Social Psychology Commons^™

Moral Values, Social Ideologies, And Threat-Based Cognition: Implications For Intergroup Relations., Brandon D. Stewart Phd, David S. M. Morris

Faculty Publications

Moral foundations theory (MFT) has provided an account of the moral values that underscore different cultural and political ideologies, and these moral values of harm, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity can help to explain differences in political and cultural ideologies; however, the extent to which moral foundations relate to strong social ideologies, intergroup processes and threat perceptions is still underdeveloped. To explore this relationship, we conducted two studies. In Study 1 (N = 157), we considered how the moral foundations predicted strong social ideologies such as authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) as well as attitudes toward immigrants. …

The Effects Of Team Surface-Level Diversity On Creativity & Innovation, Roman Mitchell

Faculty Publications

During the last 20 years, the global marketplace has become more competitive due to increased globalization, aggressive market competition, and changing customer demands. This has forced organizations to assemble teams with diverse knowledge, skills, and abilities to remain competitive. However, previous meta-analytic investigations examining the relationship between team surface-level diversity (i.e., race or gender identity), creativity, and innovation have indicated a small negative relationship. Despite the said positive effects of team diversity, theory and empirical evidence suggests that increased surface-level team diversity leads to decreased team collaboration, team cohesion, and diminished creativity and innovation (Bell, 2007).

This study explores the …

Moving Morality Beyond The In-Group: Liberals And Conservatives Show Differences On Group-Framed Moral Foundations And These Differences Mediate The Relationships To Perceived Bias And Threat., Brandon D. Stewart Phd, David S. M. Morris

Faculty Publications

Moral foundations research suggests that liberals care about moral values related to individual rights such as harm and fairness, while conservatives care about those foundations in addition to caring more about group rights such as loyalty, authority, and purity. However, the question remains about how conservatives and liberals differ in relation to group-level moral principles. We used two versions of the moral foundations questionnaire with the target group being either abstract or specific ingroups or outgroups. Across three studies, we observed that liberals showed more endorsement of Individualizing foundations (Harm and Fairness foundations) with an outgroup target, while conservatives showed …

“I Hate To Be A Burden!”: Experiencing Feelings Associated With Ostracism Due To One's Poor Performance Burdening The Group, James H. Wirth, Donald F. Sacco, Mitch Brown, Bradley M. Okdie

Faculty Publications

We examined if perceiving oneself as burdensome, due to performing poorly in a group, can lead to feelings associated with ostracism (being excluded and ignored), without actually being ostracized. Participants completed a typing game (Study 1) or solved Remote Associates Test (Study 2) items where they performed worse, equal, or better than the group. To isolate the influence of burdensomeness, participants were consistently selected by computerized agents to play. In each study, worse performers experienced greater perceptions of being burdensome, less basic need satisfaction, increased negative mood, and greater anticipation of being excluded from a future group task compared to …

“I Hate To Be A Burden!”: Experiencing Feelings Associated With Ostracism Due To One's Poor Performance Burdening The Group, James H. Wirth, Donald F. Sacco, Mitch Brown, Bradley M. Okdie

Faculty Publications

We examined if perceiving oneself as burdensome, due to performing poorly in a group, can lead to feelings associated with ostracism (being excluded and ignored), without actually being ostracized. Participants completed a typing game (Study 1) or solved Remote Associates Test (Study 2) items where they performed worse, equal, or better than the group. To isolate the influence of burdensomeness, participants were consistently selected by computerized agents to play. In each study, worse performers experienced greater perceptions of being burdensome, less basic need satisfaction, increased negative mood, and greater anticipation of being excluded from a future group task compared to …

When To Make The Sensory Social: Registering In Face-To-Face Openings, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes naturally occurring video-recorded openings during which participants make the sensory social through the action of registering—calling joint attention to a selected, publicly perceiv- able referent so others shift their sensory attention to it. It examines sequence-initial actions that register referents for which a participant is regarded as responsible. Findings demonstrate a systematic preference organization which observably guides when and how people initiate registering sequences sensitive to ownership of, and displayed stance toward, the target referent. Analysis shows how registering an owned referent achieves intersubjectivity and puts involved participants’ face, affiliation, and social relationship on the line. A …

Situational Factors Influencing Receptivity To Bullshit, Mitch Brown, Lucas A. Keefer, Shelby J. Mcgrew

