Voice in political decision-making: The effect of group voice on perceived trustworthiness of decision makers and subsequent acceptance of decisions.

The implementation of carbon dioxide capture and storage technology (CCS) is considered an important climate change mitigation strategy, but the viability of this technology will depend on public acceptance of CCS policy decisions. The results of three experiments with students as participants show that whether or not interest groups receive an opportunity to express their opinions in the decision-making process (i.e., group voice) affects acceptance of CCS policy decisions, with inferred trustworthiness of the decision maker mediating this effect. Decision-making procedures providing different interest groups with equal opportunities to voice their opinions instigate more trust in the decision maker and, in turn, lead to greater willingness to accept decisions compared to no-voice procedures (i.e., unilateral decision-making—Study 1) and unequal group-voice procedures (i.e., when one type of interest group receives voice, but another type of interest group does not—Study 2). Study 3 further shows that an individual's own level of knowledge about CCS moderates the desire for an opportunity for members of the general public to voice opinions in the decision-making process, inferred trustworthiness of decision makers, and policy acceptance. These results imply that people care about voice in decision-making even when they are not directly personally involved in the decision-making process. We conclude that people tend to use procedural information when deciding to accept or oppose policy decisions on political complex issues; hence, it is important that policymakers use fair group-voice procedures and that they communicate to the public how they arrive at their decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stepping back to see the big picture: When obstacles elicit global processing.

Can obstacles prompt people to look at the “big picture” and open up their minds? Do the cognitive effects of obstacles extend beyond the tasks with which they interfere? These questions were addressed in 6 studies involving both physical and nonphysical obstacles and different measures of global versus local processing styles. Perceptual scope increased after participants solved anagrams in the presence, rather than the absence, of an auditory obstacle (random words played in the background; Study 1), particularly among individuals low in volatility (i.e., those who are inclined to stay engaged and finish what they do; Study 4). It also increased immediately after participants encountered a physical obstacle while navigating a maze (Study 3A) and when compared with doing nothing (Study 3B). Conceptual scope increased after participants solved anagrams while hearing random numbers framed as an “obstacle to overcome” rather than a “distraction to ignore” (Study 2) and after participants navigated a maze with a physical obstacle, compared with a maze without a physical obstacle, but only when trait (Study 5) or state (Study 6) volatility was low. Results suggest that obstacles trigger an “if obstacle, then start global processing” response, primarily when people are inclined to stay engaged and finish ongoing activities. Implications for dealing with life's obstacles and related research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of voice on satisfaction with leaders: Exploring the meaning of process control.

Explored judgments of procedural justice in 3 studies when Ss had the opportunity to express opinions (process control) or actual influence over the decisions made (decision control). In Study 1, 121 traffic and misdemeanor defendants were interviewed by telephone 2–4 days after their courtroom appearance about their opportunities to present evidence and their control over the way evidence was presented. Results show that most Ss felt that they had some or a great deal of process control but little or no decision control. In Study 2, 137 undergraduates completed a questionnaire that measured process and decision control in a course they had taken the previous quarter. Most Ss felt that they had some process and decision control. In Study 3, 200 university students read a scenario about tax allocation in which the city council had complete control or made recommendations to citizens. Ss completed a questionnaire on the judgments about the scenario. Results were consistent with those of the 1st 2 studies and suggest that increases in process control heighten judgments of procedural justice and leadership endorsement under conditions of low decision control. Heightened process control had as much impact at low as at high decision control. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

False memories for end-of-life decisions.

Objective: To examine people's false memories for end-of-life decisions. Design: In Study 1, older adults decided which life-sustaining treatments they would want if they were seriously ill. They made these judgments twice, approximately 12 months apart. At Time 2, older adults and their self-selected surrogate decision makers tried to recall the older adults' Time 1 decisions. In Study 2, younger adults made treatment decisions twice, approximately 4 months apart. At Time 2, younger adults tried to recall their Time 1 decisions. Main Outcome Measures: Percentage of participants who falsely remembered that their original treatment decisions were the same as their current decisions. Results: In Study 1, older adults falsely remembered that 75% of their original decisions were the same as their current decisions; surrogates falsely thought that 86% of older adults' decisions were the same. In Study 2, younger adults falsely remembered that 69% of their original decisions were the same as their current decisions. Conclusion: Age alone cannot account for people's false memories of their end-of-life decisions; we discuss other mechanisms. The results have practical implications for policies that encourage people to make legal documents specifying their end-of-life treatment decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in choice satisfaction: A positivity effect in decision making.

