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Axt J, Buttrick N, Feng RY. A Comparative Investigation of the Predictive Validity of Four Indirect Measures of Bias and Prejudice. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2024; 50:871-888. [PMID: 36660861 PMCID: PMC11080383 DOI: 10.1177/01461672221150229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Although measures of implicit associations are influential in the prejudice literature, comparative tests of the predictive power of these measures are lacking. A large-scale (N > 100,000) analysis of four commonly used measures-the Implicit Association Test (IAT), Single-Category IAT (SC-IAT), evaluative priming task (EPT), and sorting paired features task (SPF)-across 10 intergroup domains and 250 outcomes found clear evidence for the superiority of the SC-IAT in predictive and incremental predictive validity. Follow-up analyses suggested that the SC-IAT benefited from an exclusive focus on associations toward stigmatized group members, as associations toward non-stigmatized group members diluted the predictive strength of relative measures like the IAT, SPF, and EPT. These results highlight how conclusions about predictive validity can vary drastically depending on the measure selected and reveal novel insights about the value of different measures when focusing on predictive than convergent validity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jordan Axt
- McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Project Implicit, Seattle, Washington, USA
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2
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Buttrick N. Studying large language models as compression algorithms for human culture. Trends Cogn Sci 2024; 28:187-189. [PMID: 38245431 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2024.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2023] [Revised: 12/29/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 01/22/2024]
Abstract
Large language models (LLMs) extract and reproduce the statistical regularities in their training data. Researchers can use these models to study the conceptual relationships encoded in this training data (i.e., the open internet), providing a remarkable opportunity to understand the cultural distinctions embedded within much of recorded human communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas Buttrick
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
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3
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Protzko J, Krosnick J, Nelson L, Nosek BA, Axt J, Berent M, Buttrick N, DeBell M, Ebersole CR, Lundmark S, MacInnis B, O'Donnell M, Perfecto H, Pustejovsky JE, Roeder SS, Walleczek J, Schooler JW. High replicability of newly discovered social-behavioural findings is achievable. Nat Hum Behav 2024; 8:311-319. [PMID: 37945809 PMCID: PMC10896719 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01749-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 10/05/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023]
Abstract
Failures to replicate evidence of new discoveries have forced scientists to ask whether this unreliability is due to suboptimal implementation of methods or whether presumptively optimal methods are not, in fact, optimal. This paper reports an investigation by four coordinated laboratories of the prospective replicability of 16 novel experimental findings using rigour-enhancing practices: confirmatory tests, large sample sizes, preregistration and methodological transparency. In contrast to past systematic replication efforts that reported replication rates averaging 50%, replication attempts here produced the expected effects with significance testing (P < 0.05) in 86% of attempts, slightly exceeding the maximum expected replicability based on observed effect sizes and sample sizes. When one lab attempted to replicate an effect discovered by another lab, the effect size in the replications was 97% that in the original study. This high replication rate justifies confidence in rigour-enhancing methods to increase the replicability of new discoveries.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Protzko
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
- Department of Psychological Science, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT, USA.
| | - Jon Krosnick
- Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Leif Nelson
- Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Brian A Nosek
- Center for Open Science, Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Jordan Axt
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | | | - Nicholas Buttrick
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Matthew DeBell
- Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Charles R Ebersole
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | | | - Bo MacInnis
- Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Michael O'Donnell
- McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Hannah Perfecto
- Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - James E Pustejovsky
- Educational Psychology Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Scott S Roeder
- Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | | | - Jonathan W Schooler
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
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Buttrick N, Oishi S. Money and happiness: A consideration of history and psychological mechanisms. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2301893120. [PMID: 36940338 PMCID: PMC10068796 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2301893120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/22/2023] Open
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Buttrick N, Mazen J. Historical prevalence of slavery predicts contemporary American gun ownership. PNAS Nexus 2022; 1:pgac117. [PMID: 36741447 PMCID: PMC9896914 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgac117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2021] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
American gun-owners, uniquely, view firearms as a means of keeping themselves safe from dangers both physical and psychological. We root this belief in the experience of White Southerners during Reconstruction-a moment when a massive upsurge in the availability of firearms co-occurred with a worldview threat from the emancipation and the political empowerment of Black Southerners. We show that the belief-complex formed in this historical moment shapes contemporary gun culture: The prevalence of slavery in a Southern county (measured in 1860) predicts the frequency of firearms in the present day. This relationship holds above and beyond a number of potential covariates, including contemporary crime rates, police spending, degree of racial segregation and inequality, socioeconomic conditions, and voting patterns in the 2016 Presidential election; and is partially mediated by the frequency of people in the county reporting that they generally do not feel safe. This Southern origin of gun culture may help to explain why we find that worries about safety do not predict county-level gun ownership outside of historically slave-owning counties, and why we find that social connection to historically slaveholding counties predicts county-level gun ownership, even outside of the South.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jessica Mazen
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Gilmer Hall, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
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Abstract
What are the effects of reading fiction? We propose that literary fiction alters views of the world through its presentation of difference-different minds, different contexts, and different situations-grounding a belief that the social world is complex. Across four studies, two nationally representative and one preregistered (total n = 5,176), we find that the reading of literary fiction in early life is associated with a more complex worldview in Americans: increased attributional complexity, increased psychological richness, decreased belief that contemporary inequalities are legitimate, and decreased belief that people are essentially only one way. By contrast, early-life reading of narrative fiction that presents more standardized plots and characters, such as romance novels, predict holding a less complex worldview.
