Fairness considerations: Increasing understanding of intentionality during adolescence

The development of fairness considerations in decision making is not well understood. Here we tested the hypothesis that increased understanding of intentionality during adolescence underlies increased fairness considerations in social decision making. We conducted three experiments using an adapted version of the Ultimatum Game with participants during four stages of adolescence: 9, 12, 15, and 18 years of age. Participants made or evaluated monetary offers, and we manipulated the intentionality context of offers. Results show that strategic thinking is already present at 9 years of age. There was no age difference in fairness of offers when the responder could not reject an offer (Experiment 1), but when they could reject an offer there was an age-related increase in taking into account the perspective and intentionality of other players when making offers (Experiment 2) and evaluating offers (Experiment 3). Taken together, the results demonstrate a linear developmental transition in fairness considerations that may have important implications for our understanding of social interactions during adolescence.     

Empathy and Social Perspective Taking in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study explored empathy and social perspective taking in 8 to 12 year old children with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The sample comprised 92 children, 50 with a diagnosis of ADHD and 42 typically developing comparison children. Although children with ADHD were rated by their parents as less empathic than children without ADHD, this difference was accounted for by co-occurring oppositional and conduct problems among children in the ADHD sample. Children with ADHD used lower levels of social perspective taking coordination in their definition of problems, identification of feelings, and evaluation of outcomes than children without ADHD, and these differences persisted after the role of language abilities, intelligence and oppositional and conduct problems were taken into account. Girls were more empathic and had higher overall social perspective taking scores than boys. Implications for research and practice are discussed. This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).     

Computational models for the combination of advice and individual learning

Decision making often takes place in social environments where other actors influence individuals' decisions. The present article examines how advice affects individual learning. Five social learning models combining advice and individual learning-four based on reinforcement learning and one on Bayesian learning-and one individual learning model are tested against each other. In two experiments, some participants received good or bad advice prior to a repeated multioption choice task. Receivers of advice adhered to the advice, so that good advice improved performance. The social learning models described the observed learning processes better than the individual learning model. Of the models tested, the best social learning model assumes that outcomes from recommended options are more positively evaluated than outcomes from nonrecommended options. This model correctly predicted that receivers first adhere to advice, then explore other options, and finally return to the recommended option. The model also predicted accurately that good advice has a stronger impact on learning than bad advice. One-time advice can have a long-lasting influence on learning by changing the subjective evaluation of outcomes of recommended options.     

观点采择对共情性尴尬的影响：共情反应与尴尬类型的不同作用

对158名大学生进行实验研究,探讨观点采择在影响共情性尴尬的过程中,尴尬类型与共情反应的不同作用。结果表明：（1）共情反应在观点采择与共情性尴尬之间起中介作用,（2）这种中介作用受到尴尬类型的调节,即在自尊模型和违背他人意愿模型下,共情反应在观点采择对共情性尴尬的影响中起到部分中介作用;在戏剧模型和非意愿暴露模型下,共情反应在观点采择对共情性尴尬的影响中起完全中介作用。     

情绪和认知方式对个体建议采纳的影响*

通过电影诱发被试的情绪,利用两个实验探讨了情绪和认知方式对个体建议采纳的影响。实验一采用选择任务,实验二采用估计任务,研究发现:(1)愉快情绪状态下的被试建议采纳程度高于愤怒的被试,场依存型被试建议采纳程度高于场独立型被试,女性比起男性更易采纳他人建议;(2)在估计任务中,无论场依存者还是场独立者,在愤怒状态下建议采纳程度无显著差异,且均低于愉快状态下。     

Better understanding the perceptions of organizational politics: its impact under different types of work unit structure

Research has uncovered inconsistent results regarding the influence of the perceptions of organizational politics (POP) on employee job performance, suggesting the existence of boundary conditions for such an influence. Drawing from uncertainty management theory, we investigated the interaction effect of POP and work unit structure on job performance, and examined the mediating role of taking charge. We tested the theoretical model with data gathered across three phases over 6 months from 577 individuals and their supervisors in 133 work units. Results showed that when the unit operated an organic structure, POP was significantly negatively related to job performance. In contrast, results demonstrated that when the unit operated a mechanistic structure, POP was significantly positively related to job performance. Furthermore, the results of the mediated moderation analysis revealed that POP was negatively associated with job performance through taking charge in an organic structure, and the indirect effect disappeared in a mechanistic structure.     

