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.     

The components of sexual orientation, religiosity, and heterosexuals' impressions of gay men and lesbians

In 2 studies, the authors explored whether emphasizing the sexual behavior of gay men and lesbians influences heterosexuals' impressions of gay male and lesbian targets. In both studies, participants read short vignettes of heterosexual and gay male or lesbian targets that described their sexual histories using information restricted to only 1 component of sexual orientation (emotion, behaviors, or fantasies). The results of Study 1 showed that participants rated a behavioral gay male target more negatively than they did the emotions and fantasy targets, and this difference was a function of participant religiosity. In Study 2, participants rated the behavioral lesbian target more negatively than they did the emotions and fantasy targets; however, these differential ratings of the lesbian targets were not affected by participant religiosity.