Showing papers in "Social Cognition in 2001"

The go/no-go association task

Abstract: Theory is constrained by the quality and versatility of measurement tools. As such, the development of techniques for measurement is critical to the successful development of theory. This paper presents a technique — the Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT) — that joins a family of existing techniques for measuring implicit social cognition generally, with a focus on attitude (evaluation). To expand the measurement potential supplied by its closest cousin, the Implicit Association Test (IAT), the GNAT can be used to examine automatic social cognition toward a single target category. That is, the GNAT obtains a measure of implicit social cognition without requiring the direct involvement of complementary or contrasting objects. Also, by implementing a response deadline in the procedure, this version of the GNAT trades off response latency for sensitivity as the dependent variable measure. We illustrate the technique through a series of experiments (1–5) using simple attitude objects (bugs and fruit). ...

Toward a Paradigm Shift: From Cross-Cultural Differences in Social Cognition to Social-Cognitive Mediation of Cultural Differences

Abstract: Cultural psychologists have often sought to explain cross-cultural differences in social cognition as differences rooted in the cultures' positions on a small collection of pan-cultural dimensions (e.g., individualism-collectivism). In this paper, we argue for a paradigm shift in cultural psychology. Drawing on the arguments and data presented in the papers of this special issue, we propose to view cultures as dynamic open systems that spread across geographical boundaries and evolve through time. This alternative view links cultural differences in social cognition to cultures' axiomatic assumptions (or cultural theories) in the relevant domains, and specifies the social cognitive principles that govern the activation and application of such cultural theories in specific contexts. This new approach captures the complexity of cultural processes, paves the way for an exciting agenda for future investigations, and provides a common language for psychologists to describe how culture affects social co...

Taking a look underground : Detecting interpreting, and reacting to implicit racial biases

Abstract: Participants were given the opportunity to gain insight into their implicit racial biases by completing the Implicit Association Test (IAT, Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998). We examined participants' detection of their implicit racial biases, and their interpretation of and reactions to such biases. Further, we examined the potential moderating role of proneness to prejudice-related discrepancies. Results revealed strong implicit racial biases that were moderately related to explicit prejudice but unrelated to proneness to discrepancies. The majority of participants detected this bias, and they felt guilty about it to the extent that they attributed the bias to race-related factors. Participants with smaller discrepancies were more prone to misattribute their IAT bias to nonracial factors and not feeling guilty. These latter findings suggest that people who typically experience success at avoiding prejudiced responses might, paradoxically, be least likely to detect subtle racial biases when t...

Implicit attitudes and racism: Effects of word familiarity and frequency on the implicit association test.

Abstract: Greenwald, McGhee and Schwartz (1998) described a new method-the Implicit Association Test (IAT)-for unobtrusively measuring racial attitudes. This article assesses the validity of the IAT by investigating whether Greenwald et al.'s implicit racism findings resulted from two confounds present in their studies: differential familiarity and frequency of the words that comprised their target concepts. Experiment 1 produced large IAT effects when both low and high familiarity words comprised nonsocial target categories (insects and flowers) and demonstrated that the IAT is more sensitive when high familiarity exemplars form the target concepts. In Experiment 2, we obtained large implicit racism effects for both African American and Hispanic racial groups even when the familiarity and frequency of the names that comprised the racial categories were controlled and even though participants described themselves as unprejudiced. Additionally, explicit self-reports of racial attitudes were only weakly rela...

Cultural Identity and Dynamic Construction of the Self: Collective Duties and Individual Rights in Chinese and American Cultures

Abstract: Previous studies have contrasted the self-conceptions of Chinese people and those of North Americans using the Twenty Statements Test (TST). Guided by the dynamic constructivist approach to culture and cognition, the present study examined the effects of cultural identity activation on Chinese and North Americans' spontaneous self-concepts. Specifically, we manipulated the salience of individual self (“I”), collective self (“we”), and cultural identity (being Americans or being Chinese). We predicted that Chinese people, believing in a relatively fixed social world, would be more likely than Americans to focus on collective duties when their cultural identity is evoked. In contrast, North Americans, believing in a relatively malleable social world, would be more likely than Chinese to focus on individual rights when their cultural identity is made salient. In Experiment 1, we compared the spontaneous self-concepts of Hong Kong Chinese and North American participants and found supportive evidence ...

