Trait perspective-taking and need for cognition in the formation of stereotypes about people who stutter.

People who stutter (PWS) suffer from stereotypes portraying them as timid and anxious, which may affect their relationships and careers. One of the mechanisms for this stereotyping is the anchoring and adjustment heuristic, whereby individuals make judgements about PWS by using previous experiences for the initial judgement and then adjust accordingly. In the current study (n = 309) we replicate previous findings that individuals stereotype PWS by anchoring to experiences with episodic stuttering and adjusting toward typical non-stuttering individuals, although insufficiently. We extend this finding by testing whether trait perspective-taking and need for cognition moderate this relationship. The results show that trait perspective-taking decreases stereotyping of non-PWS, while having no effect on PWS stereotyping. However, need for cognition exhibited no consistent moderating effect on stereotyping.

Persuasive Appeals Predict Credibility Judgments of Phishing Messages.

Two studies examined effects of using persuasive appeals in phishing messages on judgments of credibility. Participants were tasked with reading a combination of legitimate and phishing e-mails to determine whether each message was legitimate or a scam. In both Study 1 and Study 2, when phishing messages included more appeals to authority and likability, phishing susceptibility increased. However, as the number of fear and urgency appeals in the message increased, phishing susceptibility decreased, as it was easier for participants to detect the phishing attempt. Contrary to prediction, perceived source likability did not mediate the relationship between appeal type and credibility judgments. Results highlight the importance of authority appeals on credibility, describe relationships between appeal type and phishing susceptibility, and offer strategies for users to defend against online deception.

Pronoun Usage in Online Sexual Predation.

We investigated pronoun usage by sexual predators in their online interactions with "decoys" (i.e., adults identifying themselves as children). Computerized text analysis was conducted for 561 instant messaging conversations between contact-driven solicitation offenders (CDSOs) and decoys. CDSOs not only used significantly fewer first-person and more second-person singular pronouns than the decoys but also used more second-person pronouns than adult romantic partners discussing their courtship. The other-focused nature of CDSOs' text messages is consistent with theories of the luring process positing predators' emphasis on making their targets feel special to initiate the cycle of entrapment.