People often falsely believe that individuals from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are... more People often falsely believe that individuals from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are less harmed than those from higher SES backgrounds by a wide range of negative events. We report three studies (total N = 1,625) that provide evidence that this “thick skin bias” emerges at least in part because people overgeneralize otherwise accurate intuitions about adaptation. Across studies, participants accurately intuited that people adapt to psychophysical experiences (e.g., brightness, weight, and volume) but also inaccurately intuited that people similarly adapt to life hardships that actually tend to exacerbate the harm of future negative events. Experimentally decreasing the salience of psychophysical adaptation intuitions reduced the thick skin bias, suggesting a causal link between these adaptation intuitions and the belief that people in poverty are less vulnerable to harm and underlining the importance of studying how biased beliefs about the effects of poverty may perpetuate inequality.
In a ‘very close replication’ study using the same attributes as the original, Chandrashekar et a... more In a ‘very close replication’ study using the same attributes as the original, Chandrashekar et al. (2021) report a failure to replicate some choose–reject problems documented in Shafir (1993). We find that several of the original attributes have changed their valence three decades later, and we compose new versions with updated attributes that fully replicate Shafir’s (1993) original findings. Despite their apparent exactitude, ‘very close replications’ across contexts or time, when stimuli may have changed their meaning or valence, can be highly misleading, further exacerbating replication concerns.
Despite experiencing gender-based violence more frequently and more severely, victims of sexual h... more Despite experiencing gender-based violence more frequently and more severely, victims of sexual harassment and domestic abuse from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are disproportionately neglected and mistreated. Across four studies (total N = 3052), we show that people incorrectly believe that harassment and abuse are less harmful for women in poverty than for women in affluence. This thick skin bias then leads people to neglect lower-SES victims because they think they are less harmed by gender-based violence: participants thought that lower-SES victims needed less help from bystanders and less interpersonal support from friends and family. The neglect low-SES victims of gender-based violence often encounter may thus arise at least in part from biased beliefs about their lower vulnerability to harm, suggesting that future interventions to reduce class-based disparities in harassment and abuse outcomes may benefit from targeting stereotypes about the "thick-skinned poor."
Many of the everyday restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., lockdowns, being apart f... more Many of the everyday restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., lockdowns, being apart from loved ones) are even worse for those with fewer financial and material resources, but a series of experiments (total N = 1,452) suggests that people think the opposite. Indeed, participants consistently displayed a "thick skin bias," whereby they perceived effects of the pandemic such as sheltering at home or remaining apart from loved ones as less harmful for people in poverty. Directly providing information that contradicted this misguided stereotype reduced, but did not completely reverse, the thick skin bias. A failure to understand the full impact of the pandemic for those with the fewest resources may perpetuate and exacerbate inequalities during and after this unprecedented global crisis, making the identification of strategies to counteract biased understandings of poverty a pressing priority for future research.
Across six studies (total N = 3,549), we find that participants who were randomly assigned to cho... more Across six studies (total N = 3,549), we find that participants who were randomly assigned to choose from larger assortments thought their choices were more self-expressive, an effect that emerged regardless of whether larger sets actually enabled participants to better satisfy their preferences. Studies examining the moderating role of choice domain and cultural context show that the effect of choice set size on perceived self-expression may be particular to contexts in which choices have some initial potential to express choosers’ identities. We then test novel predictions from this theoretical perspective, finding that self-expression mediates the effect of choice set size on choice satisfaction, the likelihood of publicly sharing choices, and the perceived importance of choices. Together, these studies show that choice set size shapes perceived self-expression and illustrate how this meaning-based theoretical lens provides both novel explanations for existing effects and novel predictions for future research.
People’s estimates are biased toward previously considered numbers (anchoring). We have aggregate... more People’s estimates are biased toward previously considered numbers (anchoring). We have aggregated all available data from anchoring studies that included at least two anchors into one large dataset. Data were standardized to comprise one estimate per row, coded according to a wide range of variables, and are available for download and analyses online (https://metaanalyses.shinyapps.io/OpAQ/). Because the dataset includes both original and meta-data it allows for fine-grained analyses (e.g., correlations of estimates for different tasks) but also for meta-analyses (e.g., effect sizes for anchoring effects).
