Trait Attributions Research Articles

Technologies of Forgetting: Phonographs, Lyric Voice, and Rossetti’s Woodspurge

Introduction In her recent book Listening Publics, Kate Lacey makes a compelling claim about origins of sound recording, proposing that the phonograph was prefigured in literary culture of nineteenth century. Lacey believes that what she calls imagination, which involves the separating of sound from time, place and body, both anticipates and helps to shape recording technology. Especially given that phonograph works by making a series of inscriptions first on tinfoil and later on wax, it thus represents an extension of textual practices. (1) Douglas Kahn, too, associates with widespread nineteenth-century trend of transferring the of into contaminated realm of writing (p. 70). In an age of rising literacy and unprecedentedly large-scale publication, when reading was increasingly silent and private yet also part of a shared cultural experience, displacement of this of presence was a significant literary phenomenon. (2) If Kahn is justified in grouping all ... and conceptual means of sound recording as both technological means, empirical fact, and metaphorical incorporation under umbrella term phonography (p. 16), then his definition covers mnemonic structure of poetic form. A poem's iterative formal patterns, like cylinders of phonograph that Thomas Edison initially saw as a means of capturing not music but speech, constitute a mechanism for mental preservation of language; they allow readers to evoke, appropriate, and recontextualize nebulous of verse. Lacey is chiefly concerned with role of sound technology in emergence of modern public sphere, and Kahn focuses on aesthetics of sound and noise in twentieth century. But I elaborate on notion that literature prefigures or portends Edison's invention by discussing Victorian lyric poetry--which often features conspicuously anonymous and dislocated voices, emphasizing disconnection of a putative utterance from a quasi-anthropomorphized poetic speaker--as a particularly revealing example of phonographic imagination. The work of literary critics as well as media theorists shows that this topic is ripe for further investigation. Emily Harrington has recently suggested that both recorded and lyric voices are defined by repetition and mechanical or metrical functioning and a disembodied state--ideas that I expand on in pages that follow. (3) Margaret Linley posits that Victorian lyric's attempt to conjure dead, absent, and lost voices while talking (figuratively) about voice should be reconsidered in light of Victorian anxiety regarding question of whether phonographs, like telegraphs and cameras, were remapping human coordinates. (4) At a time when embodied speech was being displaced and destabilized, when (as I claim later in this essay) poetic fixation on vanished past signaled elegiac nature of age, and when waning of religious faith and vogue for spiritualism ignited new uncertainties about whether dead could speak, admittedly problematic urge to personify marks on a page provided an intriguing counterpart to urge to personify recordings. Frederick Garbit's 1878 attribution of human traits to phonograph (it is tractable, teachable and humble, ... faithful, outspoken and devoid of all treachery), his proposal that such a machine be placed inside Statue of Liberty, fact that Edison manufactured talking dolls containing phonograph cylinders, use of phonographs to synchronize recorded dialogue with silent films: all reflect desire to reunite disembodied sound with human presence. (5) Yopie Prins, concentrating on a mnemonic formal feature that I also scrutinize, argues that metrical strategies of Victorian poems were preceding and perhaps even predicting sound reproduction technologies that emerged in course of nineteenth century. …

An investigation of young girls’ responses to sexualized images

Evidence suggests that the sexualization of girls has increased and become more explicit in recent years. However, most of the research conducted to date has focused on sexualization in adults. To address this research gap, this study explored how young Australian girls respond to and describe sexualized and non-sexualized depictions of their peers. Results from 42 girls aged 6–11 years revealed that sexualization was a perceptually salient attribute, with participants readily classifying sexualized girls as a subgroup. Participants also made distinct trait attributions based on the differences between sexualized and non-sexualized girls. The results suggest that young girls respond differently to sexualized and non-sexualized depictions of their peers and are beginning to develop stereotypes based on these depictions. As such, the implementation of media literacy programs in adolescence may be too late and efforts may be required to address this issue among younger children.

