How to overcome the detrimental effects of noise in social interaction: the benefits of generosity

Interpersonal misunderstanding is often rooted in noise, or discrepancies between intended and actual outcomes for an interaction partner due to unintended errors (e.g., not being able to respond to an E-mail because of a local network breakdown). How can one effectively cope with noise in social dilemmas, situations in which self-interest and collective interests are conflicting? Consistent with hypotheses, the present research revealed that incidents of noise exert a detrimental effect on level of cooperation when a partner follows strict reciprocity (i.e., tit for tat) but that this effect can be overcome if a partner behaves somewhat more cooperatively than the actor did in the previous interaction (i.e., tit for tat plus 1). Also, when noise was present, tit for tat plus 1 elicited greater levels of cooperation than did tit for tat, thereby underscoring the benefits of adding generosity to reciprocity in coping with noise in social dilemmas. The Discussion outlines implications of the present work for theories focusing on self-presentation and attribution, communication, and trust and prorelationship behavior.     

Sounds change four-dot masking

The temporal occurrence of a flash can be shifted towards a slightly offset sound (temporal ventriloquism). Here we examined whether four-dot masking is affected by this phenomenon. In Experiment 1, we demonstrate that there is release from four-dot masking if two sounds - one before the target and one after the mask - are presented at ∼100 ms intervals rather than at ∼0 ms intervals or a silent condition. In Experiment 2, we show that the release from masking originates from an alerting effect of the first sound, and a temporal ventriloquist effect from the first and second sounds that lengthened the perceived interval between target and mask, thereby leaving more time for the target to consolidate. Results thus show that sounds penetrate the visual system at more than one level.     

Becoming More Conscientious or More Open to Experience? Effects of a Two-Week Smartphone-Based Intervention for Personality Change

Research indicates that it might be possible to change personality traits through intervention, but this clinical research has primarily focused on changing neuroticism. To date, there are no established, proven techniques for changing other domains of personality, such as conscientiousness and openness. This research examined the effects of a two-week smartphone-based intervention to either change one facet of conscientiousness (i.e. self-discipline) or one facet of openness to experience (i.e. openness to action). Two intervention studies (total N = 255) with two active intervention groups for mutual comparisons were conducted. Results of self-reports and observer reports showed that people who wanted to become more self-disciplined were less self-disciplined at pretest. Similarly, people who wanted to become more open to action were less open to action at pretest. The results showed that people who chose the self-discipline intervention showed greater increases in self-discipline, and people who chose the openness to action intervention showed greater increases in openness to action compared with the other group. Changes were maintained until follow-up two and six weeks after the end of the intervention. Future work is needed to examine whether these personality changes are enduring or reflect temporary accentuation as a result of participation in the intervention. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Understanding linear and exponential growth: Searching for the roots in 6- to 9-year-olds

Previous studies have suggested that children as young as 9 years old have developed an understanding of non-linear growth processes prior to formal education. The present experiment aimed at investigating this competency in even younger samples (i.e., in kindergartners, first, and third graders, ages 6, 7 and 9, respectively). Children (N = 90) solved non-verbal inductive reasoning tasks by forecasting linear and exponential growth. While children of all ages forecasted linear growth adequately, exponential growth was also estimated remarkably well. Surprisingly, kindergartners and third graders showed similar high achievement concerning the magnitude and curve shape of forecasts, whereas first graders performed significantly worse. We concluded that primary knowledge of both linearity and non-linearity exists even in kindergartners. However, children's understanding is quite fragile, as their performance was strongly affected by task sequence: Children underestimated exponential growth when the previous task required a forecast of linear growth, and overestimated linear growth when the previous task required forecasting of exponential growth.     

Forecasting exponential growth and exponential decline: similarities and differences

Previous research has demonstrated adults' difficulties with explicitly forecasting exponential processes. Exponential growth is usually grossly underestimated, whereas exponential decline is forecast more accurately. By contrast, the present study examined implicit knowledge about exponential processes and how it is affected by function type (growth versus decline) in samples of 7-, 10-, 14-year-olds, and adults (N=80). Different indicators of the quality of forecasts were investigated. As opposed to previous findings, participants of all age groups estimated exponential decline less adequately than exponential growth. This effect could be attributed mainly to the fact that, in relation to fitted exponential functions, the starting value, or intercept, of the function was approximated well for exponential growth but badly with regard to exponential decline. The accuracy of the non-linear component in forecast functions barely differed between function types within the same age group. Furthermore, even 7-year-olds appeared to have a preliminary understanding of exponential processes, while both intercepts and exponents of forecasts became more accurate with age. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

A VIROCENTRIC PERSPECTIVE ON EVIL

Abstract. The coronavirus pandemic has stirred interest in viruses. This has been accompanied by a proliferation of popular works trying to explain how viruses fit into the Christian worldview. In an anthropocentric perspective, viruses are easily regarded as malicious entities. This article, however, shows that a proper understanding of the biology of viruses actually adds another level of complexity to our perception of good and evil. Interestingly, this additional layer of complexity might help us solve some of the most urgent difficulties in the discussion about good and evil, if we recognize the subjective nature of what we call natural evil. We need to be more nuanced not merely in our theological discussion about good and evil, but also in the way we talk about viruses.     

Perception of intersensory synchrony: A tutorial review

For most multisensory events, observers perceive synchrony among the various senses (vision, audition, touch), despite the naturally occurring lags in arrival and processing times of the different information streams. A substantial amount of research has examined how the brain accomplishes this. In the present article, we review several key issues about intersensory timing, and we identify four mechanisms of how intersensory lags might be dealt with: by ignoring lags up to some point (a wide window of temporal integration), by compensating for predictable variability, by adjusting the point of perceived synchrony on the longer term, and by shifting one stream directly toward the other.     

Atypicality and the two fundamental dimensions: Applying the negativity effect on warmth to group perception

The person perception literature has shown that negative information on warmth influences impression formation more than other kinds of information. In the present paper, we argue for the usefulness of using the knowledge accumulated on the negativity effect on warmth when studying how members of a group who are disconfirming the group stereotype are perceived. We show that negative divergent information on warmth is perceived as more surprising because it appears to be more discrepant than positive divergent information on warmth or than competence information. We also show how stereotype holders protect their stereotype by rating the surprising incoherent information as atypical. Results are discussed in terms of the necessity to apply our knowledge of the two fundamental dimensions of social perception and their properties to typicality ratings and, beyond them, to stereotype change research. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Who benefits from psychotherapies for adult depression? A meta-analytic update of the evidence

It is not clear whether specific target groups for psychotherapies in adult depression benefit as much from these treatments as other patients. We examined target groups that have been examined in randomized trials, including women, older adults, students, minorities, patients with general medical disorders, and specific types of depression, and we examined where patients were recruited. We conducted subgroup and multivariate metaregression analyses in a sample of 256 trials (with 332 comparisons) comparing psychotherapy with an inactive control condition. Only 22% of the studies had low risk of bias (RoB), heterogeneity was high and there was a considerable risk of publication bias. A meta-regression analysis among low RoB studies showed that effect sizes found for studies among women, older adults, patients with general medical disorders, patients recruited from primary care, and patients scoring above a cut-off on a self-rating depression scale, did not differ significantly from effect sizes from other studies. For other target groups, the number of low RoB studies was too small to draw any conclusion. We found few indications that psychotherapies for adult depression are more or less effective in women, older adults, patients with comorbid general medical disorders, and primary care patients.