Faculty Publications

Individuals are motivated to maintain a sense of meaning, and enact cognitive processes to do so (e.g., perceiving structure in the environment). This motivation to find meaning may ultimately impact humans’ interpretation of "bullshit", statements intended to convey profundity without any meaning. Conversely, subtle cues threatening the meaningfulness of bullshit may elicit greater skepticism. Three studies tested situational factors predicted to heighten or diminish susceptibility to bullshit by changing motivations to seek meaning. We employed diverse methods including symbolic meaning threat (Study 1), social exclusion (Cyberball; Study 2), and manipulating cognitive fluency (Study 3). Taken together, the results indicate basic …

Steadfast Standards Or Fluctuating Fancies? Stability And Change In People’S Mate Criteria Over 27 Months, Carrie A. Bredow, Nicole Hames

Faculty Publications

Although research on mate preferences has been built on the assumption that the criteria people report at one point in time should predict their future partnering behavior, little is known about the temporal stability of people’s standards. Using survey data collected at four time points from 285 originally unmarried individuals, this study examined the rank-order, meanlevel, individual-level and ipsative stability of people’s mate criteria over 27 months. Overall, reported standards exhibited moderate to high baseline stability, with rank-order and ipsative estimates comparable to those reported for personality traits. At the same time, mean- and individual-level analyses revealed small, but significant, …

Worldview Conflict In Daily Life, Mark J. Brandt, Jarret T. Crawford, Daryl R. Vantongeren

Faculty Publications

Building on laboratory- and survey-based research probing the psychology of ideology and the experience of worldview conflict, we examined the association between worldview conflict and emotional reactions, psychological well-being, humanity esteem, and political ideology in everyday life using experience sampling. In three combined samples (total N = 328), experiencing disagreement compared to agreement was associated with experiencing more other-condemning emotions, less well-being, and less humanity esteem. There were no clear associations between experiencing disagreement and experiencing self-conscious emotions, positive emotions, and mental stress. None of the relationships were moderated by political ideology. These results both replicate and challenge findings from …

It's More Than Self-Presentation: Mum Effects Can Reflect Private Discomfort And Concern For The Recipient, Jayson L. Dibble

Faculty Publications

Is the reluctance to share bad news (i.e., the MUM effect) motivated more by a public display or private concern, and does it benefit mainly the messenger or the recipient? An experiment (N = 309) that crossed good/bad news with three communication channels (face to face, text messaging, email) revealed that messenger reluctance was greatest under conditions of bad news and did not vary based on channel through which the recipient contacted the messenger. In contrast with earlier work, this MUM effect was more consistent with a private fear of distressing the recipient. Theoretical implications and limitations are discussed.

Group Identity As A Source Of Threat And Means Of Compensation: Establishing Personal Control Through Group Identification And Ideology, Chris Goode, Lucas A. Keefer, Nyla R. Branscombe, Ludwin E. Molina

Faculty Publications

Compensatory control theory proposes that individuals can assuage threatened personal control by endorsing external systems or agents that provide a sense that the world is meaningfully ordered. Recent research drawing on this perspective finds that one means by which individuals can compensate for a loss of control is adherence to ideological beliefs about the social world. This prior work, however, has largely neglected the role of social groups in defining either the nature of control threat or the means by which individuals compensate for these threats. In four experiments (N = 466), we test the possibility that group-based threats to …

A Narrative On The Witch-Hunt Narrative: The Moral Dimensions, Frederic G. Reamer

Faculty Publications

Ross Cheit’s The Witch-Hunt Narrative raises a number of complex moral issues. Cheit’s principal purpose is to challenge the belief that our society has overreacted to claims about the sexual abuse of children. Both directly and indirectly, Cheit’s in-depth analysis broaches moral concerns pertaining to the integrity of child abuse allegations, investigations, civil litigation, and criminal prosecution, with an emphasis on the mixed motives of the parties involved in key cases. This article provides an overview of ethical questions pertaining to gathering information from very vulnerable individuals, informed consent, institutional review, protection of research participants, the use of deception and …

Intersections Of Culture And Trauma: Understanding Identities And Experiences Of Salvadoran Refugee College Students, Janette Linares, Cara Maffini

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Work Ethics In India: A Call For The Development Of Indigenized Ethical Standards, Frederic G. Reamer, Jayashree Nimmagadda

Faculty Publications

In recent years, various professional associations in social work and regulatory bodies worldwide have engaged in ambitious efforts to draft and implement comprehensive ethics guidelines, standards, and education. For a variety of complex reasons, the social work profession in India has lagged behind developments in many other nations. The purpose of this article is to assess the current status of social work ethics in India, review relevant developments throughout the world, and present a blueprint to guide the development of much-needed indigenous ethical standards and education in India.

