Zero-sum beliefs shape advantaged allies’ support for collective action

Three studies (N₁ = 1,019; N₂ = 312; N₃ = 494) tested whether seeing intergroup relations as inherently antagonistic shaped advantaged social groups’ allyship intentions. More specifically, we tested whether endorsing zero-sum beliefs related to their willingness to support system-challenging and system-supporting collective action. Zero-sum beliefs were negatively correlated with system-challenging and positively correlated with system-supporting collective action intentions. Zero-sum beliefs were more common among advantaged than disadvantaged groups and translated into lower allyship intentions. Advantaged group members with higher levels of zero-sum beliefs were also more likely to experience anger and fear when considering the demographic racial shift in the United States. Increased fear was associated with greater support for system-supporting and lower support for system-challenging collective action. We find consistent evidence that advantaged group members see intergroup relations as a zero-sum game and that these beliefs are negatively related to their intentions to become allies.     

Keeping It Real: How Perceived Brand Authenticity Affects Product Perceptions

This article examines the effects of firm motivation (an intrinsic or extrinsic interest in their product) on perceptions of brand authenticity and anticipated product quality. Specifically, studies 1 and 2 show that an intrinsic motivation increases authenticity perceptions which, in turn, increase perceived product quality, even for negatively regarded products. Studies 3a and 3b demonstrate that motivation affects perceived product quality (through perceived authenticity) by influencing deliberate attribute‐level inferences consumers make about the product, and Study 4 demonstrates that the positive effect of intrinsic motivation (through authenticity) disappears in the presence of objective product attribute information, when such inferences are no longer necessary. These findings suggest that authenticity perceptions are malleable, and they shed light on the mechanism through which brand authenticity leads consumers to anticipate that a brand's products will be higher in quality.     

Weathering the storm: children's long-term recall of Hurricane Andrew

Children who experienced a highly stressful natural disaster, Hurricane Andrew, were interviewed within a few months of the event, when they were 3-4 years old, and again 6 years later, when they were 9-10 years old. Children were grouped into low, moderate, or high stress groups depending on the severity of the experienced storm. All children were able to recall this event in vivid detail 6 years later. In fact, children reported over twice as many propositions at the second interview as at the first. At the initial interview, children in the high stress group reported less information than children in the moderate stress group, but 6 years later, children in all three stress groups reported similar amounts of information. However children in the high stress group needed more questions and prompts than children in the other stress groups. Yet children in the high stress group also reported more consistent information between the two interviews, especially about the storm, than children in the other stress groups. Implications for children's developing memory of stressful events are discussed.     

Dorsal stream activation during retrieval of object size and shape

We investigated dorsal visual stream involvement in the retrieval of a variety of visual attributes of common objects, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Seven subjects made binary decisions about the shape, color, and size of named objects during scanning. Bilateral parietal activity was significantly greater during retrieval of shape and size information than during retrieval of color information. Consistent with a domain-specific distributed model of semantic organization, the finding that dorsal stream activity is associated with size and shape retrieval, as compared with color retrieval, may indicate that both size and shape information are learned partly through dorsally mediated processes, such as visually guided grasping. These results demonstrate that both visual-processing streams (i.e., the ventral “what” pathway and the dorsal “where” pathway) are involved in the storage and/or retrieval of knowledge of object appearance but that, just as in vision, these two pathways may play different roles in conceptual processing.     

Perceptions of adulthood among Anglo and Latino parents

The transition to adulthood presupposes that a developing adolescent acquires a set of characteristics that enables him or her to perform expected adult behaviors. There is a gap in the literature in identifying these expected behaviors as they pertain to different cultural and racial groups. To fill this gap, parent-generated indicators of adulthood were studied, including the beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes that are either common or specific to Anglo and Latino parents. College students at an urban university in the Los Angeles area were recruited to enlist their parents to complete a questionnaire. Equal numbers from each ethnic group were surveyed. The results of this study indicate that Anglo participants defined adulthood in terms of independence significantly more often than Latino participants. Furthermore, Latino participants defined adulthood in terms of event-related markers, such as marriage, significantly more often than Anglo participants. This research points to the need to define adulthood in ways that reflect the ethnic diversity of the United States. The authors express their thanks to Russell Espinoza, Ileana Garoz, Anna Rivera, Sandra Samayoa, Gabriella Chavira, Maria Hernandez, Angel Lahr, and Kevin Kim for their invaluable assistance. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1997 meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Seattle.     

A comparison of cognitive restructuring and cognitive defusion as strategies for resisting a craved food

The present study investigated the effectiveness of two cognitive strategies for resisting a craved food. One-hundred-and-ten self-identified chocolate cravers were randomised to a waiting list control condition or to receive a 60-minute standardised group intervention on cognitive restructuring (CR) or cognitive defusion (CD). All participants were provided with a bag of chocolates which they were instructed to carry with them for seven days and try to resist eating; uneaten chocolates were returned at the end of the study period. Measures included chocolate consumption and other behavioural, cognitive and evaluative self-reported outcomes. Overall, the odds of abstinence from chocolate were 3.26 times higher for participants in the CD than the CR condition. The effect of the interventions depended on baseline cognitive distress levels; for individuals at high levels of cognitive distress the CD condition led to significantly more restraint from chocolate than both the CR and control conditions. In addition, CD led to greater self-reported improvements in eating behaviours during the study period and was rated significantly easier to use and apply than CR. CD is discussed as a simple and efficient approach to manage food cravings and, potentially, other behavioural contributors to obesity.     

Faces in Motion: Age‐Related Changes in Eyewitness Identification Performance in Simultaneous,Sequential, and Elimination Video Lineups

The identification performance of children (5 to 6 years, n = 180; 9 to 10 years, n = 180) and adults (n = 180) was examined using three types of video lineup procedures: simultaneous, sequential and elimination. Participants viewed a videotaped staged theft and then attempted to identify the culprit from a target‐present or target‐absent video lineup. Correct identifications in simultaneous and elimination video lineups did not differ as a function of age. The sequential video lineup was associated with a reduction in correct identifications for both child groups compared with adults. With respect to the target‐absent lineup condition, the video elimination lineup was associated with an increase in correct rejection rates for adult witnesses. Age was also significantly associated with accuracy. Differences in correct rejection rates were observed between adults and children and also between the two child groups. Implications and future directions are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social Cognition in Paediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Neuropsychology Review - Recent evidence suggests social cognitive deficits may be among the most profound and disabling consequences of childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI); however, it is only...     

Resisting temptation of unhealthy food: interaction between temptation-elicited goal activation and self-control

Counteractive control theory suggests that the cognitive accessibility of a goal in response to a temptation cue predicts self-regulation of behaviour consistent with that goal. The current study provided a novel test of this effect in the eating domain, exploring the moderating role of trait self-control. A sample of 124 women (18–25 years) completed a lexical decision task to assess cognitive accessibility of the weight-management goal after food temptation priming. Eating self-regulation was operationalised as unhealthy snack food intake measured in a task disguised as a taste-test. Participants completed trait self-control and temptation experience intensity measures. Cognitive accessibility predicted lower food intake, but only among high self-control participants. The relationship was mediated by temptation experience intensity: participants with high cognitive accessibility felt less tempted, and subsequently ate less food. Results suggest that changing the processes underlying the temptation experience, rather than the cognitive accessibility of a goal may more effectively enhance self-regulation among low self-control individuals.