Motivational Drivers for Serial Position Effects in High-Stakes Legal Decisions

Experts and employees in many domains make multiple similar but independent decisions in sequence. Often, the serial position of the case in the sequence influences the decision. Explanations for these serial position effects focus on the role of decision makers’ fatigue, but these effects emerge also when fatigue is unlikely. Here, we suggest that serial position effects can emerge due to decision makers’ motivation to be or appear to be consistent. For example, to avoid having inconsistencies revealed, decisions may become more favorable towards the side that is more likely to put a decision under scrutiny. As a context, we focus on the legal domain in which many high-stakes decisions are made in sequence and in which there are clear institutional processes of decision scrutiny. We analyze two field datasets: 386,109 US immigration judges’ decisions on asylum requests and 20,796 jury decisions in 18th century London criminal court. We distinguish between five mechanisms that can drive serial position effects and examine their predictions in these settings. We find that consistent with motivation-based explanations of serial position effects, but inconsistent with fatigue-based explanations, decisions become more lenient as a function of serial position, and the effect persists over breaks. We further find, as is predicted by motivational accounts, that the leniency effect is stronger among more experienced decision makers. By elucidating the different drivers of serial position effects, our investigation clarifies why they are common, when they are expected, and how to reduce them

When we want them to fear us: The motivation to influence outgroup emotions in collective action

Prior work has shown that the experience of group-based emotions can motivate disadvantaged group members to engage in collective action. In the current research, we tested whether such action can also be driven by the motivation to induce certain emotions among the outgroup to the extent that disadvantaged group members believe this would help them attain their social change goals. We tested this hypothesis in three studies (two correlational and one experimental) within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Study 1 showed that individuals' motivation to induce outgroup regret was associated with nonviolent collective action tendencies, whereas the motivation to induce outgroup fear was related to violent action. Study 2 moved beyond Study 1 by assessing corrective and punitive goals of social change. We found that preferences for inducing outgroup regret mediated the relationship between endorsement of corrective goals and nonviolent action tendencies, whereas preferences for outgroup fear mediated the relationship between punitive goals and violent action. Study 3 provided experimental support for the causal effect of goals on emotion motivations and collective action tendencies. Together, our findings are in line with the notion of instrumental emotion regulation as applied to collective action

SupplementaryMaterial – Supplemental material for When we want them to fear us: The motivation to influence outgroup emotions in collective action

<p>Supplemental material, SupplementaryMaterial for When we want them to fear us: The motivation to influence outgroup emotions in collective action by Siwar Hasan-Aslih, Liat Netzer, Martijn van Zomeren, Tamar Saguy, Maya Tamir and Eran Halperin in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations</p

Sequential ATP-induced allosteric transitions of the cytoplasmic chaperonin containing TCP-1 revealed by EM analysis

The eukaryotic cytoplasmic chaperonin containing TCP-1 (CCT) is a hetero-oligomeric complex that assists the folding of actins, tubulins and other proteins in an ATP- dependent manner. To understand the allosteric transitions that occur during the functional cycle of CCT, we imaged the chaperonin complex in the presence of different ATP concentrations. Labeling by monoclonal antibodies that bind specifically to the CCT and CCT subunits enabled alignment of all the CCT subunits of a given type in different particles. The analysis shows that the apo state of CCT has considerable apparent conformational heterogeneity that decreases with increasing ATP concentration. In contrast with the concerted allosteric switch of GroEL, ATP- induced conformational changes in CCT are found to spread around the ring in a sequential fashion that may facilitate domain- by-domain substrate folding. The approach described here can be used to unravel the allosteric mechanisms of other ring-shaped molecular machines