Tough and tender: embodied categorization of gender

Emerging evidence has shown that human thought can be embodied within physical sensations and actions. Indeed, abstract concepts such as morality, time, and interpersonal warmth can be based on metaphors that are grounded in bodily experiences (e.g., physical temperature can signal interpersonal warmth). We hypothesized that social-category knowledge is similarly embodied, and we tested this hypothesis by examining a sensory metaphor related to categorical judgments of gender. We chose the dimension of "toughness" (ranging from tough to tender), which is often used to characterize differences between males and females. Across two studies, the proprioceptive experience of toughness (vs. tenderness) was manipulated as participants categorized sex-ambiguous faces as male or female. Two different manipulations of proprioceptive toughness predictably biased the categorization of faces toward "male." These findings suggest that social-category knowledge is at least partially embodied.     

When familiarity breeds accuracy: cultural exposure and facial emotion recognition

Two studies provide evidence for the role of cultural familiarity in recognizing facial expressions of emotion. For Chinese located in China and the United States, Chinese Americans, and non-Asian Americans, accuracy and speed in judging Chinese and American emotions was greater with greater participant exposure to the group posing the expressions. Likewise, Tibetans residing in China and Africans residing in the United States were faster and more accurate when judging emotions expressed by host versus nonhost society members. These effects extended across generations of Chinese Americans, seemingly independent of ethnic or biological ties. Results suggest that the universal affect system governing emotional expression may be characterized by subtle differences in style across cultures, which become more familiar with greater cultural contact.     

On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: a meta-analysis

A meta-analysis examined emotion recognition within and across cultures. Emotions were universally recognized at better-than-chance levels. Accuracy was higher when emotions were both expressed and recognized by members of the same national, ethnic, or regional group, suggesting an in-group advantage. This advantage was smaller for cultural groups with greater exposure to one another, measured in terms of living in the same nation, physical proximity, and telephone communication. Majority group members were poorer at judging minority group members than the reverse. Cross-cultural accuracy was lower in studies that used a balanced research design, and higher in studies that used imitation rather than posed or spontaneous emotional expressions. Attributes of study design appeared not to moderate the size of the in-group advantage.     

Accurate identification of fear facial expressions predicts prosocial behavior

The fear facial expression is a distress cue that is associated with the provision of help and prosocial behavior. Prior psychiatric studies have found deficits in the recognition of this expression by individuals with antisocial tendencies. However, no prior study has shown accuracy for recognition of fear to predict actual prosocial or antisocial behavior in an experimental setting. In 3 studies, the authors tested the prediction that individuals who recognize fear more accurately will behave more prosocially. In Study 1, participants who identified fear more accurately also donated more money and time to a victim in a classic altruism paradigm. In Studies 2 and 3, participants' ability to identify the fear expression predicted prosocial behavior in a novel task designed to control for confounding variables. In Study 3, accuracy for recognizing fear proved a better predictor of prosocial behavior than gender, mood, or scores on an empathy scale.     

First Impressions of the Face: Predicting Success

The human tendency to form impressions of others is ubiquitous and consequential. Consensus, or agreement among individuals, regarding their first impressions based on the facial appearance of others can lead to the treatment of other individuals in particular ways that shape their outcomes and behaviors. For an impression to be considered accurate it must not only be consensual but must also show correspondence to an external criterion, such as whether impressions of individuals’ leadership ability are related to the performance of their group or organization. Many of our first impressions may not have valid external criteria to enable an assessment of the accuracy of the impression. Yet, whether our impressions are accurate or merely consensual, they can still often predict important outcomes. A limited but growing literature has shown that our impressions can be both consensual and predictive despite important social and perceptual distinctions, such as differences in culture.     

Examining Cultural,Ethnic, and Religious Differences with the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness and Spirituality in the U.S. and India

Journal of Religion and Health - The Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS) is regularly used to measure spirituality and religiosity in U.S. Christian populations,...     

Priming a natural or human-made environment directs attention to context-congruent threatening stimuli

Research suggests that attention is attracted to evolutionary threats (e.g., snakes) due to an evolved "fear-module" that automatically detects biological threats to survival. However, recent evidence indicates that non-evolutionary threats (e.g., guns) capture and hold attention as well, suggesting a more general "threat-relevance" mechanism that directs attentional resources toward any potential danger in the environment. The current research measured how selective attentional resources were influenced both by the type of threat (e.g., snake vs. gun) and by the context in which the threat was encountered. Participants were primed with either natural or human-made environments to assess how these contexts influence attention to evolutionary and non-evolutionary threats, as measured by a spatial-cueing task. The results indicate that whether biological or non-biological threats receive greater attentional processing is determined by the context in which they are encountered.     

Communicating Without the Face: Holistic Perception of Emotions of People With Facial Paralysis

People with facial paralysis (FP) report social difficulties, but some attempt to compensate by increasing expressivity in their bodies and voices. We examined perceivers' emotion judgments of videos of people with FP to understand how they interpret the combination of an inexpressive face with an expressive body and voice. Results suggest that perceivers form less favorable impressions of people with severe FP, but compensatory expression is effective in improving impressions. Perceivers seemed to form holistic impressions when rating happiness and possibly sadness. Findings have implications for basic emotion research and social functioning interventions for people with FP.     

Development and implementation of a spiritual coping group intervention for adults living with HIV/AIDS: A pilot study

The aims of the current study were to (1) describe a spirituality-oriented, group pilot intervention for HIV-positive adults, and (2) examine the preliminary impact of the intervention among a sample (N?=?13) of adults living with HIV in an urban city in northeast United States. The 8-session intervention, based on the cognitive theory of stress and coping and the framework of spiritual coping, addressed stressors unique to HIV disease. Changes in spiritual coping and mental health were evaluated using a within group pretest-posttest design. Results revealed that, at post-intervention, participants reported higher self-rated religiosity, more use of positive spiritual coping, lower use of negative spiritual coping, and lower depression. Studies using a randomized, controlled design with larger samples of individuals with HIV are needed to determine the efficacy of a spiritual intervention when compared to a secular one.     

Influences of culture and visual context on real-time social categorization

Social categorization is often thought to be based on facial features and immune to visual context. Moreover, East Asians have been argued to attend to context more than Westerners. American and Chinese participants were presented with faces varying along a White-Asian morph continuum either in American, neutral, or Chinese contexts. American contexts made White categorizations more likely, and Chinese contexts made Asian categorizations more likely. Further, the compatibility between facial and contextual cues influenced the directness of participants' hand trajectories en route to selecting a category response. Even when an ultimate response was not biased by context, the trajectory was nevertheless partially attracted to the category response associated with the context. Importantly, such partial attraction effects in hand trajectories revealed that the influence of context began earlier in time for Chinese relative to American participants. Together, the results show that context systematically influences social categorization, sometimes altering categorization responses and other times only temporarily altering the process. Further, the timing of contextual influences differs by culture. The findings highlight the role of contextual and cultural factors in social categorization.