•Prescribed Vicodin is stigmatized less than Non-Prescribed Vicodin and heroin.•Male opioid users are stigmatized more than female opioid users.•People with prescribed Vicodin dependency are not ...viewed as “addicts”.•When the drug was acquired illegally, the user was more likely to be labeled as an “addict”.•Stigmatization of opioid dependence is dependent on the type of opioid, how it was acquired and the sex of the user.
With opioid abuse becoming a nationwide epidemic, it is important to understand what is contributing to societal views of opioid dependence. Difference in stigmatization of drug users may exist between sexes, ages and type of drugs being used. Social perceptions may impact drug use and recovery. To assess which opioid users are stigmatized most, we administered an experimenter-created vignette that experimentally manipulated the type of opioid (Prescribed Vicodin vs. Non-prescribed Vicodin vs. heroin) as well as the sex of the opioid user (Male vs. Female) and the age of the user (23 years-old vs. 53 years-old) to 4300 people on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (a survey hosting website). Participants were told in a vignette that the target person they were reviewing was “addicted”. Results confirmed that the stigmatization of drug use is dependent on a series of items, including type of opioid, as well as the age and sex of the participant. Specifically, prescribed opioids were least stigmatized, while heroin was most stigmatized. Also, there was a significant difference between heroin, non-prescribed Vicodin and prescribed Vicodin use and whether or not participants stigmatized the opioid user as an “addict”. More specifically, participants were more likely to identify heroin and non-prescribed Vicodin users as having an opioid addiction. Lastly, young male opioid users were stigmatized more than any other group. Results are discussed.
Previous research has shown that making complex judgments and decisions entails a mental reconstruction of the task in a way that increases the state of coherence between the emerging conclusion and ...its underlying attributes: The attributes that support the conclusion grow stronger, whereas the attributes that support the losing option weaken. This coherence effect is understood to occur bidirectionally, in that conclusions follow from the decision-maker's evaluation of the attributes, while the evaluations of the attributes shift to cohere with the emerging conclusion. The current studies were designed to extend the coherence effect to encompass cognitions that could be considered "hot," such as valence evaluations, motivation toward outcomes of events, liking and disliking of actors, and emotions toward actors. Study 1 found that evaluations of a complex social relationship were accompanied not only by supportive interpretations of the ambiguous facts, but also by concordant hot cognitions. Studies 2 through 4 included manipulations to demonstrate the spreading of coherence from cold to hot cognitions and in the opposite direction. We observed these effects following a manipulation of the facts (Study 2), a manipulation of participants' emotions toward the actor (Study 3), and a manipulation of participants' motivation toward the outcome of the case (Study 4). These results support the proposition that complex judgments and decisions are performed by coherence-based reasoning: a holistic, connectionist process that maximizes coherence among and between the myriad of factors involved in the tasks and the hot cognitive reactions to them.
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The Adversarial Mindset Simon, Dan; Ahn, Minwoo; Stenstrom, Douglas M. ...
Psychology, public policy, and law,
08/2020, Volume:
26, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Many social outcomes are reached by means of competitions between opposing actors. While the positive effects of competition are beyond dispute, this article contends that competitive situations also ...trigger a particular psychological mindset that can distort contestants' judgment and lead to suboptimal courses of action. The article presents a theoretical framework that consists of a myside bias, by which people adopt a self-serving view of the competition, evaluate themselves favorably, and evaluate their counterpart unfavorably. The framework also proposes the construct of otherside bias, by which people impute to their counterparts distortions that are similar, but opposite, to their own. The combined effect of these biases is to fuel conflict-promoting behavior. Next, the article presents 2 experiments designed to test this framework. Using minimalistic experimental treatments, we find that participants assigned to adversarial roles display the myside and otherside biases. The primary objective of this paper is to offer a comprehensive account of the psychological mindset evoked by competitive situations. We integrate findings established across a variety of research fields into a unifying theoretical framework and demonstrate experimentally their joint impact on this important domain of human judgment and behavior. We propose that coherence-based reasoning serves as the cognitive backbone of the framework, in that the array of judgments are intricately interconnected and organized in a coherence maximizing representational structure both within and between the myside and otherside biases. Finally, we briefly discuss some of the framework's implications for a variety of legal domains, including negotiations, litigation, expert testimony, and police investigations.
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We provide a new framework for understanding 1 aspect of aggressive conflict between groups, which we refer to as vicarious retribution. Vicarious retribution occurs when a member of a group commits ...an act of aggression toward the members of an outgroup for an assault or provocation that had no personal consequences for him or her but which did harm afellow ingroup member. Furthermore, retribution is often directed at outgroup members who, themselves, were not the direct causal agents in the original attack against the person's ingroup. Thus, retribution is vicarious in that neither the agent of retaliation nor the target of retribution were directly involved in the original event that precipitated the intergroup conflict. We describe how ingroup identification, outgroup entitativity, and other variables, such as group power, influence vicarious retribution. We conclude by considering a variety of conflict reduction strategies in light of this new theoretical framework.
