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Yoo J, Jasko K, Winkielman P. Fluency, prediction and motivation: how processing dynamics, expectations and epistemic goals shape aesthetic judgements. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20230326. [PMID: 38104614 PMCID: PMC10725759 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0326] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2023] [Accepted: 11/21/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023] Open
Abstract
What psychological mechanisms underlie aesthetic judgements? An influential account known as the Hedonic Marking of Fluency, later developed into a Processing Fluency Theory of Aesthetic Pleasure, posits that ease of processing elicits positive feelings and thus enhances stimulus evaluations. However, the theory faces empirical and conceptual challenges. In this paper, we extend it by integrating insights from predictive processing frameworks (PPF) and the epistemic motivation model (EMM). We propose four extensions. First, fluency of a stimulus depends on perceivers' expectations-their internal model of the world. Second, perceivers also form expectations about fluency itself and thus can experience surprising fluency. These expectations can come from the individual's history, their current task and their environment. Third, perceivers can value fluency but also disfluency, reflecting their non-directional epistemic goals. Fourth, perceivers also have directional epistemic goals, preferring specific conclusions or belief content. Consequently, affective reactions depend on whether the stimulus satisfies those goals. These directional epistemic goals may override concerns about fluency or change the value of fluency associated with specific content. We review supporting evidence and introduce novel predictions. By integrating insights from PPF and EMM, our framework can better capture established fluency effects and highlights their limitations and extensions. This article is part of the theme issue 'Art, aesthetics and predictive processing: theoretical and empirical perspectives'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenny Yoo
- Department of Psychology, University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA
| | - Katarzyna Jasko
- Jagiellonian University, Institute of Psychology, Ingardena 6, 30-060 Krakow, Poland
| | - Piotr Winkielman
- Department of Psychology, University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA
- SWPS University, Chodakowska 19/31, 03-815 Warsaw, Poland
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2
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Treider JM, Kunst JR, Vuoskoski JK. The influence of musical parameters and subjective musical ratings on perceptions of culture. Sci Rep 2023; 13:20682. [PMID: 38001153 PMCID: PMC10673861 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-45805-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 11/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent research suggests that music can affect evaluations of other groups and cultures. However, little is known about the objective and subjective musical parameters that influence these evaluations. We aimed to fill this gap through two studies. Study 1 collected responses from 52 American participants who listened to 30 folk-song melodies from different parts of the world. Linear mixed-effects models tested the influence of objective and subjective musical parameters of these melodies on evaluations of the cultures from which they originated. Musical parameters consistently predicted cultural evaluations. The most prominent musical parameter was musical velocity, a measure of number of pitch onsets, predicting more cultural warmth, competence and evolvedness and less cultural threat. Next, with a sample of 212 American participants, Study 2 used a within-subjects experiment to alter the tempo and dissonance for a subset of six melody excerpts from Study 1, testing for causal effects. Linear mixed-effects models revealed that both dissonance and slow tempo predicted more negative cultural evaluations. Together, both studies demonstrate how musical parameters can influence cultural perceptions. Avenues for future research are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Melvin Treider
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Postboks 1094, Blindern, 0317, Oslo, Norway.