Motor imagery in spinal cord injured people is modulated by somatotopic coding,perspective taking,and post‐lesional chronic pain

Motor imagery (MI) allows one to mentally represent an action without necessarily performing it. Importantly, however, MI is profoundly influenced by the ability to actually execute actions, as demonstrated by the impairment of this ability as a consequence of lesions in motor cortices, limb amputations, movement limiting chronic pain, and spinal cord injury. Understanding MI and its deficits in patients with motor limitations is fundamentally important as development of some brain–computer interfaces and daily life strategies for coping with motor disorders are based on this ability. We explored MI in a large sample of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) using a comprehensive battery of questionnaires to assess the ability to imagine actions from a first‐person or a third‐person perspective and also imagine the proprioceptive components of actions. Moreover, we correlated MI skills with personality measures and clinical variables such as the level and completeness of the lesion and the presence of chronic pain. We found that the MI deficits (1) concerned the body parts affected by deafferentation and deefferentation, (2) were present in first‐ but not in third‐person perspectives, and (3) were more altered in the presence of chronic pain. MI is thus closely related to bodily perceptions and representations. Every attempt to devise tools and trainings aimed at improving autonomy needs to consider the cognitive changes due to the body–brain disconnection.     

基层干部何以担当作为?测量、动机与前因机制

基层政府职能转变和担当离不开广大基层干部的担当作为。但是, 什么是基层干部的担当作为, 如何测量?基层干部担当作为是出于怎样的动机?受到哪些因素的影响?如何促进?这些问题尚未得到系统研究。因此, 基于行为公共管理学视角, 首先以实证的方式研究基层干部担当作为的内涵结构和具体测量; 第二, 突破传统动机研究对利他的依赖和内外动机二分的束缚, 以自我决定理论为基础, 从自主动机(内在调节、整合调节、认同调节)和受控动机(内摄调节、外在调节)精细化研究担当作为动机; 第三, 关注从动机到行为的整合框架, 提出担当角色认同的中介变量, 关注个体因素和组织因素的交互以及中介过程中的调节作用, 解释担当作为动机将如何产生担当作为行为, 并有何种权变因素。通过实证研究, 最终回应基层干部担当作为的测量、管理和激励问题。     

How much risk can you stomach? Individual differences in the tolerance of perceived risk across gender and risk domain

Research within the psychological risk–return framework, namely, using the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking scale, has led to a conclusion that risk attitude—measured as an individual's sensitivity to the risk they perceive—is stable across people (e.g., gender) and domains (e.g., recreational, social, financial, & health). Risk taking differences across gender and domain have been interpreted in terms of differences in the magnitude of risk perceived (and expected benefit). Yet the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking scale items, contrived by researchers rather than decision makers themselves, may have failed to detect differences in perceived risk attitude by failing to adequately represent all combinations of risks and benefits across gender and domains. In Study 1, participants generated their own examples of activities, which we selected among in Studies 2 and 3 to construct a new scale representing various levels of perceived risk and expected benefit. Our findings reveal that women are more sensitive than men to risk they perceive (i.e., are less tolerant of risk) in the recreational, social, and financial domains but not in the health domain. Risk attitude also differed across domains, with participants tolerating more risk in some domains than in others. We conclude that gender and domain differences in risk taking stem partly from gender and domain differences in people's sensitivity to perceived risks. Our findings have theoretical implications for the psychological risk–return framework and bridge with other theoretical approaches, such as the expected utility framework. Our studies also provide a new scale for assessing differences in attitudes toward risk that overcomes shortcomings of existing scales.     

The effect of imperfect memory recall on risk preferences

People often take on different levels of risk when deciding on future actions compared with when they take actions with immediate consequences. The presently reported research investigated how imperfect recall of previously chosen options influences temporal fluctuations in risk preferences. In two incentivized studies with a waiting time before decision resolution (a 4-week waiting period from an initial decision), we observed that errors in the recall of previous choices played a substantial role in constructing risk preferences for choices that are usually resolved after a delay. More specifically, in a first study, we found that after a waiting period (i.e., after participants waited for their risky choices to be resolved), participants perceived that they took less risk during their initial choices than they actually did. Importantly, when asked about whether they would change their initial choices, participants declared that they would take riskier choices. In a second study, we tested directly whether such a shift in initial choices could also be demonstrated behaviorally. Results revealed that after beliefs about past choices were induced, participants changed their risk preferences in line with the information presented during belief induction.