Mood and heuristics: the influence of happy and sad states on sensitivity and bias in stereotyping

The influence of mood states on the propensity to use heuristics as expressed in stereotypes was examined using signal detection statistics. Participants experienced happy, neutral, or sad moods and "remembered" whether names connoting race (African American, European American) belonged to social categories (criminal, politician, basketball player). Positive mood increased reliance on heuristics, indexed by higher false identification of members of stereotyped groups. Positive mood lowered sensitivity (d'), even among relative experts, and shifted bias (beta) or criterion to be more lenient for stereotypical names. In contrast, sad mood did not disrupt sensitivity and, in fact, revealed the use of a stricter criterion compared with baseline mood. Results support theories that characterize happy mood as a mental state that predisposes reliance on heuristics and sad mood as dampening such reliance.     

Differential validity of the Defense Mechanism Manual for the TAT between Asian Americans and Whites. Thematic Apperception Test

Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) responses of 69 Asian American (hereafter, Asian) and 83 White students were coded for defenses according to the Defense Mechanism Manual (Cramer, 1991b) and studied for differential validity in predicting paper-and-pencil measures of relevant constructs. Three tests for differential validity were used: (a) differences between validity coefficients, (b) interactions between predictor and ethnicity in criterion prediction, and (c) differences between groups in mean prediction errors using a common regression equation. Modest differential validity was found. It was surprising that the DMM scales were slightly stronger predictors of their criteria among Asians than among Whites and when a common predictor was used, desirable criteria were overpredicted for Asians, whereas undesirable ones were overpredicted for Whites. The results were not affected by acculturation level or English vocabulary among the Asians.     

Revisiting relationships between sex-related variables and continuation in counseling

This study examined the relationships between three sex-related variables (client sex, therapist sex, and dyad matching on sex) and continuation in counseling. 245 college students who were clients at three university counseling centers participated. Consistent with previous studies, women comprised 68.2% of the clients seeking services at these counseling centers. Clients' sex was significantly related to counseling duration, explaining 2.2% of the common variance. Female clients, on the average, attended 1.8 more sessions than male clients. However, neither the therapists' sex nor dyad matching on sex was significantly related to the duration of counseling. None of the sex-related variables correlated with premature termination of counseling. The results have implications for providing counseling and outreach services to male students. Despite relatively equivalent rates in the incidence of mental health problems, female students continue to comprise the majority of clients. Therefore, university counseling centers need to communicate their services better to male students in need of mental health services.     

Associative and categorical relations in the associative memory illusion

What kinds of associations underlie the associative memory illusion? In Experiment 1, lists composed of horizontal, or coordinate, free associates elicited false recognition of critical lures much more often than did lists composed of vertical, or subordinate, category instances. Experiment 2 replicated this result, and showed that the difference between free associates and category instances was not an artifact of differential levels of forward or backward associative strength. Associative structure plays an important role in the associative memory illusion: The illusion is strongest when the critical lure lies at the same level of categorization as the studied items.     

Early maternal deprivation retards neurodevelopment in Wistar rats

A single 24 h period of maternal deprivation (MD) in rats has been shown to induce, in adulthood, a number of abnormalities in brain and behaviour that also occur in patients with schizophrenia. However, the short-term behavioural effects of MD have not been studied in detail. Since patients with schizophrenia are characterized by a retardation of normal development, we aimed in the present study to investigate the development of control rats and rats that were exposed to MD on postnatal day 9. Compared to control animals, MD rats showed (1) a reduction in body weight, (2) an increased in reversal latency in negative geotaxis, (3) a delayed eye opening, (4) a delayed emergence of walking and rearing; and (5) a delayed emergence of the behavioural response to amphetamine (amph). On the other hand, MD and control rats responded similarly to the non-competitive NMDA antagonist MK801. These data clearly show that early MD delays development, especially of the dopaminergic system and confirm our hypothesis that MD may represent an interesting animal model for the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia.     

