Mark P. Zanna

Trust in close relationships.

A theoretical model describing interpersonal trust in close relationships is presented. Three dimensions of trust are identified, based on the type of attributions drawn about a partners motives. These dimensions are also characterized by a developmental progression in the relationship. The validity of this theoretical perspective was examined through evidence obtained from a survey of a heterogeneous sample of established couples. An analysis of the Trust Scale in this sample was consistent with the notion that the predictability, dependability, and faith components represent distinct and coherent dimensions. A scale to measure interpersonal motives was also developed. The perception of intrinsic motives in a partner emerged as a dimension, as did instrumental and extrinsic motives. As expected, love and happiness were closely tied to feelings of faith and the attribution of intrinsic motivation to both self and partner. Women appeared to have more integrated, complex views of their relationships than men: All three forms of trust were strongly related and attributions of instrumental motives in their partners seemed to be self-affirming. Finally, there was a tendency for people to view their own motives as less self-centered and more exclusively intrinsic in flavor than their partners motives.

Establishing a causal chain: Why experiments are often more effective than mediational analyses in examining psychological processes.

The authors propose that experiments that utilize mediational analyses as suggested by R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986) are overused and sometimes improperly held up as necessary for a good social psychological paper. The authors argue that when it is easy to manipulate and measure a proposed psychological process that a series of experiments that demonstrates the proposed causal chain is superior. They further argue that when it is easy to manipulate a proposed psychological process but difficult to measure it that designs that examine underlying process by utilizing moderation can be effective. It is only when measurement of a proposed psychological process is easy and manipulation of it is difficult that designs that rely on mediational analyses should be preferred, and even in these situations careful consideration should be given to the limiting factors of such designs.

Direct Experience And Attitude-Behavior Consistency1

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses the role of the manner of attitude formation. It focuses on the development of an attitude through direct behavioral experience with the attitude object and examines whether such attitudes better predict subsequent behavior than attitudes formed without behavioral experience. The chapter provides an overview of the attitude-behavior consistency problem and describes the effect of the manner of attitude formation through the “housing” study, the “puzzle” experiment, and the “subject pool” study. The prior-to-later behavior relation is also discussed in the chapter, wherein it has described the self-perception of past religious behaviors, attitudes and self-reports of subsequent behavior, an individual difference perspective, and a partial correlation analysis. The chapter discusses attitudinal qualities—namely, confidence and clarity, the persistence of the attitude, and resistance to attack. The reasons for the differential strength are also explored in the chapter—namely, the amount of information available, information processing, and attitude accessibility. The chapter briefly describes the attitude-behavior relationship, personality traits, and behavior.

The Nonverbal Mediation of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies in Interracial Interaction

Abstract Two experiments were designed to demonstrate the existence of a self-fulfilling prophecy mediated by nonverbal behavior in an interracial interaction. The results of Experiment 1, which employed naive, white job interviewers and trained white and black job applicants, demonstrated that black applicants received (a) less immediacy, (b) higher rates of speech errors, and (c) shorter amounts of interview time. Experiment 2 employed naive, white applicants and trained white interviewers. In this experiment subject-applicants received behaviors that approximated those given either the black or white applicants in Experiment 1. The main results indicated that subjects treated like the blacks of Experiment 1 were judged to perform less adequately and to be more nervous in the interview situation than subjects treated like the whites. The former subjects also reciprocated with less proximate positions and rated the interviewers as being less adequate and friendly. The implications of these findings for black unemployment were discussed.

Secure and Defensive High Self-Esteem

Long-standing theories have suggested high self-esteem (SE) can assume qualitatively different forms that are related to defensiveness. The authors explored whether some high-SE individuals are particularly defensive because they harbor negative self-feelings at less conscious levels, indicated by low implicit SE. In Study 1, participants high in explicit SE but low in implicit SE showed the highest levels of narcissism--an indicator of defensiveness. In Studies 2 and 3, the correspondence between implicit and explicit SE predicted defensive behavior (in-group bias in Study 2 and dissonance reduction in Study 3), such that for high explicit-SE participants, those with relatively low implicit SE behaved more defensively. These results are consistent with the idea that high SE can be relatively secure or defensive.

