Terms Of Individual Differences Research Articles

How to Make Black Lives Matter to White AI Programmers

Biases in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) have recently received increased attention. Specifically, biases relating to gender and race are frequently programmed into software, in many cases allegedly due to individual programmers who, consciously or unconsciously, replicate existing biases in their work. Past research has neglected to empirically investigate the role of individual programmers in overcoming or correcting biases, especially the question of how they can be motivated to engage in affirmative action and bias detection. The authors develop and test a conceptual framework on the effectiveness of motivational appeals directed at programmers, outlining the role of framing, the message speaker’s race and gender, and receivers’ individual differences in terms of social dominance orientation-egalitarianism (SDO-E) for the effectiveness of such appeals in driving implicit (i.e., ability to detect potential biases, e.g., an AI chatbot portrayed as a white male) affirmative action outcomes. The framework proposes that a problem framing (i.e., “you are part of the problem”) will be more effective than a solution framing (i.e., “you are part of the solution”) if the speaker is white and male (instead of black and female) and vice versa. Regarding individual differences, the authors propose that these results will only occur for respondents with low levels of SDO-E and be reversed for respondents with high levels. To empirically test the hypotheses, the authors recruited 590 real US programmers via Prolific to participate in a 2 (problem versus solution framing) x 2 (speaker white male versus black female) between-subjects experiment measuring their ability to detect potential biases. Results support the theorized framework. The study generates important conceptual implications for theories on biased AI, the role of individual programmers for affirmative action, intersectionality, and bias confrontation, as well as practical implications for the design of motivational appeals as interventions.

Associations Between Ancillary Body Movements and Acoustic Parameters of Pitch, Dynamics and Timbre in Clarinet Playing.

When playing an instrument, there are two main categories of body movements: instrumental movements, which are necessary for the sound production, and ancillary movements, which are associated with individual musical intentions and expressions. In this study, the particular purpose of ancillary movements of clarinet player was investigated especially in respect to how these movements were related to the musical structure of the piece and to specific audio parameters. 3D motion capture data of 19 clarinet players performing the same piece were analyzed regarding common motion patterns during the performance and in accordance with acoustic features related to pitch, dynamics (RMS energy) and timbre (spectral centroid and flux). A focus of the body movements was on the arms and the knees. The results showed that there were certain motion patterns performed by the players depending on specific musical structures. When playing a melodic part, the players often did so by bending their knees. At musical transitions, however, the knees were mainly stretched. Similarly, arm movements were more pronounced during playing melodious parts. At transitions, the arms were put closer to the torso. Considering the connection with the acoustics, a larger range of knee motions was correlated with a larger variation of the timbre. Moreover, at specific moments during the performance, when some players strongly bent their knees or lifted the arms, the RMS energy of the signal was significantly higher. The correlations of the body movements and the acoustic features showed that some players synchronized their movements with particular audio parameters more than others did. In summary, the ancillary movements of the clarinetists pursued both musical expressive intentions and physiologically necessary movements and tended to be performed with individual differences in terms of visual and auditory expression.

The Effect of Social Support, Gender and Years of Immigration on Immigrants’ Depression

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of social support, gender and years of immigration on immigrant’s depression. Researchers have shown that there is an impact on depression state depending on years of immigration. Also, research has shown that there are individual differences in terms of how the immigrants perceives the social support and the interaction that has in the quality of life. Interestingly was that important factor being the social support that perceived immigrants. The design of this study was a parametric correlation and multiple regression were used to examine the results. Three independent variables the first is social support which measure the total support and more specific family support, friends support and significant others support. The second is gender with two levels males or females. Third variable is years of immigration with two levels less 5 years or more 5 years. Dependent variable is depression scores. The participants will be asked to complete two tests. The first was Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support has 12 items about social support on significant others, family and friends’ support. The second questionnaires were CES- D with 20 items about depression with the higher scores indicating the presence of more symptomatology. The number of participants was 124 by which 62they were male immigrants and 62 they were female immigrants. From the results of research, it was found that the years of immigration, the age of immigrants and significant others support associated with the presence of depression of immigrants. Theoretical contributions and future research directions are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.

