Implicit measures often show dissociations from explicit measures, including low correlations, distinct antecedents, and distinct behavioral correlates. Interpretations of these dissociations referring to measurement types presuppose that the distinction between implicit and explicit measures is not confounded with other stimulus-related differences. However, in research on racial bias, explicit measures

In thirteen studies (eleven preregistered) we examine the associations in people's minds between stimulus temperature (cold vs. warm) and both its psychological distance (distant vs. close) and construal level (high vs. low) within the framework of construal level theory (Liberman & Trope, 1998; Trope & Liberman, 2010). Study Set I examined the association between psychological distance and temperature

People around the world both engage in both interpersonal punishment and expect supernatural punishment of wrongdoers. That is, people will impose costs and withhold benefits from transgressors, and they expect bad things to happen to transgressors more often than to good people. Evolutionary theories have proposed that both interpersonal and supernatural justice beliefs result from similar motivations

People often underutilize the numerical minority group when determining category membership of individuals into perceptually ambiguous social categories (i.e., groups whose members are relatively difficult to accurately identify based on visual information). We find that perceived population base rates can underlie this bias and influence social categorization even when stimulus set base rates are

Theoretical debates have raged around whether conscious perception is necessary for responsibility. It is still unclear, however, what lay people think, and lay views can be important to legal and sociopolitical decision-making. To explore this issue, the current work conducted three online, vignette-based studies to test how lay third-party responsibility judgments varied with what agents unconsciously

Facial attractiveness is one of the most immediate and universal sources of social information. However, current theories cannot fully explain its computational mechanisms, especially with regard to facial attractiveness in a group context. Recent studies have found that faces appear more attractive when presented in a group compared to individually (the cheerleader/friend effect). Does the presentation

According to previous research, people more readily question the competence of, and express greater discrimination against, women (vs. men) who are described as parents in the workplace. In the present manuscript, we sought to examine whether the magnitude of this bias, which is referred to as the motherhood penalty, would be moderated by whether the women and men in question are Black rather than

Immanent justice thinking refers to the tendency to perceive causal connections between an agent's bad (good) deeds and subsequent bad (good) outcomes, even when such connections are rationally implausible. We asked bilinguals to read scenarios written either in their native language or in a foreign language and examined how language influences immanent justice endorsements. In five pre-registered

Mere instructions about a supposedly upcoming approach/avoidance training (i.e., “you will approach stimulus A and avoid stimulus B”) can influence stimuli evaluation (e.g., stimulus A is evaluated more positively). In this work, we argue that because approach/avoidance instructions are typically future-oriented (e.g., “you will approach stimulus A”), they are less powerful than past-oriented information

People frequently participate in interdependent tasks (i.e., tasks in which the outcome of one person is reliant on the other person's actions), in which people can behave in ways that benefit others (i.e., cooperate) to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes in daily life. The ability to select appropriate cooperative partners for these tasks is essential to achieve successful outcomes. Yet, little

Although social interactions are ubiquitous, people often choose not to interact with others—for example, people may choose to not greet a stranger, to not talk to a colleague at work, or to ignore a text message from a friend. Here, we systematically investigate how people's actions, inactions, and their consequences (rewards and punishments) affect impressions. In four preregistered experiments (N = 240)

In post-conflict societies, peace and safety often depend on political and economic support from international organizations. But what happens when this support is withdrawn? To investigate this question, we conducted two cross-sectional (N = 832) and one two-wave longitudinal experiment (with waves two weeks apart, Wave 1: N = 416; Wave 2: N = 400) in the post-conflict context of Kosovo, exposing

Gender stereotypes take many forms. One relatively under-studied stereotype concerns gender and food. While prior work finds certain foods are viewed as more masculine or feminine, there is limited research on how the same food becomes gendered depending on portion size. Four studies (N = 2178) found that 1) participants held implicit and explicit associations between men with large portions and women

Punishment can serve as a form of communication: People use punishment to express information to its recipients and interpret punishment between third parties as having communicative content. Prior work on the expressive function of punishment has primarily investigated the capacity of punishment in general to communicate a single type of message – e.g., that the punished behavior violated an important

