Dirk Smeesters

Still Preoccupied with 1995: The Need to Belong and Preference for Nostalgic Products

This research examines the conditions under which consumers experience an increased preference for nostalgic products, such as previously popular movies, television programs, foods, or automobiles. Specifically, participants for whom the need to belong is an active goal experience a significantly stronger preference for nostalgic products than do participants for whom this is not an active goal. This preference holds both when the need to belong is activated in an ego-threatening manner, such as after being socially ostracized, and when it is activated in a non-ego-threatening manner, such as when the interdependent self is primed. Furthermore, the consumption of nostalgic products, rather than the exposure to or the mere selection of nostalgic products, successfully satiates the need to belong.

The role of interpersonal perceptions in the prime-to-behavior pathway.

The present research suggests that biased interpersonal perceptions can mediate prime-to-behavior effects and introduces a new moderator for when such mediation will occur. Across 5 experiments, the authors provide evidence that priming effects on behavior in interpersonal contexts are mediated by social perceptions, but only when participants are focused on the other person. These effects occur when other-focus is primed (Experiment 1), when other-focus is high owing to the decision-making situation (Experiment 2), and when other-focus is dispositionally high (Experiment 3). Experiments 4 and 5 bring additional support for a biased perception account by ruling out an alternative behavior-perception link and showing that other-focus can moderate not only the mediating mechanism of prime-to-behavior effects but also the behavioral effects themselves. The implications of these results for increasing understanding of behavioral priming effects in rich social contexts are discussed.

Indirect Prime-to-Behavior Effects: The Role of Perceptions of the Self, Others, and Situations in Connecting Primed Constructs to Social Behavior

For more than a decade, researchers have convincingly shown that peoples social behavior can be affected by primed constructs without people having any awareness of their influence. Earlier research proposed direct priming accounts for these effects, suggesting that primed constructs exert their effect on behavior in a relatively direct fashion without an intervening role for perceptual processes. In this chapter, we review evidence in favor of an indirect priming account for behavioral priming effects. In these indirect priming effects, a primed construct affects behavior via shifts in perceptions of a perceptual target. We review three types of indirect priming mechanisms: a self-perception, person-perception, and situation-perception mechanism. We also present various moderators that affect the direction and magnitude of each of the indirect priming effects. In addition, we identify factors, related to the attentional focus of the prime recipient, that indicate when each of the different mechanisms operates. Understanding the role of perceptual processes in the prime-to-behavior pathway can unravel more mysteries about the rich and complex nature of social behavior.

Significant Other Primes and Behavior: Motivation to Respond to Social Cues Moderates Pursuit of Prime-Induced Goals

Significant others can automatically activate a variety of goals, including goals that significant others have for an individual and the individuals personal goals that are associated with the significant others. Across three studies, this article shows that the effects of significant other primes (i.e., mother, roommate) on behavior depend on individual differences in both personal goals and responsiveness to social cues (i.e., self-monitoring, need to belong). Specifically, individuals who are motivated to respond to social cues assimilate to a goal that their primed significant other has for them, regardless of whether they personally hold the goal. Individuals not so motivated, on the other hand, assimilate to the goal only when it is one that they also personally hold. Implications of these findings for research on the prime-to-behavior relationship and interpersonal goal pursuit are discussed.

Gender, Intimacy, and Risky Sex: A Terror Management Account

Three studies tested whether mortality salience would lead men to be more sexually risky than women. In Study 1, men reported greater intentions to engage in risky sexual behaviors than did women after a mortality prime, but not after a control prime. In Study 2, men desired more future sexual partners and had a lower need for intimacy than did women, but again, only when mortality was salient. Furthermore, need for romantic intimacy mediated the relationship between mortality salience, gender, and desired number of future partners. Using a behavioral rather than a self-reported dependent measure, Study 3 showed that men primed with mortality were less likely than women to select a package of condoms (versus a pen) as a free gift after the experiment. Implications for gender differences in responses to mortality salience, as well as for how to design effective safe-sex interventions, are discussed.

