Psychology Research Digest
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology - Vol 128, Iss 3
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology publishes original papers in all areas of personality and social psychology. It emphasizes empirical reports but may include specialized theoretical, methodological, and review papers.
The directed nature of social stereotypes.
Stereotypes are strategically complex. We propose that people hold not just stereotypes about what groups are generally like (e.g., “men are competitive”) but stereotypes about how groups behave toward specific groups (e.g., “men are competitive toward”)—what we call directed stereotypes. Across studies, we find that perceivers indeed hold directed stereotypes. Four studies examine directed stereotypes of sex and age (Studies 1 and 2; N = 541) and of race/ethnicity (of Asian/Black/Latino/White Americans; Studies 3 and 4; N = 769), with a focus on stereotypes of competitiveness, aggressiveness, cooperativeness, and communion. Across studies, directed stereotypes present unique patterns that both qualify and reverse well-documented stereotype patterns in the literature. For example, men are typically stereotyped as more competitive than women. However, directed stereotypes show that women are stereotyped to be more competitive than men, when this competitiveness is directed toward young women. Multiple such patterns emerge in the current data, across sex, age, and racial/ethnic stereotypes. Directed stereotypes also uniquely predict intergroup attitudes, over and above general stereotypes (Study 4). The idea of directed stereotypes is compatible with multiple theoretical perspectives and intuitive. However, they have been unexamined. We discuss the implications of the current work for thinking about the nature and measurement of social stereotypes, stereotype content, and social perception more broadly. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 31 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>A contest study to reduce attractiveness-based discrimination in social judgment.
Discrimination in the evaluation of others is a key cause of social inequality around the world. However, relatively little is known about psychological interventions that can be used to prevent biased evaluations. The limited evidence that exists on these strategies is spread across many methods and populations, making it difficult to generate reliable best practices that can be effective across contexts. In the present work, we held a research contest to solicit interventions with the goal of reducing discrimination based on physical attractiveness using a hypothetical admissions task. Thirty interventions were tested across four rounds of data collection (total N > 20,000). Using a signal detection theory approach to evaluate interventions, we identified two interventions that reduced discrimination by lessening both decision noise and decision bias, while two other interventions reduced overall discrimination by only lessening noise or bias. The most effective interventions largely provided concrete strategies that directed participants’ attention toward decision-relevant criteria and away from socially biasing information, though the fact that very similar interventions produced differing effects on discrimination suggests certain key characteristics that are needed for manipulations to reliably impact judgment. The effects of these four interventions on decision bias, noise, or both also replicated in a different discrimination domain, political affiliation, and generalized to populations with self-reported hiring experience. Results of the contest for decreasing attractiveness-based favoritism suggest that identifying effective routes for changing discriminatory behavior is a challenge and that greater investment is needed to develop impactful, flexible, and scalable strategies for reducing discrimination. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Are multiracial faces perceptually distinct?
The explosive growth of individuals identifying as multiracial in the U.S. population has motivated significant interest in multiracial face perception. Interestingly, the literature reveals stunningly low rates of classifications of multiracial faces as multiracial. Five studies examined the possibility that this lack of correspondence is rooted in perceptual confusion. To test this, we utilized multidimensional scaling and discriminant function analysis to determine how participants mentally represent multiracial faces relative to Latinx and monoracial faces. Studies 1–3 establish that multiracial faces are perceptually discriminable from non-multiracial faces using three different sets of facial stimuli: Asian–White female (Study 1), Black–White female (Study 2), and Asian–White male faces (Study 3). Study 4 examined whether mental representation was further moderated by sample demographics by comparing U.S. participants sampled from Hawaii and California. Finally, Study 5 tests the consistency of mental representations across individuals and rules out potential statistical artifacts associated with group multidimensional scaling. These studies provide consistent evidence that multiracial faces are perceptually distinct from Latinx and monoracial faces, suggesting that the categorization patterns of multiracial faces observed in past research likely stem from downstream processes rather than perceptual confusability of multiracial faces. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Moderators of test–retest reliability in implicit and explicit attitudes.
