Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Trail, Thomas E.; Shelton, J. Nicole; West, Tessa V.

doi: 10.1177/0146167209332741pmid: 19286645

Jobs, social group memberships, or living arrangements lead many people to interact every day with another person from a different racial background. Given that research has shown that interracial interactions are often stressful, it is important to know how these daily interactions unfold across time and what factors contribute to the success or failure of these interactions. Both members of same-race and mixed-race college roommate pairs completed daily questionnaires measuring their emotional experiences and their perceptions of their roommate. Results revealed that roommates in mixed-race dyads experienced less positive emotions and intimacy toward their roommates than did roommates in same-race dyads and that the experience of positive emotions declined over time for ethnic minority students with White roommates. Mediation analyses showed that the negative effects of roommate race were mediated by the level of intimacy-building behaviors performed by the roommate. Implications for future research and university policies are discussed.

van Straaten, Ischa; Engels, Rutger C. M. E.; Finkenauer, Catrin; Holland, Rob W.

doi: 10.1177/0146167209332965pmid: 19336540

This experimental study investigated approach behavior toward opposite-sex others of similar versus dissimilar physical attractiveness. Furthermore, it tested the moderating effects of sex. Single participants interacted with confederates of high and low attractiveness. Observers rated their behavior in terms of relational investment (i.e., behavioral efforts related to the improvement of interaction fluency, communication of positive interpersonal affect, and positive self-presentation). As expected, men displayed more relational investment behavior if their own physical attractiveness was similar to that of the confederate. For women, no effects of attractiveness similarity on relational investment behavior were found. Results are discussed in the light of positive assortative mating, preferences for physically attractive mates, and sex differences in attraction-related interpersonal behaviors.

Lemay, Edward P.; Clark, Margaret S.

doi: 10.1177/0146167209332964pmid: 19417205

Three studies provide evidence that people with low self-esteem, but not those with high self-esteem, distance themselves from a flawed partner in situations in which the flaws seem likely to reflect negatively on them. Participants with low (but not high) self-esteem reduced their motivation to care for the partner's needs when they felt they might share a partner's salient flaws (Study 1), when they were primed to focus on similarities between themselves and a socially devalued partner (Study 2), and when they learned that their partner was socially incompetent (Study 3). In Study 3, individuals with low (but not high) self-esteem provided less emotional support and experienced more public image threat when they learned that partners were socially incompetent. In addition, all three studies provided evidence that participants' distancing reduced their confidence in the partner's motivation to care for them, suggesting that distancing involves a cost to the self.

Yunhui Huang, ; Lei Wang, ; Junqi Shi,

doi: 10.1177/0146167209333046pmid: 19329495

Four studies used the Implicit Association Test to explore the individual and interactive influence of perceived ownership and perceived choice on object evaluation. In Study 1, participants implicitly preferred their possessions over others' when all chosen by a third party (i.e., the ownership effect). In Study 2, participants implicitly preferred self-chosen objects over other-chosen objects when all given to the third party (i.e., the choice effect). In Study 3, the ownership effect disappeared when participants compared their self-chosen possessions with others' possessions that were chosen by the participants. In Study 4, the choice effect remained even when participants compared their self-chosen possessions with their possessions that were chosen by others. These results suggest that while the ownership effect could be attenuated by perceived choice, the choice effect is stable even under the influence of perceived ownership.

Zawacki, Tina; Norris, Jeanette; Hessler, Danielle M.; Morrison, Diane M.; Stoner, Susan A.; George, William H.; Davis, Kelly Cue; Abdallah, Devon A.

doi: 10.1177/0146167209333043pmid: 19332435

This experiment examined the effects of women's relationship motivation, partner familiarity, and alcohol consumption on sexual decision making. Women completed an individual difference measure of relationship motivation and then were randomly assigned to partner familiarity condition (low, high) and to alcohol consumption condition (high dose, low dose, no alcohol, placebo). Then women read and projected themselves into a scenario of a sexual encounter. Relationship motivation and partner familiarity interacted with intoxication to influence primary appraisals of relationship potential. Participants' primary and secondary relationship appraisals mediated the effects of women's relationship motivation, partner familiarity, and intoxication on condom negotiation, sexual decision abdication, and unprotected sex intentions. These findings support a cognitive mediation model of women's sexual decision making and identify how individual and situational factors interact to shape alcohol's influences on cognitive appraisals that lead to risky sexual decisions. This knowledge can inform empirically based risky sex interventions.

