Intuitions about situational correction in self and others

People's attributional phenomenology is likely to be characterized by effortful situational correction. Drawing on this phenomenology and on people's desire to view themselves more favorably than others, the authors hypothesized that people expect others to engage in less situational correction than themselves and to make more extreme dispositional attributions for constrained actors' behavior. In 2 studies, people expected their peers to make more extreme dispositional inferences than they did themselves for a situationally constrained actor's behavior. People's expectation that they engage in more situational correction than their peers was diminished among Japanese participants, who have less desire to view themselves as superior to their peers (Study 3), and among participants who were led to view dispositional attributions more favorably than situational attributions (Study 4).     

Perspective taking as egocentric anchoring and adjustment

The authors propose that people adopt others' perspectives by serially adjusting from their own. As predicted, estimates of others' perceptions were consistent with one's own but differed in a manner consistent with serial adjustment (Study 1). Participants were slower to indicate that another's perception would be different from--rather than similar to--their own (Study 2). Egocentric biases increased under time pressure (Study 2) and decreased with accuracy incentives (Study 3). Egocentric biases also increased when participants were more inclined to accept plausible values encountered early in the adjustment process than when inclined to reject them (Study 4). Finally, adjustments tend to be insufficient, in part, because people stop adjusting once a plausible estimate is reached (Study 5).     

Pluralistic Ignorance and Political Correctness: The Case of Affirmative Action

The pressure to appear politically correct can have important consequences for social life. In particular, the desire to appear politically correct, and to avoid being seen as racist, sexist, or culturally insensitive, can lead people to espouse publicly support for politically correct issues, such as support for affirmative action, despite privately held doubts. Such discrepancies between public behavior and private attitudes, when accompanied by divergent attributions for one's own behavior and the identical behavior of others, can lead to pluralistic ignorance. Two studies investigated pluralistic ignorance with respect to affirmative action among undergraduates. Their survey responses indicate that people overestimate their peers' support for affirmative action and underestimate their peers' opposition to affirmative action, that people's ratings of the political correctness of supporting affirmative action are correlated with their overestimation of support for affirmative action, and that people view their own attitudes toward affirmative action as unique.     

OBSERVATIONAL EFFECTS ON THE PREFERENCES OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may play with limited objects or toys, making it difficult for teachers to identify reinforcers to use in teaching new skills. The goal of this study was to alter children's preferences from highly preferred toys to toys that were originally less preferred using an observational pairing procedure. Child participants observed a preferred adult playing with toys that were initially less preferred by the child. This intervention resulted in a shift in preference toward the item manipulated by the adult. Maintenance of the changed preference was idiosyncratic across participants. Results suggest a procedure for expanding the range of items that students with ASD will select.     

Maternal Relationship Insecurity and Depressive Symptoms as Moderators of Home Visiting Impacts on Child Outcomes

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which maternal relationship insecurity and severe depressive symptoms moderate home visiting impacts on developmental and behavioral outcomes in 2-year old children. In an experimental trial of the Healthy Families Alaska home visiting program, families (N = 249) were randomly assigned to home visiting (n = 126) or community services as usual (n = 123). Maternal severe depressive symptoms (CES-D ≥ 24) and relationship insecurity were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and the Attachment Style Questionnaire at baseline. Child cognitive and psychomotor development and behavior problems were measured with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and the Child Behavior Checklist at follow-up. The results revealed that home visiting significantly impacted three outcomes—child cognitive development, internalizing behavior, and externalizing behavior. Home visiting impacts were limited to subgroups defined by maternal depressive symptoms and relationship insecurity. Home visiting improved cognitive development (B = 6.02, p < .03), and decreased internalizing behavior (B = ?3.83, p = .02) and externalizing behavior problems (B = ?3.74, p = .03) in children of mothers with either severe depressive symptoms or high levels of discomfort with trust at baseline, but not both. Family engagement in home visiting seems to play a role in mediating these moderating effects. These findings reflect the importance of screening for maternal relationship insecurity and depressive symptoms to distinguish family subgroups likely to benefit from home visiting from those for whom an enhanced service model might be needed.     

Assessing the Role of Active Student Response During Error Correction in Discrete Trial Instruction

Research generally supports the use of error-correction procedures that require active student responses (ASRs). However, some recent research suggests that requiring ASRs after errors is not always advantageous for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We examined acquisition in a receptive identification task for two learners with ASD under three error-correction conditions: required ASRs, model, and modified model that minimized spontaneous ASR. In the model condition, both individuals emitted spontaneous responses to the model even though none was required, extending previous research to the receptive domain. For both learners, the model error-correction was effective; however, minimizing the spontaneous ASR in the modified model condition impacted its efficacy compared to the required ASR condition for one learner. For the other learner, error-correction procedures that required ASRs were not effective. Results are discussed in terms of empirical evaluation of error-correction procedures and suggest that imitative behavior (e.g., emitting an ASR when none is required) might function as a prerequisite skill that predicts the efficacy of model-based error-correction procedures for learners with ASD.     

Whom to help? Immediacy bias in judgments and decisions about humanitarian aid

People exhibit an immediacy bias when making judgments and decisions about humanitarian aid, perceiving as more deserving and donating disproportionately to humanitarian crises that happen to arouse immediate emotion. The immediacy bias produced different serial position effects, contingent on decision timing (Experiment 1). When making allocation decisions directly after viewing to four emotionally evocative films about four different humanitarian crises, participants donated disproportionately more to the final, immediate crisis, in contrast, when making donation decisions sequentially, after viewing each of the four crises, participants donated disproportionately to the immediate crisis. The immediacy bias was associated with “scope neglect,” causing people to take action against relatively less deadly crises (Experiments 2 and 3). The immediacy bias emerged even when participants were warned about emotional manipulation (Experiment 3). The immediacy bias diminished over time, as immediate emotions presumably subsided (Experiment 2). Implications for charitable giving, serial position effects, and the influence of emotion on choice are discussed.