Fridanna Maricchiolo

Effects of different types of hand gestures in persuasive speech on receivers’ evaluations

Hand gestures have a close link with speech and with social perception and persuasion processes, however to date no one has experimentally investigated the role of hand gestures alone in persuasive speech. An experiment with undergraduates was conducted using 5 video-messages in which only hand gestures of the speaker were manipulated along five types. ANOVAs reveal effect of gesture type on receivers’ evaluation of message persuasiveness, speaker communication style effectiveness, and speakers composure and competence. A control study (Experiment 2) confirms that these effects are due to visible gestures. Speech accompanying gestures appear to play a causal role in social perception.

Mindfulness, Pro-environmental Behavior, and Belief in Climate Change: The Mediating Role of Social Dominance:

In recent years, mindfulness has been considered as a potential source of proenvironmental attitudes and behavior. Present research is aimed at consolidating and expanding previous knowledge by proposing that mindfulness is related to both proenvironmental behavior and belief in global climate change through social dominance orientation (SDO). A first study was conducted on undergraduate students (n = 279) and found, as expected, that trait mindfulness was related to proenvironmental behavior through SDO. A second study using a known groups approach compared practitioners (n = 44) and nonpractitioners (n = 53) of Buddhist meditation, which is known to develop a mindful stance. Moreover, in Study 2, a measure of belief in global climate change was adopted as a further outcome. Again, trait mindfulness was related to both proenvironmental outcomes through SDO. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Coding hand gestures: a reliable taxonomy and a multi-media support

A taxonomy of hand gestures and a digital tool (CodGest) are proposed in order to describe different types of gesture used by speaker during speech in different social contexts. It is an exhaustive and mutually exclusive categories system to be shared within the scientific community to study multimodal signals and their contribute to the interaction. Classical taxonomies from gesture literature were integrated within a comprehensive taxonomy, which was tested in five different social contexts and its reliability was measured across them through inter-observer agreement indexes. A multi-media tool was realized as digital support for coding gestures in observational research.

Be Careful Where You Smile: Culture Shapes Judgments of Intelligence and Honesty of Smiling Individuals

Smiling individuals are usually perceived more favorably than non-smiling ones—they are judged as happier, more attractive, competent, and friendly. These seemingly clear and obvious consequences of smiling are assumed to be culturally universal, however most of the psychological research is carried out in WEIRD societies (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) and the influence of culture on social perception of nonverbal behavior is still understudied. Here we show that a smiling individual may be judged as less intelligent than the same non-smiling individual in cultures low on the GLOBE’s uncertainty avoidance dimension. Furthermore, we show that corruption at the societal level may undermine the prosocial perception of smiling—in societies with high corruption indicators, trust toward smiling individuals is reduced. This research fosters understanding of the cultural framework surrounding nonverbal communication processes and reveals that in some cultures smiling may lead to negative attributions.

Implicit and Explicit Aesthetic Evaluation of Design Objects

Can a preference for design objects also be achieved automatically? The aim of this study is to examine whether different levels of expertise in industrial design (laypeople versus design experts) can orient the preference towards different styles of design objects (classic chairs versus modern chairs), at both implicit and explicit levels. Implicit and explicit preferences are often mediated by assessor features. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to measure the automaticity of the evaluation. The participants (44 laypeople and 40 experts) performed a categorization task with reference to pictures (five classic and five modern chairs) and words (five positive and five negative aesthetic words). Reaction times were registered. The explicit evaluation of the stimuli was assessed using a seven-point Likert scale referring to the adjectives beautiful, typical, familiar, understandable, complex and interesting in order to appraise overall preferences for both classic and modern design objects.In both measurements, implicit and explicit preferences for classic and modern objects were moderated by expertise: experts were aesthetically more oriented towards modern objects while laypeople did not show a specific preference for one style. This study is one of the first attempts to demonstrate the differences in aesthetic preferences between experts and non-experts at an implicit level.

