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Gamble RS, Henry JD, Vanman EJ. Empathy moderates the relationship between cognitive load and prosocial behaviour. Sci Rep 2023; 13:824. [PMID: 36646855 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-28098-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Accepted: 01/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Cognitive load reduces both empathy and prosocial behaviour. However, studies demonstrating these effects have induced cognitive load in a temporally limited, artificial manner that fails to capture real-world cognitive load. Drawing from cognitive load theory, we investigated whether naturally occurring cognitive load from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic moderated the relationship between empathy and prosocial behaviour (operationalised as support for public health measures). This large study in an Australian sample (N = 600) identified negative relationships between pandemic fatigue, empathy for people vulnerable to COVID-19, and prosocial behaviour, and a positive relationship between empathy and prosocial behaviour. Additionally, we found that the negative effect of the pandemic on prosocial behaviour depended on empathy for vulnerable others, with pandemic fatigue's effects lowest for those with the highest empathy. These findings highlight the interrelationships of cognitive load and empathy, and the potential value of eliciting empathy to ease the impact of real-world cognitive load on prosocial behaviour.
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Lilienfeld SO, Bowes SM, Strother AN, Liu CJ, Costello TH, Norton KA, Latzman RD. On the Association between Grants and Scholarly Achievement among the World’s Most Eminent Psychologists. Curr Psychol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03911-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Williamson HC, Bornstein JX, Cantu V, Ciftci O, Farnish KA, Schouweiler MT. How diverse are the samples used to study intimate relationships? A systematic review. J Soc Pers Relat 2022; 39:1087-1109. [PMID: 35655791 PMCID: PMC9159543 DOI: 10.1177/02654075211053849] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The social and behavioral sciences have long suffered from a lack of diversity in the samples used to study a broad array of phenomena. In an attempt to move toward a more contextually-informed approach, multiple subfields have undertaken meta-science studies of the diversity and inclusion of underrepresented groups in their body of literature. The current study is a systematic review of the field of relationship science aimed at examining the state of diversity and inclusion in this field. Relationship-focused papers published in five top relationship science journals from 2014-2018 (N = 559 articles, containing 771 unique studies) were reviewed. Studies were coded for research methods (e.g., sample source, dyadic data, observational data, experimental design) and sample characteristics (e.g., age, education, income, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation). Results indicate that the modal participant in a study of romantic relationships is 30 years old, White, American, middle-class, college educated, and involved in a different-sex, same-race relationship. Additionally, only 74 studies (10%) focused on traditionally underrepresented groups (i.e., non-White, low-income, and/or sexual and gender minorities). Findings underscore the need for greater inclusion of underrepresented groups to ensure the validity and credibility of relationship science. We conclude with general recommendations for the field.
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Abstract
During crises and disasters, such as hurricanes, terrorist threats, or pandemics, policymakers must often increase security at the cost of freedom. Psychological science, however, has shown that the restriction of freedom may have strong negative consequences for behavior and health. We suggest that psychology can inform policy both by elucidating some negative consequences of lost freedom (e.g., depression or behavioral reactance) and by revealing strategies to address them. We propose four interlocking principles that can help policymakers restore the freedom-security balance. Careful consideration of the psychology of freedom can help policymakers develop policies that most effectively promote public health, safety, and well-being when crises and disasters strike.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Elena Reutskaja
- Marketing Department, IESE Business School, University of Navarra
| | - Barry Schwartz
- Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
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Kahalon R, Klein V, Ksenofontov I, Ullrich J, Wright SC. Mentioning the Sample’s Country in the Article’s Title Leads to Bias in Research Evaluation. Social Psychological and Personality Science 2021. [DOI: 10.1177/19485506211024036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Psychology research from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) countries, especially from the United States, receives more scientific attention than research from non-WEIRD countries. We investigate one structural way that this inequality might be enacted: mentioning the sample's country in the article title. Analyzing the current publication practice of four leading social psychology journals (Study 1) and conducting two experiments with U.S. American and German students (Study 2), we show that the country is more often mentioned in articles with samples from non-WEIRD countries than those with samples from WEIRD countries (especially the United States) and that this practice is associated with less scientific attention. We propose that this phenomenon represents a (perhaps unintentional) form of structural discrimination, which can lead to underrepresentation and reduced impact of social psychological research done with non-WEIRD samples. We outline possible changes in the publication process that could challenge this phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rotem Kahalon
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Verena Klein
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Inna Ksenofontov
- The Institute for Social Psychology, Osnabrück University, Germany
- Faculty of Psychology, FernUniversität, Hagen, Germany
