Gender differences in liking and wanting sex: examining the role of motivational context and implicit versus explicit processing

The present study investigated the specificity of sexual appraisal processes by making a distinction between implicit and explicit appraisals and between the affective (liking) and motivational (wanting) valence of sexual stimuli. These appraisals are assumed to diverge between men and women, depending on the context in which the sexual stimulus is encountered. Using an Implicit Association Test, explicit ratings, and film clips to prime a sexual, romantic or neutral motivational context, we investigated whether liking and wanting of sexual stimuli differed at the implicit and explicit level, differed between men and women, and were differentially sensitive to context manipulations. Results showed that, at the implicit level, women wanted more sex after being primed with romantic mood whereas men showed the least wanting of sex in the romantic condition. At the explicit level, men reported greater liking and wanting of sex than women, independently of context. We also found that women's (self-reported) sexual behavior was best predicted by the incentive salience of sexual stimuli whereas men's sexual behavior was more closely related to the hedonic qualities of sexual stimuli. Results were discussed in relation to an emotion-motivational account of sexual functioning

How to capture the heart ? Reviewing 20 years of emotion measurement in advertising.

In the latest decades, emotions have become an important research topic in all behavioral sciences, and not the least in advertising. Yet, advertising literature on how to measure emotions is not straightforward. The major aim of this article is to give an update on the different methods used for measuring emotions in advertising and to discuss their validity and applicability. We further draw conclusions on the relation between emotions and traditional measures of advertising effectiveness. We finally formulate recommendations on the use of the different methods and make suggestions for future research.Research; Emotions; Science; Advertising; Effectiveness; Recommendations;

Second to fourth digit ratio and cooperative behavior.

A low second to fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) has been related to high testosterone levels and to markers of high status. In a social dilemma context status can be obtained either by acting egoistically (i.e. not contributing one's share) or by acting altruistically (i.e. contributing more than one's fair share). We therefore predicted that a low 2D:4D would be associated with high levels of egoism and altruism and low levels of common cooperativeness (i.e. contributing exactly one's fair share). We found the exact opposite: participants with a low 2D:4D were more likely to act cooperatively and less likely to act altruistically and egoistically. These findings suggest that (1) there might be a high and a low testosterone strategy to gain status and (2) that the high testosterone strategy is characterized by a preference for normative behavior.Altruism; Strategy; Preference; Behavior;

Is this a question? Not for long. The statement bias.

Four experiments demonstrate a 'statement bias': questions are more often misremembered as statements than vice versa. Experiment 1 suggests that the bias increases with increasing item comprehensibility. This finding rules out that the statement bias is only due to the belief that statements are more prevalent in communication than questions are. Experiment 2 demonstrates that the statement bias is related to depth of processing at encoding. Experiment 3 shows that the bias occurs irrespective of the truth of the statement underlying the sentence. Experiment 4 shows that the statement bias is also obtained for sentences pertaining to products and services.Internet; Yield; Market; Market research; Research; Communication;

Whatever people say I am, that's what I am: Social labeling as a social marketing tool.

In this paper, we present a procedure to apply the social labeling technique as a social marketing tool. With four studies, we tested its potential for the promotion of pro-environmental consumer behavior. The procedure first provokes an environmentally friendly act and, subsequently, invites the target to attribute that behavior to his personal values, by communicating a social label. If successful, consumers will act upon the resulting self-perception as an environmentally friendly person. Results indicated that social labeling is more successful when cognitive resources are distracted, either at the moment of processing the label, or at the moment of making decisions related to the content of the label. Second, we found that the social label not merely guides subsequent decisions, but motivates people to re-interpret their previous behavior.Distraction effects; Ecological consumer behavior; Mindlessness in consumer decision making; Persuasion; Social labelling; Social marketing; Marketing; Tool; Studies; IT; Promotion; Consumer behavior; Behavior; Personal; Value; Cognitive; Decisions; Decision;

Self-control performance enhances self-control performance at similar tasks.

In this paper we claim that the well-established reduction in self-control performance following prior exertion of self-control (the so-called ego depletion effect) is a consequence of people's adaptation to situational demands. Consistent with this claim that follows from cognitive control theory, we show that (1) self-control performance improves during tasks that are typically used as resource depletion tasks and that (2) typical depletion effects occur only when the nature of the response conflicts in the two subsequent tasks is different. When the nature of the response conflicts in the two subsequent tasks is similar, we found that exerting self-control improves subsequent self-control performance. Implications for the self-control strength model are drawn and avenues for future research are sketched.Claim; Cognitive; Control; Control theory; Demand; Effects; Ego depletion; Implications; Model; Performance; Research; Self-control; Theory;

Attentional breadth and proximity seeking in romantic attachment relationships

The present study provides first evidence that attentional breadth responses can be influenced by proximity-distance goals in adult attachment relationships. In a sample of young couples, we measured attachment differences in the breadth of attentional focus in response to attachment-related cues. Results showed that priming with a negative attachment scenario broadens attention when confronted with pictures of the attachment figure in highly avoidant men. In women, we found that attachment anxiety was associated with a more narrow attentional focus on the attachment figure, yet only at an early stage of information processing. We also found that women showed a broader attentional focus around the attachment figure when their partner was more avoidantly attached. This pattern of results reflects the underlying action of attachment strategies and provides insight into the complex and dynamic influence of attachment on attentional processing in a dyadic context

Social value orientation as a moral intuition: Decision making in the dictator game.

We studied the hypothesis that social value orientations are expressed automatically in behavior, as would be suggested by the social intuitionist model. We observed automatic and deliberated decisions in the dictator game and confirmed that social values determine behavior when responses are based on the intuitive system. By means of both mediation and experimental analyses we further demonstrate that the automatic expression of social value orientations is mediated by perceptions of interpersonal closeness. Conscious deliberation can subsequently override these automatic responses and disconnects dictator game decisions from perceptions of interpersonal closeness. This results in lower levels of other-regarding behavior, at least for prosocials.dictator game; social dilemma; dual processes; social value orientation; interpersonal closeness;

How to portray men and women in advertisements? Explicit and implicit evaluations of ads depicting different gender roles.

The purpose of the current study was to gain more insight in the evaluation of advertisements containing different gender role portrayals (stereotypical/a-stereotypical) by examining explicit and implicit processes of ad evaluation. The results of two experiments showed an explicit preference for ads containing a-stereotypical images. Implicitly, we found a preference for 'warm' ads irrespective of the degree of gender stereotypicality of the ad. These findings suggest that complex stimuli such as ads may inhibit implicit gender stereotype activation. At an implicit level, warmth seems a better predictor of ad evaluation.Ad evaluation; Evaluation; Gender role portrayal; Image; Implicit association test; Implicit attitudes; Implicit stereotyping; Preference; Processes; Research; Roles; Studies;

Social value orientation as a moral intuition: Decision-making in the dictator game

We studied the decision making process in the Dictator Game and showed that decisions are the result of a two-step process. In a first step, decision makers generate an automatic, intuitive proposal. Given sufficient motivation and cognitive resources, they adjust this in a second, more deliberated phase. In line with the social intuitionist model, we show that one’s Social Value Orientation determines intuitive choice tendencies in the first step, and that this effect is mediated by the dictator’s perceived interpersonal closeness with the receiver. Self-interested concerns subsequently lead to a reduction of donation size in step 2. Finally, we show that increasing interpersonal closeness can promote pro-social decision-making.Dictator game; social dilemma; decision-making; two stage model; social value orientation, interpersonal closeness