Sexual and gender minorities face unwelcoming organizational environments, and may avoid workplace settings that fail to signal their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) employees. Exposure to an identity-safety cue, or a signal that an organizational environment values LGBTQ+ employees, may attract sexual and gender minorities to organizational settings. Here, we report

Previous research on social preferences has found that reciprocal behavior is an automatic response, which requires less cognitive control than self-interested behavior. However, research on unethicality has demonstrated that cognitive control is required to resist the temptation to benefit from engaging in an unethical act, thus suggesting that self-interested behaviors are automatic. By manipulating

Research suggests that evaluative responses to an object can be jointly influenced by the mere co-occurrence of the object with a pleasant or unpleasant stimulus (e.g., mere co-occurrence of object A with unpleasant event B) and the qualitative relation of the object to that stimulus (e.g., object A starts vs. stops unpleasant event B). Expanding on these findings, the current research investigated

We examined the spontaneous use and effectiveness of financial self-control strategies in individuals' everyday spending. In Study 1 (N = 377), participants who listed the strategies they personally already use at intake and several times throughout a month spent an average $228 less that month than participants in a control group. In contrast, participants who were provided with strategies that have

Social judgments are often influenced by comparison to some standard in the environment, either moving the judgment closer (assimilating) to or away (contrasting) from this standard. Which direction this effect will take depends heavily on the relative standing of these standards on the judgment dimension compared to the target of the judgment. In previous research, items and comparison standards were

Disclosing a concealable stigma has the potential for both positive outcomes, such as receipt of social support, and negative outcomes, such as being the target of prejudice. Identifying a disclosure strategy that minimizes prejudice while increasing the likelihood of social support can build theory regarding the underpinnings of stigma and provide guidance to those with concealable stigmas. Across

Researchers from marginalized groups often make important social scientific discoveries about prejudice, particularly when they are members of the group under investigation (e.g., women studying sexism, Black Americans studying racism). But is the scientific integrity and validity of their work perceived differently by virtue of their membership in the marginalized group? Across three survey experiments

Guilt has often been conceptualized as a moral emotion because it stimulates transgressors to restore a damaged relationship. However, not much has been investigated about when the guilt-induced relational-promoting goal conflicts with certain moral norms (for instance, honesty). In this paper, we demonstrate that guilt increases the transgressors' lying intentions in situations where honesty is anticipated

At a time when pseudoscience threatens the survival of communities, understanding this vulnerability, and how to reduce it, is paramount. Four preregistered experiments (N = 532, N = 472, N = 605, N = 382) with online U.S. samples introduced false claims concerning a (fictional) virus created as a bioweapon, mirroring conspiracy theories about COVID-19, and carcinogenic effects of GMOs (Genetically

Evil supernatural beings are often depicted as responding to unintended requests, whereas this may be less common in representations of good supernatural beings. This asymmetry suggests that people may expect good and evil agents to differ in their sensitivity to other people's intentions. We investigated this proposal across five experiments on 2231 adult US residents. In Experiments 1 to 4, participants

The COVID-19 pandemic allowed for a naturalistic, longitudinal investigation of the relationship between faith and science mindsets and concern about COVID-19. Our goal was to examine two possible directional relationships: (Model 1) COVID-19 concern ➔ disease avoidance and self-protection motivations ➔ science and faith mindsets versus (Model 2) science and faith mindsets ➔ COVID-19 concern. We surveyed

Prior work suggests that high-status group members are favored for hierarchy-maintaining roles, while low-status group members are favored for hierarchy-attenuating ones—but the mechanisms driving this phenomenon are largely unknown. The current work examines this phenomenon in the domain of race, testing three potential mechanisms: role status, representativeness, and hierarchy profiling. According

Compared to loose cultures, tight cultures are characterized by stronger norm adherence and sanctioning of norm deviant behavior. In the current research, we proposed that culture tightness (vs. looseness) triggers a desire for physical formidability (being big and muscular), and interpersonal dominance. Fives studies converged to support our hypotheses. Through the analysis of archival data of over

Although recent research has highlighted that social relationships influence moral judgment, many questions remain. Across two pre-registered experiments (total N = 1310), we investigated one social relationship and its link to morality: kinship and its obligations. Experiment 1 varied genetic relatedness between helpers and beneficiaries (i.e., strangers, cousins, siblings), investigating differences

Economic inequality in the United States has reached historic highs. Although one may intuit that rising inequality would predict increased support for inequality-reduction strategies, the relationship between economic inequality and attitudes toward redistribution remains unclear. The current research sought to better understand the impacts of economic inequality and socioeconomic rank on attitudes

