Beliefs about group malleability and out‐group attitudes: The mediating role of perceived threat in interactions with out‐group members

Recent research suggests that inducing fixed (rather than malleable) beliefs about groups leads to more negative attitudes toward out‐groups. The present paper identifies the underlying mechanism of this effect. We show that individuals with a fixed belief about groups tend to construe intergroup settings as threatening situations that might reveal shortcomings of their in‐group (perceived threat). In the present research, we measured (Study 1) and manipulated (Study 2) participants' lay theories about group malleability. We found that the extent to which individuals had an entity (versus an incremental) group theory influenced the level of threat they felt when interacting with out‐group members, and that perceived threat in turn affected their level of ethnocentrism and prejudice. These findings shed new light on the role of lay theories in intergroup attitudes and suggest new ways to reduce prejudice. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Choking under pressure and working memory capacity: When performance pressure reduces fluid intelligence

Recent findings (Beilock & Carr, 2005) have demonstrated that only individuals with a high working memory capacity (WMC) “choke under pressure” on math problems with high working memory demands. This suggests that performance pressure hinders those who are the most qualified to succeed, because it consumes the WMC they usually rely on to achieve superior performance. This puts into question the use of performance in high-pressure situations as a means of distinguishing individuals with lesser or greater WMC potentials. While addressing several limitations of past research, we offer evidence that such choking (1) occurs only in individuals with high WMC, because of their anxiety-ridden perceptions of high-stakes situations, and (2) is not confined to tasks involving acquired skills and knowledge, but encompasses fluid reasoning abilities or intelligence (Gf). These findings have strong implications for assessments of people’s intellectual capacities in academic, clinical, work, and research settings.     

Directional preferences in turning behavior of girls and boys

Turning biases in humans and animals are known to be related to dopaminergic asymmetry between the brain hemispheres. A laboratory method, in which turning preference was evaluated, was adapted based upon the turning of the subject toward a particular sound in a square room. One of the aims of this study was to investigate the reliability of this method with children, and the other aim was to research the turning preference in boys and girls. 31 children between 7 and 13 yr. old volunteered as subjects, and 17 subjects were retested. The subjects tended significantly to turn leftward (60.1%), and fewer girls (53.7%) turned to the left than boys (66.2%). The correlation between the test and the retest was significant (r=.79, p< .01). Most studies have indicated that humans in childhood and adulthood exhibit left-turning preference, but conflicts between the results obtained on different types of rotation tasks have suggested that hemispheric dopaminergic activity might affect preference. That needs study.