Harder Won and Easier Lost? Testing the Double Standard in Gender Rules in 62 Countries

Sex Roles - There is a longstanding tradition in the Netherlands to announce the birth of a child by sending out birth announcement cards to friends and family. These cards provide a glimpse of the...     

Reversed better-than-average effect in direct comparisons of nonsocial stimuli depends on the set size

Studies on direct comparative judgments typically show that, for items that are positively evaluated, a single item randomly drawn from a larger set of similar items tends to be judged as better than average (the BTA effect). However, Windschitl, Conybeare, and Krizan (2008) demonstrated that, under timing conditions that do not favor focusing attention on the single item, the reversal of the BTA effect occurs. We report two experiments showing that the magnitude of the reversed BTA effect increases as a function of the size of a multiitem referent with which a single item target is compared. Specifically, in direct comparative judgments of the attractiveness of positively evaluated objects (nice-looking cloth buttons, attractive buildings, or cupcakes), underestimation of the attractiveness of singletons, as compared with a multiitem set (reversed BTA effect), increased with the increased set size. Analysis of absolute judgments obtained for singletons and for small and large multiitem sets suggests that, for attractive stimuli, both the reversed BTA effect in comparative judgments and its sensitivity to set size occur as a result of a positive relationship between set size and perceived attractiveness in absolute judgments.     

Intuitive (in)coherence judgments are guided by processing fluency, mood and affect

Recently proposed accounts of intuitive judgments of semantic coherence assume that processing fluency results in a positive affective response leading to successful assessment of semantic coherence. The present paper investigates whether processing fluency may indicate semantic incoherence as well. In two studies, we employ a new paradigm in which participants have to detect an incoherent item among semantically coherent words. In Study 1, we show participants accurately indicating an incoherent item despite not being able to provide an accurate solution to coherent words. Further, this effect is modified by affective valence of solution words that are not retrieved from memory. Study 2 replicates those results and extend them by showing that mood moderates incoherence judgments independently of affective valence of solutions. The results support processing fluency account of intuitive semantic coherence judgments and show that it is not fluency per se but fluency variations that drive judgments.     

Temperament and Anxiety: The Mediating Role of Metacognition

The present study examines a simple model for the relationship between temperament, anxiety and maladaptive metacognition. A clinical sample of patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders (n?=?216) completed a set of self-reported questionnaires measuring temperament dimensions, state anxiety and metacognitions. Three temperament traits were included in the hypothesized model: emotional reactivity, perseveration and briskness. A structural equation modeling analysis supported a model in which the relationship between the three temperament traits and anxiety were fully mediated by metacognition. Dissimilar models were identified for the male and female subgroups, and also with reference to individual categories of maladaptive metacognition. The findings support the significance of metacognition as a factor influencing the temperament-anxiety relationship. Moreover, they confirm the roles both of emotional reactivity and of perseveration, being major traits related to anxiety which also turned out to be strongly associated with metacognition. In case of the models for the categories of metacognition, emotional reactivity was associated with negative beliefs, perseveration with negative and positive beliefs, while briskness predicted anxiety independently of metacognition. These results suggest the existence of more specific associations between temperament traits, anxiety, and various types of metacognition.     

Does Individualistic Culture Lower the Well-Being of the Unemployed? Evidence from Europe

The paper tests whether the well-being cost of own unemployment is higher in individualistic countries and among persons with more individualistic orientations. I consider two dimensions of individualism: family support and self-reliance. I adopt a multilevel regression methodology on data of the European Values Study (2008) for 42 European countries. The results confirm that in Europe individualism correlates with higher well-being cost of own unemployment. Specifically, the relationship between unemployment and well-being is moderated by the family support norm. Its effect size is substantial, similar to the effect of country unemployment rate. This paper is the first one to establish in a comparative context that the well-being cost of own unemployment is higher in individualistic countries. It is also the first one to investigate the mechanisms behind this regularity. In contrast to the theoretical predictions, the importance of personal orientations is much weaker than the one of normative factors. Consistently with previous literature, the results suggest that the support among family members depends more on social norms than on individual values.     

How We Feel is a Matter of Time: Relationships Between Time Perspectives and Mood

Both personality and emotional experiences may be influenced by people’s time perspectives. The Zimbardo time perspective inventory measures five trait dimensions related to past, present and future perspectives. Two studies were conducted to investigate how these time perspective dimensions related to mood. The first study (n = 260) confirmed that ZTPI scales predicted moods including energetic arousal, tense arousal and Hedonic Tone, revealing that past negative and Present Hedonistic time perspectives are the most robust predictors of current emotional states. Moreover, future time perspective proved to predict energetic arousal, but the effect was suppressed by present hedonism. The second study (n = 65) measured mood twice in a 4-week period, and focused on relationships between the ZTPI and recalled and anticipated mood. Analyses conducted using DBTP, an index of temporal harmony based on the ZTPI scores, proved that balanced time perspective was related to more positive mood states in both studies. Findings confirmed that time perspective appears to influence both recall and anticipation of mood. For example, past negative time perspective is associated with anticipation of negative moods, and Past Positive perspective relates to both recall and anticipation of energy. Time perspective may structure the individual’s affective experience.     

Threats to Feminist Identity and Reactions to Gender Discrimination

The aim of this research was to examine conditions that modify feminists’ support for women as targets of gender discrimination. In an experimental study we tested a hypothesis that threatened feminist identity will lead to greater differentiation between feminists and conservative women as victims of discrimination and, in turn, a decrease in support for non-feminist victims. The study was conducted among 96 young Polish female professionals and graduate students from Gender Studies programs in Warsaw who self-identified as feminists (M _age ?=?22.23). Participants were presented with a case of workplace gender discrimination. Threat to feminist identity and worldview of the discrimination victim (feminist vs. conservative) were varied between research conditions. Results indicate that identity threat caused feminists to show conditional reactions to discrimination. Under identity threat, feminists perceived the situation as less discriminatory when the target held conservative views on gender relations than when the target was presented as feminist. This effect was not observed under conditions of no threat. Moreover, feminists showed an increase in compassion for the victim when she was portrayed as a feminist compared to when she was portrayed as conservative. Implications for the feminist movement are discussed.     

Physical and cognitive effort discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards

Effort discounting refers to the decrease in the subjective value of a reward as the effort required to obtain the reward increases. The main aims of this study were to ascertain whether the amount of the reward affects the steepness of the effort discounting process for hypothetical monetary rewards, to identify whether this steepness depends on the type of effort that is required, and to determine whether the steepness of different types of effort covary at the individual level. Two types of effort were studied under hypothetical choice situations: physical effort and cognitive effort. Both physical and cognitive effort discounting were well described by the hyperbolic model. Large rewards were discounted less steeply than small rewards for both types of effort. This finding agrees with the results of prior studies which have found that larger rewards have greater motivational power. In addition, the steepness of physical effort discounting was positively correlated with the steepness of cognitive effort discounting, which suggests that the effort discounting process is a trait‐like characteristic within an individual.