Political Leaders' Communicative Style and Audience Evaluation in an Italian General Election Debate

The present study analyzes the 2006 Italian General Election debate between Berlusconi and Prodi. While watching the debate live on TV, 65 subjects using a self-report questionnaire evaluated, for each answer, each politicians performance as persuasive, pleasant, expert, calm and answer as understandable, credible, interesting; subjects were also queried about their political orientation, vote intention and possible change at the end of debate. Then blind observers examined and coded each politicians rhetoric and gestures. Results show that rhetoric and gestures of Berlusconi were different from Prodis. Correlation analyses between objective measures coding and subjective measures self-report show that verbal and gestural styles used in each answer by the two politicians had different persuasive effects on different politically oriented audiences. The different evaluations of these communicative parameters and their persuasive effect are discussed.

Need for cognitive closure and political ideology: Predicting pro-environmental preferences and behavior.

Little is known about epistemic motivations affecting political ideology when people make environmental decisions. In two studies, we examined the key role that political ideology played in the relationship between need for cognitive closure (NCC) and self-reported eco-friendly behavior. Study 1: 279 participants completed the NCC, pro-environmental, and political ideology measures. Mediation analyses showed that NCC was related to less pro-environmental behavior through more right-wing political ideology. Study 2: We replicated these results with a nonstudent sample (n = 240) and both social and economic conservatism as mediators. The results of Study 2 showed that social conservatism mediated the relationship between NCC and pro-environmental behavior. Finally, NCC was associated with pro-environmental attitude through both social and economic conservatism.

A Chip Off the Old Block: Parents’ Subtle Ethnic Prejudice Predicts Children’s Implicit Prejudice

The increasing flow of immigrants in many European countries and the growing presence of children from immigrant families in schools makes it relevant to study the development of prejudice in children. Parents play an important role in shaping children’s values and their attitudes toward members of other ethnic groups; an intergenerational transmission of prejudice has been found in a number of studies targeting adolescents. The present study aims to investigate the intergenerational transmission of ethnic prejudice in 3- to 9- year-old children and its relations to parenting styles. Parents’ blatant and subtle ethnic prejudice and parenting style are measured together with children’s explicit and implicit ethnic prejudice in pupils and parents of preschool and primary schools in the region of Rome, Italy (N = 318). Results show that parents’ subtle prejudice predicts children’s implicit prejudice regardless of the parenting style. Findings indicate that children might acquire prejudice by means of the parents’ implicit cognition and automatic behavior and educational actions. Implications for future studies and insights for possible applied interventions are discussed.

Catching up with wonderful women: The women-are-wonderful effect is smaller in more gender egalitarian societies: CATCHING UP WITH WONDERFUL WOMEN

Inequalities between men and women are common and well-documented. Objective indexes show that men are better positioned than women in societal hierarchies-there is no single country in the world without a gender gap. In contrast, researchers have found that the women-are-wonderful effect-that women are evaluated more positively than men overall-is also common. Cross-cultural studies on gender equality reveal that the more gender egalitarian the society is, the less prevalent explicit gender stereotypes are. Yet, because self-reported gender stereotypes may differ from implicit attitudes towards each gender, we reanalysed data collected across 44 cultures, and (a) confirmed that societal gender egalitarianism reduces the women-are-wonderful effect when it is measured more implicitly (i.e. rating the personality of men and women presented in images) and (b) documented that the social perception of men benefits more from gender egalitarianism than that of women.

Visits to figurative art museums may lower blood pressure and stress

Abstract Background The research aimed to assess, through physiological measurements such as blood pressure and heart rate, whether exposure to art museums and to different art styles (figurative vs. modern art) was able to enhance visitors’ well-being in terms of relaxing and stress reduction. Method Participants (n = 77) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, on the basis of the typology of the art style they were exposed to in the museum visit: (1) figurative art, (2) modern art and (3) museum office (as a control condition). Blood pressure and heart rate were measured before and after the visits. Results Diastolic values of the participants were quite stable, as expected in people who do not suffer hypertension; we therefore considered only variations in systolic blood pressure. The majority of the participants exposed to figurative art significantly decreased systolic blood pressure compared to those exposed to modern art and museum office. No differences were found in the heart rate before and after the visit for the three groups. Conclusion Findings suggest that museum visits can have health benefits, and figurative art may decrease systolic blood pressure.