Explicit Beliefs Research Articles

The true self and existential structure? Unexpected effects of mortality salience and personal need for structure on belief in a true self

Two studies examined (what seemed to be) a relatively straightforward prediction that mortality salience would increase belief in a true self. This hypothesis was based on existing evidence that the idea of a true self helps people organize the world as well as evidence suggesting that people are particularly likely to rely on such organizing structures when death is salient. We further hypothesized that this effect would be pronounced for individuals high in personal need for structure (PNS). However, our results revealed a pattern in the opposite direction as predicted. While PNS did moderate the effect of mortality salience on belief in a true self, high PNS individuals were actually less likely to derogate the author of an essay suggesting the true self is an illusion (Study 1) and less likely to endorse items assessing explicit belief in the true self (Study 2) following MS. These findings contradict existing theory and evidence and suggest an interesting potential avenue for future research.

The Implicit Associations Between Religious and Nonreligious Supernatural Constructs

ABSTRACTThe present studies furthered understanding of the implicit relationships between traditional religious (RS) and nonreligious supernatural (NRS) concepts. Moving beyond the study of explicit beliefs, we accounted for the distinctions within NRS concepts, applying recent developments in the understanding of the correspondence in beliefs in these phenomena.

Logistic Mixed Models to Investigate Implicit and Explicit Belief Tracking.

We investigated the proposition of a two-systems Theory of Mind in adults’ belief tracking. A sample of N = 45 participants predicted the choice of one of two opponent players after observing several rounds in an animated card game. Three matches of this card game were played and initial gaze direction on target and subsequent choice predictions were recorded for each belief task and participant. We conducted logistic regressions with mixed effects on the binary data and developed Bayesian logistic mixed models to infer implicit and explicit mentalizing in true belief and false belief tasks. Although logistic regressions with mixed effects predicted the data well a Bayesian logistic mixed model with latent task- and subject-specific parameters gave a better account of the data. As expected explicit choice predictions suggested a clear understanding of true and false beliefs (TB/FB). Surprisingly, however, model parameters for initial gaze direction also indicated belief tracking. We discuss why task-specific parameters for initial gaze directions are different from choice predictions yet reflect second-order perspective taking.

New narratives for innovation

Sociotechnical imaginaries are visions of desired social and technological futures created and sustained by stakeholders in science, industry and politics. Within the dominating innovation narratives there are a number of implicit and explicit beliefs that are both descriptive and normative. Technological optimism is the prevailing discourse, challenged by alternative imaginaries, among them a narrative of degrowth. In this paper we argue for the importance of producing more democratic and sustainable imaginations of future social and technological trajectories. We indicate how new narratives for innovation may include different perspectives and sources of knowledge, including heterodox economics, bio-economics, science and technology studies, and Post-Normal Science. The replacement of policy narratives, however, is not achieved through science speaking truth to power. If that were the case, policies would have changed a long time ago. The present analysis and discussion illustrates how the challenge of replacement is itself one that calls for a reflexive understanding of the relationship between knowledge, belief and agency in complex research and innovation (R&I) systems.

Towards greater understanding of addiction stigma: Intersectionality with race/ethnicity and gender

BackgroundIn spite of the significant burden associated with substance use disorders, especially among persons who inject drugs (PWIDs), most affected individuals do not engage with any type of formal or informal treatment. Addiction stigma, which is represented by negative social attitudes toward individuals who use alcohol and/or other drugs, is one of the barriers to care that is poorly understood. The current study: a) assessed implicit (indirect and difficult to consciously control) and explicit (consciously controlled) beliefs about PWIDs among visitors to a public web site; and b) experimentally investigated the effects of ethnicity/race and gender on those implicit and explicit beliefs. MethodsN=899 predominantly White (70%) and women (62%) were randomly assigned to one of six target PWIDs conditions: gender (man/woman) x race/ethnicity (White, Black, Latino/a). Participants completed an Implicit Association Test and explicit assessment of addiction stigma. ResultsParticipants implicitly associated PWIDs (especially Latino/a vs. White PWIDs) with deserving punishment as opposed to help (p=0.003, d=0.31), indicating presence of addiction stigma-related implicit beliefs. However, this bias was not evident on the explicit measure (p=0.89). Gender did not predict differential implicit or explicit addiction stigma (p=0.18). ConclusionsContrary to explicit egalitarian views towards PWIDs, participants’ implicit beliefs were more in line with addiction stigma. If replicated and clearer ties to behavior are established, results suggest the potential importance of identifying conditions under which implicit bias might influence behavior (even despite explicit egalitarian views) and increase the likelihood of discrimination towards PWIDs.

