Not what it seems
Prevalence-induced concept change in human judgment
David Levari et al.
Science, 29 June 2018, Pages 1465-1467
Abstract:
Why do some social problems seem so intractable? In a series of experiments, we show that people often respond to decreases in the prevalence of a stimulus by expanding their concept of it. When blue dots became rare, participants began to see purple dots as blue; when threatening faces became rare, participants began to see neutral faces as threatening; and when unethical requests became rare, participants began to see innocuous requests as unethical. This "prevalence-induced concept change" occurred even when participants were forewarned about it and even when they were instructed and paid to resist it. Social problems may seem intractable in part because reductions in their prevalence lead people to see more of them.
Dominance biases in the perception and memory for the faces of powerholders, with consequences for social inferences
Xijing Wang, Ana Guinote & Eva Krumhuber
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, September 2018, Pages 23-33
Abstract:
A great deal of research has shown that dominant-looking faces are afforded power. In this research, we tested the reverse link. As such, we examined whether knowledge of a target's power would lead to a dominance bias in face perception. Five studies were conducted by applying face morphing techniques to both controlled facial stimuli and faces of powerholders in the real world. Results showed that faces of powerholders were misrecollected (Studies 1A and 1B) and misperceived (Studies 3A and 3B) as more dominant-looking than their powerless counterparts. In addition, their faces were misrecollected as more prototypically dominant in physical appearance than they actually were (Studies 1A, 1B, and 2). Furthermore, enhanced facial dominance affected social inferences, with evaluations such as competence and attractiveness being sensitive to the gender of the target person (Study 3B). Implications for research on power and face perception are discussed.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger: Psychological trauma and its relationship to enhanced memory control
Justin Hulbert & Michael Anderson
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
Control processes engaged in halting the automatic retrieval of unwanted memories have been shown to reduce the later recallability of the targets of suppression. Like other cognitive skills that benefit from practice, we hypothesized that memory control is similarly experience dependent, such that individuals with greater real-life experience at stopping retrieval would exhibit better inhibitory control over unwanted memories. Across two experiments, we found that college students reporting a greater history of trauma exhibited more suppression-induced forgetting of both negative and neutral memories than did those in a matched group who had reported experiencing little to no trauma. The association was especially evident on a test of suppression-induced forgetting involving independent retrieval cues that are designed to better isolate the effects of inhibitory control on memory. Participants reporting more trauma demonstrated greater generalized forgetting of suppressed material. These findings raise the possibility that, given proper training, individuals can learn to better manage intrusive experiences, and are broadly consistent with the view that moderate adversity can foster resilience later in life.
Rapid timing of musical aesthetic judgments
Amy Belfi et al.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
In recent years, psychological models of perception have undergone reevaluation due to a broadening of focus toward understanding not only how observers perceive stimuli but also how they subjectively evaluate stimuli. Here, we investigated the time course of such aesthetic evaluations using a gating paradigm. In a series of experiments, participants heard excerpts of classical, jazz, and electronica music. Excerpts were of different durations (250 ms, 500 ms, 750 ms, 1,000 ms, 2,000 ms, 10,000 ms) or note values (eighth note, quarter note, half note, dotted-half note, whole note, and entire 10,000 ms excerpt). After each excerpt, participants rated how much they liked the excerpt on a 9-point Likert scale. In Experiment 1, listeners made accurate aesthetic judgments within 750 ms for classical and jazz pieces, while electronic pieces were judged within 500 ms. When translated into note values (Experiment 2), electronica and jazz clips were judged more quickly than classical. In Experiment 3, we manipulated the familiarity of the musical excerpts. Unfamiliar clips were judged more quickly (500 ms) than familiar clips (750 ms), but there was overall higher accuracy for familiar pieces. Finally, we investigated listeners' aesthetic judgments continuously over the time course of more naturalistic (60 s) excerpts: Within 3 s, listeners' judgments differed between most- and least-liked pieces. We suggest that such rapid aesthetic judgments represent initial gut-level decisions that are made quickly, but that even these initial judgments are influenced by characteristics such as genre and familiarity.
Effects of masculinized and feminized male voices on men and women's distractibility and implicit memory
Graham Albert et al.
Journal of Individual Differences, Summer 2018, Pages 151-165
Abstract:
Men's lower-pitched voices may serve to attract mates and/or deter same-sex rivals. If this is the case, then both men and women should be more attentive to men's lower-pitched voices because, attending to this information may contribute to survival or confer a reproductive advantage. The current study measured men and women's distractibility and implicit memory for sentences spoken by a masculinized (lower-pitched) and feminized (higher-pitched) male voice. Participants completed an irrelevant speech task followed by an implicit memory task to assess their memory for previously presented irrelevant speech. In the irrelevant speech task, distractibility did not differ between men and women. However, men demonstrated greater implicit memory for sentences previously spoken by the masculinized male voice, and women demonstrated greater implicit memory for sentences previously spoken by the feminized male voice. These results suggest men may have an increased sensitivity to dominance cues in other men's voices. Reasons why men demonstrated greater implicit memory for sentences spoken by a masculinized man's voice and why women demonstrated a trend toward greater implicit memory for sentences spoken by a feminized man's voice are discussed.