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Women are often subject to gender stereotyping in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) was used to determine directionality of any implicit gender-STEM bias detected. In addition, the IRAP was used to explore the possibility of implicit ageism bias, because there is anecdotal evidence of high levels of ageism in the STEM areas. Thus two IRAPs (one with adult pictorial stimuli and one with child pictorial stimuli) were employed to assess implicit gender bias toward STEM with a sample of undergraduates (N = 33). Results indicated a gender STEM bias in both IRAPs and the directionality in both IRAPs was pro-male and not anti-female. Participant gender was not shown to impact results in either IRAP. Gender bias effects were more pronounced in the Adult-IRAP results. Comparison of bias toward older versus young pictorial stimuli was exploratory thus findings are preliminary but may suggest ageism and potential negative interaction effects between age and gender warrant further research. Keywords IRAP * STEM * Gender-bias * Age-bias, International research has shown that fewer females excel, pursue degrees, and hold jobs in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) when compared to males (see World Economic [...]

Why does the public have such polarizing views on the poor? This paper attempts to understand this issue by examining and exploring what predicts attitudes towards the poor. The exploration of this issue begins with a reference to the Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) and how this particular framework has been used to explain polarizing issues such as abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research, among others. This paper argues that the MFT can provide a similar insight on attitudes towards the poor. With the MFT as a backdrop, the current study tested out the hypothesis using hierarchical multiple regression and explored the results further by using dominance analysis. Results showed that the Moral Foundations were good predictors of attitudes towards the poor. While Harm emerged as the only significant predictor, dominance analysis revealed the importance of each foundation as predictors. Harm is the strongest predictor followed by Fairness, Authority, Ingroup, and Purity. All five foundations appear to be better predictors as compared to one's political affiliation., Author(s): Michelle Low [sup.1] , Ma. Glenda Lopez Wui [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) 0000 0001 2156 6853grid.42505.36University of Southern California, 90089, Los Angeles, CA, United States (2) 0000 0001 2180 [...]

There are many things that can influence a child's career path. Parents and teachers are first to come to mind. But simple exposure to a certain career may also influence a child's choice of a career. There is always a need for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs. We look at elementary students who have attended an expo designed for STEM exposure and consider the effects the expo has had on their interest in certain careers. Surveys were obtained from elementary students who attended a local Engineering Expo and students who did not attend this Expo. We also compare the career interests of students who have had STEM exposure at the Expo to those that have not had the exposure. Comparisons are made between two elementary schools (those exposed and those not exposed), grades, and genders. Differences occur in some of these areas, but not all. Keywords: STEM, exposure, attitudes, perception, interest, elementary students, Introduction For several years, Clemson University has hosted an Engineering Expo on the Thursday of National Engineers Week for second grade students at Clemson Elementary. Recently, the question was posed [...]

The aim of this study was to establish test-retest reliability of a Spanish version of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity (Campo-Arias, Oviedo, & Cogollo, 2009) among adolescent students in Cartagena, Colombia. A group of ninth grade students from two public schools in Colombia (N=157) completed the five-item scale. Cronbach's alphas were .74 and .76 in the first and second administrations, respectively. Both Pearson's p and intra-class correlation coefficient were .69. A Spanish translation of the 5-item scale had consistent stability over four weeks. DOI 10.2466/08.17.PR0.107.6.949-952

The current article outlines a behavior-analytic approach to the study of so-called implicit attitudes and cognition. The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP), the conceptual basis of which was derived from relational frame theory, is offered as a methodology that may be used in the experimental analysis of implicit attitudes and beliefs. The relational elaboration and coherence (REC) model provides a possible relational-frame account of the findings that have emerged from the IRAP. The article first outlines the research history that led to the development of the IRAP, followed by a description of the method. The REC model and how it explains a range of IRAP data are then considered. The article also outlines how both the IRAP and the REC model overlap with, and differ from, similar research found in the non-behavior-analytic literature. Key words: Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, relational frame theory, network, elaboration, coherence, attitudes, Imagine if you were asked, 'Do you prefer 7UP or Pepsi?' Assuming that you do have a particular preference, you would likely respond quickly and with little thought or deliberation. [...]