Mindfulness Moderates the Association Between Perceived Discrimination and Cyber Aggression Among Emerging Adults with Early Left-Behind Experience: A Longitudinal Study.

PurposeAlthough the risk effect of perceived discrimination on left-behind youth’s mental health (mainly emotional problems) has been demonstrated in prior studies, there is a lack of longitudinal studies examining the effect of perceived discrimination on behavioral problems, particularly in emerging adults with early left-behind experience. In addition, little is known about individual differences in terms of this association. In the present study, we draw on the social information processing model of aggression to examine the effect of perceived discrimination and mindfulness on cyber aggression.MethodsWe used two-wave longitudinal panel data involving 535 emerging adults with early left-behind experience in rural China (M age = 19.89 years; SD = 1.20; 57.2% female). To test the moderating role of mindfulness, hierarchical multiple regression and simple slope test analyses were performed.ResultsThe results of linear regression analysis demonstrated that higher levels of perceived discrimination at T1 were significantly associated with higher cyber aggression at T2; the strength of this association was buffered by mindfulness over time.ConclusionThese findings suggest that the facilitation of mindfulness training may be an effective strategy for reducing the risk of perceived discrimination leading to cyber aggression in emerging adults with early left-behind experience.

Influence of travel distance and travel experience on travelers' online reviews: price as a moderator

PurposeBuilding on a small body of work, the authors' study aims to investigate some important antecedents of online review characteristics in the Chinese restaurant industry.Design/methodology/approachUsing a data set of restaurant reviews collected from a most popular review platform in China, the authors conduct a series of analyses to examine the influence of travel experience and travel distance on travelers' review characteristics in terms of review rating and media richness. The moderating effect of restaurant price on the influence is also investigated.FindingsTravelers with a longer travel distance and more travel experience tend to provide higher and lower online ratings, respectively, which can be explained by the construal level theory (CLT) and the expectation-confirmation theory (ECT), respectively. Furthermore, these strong feelings can then induce travelers to post enriched reviews with more pictures, more words and more affective words to release consumption tension. Besides, restaurant price can moderate these relationships.Originality/valueDistinguished from most studies which mainly focus on the consequences of online review characteristics or antecedents of review helpfulness, the authors pay attention to the effects of travelers' individual differences in terms of travel distance and travel experience on travelers' online reviewing behavior. In addition to review rating, the authors also focus on media richness in terms of visual and textual information. The authors' research findings can benefit restaurant consumers and managers for their online word-of-mouth utilization and management.

Envy and help giving.

In this research, we explored and demonstrated a relatively implicit and covert means of undermining envied targets-namely, helping them in a way that retains their future dependence, rather than in a way that increases their autonomy. In four studies, we varied our envy manipulations, measured the extent to which these manipulations trigger malicious motivations, and examined the consequences in terms of intended (Studies 1-2) and actual (Studies 3-4) helping behaviors. In Study 4, we also measured and tested the role of individual differences in terms of proneness to malicious versus benign envy. Taken together, our findings suggest that the extent to which envy toward superior versus neutral peers activates malicious motivations negatively impacts peoples' willingness to provide these superior peers with help, particularly with autonomous help. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Interpersonal Dimension of Pandemic Fear and the Dual-Factor Model of Mental Health: The Role of Coping Strategies.

(1) Background: Current COVID-19 research has mainly focused on negative outcomes associated with fear of the pandemic with the examination of potentially positive outcomes remaining underexplored. Based on the dual-factor model of mental health, which postulates positive and negative dimensions, we assessed the influence of COVID-19 fear on both negative and positive mental health outcomes and examined the mediational role of coping strategies. (2) Methods: A convenience sample of 231 respondents participated in an online survey reporting on measures of pandemic fear (SFS), distress (HADS), post-traumatic growth (PTGI) and individual differences in terms of coping strategies (CSI-SF). (3) Results: Respondents’ main concerns related with the pandemic highlighted the interpersonal and social dimensions implicated in fear of COVID-19. As expected, fear of the pandemic was associated not just with negative but also positive outcomes, while different coping strategies played a role in determining such effects. More specifically, disengagement coping mediated the effects of fear on anxiety and depression, whereas engagement coping was the only mediator of the relationship between COVID-19 fear and post-traumatic growth. (4) Conclusions: Approaches to promote psychological wellbeing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic should on the one hand be sensitive to the needs of the more vulnerable population groups, while on the other leverage existing resources to harness the potential for growth. Strengthening engagement coping in the context of fears triggered by the pandemic may constitute a valuable target to protect against negative and optimize positive mental health outcomes in the general population.

