Outcome and cue properties modulate blocking

Participants saw a series of situations in which a cue (a light appearing at a certain position) could be followed by an outcome (a drawing of a tank that exploded) and were afterwards asked to rate the likelihood of the outcome in the presence of the cue. In Experiments 1 and 2, the compound cues AT and KL were always followed by the outcome (AT+, KL+). During an elemental phase that either preceded or followed the compound phase, Cue A was also paired with the outcome (A+). Cue T elicited a lower rating than Cues K and L when cues were described as being weapons but not when the cues were said to be indicators. The magnitude of this blocking effect was also influenced by whether the outcome occurred to a maximal or submaximal extent. Experiment 3 replicated the effect of cue instructions on blocking (A+, AT+) but showed that cue instructions had no impact on reduced overshadowing (B-, BT+). The results shed new light on previous findings and support probabilistic contrast models of human contingency judgements.     

Remembering Public,Political Events: A Cross‐Cultural and ‐Sectional Examination of Australian and Japanese Public Memories

We examined and compared the initiating conditions of flashbulb memory (FBM) confidence and event memory accuracy across two different, yet similar public, political events occurring in two different countries: Australia and Japan. To do so, we seized upon the occurrence of two politically important events: the resignation of the Japanese and Australian Prime Ministers in June 2010. In a series of mean and correlation analyses, we concluded that different factors may determine event memory accuracy and FBM confidence across cultures. In particular, the way different cultures emotionally appraise and rehearse the event, their attitude toward the political parties/their political involvement and self‐construal may have important implications for how individuals accurately remember the event and the confidence they hold for their memories of the context when learning of the event. We discuss avenues of future research to better understand the extent to which cultural differences drove these results. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Sense of Powerlessness Fosters System Justification: Implications for the Legitimation of Authority,Hierarchy, and Government

In an attempt to explain the stability of hierarchy, we focus on the perspective of the powerless and how a subjective sense of dependence leads them to imbue the system and its authorities with legitimacy. In Study 1, we found in a nationally representative sample of U.S. employees that financial dependence on one's job was positively associated with the perceived legitimacy of one's supervisor. In Study 2, we observed that a general sense of powerlessness was positively correlated with the perceived legitimacy of the economic system. In Studies 3 and 4, priming experimental participants with feelings of powerlessness increased their justification of the social system, even when they were presented with system‐challenging explanations for race, class, and gender disparities. In Study 5, we demonstrated that the experience of powerlessness increased legitimation of governmental authorities (relative to baseline conditions). The processes we identify are likely to perpetuate inequality insofar as the powerless justify rather than strive to change the hierarchical structures that disadvantage them.     

To Partition or Not to Partition: Role of Trade-in Price on Consumer Evaluations of Purchases Involving Trade-Ins

Many new purchases involve consumers trading in their old product at the same time, requiring them to assume the dual role of a buyer and a seller in the overall exchange. This research examines how framing the overall exchange as a partitioned transaction with separate prices for the new purchase and the trade-in, or a consolidated transaction with a single net price after accounting for the trade-in price, affects consumer preferences. We find that consumers prefer a partitioned (consolidated) transaction when the relative trade-in price is high (low). Unlike previous explanations based on heuristic processing and differential importance of the trade-in price, our reasoning is that partitioning (vs. consolidating) prices makes salient and enables evaluability of the trade-in price. In the absence of specific referents, consumers rely on the new purchase price to evaluate the merits of the trade-in price. Consistent with our reasoning, we identify boundary conditions for the findings. The presence of a favorable referent for the trade-in and whether the new purchase and the trade-in are (perceived to be) in the same product category attenuate the reliance on the new purchase price as a referent. Our findings have important theoretical and managerial implications.     

Vague Quantifiers Demonstrate Little Susceptibility to Frame of Reference Effects

Applied Research in Quality of Life - Comparison standards that people use when responding to survey questions, also called Frames of Reference (FoRs), can influence the validity of self-report...