Judging the Goring Ox: Retribution Directed Toward Animals

Prior research on the psychology of retribution is complicated by the difficulty of separating retributive and general deterrence motives when studying human offenders (Study 1). We isolate retribution by investigating judgments about punishing animals, which allows us to remove general deterrence from consideration. Studies 2 and 3 document a “victim identity” effect, such that the greater the perceived loss from a violent animal attack, the greater the belief that the culprit deserves to be killed. Study 3 documents a “targeted punishment” effect, such that the responsive killing of the actual “guilty” culprit is seen as more deserved than the killing of an almost identical yet “innocent” animal from the same species. Studies 4 and 5 extend both effects to participants' acceptance of inflicting pain and suffering on the offending animal at the time of its death, and show that both effects are mediated by measures of retributive sentiment, and not by consequentialist concerns.     

Non‐Bayesian Noun Generalization in 3‐ to 5‐Year‐Old Children: Probing the Role of Prior Knowledge in the Suspicious Coincidence Effect

It is unclear how children learn labels for multiple overlapping categories such as “Labrador,” “dog,” and “animal.” Xu and Tenenbaum (2007a) suggested that learners infer correct meanings with the help of Bayesian inference. They instantiated these claims in a Bayesian model, which they tested with preschoolers and adults. Here, we report data testing a developmental prediction of the Bayesian model—that more knowledge should lead to narrower category inferences when presented with multiple subordinate exemplars. Two experiments did not support this prediction. Children with more category knowledge showed broader generalization when presented with multiple subordinate exemplars, compared to less knowledgeable children and adults. This implies a U‐shaped developmental trend. The Bayesian model was not able to account for these data, even with inputs that reflected the similarity judgments of children. We discuss implications for the Bayesian model, including a combined Bayesian/morphological knowledge account that could explain the demonstrated U‐shaped trend.     

The Big Five personality traits as antecedents of eco-friendly tourist behavior

This article reports the findings of a study, conducted among 227 foreign tourists who visited Cyprus, that aimed to identify the relationships between the Big Five personality dimensions and tourists’ environmentalism. Structural equation modeling revealed that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism are positively associated with pro-environmental tourist behavior. In contrast, no significant relationship was observed between Openness and ecological action.     

A good thing isn’t always a good thing: Dispositional attitudes predict non-normative judgments

A common belief in social sciences is that people like or dislike stimuli based on the properties possessed by those stimuli. Therefore, stimuli with many (few) positives should be universally liked (disliked). However, differences in opinion are common, and one source of disagreement may be personality. This research demonstrates that dispositional attitudes (an individual difference in the tendency to like/dislike stimuli), are associated with qualitative attitude differences (i.e., liking rather than disliking) for stimuli across important domains such as health, business, entertainment, and politics. Qualitative attitude differences frequently predict interpersonal conflict and diametrically opposed behavioral outcomes (e.g., voting for or against a candidate). Thus, these results have implications for understanding seemingly intractable differences found in nearly all social science fields.     

Personality and substance use in Japanese adolescents: The Japanese version of Substance Use Risk Profile Scale

Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS; Conrod & Woicik, 2002) measures four risk personality dimensions related to substance use; anxiety sensitivity (AS), hopelessness (H), sensation seeking (SS), impulsivity (IMP). The aim of this study is to develop the Japanese version of Substance Use Risk Profile Scale (SURPS-J) and to probe the reliability and validity of this scale to the Japanese context. This study consists of the test of the factor analysis (Study 1; N = 462), the reliability (Study 2; N = 64), and the validity (Study 3; N = 182). Our findings are as below; Study 1 showed the conformed factorial structure of SURPS-J and Study 2 revealed the good test–retest reliability. Additionally, Study 3 demonstrated the adequate validity of SURPS-J and its sensitivity in identifying risky drinking motivations and lifetime tobacco and alcohol use. Results showed that high H individuals are likely to experience smoking under the personal and collective situations, while high SS and IMP individuals are prone to drink alcohol under the collective situation. Additionally, high AS individuals are prone to drink by virtue of negative reinforcement motives and high SS and IMP drink by reason of all drinking reinforcement motives.     