Eating Behavior of Students at the Technical University of Moldova during the Isolation Period

Appetizing peculiarities are formed from childhood and can vary throughout life. Although they are conditioned by genetic factors, over time, the internal regulation of eating behaviors is reduced, being influenced by a complex interaction of various external factors. According to the Behavioral Susceptibility (BST) Theory of Obesity, Food Sensitivity in Response to Food Stimuli (such as Food Sight and Smell) and Satiety Responsiveness (i.e. the ability to adjust diet in response to internal feelings of satiety) contribute to individual differences in terms of energy intake and weight status. The present research intended to assess the eating patterns and behavior of Moldovan students, especially those from Technical University of Moldova during the social isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted, based on the questionnaires (AEBQ—Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire), on a group of 602 students from Technical University of Moldova. Participation in the survey was entirely voluntary, did not involve any invasive procedure, nor did it induce changes in participants’ food patterns. The obtained results could contribute to the formation of the database for the study of the behavioral phenotype associated with the risk of obesity, but also for the study of eating behavior in crises. The questionnaire was distributed, in the form of a link, on the corporate emails of all TUM students. Respondents completed the questionnaire on the Google platform between 13.10.2021 - 25.11.2021, and the final database has been downloaded as a Microsoft Excel file. It was established a positive correlation between, Emotional Over-Eating and Emotional Under-Eating. Nervousness and anger were the most incriminating emotions of students that would cause both overeating and under eating. The results of the AEBQ questionnaire appear to be largely in line with previous studies, and the collected data present interest, in particular to prevent the risk of obesity.

Cognitive aging: why we need creativity to increase cognitive preservation

IntroductionIn general terms, aging is associated with a decline in cognitive skills. Nevertheless, researchers are aware of the existence of persons quickly losing cognitive skills during aging, in contrast to others whose skills are preserved. Consequently, an increasing amount of research in the last years has been devoted to individual differences in decline and possible factors affecting cognitive preservation. Creative engagement seems to play a role as a protective factor against cognitive decline in the elderly.Material and methodsThe current correlational study aims to analyze individual differences in terms of cognitive skills in elderly persons engaged or not engaged in creative daily activities. It is hypothesized that creative activities are correlated with higher preservation of cognitive skills in elderly persons. 80 elderly non-institutionalized persons living in the Alentejo region (Portugal) took part voluntarily in this study; 40 of them were male elderly (N = 40, ages from 65 to 90 years) and 40 were female elderly (N = 40, ages from 65 to 89 years). Cognitive skills were assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination.ResultsThe results seem to show that creative activities are negatively correlated with cognitive decline in female and male elderly persons. The results of this study seem to emphasize the importance of activities of creative production and expression in the preservation of cognitive functions.ConclusionsThese results suggest the importance of creativity for cognitive preservation and the need to produce innovative strategies to increase and support creative production and expression in elderly persons.

Inhibition and individual differences in behavior and emotional regulation in adolescence

The Impulsivity/Reflexivity issue in inhibitory control ability has seldom been investigated in terms of individual differences in typically developing populations. Although there is evidence of changes in executive functioning (EF), including inhibition, in adolescence, very little is known about the role of individual differences. Using the data from 240 14-to-19-year-old high school students who completed a battery of EF tasks (Flanker, Go No-Go, Antisaccade, and Stop signal task), measures of emotion regulation strategies and behavioral difficulties, we performed a latent profile analysis to identify qualitatively distinct score profiles. The results showed the existence in adolescence of two inhibition profiles, Impulsive vs Reflexive, differing in performances at the inhibition tasks. The two profiles were not associated with socio-demographic characteristics, or to psychological variables, such as behavioral characteristics and emotional regulation strategies.