Called To Power, Errol N. Mclean

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Groundhog Oracles And Their Forebears, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

Groundhog Day animal weather forecasting ceremonies continue to proliferate around the United States despite a lack of public confidence in the oracles. This essay probes religio-historical and original ethnographic perspectives to offer a psychological argument for why these ceremonies exist. Employing Paul Shepard’s notion of a felt loss of sacred, intimate relationships with nonhuman nature, as well as Peter Homans’ concept of the monument that enables mourning, this essay argues that groundhog oracles serve as monuments that allow humans experientially to attempt to heal lost sacred relationships with animals like weather forecasting bears, hedgehogs, and badgers

The Importance Of Being Green: The Influence Of Green Behaviors On Americans' Political Attitudes Toward Climate Change., Katherine Lacasse

Faculty Publications

Two studies investigated whether performing green behaviors may influence people’s political attitudes regarding climate change. A survey study revealed that self-reported green behaviors indirectly predicted American participants’ political attitudes regarding climate change, and that this relationship was mediated by their green self-perceptions. This relationship was relatively stronger for conservatives than for liberals. An experimental study included two conditions: One which led people to perceive that they often performed green behaviors and another that led them to perceive that they failed to perform green behaviors. Political-orientation was found to moderate the effect of green behavior perceptions on ratings of the importance …

Going With Your Gut: How William James' Theory Of Emotions Brings Insights To Risk Perception And Decision Making Research, Katherine Lacasse

Faculty Publications

The basic premise of William James’ theory of emotions - that bodily changes lead to emotional feelings - ignited debate about the relative importance of bodily processes and cognitive appraisals in determining emotions. Similarly, theories of risk perception have been expanding to include emotional and physiological processes along with cognitive processes. Taking a closer look at Principles of Psychology, this article examines how James’ propositions support and extend current research risk perceptions and decision making. Specifically, James (1) described emotional feelings and their related cognitions in ways similar to current dual processing models; (2) defended the proposition that emotions and …

The Prosocial And Aggressive Driving Inventory (Padi): A Self-Report Measure Of Safe And Unsafe Driving Behaviors, Paul B. Harris, John M. Houston, Jose A. Vazquez, Janan A. Smither, Amanda Harms, Jeffrey A. Dahlke, Daniel A. Sachau

Faculty Publications

Surveys of 1217 undergraduate students supported the reliability (inter-item and test-retest) and validity of the Prosocial and Aggressive Driving Inventory (PADI). Principal component analyses on the PADI items yielded two scales: Prosocial Driving (17 items) and Aggressive Driving (12 items). Prosocial Driving was associated with fewer reported traffic accidents and violations, with participants who were older and female, and with lower Boredom Susceptibility and Hostility scores, and higher scores on Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness, and Neuroticism. Aggressive Driving was associated with more frequent traffic violations, with female participants, and with higher scores on Competitiveness, Sensation Seeking, Hostility, and Extraversion, and lower …

Addressing The "Go Green" Debate: Initiatives That Encourage Small Green Behaviors And Their Political Spillover Effects, Katherine Lacasse

Faculty Publications

While there are numerous supporters of initiatives that promote small green behaviors, there are also critics who debate the effectiveness of these actions in addressing global climate change. The critics claim that people often choose to perform easy green behaviors to rationalize their inaction in other ways, which is detrimental to garnering support for political action. The supporters emphasize the cumulative effects of small green behaviors, including the likelihood of these actions spilling over into further green behaviors as well as greater political concern about climate change. The relationship between green behaviors and political attitudes should be considered more closely, …

A Closer Look At Co-Rumination: Gender, Coping, Peer Functioning And Internalizing/Externalizing Problems, Tanya L. Tompkins, Ashlee R. Hockett, Nadia Abraibesh, Jody L. Witt