What causes people to change their beliefs about right and wrong? Coherence-based interventions can change people's moral beliefs about abstract moral principles (Holyoak & Powell, 2016), but it is unclear whether these interventions would be similarly effective for everyday moral beliefs that can impact routine behavior. In the present research, we examined whether coherence-based “memes” highlighting

Although researchers strive to optimize support exchanges, support providers' experiences have largely been overlooked. To identify optimal support from the perspective of the support provider, the current research compared support providers' perceptions of touch and verbal support provision. In Experiment 1, participants were less stressed when they imagined their spouses requesting touch support

People of all genders regularly pursue both personal and professional objectives. To the latter, research has documented substantial barriers for women, especially when they make mistakes. As articulated by role congruity theory, their stereotypically communal nature appears at odds with the agentic objectives frequently seen as inherent to the workplace. To the former, though, how are women (versus

The last decade has seen a rush to address the causes and consequences of bias in applied contexts across the world. When and why might these initiatives promote attitudes and behavior that align with egalitarian goals? A common assumption is that increasing awareness of bias can motivate control over prejudiced responding. However, learning that one's actions are biased is threatening, and often motivates

When forming impressions of groups, people's impressions tend to reflect the average rating of the group members. However, group impressions have also been found to depart from an unweighted average of member ratings. For example, in the recently reported group attractiveness effect, groups were found to be more attractive than would be expected based on the average rating of the group members. In

This research examines attitudes towards androgyny using a novel Implicit Association Test (IAT) that assesses implicit evaluations of gender conforming people (i.e., those who look stereotypically male or female) vs. androgynous people (i.e., those whose appearance includes a combination of masculine and feminine traits). Over 6 studies (N > 6000), we develop a gender expression IAT and present evidence

Organizations—especially small businesses—are vulnerable to social and economic upheaval. When misfortune befalls organizations, how much do we empathize with them? Here we present a framework for understanding the causes, mechanisms, and consequences of empathy for organizations. One key cause of empathy is framing: Although any organization is comprised of its constituent members, six studies find

Men appear to be more sceptical towards climate change and less pro-environmental than women. On the other hand, priming certain values (e.g., wealth) undermines support for pro-environmental behaviours. Based on these findings, we explored whether situational materialism may amplify the differences between women and men in scepticism towards climate change. In three experiments we presented participants

Effect sizes are an important outcome of quantitative research, but few guidelines exist that explain how researchers can determine which effect sizes are meaningful. Psychologists often want to study effects that are large enough to make a difference to people's subjective experience. Thus, subjective experience is one way to gauge the meaningfulness of an effect. We propose and illustrate one method

Aggressive behaviors occur when one person, a perpetrator, intentionally harms another person, a victim (e.g., Parrott & Giancola, 2007). When reporting their judgments, victims often report the aggressive behaviors as being more harmful than perpetrators—a so-called victim-perpetrator asymmetry. This asymmetry is well-established (Baumeister et al., 1990; Elshout et al., 2017; Ent & Parton, 2019;

‘Crowd wisdom’ refers to the surprising accuracy that can be attained by averaging judgments from independent individuals. However, independence is unusual; people often discuss and collaborate in groups. When does group interaction improve vs. degrade judgment accuracy relative to averaging the group's initial, independent answers? Two large laboratory studies explored the effects of 969 face-to-face

Bicultural individuals often must select between different responses to a task implied by their dual identities. When one identity has been situationally primed, one strategy is to assimilate to the situational demand. However, another strategy is contrastive, to express their other identity. This second strategy has been called ethnic affirmation (Yang & Bond, 1980) and cultural contrast (Mok & Morris

A plethora of theories on human motives proposes that people have a fundamental need for control and an intrinsic desire to avoid submission to others. The current paper investigated an important exception to this general claim. Five experiments show that self-control failure leads people to strategically prioritize more social submission. In Experiments 1 to 3, salience of self-control failure increased

In a series of studies, we ask whether and to what extent the base rate of a behavior influences associated moral judgment. Previous research aimed at answering different but related questions are suggestive of such an effect. However, these other investigations involve injunctive norms and special reference groups which are inappropriate for an examination of the effects of base rates per se. Across

Help offered by a member of a high status group to a member of a low status group is often resented because it may be perceived as motivated by a desire to reinforce status relations between the groups. The present research explored how trust in a high status group by members of a low status group can ameliorate these negative consequences. Study 1 examined how the trust of Israeli-Jews among Israeli-Arabs

