Lori J. Nelson

General and Personal Mortality Salience and Nationalistic Bias

The purpose of this study was to explore the links between general and personal mortality salience and nationalistic bias. After watching either a mortality salience or a control videotape, participants read a scenario about a car accident in which the driver was suing either an American or a Japanese auto manufacturer. Results showed that mortality salience produced nationalistic bias in assignments of blame to the company and to the driver; such nationalistic bias did not occur in the control condition. This creation of intergroup bias when mortality was made salient is consistent with the predictions of terror management theory. This study makes an important theoretical contribution by providing evidence that the observed effects are driven by thoughts of personal mortality; the bias in favor of American auto companies occurred only among participants who reported thinking about their own deaths.

Gender differences in children's reactions to success and failure with computers

Abstract This study examined an attributional style explanation for gender differences in computer use and attitudes. A total of 127 Grade 5 subjects filled out questionnaires assessing computer experience. Surprisingly, there were no gender differences in liking for computers. However, consistent with previous research, boys thought that they had more ability with computers, boys used computers more frequently, and more boys had computers at home. Subjects were then randomly assigned to use either a “failure” computer program, a “success” program, or no program. Results showed that boys provided unstable attributions for failure with the computer (e.g., bad disk, lack of effort) more often than girls did, whereas girls provided unstable attributions for success (e.g., easy program, effort) with the computer more often than boys did. Both boys and girls who made stable attributions for success or unstable attributions for failure were more enthusiastic about using computers in the future, indicating that gender differences in attitudes toward computer use can be explained by gender differences in attributions for performance. The data also suggest that gender differences in relaxation and expectations for improvement were due to gender differences in stability of attributions, frequency of previous computer use, and perceived competence with computers.

The Distinctiveness Effect in Social Categorization: You Are What Makes You Unusual

Three studies tested the hypothesis that people assume that the identities of other people are tied more closely to their distinctive than to their nondistinctive traits In Studies 1 and 3, subjects predicted the preferences of a target person who was a member of both a statistically distinctive and a statistically nondistinctive category (e g, sky diver and tennis player) In Study 2, subjects judged the degree of interpersonal similarity between pairs of people sharing distinctive as opposed to nondistinctive category memberships Consistent with the hypothesis, subjects linked targets with their more distinctive traits and assumed targets would be more similar to people who shared their distinctive traits than to people who shared their nondistinctive traits The implications of this distinctiveness effect for an understanding of stereotyping are explored

Getting started with computers: Experience, anxiety, and relational style

Abstract This study examined sex differences, changes over time, and predictors of attrition from introductory computer classes. Males entered the classes with greater previous experience than females in programming, computer games, and miscellaneous uses. Previous programming experience was positively related to staying in computer courses. However, males with more computer game experience and females with less computer game experience were more likely to drop out. Males who were less computer anxious and females who were more computer anxious were more likely to drop out. Liking for computers and perceived experience increased over the semester for all students, but females became more anxious. Overall, sex differences in attribution for success and failure with computers were lacking. Assessments of relational style of interaction with computers showed that females who initially perceived the computer more as a tool/machine and males who initially perceived the computer less as a tool/machine were more likely to drop out. All subjects attributed more animate/human qualities to the computer with time. Suggestions for promoting general computer literacy are discussed.

The Distinctiveness Effect in Social Interaction: Creation of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

The purpose of this study was to examine the consequences of the distinctiveness effect for social interaction, using traits about which participants had no previous information. The perceived distinctiveness of novel traits was manipulated, and bogus information about an individual’s distinctive and nondistinctive characteristics provided conflicting expectations about that individual. The prediction that individuals would be judged based on the information provided about their supposed distinctive traits was supported. In addition, observations made by independent raters demonstrated that these distinctiveness-based judgments about the individual initiated a self-fulfilling prophecy process. Unexpectedly, the distinctiveness effect in this experiment was found only among female participants.

Desiring and Avoiding Close Romantic Attachment in Response to Mortality Salience

The purpose of this study was to examine individual differences in the effects of mortality salience on romantic attachment style. Participants were categorized as high or low in both agency and communion. After exposure to either a mortality salience or a control videotape, participants rated the idealness of Hazan and Shavers (1987) three romantic attachment styles and rated the appeal of romantic involvement. Participants who were high in agency responded to mortality salience with increased endorsement of avoidant attachment, decreased endorsement of secure and anxious-ambivalent attachment, and diminished desire for involvement in a romantic relationship. Participants who were low in communion responded to morality salience with increased endorsement of anxious-ambivalent attachment. The results are discussed in light of research on defense mechanisms, Beckers (1973) theories about the role of romance in symbolic transcendence of death, and terror management theory (Solomon, Greenberg,&Pyszczynski, 1991).

Power, empowerment, and equality : Evidence for the motives of feminists, nonfeminists, and antifeminists

Both feminists and antifeminists claim they do not seek to dominate others, and accuse their ideological opponents of an insidious desire for power. The purpose of this study was to examine the motives of feminists, nonfeminists, and antifeminists by assessing their values in a context in which they would not feel that their motives regarding feminism were being scrutinized. Participants were 126 mostly European-American students. Antifeminist men placed more emphasis on their own power than did other men; but antifeminist, nonfeminist, and feminist women did not differ in emphasis placed on power. Among both men and women, antifeminists placed little importance on equality. Feminist women placed more importance on equality than did nonfeminist women, who in turn placed more importance on equality than did antifeminist women.

Cigarette Smoking and Fear of Death: Explaining Conflicting Results in Death Anxiety Research

The purpose of these studies was to examine the relationship between death anxiety and smoking, and to explain the conflicting results of previous studies on this topic. In Study 1, students at a rural university were given a death anxiety scale and a measure of smoking behavior, counterbalanced for order. The same questionnaires were given to urban adolescents in Study 2. When college student smokers thought about their smoking behavior first, those who had smoked more recently showed higher death anxiety. Among high school students who had smoked, those with higher death anxiety reported smoking fewer cigarettes. In addition, mortality salience, induced by completing the death anxiety scale first, caused these high school students to report smoking less frequently. An integration of the results of the two studies with earlier research suggests that order effects and urban-rural differences can explain inconsistencies in the link between death anxiety and smoking.

Missing words and the comprehension of spoken text

Abstract Experiments were conducted to examine the influence of missing words on comprehension in single- and multi-paragraph contexts. The results indicate that the comprehension of material immediately following a missing word is selectively impaired.