Byline: Alin M. Ceobanu, Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, Center for European Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-7330; email: aceobanu@ufl.edu; Xavier Escandell, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50614; email: xavier.escandell@uni.edu Keywords: public opinion, intergroup attitudes, immigrant-receiving societies, cross-national Abstract This article critically reviews the intersectional locus of public opinion scholarship and immigration studies that make use of data from multinational survey projects. Specifically, it emphasizes current cross-national research seeking to understand the causes, manifestations, and implications of attitudes toward immigrants and immigration in economically advanced countries of the world. Despite rapid expansion, the field suffers from several methodological challenges and theoretical constraints. A succinct exposure of trends and patterns is followed by presentations of influential theoretical perspectives and established individual- and contextual-level determinants. The review suggests that strengthening the conceptual apparatus and enlarging the analytical focus are priorities. It concludes with some observations on how to circumvent these problems and to bridge current research with future explorations of the embedded nature of such public attitudes.

This article examines how the subjective experiences of 'feeling right' from regulatory fit and of 'feeling wrong' from regulatory non-fit influence the way people process persuasive messages. Across three studies, incidental experiences of regulatory fit increased reliance on source expertise and decreased resistance to counterpersuasion, whereas incidental experiences of regulatory non-fit increased reliance on argument strength and increased resistance to counterpersuasion. These results suggest that incidental fit and non-fit experiences can produce, respectively, more superficial or more thorough processing of persuasive messages. The mechanisms underlying these effects, and the conditions under which they should and should not be expected, are discussed. Keywords: attitudes; motivation; persuasion; subjective experience; depth of processing

The current study examined the malleability of implicit attitudes using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). In Experiment 1, 'similar' and 'opposite' were presented as response options with the sample terms 'old people' and 'young people' and various positive and negative target stimuli. Results showed significantly faster response latencies for consistent (e.g., Similar-Positive-Young People) compared to inconsistent tasks (e.g., Similar-Positive-Old People). Explicit measures did not correlate with this IRAP effect. Experiment 2 determined whether prior exposure to pictures of admired and disliked old and young individuals had an impact on IRAP performance. Results revealed that pro-old exemplars reduced the pro-young IRAP effect, but reversed the anti-old effect, and this held for 24 h; explicit measures were largely unaffected. The findings suggest that the IRAP provides an informative measure of attitude-change following pro- versus anti-exemplar training. Keywords: implicit attitudes, transformation of function, multiple exemplars, implicit cognition, relational frame theory, adult humans, The study of implicit cognition has led to a recent profusion of research within psychology that has served to generate a range of so-called implicit measures, such as the Implicit [...]

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) was designed to examine implicit beliefs or attitudes. In Experiment 1, response latencies obtained from Irish participants on the IRAP showed a strong preference for Irish over Scottish and American over African. In contrast, responses to explicit Likert measures diverged from the IRAP performance in indicating Irish equally likeable to Scottish and African more likeable than American. Using a similar IRAP, Experiment 2 showed that participants from the United States showed strong implicit preferences for American over Irish, Irish over Scottish, and Scottish over African; the explicit Likert measures again diverged from the IRAP. The findings provide preliminary support for the IRAP as a useful measure of implicit beliefs. Keywords: implicit relational assessment procedure, implicit beliefs, social attitudes, adult participants, patterns of preference, Traditional methods for assessing or measuring what people think or believe have typically involved self-report questionnaires, which, it has been argued, may be subject to a number of biases. For [...]

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a central mechanism for both classic and current theories of attitude formation. In contrast to Pavlovian conditioning, it is often conceptualized as a form of evaluative learning that occurs without awareness of the conditioned stimulus--unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) contingencies. In the present research, the authors directly address this point by assessing the respective roles of US valence awareness and US identity awareness in attitude formation through EC. Across 4 experiments, EC was assessed with evaluative ratings as well as evaluative priming measures, and the impact of valence and identity awareness on EC was evaluated. EC effects on priming and rating measures occurred only for CSs for which participants could report the associated US valence, and US identity awareness did not further contribute to EC. This finding was obtained both for semantically meaningless (i.e., nonword letter sequences) and meaningful (i.e., consumer products) CSs. These results provide further support for the critical role of contingency awareness in EC, albeit valence awareness, not identity awareness. Keywords: attitude formation, evaluative learning, preference acquisition, evaluative conditioning, contingency awareness