The authors tested the possibility that older adults show a positivity effect in decision making, by giving younger and older adults the opportunity to choose 1 of 4 products and by examining the participants' satisfaction with their choice. The authors considered whether requiring participants to explicitly evaluate the options before making a choice has an effect on age differences in choice satisfaction. Older adults in the evaluation condition listed more positive and fewer negative attributes than did younger adults and were more satisfied with their decisions than were younger adults. There were no age differences among those who did not evaluate options. This evaluation-dependent elevation of satisfaction among older adults was still present when participants were contacted 2 weeks after the experiment. Age did not influence the accuracy with which participants predicted how their satisfaction would change over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-interest and fairness in problems of resource allocation: Allocators versus recipients.

Two studies explored the tension between self-interest and the equality norm in problems of resource allocation. Study 1 presented graduate business students with a hypothetical task requiring them to make a series of managerial decisions. On learning the outcome of those decisions, they were asked to divide a bonus pool between self and a rival manager (who had opted for very different decisions and achieved either the same results as self on 2 criteria or a better result on 1 criterion and a worse result on the other criterion). Study 2 required Stanford and San Jose State undergraduates to consider the division of a hypothetical scholarship fund between candidates from their 2 schools. Data from both studies contrasted the apparent evenhandedness and lack of self-interest manifested by allocators with the self-serving responses of evaluators. Furthermore, when faced with different claims, participants were inclined to justify an unequal allocation of resources—provided that they, or a representative of their group, received the larger share—that few personally would have recommended, demanded, or imposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why don't we learn to accurately forecast feelings? How misremembering our predictions blinds us to past forecasting errors.

Why do affective forecasting errors persist in the face of repeated disconfirming evidence? Five studies demonstrate that people misremember their forecasts as consistent with their experience and thus fail to perceive the extent of their forecasting error. As a result, people do not learn from past forecasting errors and fail to adjust subsequent forecasts. In the context of a Super Bowl loss (Study 1), a presidential election (Studies 2 and 3), an important purchase (Study 4), and the consumption of candies (Study 5), individuals mispredicted their affective reactions to these experiences and subsequently misremembered their predictions as more accurate than they actually had been. The findings indicate that this recall error results from people's tendency to anchor on their current affective state when trying to recall their affective forecasts. Further, those who showed larger recall errors were less likely to learn to adjust their subsequent forecasts and reminding people of their actual forecasts enhanced learning. These results suggest that a failure to accurately recall one's past predictions contributes to the perpetuation of forecasting errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Length and distance: Do preschoolers think that occlusion brings things together?

Preschoolers often assert that objects become closer together when part of the distance between them is occluded (occlusion?=?nearer). Piaget argued that this is due to young children's use of a topological spatial representation. Three studies explored the occlusion?=?nearer phenomenon. In Study 1, children who asserted that occlusion?=?nearer nonetheless picked the same stick before and after occlusion as just fitting between 2 points. Study 2 showed that occlusion?=?nearer is due neither to a belief that all movement alters distance nor to a general misunderstanding about the terms near and far. In Study 3, children shown separate occluded and unoccluded gaps picked shorter sticks to span occluded gaps, indicating a perceptual basis for the occlusion?=?nearer phenomenon. Preschool children do not appear to change the geometries they use to represent space, but do show increases in the generality and explicitness with which they map early spatial knowledge onto spatial language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived discrimination as worldview threat or worldview confirmation: Implications for self-esteem.

