Tragedy or tragicomedy: Mixed feelings induced by positive and negative emotional events

Based on the theory of appraisal, we predicted that positive and negative events happening to the same people or things in a specific chronological order (i.e., a negative event following a positive event) would induce different mixed feelings than the same events happening to different people or things. Pairs of emotional pictures with different captions were used to create two event groups. In the “tragic event” group, the positive and negative events happened to the same person or things, and in the “tragicomic event” group, the positive and negative events happened to different people or things. We designed two experiments to explore and compare the generation of mixed feelings in those two groups. In Experiment 1, the negative event was shown first, and in Experiment 2, the negative event was shown second (although the chronological order of the depicted events was the same). The participants were 381 undergraduates: 195 in Experiment 1 and 186 in Experiment 2. In both experiments, we found that tragic events introduced less intense mixed feelings than did tragicomic events due to fewer pleasurable feelings induced by the tragic events. There was no significant difference in the report of negative emotions between the groups. Appraisal theory and negative bias effects may explain these results.     

Time’s up! Involvement of metamemory knowledge,executive functions,and time monitoring in children’s prospective memory performance

This study examined time-based prospective memory (PM) in children and explored the possible involvement of metamemory knowledge and executive functions in the use of an appropriate time-monitoring strategy depending on the ongoing task’s difficulty. Specifically, a sample of 72 typically developing children aged 4, 6, and 9 years old were given an original PM paradigm composed of both an ongoing procedural activity and a PM task. Half of the participants (expert group) were trained in the ongoing activity before the prospective test. As expected, results show that time monitoring had a positive effect on children’s PM performance. Furthermore, mediation analyses reveal that strategic time monitoring was predicted by metamemory knowledge in the expert group but only by executive functions in the novice group. Overall, these findings provide interesting avenues to explain how metamemory knowledge, strategy use, and executive functions interact to improve PM performance during childhood.     

Social values priorities and orientation towards individualism and collectivism of Greek university students

The study aimed to explore the value priorities of Greek young adults and their orientation towards individualism and collectivism and to investigate for possible relationships between value types and individualism and collectivism. Greek undergraduate students (n = 484) completed the Social Values Survey, the Auckland’s Individualism and Collectivism Scale and a form of demographic information. Benevolence, self-direction and hedonism were found to be the most highly rated value types for both males and females. In the case of individualism and collectivism participants scored higher on collectivism. Males and science and technology students scored higher on value types regarding openness to change and self-enhancement. Females and social and humanities students scored higher on conservation and self-transcendence value types. Religiosity was associated to collectivism and to value types regarding conservation and self-transcendence. Regression analysis revealed a direct association between individualism and openness to change and self-enhancement. Collectivism was found to be associated with conservation and self-transcendence.     

Countermeasures Against the Strategic Use of Evidence Technique: Effects on Suspects' Strategies

As the Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) technique becomes more widely taught to practitioners, it is important to investigate possible countermeasures to the technique. It is possible that guilty suspects who are aware of the SUE technique will employ forthcoming verbal strategies to make themselves appear innocent. Mock suspects committed a richly detailed simulated transgression (or a benign analogue) and were interviewed about their activities. Prior to questioning, some suspects received information about SUE tactics the interviewer was likely to use. Guilty suspects who were informed about the SUE technique employed more verbally forthcoming strategies than their uninformed counterparts. Guilty suspects who were given SUE information also reported planning for the interview in different ways. However, guilty‐informed suspects did not become as forthcoming as innocent suspects overall. In sum, it appears that information about the SUE technique induces guilty suspects to alter their strategies, but only to a relatively small degree.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

