Why Do Members of Disadvantaged Groups Strike Back at Perceived Negativity Towards the In‐group?

Against the background of riots in communities across London in 2011, this paper examines the implications of negative meta‐stereotypes on stigmatized group members' reactions towards members of privileged out‐groups within their communities. We hypothesized that concerns over negative opinions that the dominant out‐group is expected to hold of the in‐group (i.e. meta‐stereotypes) would be negatively associated with group members' perceptions of societal fairness and that this relationship would be mediated by members' recall of personal experiences with discrimination. We further hypothesized that views about societal fairness that are challenged in this way would lower an inclination to express discontent with the status quo via normative means while at the same time, increase nonnormative expressions. Results from two surveys (study 1, N = 50; study 2, N = 132) provided support for these hypotheses and are discussed in terms of their meaning for community relations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Response mode does not modulate the space–time congruency effect: Evidence for a space–time mapping at a conceptual level

Previous studies reported a space–time congruency effect on response time, supporting the notion that people's thinking about time is grounded in their spatial sensorimotor experience. According to a strong view of metaphoric mapping, the congruency effect should be larger for responses that differ in their spatial features than for responses that lack such differences. In contrast, a weaker version of this account posits that the grounding of time is based on higher-level spatial concepts. In this case, response mode should not modulate the size of the space–time congruency effect. In order to assess these predictions, participants in this study responded to temporal stimuli either manually or vocally. Response mode did not modulate the space–time congruency effect which supports the weaker view of metaphoric mapping suggesting that this effect emerges at a higher cognitive level.     

Psychopathologie und Aufenthaltsstatus

This study compared the mental health status of various groups of people living in Switzerland. A total of 65 asylum seekers, 34 refugees, 21 illegal migrants, 26 migrant laborers and 56 Swiss citizens were assessed for psychopathological symptoms of posttraumatic stress, anxiety and depression. Specifically, it was tested if the residence permit status was associated with psychopathology if potentially confounding factors, such as social desirability, trauma history and integration were statistically controlled. The results showed that the majority of the asylum seekers, refugees and illegal migrants included in the study suffered from substantial psychopathological symptoms. An association between residence permit status and psychopathology was found even after controlling for other influencing factors. The results imply that not only trauma experiences lead to psychopathology in specific population groups with a migration background but also factors related to an insecure residence permit can contribute to psychopathological symptoms.     

A self-regulation-based intervention to increase physical activity in cancer patients

The study examined whether a behavior-change intervention focusing on self-regulatory strategies and emphasizing role model support increases physical activity (PA) among insufficiently active (not meeting PA guidelines of 150 min/week) cancer patients. Ambulatory cancer patients [N = 72; 54% female; M = 56 years, SD = 12.34; most with breast or colon cancer (34, 15%)] were enrolled in the MOTIVACTION-study, a 4-week intervention (1-hr counseling, followed by weekly phone calls), with pretest (T1), posttest (T2) and a 10-week follow-up (T3). Participants were randomized to either an exercise or to a stress management intervention (active control). The exercise intervention emphasized self-regulatory strategies (e.g. action- and coping planning and self-monitoring); patients were also encouraged to contact a physically active same-sex role model as a potential exercise partner. The active control condition consisted of coping and relaxation techniques. Sixty-seven patients remained in the study and completed the SQUASH assessment of PA and a measure of perceived stress. PA was validated by Actigraph accelerometry. At T2, 46% of the patients in the exercise group and 19% of stress management patients increased their activity levels to meet PA guidelines (>150 min/week; χ²(1) = 5.51, p = .019). At T3, participants in the exercise intervention maintained their exercise level (46%), but also 31% of the stress management patients met the guidelines. All patients reported reductions in perceived stress. Additional analyses comparing patients in the exercise group by role model contact (63% realized contact) revealed that those who had contact with their role model were significantly more likely to adhere to the recommended guidelines (T2:50%; T3:64%) compared to those who did not have contact with a role model (T2:39%; T3:15%), suggesting the potential of mobilizing role model support to facilitate PA. In sum, cancer patients may not only benefit from an exercise intervention emphasizing self-regulation, but also from stress management, regarding both reducing stress and increasing PA.     

Switching between filter settings reduces the efficient utilization of visual working memory

The capacity limitation of working memory requires that only relevant information gains access to the workspace, while irrelevant information is kept out. Thus, the ability to use attention to filter out irrelevant information is an important factor in how efficiently the limited storage space is used. Here, we examined to what degree the requirement to flexibly change filter settings affects filtering efficiency. Participants were presented with visual objects in different colors, and a cue presented in advance indicated which objects had to be stored. The contralateral delay activity, an event-related brain potential that reflects working-memory load was used to assess filtering efficiency during the retention interval. The data of two experiments showed that when filter settings had to be adjusted on a trial-by-trial basis, more irrelevant information passed the gate to working memory. Moreover, this switching-induced filtering deficit was restricted to those items that matched the previous, but currently irrelevant, filter settings. Thus, lingering effects of the selection history seem to counteract goal-directed encoding, and thus constitute an important attentional limitation for the efficient utilization of our limited workspace.     

Cognitive bias in animal behavior science: a philosophical perspective

Animal Cognition - Emotional states of animals influence their cognitive processes as well as their behavior. Assessing emotional states is important for animal welfare science as well as for many...     

Social support reciprocity and occupational self-efficacy beliefs during mothers' organizational re-entry

The present study assesses the effects of a lack of social support reciprocity at work on employees' occupational self-efficacy beliefs. We assume that the self-efficacy effects of received support and support reciprocity depend on the specific work context (e.g., phase in the process of organizational socialization). 297 women who returned to work after maternity leave participated at three measurement points (five weeks, eleven weeks, six months after re-entry). We measured self-reported received and provided support as well as occupational self-efficacy beliefs. Women who received a high amount but provided only little support at work (over-benefitting) reported lowered self-efficacy beliefs. As expected, this effect was not found at the beginning of re-entry, but only later, when over-benefitting began to be negatively related to recipients' self-efficacy beliefs.     

Explaining the harmonic sequence paradox

According to the harmonic sequence paradox, an expected utility decision maker's willingness to pay for a gamble whose expected payoffs evolve according to the harmonic series is finite if and only if his marginal utility of additional income becomes zero for rather low payoff levels. Since the assumption of zero marginal utility is implausible for finite payoff levels, expected utility theory - as well as its standard generalizations such as cumulative prospect theory - are apparently unable to explain a finite willingness to pay. This paper presents first an experimental study of the harmonic sequence paradox. Additionally, it demonstrates that the theoretical argument of the harmonic sequence paradox only applies to time-patient decision makers, whereas the paradox is easily avoided if time-impatience is introduced.