Fear of Missing Out Predicts Distraction by Social Reward Signals Displayed on a Smartphone in Difficult Driving Situations.

Smartphones are particularly likely to elicit driver distraction with obvious negative repercussions on road safety. Recent selective attention models lead to expect that smartphones might be very effective in capturing attention due to their social reward history. Hence, individual differences in terms of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) – i.e., of the apprehension of missing out on socially rewarding experiences – should play an important role in driver distraction. This factor has already been associated with self-reported estimations of greater attention paid to smartphones while driving, but the potential link between FoMO and smartphone-induced distraction has never been tested empirically. Therefore, we conducted a preliminary study to investigate whether FoMO would modulate attentional capture by reward distractors displayed on a smartphone. First, participants performed a classical visual search task in which neutral stimuli (colored circles) were associated with high or low social reward outcomes. Then, they had to detect a pedestrian or a roe deer in driving scenes with various levels of fog density. The social reward stimuli were displayed as distractors on the screen of a smartphone embedded in the pictures. The results showed a significant three-way interaction between FoMO, social reward distraction, and task difficulty. More precisely, under attention-demanding conditions (i.e., high-fog density), individual FoMO scores predicted attentional capture by social reward distractors, with longer reaction times (RTs) for high rather than low social reward distractors. These results highlight the importance to consider reward history and FoMO when investigating smartphone-based distraction. Limitations are discussed, notably regarding our sample characteristics (i.e., mainly young females) that might hamper the generalization of our findings to the overall population. Future research directions are provided.

Twitter and the Real Academia Española: perspectives on impoliteness

Abstract This study presents first- and second-order approaches to impoliteness as found in the Twitter feed of the Real Academia Española, the official Spanish-language institution of the Hispanic world. We argue that impoliteness must be viewed from the perspective of the individual, reflecting their background experiences and knowledge, while also acknowledging norms of their communities. We collected 56 reactive tweets in threads among different users, generating dialogues of different opinions of (dis)agreement. Fourteen participant-viewers rated each user’s tweet and provided judgments and comments on the impoliteness on a 5-point scale. Our results indicate some commonalities among subgroups in terms of politeness norms (e.g., insults), but also show individual differences in terms of expectations (e.g., not doing one’s job). The results suggest the limitations of previous impoliteness frameworks, which apply mostly to face-to-face interactions. Our research points to a need to develop a framework of impoliteness to account for the complexity of the interactions in social media and consider an analysis at individual and community levels.

A study of second to fourth digit ratio in relation to verbal and numerical intelligence among medical students

Introduction and Aim: Prenatal androgens are believed to be one of the probable etiological factors influencing intellectual development of an individual. In-utero testosterone exposure has been thought to affect the digit ratio which is the ratio of lengths of index finger and ring finger (2D:4D). In the present work we intended to study the correlation of 2D:4D with numerical and verbal intelligence believed to be variable among genders. The aim of our study was to find the association of 2D:4D with Verbal Intelligence and Numerical Intelligence in a sample of medical students.
 
 Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in a sample of medical students. 44 female and 44 male students participated in the study. 2D:4D measurements were made using standard procedure after which the participants completed a questionnaire containing 20 questions each to test numerical and verbal intelligence.
 
 Results: In this study, Males were found to have a lower 2D:4D when compared to females. Individuals with lower 2D:4D in their right-hand were seen to have lower verbal intelligence and higher numerical intelligence thus suggesting that males are born with better numerical intelligence and females with greater verbal intelligence.
 
 Conclusion: Digit ratio can be considered as a valuable indicator of individual differences in terms of intelligence, although the exact role of testosterone on brain to cause variation in these cognitive domains is yet to be clearly understood.

