Groupthink and Psychological Priming
Tom Pyszczynski, Carl Henthorn, Matt Motyl & Kristel Gerow
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study investigated the impact of subtle racial priming on the persuasive impact of criticisms of Barack Obama in the month prior to the 2008 presidential election. To prime Black or White race, participants wrote a paragraph about a student with a typical Black or White name. They then read editorials that accused Obama of being unpatriotic or being the Anti-Christ, or that listed his positions on major issues. Participants responded to both criticisms with diminished preferences for and more negative beliefs about Obama, but only when African-American race was primed. Interestingly, the Anti-Christ criticism increased preferences and positive beliefs about Obama in the absence of racial priming, suggesting this criticism may have lacked credibility under neutral conditions.
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Hal Ersner-Hershfield, Adam Galinsky, Laura Kray & Brayden King
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Four studies examined the relationship between counterfactual origins - thoughts about how the beginning of institutions and relationships might have turned out differently - and increased feelings of commitment to organizations, countries and social connections. Study 1 found that counterfactually reflecting on the origins of one's country increased patriotism. Study 2 extended this finding to organizational commitment and examined the mediating role of poignancy. Study 3 found that counterfactual reflection boosts organizational commitment even in the face of other commitment-enhancing appeals and that perceptions of fate mediate the positive effect of counterfactual origins on commitment. Finally, Study 4 temporally separated the counterfactual manipulation from a behavioral measure of commitment, and found even two weeks later that counterfactual reflection predicted whether participants emailed social contacts. The robust relationship between counterfactual origins and commitment was found across a wide range of companies and countries, with undergraduates and MBA students, and on attitudes and behaviors.
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Imagining intergroup contact reduces implicit prejudice
Rhiannon Turner & Richard Crisp
British Journal of Social Psychology, March 2010, Pages 129-142
Abstract:
Recent research has demonstrated that imagining intergroup contact can be sufficient to reduce explicit prejudice directed towards out-groups. In this research, we examined the impact of contact-related mental imagery on implicit prejudice as measured by the implicit association test. We found that, relative to a control condition, young participants who imagined talking to an elderly stranger subsequently showed more positive implicit attitudes towards elderly people in general. In a second study, we demonstrated that, relative to a control condition, non-Muslim participants who imagined talking to a Muslim stranger subsequently showed more positive implicit attitudes towards Muslims in general. We discuss the implications of these findings for furthering the application of indirect contact strategies aimed at improving intergroup relations.
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A Clean Self Can Render Harsh Moral Judgment
Chen-Bo Zhong, Brendan Strejcek & Niro Sivanathan
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Physical cleanliness has many medical benefits, such as protection from the dangers of contagion. We explore a potential unintended consequence of cleanliness. Given the metaphorical association between physical cleanliness and moral purity (Zhong & Liljenquist, 2006), we contend that a clean self may also be linked to a virtuous self. This enhanced moral self-perception can in turn license harsher moral judgment. Three experiments found that cleanliness, whether induced via physical cleansing or through a visualization task, licensed severe judgment on morally contested issues such as abortion and pornography. Further, we found that an inflated moral self mediated the relationship between cleanliness and moral judgment. These results provide unique insight to the social significance of cleanliness and may have important implications for discrimination and prejudice.
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Augmenting Means Efficacy to Boost Performance: Two Field Experiments
Dov Eden, Yoav Ganzach, Rachel Flumin-Granat & Tal Zigman
Journal of Management, May 2010, Pages 687-713
Abstract:
Internal and external sources of efficacy beliefs are distinguished. "Means efficacy," a particular source of external efficacy, is defined as belief in the utility of the tools available for task performance. The authors tested the hypothesis that raising means efficacy boosts performance. In two field experiments, experimental participants were told they got a new computerized system proven to be the best of its kind; controls got the same system with no means-efficacy treatment. In both experiments, means efficacy among experimental participants increased, and they out-performed the controls. A broadened perspective on the efficacy-beliefs construct is elaborated, and practical applications are proposed.
