2026-03-26
Bastian Jaeger, Alex L. Jones, Liam Satchell, Christoph Schild, Florian van Leeuwen
The role of perceiver differences in impression formation remains relatively poorly understood. One line of research has tried to understand these differences by exploring the role of perceivers’ needs and motivations, reasoning that perceivers should form more positive impressions of targets who appear more likely to address their needs. For example, a perceiver with a stronger affiliation motive might have a more positive impression of someone who looks more (vs. less) extraverted. We conducted two preregistered replication studies of proposed associations between three individual difference variables and likeability impressions of individuals varying in perceived extraversion. Using the original stimuli and study design (Study 1, n = 273) and two additional stimulus sets and an improved study design (Study 2, n = 367), we did not find that individual differences in (a) affiliative needs, (b) pathogen concern, or (c) sociosexual orientation were associated with likeability impressions of individuals varying in perceived extraversion. Bayesian analyses supported this conclusion. Our findings highlight the need for additional research to understand how individual differences shape social perception.
2025-12-08
Scott S. Hall, Hassan Shahi
Implicit Theories of the Marital Institution (ITMI) represent beliefs about whether marriage is a fixed or malleable relationship form. ITMI can influence moderate associations between related constructs such as marital beliefs and mate preferences. The current study tested for associations among certain beliefs about marriage (i.e., that roles should be gendered, that a marriage requires substantial effort), preferred characteristics in long-term mates (i.e., the KASER model of mate preferences), and ITMI. A sample of 588 young adults in Iran completed an anonymous survey focused on the constructs of interest. Gender was accounted for in all analyses given the relevance of gender in predominant mate-selection scholarship. Results indicated that the Fixed and Malleable ITMI were unexpectedly positively correlated. Regression analyses identified several interaction effects between marital beliefs and the preferred mate characteristics and a few marital beliefs by ITMI by gender interactions. Findings are explored in light of cultural context and implications for future research.
2025-08-07
Bastian Jaeger, Emir Efendić
Sharing economy platforms, such as Airbnb, encourage sellers to display profile photos and other personal information to increase consumer trust and engagement. However, research has shown that consumers rely on this information to discriminate against sellers with certain characteristics (e.g., ethnic minorities). Some sharing economy sellers may therefore choose not to display a profile photo because they wish to conceal their appearance or social identity to prevent discrimination or other unfavorable treatment by consumers or because of general privacy concerns. In four preregistered studies with samples from the United States, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, we examined the consequences of withholding profile profiles. We tested how the presence (vs. absence) of personal photos affects consumer trust and preferences for different sellers. Three experimental studies (total N = 380) suggest that consumers distrust and avoid hosts without a profile photo. In Study 4, we analyzed 461 ride-sharing listings and found that drivers with a profile photo charge higher prices for otherwise equivalent rides. In sum, our results suggest that sharing economy sellers face a tradeoff between anonymity and earning opportunities.
2025-06-23
Denis Coca, Alin Gavreliuc
Do cynical individuals still engage in prosocial behaviors when they expect the worst from others? While prior research suggests cynical beliefs reduce empathy and trust—key drivers of prosociality—this pathway remains underexplored. We tested four structural equation models (manifest and latent) using data from 239 Romanian adults. Only the manifest model supported an indirect effect via empathic concern; latent models accounting for measurement error did not. This discrepancy highlights how item-level variance may inflate observed relationships. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed considering the social axioms model and empathy-trust mechanisms in prosocial behavior.
2025-04-01
Lope Tejero-Peregrina, Guillermo Willis, Ángel Sánchez-Rodríguez, Rosa Rodríguez-Bailón
Economic inequality negatively impacts the welfare in our societies, yet there is reluctance to support measures aimed at alleviating its effects. To enhance our comprehension of how inequality influences support for redistribution, this paper investigates the mediating role of descriptive meritocracy (i.e., the degree to which meritocracy is perceived to exist in society). Using a cross-sectional study (N = 1536) and a follow-up experimental-causal-chain design in two subsequent experiments (N = 530), we show that the perception of inequality leads to the perception that society is not meritocratic, which, in turn, promotes support for redistribution. These results underscore the significance of perceiving economic inequality in order to dismantle the normative meritocratic narratives that hinder its reduction. We discuss these findings as part of the effects of economic inequality on the normative climate that influences our individual outcomes.
2025-03-19
Jessica Gale, Antoine Roblain, Christian Staerklé
Opposition to multiculturalism is common among native majorities. Normatively, this group-based political theory and public policy has been described as being incompatible with the individual justice-based orientation of Western liberal societies. In this research, we account for national majority opposition to multiculturalism by arguing that national identities in classically liberal societies are primarily associated with individual justice beliefs, in opposition to group-based justice beliefs. A correlational ( N = 91) and an experimental ( N = 172) study in Switzerland first show that the relationship between national identification and opposition to multiculturalism is partially explained by a belief in individual responsibility, a key facet of individual justice. This result was replicated using representative Swiss data from the World Values Survey ( N = 1241), as well as in Belgium ( N = 362), another Western liberal society. Effects transcended an ethnic conception of national identity and provide a novel perspective on majority multicultural attitudes as rooted in group-based conceptions of social justice.
