Adrian Bangerter

Using Pointing and Describing to Achieve Joint Focus of Attention in Dialogue

Pointing was shown to focus attention in dialogue. Pairs of people talked and gestured to identify targets from arrays visible to both of them. Arrays were located at five distances: arm length (0 cm), 25 cm, 50 cm, 75 cm, and 100 cm. Some pairs could point; others could not. People relied more on pointing and less on language as distance decreased. Pointing especially suppressed descriptions of target location, suggesting that it was used to focus attention on a spatial region.

The Mozart effect: tracking the evolution of a scientific legend.

Theories of the diffusion of ideas in social psychology converge on the assumption that shared beliefs (e.g., social representations, rumours and legends) propagate because they address the needs or concerns of social groups. But little empirical research exists demonstrating this link. We report three media studies of the diffusion of a scientific legend as a particular kind of shared belief. We studied the Mozart effect (ME), the idea that listening to classical music enhances intelligence. Study 1 showed that the ME elicited more persistent media attention than other science reports and this attention increased when the ME was manifested in events outside of science. Study 2 suggested that diffusion of the ME may have responded to varying levels of collective anxiety. Study 3 demonstrated how the content of the ME evolved during diffusion. The results provide evidence for the functionality of diffusion of ideas and initial elements for a model of the emergence and evolution of scientific legends.

Personnel Selection as a Signaling Game

Personnel selection involves exchanges of information between job market actors (applicants and organizations). These actors do not have an incentive to exchange accurate information about their ability and commitment to the employment relationship unless it is to their advantage. This state of affairs explains numerous phenomena in personnel selection (e.g., faking). Signaling theory describes a mechanism by which parties with partly conflicting interests (and thus an incentive for deception) can nevertheless exchange accurate information. We apply signaling theory to personnel selection, distinguishing between adaptive relationships between applicants and organizations, among applicants, and among organizations. In each case, repeated adaptations and counteradaptations between actors can lead to situations of equilibrium or escalation (arms races). We show that viewing personnel selection as a network of adaptive relationships among job market actors enables an understanding of both classic and underexplored micro- and macro-level selection phenomena and their dynamic interactions.

Changing Ideas about Reference

How do people refer to things? At first, the answer seems simple: they produce the right expression in the right situation. According to John Searle (1969), for example, to refer to a dog, speakers must produce a referring expression (such as the dog she had with her) with the intention that it pick out or identify the dog for their addressees. But is the answer really this simple? Accounts of how people refer have changed again and again since about 1960, often dramatically. But how have they changed, and why? In this chapter, we offer a selective, largely personal history of these changes as they have played out in the experimental study of reference. Our goal is not a complete history — an impossible ambition — but a better understanding of what reference really is.

Transformation between scientific and social representations of conception : The method of serial reproduction

The social representation (SR) of conception was investigated using an adapted version of Bartletts (1932) method of serial reproduction. A sample of 75 participants reproduced a text describing the conception process in 20 segregated chains of four reproductive generations. Changes in sentence structure and content were analysed. Results indicated that when the scientific representation of conception is apprehended by laypersons, two different processes take place. First, the abstract biological description of the process is progressively transformed into an anthropomorphic description centred on the sperm and ovum (personification). Second, stereotypical sex-role attributes are projected onto the sperm and ovum. Limitations of the method of serial reproduction are discussed, as well as its potential for modelling processes of cultural diffusion of knowledge.

Life Markers in Biographical Narratives of People from Three Cohorts: A Life Span Perspective in Its Historical Context

Human development is often understood as an interplay between biological, sociohistorical, and social factors, as well as individual developmental actions. However, historical influences on development have rarely been investigated. The present study discusses societal change in the course of this century and investigates its impact on the life course by analyzing biographical narratives. This impact is illustrated by results from a study where participants from three birth cohorts (1920–25; 1945–50; 1970–75) were interviewed about important markers in their experienced and expected biographies. Although distribution of life markers over the life span was analogous across cohorts, participants from the younger cohorts perceived themselves as having more control on setting important life markers across their biographies. Their narratives referred more often to personal and less often to contextual and sociohistorical themes.

