Psychological Science最新文献

Although over 8 million Native peoples live in the United States, American culture is infused with representations depicting them as people of the past (i.e., the Native-past stereotype). Four studies (total N = 38,009 non-Native American adults who voluntarily visited the Project Implicit website) examined the prevalence of the implicit Native-past stereotype among non-Native individuals and whether this stereotype predicted lower support for Native equity. We developed a Native-past Implicit Association Test to index the implicit Native-past stereotype and document the extent to which people associate Native peoples (vs. White Americans) with the past (vs. the present). Results showed that over two-thirds of non-Native participants demonstrated at least slight implicit Native-past associations (Cohen's ds > 0.41). Moreover, stronger Native-past associations predicted greater minimization of contemporary Native racism and, subsequently, lower support for policies designed to advance Native equity. This work suggests that the prevalent Native-past stereotype may harm many aspects of contemporary Native peoples' lived experiences.

Gender differences in occupational interests are often assumed to reflect sex differences in empathizing or systemizing preferences. Do such essentialized explanations lead people to provide gender-biased learning affordances that constrain women's career interests? In Study 1 (N = 292), North American STEM professionals endorsing a biologically essentialized (vs. sociocultural) explanation for gender differences in occupational interests provided women (men) with more empathizing (systemizing) learning affordances in a mock management task. Study 2 replicated these gendered affordances by experimentally manipulating essentialized explanations (N = 379; participants were North American men with management experience in male-dominated fields). In Study 3, North American undergraduate women (N = 300) who received gendered learning affordances reported greater interest in, and possible alignment with, empathizing work assignments, whereas those who received countergendered affordances reported greater interest in, and possible alignment with, systemizing assignments. These results reveal that gender-essentialist beliefs can foster self-fulfilling gender gaps in occupational interests.

Goal setting is only somewhat more common than the failure to follow through on one's goals. Recognizing the challenge of long-term behavior change, we asked what best predicts long-term goal adherence: extrinsic motivation (the extent to which goal pursuit is experienced as a means to an end) or intrinsic motivation (the extent to which the same goal pursuit is experienced as an end in itself). In a year-long longitudinal study, U.S. adults set extrinsic New Year's resolutions, but intrinsic motivation predicted adherence to these goals more than extrinsic motivation (Study 1). These findings emerged among adults in China (Study 2) and when measuring goal adherence objectively using the number of steps U.S. adults walked over 2 weeks (Study 3). Understanding how intrinsic motivation affects long-term persistence critically informs interventions that promote goal pursuit. Indeed, increasing intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) motivation increased U.S. adults' goal adherence (Study 4). Overall, intrinsic motivation both predicted and causally increased goal adherence.

In later older adulthood, individuals report increased depressive symptoms, whereas gender differences in depressive symptoms narrow. We evaluated whether terminal decline (i.e., accelerated worsening in proximity to death) explained these patterns. We examined the longitudinal trajectories of depressive symptoms in 2,411 participants (baseline age: 29-95 years) from the Interplay of Genes and Environments Across Multiple Studies consortium representing three countries (Sweden, Denmark, and Australia). Joint modeling revealed that individuals reporting larger annual increases in depressive symptoms after age 70 were at increased risk of death. Piecewise linear multilevel models with random changepoints revealed accelerated increases in depressive symptoms approximately 4 years before death. Co-twin control analyses with 98 twin pairs found that the deceased twin had significantly larger accelerations in depressive symptoms compared with the surviving twin. Men experienced more severe mortality-related increases compared with women. Terminal decline partially explains the increase in depressive symptoms in later older adulthood.

With more opportunities for diverse interactions, little is known about how social interactions involving people of different socioeconomic status (SES) may unfold. We investigated social-attunement patterns in dyadic interactions involving SES. Unacquainted adults recruited from a community in the United States interacted with similar-or-different-SES partners in the lab (N = 130 dyads). Attunement was assessed throughout the interaction by examining physiological linkage-how much a person's physiological change is predicted by another's physiological change over time. Overall, low-SES participants showed stronger physiological linkage-indicating greater attunement-to partners across SES. Participants also appeared more comfortable when interacting with low-SES partners. There were no SES differences in dominance during the conversation. After the interaction, participants reported liking similar-SES partners more than different-SES partners. These patterns suggest that during interactions, lower-SES individuals are more other-focused than high-SES individuals, and in-group preference prevails. We note limitations in the racial representation of our sample.

