Anton J. M. Dijker

Emotions and goals: Assessing relations between values and emotions

Whereas most current theories on emotions posit a central position to goals, direct tests of associations between emotions and goals have been sparse. We investigated such relations by comparing ratings of value importance and frequency of emotional experiences in daily life. The results confirmed our general expectation that associations would be found between values and emotions related to corresponding goals. We argue that data like these are fundamental to further development of emotion theory.

Sex differences in emotional and behavioral responses to HIV+ individuals' expression of distress

Two studies examined the influence of HIV+ individuals expression of distress on perceivers’ emotional and behavioral reactions. In Study 1 (N = 224), HIV+ individuals expression of distress was experimentally manipulated by means of vignettes. Men and women reacted differently when persons with HIV conveyed distress: women reported stronger feelings of pity, whereas men reported stronger feelings of anger. Study 2 (N = 136) replicated this study in a realistic experimental setting with additional behavioral measures. Similarly, women reported stronger pro-social behavior than men when confronted with a person with HIV who conveyed distress. Results of the present study shed additional light to the self-presentational dilemma of ill persons. Conveying moderate levels of distress may evoke pro-social responses in women, but not in men.

A psychological model of social control and stigmatization: Evolutionary background and practical implications

Abstract The strengths and limitations of three main theoretical approaches to social control and stigmatization are discussed, originating from social psychology, sociology and anthropology, and evolutionary psychology, respectively. A theoretical model is proposed that integrates universal (evolutionary derived) psychological aspects of social control and the great variation that can be observed in responding to deviance within and between cultures and historical periods. Practical implications of the model are discussed.

Ingroup and outgroup stereotypes and selective processing

The main concern of the two studies presented here is to investigate whether the different nature of ingroup and outgroup stereotypes is reflected in different selective processing of ingroup and outgroup information. It was predicted that when processing ingroup information people will preferentially encode stereotype-inconsistent information as compared to stereotype-consistent information, whereas the reverse pattern will hold when people process outgroup information. In addition to selective processing, response bias due to stereotyping was studied. To measure selective processing and response bias, recognition memory measures derived from the theory of signal detection were used. Results of the two studies confirmed our main prediction. Also, response bias was demonstrated. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Perceived vulnerability as a common basis of moral emotions

It is theorized that many moral emotions are triggered when a mechanism for (parental) care is activated by perceived vulnerability, and changes in the care objects well-being are subsequently evaluated and causally attributed. Participants reported different moral emotions (tenderness, concern, sympathy, guilt, and moral anger) in relation to different photographs of males and females widely differing in age. Using variation between emotion objects, it was shown that emotional reactions were highly intercorrelated and strongly related to perceived vulnerability and aroused protective tendency; with children and elderly arousing the strongest, and adult males the weakest, emotions. Moreover, these intercorrelations largely disappeared when vulnerability and protective tendency were statistically controlled. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Reciprocity and Need in Posthumous Organ Donation The Mediating Role of Moral Emotions

The effects of need and reciprocity on prosocial behavior have been primarily studied in separate research domains. A distinction between helping those in need and reciprocity is also made in current discussions on how to motivate posthumous organ donation, contrasting the help of needing patients with an equal contribution to a common pool of organs and effective measures against free riding. The authors examined the interactive effects of need and reciprocity on moral emotions relevant for helping (e.g., sympathy, guilt, moral anger) in an experiment in which participants imagined donating or not donating their organs to patients who were or were not willing to donate themselves and who differed in the need for an organ. They found that lack of reciprocity reduced the intensity of certain moral emotions (e.g., sympathy, guilt) but only under low need. High need appeared to arouse forgiveness for free riding. Implications for attempts to increase the number of registered organ donors are discussed.

The role of expectancies in the size-weight illusion: A review of theoretical and empirical arguments and a new explanation

The size–weight illusion (SWI) refers to the phenomenon that objects that are objectively equal in weight but different in size or volume are perceived to differ in weight, such that smaller objects feel heavier than larger ones. This article reviews studies trying to support three different viewpoints with respect to the role of expectancies in causing the SWI. The first viewpoint argues for a crucial role; the second admits a role, yet without seeing consequences for sensorimotor processes; and the third denies any causal role for expectancies at all. A new explanation of the SWI is proposed that can integrate the different arguments. A distinctive feature of the new explanation is that it recognizes the causal influence of expectancies, yet combines this with certain reactive and direct behavioral consequences of perceiving size differences that are independent of experience-based expectancies, and that normally result in the adaptive application of forces to lift or handle differently sized objects. The new account explains why the illusion is associated with the repeated generation of inappropriate lifting forces (which can, however, be modified through extensive training), as well as why it depends on continuous visual exposure to size cues, appears at an early age, and is cognitively impenetrable.

Explaining Not-in-My-Backyard Responses to Different Social Groups The Role of Group Characteristics and Emotions

To examine why people are reluctant to engage in intergroup contact, the present study asked members of a nationwide online panel (N = 555) to imagine that they would get individuals of a particular social group as next-door neighbors. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of five different social groups hypothesized to differ in emotion-arousing potential: elderly people, people with mild or severe intellectual disability, economic refugees, and young offenders. It was found that differences in acceptance between these groups could be well explained by emotions aroused while anticipating contact yet less well by differences in previous contact with these groups. Furthermore, emotions appeared to be uniquely related to preferred interpersonal relationships. It is concluded that research on how to reduce prejudice through intergroup contact should be complemented with a better understanding of why people are reluctant to engage in such contact in the first place.

Physical Constraints on the Evolution of Cooperation.

The evolution of psychological adaptations for cooperation is still puzzling due to a tendency to frame social interaction in mathematical and game-theoretical terms, without systematically examining its causal structure and underlying mechanisms. Complementarily, empirical approaches to cooperation tend to focus on isolated components of mechanisms without sufficiently indicating how different components are combined into a single mechanism and different mechanisms fit into a single organism. An alternative approach to the evolution of cooperation is proposed, starting from a description of basic physical properties of individuals and their environment, and the limited physical or mechanistic possibilities to generate adaptive responses to those properties. This approach reveals that some forms of symmetrical cooperation do not require mechanisms “specifically designed for” benefiting others, whereas effective helping requires a specific mechanism that relatively unconditionally and persistently responds to the vulnerability of other individuals. Unraveling the causal structure of different types of other-benefiting shows that a mechanism for asymmetrical helping may considerably improve symmetrical cooperation through properties such as tolerance, patience, and the human capacity to experience a wide variety of moral emotions. The proposed mechanistic approach to cooperation provides the mathematical/game-theoretical approach with realistic assumptions about psychological adaptations, and helps to integrate the scattered facts about mechanisms gathered by the empirical approach. It also helps to build bridges between the two approaches by providing a common language for thinking about psychological mechanisms.

Context effects of facial appearance on attitudes toward mentally handicapped persons.

The influence of facial appearance on social attitudes was examined by exposing participants to the faces of three target persons with or without deviant facial features, posing happy, angry or sad facial expressions, or a mixture of these expressions. When they displayed negative emotional expressions, facially deviant targets were judged more negatively than non-deviant targets. Irrespective of emotional expression and level of personal experience, participants expressed more negative attitudes toward mentally handicapped persons in general after exposure to deviant faces than after exposure to non-deviant faces, or in the absence of exposure. However, correlational analyses suggested that only at low levels of personal experience were attitudes influenced by previously formed impressions of deviant exemplars. Results are discussed in terms of the motivational relevance of physical features in stigmatization, and context and exemplar effects in stereotyping and attitude measurement. Practical implications are also discussed.