Affective and Cognitive Orientations in Intergroup Perception

Defensive Confidence and Certainty in Unchanged Attitudes: The Role of Affect-Cognition Matching

Despite much prior research on matching appeals to the affective-cognitive orientation of attitudes, little attention has focused on the consequences of affect-cognition (mis)matching when individuals resist persuasion. We propose that unlike a matched attack, an attack that is mismatched to the affective-cognitive orientation of attitudes would result in low defensive confidence individuals holding onto their unchanged attitudes with less certainty than high defensive confidence individuals. As hypothesized, low defensive confidence participants were less certain after an affective than a cognitive attack for a cognitive issue (Study 1), and the opposite was true for an affective issue (Study 2). Both patterns occurred again when the affective-cognitive orientation of attitudes was manipulated (Study 3) or measured as an individual difference (Study 4). Moreover, perceived knowledge mediated the effects on attitude certainty (Study 4). We end by discussing implications for our understanding of affect-cognition matching and attitude certainty.

Identifying Chinese social media users' need for affect from their online behaviors

The need for affect (NFA), which refers to the motivation to approach or avoid emotion-inducing situations, is a valuable indicator of mental health monitoring and intervention, as well as many other applications. Traditionally, NFA has been measured using self-reports, which is not applicable in today's online scenarios due to its shortcomings in fast, large-scale assessments. This study proposed an automatic and non-invasive method for recognizing NFA based on social media behavioral data. The NFA questionnaire scores of 934 participants and their social media data were acquired. Then we run machine learning algorithms to train predictive models, which can be used to automatically identify NFA degrees of online users. The results showed that Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) performed best among several algorithms. The Pearson correlation coefficients between predicted scores and NFA questionnaire scores achieved 0.25 (NFA avoidance), 0.31 (NFA approach) and 0.34 (NFA total), and the split-half reliabilities were 0.66-0.70. Our research demonstrated that adolescents' NFA can be identified based on their social media behaviors, and opened a novel way of non-intrusively perceiving users' NFA which can be used for mental health monitoring and other situations that require large-scale NFA measurements.

Tugging at Their Heartstrings: Partner's Knowledge of Affective Meta-Bases Predicts Use of Emotional Advocacies in Close Relationships

Traditional studies of attitude change have focused on attempts between strangers, but what about in close relationships? The present article examines whether accuracy regarding a partner's meta-attitudinal bases can influence persuasion attempts. Because meta-bases reflect informationprocessing goals, we hypothesized that given partners with more affective meta-bases, greater accuracy regarding partners' meta-bases would predict use of emotional advocacies and their perceived persuasiveness. Self and partner ratings of meta-bases were assessed, and emotional advocacies as well as cognitive ones were provided to participants to present to their partners. Results revealed that the correspondence between perceptions of partner's affective meta-bases and use of emotional advocacies was greater among those whose partners rated themselves as having more affective meta-bases compared to those whose partners rated themselves as having less affective meta-bases. Results remained significant when controlling for perceived similarity. Implications of meta-bases for understanding interpersonal influence are discussed.

Estimating the effects of trait knowledge on social perception

Research in social cognition has predominantly investigated perceptual and inferential processes separately; however, real-world social interactions usually involve integration between person inferences (e.g., generous, selfish) and the perception of physical appearance (e.g., thin, tall). Therefore, in the current work, we investigated the integration of different person-relevant signals, by estimating the extent to which bias in one social information processing system influences another. Following an initial stimulus-validation experiment (Experiment 1, N = 55), two further pre-registered experiments (Experiments 2, N = 55 and 3; N = 123) employed a priming paradigm to measure the effects of extraversion-diagnostic information on subsequent health and body-size judgements of a target body. The results were consistent across both priming experiments and supported our predictions: compared to trait-neutral control statements, extraversion-diagnostic statements increased judgements of health and decreased those of body size. As such, we show that trait-based knowledge does not only influence mappings towards similar types of person judgements, such as health judgements. Rather, even a brief re-configuration of trait-space alters mappings towards non-trait judgements, which are based on body size and shape. The results complement prior neuroimaging findings that showed functional interactions between the body-selective brain regions in the ventral visual stream and the theory of mind network when forming impressions of others. Therefore, we provide a functional signature of how distinct information processing units exchange signals and integrate information to form impressions. Overall, the current study underscores the value of behavioural work in complementing neuroscience research when investigating the role and properties of functional integration during impression formation. In addition, it stresses the potential limitations of an over-reliance on studying separate systems in isolation.

Making the Case for a Preferences in Information Processing Model of Suicide

Introduction: In recent years, practice friendly models of suicidal behavior have emerged in the form of “ideation-to-action” frameworks. These frameworks focus on processes influencing both the formation of suicidal ideation and the translation of that ideation to suicide attempt and death. In this paper, we proffer an emerging model of suicide, Preferences in Information Processing (PIP), to augment contemporary suicide theories. First, we provide a primer on dual-process models of information processing theory and research as the foundation for the PIP. Next, drawing on a number of initial cross-sectional studies, we outline a rationale and examples of how preferences in motivated affect (i.e., Need for Affect) and cognition (i.e., Need for Cognition) may be integrated into existing ideation-to-action frameworks. Methods: We conducted secondary analysis of our pooled community sample PIP data. Results: We present new findings suggesting Need for Affect avoidance and Need for Cognition may be clinically relevant for persons at escalated risk for suicide. Discussion: The PIP offers new testable propositions within ideation-to-action suicide frameworks. We end with recommendations for a research agenda to further investigate the potential validation and utility of a PIP approach to suicidology.

P. Hanel P, J. Wolf L. The Very Efficient Assessment of Need for Cognition: Developing a Six-Item Version

The need for cognition refers to people's tendency to engage in and enjoy thinking and has become influential across social and medical sciences. Using three samples from the United States and the United Kingdom (N = 1,596), we introduce a six-item short version of the Need for Cognition Scale (NCS-18). First, we reduced the number of items from 18 to 6 based on the items' discrimination values, threshold levels, measurement precision (item information curve), item-total correlations, and factor loadings. Second, we confirmed the one-factor structure and established measurement invariance across countries and gender. Finally, we demonstrated that while the NCS-6 provides significant time savings, it comes at a minimal cost in terms of its construct validity with external variables such as openness, cognitive reflection test, and need for affect. Overall, our findings indicate that the NCS-6 is a parsimonious, reliable, and valid measure of need for cognition.