Implicit beliefs about emotion regulation and their relations with emotional experiences among Chinese adolescents

There is growing interest in understanding how beliefs about emotion regulation are related to individual emotional experiences. Extant studies have mainly focused on explicit beliefs about emotion regulation among individuals in Western societies. The current study examined implicit emotion regulation and explored their contributions to emotional outcomes in 147 Chinese adolescents. Participants were tested on their implicit beliefs about emotion regulation and their negative emotion experiences. Results showed that the down-regulation was implicitly evaluated as more positive than up-regulation. Moreover, positive implicit beliefs about down-regulation increased with age. Among younger adolescents, those who evaluated down-regulation more positively had less negative emotional experiences. These results suggest that down-regulation may have important implications in Chinese culture.

The base rate principle and the fairness principle in social judgment

Meet Jonathan and Elizabeth. One person is a doctor and the other is a nurse. Who is the doctor? When nothing else is known, the base rate principle favors Jonathan to be the doctor and the fairness principle favors both individuals equally. However, when individuating facts reveal who is actually the doctor, base rates and fairness become irrelevant, as the facts make the correct answer clear. In three experiments, explicit and implicit beliefs were measured before and after individuating facts were learned. These facts were either stereotypic (e.g., Jonathan is the doctor, Elizabeth is the nurse) or counterstereotypic (e.g., Elizabeth is the doctor, Jonathan is the nurse). Results showed that before individuating facts were learned, explicit beliefs followed the fairness principle, whereas implicit beliefs followed the base rate principle. After individuating facts were learned, explicit beliefs correctly aligned with stereotypic and counterstereotypic facts. Implicit beliefs, however, were immune to counterstereotypic facts and continued to follow the base rate principle. Having established the robustness and generality of these results, a fourth experiment verified that gender stereotypes played a causal role: when both individuals were male, explicit and implicit beliefs alike correctly converged with individuating facts. Taken together, these experiments demonstrate that explicit beliefs uphold fairness and incorporate obvious and relevant facts, but implicit beliefs uphold base rates and appear relatively impervious to counterstereotypic facts.

Impacts of cell phone use on driving safety and drivers’ perception of risk

In this study, the factors influencing phone-related driving safety and drivers’ perceptions of cell phone usage were analyzed. A representative sample of more than 500 licensed drivers in Texas who own a cell phone was interviewed based on a well-design questionnaire. Logistic regression model showed that the impact of using cell phone on driving safety varies depending on the characteristics of drivers, such as gender, age, driving experience, and use intensity. Additionally, the results indicated that the strong determinants of phone-related hazard are different from that of phone-related accidents. Regarding the drivers’ perception of cell phone usage, there are two key findings. First, there is no explicit belief among the drivers about whether cell phone usage impairs driving safety regardless of the drivers’ age, gender, driving education experience etc. Second, most of drivers have not realized that cell phone use while driving would increase their perception reaction time. Based on the analysis of these results, implications of cell phone use on driving safety along with some safety countermeasures, such as selective bans and non-cell phone zones, are discussed in the paper.

