Metaphors in behavioral genetics

Behavioral geneticists sometimes use metaphorsto describe the role of genes in humanbehavior. In this paper, five sample texts areanalyzed: a popular book, a textbook, ascientific review article, and two originalscientific articles representing differentapproaches in behavioral genetics. Metaphorsare found in all the different kinds of sampletexts, not only in the popular book and thetextbook. This suggests that metaphors are usednot only for rhetorical or pedagogical purposesbut play a more fundamental role in scientificunderstanding. In the sample texts, themetaphors tend to be antideterministic, i.e.,they do not imply genetic determinism butstress the interaction of multiple genes andmultiple environmental factors. No conclusioncan be drawn, however, as to whetherantideterminism is representative ofpresent-day behavioral geneticists in general.Certain historically important metaphors thatmay imply genetic determinism are qualified,avoided, or explicitly rejected. There aretensions between some of the metaphors, makingthem difficult to combine. All the metaphorsthat are used appear empirically apt, howeversometimes only with certain qualifications.     

Internet-delivered transdiagnostic and tailored cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety and depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Anxiety and depressive disorders are often comorbid. Transdiagnostic and tailored treatments seem to be promising approaches in dealing with comorbidity. Although several primary studies have examined the effects of Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (iCBT) for anxiety and depression, no meta-analysis including different types of iCBT that address comorbidity has been conducted so far. We conducted systematic searches in databases up to 1 July 2016. Only randomized trials comparing transdiagnostic/tailored iCBT for adult anxiety and/or depression with control groups were included. Nineteen randomized trials with a total of 2952 participants that met inclusion criteria were analyzed. The quality of the studies was high, however the blinding criteria were not fulfilled. The uncontrolled effect size (Hedges’ g) of transdiagnostic/tailored iCBT on anxiety and depression outcomes was large and medium for quality of life. The controlled effect size for iCBT on anxiety and depression outcomes was medium to large (anxiety: g = .82, 95% CI: .58–1.05, depression: g = .79, 95% CI: .59–1.00) and medium on quality of life (g = .56, 95% CI: .37–.73). Heterogeneity was small (quality of life) to moderate (anxiety, depression). There was a large effect on generic outcome measures and a moderate effect on comorbidities. When compared to disorder-specific treatments there were no differences on anxiety and quality of life outcomes, however there were differences in depression outcomes. Transdiagnostic and tailored iCBT are effective interventions for anxiety disorders and depression. Future studies should investigate mechanisms of change and develop outcome measures for these interventions.     

Empathy gaps for social pain: why people underestimate the pain of social suffering

In 5 studies, the authors examined the hypothesis that people have systematically distorted beliefs about the pain of social suffering. By integrating research on empathy gaps for physical pain (Loewenstein, 1996) with social pain theory (MacDonald & Leary, 2005), the authors generated the hypothesis that people generally underestimate the severity of social pain (ostracism, shame, etc.)--a biased judgment that is only corrected when people actively experience social pain for themselves. Using a social exclusion manipulation, Studies 1-4 found that nonexcluded participants consistently underestimated the severity of social pain compared with excluded participants, who had a heightened appreciation for social pain. This empathy gap for social pain occurred when participants evaluated both the pain of others (interpersonal empathy gap) as well as the pain participants themselves experienced in the past (intrapersonal empathy gap). The authors argue that beliefs about social pain are important because they govern how people react to socially distressing events. In Study 5, middle school teachers were asked to evaluate policies regarding emotional bullying at school. This revealed that actively experiencing social pain heightened the estimated pain of emotional bullying, which in turn led teachers to recommend both more comprehensive treatment for bullied students and greater punishment for students who bully.     

The push and pull of temptation: the bidirectional influence of temptation on self-control

This article examines how people respond to the emergence of temptation in their environment. Three studies demonstrated that how people respond to temptation depends critically on their visceral state--whether or not they are actively experiencing visceral drives such as hunger, drug craving, or sexual arousal. We found that when people were in a "cold," nonvisceral state, the presence of temptation prompted cognition to support self-control. However, when people were in a "hot," visceral state, temptation prompted the same cognitive processes to support impulsive behavior. Study 1 examined how heterosexual men's level of sexual arousal influences their attention to attractive women. Study 2 examined whether satiated and craving smokers would engage in motivated reasoning in order to dampen (or enhance) the appeal of smoking when confronted with the temptation to smoke. Study 3 tested the boundaries of the interaction between visceral state and temptation.     

