Interpersonal Bias Research Articles

Superman to the rescue: Simulating physical invulnerability attenuates exclusion-related interpersonal biases

People cope with social exclusion both by seeking reconnection with familiar individuals and by denigrating unfamiliar and disliked others. These reactions can be seen as adaptive responses in ancestral environments where ostracism exposed people to physical dangers and even death. To the extent that reactions to ostracism evolved to minimize exposure to danger, alleviating these foundational concerns with danger may lessen people's need to cope with exclusion. Three studies demonstrate how a novel physical invulnerability simulation lessens both positive and negative reactions to social exclusion. Study 1 found that simulating physical invulnerability lessened exclusion-triggered negative attitudes toward stigmatized groups, and demonstrated that perceived invulnerability to injury (vs. imperviousness to pain) accounted for this effect. Studies 2 and 3 focused on another facet of social bias by revealing that simulating physical invulnerability lessened rejected participants' desires for social connection.

The Benefits of Climate for Inclusion for Gender-Diverse Groups

I introduce the construct of climate for inclusion, which involves eliminating relational sources of bias by ensuring that identity group status is unrelated to access to resources, creating expectations and opportunities for heterogeneous individuals to establish personalized cross-cutting ties, and integrating ideas across boundaries in joint problem solving. I show that within inclusive climates, interpersonal bias is reduced in such a way that gender diversity is associated with lower levels of conflict. In turn, the negative effect that group conflict typically has on unit-level satisfaction disappears. This has important implications, as unit-level satisfaction is negatively associated with turnover in groups.

Immunizing Against Prejudice

Contemporary interpersonal biases are partially derived from psychological mechanisms that evolved to protect people against the threat of contagious disease. This behavioral immune system effectively promotes disease avoidance but also results in an overgeneralized prejudice toward people who are not legitimate carriers of disease. In three studies, we tested whether experiences with two modern forms of disease protection (vaccination and hand washing) attenuate the relationship between concerns about disease and prejudice against out-groups. Study 1 demonstrated that when threatened with disease, vaccinated participants exhibited less prejudice toward immigrants than unvaccinated participants did. In Study 2, we found that framing vaccination messages in terms of immunity eliminated the relationship between chronic germ aversion and prejudice. In Study 3, we directly manipulated participants’ protection from disease by having some participants wash their hands and found that this intervention significantly influenced participants’ perceptions of out-group members. Our research suggests that public-health interventions can benefit society in areas beyond immediate health-related domains by informing novel, modern remedies for prejudice.

AGE- AND GENDER-BASED ROLE INCONGRUENCE: IMPLICATIONS FOR KNOWLEDGE MASTERY AND OBSERVED LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL AMONG PERSONNEL IN A LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Using archival data from 972 military officers who participated in a 5-week team-based leadership development program, the authors tested 5 hypotheses concerning the implications of age- and gender-based role incongruence for individuals’ mastery of 2 knowledge categories and their observed leadership potential (OLP). As hypothesized, greater age was related to less mastery of both teamwork knowledge and strategy knowledge, whereas female gender was related to less mastery of strategy knowledge only. Another focus was on possible evaluative bias in OLP, with individuals’ knowledge mastery and career-relevant circumstantial factors taken into account. Notably, knowledge mastery partially explained the appreciable overall relationship of age with OLP, yet fully explained the modest overall relationship of gender with OLP. Therefore, some evaluative bias existed for age but not gender. The overall pattern of results revealed that an intrapersonal consequence (i.e., knowledge mastery) of demographic-based role incongruence overshadowed any interpersonal bias in evaluation, pointing to a new direction for theory and research.

Behavioural features of Italian infants and young adults with Williams–Beuren syndrome

The increased interest in social interaction in Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) is evident from infancy onwards, together not only with increased empathy, positive interpersonal bias, but also with social disinhibition. Previous studies have described behavioural and emotional problems as being widely represented in WBS. There is limited scope for comparisons between literature data because of the variety of instruments used to assess behaviour. Forty-one children and young adults with WBS were enrolled and underwent general cognitive assessment. In order to compare our data with the literature, we used standardised questionnaires used in previous studies (Developmental Behaviour Checklist: DBC-P). General cognitive abilities, gender and age were included in the analysis. Behavioural problems were more relevant than expected according to intellectual impairment. Some features were present at any age: inattention, anxiety, disruptive behaviours. Antisocial conduct was almost absent; perseverative conduct, a poor sense of danger and, more generally, self-absorbed behaviours tended to diminish along with age and to be linked to more pronounced cognitive impairment. As previously described for other countries, behaviour disturbances occur frequently in the Italian WBS population. Our data could support the existence of some 'intrinsic' behavioural characteristics in WBS such as inattention and anxiety, which are detectable and important at any age; both learning and social exposure to a structured context such as school could help diminish self-absorbed behaviour.

What’s new in the other journals?

What’s new in the other journals?

