Quick to the draw: How suspect race and socioeconomic status influences shooting decisions

We examined the role of both suspect race and socioeconomic status (SES) on shooting decisions during a first‐person shooter task. Two studies revealed that both suspect race and SES influenced shooting decisions. Non‐Black participants shot armed high‐SES Black suspects faster than armed high‐SES White suspects and responded “don't shoot” faster for unarmed high‐SES White suspects than unarmed high‐SES Black suspects. No race differences appeared in the low‐SES conditions—responses resembled high‐SES Black suspect. Signal detection, misses, and false alarm analyses revealed participants erred toward not shooting high‐SES White suspects. The current studies draw attention to considering both race and SES during shooting decisions.     

Addressing the “Replication Crisis”: Using Original Studies to Design Replication Studies with Appropriate Statistical Power

Psychology is undergoing a replication crisis. The discussion surrounding this crisis has centered on mistrust of previous findings. Researchers planning replication studies often use the original study sample effect size as the basis for sample size planning. However, this strategy ignores uncertainty and publication bias in estimated effect sizes, resulting in overly optimistic calculations. A psychologist who intends to obtain power of .80 in the replication study, and performs calculations accordingly, may have an actual power lower than .80. We performed simulations to reveal the magnitude of the difference between actual and intended power based on common sample size planning strategies and assessed the performance of methods that aim to correct for effect size uncertainty and/or bias. Our results imply that even if original studies reflect actual phenomena and were conducted in the absence of questionable research practices, popular approaches to designing replication studies may result in a low success rate, especially if the original study is underpowered. Methods correcting for bias and/or uncertainty generally had higher actual power, but were not a panacea for an underpowered original study. Thus, it becomes imperative that 1) original studies are adequately powered and 2) replication studies are designed with methods that are more likely to yield the intended level of power.     

Emigration and community

In this paper I consider Gillian Brock’s and Michael Blake’s discussion of emigration in Debating Brain Drain in relation to the particular case of South Africa, and explore whether skilled white people have a duty to remain in the country. Focusing on the role of community in this debate, I argue that communities and allegiances in South Africa are still too divided and antagonistic for them to play the duty-grounding role that Brock requires.     

Sex differences in attention to disgust facial expressions

Research demonstrates that women experience disgust more readily and with more intensity than men. The experience of disgust is associated with increased attention to disgust-related stimuli, but no prior study has examined sex differences in attention to disgust facial expressions. We hypothesised that women, compared to men, would demonstrate increased attention to disgust facial expressions. Participants (n?=?172) completed an eye tracking task to measure visual attention to emotional facial expressions. Results indicated that women spent more time attending to disgust facial expressions compared to men. Unexpectedly, we found that men spent significantly more time attending to neutral faces compared to women. The findings indicate that women’s increased experience of emotional disgust also extends to attention to disgust facial stimuli. These findings may help to explain sex differences in the experience of disgust and in diagnoses of anxiety disorders in which disgust plays an important role.     

To what degree do situational influences explain spontaneous helping behaviour? A meta-analysis

Prosocial behaviour is an interdisciplinary topic, involving psychologists, philosophers, and educators. Based on experimental helping research, some moral philosophers have claimed that helping behaviour is entirely situationally determined. The dominance of situational factor experimentation gives the appearance that situational factors alone can explain helping behaviour. This meta-analysis investigated situational explanations of helping behaviour with 286 effects and 46,705 participants from experimental studies with non-manipulation control groups, and observed unilateral adult behavioural helping. Results indicated expected group differences in helping behaviour frequency among help encouraging or help discouraging experimental conditions and no-manipulation control conditions. Helping behaviour was also frequent in help discouraging and control conditions and far from universal in help encouraging conditions. Because helping occurred in control groups, situational factors cannot explain all observed helping. Because helping was not universal in help encouraging conditions, it raises the question of individual differences in responsiveness to helping cues.     

Effects of Participation in a First Women's Studies Course on Collective Self‐Esteem,Gender‐Related Attitudes,and Emotional Well‐Being1

We studied the psychological sequelae of participation in a first women's studies course. It was hypothesized that this course would impact women's social identities (collective self‐esteem, CSE) and attitudes about gender (sexist and feminist beliefs). Further, we hypothesized that more liberal attitudes about gender would enhance mood, whereas awareness of devaluation (public CSE) would reduce mood. Female students enrolled in Psychology of Women (n= 55) and Introductory Psychology (n= 41) provided data at the beginning and end of an academic semester. As predicted, Psychology of Women students endorsed significantly more liberal attitudes about gender and awareness of devaluation over the course of the semester. Further, acceptance of feminist attitudes buffered against anxiety, whereas awareness of devaluation increased anxiety. The net effect was a nonsignificant change in anxiety for Psychology of Women students over time.     

First‐time mothers in home visitation services utilizing child development specialists

Professionals in the field of child development were employed to provide home visitation services to 156 mothers and infants prenatally through the infants' first birthdays. Compared to a control group of mothers (n = 107), the intervention mothers utilized more community resources, had safer homes, had more appropriate developmental expectations, had better understanding of noncorporal punishment, and had behaviors that were more accepting and respectful to their infants. The home visitors were well educated, with experience in home visitation, and supervised. Program implementation procedures were documented and supervised. Program fidelity and the efficacy of using child development specialists as home visitors are discussed in regards to the positive findings. ©2004 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.