Aging and medical adherence: the use of automatic processes to achieve effortful things

This research examined whether forming detailed implementation plans for achieving a goal improved older adults' adherence to a health behavior. Nondiabetic participants (N = 31) rehearsed, deliberated, or formed implementation intentions to perform home blood glucose monitoring, 4 times daily for 3 weeks. The implementation group performed tests nearly 50% more often than the 2 comparison groups. Results were not attributable to a priori differences in intentions to perform testing. Findings indicate that implementation intentions can facilitate older adults' performance of important medical self-care tasks in naturalistic settings over sustained periods of time and concur with previous research that implicates automatic cognitive processes that do not show age-related decline. These results support the utility of this technique for improving adherence to health behaviors in clinical populations.     

An exploratory study of consumer switching behavior in platform businesses: A mixed methods approach

This study investigates consumer switching behavior factors in platform businesses. This study reports a two-phase study of switching behavior. The first phase, Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic analysis, was conducted by collecting reviews and comments to find out consumers' potential switching behavior factors. The second phase was the interview with the consumer who did the switching behavior as to why they made the switching behavior. Besides, among the potential switching behavior factors, actual switching behavior factors were compared. It links quantitative and qualitative phases in exploratory sequential mixed methods design. The switching behavior factors were identified by applying the push-pull-mooring framework. The result of the study on music platforms' push effects is price perception, pull effects are promotion and algorithm recommendation, and mooring effects are payment convenience, switching cost, and reward. In Over-the-top (OTT), platforms' push effect is a lack of content, pull effects are promotion, WOM, and diversity of content, and mooring effects are content expectations, social networks, payment convenience, and convenience of watching. In e-commerce platforms' push effects are technical issues, delivery cost, and lack of trust, pull effects are service line extension, and convenience of use, mooring effects are reward, payment convenience, and convenience of access to my data. This work contributes to the growing body of studies investigating the switching behavior factor in each platform business. Also, the study makes recommendations to aid platform marketing managers in understanding the impact of push-pull-mooring variables.     

The interplay between perceived busyness and power distance belief on subjective social status: Consequences for consumer preferences for material versus experiential purchases

The perception of a busy life as an indicator of self-worth varies among individuals. Postulating that this perceptual difference can be attributed to one's attitude toward social stratification, the current research examines the interplay between perceived busyness and power distance belief (PDB). We propose that perceived busyness dictates a consumer's subjective social status under low PDB but not under high PDB. Furthermore, the interaction between perceived busyness and PDB determines an individual's relative preference for purchase types: material versus experiential purchases. Study 1 verifies that consumers' perceived busyness has a positive effect on their evaluation of their social status when they have low PDB, whereas this effect disappears when they have high PDB. Study 2 tests the asymmetric effect of perceived busyness and PDB on preference for purchase types, and Study 3 further provides evidence for the mediating role of subjective social status.     

A shared-transportation mobile app continuance model: The moderating effects of brand awareness

In light of the increasing development of technological innovation and information and communication technologies, features of mobile apps functions are also increasingly developed to meet people's needs and wants. Amongst the variety, shared transportation apps (STA) have emerged to optimize people's daily transportation needs. This study modified the expectation-confirmation theory and the post-acceptance model of information system continuance to examine the effects of customers' perceived STA performance (service performance, content provision, and system performance) and benefits (function, money worthiness, pleasure, and social interaction) on customer satisfaction with the usage of STA, which is expected to have a positive effect on customer retention on STA in a new theoretical framework, called the performance-benefit of the STA continuance model (PBCM). Moreover, brand awareness was expected to be an essential moderator on the effect of perceived performance and perceived benefits on customer satisfaction. 397 respondents were recruited online through a convenient sampling technique in the Vietnam market. Results show that service performance, money worthiness, pleasure, and social interaction are four important determinants of customer satisfaction with STA. Moreover, brand awareness significantly moderates the effects of service performance, system performance, money worthiness, and social interaction on customer satisfaction. Findings also contribute rational strategies for e-commerce managers in general and STA managers in particular.