Exploring the Neural Correlates of Social Stereotyping

Judging people on the basis of cultural stereotypes is a ubiquitous facet of daily life, yet little is known about how this fundamental inferential strategy is implemented in the brain. Using fMRI, we measured neural activity while participants made judgments about the likely actor (i.e., person-focus) and location (i.e., place-focus) of a series of activities, some of which were associated with prevailing gender stereotypes. Results revealed that stereotyping was underpinned by activity in areas associated with evaluative processing (e.g., ventral medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala) and the representation of action knowledge (e.g., supramarginal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus). In addition, activity accompanying stereotypic judgments was correlated with the strength of participants' explicit and implicit gender stereotypes. These findings elucidate how stereotyping fits within the neuroscience of person understanding.Psycholog

Investigating managers’ fine-grained evaluation processes in organizations: Exploring two dual-process perspectives

The dual-process theory is a significant theory in both organizational theory and social psychology and two conjectures about this theory are considered in this manuscript; the default-interventionist vs. parallel-competitive account. Our research goal is to empirically investigate these two views. In concrete terms, by using event-related potentials (ERPs), we seek to study the fine-grained brain processes and self-reported feelings involved in managers’ evaluations of target employees within an economic context (firing employees) vs. a social network context (excluding employees). Using the stereotype content model categories, each target employee has high (or low) warmth and high (or low) levels of competence. In the fine-grained ERP analysis of the brain process, we focus on three time windows of interest: novelty detection (N2) and goal violation detection (N400) at the unconscious level, and we then evaluate conscious emotional arousal (late positive potential, LPP). Finally, we focus on the self-reported feelings when having to fire or exclude target employees. As goal pursuit theory predicts, the brain dynamics and self-reported measures differ widely across the two organizational contexts; in concrete terms, processes at a later stage overrule early stages depending on the context. This implies that the data bespeaks more for the parallel-competitive account than the default-interventionist account. We discuss the implications of these findings for research in management and management practice.</p

Exploring Sex Differences in the Neural Correlates of Self-and Other-Referential Gender Stereotyping

While general self-referential processes and their neural underpinnings have been extensively investigated with neuroimaging tools, limited data is available on sex differences regarding self- and other-referential processing. To fill this gap, we measured 17 healthy women and men who performed a self- vs. other-appraisal task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using gender-stereotypical adjectives. During the self-appraisal task, typical male (e.g., “dominant,” “competitive”) and female adjectives (e.g., “communicative,” “sensitive”) were presented and participants were asked whether these adjectives applied to themselves. During the other-appraisal task, a prototypical male (Brad Pitt) and female actor (Julia Roberts) was presented and participants were asked again to judge whether typical male and female adjectives applied to these actors. Regarding self-referential processes, women ascribed significantly more female compared to male traits to themselves. At the same time both women and men indicated a stronger desire to exhibit male over female traits. While fMRI did not detect general sex differences in the self- and other-conditions, some subtle differences were revealed between the sexes: both in right putamen and bilateral amygdala stronger gender-congruent activation was found which was however not associated with behavioral measures like the number of self-ascribed female or male attributes. Furthermore, sex hormone levels showed some associations with brain activation pointing to a different pattern in women and men. Finally, the self- vs. other-condition in general led to stronger activation of the anterior cingulate cortex while the other- vs. self-condition activated the right precuneus more strongly which is in line with previous findings. To conclude, our data lend support for subtle sex differences during processing of stereotypical gender attributes. However, it remains unclear whether such differences have a behavioral relevance. We also point to several limitations of this study including the small sample size and the lack of control for potentially different hormonal states in women

The neural correlates of reinforcement sensitivity theory: a systematic review of the (f)MRI literature

Objectives: Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) is a theory of motivation, emotion and learning, that has been translated into an account of personality. RST proposes neural structures that form the basis of systems responsible for reward (BAS), punishment (FFFS) and conflict processing (BIS). This systematic review collated studies examining psychometric measures of RST alongside structural and function MRI data to (i) examine how psychometric RST is associated with the proposed neural topologies of RST, (ii) identify any common associations between psychometric RST and other brain regions, and (iii) provide recommendations for advancing the current literature base. Methods: Initial search terms identified 10952 papers. After processing, 39 papers that investigated the association between RST scales and neural functioning in healthy adult samples were included in this review. Results: There was general support for associations between the BAS and the structure/activity of the pre-frontal cortex and ventral striatum with some additional findings for the ventral pallidum and ventral tegmental area. There was also some support for associations between BIS/FFFS and structure/activity of frontal regions, cingulate cortices and the amygdala. Conclusions: Overall, psychometric correlates of RST were associated with activity in proposed neural circuitry, with the most consistent support being found for the BAS; however, psychometric and experimental limitations still hamper the differentiation of the BIS and FFFS systems in their activation of deeper brain networks. Future studies need to include revised RST scales that separate the BIS and FFFS and implement more rigorous tasks that allow for the examination of each system both independently and codependently

