Joanna Schug

Theory of mind enhances preference for fairness

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of theory of mind in fairness-related behavior in preschoolers and to introduce a tool for examining fairness-related behavior in children. A total of 68 preschoolers played the Ultimatum Game in a face-to-face setting. Acquisition of theory of mind was defined as the understanding of false beliefs using the Sally-Anne task. The results showed that preschoolers who had acquired theory of mind proposed higher mean offers than children who had not acquired theory of mind. These findings imply that the ability to infer the mental states of others plays an important role in fairness-related behavior.

Relational Mobility Explains Between- and Within-Culture Differences in Self-Disclosure to Close Friends

In the current research, we tested a novel explanation for previously demonstrated findings that East Asians disclose less personal information to other people than do Westerners. We propose that both between- and within-culture differences in self-disclosure to close friends may be explained by the construct of relational mobility, the general degree to which individuals in a society have opportunities to form new relationships and terminate old ones. In Study 1, we found that cross-cultural differences (Japan vs. United States) in self-disclosure to a close friend were mediated by individuals’ perceptions of relational mobility. In Study 2, two separate measures of relational mobility predicted self-disclosure within a single culture (Japan), and this relationship was mediated by the motivation to engage in self-disclosure to strengthen personal relationships. We conclude that societies and social contexts higher in relational mobility (in which relationships can be formed and dissolved relatively easily) produce stronger incentives for self-disclosure as a social-commitment device.

The Effect of Response Style on Self-Reported Conscientiousness Across 20 Countries:

Rankings of countries on mean levels of self-reported Conscientiousness continue to puzzle researchers. Based on the hypothesis that cross-cultural differences in the tendency to prefer extreme response categories of ordinal rating scales over moderate categories can influence the comparability of self-reports, this study investigated possible effects of response style on the mean levels of self-reported Conscientiousness in 22 samples from 20 countries. Extreme and neutral responding were estimated based on respondents’ ratings of 30 hypothetical people described in short vignettes. In the vignette ratings, clear cross-sample differences in extreme and neutral responding emerged. These responding style differences were correlated with mean self-reported Conscientiousness scores. Correcting self-reports for extreme and neutral responding changed sample rankings of Conscientiousness, as well as the predictive validities of these rankings for external criteria. The findings suggest that the puzzling country rankings of self-reported Conscientiousness may to some extent result from differences in response styles.

Relational mobility: A socioecological approach to personal relationships.

Title Relational mobility: A socioecological approach to personal relationships. Author(s) Yuki, Masaki; Schug, Joanna Citation 137-151 https://doi.org/10.1037/13489-007 Relationship Science: Integrating Evolutionary, Neuroscience, and Sociocultural Approaches Issue Date 2012-02 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/52726 Rights This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. Type article File Information YukiSchug_IARRchapter Corrected_Sept12_2011 (for distribution).pdf

Stadtluft Macht Frei (City Air Brings Freedom)

This study tested the “city air” hypothesis, which posits that the social constraints prevalent in rural life are weaker in metropolitan areas, freeing metropolitan residents from pressure to suppress their pursuit of individual goals. To do so, we replicated Yamagishi et al.’s vignette study of pen choice. In the first study using a web-based survey of 821 respondents from all prefectures in Japan, choice of a unique color pen was the highest among respondents from metropolitan areas, while respondents from non-urban prefectures were less willing to choose the unique pen. The second study with 1,398 respondents from Tokyo and rural Japan confirmed the findings.

Comparability of self-reported conscientiousness across 21 countries

In cross–national studies, mean levels of self–reported phenomena are often not congruent with more objective criteria. One prominent explanation for such findings is that people make self–report judgements in relation to culture–specific standards (often called the reference group effect), thereby undermining the cross–cultural comparability of the judgements. We employed a simple method called anchoring vignettes in order to test whether people from 21 different countries have varying standards for Conscientiousness, a Big Five personality trait that has repeatedly shown unexpected nation–level relationships with external criteria. Participants rated their own Conscientiousness and that of 30 hypothetical persons portrayed in short vignettes. The latter type of ratings was expected to reveal individual differences in standards of Conscientiousness. The vignettes were rated relatively similarly in all countries, suggesting no substantial culture–related differences in standards for Conscientiousness. Controlling for the small differences in standards did not substantially change the rankings of countries on mean self–ratings or the predictive validities of these rankings for objective criteria. These findings are not consistent with mean self–rated Conscientiousness scores being influenced by culture–specific standards. The technique of anchoring vignettes can be used in various types of studies to assess the potentially confounding effects of reference levels. Copyright

