The perception of self and others: Acquaintanceship, affect, and actor-observer differences

Motherhood Penalties and Fatherhood Premiums: Effects of Parenthood on Earnings Growth Within and Across Firms

Despite much interest in how parenthood contributes to the gender pay gap, prior research has rarely explored firms' roles in shaping the parenthood pay penalty or premium. The handful of studies that investigated parenthood's effects within and across firms generally compared parents and their childless peers at a given time and failed to account for unobserved heterogeneity between the two groups. Such comparisons also cannot inform how having children may alter individuals' earnings trajectories within and across firms. Using 26 rounds of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and fixed-effects models, we examine how being a mother or father is linked to earnings growth within and across firms. We find that women's pay decreases as they become mothers and that the across-employer motherhood penalty is larger than the within-employer penalty. By contrast, fatherhood is associated with a pay premium, and the within-employer fatherhood premium is considerably greater than the across-employer one. We argue that these results are consistent with the discrimination explanation of the motherhood penalty and fatherhood premium. Because employers are likely to trust women who become mothers while working for them more than new recruits who are mothers, their negative bias against mothers would be more salient when evaluating the latter, which could result in a larger between-organizational motherhood penalty. Conversely, employers' likely greater trust in existing workers who become fathers than fathers they hire from elsewhere may amplify their positive bias favoring fathers in assessing the former, which could explain the greater within-firm fatherhood premium.

The role of right temporoparietal junction in processing social prediction error across relationship contexts

How do people update their impressions of close others? Although people may be motivated to maintain their positive impressions, they may also update their impressions when their expectations are violated (i.e. prediction error). Combining neuroimaging and computational modeling, we test the hypothesis that brain regions associated with theory of mind, especially right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ), underpin both motivated impression maintenance and impression updating evoked by prediction error. Participants had money either given to or taken away from them by a friend or a stranger and were then asked to rate each partner on trustworthiness and closeness across trials. Overall, participants engaged in less impression updating for friends vs strangers. Decreased rTPJ activity in response to a friend’s negative behavior (taking money) was associated with reduced negative updating and increased positive ratings of the friend. However, to the extent that participants did update their impressions (more negative ratings) of friends, this behavioral pattern was explained by greater prediction error and greater rTPJ activity. These findings suggest that rTPJ recruitment represents the integration of prediction error signals and the capacity to overcome people’s motivation to maintain positive impressions of friends in the face of conflicting evidence.

Attributional Modesty in Women

Three experiments were conducted to test a two-factor model of the determinants of attributional modesty in women. Women tended to make modest attributions for success when they were concerned about how others would evaluate them and when they were concerned about their own self-image. Specifically, the knowledge that one's attributions would be public and the anticipation of future performance on similar tasks led to modesty. Self-derogatory attributions for failure occurred when the subjects thought their attributions would be public.

Actor-Observer Differences in Attribution: A Replication

Nisbett, et al., (1973) presented evidence that male actors use more situational than dispositional explanations for their own behavior and use more dispositional than situational attributions for their best friend. The present study replicated this finding for male actors ( n = 41), and demonstrates that female actors ( n = 41) produce the same pattern. A close examination of this data and Nisbett, et al.'s shows, however, that a different interpretation of the data is possible for a familiar other. Dispositional attributions are made equally to the self and to the best friend. Situational attributions are made primarily to the self.

Self-Enhancing Illusions among Chinese Schoolchildren

A study (N = 4,000) was conducted to determine if specific forms of self-enhancing illusions could be found among Chinese schoolchildren. The sample was representative of third- and sixth-grade schoolchildren from four provinces of the People's Republic of China. The authors found evidence for three kinds of self-enhancing illusions among Chinese children. First, they strongly preferred describing themselves and their classmates with positive attributes. Second, they evaluated themselves more positively than they evaluated their classmates. Third, they evaluated themselves more positively than others evaluated them. Variations in the extent of self-enhancing illusions were found for age, gender, and region of residence. Specifically, greater self-enhancing illusions were found among third graders, boys, and urban children than sixth graders, girls, and rural children. These results were discussed in terms of the function and development of self-enhancing illusions.

