The true self: A psychological concept distinct from the self

A long tradition of psychological research has explored the distinction between characteristics that are part of the self and those that lie outside of it. Recently, a surge of research has begun examining a further distinction. Even among characteristics that are internal to the self, people pick out a subset as belonging to the true self. These factors are judged as making people who they really are, deep down. In this paper, we introduce the concept of the true self and identify features that distinguish people’s understanding of the true self from their understanding of the self more generally. In particular, we consider recent findings that the true self is perceived as positive and moral, and that this tendency is actor-observer invariant and cross-culturally stable. We then explore possible explanations for these findings and discuss their implications for a variety of issues in psychology

The Prevalence of Implicit and Explicit Bias in Financial Companies in India

The nature of implicit bias is such that it is more difficult to eradicate. Therefore, it is also difficult to test for implicit bias as it is not something that can be found through direct surveys. This study determines whether companies in India display implicit biases in their hiring practices through indirect methods of soliciting data. By submitting resumes with names that correlate with certain genders of religions, the normal hiring process was observed. Due to the smaller sample size, significant results were not found to corroborate implicit bias. The paper also addresses current legislation in India regarding discrimination and promotion of minority groups. However explicit bias was found due to Indian laws that fail to prohibit private companies from discriminating based on gender. Through analysis of the causes of implicit bias, this paper also offers solutions for companies to minimize the effects of implicit bias on the individual and institution level

The Hedonics of Disgust.

Disgust is a negative emotion, and as such, it is frequently assumed that its only function is to generate negative evaluations. This dissertation aims to demonstrate that disgust can generate positive evaluations in the right context. In Chapter I, we show how the existence of hedonic disgust would be both empirically novel and counter to predictions made by many current theories of emotion. We suggest that the impact of disgust depends on context, consistent with feelings-as- information theory (Schwarz, 2012). To this end, we lay out potential circumstances under which disgust may be experienced as enjoyable. In Chapter II, we show that priming disgust with verbal stimuli leads people to rate both cartoons and moral violations as funnier, and food pictures as less appetizing. We also find that sad verbal stimuli enhance cartoon ratings, helping to rule out arousal level as the sole explanation for these effects. In Chapter III, we show that disgusting verbal stimuli enhance enjoyment of abstract and grotesque art, but not landscape art. We further demonstrate that the effect of these disgust primes changes depending on the probe, with disgust increasing both the likability and offensiveness of judged paintings, while leading to lower ratings of prettiness. In Chapter IV, we use two additional methods of inducing disgust—a noxious odor, and a filthy environment—to see whether this would enhance enjoyment of stand-up comedy and adventurous eating shows. We find that both of these disgust manipulations decrease enjoyment of traditional cooking shows, and increase enjoyment of adventurous eating shows. The experimental condition had no impact on humor judg- ments, counter to both feelings-as-information theory and congruency-based emotion theories. In Chapter V, we discuss the scope and limitations of the current studies. While these studies demonstrate that disgust stimuli can have a positive effect on judgments, this effect is contingent on a variety of factors which are not yet fully understood. Furthermore, the precise mechanism by which incidental disgust leads to enjoyment remains unclear. Overall, this work shows that the influence of disgust is highly context-sensitive, and occasionally favorable, opening up a previously unexplored avenue for emotions research.PHDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97960/1/humean_1.pd

The MR2: A multi-racial, mega-resolution database of facial stimuli

Faces impart exhaustive information about their bearers, and are widely used as stimuli in psychological research. Yet many extant facial stimulus sets have substantially less detail than faces encountered in real life. In this paper, we describe a new database of facial stimuli, the Multi-Racial Mega-Resolution database (MR2). The MR2 includes 74 extremely high resolution images of European, African, and East Asian faces. This database provides a high-quality, diverse, naturalistic, and well-controlled facial image set for use in research. The MR2 is available under a Creative Commons license, and may be accessed online

The Science of Style: In Fashion, Colors Should Match Only Moderately

Fashion is an essential part of human experience and an industry worth over $1.7 trillion. Important choices such as hiring or dating someone are often based on the clothing people wear, and yet we understand almost nothing about the objective features that make an outfit fashionable. In this study, we provide an empirical approach to this key aesthetic domain, examining the link between color coordination and fashionableness. Studies reveal a robust quadratic effect, such that that maximum fashionableness is attained when outfits are neither too coordinated nor too different. In other words, fashionable outfits are those that are moderately matched, not those that are ultra-matched (“matchy-matchy”) or zero-matched (“clashing”). This balance of extremes supports a broader hypothesis regarding aesthetic preferences–the Goldilocks principle–that seeks to balance simplicity and complexity

Experimental Philosophical Bioethics

There is a rich tradition in bioethics of gathering empirical data to inform, supplement, or test the implications of normative ethical analysis. To this end, bioethicists have drawn on diverse methods, including qualitative interviews, focus groups, ethnographic studies, and opinion surveys to advance understanding of key issues in bioethics. In so doing, they have developed strong ties with neighboring disciplines such as anthropology, history, law, and sociology. Collectively, these lines of research have flourished in the broader field of “empirical bioethics” for more than 30 years (Sugarman & Sulmasy 2010). More recently, philosophers from outside the field of bioethics have similarly employed empirical methods—drawn primarily from psychology, the cognitive sciences, economics, and related disciplines—to advance theoretical debates. This approach, which has come to be called experimental philosophy (or x-phi), relies primarily on controlled experiments to interrogate the concepts, intuitions, reasoning, implicit mental processes, and empirical assumptions about the mind that play a role in traditional philosophical arguments (Knobe et al. 2012). Within the moral domain, for example, experimental philosophy has begun to contribute to long-standing debates about the nature of moral judgment and reasoning; the sources of our moral emotions and biases; the qualities of a good person or a good life; and the psychological basis of moral theory itself (Alfano, Loeb, & Plakias 2018). We believe that experimental philosophical bioethics—or “bioxphi”—can similarly explain how it is distinct from empirical bioethics more broadly construed, and attempt to characterize how it might advance theory and practice in this area

MR2 face database

A multi-racial, mega-resolution database of facial stimul