Exposure to sexism can decrease implicit gender stereotype bias

Two studies examined the effect of exposure to sexism on implicit gender bias, focusing specifically on stereotypes of men as competent and women as warm. Male and female participants were exposed to sexism or no sexism. In both Experiment 1 (Implicit Association Task; N = 115) and Experiment 2 (Go/No‐go Association Task; N = 167), women who had been exposed to sexist beliefs demonstrated less implicit gender stereotype bias relative to women who were not exposed to sexism. In contrast, exposure to sexism did not influence men's implicit gender stereotype bias. In Experiment 2, process modelling revealed that women's reduction in bias in response to sexism was related to increased accuracy orientation and a tendency to make warmth versus competence judgments. The implications of these findings for current understandings of sexism and its effects on gender stereotypes are discussed.     

Mechanism and materialism in early modern German philosophy

ABSTRACT

The paper focuses on the gradual separation between materialism and mechanism in early modern German philosophy. In Germany the distinction between the two concepts, originally introduced by Leibniz, was definitively stated by Wolff who was the first to provide a definition of the new philosophical term Materialismus, and of the related philosophical sect. In the first part I describe the initial identification of mechanism and materialism in German philosophy between the last decades of the seventeenth century and 1720. Mechanism is here mostly conceived within a monistic metaphysics of body, which refers mainly to Hobbes and to some (unfaithful) interpretations of Spinoza’s pantheism. This tight connection between a mechanical explanation of nature and the Deus sive natura issue leads to a negative judgement on mechanism and its materialistic implications, both charged with a form of more or less explicit atheism. In the second part I describe the gradual emancipation in Germany of mechanism from materialism according to the distinction between a ‘good’ and a ‘bad’ materialism. In the third and final part, I sketch the first appearances of the entry ‘materialism’ in the philosophical encyclopaedias of early modern Germany, pointing out the by-then clear distinction between this metaphysical issue and the mechanical claim.     

Hobbes’s materialism and Epicurean mechanism

ABSTRACT

Hobbes belonged to philosophical and scientific circles grappling with the big question at the dawn of modern physics: materialism and its consequences for morality. ‘Matter in motion’ may be a core principle of this materialism but it is certainly inadequate to capture the whole project. In wave after wave of this debate the Epicurean view of a fully determined universe governed by natural laws, that nevertheless allows to humans a sphere of libertas, but does not require a creator god or teleology to explain it, comes up against monotheism and its insistence on the incoherence of an ordered world in the absence of a God and his purposes. The following questions were central to this debate: (1) Can we understand the universe as law-governed in the absence of a god? (2) If so, what room is there in a fully determined mechanical universe for human freedom? (3) If humans do enjoy freedom, does the same hold for other animals? (4) Is this freedom compatible with standard views of morality? (5) Is there an analogue between the material world as law-governed and human social order? (6) If so does it also obtain for other animals?     

Visual statistical learning produces implicit and explicit knowledge about temporal order information and scene chunks: Evidence from direct and indirect measures

We examined whether visual statistical learning (VSL) produced implicit and/or explicit knowledge about temporal order information and scene chunks, using a rapid serial visual presentation target detection task and a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) familiarity test as indirect and direct measures of VSL, respectively. In the familiarization phase, participants viewed a visual stream of natural scenes consisting of four triplets (i.e., three images that always appeared in the same order). In the subsequent target detection task, participants were required to detect target items embedded in a stream of 12 images or 12 words representing each natural scene. In the final 2AFC familiarity test, participants observed two test sequences (statistically related triplets vs. unrelated foils) and decided whether the first or second sequence was more familiar based on the familiarization phase. In both test phases, we included the same (forward) and reverse (backward) order of scenes as presented during the familiarization phase to examine whether the expression of VSL was based on temporal order of scenes or scene chunks. The results of the target detection task showed a learning effect for both temporal order in the forward condition and chunks in the backward condition, irrespective of whether stimuli were images or words; in contrast, we did not observe a learning effect in the backward condition for scene images in the familiarity test. Our findings are compatible with a learning mechanism that has both implicit and explicit components based on temporal order information and scene chunks.     

