Jens Agerström

The Role of Automatic Obesity Stereotypes in Real Hiring Discrimination

This study examined whether automatic stereotypes captured by the implicit association test (IAT) can predict real hiring discrimination against the obese. In an unobtrusive field experiment, job applications were sent to a large number of real job vacancies. The applications were matched on credentials but differed with respect to the applicants weight. Discriminatory behavior was quantified by the extent to which the hiring managers invited normal-weight versus obese applicants to a job interview. Several months after the behavioral data were obtained, the hiring managers completed an obesity IAT and explicit hiring preference measures. Only the IAT scores reliably predicted interview decisions. More specifically, hiring managers holding more negative automatic stereotypes about the obese were less likely to invite an obese applicant for an interview. The present research is the first to show that automatic bias predicts labor market discrimination against obese individuals. Practical implications are discussed.

Warm and Competent Hassan = Cold and Incompetent Eric: A Harsh Equation of Real-Life Hiring Discrimination

In a field experiment, we sent out 5,636 job applications varying how Swedish (in-group) and Arab (out-group) applicants presented themselves in terms of two fundamental dimensions of social judgment: warmth and competence. Results indicate substantial discrimination where Arab applicants receive fewer invitations to job interviews. Conveying a warmer or more competent personality increases invitations. However, appearing both warm and competent seems to be especially important for Arab applicants. Arab applicants need to appear warmer and more competent than Swedish applicants to be invited equally often. The practical importance of signaling warmth and competence in labor market contexts is discussed.

Implicit Prejudice and Ethnic Minorities: Arab-Muslims in Sweden

This paper examines whether Swedish employers implicitly/automatically hold i) negative attitudes toward Arab-Muslims, an ethnic minority group subjected to substantial labor market discrimination in Sweden, and more specifically ii) associate members of this minority group with lower work productivity, as compared to native Swedes. Adapted versions of the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald et al., 1998) designed to measure implicit attitudes and productivity stereotypes toward Arab-Muslims were used. Corresponding explicit measures were administered. The results clearly show that employers have stronger negative implicit attitudes toward Arab-Muslims relative to native Swedes as well as implicitly perceive Arab-Muslims to be less productive than native Swedes. Notably, the explicit measures reveal much weaker negative associations. Whereas traditional research has focused on self-conscious, explicit work related attitudes toward various ethnic minority groups, this study offers a novel approach to understanding work related prejudice.

The influence of temporal distance on justice and care morality.

The primary goal of this study was to examine whether changes in the temporal distance of a moral dilemma affect how it is perceived and subsequently resolved. Based on Construal Level Theory (Trope & Liberman, 2003), it was predicted that the relative weight of abstract justice features should increase and the relative weight of concrete care features should decrease with temporal distance. The results showed that females became increasingly justice-oriented with greater temporal distance. However, this was not the case for males who were unaffected by temporal distance. This interaction was conceptually replicated in a follow-up experiment in which abstraction was manipulated directly by a mindset manipulation. The present results suggest that temporal distance is a contextual factor that can alter the extent to which moral judgments and reasoning are based on justice and care, although this effect seems to be moderated by gender.

Why People With an Eye Toward the Future Are More Moral: The Role of Abstract Thinking

Why do future-oriented people show greater moral concern than present-oriented people? Consistent with construal level theory (CLT; Trope & Liberman, 2003), we find that future-oriented people construe morally relevant actions at a higher level of abstraction, which clarifies their larger implications. Moreover, we show that level of construal partially explains the relationship between individual differences in temporal orientation and moral judgments. These findings support CLT and contribute to our understanding of moral psychology, as they are the first to show how individual differences pertaining to psychological distance relate to abstract thinking and moral judgments.

A closer look at the discrimination outcomes in the IAT literature

To what extent the IAT (Implicit Association Test, Greenwald et al., 1998) predicts racial and ethnic discrimination is a heavily debated issue. The latest meta-analysis by Oswald et al. (2013) suggests a very weak association. In the present meta-analysis, we switched the focus from the predictor to the criterion, by taking a closer look at the discrimination outcomes. We discovered that many of these outcomes were not actually operationalizations of discrimination, but rather of other related, but distinct, concepts, such as brain activity and voting preferences. When we meta-analyzed the main effects of discrimination among the remaining discrimination outcomes, the overall effect was close to zero and highly inconsistent across studies. Taken together, it is doubtful whether the amalgamation of these outcomes is relevant criteria for assessing the IATs predictive validity of discrimination. Accordingly, there is also little evidence that the IAT can meaningfully predict discrimination, and we thus strongly caution against any practical applications of the IAT that rest on this assumption. However, provided that the application is thoroughly informed by the current state of the literature, we believe the IAT can still be a useful tool for researchers, educators, managers, and students who are interested in attitudes, prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination.