In 3 studies, the authors tested the hypothesis that discrimination targets' worldview moderates the impact of perceived discrimination on self-esteem among devalued groups. In Study 1, perceiving discrimination against the ingroup was negatively associated with self-esteem among Latino Americans who endorsed a meritocracy worldview (e.g., believed that individuals of any group can get ahead in America and that success stems from hard work) but was positively associated with self-esteem among those who rejected this worldview. Study 2 showed that exposure to discrimination against their ingroup (vs. a non-self-relevant group) led to lower self-esteem, greater feelings of personal vulnerability, and ingroup blame among Latino Americans who endorsed a meritocracy worldview but to higher self-esteem and decreased ingroup blame among Latino Americans who rejected it. Study 3 showed that compared with women informed that prejudice against their ingroup is pervasive, women informed that prejudice against their ingroup is rare had higher self-esteem if they endorsed a meritocracy worldview but lower self-esteem if they rejected this worldview. Findings support the idea that perceiving discrimination against one's ingroup threatens the worldview of individuals who believe that status in society is earned but confirms the worldview of individuals who do not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ambient belonging: How stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science.

People can make decisions to join a group based solely on exposure to that group’s physical environment. Four studies demonstrate that the gender difference in interest in computer science is influenced by exposure to environments associated with computer scientists. In Study 1, simply changing the objects in a computer science classroom from those considered stereotypical of computer science (e.g., Star Trek poster, video games) to objects not considered stereotypical of computer science (e.g., nature poster, phone books) was sufficient to boost female undergraduates’ interest in computer science to the level of their male peers. Further investigation revealed that the stereotypical broadcast a masculine stereotype that discouraged women’s sense of ambient belonging and subsequent interest in the environment (Studies 2, 3, and 4) but had no similar effect on men (Studies 3, 4). This masculine stereotype prevented women’s interest from developing even in environments entirely populated by other women (Study 2). Objects can thus come to broadcast stereotypes of a group, which in turn can deter people who do not identify with these stereotypes from joining that group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Where are you really from?: Asian Americans and identity denial.

Five studies investigate identity denial, the situation in which an individual is not recognized as a member of an important in-group. Asian Americans are seen as less American than other Americans (Study 1) and realize this is the case, although they do not report being any less American than White Americans (Studies 2A and 2B). Identity denial is a common occurrence in Asian Americans' daily lives (Study 3). They react to instances of identity denial by presenting American cultural knowledge and claiming greater participation in American practices (Studies 4 & 5). Identity denial furthers the understanding of group dynamics by capturing the experience of less prototypical group members who desire to have their common in-group identity recognized by fellow group members. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The hysteria over subliminal advertising as misunderstanding of science.

The author comments that current hysteria related to subliminal advertising may arise from misunderstanding of the scientific issues involved. Rather than protesting against the alleged invasion of the privacy of our homes and minds by the subliminal advertisers, those of us who are concerned with obnoxious advertising on TV might, welcome this occurrence, since it can render obnoxious advertising less effective. Misunderstanding in at least three areas is involved: (1) Sensitivity depends upon stimulus magnitude. (2) Stimuli do not necessarily elicit responses. (3) Experimental reports that people can accurately discriminate or otherwise be affected by stimuli presented so faintly that they report not being conscious of them have been related to the unconscious or subconscious. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A review of the effects of perceived drug use opportunity on self-reported urge.

Although persons addicted to drugs reliably report experiencing cravings or urges during drug cue exposure, less is known about factors that may moderate this effect. This article reviews cue exposure studies with people who smoke, are dependent on alcohol, or are addicted to cocaine or opiates. Perceived drug use opportunity is found to affect urge ratings. Specifically, people who are addicted to substances and who perceive an opportunity to consume their drug of choice report higher urges than do those who do not anticipate being able to use the drug. This factor was proposed to explain why those in treatment for substance dependence report urges that are about half the strength of those in nontreatment settings. The impact of perceived drug use opportunity on urge is considered from a variety of perspectives, including conditioning theories, a cognitive appraisal framework, and motivated reasoning theory. Conceptual and methodological implications of perceived drug use opportunity are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effect of Implicit Person Theory on Performance Appraisals.