Cultural and Parenting Cognitions in Acculturating Cultures

This longitudinal study evaluated prediction and coherence in cultural (acculturation, individualism, collectivism) and parenting cognitions (attributions, self-perceptions, knowledge) in 86 Japanese American and South American acculturating mothers. Mothers' cultural cognitions when their infants were 5 months old predicted some parenting cognitions 15 months later, particularly among Japanese American mothers. Coherence among mothers' attributions obtained in both cultural groups when their infants were both 5 and 20 months of age and among Japanese American mothers' self-perceptions of parenting at both time periods. Although a few relations across types of parenting cognitions were found, domains of parenting cognitions were relatively independent. This study provides insight into the nature and structure of cultural and parenting cognitions in two U.S. acculturating groups.

The Positivity Bias in Attributions

Two experiments examined whether the attributions people made about others from their own or another culture were subject to a positivity bias, and whether these attributions were affected by a positive in-group bias. In Experiment 1, a Japanese sample made attributions to a person from Japan, the United States, or the Third World who was either promoted or demoted. In Experiment 2, a sample from the United States and the Third World made attributions to a person from the United States or the Third World who was either promoted or demoted. The attributions were not subject to a positive in-group bias. However, the attributions made by the Japanese, Americans, and people from the Third World evidenced a positivity bias, although with cultural variation on the measures on which it was obtained.

Assimilation and Contrast Effects in Cultural Frame Switching

This study examines how the valence of cultural cues in the environment moderates the way biculturals shift between multiple cultural identities. The authors found that when exposed to positive cultural cues, biculturals who perceive their cultural identities as compatible (high bicultural identity integration, or high BII) respond in culturally congruent ways, whereas biculturals who perceive their cultural identities as conflicting (low BII) respond in culturally incongruent ways. The opposite was true for negative cultural cues. These results show that both high and low BIIs can exhibit culturally congruent or incongruent behaviors, and have implications for understanding situations where high and low BIIs might adapt differently.

It's Not Just Whether You Win Or Lose,It's also Where You Play the Game

The positivity bias-the tendency to make internal attributions for others' successes and external attributions for others' failures-was examined in newspaper sports articles from the United States and Hong Kong. The positivity bias was observed in both cultures; however, the cultures manifested this bias differently. There was a greater emphasis on enhancing winners (making internal attributions for successes) in the United States and on protecting losers (making external attributions for failures) in Hong Kong. The concept of preserving others' face as a universal social motivation may provide an explanation for the cross-cultural consistency of the positivity bias. East-West differences in attributional tendencies and in the values of independence versus interdependence may explain cross-cultural differences in the expression of this bias.

Does the Grist Change the Mill? The Effect of the Perceiver's Inferential Goal on the Process of Social Inference

Previous research suggests that perceives estimate the cause of behavior by (a) identifying the behavior (b) inferring the actor's disposition from the behavior, and (c) correcting this inference for situational constraints. An experiment investigated whether perceivers' inferential goals alter this process. Perceivers viewed a silent videotape of an anxious interview. Some perceivers estimated the target's dispositional anxiety; others estimated the degree of anxiety provoked by the interview questions. Within these conditions, half simultaneously performed a cognitive rehearsal task. Of perceivers who estimated the target's dispositional anxiety, those who performed the rehearsal task inferred more dispositional anxiety. In contrast, of perceivers who estimated the anxiety provoked by the questions, those who performed the rehearsal task inferred less dispositional anxiety. These findings suggest that social inference is more flexible than previously thought.

