RESPONSIBLE AGENCY: A HUMAN DISTINCTIVE?

While agent responsibility appears to be one of the clearest examples of a human distinctive, practices of holding responsible are bound up with social expectations and emotional reactions, many of which are shared with other social animals. This essay attends to the ways in which what Peter Strawson first identified as the reactive emotions, including notably anger, resentment, and indignation, are key to making sense of both the shared and distinctive features of responsible human agency. Like human beings, other social animals express a range of reactive emotions in response to others’ conformity with or violation of implicit social expectations and norms; human beings sometimes reflect on these reactive attitudes and their justifiability, asking whether and when it is appropriate to hold others accountable, blame, and/or punish them. We should recognize that we often praise and blame others for attitudes and desires which they have not chosen and over which they have no direct control, and that this is appropriate.     

Social influence matters: We follow pandemic guidelines most when our close circle does

Why do we adopt new rules, such as social distancing? Although human sciences research stresses the key role of social influence in behaviour change, most COVID-19 campaigns emphasize the disease’s medical threat. In a global data set (n = 6,675), we investigated how social influences predict people’s adherence to distancing rules during the pandemic. Bayesian regression analyses controlling for stringency of local measures showed that people distanced most when they thought their close social circle did. Such social influence mattered more than people thinking distancing was the right thing to do. People’s adherence also aligned with their fellow citizens, but only if they felt deeply bonded with their country. Self-vulnerability to the disease predicted distancing more for people with larger social circles. Collective efficacy and collectivism also significantly predicted distancing. To achieve behavioural change during crises, policymakers must emphasize shared values and harness the social influence of close friends and family.     

规范错觉对外出就餐中食物浪费的影响：心理机制与应对策略

规范错觉是指个体的规范感知与实际存在于群体中的社会规范之间存在差异, 规范错觉影响了社会生活的方方面面。对957份问卷调查的分析显示, 人们普遍高估了他人的食物浪费(行为错觉)以及对浪费的赞同程度(态度错觉), 而这两种错觉又加剧了人们自身的浪费行为。中介效应检验显示, 印象管理中的社交性维度部分中介了两种错觉与浪费行为间的关系。两个随机对照实验进一步检验了描述性(命令性)规范信息对行为(态度)错觉的影响, 结果发现, 描述性规范信息降低了行为错觉, 并通过社交性减少了浪费行为; 而命令性规范信息并不改变态度错觉本身, 但通过降低态度错觉对浪费的影响而减少了浪费行为。上述结果意味着两种规范信息尽管高度相似, 但其作用机制却可能不同, 同时这一发现也为政策制定者提出了两种干预途径。     

公平规范执行中内群体偏爱的心理发展机制

如何揭示群体规范和公平价值在个体心理发展中的作用机理, 提升儿童-青少年在群际互动当中的公平感知与规范执行, 是教育心理领域的关键问题。公平规范执行中内群体偏爱现象是近年来的研究热点之一, 然而先前研究存在以下不足：1)大多采用问卷法, 易受社会赞许性的影响, 存在言行不一致的情况; 2)大多采用情景实验, 聚焦社会互动的最终行为输出端, 无法实时有效地把握社会决策的动态进程; 3)脑成像研究仍以fMRI技术为主, 侧重于评估认知加工潜在的脑区激活模式及各脑区间的功能连接, 缺乏对群际公平规范执行中大脑激活动态模式的精确把握。针对这些不足, 本项目从资产分配情景出发, 以儿童和青少年为研究对象, 联合运用认知、行为、眼动和电生理等多层次测评手段, 对公平规范执行中内群体偏爱的发生过程进行认知解析, 探讨认知控制和心智化在其间的关键作用机制及其心理发展轨迹。研究结果将服务于中小学管理中的德育教育, 引导与培养学生的公正感与行为。     