Self–Related and Interpersonal Judgment Biases in Social Anxiety Disorder: Changes During Treatment and Relationship to Outcome

It is now well established that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is efficacious in the treatment of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Although previous research supports the cognitive proposition that clinical improvement in CBT is achieved in part through the modification of distorted judgment processes, little is known about the specific nature of the judgment biases that are important in the treatment of pathological social fear. To address this issue, the extent to which early changes in self– and interpersonal–judgment biases are associated with later changes in symptoms during treatment in a sample of patients diagnosed with generalized SAD were assessed. Pre-, mid-, and posttreatment measures of social anxiety symptoms and judgment biases were collected from patients completing a 12–week group interpersonal–CBT program for SAD (n = 19) and from patients assigned to a waitlist control condition (n = 23). Results revealed that reductions in patients' judgments about the likelihood that others would re...

Self–Related and Interpersonal Judgment Biases in Social Anxiety Disorder: Changes During Treatment and Relationship to Outcome

Self–Related and Interpersonal Judgment Biases in Social Anxiety Disorder: Changes During Treatment and Relationship to Outcome

Linking Superiority Bias in the Interpersonal and Intergroup Domains

The author conducted 2 studies to explore the link between superiority bias in the interpersonal and intergroup domains. Australian university students evaluated the extent to which various personality traits were more or less applicable to themselves than to other Australian university students in general. They then evaluated the extent to which the same traits were more or less applicable to Australians than to people from other countries in general. As expected, the more participants evaluated themselves as superior to other university students, the more they evaluated Australians as a whole as superior to people from other countries. This link between interpersonal and intergroup superiority biases explained 22.1% of variance in Study 1 and 33.6% of variance in Study 2. The author interprets the results of the 2 studies as support for fundamental principles of social identity theory: (a) that self-concept consists of not only one's personal self but also the social groups to which one belongs and (b) that people are motivated to view both levels of self in a relatively positive fashion.

Why can't we just get along? Interpersonal biases and interracial distrust.

The authors review a series of studies that illustrate how one form of contemporary racial bias of Whites, aversive racism, can shape different perspectives of Blacks and Whites in ways that can undermine race relations. This research demonstrates that contemporary racism among Whites is subtle, often unintentional, and unconscious but that its effects are systematically damaging to race relations by fostering miscommunication and distrust. In particular, the authors examine the effects of aversive racism on outcomes for Blacks (e.g., in selection decisions), on the ways that Whites behave in interracial interactions, in the impressions that Whites and Blacks form of each other in these interactions, and on the task efficiency of interracial dyads.

Why can't we just get along? Interpersonal biases and interracial distrust.

Why can't we just get along? Interpersonal biases and interracial distrust.

Mentoring at light speed

Over the past year an electronic small business mentor programme has undertaken a number of projects. One such project has included a mentor based in New Zealand who has been mentoring a small business owner based in China. This project had its roots in an international small business newsgroup. A newsgroup is a collection of like minded individuals who network and share information, ideas, and provide assistance through the facility of E Mail. Although mentoring over the internet, and specifically through the use of E Mail is not new, it is still in its infancy, and so far appears to be confined to easy question and answer type situations, school based mentoring programmes, or real time chat sessions. This short article is intended to illustrate, how business mentoring does not necessarily need to be undertaken through personal face to face interaction but can be quite successfully completed through personal E Mail communication. One of the main benefits that comes from E Mail mentoring is the absence of any interpersonal bias that may emerge due to body language and/or the personal appearance of either the mentor or the protege.

Equity, Intergroup bias and Interpersonal bias in Reward allocation

AbstractDecisions to allocate rewards to ingroup and outgroup members are under the dual pressures of equity and intergroup bias. This study examined variations in equity and bias resulting from the incongruity and salience of intergroup status. Incongruity arose from a mismatch between high subjective and low accorded status. Congruity occurred when subjective status and accorded status were both high or both low. By pairing school classes with known subjective and accorded statuses, an incongruous and a congruous status setting were derived naturally. The setting was made either salient or nonsalient experimentally. It was hypothesized that bias would progressively increase, and equity would progressively decrease, with incongruity and salience. Each set of hypotheses was partially supported. Further data analysis showed a robust tendency to under‐reward both ingroup and outgroup members. This interpersonal negativity bras was shown by incongruous status allocators either when rewarding superior performance or in the salient condition. Apparently, it served to safeguard personal rather than social identity. The implications for equity and social identity theories were discussed.

Screening emotionally disturbed children in a rural setting.

This study was undertaken to ascertain the efficacy of screening procedures in a 2 county rural area in east central Illinois. Two aspects of the problem were investigated: (a) the question of interpersonal bias and (b) the presence of correlational validity between a set of materials for screening problem children and the ratings of problem behaviors. It was found that teacher and/or student screening was not biased by the absence of interpersonal compatibility and that a significant but low order relationship existed between children screened in as potentially disturbed and ratings of problem behaviors.