The Use of Abstract Trait Knowledge and Behavioral Exemplars in Causal Explanations of Behavior

Both classic and contemporary models of causal reasoning suggest that we retrieve examples of an actor's past behavior from memory when explaining his or her current behavior. A variety of other research suggests that we rely on abstract trait knowledge rather than on behavioral exemplars when making such judgments. The authors conducted three experiments that examined which type of information (abstract trait knowledge or behavioral exemplars) was spontaneously used during causal reasoning when both types of information were available. Results indicated that although abstract trait knowledge generally served as the basis for causal judgments, behavioral exemplars were used if they were easily accessible and participants were motivated to engage in effortful processing. The authors discuss how the use of abstract traits versus behavioral exemplars may serve to maintain or alter existing person impressions.

Burglary (Non)prevention: An Instance of Relinquishing Control

Two field experiments were conducted to assess the attributions people make for burglary and burglary prevention, and the degree to which these attributions relate to overt crime prevention measures. It was found that an overwhelming majority of our subjects believed that burglary prevention was the responsibility of others and as such, they did not take overt precautionary measures themselves. To our surprise, there were no differences on these measures between burglarized and nonburglarized subjects.

Self-Directed Attention, Self-Esteem, and Causal Attributions for Valenced Outcomes

Previous research concerned with whether self-directed attention increases self-attributions has produced inconclusive findings. The present research sought to clarify the issue by proposing that the effects of self-directed attention on causal judgments depend upon the match between the valence of the to-be-explained outcome and the attributer's self-esteem. For positively valued outcomes, it was predicted that self-directed attention would increase self-attributions among individuals with high self-esteem, but decrease self-attributions among individuals with low self-esteem. Conversely, for negatively valued outcomes it was predicted that self-directed attention would decrease self-attributions among persons with high self-esteem, but increase self-attributions among persons with low self-esteem. In two investigations, the predictions for positive outcomes were confirmed with respect to both situationally and dispositionally based variations in attentional focus. However, no effects were found regarding attributions for negative outcomes. Implications of the findings for self-awareness theory are discussed.

Attributions in the Advice Columns

Two hundred explanatory statements were obtained from a sample of 61 letters and replies published in newspaper advice columns. These items were categorized according to Referent Subject (selflactor, otherlobserver, both), Referent Mode (descriptive, prescriptive), Locus of Explanation (internal, external, both), and Cause versus Reason. Reasons outnumbered causes 135 to 65. For descriptive attributions (n = 161), which describe a behavior and then give an explanation, the actor-observer divergence, as modified by theorists interested in the cause/reason distinction, emerged as predicted: Explanations from actors were most often situational (external) reasons; observers' attributions favored internal causes. Prescriptive attributions (n= 39), which state what a person should do or should have done and then explain why, were always reasons and were generally given by observers who cited the advisee's circumstances as justifying the prescription. Findings for descriptive attributions raise questions about the adequacy of a strictly causal attribution theory and the range of applicability of the internal external locus dimension.

Measuring Dispositional and Situational Attributions

The distinction between dispositional and situational attributions initially described by Heider was subsequently incorporated into attribution theory. Most researchers implicitly assume an inversely dependent relationship between dispositional and situational attributions. It is argued, however, that this assumption is untenable by presenting empirical evidence showing that dispositional and situtational attributions do not vary inversely. This suggests that only studies that measure dispositional and situational attributions on separate scales and report the results of both can provide an opportunity for drawing unequivocal conclusions. Methodological implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.

Psychological-State Theories about Significant Others: Implications for the Content and Structure of Significant-Other Representations

Three studies tested a theory-based approach to significant-other representations. The central hypothesis was that perceivers are especially likely to possess lay theories to explain the responses of their significant others, and this is reflected in the content and structure of significant-other representations. Theories were defined in IF-THEN terms as beliefs about the psychological states (e.g., “IF Bill wants to make a good impression...”) that explain others' responses (e.g., “... THEN he acts friendly”). All three studies yielded evidence indicating that the content of significant-other representations is especially likely to include such psychological-state theories (PSTs). Study 3 assessed the internal structure of PSTs—specifically, the strength of the linkages between psychological-state IFs and the THENs they are believed to elicit—and showed that such linkages are particularly strong for PSTs about significant others. Overall, the findings add to the growing literature on the role of explanatory or lay-theoretical forms of knowledge in how perceivers make sense of the social world.

