The complex relationship between creativity and consumer ethics depending on endemic corruption in emerging and developed countries

Creativity and ethics are two topics that are extremely important to business managers and researchers. However, only limited research has examined their relationship and has shown contradictory results: the effect of creativity on unethical behavior proves to be sometimes positive, sometimes negative. In this vein, building on social cognitive theory, we examine whether this relationship depends on a macroeconomic factor – endemic corruption – as a boundary condition. We further consider the mechanism through which creativity can lead to unethical behavior and focus on the role of subjective well-being. We collect data from 1463 individuals in two high-corruption and emerging countries, Brazil and China, and two low-corruption and developed countries, France and the United States. Based on a multi-level (or hierarchical) analysis, our results show that, in high-corruption countries, creativity is negatively related to unethical behaviors. Conversely, in low-corruption countries, the relationship is positive and mediated by subjective well-being.     

Why are you passionately in love? Attachment styles as determinants of romantic passion and conflict resolution strategies

Motivation and Emotion - Three studies explored the role of attachment styles as determinants of romantic passion and investigated how the interplay between these variables contributes to conflict...     

Deletion of the mu opioid receptor results in impaired acquisition of Pavlovian context fear

The mu opioid receptor may constitute a critical component of a negative feedback system that regulates Pavlovian fear conditioning. We investigated context fear conditioning acquisition and expression in mu opioid receptor knockout mice (on an inbred, C57 genetic background). We discovered that the mu receptor knockout results in an unexpected and significant deficit in context fear acquisition. Mice lacking the mu receptor showed normal fear acquisition when subjected to a 1-day fear conditioning protocol but evinced deficient fear learning when acquisition was conducted across 5 days. The knockout mice showed normal reactivity to footshock in both fear conditioning protocols. Finally, we confirmed the effectiveness of the receptor deletion in the C57 strain by subjecting the mice to a test of morphine analgesia in the hot-plate assay. As has been seen with mixed genetic background, the receptor deletion resulted in a complete lack of analgesic response to 10 mg/kg morphine. Surprisingly, mice with a single copy of the mu receptor gene (heterozygous knockouts) showed intact sensitivity to morphine but a significant deficit in Pavlovian fear conditioning. The results indicate that deletion of the mu receptor gene impairs fear conditioning and that the conditioning and analgesia effects of heterozygous deletion are dissociable. The conditioning deficit seen in this line of mice may be related to impairment in hippocampus function.     

Psychosocial outcomes of urban African American adolescents born to teenage mothers

This is a study of psychosocial outcomes of adolescents born to teenage mothers. Adolescents' problem behaviors, psychological well-being, social support, school variables, and sexual behaviors are compared across three groups—those born to mothers 17 or younger, mothers 18–19 years old, and mothers 20 or older. Analyses from two samples of African American adolescents from Maryland (n = 205) and Michigan (n = 570) are reported. The results from both samples indicate that mother's age at birth is unrelated to adolescents' psychosocial outcomes. These two studies add to the limited number of analyses that examine adolescent outcomes for children of teen mothers. The results suggest that efforts to understand social structural determinants of healthy and problematic adolescent development may be more informative than examining the effects of mother's age. They also suggest that teen pregnancy prevention programs may be more effective if they are part of a larger prevention strategy that incorporates social structural change efforts and not only a focus on individual level change.     

Early oral language and later reading development in Spanish-speaking English language learners: Evidence from a nine-year longitudinal study

Using nationally-representative, longitudinal data on a cohort of Spanish-speaking English language learners in the U.S., this study investigated the extent to which early oral language proficiency in Spanish and English predicts later levels and rates of growth in English reading. Latent growth models indicated that both Spanish and English proficiency in kindergarten predicted levels of English reading in third through eighth grade, but that only English proficiency was uniquely predictive. English productive vocabulary was found to be a better predictor of later English reading than more complex measures, i.e., listening comprehension and story retell, contrary to findings for native English speakers. Oral language did not predict later growth rates. Findings suggest the need for educational efforts to develop oral language during early childhood for this underserved population. Findings further suggest that such early efforts may be necessary, but insufficient to accelerate ELLs' reading trajectories as they move into adolescence.     

Eye contact elicits bodily self-awareness in human adults

Eye contact is a typical human behaviour known to impact concurrent or subsequent cognitive processing. In particular, it has been suggested that eye contact induces self-awareness, though this has never been formally proven. Here, we show that the perception of a face with a direct gaze (that establishes eye contact), as compared to either a face with averted gaze or a mere fixation cross, led adult participants to rate more accurately the intensity of their physiological reactions induced by emotional pictures. Our data support the view that bodily self-awareness becomes more acute when one is subjected to another’s gaze. Importantly, this effect was not related to a particular arousal state induced by eye contact perception. Rejecting the arousal hypothesis, we suggest that eye contact elicits a self-awareness process by enhancing self-focused attention in humans. We further discuss the implications of this proposal.