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Abstract
We discuss the cultural power of changes in nation-level residential mobility. Using a theoretically informed analysis of mobility trends across the developed world, we argue that a shift from a culture full of people moving their residence to a culture full of people staying in place is associated with decreases, among its residents, in individualism, happiness, trust, optimism, and endorsement of the notion that hard work leads to success. We use the United States as a case study: Although the United States has historically been a highly-residentially mobile nation, yearly moves in the United States are halved from rates in the 1970s and quartered from rates in the late 19th century. In the past four decades, the proportion of Americans who are stuck in neighborhoods they no longer wish to live in is up nearly 50%. We discuss how high rates of mobility may have originally shaped American culture and how recent declines in residential mobility may relate to current feelings of cultural stagnation. Finally, we speculate on future trends in American mobility and the consequences of a society where citizens increasingly find themselves stuck in place. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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Burnette JL, Hoyt CL, Buttrick N, Auster-Gussman LA. Well-being in the time of COVID-19: Do metaphors and mindsets matter? Int J Psychol 2021; 57:87-95. [PMID: 34086294 PMCID: PMC8239838 DOI: 10.1002/ijop.12785] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2020] [Accepted: 05/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022]
Abstract
Communications about the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) often employ metaphors, which can help people understand complex issues. For example, public health messages may focus on “fighting” the disease, attempting to rouse people to action by instilling a sense of urgency. In contrast, change‐focused metaphors may foster growth mindsets and self‐efficacy—cornerstones of well‐being and action. We randomly assigned participants to read one of two articles—either an article about coronavirus that focused on fighting the war or an article that highlighted the possibility of change. In Study 1 (N = 426), participants who read the war, relative to the change, message reported lower growth mindsets and self‐efficacy and these in turn, predicted lower well‐being and weaker intentions to engage in health behaviours. In Study 2, (N = 702), we sought to replicate findings and included a no treatment control. We failed to replicate the effects of message condition, although both messages predicted greater self‐efficacy compared to the control. Similar to Study 1, growth mindsets predicted intentions to engage in recommended health behaviours and self‐efficacy predicted both well‐being and action. We discuss theoretical reasons for discrepancies as well as practical applications for developing public health communications.
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Oishi S, Choi H, Koo M, Galinha I, Ishii K, Komiya A, Luhmann M, Scollon C, Shin JE, Lee H, Suh EM, Vittersø J, Heintzelman SJ, Kushlev K, Westgate EC, Buttrick N, Tucker J, Ebersole CR, Axt J, Gilbert E, Ng BW, Kurtz J, Besser LL. Happiness, Meaning, and Psychological Richness. Affect Sci 2020; 1:107-115. [PMID: 36042966 PMCID: PMC9383031 DOI: 10.1007/s42761-020-00011-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
What kind of life do people want? In psychology, a good life has typically been conceptualized in terms of either hedonic or eudaimonic well-being. We propose that psychological richness is another neglected aspect of what people consider a good life. In study 1 (9-nation cross-cultural study), we asked participants whether they ideally wanted a happy, a meaningful, or a psychologically rich life. Roughly 7 to 17% of participants chose the psychologically rich life. In study 2, we asked 1611 Americans and 680 Koreans what they regret most in their lives; then, if they could undo or reverse the regretful event, whether their lives would have been happier, more meaningful, or psychologically richer as a result. Roughly 28% of Americans and 35% of Koreans reported their lives would have been psychologically richer. Together, this work provides a foundation for the study of psychological richness as another dimension of a good life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shigehiro Oishi
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, 10027 Charlottesville, VA USA
| | - Hyewon Choi
- University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA USA
| | - Minkyung Koo
- University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Champaign, IL USA
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Ji-eun Shin
- Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Jaime Kurtz
- James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA USA
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Abstract
Firearms are one of the central flashpoints in American life, and yet the motivations underlying their ownership have been generally understudied by psychologists. In this article, I review work from across the social sciences to model the psychological utility that people get from gun ownership. I propose the coping model of protective gun ownership and argue that those who own their weapon for protection are using their gun symbolically as an aid to manage psychological threats-to their safety, control, and sense of belongingness-that come from their belief that the world is a dangerous place and that society will not keep them safe. I discuss the ramifications of this coping strategy and present a research agenda for exploring this framework.