The Strength of Conjunctive Explanations

Leddo, Abelson, and Gross (1984) reported two studies in which people rated conjunctions of two reasons as more likely explanations of event scenario outcomes than one or both of their component explanations even though objectively, the probability of a conjunction of two explanations can never exceed the probability of either of its component explanations. They interpreted this finding, "the conjunction effect," to mean that in general, conjunctive explanations are more persuasive than single explanations. The present article examines the results of those two studies plus four other studies in which conjunction effects occurred to find a mathematical model that can predict the conjoint explanation probability ratings from the probability ratings of their components. Several different models were evaluated according to two criteria: the number of parameters fitted and the multiple R of the model. The finding is that across all explanation triples (the conjoint explanation and its two component explanations), the relationship between the conjoint explanation probability ratings and their corresponding component ratings can best be expressed by the following formula: C = 1.15 G, where C is the conjoint explanation probability rating and G is the geometric mean of the component explanation probability ratings. This formula has a multiple R of .89, suggesting that this relationship is quite lawful. It is noted that finding the value ('conjunction coefficient') by which to multiply the geometric mean of the component ratings to predict the conjoint rating can serve as a measure of how well the component explanations combine or how compatible they are with each other in the given context. Similarly, comparing conjunction coefficients across several pairs of explanations can serve as a measure of the relative compatibility of different pairs of explanations. Implications of the conjunction coefficient model for the representativeness heuristic, the discounting principle, and the process of conjoint explanation are discussed.

Attributing Traits to Oneself and to Others

Attributional explanations of trait ascription processes predict that actors are more likely to use a situational attribution when describing themselves than when describing others. It has been further hypothesized that as level of acquaintance with the other increases, so does the tendency to form situational attributions for the other. The hypothesis concerning level of acquaintance has received mixed results, perhaps because previous studies in which the hypothesis was tested have confounded situational attributions with neutral, uncertain, and ambiguous ones. Subjects in the current study rated themselves and four acquaintances (differing in level of acquaintance) on 16 traits, using a response format that allowed unconfounding of the aforementioned attributions. This more precise measure of attributional tendencies revealed a clear-cut positive relation between level of acquaintance and the tendency to use a situational attribution. The implications of these findings for current views of personality ascription are discussed.

The Ultimate Attribution Error: Extending Allport's Cognitive Analysis of Prejudice

Allport's The Nature of Prejudice is a social psychological classic. Its delineation of the components and principles of prejudice remains modern, especially its handling of cognitive factors. The volume's cognitive contentions are outlined, and then extended with an application from attribution theory. An "ultimate attribution error" is proposed: (1) when prejudiced peonle perceive what they regard as a negative act by an outgroup member, they will more than others attribute it dispositionally, often as genetically determined, in comparison to the same act by an ingroup member: (2) wlhen prejudiced people perceive what they regard as a positive act by an outaroup member, they will more than others attribute it in comparison to the same act by an ingroup member to one or more of the following: (a) "the exceptional case," (b) luck or special advantage, (c) hig,h motivation and effort, and (d) manipulable situational context. Predictions are advanced as to which of these responses will be adopted and under which conditions the phenomenon will be magnified.

The representation of self and person knowledge in the medial prefrontal cortex

Nearly 40 years ago, social psychologists began applying the information processing framework of cognitive psychology to the question of how humans understand and represent knowledge about themselves and others. This approach gave rise to the immensely successful field of social cognition and fundamentally changed the way in which social psychological phenomena are studied. More recently, social scientists of many stripes have turned to the methods of cognitive neuroscience to understand the neural basis of social cognition. A pervasive finding from this research is that social knowledge, be it about one's self or of others, is represented in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). This review focuses on the social cognitive neuroscience of self and person knowledge in the MPFC. We begin with a brief historical overview of social cognition, followed by a review of recent and influential research on the brain basis of self and person knowledge. In the latter half of this review, we discuss the role of familiarity and similarity in person perception and of spontaneous processes in self and other-referential cognition. Throughout, we discuss the myriad ways in which the social cognitive neuroscience approach has provided new insights into the nature and structure of self and person knowledge. WIREs Cogn Sci 2012, 3:451-470. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1183 This article is categorized under: Neuroscience > Cognition.

Orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex are modulated by motivated social cognition

Neural research on social cognition has not examined motivations known to influence social cognition. One fundamental motivation in social cognition is positivity motivation, that is, the desire to view close others in an overly positive light. Positivity motivation does not extend to non-close others. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging study is the first to identify neural regions modulated by positivity motivation. Participants compared the personalities of a close other (i.e., romantic partner) and a non-close other (i.e., roommate) with their average peer. Romantic partners were perceived as above average under certain conditions; roommates were perceived as similar to an average peer across conditions. Neural regions previously associated with social cognition did not significantly relate to positivity motivation. Instead, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and, to a lesser extent, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activation increased when social targets were perceived as similar to an average peer. Furthermore, OFC activity negatively correlated with the extent to which a social target was perceived as above average. Intimacy with the social target modulated the extent to which ventral ACC distinguished positive from negative stimuli. The results expand current knowledge about neural regions associated with social cognition and provide initial information needed to create neural models of social cognition.

Evaluating the Physical Attractiveness of Oneself and One’s Romantic Partner

The present study sought to extend recent work by examining individual and relationship variables that predict the love-is-blind bias, that is, a tendency to perceive one’s romantic partner as more attractive than oneself. A sample of 113 men and 143 women completed a battery of tests that included various demographic, individual difference, and relationship-related measures. Results provided support for a love-is-blind bias, in that both women and men rated their romantic partners as significantly more attractive than themselves on overall attractiveness and the attractiveness of various body components. Results also showed that the Big Five personality factor of Extraversion, self-esteem, relationship satisfaction, and romantic love were positively correlated with the love-is-blind bias, whereas relationship length and playful love were negatively correlated with the bias. The results of this study are considered in relation to previous work on positive partner illusions.

The potential of coaching as a strategy to improve the effectiveness of school-based substance use prevention curricula

Research-based substance use prevention curricula typically yield small effects when implemented by school teachers under real-world conditions. Using a randomized controlled trial, the authors examined whether expert coaching improves the effectiveness of the All Stars prevention curriculum. Although a positive effect on students' cigarette use was noted, this finding may be attributed to marked baseline differences on this variable across the intervention and control groups. No effects were found on students' alcohol or marijuana use or on any of several variables thought to mediate curriculum effects. The effects of coaching on teachers may not become evident until future years, when they have moved beyond an initial mechanical delivery of the curriculum.

The identity function of autobiographical memory: time is on our side

Autobiographical memory plays an important role in the construction of personal identity. We review evidence of the bi-directional link between memory and identity. Individuals' current self-views, beliefs, and goals influence their recollections and appraisals of former selves. In turn, people's current self-views are influenced by what they remember about their personal past, as well as how they recall earlier selves and episodes. People's reconstructed evaluations of memories, their perceived distance from past experiences, and the point of view of their recollections have implications for how the past affects the present. We focus on how people's constructions of themselves through time serve the function of creating a coherent--and largely favourable--view of their present selves and circumstances.

The personality traits of observers and the acquaintanceship as factors of assessment of others

The main purpose of this study was to determine the relation between the degree of acquaintance and assessment of other persons? personality traits and attribution of their behaviour. The second aim was to examine relation between personality traits of observers and their perception of actor?s personality traits and attribution of actor?s behaviour. The study was conducted on a sample of 76 subjects divided into two groups, on the basis of degree of acquaintance with actors. First group estimated a close person, a best friend. Second group estimated a person they are not acquainted with. This person was described in an invented interview. In the first part of the research, all subjects completed The Big Five Inventory (John, 1991). In the second part of the research, subjects estimated personality traits of actors (using BFI) and attributed actor?s behaviour using The Attributional Style Questionnaire (Peterson et al., 1982). The results suggest that there are at least two types of bias in estimation of other people. One type is in relation with acquaintance. Observers estimate close persons more positively than persons they don?t know. Second type of bias is in relation to personality traits of observers. These personality traits are Consciousness, Extraversion and Openness.

