Group members are more likely to punish criticism of the ingroup when it is provided by outgroup members than by fellow ingroup members. Although this effect could reflect a response to threats to ...social identity, there may be a general conversational norm proscribing intergroup criticism of any kind. In this case, uninvolved bystanders should also punish individuals who criticize other groups. Past studies of these effects have largely relied on self‐reports, making it unclear which theoretical account best explains punishment behaviour. Additionally, the motives underlying punishment of intergroup criticism have not been systematically investigated. Punishment could be intended to inform the commenter that such criticism is inappropriate (i.e., a consequentialist motive) or simply enact revenge (i.e., a retributionist motive). We conducted a registered experiment (N > 800) to examine whether (1) uninvolved bystanders punish intergroup criticism as much as intergroup criticism of their own group, and (2) punishment of intergroup criticism is motivated by consequentialist or retributionist motives. Results revealed more negative reactions to and greater punishment of intergroup criticism compared to intragroup criticism. These effects were actually stronger when the participant was a bystander compared with a member of the targeted group. This finding strongly supports the existence of a conversational norm proscribing intergroup criticism. Protection of social identity resulted in more negative reactions to and punishment of any criticism targeting the ingroup, independent of the source. Finally, punishment extended to situations in which the commenter did not learn of the punishment, consistent with a retributionist motive.
Communication of criticism between groups is important to productive societal discourse, but may serve to inflame conflict. The defensive rejection of intergroup, relative to intragroup, criticism ...(intergroup sensitivity effect ISE) may contribute to such divides. The ISE has been observed in self‐report measures, but such measures are weak and biased predictors of actual (divisive) behavior. We review recent research demonstrating that the ISE does have costly behavioral consequences. We next consider the debate concerning whether the ISE reflects defense of a valued social identity or enforcement of a conversational norm. We therefore review recent evidence for an ISE among individuals lacking identification with the target of the criticism. Third, we examine how the ISE may affect a variety of behaviors relevant to societal divisions, including political reconciliation, environmental sustainability, and vaccination. Lastly, we outline future research that can clarify the underlying mechanisms of the ISE and promote conciliatory intergroup behavior.
I Want to Be Creative Hirt, Edward R; Devers, Erin E; McCrea, Sean M
Journal of personality and social psychology,
02/2008, Letnik:
94, Številka:
2
Journal Article
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Three studies explored the role of hedonic contingency theory as an explanation for the link between positive mood and cognitive flexibility. Study 1 examined the determinants of activity choice for ...participants in happy, sad, or neutral moods. Consistent with hedonic contingency theory, happy participants weighted potential for creativity as well as the pleasantness of the task more heavily in their preference ratings. In Study 2, participants were given either a neutral or mood-threatening item generation task to perform. Results illustrated that happy participants exhibited greater cognitive flexibility in all cases; when confronted with a potentially mood-threatening task, happy participants were able to creatively transform the task so as to maintain positive mood and interest. Finally, Study 3 manipulated participants' beliefs that moods could or could not be altered. Results replicated the standard positive mood-increased cognitive flexibility effect in the nonmood-freezing condition, but no effects of mood on creativity were found in the mood-freezing condition. These studies indicate that the hedonic contingency theory may be an important contributing mechanism behind the positive mood-cognitive flexibility link.
Previous research has established that the appearance of criminal suspects and defendants can affect subsequent legal decisions. Specifically, researchers have proposed that (1) masculine suspects ...are believed to commit more stereotypically male crimes (e.g., burglary), (2) masculine suspects are believed to commit more violent crimes (e.g., assault), and (3) masculinity is a general cue for committing crime. The current study sought to test these competing hypotheses regarding masculine appearance and perceived criminality. Across three studies, participants read a brief crime scenario and were asked to select out of a lineup the suspect they believed had committed the crime. Suspect masculinity and type of crime were manipulated to determine whether the degree of masculinity influenced whether participants believed they had committed the crime. Results showed that participants consistently associated masculinity with committing violent crime and showed some evidence for the general criminality hypothesis on secondary measures. These findings have important implications regarding law enforcement, eyewitness and juror bias, and legal decisions.
Reducing meat consumption can make immediate contributions to fighting the climate crisis. A growing minority adheres to meat-free diets and could convince others to follow suit. We argue, however, ...that recipients’ social identification as meat eaters may impede the effectiveness of such calls (i.e., an intergroup sensitivity effect based on dietary groups). Indeed, meat eaters in our experiment (N = 260) were more likely to reject calls for dietary change from a vegan than from a fellow meat eater. This effect was also evidenced in evaluations of and engagement with an initiative to promote a vegan diet (“Veganuary”), providing some indication for behavioral impact. In contrast, our societal dietary norm manipulation had no consistent effects on observed outcomes. Exploratory moderation analyses show a limited impact of participants’ social identification as meat eaters but highlight the role of peoples’ general willingness to engage in environmentally friendly behavior. We discuss theoretical and practical implications, including how our results challenge existing approaches to promoting a meat-reduced diet.