The Interplay Between Gesture and Speech in the Production of Referring Expressions: Investigating the Tradeoff Hypothesis

The tradeoff hypothesis in the speech-gesture relationship claims that (a) when gesturing gets harder, speakers will rely relatively more on speech, and (b) when speaking gets harder, speakers will rely relatively more on gestures. We tested the second part of this hypothesis in an experimental collaborative referring paradigm where pairs of participants (directors and matchers) identified targets to each other from an array visible to both of them. We manipulated two factors known to affect the difficulty of speaking to assess their effects on the gesture rate per 100 words. The first factor, codability, is the ease with which targets can be described. The second factor, repetition, is whether the targets are old or new (having been already described once or twice). We also manipulated a third factor, mutual visibility, because it is known to affect the rate and type of gesture produced. None of the manipulations systematically affected the gesture rate. Our data are thus mostly inconsistent with the tradeoff hypothesis. However, the gesture rate was sensitive to concurrent features of referring expressions, suggesting that gesture parallels aspects of speech. We argue that the redundancy between speech and gesture is communicatively motivated.

Lay perceptions of collectives at the outbreak of the H1N1 epidemic: heroes, villains and victims

Lay perceptions of collectives (e.g., groups, organizations, countries) implicated in the 2009 H1N1 outbreak were studied. Collectives serve symbolic functions to help laypersons make sense of the uncertainty involved in a disease outbreak. We argue that lay representations are dramatized, featuring characters like heroes, villains and victims. In interviews conducted soon after the outbreak, 47 Swiss respondents discussed the risk posed by H1N1, its origins and effects, and protective measures. Countries were the most frequent collectives mentioned. Poor, underdeveloped countries were depicted as victims, albeit ambivalently, as they were viewed as partly responsible for their own plight. Experts (physicians, researchers) and political and health authorities were depicted as heroes. Two villains emerged: the media (viewed as fear mongering or as a puppet serving powerful interests) and private corporations (e.g., the pharmaceutical industry). Laypersons’ framing of disease threat diverges substantially from official perspectives.

Students' Use of Extra-Curricular Activities for Positional Advantage in Competitive Job Markets.

With the rise of mass higher education, competition between graduates in the labour market is increasing. Students are aware that their degree will not guarantee them a job and realise they should add value and distinction to their credentials to achieve a positional advantage. Participation in extra-curricular activities (ECAs) is one such strategy, as it allows students to demonstrate competencies not otherwise visible in their résumés due to limited job experience. This article presents data from interviews with 66 students about their use of ECAs in relation to the labour market. It describes the reasons students got involved in ECAs, how they integrate them in their résumés, their perceptions of their peers’ behaviour and their beliefs about how employers will interpret their activities. Our data show that especially students involved in associations use ECAs to distinguish themselves from competition. Implications for employers, students and further research are discussed.

Implications of the behavioural immune system for social behaviour and human health in the modern world

The ‘behavioural immune system’ is composed of mechanisms that evolved as a means of facilitating behaviours that minimized infection risk and enhanced fitness. Recent empirical research on human populations suggests that these mechanisms have unique consequences for many aspects of human sociality—including sexual attitudes, gregariousness, xenophobia, conformity to majority opinion and conservative sociopolitical attitudes. Throughout much of human evolutionary history, these consequences may have had beneficial health implications; but health implications in modern human societies remain unclear. This article summarizes pertinent ways in which modern human societies are similar to and different from the ecologies within which the behavioural immune system evolved. By attending to these similarities and differences, we identify a set of plausible implications—both positive and negative—that the behavioural immune system may have on health outcomes in contemporary human contexts. We discuss both individual-level infection risk and population-level epidemiological outcomes. We also discuss a variety of additional implications, including compliance with public health policies, the adoption of novel therapeutic interventions and actual immunological functioning. Research on the behavioural immune system, and its implications in contemporary human societies, can provide unique insights into relationships between fitness, sociality and health.