Age-related changes in visual pseudoneglect

Pseudoneglect is a slight but consistent leftward attentional bias commonly observed in healthy young populations, purportedly explained by right hemispheric dominance. It has been suggested that normal aging might be associated with a decline of the right hemisphere. According to this hypothesis, a few studies have shown that elderly tend to exhibit a rightward attentional bias in line bisection. In the present study, we tested this hypothesis in young and older participants using a perceptual landmark task. Results yield evidence for an age-related shift, from a strong attentional leftward bias in young adults toward a suppressed or even a reversed bias in the elderly. Right hemisphere impairment coupled to a left hemispheric compensation might explain the perceptual shift observed in older adults. However, a decline in corpus callosum function cannot be excluded. Alternatively, these results may be in agreement with the hypothesis of an age-related specific inhibition of return dysfunction, an overt attentional orienting mechanism, and/or a decrease of dopamine.     

A bias-corrected exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of right-wing authoritarianism: Support for a three-factor structure

The factor structure of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) remains a contentious issue. Although designed to measure three underlying attitude clusters, aggression, submission and conventionalism, many items are deliberately double- or triple-barrelled, to capture the covariation of the three clusters in a unidimensional scale. Additionally, although the scale is balanced, there is an item wording direction bias in the clusters; aggression items are pro-trait, and conventionalism items are con-trait. Sub-scale structure is therefore potentially confounded with acquiescence bias. Although RWA as a unitary construct has been an effective tool for exploring prejudice, it would be useful in many cases to measure its underlying components directly. Proposed solutions to this problem include creating short-form scales as subsets of the original scale, or modifying items to simplify and un-confound the structure. We present convergent evidence of an underlying factor structure by considering one-, two- and three-factor solutions to the uncorrected scale and then using an indirect method to correct for acquiescence bias. Before and after correction, factor analysis supported a three-factor solution. Confirmatory factor analyses also support a three-factor solution compared to a one-factor solution.     

Social Dominance Orientation, Authoritarianism, and Support for Intergroup Violence Between the Middle East and America

Social dominance theory has generally posited that terror and intergroup violence can be explained in terms of social dominance struggles. Social dominance theorists have described terror mostly as a tool for maintaining intergroup hierarchies in society (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). Although implications of the theory suggest that terror may also be used by lower status groups as a tool for the resistance of domination by higher status groups, this prediction heretofore has not been empirically demonstrated. Data from two samples, one in the United States and one in Lebanon, were collected regarding attitudes toward terrorism and intergroup violence. The results show that the American sample demonstrates the typical patterns of social dominance such that those who are higher in social dominance orientation tend to support greater violence toward the Middle East. However, the Lebanese sample shows the opposite pattern, such that those who are lower in social dominance orientation tend to support violence toward the West. These results suggest that (1) support for terrorism among Middle East citizens is a project of counterdominance, and, more broadly, that (2) the relationship between social dominance orientation and support for violence depends on the dynamics of the conflict and the status of the perpetrators.     

Matches and mismatches between telic dominance and type of sport: Changes in emotions and stress pre- to post-performance

This study was intended to test the proposition that telic dominant individuals have a greater affinity and preference for endurance sports compared to paratelic dominant individuals who prefer explosive sports. The Telic Dominance Scale (TDS) was used to divide 66 university students into telic (high) and paratelic (low) dominance groups (n = 33 in each group). The state version of the Tension and Effort Stress Inventory (TESI) was completed before and after participation in an endurance sport (long distance running) and an explosive sport (basketball). It was predicted that participation in a preferred sport would produce a higher level of positive response for each group. This prediction was not supported. Irrespective of the type of sport, participation consistently produced positive changes in emotional tone with significant increases in excitement and decreases in anxiety, boredom, sullenness, modesty, resentment, and guilt. Some differences were found between groups and between sports. The telic group had higher levels of pride, gratitude, and virtue. Placidity, somatic tension stress and effort stress were higher for running than basketball. The findings are discussed within reversal theory’s motivational constructs and the broader context of sport and exercise adherence in health care.     