Generalization of mere exposure effects to averaged composite faces

Abstract: Exposure increases positive affective responses to stimuli (the mere exposure effect). In nonsocial stimuli, this increased positive affect can generalize to a prototype or average of those stimuli. We investigated whether increased positive affect for previously seen faces generalizes to averaged composites of those faces. In two experiments, exposure to individual faces increased liking ratings of averaged composites (not seen previously) of those faces, in addition to the faces themselves. Attractiveness ratings of averaged composites also increased after exposure to component faces in Experiment 1 but not in Experiment 2. These results raised the possibility that a generalized mere exposure affect contributes to the appeal of average faces, although the evidence was stronger for generalization of liking than attractiveness.

The Feeling of Familiarity as a Regulator of Persuasive Processing

Abstract: Two experiments demonstrated that a subjective feeling of familiarity determined whether participants processed persuasive information analytically (systematically) or non-analytically (heuristically). In the first experiment, individuals unfamiliar with message content showed differential attitude change when strong versus weak arguments were presented, whereas individuals made familiar with the message through unrelated repetition failed to do so. These results were confirmed in a second study that manipulated familiarity through subtle repetition and eliminated procedural priming explanations of the effect. Implications of these findings for familiarity as a regulator of persuasive processing are discussed.

What Drives Whom? A Cultural Perspective on Human Agency

Abstract: This paper examines agency as a mechanism that can predict cultural differences in human motivation. In elaborating on the theory of self-construal (Markus & Kitayama, 1991) and drawing on past research on culture, we propose that people from cultures stressing independence are more personally agentic, whereas people from cultures stressing interdependence are more collectively agentic—which results in culturally contrasting differences in cognition and human motivation. Specifically, it is hypothesized that personal agents perceive agency to emanate from the self and, in turn, exhibit greater intrinsic motivation toward actions perceived as self-initiated, whereas collective agents perceive agency to lie within the collective and, in turn, exhibit greater intrinsic motivation toward behaviors perceived to originate from a collective. Such a framework elucidates current empirical research in the area of culture, cognition, and motivation as well as enables predictions about the contexts that can ...

The reproduction of culture: Communication processes tend to maintain cultural stereotypes

Abstract: Culture can be regarded as a system of meaning that is produced and maintained through the dynamic production and reproduction of meanings in the social activities of individuals. To illustrate such a process, this paper examined the changes to a story when it is transmitted between several individuals and contains information relevant to cultural stereotypes. It was argued that people favor the reproduction of stereotype-consistent over stereoptype-inconsistent information in communication, rendering the story increasingly more stereotypical and therefore maintaining the cultural stereotype. A story about a football player, who exhibited stereotype-relevant behaviors of his occupation, was transmitted through 20 four-person communication chains. Stereotype-consistent information was reproduced more than stereotype-inconsistent information, with the latter progressively screened out of the story over the course of the chain. Moreover, when the story content was compared across the chains, a divergence occurred when the story was initially transmitted but a convergence toward similar story content appeared through collective transmission. These findings are discussed with respect to the maintenance of cultural stereotypes and the reproduction of culture through the activities of individuals in a social network.

Considering The Impossible: Explaining The Effects of Implausible Anchors

Abstract: Research on judgmental anchoring - the assimilation of a numeric estimate towards a previously considered standard - has demonstrated that implausible anchors produce large effects. We propose an insufficient adjustment plus selective accessibility account for these effects. Specifically, judges may adjust from an implausible anchor until a plausible value for the target is reached and may then test the hypothesis that the target’s extension is similar to this value. If this is indeed the case, then differentially extreme implausible anchors should produce similar absolute estimates, because adjustment from any implausible anchor should terminate at the same value. Results of two studies are consistent with this prediction. They show that implausible anchors that differ extremely produce similar absolute estimates. The implications of these findings for alternative models of anchoring are discussed. Human judgment under uncertainty is often influenced by salient judgmental anchors. In what is probably the best known demonstration of such anchoring effects (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974), participants first received a comparative judgment task in which they were asked whether the percentage of African nations in the UN is higher or lower than an arbitrary number (the anchor) that had been determined by spinning a wheel of fortune (i.e., 65% or 10%). In the subsequent absolute judgment task, participants were asked to give their

Transitory determinants of values and decisions: The utility (or nonutility) of individualism and collectivism in understanding cultural differences.