Grasping for Traits or Reasons? How People Grapple With Puzzling Social Behaviors

Within social psychology, it is well accepted that trait inference is the dominant tool for understanding others' behavior. Outside of social psychology, a different consensus has emerged, namely, that people predominantly explain behavior in terms of mental states. Both positions are based on limited evidence. The trait literature focuses on trait ascriptions to persons, not explanations of behavior. The mental state literature focuses on explanations of ordinary behaviors (for which social scripts provide mental states), not of expectancy-violating behaviors. We examined the critical test case for the two opposing positions: explanations of expectancy-violating behaviors. Participants provided open-ended explanations of puzzling actions, which were content-analyzed for use of mental states, traits, and other causal background factors. Across four studies, three stimulus sets, and two subpopulations, people overwhelmingly offered mental states when explaining puzzling actions (compared with ordinary actions), while they struggled to generate traits and other background factors.

Ingroup/Outgroup Attitudes and Group Evaluations: The Role of Competition in British Classroom Settings

Children’s intergroup bias is one of the consequences of their readiness to categorise people into ingroups and outgroups, even when groups are assigned arbitrarily. The present study examined the influence of intergroup competition on children’s ingroup and outgroup attitudes developed within the minimal-group setting in British classrooms. One hundred and twelve children in two age groups (6-7- and 9-10-year-olds) were assessed on classification skills and self-esteem before being allocated to one of two colour “teams.” In the experimental condition, children were told that the teams would have a competition after two weeks and teachers made regular use of these teams to organise activities. In the control condition, where no competition ensued, teachers did not refer to “teams.” Then children completed trait attributions to their own-team (ingroup) and other-team (outgroup) members and group evaluations. It was found that children developed positive ingroup bias across conditions, but outgroup negative bias was shown only by 6-7-year-olds in the experimental condition, particularly if they lost the competition, where they evaluated their team more critically. Better classification skills were associated with less negativity towards the outgroup in the experimental condition. Findings are discussed in relation to relevant theoretical premises and particulars of the intergroup context.

Why do majority members prefer immigrants who adopt the host culture? The role of perceived identification with the host nation

Research has shown that members of the national majority group generally consider host culture adoption by immigrants as desirable. However, so far, this positive effect of perceived host culture adoption on attitudes toward immigrants has not been explained. We argue that majority members infer national identification of immigrants from their cultural adoption. Moreover, we predict that this inference should decrease majority members’ feeling of ingroup threat, therefore also improving their attitudes toward immigrants. We conducted two experimental studies. In Study 1, majority members who were presented an immigrant group that adopted the host culture held more positive attitudes than those who were presented one that disregarded it. In line with our hypothesis, this effect was fully mediated by perceived identification of the immigrants with the host nation, itself decreasing perception of ingroup threat. Study 2 reproduced the same experimental design, but used descriptions of individual immigrants’ acculturation strategies, and the immigrant group’s status – valued vs. devalued origin – was also manipulated. In addition, Study 2 focused on dimensions of the “Big Two” of social perception. Results replicated the mediational effect of perceived identification on attribution of both warmth and competence traits. The status manipulation had no significant effect and did not interact with cultural adoption. These two studies provide robust evidence that perception of host nation identification explains the effects of perceived cultural adoption on attitudes towards immigrants.

How do different humanness measures relate? Confronting the attribution of secondary emotions, human uniqueness, and human nature traits

ABSTRACTThe present research examines the relationship between the infrahumanization approach and the two-dimensional model of humanness: an issue that has received very little empirical attention. In Study 1, we created three unknown groups (Humanized, Animalized, and Mechanized) granting/denying them Human Nature (HN) and Human Uniqueness (HU) traits. The attribution of primary/secondary emotions was measured. As expected, participants attributed more secondary emotions to the humanized compared to dehumanized groups. Importantly, both animalized and mechanized groups were attributed similar amounts of secondary emotions. In Study 2, the groups were described in terms of their capacity to express secondary emotions. We measured the attribution of HN/HU traits. Results showed that the infrahumanized group was denied both HU/HN traits. The results highlight the importance of considering the common aspects of both approaches in understanding processes of dehumanization.