We provide a model describing how the narrow prototype of women as having conventionally feminine... more We provide a model describing how the narrow prototype of women as having conventionally feminine attributes and identities serves as a barrier to perceiving sexual harassment and appropriately responding to sexual-harassment claims when the victims of harassment do not resemble this prototype. We review research documenting that this narrow prototype of women overlaps with mental representations of sexual-harassment targets. The prototype of women harms women who diverge from this prototype: Their experiences with sexual harassment are less likely to be perceived as such, and they experience more negative interpersonal, organizational, and legal consequences when they experience harassment. Perceptions of sexual harassment are the catalyst by which sexual harassment is recognized and remedied. Thus, narrow gender prototypes may impede the promise and potential of civil rights laws and antiharassment policy.
Whether consumers have too little, too much, or the ideal amount of choice can have profound cons... more Whether consumers have too little, too much, or the ideal amount of choice can have profound consequences. The present research explores patterns of choice deprivation (having less choice than desired) and choice overload (having more choice than desired) across six choice domains in six countries that together provide home to about half the human population (Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, and the United States; combined N = 7,436). In most domains in most countries, choice deprivation was the norm-only in the United States was choice overload commonly reported. Deprivation was also more strongly related to decreased satisfaction with choices than was overload, suggesting that choice deprivation can be both more common and more consequential than overload. The present research has implications for "inverted U-shape" theories of consumer choice experiences and underlines the need for more diverse samples, including cross-cultural samples, in research on choice deprivation and overload.
During crises and disasters, such as hurricanes, terrorist threats, or pandemics, policymakers mu... more 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 freedomsecurity 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.
People think that they see things as they are in "objective reality," and they impute bias and ot... more People think that they see things as they are in "objective reality," and they impute bias and other negative qualities to those who disagree. Evidence for these tendencies initially emerged in the domain of politics, where people tend to assume that there are objectively correct beliefs and positions. The present research shows that people are confident in the correctness of their views, and they negatively judge those who disagree, even in the seemingly "subjective" domain of art. Across seven experiments, participants evaluated paintings and encountered others who agreed or disagreed with their evaluations. Participants saw others' evaluations as less objective when they clashed with their own, and as more influenced by biasing factors like conformity or financial incentives. These aesthetic preferences felt as objective as political preferences. Reminding people of their belief that artistic preferences are "matters of opinion" reduced this thinking, but did not eliminate it. These findings suggest that people's convictions of their own objectivity are so powerful as to extend to domains that are typically regarded as "subjective."
We present a series of studies documenting what we call a 'thick skin bias' in people's perceptio... more We present a series of studies documenting what we call a 'thick skin bias' in people's perceptions of those living in poverty. Across a wide range of life events, from major to minor, people of lower socioeconomic status (SES) are systematically perceived as being less harmed by negative experiences than higher-SES people, even when this is patently false. In 18 studies, including a pre-registered survey of a nationally representative sample, we find that laypeople and professionals show the thick skin bias. We distinguish the bias from a tendency to dehumanize those in poverty and argue it cannot be attributed to the belief that the mere expectation that bad things will happen buffers people in poverty from suffering. The thick skin bias has potentially profound implications for the institutional and interpersonal neglect of those most in need of greater care and resources.
For two decades, researchers have investigated the correlates and consequences of individual diff... more For two decades, researchers have investigated the correlates and consequences of individual differences in maximizing, the tendency to pursue the goal of making the best possible choice by extensively seeking out and comparing alternatives. In this time, many different conceptualizations of maximizing have been proposed, including several that incorporate a construct called "decision difficulty." We propose that including decision difficulty in measures of maximizing is problematic because the tendency to experience difficulty when making decisions is a separate individual difference construct already studied independently of maximizing-namely, indecisiveness. Across two studies (total N = 639), we find that scales measuring decision difficulty and indecisiveness are strongly correlated (r's ≥ .85), load on the same component in a principal component analysis, and show a very similar pattern of correlations with related variables. Moreover, decision difficulty and indecisiveness scales both show a divergent pattern of correlations when compared to measures of maximizing. We argue that decision difficulty scales are best interpreted as tapping the same underlying tendency as indecisiveness scales, and conclude that the tendency to experience difficulty in decision making is best conceptualized not as a component of maximizing, but rather a cause or consequence of it.