A great deal of research in dual-process models has been devoted to highlighting differences in the structure and function of the implicit and explicit attitude constructs. However, the two forms of attitudes can also demonstrate important shared properties, and prior work suggests that one similarity may be in factors that determine measurement reliability. To better explore this issue, Study 1 analyzed the test–retest reliability in measures of both implicit and explicit attitudes within a single study session across 75 topics (N > 35,000). Explicit attitudes had greater test–retest reliability than implicit attitudes, but each showed considerable heterogeneity across topics even when measured within a single study session. Analyses also included several candidate moderator variables, such as attitude certainty or familiarity. While results were not identical, the moderators associated with greater test–retest reliability for implicit and explicit attitudes exhibited more similarities than differences. Specifically, attitudes experienced as more distinctive, more relevant to one’s self-concept, more certain, and more accessible had higher test–retest reliability for both forms of evaluation. Variation in short-term reliability for implicit and explicit attitudes was replicated in Study 2, and Study 3 revealed that topics low in short-term reliability were also lower in a longitudinal sample that completed attitude measures separated by several weeks. These results advance our understanding of each attitude construct and are consistent with a more dynamic relationship between an attitude and its measure, as even attitudes measured with high levels of conscious control could show remarkable short-term instability when assessed only minutes apart. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Neuroticism and relationship quality: A meta-analytic review.
Regardless of participant age, length of relationship, country of origin, and numerous other factors, prior research has established a robust negative association between neuroticism and relationship quality. As so much has already been studied on the topic of neuroticism and relationship quality, this study explored the association between neuroticism and relationship quality using meta-analytic methodology, examined moderators, and outlined future studies for the field. After searching through databases and the references of included studies, 148 published studies were identified that reported an effect size between neuroticism and relationship quality. Reported effect sizes resulted in an overall aggregate correlation of r = −.238 and differentiated effect sizes for male actor and partner correlations, and female actor and partner correlations were similar. Results indicated that participant race, participant sexual orientation, and whether the effect sizes were taken from cross-sectional or longitudinal data did not moderate the relationship. However, the region of the world that the participants were from, the type of measurement tool used, participant age, and the length of time spent in a relationship were all significant moderators of our variables. We outline a model for how neuroticism operates through emotions, interpretations, and behaviors, which offers information for ways couples’ practitioners could work to mitigate the association between neuroticism and relationship quality. Future directions for the field are delineated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 02 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Ignorance can be trustworthy: The effect of social self-awareness on trust.
Much research has found self-awareness to be associated with positive qualities, but we explore cases in which self-awareness sends a negative signal to others. Specifically, we propose that when a target person appears to be high in social self-awareness—that is, the person seems to accurately know what others think of them—observers infer that the target’s actions are more intentional because the target is acting while seeming to know what others think of their actions. Because perceived intent is the key input to trust judgments, perceived self-awareness impacts observers’ trust toward the target but does so differently depending on whether the target behaves in ways that positively or negatively impact others. When the target behaves in positive ways, exhibiting high (relative to low) self-awareness should increase trust as the positive behaviors will be interpreted as conveying stronger positive intentions toward others. However, for negative behaviors, exhibiting self-awareness should decrease trust, as it should convey stronger negative intent toward others. Across six studies (N = 4,707) using online experiments, a recall study paradigm, and live interactions in a laboratory setting, we find support for this framework. We also show that when we constrain the extent to which people can infer a target’s intentions toward others from their behaviors—by reducing the target’s control over their own behavior or by reducing the impact of the target’s actions on others—the effect of self-awareness on trust attenuates. Our findings suggest that self-awareness, though often considered a desirable quality, does not universally increase others’ trust. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 02 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Genetic and environmental contributions to adult attachment styles: Evidence from the Minnesota Twin Registry.
Attachment theory, as originally outlined by Bowlby (1973, 1980, 1969/1982), suggests that the ways people think, feel, and behave in close relationships are shaped by the dynamic interplay between their genes and their social environment. Research on adult attachment, however, has largely focused on the latter, providing only a partial picture of how attachment styles emerge and develop throughout life. The present research leveraged data from the Minnesota Twin Registry, a large sample of older adult twins (N = 1,377 twins; 678 pairs; Mage = 70.40 years, SD = 5.42), to examine the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to adult attachment styles. Participants reported on both their general attachment styles and relationship-specific attachments to their mothers, fathers, partners, and best friends. The results suggest that attachment styles are partly heritable (∼36%) and partly attributable to environmental factors that are not shared between twins (∼64%). Heritability estimates were somewhat higher for parent-specific attachment styles (∼51%), whereas nonshared environmental factors accounted for larger proportions of the variance in partner- and best friend-specific attachment styles. Using multivariate biometric models, we also examined the genetic and environmental factors underlying the covariation among people’s relationship-specific attachment styles. The findings indicate that the similarities among people’s avoidant tendencies in different relationships can be explained by a single, higher order latent factor (e.g., global avoidance). In contrast, the genetic and environmental factors underlying attachment anxiety appear to be more differentiated across specific close relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 31 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Correction to “It doesn’t hurt to ask: Question-asking increases liking” by Huang et al. (2017).
