The rise of the nones and the changing relationships between identity,belief, and behavior

ABSTRACT

One of the more remarkable trends of the past 30 years is the dramatic rise of individuals who do not identify with any religious tradition. While this trend has been well documented, some of the underlying dynamics and consequences have not been fully appreciated or explicated. We examine the General Social Survey in the period from 1972 to 2014 to examine how the increase in the ‘nones’ is tied to changes in the strength of religious identity among US adults and, in turn, how the rise of the nones has affected the relationships between religious identity, religious belief, and religious behavior. In particular, we show that, as the percentage of US adults who do not identify with a religion has grown, the correlations between religious identification, belief, and behavior have increased. In short, the rise of the nones has led to more congruence between measures of religion.     

A Multimethod Examination of the Male Anabolic Steroid User1

The current study examines people's perceptions of a male anabolic steroid (AS) user. Differences in perceptions on the Steroid Perception Questionnaire (SPQ; Schwerin & Corcoran, 1992) were measured. Subjects (N= 399) received 1 of 5 slide presentations: an athletically active individual, a drug-free, an AS-using, a cocaine-using, and a cheating bodybuilder. Results show the AS-using protagonist significantly different (more negatively rated) than his drug-free counterparts and similar to the cocaine-using bodybuilder (p < .05). Differences among presentation protagonists on SPQ dimensions and comparisons to the Schwerin and Corcoran (1992) written-mode findings are examined further.     

Personality and differential susceptibility to hypnosis: further replication and sex differences.

Following the study of Gibson & Curran (1974), a further sample of 45 subjects were tested on the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) and a slightly modified form of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (SHSS) in precisely the same way. The results in this second sample were broadly the same as those obtained in the earlier study. Combining the two samples, it was found that the sex variable provided some interesting contrasts. The power of the lie scale of the EPI to predict hypnotic susceptibility observed earlier was found to be a significant effect only for males. While there was no significant difference between the sexes in terms of the means and S.D.S. of the extraversion (E) and neuroticism (N) scales, when the interaction of these scales was studied males and females differed significantly. The population from the two studies (n = 88) was analysed by means of polar coordinates in the manner suggested by Eysenck (1966) with regard to the E nad N scales. Esyenck's prediction as to hypnotic susceptibility was strikingly confirmed. These data are briefly discussed in terms of alternative approaches to hypnosis from the 'state' and the 'non-state' viewpoints.     

Perceptual independence in the perception of speech

The purpose of the experiments and analyses was to discover whether the “independence” model, which successfully accounts for the perception of synthetic multi-dimensional stimuli, would also describe the perception of speech in noise. Two sets of four words were chosen which could be considered phonetically to be describable in terms of two dimensions. The S/R matrix was analysed as if the stimuli were bi-dimensional elementary stimuli. Satisfactory fits were obtained by the independence model. Two analyses were conducted upon data from Miller and Nicely (1955) and Conrad (1964) to discover whether the perception of phonemes was also predictable on the independence model. In general this was found to be the case.     

Noise and loss of sleep

Two experiments are reported in which human performance was compared under continuous 90 dB. white noise, after loss of sleep, under a combination of the two and under appropriate control conditions. The results suggest that noise is effective in reducing the deterioration in performance, characteristic of loss of sleep. The relevance of the result to the arousal theory of loss of sleep is discussed.     

A 32-society investigation of the influence of perceived economic inequality on social class stereotyping

There is a growing body of work suggesting that social class stereotypes are amplified when people perceive higher levels of economic inequality—that is, the wealthy are perceived as more competent and assertive and the poor as more incompetent and unassertive. The present study tested this prediction in 32 societies and also examines the role of wealth-based categorization in explaining this relationship. We found that people who perceived higher economic inequality were indeed more likely to consider wealth as a meaningful basis for categorization. Unexpectedly, however, higher levels of perceived inequality were associated with perceiving the wealthy as less competent and assertive and the poor as more competent and assertive. Unpacking this further, exploratory analyses showed that the observed tendency to stereotype the wealthy negatively only emerged in societies with lower social mobility and democracy and higher corruption. This points to the importance of understanding how socio-structural features that co-occur with economic inequality may shape perceptions of the wealthy and the poor.     

Comparative Thinking Styles in Group and Person Perception: One Mechanism – Many Effects

Perceptions of individuals and groups are inextricably intertwined. An individual is perceived differently depending on the group he or she belongs to, and the perception of the group depends on the characteristics of single group members that are encountered or come to mind. However, this mutual influence is far from uniform. A review of the literature indicates that sometimes the individual is perceived as similar to a group, and sometimes as dissimilar. Likewise, the group can be either assimilated toward or contrasted away from the individual. In the present article, we propose that these diverse effects may be explained by a comparison process between the individual and the group. More specifically, we argue that the comparative thinking style during this comparison (i.e. whether one focuses on similarities or dissimilarities) shapes the direction of the influence.