Social anxiety and evaluation of social crowds: explicit and implicit measures

To investigate whether social anxiety disorder is indeed characterized by a biased negative evaluation of facial expressions, 25 highly socially anxious (SA) participants and 30 non-anxious controls (NACs) were asked to respond to different ratios of neutral-angry or happy-angry face combinations (crowds). In an indirect Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT), participants used a joystick to pull the crowds towards themselves (approach) or push them away (avoidance). SAs showed faster avoidance of neutral-angry crowds when the number of angry faces in the crowd increased. The happy-angry crowds were generally avoided, independent of the ratio of the two emotions. NACs did not show any specific response tendency. When directly rating the friendliness of the crowds, the two groups did not differ.     

Adolescent perceptions of indirect forms of relational aggression: sex of perpetrator effects

Different types of aggressive behavior (both physical and relational) by boys and girls have been shown to be perceived differently by observers. However, most research has focused on adult perceptions of very young children, with little research examining other ages. The aim of this study is to establish any sex differences in adolescent perceptions of indirect forms of relational aggression enacted by boys and girls. One hundred and sixty adolescents were shown one of the two videos involving relational aggression and completed a questionnaire that assessed their perceptions of the aggression. The videos were identical except for the sex of the aggressor and the victim; one condition portrayed boy-to-boy aggression, the other showed girl-to-girl aggression. Results indicated that participants viewed boy-to-boy relational aggression as more justified. This study revealed that stereotypes about aggressive boys are perpetuated even when the aggression is a type that is not commonly associated with boys.     

Movie smoking exposure and smoking onset: a longitudinal study of mediation processes in a representative sample of U.S. adolescents.

The authors tested 2 mechanisms for the relation of movie smoking exposure with onset of cigarette smoking in adolescence. Longitudinal data with 8-month follow-up were obtained from a representative sample of 6,522 U.S. adolescents, ages 10-14 years. Structural modeling analysis based on initial nonsmokers, which controlled for 10 covariates associated with movie exposure, showed that viewing more smoking in movies was related to increases in positive expectancies about smoking and increases in affiliation with smoking peers, and these variables were both related to smoking onset. A direct effect of movie exposure on smoking onset was also noted. Mediation findings were replicated across cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Tests for gender differences indicated that girls showed larger effects of movie exposure for some variables. Implications for policy and prevention research are discussed.     

A Bayesian approach to the argument from ignorance.

In this paper, we re-examine a classic informal reasoning fallacy, the so-called argumentam ad ignorantiam. We argue that the structure of some versions of this argument parallels examples of inductive reasoning that are widely viewed as unproblematic. Viewed probabilistically, these versions of the argument from ignorance constitute a legitimate form of reasoning; the textbook examples are inductive arguments that are not unsound but simply weak, due to the nature of the premises and conclusions involved. In an experiment, we demonstrated some of the variables affecting the strength of the argument, and conclude with some general considerations towards an empirical theory of argument strength.