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Nordic Journal of Psychiatry Apr 2024
Topics: Humans; Animals; Intuition; Elephants; Judgment
PubMed: 38015046
DOI: 10.1080/08039488.2023.2283476 -
Cognition Sep 2023In certain cases, people judge that agents bring about ends intentionally but also that they do not bring about the means that brought about those ends...
In certain cases, people judge that agents bring about ends intentionally but also that they do not bring about the means that brought about those ends intentionally-even though bringing about the ends and means is just as likely. We call this difference in judgments the Kraemer effect. We offer a novel explanation for this effect: a perceived difference in the extent to which agents know how to bring about the means and the ends explains the Kraemer effect. In several experiments, we replicate the Kraemer effect in a variety of non-moral and moral scenarios, and we find support for our new account. This work accords with a burgeoning area of action theory that identifies an important connection between know-how and intentionality.
Topics: Humans; Morals; Judgment
PubMed: 37192583
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105490 -
Public Understanding of Science... Apr 2024This study examines whether engaging in science work and work that is substantively complex (e.g. requiring independent thought and judgment) is related to interest in...
This study examines whether engaging in science work and work that is substantively complex (e.g. requiring independent thought and judgment) is related to interest in science, science knowledge, and confidence in the scientific community in the United States. It also examines whether the conditions of work mediate the relationship between education and these science-related outcomes. Occupation-level data from O*NET are merged with survey data from the General Social Survey. Results indicate that science work is related to interest in science and science knowledge and that work complexity is related to confidence in the scientific community. Results offer only limited evidence of mediation-science work mediates the relationship between educational attainment and science knowledge but not the relationships involving interest or confidence. In sum, results indicate that the conditions of work are associated with science attitudes, and that researchers should examine these connections in future research.
Topics: United States; Attitude; Judgment; Knowledge; Trust; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 37865816
DOI: 10.1177/09636625231203478 -
Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin Jan 2024Comparison processes are critical to social judgments, yet little is known about how individuals compare people other than themselves in daily life (social-judgment...
Comparison processes are critical to social judgments, yet little is known about how individuals compare people other than themselves in daily life (social-judgment comparisons). The present research employed a 7-day experience-sampling design ( = 93; = 3,960) with end-of-week and 6-month follow-ups, to examine how individuals make social-judgment comparisons in daily life as well as the cumulative impact of these comparisons over time. Participants compared close (vs. distant) contacts more frequently and made more downward than upward comparisons. Furthermore, downward, relative to upward, comparisons predicted more positive perceptions of the contact, greater closeness to the contact, and greater relationship satisfaction. More frequent downward comparisons involving a particular contact also predicted greater closeness 1 week and 6 months later. When participants made upward comparisons, they were motivated to protect close, but not distant, contacts by downplaying domain importance, and engaging in this protective strategy predicted greater closeness to the contact 1 week later.
Topics: Humans; Self Concept; Judgment; Surveys and Questionnaires; Personal Satisfaction
PubMed: 36052926
DOI: 10.1177/01461672221115558 -
Studies in History and Philosophy of... Aug 2023Science promises benefits, some true and some illusory. Consider a scientific agnostic who thinks that to reap the true benefits of a scientific theory he does not have...
Science promises benefits, some true and some illusory. Consider a scientific agnostic who thinks that to reap the true benefits of a scientific theory he does not have to believe in its theoretical posits. Instead, it is enough if he believes that the theory successfully predicts the behavior of the observables, as ultimately only such predictions matter. Say, however, that given the results of her thorough research, a psychologist proposes a theory describing a psychological mechanism underlying a certain class of normative judgments. Moreover, the mechanism seems unfit for the task-once you see the details of the mechanism, you will realize that this is not the way they should be produced. Therefore, if the psychologist is right, it seems that these normative judgments should not inform one's normative theorizing or one's actions (Greene, 2008; Greene, 2014; Kelly, 2014). And say that the agnostic accepts the psychologist's theory, trusting that it makes correct predictions about, for example, fMRI images and subjects' reaction times, as they are observable. He also thinks that if the psychologist's description of the mechanism is correct, the judgments should not be trusted. Yet, since the mechanism posited by the theory is not observable, the agnostic is agnostic about it. He thus cannot be convinced that these judgments are produced in a flawed way and, consequently, has no reason to distrust them. Scientific agnosticism comes, therefore, at the cost of dismissing normative arguments that invoke unobservable posits of psychological models. The ability to make such arguments is a true (rather than illusory) benefit of science, despite the agnostic's promise that his philosophical theory leaves intact benefits that genuinely matter.
Topics: Humans; Emotions; Science; Judgment
PubMed: 37348149
DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2023.05.001 -
Emotion (Washington, D.C.) Oct 2023Despite being implicated in a wide range of psychological and behavioral phenomena, relief remains poorly understood from the perspective of psychological science. What...