| | - Jonas R Kunst
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Postboks 1094, Blindern, 0317, Oslo, Norway
| | - Jonna K Vuoskoski
- Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Postboks 1094, Blindern, 0317, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Musicology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- RITMO Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Time, Rhythm and Motion, Oslo, Norway
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3
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Burke SE, Perry SP, Dovidio JF, LaFrance M. Distinctive negative reactions to intermediate social groups. JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/jasp.12942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sara E. Burke
- Department of Psychology Syracuse University Syracuse New York USA
| | - Sylvia P. Perry
- Department of Psychology Northwestern University Evanston Illinois USA
| | - John F. Dovidio
- Department of Psychology Yale University New Haven Connecticut USA
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4
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Beyond the features: The role of consistency in impressions of trust. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLETIN 2022. [DOI: 10.32872/spb.9233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
To be successful in social life, perceivers need to form impressions of other people's trustworthiness. Current models of this process emphasize the role of specific descriptive content–individual verbal and visual features determining trust impressions. In contrast, we describe three lines of our research showing that trust impressions also depend on consistency–a sense of fit–between features. The first line demonstrates that consistency of brief verbal characterizations increases trust judgments. The second line shows that trust judgments and behaviors are boosted by incidental consistency between the foreground and background of visual scenes. The third line observes that consistency between facial features enhances impressions of trustworthiness. In all these studies, consistency (measured via subjective ratings, reaction times, and physiological measures) positively and uniquely predicted trust judgments. Overall, our results, and related findings, show that trust impressions are not a simple sum of the contributing parts, but reflect a “gestalt.” We theoretically locate these findings in frameworks emphasizing the role of fluency, predictive coding, and coherence in social cognition.
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Diel A, Lewis M. The uncanniness of written text is explained by configural deviation and not by processing disfluency. Perception 2022; 51:3010066221114436. [PMID: 35912496 DOI: 10.1177/03010066221114436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Deviating from human norms in human-looking artificial entities can elicit uncanny sensations, described as the uncanny valley. This study investigates in three tasks whether configural deviation in written text also increases uncanniness. It further evaluates whether the uncanniness of text is better explained by perceptual disfluency and especially deviations from specialized categories, or conceptual disfluency caused by ambiguity. In the first task, lower sentence readability predicted uncanniness, but deviating sentences were more uncanny than typical sentences despite being just as readable. Furthermore, familiarity with a language increased the effect of configural deviation on uncanniness but not the effect of non-configural deviation (blur). In the second and third tasks, semantically ambiguous words and sentences were not uncannier than typical sentences, but deviating, non-ambiguous sentences were. Deviations from categories with specialized processing mechanisms thus better fit the observed results as an explanation of the uncanny valley than ambiguity-based explanations.
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Norman JB, Chen JM. Grappling with Social Complexity When Defining and Assessing Implicit Bias. PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/1047840x.2022.2106760] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jasmine B. Norman
- Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina
| | - Jacqueline M. Chen
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
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7
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Howansky K, Wittlin N, Bonagura D, Cole S. Him, her, them, or none: misgendering and degendering of transgender individuals. PSYCHOLOGY & SEXUALITY 2021. [DOI: 10.1080/19419899.2021.1978529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Kristina Howansky
- Psychology, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, MD, USA
| | | | | | - Shana Cole
- Psychology, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
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8
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Abstract
Face-based perceptions form the basis for how people behave towards each other and, hence, are central to understanding human interaction. Studying face perception requires a large and diverse set of stimuli in order to make ecologically valid, generalizable conclusions. To date, there are no publicly available databases with a substantial number of Multiracial or racially ambiguous faces. Our systematic review of the literature on Multiracial person perception documented that published studies have relied on computer-generated faces (84% of stimuli), Black-White faces (74%), and male faces (63%). We sought to address these issues, and to broaden the diversity of available face stimuli, by creating the American Multiracial Faces Database (AMFD). The AMFD is a novel collection of 110 faces with mixed-race heritage and accompanying ratings of those faces by naive observers that are freely available to academic researchers. The faces (smiling and neutral expression poses) were rated on attractiveness, emotional expression, racial ambiguity, masculinity, racial group membership(s), gender group membership(s), warmth, competence, dominance, and trustworthiness. The large majority of the AMFD faces are racially ambiguous and can pass into at least two different racial categories. These faces will be useful to researchers seeking to study Multiracial person perception as well as those looking for racially ambiguous faces in order to study categorization processes in general. Consequently, the AMFD will be useful to a broad group of researchers who are studying face perception.
