Lucian Gideon Conway

Selective Pressures on the Once and Future Contents of Ethnic Stereotypes: Effects of the Communicability of Traits

It is hypothesized that traits that are most likely to be the subject of social discourse (i.e., most communicable) are most likely to persist in ethnic stereotypes over time and that this effect is moderated by the extent to which an ethnic group is the subject of social discourse. Study 1 yielded communicability ratings of 76 traits. Study 2 tested the relation between a traits communicability and its presence in stereotypes of 4 Canadian ethnic groups. Study 3 tested the relation between a traits communicability and its persistence over time in stereotypes of 8 American ethnic groups. Results supported the hypotheses. A communication-based analysis of stereotypes appears helpful in predicting persistence and change in the contents of stereotypes of real groups in the real world.

Ethos of independence across regions in the united states: The production-adoption model of cultural change.

Contemporary U.S. culture has a highly individualistic ethos. Nevertheless, exactly how this ethos was historically fostered remains unanalyzed. A new model of dynamic cultural change maintains that sparsely populated, novel environments that impose major threats to survival, such as the Western frontier in the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries, breed strong values of independence, which in turn guide the production of new practices that encourage self-promotion and focused, competitive work. Faced with few significant threats to survival, residents in traditional areas are likely to seek social prestige by adopting existing practices of other, higher status groups. Because of both the massive economic success of the frontier and the official endorsement of the frontier by the federal government, eastern residents of the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries may have actively adopted the frontier practices of independence, thus incorporating the frontier ethos of independence to form the contemporary U.S. national culture. Available evidence is reviewed, and implications for further research on cultural change are suggested.

Influence of Impression-Management Goals on the Emerging Contents of Group Stereotypes: Support for a Social-Evolutionary Process

Why do consensually shared group stereotypes have the contents that they do? A social-evolutionary perspective suggests that the emergent contents of stereotypes are influenced by the contents of interpersonal communications, which themselves may be influenced by individuals’ motives and goals. Three experiments tested hypotheses drawn from this perspective. In all experiments, participants in dyads read information describing members of groups about which they held no previous beliefs, and they communicated with each other about that information. In Experiment 1, a manipulation of the contents of interpersonal communication influenced the content of stereotypes formed. In Experiments 2 and 3, a manipulation of participants’ impression-management goals influenced the contents of communication and also influenced the eventual content of stereotypes. Additional results from Experiments 2 and 3 provided evidence specifically implicating the role of actual communication in determining stereotype content. These results have implications for the formation of group stereotypes and the origins of cultural beliefs in general.

Two Ways to Be Complex and Why They Matter: Implications for Attitude Strength and Lying

Integrative complexity broadly measures the structural complexity of statements. This breadth, although beneficial in multiple ways, can potentially hamper the development of specific theories. In response, the authors developed a model of complex thinking, focusing on 2 different ways that people can be complex within the integrative complexity system and subsequently developed measurements of each of these 2 routes: Dialectical complexity focuses on a dialectical tension between 2 or more competing perspectives, whereas elaborative complexity focuses on complexly elaborating on 1 singular perspective. The authors posit that many variables have different effects on these 2 forms of complexity and subsequently test this idea in 2 different theoretical domains. In Studies 1a, 1b, and 2, the authors demonstrate that variables related to attitude strength (e.g., domain importance, extremism, domain accessibility) decrease dialectical complexity but increase elaborative complexity. In Study 3, the authors show that counterattitudinal lying decreases dialectical complexity but increases elaborative complexity, implicating a strategic (as opposed to a cognitive strain) view of the lying-complexity relationship. The authors argue that this dual demonstration across 2 different theoretical domains helps establish the utility of the new model and measurements as well as offer the potential to reconcile apparent conflicts in the area of cognitive complexity.

