Perspective
Marjaana Lindeman et al.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging the brain activity of 12 supernatural believers and 11 skeptics who first imagined themselves in critical life situations (e.g., problems in intimate relationships) and then watched emotionally charged pictures of lifeless objects and scenery (e.g., two red cherries bound together). Supernatural believers reported seeing signs of how the situations were going to turn out in the pictures more often than skeptics did. Viewing the pictures activated the same brain regions among all participants (e.g., the left inferior frontal cortex, IFG). However, the right IFG, associated with cognitive inhibition, was activated more strongly in skeptics than in supernatural believers and its activation was negatively correlated to sign seeing in both participant groups. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on the universal processes that may underlie supernatural beliefs and the role of cognitive inhibition in explaining individual differences in such beliefs.
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Disfluency Disrupts the Confirmation Bias
Ivan Hernandez & Jesse Lee Preston
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
One difficulty in persuasion is overcoming the confirmation bias, where people selectively seek evidence that is consistent with their prior beliefs and expectations. This biased search for information allows people to analyze new information in an efficient, but shallow way. The present research discusses how experienced difficultly in processing (disfluency) can reduce the confirmation bias by promoting careful, analytic processing. In two studies, participants with prior attitudes on an issue became less extreme after reading an argument on the issues in a disfluent format. The change occurred for both naturally occurring attitudes (i.e. political ideology) and experimentally assigned attitudes (i.e. positivity towards a court defendant). Important, disfluency did not reduce confirmation biases when participants were under cognitive load, suggesting that cognitive resources are necessary to overcome these biases. Overall, these results suggest that changing the style of an argument's presentation can lead to attitudes change by promoting more comprehensive consideration of opposing views.
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Selectively altering belief formation in the human brain
Tali Sharot et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Humans form beliefs asymmetrically; we tend to discount bad news but embrace good news. This reduced impact of unfavorable information on belief updating may have important societal implications, including the generation of financial market bubbles, ill preparedness in the face of natural disasters, and overly aggressive medical decisions. Here, we selectively improved people's tendency to incorporate bad news into their beliefs by disrupting the function of the left (but not right) inferior frontal gyrus using transcranial magnetic stimulation, thereby eliminating the engrained "good news/bad news effect." Our results provide an instance of how selective disruption of regional human brain function paradoxically enhances the ability to incorporate unfavorable information into beliefs of vulnerability.
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Determined to conform: Disbelief in free will increases conformity
Jessica Alquist, Sarah Ainsworth & Roy Baumeister
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Does disbelief in free will reduce people's willingness to exert the effort needed for autonomous thought and action rather than simply conforming to group norms? Three studies tested the hypothesis that disbelief in free would be associated with greater conformity than a belief in free will. In Study 1 (correlational), participants who expressed a greater belief in free will reported that they were less likely to conform in a variety of situations than participants who expressed greater disbelief in free will. In Study 2 (experimental), participants who were induced to disbelieve in free will conformed significantly more to the opinions of ostensible other participants when judging paintings than participants in free will and control conditions. In Study 3 (experimental), participants who were induced to disbelieve in free will conformed significantly more to experimenter-provided examples than participants in a meaning-threat control condition, as well as more than those encouraged to believe in free will. These findings suggest that belief in free will contributes to autonomous action and resisting temptations and pressures to conform.
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Back or to the future? Preferences of time travelers
Florence Ettlin & Ralph Hertwig
Judgment and Decision Making, July 2012, Pages 373-382
Abstract:
Popular culture reflects whatever piques our imagination. Think of the myriad movies and books that take viewers and readers on an imaginary journey to the past or the future (e.g., Gladiator, The Time Machine). Despite the ubiquity of time travel as a theme in cultural expression, the factors that underlie people's preferences concerning the direction of time travel have gone unexplored. What determines whether a person would prefer to visit the (certain) past or explore the (uncertain) future? We identified three factors that markedly affect people's preference for (hypothetical) travel to the past or the future, respectively. Those who think of themselves as courageous, those with a more conservative worldview, and - perhaps counterintuitively - those who are advanced in age prefer to travel into the future. We discuss implications of these initial results.
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Is Choice-Induced Preference Change Long Lasting?
Tali Sharot et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The idea that decisions alter preferences has had a considerable influence on the field of psychology and underpins cognitive dissonance theory. Yet it is unknown whether choice-induced changes in preferences are long lasting or are transient manifestations seen in the immediate aftermath of decisions. In the research reported here, we investigated whether these changes in preferences are fleeting or stable. Participants rated vacation destinations before making hypothetical choices between destinations, immediately afterward, and 2.5 to 3 years later. We found that choices altered preferences both immediately after being made and after the delay. These changes could not be accounted for by participants' preexisting preferences, and they occurred only when participants made the choices themselves. Our findings provide evidence that making a decision can lead to enduring change in preferences.