The Role of Cognitive and Emotional Perspective Taking in Economic Decision Making in the Ultimatum Game

We conducted a simple resource allocation game known as the ultimatum game (UG) with preschoolers to examine the role of cognitive and emotional perspective-taking ability on allocation and rejection behavior. A total of 146 preschoolers played the UG and completed a false belief task and an emotional perspective-taking test. Results showed that cognitive perspective taking ability had a significant positive effect on the proposer’s offer and a negative effect on the responder’s rejection behavior, whereas emotional perspective taking ability did not impact either the proposer’s or responder’s behavior. These results imply that the ability to anticipate the responder’s beliefs, but not their emotional state, plays an important role in the proposer’s choice of a fair allocation in an UG, and that children who have not acquired theory of mind still reject unfair offers.

The development of the effect of peer monitoring on generosity differs among elementary school-age boys and girls

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of peer monitoring on generosity in boys and girls aged 6–12 years. A total of 120 elementary school students played a one-shot dictator game (DG) with and without peer monitoring by classmates. Children decided how to divide 10 chocolates between themselves and a classmate either in a condition in which their allocations were visible to their peers, or in private. While the effect of peer monitoring on the allocation amount in the DG was clearly present in boys, it was not observed in girls. Furthermore, the effect of peer monitoring in boys appeared at the age of 9 years. These results suggest that the motivation to draw peers’ attention plays a stronger role for older boys than for girls or younger boys. The potential roles of higher-order theory of mind, social roles, and emergence of secondary sex characteristics on the influence of peer monitoring on generosity shown by boys are discussed.

Spontaneous Facial Mimicry Is Enhanced by the Goal of Inferring Emotional States: Evidence for Moderation of "Automatic" Mimicry by Higher Cognitive Processes.

A number of studies have shown that individuals often spontaneously mimic the facial expressions of others, a tendency known as facial mimicry. This tendency has generally been considered a reflex-like “automatic” response, but several recent studies have shown that the degree of mimicry may be moderated by contextual information. However, the cognitive and motivational factors underlying the contextual moderation of facial mimicry require further empirical investigation. In this study, we present evidence that the degree to which participants spontaneously mimic a target’s facial expressions depends on whether participants are motivated to infer the target’s emotional state. In the first study we show that facial mimicry, assessed by facial electromyography, occurs more frequently when participants are specifically instructed to infer a target’s emotional state than when given no instruction. In the second study, we replicate this effect using the Facial Action Coding System to show that participants are more likely to mimic facial expressions of emotion when they are asked to infer the target’s emotional state, rather than make inferences about a physical trait unrelated to emotion. These results provide convergent evidence that the explicit goal of understanding a target’s emotional state affects the degree of facial mimicry shown by the perceiver, suggesting moderation of reflex-like motor activities by higher cognitive processes.

Gendered race in mass media: Invisibility of Asian men and Black women in popular magazines.

According to gendered race theory, racial stereotypes can contain a gendered component whereby certain racial and ethnic groups are viewed as being more prototypically masculine or feminine. A number of studies investigating gendered race stereotypes have found that Blacks in North American society are represented and conceived as prototypically masculine, while Asians are represented and conceived of as prototypically feminine. This study examined whether patterns consistent with gendered race prototypes appear in mass media depictions, specifically in popular magazines, such that Asian men and Black women are proportionally less likely than other groups to be depicted. The perceived race and gender of 8,672 individuals depicted within 5 issues each of 6 popular magazines were examined quantitatively to examine whether individuals from nonprototypical gendered race categories were less likely to be depicted. The results indicated that Asian women were more likely to be depicted than Asian men, while Black men were more likely to be depicted than Black women, relative to Whites. These results suggest that, consistent with theories of gendered race and intersectional invisibility, individuals deemed less prototypical of their race and gender categories are rendered invisible in societal representations.