Eaaron Henderson-King

Media Images and Women’s Self-Evaluations: Social Context and Importance of Attractiveness as Moderators

The current research examines the effects of exposure to ideal images on women’s self-evaluations, taking into account the moderating influence of social contextual and individual difference factors. In Study 1, women were exposed to either ideal images of women or neutral images. Participants viewed these images in a context in which (a) men were not present, (b) men were present, or (c) men were present and made comments about some of the images. Results indicated that participants’ weight-esteem was negatively affected in the ideal image/men present condition but that those in the ideal image/men comment condition actually exhibited higher levels of weight-esteem. A second study replicated the results of Study 1 and also showed that the importance participants placed on physical attractiveness influenced the effects of viewing ideal images.

Applications of Heuristics and Biases to Social Issues

Heuristics and Biases in Applied Settings: An Introduction L. Heath, R.S. Tindale. Heuristics and Biases in Health Decision Making: Their Expression in Genetic Counseling S. Shiloh. AIDS, Sterile Needles, and Ethnocentrism R.M. Dawes. Heuristics and Biases in Medical Judgment and Decision Making S. Schwartz. Cognitive Heuristics and Biases in Personality Assessment H.N. Garb. Negligence Law and Mental Mutation: A Social Inference Model of Apportioning Fault R.L. Wiener, C.C. Pritchard. Lay Evaluations of Encounters with Government Officials: Do Expectations Serve as Filters and Standards? L.J. Stalans. Biases and Rationality in the Mediation Process K. Gibson, et al. Heuristic Processing in Organizational Judgments C.T. Kulik. 7 additional articles. Index.

In-Group Favoritism and Perceived Similarity: A Look at Russians' Perceptions in the Post-Soviet Era

Using social identity theory, belief congruence theory, and optimal distinctiveness theory as frameworks, the authors examined whether perceived threat would moderate the relationship between perceived out-group similarity and group evaluations. Russian undergraduates evaluated Russians, Ukrainians, Moldavians, and Georgians on a number of dimensions. It was expected that when an out-group was seen as a severe threat, perceived similarity would result in in-group bias. However, when an out-group was viewed as nonthreatening, perceived similarity was expected to be negatively related to in-group bias. As hypothesized, although perceived similarity and in-group bias were negatively related for those who felt unthreatened by Georgians, a nonsignificant positive relationship existed for those feeling threatened.

The Impact of a Passing Reference to Race on Perceptions of Out-group Differentiation: 'If You've Seen One...'

Although a considerable amount of attention has been given to the cognitive origins, and the resulting consequences, of out-group variability effects, little research has examined the extent to which perceptions of variability are influenced by social interactions. In the current study, participants heard about a person who was assaulted by either a Black or a White assailant. They then completed a group differentiation measure. As expected, participants in the Black assailant condition perceived Blacks in a less differentiated manner than participants in either the control or the White assailant conditions.