The Influence of Existential Threat and Tolerance Salience on Anti‐Islamic Attitudes in American Politics

Fierce public discussion has centered on anti‐Islamic attitudes and tolerance in America and the West more broadly. The present research explored whether the awareness of mortality (a common theme in politics, e.g., war/terrorism, health care, abortion, and so on) and tolerance salience might influence (1) the endorsement of anti‐Islamic attitudes in American politics and (2) political orientation. Study 1 (n = 79) was conducted in lab and Study 2 (preregistered, n = 396) replicated it online; both obtained the same results. In a neutral‐value‐prime condition, American participants reminded of mortality (vs. control topic) more strongly endorsed a Congressman’s anti‐Islamic statements about Rep. Ellison. However, in a tolerance‐value‐prime condition, participants reminded of mortality maintained their acceptance of Rep. Ellison’s beliefs and practices. Political orientation was not impacted. Implications for terror management theory (TMT), other theories of existential dynamics and motivated conservative political ideology, and both recent and contemporary American politics are discussed.     

Terror in time: extending culturomics to address basic terror management mechanisms

Building on Google's efforts to scan millions of books, this article introduces methodology using a database of annual word frequencies of the 40,000 most frequently occurring words in the American literature between 1800 and 2009. The current paper uses this methodology to replicate and identify terror management processes in historical context. Variation in frequencies of word usage of constructs relevant to terror management theory (e.g. death, worldview, self-esteem, relationships) are investigated over a time period of 209 years. Study 1 corroborated previous TMT findings and demonstrated that word use of constructs related to death and of constructs related to patriotism and romantic relationships significantly co-vary over time. Study 2 showed that the use of the word “death” most strongly co-varies over time with the use of medical constructs, but also co-varies with the use of constructs related to violence, relationships, religion, positive sentiment, and negative sentiment. Study 3 found that a change in the use of death related words is associated with an increase in the use of fear related words, but not in anxiety related words. Results indicate that the described methodology generates valuable insights regarding terror management theory and provide new perspectives for theoretical advances.     

Application of a self‐management intervention to improve data recording of educational care providers

The present study evaluated the effects of a self‐management intervention on scheduled data recording by classroom instructors at a school for children with intellectual disability and neurodevelopmental disorders. In a multiple baseline design across two classrooms, the instructors recorded student data according to an established protocol at the school and based on earlier training they had received. During intervention, the instructors self‐monitored implementation of data recording procedures that were prompted by a signal from an automated count‐down timer. The self‐management intervention increased scheduled data recording by participants in both classrooms to 90–100%, and these results were maintained at 1‐ and 2‐month follow‐up assessments. These findings add to the small literature concerning self‐managed approaches to training and performance improvement, extend application within educational settings, and suggest practical advantages for supporting competencies of care providers.     

恐惧管理中死亡焦虑不同防御机制之间的关系

根据恐惧管理理论, 个体主要通过世界观、自尊和亲密关系三种防御机制来应对必死性意识引发的死亡焦虑。主流观点认为三种防御机制在防御死亡焦虑时的地位是平等的, 符合“流动补偿机制”。本文讨论了流动补偿机制的局限性, 提出三种防御机制之间关系的新观点: 优先级假设, 认为三种防御机制地位并非平等, 而是存在优先级: 亲密关系优先于世界观和自尊, 世界观优先于自尊。在梳理了支持证据后, 本文尝试从发展性视角对优先级假设提出可能的解释, 认为这种优先级来源于防御机制的发展顺序和衍生关系。     

揭秘经济管理中的行为异象：心理账户理论的应用启示

2017年Richard H. Thaler获得诺贝尔经济学奖, 其重要的研究贡献之一是催生并发展了心理账户理论。心理账户理论被广泛用于解释经济管理中的行为异象。文章以消费决策、金融管理决策两大领域的应用研究为外在逻辑, 以心理账户的设立、运算和关闭过程的特点为内在逻辑, 重点探讨了消费决策中的“标签效应”、“预算效应”、“价格幻觉”、“解耦效应”和“效用偏差”; 金融管理决策中的“粘蝇纸效应”、“薪酬感知之谜”、“税收-投资之谜”、“会计信息披露之谜”和“处置效应”十大行为异象。文章进一步提出未来可能的两个研究方向, 一是通过眼动技术和认知神经科学方法揭示心理账户影响行为决策的内在过程及神经机制; 二是将心理账户理论应用于“以小拨大”的行为助推, 助力政府公共管理和企业管理决策。     

Take a break! Benefits of sleep and short breaks for daily work engagement

The current study investigates the benefits of a good night’s sleep and short work breaks for employees’ daily work engagement. It is hypothesized that sleep and self-initiated short breaks help restore energetic and self-regulatory resources which, in turn, enable employees to experience high work engagement. A daily diary study was conducted with 107 employees who provided data twice a day (before lunch and at the end of the working day) over 5 workdays (453 days in total). Multilevel regression analyses showed that sleep quality and short breaks were beneficial for employees’ daily work engagement. After nights employees slept better, they indicated higher work engagement during the day. Moreover, taking self-initiated short breaks from work in the afternoon boosted daily work engagement, whereas taking short breaks in the morning failed to predict daily work engagement. Taking short breaks did not compensate for impaired sleep with regard to daily work engagement. Overall, these findings suggest that recovery before and during work can foster employees’ daily work engagement.     

Narrow lanes and their effect on drivers’ behaviour at motorway roadworks

In recent years, more use of narrow lanes as a temporary traffic management scheme (TTMS) on UK motorway roadwork sections has been made. The rationale is to free up carriageway space, especially for sites with high traffic demands needing repairs. What remains to be determined is the impact of this work on traffic operation. This is important due to the need to manage traffic operational turbulence which could affect the capacity as well as safety levels in roadwork sections. Site observations (mainly using camcorders from overhead bridges) were made which uncovered two discernible patterns of driving behaviour where narrow lanes are implemented at roadworks, especially when heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) are present: (i) “avoiding” passing/overtaking HGVs travelling in the adjacent lanes and (ii) lane “repositioning” while passing/overtaking which might cause some turbulence to traffic operation. From one site, almost half of the passenger car drivers (including small vans) who were following a HGV on the adjacent lanes were avoiding passing that HGV. Also, nearly three quarters of the observed passenger cars, the passenger car drivers tried to position their vehicles as far away as possible, laterally, from the adjacent HGV while passing/overtaking that HGV in order to widen the lateral gap between their vehicles and the HGV. This resulted in driving too close to the edge of the road markings of their current lane away from the HGV. Therefore, this paper aims to report on the “avoiding” and lane “repositioning” behaviours to help inform traffic management teams/designers using narrow lanes as TTMS and make them aware of such behaviours (especially for motorway sections carrying high percentages of HGVs). Also, the finding from these observations were used in the development of a new micro-simulation model in order to evaluate the effect of such turbulence.