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Joel Johnson & Calvin Kyunghoon Kang
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Three studies (n = 655) examined beliefs about chance, focusing on participants' recognition of some implications of the principle that small samples are more subject to chance fluctuation. Participants consistently demonstrated an asymmetry in their views about luck. Although they tended to recognize the possible decrements of chance fluctuation, they consistently failed to appreciate its potential benefits, especially in a context in which the outcome was largely contingent on factors under their personal control. Participants preferred a 100 question exam to a 10 question exam, correctly believing that an atypically low score was more likely with fewer questions. In contrast, they failed to recognize that an atypically high score was also more likely with fewer questions, and preferred the long exam even when there was no possible detriment from a low score and a potential benefit from a high one. This asymmetry was reduced, although not eliminated, in a ball drawing task in which the outcome was entirely chance determined. Results suggest that people associate chance fluctuation with bad luck more than with good luck, and are therefore reluctant to exchange control for the possible benefits of chance.
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Too Close for Comfort, or Too Far to Care? Finding Humor in Distant Tragedies and Close Mishaps
Peter McGraw et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Humor is ubiquitous and often beneficial, but the conditions that elicit it have been debated for millennia. We examine two factors that jointly influence perceptions of humor: the degree to which a stimulus is a violation (tragedy vs. mishap) and one's perceived distance from the stimulus (far vs. close). Five studies show that tragedies (which feature severe violations) are more humorous when temporally, socially, hypothetically, or spatially distant, but that mishaps (which feature mild violations) are more humorous when psychologically close. Although prevailing theories of humor have difficulty explaining the interaction between severity and distance revealed in these studies, our results are consistent with the proposal that humor occurs when a violation simultaneously seems benign. This benign-violation account suggests that distance facilitates humor in the case of tragedies by reducing threat, but that closeness facilitates humor in the case of mishaps by maintaining some sense of threat.
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Cardiovascular reactivity and resistance to opposing viewpoints during intragroup conflict
Frank de Wit, Daan Scheepers & Karen Jehn
Psychophysiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examined how the outcomes of joint decision making relate to cardiovascular reactions when group members disagree about the decision to be taken. A conflict was experimentally induced during a joint decision-making task, while cardiovascular markers of challenge/threat motivational states were assessed following the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat (BPSM; J. Blascovich, ). Results show that individuals were less likely to adjust their initially preferred decision alternative the more they exhibited a cardiovascular pattern indicative of threat (i.e., relatively high total peripheral resistance and low cardiac output) compared to challenge. This finding extends the BPSM by showing a link between threat and rigidity, and emphasizes the importance of psychophysiological processes for studying intragroup conflict and decision making.
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Supportive Social Relationships Attenuate the Appeal of Choice
Oscar Ybarra, David Seungjae Lee & Richard Gonzalez
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
People like having options when choosing, but having too many options can lead to negative decision-related consequences. The present study focused on how social-relational factors - common aspects of daily life - can maintain or attenuate the appeal of choice. Study 1 examined the effect of a supportive- or nonsupportive-relationship prime on the decision to pay for having more options in choosing a consumer product. People who thought of supportive relationships, compared with those who thought of nonsupportive ones (and control participants), were less willing to pay for a larger choice set. Study 2 showed that the activation of thoughts of security and calmness in participants recalling supportive relationships (compared with participants recalling nonsupportive relationships) mediated the appeal of choice. This finding offers one possible explanation for the reduced desire for options when people are reminded of supportive relationships.
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Jessica Sales, Natalie Merrill & Robyn Fivush
Memory, forthcoming
Abstract:
It has been argued that, for certain people, attempts at making meaning about past life events, especially challenging events, might be detrimental to well-being. In this study we explored the association between narrative indicators of meaning making and psychological well-being, while also considering the role of individual level factors such as life history, personality characteristics, and locus of control, among an at-risk sample of low socioeconomic status inner-city African-American adolescent females with challenging lives. We found that having a more external locus of control and including more cognitive processing language in narratives about a highly negative past experience were associated with increased depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that certain types of narrative meaning-making language may reflect ongoing and unsuccessful efforts after meaning, and may be more similar to rumination than to resolution. Additionally they support claims that for certain individuals from challenging backgrounds, efforts after meaning might not be psychologically healthy.
