Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Cadinu, Maria Rosaria; Rothbart, Myron

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.661pmid: N/A

In-group favoritism in the minimal group setting was hypothesized to be a function of 2 processes: a tendency to base in-group judgments on the self (self-anchoring) and a tendency to assume 1 group to be the opposite of the other (differentiation). In the first 3 experiments, in which the order of rating the self and target group was varied, categorized and uncategorized participants were given trait information about 1 group and were asked to estimate the level of those traits in the other group. In-group judges tended to base group ratings on the self, whereas out-group and uncategorized judges inferred the 2 groups to be opposite of one another. Experiment 4 attempted to directly assess the direction of inference between self and in-group by giving feedback about self or in-group on unfamiliar dimensions and found that participants were more willing to generalize from self to in-group than from in-group to self.

Gilbert, Daniel T.; Silvera, David H.

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.678pmid: N/A

Overhelpingoccurs when one attempts to spoil an observer's impression of a performer by explicitly helping the performer achieve a goal, thereby inviting the observer to attribute the performer's success to the help. The results of 4 experiments suggest (a) that people are most likely to overhelp when they believe that their interventions will be ineffective but will be considered effective by observers and (b) that when either of these beliefs is wrong, the strategy will backfire. The results point to an intervention principlethat predicts how and when people may most effectively influence a performance so as to shape observers' inferences about the performer.

Ybarra, Oscar; Stephan, Walter G.

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.691pmid: N/A

Three experiments examined memory for behaviors associated with attributional information. A baseline established in Experiment 1, using behaviors unaccompanied by attributions, indicated that expectancy-inconsistent behaviors were better recalled than consistent ones. Experiment 2 linked these same behaviors to dispositional or situational attributions. After reconceptualizing the results, it was shown that negative dispositionally attributed behaviors and positive situationally attributed behaviors were best recalled, suggesting that there is a negativity bias in person memory for behaviors that are accompanied by attributions. Experiment 3, using a different procedure, served as a replication of this misanthropic memory effect and demonstrated that the effect was only slightly altered by reducing the processing time allocated for this task. The findings were discussed in terms of their implications for expectancy-driven information processing and also with regard to the types of impressions people may form from attributed behavioral information.

Ruscher, Janet B.; Hammer, Elizabeth Yost

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.701pmid: N/A

Impression formation should be biased in individuals who decide to maintain or sever association because they desire to form impressions that support their decision. Because such individuals also should wish to appear objective, decision-supporting information should be irrelevant to obvious reasons for the decision (e.g., a target's social stigma). Accepting the veracity of the target's stereotype-irrelevant attributes supports the decision and also can seem objective, although such processing is biased. In 2 experiments, participants were induced to choose or were assigned to maintain or sever association with an alleged fellow participant. Participants who chose to maintain or sever association used biased processes. In the 2nd experiment, the effect of choice on participants' communicated impressions was mediated by biased processes. The relation of this work to dissonance theory and implications for prejudice are discussed.

Davis, Mark H.; Conklin, Laura; Smith, Amy; Luce, Carol

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.713pmid: N/A

Two experiments examined the possibility that perspective taking leads observers to create cognitive representations of others that substantially overlap with the observers' own self-representations. In Experiment 1 observers receiving role-taking instructions were more likely to ascribe traits to a novel target that they (observers) had earlier indicated were self-descriptive. This pattern was most pronounced, however, for positively valenced traits. In Experiment 2 some participants received role-taking instructions but were also given a distracting memory task. In the absence of this task, role taking again produced greater overlap—primarily for positive traits—between self- and target representations. In the presence of the memory task, the degree of self-target overlap was significantly reduced for all traits, regardless of valence. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.

Inman, Mary L.; Baron, Robert S.

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.727pmid: N/A

Two studies examined the influence of cultural stereotypes and personal factors (one's race, gender) on perceptions of racial and gender discrimination. Overall, the data suggest that our perceptions of prejudice are strongly influenced by specific expectations regarding who are the prototypic perpetrators and victims of prejudice. More general expectations regarding out-group conflict or regarding only the characteristics of the perpetrator appear to have less of an impact on such perceptions. Additionally, women were found to be more likely than men to perceive sexism directed against men and racism directed at African Americans and Caucasians. Also, African Americans were more likely than Caucasians to perceive racist events against Whites and Blacks. The implications of these data are discussed.

Anderson, Craig A.; Anderson, Kathryn B.

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.740pmid: N/A

The logic behind the translation of conceptual hypotheses into testable propositions was illustrated with the heat hypothesis. The destructive testingphilosophy was introduced and applied. This consists of first showing that a predicted empirical relation exists, then attempting to break that relation by adding competitor variables. The key question in destructive testing is “How difficult was it to break the relation?” This approach was used to analyze the heat effect on violent crime rates (Study 1) and on White violent crime arrest rates (Study 2) in U.S. cities. One competitor variable was the particular focus of analysis: southern culture of violence. The heat hypothesis was supported by highly significant correlations between the warmth of a city and its violence rate. This heat effect survived multiple destructive tests. Some support for the southern culture effect was also found, but this effect was more easily broken.

Erber, Ralph; Wegner, Daniel M.; Therriault, Nicole

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.757pmid: N/A

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.

Williams, Geoffrey C.; Deci, Edward L.

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.767pmid: N/A

Two studies tested self-determination theory with 2nd-year medical students in an interviewing course. Study 1 revealed that (a) individuals with a more autonomous orientation on the General Causality Orientations Scale had higher psychosocial beliefs at the beginning of the course and reported more autonomous reasons for participating in the course, and (b) students who perceived their instructors as more autonomy-supportive became more autonomous in their learning during the 6-month course. Study 2, a 30-month longitudinal study, revealed that students who perceived their instructors as more autonomy-supportive became more autonomous in their learning, which in turn accounted for a significant increase in both perceived competence and psychosocial beliefs over the 20-week period of the course, more autonomy support when interviewing a simulated patient 6 months later, and stronger psychosocial beliefs 2 years later.

Tangney, June Price; Hill-Barlow, Deborah; Wagner, Patricia E.; Marschall, Donna E.; Borenstein, Julie Kaplan; Sanftner, Jennifer; Mohr, Tim; Gramzow, Richard

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.70.4.780pmid: N/A

Scenario-based, self-report measures were developed to assess how people characteristically experience and manage anger from middle childhood through adulthood. The Anger Response Inventories (ARIs) for children, adolescents, and adults each assess (a) anger arousal, (b) intentions, (c) cognitive and behavioral responses, and (d) long-term consequences. Several independent studies provide support for the reliability and validity of the ARIs. Theoretically consistent patterns of correlations were observed with (a) global self-report measures of hostility, aggression, and anger-management strategies (adult version); (b) teacher reports of behavioral and emotional adjustment (child and adolescent versions); and (c) self- and family-member reports of behaviors in specific anger episodes (adolescent and adult versions). Findings from additional personality and developmental studies are summarized, further supporting construct validity.