Disgust sensitivity relates to attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women across 31 nations

Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals ( N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathogen-avoidance motivations) and measures of antigay attitudes. Analyses also showed that pathogen disgust sensitivity relates not only to antipathy toward gay men and lesbians, but also to negativity toward other groups, in particular those associated with violations of traditional sexual norms (e.g., prostitutes). These results suggest that the association between pathogen-avoidance motivations and antigay attitudes is relatively stable across cultures and is a manifestation of a more general relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice towards groups associated with sexual norm violations

Disgust sensitivity relates to attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women across 31 nations

Previous work has reported a relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice toward various social groups, including gay men and lesbian women. It is currently unknown whether this association is present across cultures, or specific to North America. Analyses of survey data from adult heterosexuals (N = 11,200) from 31 countries showed a small relation between pathogen disgust sensitivity (an individual-difference measure of pathogen-avoidance motivations) and measures of antigay attitudes. Analyses also showed that pathogen disgust sensitivity relates not only to antipathy toward gay men and lesbians, but also to negativity toward other groups, in particular those associated with violations of traditional sexual norms (e.g., prostitutes). These results suggest that the association between pathogen-avoidance motivations and antigay attitudes is relatively stable across cultures and is a manifestation of a more general relation between pathogen-avoidance motivations and prejudice towards groups associated with sexual norm violations

Shared Emotions Foster Tacit Coordination

The current research examines the e ects of discrete emotions on processing style and tacit coordination behavior in a set of canonical choice tasks. We recruited 400 US residents via MTurk to participate in a 2x2 between subjects factorial experiment, in which subjects were randomly assigned to di erent conditions: they were equally divided between positive or negative mood treatments, and between baseline and tacit coordination treatments. Consistently with the socio-cognitive psychology literature, we  nd that participants in the baseline treatment group (no-coordination) are more likely to be a ected by global-processing bias (more likely to choose the global option over local one) if they report a strong positive a ect (as opposed to those who report a strong negative a ect). The behavior pattern changes when the choice is framed as a tacit coordination task. We  nd that the percentage of participants in the coordination condition exhibit a signi cantly lower global-processing bias (caused by emotion of anger) than those in the baseline (no- coordination) condition. These results are consistent with behavioral economic theories proposing that, beyond an intuitive choice, coordination triggers a set of complex mechanisms underlie strategic decision-making, such as probabilistic reasoning required to estimate salience of each choice option (e.g. is `50' a number people choose frequently?), predicting another person's choice reasoning and behavior, as well as social perspective taking. All these processes contribute to increased cognitive load, and weakens the well-documented e ects of emotions on processing strategy and, thus, reducing the global-processing bias. The observed behaviour patterns suggest that discrete emotion e ects on processing strategy is limited in the speci c context of tacit coordination: framing the decision in as a tacit coordination problem alone can be su cient to override the emotion in uence on processing. Due to complex underlying mechanisms needed to solve coordination tasks they increase cognitive load and my lead people to tune into more suitable processing strategies. These new  ndings shed some light on the new paths for further research on a ect, processing style, and tacit coordination

Beyond the MiFID: Envisioning cognitively suitable and representationally supportive approaches to assessing investment preferences for more informed financial decisions

The recent introduction of the European Commission’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) was intended to enhance assessment of consumers’ investment preferences, but it raises new challenges. The effectiveness of the MiFID as a tool to improve the relationships of investment service providers and their customers is questionable due to evident variability in implementation not only across most European countries but also across national financial institutions, as well. An inadequate questionnaire design induces mis-profiling of existing and potential clients, thus endangering the long-term relationships of financial institutions and their clients and affecting the future economic outcomes of the clientele, as well as the reputation of the company itself. To enhance our understanding of how best to assess investment preferences, with the goal of providing feasible solutions for improving MiFID questionnaires, we explored the relevant research on some important determinants, such as the financial agent–client relationship, risk assessment, validity and reliability of questionnaires, and information communication, including language fluency, visual framing, and financial literacy. Additionally, to assess common problems that have been noted with MiFID questionnaires, we conducted an experimental study in which we administered a questionnaire to 73 clients of two retail banks, inquiring mainly into their financial expertise, investment product knowledge, obstacles to and opportunities for better understanding an investment, risk perception, and relationship with a financial adviser. Fifty-eight percent of questionnaire respondents assessed their financial knowledge as poor, a result that could explain the clients’ reliance on financial advisers for investment decisions. The customers resorted to professionals mainly because they deemed professionals to be knowledgeable of financial markets and because of their own limited experience. Our results will be useful to policy makers, questionnaire designers, financial advisers, and the customers themselves. Aimed at protecting individual investors, the MiFID may achieve its objectives only for those consumers who have been properly profiled. As mis-profiling is quite common, it is imperative before launching a questionnaire to test the effects of the proposed questions across a range of consumer groups and to assess the risk of unintended consequences for particular customer populations. Financial institutions must then use the data they obtain to fulfill the one of the main goal of the Directive—protecting investors—by offering appropriate products to each client. We provide guidelines to help policy makers develop questionnaires that are comprehensible and valid and take into account consumers’ real investment preferences and their decision-making processes