Unconscious Influences Research Articles

Word Choice Affects Social Judgments: Relational Messages Containing Low-Frequency Words Get Low Evaluations.

Prior research found a word complexity effect: Authors who use complex words are less favorably received when writing academic essays, business letters, and other relatively formal communications. The present study tested if word choice affects evaluations of messages between friends (Experiments 1-2) and spoken messages (Experiment 2). Three widespread dimensions of social judgments were studied - namely, persuasiveness, competence, and sincerity. Participants read/heard messages that varied (between-participants) by ordinary versus low-frequency words (sad vs. forlorn). Messages containing low-frequency words (mostly) received lower evaluations. Most importantly, word choice effects in messages between friends were consistently found - for both written and spoken language. Feedback analysis (Experiment 2) revealed that the overuse of "big vocabulary" conflicts with conscious social beliefs regarding ways to communicate, showing that social judgments spring from a combination of conscious social beliefs and the relatively unconscious influence of fluency.

The Postcolonial Unconscious in North African Migrant Fiction

The impact of the postcolonial unconscious on North African migrant fiction has been extensively explored and revealed through both theoretical frameworks and literary practices throughout the postcolonial era. Scholars and writers alike have delved into how the psychological remnants of colonialism continue to influence the narratives, themes, and character development in this body of work. This ongoing examination highlights the deep-seated cultural and psychological legacies that shape the identities and experiences of both individuals and communities within North African migrant literature. As a reflection of the long-lasting consequences of colonial history on people and society, North African migrant writers, like other postcolonial writers worldwide, tackle themes of identity, displacement, and post-colonialism. Theorists like Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Frantz Fanon, and Jacques Derrida have theorized that the unconscious influences language and subject creation, which in turn shapes their narratives. This analysis uses Fanon’s concept of the postcolonial unconscious, which explores the psychological effects of colonialism, such as internalized trauma and cultural hybridity, as a major framework. This study examines how postcolonial unconscious and related themes appear in the writing of North African writers who have immigrated to Europe and the USA, emphasizing the psychological and cultural effects of colonization on both individuals and groups. In addition to offering in-depth examinations of some texts, the paper presents a comprehensive view of the importance of postcolonial literary criticism in comprehending the complexities of postcolonial societies.

Two masked prime arrows simultaneously affect a response to a target: Revealing of an additive unconscious priming effect.

Since there are many sources of unconscious information in our minds, there is a possibility that multiple channels of unconscious information can affect a response at the same time. However, this question has been largely ignored by researchers. In the present study, we presented two opposite pointing arrows as the masked primes followed by a target arrow. The results suggested that the two directions in which the two prime arrows are pointing influenced the response to the target simultaneously and additively, that is, the overall priming effect caused by the two opposite pointing prime arrows was equal to the net effect of the individual congruent effect elicited by the same pointing prime arrow and the individual incongruent priming effect induced by the prime arrow poitning in the opposite direction. In addition, in Experiment 1, a biased delayed response to the target was observed when the target arrow and the opposite pointing prime arrow were closely positioned in space due to Gestalt continuity and closure grouping. According to these results, the "independent unconscious influence" and "reverse unconscious selection" hypotheses are proposed.

The unconscious online: An exploration into the emotional experience and behaviours of virtual working

The new normal in the wake of the global Covid pandemic means that more organisations are working virtually. Whilst this new working environment offers opportunities, a particular challenge relates to working together, mediated through technologies, whilst being physically apart. Online communication platforms have emerged as dominant virtual places of social, professional, and educational encounters. Spurred on by the researchers’ experiences of using these platforms at work, an online exploratory research project was developed to examine how the design affordances and constraints of these platforms influence the emotional experiences and behaviours of those using them. The researchers applied their own backgrounds to the study of unconscious processes at work in social systems to the exploration of these platforms. Self‐selecting, psychodynamically informed practitioners were invited to join three online exploratory studies. These pilots aimed to study the conscious and unconscious influence of the online platforms (Zoom and Microsoft Teams) on the groups’ perceptions, emotions, and behaviours. An adaptation of group relations methodology was used to allow processes to develop naturally within carefully designed boundaries of time, space, and roles. Key themes identified from direct observations, using researchers’ free-floating attention and subjective experiences, related to role, identity, and presence.

Loving and Terrible Mother: An Archetypal Redefinition of African Motherhood in Beloved

The memories of past experiences have an unconscious influence on the present. In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison vividly portrays the atrocities of slavery, shedding light on the enduring psychic wounds inflicted upon subjugated Black women and their motherhood. This study explores the embedded memories, trauma, and dehumanization that control and distort the ability of Black individuals to respond to the human experiences of maternal bonds. While existing literature has extensively explored motherhood, a gap remains in understanding the archetypal development within the fragmented psyche of tormented mothers. Drawing from Carl Jung and Eric Neumann’s collective unconscious and mother archetype concept, this interdisciplinary research aims to identify and examine the dual nature of motherhood – the loving and the terrible. By analyzing the reasons behind this duality, we seek to redefine motherhood, considering the exhibition of two contradictory natures among oppressed mothers.