Why do maximizers-those who seek to make the very best choice by exhaustively searching out and c... more Why do maximizers-those who seek to make the very best choice by exhaustively searching out and comparing alternatives-place such high value on choice in the face of so much regret, dissatisfaction, and stress during the choice process? In five studies (total N = 1479), we drew on the two-component model of maximizing to better understand this maximization paradox. Distinguishing between the goal of choosing the best and the strategy of alternative search, we found that the two components of maximizing predicted opposing experiences with choice-the maximization goal was related to positive experiences with and beliefs about choice, whereas the maximization strategy was related to negative experiences with and beliefs about choice. Considering the two components of maximizing separately thus helps explain why maximizers have both more positive and more negative reactions to choice than do satisficers.
Anchoring, whereby judgments assimilate to previously considered standards, is one of the most re... more Anchoring, whereby judgments assimilate to previously considered standards, is one of the most reliable effects in psychology. In the last decade, researchers have become increasingly interested in identifying moderators of anchoring effects. We argue that a drawback of traditional moderator analyses in the standard anchoring paradigm is that they ignore estimate direction—whether participants' estimates are higher or lower than the anchor value. We suggest that failing to consider estimate direction can sometimes obscure moderation in anchoring tasks, and discuss three potential analytic solutions that take estimate direction into account. Understanding moderators of anchoring effects is essential for a basic understanding of anchoring and for applied research on reducing the influence of anchoring in real-world judgments. Considering estimate direction reduces the risk of failing to detect moderation.
We review a program of research on identity orientations – the relative importance or value that ... more We review a program of research on identity orientations – the relative importance or value that individuals place on various identity attributes when constructing their self-definitions. We first provide a brief history of the development of our measure of identity orientations – the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire (AIQ) – after which we present our tetrapartite model of the self that distinguishes among individual, relational, public, and collective aspects of identity. We then review previous research on how the four identity orientations uniquely influence cognition, emotion, and behavior, and close by highlighting what we see as interesting and important directions for future research. Identity is the construct that defines who or what a person is, and people's views of their identity can encompass any combination of expressions of individual uniqueness, personal relationships, labels that refer to social roles, and group memberships (e.g., Gordon, 1968). In the present paper, we review a program of research on identity orientations – the relative importance or value that individuals place on various identity attributes when constructing their self-definitions (Cheek, 1989). We begin by providing a brief history of the development of our measure of identity orientations – the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire (AIQ) – after which we present our tetrapartite model of the self that distinguishes among individual, relational, public, and collective aspects of identity. After outlining the theoretical justification for the adoption of the tetrapartite model, we review previous research on how the four identity orientations uniquely influence cognition, emotion, and behavior. Finally, we highlight what we see as important directions for future research.
Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, LA.
Identity orientations refer to the relative importance of various identity attributes in the cons... more Identity orientations refer to the relative importance of various identity attributes in the construction of self-definitions. For Cheek and Briggs (1982), social identity orientation referred to the importance of James’ (1890) social me: one's popularity or social reputation deriving from interpersonal relationships. Abrams (1988), however, criticized their social identity scale for failing to capture European social identity theory’s emphasis on sociological aspects of self-definition (for example, cultural or ethnic group membership; Tajfel, 1981). To avoid confusion between these Jamesian and European meanings of social identity, some psychologists have argued that the term collective identity should be used to capture the parts of self-definition encompassed by social identity theory (e.g., Ashmore, Deaux, & McLaughlin-Volpe, 2004; Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Cheek, 1989). We report a factor analysis yielding distinct social and collective identity orientation scales (N = 511), ethnic group differences for collective but not social identity orientation (N = 441), and differential correlations with relevant self-concept measures that support maintaining two separate scales. Moreover, relational self-concept is clearly distinguishable from both social and collective identity orientations, indicating the need to measure all three of them as distinct aspects of interdependent self-construal in future research.
Psychologists from the United States are extremely prominent in psychological science, publishing... more Psychologists from the United States are extremely prominent in psychological science, publishing more articles and receiving more citations than researchers from other nations. In this brief article, I review some previous research on this “nation gap” in psychology and highlight relevant data from journals published by the Association for Psychological Science. I then discuss some possible explanations for the nation gap and touch on some of its implications for thinking about scholarly merit and scientific eminence. I hope that the research and data discussed here will stimulate further consideration of the role of author nationality for both judgments of scholarly merit and psychological science more generally.