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Alexander Brown, Colin Camerer & Dan Lovallo
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Film studios occasionally withhold movies from critics before their release. Because the unreviewed movies tend to be below average in quality, this practice provides a useful setting in which to test models of limited strategic thinking: Do moviegoers seem to realize that no review is a sign of low quality? A companion paper showed that in a set of all widely released movies in 2000-2009, cold opening produces a significant 20%-30% increase in domestic box office revenue, which is consistent with moviegoers overestimating quality of unreviewed movies (perhaps due to limited strategic thinking). This paper reviews those findings and provides two models to analyze this data: an equilibrium model and a behavioral cognitive hierarchy model that allows for differing levels of strategic thinking between moviegoers and movie studios. The behavioral model fits the data better, because moviegoer parameters are relatively close to those observed in experimental subjects. These results suggests that limited strategic thinking rather than equilibrium reasoning may be a better explanation for naïve moviegoer behavior.
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Learning Through Noticing: Theory and Experimental Evidence in Farming
Rema Hanna, Sendhil Mullainathan & Joshua Schwartzstein
NBER Working Paper, September 2012
Abstract:
Existing learning models attribute failures to learn to a lack of data. We model a different barrier. Given the large number of dimensions one could focus on when using a technology, people may fail to learn because they failed to notice important features of the data they possess. We conduct a field experiment with seaweed farmers to test a model of "learning through noticing". We find evidence of a failure to notice: On some dimensions, farmers do not even know the value of their own input. Interestingly, trials show that these dimensions are the ones that farmers fail to optimize. Furthermore, consistent with the model, we find that simply having access to the experimental data does not induce learning. Instead, farmers change behavior only when presented with summaries that highlight the overlooked dimensions. We also draw out the implications of learning through noticing for technology adoption, agricultural extension, and the meaning of human capital.
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The Neural Basis of Belief Updating and Rational Decision Making
Anja Achtziger et al.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Rational decision making under uncertainty requires forming beliefs which integrate prior and new information through Bayes' rule. Human decision makers typically deviate from Bayesian updating by either overweighting the prior (conservatism) or overweighting new information (e.g., the representativeness heuristic). We investigated these deviations through measurements of electrocortical activity in the human brain during incentivized probability updating tasks and found evidence of extremely early commitment to boundedly rational heuristics. Participants who overweight new information display a lower sensibility to conflict detection, captured by an event-related potential (the N2) observed around 260 ms after the presentation of new information. Conservative decision makers (who overweight prior probabilities) make up their mind before new information is presented, as indicated by the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) in the brain. That is, they do not inhibit the processing of new information but rather immediately rely on the prior for making a decision.
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Annukka Lindell
Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, forthcoming
Abstract:
When posing for a portrait people tend to offer the left cheek; however self-portraits typically depict right cheek poses. Why? If the right cheek bias for self-portraits results from artists offering their left cheeks to a mirror, then right cheek self-portraits should become increasingly infrequent following the introduction of affordable cameras. The present study was thus designed to determine whether orientation changed as a function of the date of composition by examining 1193 self-portraits from 24 international galleries. Self-portraits were split into seven groups by date: Group 1 Pre-camera: 1452-1539 (N=25); Group 2 Pre-camera: 1540-1639 (N=65); Group 3 Pre-camera: 1640-1739 (N=61); Group 4 Pre-camera: 1740-1839 (N=141); Group 5 Early cameras: 1840-1887 (N=235); Group 6 Kodak cameras: 1888-1935 (N=411); and Group 7 Cameras popularly adopted: 1936-2008 (N=255). Consistent with prediction, results confirmed that the right cheek bias in self-portraits changed over time, from 61.6% of pre-camera portraits (1452-1839), to 43.2% of post-camera portraits (1840-2008). Although the decrease in right cheek pose frequency did correspond with an increase in left cheek poses (1452-1839 mean 32.9% vs 1840-2008 mean 39.8%), the greatest proportional change since the introduction of the camera was the frequency of midline poses, climbing from 4% of 1452-1539 portraits, to 31.5% of 1936-2008 portraits. Thus these data imply that the availability of affordable cameras might have influenced self-portrait posing biases.
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How Academics Face the World: A Study of 5829 Homepage Pictures
Owen Churches et al.
PLoS ONE, July 2012
Abstract:
It is now standard practice, at Universities around the world, for academics to place pictures of themselves on a personal profile page maintained as part of their University's web-site. Here we investigated what these pictures reveal about the way academics see themselves. Since there is an asymmetry in the degree to which emotional information is conveyed by the face, with the left side being more expressive than the right, we hypothesised that academics in the sciences would seek to pose as non-emotional rationalists and put their right cheek forward, while academics in the arts would express their emotionality and pose with the left cheek forward. We sourced 5829 pictures of academics from their University websites and found that, consistent with the hypotheses, there was a significant difference in the direction of face posing between science academics and English academics with English academics showing a more leftward orientation. Academics in the Fine Arts and Performing Arts however, did not show the expected left cheek forward bias. We also analysed profile pictures of psychology academics and found a greater bias toward presenting the left check compared to science academics which makes psychologists appear more like arts academics than scientists. These findings indicate that the personal website pictures of academics mirror the cultural perceptions of emotional expressiveness across disciplines.
