Determinants of automatic age and race bias: ingroup-outgroup distinction salience moderates automatic evaluations of social groups.

Introduction: The present research investigates whether ingroup-outgroup distinction salience moderates automatic intergroup bias (i.e., more positive evaluations of ingroup targets relative to outgroup targets) toward multiply categorizable social targets. Methods: In two experiments, we manipulated the salience of participants' social identity based on age vs. race, respectively. Afterwards, we measured automatic evaluations of social targets varying in age and race. Results: Young White participants exhibited higher automatic race bias when their racial identity (i.e., White in contrast to Black) was salient. Conversely, they exhibited higher automatic age bias when their age identity (i.e., young in contrast to old) was salient. Discussion: Going beyond previous research, we show that it is sufficient to direct participants' attention to their ingroup-identity in contrast to the respective outgroup to cause changes in automatic intergroup bias. This is important because it provides a strong test of the hypothesis that ingroup-outgroup distinction salience moderates automatic intergroup bias.

Motivated reasoning about climate change and the influence of Numeracy, Need for Cognition, and the Dark Factor of Personality.

Human information processing is not always rational but influenced by prior attitudes, a phenomenon commonly known as motivated reasoning. We conducted two studies (N1 = 556, N2 = 1198; UK samples) investigating motivated reasoning in the context of climate change with a focus on individual differences as potential moderating factors. While previous research investigated motivated reasoning regarding the debate whether climate change is anthropogenic, we focused on current discourses about the effectiveness of different countermeasures. To this end, participants evaluated fictitious scientific data on the effectiveness of regulations to reduce CO2 emissions. In both studies, participants exhibited motivated reasoning as indicated by the observation that prior attitudes about CO2 reduction policies predicted evaluation of the scientific data. The degree of motivated reasoning was not related to individual difference variables, namely the ability to understand and reason with numbers (Numeracy), the willingness to show this ability (Need for Cognition), and the tendency to maximize one's individual utility (Dark Factor of Personality). However, numeracy was associated with a less biased interpretation of the presented information. Our research demonstrates that motivated reasoning is a general phenomenon, and points to numerical training as one way to improve reasoning.

The role of motivated science reception and numeracy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic depends on individuals accepting the current state of research and adhering to the preventive behaviors that follow from it. However, the processing of scientific results is not always rational, but influenced by prior attitudes as well as the ability to understand statistical data. Against this background, this study investigated the role of motivated reasoning and numeracy in the context of the current pandemic. To this end, participants (N = 417; US sample) evaluated two fictitious studies, one indicating that mask mandates in schools are an effective intervention to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and one indicating that mask mandates in schools are counterproductive. Participants evaluated the studies in line with their prior attitude toward mask mandates. In addition, higher numeracy was associated with decreased bias, demonstrating that the ability to reason with numbers can lead to more accurate processing of statistical information.

Further Validation of Measures of Target Detection and Stereotype Activation in the Stereotype Misperception Task.

Previous research presented a multinomial model to estimate four latent processes (target detection, stereotype activation, stereotype application, guessing) that contribute to responses in the Stereotype Misperception Task, an indirect measure of stereotyping (Krieglmeyer and Sherman, 2012). The present research further investigates the validity of the target detection (D) and stereotype activation (SAC) parameters. To this end, the data from Experiment 2 and Experiment 4 in Krieglmeyer and Sherman (2012) were re-analyzed using a bootstrap method to investigate the robustness of the results. Furthermore, two conceptual replication studies were conducted and analyzed with the same bootstrap method. A manipulation of target distinctness influenced the D parameter as predicted. A manipulation of prime prototypicality influenced the SAC parameter as predicted. Taken together, the results support the validity of the D and SAC model parameters.

On the Roles of Stereotype Activation and Application in Diminishing Implicit Bias.