Long-term outcome of Internet-delivered cognitive-behavioural therapy for social phobia: A 30-month follow-up

Internet-delivered guided cognitive behaviour therapy for social anxiety disorder has been found to generate promising short-term results, up to one year posttreatment. No study has however documented longer follow-up periods. In this 30-month follow-up we contacted 57 participants from the original study of which 77.2% (44/57) responded to the Internet-administered outcome measures and 66.7% (38/57) completed a telephone interview. Results showed large pretreatment to follow-up within-group effect sizes for the primary outcome measures (Cohen's d 1.10-1.71), and a majority (68.4%; 26/38) reported improvements in the interview. The findings suggest that the long-term effects seen in previous live treatment CBT trials can occur in Internet-delivered treatment as well.     

Safety in Numbers: Why the Mere Physical Presence of Others Affects Risk‐taking Behaviors

As social mammals, being in a group signals a state of relative security. Risk‐taking behavior in other social mammals formed the basis for our prediction that the mere physical presence of others, absent any social interaction, would create a psychological state of security that, in turn, would promote greater risk‐taking behavior. We investigated whether, why, and when the mere physical presence of others affects risk‐taking behaviors in three contexts: acceptance of greater financial volatility, attitudes toward risky gambles, and actual gambling behaviors. Results indicate that people in the mere physical presence of others make riskier decisions than people making identical decisions alone, and that feelings of security were the psychological mechanism behind this effect. Our results also suggest that the effect is contingent on whether people are surrounded by others who belong to the same social group. A meta‐analysis across all studies presented in this research reveals a highly reliable mere‐presence effect. Together, these results demonstrate that the mere physical presence of others can have a potent impact on risk‐taking behaviors. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Theory of Unconscious Thought

ABSTRACT— We present a theory about human thought named the unconscious-thought theory (UTT). The theory is applicable to decision making, impression formation, attitude formation and change, problem solving, and creativity. It distinguishes between two modes of thought: unconscious and conscious. Unconscious thought and conscious thought have different characteristics, and these different characteristics make each mode preferable under different circumstances. For instance, contrary to popular belief, decisions about simple issues can be better tackled by conscious thought, whereas decisions about complex matters can be better approached with unconscious thought. The relations between the theory and decision strategies, and between the theory and intuition, are discussed. We end by discussing caveats and future directions.     

The Evaluative Lexicon 2.0: The measurement of emotionality,extremity, and valence in language

The rapid expansion of the Internet and the availability of vast repositories of natural text provide researchers with the immense opportunity to study human reactions, opinions, and behavior on a massive scale. To help researchers take advantage of this new frontier, the present work introduces and validates the Evaluative Lexicon 2.0 (EL 2.0)—a quantitative linguistic tool that specializes in the measurement of the emotionality of individuals’ evaluations in text. Specifically, the EL 2.0 utilizes natural language to measure the emotionality, extremity, and valence of evaluative reactions and attitudes. The present article describes how we used a combination of 9 million real-world online reviews and over 1,500 participant judges to construct the EL 2.0 and an additional 5.7 million reviews to validate it. To assess its unique value, the EL 2.0 is compared with two other prominent text analysis tools—LIWC and Warriner et al.’s (Behavior Research Methods, 45, 1191–1207, 2013) wordlist. The EL 2.0 is comparatively distinct in its ability to measure emotionality and explains a significantly greater proportion of the variance in individuals’ evaluations. The EL 2.0 can be used with any data that involve speech or writing and provides researchers with the opportunity to capture evaluative reactions both in the laboratory and “in the wild.” The EL 2.0 wordlist and normative emotionality, extremity, and valence ratings are freely available from www.evaluativelexicon.com.     

The best of both worlds: Integrating conscious and unconscious thought best solves complex decisions

Two studies address the debate over whether conscious or unconscious mental processes best handle complex decisions. According to Unconscious Thought Theory (Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006) both modes of thinking have particular advantages: conscious thought can follow strict rules, whereas unconscious thought is better suited for integrating numerous decision attributes. Because most complex decisions require both adherence to precise rules and the aggregation of information, we hypothesized that complex decisions can best be made by engaging in periods of both conscious and unconscious thought. In both studies we found that the sequential integration of conscious and unconscious thought solved complex choices better than conscious or unconscious thought alone. In Study 2 we examined whether the sequential order of the integration condition matters. In line with our prediction, we found that integration worked best when unconscious thought followed conscious thought.     

Ethics and Imagination

Cognitive semantics has made important empirical findings about human conceptualization. In this paper some findings concerning moral concepts are analyzed and their implications for medical ethics discussed. The key idea is that morality has to do with metaphors and imagination rather than with well-defined concepts and deduction. It is argued that normative medical ethics to be psychologically realistic should take these findings seriously. This means that an imaginative casuistry is to be preferred compared to principlism and to other forms of casuistry. Furthermore, the metaphorical character of central principles in medical ethics such as autonomy, utility, justice, and integrity is indicated. Such principles are interpreted as rules of thumb summarizing the collective wisdom concerning prototype cases.