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Yang VC, van der Does T, Olsson H. Falling through the cracks: Modeling the formation of social category boundaries. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0247562. [PMID: 33788844 PMCID: PMC8011736 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247562] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2020] [Accepted: 02/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Social categorizations divide people into “us” and “them”, often along continuous attributes such as political ideology or skin color. This division results in both positive consequences, such as a sense of community, and negative ones, such as group conflict. Further, individuals in the middle of the spectrum can fall through the cracks of this categorization process and are seen as out-group by individuals on either side of the spectrum, becoming inbetweeners. Here, we propose a quantitative, dynamical-system model that studies the joint influence of cognitive and social processes. We model where two social groups draw the boundaries between “us” and ‘them” on a continuous attribute. Our model predicts that both groups tend to draw a more restrictive boundary than the middle of the spectrum. As a result, each group sees the individuals in the middle of the attribute space as an out-group. We test this prediction using U.S. political survey data on how political independents are perceived by registered party members as well as existing experiments on the perception of racially ambiguous faces, and find support.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Henrik Olsson
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, United States of America
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Ryali CK, Goffin S, Winkielman P, Yu AJ. From likely to likable: The role of statistical typicality in human social assessment of faces. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:29371-29380. [PMID: 33229540 PMCID: PMC7703555 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1912343117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans readily form social impressions, such as attractiveness and trustworthiness, from a stranger's facial features. Understanding the provenance of these impressions has clear scientific importance and societal implications. Motivated by the efficient coding hypothesis of brain representation, as well as Claude Shannon's theoretical result that maximally efficient representational systems assign shorter codes to statistically more typical data (quantified as log likelihood), we suggest that social "liking" of faces increases with statistical typicality. Combining human behavioral data and computational modeling, we show that perceived attractiveness, trustworthiness, dominance, and valence of a face image linearly increase with its statistical typicality (log likelihood). We also show that statistical typicality can at least partially explain the role of symmetry in attractiveness perception. Additionally, by assuming that the brain focuses on a task-relevant subset of facial features and assessing log likelihood of a face using those features, our model can explain the "ugliness-in-averageness" effect found in social psychology, whereby otherwise attractive, intercategory faces diminish in attractiveness during a categorization task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaitanya K Ryali
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
| | - Stanny Goffin
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Piotr Winkielman
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
- Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, 03-815 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Angela J Yu
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093;
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
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11
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Kaminska OK, Magnuski M, Olszanowski M, Gola M, Brzezicka A, Winkielman P. Ambiguous at the second sight: Mixed facial expressions trigger late electrophysiological responses linked to lower social impressions. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2020; 20:441-454. [PMID: 32166625 PMCID: PMC7105445 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-020-00778-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Social interactions require quick perception, interpretation, and categorization of faces, with facial features offering cues to emotions, intentions, and traits. Importantly, reactions to faces depend not only on their features but also on their processing fluency, with disfluent faces suffering social devaluation. The current research used electrophysiological (EEG) and behavioral measures to explore at what processing stage and under what conditions emotional ambiguity is detected in the brain and how it influences trustworthiness judgments. Participants viewed male and female faces ranging from pure anger, through mixed expressions, to pure happiness. They categorized each face along the experimental dimension (happy vs. angry) or a control dimension (gender). In the emotion-categorization condition, mixed (ambiguous) expressions were classified relatively slower, and their trustworthiness was rated relatively lower. EEG analyses revealed that early brain responses are independent of the categorization condition, with pure faces evoking larger P1/N1 responses than mixed expressions. Some late (728- 880 ms) brain responses from central-parietal sites also were independent of the categorization condition and presumably reflect familiarity of the emotion categories, with pure expressions evoking larger central-parietal LPP amplitude than mixed expressions. Interestingly, other late responses were sensitive to both expressive features and categorization task, with ambiguous faces evoking a larger LPP amplitude in frontal-medial sites around 560-660 ms but only in the emotion categorization task. Critically, these late responses from the frontal-medial cluster correlated with the reduction in trustworthiness judgments. Overall, the results suggest that ambiguity detection involves late, top-down processes and that it influences important social impressions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Mateusz Gola
- Institute for Neural Computation, Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Aneta Brzezicka
- University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland
- Department of Neurosurgery, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Piotr Winkielman
- University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland.