Abstract: The determinants and effects of cultural differences inthe values described by individualism-collectivism were examined in a series of four experiments. Confirmatory factor analyses of a traditional measure of this construct yielded five independent factors rather than a bipolar structure. Moreover, differences between Hong Kong Chinese and European Americans in the values defined by these factors did not consistently coincide with traditional assumptions about the collectivistic vs. individualistic orientations. Observed differencesinvalues were often increased when situational primes were used to activate (1) concepts associated with a participant’s own culture and (2) thoughts reflecting a self-orientation (i.e., self- vs. group-focus) that is typical in this culture. Although the values we identified were helpful in clarifying the structure of the individualism-collectivism construct, they did not account for cultural differences inparticipants’ tendency to compromise in a behavioral decision task. We conclude that a conceptualization ofindividualismvs.collectivismintermsof the tendency tofocus on oneself as an individual vs. part of a group may be useful.However, global measures of this construct that do not take into account the situational specificity of norms and values which reflect these tendencies may be misleading, and may be oflimitedutilityinpredictingculturaldifferences indecision makingand other behaviors.

Effects of culture and processing goals on the activation and binding of trait concepts

Abstract: Two studies compared spontaneous trait use by Latinos and Anglo-Americans, with trait-implying behaviors equated over cultures on their intentional trait implications. In Study 1, only Anglos showed activation of trait concepts on a lexical decision task. In Study 2, with the more complex stimuli set, Anglos showed greater binding (linkage) of trait concepts and/or behaviors to the actors performing the behaviors. Results were consistent with the more frequent use of trait terms by Euro-Americans than by those from collectivist cultures, especially in open-ended self-descriptions and causal explanations, and illustrate the value of investigating activation and binding as two separable stages of spontaneous trait inference. The results also show that spontaneous inferences can reveal cultural differences that intentional inferences do not.

How Does Culture Influence Conflict Resolution? A Dynamic Constructivist Analysis

Abstract: Psychologists have taken several approaches to modeling how culture influences the ways individuals negotiate interpersonal conflict. Most common has been the approach of searching for cultural traits-general, stable value-orientations that predict a variety of culturally typical conflict resolution behaviors. Increasingly researchers have adopted a constructivist approach of locating the nexus of cultural influence in the knowledge structures that guide negotiators’ judgments and decisions. In this paper, we advocate extending the constructivist approach by incorporating principles from social cognition research on knowledge activation. We develop dynamic constructivist hypotheses about how the influence of culture on negotiation is moderated by the stimulus or task that the conflict presents, the social context in which the negotiator is embedded, and the negotiator/perceiver’s epistemic state.

Colors, Smiles, and Frowns: External Affective Cues can Directly Affect Responses to Persuasive Communications in a Mood-like Manner Without Affecting Mood

Abstract: We argue that external affective cues provide information that directly affects processing strategy without affecting mood Positively valenced (ie, happy) cues lead to nonsystematic processing and negatively valenced (ie, sad) cues lead to systematic processing Four studies addressed this issue In Study 1, participants were exposed to a set of strong or weak arguments, supporting comprehensive examinations for graduating students (Petty & Cacioppo, 1984) printed on either red (positively valenced external affective cue) or blue (negatively valenced external affective cue) paper After participants read the arguments their mood and attitudes toward comprehensive exams were measured The results showed that the blue paper participants elaborated the arguments and were persuaded by strong arguments only, while the red paper participants did not elaborate and were persuaded to the same extent by both strong and weak arguments There were no differences in mood between the groups In Study 2, u

Communication and Shared Reality: Implications for the Psychological Foundations of Culture

Abstract: In view of the recent development of macro-level theories concerning the spatial and temporal distribution of social representations, this paper presents a conceptualization of the evolution of shared beliefs from individual interactions, focusing on the role of communication. Drawing on the existing research literature and our own research findings on communication and cognition, we argue that the reciprocal relationship between shared reality and communication enables the development of systems of social representations at an individual level. Specifically, when formulating and comprehending messages, communicative partners draw on what they estimate to be shared knowledge among them. In addition, while communicating, communicative partners also strive to form shared representations of the topic of communication, which may overshadow pre-existing nonlinguistic representations. Moreover, contextual factors that influence communication also affect the development of shared reality. Based on these...

