The pursuit of optimal distinctiveness and consumer preferences

He, L., Cong, F., Liu, Y. & Zhou, X. (2010). The pursuit of optimal distinctiveness and consumer preferences. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 411–417. This article investigates the effect of optimal distinctiveness on consumer product consumption. The authors argue that consumers acquire and display material possessions to restore their optimal levels of distinctiveness. Results showed that placing consumers in a state of low distinctiveness increased desire to acquire distinctive products, whereas perceptions of high distinctiveness reduced desire to acquire such products. Consumers’ desire for distinctiveness‐related products held true for various consumer choices, including willingness to pay more for limited‐edition products and preference for unpopular gifts. This finding has implications for understanding consumer choice in expressing identity.     

Mapping explicit social motives of achievement,power, and affiliation onto the five‐factor model of personality

Engeser, S. & Langens, T. (2010). Mapping explicit social motives of achievement, power, and affiliation onto the five‐factor model of personality. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. Previous research has shown that explicit motives are meaningfully related to the five‐factor model of personality. The present study extends this research by using different measures of the explicit social motives of achievement, power and affiliation, and by employing measures of both approach and avoidance of these motives. Correlational and factor analyses demonstrated that explicit motives of achievement, power, and affiliation, both approach and avoidance components of these motives, can be consistently mapped onto personality trait measures of the five‐factor model. Implications of this general finding, along with some exceptions, are discussed with regard to further research.     

Assessing the merits and faults of holistic and disaggregated judgments

Three studies explored both the advantages of and subjects' preferences for a disaggregated judgment procedure and a holistic one. The task in our first two studies consisted of evaluating colleges; the third study asked participants to evaluate job applicants. Holistic ratings consisted of providing an overall evaluation while considering all of the characteristics of the evaluation objects; disaggregated ratings consisted of evaluating each cue independently. Participants also made paired comparisons of the evaluation objects. We constructed preference orders for the disaggregated method by aggregating these ratings (unweighted or weighted characteristics). To compare the holistic, disaggregated, and weighted‐disaggregated method we regressed the four cues on the participant's holistic rating, on the linearly aggregated disaggregated ratings, and on the average weighted disaggregated rating, using the participant's “importance points” for each cue as weights. Both types of combined disaggregated ratings related more closely to the cues in terms of proportion of variance accounted for in Experiments 1 and 2. In addition, the disaggregated ratings were more closely related to the paired‐comparison orderings, but Experiment 2 showed that this was true for a small set (10) but not a large set (60) of evaluation objects. Experiment 3 tested the “gamesmanship” hypothesis: People prefer holistic ratings because it is easier to incorporate illegitimate but appealing criteria into one's judgment. The results suggested that the disaggregated procedure generally produced sharper distinctions between the most relevant and least relevant cues. Participants in all three of these studies preferred the holistic ratings despite their statistical inferiority. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examining the generality of children's preference for contingent reinforcement via extension to different responses, reinforcers, and schedules

Studies that have assessed whether children prefer contingent reinforcement (CR) or noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) have shown that they prefer CR. Preference for CR has, however, been evaluated only under continuous reinforcement (CRF) schedules. The prevalence of intermittent reinforcement (INT) warrants an evaluation of whether preference for CR persists as the schedule of reinforcement is thinned. In the current study, we evaluated 2 children's preference for contingent versus noncontingent delivery of highly preferred edible items for academic task completion under CRF and INT schedules. Children (a) preferred CR to NCR under the CRF schedule, (b) continued to prefer CR as the schedule of reinforcement became intermittent, and (c) exhibited a shift in preference from CR to NCR as the schedule became increasingly thin. These findings extend the generality of and provide one set of limits to the preference for CR. Applied implications, variables controlling preferences, and future research are discussed.     

System‐perpetuating asymmetries between explicit and implicit intergroup attitudes among indigenous and non‐indigenous Chileans

The present research demonstrates a dissociation between explicit and implicit intergroup evaluation in the reciprocal attitudes between indigenous (Mapuche) and non‐indigenous Chileans. In both social groups, the explicit measures of attitudes towards the respective in‐group and out‐group were compared with the Implicit Association Test scores. The results indicate that the members of the low‐status minority might explicitly express a moderate evaluative preference for their in‐group but might implicitly devalue it. Conversely, the members of the high‐status majority might implicitly devalue their out‐group but might explicitly express no bias. These results are theoretically framed in terms of system justification, conventional stereotypes and motivated correction processes.     

序列统计结构对内隐序列学习发展的影响

采用序列学习研究范式,考察小三到大三学生内隐序列学习的发展规律及制约因素。结果表明:(1)各年龄组被试均能在序列学习中获得序列规则;(2)不同年龄组被试序列反应时存在显著差异,说明内隐序列学习从小三到大三之间一直存在发展变化;(3)被试在高统计结构下的反应时要低于低统计结构下的,且这种差异不存在发展变化,说明高统计结构下的内隐学习成绩要好于低统计结构下的;(4)外显被试的量随年龄增长而增加,说明对序列学习的有意识加工能力随年龄增长而提高。     

场独立——场依存型认知风格与内隐、外显记忆关系的实验研究

采用Jacoby加工分离程序,以无意义音节字母串为材料,对场依存型、场独立型和中间型被试的内隐、外显记忆进行分离,考察不同认知风格类型的个体,在加工信息过程中,对与其认知风格类型匹配或不匹配的材料的编码和提取上是否存在不同的方式和策略。结果表明:1)场依存型个体的意识性提取成绩好于场独立型个体,场依存型个体的外显记忆好于场独立型个体。2)场独立型个体的自动提取成绩高于场依存型个体的成绩,场独立型个体的内隐记忆好于场依存型个体。3)无论在意识性提取还是自动提取方面,中间类型个体的成绩总是介于场依存型个体与场独立型个体之间。     

Experiments on the Automaticity of Political Beliefs and Attitudes

Political science has long relied on explicit responses in order to understand what and how people think. New research in the cognitive sciences suggests that this reliance on conscious considerations provides but a partial picture of how citizens think and reason. Given the limitations of conscious working memory and the growing evidence that much of human cognition occurs outside of awareness, the defining empirical assumption of modern public opinion research—that citizens can tell us what is on their minds—seems increasingly suspect. Moreover, social science is particularly challenged by the sensitivity of their topics, which in turn raises social and personal desirability concerns about self-report data. In order to overcome these limitations, we propose an implicit experimental approach. We contend that implicit measures enable us to measure some of the automatic and affective responses and predispositions that influence thoughts and behaviors outside of conscious awareness.     

Weapon Bias: Split-Second Decisions and Unintended Stereotyping

ABSTRACT— Race stereotypes can lead people to claim to see a weapon where there is none. Split-second decisions magnify the bias by limiting people's ability to control responses. Such a bias could have important consequences for decision making by police officers and other authorities interacting with racial minorities. The bias requires no intentional racial animus, occurring even for those who are actively trying to avoid it. This research thus raises difficult questions about intent and responsibility for racially biased errors.     

基于职业的内隐年龄偏见

本研究针对119名大学生,采用内隐联想测验(Implicit Associa-tion Test,IAT)和相应的外显报告法,考察大学生针对不同职业的内隐与外显年龄偏见。结果表明,在大学生中普遍存在基于职业的内隐年龄偏见;职业年龄偏见是双向的,即有的职业偏好年轻人,有些职业偏好年长者;而且有些被试的内隐和外显态度存在不一致性。