- Psychology Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
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12
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About face: Memory for transgender versus cisgender targets' facial appearance. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2018.04.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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13
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Olszanowski M, Kaminska OK, Winkielman P. Mixed matters: fluency impacts trust ratings when faces range on valence but not on motivational implications. Cogn Emot 2017; 32:1032-1051. [DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2017.1386622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Piotr Winkielman
- SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, USA
- Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
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14
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Lick DJ, Johnson KL. Perceptually Mediated Preferences and Prejudices. PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY 2016. [DOI: 10.1080/1047840x.2016.1215211] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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15
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Chetverikov A, Kristjánsson Á. On the joys of perceiving: Affect as feedback for perceptual predictions. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2016; 169:1-10. [PMID: 27195963 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.05.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2015] [Revised: 05/06/2016] [Accepted: 05/09/2016] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
How we perceive, attend to, or remember the stimuli in our environment depends on our preferences for them. Here we argue that this dependence is reciprocal: pleasures and displeasures are heavily dependent on cognitive processing, namely, on our ability to predict the world correctly. We propose that prediction errors, inversely weighted with prior probabilities of predictions, yield subjective experiences of positive or negative affect. In this way, we link affect to predictions within a predictive coding framework. We discuss how three key factors - uncertainty, expectations, and conflict - influence prediction accuracy and show how they shape our affective response. We demonstrate that predictable stimuli are, in general, preferred to unpredictable ones, though too much predictability may decrease this liking effect. Furthermore, the account successfully overcomes the "dark-room" problem, explaining why we do not avoid stimulation to minimize prediction error. We further discuss the implications of our approach for art perception and the utility of affect as feedback for predictions within a prediction-testing architecture of cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrey Chetverikov
- Laboratory for Visual Perception and Visuomotor Control, Faculty of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland; Department of Psychology, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia; Cognitive Research Lab, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia.
| | - Árni Kristjánsson
- Laboratory for Visual Perception and Visuomotor Control, Faculty of Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
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16
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Freeman JB, Pauker K, Sanchez DT. A Perceptual Pathway to Bias: Interracial Exposure Reduces Abrupt Shifts in Real-Time Race Perception That Predict Mixed-Race Bias. Psychol Sci 2016; 27:502-17. [PMID: 26976082 DOI: 10.1177/0956797615627418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2015] [Accepted: 12/19/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
In two national samples, we examined the influence of interracial exposure in one's local environment on the dynamic process underlying race perception and its evaluative consequences. Using a mouse-tracking paradigm, we found in Study 1 that White individuals with low interracial exposure exhibited a unique effect of abrupt, unstable White-Black category shifting during real-time perception of mixed-race faces, consistent with predictions from a neural-dynamic model of social categorization and computational simulations. In Study 2, this shifting effect was replicated and shown to predict a trust bias against mixed-race individuals and to mediate the effect of low interracial exposure on that trust bias. Taken together, the findings demonstrate that interracial exposure shapes the dynamics through which racial categories activate and resolve during real-time perceptions, and these initial perceptual dynamics, in turn, may help drive evaluative biases against mixed-race individuals. Thus, lower-level perceptual aspects of encounters with racial ambiguity may serve as a foundation for mixed-race prejudice.