Individual versus group interest violation: surprise as a determinant of argument scrutiny and persuasion

Abstract: Previous studies based on an attributional analysis of persuasion have suggested that a source who takes an unexpected position is perceived as more trustworthy and accurate than one who argues for an expected position. As a result, message processing is decreased when expectancies are violated compared to when they are confirmed. The current research suggests that these findings are limited to cases in which the unexpected position violates individual self-interest. When a source's unexpected position violates individual self-interest, attributions of trustworthiness are enhanced, but when the unexpected position violates group interest, this does not occur (Experiment 1). Instead, a violation of group interest induces surprise (Experiment 1) and produces enhanced rather than reduced message processing (Experiment 2).

Effects of trait dominance on powerholders' judgments of subordinates

Abstract: Two studies tested the effects of trait dominance on powerholders' impressions and judgments of subordinates in dyadic interaction. Participants were assigned to the role of either interviewer or job applicant. Interviewers had either high- or low-dominant personalities, and applicants were motivated to present themselves as either sociable or competent. Both studies revealed that individual differences in dominance are associated with unique social cognitive sensitivities, reflected in impression ratings and interpersonal evaluations. High-dominant interviewers favored sociable applicants, whereas low-dominant interviewers favored competent applicants. Discussion relates findings to prior research on dominance orientation, impression management, and biasing effects of power.

When First Impressions Don't Last: The Role Of Isolation And Adaptation Processes In The Revision Of Evaluative Impressions

Abstract: Three experiments were conducted to examine the psychological processes underlying the revision of evaluative person impressions. It is proposed that the favorability of first impressions affects the extent to which people will draw in (i.e., adapt) or resist drawing in (i.e., isolate) subsequently processed information into an extant impression. These processes have consequences for impression change and the degree to which people are able to retrieve the evidential basis of their impressions. The findings from three experiments provided evidence for the present conceptualization. The findings are discussed in terms of their consequences for belief change and social information processing.

Affective Responses To Social Comparisons With Extremely Close Others

Abstract: Three experiments examined the hypothesis that the assimilation effect in people's responses to social comparisons (i.e., more pleasant responses to comparisons with successful others than to comparisons with unsuccessful others) on highly important dimensions would be strongest when people share an identity relationship with the target of comparison (i.e., an extremely close relationship in which people consider the target to be an important part of their identities). In Experiment 1, participants learned that a comparison target with whom they shared either an identity, unit, or non-unit relationship had succeeded or failed a test in an important ability domain. The assimilation effect was strongest among participants who shared an identity relationship with the target. Experiment 2 revealed that the same pattern of effects was obtained when empathic responses were controlled. Experiment 3 revealed that the assimilation effect occurring among people who share an identity relationship with a tar...

The complexity of thinking across cultures: interactions between culture and situational context

Abstract: How does culture impact individual’s cognitive complexity? This article reviews evidence suggesting that the relationship between culture and cognitive complexity depends upon the nature of the situation in which complexity is expressed. In addition, two new investigations are summarized. One study reveals that individuals from different cultures are differentially dogmatic on different domains of knowledge. The other study reveals that individuals from different cultures are differentially likely to form simplistic stereotypes within different social contexts. We conclude that it is typically misleading to suggest monolithic cross-cultural differences for complexity of thought. An interactionist approach appears more appropriate.

Do you see what I see?: Similarities and differences in victims' and observers' perceptions of discrimination

Abstract: The present study examines whether victims and observers use similar decision rules when deciding whether an action reflects discrimination. Forty-six victim-observer pairs were asked to indicate whether discrimination occurred in situations in which victims received negative feedback and in which discrimination was certain or ambiguous. Predictors of victims' and observers' individual judgments and predictors of victim-observer agreement were identified. The results suggest that victims and observers use similar, yet not identical, processes when making their individual judgments. Both victims and observers were more likely to say the negative feedback was due to discrimination when discrimination was more certain and when the perpetrator violated the norm of social responsibility. Differential predictors also emerged: Victims perceived discrimination when they were surprised by the negative evaluation. Observers perceived discrimination when they were not concerned with their social image. Vict...