Reports an error in "It doesn’t hurt to ask: Question-asking increases liking" by Karen Huang, Michael Yeomans, Alison Wood Brooks, Julia Minson and Francesca Gino (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2017[Sep], Vol 113[3], 430-452). In the article, several minor errors in how some results were reported have been discovered, based on a recently conducted independent audit of the work and using new standards for integrity and reproducibility. The audit confirmed that all the conclusions in the paper are valid. The substantive results of every hypothesis test in the paper remain unchanged, and no reason was found to doubt the integrity of the data collection. All corrected results and audit materials can be found at https://osf.io/rymv8/. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record
Patterns in affect and personality states across the menstrual cycle.
Affective, behavioral, and cognitive (i.e., personality) states fluctuate across situations and context, yet the biological mechanisms regulating them remain unclear. Here, we report two large, longitudinal studies that investigate patterns of change in personality states and affect as a function of the menstrual cycle, ovarian hormones, and hormonal contraceptive use. Study 1 (N = 757) is an online diary study with a worldwide sample, whereas Study 2 (N = 257) is a laboratory study including repeated hormone assays. Both studies came to somewhat diverging conclusions. In Study 1, we found that dynamics of daily affect and personality were very similar among naturally cycling women and hormonal contraceptive users, with two exceptions: Hormonal contraceptive users showed greater variability in negative affect than naturally cycling women, and, naturally cycling women showed a descriptive, but nonsignificant decrease in positive affect in the premenstrual phase. Results of Study 2 indicated robust premenstrual increases in neuroticism and negative affect but decreases in extraversion and positive affect. High extraversion and low neuroticism were positively related to conception risk and the estradiol-to-progesterone ratio, suggesting potentially adaptive effects consistent with a fertility-induced shift in motivational priorities. We discuss how differences in methods likely account for differences in results between both studies and suggest methodological and theoretical guidelines for future research. Taken together, our results suggest that hormonal variation across the menstrual cycle—and discrete menstrual cycle events, such as premenstruation—represent potential biological sources of personality state variation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Network dynamics in subjective well-being and their differences across age groups.
Although the structure of subjective well-being (SWB) has been examined in various studies, no consensus on its structure has yet been reached. This may be due to a neglect of the construct’s dynamic aspects and domain satisfaction as a core aspect of SWB. This article aimed to overcome existing research gaps by applying network modeling to longitudinal data of 32,700 adults (24–64 years old) from the German Socioeconomic Panel to analyze within- and between-person dynamics in the structure of SWB across the lifespan. Results indicated that the relationships across SWB components differed across the investigated within- and between-person network structures. Family, work, and income satisfaction tended to be the most central domains across different levels of analysis. The relationship between life and domain satisfaction was neither solely top–down nor bottom–up but instead characterized by distinct, mostly reciprocal relationships. Furthermore, the dynamic relationships of SWB were similar across compared age groups. In sum, the results suggest that the structure of SWB differs between the within-person level and the between-person level but does not change fundamentally throughout middle adulthood. Additionally, this study demonstrates the importance of considering domain satisfaction as an essential component of SWB and that psychometric network models can advance our understanding of the structure and dynamics of SWB. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>The landscape of personality psychology in the new millennium: A systematic keyword analysis of journal articles from 2000 to 2021.
What is published in personality psychology, and which trends emerge over time? We examined in six major personality–psychological journals (European Journal of Personality, Journal of Individual Differences, Journal of Personality, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Personality Processes and Individual Differences, Journal of Research in Personality, and Personality and Individual Differences) what content—as captured by keywords attached to journal articles (14,227 full articles, with 23,900 unique keywords that attracted a total of 62,578 mentions)—was featured in the first 2 decades of the new millennium (years 2000–2021). From 406 consolidated keywords that received 20 or more mentions across all years and journals (capturing a large portion of the literature and hence reasonably representative), we identified 44 keyword-topics, grouped into nine keyword-domains (from most to least mentioned): (Mal-)Adjustment, Basic Dispositions, Characteristic Adaptations & Narratives, Modalities, Other, Socio-Cultural, Methodology, Stability/Change, and Biological. The top 5 most mentioned keyword-topics were “B5 Constructs,” “Emotion,” “Internalizing,” “Health/Well-being,” and “Dark Tetrad,” and the top 5 most mentioned keywords were personality, big five, narcissism, sex differences, and depression. We also examined co-occurrences, rank-order stabilities, trajectorial trends, and associations with citations for keywords, keyword-topics, and keyword-domains as well as similarities between the sampled journals. We cast a descriptive and systematic portrait of contemporary published personality–psychological content, contrast those insights with earlier accounts of trends in personality psychology, and venture predictions for the future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 20 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.
- Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
Reach Out