Dual-process Framework Research Articles

Do cognitive styles affect vaccine hesitancy? A dual-process cognitive framework for vaccine hesitancy and the role of risk perceptions

RationaleIn this study, we consider cognitive differences in vaccine hesitancy and how perceived risks intervene in this relationship. Recent research agrees on the existence of two cognitive processes, intuitive and analytic cognition. Different individuals lean toward one of these processes with varying degrees of strength, influencing day-to-day behavior, perceptions, and decisions. Thinking dispositions might influence, at the same time, vaccine acceptance and perceived risks of vaccine-preventable disease, but the implications of individuals’ cognitive differences for vaccination uptake have seldom been addressed from a sociological standpoint. ObjectiveWe bridge this gap by adopting a dual-process framework of cognition and investigate how thinking styles have a direct association with vaccine hesitancy and an indirect one through perceptions of risk. MethodsWe use data from original surveys carried out between September and November 2019 on a sample of the Italian population, participating in an online panel run by a major Italian survey company. We use Karlson, Holm, and Breen (KHB) decomposition to compare coefficients of nested-nonlinear models, separate the direct and indirect association of cognitive processes with vaccine hesitancy, and disentangle the contribution of each measure of risk perception. ResultsNet of individual socio-demographic characteristics, intuitive thinking is positively associated with the likelihood of being vaccine hesitant, and this direct association is as important as the indirect one through risk perceptions. Affective risk perceptions account for over half of the indirect association, underlining the centrality of affective versus probabilistic approaches to risk perception. ConclusionThis study contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the importance of including cognitive characteristics in vaccine hesitancy research, and empirically showing individuals' qualitatively complex perceptions of risks. Taking into account individuals’ preferred cognitive style and affective concerns might be important in developing better tailored communication strategies to contain vaccine hesitancy.

Analytic Thinking and Political Orientation in the Corona Crisis.

With much unknown about the new coronavirus, the scientific consensus is that human hosts are crucial to its spread and reproduction—the more people behave like regular socializing beings they are, the more likely it is that the virus will propagate. Hence, many nations worldwide have mandated physical-distancing measures. In the current preregistered research, we focus on examining two factors that may help explain differences in adherence to COVID-19 preventive behaviors and policy support across different countries—political orientation and analytic thinking. We positioned our research within the dual-process framework of human reasoning and investigated the role of cognitive reflection, open-minded thinking, and political ideology in determining COVID-19 responsible behavior (physical distancing and maintaining hygiene) and support for restrictive COVID-19 policies on a sample of 12,490 participants from 17 countries. We have not been able to detect substantial relationships of political orientation with preventive behaviors and policy support, and overall found no reliable evidence of politicization, nor polarization regarding the issue. The results of structural equation modeling showed that the inclination towards COVID-19 preventive measures and their endorsement were defined primarily by the tendency of open-minded thinking. Specifically, open-minded thinking was shown to be a predictor of all three criteria—avoiding physical contact, maintaining physical hygiene, and supporting COVID-19 restrictive mitigation policies. Cognitive reflection was predictive of lesser adherence to stricter hygiene and only very weakly predictive of lesser policy support. Furthermore, there was no evidence of these effects varying across political contexts. The mediation analysis suggested a partial mediation effect of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs on the relationships of open-mindedness and cognitive reflection with physical distancing (but not adherence to stricter hygiene) and COVID-19 policy support, albeit very small and significant primarily due to sample size. There was also no evidence of these effects varying across political contexts. Finally, we have not been able to find strong evidence of political orientation modifying the relationship between analytical thinking and COVID-19 behaviors and policy support, although we explored the pattern of these effects in the US and Canadian samples for exploratory purposes and comparison with other similar studies.

Civility and Rejection: The Contextuality of Cosmopolitan and Racist Behaviours

Applying a dual-process framework to in-depth interviews and survey data, this article explores behavioural manifestations of intercultural attitudes for white majority Norwegians. The article builds upon established literatures on social cognition showing that humans operate with two separate cognitive systems. Affective ‘automatic’ heuristics often generate negative stereotypes, aversive emotions and behavioural responses to ethnic diversities. In contrast, the ‘discursive’ cognitive system, which stores cultural scripts, motivates predominantly egalitarian aspirations and performances. As people balance their behaviours according to contextual evaluations of costs and benefits, the article’s findings indicate a tendency to practise openness and civility in public and spatio-temporally bounded encounters, and to reject or exclude the Other in half or more of privately made selection decisions.

