Natalie J. Shook

Attitude formation through exploration: Valence asymmetries.

The formation of attitudes toward novel objects was examined as a function of exploratory behavior. An initial experiment, in which participants played a computer game that required them to learn which stimuli, when sampled, produced favorable or unfavorable outcomes, demonstrated learning, attitude formation, and generalization to novel objects. The findings also revealed 2 interesting valence asymmetries: a learning asymmetry involving better learning for negatively valenced than positively valenced objects and a generalization asymmetry involving stronger generalization as a function of negative than of positive attitudes. Findings from 4 experiments led to an explanation of the learning asymmetry in terms of information gain being contingent on approach behavior and related the generalization asymmetry to a negativity bias that weighs resemblance to a known negative more heavily than resemblance to a positive.

Interracial Roommate Relationships An Experimental Field Test of the Contact Hypothesis

This study investigated how automatically activated racial attitudes are affected by relatively long-term interracial relationships. A natural field experiment was conducted in a college dormitory system. Participants were White freshmen who had been randomly assigned to either a White or an African American roommate. Students participated in two sessions during the first 2 and last 2 weeks of their first quarter on campus. During these sessions, they answered questions about their satisfaction and involvement with their roommates and completed an inventory of intergroup anxiety and an implicit measure of racial attitudes. Participants in interracial rooms reported less satisfaction and less involvement with their roommates than did participants in same-race rooms. However, automatically activated racial attitudes and intergroup anxiety improved over time among students in interracial rooms, but not among students in same-race rooms. Thus, the results suggest that interracial roommate relationships, although generally less satisfying and involving than same-race roommate relationships, do produce benefits.

Looking Up Mindfulness Increases Positive Judgments and Reduces Negativity Bias

The present research examined the relation between mindfulness and negativity bias, or the tendency to weigh negative information more heavily than positive. A randomized experiment compared a brief mindfulness induction to an unfocused attention control condition. Negativity bias was assessed with a subjective measure of optimism and pessimism and an objective measure of negativity bias in attitude formation, BeanFest, which required associating novel stimuli with positive or negative outcomes. Participants in the mindfulness condition demonstrated less negativity bias in attitude formation. That is, they correctly classified positive and negative stimuli more equally than those in the control condition. Interestingly, the difference in negativity bias stemmed from better categorization of positives. Furthermore, those in the mindfulness condition reported higher levels of optimism compared to the control condition. Together, these results suggest that mindfulness increases positive judgments and reduces negativity bias.

Religious conservatism: an evolutionarily evoked disease-avoidance strategy

Abstract Issues of purity and symbolic cleansing (e.g., baptism) play an important role in most religions, especially Christianity. The purpose of the current research was to provide an evolutionary framework for understanding the role of disgust in religiosity, which may help elucidate the relationship between religious conservatism and non-proscribed prejudice (e.g., prejudice toward sexual minorities). The behavioral immune system (BIS) is a cluster of psychological mechanisms (e.g., disgust) that encourage disease-avoidance (Schaller, 2006). Out-group members have historically been a source of contamination. Consequently, evidence suggests that the BIS predicts negative attitudes toward out-groups (Faulkner, Schaller, Park, & Duncan, 2004). The purpose of the current research is to investigate whether religious conservatism mediates the relationship between the BIS and prejudice toward sexual minorities. Study 1 demonstrated that the disease-avoidant components of disgust (e.g., sexual and pathogen disgust), but not moral disgust, were positively correlated with religious conservatism. Additionally, the data supported a model in which religious conservatism mediated the relationship between disgust and prejudice toward homosexuals. In Study 2, the correlations and mediation model were replicated with a more diverse sample and different measures. The current research suggests that religious conservatism may be in part an evolutionarily evoked disease-avoidance strategy.

The effect of intergroup contact on secondary group attitudes and social dominance orientation

The current study tested the extent to which intergroup contact reduces social dominance orientation (SDO), producing secondary transfer effects. Participants were first-year undergraduate students randomly assigned to live with either a same-race roommate or a roommate of a different race in university housing. Participants completed a feeling thermometer and a measure of SDO at the beginning and end of the fall semester. Participants in interracial rooms reported lower levels of SDO and more positive attitudes toward secondary groups (i.e., racial/ethnic groups other than their roommates’ group) than participants in same-race rooms at the end of the semester. Those in interracial rooms exhibited a significant change in SDO levels and attitudes across time, whereas those in same-race rooms exhibited no change. Furthermore, SDO fully mediated the effect of intergroup contact on attitudes toward secondary groups. These findings provide causal evidence of secondary transfer effects and indicate SDO as an underlying mechanism.

