Showing papers by "Eric Luis Uhlmann published in 2008"

Can an Angry Woman Get Ahead? Status Conferral, Gender, and Expression of Emotion in the Workplace

Abstract: Three studies examined the relationships among anger, gender, and status conferral. As in prior research, men who expressed anger in a professional context were conferred higher status than men who expressed sadness. However, both male and female evaluators conferred lower status on angry female professionals than on angry male professionals. This was the case regardless of the actual occupational rank of the target, such that both a female trainee and a female CEO were given lower status if they expressed anger than if they did not. Whereas women's emotional reactions were attributed to internal characteristics (e.g., “she is an angry person,” “she is out of control”), men's emotional reactions were attributed to external circumstances. Providing an external attribution for the target person's anger eliminated the gender bias. Theoretical implications and practical applications are discussed.

Can an Angry Woman Get Ahead? Status Conferral, Gender, and Expression of Emotion in the Workplace

Abstract: Three studies examined the relationships among anger, gender, and status conferral. As in prior research, men who expressed anger in a professional context were conferred higher status than men who expressed sadness. However, both male and female evaluators conferred lower status on angry female professionals than on angry male professionals. This was the case regardless of the actual occupational rank of the target, such that both a female trainee and a female CEO were given lower status if they expressed anger than if they did not. Whereas women's emotional reactions were attributed to internal characteristics (e.g., “she is an angry person,” “she is out of control”), men's emotional reactions were attributed to external circumstances. Providing an external attribution for the target person's anger eliminated the gender bias. Theoretical implications and practical applications are discussed.

Varieties of Social Cognition

Abstract: Recent work within psychology demonstrates that unconscious cognition plays a central role in the judgments and actions of individuals. We distinguish between two basic types unconscious social cognition: unconsciousness of the influences on judgments and actions, and unconscious of the mental states (i.e., attitudes and feelings) that give rise to judgments and actions. Influence unconsciousness is corroborated by strong empirical evidence, but unconscious states are difficult to verify. We discuss procedures aimed at providing conclusive evidence of state unconsciousness, and apply them to recent empirical findings.

Chapter 4 – Implicit Theism

Abstract: Publisher Summary Human beings are implicit dualists who distinguish between bodies and minds, are biased toward detecting agency in the world around us, have difficulty imagining a future in which physical death brings psychological death, view the natural world as created for a purpose, and find it easy to imagine an omniscient deity. Successful religions provide frameworks for understanding the world which both imbue it with meaning and are immune to falsification. This chapter tackles the fascinating topic of the universality of religion from an implicit motivation and cognitive framework. Evidence is analyzed for two classes of empirically supported psychological contributors: cognitive defaults and existential needs. Both of these sets of variables exert a profound yet largely implicit influence on the development, content, transmission, and maintenance of religious faith. Theistic cognition is so deeply ingrained that even atheists, agnostics, and less religious people display implicit responses consistent with religious beliefs. Much of the specific content of religious beliefs varies widely from one culture to another. The development, spread, and maintenance of theistic beliefs are by necessity closely tied to basic psychological processes. The nearly universal belief in God and the afterlife appears an inevitable consequence of the natural grooves of human cognition and motivation.