Weight stigmatisation in physiotherapy: a systematic review

Background: Physiotherapists play an integral role in the provision of health care to individuals who are overweight or obese. An understanding of weight stigma is therefore important in ensuring best practice. Despite these considerations, no previous systematic reviews have investigated weight stigma in physiotherapy.Objectives: To determine if (i) physiotherapists demonstrate weight stigma through explicit or implicit means and (ii) how weight stigma is perceived by physiotherapy patients.Methods: Database searches were conducted to identify quantitative and qualitative studies published between January 1960 and September 2015. Two reviewers independently performed data extraction and assessments of methodological quality. Outcome measures included explicit attitudes, implicit attitudes and beliefs about obesity held by physiotherapists, as well as patient perceptions of obesity management.Results: Seven high-quality studies were included in the review. Six studies demonstrated the existence of explicit weight stigma, with a majority of physiotherapists describing people with increased weight as ‘noncompliant’ and ‘unmotivated’. One study demonstrated the existence of implicit weight stigma, but this did not appear to influence treatment approaches. Four studies found stigmatising beliefs about weight among physiotherapists, and one study found that physiotherapy patients believed both physical environments and paternalistic communication styles propagated weight stigmatisation.Conclusions: Explicit weight stigmatisation is common in physiotherapy and is often perceived by patients, who may feel unmotivated or ignored as a result. While implicit stigmatisation also occurs, it is unclear if this influences physiotherapy management. Future research is required to assist in the development of appropriate preventative strategies.

"Whether I like it or not, it's important": Implicit importance of means predicts self-regulatory persistence and success.

To effectively self-regulate, people must persevere on tasks that they deem important, regardless of whether those tasks are enjoyable. Building on past work that has noted the fundamental role of implicit cognition in guiding effective self-regulation, the present paper tests whether an implicit association between goal means and importance predicts self-regulatory persistence and success. Implicit importance predicted markers of effective self-regulation-better grades, more studying and exercise, and stronger standardized testing performance-over and above, and often better than, explicit beliefs about the importance of that self-regulation, as well as implicit evaluations of those means. In particular, those for whom tasks were fairly taxing to complete (i.e., those for whom this self-regulation required effortful self-control) were those who most benefitted from the implicit association between means and importance. Moreover, when participants were reminded of recent self-regulatory failure that they believed could be overcome through hard work, implicit importance toward the means increased as if to prepare them to achieve self-regulatory persistence. A final study sought to reconcile the present findings with previous work showing the key role that implicit evaluations play in effective self-regulation. We reasoned that means are important precisely because they are associated with valued end-states. Consistent with this account, implicit evaluations of end-states predicted the implicit importance of means, which in turn predicted effective self-regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record

Creencia no evidencial y certeza vital

This paper argues that the notion of explicit belief in Ortega y Gasset (1946) and Wittgenstein (1969) requires a non-intellectualist understanding of certainty, what is called vital certainty. It is argued that the normative role of the hinge propositions prevents skeptic doubt and, in turn, enables epistemology. This normative role is understood as a-epistemic, even if we can affirm a sui generis use of ''I know''. Finally, skeptical reading is discussed as a possible case of loss of certainty, and how vital certainty responds to these cases.

Behavioral measures of implicit theory of mind in adults with high functioning autism

Theory of mind (ToM) research has shown that adults with high functioning autism (HFA) demonstrate typical performance on tasks that require explicit belief reasoning, despite clear social difficulties in everyday life situations. In the current study, we used implicit belief manipulations that are task-irrelevant and therefore less susceptible to strategies. In a ball-detection task, it was shown that neurotypical individuals detect a ball faster if an agent believed the ball was present. We predicted that adults with high functioning autism (HFA) would not show this effect. While we found a numerical difference in the hypothesized direction, we did not find a reliable group effect. Interestingly, the implicit ToM-index showed a strong negative correlation with both self-reported and observational measures of social difficulties in the HFA group. This suggests that the relationship between implicit ToM reasoning and the symptomatology of HFA might be subtler than assumed.