Valence Asymmetry in Attitude Formation: A Correlate of Political Ideology

A considerable amount of research indicates that political conservatives and liberals perceive their social worlds very differently, with conservatives perceiving the world more negatively than liberals. Two studies examined how these varying perceptions may develop by exploring the relation between political ideology and attitude formation. In both studies, participants completed an evaluative conditioning paradigm in which novel stimuli were paired with either positive or negative images. Political conservatives were more susceptible to conditioning with negative stimuli than conditioning with positive stimuli as compared to political liberals. Specifically, conservatives were less susceptible to conditioning with positive stimuli than liberals. Conditioning with negative stimuli did not differ by political ideology. These findings suggest fundamental differences in the formation of positive versus negative attitudes between conservatives and liberals.

Social network integration A comparison of same-race and interracial roommate relationships

The purpose of the study was to identify factors that promote the integration of an outgroup member into an individual’s social network, thus enhancing extended contact. White freshmen randomly assigned to either a white or black roommate completed measures of intergroup anxiety and roommate relationship quality at the beginning of their first term at college. At the end of the term, participants reported the extent to which their roommate was integrated into their social network. In general, black roommates were less integrated into the white participants’ social networks than white roommates. However, roommate integration also depended on relationship quality and intergroup anxiety. For those with lower quality roommate relationships, integration was generally low. For those with higher quality relationships, lower intergroup anxiety enhanced the likelihood of the integration of a black roommate relative to a white roommate. The results highlight factors that may facilitate or inhibit extended contact.

Does the Behavioral Immune System Prepare Females to Be Religiously Conservative and Collectivistic

Previous research has indicated that females are more likely than males to endorse collectivistic values and religious conservatism. The present research investigated an evolutionary explanation for these sex differences. More specifically, the sex differences in social conservatism may be due to variation in the behavioral immune system (BIS). The BIS is a set of psychological mechanisms that are proposed to be evolved solutions to disease threat. Four studies were conducted to examine this evolutionary explanation. In Study 1, BIS measures (e.g., disgust sensitivity) fully mediated sex differences in collectivism. This effect was specific to sexual disgust (Study 2). In Studies 3 and 4, the effect was extended to other forms of social conservatism (i.e., religious conservatism) and measures of the BIS. Together, these results suggest that sex differences in collectivism and religious conservatism may be explained in part by sex differences in the BIS.

“Jimmy Cap Before You Tap”: Developing Condom Use Messages for African American Women

This study examined which characteristics of persuasive communications are most effective in changing African American women’s condom use attitudes. Focus groups were convened with 40 African American women (Mage = 25.54, SD = 4.67) to assess their opinions on current effective strategies used to promote condom use among their peers. Participants discussed effective characteristics of messaging campaigns (i.e., source, message type, channel) and how these could be used in future prevention messages. Findings revealed that making messages that are fun, catchy, and informative, delivered frequently through social media, TV, or radio by a peer or celebrity would be perceived as most effective in changing young African American women’s attitudes. Other themes that emerged were that condom use is more strongly associated with pregnancy prevention than HIV prevention and that sexual partners were perceived to have negative condom use attitudes. Recommendations centered on increasing exposure of HIV prevention messages by placing messages on the Internet and including a funny phrase or jingle in the message so that it is easy to remember and could potentially serve as a conversation starter for discussing safe sex with partners.

Conceptualizing Women's Attitudes Toward Condom Use with the Tripartite Model

Background: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011) estimated that women represent 24% of HIV diagnoses in the United States, with most infections resulting from heterosexual contact. However, consistent condom use is highly effective in preventing the spread of HIV. The current study examined womens attitudes toward condom use and potential inconsistencies related to the conceptualization and measurement of attitudes. Method: Data were collected from October 2009 through March 2010. Researchers included 556 female undergraduate students from the Southeast region of the United States. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to determine whether womens condom use attitudes were composed of an affective and a cognitive component. Results: Evidence for a two-factor model of condom use attitudes consisting of an affective and cognitive component was found, with participants reporting slightly negative feelings toward condom use but favorable beliefs about using condoms. Affect accounted for more variance (42%) than cognition (8%) in condom use attitudes. Notably, affect and cognition were differentially associated with past behavior and intentions to use condoms. Conclusion: Understanding the structure of womens attitudes toward using condoms can aid in the creation of appropriate HIV prevention and condom use messaging targeted toward promoting positive attitudes and normative change. Changing womens attitudes in this manner could enhance the effectiveness of condom use interventions.