Laws govern society, regulating people's behavior to create social harmony. Yet recent research indicates that when laws are broken by people we know and love, we consistently fail to report their crimes. Here we identify an expectancy-based cognitive mechanism that underlies this phenomenon and illustrate how it interacts with people's motivations to predict their intentions to report crimes. Using

Previous research has provided ample evidence for an impact of language on moral dilemma judgments, suggesting higher willingness to sacrifice one person to save several others when the dilemma is presented in a foreign as opposed to the judge’s native language. In accordance with the dual-process model of moral judgment, the foreign language effect is frequently taken to indicate either decreased

Most research in evaluative conditioning (EC) documents that a target object (conditioned stimulus, CS) acquires the same valence as a co-occurring affective cue (unconditioned stimulus, US). Some recent studies in EC have found that a CS may acquire the opposite valence as a US when people process a negational relation between the CS and the US, supporting a propositional learning mechanism for EC

Why do people collectively support action for (or against) marginalized groups in society? Three studies (N = 1161) conducted in France and Romania tested the hypotheses that collective action is partly driven by conformity, as people follow what they perceive as normative in the social context. Further, we hypothesized that a contemporaneous affirmation of group identity would amplify such conformity

Endorsing Obama in 2008 licensed some Americans to favor Whites over Blacks––an example of moral self-licensing (Effron, Cameron, & Monin, 2009). Could endorsing a female presidential candidate in 2020–21 similarly license Americans to favor men at the expense of women? Two high-powered, pre-registered experiments found no evidence for this possibility. We manipulated whether Democrat participants

Do people in need share less with others? And what if the recipient is in need too? In two experiments, we addressed these questions by testing whether fasting-induced and self-rated hunger influence allocations in a dictator game in which allocators distribute food (cookies) between themselves and a recipient. In line with rational choice theory, which posits that a deprived good should increase in

Political inclusion is when someone receives a fair chance to voice one's opinions in a discussion of political topics with political outgroup members. In three preregistered studies (total n = 799), we test if political inclusion reduces or increases prejudice toward the political outgroup using either an imagined scenario (Study 1) or an experience in an ostensible online political discussion (Studies

The sunk-cost bias describes the tendency to continue an inferior course of action because one has invested significant, irrecoverable resources in it in the past. It can lead individuals to make decisions that are suboptimal for their welfare. Across five experiments (N = 3197), we investigate whether the tendency of individuals to display sunk-cost bias is influenced by their sense of psychological

Personality characteristics can influence the likelihood of a person becoming a target of ostracism. Particularly, low agreeableness and low conscientiousness have been shown to increase the risk of being ostracized. Here, we investigate whether the situational context in which individuals interact moderates the effect that personality has on ostracism intentions. Within four studies, we show that

In the literature on learning, one of the most robust cue competition effects is blocking: the previous learning of a cue-outcome association prevents learning that other cues predict the same outcome if those cues are presented together with the first cue. In this research, we investigated blocking effects in mental state inference. Participants learned to diagnose the internal states of a target

Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and likely uniquely human phenomenon. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue by evoking social support intentions. Initial experimental studies supported this proposition across several methodologies, but these were conducted almost exclusively on participants from North America and Europe, resulting

People typically extend limited moral standing to animals reared for food. Prominent perspectives in the literature on animal-human relations characterize this phenomenon as an outcome of moral disengagement: in other words, a strategy that protects people from moral self-condemnation. To provide a direct test of this hypothesis, we exposed people to a self-affirmation manipulation, and hypothesized

In post-conflict societies, individuals often respond negatively to the prosocial behaviors of their former opponents. To identify forms of intergroup apology that facilitate positive reactions to offers of intergroup help, three experiments (N = 698) were conducted in the post-conflict context of Kosovo that involved offering help to participants following their exposure to different types of apologies

Sex differences in fear and pain suggest the possibility of sex differences in an underlying threat reactivity (or punishment sensitivity) system. This system would prime vigorous behavioral responses to threatening input and give rise to stronger, more quickly changing feelings within threatening contexts. Two studies sought to model such processes. Study 1 focused on emotion-primed losses of motor

Can attending live theatre improve empathy by immersing audience members in the stories of others? We tested this question across three field studies (n = 1622), including a pre-registered replication. We randomly assigned audience members to complete surveys either before or after seeing plays, and measured the effects of the plays on empathy, attitudes, and pro-social behavior. After, as compared

