Recalibrating valence weighting biases to promote changes in rejection sensitivity and risk-taking

Past research has found that modifying individuals' valence weighting tendencies by recalibrating them to weight positive and negative valence in a more balanced manner influenced a variety of judgments. The current research examines the utility of the recalibration procedure as a targeted intervention. In Experiment 1, we recruited participants high in rejection sensitivity (who are known to exhibit a negative weighting bias) and in Experiment 2, we recruited participants with high risk tendencies (who are known to exhibit a positive weighting bias). In both experiments, participants first played BeanFest, in which they were presented with beans varying in shape and speckles and learned which increased or decreased points. They later classified the game beans, as well as novel ones varying in their resemblance to the known positives or known negatives, as good or bad. In the recalibration condition, participants were told if they classified each bean correctly, thus receiving feedback regarding the appropriate weighting of resemblance to a known positive versus a negative. The controls, who received no feedback, were less accurate at classifying the novel the beans than the recalibration participants. Furthermore, in Experiment 1, the recalibration condition subsequently exhibited lower sensitivity to rejection than the control condition, with this reduction being stronger for individuals initially higher in rejection sensitivity. This effect was still present a week later. In Experiment 2, the recalibration condition reported diminished risk-tendencies, again with this effect being stronger for individuals with initially higher riskiness, and persisting for a week. Even more importantly, recalibration participants also engaged in less risky behavior on a laboratory task

Detecting attitude change with the implicit association test

The Implicit Association Test and its variants have become pervasive measures of attitudes in a variety of domains and contexts. In two experiments, the authors provide evidence that a recent variant, the Personalized IAT developed by Olson and Fazio (2004) may more accurately detect changes in personal attitudes than the conventional Traditional IAT devised by Greenwald, McGhee, and Schwartz (1998).attitudes; attitude change; implicit attitude measures; IAT

How Subtyping Shapes Perception: Predictable Exceptions to the Rule Reduce Attention to Stereotype-Associated Dimensions

Two experiments examined the relation between stereotype disconfirmation and attentional processes. Using an instrumental learning-paradigm, we successfully simulated stereotype acquisition and the subsequent subtyping of disconfirming exemplars. While replicating established markers of subtyping, the present research demonstrates a hitherto neglected cognitive consequence of subtyping: Predictable stereotype disconfirmation increased attention to features that facilitated discriminating between confirming and disconfirming exemplars, and reduced attention to features associated with the original stereotype. These effects were not observed when stereotype disconfirmation was not easily predictable and, hence, subtyping proved difficult. The discussion focuses on implications for research on subtyping and stereotype change

Roommate Relationships: A Comparison of Interracial and Same-Race Living Situations

The effects of same-race versus interracial dormitory roommate relationships were explored with regard to relationship dissolution and academic achievement (i.e., grade point average). The present investigation made use of archival data spanning two academic years at a large, relatively diverse university. Of primary interest were White and African American first-year students assigned to White or African American roommates upon their arrival on campus. Another factor that was incorporated into this analysis was whether students requested to live with their roommates or were randomly assigned. Interracial roommate relationships were more likely to dissolve than either same-race White or same-race African American relationships. Randomly assigned living situations were less successful than ones in which roommates requested to share a room. Concerning grade point average at the end of the first academic quarter, African American first-year students tended to do better in interracial living situations, whereas White first-year students' academic success was not affected by roommate race. Instead, White first-year students were more sensitive to the academic abilities of their roommates. Results are discussed with regard to the implications for intergroup contact

Attitude Accessiblity as a Determinant of Object Construal and Evaluation

Attitude accessibility, the ease with which a given attitude comes to mind, has been demonstrated to affect attention. The current experiments focus on the construal of multiply-categorizable objects. They seek to provide evidence that (a) construals toward which individuals have more accessible attitudes, i.e., those that are more attitude-evoking, are more likely to influence the evaluation of related objects and that (b) this effect of attitude accessibility on construal processes can be extended to a whole series of objects which vary along multiple dimensions. Experiment 1 provides evidence that construals whose related attitudes were made more accessible via attitude rehearsal were more likely to influence the evaluation of a related target. Experiments 2 and 3 extend these findings to the domain of foods, which vary along two potential construal continua (healthiness versus tastiness), and demonstrate that if participant attitudes toward fitness are made more accessible, participants’ judgments about eating a variety of specific foods are guided more by the healthiness of the foods

Political Attitudes Bias the Mental Representation of a Presidential Candidate\u27s Face

Using a technique known as reverse correlation image classification, we demonstrate that the physical face of Mitt Romney represented in people’s minds varies as a function of their attitudes toward Mitt Romney. This provides evidence that attitudes bias how we see something as concrete and well-learned as the face of a political candidate during an election. Practically, this implies that citizens may not merely interpret political information about a candidate to fit their opinion, but that they may construct a political world where they literally see candidates differently

Social Identity and the Use of Ideological Categorization in Political Evaluation

In this research, we address a longstanding question concerning how individuals evaluate social and political issues. We focus on the role that political self-identification plays when individuals evaluate policy statements. In a laboratory setting, participants completed a task facilitation procedure, in which they made paired sets of judgments about a series of policy statements. Relative to a control task, ideological categorization of policy statements as liberal or conservative influenced the ease of evaluation. On experimental trials that began with ideological categorization, policy evaluations that were consistent with the participant’s own ideology were made more quickly than responses that were ideologically inconsistent and more quickly than responses following a control judgment. In three experiments, we show that this effect is stronger for individuals with more accessible ideological identification (Experiment 1) and more extreme ideological identification (Experiment 2), and that it holds when examining partisan instead of ideological identification (Experiment 3). The findings suggest that the use of ideological category information can facilitate and interfere with evaluative judgments of political issues, and that the use of such categories varies as a function of individual differences in the strength of political identification

Political Attitudes Bias the Mental Representation of a Presidential Candidate\u27s Face

Using a technique known as reverse correlation image classification, we demonstrate that the physical face of Mitt Romney represented in people’s minds varies as a function of their attitudes toward Mitt Romney. This provides evidence that attitudes bias how we see something as concrete and well-learned as the face of a political candidate during an election. Practically, this implies that citizens may not merely interpret political information about a candidate to fit their opinion, but that they may construct a political world where they literally see candidates differently

The weighting of positive vs. negative valence and its impact on the formation of social relationships

Forming social relationships is an integral aspect of our lives and a topic fundamental to social psychology. Using a performance-based measure of individual differences in valence weighting, we demonstrate that the extent to which first-year college students weight positive versus negative valence when engaged in attitude generalization predicts how many peer relationships they develop during the subsequent two months (Study 1). Furthermore, we show that individuals strategically recruited for their high sensitivity to interpersonal rejection benefit from an intervention that recalibrates their valence-weighting tendencies from an overweighting of negative valence to a more balanced weighting of positive and negative valence (Study 2). Recalibration led to extended decreases in participants' rejection sensitivity and, most importantly, led them to develop more social relationships over a subsequent two-week period. These findings demonstrate that the weighting of positive versus negative valence is a fundamental process that influences complex social outcomes and that such valence weighting tendencies can be recalibrated so as to benefit individuals