Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin最新文献

How do people resist in-the-moment temptation if they are poor at inhibiting their impulses? Theory on self-control suggests that people have a toolbox of strategies available to them that may be used preemptively to dampen temptations. Applying this to the goal of relationship maintenance, in two studies, we examined whether people motivated to maintain their romantic relationship but poor at inhibitory control would appraise an attractive alternative (AA) as less appealing prior to a face-to-face interaction. In Study 1 (N = 190), those with high motivation and low inhibitory control (measured with the Stroop) rated the AA as less appealing as compared with singles and those high in motivation and inhibitory control. We replicated the motivation by inhibitory control interaction in Study 2 (N = 219). The AAs paradigm and the Devaluation Effect provide a useful way to explore the toolbox approach to self-control strategies.

The vicarious cognitive dissonance process predicts that observing an inconsistent act by a member of the ingroup causes uncomfortable arousal in the observer, inducing a motivation to reduce this discomfort. This meta-analysis examined the effect of vicarious cognitive dissonance based on 24 studies (N = 16,769). Our results indicated a small effect for the vicarious cognitive dissonance (g = 0.41 [0.27, 0.54], p <.001) with important variability between the outcomes. Our moderator analysis was limited by the low number of included studies. Publication bias analyses indicate a small true effect size (e.g., 3PSM: g = 0.22, p = .042), that was inflated by small sample sizes (R-index = 14.6%). We discussed theoretical issues concerning the psychological processes underlying vicarious cognitive dissonance, and methodological questions concerning operationalization. We proposed ways of improving the design and procedure to ensure that the effects found in the literature exist and are replicable.

We examined whether the enforcement of phantom rules-frequently broken and rarely enforced codified rules-varies by the race of the rule breaker. First, we analyzed whether race affects when 311 calls, a nonemergency service, end in arrest in New York City. Across 10 years, we found that calls from census blocks of neighborhoods consisting of mostly White individuals were 65% less likely to escalate to arrest than those where White people were the numerical minority. Next, we experimentally manipulated transgressor race and found that participants (N = 393) who were high in social dominance orientation were more likely to route 311 calls to 911 when the transgressor was Black (vs. White). We also explored the subjective experience of phantom rule enforcement; People of color report they are more likely to be punished for violating phantom rules compared to White people. Overall, we find evidence of racism in the enforcement of phantom rules.

Previous research has examined the real-time cognitive processes underlying perceivers' ability to resolve racial ambiguity into monoracial categorizations, but such processes for multiracial categorizations are less clear. Using a novel, three-choice mouse-tracking paradigm, we found that when perceivers categorized faces as multiracial their hand movements revealed an initial attraction to a monoracial category (study 1). Moreover, exposure to multiracial individuals moderated these effects. When measured (Study 2) or manipulated (Study 3), multiracial exposure reduced monoracial category activation and activation occurred for both morphed and real multiracial faces (Study 4). Together, the findings suggest that multiracial categorizations emerge from dynamic competition between relatively more accessible monoracial categories and a less-accessible multiracial category, which is attenuated through greater exposure to multiracial targets. This research is the first to chart out the real-time dynamics underlying multiracial categorizations and offers a new theoretical account of this increasingly common form of social categorization.

Relatively little is known about the extent to which multiracial people stand in solidarity with their parent groups. Here, we draw from social identity theory to examine predictors of Asian-White multiracial people's solidarity with Asian and White people, Asian monoracial people's meta-perceptions of these solidarity levels, and consequences of these meta-perceptions for intergroup relations. Studies 1a-b show that Asian-White multiracial people stand in solidarity more strongly with Asian people than White people, especially when they perceive high levels of anti-Asian discrimination, and even when they believe they physically look White. Studies 2a-b demonstrate that Asian monoracial people incorrectly believe that physically White-looking Asian-White multiracial people stand in solidarity more strongly with White people, and these pessimistic meta-perceptions are associated with more rejection of multiracial people. Study 3 provides a causal link between meta-perceptions and rejection while providing preliminary evidence that correcting these solidarity meta-perceptions can improve intergroup attitudes.