The design stance, intentional stance, and teleological beliefs about biological and nonbiological natural entities.

Teleology involves an appeal to function to explain why things are the way they are. Among scientists and philosophers, teleological explanations are widely accepted for human-made artifacts and biological traits, yet controversial for biological and nonbiological natural entities. Prior research shows a positive relationship between religiosity and acceptance of such controversial teleological explanations. Across three large online studies, we show that the relationship between religiosity and teleological acceptance cannot be explained by acceptance of objectively false explanations. Furthermore, we show that anthropomorphism and a belief in supernatural agents each independently predict teleological acceptance. In contrast, the tendency to inhibit intuitively appealing, yet incorrect responses to simple reasoning problems was associated with lower teleological acceptance. These results provide strong support for an intention-based account of teleology, and further contribute to the existing literature which situates teleological reasoning within a dual-process framework. Several avenues of future research are discussed, including the need to dissociate implicit and explicit measures of teleological belief, and the need for a greater focus on cross-cultural variation in teleological beliefs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Career decision-making in an uncertain world: A dual-process framework

While the Parsonian framework of career decision-making has provided seminal insights into the research and practice of career decision-making, the recent literature challenges the premises and practice of the Parsonian framework in the psychological, economic, and social contexts of contemporary career decision-making. The new discussions urge the field to rethink career decision-making in terms of its process and content and highlight the importance of constructivist authoring, dynamic adaptation, contextual influence, and intuitive thinking. However, the current career decision-making literature has residual limitations in integrating the merits of the Parsonian framework and the new decision-making perspectives and in facilitating research and practice integration. Therefore, the present article reviews new discussions about career decision-making, discusses residual limitations in the career literature, and proposes a new dual-process framework of career decision-making to facilitate future research and practice of career decision-making. This framework differentiates and integrates the processes of managing state uncertainty and inherent uncertainty in career decision-making and proposes an alternative approach to career decision-making that is characterized by strategic anchoring and adjustment.

Looking at both sides of high-performance work systems and individual performance: a job demands−resources model

AbstractIn this study, we show how high-performance work systems (HPWS) in an organization can significantly affect employees' creative performance and burnout. To do this, we propose and test a dual-process framework that is based on HR attribution theory, ability−motivation−opportunity theory, micro- and macro-theoretical perspectives, and the job demands−resources (JD-R) model. Using data from a multisource field study with a sample of 311 participants, we found that HPWS benefited employee creative performance and did not lead to employee burnout. However, HPWS affected both job demands and job resources when employees adopted self-protection and self-enhancement strategies. Also, we found that HPWS had unique indirect effects on employee creative performance via job resources whereas job demands fully mediated the relationship between HPWS and employee burnout. The findings shed light on key aspects of HR attribution theory. We discuss accompanying theoretical and practical implications.

Do we need dual-process theory to understand implicit bias? A study of the nature of implicit bias against Muslims

Psychological dual-process theory has become increasingly popular among sociologists. The dual-process framework accounts for two types of thinking; a fast, associative, automatic or subconscious “System 1 thinking”, and a slow, propositional and reflective “System 2 thinking”. The insight that the former can also be empirically studied by sociologists has the potential to significantly improve sociological research. However, dual-process theory is not undisputed within psychology; some scholars question the associative nature of “fast thinking”. This discussion has implications for how implicit cognition should be studied. In this paper, we introduce this discussion to a sociology audience, exemplifying with the case of implicit bias against Muslims. We evaluate these approaches drawing on a set of experiments conducted at Amazon's Mechanical Turk. We discuss the implications of our results for sociological research.

Mind Your Words, Mind Your Audience: Effect of Comprehension on Crowdfunding Success with Varying Language Complexity and Investment Timing