Contrast effects have been studied in dozens of experimental paradigms, including the measurement of attitudes in the social psychological literature. However, nearly all of this work has been conducted using explicit reports. In the present research the authors employed a variety of different types of priming tasks in order to gain insight into the nature of contrast effects and the role that automatic processes might play in their emergence. They report 6 experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2 the replicability and robustness of automatized contrast effects across 2 types of implicit tasks are established. Experiments 3-6 were conducted in order to further understand the nature of these effects and whether they are best understood in terms of spreading activation vs. response-based models of priming. In the course of accounting for their findings, the authors propose and validate a response-mapping framework, which provides insight into some longstanding ambiguities in the priming literature. Implications for theories of contrast and models of evaluative priming are discussed. Keywords: priming, implicit attitudes, contrast, automatic evaluation, response mapping Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0015844.supp

Five studies demonstrated egocentric pattern projection, in that the implicit personality theories (IPTs) that participants held about other people tended to recapitulate the terrain of their own personality. To the extent that participants believed they possessed 2 traits to a similar degree within themselves, they tended, through their judgments of others and estimates of population parameters, to claim that the 2 traits were positively correlated in other people; and if they believed they possessed 2 traits to a dissimilar degree within themselves, they tended to claim that the 2 traits were negatively correlated in other people. Further evidence showed that information about the self plays a causal role in the construction of implicit theories, making a unique contribution to the shape of IPTs over and above that of information about another person. The relevance of these data for recent controversies over egocentric social judgment is discussed. Keywords: projection, egocentrism, social judgment, implicit personality theories

We respond to a critique by H. Blanton et al. (2009), challenging our previous work demonstrating that an Implicit Association Test designed to assess implicit prejudice reliably predicts intergroup discrimination (A. R. McConnell & J. M. Leibold, 2001). We outline 3 flawed aspects of the critique. First, we note that claims that an outlier should be eliminated from the original data set are unfounded, and even with the elimination of this outlier, the conclusions of our original work are still strongly supported by the data. Second, we explain that concerns about interjudge reliability are specious and that considerable data support the validity of the judges' observations reported in our original study. Third, we note that claims of a disconnect between Implicit Association Test scores (argued to show negative bias against Blacks) and behavioral measures (argued to show pro-Black bias) are inappropriate because they neglect the relativistic nature of the key measures. Implications for the relation between implicit attitudes and behavior, for the law, and for future work on implicit attitudes are discussed. Keywords: implicit attitudes, prejudice, discrimination, Implicit Association Test

Implicit measures can be defined as outcomes of measurement procedures that are caused in an automatic manner by psychological attributes. To establish that a measurement outcome is an implicit measure, one should examine (a) whether the outcome is causally produced by the psychological attribute it was designed to measure, (b) the nature of the processes by which the attribute causes the outcome, and (c) whether these processes operate automatically. This normative analysis provides a heuristic framework for organizing past and future research on implicit measures. The authors illustrate the heuristic function of their framework by using it to review past research on the 2 implicit measures that are currently most popular: effects in implicit association tests and affective priming tasks. Keywords: implicit measures, automaticity, IAT, affective priming

Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to the formation or change of an altitude toward an object, following that object's pairing with positively or negatively valenced stimuli. The authors provide evidence that EC can occur through an implicit misattribution mechanism in which an evaluative response evoked by a valenced stimulus is incorrectly and implicitly attributed to another stimulus, forming or changing an attitude toward this other stimulus. In 5 studies, the authors measured or manipulated variables related to the potential for the misattribution of an evaluation, or source confusability. Greater EC was observed when participants' eye gaze shifted frequently between a valenced and a neutral stimulus (Studies 1 & 2), when the 2 stimuli appeared in close spatial proximity (Study 3), and when the neutral stimulus was made more perceptually salient than was the valenced stimulus, due to the larger size of the neutral stimulus (Study 4). In other words, conditions conducive to source confusability increased EC. Study 5 provided evidence for multiple mechanisms of EC by comparing the effects of mildly evocative valenced stimuli (those evoking responses that might more easily be misattributed to another object) with more strongly evocative stimuli. Keywords: evaluative conditioning, attitudes, attitude formation, misattribution