It is commonly assumed in affluent, Western, democratic societies that by enhancing opportunities... more It is commonly assumed in affluent, Western, democratic societies that by enhancing opportunities for choice, we enhance freedom and well-being, both by enabling people to get exactly what they want and by enabling people to express their identities. In this paper, we review evidence that the relationships between choice, freedom, and well-being are complex. The value of choice in itself may depend on culture, and even in cultural contexts that value choice, too much choice can lead to paralysis, bad decisions, and dissatisfaction with even good decisions. Policy-makers are often in a position to enhance well-being by limiting choice. We suggest five questions that policy-makers should be asking themselves when they consider promulgating policies that will limit choice in the service of enhanced well-being. The relationships between choice, freedom, and well-being are not simple, and an appreciation of their complexity may help policy-makers target their interventions more effectively.
""The publication of the RIC scale (Kashima & Hardie, 2000) and the book Individual Self, Relatio... more ""The publication of the RIC scale (Kashima & Hardie, 2000) and the book Individual Self, Relational Self, Collective Self (Sedikides & Brewer, 2001) focused self-concept research by many social and cultural psychologists on these three self-representations. In RIC models independent self-construal is equated with the individual or personal self and interdependent self-construal is represented by both the personal bonds of attachment in the relational self and the ingroup versus out-group social identities in the collective self. What appears to be missing in these 21st century RIC models is William James’ (1890) social self that had been centrally represented in social psychological theory and research from 1975-1995 through topics such as public self-consciousness, self-monitoring, self-presentation, and impression management (e.g., Baumeister, 1986; Schlenker, 1985). Therefore we conducted principal component and correlational analyses of 25 identity orientation items (N = 225) which yielded three distinct dimensions of relational, social, and collective aspects of interdependent self, indicating that all three are necessary to adequately describe interdependent aspects of the self. We conclude that researchers should shift attention from the tripartite RIC model to a tetrapartite model of self-concept that includes these three interdependent selves in addition to the individual self.""
People often falsely believe that individuals from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are... more People often falsely believe that individuals from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are less harmed than those from higher SES backgrounds by a wide range of negative events. We report three studies (total N = 1,625) that provide evidence that this “thick skin bias” emerges at least in part because people overgeneralize otherwise accurate intuitions about adaptation. Across studies, participants accurately intuited that people adapt to psychophysical experiences (e.g., brightness, weight, and volume) but also inaccurately intuited that people similarly adapt to life hardships that actually tend to exacerbate the harm of future negative events. Experimentally decreasing the salience of psychophysical adaptation intuitions reduced the thick skin bias, suggesting a causal link between these adaptation intuitions and the belief that people in poverty are less vulnerable to harm and underlining the importance of studying how biased beliefs about the effects of poverty may perpetuate inequality.
In a ‘very close replication’ study using the same attributes as the original, Chandrashekar et a... more In a ‘very close replication’ study using the same attributes as the original, Chandrashekar et al. (2021) report a failure to replicate some choose–reject problems documented in Shafir (1993). We find that several of the original attributes have changed their valence three decades later, and we compose new versions with updated attributes that fully replicate Shafir’s (1993) original findings. Despite their apparent exactitude, ‘very close replications’ across contexts or time, when stimuli may have changed their meaning or valence, can be highly misleading, further exacerbating replication concerns.
Despite experiencing gender-based violence more frequently and more severely, victims of sexual h... more Despite experiencing gender-based violence more frequently and more severely, victims of sexual harassment and domestic abuse from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are disproportionately neglected and mistreated. Across four studies (total N = 3052), we show that people incorrectly believe that harassment and abuse are less harmful for women in poverty than for women in affluence. This thick skin bias then leads people to neglect lower-SES victims because they think they are less harmed by gender-based violence: participants thought that lower-SES victims needed less help from bystanders and less interpersonal support from friends and family. The neglect low-SES victims of gender-based violence often encounter may thus arise at least in part from biased beliefs about their lower vulnerability to harm, suggesting that future interventions to reduce class-based disparities in harassment and abuse outcomes may benefit from targeting stereotypes about the "thick-skinned poor."