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Abstract
How have attempts at political persuasion changed over time? Using nine corpora dating back through 1789, containing over 7 million words of speech (1,666 documents in total), covering three different countries, plus the entire Google nGram corpus, we find that language relating to togetherness permanently crowded out language relating to duties and obligations in the persuasive speeches of politicians during the early 20th century. This shift is temporally predicted by a rise in Western nationalism and the mass movement of people from more rural to more urban areas and is unexplained by changes in language, private political speech, or nonmoral persuasion. We theorize that the emergence of the modern state in the 1920s had psychopolitical consequences for the ways that people understood and communicated their relationships with their government, which was then reflected in the levers of persuasion chosen by political elites.
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Buttrick N, Choi H, Wilson TD, Oishi S, Boker SM, Gilbert DT, Alper S, Aveyard M, Cheong W, Čolić MV, Dalgar I, Doğulu C, Karabati S, Kim E, Knežević G, Komiya A, Laclé CO, Ambrosio Lage C, Lazarević LB, Lazarević D, Lins S, Blanco Molina M, Neto F, Orlić A, Petrović B, Arroyo Sibaja M, Torres Fernández D, Vanpaemel W, Voorspoels W, Wilks DC. Cross-cultural consistency and relativity in the enjoyment of thinking versus doing. J Pers Soc Psychol 2018; 117:e71-e83. [PMID: 30035566 DOI: 10.1037/pspp0000198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Which is more enjoyable: trying to think enjoyable thoughts or doing everyday solitary activities? Wilson et al. (2014) found that American participants much preferred solitary everyday activities, such as reading or watching TV, to thinking for pleasure. To see whether this preference generalized outside of the United States, we replicated the study with 2,557 participants from 12 sites in 11 countries. The results were consistent in every country: Participants randomly assigned to do something reported significantly greater enjoyment than did participants randomly assigned to think for pleasure. Although we found systematic differences by country in how much participants enjoyed thinking for pleasure, we used a series of nested structural equation models to show that these differences were fully accounted for by country-level variation in 5 individual differences, 4 of which were positively correlated with thinking for pleasure (need for cognition, openness to experience, meditation experience, and initial positive affect) and 1 of which was negatively correlated (reported phone usage). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Ana Orlić
- Faculty of Sport and Physical Education
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Catapano R, Buttrick N, Widness J, Goldstein R, Santos LR. Capuchin monkeys do not show human-like pricing effects. Front Psychol 2014; 5:1330. [PMID: 25520677 PMCID: PMC4252633 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01330] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2014] [Accepted: 11/02/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent work in judgment and decision-making has shown that a good's price can have irrational effects on people's preferences. People tend to prefer goods that cost more money and assume that such expensive goods will be more effective, even in cases where the price of the good is itself arbitrary. Although much work has documented the existence of these pricing effects, unfortunately little work has addressed where these price effects come from in the first place. Here we use a comparative approach to distinguish between different accounts of this bias and to explore the origins of these effects. Specifically, we test whether brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) are also susceptible to pricing effects within the context of an experimentally trained token economy. Using a capuchin population previously trained in a token market, we explored whether monkeys used price as an indicator of value across four experiments. Although monkeys demonstrated an understanding of which goods had which prices (consistently shifting preferences to cheaper goods when prices were increased), we observed no evidence that such price information affected their valuation of different kinds of goods. These results suggest that human pricing effects may involve more sophisticated human-unique cognitive capacities, such as an understanding of market forces and signaling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rhia Catapano
- Comparative Cognition Laboratory, Psychology Department, Yale University New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Nicholas Buttrick
- Comparative Cognition Laboratory, Psychology Department, Yale University New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Jane Widness
- Comparative Cognition Laboratory, Psychology Department, Yale University New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Robin Goldstein
- Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California at Davis Davis, CA, USA
| | - Laurie R Santos
- Comparative Cognition Laboratory, Psychology Department, Yale University New Haven, CT, USA
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Buttrick N. Helping nurses cope. Pediatr Nurs 1993; 19:593. [PMID: 8278233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
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