Love is heterosexual‐by‐default: Cultural heterosexism in default prototypes of romantic love

Cultural heterosexist ideologies assume heterosexuality to be the default norm. Four studies investigated when concepts of romantic love are heterosexual‐by‐default (N = 685). In Studies 1–2, participants generated features of romantic love, in general (i.e., the default prototype) or among one of three sexual orientation‐specific couples (lesbian, gay, or heterosexual). Heterosexual‐identified participants’ default prototypes were more similar to heterosexual than same‐gender prototypes (Study 1). Lesbian‐ and gay‐identified participants’ default prototypes were more similar to both heterosexual and gay male than lesbian prototypes, whereas bisexual‐identified participants’ sexual orientation‐specific prototypes were equivalently similar to the default (Study 2). However, heterosexual‐identified participants rated presented features of love similarly across sexual orientation‐specific conditions (Study 3). In a timed feature‐verification task (Study 4), participants categorized fewer peripheral features of romantic love as relevant to same‐gender than mixed‐gender couples. Activating sexual orientation‐specific representations affected subsequent default concepts of romantic love. We discuss implications for heterosexism theories and intervention

The salience of children increases adult prosocial values

Organizations often put children front and center in campaigns to elicit interest and support for prosocial causes. Such initiatives raise a key theoretical and applied question that has yet to be addressed directly: Does the salience of children increase prosocial motivation and behavior in adults? We present findings aggregated across eight experiments involving 2,054 adult participants: Prosocial values became more important after completing tasks that made children salient compared to tasks that made adults (or a mundane event) salient or compared to a no-task baseline. An additional field study showed that adults were more likely to donate money to a child-unrelated cause when children were more salient on a shopping street. The findings suggest broad, reliable interconnections between human mental representations of children and prosocial motives, as the child salience effect was not moderated by participants’ gender, age, attitudes, or contact with children

Attitudes toward children : distinguishing affection and stress

This project was supported by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under grant agreement ES/P002463/1.Background Adults' views and behaviors toward children can vary from being supportive to shockingly abusive, and there are significant unanswered questions about the psychological factors underpinning this variability. Objective The present research examined the content of adults' attitudes toward children to address these questions. Method Ten studies (N?=?4702) identified the factor structure of adults' descriptions of babies, toddlers, and school-age children and examined how the resulting factors related to a range of external variables. Results Two factors emerged?affection toward children and stress elicited by them?and this factor structure was invariant across the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa. Affection uniquely captures emotional approach tendencies, concern for others, and broad positivity in evaluations, experiences, motivations, and donation behavior. Stress relates to emotional instability, emotional avoidance, and concern about disruptions to a self-oriented, structured life. The factors also predict distinct experiences in a challenging situation?home-parenting during COVID-19 lockdown?with affection explaining greater enjoyment and stress explaining greater perceived difficulty. Affection further predicts mentally visualizing children as pleasant and confident, whereas stress predicts mentally visualizing children as less innocent. Conclusions These findings offer fundamental new insights about social cognitive processes in adults that impact adult?child relationships and children's well-being.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A Meeting of Minds: Can Cognitive Psychology Meet the Demands of Queer Theory?

How can cognitive psychology make a contribution to critical psychologies of science and technology? Here, we read cognitive experimental research on categorization diffractively (Barad, 2007), cutting between the commitment to positivist-empiricist ontology in any given experimental set up, and the empirical conclusions that human categorization practices are inherently hybrid. In so doing, we mean to exemplify the difference made by reading cognitive psychology as either non-critical (on the grounds of its positivist-empiricist ontology) or reparatively (on the basis of its conclusions) as a resource for critical psychology. We aim this intervention to normalize the idea that humans think queerly, and particularly to engage long-standing discussion of the relationship between criticality and positivist-empiricist methods in LGBTQ+ psychology. We aim to exemplify the difference that this diffractive reading can make, by drawing out its relevance for contemporary psychosocial research in intersex studies

A Meeting of Minds: Can Cognitive Psychology Meet the Demands of Queer Theory?

How can cognitive psychology make a contribution to critical psychologies of science and technology? Here, we read cognitive experimental research on categorization diffractively (Barad, 2007), cutting between the commitment to positivist-empiricist ontology in any given experimental set up, and the empirical conclusions that human categorization practices are inherently hybrid. In so doing, we mean to exemplify the difference made by reading cognitive psychology as either non-critical (on the grounds of its positivist-empiricist ontology) or reparatively (on the basis of its conclusions) as a resource for critical psychology. We aim this intervention to normalize the idea that humans think queerly, and particularly to engage long-standing discussion of the relationship between criticality and positivist-empiricist methods in LGBTQ+ psychology. We aim to exemplify the difference that this diffractive reading can make, by drawing out its relevance for contemporary psychosocial research in intersex studies

A Meeting of Minds: Can Cognitive Psychology Meet the Demands of Queer Theory?

How can cognitive psychology make a contribution to critical psychologies of science and technology? Here, we read cognitive experimental research on categorization diffractively (Barad, 2007), cutting between the commitment to positivist-empiricist ontology in any given experimental set up, and the empirical conclusions that human categorization practices are inherently hybrid. In so doing, we mean to exemplify the difference made by reading cognitive psychology as either non-critical (on the grounds of its positivist-empiricist ontology) or reparatively (on the basis of its conclusions) as a resource for critical psychology. We aim this intervention to normalize the idea that humans think queerly, and particularly to engage long-standing discussion of the relationship between criticality and positivist-empiricist methods in LGBTQ+ psychology. We aim to exemplify the difference that this diffractive reading can make, by drawing out its relevance for contemporary psychosocial research in intersex studies

Attitudes toward children: distinguishing affection and stress

Background Adults' views and behaviors toward children can vary from being supportive to shockingly abusive, and there are significant unanswered questions about the psychological factors underpinning this variability. Objective The present research examined the content of adults' attitudes toward children to address these questions. Method Ten studies (N = 4702) identified the factor structure of adults' descriptions of babies, toddlers, and school-age children and examined how the resulting factors related to a range of external variables. Results Two factors emerged—affection toward children and stress elicited by them—and this factor structure was invariant across the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa. Affection uniquely captures emotional approach tendencies, concern for others, and broad positivity in evaluations, experiences, motivations, and donation behavior. Stress relates to emotional instability, emotional avoidance, and concern about disruptions to a self-oriented, structured life. The factors also predict distinct experiences in a challenging situation—home-parenting during COVID-19 lockdown—with affection explaining greater enjoyment and stress explaining greater perceived difficulty. Affection further predicts mentally visualizing children as pleasant and confident, whereas stress predicts mentally visualizing children as less innocent. Conclusions These findings offer fundamental new insights about social cognitive processes in adults that impact adult–child relationships and children's well-being.</p