Using conflict negativity to index psychological tension between impartiality and status-upholding principles.

People often endorse the moral principle that all human lives are equally valuable. At the same time, people often privilege high-status individuals over low-status individuals. These two inclinations come into conflict in a scenario involving the potential killing of a high-status person to save the lives of multiple low-status people. In the present study, participants viewed a series of sacrificial dilemmas in which the social status of the victims and beneficiaries was varied. We measured participants' choice (sacrifice vs. don't sacrifice), response time, and electroencephalographic activity, with an emphasis on conflict negativity (CN). Overall, we found no effects of victim/beneficiaries status on choice and response time. However, participants displayed a more pronounced CN effect when contemplating a high-status victim/low-status beneficiaries tradeoff than a low-status-victim/high-status beneficiaries tradeoff. Further analyses revealed that this effect was primarily driven by participants who endorsed deontological principles (e.g., "Some rules must never be broken, no matter the consequences"). In contrast, those who endorsed utilitarian principles displayed equivalent levels of conflict negativity, regardless of the social status of victims and beneficiaries. These findings shed light on the role of conflict in the phenomenology of moral decision making.

Beyond Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness: Testing links between lower-level personality traits and American political orientation.

INTRODUCTION: Research has consistently revealed positive correlations between political liberalism and Openness to Experience, and between conservatism and Conscientiousness. Most of this research has made use of domain-level models of the Big Five personality traits. Recent work suggests, however, that each Big Five trait domain can be divided into distinct aspects or facets, which offer more nuanced characterizations of each trait. METHODS: Across four studies (Ns ranging from 1,123 to 116,406), the present research examined the degree to which distinct lower-level traits would be associated with meaningful differences in political orientation. United States residents completed two different hierarchical Big Five personality measures (the Big Five Aspect Scales and the Big Five Inventory-2), as well as a range of measures of political orientation. RESULTS: Across both personality measures, liberal political orientation showed distinct positive associations with the lower-level traits Openness/Aesthetic Sensitivity, Intellect/Intellectual Curiosity, Compassion, and Withdrawal/Depression, as well as distinct negative associations with Orderliness/Organization, Politeness, and Assertiveness. DISCUSSION: By examining individual differences at a higher level of granularity, these data provide insight into specific motivations that predispose individuals toward different ends of the political spectrum.

Older adults' lay theories of abilities predict their willingness to engage in preventive health behaviors.

OBJECTIVES: The present studies examined the linkages between older adults' lay theories regarding the modifiability of abilities and their intentions to perform preventive health behaviors. The 'entity theory' refers to the belief that traits are fixed. The 'incremental theory' is the belief that traits are malleable. We hypothesized that older adults who held a stronger incremental theory would perceive more benefits to health behaviors, which in turn would lead to higher intentions to perform those behaviors. METHOD: Data from two independent, cross-sectional studies were analyzed via mediation analyses (Study 1: n = 147, Mean age = 68.62, SD = 5.40; Study 2: n = 152, Mean age = 70.56, SD = 4.98). Data were collected via an online survey and/or during an in-lab session at the university. Community-dwelling older adults completed, among other measures, a questionnaire assessing their lay theories of abilities. Participants also reported their perceptions of the benefits of different health behaviors for slowing the effects of aging, and their intentions to engage in those behaviors. RESULTS: In both samples, the more older people believed that abilities are changeable (i.e., endorsed the incremental theory), the more they perceived the benefits of preventive health behaviors (Study 1: b = .22, p = .005; Study 2: b = .11, p = .03), which in turn predicted greater intention to perform such behaviors (Study 1: b = .74, p < .001; Study 2: b = .36, p < .001). DISCUSSION: These results suggest that entity beliefs may discourage older people from adopting health behaviors.

An orderly personality partially explains the link between trait disgust and political conservatism.

Individuals who are more easily disgusted tend to be more politically conservative. Individuals who have a preference for order also tend to be more politically conservative. In the present research, we hypothesised that these three variables are psychologically interrelated. Specifically, trait disgust encourages a generalised search for order, which, in turn, encourages the endorsement of political positions that aim to maintain societal order. Taking an individual differences approach, we operationalised the preference for order via Orderliness, one aspect of the Big Five trait Conscientiousness. Across six samples (total N = 1485), participants completed measures of trait disgust, aspect/trait personality, and political orientation. Analyses revealed that Orderliness was a consistent mediator of the association between trait disgust and conservatism. Analyses of subscales of disgust revealed preliminary evidence that Orderliness most consistently mediated the relationships between Contamination, Pathogen, and Sexual disgust and conservatism. These data suggest that disgust-sensitive people extend their preference for order in the physical environment (e.g. tidying up one's room) to the sociopolitical environment (e.g. strengthening traditional norms). The present findings illustrate one way in which emotional, cognitive, and personality processes work together to influence political orientation.