异性拒绝对大学生择偶行为的长期影响:基于社会计量器理论的探讨

运用问卷调查法以339名大学生为研究对象,基于社会计量器理论探讨异性拒绝经历和择偶价值感对大学生择偶行为的长期影响。研究发现:(1)女大学生的择偶标准显著高于男大学生,男大学生的择偶行为倾向略高于女大学生;(2)异性拒绝经历与择偶价值感、择偶标准、择偶行为倾向呈负相关,择偶价值感与择偶标准、择偶行为倾向呈显著正相关;(3)异性拒绝经历可以显著负向预测大学生的择偶行为,择偶价值感在异性拒绝经历对大学生择偶行为影响中起部分中介作用,但其发挥作用的方式存在性别差异。这一结果表明,择偶价值感是一种重要的缓冲因素,可以在一定程度上缓解异性拒绝给大学生择偶行为带来的负面影响。     

Entropy in multiattribute problems

Concepts involving entropy have intermittently been used in consideration of multiattribute problems. This paper discusses the main approaches that have been proposed. It is argued that the analogies drawn with information theory and between weights and probabilities are to some degree unsatisfactory and a reconsideration is given. The result is a new suggestion in the spirit of Jaynes’ maximum entropy methodology, but now in two parts: ask those questions that are likely to be most discriminating (minimize entropy) but process the answers obtained conservatively (maximize entropy). In contrast to many previous methods, it is the distribution of the utilities of alternatives rather than of the weights given to attributes that is the focus of attention. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conservative speech

In this paper, I argue that an utterance can function to conserve or maintain the truth of its asserted content, what I call conservative speech. Conservative utterances can work to preserve the truth of their asserted content in two ways. In the first, directive conservatives, the utterance serves as an indirect directive for interlocutors to act in ways that serve to maintain the asserted content. In the second, constitutive conservatives, serve to partly constitute the truth conditions of the asserted content directly. Constitutive conservatives, I argue, are particularly important because they are a central tool for how social groups enforce and thereby maintain facts about group norms and values in the face of deviation. They thus have a central role to play in understanding the role of language in the abilities of social groups to create and maintain their norms and values.     

The value(s) of information on social network sites: The role of user personality traits

PurposeThe present research examines the relationship between personality of social network site (SNS) users and the perceived value of the information they seek. Building on the Reasoned Action Approach, personality is conceptualized as a background factor influencing people's attitude towards the information they search for on SNS.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using a face-to-face survey among Facebook users (n = 311). Personality traits were assessed based on the Big Five dimensions. Statistical analyses estimate the effects of personality traits on the various values of the information sought on SNS. A three-step procedure was followed to standardize the independent variables and create interaction variables for the moderation test.FindingsThe results support the predictions that certain personality traits (e.g., conscientiousness and extraversion), as described by the FFM framework, are related to particular facets of information value (economic value and social value respectively). The effect of personality was moderated by participants’ Facebook usage intensity. Usage intensity dampens the relationship between agreeableness and functional value of information, and strengthens the negative relationship between openness-to-experience and psychological value of information.Practical implicationsThe personality-information value relationships found can help social media practitioners and marketers shape the content and appeal of the messages communicated to their audience on SNS, and tailor marketer-customer interactions in an engaging way.Originality/valueThe present research contributes to understanding the pivotal role of personality in evaluating the information people seek on social networks. It also adds to the literature regarding FFM and social media usage by supporting the notion that the Big Five personality traits predict value aspects of information that people pursue in the course of search behavior on Facebook.Article classificationResearch paper.     

How do employees react to leaders’ unethical behavior? The role of moral disengagement

Concerns over unethical leader behavior persist in today's workplace. Although some employees continue to support their leaders after learning of their unethical actions, others do not. In this paper, we integrate social cognitive theory with social information processing theory to propose that the support employees give to leaders who act unethically hinges on their propensity to morally disengage. Specifically, we develop a conditional indirect effects model, wherein moral disengagement propensity mitigates the negative impact of unethical leader behavior on leader-directed support via employees’ perceptions of value congruence with and trust in the leader. The sum result is an improved understanding of when and why employees offer support to versus withhold support from leaders who act in ethically questionable ways.