Do stereotypes have a stronger and more persistent effect on impressions when they are moral in tone? In two experiments (N = 187), participants interacted with members of two groups in an interactive social decision game, modeled on a reward reinforcement task, in which they formed impressions of players based on their feedback. Prior to the task, participants were exposed to positive or negative

Positive intergroup contact reduces prejudice. However, the strength of intergroup contact effects is typically weaker for members of minority as compared to majority groups. Research on perceived outgroup entitativity (i.e., the extent to which an aggregate of people is perceived as a unified whole) has shown that minority group members perceive the majority outgroup as less entitative, while majority

Prior research on the relationship between group versus individual targets and unethical behavior directed toward those targets is incomplete. Extending this line of research, the present paper examines whether individuals engage in more dishonest behaviors when interacting with a group (vs. an individual). Across six experiments and three supplemental studies (N = 2376), we found that individuals

Victim blaming—the tendency to attribute responsibility and blame to innocent victims—is associated with people's belief that the world is a just place where everybody gets what they deserve and deserves what they get. In the present research, we examine the extent to which the relationship between just-world beliefs and victim blaming depends on (a) whether or not the victim is identifiable and (b)

Social environments that stigmatize concealable identities increase observers' suspicion that an individual's claimed identity is not their “true” identity. Identity-stigmatizing environments incentivize “closeting” (i.e., concealing) targeted identities, rendering claims to contrasting non-stigmatized identities ambiguous (e.g., self-protective? self-expressive?). Such ambiguity fosters identity suspicion

Dishonest behavior is a prevalent phenomenon, and recent studies have suggested that seemingly trivial factors, such as the time of the day, can influence individuals' propensity to act dishonestly. Specifically, research has identified a phenomenon known as the Morning Morality Effect, where participants exhibit greater dishonesty during the afternoon or evening than in the morning. However, recent

Black Americans often expect conversations about race with White people to go poorly, with heightened concerns about being stereotyped, devalued, and misunderstood. We propose one reason for these patterns is Black individuals' belief that their understanding of race is distinct from that of White people–that is, they do not expect to have racial shared reality with White individuals. Across 3 studies

Social perception accuracy includes stereotype accuracy, defined as holding correct beliefs about social groups. The present article examines this type of accuracy in relation to gender stereotypes, defined by beliefs about differences between women and men. After locating all studies yielding comparisons between judges' stereotypes and relevant criterion data, we extracted their results and/or conducted

Over the past decade, a surge in protests and social movements worldwide has offered promise for positive social change while also introducing divisions and tensions into society. In the current research, we examined the impact of joint collective action involving both advantaged and disadvantaged group members, as well as collective action solely involving disadvantaged group members, on public support

Extensive evidence suggests that perceptions of discrimination are influenced by a mental prototype of what constitutes discriminatory behavior, the so-called prototype effect of discrimination perception. However, the underlying psychological processes and thus the extent to which statistical expectations and moral evaluations contribute to this prototype effect remain underexplored. In a series of

In recent years, researchers have investigated how intellectual humility (IH) might help reduce political polarization among everyday U.S. Americans. In the current work, we examine whether people think politicians should exhibit IH and how this might depend on context. In preregistered Study 1 (N = 477), participants read about and reported their ideal level of IH for a fictional ingroup or outgroup

Stepfamilies are a common familial structure in the United States; however, members of stepfamilies are at risk for various adverse outcomes. The present research sought to examine the experiences of stepparents as one window into stepfamily functioning. Past research suggests that a lack of stepparent role clarity correlates with lower overall identity clarity and worse personal and relational well-being

How do students' beliefs about the world and their everyday exploratory behaviors change after a mass campus shooting? In the present longitudinal study, an on-campus shooting occurred in the middle of data collection, resulting in an unplanned pre-post quasi-experiment to investigate whether the association between world beliefs and behavior changed after a traumatic event. Over three two-week waves

People leave groups. We examined the psychological consequences for the remaining group members; specifically, whether the departure of a member can produce feelings of ostracism (being excluded and ignored). We manipulated systematically the number of group members who left (zero, one, or two out of the two other group members) during a get to know you interaction (Study 1), a word creativity task