| | | | - Stephen C. Wright
- Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
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Houdek P, Bahník Š, Hudík M, Vranka M. Selection effects on dishonest behavior. Judgm decis mak 2021; 16:238-266. [DOI: 10.1017/s1930297500008561] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
AbstractIn many situations people behave ethically, while elsewhere dishonesty reigns. Studies of the determinants of unethical behavior often use random assignment of participants in various conditions to identify contextual or psychological factors influencing dishonesty. However, in many real-world contexts, people deliberately choose or avoid specific environments. In three experiments (total N = 2,124) enabling self-selection of participants in two similar tasks, one of which allowed for cheating, we found that participants who chose the task where they could lie for financial gain reported a higher number of correct predictions than those who were assigned it at random. Introduction of financial costs for entering the cheating-allowing task led to a decrease in interest in the task; however, it also led to more intense cheating. An intervention aimed to discourage participants from choosing the cheating-enabling environment based on social norm information did not have the expected effect; on the contrary, it backfired. In summary, the results suggest that people low in moral character are likely to eventually dominate cheating-enabling environments, where they then cheat extensively. Interventions trying to limit the preference of this environment may not have the expected effect as they could lead to the selection of the worst fraudsters.
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Cheon BK, Melani I, Hong YY. How USA-Centric Is Psychology? An Archival Study of Implicit Assumptions of Generalizability of Findings to Human Nature Based on Origins of Study Samples. Social Psychological and Personality Science 2020. [DOI: 10.1177/1948550620927269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Conclusions about human behavior are primarily based upon observations from western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) samples, especially from the United States. One consequence may be the promotion of assumptions that research findings from these populations are more generalizable to humankind than findings from non-WEIRD populations. We tested this with an archival study comparing the extent to which titles of over 5,000 published psychology articles specify samples’ racial/ethnic/national/cultural characteristics—a practice that implies constraints to generalizability. We observed that samples from the United States were less frequently specified in titles compared to both other WEIRD and non-WEIRD regions. Yet, samples from the United States (compared to other regions) were more frequently specified in titles if they referred to racial/ethnic/cultural minorities who may be perceived as exceptions to assumed generalizability of the White American population. These findings suggest that one consequence of a USA-centric sampling bias in psychology may be biased assumptions of (White) people from the United States as especially reflective of humankind.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bobby K. Cheon
- School of Social Sciences (Psychology), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
| | - Irene Melani
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Ying-yi Hong
- Business School, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
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Bajwa NUH, Langer M, König CJ, Honecker H. What might get published in management and applied psychology? Experimentally manipulating implicit expectations of reviewers regarding hedges. Scientometrics 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s11192-019-03164-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Rad MS, Martingano AJ, Ginges J. Toward a psychology of Homo sapiens: Making psychological science more representative of the human population. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:11401-11405. [PMID: 30397114 PMCID: PMC6233089 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1721165115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 243] [Impact Index Per Article: 40.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Two primary goals of psychological science should be to understand what aspects of human psychology are universal and the way that context and culture produce variability. This requires that we take into account the importance of culture and context in the way that we write our papers and in the types of populations that we sample. However, most research published in our leading journals has relied on sampling WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) populations. One might expect that our scholarly work and editorial choices would by now reflect the knowledge that Western populations may not be representative of humans generally with respect to any given psychological phenomenon. However, as we show here, almost all research published by one of our leading journals, Psychological Science, relies on Western samples and uses these data in an unreflective way to make inferences about humans in general. To take us forward, we offer a set of concrete proposals for authors, journal editors, and reviewers that may lead to a psychological science that is more representative of the human condition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mostafa Salari Rad
- Department of Psychology, New School for Social Research, New York, NY 10011
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540
| | | | - Jeremy Ginges
- Department of Psychology, New School for Social Research, New York, NY 10011;
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Abstract
In this afterword, I suggest expanding upon some of the criteria for judging scientific merit that have been discussed in the two symposia on "judging scholarly merit in psychological science." I discuss in particular the value of creativity, analysis, common sense, and wisdom and ethics in scientific contributions and discourse. In the course of this discussion, I consider where the field of judging scientific merit has been, where it is now, and where it may go.
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