Bad news transmission as a function of the definitiveness of consequences and the relationship between communicator and recipient

There is ample evidence suggesting (e.g., A. Tesser & S. Rosen, 1975) that people are reluctant to transmit bad news. Research on rumors, on the other hand, suggests that people sometimes are less reluctant to transmit bad news. It is argued that differences between the 2 lines of research include the definitiveness of the consequences of the news and the relationship between communicator and recipient. The influence of these 2 factors on news transmission was investigated in 3 experiments. Results showed that bad news with indefinite consequences was transmitted more often than bad news with definite consequences and that both kinds of bad news were transmitted more often if the recipient was a friend rather than a stranger. Differences in feelings of moral responsibility to transmit the news largely accounted for both effects. The 2 factors did not affect the likelihood of good news transmission.     

Developmental and sex-related differences in preschoolers' affective decision making

This study investigated developmental and sex-related differences in affective decision making, using a two-deck version of Children's Gambling Task administered to 3- and 4-year-old children. The main findings were that 4-year-old children displayed better decision-making performance than 3-year-olds. This effect was independent of developmental changes in inductive reasoning, language, and working memory. There were also sex differences in decision-making performance, which were apparent only in 3-year-old children and favored girls. Moreover, age predicted awareness of task and the correlation between the latter and decision-making performance was significant, but only in 4-year-old children. This study thus indicates that there is a remarkable developmental leap in affective decision making, whose effects are apparent around the age of 4, which according to our results, also marks the age when the correlation of declarative knowledge and decision-making performance becomes significant.     

Will we be working together again? The impact of future interdependence on group members' task motivation

The extent to which group members contribute effort efficiently, i.e. to the extent that their efforts add to the group product, or equally to their fellow worker is investigated as a function of group members' expectations about future interdependence. An experimental set‐up was employed in which (1) participants were able to determine what would be an efficient and what would be an equal amount of effort to exert, and (2) in which efficiency and equality required different levels of effort: Participants worked on a physical motor‐production task and expected to work with a partner twice (continued interdependence) or only on the first task (no continued interdependence). Before working on the first task, they received information about their relative task ability (high versus low) and information about their partner's effort expenditure (high versus low). It is argued and demonstrated that group members expecting continued interdependence are likely to equal their fellow worker's effort expenditure, whereas group members expecting no continued interdependence are likely to exert effort efficiently. The results are discussed from various theoretical perspectives. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.