Values, stereotypes, and emotions as determinants of intergroup attitudes

Publisher Summary Researchers have long acknowledged the multifaceted nature of intergroup attitudes. However, depending on the theoretical framework in which they were operating, they have tended to focus on either the affective or cognitive underpinnings of these attitudes, rather than on the joint role of affect and cognition. Disparities in the measurement of intergroup attitudes have contributed to this rift. This chapter discusses the problem by providing a framework for thinking about the contribution of both affect and cognition in determining attitudes toward groups. It discusses how previous findings fit within this framework and it describes the recent research designed to examine the interplay between affect and cognition. In parallel with societal trends, research in this area has progressed from a focus on attitudes toward social groups at the level of ethnic groups (especially attitudes toward blacks in the United States) to a broader scope including attitudes toward groups based on such varied characteristics as sex, sexual orientation, political affiliation, and age.

Inequality, Discrimination, and the Power of the Status Quo: Direct Evidence for a Motivation to See the Way Things Are as the Way They Should Be

How powerful is the status quo in determining peoples social ideals? The authors propose (a) that people engage in injunctification, that is, a motivated tendency to construe the current status quo as the most desirable and reasonable state of affairs (i.e., as the most representative of how things should be); (b) that this tendency is driven, at least in part, by peoples desire to justify their sociopolitical systems; and (c) that injunctification has profound implications for the maintenance of inequality and societal change. Four studies, across a variety of domains, provided supportive evidence. When the motivation to justify the sociopolitical system was experimentally heightened, participants injunctified extant (a) political power (Study 1), (b) public funding policies (Study 2), and (c) unequal gender demographics in the political and business spheres (Studies 3 and 4, respectively). It was also demonstrated that this motivated phenomenon increased derogation of those who act counter to the status quo (Study 4). Theoretical implications for system justification theory, stereotype formation, affirmative action, and the maintenance of inequality are discussed.

Subliminal priming and persuasion: Striking while the iron is hot

Three studies demonstrated that subliminally priming a goal-relevant cognition (thirst in Studies 1 and 2; sadness in Study 3) influenced behavior (in Study 1) and enhanced the persuasiveness of an ad targeting the goal (in Studies 2 and 3) when people were motivated to pursue the goal (when they were thirsty in Studies 1 and 2; when they expected to interact with another person in Study 3). These results suggest that subliminal priming can be used to enhance persuasion, but only when certain conditions are met. Both the priming of goal-relevant cognitions and the motive to pursue the goal were necessary for ads targeting the goal to be more persuasive. The implications of these results for the role of functionality in subliminal priming and for the use and abuse of subliminal priming in persuasion are discussed.

Dissonance and Self-perception: An integrative View of Each Theory's Proper Domain of Application

Abstract The literature concerning the controversy between dissonance and selfperception theories is reviewed. It is proposed that the two theories be regarded not as “competing” formulations but as complementary ones and, furthermore, that each theory is applicable only to its own specialized domain. Self-perception theory, it is suggested, accurately characterizes attitude change phenomena in the context of attitude-congruent behavior and dissonance theory attitude change in the context of attitude-discrepant behavior. Attitude-congruent is defined as any position within an individuals latitude of acceptance; attitude-discrepant as any position in the latitude of rejection. An experimental test of these notions produced confirming evidence. Subjects who were given an opportunity to misattribute any potential dissonance arousal to an external stimulus did not change their attitudes, relative to low choice subjects, if they were committed to endorsing a position in their latitude of rejection. If the commitment concerned a position in the latitude of acceptance, however, these subjects did exhibit attitude change relative to low choice subjects.

On the Self-Fulfilling Nature of Apparent Sex Differences in Behavior.

Abstract A study was conducted to test the notion that a persons behavior conforms explicitly to the sex-role stereotype that attractive others have regarding the persons gender. In a 2 × 2 design, female subjects were induced to characterize themselves to a male partner who was either desirable or undesirable and whose stereotype of the ideal woman conformed very closely to the traditional female stereotype or its opposite. The results, which held for both an attitudinal and a behavioral measure of self-presentation, indicated that, when the partner was desirable, the subjects portrayed themselves as more or less conventional in terms of sex-role, depending upon whether the partners stereotypic view of women was traditional or not. The implications of these findings for an analysis which stresses the self-fulfilling nature of apparent sex differences were discussed.