Money and Mimicry When Being Mimicked Makes People Feel Threatened

The following article has been retracted by the Editor and publishers of Psychological Science:Liu, J. (E.), Vohs, K. D., & Smeesters, D. (2011). Money and mimicry: When being mimicked makes people feel threatened. Psychological Science, 22, 1150–1151. doi: 10.1177/0956797611418348The retraction follows the results of an investigation into the work of author Dirk Smeesters. The Smeesters Follow-Up Investigation Committee of Erasmus University Rotterdam has determined the following in regard to the retracted article:The paper indicates that the variable Liking of the confederate consists of two items with α = 0.91, whereas a reconstruction of the data proves that three items were used with α = 0.90.The authors state that respondents were randomly assigned to the different experimental conditions. However a test of independence of gender with the experimental conditions shows that this is not the case (p < 0.001). In a response, Smeesters acknowledged this observation. The Committee considers this to be a m...The following article has been retracted by the Editor and publishers of Psychological Science: Liu, J. (E.), Vohs, K. D., & Smeesters, D. (2011). Money and mimicry: When being mimicked makes people feel threatened. Psychological Science, 22, 1150–1151. doi: 10.1177/0956797611418348 The retraction follows the results of an investigation into the work of author Dirk Smeesters. The Smeesters Follow-Up Investigation Committee of Erasmus University Rotterdam has determined the following in regard to the retracted article: The paper indicates that the variable Liking of the confederate consists of two items with α = 0.91, whereas a reconstruction of the data proves that three items were used with α = 0.90. The authors state that respondents were randomly assigned to the different experimental conditions. However a test of independence of gender with the experimental conditions shows that this is not the case (p < 0.001). In a response, Smeesters acknowledged this observation. The Committee considers this to be a major methodological mistake that can affect the interpretation of the paper referring to Criterion 7: committing imputable inaccuracies when undertaking research. As Smeesters was in charge of data collection the Committee holds him solely responsible. The Committee recommends retraction of this paper. (Smeesters Follow-Up Investigation Committee, 2014, p. 7) The committee found no blame on the part of Smeesters’s coauthors, who have seen and agreed to this retraction.

Tokenism Also Works With Groups as Tokens: The Impact of Group Openness and Group Qualification on Reactions to Membership in a Low-Status Group

Two experiments tested whether the tokenism effect would also emerge when groups as a whole rather than individual group members are denied access into a high-status group. In total, 317 pupils were led to believe that their class was not accepted into a high-status group. The openness of this high-status group toward other groups (open, minimally open, and closed) and the qualification of the own class (low, high) were manipulated. In both studies, pupils of a highly qualified class confronted with a closed high-status group differed from all other conditions by preferring nonnormative action to normative action. These results indicate that tokenism is a very robust phenomenon that occurs even when groups strongly expected to join the high-status group.

RETRACTED: Money and Mimicry

The following article has been retracted by the Editor and publishers of Psychological Science:Liu, J. (E.), Vohs, K. D., & Smeesters, D. (2011). Money and mimicry: When being mimicked makes people feel threatened. Psychological Science, 22, 1150–1151. doi: 10.1177/0956797611418348The retraction follows the results of an investigation into the work of author Dirk Smeesters. The Smeesters Follow-Up Investigation Committee of Erasmus University Rotterdam has determined the following in regard to the retracted article:The paper indicates that the variable Liking of the confederate consists of two items with α = 0.91, whereas a reconstruction of the data proves that three items were used with α = 0.90.The authors state that respondents were randomly assigned to the different experimental conditions. However a test of independence of gender with the experimental conditions shows that this is not the case (p < 0.001). In a response, Smeesters acknowledged this observation. The Committee considers this to be a m...The following article has been retracted by the Editor and publishers of Psychological Science: Liu, J. (E.), Vohs, K. D., & Smeesters, D. (2011). Money and mimicry: When being mimicked makes people feel threatened. Psychological Science, 22, 1150–1151. doi: 10.1177/0956797611418348 The retraction follows the results of an investigation into the work of author Dirk Smeesters. The Smeesters Follow-Up Investigation Committee of Erasmus University Rotterdam has determined the following in regard to the retracted article: The paper indicates that the variable Liking of the confederate consists of two items with α = 0.91, whereas a reconstruction of the data proves that three items were used with α = 0.90. The authors state that respondents were randomly assigned to the different experimental conditions. However a test of independence of gender with the experimental conditions shows that this is not the case (p < 0.001). In a response, Smeesters acknowledged this observation. The Committee considers this to be a major methodological mistake that can affect the interpretation of the paper referring to Criterion 7: committing imputable inaccuracies when undertaking research. As Smeesters was in charge of data collection the Committee holds him solely responsible. The Committee recommends retraction of this paper. (Smeesters Follow-Up Investigation Committee, 2014, p. 7) The committee found no blame on the part of Smeesters’s coauthors, who have seen and agreed to this retraction.

Visual perspective influences the use of metacognitive information in temporal comparisons.

Four studies test the proposition that when people look back to past selves as a means of gauging current status, the visual perspective they assume determines the kind of information that they consider in making their judgments of change. In this way, visual perspective, coupled with the kind of change for which people are looking, determines how much change is perceived. The studies demonstrate that in the first-person perspective, experiential information is weighted more heavily than content information, whereas in the third-person perspective, the converse is true. In addition, the effects of perceived change on behavior are revealed, such that greater perceived positive change is associated with behaviors that are congruent with that change, whereas greater perceived negative change is associated with behaviors that are incongruent with that change. Theoretical implications, as well as implications for behavioral interventions, are discussed.

Erratum to Money and mimicry: When being mimicked makes people feel threatened (Psychological Science, (2011), 22, 1150-1151, 10.1177/0956797611418348)

The following article has been retracted by the Editor and publishers of Psychological Science: Liu, J. (E.), Vohs, K. D., & Smeesters, D. (2011). Money and mimicry: When being mimicked makes people feel threatened. Psychological Science, 22, 1150–1151. doi:10.1177/0956797611418348