Gifts are one important way in which individuals come to own and consume the products that they do. The current work investigates a novel consequence of acquiring and consuming items in this way—recipients draw inferences about givers' views of them (reflected appraisals) which, in turn, can influence related aspects of recipients' identity. We report five studies that test our predictions, distinguish

Trustworthiness is crucial in social interactions that depend on other's information. For example, an interaction partner's trustworthiness determines whose advice we act on in learning contexts, whom we choose to invest in during economic decisions, or even whom we decide to cooperate with. However, how perceived trustworthiness influences advice following in value-based decision-making when the trustworthiness

Repeatedly presenting a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) together with a positive or negative stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, US) typically changes liking of the CS. An important question is whether a subsequent extinction phase where the CS is presented without the US extinguishes such evaluative conditioning (EC) effects. In this regard, it is crucial to consider that an extinction procedure

This research examined the utility of providing people with information about the actual impact of their donations. Results of a field survey (N = 1062) and three controlled experiments (N = 881) reveal the importance of actual impact information in promoting repeated donations and retaining repeated donors. Exposing participants to information about the actual impact of their donations—compared with

A live discussion experiment was designed to test the effects of highly empathic (vs. moderately empathic) listening on solitude experiences. Participants were assigned to three conditions in which they: 1) Discussed a negative personal experience with a confederate (ostensibly another participant) exhibiting highly empathic listening; 2) Discussed an experience with a confederate exhibiting moderately

Does a black-and-white contrast background lead to more extreme moral judgments? Zarkadi and Schnall (2013) found in their Study 1 (N = 111) that, indeed, exposing English-speaking participants to a black-and-white (versus two other-colored conditions) background polarized participants' judgments in a moral dilemma task. This study supported a moral intuitionist model of moral judgment, lent further

We argue that one reason why people consider others' ideological beliefs (i.e., progressive vs. conservative) is that people profit by predicting others' exploration behavior from their beliefs. Eight experiments confirmed that people more readily invested in progressives when switching to novel options (i.e., exploration) was more profitable than staying with valuable resources (i.e., exploitation)

Food anthropomorphism, a prevalent and effective marketing tactic, can positively influence consumer perception and purchasing behavior. However, recent scholarly attention has been drawn to the potential negative consequences of consuming anthropomorphized food. The current research focused on how and why food anthropomorphism affected the dehumanization of unfamiliar others and the negative downstream

Efforts to promote women in leadership have led to some high profile successes, yet unequal representation of women and men in such positions persists. The media often portrays the gap as women's underrepresentation. We examine whether reframing this gap as men's overrepresentation elicits greater anger and increases intentions and behaviors to remediate the disparity. In a meta-analysis of three pilot

What inhibits people from asking for help? Four studies of fully employed British and American participants (N = 1973, including three pre-registered studies) document the negative effect of lay beliefs about status on help-seeking. Specifically, I find that zero-sum beliefs about status—the belief that one employee's success comes at other employees' expense—discourage people from asking their colleagues

People vary greatly in their responses to being ignored and excluded by others (i.e., ostracism). Based on previous research, responses to ostracism are typically classified as prosocial, antisocial, and withdrawal behavior. However, studying these behaviors in isolation can limit our understanding of the decision-making process behind these behaviors. Offering multiple response options provides deeper

Recent research has indicated that nostalgia is associated with, or fosters, favorable responses to innovative technology and in particular artificial intelligence (AI). However, prior studies failed to differentiate between the relational and functional uses of AI agents, resulting in an incomplete understanding of the role that nostalgia plays in facilitating acceptance of innovation. The current

Research on approach/avoidance training (AAT) effects shows that approach (i.e., reducing the distance between the self and a stimulus) leads to more positive evaluations of stimuli than avoidance (i.e., increasing the distance between the self and a stimulus). The present experiments relied on a grounded cognition approach to extend this finding by investigating the framing-dependency of AAT effects

Individual contributors to a collaborative task are often rewarded for going above and beyond—salespeople earn commissions, athletes earn performance bonuses, and companies award special parking spots to their employee of the month. How do we decide when to reward collaborators, and are these decisions closely aligned with how responsible they were for the outcome of a collaboration? In Experiments