“Everybody knows it’s true”: Social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism moderate false consensus for stereotypic beliefs

European American university students (N = 89) judged the percentage of African Americans who possess 16 traits (e.g., poor, violent, and emotionally expressive) and then estimated how other students would make the same judgments. Participants also completed measures of social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Individuals with both high SDO and high RWA held the least positive views of African Americans. False consensus emerged in the form of a significant positive average within-person partial correlation between participants’ own ratings and their judgments of how other students would respond, controlling for the actual responses of other students. False consensus was positively related to SDO and a significant SDO × RWA interaction indicated that false consensus was highest for participants with both high SDO and high RWA. Results suggest that hierarchy-legitimizing beliefs in the form of stereotypes may be sustained internally through false consensus, especially among those most prone to prejudice.     

Understanding pro‐environmental intentions by integrating insights from social mobility,cosmopolitanism, and social dominance

To offer an integrative account bridging individuals’ sociocultural orientations with pro‐environmentalism, the current research tested the mediating and moderating relationships among pro‐environmental intentions and three person‐level factors: perceived social mobility, cosmopolitan orientation, and social dominance orientation (SDO). With a Singaporean college student sample (N = 220), we found support for the hypothesized second‐stage moderation model that perceived social mobility positively predicts cosmopolitan orientation, and in turn, cosmopolitan orientation is moderated by SDO to positively predict pro‐environmental intentions. Specifically, lower levels of SDO strengthen the pro‐environmental advantages of endorsing higher levels of cosmopolitan orientation. These findings add novel knowledge to the environmental psychology literature by advancing an integrative approach that demonstrates how the interplay of people's perceptions about the social, cultural, and group standing impacts their likelihood to engage in pro‐environmental actions. We discuss the implications that an egalitarian worldview toward other cultures, social groups, and human–nature relations might be the key to addressing the global challenge of climate change.     

Analysis of Variance Models with Stochastic Group Weights

The analysis of variance (ANOVA) is still one of the most widely used statistical methods in the social sciences. This article is about stochastic group weights in ANOVA models – a neglected aspect in the literature. Stochastic group weights are present whenever the experimenter does not determine the exact group sizes before conducting the experiment. We show that classic ANOVA tests based on estimated marginal means can have an inflated type I error rate when stochastic group weights are not taken into account, even in randomized experiments. We propose two new ways to incorporate stochastic group weights in the tests of average effects – one based on the general linear model and one based on multigroup structural equation models (SEMs). We show in simulation studies that our methods have nominal type I error rates in experiments with stochastic group weights while classic approaches show an inflated type I error rate. The SEM approach can additionally deal with heteroscedastic residual variances and latent variables. An easy-to-use software package with graphical user interface is provided.     

Broadening the individual differences lens on party support and voting behavior: Cynicism and prejudice as relevant attitudes referring to modern-day political alignments

Social-cultural and economic-hierarchical ideological attitudes have long been used to explain variation in political partisanship. We propose two additional, stable attitudes (political cynicism and ethnic prejudice) that may help in explaining contemporary political alignments. In a Belgian (N = 509) and Dutch sample (N = 628), we showed that party support can be segmented into four broad families: left, libertarian, traditionalist, and far-right parties. Both studies revealed that social-cultural and economic-hierarchical right-wing attitudes were negatively related to left party support and positively to libertarian, traditionalist and far-right support. Importantly, additional variance was consistently explained by political cynicism (lower libertarian and traditionalist support), ethnic prejudice (lower left support), or both (higher far-right support). Study 2 additionally demonstrated these patterns for self-reported voting.     

On Being a Mindful Authoritarian: Is Need for Cognition Always Associated with Less Punitiveness?

Previous research shows that the motivation to be mindful is associated with less intolerance toward deviant and stigmatized groups. The present research examines authoritarianism as a possible moderator of this seemingly robust finding. We obtained consistent evidence from two studies that authoritarianism (right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation) moderates the relationship between need for cognition and punitiveness. Among low authoritarians, need for cognition was negatively associated with punitiveness and dispositional attribution of crimes and positively associated with support for rehabilitation of criminals. However, among high authoritarians, the pattern reversed. These results are discussed in the context of some recent advances in the understanding of motivated social cognition.