Don't Get Too Excited: Assessing Individual Differences in the Down-Regulation of Positive Emotions.

A voluminous literature has documented the importance of emotion regulation for health and well-being. The studies in this literature, however, have generally focused on the down-regulation of negative affect. Few studies have examined the down-regulation of positive affect. In Study 1, we constructed a scale, the revised Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale (r-RESE), which assesses both the down- and up-regulation of positive affect, in addition to the traditional down-regulation of negative affect. In Study 2, we conducted an extensive validation of the r-RESE scale, using a multimethod approach with informant ratings, to illustrate that the down-regulation of positive affect represents a process independent of each of the other forms of emotion regulation. In Study 3, we provided evidence that the ability to down-regulate positive emotions provides added predictive utility when predicting indexes of impulsivity and adjustment. Across the studies, we illustrate the potential importance of the down-regulation of positive emotions as a topic of study for the field of emotion regulation.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the effects of negative age stereotypes and perceived age discrimination on older adults' well-being.

Objectives: Although numerous studies have documented that negative age stereotypes and perceived age discrimination are related to older adults' lower well-being, few studies have investigated the mechanisms underlying these relationships. In this study, we tested whether self-perceptions of aging and subjective age would help to account for the relation between stereotypes and discrimination and self-esteem. According to the internalization hypothesis, we expected that the effects of negative age stereotypes and greater perceived age discrimination would be driven by more negative self-perceptions of aging and older subjective age. Method: A total of 151 older adults completed questions assessing their endorsement of negative age stereotypes, perceived age discrimination, self-perceptions of aging, subjective age, and self-esteem. Relationships among these variables were assessed using serial mediation analyses. Results: Consistent with the internalization hypothesis, negative age stereotypes and perceived age discrimination indirectly predicted older subjective age and lower self-esteem through worsening self-perceptions of aging. However, we did not find a direct effect of negative age stereotypes or perceived discrimination on subjective age, nor an indirect effect of negative age stereotypes and perceived age discrimination on self-esteem through subjective age. Conclusion: These results support the internalization hypothesis: among older adults, holding more negative age stereotypes and perceiving more age discrimination is associated with feeling older and with lower self-esteem through worsened perceptions of one's own aging. Given the central role of self-perceptions of aging, these findings highlight the importance of promoting more positive self-perceptions in order to maintain or increase older adults' well-being.

Testing the Link Between Empathy and Lay Theories of Happiness.

Happiness is a topic that ignites both considerable interest and considerable disagreement. Thus far, however, there has been little attempt to characterize people's lay theories about happiness or explore their consequences. We examined whether individual differences in lay theories of happiness would predict empathy. In Studies 1a and 1b, we validated the Lay Theories of Happiness Scale (LTHS), which includes three dimensions: flexibility, controllability, and locus. In Study 2, higher dispositional empathy was predicted by the belief that happiness is flexible, controllable, and internal. In Studies 3 and 4, higher empathy toward a specific target was predicted by the belief that happiness is flexible, uncontrollable, and external. In conjunction, Studies 2, 3, and 4 provide evidence that trait and state empathy are separable and can have opposing relationships with people's lay theories. Overall, these findings highlight generalized beliefs that may guide empathic reactions to the unhappiness of others.

Effects of Culture and Gender on Judgments of Intent and Responsibility.

Do different cultures hold different views of intentionality? In four studies, participants read scenarios in which the actor's distal intent (a focus on a broader goal) and proximal intent (a focus on the mechanics of the act) were manipulated. In Studies 1-2, when distal intent was more prominent in the actor's mind, North Americans rated the actor more responsible than did Chinese and South Asian participants. When proximal intent was more prominent, Chinese and South Asian participants, if anything, rated the actor more responsible. In Studies 3-4, when distal intent was more prominent, male Americans rated the actor more responsible than did female Americans. When proximal intent was more prominent, females rated the actor more responsible. The authors discuss these findings in relation to the literatures on moral reasoning and cultural psychology.

Construal level and free will beliefs shape perceptions of actors' proximal and distal intent.