Pet personality: A review

An increasing amount of research is being conducted on pet personality, with a variety of goals, from standardization of methodology to development. Most of this work is done on dogs (n = 95), but there is some on cats (n = 24) as well. Very little is done on rabbits or other pets, such as ferrets, or amphibians or reptiles. The work that is being done has improved, with many more researchers reporting reliability and validity for their measures. For dogs, 56.82% of studies reported reliability measures (as compared with 19% in a previous analysis), and 70.45% reported validity measures (as compared with 27% in a previous analysis). However, there is still much work to be done on the standardization of methods both within and across species. This type of research is important as it has the potential to affect the welfare and other health and life outcomes of these animals, as well as elucidating evolutionary relationships that may offer clues to domestication.     

The Situational Test of Emotional Management – Brief (STEM-B): Development and validation using item response theory and latent class analysis

This study uses a 3-Parameter Logistic item response theory (IRT) model to develop an 18-item short-form of the Situational Test of Emotion Management (STEM). In a sample of 900 people, the short form showed acceptable reliability (reliability index = .87; Cronbach’s alpha = .84) and a meaningful correlation with another indicator of emotional intelligence (i.e., r = .30 with the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding). Latent class analysis of the short-form detected two classes. For all items, participants in Class 2 had a higher probability of selecting the best option than Class 1. When response options were coded to represent different emotion regulation strategies, Class 2 had a higher probability of endorsing “situation modification” and Class 1 had a higher probability of endorsing “no regulation”. These results provide validity evidence for the STEM-B as an assessment of emotion regulation.     

Spitefulness and moral values

The relationship between spitefulness and an individual’s sense of morality or lack thereof has been neglected in studies of personality. It seems probable that individuals with higher levels of spitefulness exhibit fewer moral concerns relative to those with lower levels of spite. To examine associations between spitefulness and moral concerns, 436 community participants completed self-report measures concerning their spitefulness, basic personality dimensions, and moral concerns. Spitefulness was negatively associated with individualizing values (i.e., sensitivity to harm and fairness) such that spiteful individuals were less concerned about issues related to avoiding harm or injustice to others when making moral judgments. However, spitefulness was not simply associated with a general reduction in moral concerns as it was not significantly associated with binding values (i.e., concerns about ingroup loyalty, authority, and purity).     

Moral disengagement,the dark triad,and unethical consumer attitudes

PurposeBandura’s theory of moral disengagement explains how otherwise ethical persons can behave immorally. We examined whether a trait model of general personality and the “dark triad” underlay moral disengagement, the relationship these constructs have to unethical consumer attitudes, and whether moral disengagement provided incremental validity in the prediction of antisocial behaviour.MethodsSelf-report data were obtained from a community sample of 380 adults via an online survey that administered all measures.ResultsCorrelations between unethical consumer attitudes, lower Agreeableness, lower Conscientiousness, higher moral disengagement, higher psychopathy, and higher Machiavellianism were captured by a single factor. When this broad factor was examined using regression, demographic, personality and the dark triad traits all predicted moral disengagement, specific influences being age, education, Intellect, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. A similar model examining predictors of unethical consumer attitudes again found all blocks contributed to the outcome, with specific influence provided by age, Intellect, and moral disengagement, the latter showing incremental validity as a predictor of unethical consumer attitudes.ConclusionsMoral disengagement is based on low Agreeableness, Machiavellianism and psychopathic-type traits, but provides incremental validity in predicting antisocial attitudes to a trait model alone. Narcissism is neither related to moral disengagement, nor unethical consumer attitudes.     

Where birds flock to get together: The who,what, where,and why of mate searching

An understudied area of personality psychology is how personality traits might facilitate structuring of one’s environment toward goals like mating. In four studies (N = 1325), we examined (1) self-reports of where individuals go to find long-term and short-term mates, (2) how personality traits are associated with the use of these locations, and (3) how the sexes differ in their selection of mate search locations. Men were more likely than women were to use short-term (e.g., bars) than long-term (e.g., community events) niches, but did not differ in success in those niches and agreed on the nature of those niches. Slow life history traits, conscientiousness and agreeableness, were linked to preferences for long-term niches whereas, fast life history traits, narcissism and dishonesty, were linked to preferences for short-term mating niches.