicide wrongness may be suppressed in individual studies by insufficient power, restrictive exclusion criteria, a single bivariate outlier, and reliance upon the conventional significance threshold of p < .05. In revised analyses harm is robustly associated with suicide wrongness, consistent with dyadic morality.     

Overgeneralizing Belonging: Limited Exposure to Baby-Faced Targets Increases the Feeling of Social Belonging

We tested the hypothesis that exposure to babyish faces can serve a social surrogacy function, such that even limited exposure to babyish faces can fulfill social belongingness needs. We manipulated the sex and facial maturity of a target face seen in an imagined social interaction, on a between-participants basis. Regardless of target sex, individuals indicated greater satisfaction of social belongingness needs following an imagined interaction with a babyish face, compared to a mature adult face. These results indicate that brief exposure to babyish (relative to mature) faces, even without an extensive interaction, can lead to the satisfaction of social belongingness needs.     

Zur Pfychologie des produktiven Denkens

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Das Problem der Willensmessung und das Grundgesetz der Assoziation. II

Ohne Zusammenfassung Um Mi?verst?ndnissen vorzubeugen, sei zu den Ausführungen Teil I S. 195 folgendes bemerkt: Es sollte keineswegs die Existenz unanschaulicher psychischer Gegebenheiten geleugnet werden, vielmehr spielen m. E.unanschauliche Erlebnisse mannigfachster Art eine überragende Rolle und sind selbst bei den eigentlichen Auffassungsprozessen sinnlicher Gegebenheiten sehr wesentlich. (Da ein flie?ender übergang zwischen anschaulichen und unanschaulichen Erlebnissen besteht, scheint mir die Frage, ob im konkreten Falle keinerlei Spuren von Anschaulichem vorhanden sind oder nicht, nicht sehr wichtig.) Nur soll in dieser Arbeit nicht die Frage der psychologischen Systematik nach der Existenz unanschaulicher Erlebnisse er?rtert werden, sondern die Assoziationspsychologie, sofern sie die Gültigkeit ganzbestimmter Gesetze (also auch nicht die Gesetzlichkeit des Psychischen überhaupt) behauptet, untersucht werden. Endlich sollte die Trennung des “sensualistischen” Momentes von der Behauptung der Gültigkeit des speziellen “Assoziationsgesetzes” keine Bemerkung zur Historie, sondern eine sachliche Unterscheidung zur gegenw?rtigen Assoziationspsychologie darstellen.     

Untersuchungen zur Handlungs- und Affektpsychologie

Ohne Zusammenfassung Mit 13 Textabbildungen. Dissertation der Philosophischen Fakult?t Berlin.