Motivated social categorization: fundamental motives enhance people's sensitivity to basic social categories

This article presents an evolutionary framework for identifying the characteristics people use to categorize members of their social world. Findings suggest that fundamental social motives lead people to implicitly categorize social targets based on whether those targets display goal-relevant phenotypic traits. A mate-search prime caused participants to categorize opposite-sex targets (but not same-sex targets) based on their level of physical attractiveness (Experiment 1). A mate-guarding prime interacted with relationship investment, causing participants to categorize same-sex targets (but not opposite-sex targets) based on their physical attractiveness (Experiment 2). A self-protection prime interacted with chronic beliefs about danger, increasing participants' tendency to categorize targets based on their racial group membership (Black or White; Experiment 3). This work demonstrates that people categorize others based on whether they display goal-relevant characteristics reflecting high levels of perceived desirability or threat. Social categorization is guided by fundamental evolved motives designed to enhance adaptive social outcomes.     

Buyer's remorse or missed opportunity? Differential regrets for material and experiential purchases

Previous research has established that experiential purchases tend to yield greater enduring satisfaction than material purchases. The present work suggests that this difference in satisfaction is paralleled by a tendency for material and experiential purchases to differ in the types of regrets they elicit. In 5 studies, we find that people's material purchase decisions are more likely to generate regrets of action (buyer's remorse) and their experiential purchase decisions are more likely to lead to regrets of inaction (missed opportunities). These results were not attributable to differences in the desirability of or satisfaction provided by the two purchase types. Demonstrating the robustness of this effect, we found that focusing participants on the material versus experiential properties of the very same purchase was enough to shift its dominant type of regret. This pattern of regret is driven by the tendency for experiences to be seen as more singular--less interchangeable--than material purchases; interchangeable goods tend to yield regrets of action, whereas singular goods tend to yield regrets of inaction.     

Free Will and Moral Responsibility: The Trap, the Appreciation of Agency, and the Bubble

In Part I, I reflect in some detail upon the free will problem and about the way its understanding has radically changed. First I outline the four questions that go into making the free will problem. Second, I consider four paradigmatic shifts that have occurred in our understanding of this problem. Then I go on to reflect upon this complex and multi-level situation. In Part II of this essay, I explore the major alternative positions, and defend my views, in new ways. Instead of trying to spread over many issues, I present one new argument against compatibilism, which I call ??The Trap??. This tries to explicate the main problem that I find with this position. Then I present an exposition of what we nevertheless need to follow, which I call ??the Appreciation of Agency??. This supports a measure of compatibilism in a more modest form, and opposes hard determinism. On this basis, we can confront the philosophical and practical questions, as to what we ought to believe and how we ought to live, with respect to free will and moral responsibility. This leads to what I call ??The Bubble,?? which addresses the way in which we deal with the tension between the absence of libertarian free will and The Trap, and the crucial need for the Appreciation of Agency. I conclude by reflecting upon three attributes of the free will problem that I consider central, but that have been neglected in the debate: complexity, risk and tragedy.     

Confessions that corrupt: evidence from the DNA exoneration case files

Basic psychology research suggests the possibility that confessions-a potent form of incrimination-may taint other evidence, thereby creating an appearance of corroboration. To determine if this laboratory-based phenomenon is supported in the high-stakes world of actual cases, we conducted an archival analysis of DNA exoneration cases from the Innocence Project case files. Results were consistent with the corruption hypothesis: Multiple evidence errors were significantly more likely to exist in false-confession cases than in eyewitness cases; in order of frequency, false confessions were accompanied by invalid or improper forensic science, eyewitness identifications, and snitches and informants; and in cases containing multiple errors, confessions were most likely to have been obtained first. We believe that these findings underestimate the problem and have important implications for the law concerning pretrial corroboration requirements and the principle of "harmless error" on appeal.     

“Midnight Confessions”: The Effect of Chronotype Asynchrony on Admissions of Wrongdoing

Confession evidence is highly incriminating in court. We examined the interaction between chronotype and time of day on the confession decisions of 60 participants using an experimental paradigm. Pre-identified morning- and evening-type people were randomly assigned to participate in morning or evening sessions. Results supported an interactional asynchrony hypothesis that individuals are more likely to confess during “off-peak” periods (i.e., evening-types in the morning and morning-types in the evening). This interaction was obtained for both high- and low-seriousness transgressions. These results suggest that chronotype asynchrony constitutes a significant risk factor for false confessions and the wrongful convictions that often follow.     

Note of Correction for Schwartz,Cohen and Pavlik's “The Effects of Subject-and Experimenter-Induced Defensive Response Sets on Picture-Frustration Test Reactions”

The multiple-choice version of the Rosenzweig P-F Study and the use of projection slides in group administration restrict the full diagnostic potential of the instrument. Moreover, these unauthorized modifications represent infringements of copyright. These variants are therefore not available for future use or imitation.     

Revised Criteria for the Group Conformity Rating of the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study,Adult Form

Summary

Revised criteria for the Group Conformity Rating (GCR) of the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study, Adult Form, are presented on the basis of findings from a population of 460 subjects. These criteria supersede the earlier ones based on a minimal sample of 100 subjects. The method of establishing the GCR criteria is described in detail. A comparison of GCR scores yielded by the original and the revised criteria for two samples of subjects indicates that, though the revised criteria are more complete and more stable and should supersede the earlier ones, results previously obtained with the original criteria are not invalid.     

WHEN DOES MORALITY WIN?

I describe a case involving two countries at war, Benevolentia and Malevoran. Malevoran is an unjust aggressor, which does not follow the requirements of the prevailing morality of warfare. The leadership and army of Benevolentia closely follow those requirements, and as a direct result Benevolentia loses. I claim that this is a reductio of the prevailing morality of warfare: in the victory of Malevoran over Benevolentia morality has lost. I draw some tentative conclusions concerning the morality of warfare, and urge that we need to gain a richer understanding of what it means for morality to win, see this as a distinct and important moral consideration, and think afresh how morality can triumph much more often.     

Hostility explains some of the discrepancy between daytime ambulatory and clinic blood pressures.

The authors examined whether hostility explained the discrepancy commonly observed between clinic and daytime ambulatory blood pressures. Daytime ambulatory blood pressure (DABP) was assessed every 45 min over 6 days in healthy adults (N = 120). After controlling for demographic variables, time-varying covariates such as position and activity level, and clinic blood pressure (CBP), the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale was significantly associated with daytime ambulatory diastolic blood pressure. No support was obtained for mediation by psychological factors. Discrepancies between DABP and CBP may be due, in part, to differences in the degree to which these 2 types of measures are associated with individual differences in hostility. These results suggest that the addition of hostility to CBP may improve its predictive power.