The relative importance of psychopathy-related traits in predicting impersonal sex and hostile masculinity

This paper reports the relative contributions of several facets of subclinical psychopathy (i.e., callous affect, erratic lifestyle, interpersonal manipulation), subclinical narcissism (i.e., entitlement, exploitation), and trait aggression (i.e., anger) to the prediction of four enduring attitudes towards women and sexual assault (i.e., hostility towards women, negative attitudes regarding women, sexual dominance, impersonal sex) and a behavioral indicator of an impersonal sexual behavior (i.e., number of one-night stands). Survey data were collected from 470 single men living in the Detroit Metropolitan area. The importance of personality traits varied as a function of the outcome with anger most predictive of hostility toward women; erratic lifestyle most predictive of impersonal sexual attitudes and behavior, and entitlement most predictive of sexual dominance and negative attitudes toward women. These outcome-specific findings are interpreted and directions for future research are discussed.     

Words in larger font are perceived as more important: explaining the belief that font size affects memory

ABSTRACT

Words presented in larger font size are considered more memorable and rated with higher judgments of learning (JOLs). One explanation for this phenomenon is that people believe that font size affects memory. However, it is not clear why people hold this belief. One alternative is that font size represents importance, with larger fonts implying more relevant information. More important information is judged as more memorable and is, in fact, better remembered. In Experiments 1 and 2 we presented words in small (18 points) and extra-large font (250 points) and found higher JOLs and higher judgments of importance with extra-large fonts. A mediation analysis showed that importance accounted for 21–23% of the effect of font size on JOLs. In Experiment 3, we tested whether processing fluency was higher with the extra-large font. In a lexical decision task, participants were slower at detecting words and non-words with extra-large than small font, which is the opposite of what the processing fluency hypothesis predicts. This result shows that the font-size effect persists even in conditions in which perceived fluency should be lower. In sum, this research explained the belief that font size affects memory because words in larger fonts are considered more important.     

Do historic threats to the group diminish identity fusion and its correlates?

We examined the reactions of Spanish participants to three negative historic events: a corruption scandal involving the Royal Family and two separatist efforts by a prosperous region of Spain. Although average fusion scores declined following these events, these declines were limited to sentiments toward the group category – collective ties-; they did not tarnish sentiments toward individual group members – relational ties. Moreover, strongly fused persons continued committed to remain in the group and act agentically by fighting and dying for it. Finally, rank orderings of fusion scores remained stable. These findings demonstrate that negative events weaken some aspects of alignment with the group, including collective ties and fusion, but not other aspects, such as relational ties and endorsement of pro-group behaviors.     

Anger, Fear, or Sadness: Faculty Members' Emotional Reactions to Collective Pay Disadvantage

As part of a mail survey about their work experiences, university faculty members reported their specific emotional reactions to group inequities in faculty pay and benefits. The results indicate that sadness, fear, and anger are distinct emotional responses to a collective disadvantage. Group-based anger mediated the relationship between collective disadvantage and willingness to protest whereas group-based sadness mediated the relationship between collective disadvantage and organizational loyalty. Based on an integration of cognitive appraisal models of emotion with RD theory, four other predictors of intergroup emotions—(1) the legitimacy of the process that produced the deprivation, (2) whether another agent was responsible, (3) group efficacy, and (4) whether the situation would improve or become worse—were identified and tested. The measurement of specific emotional reactions to perceived collective disadvantage extends and refines RD approaches to collective action and organizational loyalty.     

An Efficient MCMC Algorithm to Sample Binary Matrices with Fixed Marginals

Uniform sampling of binary matrices with fixed margins is known as a difficult problem. Two classes of algorithms to sample from a distribution not too different from the uniform are studied in the literature: importance sampling and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). Existing MCMC algorithms converge slowly, require a long burn-in period and yield highly dependent samples. Chen et al. developed an importance sampling algorithm that is highly efficient for relatively small tables. For larger but still moderate sized tables (300×30) Chen et al.’s algorithm is less efficient. This article develops a new MCMC algorithm that converges much faster than the existing ones and that is more efficient than Chen’s algorithm for large problems. Its stationary distribution is uniform. The algorithm is extended to the case of square matrices with fixed diagonal for applications in social network theory. I am indebted to my colleague Gunter Maris for his suggestion to add a Metropolis–Hastings step as the finishing touch of the algorithm.     

Some Weakened Gödelian Ontological Systems

We describe a KB Gödelian ontological system, and some other weak systems, in a fully formal way using theory of types and natural deduction, and present a completeness proof in its main and specific parts. We technically and philosophically analyze and comment on the systems (mainly with respect to the relativism of values) and include a sketch of some connected aspects of Gödel's relation to Kant.     

绝对的公平和相对的公平

效率和公平是经济伦理的两大原则 ,也是制定和衡量经济政策的价值依据 ,但大部分经济学家都认为 ,效率和公平存在着不可调和的矛盾 ,使得人们在指导经济行为和制定经济政策时处于两难境地。本文通过对自由主义、平等主义和功利主义公平观的批判 ,试图说明 ,从历史唯物主义的立场出发 ,抛弃绝对的公平观 ,主张相对的公平观 ,便能够解决这个难题。     

A Moderator of the Interaction Effect of Procedural Justice and Outcome Favorability: Importance of the Relationship

Justice literature has documented that procedural justice interacts with outcome favorability in determining people's reactions to a decision. Specifically when people perceive the outcome as negative, procedural justice has remarkably strong and positive influence on their attitudes and reactions to the decision. The present study extended past research by illustrating that the interaction effect of procedural justice and outcome favorability is dependent on the perceived importance of the relationship with the other party. Two studies yielded converging results that the interaction effect is operative only when the relationship with the other person or group is important to the person.     

Varieties of contrast: a review of incentive relativity by charles f. Flaherty

The phenomenon of contrast has been studied from two quite separate perspectives, one derived from the classic studies of incentive contrast such as Crespi (1942) and the other from the study of behavioral contrast within behavior analysis. This book reviews both of these types of contrast effects and finds both differences and similarities between them. Still at issue is the validity of the interpretation of contrast that assumes that the value of some target level of reward is modified in inverse relation to the level of reward from other sources in the same context. This concept works well for the classic studies of incentive contrast, but is challenged by the emerging importance of anticipatory contrast and the finding in both of the separate research traditions that anticipatory contrast is inversely related to other measures of reinforcement value.     

Delayed signal detection, differential reinforcement, and short-term memory in the pigeon.

In two discrete-trial delayed-detection experiments, six pigeons were trained on dependent concurrent variable-interval schedules. Pecking a red side key was reinforced when the brighter of two white lights (S1) had been presented on the center key, and pecking a green side key was reinforced when the duller of two white lights (S2) had been presented on the center key. Incorrect responses were red side-key pecks following S2 presentations and green side-key pecks following S1 presentations; these resulted in three-second blackouts. In Experiment 1, the time between presentation of S1 or S2 on the center key and the onset of the red and green side keys was varied nonsystematically from 0.06 seconds to 19.69 seconds across experimental conditions. Stimulus discriminability decreased as the stimulus-choice delay increased. A rectangular-hyperbolic function better described this decrease in discriminability over time than did a negative-exponential function. In Experiment 2, at each of three stimulus-choice delays (0.06, 3.85, and 10.36 seconds), relative reinforcer frequency for correct responses to the red and green side keys was varied by changing the values of the dependent concurrent variable-interval schedules. The sensitivity of choice to relative reinforcer frequency was independent of the decrease in stimulus discriminability with increasing stimulus-choice delay.