Hierarchy in the eye of the beholder: (anti-)egalitarianism shapes perceived levels of social inequality

Debate surrounding the issue of inequality and hierarchy between social groups has become increasingly prominent in recent years. At the same time, individuals disagree about the extent to which inequality between advantaged and disadvantaged groups exists. Whereas prior work has examined the ways in which individuals legitimize (or delegitimize) inequality as a function of their motivations, we consider whether individuals’ orientation toward group-based hierarchy motivates the extent to which they perceive inequality between social groups in the first place. Across 8 studies in both real-world (race, gender, and class) and artificial contexts, and involving members of both advantaged and disadvantaged groups, we show that the more individuals endorse hierarchy between groups, the less they perceive inequality between groups at the top and groups at the bottom. Perceiving less inequality is associated with rejecting egalitarian social policies aimed at reducing it. We show that these differences in hierarchy perception as a function of individuals’ motivational orientation hold even when inequality is depicted abstractly using images, and even when individuals are financially incentivized to accurately report their true perceptions. Using a novel methodology to assess accurate memory of hierarchy, we find that differences may be driven by both antiegalitarians underestimating inequality, and egalitarians overestimating it. In sum, our results identify a novel perceptual bias rooted in individuals’ chronic motivations toward hierarchy-maintenance, with the potential to influence their policy attitudes

Finite-dimensional Schwinger basis, deformed symmetries, Wigner function, and an algebraic approach to quantum phase

Schwinger's finite (D) dimensional periodic Hilbert space representations are studied on the toroidal lattice {\ee Z}_{D} \times {\ee Z}_{D} with specific emphasis on the deformed oscillator subalgebras and the generalized representations of the Wigner function. These subalgebras are shown to be admissible endowed with the non-negative norm of Hilbert space vectors. Hence, they provide the desired canonical basis for the algebraic formulation of the quantum phase problem. Certain equivalence classes in the space of labels are identified within each subalgebra, and connections with area-preserving canonical transformations are examined. The generalized representations of the Wigner function are examined in the finite-dimensional cyclic Schwinger basis. These representations are shown to conform to all fundamental conditions of the generalized phase space Wigner distribution. As a specific application of the Schwinger basis, the number-phase unitary operator pair in {\ee Z}_{D} \times {\ee Z}_{D} is studied and, based on the admissibility of the underlying q-oscillator subalgebra, an {\it algebraic} approach to the unitary quantum phase operator is established. This being the focus of this work, connections with the Susskind-Glogower- Carruthers-Nieto phase operator formalism as well as standard action-angle Wigner function formalisms are examined in the infinite-period limit. The concept of continuously shifted Fock basis is introduced to facilitate the Fock space representations of the Wigner function.Comment: 19 pages, no figure

Predisposed to Prejudice but Responsive to Intergroup Contact? Testing the Unique Benefits of Intergroup Contact Across Different Types of Individual Differences

Recent research demonstrates that intergroup contact effectively reduces prejudice even among prejudice-prone persons. But some assert that evidence regarding the benefits of contact among prejudice-prone individuals is “mixed”, particularly for those higher in social dominance orientation (SDO), one of the field’s most important individual differences. Problematically, person-variables are typically considered in isolation despite being inter-correlated, leaving the question of which unique psychological aspects of prejudice-proneness (e.g., authoritarianism, antiegalitarianism, cognitive style) are responsive to intergroup contact unresolved. To address this shortcoming, in a large sample of White Americans (N = 465) we simultaneously examined the contact-attitude association at varying levels of ideological (SDO, right-wing authoritarianism), cognitive-style (need for closure), and identity-based (group identification) indicators of prejudice-proneness. Examining a broad range of intergroup criterion measures (e.g., racism, support for racial profiling) we reveal that greater contact quality is associated with lower levels of intergroup hostility for those both lower and higher on a variety of indicators of prejudice-proneness, simultaneously considered

Predisposed to Prejudice but Responsive to Intergroup Contact? Testing the Unique Benefits of Intergroup Contact Across Different Types of Individual Differences

Recent research demonstrates that intergroup contact effectively reduces prejudice even among prejudice-prone persons. But some assert that evidence regarding the benefits of contact among prejudice-prone individuals is “mixed”, particularly for those higher in social dominance orientation (SDO), one of the field’s most important individual differences. Problematically, person-variables are typically considered in isolation despite being inter-correlated, leaving the question of which unique psychological aspects of prejudice-proneness (e.g., authoritarianism, antiegalitarianism, cognitive style) are responsive to intergroup contact unresolved. To address this shortcoming, in a large sample of White Americans (N = 465) we simultaneously examined the contact-attitude association at varying levels of ideological (SDO, right-wing authoritarianism), cognitive-style (need for closure), and identity-based (group identification) indicators of prejudice-proneness. Examining a broad range of intergroup criterion measures (e.g., racism, support for racial profiling) we reveal that greater contact quality is associated with lower levels of intergroup hostility for those both lower and higher on a variety of indicators of prejudice-proneness, simultaneously considered

Evidence for hypodescent and racial hierarchy in the categorization and perception of biracial individuals.