Despite being implicated in a wide range of psychological and behavioral phenomena, relief remains poorly understood from the perspective of psychological science. What complicates the study of relief is that people seem to use the term to describe an emotion that occurs in two distinct situations: when an unpleasant episode is over, or upon realizing that an outcome could have been worse. This study constitutes a detailed empirical investigation of people's reports of everyday episodes of relief. A set of four studies collected a large corpus ( = 1,835) of first-person reports of real-life episodes of relief and examined people's judgments about the antecedents of relief, its relation to counterfactual thoughts, and its subsequent effects on decision making. Some participants described relief experiences that had either purely temporal or purely counterfactual precursors. Nevertheless, the findings indicated that the prototypical instance of relief appears to be one in which both these elements are present. The results also suggest that, although relief is frequently experienced in situations in which people are not responsible for the relief-inducing event, nevertheless they typically report that the experience had a positive impact on subsequent decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Emotions; Judgment
PubMed: 36455007
DOI: 10.1037/emo0001191 -
Psychological Bulletin 2023People's perceptions of their romantic partners are somewhat accurate but also contain biases. In the current meta-analytic review, we sought to examine overall levels... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
People's perceptions of their romantic partners are somewhat accurate but also contain biases. In the current meta-analytic review, we sought to examine overall levels of accuracy and bias in romantic partner perceptions and moderators of accuracy and bias. We examined tracking accuracy (k = 157), projection (k = 157), indirect accuracy (k = 69), and mean-level bias (k = 153) in perceptions of a romantic partner across samples that estimated tracking accuracy and projection simultaneously. Gender, relationship length, study design, geographic region, publication year, and judgment type were examined as potential moderators. Results revealed significant mean effect sizes for tracking accuracy (β = .24), projection (β = .42), similarity (β = .22), and indirect accuracy (β = .11). Overall, people tended to have mean-level accuracy (d = -0.006) even when constructs were coded as conceptually positive or negative (d = -0.03). Men seemed to view their partners more negatively. Publication year and relationship length did not matter for any perceptual process. Tracking accuracy was higher in overall judgments, whereas projection was higher in daily judgments. Positive interaction traits and mind-reading judgments showed a negative bias. Greater projection and positive bias in noninteraction judgments were associated with higher relationship quality. Our results are the first to provide effect sizes for projection, tracking accuracy while controlling for projection, and indirect accuracy, and build on prior research concerning the complex ways in which partners perceive each other. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Sexual Partners; Social Perception; Male; Female; Judgment; Interpersonal Relations; Bias
PubMed: 38713750
DOI: 10.1037/bul0000405 -
Cognitive Science Nov 2023People exhibit conflicting intuitions concerning the mind/body links. Here, I explore a novel explanation for these inconsistencies: Dualism is a violable constraint...
People exhibit conflicting intuitions concerning the mind/body links. Here, I explore a novel explanation for these inconsistencies: Dualism is a violable constraint that interacts with Essentialism. Two experiments probe these interactions. In Experiment 1, participants evaluated the emergence of psychological traits in either a replica of one's body, or in the afterlife-after the body's demise. In line with Dualism, epistemic (i.e., disembodied) traits (e.g., knowing the contrast between good/bad) were considered more likely to emerge (relative to sensorimotor/affective traits) only in the afterlife. However, so were innate traits (in line with Essentialism). To further gauge Essentialism, Experiment 2 presented the same traits to innateness judgments. Here, sensorimotor/affective (i.e., embodied) traits were considered more likely to be innate, suggesting that innateness intuitions are informed by embodiment. Moreover, innateness judgments (in Experiment 2) and embodiment intuitions (in Experiment 1) correlated. These results suggest that Dualism tacitly constrains reasoning about one's innate origins and its persistence after death. But since Dualism is "soft" and interacts with Essentialism, supernatural intuitions are chimeric, not purely ethereal.
Topics: Humans; Judgment; Intuition; Problem Solving
PubMed: 37992196
DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13380 -
Trends in Cognitive Sciences Jul 2023Recent work suggests that language models such as GPT can make human-like judgments across a number of domains. We explore whether and when language models might replace... (Review)
Review
Recent work suggests that language models such as GPT can make human-like judgments across a number of domains. We explore whether and when language models might replace human participants in psychological science. We review nascent research, provide a theoretical model, and outline caveats of using AI as a participant.
Topics: Humans; Judgment; Language; Artificial Intelligence
PubMed: 37173156
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2023.04.008 -
The British Journal of General Practice... Nov 2023
Topics: Humans; Judgment; Dementia
PubMed: 37884384
DOI: 10.3399/bjgp23X735321