The use of strategies and messages to alter aggressive interactions

Male and female college students were instigated to aggression by a confederate's shocks during a preliminary task. The confederate informed half of the treatment subjects of the response strategy which he intended to adopt. The other half received an irrelevant message. All subjects then competed against the confederate, who employed one of the following five response consequence strategies: a) set a maximum shock on all trials; b) set a minimum shock on all trials; c) set shocks identical to the subject's response on the preceding trial; d) set shocks two settings below the subject's response; or e) set shocks two settings above the subject's. The subject's latency to setting a shock, the intensities of the shocks set, the durations of the shock settings, and the subject's reaction times were recorded. When an irrelevant message was delivered, passive responses, well below those of the opponent, resulted in the lowest level of retaliation. In the presence of a relevant message, the match-same strategy emerged as an effective deterrent to aggressive behavior. The results were found to be consistent with predictions derived from an application of the norm of reciprocity and research demonstrating the enhancing effects achieved through the communication of existing contingencies.     

La déférence : une norme sociale complémentaire de l’internalité en contexte de promotion professionnelle ?

Regarding evaluation, numerous researches highlighted the social valuation of the internality. From the end of 1990s, the diversification of the studied situations came to put in perspective the impact of this norm, while revealing the existence of others social norms. The present research was designed to investigate the phenomenon of social valuation of the deference in situation of annual performance review. The social valuation of the power of others was examined by two studies: one led from paradigm of autopresentation with employees and other one, conducted under legislator paradigm with Human Resources specialists (students in their final year of Institutes Business Administration). If the results indicate, in a classic way, important normative effects of the internality, the valuation of the deferential explanations is globally so obvious. These results question about the contextual expression of a norm of deference: employees and RH experts give weight to the power of others. The results show a convergent use of the internality and the power of others.     

Buying an electric car: A rational choice or a norm-directed behavior?

The diffusion of electric cars can contribute to more sustainability in the transport sector, but diffusion rates in most countries are still low. We investigated motives for electric car adoption in German households from an environmental psychology perspective. The public debate focuses on rational aspects such as the purchase price or new technological demands (e.g., limited range and a new charging system). Psychological research on energy-related investment decisions in households confirms the relevance of rational motives, but additionally points to the importance of norm-directed motives (moral and social norms). We investigated the relevance of different motives in an online questionnaire with n = 220 members of German households interested in buying a new car. The questionnaire included possible rational and norm-related predictors of electric car adoption. We tested three action models to explain adoption intention: An adjusted technology acceptance model (TAM), an adjusted norm activation model (NAM), and an integrative model with predictors from both models. We analyzed the hypothesized models with path analyses. All models explained a substantial share of variance in adoption intention. The explained share of variance in the NAM was higher than in the TAM and comparably high to the integrative model. The results demonstrate the important role of moral and social motives for households’ investment decisions. Additionally, the technology’s perceived usefulness was an important rational motive. We discuss the context dependency of the results, as household members might have little knowledge about the new technology during the early stages of a technology’s diffusion process. The results strongly suggest broadening political support schemes, such as informational and image campaigns, as a way to more effectively foster electric car diffusion. More comprehensive assessments appear to be necessary in future analyses of electric car adoption as well as energy-related investment decisions.     

赫斯特职业评估系统的修订及地域性常模的初建

该文对美国赫斯特评估系统公司推出的《赫斯特职业评估系统》(1992年版)作了修订。修订工作自1997始,2000年结束。修订后的10项纸笔测验和8项操作测验中,有2项开发出了计算机测试软件并制作了光盘。标准化样组由江苏省13个地级市随机抽样的1320名被试组成。修订的测验结构效度较好,信度较高。     

学龄儿童的规范理解与利他惩罚的关系：从描述性到指令性倾向

研究通过有第三方的信任博弈考察6～11岁中国儿童的规范理解与利他惩罚之间的关系。结果发现：（1）6～11岁儿童对描述性规范的理解如果达到成人理解的标准,就更有可能做出利他惩罚;（2）不同规范理解与利他惩罚的关系受到年龄的调节作用,即在6～8岁儿童中,描述性规范理解可预测利他惩罚;而在9～11岁儿童中,指令性规范理解可预测利他惩罚。这提示学龄儿童的规范理解与利他惩罚之间关系的形成过程可能存在从描述性向指令性的转变倾向,与社会规范的习得过程和形成过程或有共通之处。