Sexism Goes Underground: The Development of a Neosexism Scale Catered to College Student Populations

Cultural and political changes in the last century have made it largely socially unacceptable to overtly discriminate against women. Such pressures may have forced sexist beliefs to be expressed in more covert forms. This study aimed to develop a psychometric scale that assesses such covert, or neosexist, beliefs in college student populations and to analyze the relationship between neosexism and gender egalitarian beliefs, feminist awareness, social desirability, and an existing scale of neosexism. Similar to previous research, a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded a one-factor model of neosexism. This model was invariant across gender and race. Scores on the old neosexism scale, gender egalitarianism, and feminist revelation were all significant predictors of scores on the new neosexism scale. This new scale may prove useful in assessing the anatomical and neurological correlates of contemporary attitudes toward women

The Gendered Family Process Model: An Integrative Framework of Gender in the Family.

This article reviews and integrates research on gender-related biological, cognitive, and social processes that take place in or between family members, resulting in a newly developed gendered family process (GFP) model. The GFP model serves as a guiding framework for research on gender in the family context, calling for the integration of biological, social, and cognitive factors. Biological factors in the model are prenatal, postnatal, and pubertal androgen levels of children and parents, and genetic effects on parent and child gendered behavior. Social factors are family sex composition (i.e., parent sex, sexual orientation, marriage status, sibling sex composition) and parental gender socialization, such as modeling, gender-differentiated parenting, and gender talk. Cognitive factors are implicit and explicit gender-role cognitions of parents and children. Our review and the GFP model confirm that gender is an important organizer of family processes, but also highlight that much is still unclear about the mechanisms underlying gender-related processes within the family context. Therefore, we stress the need for (1) longitudinal studies that take into account the complex bidirectional relationship between parent and child gendered behavior and cognitions, in which within-family comparisons (comparing behavior of parents toward a boy and a girl in the same family) are made instead of between-family comparisons (comparing parenting between all-boy families and all-girl families, or between mixed-gender families and same-gender families), (2) experimental studies on the influence of testosterone on human gender development, (3) studies examining the interplay between biology with gender socialization and gender-role cognitions in humans.Development Psychopathology in context: famil

A Cognitive Neuroscience of Social Groups

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how the human brain processes information about social groups in three domains. Study 1: Semantic knowledge. Participants were scanned while they answered questions about their knowledge of both social categories and non-social categories like object groups and species of nonhuman animals. Brain regions previously identified in processing semantic information are more robustly engaged by nonsocial semantics than stereotypes. In contrast, stereotypes elicit greater activity in brain regions implicated in social cognition. These results suggest that stereotypes should be considered distinct from other forms of semantic knowledge. Study 2: Theory of mind. Participants were scanned while they answered questions about the mental states and physical attributes of individual people and groups. Regions previously associated with mentalizing about individuals were also robustly responsive to judgments of groups. However, multivariate searchlight analysis revealed that several of these regions showed distinct multivoxel patterns of response to groups and individual people. These findings suggest that perceivers mentalize about groups in a manner qualitatively similar to mentalizing about individual people, but that the brain nevertheless maintains important distinctions between the representations of such entities. Study 3: Social categorization. Participants were scanned while they categorized the sex and race of unfamiliar Black men, Black women, White men, and White women. Multivariate pattern analysis revealed that multivoxel patterns in FFA--but not other face-selective brain regions, other category-selective brain regions, or early visual cortex--differentiated faces by sex and race. Specifically, patterns of voxel-based responses were more similar between individuals of the same sex than between men and women, and between individuals of the same race than between Black and White individuals. These results suggest that FFA represents the sex and race of faces. Together, these three studies contribute to a growing cognitive neuroscience of social groups.Psycholog

Understanding User Cognition: From Spatial Ability to Code Writing and Review

Understanding how developers carry out different computer science activities with objective measures can help to improve productivity and guide the use and development of supporting tools in software engineering. In this thesis, we present three research components using three different objective measures including neuroimaging (functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)) and eye tracking. We evaluate on over 140 human subjects to explore multiple computing activities, including data structure manipulations, code writing and code review. This thesis presents a systematic framework and shows that it is possible to conduct studies that acquire objective data in a natural setting to provide an understanding of users' underlying cognitive processes in software engineering tasks. We also provide basic principles and guidelines to adapt multiple psycho-physiological measures to software engineering.PHDComputer Science & EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/169678/1/yhhy_1.pd

Combinaison des approches psychopharmacologiques et d'imagerie cérébrale pour l’étude de la prise de décision individuelle et sociale chez l’Homme