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17
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Owen HE, Halberstadt J, Carr EW, Winkielman P. Johnny Depp, Reconsidered: How Category-Relative Processing Fluency Determines the Appeal of Gender Ambiguity. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0146328. [PMID: 26845341 PMCID: PMC4742244 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2015] [Accepted: 12/07/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals that combine features of both genders-gender blends-are sometimes appealing and sometimes not. Heretofore, this difference was explained entirely in terms of sexual selection. In contrast, we propose that part of individuals' preference for gender blends is due to the cognitive effort required to classify them, and that such effort depends on the context in which a blend is judged. In two studies, participants judged the attractiveness of male-female morphs. Participants did so after classifying each face in terms of its gender, which was selectively more effortful for gender blends, or classifying faces on a gender-irrelevant dimension, which was equally effortful for gender blends. In both studies, gender blends were disliked when, and only when, the faces were first classified by gender, despite an overall preference for feminine features in all conditions. Critically, the preferences were mediated by the effort of stimulus classification. The results suggest that the variation in attractiveness of gender-ambiguous faces may derive from context-dependent requirements to determine gender membership. More generally, the results show that the difficulty of resolving social category membership-not just attitudes toward a social category-feed into perceivers' overall evaluations toward category members.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helen E. Owen
- Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Jamin Halberstadt
- Department of Psychology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
- * E-mail: ;
| | - Evan W. Carr
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
| | - Piotr Winkielman
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America
- Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland
- * E-mail: ;
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18
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Kang SK, Plaks JE, Remedios JD. Folk beliefs about genetic variation predict avoidance of biracial individuals. Front Psychol 2015; 6:357. [PMID: 25904875 PMCID: PMC4387932 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00357] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2014] [Accepted: 03/13/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonia K. Kang
- Institute for Management and Innovation, University of Toronto MississaugaMississauga, ON, Canada
- Rotman School of Management, University of TorontoToronto, ON, Canada
| | - Jason E. Plaks
- Department of Psychology, University of TorontoToronto, ON, Canada
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19
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Lick DJ, Johnson KL. The Interpersonal Consequences of Processing Ease. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2015. [DOI: 10.1177/0963721414558116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Existing theories of prejudice formation focus primarily on the contents of social cognition (stereotypes, emotions) as laying the foundation for interpersonal animus. However, recent studies have revealed that experiential cues associated with the process of social cognition may also fuel prejudice. In particular, fluency—the metacognitive ease or difficulty of processing a stimulus—has emerged as an important factor contributing to prejudice. Across diverse operational definitions and at various levels of analysis, fluent processing is associated with positive social evaluations whereas disfluent processing is associated with negative social evaluations. Here, we review this burgeoning literature and highlight continued knowledge gaps to guide the next wave of research on the social consequences of fluency.
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20
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Lick DJ, Johnson KL, Rule NO. Disfluent Processing of Nonverbal Cues Helps to Explain Anti-Bisexual Prejudice. JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s10919-015-0211-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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21
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Kang SK, Bodenhausen GV. Multiple Identities in Social Perception and Interaction: Challenges and Opportunities. Annu Rev Psychol 2015; 66:547-74. [DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 189] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sonia K. Kang
- Department of Management, Institute for Management and Innovation, University of Toronto Mississauga, and Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E6, Canada;
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22
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Niimi R, Watanabe K. Do we know others' visual liking? Iperception 2014; 5:572-84. [PMID: 25926965 PMCID: PMC4411980 DOI: 10.1068/i0661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2014] [Revised: 08/01/2014] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Although personal liking varies considerably, there is a general trend of liking shared by many people (public favour). Visual liking in particular may be largely shared by people, as it is strongly influenced by relatively low-level perceptual factors. If so, it is likely that people have correct knowledge of public favour. We examined the human ability to predict public favour. In three experiments, participants rated the subjective likability of various visual objects (e.g. car, chair), and predicted the mean liking rating by other participants. Irrespective of the object's category, the correlation between individual prediction and actual mean liking of others (prediction validity) was not higher than the correlation between the predictor's own liking and the mean liking of others. Further, individual prediction correlated more with the predictor's own liking than it was with others' liking. Namely, predictions were biased towards the predictor's subjective liking (a variation of the false consensus effect). The results suggest that humans do not have (or cannot access) correct knowledge of public favour. It was suggested that increasing the number of predictors is the appropriate strategy for making a good prediction of public favour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryosuke Niimi
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; e-mail:
| | - Katsumi Watanabe
- Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; e-mail:
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