Two components of lay observers' calculus of moral judgment are proximal intent (the actor's mind is focused on performing the action) and distal intent (the actor's mind is focused on the broader goal). What causes observers to prioritize one form of intent over the other? The authors observed whether construal level (Studies 1-2) and beliefs about free will (Studies 3-4) would influence participants' sensitivity to the actor's proximal vs. distal intent. In four studies, participants read scenarios in which the actor's proximal and distal intent were independently manipulated. In Study 1, when only distal intent was present in the actor's mind, participants rated the psychologically distant actor more responsible than the psychologically near actor. In Study 2, when only distal intent was in the actor's mind, participants with a chronic high level of action identification rated the actor more responsible than did those with a low level of action identification. In both studies, when only proximal intent was in the actor's mind, construal level did not predict judgments of responsibility. In Study 3, when only proximal intent was present in the actor's mind, the more participants believed in free will, the more they rated the actor responsible. When only distal intent was in the actor's mind, free will belief did not influence ratings of responsibility. In Study 4, the same pattern emerged when free will/determinism beliefs were manipulated and the actor performed a positive (life-saving) act. The authors discuss how these results shed new light on the literatures on moral reasoning and psycho-legal theory.

Folk beliefs about genetic variation predict avoidance of biracial individuals.

People give widely varying estimates for the amount of genetic overlap that exists between humans. While some laypeople believe that humans are highly genetically similar to one another, others believe that humans share very little genetic overlap. These studies examine how beliefs about genetic overlap affect neural and evaluative reactions to racially-ambiguous and biracial targets. In Study 1, we found that lower genetic overlap estimates predicted a stronger neural avoidance response to biracial compared to monoracial targets. In Study 2, we found that lower genetic overlap estimates predicted longer response times to classify biracial (vs. monoracial) faces into racial categories. In Study 3, we manipulated genetic overlap beliefs and found that participants in the low overlap condition explicitly rated biracial targets more negatively than those in the high overlap condition. Taken together, these data suggest that genetic overlap beliefs influence perceivers' processing fluency and evaluation of biracial and racially-ambiguous individuals.

The neural correlates of implicit theory violation.

The present study examined whether perceivers' implicit theories about the fixedness of intelligence would modulate neurophysiological responses to stereotype-violating and stereotype-confirming information. Brain activity was recorded using EEG as participants read a series of stereotype-confirming or stereotype-violating behaviors performed by a target character. Compared to incremental theorists (who believe that intelligence is malleable), entity theorists (who believe that intelligence is fixed) displayed more pronounced N400 responses to stereotype-violating behaviors. In contrast, incremental theorists exhibited more pronounced N400 responses than entity theorists to stereotype-confirming behaviors. These results shed light on basic processes in Person Memory by suggesting that perceivers make a distinction at the neurocognitive level between stereotype violations versus implicit theory violations.

Conservatives Anticipate and Experience Stronger Emotional Reactions to Negative Outcomes.

The present work examined whether conservatives and liberals differ in their anticipation of their own emotional reactions to negative events. In two studies, participants imagined experiencing positive or negative outcomes in domains that do not directly concern politics. In Study 1, 190 American participants recruited online (64 male, Mage = 32 years) anticipated their emotional responses to romantic relationship outcomes. In Study 2, 97 Canadian undergraduate students (26 male, Mage = 21 years) reported on their anticipated and experienced emotional responses to academic outcomes. In both studies, more conservative participants predicted they would feel stronger negative emotions following negative outcomes than did more liberal participants. Furthermore, a longitudinal follow-up of Study 2 participants revealed that more conservative participants actually felt worse than more liberal participants after receiving a lower-than-desired exam grade. These effects remained even when controlling for the Big Five traits, prevention focus, and attachment style (Study 1), and optimism (Study 2). We discuss how the relationship between political orientation and anticipated affect likely contributes to differences between conservatives and liberals in styles of decision and policy choices.

Entity versus incremental theories predict older adults' memory performance.

The authors examined whether older adults' implicit theories regarding the modifiability of memory in particular (Studies 1 and 3) and abilities in general (Study 2) would predict memory performance. In Study 1, individual differences in older adults' endorsement of the "entity theory" (a belief that one's ability is fixed) or "incremental theory" (a belief that one's ability is malleable) of memory were measured using a version of the Implicit Theories Measure (Dweck, 1999). Memory performance was assessed with a free-recall task. Results indicated that the higher the endorsement of the incremental theory, the better the free recall. In Study 2, older and younger adults' theories were measured using a more general version of the Implicit Theories Measure that focused on the modifiability of abilities in general. Again, for older adults, the higher the incremental endorsement, the better the free recall. Moreover, as predicted, implicit theories did not predict younger adults' memory performance. In Study 3, participants read mock news articles reporting evidence in favor of either the entity or incremental theory. Those in the incremental condition outperformed those in the entity condition on reading span and free-recall tasks. These effects were mediated by pretask worry such that, for those in the entity condition, higher worry was associated with lower performance. Taken together, these studies suggest that variation in entity versus incremental endorsement represents a key predictor of older adults' memory performance.

The ecology of automaticity. How situational contingencies shape action semantics and social behavior.