Crowdfunding has emerged as an essential alternative financing channel in recent years. However, it is recognized that most investors in crowdfunding are laypeople with limited experience of investment and therefore have relatively weak ability of understanding complex project information. Consequently, crowdfunding project success depends heavily on proper management of language complexity in various stages of project information revelation. Unfortunately, previous studies on language complexity effect have no consistent conclusions, thus leaving an important research gap to be tackled. To renewal this line of research innovatively in the context of crowdfunding, we examine the time-varying effect of language complexity in various project stages. To reveal the underlying mechanism, we propose a dual-process framework of project information comprehension. We operationalize the comprehension process in crowdfunding as the interaction effect of language complexity measured by an innovative machine learning approach and investor experience proxied by investment timing. We lay a firm foundation of this research effort by examining the impacts of multiple relevant theories such as the elaboration likelihood model in the context of crowdfunding. We empirically examine the time-varying effect of language complexity and comprehension effect by employing a panel dataset collected from Kickstarter. Our findings confirm that the effect of language complexity on project performance changes as the project progresses, leading to a new strategic approach for crowdfunding management with respect to project information revelation. We also find that the impacts of textual linguistic factors (the central route signals) on investors will dominate at the high level of comprehension, and non-textual heuristic factors (peripheral route signals) will dominate at the low level of comprehension; this is an expansion of the elaboration likelihood model while applying it in the context of crowdfunding. We conclude by examining why our findings are of significant theoretical and practical importance.

How to Effectively Encourage Sustainable Food Choices: A Mini-Review of Available Evidence.

Food choices are difficult to change. People’s individual motivations (such as taste, cost, and food preferences) can be at odds with the negative environmental outcomes of their food choices (such as deforestation, water pollution, and climate change). How then can people be encouraged to adopt more sustainable food choices? This rapid review uses a dual-processing framework of decision-making to structure an investigation of the effectiveness of interventions to encourage sustainable food choices (e.g., local and organic food consumption, reducing meat and dairy intake, reducing food waste) via voluntary behavior change. The review includes interventions that rely on fast, automatic decision-making processes (e.g., nudging) and interventions that rely on more deliberate decision-making (e.g., information provision). These interventions have varying degrees of success in terms of encouraging sustainable food choices. This mini-review outlines some of the ways in which our understanding of sustainable food choices could be enhanced. This includes a call for the inclusion of possible moderators and mediators (past behavior, attitudes, beliefs, values) as part of effect measurements, because these elucidate the mechanisms by which behavior change occurs. In light of the climate change challenge, studies that include long-term effect measurements are essential as these can provide insight on how to foster sustained and durable changes.

Acute stress amplifies experienced and anticipated regret in counterfactual decision-making

Previous research has shown that stress can affect emotion processing in a variety of settings. However, little attention has been paid to the effects of stress on emotional decision-making. The present study addressed this question by exposing healthy young participants either to a stressor (n = 30)–socially evaluated cold pressor task– or a non-stressful control task (n = 30). Subsequently, participants completed a computerized decision-making task in which they could compare the obtained factual outcome with a non-obtained counterfactual outcome. Saliva samples were taken at four time points over the course of the experiment and used to analyze cortisol levels. Results revealed that acute stress induced reliable salivary cortisol increase over the experimental task. At the outcome delivery stage, acute stress amplified negative emotions induced by the counterfactual comparison. At the choice stage, under stress, participants were more likely to make regret-averse decisions. The findings that acute stress amplifies both experienced and anticipated regret is consistent with dual process frameworks such that stress tilts decision-making toward more emotional and intuitive processing. Lay summary Stress is thought to affect emotional processing. The present study investigated the effects of acute stress on emotional decision making using a typical counterfactual decision making task. Acute stress amplified both experience and anticipation of regret, consistent with the dual process frame that stress tilts decision-making toward more emotional and intuitive processing.

Differences between young and older adults in physiological and subjective responses to emotion induction using films

Emotional response in aging is typically studied using the dimensional or the discrete models of emotion. Moreover, it is typically studied using subjective or physiological variables but not using both perspectives simultaneously. Additionally, tenderness is neglected in emotion induction procedures with older adults, with the present work being the first to include the study of physiological tenderness using film clips. This study integrated two separate approaches to emotion research, comparing 68 younger and 39 older adults and using a popular set of film clips to induce tenderness, amusement, anger, fear, sadness and disgust emotions. The direction of subjective emotional patterns was evaluated with self-reports and that of physiological emotional patterns was evaluated with a wearable emotion detection system. The findings suggest a dual-process framework between subjective and physiological responses, manifested differently in young and older adults. In terms of arousal, the older adults exhibited higher levels of subjective arousal in negative emotions and tenderness while young adults showed higher levels of physiological arousal in these emotions. These findings yield information on the multidirectionality of positive and negative emotions, corroborating that emotional changes in the adult lifespan appear to be subject to the relevance of the emotion elicitor to each age group.