Facial attractiveness, weight status, and personality trait attribution: The role of attractiveness in weight stigma

The current study examined the influence of facial attractiveness and weight status on personality trait attributions (e.g., honest, friendly) among more and less facially attractive as well as thin and overweight models. Participants viewed pictures of one of four types of models (overweight/less attractive, overweight/more attractive, thin/less attractive, thin/more attractive) and rated their attractiveness (facial, body, overall) and personality on 15 traits. Facial attractiveness and weight status additively impacted personality trait ratings. In mediation analyses, the facial attractiveness condition was no longer associated with personality traits after controlling for perceived facial attractiveness in 12 personality traits. Conversely, the thin and overweight condition was no longer associated with personality traits after controlling for perceived body attractiveness in only 2 personality traits. Post hoc moderation analysis indicated that weight status differently influenced the association between body attractiveness and personality trait attribution. Findings bear implications for attractiveness bias, weight bias, and discrimination research.

Narrative Construction, Social Perceptions, and the Situation Model.

The present investigation examined how three salient features of narrative thinking (situation model construction, linguistic concreteness, and perspective-taking) influenced the social inference process. Results of four experiments indicated that compared with those given other objectives, perceivers given narrative objectives were: (a) more likely to make situation rather than trait attributions for observed behaviors (Experiment 1), (b) less likely to make implicit trait inferences (Experiment 2), and (c) less likely to rely on behavior valence when making evaluative judgments (Experiment 4). Linguistic analyses indicated that narrative construction consistently entailed the creation of situation models of events and linguistic concreteness, but only situation model creation mediated the relationship between narrative and inferences. Experiment 3 confirmed the mediating role of situation models: Perceivers with narrative objectives made trait inferences only when behaviors were inconsistent with contextual information. The role of these core narrative features on social perceptions is discussed.

Introduction: Planetary geosciences, the Dutch contribution to the exploration of our solar system

Planetary geoscience was effectively born when Christiaan Huygens took his first look at planet Mars on Friday 28 November 1659. As one of the leading scientists of his time, Huygens was known for constructing his own telescopes to observe stars, planets and nebulae whenever the clear and spacious skies above the Netherlands allowed. Huygens observed the planet Mars during the heydays of its 1659 opposition. On the night of 28 November he succeeded in sketching the first albedo feature on a different planet in our solar system. The roughly triangular dark-coloured patch was originally christened the Hourglass Sea, suggesting it to be an area of open water. Perhaps the landscape surrounding him in the Netherlands prompted Huygens to interpret the newly discovered feature as a wet area on the planet's surface. The attribution of traits to an albedo feature on another planet based on terrestrial landscapes may well be considered as the first-ever attempt at ‘comparative planetology’. The albedo feature can still be recognised at the surface of Mars today as Syrtis Major. Any modest amateur telescope can provide a view superior to that of Huygens’, allowing the observation of the very first geological feature ever identified on another rocky planet.