Many water quality metrics cannot be measured in situ and require collection of a physical sample for laboratory analysis. This includes microbiological samples for detection of fecal coliform ...bacteria in marine and freshwater systems which are a critical component of food safety programs for human consumption of bivalve shellfish worldwide. Water sample collection programs are typically vessel-based which can be time and resource intensive. In Canada, the Canadian Shellfish Sanitation Program aims to avoid consumption of contaminated molluscan bivalves by monitoring fecal coliform bacteria through vessel-based water sample collection. Uncrewed aerial vehicles or drones are becoming more commonly used for water sample collection given their relatively low cost but are rarely used to support microbiological analyses. A prerequisite for the acceptance of a new collection method for a regulatory program is to determine if the method of sample collection affects results. To assess this potential, we designed, developed, and tested a sampling device attached to the underside of a drone to collect water samples for bacteriological analysis. Drone and vessel-based samples were collected in the same location, at the same 20-cm depth, within a minute apart, at ten different geographic locations in coastal Nova Scotia waters to compare fecal coliform counts. Bacterial count estimates obtained from drone-collected samples were not significantly different than estimates obtained from vessel-collected samples (
p
< 0.5). Results from this study suggest novel water sampling techniques using drones could supplement or replace traditional vessel-based sampling methods.
Self-handicapping is a defensive response to self-doubt about one’s abilities to perform well on an upcoming task. It involves the creation via behavior, or claiming, of obstacles prior to the ...performance in order to excuse potential failure. Although past research has focused on individual-level threats to identity, self-doubt could also result from being a member of a stigmatized group. As a result, groups that experience stigmatization may report a heightened tendency to self-handicap. We specifically examined whether subjectively lower socioeconomic status (SES) associates with reports of engaging in self-handicapping behavior. Across four samples of college students, we observed consistent associations between subjective SES (but not objective SES) and self-reported tendency to behaviorally self-handicap. Controlling for aspects of susceptibility to stereotype threat (namely, disidentification with college and doubts about academic ability) statistically eliminated this association. The findings are consistent with a process whereby low subjective SES fosters self-doubt and domain disidentification, increasing the appeal of defensive behaviors like self-handicapping.
Although demographic diversity has been of paramount concern to researchers and practitioners in public management, studies exploring managerial strategies to capitalize on and respond to the needs ...of diverse client populations are scarce. This article examines strategies for managing diversity as a way to buffer environmental challenges in service delivery and performance resulting from heterogeneous client demands. Findings suggest that administrators prioritize diversity efforts when faced with higher levels of regulatory violations (a performance measure). A higher percentage of black residents is associated with lower service quality. However, the effect of managerial strategies for diversity on performance is conditioned by the racial composition of the clients: as the percentage of black nursing home residents increases, diversity management efforts are associated with a lower number of regulatory violations. Similarly, at higher levels of racial heterogeneity, diversity management efforts are associated with fewer regulatory violations.
When pursuing goals, consumers often face setbacks that force them to reevaluate their goals. Yet, current goal theory offers limited explanations for how people respond to recurring challenges and ...disengage from their goals. Through five experiments investigating three primary theoretical aims, this research extends the field's understanding of action crisis, a possible goal pursuit stage marked by internal conflict over whether or not to continue, and investigates it in consumption contexts such as patient–physician relationships, weight loss diets, and environmentally friendly purchasing. Experiments 1A–1C show that consumer action crisis encourages more disengagement‐related and less continuation‐supportive cost–benefit thinking than nonproblematic action phase. Experiment 2 replicates this cognitive shift, and connects action crisis to diminished goal‐related evaluations and weakened commitment. Experiment 3 further clarifies action crisis’ influence on consumer goal pursuit by revealing decreased cognitive and behavioral engagement that does not involve a shift in construal level when compared to action phase consumers. Extending understanding of action crisis as a possible mindset and action phase, these five experiments advance goal disengagement theory by connecting changes in cognition, motivation, and behavior to action crisis.
Recent studies have suggested that some variants of bipolar disorder (BD) may be due to hyperconnectivity between orbitofrontal (OFC) and temporal pole (TP) structures in the dominant hemisphere. ...Some initial MRI studies noticed that there were corpus callosum abnormalities within specific regional areas and it was hypothesized that developmentally this could result in functional or effective connectivity changes within the orbitofrontal-basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits. Recent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) white matter fiber tractography studies may well be superior to region of interest (ROI) DTI in understanding BD. A "ventral semantic stream" has been discovered connecting the TP and OFC through the uncinate and inferior longitudinal fasciculi and the elusive TP is known to be involved in theory of mind and complex narrative understanding tasks. The OFC is involved in abstract valuation in goal and sub-goal structures and the TP may be critical in binding semantic memory with person-emotion linkages associated with narrative. BD patients have relative attenuation of performance on visuoconstructional praxis consistent with an atypical localization of cognitive functions. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that some BD alleles are being selected for which could explain the enhanced creativity in higher-ability probands. Associations between ROI's that are not normally connected could explain the higher incidence of artistic aptitude, writing ability, and scientific achievements among some mood disorder subjects.
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