Examining the impact of applicant smoking and vaping habits in job interviews

Cigarette and electronic-cigarette users (i.e. vapers) are increasingly stigmatized in both society and the workplace. We examine effects of this stigmatization in the selection process by testing whether interviewers’ negative initial impressions of smokers and vapers extend throughout the interview. We used a dual-process framework of interviewer bias against stigmatized applicants, comprised of Type I-automatic and Type II-systematic processes, and conducted two experiments where US and Canadian participants enacted the role of an interviewer in video-based job interview simulations. Consistent with Type I processes, results show that cigarette smokers, and to lesser extent vapers, were initially rated as less qualified than non-smokers. These initial impressions were not subjected to justification/rationalization during the interview via harder questions asked. However, they served as anchors, also consistent with Type I processes, and impacted final assessments alongside Type II adjustments based on applicants’ response quality. Additionally, using attentional eye tracking data, we found that raters with worse attitudes toward smoking, but not vaping, glanced at stigma cues more frequently, which went on to influence first impressions. These findings provide valuable tests of key components of the dual-process model of interviewer bias, and raise concerns around the devaluation of smokers and vapers in hiring decisions.

Rise of Machine Agency: A Framework for Studying the Psychology of Human–AI Interaction (HAII)

AbstractAdvances in personalization algorithms and other applications of machine learning have vastly enhanced the ease and convenience of our media and communication experiences, but they have also raised significant concerns about privacy, transparency of technologies and human control over their operations. Going forth, reconciling such tensions between machine agency and human agency will be important in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), as machines get more agentic and media experiences become increasingly determined by algorithms. Theory and research should be geared toward a deeper understanding of the human experience of algorithms in general and the psychology of Human–AI interaction (HAII) in particular. This article proposes some directions by applying the dual-process framework of the Theory of Interactive Media Effects (TIME) for studying the symbolic and enabling effects of the affordances of AI-driven media on user perceptions and experiences.

Familiarity impairments after anterior temporal-lobe resection with hippocampal sparing: Lessons learned from case NB

We review evidence from an extensive single case study in an individual (NB) who underwent a rare left-sided anterior temporal-lobe resection with sparing of the hippocampus. Our study aimed to determine whether memory functions of perirhinal cortex, which was largely removed in the resection, can be impaired against a background of preserved hippocampus-dependent memory processing. This research was guided by the proposal that item-based familiarity assessment relies on contributions of perirhinal cortex, and that the hippocampus plays a unique role in the relational binding of items to episodic contexts, which is critical for recollection. Seven sets of findings have emerged from our research on NB (synthesized from five primary research articles), and from follow-up work in other patients: (i) Familiarity impairments can be selective and be revealed with multiple methods; (ii) selective familiarity and selective recollection impairments can be double dissociated; (iii) selective familiarity impairments show material specificity; (iv) selective familiarity impairments extend to assessment of cumulative lifetime experience; (v) selective familiarity impairments are sensitive to degree of feature overlap between object concepts; (vi) selective familiarity impairments are associated with preserved task-related fMRI signals in the hippocampus; (vii) selective familiarity impairments can be observed in other lesion cases. Despite our main focus on the dual-process framework, we also discuss implications for the functional organization of the medial temporal lobes in broader terms. We argue that our findings shed light on this organization even if the functional specialization of different medial temporal structures is ultimately not fully captured with reference to the cognitive distinction between familiarity and recollection.

Influence of Experience on the Thought Process of Clinical Psychologists: An Analysis from the Dual-Process Theories Framework.

In the course of their work, psychologists must make judgments and complex decisions, skills that are part of clinical reasoning. Recent models approach the analysis of such process using the dual-process theories framework. This study provides an assessment of the two systems, System 1 and System 2, in forty-five clinical psychologists with different levels of experience (novices, intermediates and experts) with the purpose of exploring their level of activation and evolution throughout such stages of expertise. According to the results, clinical psychologists mainly activate System 2, M = 70.91, SD = 6.71, than System 1, M = 60.49, SD = 3.78; $ {F}_{\left(1,\kern0.5em 41\right)}=7.99;p<.01;{\upeta}^2=.163, $ when performing their clinical duties. However, no significant changes have been observed regarding the preferential use of thinking Systems 1 or 2 throughout the experience, both systems are used in a similar way in the different levels of expertise analyzed, with an increase of System 2 at the intermediate level of expertise. The results are analyzed in terms of intermediate effect and discussed focusing on the unremitting need for System 2 in psychologist work given the idiosyncratic characteristics of each case requiring treatment in the area of psychology and on the relationship of the two systems in clinical reasoning.

