Towards a unified theory of reciprocity

In a unified theory of human reciprocity, the strong and weak forms are similar because neither is biologically altruistic and both require normative motivation to support cooperation. However, strong reciprocity is necessary to support cooperation in public goods games. It involves inflicting costs on defectors; and though the costs for punishers are recouped, recouping costs requires complex institutions that would not have emerged if weak reciprocity had been enough.     

The emotional development of a woman: A form of social perversion

Abstract

This paper presents a point of view about how Mexican women who have achieved economical and professional freedom see their process of liberation through several unconscious social, cultural, and family filters. Would it be a form of social perversion not to analyse the delay in their emotional maturity related to cultural patterns, unresolved psychic conflicts, and the social unconscious?

Gila Jiménez Rosas. Die emotionale Entwicklung von Frauen: Eine Form von sozialer Perversion.

Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit dem Selbstverständnis mexikanischer Frauen, die ökonomische und soziale Befreiung verwirklicht haben. Diese Frauen sehen aber ihren Befreiungsprozess nicht klar, sondern verschleiert durch verschiedene unbewusste soziale, kulturelle und familiäre Gegebenheiten. Es scheint eine Art sozialer Perversion in ihren verspäteten emotionalen Reifeprozessen vorzuliegen, dies auf Grund von kulturellen Mustern und ungelösten unbewussten Konflikten.

Gila Jiménez Rosas. El desarrollo emocional de la mujer: Una forma de perversión social.

Este trabajo presenta un punto de vista acerca de cómo la mujer mexicana, que consigue libertad económica y profesional, ve su proceso de liberación a través de varios filtros sociales,culturales y familiares. Sería una forma de perversión el no analizar el retraso en su madurez emocional relacionada a patrones culturales, conflictos psíquicos no resueltos y al inconsciente social?     

Perceiving low self‐esteem in close others impedes capitalization and undermines the relationship

Disclosing positive experiences to others (i.e., “capitalization”) is associated with personal and interpersonal benefits (Gable & Reis, 2010). Unfortunately, people who perceive low self‐esteem (LSE) in close others are reluctant to capitalize, holding back from those they expect will be unsupportive (MacGregor & Holmes, 2011). In Study 1, we extend previous findings by demonstrating the importance of the type of experience disclosed; participants capitalized less positively with an (ostensibly) LSE friend when disclosing an accomplishment, not a positive experience attributed to happenstance. In Study 2, we demonstrate the external validity of the phenomenon by examining real discussions between romantic partners. Participants capitalized less positively with their LSE partner, behavior associated with lower relationship satisfaction 6 weeks later (particularly for women).     

Terrorist threat,dehumanization, and right‐wing authoritarianism as predictors of discrimination

This study analyzed the relationship between terrorist threat and discrimination, operationalized by support for retributive justice against Islamic groups suspect of terrorist crimes. Two experimental studies were performed. Study 1 (N = 215) showed that the terrorist threat against the ingroup raises the support for the retributive procedures through the dehumanization of the outgroup. Study 2 (N = 304) analyzed how the mediating role of dehumanization in the relationship between terrorist threat and support for retributive justice is moderated by right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA). In addition, the study aimed to verify if the dehumanization of outgroup and RWA could explain the relationship between terrorist threat and discrimination of Muslim immigrants. The results indicated that adherence to RWA favors dehumanization of the outgroup and, consecutively, the discrimination, operationalized as support for the use of retributive justice. The adherence to RWA has been identified as the mechanism that explains the discrimination against Muslim immigrants.     

Effects of Social Norms Information and Self-Affirmation on Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Intentions and Behaviors

The separate and combined efficacy of a social norms and a self-affirmation intervention to motivate decreased sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption was examined in 2 experiments. College students were randomly assigned to receive information about SSB consumption risks, norms, both, or neither. In addition, participants performed either a self-affirmation or control task. Self-affirmation only weakly affected SSB consumption intentions and behaviors. However, participants in Experiment 2 who received risks information, norms information, or both reported greater SSB reduction intentions than did those who received no information. Two weeks later, those who received both types of information reported more frequent behavior change preparations, and it appears this effect may have been partially mediated by the changes in intentions to reduce SSB consumption.     

ADHD children outperform normal children in an artificial grammar implicit learning task: ERP and RT evidence

This study focuses on Implicit learning (IL) in children. One of the main debates in this field concerns the occurrence of IL indicators in experimental settings and its manifestation in different populations. In this research, we are looking for evidence of the occurrence of IL in normal children and in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), based on the relationship between accuracy, reaction time and event-related potentials (ERPs). Our results show differences between the analyzed groups with respect to markers for electrophysiological activity and reaction time, but not for accuracy. In consequence, we suggest that research in IL should explore different indicators and their relationship with the cognitive processing levels involved. In addition, IL might involve different forms of information processing in normal children and children with ADHD. We discuss the possible impact of these findings for future research.     

Rôle du contexte dans l'extinction du jugement causal : implications pour la thérapie comportementale

The article describes an experimental series on causal judgment showing that the extinction can recover: 1) where the extinction has not been learned; 2) with time following extinction; 3) during a simple exposition to the stimulus not presented during extinction. Bouton's theory (1993, 1994) is referred to account for these three conditions about the recovery of the extinguished response. The aim is to offer an experimental and theoretical framework for the study of relapse following a behavioural therapy based upon extinction.     

Differences in startle reactivity during the perception of angry and fearful faces

Emotion researchers often categorize angry and fearful face stimuli as "negative" or "threatening". Perception of fear and anger, however, appears to be mediated by dissociable neural circuitries and often elicit distinguishable behavioral responses. The authors sought to elucidate whether viewing anger and fear expressions produce dissociable psychophysiological responses (i.e., the startle reflex). The results of two experiments using different facial stimulus sets (representing anger, fear, neutral, and happy) indicated that viewing anger was associated with a significantly heightened startle response (p < .05) relative to viewing fear, happy, and neutral. This finding suggests that while anger and fear faces convey messages of "threat", their priming effect on startle circuitry differs. Thus, angry expressions, representing viewer-directed threat with an unambiguous source (i.e., the expresser), may more effectively induce a motivational propensity to withdraw or escape. The source of threat is comparatively less clear for fearful faces. The differential effects of these two facial threat signals on the defensive motivational system adds to growing literature highlighting the importance of distinguishing between emotional stimuli of similar valence, along lines of meaning and functional impact.     

Acquisition of a conditioned taste aversion becomes context dependent when it is learned after extinction

A conditioned taste aversion experiment tested context-switch effects on retrieval of conditioned stimulus (CS)-unconditioned stimulus (US) acquisition performance in rats. A context switch impaired performance when the target flavour was trained in a context where a different flavour underwent extinction. Conditioned taste aversion in the absence of previous extinction of the alternate flavour was not context dependent. It is suggested that the ambiguity in the meaning of the extinguished cue leads animals to pay attention to the context, so that the information learned in that context becomes context dependent.