Past research has documented where discrimination occurs or tested interventions that reduce discrimination. Less is known about how discriminatory behavior emerges and the mechanisms through which successful interventions work. Two studies (N > 4500) apply the Diffusion Decision Model (DDM) to the Judgment Bias Task, a measure of discrimination. In control conditions, participants gave preferential

The current research explores how local racial diversity affects Whites' efforts to structure their local communities to avoid incidental intergroup contact. In two experimental studies (N = 509; Studies 1a-b), we consider Whites' choices to structure a fictional, diverse city and find that Whites choose greater racial segregation around more (vs. less) self-relevant landmarks (e.g., their workplace

Confrontation research has primarily focused on what drives individuals' intentions to confront strangers who express prejudicial attitudes (i.e., interpersonal bias; for reviews see Ashburn-Nardo & Karim, 2019; Kawakami, Karmali, & Vaccarino, 2019). However, bias manifests in multiple forms, including biased policies and institutional practices (i.e., structural bias) or bias perpetrated by close

Immersive Ambulatory Virtual Reality (IA-VR) video games are relatively new and highly immersive. Given speculation that immersion may increase psychological effects of playing games, we examined whether violent IA-VR (cf. flat-screen) games increase aggression. Here, we report the first experimental studies to assess the effects of violent and non-violent IA-VR (cf. flat-screen) games on affect, aggressive

Ambivalence, the activation of both positive and negative thoughts and feelings regarding a single attitude object, plays a role in many domains in people's lives. For instance, people can be ambivalent about societal topics, health, politics, family, and even their partners. Recently, mouse tracking has been introduced as a novel and innovative way to examine ambivalence. Although initial findings

The national inferiority complex was described in 1958 by the Brazilian journalist Nelson Rodrigues as “how Brazilians voluntarily place themselves in a position of inferiority in comparison to the rest of the world.” In three experimental studies, we tested the hypothesis of a “national inferiority effect” on the behavior of Brazilian participants awarding compensation to a victim of police violence

When does saying no to a helping request hurt a person's influence? Across five studies, when someone was asked for help, saying no had two opposing effects on their actual and perceived influence by increasing their dominance, but decreasing their prestige. The cost of providing help moderated these effects. Overall, refusing to help decreased a person's influence when helping cost little time, effort

When we experience damage to a social connection—in particular, perceiving that others have devalued our relationship with them—we experience “social pain.” Prior studies have typically examined social pain by creating explicit contexts to elicit experiences of relational devaluation. However, there may be other antecedents of social pain that do not involve direct threats to social belongingness.

Across 10 experiments (N = 1584), we investigated biases in assumptions about pain sensitivity as an explanation for pain treatment disparities across socioeconomic status (SES). We find that lower-SES individuals are believed to feel less pain than higher-SES individuals (Studies 1a-1c), and this effect persists across target demographics including race (i.e., White individuals, Black individuals)

We present four studies (one correlational and three experimental) of American Whites that examine relationships between White and minority demographic shifts, intergroup threat, and support for extreme-right groups and actions. We focus in particular on the role of collective existential threat (i.e., a perception that the ingroup will cease to exist), along with three alternative/competing intergroup

Moral elevation is an emotional experience elicited after witnessing acts of exceptional moral goodness and involves feeling moved and inspired. Previous research has demonstrated that experiences of moral elevation can lead to increased altruism. We examined whether the benefits of moral elevation on prosocial intentions extend to the context of intractable intergroup conflict, by testing whether

Two studies sought to replicate previous work on cultural differences in the co-occurrence of spontaneous trait (STI) and situation (SSI) inferences, and to examine possible mediators at the individual level. Both studies replicated previous findings of cultural differences. European Americans made more STIs relative to SSIs than did Asian American or Japanese participants. However Experiment 1 found

Caucasian-Americans' manner of expressing egalitarianism may inadvertently communicate racial prejudices to ingroup members. Despite most hypothesizing the contrary (Preliminary Study), Caucasian-American perceivers were able to infer ingroup targets' underlying racial attitudes using only targets' written claims of being egalitarian (Experiment 1; N = 256) and regardless of whether targets' had the

Research on third-party moral judgments highlights two mechanisms as central to moral judgments of accidental harms: the inference of intent and the perception of harm. However, little is known about how these mechanisms are recruited when people evaluate themselves for harm that they have accidentally caused. Here we explore how a person's perspective — as either actor or observer — influences their

Behavior varies along a continuum of activity, with effortful behaviors characterizing actions and restful states characterizing inactions. Despite the adaptive value of both action and inaction, we propose three biases that, in the absence of other information, increase the probability that people like, and want to pursue, action more than inaction: An action positivity bias, an action outcome bias