The authors examined the psychometric properties of the Support for Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Scale (SLGHRS; S. J. Ellis, C. Kitzinger, & S. Wilkinson, 2002) by distributing copies of that instrument and several validation measures (e.g., religious fundamentalism) to 267 female students attending modules in psychology at a large Irish university. Output from an exploratory factor analysis did not support the tripartite structure that Ellis et al. noted. Instead, a 2-factor solution appeared to be most reasonable, with the 1st factor assessing global support for the human rights of sexual minorities (Global. 14 items) and the 2nd factor focusing more narrowly on the legality of homosexuality (Legal, 4 items). Scale score reliability coefficients for the 2 factors were .86 and .61, respectively. Scores on the Global subscale correlated significantly with all validation measures; however, the present authors obtained mixed results for the Legal subscale. The authors outline potential uses of the modified SLGHRS. Keywords: attitudes, gay, human rights. Ireland, lesbian, psychometrics, ATTITUDES TOWARD HUMAN RIGHTS of gay men and lesbian women is a topic that researchers have unjustly neglected (Van de Meerendonk & Scheepers, 2004). However, in 2002, Ellis, Kitzinger, and [...]

Although it is widely assumed that religiosity plays an important role in individuals' attitudes about death, research to date has failed to reveal consistent associations between religiosity and death attitudes. Drawing from D. M. Wulff's (1991) multidimensional model of religiosity, the authors examined associations between religious attitudes as measured by the Post-Critical Belief Scale and death attitudes as assessed by the Death Attitude Profile--Revised. In total, 471 Dutch-speaking Belgian adults completed both questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to asses the unique contribution of the religious attitudes in the prediction of the death attitudes. First, results show that religious people are more likely to endorse an approach acceptance attitude toward death, indicating that religiosity as such is related to belief in an afterlife. Second, people holding a literal attitude toward religion report more death anxiety, indicating that the processing of religious contents is related to defensiveness toward death. Finally, the specific combination of the two dimensions seems important in the prediction of a neutral acceptance attitude. The relevance of our findings for future research on religiosity and death attitudes is discussed.

Integrative complexity broadly measures the structural complexity of statements. This breadth, although beneficial in multiple ways, can potentially hamper the development of specific theories. In response, the authors developed a model of complex thinking, focusing on 2 different ways that people can be complex within the integrative complexity system and subsequently developed measurements of each of these 2 routes: Dialectical complexity focuses on a dialectical tension between 2 or more competing perspectives, whereas elaborative complexity focuses on complexly elaborating on 1 singular perspective. The authors posit that many variables have different effects on these 2 forms of complexity and subsequently test this idea in 2 different theoretical domains. In Studies 1a, 1b, and 2, the authors demonstrate that variables related to attitude strength (e.g., domain importance, extremism, domain accessibility) decrease dialectical complexity but increase elaborative complexity. In Study 3, the authors show that counterattitudinal lying decreases dialectical complexity but increases elaborative complexity, implicating a strategic (as opposed to a cognitive strain) view of the lying-complexity relationship. The authors argue that this dual demonstration across 2 different theoretical domains helps establish the utility of the new model and measurements as well as offer the potential to reconcile apparent conflicts in the area of cognitive complexity. Keywords: integrative complexity, dialectical complexity, elaborative complexity, attitude strength, lying

Ambivalence researchers often collapse separate measures of positivity and negativity into a single numerical index of ambivalence and refer to it as objective, operative, or potential ambivalence. The authors argue that this univariate approach to ambivalence models undermines the validity of subsequent statistical analyses because it confounds the effects of the index and its components. To remedy this situation, they demonstrate how the assumptions underlying the indices derived from the conflicting reactions model and similarity-intensity model can be tested using a multivariate approach to ambivalence models. On the basis of computer simulations and reanalyses of published moderator effects, the authors show that the frequently reported moderating influence of ambivalence on attitude effects may be a statistical artifact resulting from unmodeled correlations of positivity and negativity with attitude and the dependent variable. On the basis of extensive power analyses, they conclude that it may be extremely difficult to detect moderator effects of ambivalence in observational data. Therefore, they encourage ambivalence researchers to take an experimental approach to study design and a multivariate approach to data analysis. Keywords: attitude ambivalence, attitude strength, moderator effects, data analysis Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0012709.supp