I know what you know: assumptions about others' knowledge and their effects on message construction

Abstract: Current models of interpersonal communication assume that estimation of listener's knowledge is a basis for message formulation. By introducing methodological modifications to the Fussell and Krauss (1992) paradigm, the present study provided more definitive evidence for the use of knowledge estimation in message productions. In the first experiment, participants indicated whether they knew each of 30 landmarks (thus providing the actual distribution of knowledge) and estimated the proportion of students who would know them. Participants' estimation of the relative distribution of knowledge corresponded impressively with the actual distribution. In the second experiment, a different group of participants described each of the landmarks to an intended audience. The length of the descriptions and the frequency of naming a landmark were predicted by the estimated identifiability from Experiment 1. These results replicated previous findings in a different culture and addressed unresolved issues relat...

Priming Exceptions: A Test of the Scope Hypothesis in Naturalistic Trait Judgments

Abstract: Trait judgments draw on two kinds of memory: (a) trait summaries, which provide information in the form of a generalization, and (b) memories of episodes in which a person behaved in ways that are relevant to the trait. According to the scope hypothesis (e.g., Cosmides & Tooby, 2000; Klein, Cosmides, Tooby, & Chance, in press), a trait summary is most useful when its scope is delimited (i.e., when it is accompanied by information specifying those situations in which it does not apply). Episodic memories that are inconsistent with a trait summary can serve this function, because they encode specific situations in which the generalization fails to predict the outcome. This suggests that judgment procedures should be designed to search for summary information in semantic memory and, upon retrieving it, also search for episodic memories that are inconsistent with that summary. This prediction has been tested and supported in previous experiments using artificial target persons (Babey, Queller, & Klei...

The Impact of Perceiver Attitudes on Outcome-Biased Dispositional Inferences

Abstract: Three experiments examined the influence of perceivers' attitudes on their outcome-biased trait inferences. Participants supporting or opposing mandatory teacher testing read about the attempts of a teacher to pass a competency test. In all experiments, participants supportive of mandatory teacher testing made outcome-biased inferences about the teacher, judging her to be more intelligent and competent when she passed the test than when she failed, even though her performance on both tests was held constant. Participants opposed to mandatory testing made inferences about the teacher that were not outcome-biased. Experiment 3 showed that participants' beliefs about the diagnosticity of the competency test mediated the biasing effects of outcomes on trait inferences. The motivational bases of outcome-biased inferences are discussed.

Direction of Comparison in Typicality Judgments

Abstract: Two studies demonstrated that direction of comparison effects, a hallmark of feature matching models of comparison in preference and similarity judgments, were also found in typicality comparisons. College students compared the typicality of two group members (movie stars in Study 1, N = 82; fraternity members in Study 2, N = 153) who had been rated as equally typical in isolation. When group members shared typical features but had unique atypical features, participants rated the target of comparison (second group member) as more atypical than the referent (first group member). When group members shared atypical features, but had unique typical features, the pattern was reversed. Participants who were themselves members of the group provided similar ratings (Study 2). Consistent with past findings, the typicality judgments reflect a focus on the unique features of the target of comparison. Results are discussed in terms of judgments of members of stereotyped groups.

Organization by person category: stability in the face of differences in attentional resources

Abstract: Study 1 addressed the hypothesis that relative to younger adults, older adults exhibit reduced frequency for incidental recall of behavioral information concerning other people in an impression formation paradigm but do not exhibit any decline in person-based organization in their recall. Findings were as expected and the age difference in recall frequency was attributable to the reduced attentional resources of older participants. Study 2 was an experimental analogue of Study 1, in which younger adults completed the impression formation task either under concurrent load or under no load conditions. Load was shown to reduce recall frequency but not the level of person-based organization in incidental recall. Findings support the view that person-based organization is automatic in that it requires little, if any, attentional resources.