Cognitive and emotional empathy in typically developing children: The influence of age,gender, and intelligence

In the current study, the influence of age, gender and IQ on cognitive and emotional empathy in school-aged children and adolescents was examined adopting two behavioural paradigms: participants were shown film clips with different scenes of social interaction to which they were asked to respond. Thus, 134 children aged seven to 17 years (mean age = 138.4 months, sd = 31.66 months) were tested for emotion recognition, perspective taking and emotional empathy. Age strongly influenced components of cognitive empathy and explained 33.5% to 39.1% of the variance. Gender and IQ also were significant predictors, yet only explained 3% to 5%, respectively 8% to 9% of the variance. In contrast, neither age, gender nor IQ were related to emotional empathy. Results suggest developmental maturation of cognitive, but not emotional empathy throughout childhood and adolescence. To explain variability in emotional empathy, additional biological and psychosocial factors need to be studied.     

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Two experiments were conducted with US college students to determine whether affective states influence cross-cultural empathy. Participants read about a target who experienced distress and assumed a perspective that was consistent or inconsistent with US norms. When evaluating targets with a dissimilar (versus similar) cultural perspective, participants in neutral affect (Experiments 1 and 2) or negative affect (Experiment 2) conditions exhibited less perspective taking and emotional empathy. However, those differences were not observed for participants in a positive affect condition. Indeed, students in the positive (versus neutral or negative) affect condition exhibited greater perspective taking and feelings of compassion and sympathy for the dissimilar target. Results support (Fredrickson, B.L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2, 300–319; Fredrickson, B.L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden and build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218–226) broaden and build theory, suggesting positive affect promotes open-minded, flexible thinking and builds social resources.     

Domain Specific Relationships of 2D:4D Digit Ratio in Risk Perception and Risk Behavior

The 2D:4D digit ratio (henceforth, 2D:4D) is accepted as a marker of prenatal testosterone, demonstrating gender differences. The present study reveals that 2D:4D shows not only gender differences but also individual differences in personality and risk-taking behavior. We measured individual participants’ 2D:4D, structural personality, and risk-taking attitude scores. The result of the current study replicates the gender difference in 2D:4D in previous researches. However, we found different aspects of the correlations among 2D:4D, personality, and risk-taking attitude. Path analyses indicated that 2D:4D passes through personality factors before reaching the risk-taking attitude, particularly in the financial domain activities of investing and gambling. Also we observed a specific relationship between right-hand 2D:4D and emotionality and between left-hand 2D:4D and agreeableness. Finally, we suggest multiple path models of 2D:4D and personality in risk taking depending on the domain.     

Linking Individual Creativity to Organizational Innovation

We draw on 146 employee‐co‐worker‐supervisor triads from 146 organizations to examine the role of individual perspective‐taking and team creative environment in the association between individual creativity and organizational innovation. Adopting an interactionist perspective, we find that the link between individual creativity and organizational innovation is most clearly strengthened when individual perspective‐taking and team creative environment are both high. Neither individual perspective‐taking nor team creative environment alone moderated the relationship between creativity and innovation.     

Lay Personality Theories in Interactive Decisions: Strongly Held,Weakly Supported

In interactive decisions, cues to what others will do are important in forming a strategy. Information about others' personalities appears to be potentially valuable for this purpose. We report a series of four studies examining how information about another actor's personality influences people's own choices in interactive decisions. The studies found widespread beliefs that others' personality characteristics are strongly predictive both of broad classes of decision behavior (competition/cooperation, risk‐seeking/risk‐aversion) (Study 1) and of specific choices (Study 2) in single‐agent settings. These beliefs extended to predicting others' choices in interactive decisions (Study 3) and to shaping the predictor's own decisions in interactive play in Chicken and Assurance games (Study 4). Overall, we found extensive evidence that laypeople believe that the personality traits we selected (angry‐hostility, anxiety, assertiveness, excitement‐seeking, and warmth) have substantial effects on behavior in interactive decisions and they act on those beliefs when making their own decisions. The empirical evidence supporting the predictive validity of these traits was, however, quite weak. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Quantifying Supervisory Decision Making: Eye‐Tracking Technology Applications for the Promotion of Child Safety

Previous research has investigated various risk factors correlated with childhood injury, but few studies have successfully investigated these variables beyond participant self‐report. The present study utilized infrared eye‐tracking and computer‐based latency measures to evaluate caregiver supervision decisions in injury risk situations for typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder. The sample included 99 young women, ages 18–24 years, who are frequent non‐parental caregivers for children. Results indicated that participants altered their speed of response, child monitoring, and intervention decisions on the basis of idiosyncratic assessment of injury risk. Minimal significant differences emerged with regard to supervision behavior and chosen strategies when comparing children with autism spectrum disorder to typically developing children. Overall, results suggest that non‐parental caregivers integrate child characteristics and environmental risk factors when assessing risk and choosing interventions. Implications are discussed with regard to injury prevention programs emphasizing protective aspects of supervision for children across various settings. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Peer pressure and risk taking in young drivers’ speeding behavior

Although many countermeasures have been implemented in Europe, young drivers continue to have a high rate of involvement in car crashes. Their crash rate is higher in presence of peer passengers than when driving alone. Peer presence could contribute toward explaining this involvement, especially regarding speeding. Peers are known to often influence young drivers’ risky behaviors through proximal (direct and indirect active pressures) and distal (passive pressure) forms of intervention (Allen & Brown, 2008). This present study examined the effect of peer pressure and peer risk taking on the estimated speeding behavior of a scenario driver (ESBSD) as well as on the estimated speeding intention of a scenario driver (ESISD). The scenario driver was the main character in an online-scenario based questionnaire regarding speeding. The main character is a fictional young male depicted driving with his best friends in all the experimental scenarios in which the variables type of pressure and peer risk taking were manipulated. One hundred and eighty young French drivers (18–25 years, 50% men) took part in the study. The key findings were that (1) only direct and indirect active pressure, but not passive pressure, increased the ESBSD and that (2) high (vs. low) peer risk taking lead to a higher ESISD. However, no interaction between the pressure type and peer risk taking on ESBSD and ESISD was found. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Military Ethical Decision Making: The Effects of Option Choice and Perspective Taking on Moral Decision-Making Processes and Intentions

We investigated the ethical decision-making processes and intentions of 151 military personnel responding to 1 of 2 ethical scenarios drawn from the deployment experiences of military commanders. For each scenario, option choice and perspective affected decision-making processes. Differences were also found between the 2 scenarios. Results add to the emerging literature concerning operational ethical conflicts and highlight the complexity and challenge that often accompanies operational ethics.     

Choosing Between Lotteries: Remarkable Coordination Without Communication

The current research examines tacit coordination behavior in a lottery selection task. Two hundred participants in each of three experiments and 100 in a fourth choose to participate in one of two lotteries, where one lottery has a larger prize than the other. Independent of variations in the complexity of the mechanism of prize allocation, the prize amounts, and whether the lottery is the participant's first or second choice, we typically find that the percentage of participants who choose the high versus low‐prize lotteries does not significantly differ from the equilibrium predictions. This coordination is achieved without communication or experience. We additionally find that participants with an analytical thinking style and a risk‐averse tendency are more likely to choose the low‐prize lottery over the high‐prize lottery. This tendency seems to be stable across choices. The pattern of our results suggests that to achieve tacit coordination, having a subset of individuals who attend to the choices of others is sufficient. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.