It is well established that increasing attitude certainty makes attitudes more resistant to attack and more predictive of behavior. This finding has been interpreted as indicating that attitude certainty crystallizes attitudes, making them more durable and impactful. The current research challenges this crystallization hypothesis and proposes an amplification hypothesis, which suggests that instead of invariably strengthening an attitude, attitude certainty amplifies the dominant effect of the attitude on thought, judgment, and behavior. In 3 experiments, the authors test these competing hypotheses by comparing the effects of attitude certainty manipulations on univalent versus ambivalent attitudes. Across experiments, it is demonstrated that increasing attitude certainty strengthens attitudes (e.g., increases their resistance to persuasion) when attitudes are univalent but weakens attitudes (e.g., decreases their resistance to persuasion) when attitudes are ambivalent. These results are consistent with the amplification hypothesis. Keywords: attitudes, attitude strength, ambivalence, persuasion

Attitude theory has long proposed a mechanism through which antecedents of message elaboration produce attitude strength consequences. However, little direct evidence exists for the intervening process. The proposed thoughtfulness heuristic holds that perceiving that more thought has taken place leads to greater attitude certainty. Two roles were established for this heuristic: first as a mediator of the impact of antecedents of elaboration on attitude certainty and second as a way to influence attitude certainty independent of actual elaboration. In Studies 1 and 2, antecedents of elaboration (need for cognition, distraction) impacted attitude certainty because they impacted the actual amount of processing, which in turn affected perceptions of the amount of processing. In Studies 3 and 4, a manipulation of perceived thought impacted certainty independent of actual thought (i.e., after thinking had already occurred). Furthermore, the thoughtfulness heuristic was shown to influence behavioral intentions, establishing perceived amount of processing as both a mediator and an independent cause of attitude strength consequences. Keywords: heuristics, elaboration, attitude strength, certainty, persuasion

The study examines the relation of death experience to death attitudes and to autobiographical memory use. Participants (N = 52) completed standard death attitude measures and wrote narratives about a death-related autobiographical memory and (for comparison) a memory of a low point. Self-ratings of the memory narratives were used to assess their functional use. Results show that higher levels of experience with death were related to lower level, of death anxiety and avoidance. Participants with higher levels of death experience also more frequently used their death-related memories to serve adaptive functions.

The authors investigated the predictive utility of people's subjective assessments of whether their evaluations are affect- or cognition driven (i.e., meta-cognitive bases) as separate from whether people's attitudes are actually affect- or cognition based (i.e., structural bases). Study 1 demonstrated that meta-bases uniquely predict interest in affective versus cognitive information above and beyond structural bases and other related variables (i.e., need for cognition and need for affect). In Study 2, meta-bases were shown to account for unique variance in attitude change as a function of appeal type. Finally, Study 3 showed that as people became more deliberative in their judgments, meta-bases increased in predictive utility, and structural bases decreased in predictive utility. These findings support the existence of meta-bases of attitudes and demonstrate that meta-bases are distinguishable from structural bases in their predictive utility. Keywords: attitudes, persuasion, meta-cognition

A research study that was carried out to find the relationship between participants with regard to ideology, attitude change and deliberation in small face-to-face groups is presented. It was noticed that there was a clear association with changes on specific discussion-related issues.

A study on the Meta-Cognitive Model (MCM) of attitudes compared to three alternative views on attitudes is presented. The MCM postulates that attitude objects can be linked to both positive and negative evaluations that can lead to explicit ambivalence.

A study on the perspective of the Associative-Propositional Evaluation (APE) Model that distinguishes between associative and propositional processes that influence evaluative responses to an object is presented. The basic assumptions of the APE Model and their implications for the conceptualization of attitudes are discussed.

A brief review on the historical developments about the concept of attitude is presented. Attitudes are evaluative knowledge, represented in memory in the same way as any other form of knowledge.

A study to determine how phenomena ordinarily identified as attitudinal relates to current and an alternative definition of attitude is presented. Results show that evaluation, attitude object, and tendency are the three essential features that make up attitude.

The purpose of this study was to develop and provide initial validation evidence for an instrument to measure educators' attitudes toward IT. Data were collected from 817 participants comprising both pre and in-service teachers in four phases. Two separate factor analyses were conducted for the pre-service teacher data and in-service teacher data. Principle component analysis, with varimax rotation, suggested three distinct constructs: affect, perceived usefulness and behaviour. The scores of the instrument also showed high reliability. Key words: Attitudes, Information Technology, Educators, INTRODUCTION Information technology (IT) has brought many changes to the area of education. It has revolutionized the way students learn and how teachers teach in the classrooms. Indeed, the permeation [...]

