Consequences of agreement versus disagreement on physical disgust: How do people perceive the cleanliness and morality of someone who expresses inappropriate disgust

We examined how people perceived a person who expressed inappropriate physical disgust—a person who was either under-disgusted by physically disgusting stimuli or over-disgusted by neutral stimuli. Participants formed an impression of a target after receiving information on how s/he rated disgusting (Studies 1, 2) or neutral (Studies 2, 3) pictures, and disgusting or angering scenarios (Study 4). Studies 1, 2 and 4 found that a target person who failed to experience disgust was seen as disgusting, immoral (but only to the extent that s/he was also seen unclean), and not socially desirable. A target who rated neutral stimuli as disgusting was not judged as disgusting but was nevertheless judged as immoral and not socially desirable (Studies 2, 3). Our results show that a target whose judgments of physical disgust deviate from one's own by showing either too much or too little disgust is perceived to be immoral.     

Why Do You Make Us Feel Good? Correlates and Interpersonal Consequences of Affective Presence in Speed‐dating

Recent research indicates that people consistently make others feel a certain way (e.g. happy or stressed). This individual difference has been termed affective presence, but little is known about its correlates or consequences. The present study investigated the following: (i) whether affective presence influences others' romantic interest in a person and (ii) what types of people have positive and negative affective presence. Forty volunteers took part in a speed‐dating event, during which they dated six or seven opposite‐sex partners. A Social Relations Model analysis confirmed that individuals prompted consistent positive emotional reactions in others. Participants were more likely to want to see dates with greater positive affective presence again in the future, and positive affective presence explained the effects of perceived responsiveness on romantic interest. Associations between positive affective presence and trait predictors, including emotion regulation, emotional expressiveness, attachment style, agreeableness and extraversion, were also observed. The findings indicate that what emotionally distinguishes one individual from another lies in part in the emotional consequences of their behaviours on others. © 2013 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology.     

Perceptual Estimates of Motor Skill Proficiency Are Constrained by the Stability of Coordination Patterns

This study demonstrated that motor skill proficiency ratings are constrained by the same order parameter dynamics that constrain action production and action perception processes. Participants produced rhythmic actions simulated by an animated stick figure of the human arm. The primary finding was that participants’ proficiency ratings covaried most with relative phase (φ) variability compared to mean relative phase. In-phase (φ = 0°) was produced with the least variability and received the highest proficiency rating, whereas the patterns φ = ±150° were attempted with the most variability and received the lowest proficiency ratings. A temporal delay in attempting to produce the animated pattern had a large impact on produced relative phase, yet had little impact on the proficiency ratings. Proprioceptive processes provide individuals information on motor skill proficiency. The lead or lag motion of the hand to forearm segment of the animated arm was identified consistently through visual processes and revealed asymmetries in the mapping of visual input to motor output. The results are consistent with concepts from the dynamic pattern theory of coordination and are discussed with regard to relative phase as an informational variable that constraints the perception-action system across many levels.     

Sexual Ethics Training in Seminary: Preparing Students to Manage Feelings of Sexual Attraction

Pastoral Psychology - Sexual boundary violations by clergy have received heightened media attention in recent years with far reaching implications for the long-term well-being of the Church as an...     

图形面积判断任务下信息加工模式和信息呈现方式对吸引效应的影响

研究使用图形面积判断任务取代典型的双属性决策框架, 考察了不同信息加工模式和信息呈现方式对吸引效应的影响。实验1比较了不同信息加工模式对吸引效应的影响, 结果发现, 当被试以直觉的信息加工方式进行面积比较判断时, 吸引效应不显著, 而以分析的信息加工方式判断时吸引效应明显存在, 后者效应强度显著大于前者。实验2通过调整图形排列顺序, 比较了刺激材料呈现方式对吸引效应的影响, 结果表明, 被试以直觉的信息加工方式进行判断时吸引效应依然存在, 但其表现要受信息呈现方式影响, 相对于将目标图形放置于诱引图形和竞争图形之间, 将诱引图形放置于目标图形和竞争图形之间而成为判断背景时, 吸引效应强度更大。研究提出了吸引效应形成的两阶段理论, 认为吸引效应产生的根源同时来自直觉的和分析的两个信息加工阶段, 研究也证实信息呈现方式对被试信息加工方式造成较大影响, 进而影响吸引效应强度。     

Do birds of a feather universally flock together? Cultural variation in the similarity‐attraction effect

Three experiments explored the similarity‐attraction effect (SAE) among North American and Japanese samples. In all studies, North Americans showed a significantly more pronounced SAE than the Japanese. The North Americans consistently revealed a strong SAE whereas the Japanese effect was only significant in the methods with the most power. The cultural differences emerged across different methods, and for the domains of personality, activities, attitudes and demographics. The cultural difference was mediated by self‐esteem, indicating that a motivation for positive self‐views is a mechanism underlying the SAE.     

Positive affect as a moderator of liking effects on trust and attraction

Attitude similarity effects on attraction appear to be mediated sequentially by positive affect, inferred attraction, and trust. That is, the first two supposedly distal mediators influence each other in building trust, a mediator proximal to attraction. However, the correlational nature of data reported heretofore precludes definitive conclusions about sequential dependency between the two distal mediators. In the research reported, therefore, the authors manipulated positive affect in the participants (Time 1) and liking of the partner for them (Time 2), and measured trust before attraction. As predicted, liking effects on trust and attraction were stronger when positive affect in the participants was high than when it was low. Importantly, the interaction effect in trust fully mediated the interaction effect in attraction.     

When “decoy effect” meets gender bias: The role of choice set composition in hiring decisions

A large body of research has found evidence that hiring decisions are frequently subject to strong gender bias and has explored factors that help to predict and prevent such a bias from occurring. In this paper, we explore a novel factor that has received only little attention: the composition of the choice set. Drawing on prior research on the attraction effect of decoys in consumer choice and personnel decisions, we posit that when decision makers need to decide whether to hire a male or a female applicant for a stereotypically male position, the presence of a third applicant whose profile is asymmetrically dominated by one of the two applicants can in many circumstances strongly increase the odds that the male applicant will be selected, but will not be beneficial for the female applicant. We test our hypotheses in five experimental studies with different designs, experimental settings, and participant pools—including managers with professional experience in hiring decisions. Our results provide robust evidence demonstrating the strong effects of choice set composition on the emergence of gender bias. In addition, we found that the presence of asymmetrically dominated applicants makes decision makers more confident in their biased decisions and more likely to implement them immediately without searching for further information. Finally, our results also provide some initial evidence that our results for stereotypically male positions will be reversed when hiring decisions are made for stereotypically female positions where the presence of decoys instead gives an advantage to female over male applicants.