Character, Caricature, and Gossip

1. INTRODUCTIONGossip is a nearly ubiquitous speech act. Almost everyone does it. A lot of gossip is about people's character, especially their vices. It is not surprising then that it has long been disparaged. Yet it has largely been bereft of philosophical analysis, but for a bit of recent attention (Holland 1996; Cuonzo 2008; van Niekerk 2008; Bertolotti and Magnani 2014). Westacott (2011) considers the moral permissibility of gossip, but without reaching any conclusions. This article argues that gossiping well is a virtue. This is not to say that all gossip is virtuous. Several limitations must be placed on gossip, but there remains a range of cases in which one can gossip well. Interestingly enough, the virtue of gossip includes some instances of false gossip in which someone's character is caricatured. The permissibility of some kinds of caricature is then important for virtue ethics generally due to the role false gossip can play in creating moral exemplars.2. DEFINING GOSSIPIn order to focus on the moral status of gossip, we first need at least a working conception of the speech act. At its core, gossip is a kind of asserting; to gossip is to assert something of someone other than the speaker and addressee. The subject of gossip is people. You can gossip about one person or a group of people, but not about other things like plants, dogs, or houses. Beyond this, defining gossip enters much murkier waters. A set of necessary and sufficient conditions will likely be open to alleged counterexamples that some (but not all) take to be instances of gossip. For our current purposes, however, it suffices to note four conditions that typify gossip but are not necessary conditions. First, gossip can be either true or false. Second, it may be unsubstantiated or not. Third, gossip is typically about a person who is not part of the conversation (though it may still count if the person is within earshot). Fourth, usually gossip is directly or indirectly about a person's actions (Frank cheated) or traits (Frank's a cheater). Part of the reason that people often attribute traits to others is that trait ascriptions are informationally richer than action ascriptions. Saying lied only tells the addressee what did once. Calling a liar, however, not only relates that has lied, but also relays two other pieces of information. It explains Jane's behavior: she is disposed to lying and does so because she has a robust and reliable character trait that prompts her to lie. Additionally, because she has this character trait, will likely lie again.One important point remains in conceptualizing gossip, namely what we gossip about. In most contexts, telling someone else, Jane is at dinner is boring and not gossip. There has to be something juicy or scintillating about what is asserted of a third party. There are a variety of ways that an assertion can be scintillating enough to count as gossip, but most of these ways can be captured by distinguishing between what well call evaluative and idle gossip. Evaluative gossip evaluates a person's behavior or character relative to some norm. Negative evaluative gossip notes that a norm has allegedly been violated, such as, Martin is a gossip.1 The allegedly violated norm need not be a moral norm. People are gossiped about for violating many different kinds of norms, including legal, aesthetic, political, epistemic, or descriptive norms. Saying Look at what John is wearing; he has the worst fashion sense ever is not necessarily attributing a moral failing to John. Negative evaluative gossip not only describes an alleged norm violation, it also claims that the wrongdoer should be condemned. Though less common, evaluative gossip can also be positive, such as Frank is a sweetheart. In this case a norm is often being fulfilled or surpassed. This form of evaluative gossip commends, instead of condemns, the person in question.Idle gossip on the other hand is scintillating for some reason other than a norm violation by the person in question. …

Social attributions in patients with ventromedial prefrontal hypoperfusion.

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that the medial prefrontal cortex is involved in attributions on enduring and abstract trait characteristics of persons, but not in causal attributions of temporary here-and-now events. Moreover, the neural representation of trait information is thought to be located in the ventral part of the medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). In order to verify this latter finding, this study compared the performance of 8 patients with hypoperfusion of the vmPFC, 10 with hypoperfusion excluding the vmPFC and 15 healthy controls on trait and causal attribution questionnaires consisting of several events presented in brief written scenarios. We also investigated whether vmPFC hypoperfusion influenced the experienced intensity of the negative or positive valence of the events. Our results showed that patients with ventral hypoperfusion performed significantly worse on trait attributions in comparison with the non-vmPFC group and healthy controls. All groups performed equally well on causal attributions. These findings support previous research suggesting that the vmPFC is critically involved in enduring trait attribution, but not in temporary causal attribution. Considering the emotional experience of valence, the findings showed more intense valence ratings for negative events and persons. This confirms the role of the vmPFC in the modulation and regulation of negative emotions.

“Can I Believe My Eyes?” Three- to Six-Year-Olds’ Willingness to Accept Contradictory Trait Labels

Children base trait inferences about people on direct observations of behavior. In some situations, these inferences might conflict with information supplied by others. This study examined 3- to 6-year-olds’ willingness to change their own trait attributions about an actor after receiving a consistent or inconsistent trait label from an authority figure (i.e., a teacher). Participants were more likely to change their attributions when the teacher’s trait label was inconsistent with their own and when it was positive rather than negative. In response to inconsistent trait labels, 3- to 4-year-olds changed their trait labels more often than did 5- to 6-year-olds. The results indicate that children do not defer to a teacher’s trait testimony indiscriminately but take opportunities to view others positively. Findings are interpreted with reference to children’s perceptions of teacher knowledge and trait attribution biases.