Rational rationalization and System 2.

In this commentary, I highlight the relevance of Cushman's target article for the popular dual-process framework of thinking. I point to the problematic characterization of rationalization in traditional dual-process models and suggest that in line with recent advances, Cushman's rational rationalization account offers a way out of the rationalization paradox.

Ironic and overcompensating processes under avoidance instructions in motor tasks: An attention imbalance model with golf-putting evidence.

Thought-suppression research showed, when asked to suppress a given thought (e.g., a white bear), people ironically report thinking more of the suppressed thought. Testing motor performance given avoidance goals (e.g., avoid putting the ball short of the target in golf) represents an interest to transfer thought-suppression findings to motor tasks. However, instead of revealing an ironic process, motor studies showed mixed results, suggesting a coexistence of ironic and overcompensating processes. The present study investigates the coexistence of ironic and overcompensating processes induced by avoidance goals in motor tasks. Adopting a dual-process framework, an attention imbalance model (AIM) was proposed to conceptualize such a coexistence. Four golf-putting experiments were conducted to test the AIM by manipulating the degree of attentional imbalance. Results indicated the factor of attentional imbalance moderates the likelihood between ironic and overcompensating processes in golf putting, and such a moderating effect exists in both between- and within-individual variation of task performance but demands task-specific considerations. In addition, performance feedback confounded the putting performance by reducing the likelihood of overcompensating process. The implications of the AIM are discussed in an extended context of motor performance under avoidance goals and thought suppression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Modeling Emotive and Cognitive Origins of Consumer's Purchase Choices and Patronage Decisions

Despite the considerable role of consumers' emotive and cognitive origins in performing e-commerce transactions, a few empirical investigations systemically integrate the utilitarian and hedonic factors into the online retailing environment to uncover consumers' purchase choices and repatronage decisions. Built upon the dual-process framework and cognitive model (COG) of satisfaction decisions, this article proposes that anticipated elation (emotive factor) and trust propensity (cognitive factor) are the determinants of immersive satisfaction (emotive factors/outcome) and repatronage intention (cognitive outcome). The study further argues that the utilitarian and hedonic factors moderates the proposed relationships. A sample of 424 valid questionnaires was collected from experienced online consumers in Malaysia. Statistical analysis of the study was conducted using partial least square (PLS), which is a variance-based structural equation modeling (VB-SEM) technique, for both measurement and structural assessments. The empirical evaluation supports the structural relationships between exogenous and endogenous constructs in the online retailing environment. Additionally, utilitarian and hedonic product type moderates the proposed structural relationships, except for the relationship between anticipated elation and immersive satisfaction. The research's practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Why are Dispositional Enviers not Satisfied With Their Lives? An Investigation of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Pathways Among Adolescents and Young Adults

The literature has revealed that the tendency to feel envy, as captured by dispositional envy, can dampen a young adult’s life satisfaction. As values and resources change with the passing of various developmental stages, what affects life satisfaction may vary across age groups. Nevertheless, limited research has been conducted to investigate the effect of dispositional envy on life satisfaction and the mechanisms accounting for this linkage among adolescents. Hence, built upon the dual-process framework, the present research tested an intrapersonal mechanism of self-esteem and an interpersonal mechanism of social connectedness using two samples. Through a comparative study among both young adults and adolescents (N = 1,033), we show that dispositional envy negatively predicts life satisfaction, and both self-esteem and social connectedness mediate this link in the two age groups. These two distinct pathways both affect life satisfaction among dispositional enviers. Using within- and between-group comparisons, we find that the mediation effect of self-esteem is significantly stronger than that of social connectedness among adolescents, while the two pathways are equally strong among young adults. Finally, an alternative model predictive of life satisfaction was ruled out to strengthen the current conclusion.

A Cue for Rational Reasoning: Introducing a Reference Point in Cognitive Reflection Tasks.

The dual process framework posits that we reason using the quick System 1, and the deliberate System 2, both of which are part of our “adaptive toolbox”. The Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) estimates which system was used to solve a reasoning problem. Usually, the CRT tasks are solved incorrectly by using System 1, and correctly through System 2. We have applied the reference point hypothesis to the tasks of the CRT and proposed that this change would facilitate the switch between systems, resulting in better performance on the version of the test with a reference point, compared to the CRT without one. The results confirmed our assumptions, as evidenced by a generally higher score on the CRT with a reference point, albeit with different effects between items.