Characteristics and outcome among 14,933 adult cases of in-hospital cardiac arrest: A nationwide study with the emphasis on gender and age

Aim To investigate characteristics and outcome among patients suffering in‐hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) with the emphasis on gender and age. Methods Using the Swedish Register of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, we analyzed associations between gender, age and co‐morbidities, etiology, management, 30‐day survival and cerebral function among survivors in 14,933 cases of IHCA. Age was divided into three ordered categories: young (18–49 years), middle‐aged (50–64 years) and older (65 years and above). Comparisons between men and women were age adjusted. Results The mean age was 72.7 years and women were significantly older than men. Renal dysfunction was the most prevalent co‐morbidity. Myocardial infarction/ischemia was the most common condition preceding IHCA, with men having 27% higher odds of having MI as the underlying etiology. A shockable rhythm was found in 31.8% of patients, with men having 52% higher odds of being found in VT/VF. After adjusting for various confounders, it was found that men had a 10% lower chance than women of surviving to 30 days. Older individuals were managed less aggressively than younger patients. Increasing age was associated with lower 30‐day survival but not with poorer cerebral function among survivors. Conclusion When adjusting for various confounders, it was found that men had a 10% lower chance than women of surviving to 30 days after in‐hospital cardiac arrest. Older individuals were managed less aggressively than younger patients, despite a lower chance of survival. Higher age was, however, not associated with poorer cerebral function among survivors.

Temporal construal and moral motivation

Since time is an integral part of human existence, people not only have to make judgments and decisions with moral implications in response to events that occur in the here and now. They also have to do so in response to events that are temporally remote.

Increased deep pain sensitivity in persistent musculoskeletal pain but not in other musculoskeletal pain states

Abstract Background Pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) in a non-painful body area are known to be affected in some chronic pain states. The aim of this study is to investigate PPTs in a pain-free body part in relation to pain persistence and intensity in patients with musculoskeletal pain. Methods Patients with musculoskeletal pain were divided into three different pain groups: acute pain (pain duration < 3 months, n = 38), regularly recurrent pain (regularly recurrent pain duration > 3 months, n = 56), persistent pain (persistent pain duration >3 months, n = 52) and a healthy control group (n = 51). PPT measures were conducted over the tibialis anterior muscle on the right leg in all groups. Results The persistent pain group showed significantly lower PPTs over the tibialis anterior muscle compared to controls. No significant differences were found between the acute and regularly recurrent pain groups compared to healthy controls. Significant correlations, albeit small, were found between pain intensity and PPTs. Conclusions Increased deep pain sensitivity was found in patients with persistent musculoskeletal pain, but not in regularly recurrent pain or in acute pain. Yet, a limitation of the study is that it did not have sufficient power to detect small levels of increased deep pain sensitivity among the latter groups when compared to healthy controls. Implications Knowledge about increased general hypersensitivity in persistent musculoskeletal pain could be important in clinical treatment.

Does physical pain impair abstract thinking

ABSTRACT The ability to think abstractly constitutes a fundamental dimension of human cognition. Although abstraction has been extensively studied, its emotional and affective antecedents have been largely overlooked. One experiment was conducted to examine whether physical pain affects abstraction. Drawing on Construal Level Theory [Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117, 440–463] and Loewenstein’s [(1996). Out of control: Visceral influences on behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 65, 272–292] visceral factors theory, we hypothesised that pain impairs abstraction because pain constricts people’s mental horizons and lead to a concrete, inward-focus toward oneself in the here and now. Physical pain was manipulated between subjects (N = 150). The participants either kept their left hand immersed in cold (painful) water or neutral (painless) water while we measured abstract versus concrete behaviour identification, categorisation, and perceptual processing. Bayesian statistical analyses indicate substantial evidence against the hypothesis that pain impairs abstraction. In contrast to many other previously studied cognitive outcomes (e.g. attention), abstraction appears to be largely immune to acute, experimentally induced pain.