Ageism and Death: Effects of Mortality Salience and Perceived Similarity to Elders on Reactions to Elderly PeopleMartens, Andy; Greenberg, Jeff; Schimel, Jeff; Landau, Mark J.
doi: 10.1177/0146167204271185pmid: 15536237
The present research investigated the hypotheses that elderly people can be reminders of our mortality and that concerns about our own mortality can therefore instigate ageism. In Study 1, college-age participants who saw photos of two elderly people subsequently showed more death accessibility than participants who saw photos of only younger people. In Study 2, making mortality salient for participants increased distancing from the average elderly person and decreased perceptions that the average elderly person possesses favorable attitudes. Mortality salience did not affect ratings of teenagers. In Study 3, these mortality salience effects were moderated by prior reported similarity to elderly people. Distancing from, and derogation of, elderly people after mortality salience occurred only in participants who, weeks before the study, rated their personalities as relatively similar to the average elderly person’s. Discussion addresses distinguishing ageism from other forms of prejudice, as well as possibilities for reducing ageism.
Perspective and Prejudice: Antecedents and Mediating MechanismsDovidio, John F.; ten Vergert, Marleen; Stewart, Tracie L.; Gaertner, Samuel L.; Johnson, James D.; Esses, Victoria M.; Riek, Blake M.; Pearson, Adam R.
doi: 10.1177/0146167204271177pmid: 15536238
The present work investigated mechanisms by which Whites’ prejudice toward Blacks can be reduced (Study 1) and explored how creating a common ingroup identity can reduce prejudice by promoting these processes (Study 2). In Study 1, White participants who viewed a videotape depicting examples of racial discrimination and who imagined the victim’s feelings showed greater decreases in prejudice toward Blacks than did those in the objective and no instruction conditions. Among the potential mediating affective and cognitive variables examined, reductions in prejudice were mediated primarily by feelings associated with perceived injustice. In Study 2, an intervention designed to increase perceptions of a common group identity before viewing the videotape, reading that a terrorist threat was directed at all Americans versus directed just at White Americans, also reduced prejudice towardBlacks through increases in feelings of injustice.
Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining: Interpersonal and Individual Differences Determinants of Anger-Related BehaviorsKuppens, Peter; Van Mechelen, Iven; Meulders, Michel
doi: 10.1177/0146167204271176pmid: 15536239
Two studies examined the effect of status and liking of the anger target on anger behavior and individual differences in angerrelated behavior. Participants recalled anger instances in which the anger target was of higher/equal/lower status and/or liked/ unfamiliar/disliked; subsequently, they indicated which behaviors they had displayed. In both studies, anger behaviors could be grouped into behaviors that imply approaching the target (anger-out, assertion, reconciliation) and behaviors that reflect avoidance/anger-in or social sharing. The results demonstrated that approach behaviors more likely occur toward lower status or liked targets; avoidance behaviors and social sharing more likely occur when the target is of higher status or disliked. On an individual differences level, an approach and an avoid/social sharing person class were identified. The findings suggest that anger may motivate prosocial behavior or social sharing, depending on the individual and type of relation with the target. Only few gender differences were found.
The Role of Defensive Confidence in Preference for Proattitudinal Information: How Believing That One Is Strong Can Sometimes Be a Defensive WeaknessAlbarracín, Dolores; Mitchell, Amy L.
doi: 10.1177/0146167204271180pmid: 15536240
This series of studies identified individuals who chronically believe that they can successfully defend their attitudes from external attack and investigated the consequences of this individual difference for selective exposure to attitude-incongruent information and, ultimately, attitude change. Studies 1 and 2 validated a measure of defensive confidence as an individual difference that is unidimensional, distinct from other personality measures, reliable over a 2-week interval, and organized as a trait that generalizes across various personal and social issues. Studies 3 and 4 provided evidence that defensive confidence decreases preference for proattitudinal information, therefore inducing greater reception of counterattitudinal materials. Study 5 demonstrated that people who are high in defensive confidence are more likely to change their attitudes as a result of exposure to counterattitudinal information and examined the perceptions that mediate this important phenomenon.