Effects of different physical-effort requirements on resistance to extinction in humans

ABSTRACT The role of physical effort on the resistance to change is controversial. While some studies show that physical effort negatively affects resistance to change, others did not report this effect. We sought to examine the effects of different physical effort requirements on resistance to extinction in a systematic replication of a previous experiment. Five undergraduates pressed two spring buttons under a multiple variable-interval (VI) VI schedule during Baseline (BL). Each response that fulfilled the VI contingency and the physical-effort requirement (50 or 10 N) produced 100 points. The participants changed the total points earned for money at the end of each experimental session. During Test, participants responded in a multiple extinction (EXT) EXT schedule. We observed greater resistance to extinction in the Low-Effort (i.e., 10N) Component during most test sessions for three participants. We discuss individual differences in terms of extinction as a process and as a procedure.

The placebo effect: To explore or to exploit?

How people choose between options with differing outcomes (explore-exploit) is a central question to understanding human behaviour. However, the standard explore-exploit paradigm relies on gamified tasks with low-stake outcomes. Consequently, little is known about decision making for biologically-relevant stimuli. Here, we combined placebo and explore-exploit paradigms to examine detection and selection of the most effective treatment in a pain model. During conditioning, where ‘optimal’ and ‘suboptimal’ sham-treatments were paired with a reduction in electrical pain stimulation, participants learnt which treatment most successfully reduced pain. Modelling participant responses revealed three important findings. First, participants' choices reflected both directed and random exploration. Second, expectancy modulated pain – indicative of recursive placebo effects. Third, individual differences in terms of expectancy during conditioning predicted placebo effects during a subsequent test phase. These findings reveal directed and random exploration when the outcome is biologically-relevant. Moreover, this research shows how placebo and explore-exploit literatures can be unified.

Neural representations of the amount and the delay time of reward in intertemporal decision making.

Numerous studies have examined the neural substrates of intertemporal decision‐making, but few have systematically investigated separate neural representations of the two attributes of future rewards (i.e., the amount of the reward and the delay time). More importantly, no study has used the novel analytical method of representational connectivity analysis (RCA) to map the two dimensions' functional brain networks at the level of multivariate neural representations. This study independently manipulated the amount and delay time of rewards during an intertemporal decision task. Both univariate and multivariate pattern analyses showed that brain activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) and lateral frontal pole cortex (LFPC) was modulated by the amount of rewards, whereas brain activity in the DMPFC and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was modulated by the length of delay. Moreover, representational similarity analysis (RSA) revealed that even for the regions of the DMPFC that overlapped between the two dimensions, they manifested distinct neural activity patterns. In terms of individual differences, those with large delay discounting rates (k) showed greater DMPFC and LFPC activity as the amount of rewards increased but showed lower DMPFC and DLPFC activity as the delay time increased. Lastly, RCA suggested that the topological metrics (i.e., global and local efficiency) of the functional connectome subserving the delay time dimension inversely predicted individual discounting rate. These findings provide novel insights into neural representations of the two attributes in intertemporal decisions, and offer a new approach to construct task‐based functional brain networks whose topological properties are related to impulsivity.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDHOOD TRAUMA AND AGGRESSION IN YOUNG ADULTHOOD

The basis of individual differences in terms of the tendency to violence has been the subject of many studies. In this case, the concepts of “domestic violence”, “social learning” and “intergenerational transmission” have emerged. According to Bandura's social learning theory, behavioral stereotypes are learned through social observation and role modeling. Intergenerational transmission theory also plays a supportive role. According to this theory, the child who observes violent behavior is used as a method of coping and problem-solving in the family; normalizes, learns, and therefore adopts it as a coping method. As a result, he/she can exhibit violent behavior during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Based on all this information; the hypothesis claims that there is a significant correlation between being exposed to childhood trauma and aggression in young adulthood. In this study, the data about childhood trauma and aggression levels were collected from 443 young adults between the ages of 18-25 who are studying psychology, law, health sciences, foreign languages, and engineering at a foundation university in Istanbul by Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ). As a result of the analysis, a positive correlation was found between the scale scores. Male participants got significantly higher scores on BPAQ than females.