The aim core of this thesis is to investigate different aspects of decision-making and flexibility in healthy and clinical populations. Specifically, we investigated the neural correlates of social decision-making in young healthy individuals, the influence of steroid hormones on cognitive flexibility in early menopausal women and cerebral dysfunctions involved in reward devaluation during decision-making process in individuals suffering of Parkinson disease. First, we studied the neural correlates of iniquity aversion when making a decision for oneself or on behalf of his own group and when facing a single individual or another group. Our results highlight influence of two distinct neural network involved in iniquity aversion during complex social exchange, outlining a neuronal explanation to interindividualintergroup discontinuity effect. Our second study, described the influence of hormone replacement therapy (i.e., HRT) on cognitive flexibility in early menopausal women. Many studies described a deleterious effect of steroid supplementation on executive cognitive functions, if it delayed after the onset of the menopause. However, “windows of opportunity” hypothesis suggests a benefic and neuroprotective effect against psychiatric disorders, if hormonal replacement therapy starts close to the beginning of menopause. Combining pharmacological and neuroimaging approaches, we showed a neuroprotective effect in brain structures involved in cognitive flexibility, in young menopausal women. Finally, our last study highlights the effect of dopaminergic treatment in Parkinsonians patients developing impulsive control disorder (i.e., hypersexuality). Preliminary results showed influence of these two factors on distinct subsystems involved in evaluation of different types of costs (i.e., effort/delay) associated with subsequent rewards. This thesis demonstrates the value of combining pharmacology studies and fMRI in order to better understand to which extent hormonal and dopaminergic treatments affect the brain mechanisms during individual and social decision-makingLe but de cette thèse était d’étudier les mécanismes cérébraux sous-tendant la prise de décision sociale chez des sujets sains, l’influence des hormones stéroïdiennes gonadiques sur la flexibilité cognitive et les dysfonctionnements cérébraux sous-tendant la dévaluation de récompenses dans la maladie de Parkinson. Lors de notre premier protocole, nous avons étudié comment le fait de prendre une décision pour soi ou pour un groupe auquel nous appartenons, et lorsque nous faisons face à un seul individu ou à un groupe, influence notre aversion à l’iniquité et les régions cérébrales engagées. Nos résultats ont montré l’influence de deux réseaux cérébraux distincts dans l’aversion à l’iniquité lors de ces interactions sociales, définissant une signature cérébrale à l’effet de « discontinuité interpersonnelle/intergroupe». Notre seconde étude visait à déterminer l’influence d’un traitement hormonal substitutif sur la flexibilité cognitive, chez les femmes récemment ménopausées. De nombreuses études ont montré un effet délétère d’une supplémentation hormonale sur les fonctions cognitives, si celle-ci débute tardivement après la ménopause. Cependant, une récente hypothèse a proposé que le traitement hormonal puisse être bénéfique et neuroprotecteur contre des maladies psychiatriques, s‘il débute lors d’une courte durée à la suite du début de ménopause. Dans une étude combinant pharmacologie et IRMf, nous avons démontré une modulation par traitement hormonal sur les régions impliquées dans le contrôle cognitif chez des femmes récemment ménopausées. Notre dernière étude évalue l’effet d’un traitement dopaminergique et la présence d’un trouble du contrôle des impulsions particulier (i.e., l’hypersexualité) chez des patients atteints par la maladie de Parkinson. Nos résultats préliminaires ont montré l’influence de ces facteurs sur des régions frontales et sous-corticales spécifiques impliquées dans des choix, nécessitant l’évaluation de différents coûts (i.e., effort/attente) menant à des récompenses plus ou moins importantes. Notre thèse démontre l’intérêt de combiner les études de pharmacologie et d’IRMf pour comprendre comment les traitements hormonaux et dopaminergiques influencent les mécanismes cérébraux de la décision individuelle et social

Heroes and housewives: The role of gender and gender stereotypes in parenting and child development

Gender is one of the most important organizers of social life, from the cradle to the grave. In the family context gender shapes biological, social, and cognitive processes at both the parent and child level. The general aim of the studies presented in this dissertation is to provide more insight into the role of child gender, parent gender, and sibling gender composition in the socio-emotional development of children. In Chapter 2 the extent to which mothers and fathers use differential control strategies with their sons and daughters is examined meta-analytically. Chapter 3 reports on the implicit gender stereotypes of preschoolers and their parents. Chapter 4 focuses on our newly developed picture book, designed to elicit parental statements about gender. Mothers’ and fathers’ gender talk towards their young sons and daughters are examined. In Chapter 5 a moderated mediation model is tested in which the link from child gender, via parental physical discipline, to child aggressive behavior a year later, is moderated by parents’ gender stereotypes. Chapter 6 presents a literature review on gender-related processes in the family context and the newly developed Gendered Family Process model. In Chapter 7 the main findings of these studies are integrated and discussed.Development Psychopathology in context: famil