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Carmen Pérez González
Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, September/October 2012, Pages 515-532
Abstract:
The direction of reading has been found to have a significant effect upon aesthetic preference, with left-to-right readers showing a preference for stimuli with a rightward directionality while right-to-left readers prefer stimuli with a leftward directionality. This study looks at a large set of posed, studio photographs to study the cultural interaction between direction of reading and lateral organisation, comparing a corpus of 735 nineteenth-century photographs from Iran (right-to-left reading) with a similar corpus of 898 photographs from Spain (left-to-right readers). Five separate types of composition were studied: linear ordering, usually by height; couples; individuals posing by a chair; individuals posing by a table; and portraits. Lateral preferences were found for all five types of photograph, with the lateral organisation of Iranian photographs being the reverse of that in the Spanish photographs. These data provide support for the influence of direction of reading upon aesthetic organisation in naturalistically produced photographs.
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On the Ease of (Dis)believing: The Role of Accessibility Experiences in Credibility Judgments
Karl Ask, Rainer Greifeneder & Marc-André Reinhard
Applied Cognitive Psychology, September/October 2012, Pages 779-784
Abstract:
Credibility judgments are common and consequential in many applied settings. Although much research has addressed human observers' ability to discriminate true and deceptive statements, less is known about the psychological processes involved in such judgments. Here, it is proposed that the process of mustering evidence for or against credibility is reflected in a feeling-based form (ease-of-retrieval) and that such feelings can be used as a basis for credibility judgments. The results of an experiment show, as predicted, that the perceived ease with which participants could identify clues strongly influenced credibility judgments. Ironically, mustering more clues in support of a truthful account lowered credibility judgments; in contrast, mustering more clues in support of a deceptive account increased credibility judgments. Mediation analyses suggest that this is because participants relied on a feeling-based as opposed to content-based judgment strategy. Practical implications are discussed, and theoretical issues regarding the process of credibility judgment are raised.
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Groupthink: Collective Delusions in Organizations and Markets
Roland Bénabou
Review of Economic Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper investigates collective denial and willful blindness in groups, organizations and markets. Agents with anticipatory preferences, linked through an interaction structure, choose how to interpret and recall public signals about future prospects. Wishful thinking (denial of bad news) is shown to be contagious when it is harmful to others, and self-limiting when it is beneficial. Similarly, with Kreps-Porteus preferences, willful blindness (information avoidance) spreads when it increases the risks borne by others. This general mechanism can generate multiple social cognitions of reality, and in hierarchies it implies that realism and delusion will trickle down from the leaders. The welfare analysis differentiates group morale from groupthink and identifies a fundamental tension in organizations' attitudes toward dissent. Contagious exuberance can also seize asset markets, generating investment frenzies and crashes.
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An Unlucky Feeling: Overconfidence and Noisy Feedback
Zachary Grossman & David Owens
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
How do individuals' beliefs respond to ego-relevant information? After receiving noisy, but unbiased performance feedback, participants in an experiment overestimate their own scores on a quiz and believe their feedback to be ‘unlucky', estimating that it under-represents their score by 13%. However, they exhibit no such overconfidence in non-ego-relevant beliefs - in this case, estimates of others' scores. Comparing subjects' belief-updating to the Bayesian benchmark, we find that this ‘unlucky feeling' is largely due to overconfident priors, with biased updating driving overconfidence only among the participants with the worst-calibrated beliefs. This suggests that social comparisons contribute to the biased response to feedback on relative performance observed in other studies. While feedback improves performance estimates, this learning does not translate into improved estimates of subsequent performances. This suggests that beliefs about ability are updated differently than beliefs about a particular performance, contributing to the persistence of overconfidence.
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Airong Zhang et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the context of school segregation in China, the authors propose that disadvantaged group members' self-esteem should improve when they consider the prospect of a better future for the group (i.e., awareness of cognitive alternatives to the lower status position). A pilot study established that country workers' children who were educated with city children (i.e., in integrated schools) reported higher self-esteem than country workers' children who were educated separately (i.e., in segregated schools). Study 1 showed that self-esteem among country workers' children was predicted by awareness of cognitive alternatives, but not by contact with city children. Study 2 experimentally manipulated cognitive alternatives, showing that self-esteem was enhanced when awareness of cognitive alternatives was high rather than low. Contact with city children again did not predict self-esteem. Findings demonstrate the importance of perceiving that social change is possible.