How to Promote Innovative Behavior at Work? The Role of Justice and Support Within Organizations

To provide a more developed research model of innovation in organizations, we reconsidered current thinking about the effects of organizational justice on innovative behavior at work. We investigated the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS) between the two constructs. As hypothesized, empirical results showed that justice dimensions were related to innovative behavior of employees, whereas all of their relationships became no longer significant when POS intervened (full mediation). This indicates that organizational justice promotes innovative behavior through the psychological mechanism of POS rather than directly. We discussed implications and limitations of this study, and proposed future research avenues.     

Social class differences in N400 indicate differences in spontaneous trait inference

An emerging literature indicates that dispositional bias in causal attribution of social behavior is weaker for people with working-class (vs. middle-class) backgrounds. However, it is unknown whether this difference is also present in spontaneous forms of trait inference. In the current work, American undergraduates were asked to merely memorize many pairings of a target face and a trait-implying behavior. In a subsequent lexical judgment task, after each face was presented as a fixation, either an implied trait or its antonym was given as a target. As expected, participants with college-educated parents (middle class) showed a strong N400 event-related potential component to the antonym (vs. the implied trait), suggesting spontaneous trait inference during the memorization phase. In contrast, those with high-school-educated parents (working class) showed no such effect. It is important to note that the N400 spontaneous trait inference effect was associated with perceived significance of dispositions in accounting for social behaviors.     

Thinking about Arabs and Muslims makes Americans shoot faster: Effects of category accessibility on aggressive responses in a shooter paradigm

Is the same person perceived as more dangerous if the perceiver is induced to think about Arab and Muslim categories versus no category? Using the shooter paradigm, this study investigated the effects of the accessibility of ethnic (Arab) versus religious (Muslim) categories versus no category on spontaneous aggressive responses toward a target with an ambiguous appearance. Results demonstrated that shooting reactions toward armed targets were faster than non‐shooting reactions toward unarmed targets, especially if the target was a man. Despite these main effects, participants made faster decisions to shoot an ambiguous armed target if primed with the category Arab or Muslim (versus no category priming). The findings indicate that the mere priming of these social categories is sufficient to facilitate aggressive responses, even if the targets themselves are ambiguous. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Human sensitivity to the magnitude and probability of a continuous causal relation in a video game

Continuous causation, in which incremental changes in one variable cause incremental changes in another, has received little attention in the causal judgment literature. A video game was adapted for the study of continuous causality in order to examine the novel cues to causality that are present in these paradigms. The spatial proximity of an object to an "enemy detector" produced auditory responses as a function of the object's proximity. Participants' behavior was a function of the range of the effect's auditory sensitivity and the moment-to-moment likelihood of detection. This new paradigm provides a rich platform for examining the cues to causation encountered in the learning of continuous causal relations.     

Body image, shape, and volumetric assessments using 3D whole body laser scanning and 2D digital photography in females with a diagnosed eating disorder: preliminary novel findings

We piloted three-dimensional (3D) body scanning in eating disorder (ED) patients. Assessments of 22 ED patients (including nine anorexia nervosa (AN) patients, 12 bulimia nervosa (BN) patients, and one patient with eating disorder not otherwise specified) and 22 matched controls are presented. Volunteers underwent visual screening, two-dimensional (2D) digital photography to assess perception and dissatisfaction (via computerized image distortion), and adjunctive 3D full-body scanning. Patients and controls perceived themselves as bigger than their true shape (except in the chest region for controls and anorexia patients). All participants wished to be smaller across all body regions. Patients had poorer veridical perception and greater dissatisfaction than controls. Perception was generally poorer and dissatisfaction greater in bulimia compared with anorexia patients. 3D-volume:2D-area relationships showed that anorexia cases had least tissue on the torso and most on the arms and legs relative to frontal area. The engagement of patients with the scanning process suggests a validation study is viable. This would enable mental constructs of body image to be aligned with segmental volume of body areas, overcoming limitations, and errors associated with 2D instruments restricted to frontal (coronal) shapes. These novel data could inform the design of clinical trials in adjunctive treatments for eating disorders.     

Different step-over movement strategies for disturbance stimulations

This study examined differences in performance when 10 healthy adult participants took steps under three different disturbance stimulations (with opened and closed eyes and with the use of light), with and without an obstacle present. In the voluntary condition, participants recognized the obstacle beforehand and stepped over it quickly; in the light condition, participants recognized the obstacle beforehand and quickly stepped over it after light stimulation; in the closed eyes condition, participants did not recognize the obstacle beforehand, but after opening their eyes when hearing a sound, they quickly stepped over the obstacle. The swing time of the gait was significantly longer in obstacle conditions for all stimulations. The swing time was significantly longer under the closed eyes condition than the light and voluntary conditions. The clearances were significantly higher in order of the closed eyes, light, and voluntary conditions in the presence of an obstacle.     

Fear versus humor: the impact of sensation seeking on physiological, cognitive, and emotional responses to antialcohol abuse messages

This study investigates the differences in physiological, cognitive, and emotional responses to existing emotional antialcohol abuse advertisements (fear vs. humor appeal) between high and low sensation seekers. A 2 (Message Type) x 2 (Sensation-Seeking Tendency) x 4 (Message Repetition) mixed-model experiment with repeated measures was conducted with 71 college students. The results, based on self-reports, indicated that fear messages generated more interest and perceived danger of excessive drinking regardless of sensation-seeking tendency, whereas humorous messages were rated as more likeable than fear messages, and the difference was bigger among low sensation seekers than among high sensation seekers. One interesting finding was that for both fear and humor appeals, low sensation seekers showed greater emotional responses (greater corrugators activities and greater zygomatic activities) than high sensation seekers overall. The implications of the current study as well as suggestions for future study were discussed.