Evaluations of the in-group and of out-groups among Portuguese children

The current research examined in-group/out-group attitudes among Portuguese children. The sample consisted of 366 children (183 boys and 183 girls) aged 5, 6, 10 and 11. Children were interviewed about attitudes of the Portuguese in-group and of two out-groups (Cape Verdeans and Brazilians). Three measures were used: a trait attribution task including positive and negative personality traits, and an overall affective evaluation of in-group and out-group members. Results revealed: (a) Portuguese children ascribed more positive attitudes (i.e., assigned more positive and less negative features, and greater positivity and affective evaluation) towards the Portuguese in-group than towards two out-groups; (b) developmental differences in attitudes towards the national groups; (c) an absence of gender differences on any of the variables considered. The findings are discussed in light of past empirical research and theoretical views.

Atypical trait inferences from facial cues in alexithymia.

It is often difficult to distinguish strangers’ permanent facial shapes from their transient facial expressions, for example, whether they are scowling or have narrow-set eyes. Overinterpretation of ambiguous cues may contribute to the rapid character judgments we make about others. Someone with narrow eyes might be judged untrustworthy, because of strong associations between facial anger and threat. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the trait judgments made by individuals with severe alexithymia, associated with impaired recognition of facial emotion. Consistent with the hypothesis, alexithymic participants demonstrated reduced interrater consistency when judging the character traits of unfamiliar faces, and the presence of subtle emotions. Nevertheless, where alexithymics perceived, or misperceived, emotion cues, the character traits inferred thereafter were broadly typical. The finding that individuals with developmental deficits of emotion recognition exhibit atypical attribution of character traits, confirms the hypothesis that emotion-recognition mechanisms play a causal role in character judgments.

Brain Correlates of Self-Evaluation Deficits in Schizophrenia: A Combined Functional and Structural MRI Study.

Self-evaluation plays an important role in adaptive functioning and is a process that is typically impaired in patients with schizophrenia. Underlying neural mechanisms for this dysfunction may be associated with manifested psychosis. However, the brain substrates underlying this deficit are not well known. The present study used brain blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and gray matter voxel-based morphometry to explore the functional and structural brain correlates of self-evaluation deficits in schizophrenia. Eighteen patients with schizophrenia and 17 healthy controls were recruited and asked to judge whether a set of personality-trait adjectives were appropriate for describing themselves, a familiar other, or whether the adjectives were of positive or negative valence. Patients had slower response times for negative trait attributions than controls did; responses to positive trait attributions were faster than those for negative traits among the patient group, while no differences were observed in the control group. Control subjects showed greater activation within the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) than the patient group during the self-evaluation > semantic positivity-evaluation contrast. Patients showed greater activation mainly within the posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC) as compared to controls for the other-evaluation > semantic positivity-evaluation contrast. Furthermore, gray matter volume was reduced in the MPFC, temporal lobe, cuneus, and the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) among the patient group when compared to controls. The present study adds to previous findings regarding self- and other-referential processing in schizophrenia, providing support for neurobiological models of self-reflection impairment.

Atypical trait inferences from facial cues in alexithymia

It is often difficult to distinguish strangers’ permanent facial shapes from their transient facial expressions, for example, whether they are scowling or have narrow-set eyes. Overinterpretation of ambiguous cues may contribute to the rapid character judgments we make about others. Someone with narrow eyes might be judged untrustworthy, because of strong associations between facial anger and threat. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the trait judgments made by individuals with severe alexithymia, associated with impaired recognition of facial emotion. Consistent with the hypothesis, alexithymic participants demonstrated reduced interrater consistency when judging the character traits of unfamiliar faces, and the presence of subtle emotions. Nevertheless, where alexithymics perceived, or misperceived, emotion cues, the character traits inferred thereafter were broadly typical. The finding that individuals with developmental deficits of emotion recognition exhibit atypical attribution of character traits, confirms the hypothesis that emotion-recognition mechanisms play a causal role in character judgments.

