Controlling the uncontrollable: effects of stress on illusory perceptions of controllability.

Individuals' failure to exercise actual control over an event might be compensated for by trying to bolster a generalized, subjective sense of control. Control might then be sought by undertaking acts the effect of which on the environment is illusory. This observation led to the hypothesis that stress, which undermines persons' sense of control, would engender illusory perceptions of controllability. The hypothesis was tested in 3 experiments that required Ss to choose between 2 gambling forms. Although the 2 forms were essentially identical, 1 was designed to instill an illusion of control. The results showed that highly stressed Ss, compared with those who experienced low stress, preferred gambling forms that heightened perceptions of controllability.     

A Note on Tax Evasion as a Function of the Quality of Information about the Magnitude and Credibility of Threatened Fines: Some Preliminary Research

In a pame-simulation context, tax evasion behavior of 13 subjects was observed. The probability that tax evasion will be detected and fined appears to be a more effective deterrent than the size of such fines, although both the magnitude of finm and their probability affect tax evasion. Vague information about the probability that fines will be imposed enhances the deterrent power of low probability audits and small fines.     

The effect of stress on the suppression of erroneous competing responses

Abstract

Evidence exists that the intention to perform certain cognitive tasks activates, unintentionally, competing responses and computations that intrude on the performance of the intended tasks. For the intended task to be performed effectively, such intrusions must be controlled. Two experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis that stress heightens the difficulty of exercising effective control over erroneous competing responses, a possible explanation of decrements in the performance of cognitive tasks under stress. Participants performed four tasks, which contained features that could potentially prime or activate erroneous responses. The results demonstrated that the interference of these features with performance was more pronounced among stressed than among less-stressed participants. The need for a more comprehensive theory of the effects of stress on information processing is discussed.     

Wittgenstein and the Aesthetic Robot's Handicap

Ask most any cognitive scientist working today if a digital computational system could develop aesthetic sensibility and you will likely receive the optimistic reply that this remains an open empirical question. However, I attempt to show, while drawing upon the later Wittgenstein, that the correct answer is in fact available. And it is a negative a priori. It would seem, for example, that recent computational successes in textual attribution, most notably those of Donald Foster (famed finder of Ted Kazinski a.k.a. “the Unibomber”) speak favorably of the digital model's capacity to overcome the “aspect blindness” handicap in this domain. I argue however that such results are only achievable when rigid input‐to‐output parameters are given, and that this element is precisely what is absent in standard examples of aesthetic judgment. I thus conclude that while the connectionist model anticipated by Turing may provide the best approach for the AI project, its capacity for meeting its own sufficiency requirements is necessarily crippled by its inability to share in what can be generally referred to as the collective engagements of human solidarity.     

On luck and chance: Need for control as a mediator of the attribution of events to luck

Chance and luck are regarded as two distinct causal agents that effect different results. Whereas chance is deemed utterly uncontrollable, luck elicits, at the very least, an illusion of control. Hence, need for control might be a decisive factor in determining whether an event is attributed to chance or to luck. More specifically, the greater is a person's need for control, the stronger would be that person's tendency to attribute events to luck. This proposition, along with its implications concerning effects of luck attributions on decision making, were tested in three experiments. The results showed that situational circumstances and personality dispositions that heighten individuals' need for control strengthen their tendency to attribute events and outcomes to luck. The results showed, further, that such attributions can affect the process of decision making.     

Some Determinants of the Violation of Rules1

The pattern of a simulated legislator-individual interaction as well as properties inherent in law-enforcement procedures were manipulated to study their effects on the degree of individuals' adherence to laws. The degree of correspondence between the outcomes accruing to a legislator and those attained by an individual, the “fairness” of surveillance methods used by the legislator, and the severity with which he penalized violations of a law were manipulated in a 2³ factorial design. The main findings show that, under circumstances of outcome correspondence, subjects attempted to increase their outcomes without violating the law, as opposed to subjects in noncorrespondent conditions who showed no such attempt. Furthermore, evidence was found to the effect that subjects in noncorrespondent interactions with the legislator actively attempted to hurt the latter by violating his laws. The results also show the existence of a positive relationship between surveillance “unfairness” and the frequency of law violation. This relationship is qualified, however, by a statistical interaction which shows that the differential effects attributable to “fairness” of surveillance are stronger in noncorrespondent than in correspondent conditions. The severity of penalty manipulation yielded a main effect on the frequency of violations–the milder the penalties the more frequent the violations. The pattern of means suggests that the effect of severity of penalties on the frequency of violations is less pronounced in the correspondent than in the noncorrespondent conditions. This interaction, however, failed to reach a conventional level of statistical significance.     

Social influence via threats

Influence via threats was investigated in correspondent relationships (characterized by commonality of interest) and in noncorrespondent relationships (characterized by conflict of interest). In addition, the degree of informational power attributed by the influencee to the influencer and to himself, and the severity of threats used by the influencer were manipulated. The results point to the existence of two qualitatively different processes of influence. In correspondent relationships, threats are viewed as conveying the influencer's belief about the choice of action that would benefit both parties to the relationship. Further, the more severe the threat, the more confident the influencer would appear to be of his choice of action. As a result, the influencee's willingness to rely on the influencer's judgment, as conveyed by the threat, becomes an important aspect of the influence process. Such willingness is affected by the influencee's attribution of informational power to the influencer and to himself. In noncorrespondent relationships, on the other hand, suspicion and mutual distrust preclude reliance on threats as sources of information. Under such circumstances, social influence via threats becomes a simple process of coercion.     

The effect of psychological stress and tolerance of ambiguity on stereotypic attributions

Abstract Recent research on the relationship between cognition and affect suggests the prediction that psychological stress encourages stereotyping. Yet the empirical evidence regarding this proposition is inconclusive. This study examined the effect of stress on the perception of illusory correlations, which comprise a particular manifestation of stereotypic attributions, and the moderating role of tolerance of ambiguity. It was predicted, specifically, that the effect of stress on stereotyping will be more pronounced in persons who have a low tolerance of ambiguity than in persons tolerating ambiguity, who generally experience less stress. An Illusory Correlation Inventory and a Tolerance of Ambiguity scale were administered to a group of 46 Airforce cadets, during a particularly stressful phase of flight training, and to a comparable group of 39 cadets, during a relatively relaxed period in the course of training. As expected, stress heightened the tendency to stereotype. In addition, the response of participants whose tolerance of ambiguity is low was more stereotypic than the response of those who tolerate ambiguity. However, the combined effect of the two independent variables was additive rather than interactive. Contrary to prediction, high tolerance of ambiguity did not attenuate the effect of stress on stereotyping.     

Motivational bases in mixed-motive interactions: The effects of comparison levels

The relationship between reward level and the basic motives which underlie strategic choices (competitive and noncompetitive) in a mixed-motive game was examined from two theoretical perspectives. The “regret” interpretation proposed by McClintock and McNeel was compared to an approach based upon Thibout and Kelley's concept of comparison level (CL). Two independent variables, CL and Reward, were manipulated by varying the payoff rates in two playing series of the MDG. Initially, 50 iterations were played for high (4¢ per point) or low ($\text{1}\text{5¢}$ per point) incentive to provide subjects with outcomes upon which to base their CL's. The Reward manipulation was introduced in 150 subsequent trials of the game with subjects playing for 8¢ or 1¢ per point. The results show that the absolute magnitude of reward did not influence the extent of cooperative or competitive behavior. On the other hand, the magnitude of reward relative to CL was significantly associated with the degree of cooperative behavior—supra-CL outcomes yielding a higher frequency of cooperative behavior than infra-CL outcomes.