Simon M. Laham

Darwinian Grandparenting: Preferential Investment in More Certain Kin

Studies on grandparental investment have revealed that mothers’ fathers are emotionally closer to their grandchildren than are fathers’ mothers. In the current study, it was hypothesized that this difference is caused by the fact that fathers’ mothers often have the potential to invest in genetically more certain kin (children through their daughters). To test this hypothesis, 787 participants rated their emotional closeness and exposure to their grandparents and indicated whether they had cousins through paternal and maternal aunts and uncles. Results indicated that participants felt closer to mothers’ fathers than fathers’ mothers only when alternate investment outlets for fathers’ mothers were available. Closeness ratings to fathers’ fathers also were reduced when they had grandchildren through their daughters. Exposure to grandparents revealed a similar pattern of findings but did not show the same sensitivity to the presence of more certain kin and did not appear to account for the closeness ratings.

Blaming, praising and protecting our humanity: The implications of everyday dehumanization for judgments of moral status

Being human implies a particular moral status: having moral value, agency, and responsibility. However, people are not seen as equally human. Across two studies, we examine the consequences that subtle variations in the perceived humanness of actors or groups have for their perceived moral status. Drawing on Haslams two-dimensional model of humanness and focusing on three ways people may be considered to have moral status - moral patiency (value), agency, or responsibility - we demonstrate that subtly denying humanness to others has implications for whether they are blamed, praised, or considered worthy of moral concern and rehabilitation. Moreover, we show that distinct human characteristics are linked to specific judgments of moral status. This work demonstrates that everyday judgments of moral status are influenced by perceptions of humanness.

Easy on the mind, easy on the wrongdoer: Discrepantly fluent violations are deemed less morally wrong

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that discrepancies in processing fluency influence the perceived wrongness of moral violations. Participants were presented with numerous moral violations in easy or difficult to read font. For some violations experienced perceptual fluency was consistent with the fluency associated with previous violations, whereas for others it was more fluent or more disfluent. Results show that, across multiple vignettes, participants rated moral violations that were processed with discrepant fluency as less morally wrong than those processed with discrepant disfluency. The current work highlights the importance of metacognitive experiences in moral judgment and contributes to the emerging literature on the role of experiential factors in moral judgment.

Our Flaws Are More Human Than Yours: Ingroup Bias in Humanizing Negative Characteristics

Four studies investigated whether people tend to see ingroup flaws as part of human nature (HN) to a greater degree than outgroup flaws. In Study 1, people preferentially ascribed high HN flaws to their ingroup relative to two outgroups. Study 2 demonstrated that flaws were rated higher on HN when attributed to the ingroup than when attributed to an outgroup, and no such difference occurred for positive traits. Study 3 replicated this humanizing ingroup flaws (HIF) effect and showed that it was (a) independent of desirability and (b) specific to the HN sense of humanness. Study 4 replicated the results of Study 3 and demonstrated that the HIF effect is amplified under ingroup identity threat. Together, these findings show that people humanize ingroup flaws and preferentially ascribe high HN flaws to the ingroup. These ingroup humanizing biases may serve a group-protective function by mitigating ingroup flaws as “only human.”

A meta-analysis of the facilitation of arm flexion and extension movements as a function of stimulus valence

This article presents a meta-analysis of research on the affective compatibility effect: the relative facilitation of arm flexion and extension movements, in response to positive and negative stimuli, respectively. Across 68 effect sizes (computed on 3169 participants), a small, significant average compatibility effect emerged (ES = .118; 95% CI [.051, .185]). Importantly, analyses also revealed significant heterogeneity in the set of effect sizes. Moderator analyses were conducted to explain this observed heterogeneity with a view to testing between extant theoretical accounts of the compatibility effect. Affective compatibility effects were significantly larger (1) for face stimuli than for words or pictorial stimuli; (2) when the negative stimuli partly comprising the effect were anger-related; (3) for responses made using vertical button press; (4) when situated aspects of the processing task framed flexion as approach and extension as avoidance; and (5) when explicit response labels framed flexion as positive and extension as negative. Significant reverse compatibility effects emerged (1) when aspects of the processing context framed flexion as avoidance and extension as approach and (2) when explicit response labels framed flexion as negative and extension as positive. The results of the meta-analysis provide little support for the strong embodiment, specific muscle activation account of affective compatibility and are broadly consistent with distance regulation, and, in particular, evaluative coding accounts.