When What You Know Is Not Enough: Expertise and Gender Dynamics in Task GroupsThomas-Hunt, Melissa C.; Phillips, Katherine W.
doi: 10.1177/0146167204271186pmid: 15536241
This study investigates how the contribution, identification, and consideration of expertise within groups are affected by gender differences. The authors examined the effects of member expertise and gender on others’ perceptions of expertise, actual and own perceptions of influence, and group performance on a decision-making task. The authors’ findings are consistent with social role theory and expectation states theory. Women were less influential when they possessed expertise, and having expertise decreased how expert others perceived them to be. Conversely, having expertise was relatively positive for men. These differences were reflected in group performance, as groups with a female expert underperformed groups with a male expert. Thus, contrary to common expectations, possessing expertise did not ameliorate the gender effects often seen in workgroups. The findings are discussed in light of their implications for organizational workgroups in which contribution of expertise is critical to group performance.
Gender, Social Class, and the Subjective Experience of Aging: Self-Perceived Personality Change From Early Adulthood to Late MidlifeMiner-Rubino, Kathi; Winter, David G.; Stewart, Abigail J.
doi: 10.1177/0146167204271178pmid: 15536242
This study explored the applicability of previous research (obtained with groups of college-educated women) about the subjective experience of aging in midlife to men and less-educated people. Two-hundred fifty-nine men and women who graduated from a public high school in 1955-1957 retrospectively assessed their feelings of identity certainty, confident power, generativity, and concern about aging for their 60s, 40s, and 20s. Participants reported higher levels of identity certainty, confident power, and concern about aging at each age, and a leveling off of generativity in their 60s. There were some gender and social class differences. Although men and women recalled the same trajectory of these feelings, men reported higher levels of identity certainty and confident power across age. Non-college-educated men recalled the highest levels of concern about aging across age. We discuss how these findings add to our understanding of the experience of aging in these domains.
A Threat in the Computer: The Race Implicit Association Test as a Stereotype Threat ExperienceFrantz, Cynthia M.; Cuddy, Amy J. C.; Burnett, Molly; Ray, Heidi; Hart, Allen
doi: 10.1177/0146167204266650pmid: 15536243
Three experiments test whether the threat of appearing racist leads White participants to perform worse on the race Implicit Association Test (IAT) and whether self-affirmation can protect from this threat. Experiments 1 and 2 suggest that White participants show a stereotype threat effect when completing the race IAT, leading to stronger pro-White scores when the test is believed to be diagnostic of racism. This effect increases for domain-identified (highly motivated to control prejudice) participants (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, self-affirmation inoculates participants against stereotype threat while taking the race IAT. These findings have methodological implications for use of the race IAT and theoretical implications concerning the malleability of automatic prejudice and the potential interpersonal effects of the fear of appearing racist.
Cognitions Associated With Attempts to Empathize: How Do We Imagine the Perspective of Another?Davis, Mark H.; Soderlund, Tama; Cole, Jonathan; Gadol, Eric; Kute, Maria; Myers, Michael; Weihing, Jeffrey
doi: 10.1177/0146167204271183pmid: 15536244
Although the theoretical importance of perspective taking has long been recognized, surprisingly little work has documented the cognitions associated with attempts to imagine another’s point of view. To explore this issue and to determine whether perspective taking increases the likelihood of self-related thoughts, two experiments were carried out. In the first, a thought-listing procedure was used to assess observer cognitions; in the second, a less reactive measure was used. Instructions to imagine the self in the target’s position and instructions simply to imagine the target’s perspective produced increased levels of self-related cognition relative to a traditional control condition; the imagine-self condition also produced more self-thoughts and fewer target thoughts than did the imagine-target condition. The control condition produced thoughts suggesting that the observers were distancing themselves from the target. Observers receiving no instructions at all reported cognitions that closely resembled those of observers who received imagine-target instructions.
Mea Culpa: Predicting Stock Prices From Organizational AttributionsLee, Fiona; Peterson, Christopher; Tiedens, Larissa Z.
doi: 10.1177/0146167204266654pmid: 15536245
People’s causal attributions for events in their lives have been shown to relate to individual and interpersonal outcomes. Groups and organizations also make causal attributions, and this article examines whether their publicly communicated attributions predict organizational-level outcomes. By content analyzing attributions contained in corporate annual reports from 14 companies during a 21-year period, the authors found that organizations that made “self disserving” attributions— internal and controllable attributions for negative events—had higher stock prices 1 year later. The authors argue that claiming personal responsibility for negative events made the organizations appear more in control, leading to more positive impressions.