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One of the most robust effects in person perception research is the spontaneous trait inference (STI) effect, defined as the spontaneous tendency to draw dispositional inferences from actors' behaviors. Yet, research has suggested that stereotypes affect STIs by inhibiting stereotype incongruent or facilitating stereotype congruent STIs. These findings are remarkable considering (a) the robustness of STI effects and (b) the typical design of behavioral statements in this research as unambiguously indicative of traits. We present a series of four high-powered, preregistered experiments (N = 1004) that originally aimed at replicating stereotype effects on STIs as basis for investigating their underlying psychological mechanisms. We employed a probe recognition paradigm that has been used in prior research, pairing trait-implying behavioral statements with category labels implying either trait-congruent or -incongruent stereotypes. We additionally implemented several methodological improvements like a larger and extensively pretested stimulus set. While we observed highly robust STI effects in all experiments, these were largely unaffected by actor stereotypes: Only one of the four experiments showed the hypothesized STI-stereotype interaction with a small effect size. We discuss how these findings add to the rather small number of existing publications on STIs and stereotypes and how the observed robustness of behavior-based impressions parallels prior research on intentional impression formation. We aim to instigate debate, further theorizing, and research that enhances our understanding of the boundary conditions of stereotype effects on spontaneous trait inferences in impression formation from unambiguous behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to 1/develop an observational tool to rate non-verbal cues infants give when being fed 2/test whether these differ between healthy children and those with weight faltering (WF) 3/describe how well these predict whether offered food is eaten.Subjects: and methods: The study used videos of infants eating a standardised meal studied in a case control study nested within the Gateshead Millennium Study (GMS). Infants with weight faltering (WF) were each matched to 2 healthy controls. Half the control videos (N = 28) were used to develop the scale. Food offers were identified and the child's head, eyes, hands, and mouth position/activity rated as signalling a readiness to be fed (engaged), or not (disengaged) as well as whether food was accepted; 5 of these videos were used to assess inter-rater and test-re- test reliability. The scale was then applied to the videos of 28 WF infants (mean age 15.3 months) and 29 remaining controls (mean age 15.8 months) to identify and code all feeding events.Results: test-re-test rates varied from 0.89 for events to 0.74 for head; inter-rater reliability varied from 0.78 for hands to 0.67 for mouth. From 2219 observed interactions, 48% showed at least one engaged element, and 73% at least one disengaged; 67% of interactions resulted in food eaten, with no difference between WF and control. Food was eaten after 73% interactions with any engagement, but also in 62% with disengagement.Conclusions: Infants were commonly disengaged during meals, but a majority accepted food despite this. Those with weight faltering did not differ compared to healthy controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by cognitive appraisal theory, we argue that wish-making is a conceptually distinct type of coping strategy and that wish-making during the COVID-19 pandemic has functional cognitive–affective consequences. Specifically, it facilitates positive appraisals of the pandemic, which then facilitate job satisfaction. Enhanced job satisfaction in turn reduces counterproductive work behavior during the pandemic. These arguments were tested via two empirical studies involving 546 Hong Kong employees surveyed on two consecutive working days during the pandemic. The individuals who made wishes during the pandemic reported more positive appraisals of the pandemic, which in turn promoted their job satisfaction and lowered their counterproductive work behavior. Crucially, wish-making had significant effects on positive appraisals above and beyond other coping strategies. Thus, we contribute to the employee coping literature by highlighting one relatively easy way for employees to combat the psychological effects of the pandemic (and other challenges in life) and regulate their affective well-being and behaviors at work. Namely, making wishes that envision a better future can enhance employees' job satisfaction, which in turn lowers counterproductive work behavior. • This study examines whether wish-making during the pandemic facilitates job satisfaction. • Wish-making promotes positive appraisals of the pandemic, which then enhance job satisfaction. • Enhanced job satisfaction in turn reduces counterproductive work behavior. • Two empirical studies showed the predictive power of wish-making beyond existing coping strategies. • This study contributes to the coping literature by highlighting wish-making as an important coping tactic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]