The future in clinical genetics: affective forecasting biases in patient and clinician decision making

When clinicians facilitate and patients make decisions about predictive genetic testing, they often base their choices on the predicted emotional consequences of positive and negative test results. Research from psychology and decision making suggests that such predictions may often be biased. Work on affective forecasting—predicting ones future emotional states—shows that people tend to overestimate the impact of (especially negative) emotional events on their well‐being; a phenomenon termed the impact bias. In this article, we review the causes and consequences of the impact bias in medical decision making, with a focus on applying such findings to predictive testing in clinical genetics. We also recommend strategies for reducing the impact bias and consider the ethical and practical implications of doing so.

Respect for persons in the intergroup context: self-other overlap and intergroup emotions as mediators of the impact of respect on action tendencies

Two studies examined self—other overlap and intergroup emotions as mediators of the effects of respect for persons on action tendencies towards outgroup members. In contexts of both mild (Study 1) and more severe (Study 2) intergroup conflict, respect for persons predicted action tendencies towards outgroup members: those who value the intrinsic worth of others (high respect for persons) expressed less negative and more positive action tendencies towards outgroup members than did those with low respect for persons. These effects were obtained while controlling for Social Dominance Orientation and Agreeableness (Study 1). Further, the effects of respect for persons on action tendencies were shown to be partially mediated by self—other overlap and intergroup emotions. The findings support previous work in suggesting that respect for persons is an important predictor in intergroup contexts, and they highlight potential mechanisms through which respect might operate.

Elaborated contextual framing is necessary for action-based attitude acquisition

Although arm flexion and extension have been implicated as conditioners of attitudes, recent work casts some doubt on the nature and strength of the coupling of these muscle contractions and stimulus evaluation. We propose that the elaborated contextual framing of flexion and extension actions is necessary for attitude acquisition. Results showed that when flexion and extension were disambiguated via elaborated contextual cues (i.e., framed as collect and discard within a foraging context), neutral stimuli processed under flexion were liked more than neutral stimuli processed under extension. However, when unelaborated framing was used (e.g., mere stimulus zooming effects), stimulus evaluation did not differ as a function of muscle contractions. These results suggest that neither arm contractions per se nor unelaborated framings are sufficient for action-based attitude acquisition, but that elaborated framings are necessary.

Early-career scientific achievement and patterns of authorship: the mixed blessings of publication leadership and collaboration

Bibliometric indices of scientific achievement for a cohort of 85 social psychologists at 10 years post-PhD were correlated with their patterns of authorship (i.e. their typical number of co-authors and position in the authorship order). Career publication quantity, average journal impact factor, and impact (total citations, h-index and most-cited article) were associated with having higher proportions of publications with multiple co-authors and lower proportions of solo- and first-authored publications. Curvilinear associations were found, with publication quantity and impact maximized at intermediate levels of first-authorship and multiple-authorship. Within scientific careers there may be an optimal distribution of publication leadership and scientific collaboration. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

No man is an island: Effects of interpersonal proximity on spatial attention.

While it is generally acknowledged that another person’s presence can influence how we behave within our environment, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this influence is limited. Three experiments investigated the effect of social presence on the lateral distribution of spatial attention. Shifts in spatial attention were measured using line bisection, while participants sat in each other’s personal space. An attentional withdrawal was observed, whereby attention moved away from the other person when the same task was using turn-taking (Experiment 1) and independent responding (Experiment 2) paradigms. When participant pairs engaged in different tasks (Experiment 3), attentional withdrawal was no longer observed. Our results strongly suggest that the influence of interpersonal proximity on attention merits greater consideration than it has received from researchers investigating social effects on cognition.