2025-02-17
Saša Drače, Verda Dolarević, Elma Šašić
Studies have shown that mood could be used as diagnostic information for the assessment of situational demands and that, as such, it can regulate resource mobilization. Accordingly, it was found that negative mood causes overestimation of situational demands, which then leads to effort exertion during performance on easy tasks but disengagement on difficult tasks. The present research investigated whether this mood-motivation relation could be extended to specific emotions to explain the effect of stereotype threat (ST). In order to answer this question, the participants in the standard (fear-based) ST and the no-ST conditions had to perform easy (Study 1) or difficult (Study 2) cognitive tasks. To further explore the hypothetical role of threat-related emotions in each study we introduced another condition in which participants under ST were induced to feel anger (i.e., an emotion theoretically characterized by the perception of low situational demands). Although both ST conditions consistently showed greater stereotype-related concerns compared with the control (no-ST) group, the expected increase in easy task performance (Study 1) and decrease in difficult task performance (Study 2) were observed only in the standard (fear-based) ST condition, but not when participants under ST experienced anger. Our findings suggest that specific emotions emerging under ST could govern motivational processes and account for the effect of ST. Accordingly, the way that individuals appraise ST may have an important impact on task performance.
2024-12-06
Subramanya Prasad Chandrashekar, Stephanie Permut, Hallgeir Sjåstad, Chelsea (Chi Wing) Lo, Yong Jun Kueh, Emily Sihui Zhong, Kai Hin Wan, Kai Yi Kelly Choy, Man Chung Wong, Stanley Wei Jian Hugh, Khan Tahira, Bo Ley Cheng, Gilad Feldman
Pronin and Kugler (2010) proposed that people believe they have more free will than others. In their Experiment 1 they showed that US students evaluated their own decisions and life events as less predictable than similar decisions and life events of close others, presumably suggesting higher free will attributions. We conducted three pre-registered replications of this study, one with a Hong Kong undergraduate sample ( N = 47) and two online samples from the USA (MTurk using CloudResearch: N = 126, Prolific: N = 858) (overall N = 1031). In Studies 1a and 1b that mirrored the target article’s mixed design (self-other between, past-future within), we found support for the original findings with weaker effects. In Study 2 we contrasted between-subject versus within-subject designs in a single data collection. We successfully replicated the effects with the between-subject design, whereas we failed to find support for the effect using the within-subjects design. This suggests support for the phenomenon in single evaluation mode assessing either the self or the other, but that people correct for the self-other asymmetry in perceived predictability when the judgment is made in joint evaluations mode. Materials, data, and code are available on: https://osf.io/ykmqp/ . Open peer review: https://osf.io/d47kj .
2024-08-29
Inkuk Kim, Samantha K. Stanley, Kirsti M. Jylhä, Nic Badullovich
Feygina and colleagues (2010, Study 3) reported that people who prefer the status quo can be encouraged towards pro-environmental responses when environmental protection is framed as protecting the current way of life. We report a preregistered close replication and extension of this work ( N = 567). When all participants are made to feel dependent on the country they live in, we did not find evidence that the association between system justification and environmental intentions depended on whether participants read a system-preservation or control message, but the likelihood of signing petitions did. Among participants assigned to a second control condition, who were not exposed to any message, there was a negative association between system justification and pro-environmental behaviour intentions, raising the possibility that both original study conditions attenuated this association. Our findings highlight both the importance of replication and the inclusion of a true control condition, and they raise the possibility that leveraging an audience’s existing values may not always mobilise pro-environmental actions. In the case of ideological opposition to the status quo, a system dependence message could depress otherwise high pro-environmental responses.
2024-08-06
Simone Mattavelli, Claudia Bianchi, Marco Brambilla, Matteo Motterlini
Despite their apparent benevolence, positive stereotypes have negative effects on person and group perception. However, little is known about how exposure can intensify these negative consequences. In two pre-registered experiments (total N = 240) we investigated the effect of exposure on believability and moral condemnation of positive stereotypes. In Experiment 1, participants rated the truth value of positive stereotypes, which were either previously encountered or not during an exposure phase. Repeated positive stereotypes were perceived as more true than unrepeated ones, indicating a truth effect. In Experiment 2, we replicated the truth effect and further found that exposure to stereotypes reduced their moral condemnation, indicating a moral-repetition effect. Extending the truth effect and moral-repetition effect research to positive stereotypes, our findings emphasize the need to raise awareness of the impact of exposure on reinforcing the believability and moral condemnation of stereotypical beliefs.