Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Kitayama, Shinobu

doi: 10.1177/0146167209355127pmid: 20019384

Packer, Dominic J.; Chasteen, Alison L.

doi: 10.1177/0146167209350628pmid: 19907038

The normative conflict model predicts that expressions of dissent within groups can be motivated by the collective interest and that strongly identified members may dissent from group norms if and when they are perceived to be harmful to the collective. We present convergent evidence from four studies in support of the model. Study 1 investigated retrospective reports of disagreements and found that strongly identified members reported collectively oriented motives for expressing disagreement within their groups. Studies 2a and 2b provided experimental tests of the prediction that strongly identified group members are willing to dissent when they reflect on how a norm could harm their group but not when they reflect on negative individualistic consequences of the same norm. Finally, Study 3 replicated these effects using a correlational design that measured actual opinion expression in an ostensible online chat room.

Saucier, Donald A.; Webster, Russell J.

doi: 10.1177/0146167209346170pmid: 19776422

Social vigilantism (SV) is an enduring individual difference that assesses the tendency of individuals to impress and propagate their “superior” beliefs onto others to correct others’ more “ignorant” opinions. After establishing a reliable measure of SV, three studies showed that SV was associated with greater expressions of belief superiority (whether reacting to others holding dissimilar or similar beliefs) and greater resistance to persuasion (via increased rates of counterarguing and greater attitude stability after persuasion appeals) even after controlling for relevant individual differences (narcissism, dogmatism, psychological reactance, and need for cognition), as well as attitude importance and extremity. Thus, SV predicts expressions of belief superiority and resistance to persuasion above and beyond characteristics of the attitude and individual difference variables previously studied in the attitude literature. SV is a meaningful construct in increasing the understanding of persuasion, attitude resistance, and attitude dissemination that can be applied in a variety of psychological domains.

Kanat-Maymon, Michal; Assor, Avi

doi: 10.1177/0146167209347381pmid: 19820178

Two studies examined the relations between young adults’ empathic responding and their perceptions of two maternal behaviors. As predicted from self-determination theory, perceived maternal control had unique negative associations with empathic support of one’s romantic partner (indicated by both self-reports and partner reports) and with empathic concern for others in general, and a unique positive association with personal distress in response to others in need. Perceived maternal responsiveness to distress was a unique positive predictor of empathic concern. The findings suggest that the experience of one’s mother as controlling is likely to interfere with one’s empathic responding and that high levels of perceived maternal responsiveness do not cancel the negative effects of the experience of controlling parenting. Furthermore, the findings suggest that high levels of perceived maternal responsiveness might exacerbate the negative relations between perceived maternal control and personal distress in response to others in need.

Kühnen, Ulrich

doi: 10.1177/0146167209346746pmid: 19875826

Previous findings suggest that individuals rely on ease of retrieval primarily under low judgment elaboration. However, in these previous studies the manipulation check (MC) has always been measured before the dependent variable (DV). It is argued that this sequence increases the likelihood that individuals rely on subjective experience particularly under conditions that prevent considering retrieved contents. Four conceptual replications of such previous findings are reported where the manipulation of the MC—DV order was added to the original design. In all four cases (Study 1 on accuracy motivation, Study 2 on cognitive capacity, Study 3 using a misattribution paradigm, and Study 4 on power), ease-of-retrieval effects under low-judgment-elaboration conditions were observed only if the MC measurement preceded the DV, but not with reversed order.

de Kwaadsteniet, Erik W.; van Dijk, Eric; Wit, Arjaan; De Cremer, David

doi: 10.1177/0146167209352192pmid: 20019385

This article investigates how group members respond to one another when collective overuse occurs. The authors argue that interpersonal reactions after overuse in a common-resource dilemma are largely determined by the environmental characteristics of the social dilemma. More specifically, under environmental certainty they expect people to show more anger to group members than under uncertainty (Study 1). Additionally, they expect stronger retributive reactions to high harvesters than to moderate harvesters, and they expect this difference to be larger under certainty than under uncertainty (Study 2 and 3). Moreover, they predict that these effects are mediated by blaming. The results of three experiments corroborate these predictions.