Black individuals with phenotypically African features tend to experience heightened discrimination and mistreatment. The current research examined how racial phenotypicality and prototypicality effect hate crime reporting metrics and beliefs about who evaluators are represented #BlackLivesMatter. Across five studies (N = 876), results indicate that, compared to low racially phenotypic Black targets

This research examined the extent to which certainty can strengthen the relationship between individual differences and cheating behavior. In the first two studies, participants completed the Honesty-Humility or the Dark Triad scales. Then, they rated the certainty they had in their responses to each of those two inventories. In the third study, participants completed both scales within the same experimental

Humans often take decisive action to influence their social environments, including their own position within a social hierarchy. Those who are highly motivated by status attainment may be especially prone to such activity. Here, we ask whether desire for social status contributes to the early detection of social stimuli, and more specifically, whether it plays a role in which environmental stimuli

Third-party punishment games have consistently shown that people are willing to bear personal costs to punish others who act selfishly, even as uninvolved observers. However, the traditional third-party punishment game places participants in contrived situations that mandate direct punishment decisions, potentially inflating the prevalence of such actions compared to those observed in more naturalistic

Social psychologists have long debated the meaning of treating people as unique individuals for intergroup relations, as empirical evidence on the topic has been rather mixed. In the present research, we examine a normative explanation for this mixed evidence by focusing on colorblindness as an ideal for managing diversity that suggests people should be treated as individuals independently of their

Gender categorization is central to everyday life. Discussions about gender have traditionally focused on gender identities, or gender categories to which a person might have an internal sense of belonging (e.g., men and women, boys and girls). More recently, discussions about gender also include gender modality (transgender or cisgender), or how a person's gender identity relates to their sex assigned

Variation in people's ideological preference for the maintenance of inequality between social groups (i.e., social dominance orientation; SDO) predicts important sociopolitical outcomes, such as endorsement of different social policies, institutions, and belief systems. We argue that SDO may also inform people's engagement with work organizations. Specifically, we propose that SDO may impact attraction

Evaluative conditioning (EC), a change in valence of a stimulus due to its co-occurrences with other stimuli, is frequently used to study attitude formation. The present studies investigate whether EC is influenced by whether the co-occurring stimuli have their onset at the same (vs. different) time, i.e., their onset (a)synchrony. To this end, we introduce a novel and sensitive measure which tests

Research has shown that people sometimes display a “thick skin bias” whereby they believe that individuals in poverty are less harmed by negative events than individuals from higher socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. The perception that individuals or groups are less feeling, less vulnerable to harm, or otherwise less responsive or reactive is often thought to be a hallmark of dehumanization.

Biases in the perception and judgment of members of race-based and ethnicity-based minority groups are prevalent, often resulting in detrimental outcomes for these individuals. One such bias is a threat-related stereotype, associating specific race and ethnicity-based social groups with aggressiveness, violence, and criminality. In the US context, Black men are often victims of such bias. Recent evidence

People's fear of being negatively stereotyped or devalued based on one or more of their social identities — social identity threat — contributes to negative anticipated experiences in interracial interactions. Prior research, however, has largely failed to consider the role of gender in shaping people's experiences in interracial interactions. To address this gap, the present research examined the

Gossip is both common and consequential. People often share reputational information about others in their absence, and this ubiquitous practice powerfully shapes impressions, interactions, and relationships among senders, receivers, and the targets of gossip. This paper addresses two open questions in the gossip literature: When and why do senders share inaccurate information, and to what extent do

The present research examines how inferences about moral norms from descriptive norms change by perceptions of others' motives in the context of environmental behavior. When individuals think that many others engage in an environmental behavior (e.g., water and energy conservation) for prosocial (vs. proself) motives, they infer moralization about the behavior in a given context. They infer stronger

Social interactions are influenced by rapid judgements about interaction partners that are assumed to contribute to various behavioral biases. While often negligible in a given instance, such biases can accumulate to contribute to persistent inequities between social groups. Here, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to determine the extent to which early attention to racial category information

Gossip is often stereotyped as a frivolous social activity, but in fact can be a powerful tool for discouraging selfishness and cheating. In economic games, gossip induces people to act more cooperatively, presumably to avoid the cost of accruing a negative reputation. Might even this prosocial sort of gossip carry negative side effects? We propose that gossip might protect communities while simultaneously