Four studies examined whether implicit person theory (IPT) regarding the malleability of personal attributes (e.g., personality and ability) affects managers' acknowledgment of change in employee behavior. The extent to which managers held an incremental IPT was positively related to their recognition of both good (Study 1) and poor (Study 2) performance, relative to the employee behavior they initially observed. Incremental theorists' judgments were not anchored by their prior impressions (Study 3). In the 4th study, entity theorists who were randomly assigned to a self-persuasion training condition developed a significantly more incremental IPT. This change in IPT was maintained over a 6-week period and led to greater acknowledgment of an improvement in employee performance than was exhibited by entity theorists in the placebo control group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anatomy of a persuasion schema: Targets, goals, and strategies.

Three studies examined R. Schank and R. Abelson's (1977) assumptions about a persuasion schema, conceptualized as a standard set of methods and a related set of goals for influencing a target individual. The data support the general form but not the specific content of their assumptions. In Study 1, 64 undergraduates reported whom they persuaded, who persuaded them in their everyday lives, and what kinds of things people persuaded others to do. Although goals associated with the persuasion schema constituted a small finite set, that set was larger than that suggested by Schank and Abelson. Moreover, both the nature and frequency of the goals generated by Ss were similar for all targets, although the data suggest that people do not normally persuade enemies. In Study 2, 74 Ss listed all the ways in which people can persuade others to achieve each of 9 goals generated in Study 1. Again, although a standard set of methods was identified, methods additional to those suggested by Schank and Abelson were generated. In Study 3, 120 Ss rank-ordered the list of methods identified in Study 2 in terms of their sequence of use. As expected, the rank ordering proceeded from asking, self-oriented methods, dyad-oriented methods, appeal to principles, and negative tactics. The order of use proposed by Schank and Abelson was not upheld. Findings are discussed in terms of the need to characterize knowledge relevant to everyday social interactions. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On being cool and collected: Mood regulation in anticipation of social interaction.

This study examined the influence of anticipated social interaction on the regulation of moods. Study 1 induced happy and sad moods through exposure to music. All participants expected to perform a second, unrelated experimental task either by themselves or with another participant. Participants who expected to do the task alone subsequently selected positive and negative news stories equally, but those who expected to interact preferred stories containing material incongruent with their mood. Study 2 confirmed this outcome, but showed it was confined primarily to anticipation of interaction with partners who are expected to be in neutral or good moods themselves. In Study 3, participants whose mood was not manipulated reduced self-exposure to cheerful or depressing videos when they expected to interact with another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of social identity and threat on self-esteem and group attributions.

Two studies were conducted to examine reactions and coping responses to a threatened group identity. In both studies, participants were asked to read a (fictitious) report that varied whether their group received a good or bad evaluation. In Study 2, the report also gave an internal or external reason for the rating. Study 1 showed that participants made more positive affirmations about an important group membership when their group had been threatened. They also made an equal number of internal and external attributions when they identified strongly with their group. Study 2 showed that participants who were given a group-serving attribution when their group had been threatened had higher self-esteem than those not given a group-serving attribution, especially if they identified strongly with their group. These results are discussed in the context of social identity theory and biased information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do people with low self-esteem really want to feel better? Self-esteem differences in motivation to repair negative moods.

This research examined the hypothesis that people with low self-esteem (LSE) are less motivated than people with high self-esteem (HSE) to repair their negative moods. In Study 1, participants completed diaries in response to either a success or a failure in their everyday lives. Participants described what they intended to do next and the reasons behind those plans. After failure, fewer LSE than HSE participants expressed a goal to improve their mood. A follow-up investigation (Study 2) suggested that this difference was not due to a self-esteem difference in knowledge of mood repair strategies. In Study 3, after undergoing a negative mood induction, fewer LSE than HSE participants chose to watch a comedy video, even though both groups believed the comedy video would make them happy. Studies 4 and 5 explored possible reasons why LSE people are less motivated than HSE people to repair their negative moods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)