Applying the Theory of Affective Intelligence to Support for Authoritarian Policies and Parties

Emotion, after a long period of inattention, began to attract greater scrutiny as a key driver of human behavior in the mid‐1980s. One approach that has achieved significant influence in political science is affective intelligence theory (AIT). We deploy AIT here to begin to understand the recent rise in support for right‐wing populist leaders around the globe. In particular, we focus on specific emotional appraisals on elections held at periods of heightened threat, including the two 2015 terror attacks in France, as influences on support for the far‐right Front National among conservatives. Contrary to much conventional wisdom, we speculate that threats can generate both anger and fear, and with very different political consequences. We expect fear to inhibit reliance on extant political dispositions such as ideological identification and authoritarianism, while anger will strengthen the influence of these same dispositions. Our core findings, across repeated tests, show that fear and anger indeed differentially condition the way habits of thought and action influence support for the far right in the current historical moment. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is anger that mobilizes the far right and authoritarians. Fear, on the other hand, diminishes the impact of these same dispositions.     

Personality Assessment Inventory Scores as Predictors of Evaluation Referrals,Evaluator Opinions,and Commitment Decisions in Sexually Violent Predator Cases

We used data from more than 1,500 offenders to examine the association between Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991 Morey, L. C. (1991). Personality Assessment Inventory: Professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. [Google Scholar]) scores and progress through the sexually violent predator (SVP) screening, evaluation, and commitment process. There was no clear association between PAI scores and referrals for full evaluations, but PAI scores were small to moderate predictors of evaluator opinions and diagnoses among offenders who underwent full evaluations. Higher Antisocial Features (ANT) scores were associated with diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder, but this association was moderated by offender response style. ANT scores were more strongly associated with antisocial personality disorder diagnoses among those responding defensively (d = .71) than among those responding openly (d = .48). The mean ANT score among defensive responders diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder was about 55T, suggesting that even moderate ANT scale elevations could indicate a clinically significant level of antisocial traits among some offenders.     

The use of snowball sampling for multi source organizational research: Some cause for concern

In snowball sampling for multisource studies, researchers ask target participants to recruit informants. Despite its widespread use, especially for recruiting informants for multisource research, virtually no published research has addressed possible biases snowball sampling may cause in findings of this type of research. Such potential biases were tested empirically in a multisource study with a sample of 1,058 employed students asked to collect online ratings from their supervisors and coworkers. Informant ratings were obtained for 358 target participants. Objective indicators were employed to identify informant ratings suspicious of being fabricated. Results indicated that target participants who report (a) better relationship quality with informants, (b) fewer organizational constraints, and (c) more favorable self‐evaluations on behaviors to be rated by informants were more likely to be included in multisource data unsuspicious of being fabricated. Inclusion of informant ratings suspicious of being fabricated led to inflated estimates of self‐other consensus and of variance accounted for in criterion measures, to deflated informant rating means, but also to a target sample less restricted in terms of relevant organizational variables. In sum, the present findings suggest that potential biases should be identified in future uses of snowball sampling. Some practical recommendations toward that end are derived.     

On Disjunctive Rights

This article examines the idea of disjunctive rights—an idea first suggested by Joel Feinberg and more recently advocated by Richard Arneson. Using a hypothetical scenario to bring forward a conflict between two rights that cannot be simultaneously fulfilled, the suggestion that the conflict can be solved by describing the right‐holders as holding disjunctive rights—rights that involve, in a significant way, a disjunction—is scrutinized. Several interpretations of the idea of disjunctive rights are examined from the perspectives of the interest theory and will theory of rights. Ultimately, the idea of disjunctive rights fails to provide an acceptable solution to the problem at hand, as each interpretation has unacceptable implications. This conclusion challenges the compossibilist thesis, according to which moral rights do not, ultimately, conflict. Alternatively, if one wishes to keep the possibility of compossibility and disjunctive rights, the mainstream theories of rights must be revised or rejected.     

How Fragile Is Conditional Cooperation? A Field Experiment with Smartphones during the 2014 Soccer World Cup

We conducted an experiment in a highly cooperative environment to find out how a disruption, similar to a broken window, affects behavior. A centipede game was framed as a game of soccer and run with smartphones during a soccer public viewing event, that is, a Bavarian beer garden with a large screen displaying a soccer game. We provided some subjects with information that was supportive to cooperation and others with disruptive information, aimed at inducing a broken window effect. The disruption reduced the willingness to cooperate at the final stage of the game. But expectations regarding teammates remained unaffected such that cooperation at earlier stages remained high. Cooperation is thus not as fragile as one might fear. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One algorithm to rule them all? An evaluation and discussion of ten eye movement event-detection algorithms

Almost all eye-movement researchers use algorithms to parse raw data and detect distinct types of eye movement events, such as fixations, saccades, and pursuit, and then base their results on these. Surprisingly, these algorithms are rarely evaluated. We evaluated the classifications of ten eye-movement event detection algorithms, on data from an SMI HiSpeed 1250 system, and compared them to manual ratings of two human experts. The evaluation focused on fixations, saccades, and post-saccadic oscillations. The evaluation used both event duration parameters, and sample-by-sample comparisons to rank the algorithms. The resulting event durations varied substantially as a function of what algorithm was used. This evaluation differed from previous evaluations by considering a relatively large set of algorithms, multiple events, and data from both static and dynamic stimuli. The main conclusion is that current detectors of only fixations and saccades work reasonably well for static stimuli, but barely better than chance for dynamic stimuli. Differing results across evaluation methods make it difficult to select one winner for fixation detection. For saccade detection, however, the algorithm by Larsson, Nyström and Stridh (IEEE Transaction on Biomedical Engineering, 60(9):2484–2493,2013) outperforms all algorithms in data from both static and dynamic stimuli. The data also show how improperly selected algorithms applied to dynamic data misestimate fixation and saccade properties.     

Fight-seeking motivation in dating partners with an aggressive relationship

The author studied aggression among dating couples to determine if partners' fight-seeking motivation could explain the phenomenon. Intact dating couples were classified as aggressive if either partner reported having perpetrated 2 or more acts of assaultive violence in the past year. The author asked participants to rate the extent to which they and their partners intentionally physically or verbally fought with one another, felt calmer after physical or verbal conflict with their partners, and sought to increase sensory stimulation by taking part in high-risk activities. Together, these ratings constituted a measure of fight-seeking motivation. Results of a logistic regression analysis showed that couples classified as aggressive (48%) had relationships longer in duration than did nonaggressive couples. In addition, both men and women in aggressive relationships had greater fight-seeking motivation than did individuals in nonaggressive relationships.     

Terror management and stereotyping: why do people stereotype when mortality is salient?

Three studies examine two routes by which mortality threats may lead to stereotyping. Mortality salience may activate both a comprehension goal and an enhancement goal. Enhancement goals are likely to be more active in situations where intergroup competition or conflict is salient. If this is not the case, then a comprehension goal will predominate. In line with a why-determines-how logic, when mortality salience activates a comprehension goal, both positive and negative stereotyping occur. In contrast, the activation of an enhancement goal only increases negative stereotyping.