Individuals who qualify equally for membership in two racial groups provide a rare window into social categorization and perception. In 5 experiments, we tested the extent to which a rule of hypodescent, whereby biracial individuals are assigned the status of their socially subordinate parent group, would govern perceptions of Asian–White and Black–White targets. In Experiment 1, in spite of posing explicit questions concerning Asian–White and Black–White targets, hypodescent was observed in both cases and more strongly in Black–White social categorization. Experiments 2A and 2B used a speeded response task and again revealed evidence of hypodescent in both cases, as well as a stronger effect in the Black–White target condition. In Experiments 3A and 3B, social perception was studied with a face-morphing task. Participants required a face to be lower in proportion minority to be perceived as minority than in proportion White to be perceived as White. Again, the threshold for being perceived as White was higher for Black–White than for Asian–White targets. An independent categorization task in Experiment 3B further confirmed the rule of hypodescent and variation in it that reflected the current racial hierarchy in the United States. These results documenting biases in the social categorization and perception of biracials have implications for resistance to change in the American racial hierarchy.Psycholog

Unsaturated zone flow modeling for GWTT-95

In accordance with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulation regarding groundwater travel times at geologic repositories, various models of unsaturated flow in fractured tuff have been developed and implemented to assess groundwater travel times at the potential repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Kaplan used one-dimensional models to describe the uncertainty and sensitivity of travel times to various processes at Yucca Mountain. Robey and Arnold et al. used a two-dimensional equivalent continuum model (ECM) with inter- and intra-unit heterogeneity in an attempt to assess fast-flow paths through the unsaturated, fractured tuff at Yucca Mountain (GWTT-94). However, significant flow through the fractures in previous models was not simulated due to the characteristics of the ECM, which requires the matrix to be nearly saturated before flow through the fractures is initiated. In the current study (GWTT-95), four two-dimensional cross-sections at Yucca Mountain are simulated using both the ECM and dual-permeability (DK) models. The properties of both the fracture and matrix domains are geostatistically simulated, yielding completely heterogeneous continua. Then, simulations of flow through the four cross-sections are performed using spatially nonuniform infiltration boundary conditions. Steady-state groundwater travel times from the potential repository to the water table are calculated

The effects of infiltration on the thermo-hydrologic behavior of the potential repository at Yucca Mountain

The thermo-hydrologic behavior of the potential repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, has been simulated to investigate the effects of infiltration. Transient temperatures, liquid saturations, and liquid mass flow rates through the fractures and matrix were simulated using several different steady infiltration rates ranging from 0.3 to 30 min./year. The lower infiltration rates resulted in higher temperatures near the repository element, but the overall transient temperature profiles were similar. The hydrologic response near the repository (liquid saturations and fluxes) was found to be very sensitive to the infiltration rate. Increased infiltration rates reduced the time to re-wet the simulated repository during cooling, and an infiltration rate of 10 mm/year was sufficient to completely eliminate the dry-out zone around the repository

Status boundary enforcement and the categorization of black–white biracials

Individuals who qualify equally for membership in more than one racial group are not judged as belonging equally to both of their parent groups, but instead are seen as belonging more to their lower status parent group. Why? The present paper begins to establish the role of individual differences and social context in hypodescent, the process of assigning multiracials the status of their relatively disadvantaged parent group. Specifically, in two experiments, we found that individual differences in social dominance orientation—a preference for group-based hierarchy and inequality—interacts with perceptions of socioeconomic threat to influence the use of hypodescent in categorizing half-Black, half-White biracial targets. Importantly, this paper begins to establish hypodescent as a “hierarchy-enhancing” social categorization.Psycholog

Nonconstant electronic density of states tunneling inversion for A15 superconductors: Nb3Sn

We re-examine the tunneling data on A15 superconductors by performing a generalized McMillan-Rowell tunneling inversion that incorporates a nonconstant electronic density of states obtained from band-structure calculations. For Nb3Sn, we find that the fit to the experimental data can be slightly improved by taking into account the sharp structure in the density of states, but it is likely that such an analysis alone is not enough to completely explain the superconducting tunneling characteristics of this material. Nevertheless, the extracted Eliashberg function displays a number of features expected to be present for the highest quality Nb3Sn samples.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Black Hole Mass, Host galaxy classification and AGN activity

We investigate the role of host galaxy classification and black hole mass in a heterogeneous sample of 276 mostly nearby (z<0.1) X-ray and IR selected AGN. Around 90% of Seyfert 1 AGN in bulge-dominated host galaxies (without disk contamination) span a very narrow range in the observed 12um to 2-10keV luminosity ratio (1<R_{IR/X}<7). This narrow dispersion incorporates all possible variations among AGN central engines, including accretion mechanism and efficiency, disk opening angle, orientation to sightline, covering fraction of absorbing material, patchiness of X-ray corona and measured variability. As a result, all models of X-ray and IR production in AGN are very strongly constrained. Among Seyfert 1 AGN, median X-ray and IR luminosities increase with black hole mass at >99% confidence. Using ring morphology of the host galaxy as a proxy for lack of tidal interaction, we find that AGN luminosity in host galaxies within 70Mpc is independent of host galaxy interaction for $\sim$ Gyrs, suggesting that the timescale of AGN activity due to secular evolution is much shorter than that due to tidal interactions. We find that LINER hosts have lower 12um luminosity than the median 12um luminosity of normal disk- and bulge-dominated galaxies which may represent observational evidence for past epochs of feedback that supressed star formation in LINER host galaxies. We propose that nuclear ULXs may account for the X-ray emission from LINER 2s without flat-spectrum, compact radio cores. We confirmed the robustness of our results in X-rays by comparing them with the 14-195keV 22-month BAT survey of AGN, which is all-sky and unbiased by photoelectric absorption.Comment: MNRAS accepted. 14 pages, 11 figures, complete Table 1 in online journa