Faculty Publications

Co-rumination, defined as repetitive, problem-focused talk, explains higher levels of friendship quality in youth (Rose, 2002) and increased levels of anxiety/depression in females. Middle adolescents (N=146) participated in a study of co-rumination, individual coping, externalizing/internalizing problems, and peer functioning. Consistent with past research, girls reported higher levels of co-rumination and internalizing symptoms. Co-rumination was also positively correlated with self-reports, but not teacher reports, of anxiety/depression and aggressive behavior. Both self-reported number of friends and teacher-rated social acceptance were negatively associated with co-rumination. Co-rumination partially accounted for the significant indirect effect of gender on internalizing symptoms. Additionally, co-rumination was …

Why The Supreme Court Cares About Elites, Not The American People, Lawrence Baum, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

Supreme Court Justices care more about the views of academics, journalists, and other elites than they do about public opinion. This is true of nearly all Justices and is especially true of swing Justices, who often cast the critical votes in the Court’s most visible decisions. In this Article, we will explain why we think this is so and, in so doing, challenge both the dominant political science models of judicial behavior and the significant work of Barry Friedman, Jeffrey Rosen, and others who link Supreme Court decision making to public opinion.

Broken Scales: Obesity And Justice In America, Adam Benforado, Jon Hanson, David Yosifon

Faculty Publications

This Article is not so much about the scales we use to measure weight, but the scales we use to infer causation and assign responsibility-including the scales of justice. Ultimately, the problem we face is not obesity itself. Obesity is only a symptom of the problem. When scientists and public health experts point to various environmental agents-whether larger portion sizes, corn subsidies, video games, or urban sprawl-they, too, overlook the deeper source of our troubles. Our real problem is that we have an extremely difficult time seeing and understanding the role of unseen features in our environment and within us …

Generalizing Disability, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Situation: An Introduction To The Situational Character, Critical Realism, Power Economics, And Deep Capture, Jon Hanson, David Yosifon

Faculty Publications

Throughout most of this introductory Article, we will focus our arguments primarily on economics and law and economics. We believe, however, that the implications of our inquiry extend far beyond those domains. The tendencies we hope to elucidate find their origins in the human animal, not in any particular legal theoretic perspective. It happens that these tendencies are especially prominent in law and economics, currently the dominant theoretical paradigm for creating and analyzing legal policy. But the relevance of our thesis is not confined to one approach , or even to legal-political questions. All humans are more or less implicated, …

The Aggressive Driving Behavior Scale: Developing A Self-Report Measure Of Unsafe Driving Practices, John M. Houston, Paul Harris

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of a new 11-item measure of aggressive driving, the Aggressive Driving Behavior Scale, which focuses on behaviors rather than cognitions, emotions, or motivational states. Based on a sample of 200 undergraduates, 111 women and 89 men), the study examined the convergent validity of the new scale with measures of hostility, hypercompetitiveness, and aggressive thoughts and emotions experienced during driving. A principal component analysis of the Aggressive Driving Behavior Scale (alpha = .80) yielded two factors that form reliable subscales labeled Speeding and Conflict Behavior. As expected, the total …

Trading French And Postcolonial Feminisms, Zubeda Jalalzai

Faculty Publications

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, in articulating feminist and postcolonial politics, raises issues of importance for both first world and third world feminists as well as enacting some of the very dangers which accompany those tenuous relationships. Spivak's essays, "French Feminism in an International Frame" (1981) and "French Feminism Revisited: Ethics and Politics" (1992), provide a rich arena in which she presents powerful cautions regarding international solidarities and explores the complicated dynamics of ethical relationships on multiple levels, including that between mother and daughter, bourgeois postcolonial feminist and the woman of the "ground," as well as between metropolitan and postcolonial feminists.

The False Litigant Syndrome: "Nobody Would Say That Unless It Was The Truth", Alan Scheflin, Daniel Brown

Faculty Publications

In this article we intend to focus on the narrow but increasingly more signif icant issue of retractors in malpractice actions against therapists. It is generally believed that people do not make confessions unless they are actually guilty. It is also generally believed that retractors who recant their earlier statements must now be telling the truth. Courts have allowed expert testimony to be admitted on the issue of why people will falsely confess. In this paper we argue that expert testimony on why people falsely recant should also be admissible.