Many of the everyday restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., lockdowns, being apart f... more Many of the everyday restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., lockdowns, being apart from loved ones) are even worse for those with fewer financial and material resources, but a series of experiments (total N = 1,452) suggests that people think the opposite. Indeed, participants consistently displayed a "thick skin bias," whereby they perceived effects of the pandemic such as sheltering at home or remaining apart from loved ones as less harmful for people in poverty. Directly providing information that contradicted this misguided stereotype reduced, but did not completely reverse, the thick skin bias. A failure to understand the full impact of the pandemic for those with the fewest resources may perpetuate and exacerbate inequalities during and after this unprecedented global crisis, making the identification of strategies to counteract biased understandings of poverty a pressing priority for future research.
Across six studies (total N = 3,549), we find that participants who were randomly assigned to cho... more Across six studies (total N = 3,549), we find that participants who were randomly assigned to choose from larger assortments thought their choices were more self-expressive, an effect that emerged regardless of whether larger sets actually enabled participants to better satisfy their preferences. Studies examining the moderating role of choice domain and cultural context show that the effect of choice set size on perceived self-expression may be particular to contexts in which choices have some initial potential to express choosers’ identities. We then test novel predictions from this theoretical perspective, finding that self-expression mediates the effect of choice set size on choice satisfaction, the likelihood of publicly sharing choices, and the perceived importance of choices. Together, these studies show that choice set size shapes perceived self-expression and illustrate how this meaning-based theoretical lens provides both novel explanations for existing effects and novel predictions for future research.
People’s estimates are biased toward previously considered numbers (anchoring). We have aggregate... more People’s estimates are biased toward previously considered numbers (anchoring). We have aggregated all available data from anchoring studies that included at least two anchors into one large dataset. Data were standardized to comprise one estimate per row, coded according to a wide range of variables, and are available for download and analyses online (https://metaanalyses.shinyapps.io/OpAQ/). Because the dataset includes both original and meta-data it allows for fine-grained analyses (e.g., correlations of estimates for different tasks) but also for meta-analyses (e.g., effect sizes for anchoring effects).
We provide a model describing how the narrow prototype of women as having conventionally feminine... more We provide a model describing how the narrow prototype of women as having conventionally feminine attributes and identities serves as a barrier to perceiving sexual harassment and appropriately responding to sexual-harassment claims when the victims of harassment do not resemble this prototype. We review research documenting that this narrow prototype of women overlaps with mental representations of sexual-harassment targets. The prototype of women harms women who diverge from this prototype: Their experiences with sexual harassment are less likely to be perceived as such, and they experience more negative interpersonal, organizational, and legal consequences when they experience harassment. Perceptions of sexual harassment are the catalyst by which sexual harassment is recognized and remedied. Thus, narrow gender prototypes may impede the promise and potential of civil rights laws and antiharassment policy.
Whether consumers have too little, too much, or the ideal amount of choice can have profound cons... more Whether consumers have too little, too much, or the ideal amount of choice can have profound consequences. The present research explores patterns of choice deprivation (having less choice than desired) and choice overload (having more choice than desired) across six choice domains in six countries that together provide home to about half the human population (Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, and the United States; combined N = 7,436). In most domains in most countries, choice deprivation was the norm-only in the United States was choice overload commonly reported. Deprivation was also more strongly related to decreased satisfaction with choices than was overload, suggesting that choice deprivation can be both more common and more consequential than overload. The present research has implications for "inverted U-shape" theories of consumer choice experiences and underlines the need for more diverse samples, including cross-cultural samples, in research on choice deprivation and overload.
During crises and disasters, such as hurricanes, terrorist threats, or pandemics, policymakers mu... more 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 freedomsecurity 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.
People think that they see things as they are in "objective reality," and they impute bias and ot... more People think that they see things as they are in "objective reality," and they impute bias and other negative qualities to those who disagree. Evidence for these tendencies initially emerged in the domain of politics, where people tend to assume that there are objectively correct beliefs and positions. The present research shows that people are confident in the correctness of their views, and they negatively judge those who disagree, even in the seemingly "subjective" domain of art. Across seven experiments, participants evaluated paintings and encountered others who agreed or disagreed with their evaluations. Participants saw others' evaluations as less objective when they clashed with their own, and as more influenced by biasing factors like conformity or financial incentives. These aesthetic preferences felt as objective as political preferences. Reminding people of their belief that artistic preferences are "matters of opinion" reduced this thinking, but did not eliminate it. These findings suggest that people's convictions of their own objectivity are so powerful as to extend to domains that are typically regarded as "subjective."