Affect intensity and gender differences in the functioning of attentional networks in university students

Affect intensity (AI) refers to individual differences in the intensity with which people subjectively experience emotions. High AI is an aspect of emotion dysregulation that is present in a variety of mood and anxiety disorders. The present study evaluates the functioning of attentional networks (alerting, orienting, and executive control) for non-emotional stimuli in healthy subjects classified as having High (H-AI) and Low (L-AI) AI levels through clustering methods. A sample of 200 university students (100 women), aged between 18 and 25 years old, completed the Affect Intensity Measure and the Attentional Network Test (ANT). Women obtained higher AI scores than men and were more highly represented in the H-AI cluster. In ANT, mean response time was significantly shorter in men than in women, but men showed a worse functioning of the alerting network than women (which was not observed for the executive control and orienting networks). In addition, H-AI men exhibited a more efficient executive control network than L-AI men. Executive control was negatively correlated with AI in men, but not in women. These results will be discussed in terms of individual differences in emotion regulation and attentional networks.

Actigraphy-Derived Sleep Is Associated with Eating Behavior Characteristics.

Poor sleep is a determinant of obesity, with overconsumption of energy contributing to this relationship. Eating behavior characteristics are predictive of energy intake and weight change and may underlie observed associations of sleep with weight status and obesity risk factors. However, relationships between sleep and dimensions of eating behavior, as well as possible individual differences in these relations, are not well characterized. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate whether sleep behaviors, including duration, timing, quality, and regularity relate to dietary restraint, disinhibition, and tendency towards hunger and to explore whether these associations differ by sex. This cross-sectional study included 179 adults aged 20–73 years (68.7% women, 64.8% with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2). Sleep was evaluated by accelerometry over 2 weeks. Eating behavior dimensions were measured with the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire. Prolonged wake after sleep onset (WASO) (0.029 ± 0.011, p = 0.007), greater sleep fragmentation index (0.074 ± 0.036, p = 0.041), and lower sleep efficiency (−0.133 ± 0.051, p = 0.010) were associated with higher dietary restraint. However, higher restraint attenuated associations of higher WASO and sleep fragmentation with higher BMI (p-interactions < 0.10). In terms of individual differences, sex influenced associations of sleep quality measures with tendency towards hunger (p-interactions < 0.10). Stratified analyses showed that, in men only, higher sleep fragmentation index, longer sleep onset latency, and lower sleep efficiency were associated with greater tendency towards hunger (β = 0.115 ± 0.037, p = 0.003, β = 0.169 ± 0.072, p = 0.023, β = −0.150 ± 0.055, p = 0.009, respectively). Results of this analysis suggest that the association of poor sleep on food intake could be exacerbated in those with eating behavior traits that predispose to overeating, and this sleep-eating behavior relation may be sex-dependent. Strategies to counter overconsumption in the context of poor quality sleep should be evaluated in light of eating behavior traits.

Larger distances from larger vehicles: effect of vehicle size, viewing side and their facia on comfort distance in virtual reality

ABSTRACT Objective: It is of critical importance to develop socially sensitive vehicles that will enhance pedestrians’ sense of comfort and safety. The current study is the first to extend these effects to vehicles, by investigating individual comfort distance in virtual reality with regard to vehicles that vary in terms of size, viewing angle and anthropomorphized emotional expression. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of individual differences in terms of height, anxiety and aggression. Method: Forty-four individuals were presented with three-dimensional stimuli of vehicle models differing in size and viewing angle in virtual reality and positioned them at the distance they felt the most comfortable with. Results: Our results show that individuals are more comfortable standing further from larger vehicles and when presented with the front versus the rear view of a vehicle. Moreover, the distance from vehicles was negatively associated with the height of the individuals. Conclusion: This paper suggests that it is important for designing self-driving and autonomous vehicles to consider that vehicle size and direction as well as pedestrian’s height may impact the comfort distance felt by pedestrians. These data have clear implications for vehicle design, including self-driving and autonomous vehicles. KEY POINTS What is already known: Individuals maintain larger distances when in front of individuals/agents than beside or behind them. Individuals provide greater physical space to larger agents (animals and/or humans). No previous study investigated the effect of vehicle size, view angle, and fascia on the comfort distance preferred by individuals as pedestrians. What it adds: Individuals are more comfortable standing further from larger vehicles. Individuals prefer to place more distance between themselves and a vehicle when seeing it from the front versus the rear. Shorter individuals adopt a larger distance from vehicles irrespective of vehicle size and viewing side.