Saxbe, Darby E.; Repetti, Rena

doi: 10.1177/0146167209352864pmid: 19934011

The way people describe their homes may reflect whether their time at home feels restorative or stressful. This article uses linguistic analysis software (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) to analyze 60 dual-income spouses’ self-guided home tours by calculating the frequency of words describing clutter, a sense of the home as unfinished, restful words, and nature words. Based on a principal components analysis, the former two categories were combined into the variable stressful home and the latter two into restorative home. Over 3 weekdays following the home tours, wives with higher stressful home scores had flatter diurnal slopes of cortisol, a profile associated with adverse health outcomes, whereas women with higher restorative home scores had steeper cortisol slopes. These results held after controlling for marital satisfaction and neuroticism. Women with higher stressful home scores had increased depressed mood over the course of the day, whereas women with higher restorative home scores had decreased depressed mood over the day.

Fleischhauer, Monika; Enge, Sören; Brocke, Burkhard; Ullrich, Johannes; Strobel, Alexander; Strobel, Anja

doi: 10.1177/0146167209351886pmid: 19901274

Need for cognition (NFC) refers to an individual’s tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive processing. So far, little attention has been paid to a systematic evaluation of the distinctiveness of NFC from traits with similar conceptualization and from intelligence. The present research contributes to filling this gap by examining the relation of NFC to well-established personality concepts (Study 1) and to a comprehensive measure of intelligence in a sample with broad educational backgrounds (Study 2). We observed NFC to be positively correlated with openness, emotional stability, and traits indicating goal orientation. Using confirmatory factor analysis and event-related potentials, incremental validity of NFC and openness to ideas was demonstrated, showing that NFC is more predictive of drive-related and goal-oriented behavior and attentional resource allocation. Regarding intelligence, NFC was more associated with fluid than with crystallized aspects of intelligence. Altogether, the results provide strong support for the conceptual autonomy of NFC.

Updegraff, John A.; Emanuel, Amber S.; Suh, Eunkook M.; Gallagher, Kristel M.

doi: 10.1177/0146167209353331pmid: 19915097

Self-construal abstractness (SCA) refers to the degree to which people construe important bases of self-esteem in a broad, flexible, and abstract rather than a concrete and specific manner. This article hypothesized that SCA would be a unique predictor of self-esteem stability, capturing the degree to which people’s most important bases of self-worth are resistant to disconfirmation. Two studies using a daily diary methodology examined relationships between SCA, daily self-esteem, and daily emotions and/or events. In Study 1, individual differences in SCA emerged as the most consistent and unique predictor of self-esteem stability. Furthermore, SCA contributed to self-esteem stability by buffering the influence of daily negative emotions on self-esteem. Study 2 manipulated SCA via a daily self-construal task and found an abstract versus concrete self-focus to buffer the influence of daily negative events on self-esteem. Implications of these findings for the study of the self and well-being are discussed.

Gaucher, Danielle; Hafer, Carolyn L.; Kay, Aaron C.; Davidenko, Nicolas

doi: 10.1177/0146167209351701pmid: 19915098

People prefer to perceive the world as just; however, the everyday experience of undeserved events challenges this perception.The authors suggest that one way people rationalize these daily experiences of unfairness is by means of a compensatory bias. People make undeserved events more palatable by endorsing the notion that outcomes naturally balance out in the end—good, yet undeserved, outcomes will balance out bad outcomes, and bad undeserved outcomes will balance out good outcomes.The authors propose that compensatory biases manifest in people’s interpretive processes (Study 1) and memory (Study 2). Furthermore, they provide evidence that people have a natural tendency to anticipate compensatory outcomes in the future, which, ironically, might lead them to perceive a current situation as relatively more fair (Study 3).These studies highlight an understudied means of justifying unfairness and elucidate the justice motive’s power to affect people’s construal of their social world.