In a large, community-based sample of women (N = 750), the authors examined the nature of associations between dysfunctional attitudes and depression. Dysfunctional attitudes were evaluated both as a vulnerability factor for depression and as a consequence of depression. A link was found between past depression and baseline elevations in dysfunctional attitudes that was independent of current subsyndromal symptoms, but intensification of dysfunctional attitudes following prospectively evaluated episodes of depression (depressive 'scarring') was not observed. Although baseline dysfunctional attitudes predicted an episode of major depression over 3 years of prospective study, this prediction, considered alone or in interaction with negative life events, was redundant with that offered by history of past depression. Further, no significant prediction was evident for the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (A. N. Weissman & A. T. Beck, 1978) when the formerly depressed and never-depressed cohorts were considered separately. Implications for cognitive theories are discussed. Keywords: depression, dysfunctional attitudes, cognitive vulnerability, depressive scarring

Byline: BETTINA ISENGARD (1), THORSTEN SCHNEIDER (1) Keywords: euro; European Union; attitudes; national identity Abstract: This paper investigates changing attitudes towards the euro over time in Germany using longitudinal micro-data from the German Socio Economic Panel Study. We observe that a large part of the German population was worried about the new currency both before and after its introduction. Social psychological theories provide insight into these attitudes. Concerns regarding the euro are apparently connected with problems in handling the new currency and with the press coverage of price rises. For these reasons, future EMU member states should prepare their populations better for these challenges. Author Affiliation: (1) DIW Berlin, German Socio-economic Panel Study, Koenigin-Luise-Str. 5, Berlin, 14195, Germany (2) Chair of Sociology I, Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg, Lichtenhaidestr. 11, Bamberg, 96045, Germany Article History: Registration Date: 13/04/2006 Accepted Date: 06/04/2006 Online Date: 07/06/2006

Research indicates that people's intuitive beliefs about groups are organized according to a group typology (B. Lickel, D. L. Hamilton, & S. J. Sherman, 2001). In Study 1, the authors compared and contrasted people's spontaneous cognitive representations of two group types, tusk groups and social categories. Analyses revealed significant differences as well as commonalties in people's beliefs about the group types. Notably, perceivers used more abstract, enduring language and contextually rich descriptors when characterizing social categories than when describing task groups. In Study 2, the authors investigated the differential roles of distinct group perception variables (entitativity, homogeneity, essence, role differentiation, and agency) as predictors of stereotyping for the different group types. Entitativity and all of the group perception variables significantly predicted stereotyping for both social categories and task groups. However, perceptions of entitativity mediated the association between the group perception variables and stereotypic judgments. These findings demonstrate that laypeople hold stereotype-like mental representations of group types other than social categories and that entitativity plays a crucial mediating role in stereotyping across different types of groups. Keywords: entitativity, stereotypes, group perception, group types

Self-perception theory posits that people sometimes infer their own attributes by observing their freely chosen actions. The authors hypothesized that in addition, people sometimes infer their own attributes by observing the freely chosen actions of others with whom they feel a sense of merged identity--almost as if they had observed themselves performing the acts. Before observing an actor's behavior, participants were led to feel a sense of merged identity with the actor through perspective-taking instructions (Study 1) or through feedback indicating that their brainwave patterns overlapped substantially with those of the actor (Studies 2-4). As predicted, participants incorporated attributes relevant to an actor's behavior into their own self-concepts, but only when they were led to feel a sense of merged identity with the actor and only when the actor's behavior seemed freely chosen. These changes in relevant selfperceptions led participants to change their own behaviors accordingly. Implications of these vicarious self-perception processes for conformity, perspective-taking, and the long-term development of the self-concept are discussed. Keywords: self-perception, self-other overlap, self-concept, prosocial behavior, compliance

Six experiments tested a dilution model of self-regulation, whereby increasing the number of goals (e.g., building muscles and losing weight) that a single means (e.g., exercising) can satisfy reduces the perception of its instrumentality with respect to each goal. The authors found that an increase in the number of simultaneous, salient goals that can be satisfied via a single means weakens the associative strength between that means and each individual goal, and as a result, individuals perceive the means as less effective for the attainment of each goal. Consequently, means that are connected to multiple (vs. single) goals are less likely to be chosen and pursued when only one of these goals is activated. Keywords: goal systems, self-regulation, associative network, dilution