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Donna Webster Nelson & Ashley Knight
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, March 2010, Pages 732-745
Abstract:
This research sought to develop an intervention (targeting positive emotions and thoughts) as a mechanism for reducing test anxiety and raising confidence and performance in a sample of college students. Participants were randomly assigned to a positive thought task or a control task. Those in the positive-thought condition, who were assigned to write about successful personal experiences, derived several benefits, when compared with control participants who wrote about their morning routines. Specifically, they experienced more positive affect and less negative affect, exhibited a more optimistic outlook, and reported less test anxiety. They were more likely to appraise the quiz confidently, perceiving it as a challenge rather than a threat. Perhaps most importantly, they exhibited superior performance on the quiz.
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Still Preoccupied with 1995: The Need to Belong and Preference for Nostalgic Products
Katherine Loveland, Dirk Smeesters & Naomi Mandel
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research examines the conditions under which consumers experience an increased preference for nostalgic products, such as previously popular movies, television programs, foods, or automobiles. Specifically, participants for whom the need to belong is an active goal experience a significantly stronger preference for nostalgic products than do participants for whom this is not an active goal. This preference holds both when the need to belong is activated in an ego‐threatening manner, such as after being socially ostracized, and when it is activated in a non‐ego‐ threatening manner, such as when the interdependent self is primed. Furthermore, the consumption of nostalgic products, rather than the exposure to or the mere selection of nostalgic products, successfully satiates the need to belong.
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Shaping Customer Satisfaction Through Self-Awareness Cues
Michel Tuan Pham, Caroline Goukens, Donald Lehmann & Jennifer Ames Stuart
Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Six studies show that subtle contextual cues that increase customers' self-awareness can be used to influence their satisfaction with service providers holding the objective service delivery constant. Self-awareness cues tend to increase customers' satisfaction when the outcome of a service interaction is unfavorable, but tend to decrease customers' satisfaction when the outcome of the interaction is favorable. This is because higher self-awareness increases customers' tendency to attribute outcomes to themselves as opposed to the provider. Self-awareness can even influence satisfaction with service interactions that occurred far in the past. These effects on satisfaction are demonstrated across a variety of lab and field settings with different simulated retail experiences, as well as with different real-life service interactions including college courses, meals taken at a university cafeteria, and items purchased at an actual clothing store. Results additionally show that attempts to shape customers' satisfaction by means of self-awareness are more likely to be effective when there is substantial customer responsibility for the outcome; when customers' responsibility is limited, such attempts may backfire.
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Stereotype Threat and Gender Differences in Performance on a Novel Visuospatial Task
Susan Miller Campbell & Marcia Collaer
Psychology of Women Quarterly, December 2010, Pages 437-444
Abstract:
Stereotype threat research has shown that being a member of a negatively stereotyped group may result in impaired performance on tests of skills thought to be relevant to the stereotype. This study investigated whether stereotype threat influences gender differences in performance on a novel test of visuospatial ability. Undergraduates (N = 194) were told that men outperform women on the test (explicit threat), were given no gender-relevant information (implicit threat), or were told that men and women do not differ (nullified stereotype). Although men outperformed women in the explicit and implicit stereotype threat groups, women's performance did not differ significantly from men's when told there is no gender difference. The effect was most pronounced for difficult line judgments. Although stereotypes regarding visuospatial ability may be less culturally salient than those of other cognitive abilities, these findings suggest that they influence performance nonetheless. Implications for optimizing cognitive test performance are discussed.
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Travis Proulx, Steven Heine & Kathleen Vohs
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
The meaning maintenance model asserts that following a meaning threat, people will affirm any meaning frameworks that are available. Three experiments tested (a) whether people affirm alternative meaning frameworks after reading absurdist literature, (b) what role expectations play in determining whether absurdities are threatening, and (c) whether people have a heightened need for meaning following exposure to absurdist art. In Study 1, participants who read an absurd Kafka parable affirmed an alternative meaning framework more than did those who read a meaningful parable. In Study 2, participants who read an absurd Monty Python parody engaged in compensatory affirmation efforts only if they were led to expect a conventional story. In Study 3, participants who were exposed to absurdist art or reminders of their mortality, compared to participants exposed to representational or abstract art, reported higher scores on the Personal Need for Structure scale, suggesting that they experienced a heightened need for meaning.