Inequality is often one-sidedly framed as disadvantage, a practice identified as problematic by empirical research and critical scholarship, as it renders privilege invisible and shapes perceptions of and reactions to inequality. Importantly, inequality can mean differences in positive (e.g., promotions) or negative outcomes (e.g., harassment). Drawing on cognitive processes involved in (group) comparisons and the processing of positive and negative content, we predict that the valence of outcomes moderates the preference for disadvantage (vs. advantage) frames. We coded social media posts on gender inequality (Study 1, n = 1,402) and had participants in an online experiment (Study 2, n = 164) describe gender and sexual orientation inequality in positive and negative outcomes. Confirming hypotheses, people overall used disadvantage frames more, but were more likely to use advantage frames for inequality in positive (compared with negative) outcomes. We discuss theoretical implications for inequality framing research and practical implications for privilege awareness interventions.

Changing how we feel can be adaptive, but it is also difficult and may require effort. There is research on what people want to achieve in emotion regulation (motivational content), but there is little research on how intensely people pursue what they want to achieve (motivational intensity). We tested the role of motivational intensity in emotion regulation, by assessing (Studies 1-2, Ns = 160 and 157) and manipulating (Study 3, N = 250) it in daily life. As predicted, when people were more motivated to make themselves feel better, they engaged more intensely in emotion-regulatory behaviors, experienced more desirable emotional experiences, and reported better psychological health. Furthermore, motivating people to make themselves feel better, increased their emotion-regulatory behaviors and led to better psychological health during COVID-19. Motivational intensity, therefore, may be an understudied factor facilitating emotional well-being.

Impressions of others are formed from multiple cues, including facial features, vocal tone, and behavioral descriptions, and may be subject to multimodal updating. Four experiments (N = 803) examined the influence of a target's face or voice on impression updating. Experiments 1a-1b examined whether behavior-based impressions are susceptible to updating by incongruent information conveyed by the target's face, voice, or behavior (within-participant manipulation). Both faces and voices updated impressions with comparable strength, but less than behaviors. Experiment 2, contrasting faces and voices only (between-participants manipulation), showed that voices outperformed faces regardless of how impressions were formed (i.e., via behavioral vs. nonbehavioral information). Experiment 3 found no difference when comparing faces and voices in a within-participant design and controlling for stimulus attractiveness. Our work highlights the importance of multimodal cues for impression updating and shows that the relative power of faces and voices depends on contextual factors.

How affective polarization in Western democracies results from the interplay of ideological differences and group identification remains unclear. To better understand these processes and address the call for falsifiable theories, we propose a formalized Expectancy-Value Model of Interpersonal Likability in Politics (EVIL-P). It argues that people (dis)like targets with (dis)similar political views (i.e., value), especially if these views are rare (i.e., expectancy). By reanalyzing data from the American National Election Studies (N = 38,868), the British Election Study (N = 24,522), and nine studies on ratings of societal groups that vary in political views (N = 6,587), we find support for EVIL-P. Expectancy and value interacted to predict people's attitudes. Moreover, targets with moderate political views were liked most on average, and targets with more extreme political views had more extreme fans and haters. We discuss how EVIL-P contributes to research on affective polarization and helps testing related phenomena.

In many societies, attaining cultural ideals of physical attractiveness is desirable (e.g., being beautiful), but pursuing physical attractiveness is not (e.g., being vain). How do people address these paradoxical standards? We argue that people meet the standards to both appear slim and appear to have good values by disguising their true motives for ambiguous actions (i.e., diet and exercise): they project more virtuous health motives to others despite being actually driven by physical appearance motives. Five preregistered studies and two supplemental studies (N = 4,321) find evidence for this behavior and offer an intervention to increase the extent to which people are actually driven by health (vs. physical appearance) motives in private. Moreover, we find that this behavior is driven by the desire to be seen by others as having good values. Altogether, this research contributes to a better understanding of the distorted discourse surrounding health, diet, exercise, and appearance.