We present a series of studies documenting what we call a 'thick skin bias' in people's perceptio... more We present a series of studies documenting what we call a 'thick skin bias' in people's perceptions of those living in poverty. Across a wide range of life events, from major to minor, people of lower socioeconomic status (SES) are systematically perceived as being less harmed by negative experiences than higher-SES people, even when this is patently false. In 18 studies, including a pre-registered survey of a nationally representative sample, we find that laypeople and professionals show the thick skin bias. We distinguish the bias from a tendency to dehumanize those in poverty and argue it cannot be attributed to the belief that the mere expectation that bad things will happen buffers people in poverty from suffering. The thick skin bias has potentially profound implications for the institutional and interpersonal neglect of those most in need of greater care and resources.
For two decades, researchers have investigated the correlates and consequences of individual diff... more For two decades, researchers have investigated the correlates and consequences of individual differences in maximizing, the tendency to pursue the goal of making the best possible choice by extensively seeking out and comparing alternatives. In this time, many different conceptualizations of maximizing have been proposed, including several that incorporate a construct called "decision difficulty." We propose that including decision difficulty in measures of maximizing is problematic because the tendency to experience difficulty when making decisions is a separate individual difference construct already studied independently of maximizing-namely, indecisiveness. Across two studies (total N = 639), we find that scales measuring decision difficulty and indecisiveness are strongly correlated (r's ≥ .85), load on the same component in a principal component analysis, and show a very similar pattern of correlations with related variables. Moreover, decision difficulty and indecisiveness scales both show a divergent pattern of correlations when compared to measures of maximizing. We argue that decision difficulty scales are best interpreted as tapping the same underlying tendency as indecisiveness scales, and conclude that the tendency to experience difficulty in decision making is best conceptualized not as a component of maximizing, but rather a cause or consequence of it.
Why do maximizers-those who seek to make the very best choice by exhaustively searching out and c... more Why do maximizers-those who seek to make the very best choice by exhaustively searching out and comparing alternatives-place such high value on choice in the face of so much regret, dissatisfaction, and stress during the choice process? In five studies (total N = 1479), we drew on the two-component model of maximizing to better understand this maximization paradox. Distinguishing between the goal of choosing the best and the strategy of alternative search, we found that the two components of maximizing predicted opposing experiences with choice-the maximization goal was related to positive experiences with and beliefs about choice, whereas the maximization strategy was related to negative experiences with and beliefs about choice. Considering the two components of maximizing separately thus helps explain why maximizers have both more positive and more negative reactions to choice than do satisficers.
Anchoring, whereby judgments assimilate to previously considered standards, is one of the most re... more Anchoring, whereby judgments assimilate to previously considered standards, is one of the most reliable effects in psychology. In the last decade, researchers have become increasingly interested in identifying moderators of anchoring effects. We argue that a drawback of traditional moderator analyses in the standard anchoring paradigm is that they ignore estimate direction—whether participants' estimates are higher or lower than the anchor value. We suggest that failing to consider estimate direction can sometimes obscure moderation in anchoring tasks, and discuss three potential analytic solutions that take estimate direction into account. Understanding moderators of anchoring effects is essential for a basic understanding of anchoring and for applied research on reducing the influence of anchoring in real-world judgments. Considering estimate direction reduces the risk of failing to detect moderation.
We review a program of research on identity orientations – the relative importance or value that ... more We review a program of research on identity orientations – the relative importance or value that individuals place on various identity attributes when constructing their self-definitions. We first provide a brief history of the development of our measure of identity orientations – the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire (AIQ) – after which we present our tetrapartite model of the self that distinguishes among individual, relational, public, and collective aspects of identity. We then review previous research on how the four identity orientations uniquely influence cognition, emotion, and behavior, and close by highlighting what we see as interesting and important directions for future research. Identity is the construct that defines who or what a person is, and people's views of their identity can encompass any combination of expressions of individual uniqueness, personal relationships, labels that refer to social roles, and group memberships (e.g., Gordon, 1968). In the present paper, we review a program of research on identity orientations – the relative importance or value that individuals place on various identity attributes when constructing their self-definitions (Cheek, 1989). We begin by providing a brief history of the development of our measure of identity orientations – the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire (AIQ) – after which we present our tetrapartite model of the self that distinguishes among individual, relational, public, and collective aspects of identity. After outlining the theoretical justification for the adoption of the tetrapartite model, we review previous research on how the four identity orientations uniquely influence cognition, emotion, and behavior. Finally, we highlight what we see as important directions for future research.
Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, New Orleans, LA.
Identity orientations refer to the relative importance of various identity attributes in the cons... more Identity orientations refer to the relative importance of various identity attributes in the construction of self-definitions. For Cheek and Briggs (1982), social identity orientation referred to the importance of James’ (1890) social me: one's popularity or social reputation deriving from interpersonal relationships. Abrams (1988), however, criticized their social identity scale for failing to capture European social identity theory’s emphasis on sociological aspects of self-definition (for example, cultural or ethnic group membership; Tajfel, 1981). To avoid confusion between these Jamesian and European meanings of social identity, some psychologists have argued that the term collective identity should be used to capture the parts of self-definition encompassed by social identity theory (e.g., Ashmore, Deaux, & McLaughlin-Volpe, 2004; Brewer & Gardner, 1996; Cheek, 1989). We report a factor analysis yielding distinct social and collective identity orientation scales (N = 511), ethnic group differences for collective but not social identity orientation (N = 441), and differential correlations with relevant self-concept measures that support maintaining two separate scales. Moreover, relational self-concept is clearly distinguishable from both social and collective identity orientations, indicating the need to measure all three of them as distinct aspects of interdependent self-construal in future research.
Psychologists from the United States are extremely prominent in psychological science, publishing... more Psychologists from the United States are extremely prominent in psychological science, publishing more articles and receiving more citations than researchers from other nations. In this brief article, I review some previous research on this “nation gap” in psychology and highlight relevant data from journals published by the Association for Psychological Science. I then discuss some possible explanations for the nation gap and touch on some of its implications for thinking about scholarly merit and scientific eminence. I hope that the research and data discussed here will stimulate further consideration of the role of author nationality for both judgments of scholarly merit and psychological science more generally.
It is commonly assumed in affluent, Western, democratic societies that by enhancing opportunities... more It is commonly assumed in affluent, Western, democratic societies that by enhancing opportunities for choice, we enhance freedom and well-being, both by enabling people to get exactly what they want and by enabling people to express their identities. In this paper, we review evidence that the relationships between choice, freedom, and well-being are complex. The value of choice in itself may depend on culture, and even in cultural contexts that value choice, too much choice can lead to paralysis, bad decisions, and dissatisfaction with even good decisions. Policy-makers are often in a position to enhance well-being by limiting choice. We suggest five questions that policy-makers should be asking themselves when they consider promulgating policies that will limit choice in the service of enhanced well-being. The relationships between choice, freedom, and well-being are not simple, and an appreciation of their complexity may help policy-makers target their interventions more effectively.
""The publication of the RIC scale (Kashima & Hardie, 2000) and the book Individual Self, Relatio... more ""The publication of the RIC scale (Kashima & Hardie, 2000) and the book Individual Self, Relational Self, Collective Self (Sedikides & Brewer, 2001) focused self-concept research by many social and cultural psychologists on these three self-representations. In RIC models independent self-construal is equated with the individual or personal self and interdependent self-construal is represented by both the personal bonds of attachment in the relational self and the ingroup versus out-group social identities in the collective self. What appears to be missing in these 21st century RIC models is William James’ (1890) social self that had been centrally represented in social psychological theory and research from 1975-1995 through topics such as public self-consciousness, self-monitoring, self-presentation, and impression management (e.g., Baumeister, 1986; Schlenker, 1985). Therefore we conducted principal component and correlational analyses of 25 identity orientation items (N = 225) which yielded three distinct dimensions of relational, social, and collective aspects of interdependent self, indicating that all three are necessary to adequately describe interdependent aspects of the self. We conclude that researchers should shift attention from the tripartite RIC model to a tetrapartite model of self-concept that includes these three interdependent selves in addition to the individual self.""
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Papers by Nathan Cheek