Naive causal understanding of valenced behaviors and its implications for social information processing

People bring to bear on their understanding of others' behaviors naive theories of the causes of valenced behaviors. Generally, positive behaviors are understood to be caused by social demands, whereas negative behaviors are understood to be caused by people's dispositions. Various research findings are reviewed in support of the idea that people possess such naive theories. The analysis is extended to establish how these sense-making tendencies affect the manner in which people approach and process information about others. A second set of studies is reviewed in support of these implications for person perception. Comparisons to other models of social inference are considered, implications of the frame-work are examined, and the framework is situated within a general model of the attribution process.

From acclaim to blame: evidence of a person sensitivity decision bias

In a series of studies, the authors established empirical support for a general decision-making bias that they termed a person sensitvity bias. Specifically, a person sensitivity bias consists of a person positivity bias (D. O. Sears, 1983) under positive performance conditions and a person negativity bias under negative performance conditions. The authors conducted the first empirical studies of a direct comparison between individuals and objects performing the same task under both positive and negative performance conditions. Two additional studies tested the boundaries of the sensitivity bias within negatively framed decision dilemmas. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance toward a more comprehensive theory of person-object evaluation differences.

"I knew we would win": hindsight bias for favorable and unfavorable team decision outcomes

This study examined hindsight bias for team decisions in a competitive setting in which groups attempted to outperform each other. It was anticipated that, because of self-serving mechanisms, individuals would show hindsight bias only when decision outcomes allowed them to take credit for their own team's success or to downgrade another team for being unsuccessful. MBA students playing a market simulation game made hindsight estimates regarding the likelihood that either their own or another team would perform well. Consistent with a self-serving interpretation, when decision outcomes were favorable individuals evaluating their own team, but not those evaluating another, showed hindsight bias. When outcomes were unfavorable individuals evaluating their own team did not show hindsight bias, but those evaluating another team did. Discussion focuses on implications of hindsight bias in team decision-making settings.

Falsifikationismus und Holismus in der experimentellen Psychologie: Logische Grundlagen und methodologische Konsequenzen

Zusammenfassung: Anhand einer Rekonstruktion des hypothesentestenden Forschungsprozesses in der experimentellen Psychologie wird die Unhaltbarkeit der wissenschaftstheoretischen Position des Falsifikationismus dargestellt. Als Gegenmodell wird der wissenschaftstheoretische Holismus vorgestellt, der a) eine Lösung deduktionslogischer Probleme des Falsifikationismus bietet, b) wissenschaftshistorische Phänomene (z. B. Paradigmata, wissenschaftliche Revolutionen) erklären kann und c) im Falsifikationismus nicht integrierbare, in der empirischen Psychologie jedoch allgemein akzeptierte methodologische Konventionen unmittelbar impliziert. Konsequenzen für Forschung und Lehre werden diskutiert.

On gender specificity of person characteristics in personnel advertisements: a study among future applications

This research is an examination of how person characteristics mentioned in personnel advertisements influence the judgments of male and female students with regard to their subjective eligibility for, and the attractiveness of, a particular vacancy. The first study showed that many frequently mentioned person characteristics in personnel advertisements applied differently to men and women, but that female characteristics were more in demand than male characteristics. The second study examined to what degree male and female participants felt that they themselves possessed male and female characteristics; results showed that the men were more confident about the degree to which they possessed male and female characteristics than the women were. The third study examined how the type of person characteristics mentioned in personnel advertisements influenced men's and women's judgments regarding their eligibility for and the attractiveness of a particular position. The men found all positions about equally attractive, whereas the women found "male" positions considerably less attractive. Implications of the study are discussed.