How power affects moral judgments: The role of intuitive thinking

Power affects how people think about moral issues, and has been found to elicit deontological moral judgments. We hypothesized that powerholders' propensity to rely on intuitive thinking would trigger deontological moral choices. In two studies, power was induced by role simulation tasks and participants then made a judgment on a moral dilemma that did not involve bodily harm. In Study 1 memory cognitive load was manipulated to induce an intuitive processing style, and in Study 2 deliberation was induced by asking participants to deliver strong arguments. Results of Study 1 show that high power led to deontological judgments regardless of cognitive load, and cognitive load enhanced deontological preferences among powerless individuals. In Study 2 we found that deliberation shifted the judgments of powerholders toward utilitarianism. These results extend prior findings and reinforce the links between power and deontology. The findings suggest that powerholders' preference for deontological moral judgments is driven by their reliance on intuitive thinking

We Need Tough Brothers and Sisters in a Tight World: Cultural Tightness Leads to a Preference for Dominant and Muscular Leaders

Cultural tightness is characterized by strong norms and harsh punishments for deviant behaviors. We hypothesized that followers in tight (versus loose) cultures would more strongly prefer muscular leaders. This hypothesis was confirmed across seven studies (N = 1615) employing samples from the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. Using actual political leaders, we demonstrated that the tighter the state’s culture was, the more muscular the elected governor was (Study 1). Temporarily situating participants in a tight (versus loose) culture made them select a leader higher on muscularity but not on body fat, and the effects obtained occurred for both male and female leaders (Studies 2-3B). In addition, we demonstrated the mediating role of authoritarianism and a preference for a dominant leadership in this process (Studies 4-5B). These results demonstrate the importance of considering the interface between culture and the physical appearance of leaders

I can, I do, and so I like:From power to action and aesthetic preferences

The current work tested the hypothesis that power increases reliance on experiences of motor fluency in forming aesthetic preferences. In 4 experiments, participants reported their aesthetic preferences regarding a variety of targets (pictures, movements, objects, and letters). Experiments 1, 2, and 3 manipulated power and motor fluency (via motoric resonance, extraocular muscle training, and dominant hand restriction). Experiment 4 manipulated power and assessed chronic interindividual differences in motor fluency. Across these experiments, power consistently increased reliance on motor fluency in aesthetic preference judgments. This finding was not mediated by differences in mood, judgment certainty, perceived task-demands or task-enjoyment, and derived from the use of motor simulations rather than from power differences in the acquisition of motor experiences. This is the first demonstration suggesting that power changes the formation of preference judgments as a function of motor fluency experiences. The implications of this research for the links between power and action, as well as the understanding of fluency processes are discussed

The Powerful Self: How Social Power and Gender Influence Face Perception

While ample evidence supports an association between power and dominance, little is still known about how temporary experiences of power influence the way people come to see themselves and others. The present research investigates the effect of social power on self- and other-face recognition, and examines whether gender modulates the direction of this effect. Male and female participants were induced to feel either powerful or powerless and had to recognize their own face and those of same-sex strangers from a series of images ranging from a dominant to a submissive version of the original. Results showed that males more frequently chose a dominant self-image under high power, whereas females selected a submissive self-image under low power. When presented with faces of same-sex targets female participants relied on low-power features (i.e., submissiveness) of the self in the perception of others (assimilation effect), whereas male participants more often selected a dominant image of strangers when feeling powerless (constrast effect). The effects of power did not extend to more deliberate judgments of dominance and likability, suggesting that respective biases in face recollection operated at an implicit level. This research underscores the cognitive and motivational underpinnings of power and related gender gaps in power attainment

Text Mining of Airbnb Reviews: A holistic approach on reviewers’ opinions and topics distribution

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Marketing IntelligenceThis thesis aims to perform a holistic investigation concerning how Airbnb accommodation features and hosts’ attributes influence guest’s reviews and how are the main topics distributed. A dataset containing almost 4 million reviews from major touristic cities in the world (Milan, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Toronto, San-Francisco, and Sydney) was used for the text mining analysis to uncover the reviews’ social and market norms, as well as the guests’ sentiments and topics distribution. This research uses both Mallet LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) and Word2Vec methods to unveil the semantic structure and similarity between data in this study. This approach will allow hospitality providers to understand the impact of underlying factors on reviewers’ opinions for further improvement of their services. Finally, this study develops a predictive unbiased model to forecast the review’s scores, with an accuracy of 90.70%

Lack of control leads to less stereotypic perceptions of groups: An individual difference perspective

One study was conducted to analyze the effect of perceived control over one’s life on group perception. Participants were presented with abstract and exemplar information regarding a group of 100 lawyers and answered a questionnaire with questions regarding group perception and perceived control. Considering thatlack of control leads to effortful information seeking, it was expected, and found that participants who perceived less control over their lives perceived the group of lawyers in a less stereotypic and more variable way than participants who perceived more control overtheir lives. This result is in line with results showing that lack of control leads to increased perceived group variability. The role of motivation on group perceptionis discussed

Relational dynamics and meaning in life: Dominance predicts perceived social support, belongingness, and meaning in life

Social relations arguably contribute to meaning in life. Here, we investigated the role of a disposition that fosters social connections and the desire to influence others - dominance. We hypothesised that dominance is associated with increased meaning in life through social mechanisms: perceptions of belongingness and social support. Two cross-sectional studies and one cross-lagged panel study tested these hypotheses. In Study 1, dominance boosted meaning in life through greater belongingness. Study 2 found support for a causal effect of dominance at Wave 1 on meaning in life at Wave 2, driven by elevated belongingness. Study 3 further demonstrated that elevated belongingness of dominant individuals derives from perceptions of increased social support and that both perceptions of social support and belongingness contributed to elevated meaning in life. We conclude that if social relations contribute to meaning in life, a dominant position within social relations can further promote a meaningful existence

Self-image threat decreases stereotyping : the role of motivation toward closure

Some prior research indicated that self-image threat may lead people to stereotyping and prejudiced evaluations of others. Other studies found that self-image threat may promote less stereotypical thinking and unprejudiced behavior. In a series of three studies, we demonstrate that self-image threat may lead to either more or less stereotypical perception of the outgroup depending on the level of the individuals` motivation toward closure (NFC). The results reveal that when individuals high (vs. low) in NFC perceived a member of an outgroup, they are less likely to use stereotypical traits if their self-image had been threatened by negative feedback (Study 1) or if they had imagined an example of their own immoral activity (Studies 2 and 3). Moreover, our results demonstrate that the fear of invalidity resulting from self-image threat induction is responsible for the foregoing effects (Study 3). These results are discussed in light of theories of motivational readiness and lay epistemics