Stereotypes can influence social perception in undesirable ways. However, activated stereotypes are not always applied in judgments. The present research investigated how stereotype activation and application processes impact social judgments as a function of available resources for control over stereotypes. Specifically, we varied the time available to intervene in the stereotyping process and used multinomial modeling to independently estimate stereotype activation and application. As expected, social judgments were less stereotypic when participants had more time to intervene. In terms of mechanisms, stereotype application, and not stereotype activation, corresponded with reductions in stereotypic biases. With increasing time, stereotype application was reduced, reflecting the fact that controlling application is time-dependent. In contrast, stereotype activation increased with increasing time, apparently due to increased engagement with stereotypic material. Stereotype activation was highest when judgments were least stereotypical, and thus, reduced stereotyping may coincide with increased stereotype activation if stereotype application is simultaneously decreased.

Taking a Detour: Affective Stimuli Facilitate Ultimately (Not Immediately) Compatible Approach-Avoidance Tendencies.

Abundant evidence suggests that affective stimuli facilitate responses that lead to a compatible change in distance between the affective stimulus and the self (positive → approach, negative → avoidance). A special situation arises, when a barrier blocks the direct way toward or away from an affective stimulus. Recent evidence suggests that in such cases affective stimuli facilitate responses that ultimately lead to a compatible change in distance, even when this requires an initial step in the opposite and thus incompatible direction. The present study investigated whether this is the case even when relatively complex processing is required to recognize the presence of a barrier and, thus, the need for a detour. Employing a stimulus-response-compatibility task, we asked participants to move a manikin along the pathways of a maze toward or away from a positive or negative stimulus. The direct way was possible on half of the trials and blocked by a barrier on the other half of the trials. In the latter case, the manikin had to first be moved in the direction opposite to the position ultimately intended. We manipulated between participants the type of barrier and, thus, the complexity of cognitive processing required to recognize the need for a detour. In the simple condition, a black bar was presented as a barrier on the way. In the complex condition, a blue or yellow bar was presented, and the color indicated whether the bar constituted a barrier (locked gate) or not (open gate). Replicating and extending previous findings, the present study shows that affective stimuli facilitate ultimately (not immediately) compatible approach-avoidance responses, even when relatively complex processing is required to recognize the need for a detour.

The Affect Misattribution Procedure.

The Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) has been forwarded as one of the most promising alternatives to the Implicit Association Test and the evaluative-priming task for measuring attitudes such as prejudice indirectly. We investigated whether the AMP is indeed able to detect an evaluative out-group bias. In contrast to recent conclusions about the robustness of AMP effects, six out of seven pilot studies indicated that participants did not show any prejudice effects in the AMP. Yet, these pilot studies were not fully conclusive with regard to our research question because they investigated different domains of prejudice, used small sample sizes, and employed a modified AMP version. In a preregistered, high-powered AMP study, we therefore examined whether the standard AMP does reveal prejudice against Turks, the biggest minority in Germany, and found a significant, albeit very small prejudice effect. We discuss possible reasons for the AMP's weak sensitivity to evaluations in socially sensitive domains.

How absent negativity relates to affect and motivation: an integrative relief model.

The present paper concerns the motivational underpinnings and behavioral correlates of the prevention or stopping of negative stimulation - a situation referred to as relief. Relief is of great theoretical and applied interest. Theoretically, it is tied to theories linking affect, emotion, and motivational systems. Importantly, these theories make different predictions regarding the association between relief and motivational systems. Moreover, relief is a prototypical antecedent of counterfactual emotions, which involve specific cognitive processes compared to factual or mere anticipatory emotions. Practically, relief may be an important motivator of addictive and phobic behaviors, self destructive behaviors, and social influence. In the present paper, we will first provide a review of conflicting conceptualizations of relief. We will then present an integrative relief model (IRMO) that aims at resolving existing theoretical conflicts. We then review evidence relevant to distinctive predictions regarding the moderating role of various procedural features of relief situations. We conclude that our integrated model results in a better understanding of existing evidence on the affective and motivational underpinnings of relief, but that further evidence is needed to come to a more comprehensive evaluation of the viability of IRMO.