A new aspect of intergroup conflict was investigated— vicarious retribution—in which neither the agent of retribution nor the target of retribution are directly involved in the initial intergroup ...provocation. The underlying processes involved in vicarious intergroup retribution were tested correlationally (Study 1) and experimentally (Study 2). Both ingroup identification and outgroup entitativity predict the degree of vicarious retribution. In both studies, there was evidence of motivated cognition, specifically that highly identified individuals perceived the outgroup as higher in entitativity than individuals low in identification. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that part of the effect of identification on retribution against the outgroup was mediated through perceptions of entitativity.
The objective of the current research was to investigate the public perceptions of conditions pertaining to employability of former offenders as it relates to custody type and use of rehabilitative ...programs such as vocational and life skills classes. After reading a hypothetical job description for a cashier position, participants evaluated the perceived employability for former offenders that varied by type of custody (state prison, county jail, or community-based alternative to custody) and participation in the rehabilitative programs (presence versus control). Results of the 3 × 2 between-subjects analysis revealed the effect of each variable on the overall employability measure as well as the individual components (basic skills, thinking skills, personal qualities, and perceived dangerousness of applicant). Mediational analysis also revealed how the individual components mediated the effect for custody type of former offenders on employability. Implications are discussed for how public perceptions of the variables can aid policy makers, correctional staff, and service providers in understanding the intended impact of the variables on future employment prospects of former offenders.
Investigating barriers to successful reentry of former offenders is important to better prepare inmates for community integration, especially since a former criminal history can deter employability ...and contribute to the high unemployment rate of this population. The present research experimentally manipulated the effects of two offender characteristics, type of offense and work qualifications, on the perceived employability of a hypothetical job applicant. Four different components of employability were also assessed using mediational analysis to test the underlying reasons or justifications for why the offender characteristics impact hirability. Results indicate the separate moderating effect of each offender characteristics (type of offense and work qualifications) and the mediating effect of components of employability (basic skills, thinking skills, personal qualities, and dangerousness) for work qualifications.
The outcome of a graduate student's hunt for employment is often attributed to the student's own accomplishments, the reputation of the department, and the reputation of the university. In 2007, a ...national survey of psychology graduate students was conducted to assess accomplishments and experiences in graduate school, part of which was an assessment of employment after completion of the doctorate (PhD). Five hundred and fifty-one respondents who had applied for employment reported whether they had obtained employment and in what capacity. Survey results were then integrated with the National Research Council's most recent official ranking system of academic departments. The strongest predictor of employment was department-level rankings even while controlling for individual accomplishments, such as publications, posters, and teaching experience. Equally accomplished applicants for an employment position were not equal, apparently, if they graduated from differently ranked departments. The results also show the degree to which school-level rankings, department-level rankings, and individual accomplishments uniquely predict the various types of employment, including jobs at PhD-granting institutions, master's-granting institutions, liberal arts colleges, 2-year schools, outside academia, or no employment at all.
Purpose
The present study tested the judicial decision to deny false confession expert testimony on the basis that jury instructions are sufficient to aid jurors in their determinations of disputed ...confession evidence.
Methods
Three groups of mock jurors (N = 150) were presented with a trial summary that included a videotaped re‐enactment of an interrogation in which the interrogator used a maximization ploy. One group received expert testimony in the trial summary, another group received credibility instructions, and a control group received neither. All participants received standard reasonable doubt instructions at the end of the trial summary and then answered questions such as their verdict in the case, the defendant's likelihood of guilt, and the voluntariness of the defendant's confession.
Results
The results showed a high rate of conviction that was only reduced when participants received expert testimony. Across all measures, no significant differences were found between the control and credibility instruction groups.
Conclusions
The results suggest that credibility instructions are not comparable to expert testimony in influencing jurors' judgments of disputed confession evidence. These findings do not support the judicial decision to deny expert testimony on the basis that credibility instructions alone are sufficient to aid potential jurors in their evaluations of confession evidence. Avenues for future research on expert testimony and jury instructions in confession cases are discussed.
Four studies examined processing of in-group and out-group information with stimuli that are more complex than those used in previous crossed categorization studies. A diverse set of predictions is ...generated by previous theoretical work to account for how participants will integrate information stemming from multiple group memberships. Heuristic, threshold-based processing of information was supported over algebraic processing. Participants appeared to divide stimuli into "in-grouplike" and "out-grouplike" metacategories. However, the threshold at which this distinction was made, and whether it was based on in-group favoritism or out-group derogation, was influenced by the nature of the situation and the task participants performed. Advantages of crossed categorization research that moves beyond the traditional two-group model are discussed.
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