Gender-Biased Attitudes and Attributions Among Young Italian Children: Relation to Peer Dyadic Interaction

In the present study, we examined gender-based social cognitions (i.e., global liking and trait attributions) related to observed dyadic peer interactions with same- and other-gender peers in a sample of young children from a large city in central Italy (N = 151; M age = 56.54 months). A multi-method procedure was used including observations of naturally occurring peer interactions and child reports of gender cognitions. Results showed that children interacted more in same-gender dyads than in other-gender dyads (i.e., gender segregation) and viewed same-gender peers more positively than other-gender peers (i.e., gender bias). However, this ingroup bias was found to be stronger for girls than for boys. In addition, findings revealed that for girls only, global liking and positive attributions were related to observed peer dyadic interactions. Specifically, girls who reported higher liking towards same-gender peers were observed to interact more in same-gender dyads. Moreover, the more girls reported liking same-gender peers and the more they viewed them as having positive characteristics, the less girls interacted in other-gender dyads. This result was consistent with our hypothesis about the relationship between gender cognitions and children’s peer interactions. Overall, these findings extend knowledge about the development of gender biases as early as preschool age and the role of gender cognitions on social interactions among young children.

The Role of the Baserate Frequency of Correspondent Behavior and Trait Stereotypes in Attribution: Building on Rothbart and Park (1986)

Research was conducted to understand and extend Rothbart and Park's (1986) innovative study of trait attribution. Participants estimated the baserate frequency of correspondent behaviors and the behavioral expectations of trait stereotypes. The frequency of correspondent behavior appears to determine the evidence needed to confirm and disconfirm traits observed by Rothbart and Park by shaping the behavior expected of persons with a trait. When the baserate of correspondent behavior is high, it is generally expected of everyone, and less likely to impact trait attributions. In contrast, when correspondent behavior is uncommon, it is expected primarily of persons with a trait, and weighted more heavily in the inference process. The findings help to explain why traits that are “hard to acquire are easy to lose” and why positive trait attributions are harder to acquire but easier to lose than negative trait attributions.

Theory of Mind and Children's Trait Attributions about Average and Typically Stigmatized Peers

Previous research indicates that children hold negative beliefs about peers with foreign accents, physical disabilities, and people who are obese. The current study examined skills associated with individual differences in children's social judgements about these typically stereotyped groups. Theory of mind, memory, and cognitive inhibition were assessed in 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds. Then, children were asked to make trait attributions and behavioural predictions about story characters' willingness to help a peer. Results indicated that better theory of mind skills were related to greater positive trait attributions and behavioural predictions about typically stereotyped characters. Younger children made fewer positive behavioural predictions as compared to older children, but both age groups made positive trait attributions. Overall, memory and inhibition had little to no influence on children's responses, although the results varied by story type. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Academic Colleges in the Galilee: Platforms for Inter-Group Relations

This study examines the changes that took place in intergroup relations between Jewish and Arab students in three Israeli colleges in the northern Galilee, as reflected in common traits and behaviors resulting from their shared undergraduate studies. The study investigated whether and how the joint study experience influenced learning and affected intergroup relations for 461 students at different stages of their undergraduate studies. The students answered a four-part questionnaire on cooperative behavior, personality, and demographic traits, and one open question on personal feelings in the college. Results showed that year of studies was a significant factor in creating social ties with other groups, particularly during the third year when students from all groups were more willing to collaborate on study-based activities. A significant effect of object of evaluation (the group evaluated) was found, but not for most other variables and respondents. We conclude that the changes in social relationships are mainly functional. However, change in the attribution of personality traits may be a long-term process and may not be achievable under one academic roof. Possibly this difficulty stems from the Jewish-Arab conflict that hovers in the background and hinders any significant change in perception of character traits.