The present research tests a new metacognitive perspective on resistance in minority influence situations. It is proposed that when people initially resist persuasive messages from sources in the numerical minority, they can lose attitude certainty if they perceive that they have based their attitudes on the source's minority status and also believe this is an illegitimate basis for resistance. In three studies, participants were presented with a message from a minority source. In Study 1, participants became less certain of their attitudes after resisting this message. In Study 2, this effect only emerged when participants were led to believe they had based their attitudes on the source's minority status and this was an illegitimate thing to do. In Study 3, this effect was shown to have implications for persuasion in response to a second message. The implications of these findings for classic minority influence effects are discussed. Keywords: minority influence; attitude certainty; resistance; persuasion; metacognition

This study examined the mediating effects of the self-stigma associated with seeking counseling and attitudes toward seeking counseling on the link between perceived public stigma and willingness to seek counseling for psychological and interpersonal concerns. Structural equation modeling of data from 676 undergraduates indicated that the link between perceived public stigma and willingness to seek counseling was fully mediated by self-stigma and attitudes. Perceptions of public stigma contributed to the experience of self-stigma, which, in turn, influenced help-seeking attitudes and eventually help-seeking willingness. Furthermore, 57% of the variance in attitudes toward counseling and 34% of the variance in willingness to seek counseling for psychological and interpersonal concerns were accounted for in the proposed model. Keywords: public stigma, self-stigma, attitudes, counseling, help seeking

Attitude certainty has been the subject of considerable attention in the attitudes and persuasion literature. The present research identifies 2 aspects of attitude certainty and provides evidence for the distinctness of the constructs. Specifically, it is proposed that attitude certainty can be conceptualized, and empirically separated, in terms of attitude clarity (the subjective sense that one knows what one's attitude is) and attitude correctness (the subjective sense that one's attitude is correct or valid). Experiment 1 uses factor analysis and correlational data to provide evidence for viewing attitude clarity and attitude correctness as separate constructs. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrate that attitude clarity and attitude correctness can have distinct antecedents (repeated expression and consensus feedback, respectively). Experiment 4 reveals that these constructs each play an independent role in persuasion and resistance situations. As clarity and correctness increase, attitudes become more resistant to counterattitudinal persuasive messages. These findings are discussed in relation to the existing attitude strength literature. Keywords: attitudes, certainty, attitude strength, metacognition

Byline: Cagri Imamoglu (1), E. Olcay Imamoglu (2) Keywords: assisted living; attitudes; familiarity; mere exposure effect; nursing home; preferences Abstract: In this paper, the authors aim to (a) explore attitudes toward and preferences for living in the newly emerging place type of assisted living facilities in comparison to nursing homes, and (b) assess the possible impact of familiarity on those attitudes and preferences. Ninety-eight respondents (with a mean age of 62) were surveyed. Respondents were found to be more favorable toward assisted living facilities than nursing homes. A three-factor model was proposed in which attitudes mediated between familiarity and preferences. Increased familiarity seemed to predict enhanced favorable attitudes in the case of assisted living facilities, as opposed to unfavorable attitudes in the case of nursing homes. However, positive attitudes seemed to predict preferences for living in either place type. Results are discussed with regards to the literature on the mere exposure effect and long-term care for older adults. Author Affiliation: (1) Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design, Bilkent University, Ankara, 06800, Turkey (2) Department of Psychology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, 06531, Turkey Article History: Registration Date: 18/10/2005 Accepted Date: 17/10/2005 Online Date: 29/04/2006

The author develops core confidence as a higher order construct and suggests that a core confidence--higher order construct--not addressed by extant work motivation theories--is helpful in better understanding employee motivation in today's rapidly changing organizations. Drawing from psychology (social, clinical, and developmental) and social anthropology, the author develops propositions regarding the relationships between core confidence and performance, attitudes, and subjective well-being. The core confidence--higher order construct is proposed to be manifested by hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience. The author reasons that these four variables share a common confidence core (a higher order construct) and may be considered as its manifestations. Suggestions for future research and implications of the work are discussed. Keywords: attitudes, core confidence, higher order construct, performance, subjective well-being