People often protect public goods by sanctioning free riders. This occurs in simple situations in which protecting the public good does not conflict with other moral considerations. How do people navigate situations in which protecting the public good comes at the expense of helping someone? We theorized that people would prioritize the needs of the public or another individual on the basis of the individual's group membership. To test this theory, we conducted a field experiment with male confederates approaching adult male travelers passing through check-in gates at Dutch train stations. The confederates requested to follow the travelers without checking in themselves. We observed whether travelers sanctioned the free rider by rejecting and disapproving of this request or helped by opening the gates. At three train stations, 801 travelers were approached by 10 different confederates. Group membership was varied by having five native-majority and five ethnic-minority confederates. Robust evidence was found for travelers being more likely to help native-majority free riders and to sanction ethnic-minority free riders.

Using a DNA-based polygenic index, we explored geographical and historical differences in polygenic associations with educational attainment in East and West Germany around the time of reunification. This index was derived from a prior genome-wide association study on educational attainment in democratic countries. In 1,930 individuals aged 25 to 85 years from the SOEP-G[ene] cohort, the magnitude of polygenic associations with educational attainment did not differ between East and West Germany before reunification but increased in East Germany thereafter. This gene-environment interaction remained robust when we probed for variance dispersion. A control analysis using a polygenic index of height suggests that this interaction is unlikely to reflect a general trend toward greater genetic associations in East Germany after reunification. The observed amplification of education-genetic associations aligns with theories suggesting heightened genetic influences on educational attainment during periods of greater social and educational opportunity. We emphasize the need for replication in larger German genetic data sets.

Adults selectively avoid useful information. We examined the development of information avoidance in 5- to 10-year-old American children (N = 320). In Experiment 1, children considered scenarios that might elicit information avoidance: protecting against negative emotions, maintaining perceptions of likeability and competence, preserving beliefs and preferences, and acting in self-interest. When a motivation for avoidance was present, children were more likely to avoid learning information, particularly with age. Experiment 2 presented the self-interest scenario (a moral "wiggle room" task) involving real payoffs. Although children could reveal their partner's payoff without cost, older children capitalized on moral "wiggle room" by avoiding this information and choosing the self-interested payoff. In Experiment 3, we considered conditions under which even young children might avoid information, finding that they too avoided information when explicitly encouraged to protect their emotions. Additional qualitative findings probed children's open-ended responses about why people seek and avoid information. Together, these experiments document the origins of information avoidance.

Most mind-wandering paradigms use self-reports following task performance, but the extent to which these reports are confounded by performance cues is unknown. In two experiments with adult human participants, we examined whether self-reports and confidence therein are influenced by performance indicators during visual metronome response tasks. In Experiment 1 (N = 40), sham feedback modulated reports independently of behavioral performance with participants more likely to report mind wandering after incorrect than correct sham feedback. In Experiment 2 (N = 111), we replicated this pattern using a more implicit manipulation of perceived performance-a surreptitious delay in the onset of response targets. Participants were more likely to report mind wandering after this delay than they were in control trials. In both experiments, confidence in on-task reports was lower when the corresponding indicator (falsely) implied poor performance. These findings suggest that mind-wandering reports and experiential state confidence are partly confounded by performance monitoring and have implications for experience-sampling methodologies.

Biased media content shapes children's social concepts and identities. We examined gender bias in a large corpus of scripts from 98 children's television programs from the United States spanning the years 1960 to 2018 (6,600 episodes, ~2.7 million sentences, ~16 million words). We focused on agency and communion, the fundamental psychological dimensions underlying gender stereotypes. At the syntactic level, words referring to men or boys (vs. women or girls) appear more often in the agent (vs. patient) role. This syntactic bias remained stable between 1960 and 2018. At the semantic level, words referring to men or boys (vs. women or girls) co-occurred more often with words denoting agency. Words denoting communion showed both stereotypical and counterstereotypical associations. Some semantic gender biases have remained unchanged or have weakened over time; others have grown. These findings suggest that gender stereotypes are built into the core of children's stories. Whether we are closer today to gender equality in children's media depends on where one looks.