基于认知视角探讨环境不确定性对领导有效性的影响机制

基于管理认知视角,系统深入地探讨了环境不确定性情境对领导有效性的影响机制。具体地,通过质性和量化方法相结合,首先基于意义建构理论(Sense-Making Theory)探寻领导者对于环境不确定情境的感知和解读过程;其次从管理认知视角探讨环境不确定性如何通过高层领导者的管理认知影响战略选择进而作用于领导有效性的过程和路径;最后基于权变思想探讨环境不确定性、组织文化、组织类型情境如何共同作用于领导有效性。研究结果在理论上将克服过去领导情境理论研究不足,打通微观和宏观的视角昭示环境不确定性情境对领导有效性的影响过程和作用路径,揭示其背后深层作用机理。实践方面将为领导者如何有效应对不确定性以及具体领导实践提供重要依据。     

大学生内隐性倾向的实验研究

我们通过实验的方式研究了大学生的内隐性倾向,实验分两个部分,一是使用配对图片的快速呈现研究其对性信息图片和无性信息图片的选择的差异;二是使用快速呈现和快速选择的方式研究其对有性信息词语和无性信息词语之间的选择差异。实验严格控制了空间误差和时间误差,通过科学设计的控制程序完成。结果发现,这两种情况下,大学生都表现出突出的选择和保存性信息刺激的倾向性,这种倾向不存在性别差异。     

内隐印象更新的心理机制

内隐印象更新表现出比外显印象更新更难、自动化或无意识发生和形成越快更新越快的特点。新近研究发现,相对简单的信息就能导致内隐印象的改变,其中,信息诊断性发挥了关键作用,新信息的强度、可信度、重新解释和归因以及预期刻板信息的一致性均是内隐印象更新的重要发生条件。社会认知维度和效价等因素、动机因素和不同的情绪情感等也对内隐印象更新有影响。进一步揭示内隐与外显印象更新差异的加工机制,探究不同信息要素的作用及印象更新的前因与后效,采用多样化的内隐范式及认知神经科学技术提供更多证据,加强本土化和跨文化比较研究将成为未来研究的重要方向。     

激情犯和累惯犯暴力态度的比较

实验采用《FMMU变态人格危险性评估问卷》和内隐联想测验分别测量激情犯和累惯犯的外显和内隐暴力态度, 探讨激情犯和累惯犯外显和内隐暴力态度特点及预测特征。研究发现, 激情犯和累惯犯的外显态度有显著差异, 但是内隐态度未见显著差异。由于部分罪犯在内隐态度中出现反转效应, 将激情犯和累惯犯分为激情犯未反转组和反转组, 累惯犯未反转组和反转组, 这四个组都产生了显著的IAT效应, 并且每个组的外显态度和内隐态度都发生了分离。从结果可见即使是同一犯罪类型, 犯罪时都实施了暴力行为, 但暴力态度却有差异。在测量外显暴力态度的基础上, 结合内隐暴力态度的测量, 将细化犯罪人分类, 为不同特点的犯罪人实施不同的改造和处遇方案提供新的思路。     

自发特质推理中的社会刻板效应

近来, 考察自发特质推理中的社会刻板效应, 成为自发特质推理研究的一个新趋势。在介绍自发特质推理及其研究范式的基础上, 概述了刻板印象与特质的概念联系, 并阐明了考察自发特质推理中的社会刻板效应的理论依据和方法。接着, 对自发特质推理中的职业、种族和性别刻板效应研究进行了回顾, 发现刻板印象对自发特质推理的影响主要通过它对自发特质推理的阻碍作用体现出来, 在高认知负荷下, 这种阻碍作用更为明显。最后, 从研究对象、研究方法、研究内容三个方面对该领域的研究进行了评价和展望。     

卵巢激素影响女性恐惧情绪加工的神经机制

大脑结构和功能的性别差异导致恐惧情绪加工的两性差别。女性对恐惧情绪加工受到体内雌激素和孕激素浓度的影响。近年来, 人类脑成像技术、遗传学和分子生物学的综合研究发现了卵巢激素影响女性恐惧情绪加工的神经机制。其中, 雌激素水平升高导致杏仁核活动增强, 使女性对恐惧面孔识别的准确性增加, 而孕激素水平则相反。这与女性在月经周期不同阶段对社会交往的需求和妊娠期间的自我保护机制有关。