Although lightness perception is clearly influenced by contextual factors, it is not known whether knowledge about the reflectance of specific objects also affects their lightness. Recent research by O. H. MacLin and R. Malpass (2003) suggests that subjects label Black faces as darker than White faces, so in the current experiments, an adjustment methodology was used to test the degree to which expectations about the relative skin tone associated with faces of varying races affect the perceived lightness of those faces. White faces were consistently judged to be relatively lighter than Black faces, even for racially ambiguous faces that were disambiguated by labels. Accordingly, relatively abstract expectations about the relative reflectance of objects can affect their perceived lightness. Keywords: lightness perception, social categories, face perception, adjustment methodology, attitudes

Stereotypes have been assumed to be long-lasting knowledge structures that persist even in the face of contrary evidence. However, there is almost no within-participant research relevant to this assumption. The authors describe 4 studies (N = 267), the first 3 of which assessed within-participant stereotype stability over a few weeks with measures of stereotypic trait verification, typicality ratings of exemplar sets, and exemplar retrieval. In the 4th study, the authors manipulated context stability. Overall, results showed only low-to-moderate stereotype stability. The stability obtained was a function of the perceived centrality of traits or exemplars and of context constancy. The authors discuss the implications of these results for abstractionist, exemplar, mixed, and connectionist models and identify possible mechanisms that underlie within-participant stereotype instability. Keywords: malleability of knowledge structures, context sensitivity, stereotypes

A study was conducted to compare the strength of attitudes created by on-line processing with those created by memory-based processing. It was observed that attitudes created through on-line processing were stronger than attitudes created through memory-based processing.

Influence of matching response modes on attitudes expressed orally and typed through internet is examined.

Metaphor is ubiquitous in persuasive messages although the process by which its effects are achieved is still not fully understood. This study proposes that the emergent structural match between linguistic metaphor and long-term knowledge in the form of conceptual metaphor leads to the persuasive outcomes. To test this assumption, six predictions related to metaphor's effect on attitude judgment and speed of attitude judgment were tested. Three types of messages that contained a novel metaphor and additional message content in the form of conventional metaphors were compared: messages using the same conceptual metaphor to understand both the novel metaphor and rest of the message content (metaphor-fit condition), messages using different conceptual metaphors to understand the novel metaphor and rest of the message content (metaphor-nonfit condition), and literal equivalent of metaphorical messages (literal condition). Amount of prior familiarity of metaphor target as a condition for greater effectiveness of metaphor-using messages was also investigated. The hypotheses that metaphor-fit messages would have a stronger impact on attitude judgment and would exhibit faster attitude judgment response time than metaphor-nonfit and literal messages were partly borne out.

A meta-analysis (k of conditions = 128; N = 4,598) examined the influence of factors present at the time an attitude is formed on the degree to which this attitude guides future behavior. The findings indicated that attitudes correlated with a future behavior more strongly when they were easy to recall (accessible) and stable over time. Because of increased accessibility, attitudes more strongly predicted future behavior when participants had direct experience with the attitude object and reported their attitudes frequently. Because of the resulting attitude stability, the attitude--behavior association was strongest when attitudes were confident, when participants formed their attitude on the basis of behavior-relevant information, and when they received or were induced to think about one- rather than two-sided information about the attitude object. Keywords: attitude formation, attitude--behavior relation, meta-analysis, attitude accessibility, attitude stability

This commentary highlights the strengths of the associative-propositional evaluation model. It then describes problems in proposing a qualitative separation between propositional and associative processes. Propositional processes are instead described as associative. Propositions are ordered associations, whereas many other associations do not depend on the order of the involved elements. Implications of this alternative definition for the phenomenology of thought and for social psychology are discussed. Keywords: implicit and explicit attitudes, persuasion, social cognition, judgment

The authors comment on B. Gawronski and G. V. Bodenhausen's (2006) associative-propositional evaluation model of implicit and explicit attitudes by examining the claims that (a) truth value is attached to propositions but not to associations: (b) pattern activation is qualitatively different from syllogistic structure of arguments; and (c) Pavlovian conditioning may be propositional, whereas evaluative conditioning is not. They conclude that despite surface dissimilarities between implicit and explicit attitudes both may be mediated by the same underlying process. Keywords: implicit and explicit attitudes, reasoning, conditioning