Does the Gender Mix Among Employers Influence Who Gets Hired? A Labor Market Experiment

We consider in this paper whether the gender mix at the level of decision-makers in firms can influence gender representation at the employee level. We run a laboratory experiment whereby we present a pair of independent employers with applications from two potential employees. We consider whether the gender of the other employer will influence an employer's hiring decision. We find that the gender mix among employers plays a role in the individual hiring decisions of female members. Female employers when paired with a male employer are more likely to choose a female applicant over an equally competent male applicant. Results of an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and answers to a post-experimental questionnaire show that explicit beliefs about relative gender performance are significantly associated with the observed hiring bias, while implicit attitudes do not appear to play a role.

Central Fallacies of Modern Economics

Although it is widely recognised that the modern discipline of economics is short on explanatory successes, there is little sign that ongoing critical assessments of the situation are leading to any improvements. The reason for this lack of progress, I argue, is a prevalence of a set of fallacies maintained very often by mainstream practitioners and heterodox critics alike. These tend to take the form of presuppositions that underpin more explicit beliefs and accepted practices. Mostly they remain implicit and largely unnoticed. When noticed, they are regarded as so obviously correct they are rarely critically examined. Here I do examine them both explicitly and critically.

Scrupulosity and implicit and explicit beliefs about God

Dual-system models of cognition propose that the interplay between analytic and associative cognition determines emotions and behaviors. Scrupulosity, an OCD presentation dominated by religious or moral fears, involves fears that God is unreasonable and punitive, and previous research suggests that individuals with scrupulosity hold more negative concepts of God. The current research assessed if implicit associative aspects of these beliefs are relevant, both to bypass social desirability and to explore the role of non-conscious cognition. Participants were drawn from the Harvard Medical School Study on Judaism and Mental Health and completed an explicit assessment of beliefs about God, a related implicit association task (GNAT), and the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity. Results indicated that explicit and implicit beliefs did not correlate, and that they both independently correlated with scrupulosity. Regression analyses indicated that only those with high explicit negative beliefs and relatively negative implicit associations reported elevated levels of scrupulosity. Beliefs about God, like other cognitive processes, appear to include both automatic and deliberate components that can be discordant, and symptoms of scrupulosity may require both explicit and implicit negative evaluations. Further research exploring the relevance of dual process models to scrupulosity, OCD, and affective disorders generally, appears warranted and necessary.

Teachers’ implicit attitudes, explicit beliefs, and the mediating role of respect and cultural responsibility on mastery and performance-focused instructional practices.

The theory of planned behavior and the dual process attitude-to-behavior MODE model framed an examination of how White teachers’ (N = 241) implicit and explicit attitudes toward White versus non-White students were related to their classroom instructional practices in 2 school districts with a high percentage of Arab American and Chaldean American (ArChal) students. We proposed a model in which the relations would be mediated by teachers’ desire to promote respect in the classroom and to take responsibility for providing a culturally responsive curriculum and resolving interethnic conflicts. The Implicit Association Test assessed teachers’ implicit preference for White relative to ArChal adolescents, and explicit measures assessed teachers’ negative stereotypic beliefs regarding minority and poor adolescents. Path analysis indicated that teachers’ explicit and implicit attitudes, mediated by their desire to promote respect and by their personal sense of responsibility for engaging in culturally responsive teaching, explained 30% and 13% of the variance in teachers’ endorsement of mastery- and performance-focused instructional practices, respectively. Teachers who held more implicitly favorable attitudes toward White relative to ArChal adolescents were less likely to promote mutual respect among students and were consequently less responsible for engaging in culturally adaptive practices and for resolving interethnic conflict among students. Explicit negative belief regarding minority and poor students was directly related to endorsing performance-focused instructional practices. Results imply the need to provide teachers the opportunities to reflect and deliberate on their attitudes and understand the links among implicit attitudes, explicit beliefs, and classroom instruction.

Anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder: A comparison of body image concerns and explicit and implicit attractiveness beliefs

Although body image is central to the etiological models of anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder, studies comparing body image and beliefs about attractiveness between the disorders are rare. Sixty-nine individuals (anorexia nervosa: n=24, body dysmorphic disorder: n=23, healthy controls: n=22) completed self-report measures (body image and general psychopathology), diagnostic interviews, and Go/No-Go Association tasks measuring implicit associations. Compared to controls, both clinical groups exhibited greater negative body image, a more negative attitude toward their physical selves, and more dysfunctional coping strategies (ps<.001). Also, both clinical groups shared greater explicit beliefs about the importance of attractiveness (ps<.001). In addition to supporting previous research with regard to comparable body image disturbance, this study also showed that beliefs regarding the importance of appearance (e.g., “one must be attractive to be successful”) might be a fruitful target for therapy across both disorders.

The roles of interoceptive sensitivity and metacognitive interoception in panic.

BackgroundInteroception refers to the ability to sense body signals. Two interoceptive dimensions have been recently proposed: (a) interoceptive sensitivity (IS) –objective accuracy in detecting internal bodily sensations (e.g., heartbeat, breathing)–; and (b) metacognitive interoception (MI) –explicit beliefs and worries about one’s own interoceptive sensitivity and internal sensations. Current models of panic assume a possible influence of interoception on the development of panic attacks. Hypervigilance to body symptoms is one of the most characteristic manifestations of panic disorders. Some explanations propose that patients have abnormal IS, whereas other accounts suggest that misinterpretations or catastrophic beliefs play a pivotal role in the development of their psychopathology. Our goal was to evaluate these theoretical proposals by examining whether patients differed from controls in IS, MI, or both. Twenty-one anxiety disorders patients with panic attacks and 13 healthy controls completed a behavioral measure of IS motor heartbeat detection (HBD) and two questionnaires measuring MI.FindingsPatients did not differ from controls in IS. However, significant differences were found in MI measures. Patients presented increased worries in their beliefs about somatic sensations compared to controls. These results reflect a discrepancy between direct body sensing (IS) and reflexive thoughts about body states (MI).ConclusionOur findings support the idea that hypervigilance to body symptoms is not necessarily a bottom-up dispositional tendency (where patients are hypersensitive about bodily signals), but rather a metacognitive process related to threatening beliefs about body/somatic sensations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12993-015-0058-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Explicit Reasons, Implicit Stereotypes and the Effortful Control of the Mind

Research in psychology clearly shows that implicit biases contribute significantly to our behaviour. What is less clear, however, is whether we are responsible for our implicit biases in the same way that we are responsible for our explicit beliefs. Neil Levy has argued recently that explicit beliefs are special with regard to the responsibility we have for them, because they unify the agent. In this paper we point out multiple ways in which implicit biases also unify the agent. We then examine Levy’s claim that the assertibility of explicit beliefs means that they have a unique way of unifying the agent by being available for syntactical operations. We accept that syntactical operations are important, but worry that they are less straightforwardly connected to the unification of agents than Levy claims.

Real or Not? Informativeness Influences Children's Reality Status Judgments

Do children use the Gricean maxim of informativeness (“Make your contribution as informative as is required”) to guide judgments about the reality status of novel entities? In three studies, 9-year-olds watched video clips of two adults discussing novel entities. In Studies 1 and 2, children were less likely to believe in entities introduced with only explicit belief statements (e.g., “I believe in cusk”) than those introduced with other information (e.g., “We saw some cusk in the trees”) or both explicit belief statements and other information. In Study 3, children were more likely to believe in entities about which speakers made an explicit belief statement and appeared to be providing additional information (even though that information was unintelligible) than those about which they only made an explicit belief statement. Consistent with the maxim of informativeness, 9-year-olds expect speakers to introduce novel entities by providing more information about them than a mere statement of belief.