What is the role of ecology in automatic cognitive processes and social behavior? Our motivated-preparation account posits that priming a social category readies the individual for adaptive behavioral responses to that category-responses that take into account the physical environment. We present the first evidence showing that the cognitive responses (Study 1) and the behavioral responses (Studies 2a and 2b) automatically elicited by a social-category prime differ depending on a person's physical surroundings. Specifically, after priming with pictures of Black men (a threatening out-group), participants responded with either aggressive behavior (fight) or distancing behavior (flight), depending on what action was allowed by the situation. For example, when participants were seated in an enclosed booth (no distancing behavior possible) during priming, they showed increased accessibility of fight-related action semantics; however, when seated in an open field (distancing behavior possible), they showed increased accessibility of flight-related action semantics. These findings suggest that an understanding of automaticity must consider its situated nature.

Thoughts versus deeds: distal and proximal intent in lay judgments of moral responsibility.

The authors propose that two central ingredients in lay models of intentionality are (a) "distal intent" (the actor's mind is focused on a broader goal) and (b) "proximal intent" (the actor's mind is focused narrowly on the act itself). Study 1 established that participants rate an actor with both forms of intent more responsible than an actor with only one form of intent or neither form of intent. In Study 2, when the actor had only distal intent, participants with a high-level construal rated the actor more responsible than did those with a low-level construal. In Study 3, when the actor had only distal intent, participants primed with psychodynamic concepts rated the actor more responsible than did those primed with cognitive-control concepts. However, when the actor had only proximal intent, the effect reversed. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the literatures on moral reasoning and law.

Regret for errors of commission and omission in the distant term versus near term: the role of level of abstraction.

Why are errors of omission regretted more than errors of commission in the distant past, whereas the reverse is true for the near past? The authors hypothesized that abstract versus concrete representation is a significant contributor to this effect. In Study 1, the authors assessed participants' regret for errors of commission versus omission occurring in the distant versus near past while measuring the level of abstraction at which participants spontaneously described the dilemma. As predicted, participants' greater regret for errors of omission (vs. commission) in the distant term (vs. near term) was mediated by level of abstraction. In Study 2, temporal distance, level of abstraction, and error type were all independently manipulated. As expected, participants reported more regret for an error of omission in the distant past when it was represented abstractly versus concretely. The authors discuss the role of mental abstraction in the phenomenology of binary decisions and error-related regret.

Unexpected improvement, decline, and stasis: a prediction confidence perspective on achievement success and failure.

The authors hypothesized that reactions to performance feedback depend on whether one's lay theory of intelligence is supported or violated. In Study 1, following improvement feedback, all participants generally exhibited positive affect, but entity theorists (who believe that intelligence is fixed) displayed more anxiety and more effort to restore prediction confidence than did incremental theorists (who believe that intelligence is malleable). Similarly, when performance declined, entity theorists displayed more anxiety and compensatory effort than incremental theorists. However, when performance remained rigidly static despite a learning opportunity, incremental theorists evinced more anxiety and compensatory effort than entity theorists. In Study 2, this pattern was replicated when the entity and incremental theories were experimentally manipulated. Study 3 demonstrated that for both groups, theory violation impairs subsequent task performance. Taken together, these studies provide evidence that lay theory violation and damaged prediction confidence have significant and measurable effects on emotion and motivation. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the literature on achievement success and failure.

Automatic social behavior as motivated preparation to interact.

The authors propose that automatic social behavior may result from perceivers preparing to interact with primed social group members. In Study 1, participants primed with a disliked outgroup (gay men) showed evidence of interaction preparation (aggression) rather than direct stereotypic trait expression (passivity). In Study 2, participants with implicit positive attitudes toward the elderly walked more slowly after "elderly" priming, but participants with negative attitudes walked more quickly, results consistent with a preparatory account; the reverse was found priming "youth." Study 3 demonstrated that the accessibility of a primed category follows a pattern more consistent with that of goal-related constructs (including post-goal-fulfillment inhibition) than that of semantically primed constructs. Implications for the function of stored knowledge are discussed.

Violations of implicit theories and the sense of prediction and control: implications for motivated person perception.

Beginning with the assumption that implicit theories of personality are crucial tools for understanding social behavior, the authors tested the hypothesis that perceivers would process person information that violated their predominant theory in a biased manner. Using an attentional probe paradigm (Experiment 1) and a recognition memory paradigm (Experiment 2), the authors presented entity theorists (who believe that human attributes are fixed) and incremental theorists (who believe that human attributes are malleable) with stereotype-relevant information about a target person that supported or violated their respective theory. Both groups of participants showed evidence of motivated, selective processing only with respect to theory-violating information. In Experiment 3, the authors found that after exposure to theory-violating information, participants felt greater anxiety and worked harder to reestablish their sense of prediction and control mastery. The authors discuss the epistemic functions of implicit theories of personality and the impact of violated assumptions.