Developing and Evaluating the Social Axioms Survey in Eleven Countries: Its Relationship With the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Based on a deductive, culturally decentered approach, new items were generated to improve the reliability of the original Social Axioms Survey, which measures individuals’ general beliefs about the world. In Study 1, results from 11 countries support the original five-factor structure and achieve higher reliability for the axiom dimensions as measured by the new scale. Moreover, moderate but meaningful associations between axiom and Big-Five personality dimensions were found. Temporal change of social axioms at the culture level was examined and found to be moderate. In Study 2, additional new items were generated for social complexity and fate control, then assessed in Hong Kong and the United States. Reliability was further improved for both dimensions. Additionally, two subfactors of fate control were identified: fate determinism and fate alterability. Fate determinism, but not fate alterability, related positively to neuroticism. Other relationships between axiom and personality dimensions were similar to those reported in Study 1. The short forms of the axiom dimensions were generally reliable and correlated highly with the long forms. This research thus provides a stronger foundation for applying the construct of social axioms around the world.

On the Verifiability of Evolutionary Psychological Theories: An Analysis of the Psychology of Scientific Persuasion

Evolutionary psychological theories have engendered much skepticism in the modern scientific climate. Why? We argue that, although sometimes couched in the language of unfalsifiability, the skepticism results primarily from the perception that evolutionary theories are less verifiable than traditional psychological theories. It is more difficult to be convinced of the veracity of an evolutionary psychological theory because an additional layer of inference must be logically traversed: One not only has to be persuaded that a particular model of contemporary psychological processes uniquely predicts observed phenomena, one must also be persuaded that a model of deeply historical processes uniquely predicts the model of psychological processes. This analysis of the psychology of scientific persuasion yields a number of specific suggestions for the development, testing, and discussion of evolutionary psychological theories.

Intranational Cultural Variation: Exploring Further Implications of Collectivism within the United States

Within-nation cultural variation across regions provides a largely untapped resource for examining cross- cultural relations usually studied at the international level. The current study examines the relations of collectivism, helping behavior with strangers, and pace of life across regions of the United States. The study shows that within-nation cultural variation can be used both to (a) cross-validate findings generated at the international level, findings that are otherwise exceedingly difficult to cross-validate, and to (b) generate new findings. The current study provides cross-validation for the previously reported negative relation at the international level between collectivism and a faster pace of life. The study also provides evidence that in the context of helping strangers, collectivism is negatively associated with certain types of helping behavior. In particular collectivism was negatively associated with the “planned” (as opposed to “spontaneous”) and “giving” (as opposed to “doing”) types of helping.

When authorities' commands backfire : Attributions about consensus and effects on deviant decision making

The perception of consensus typically produces conformity, but specific attributional circumstances may produce deviance instead. Ironically, the command of an authority figure may create one such circumstance. Participants were presented with scenarios in which they had to make a choice between 2 options. Prior to their decision, they observed others all making a single choice. In some conditions, this consensus occurred following an authoritys explicit command to make that choice. Results revealed the hypothesized effect--the authoritys command led participants to make deviant decisions-and revealed that this effect was moderated by the authoritys continued presence, expertise, the target(s) of the command, and the ability of perceivers to use their cognitive resources.

Collectivism and Governmentally Initiated Restrictions A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis Across Nations and Within a Nation

This article provides evidence for a link between cultural collectivism and indexes of governmentally initiated restriction both across nations and within one nation, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. In Investigation 1, across U.S. states, an index of legislative restriction is positively related to an index of collective behaviors. In Investigation 2, across nations, an index of political restriction is positively related to measures of national cultural collectivism. In Investigation 3, longitudinal analyses suggest that cultural measures predict restriction better than vice versa, although this evidence is stronger and more consistent across nations than across states. The present findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to understanding the relationship between culture and politics.

The Biological Roots of Complex Thinking: Are Heritable Attitudes More Complex?

Are highly heritable attitudes more or less complex than less heritable attitudes? Over 2,000 participant responses on topics varying in heritability were coded for overall integrative complexity and its 2 subcomponents (dialectical complexity and elaborative complexity). Across different heritability sets drawn from 2 separate prior twin research programs, the present results yielded a consistent pattern: Heritability was always significantly positively correlated with integrative complexity. Further analyses of the subcomponents suggested that the manner in which complexity was expressed differed by topic type: For societal topics, heritable attitudes were more likely to be expressed in dialectically complex terms, whereas for personally involving topics, heritable attitudes were more likely to be expressed in elaboratively complex terms. Most of these relationships remained significant even when controlling for measurements of attitude strength. The authors discuss the genetic roots of complex versus simple attitudes, implications for understanding attitude development more broadly, and the contribution of these results to previous work on both heritability and complexity.