Cavallo, Justin V.; Fitzsimons, Gráinne M.; Holmes, John G.

doi: 10.1177/0146167209332742pmid: 19307432

Four studies examine the hypothesis that goals adopted by high and low self-esteem people (HSEs and LSEs) to manage risk in romantic relationships may reflect global shifts in approach motivation and subsequently affect risk taking in nonsocial domains. In Studies 1 and 2, threats to participants' romantic relationships heightened HSEs' self-reported general approach motivation while lowering LSEs' approach motivation. In Studies 2 through 4, HSEs exhibited riskier decision making (i.e., a greater tendency to pursue rewards and ignore risks) in nonsocial domains following a relationship threat manipulation whereas LSEs made more conservative decisions. These results suggest that the romantic risk regulation may be inherently linked to a broader approach and avoidance system and that specific risk regulation behaviors may be driven by global motivational shifts to a greater degree than previously theorized.

Gentile, Douglas A.; Anderson, Craig A.; Yukawa, Shintaro; Ihori, Nobuko; Saleem, Muniba; Lim Kam Ming, ; Shibuya, Akiko; Liau, Albert K.; Khoo, Angeline; Bushman, Brad J.; Rowell Huesmann, L.; Sakamoto, Akira

Rink, Floor A.; Ellemers, Naomi

doi: 10.1177/0146167209333177pmid: 19329494

Three studies examine how the future prospects of new group members affect newcomer acceptance and newcomer influence. In Study 1, participants anticipate accepting temporary newcomers less easily than permanent newcomers because they expect temporary newcomers to differ from the group. In Study 2, the effects of newcomer entry in three-person groups are examined. Results show that groups perceived temporary newcomers as more involved in a judgmental decision-making process than permanent newcomers. In Study 3, a hidden profile task confirms that temporary newcomers indeed shared more unique knowledge during discussions than permanent newcomers and that this enhanced the groups' decision quality. However, compared to permanent newcomers, temporary newcomers caused teams to experience more conflict and less group identification, illustrating the tension between innovative group performance and group cohesion. The results are discussed in light of the social identity perspective and research on minority influence.

Chambers, John R.; Windschitl, Paul D.

doi: 10.1177/0146167209333044pmid: 19307433

Three studies examined the influence of comparison-referent exposure (i.e., the frequency with which one views comparison referents) on evaluations of the ability of a target person (either oneself or another person). In Experiment 1, participants performed a task and then viewed performances of both upward and downward referents. Participants who saw more performances by the upward referents than the downward referents evaluated their own performances less favorably did than participants who saw more performances by the downward referents than the upward referents. Experiment 2 produced similar findings, showing that comparison exposure also influences people's evaluations about someone other than themselves. In Experiment 3, comparison-exposure effects were significantly reduced when participants were instructed to think deliberatively about the comparison information, consistent with the idea that people typically rely on imprecise representations of comparison information even when they are capable of forming more precise representations from memory if motivated to do so.

Toma, Claudia; Butera, Fabrizio

doi: 10.1177/0146167209333176pmid: 19332434

Two experiments investigated the differential impact of cooperation and competition on strategic information sharing and use in a three-person group decision-making task. Information was distributed in order to create a hidden profile so that disconfirmation of group members' initial preferences was required to solve the task. Experiment 1 revealed that competition, compared to cooperation, led group members to withhold unshared information, a difference that was not significant for shared information. In competition, compared to cooperation, group members were also more reluctant to disconfirm their initial preferences. Decision quality was lower in competition than in cooperation, this effect being mediated by disconfirmation use and not by information sharing. Experiment 2 replicated these findings and revealed the role of mistrust in predicting strategic information sharing and use in competition. These results support a motivated information processing approach of group decision making.