Epistemic scaffolding: understanding and designing the support for epistemic growth in science

ABSTRACT In this paper, we introduce an epistemic scaffolding framework for understanding the nature of support for epistemic growth in science. Our framework distinguishes between two patterns of epistemic scaffolding: implicit and explicit. Implicit epistemic scaffolding encompasses support integrated into contexts, activities, discourse, or tools, exerting an unconscious influence on learners’ epistemic thinking and practices. On the other hand, explicit epistemic scaffolding involves intentionally explicating the underlying epistemology of learners’ knowledge work. This can manifest in various ways, such as explicit in epistemic structure, explicit in epistemic criteria, and explicit in epistemic goals. Building on the distributed and synergistic scaffolding framework, we also propose a design model to illustrate how explicit and implicit epistemic scaffolding can work together to optimise the support for epistemic growth in science.

QAnon: A False Prophets Conspiracy

Examining the QAnon movement through a Jungian lens, this analysis draws parallels between archetypal defense mechanisms and the Homeric myth of Odysseus, specifically his stay on Ogygia Island. The paper introduces terms like "Dark Religion" and "theocalypse," exploring the phenomenon of mind possession in religious fundamentalism and conspiracy theories. Symbolically, Calypso, as "the concealer," functions as an archetypal protective system, diverting ego-consciousness from reality and constructing a false belief system. "Theocalypse" describes religious inflation by unconscious contents, resulting in specific mytho-poetic ideologies and archetypal images whose function is to protect ego from experiencing painful emotions.
 The manifestation of Dark Religion is evident in QAnon Conspiracy Theory followers who believe in a secret war led by Donald Trump against a satanic child-trafficking cabal. This dark belief system is characterized by traits such as seeking secret signs and clues, absolutism, rejection of modernity, reactivity, aggression, a paranoid worldview, and the assertion of a special ability to see with their hearts—reading between the lines, to name a few.
 Commonalities between conspiratorial and fundamentalist thinking emerge from the dynamics of inferior consciousness and subsequent ego inflation, explaining both the archetypal nature of conspiracism and its resistance to rational correction. Conspiratorialists assert additional qualities, such as being chosen to perceive the truth, promoting a superior truth without relative values or "gray" areas (superiority). Their knowledge is held unwaveringly and treated as infallible faith, often invoking sources like idols and refusing to question their authority. Vehement rejection of opposing theories (defensive selectivity) characterizes their mindset, along with a surrender of will to their leaders (submission to authority). Conspiracists actively pursue the goal of converting others (reactivity) and accept responsibility for the state of affairs only in a fantasy world, avoiding self-reflection (projection).
 Conscious thinking remains free from unconscious influence only when recognizing numinous contents and withdrawing projections from objects. A symbolic perspective, treating conspiracy theories as symbols rather than rational constructs, provides a non-dismissive understanding of strong adherence to such beliefs. Examining QAnon symbolically through the lens of Jungian psychology, while understanding how adherents enact unconscious complexes and cultural complexes, offers more effective ways of understanding their beliefs than what traditional schools provide.
 Breaking away from restrictive beliefs requires embracing living symbols tethered to reality, facilitating genuine feeling-insight, authentic suffering, and thereby fostering a connection with one's psyche.

Multiple sources of unconscious-information processing affect a single response: independent unconscious priming effects

At present there is little knowledge on whether and how multiple pieces of unconscious information can simultaneously affect a single conscious response. In the present study, we manipulated the congruency relation between a masked prime arrow and the target arrow, as well as that between masked flankers and the target arrow. The results demonstrated that the masked prime and flankers produced independent unconscious priming effects on the response to the target. In the process of studying the above phenomenon, two secondary findings were made. First, although the prime congruency effect was obtained, the flanker congruency effect was smaller when the flankers were displayed simultaneously with the target than when they were displayed sequentially before the target. This suggested that priming stimulation required enough time to be processed to a sufficient extent to produce an unconscious priming effect. Second, when the prime stimulus was removed, leaving only the flankers, the flanker priming effect increased, suggesting that the attention attracted to the prime and its conscious mask could also reduce the flanker congruency effect. These results observed across several experiments were replicated in one within-subjects experiment. We proposed an “independent unconscious influence hypothesis” for the phenomenon. This hypothesis was further integrated into a more comprehensive unconscious information processing model. The possible causes of the observed phenomena were discussed.

ДЕЛОВАЯ РЕПУТАЦИЯ СУВЕРЕННОЙ ТЕРРИТОРИИ В УСЛОВИЯх ПРИНЯТИЯ СОБСТВЕННых СТАНДАРТОВ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ

The article reflects the interconnection of the idea of the business reputation of a sovereign territory on the part of interested parties, based on their own management standards. The question of the interest of individuals in the process of establishing the sovereignty of the territory in which they live is being studied. The role of corporate social responsibility in shaping the business reputation of organizations is determined. The place of individuals in the process of self-determination of the state is assessed. The concept of brand citizenship is considered. The basis of the independence of the object of study within the framework of its self-sufficiency and individuality is seen. The objects of study are the social component of social relations associated with the elements of the scalar chain of control, namely organizations, industries, sovereign territories and individuals. A sociological study of the phenomenon that determines the relationship of business reputation with management standards and their belonging to the territory in which they operate is being carried out. The article proposes to use the unconscious influence of individuals on the process of establishing the business reputation of a sovereign territory through a tripartite interaction between government, business and society.

ПСАЛОМ 88 (89) В ЧЕТВЕРТОМ ВИДЕНИИ ПЕРПЕТУИ

The paper explores the fourth vision of Perpetua from the early Christian work “Passio Perpetuae et Felicitatis”, focusing on her battle with an Egyptian. We identify liturgical allusions in the passage where Perpetua is anointed with oil by her helpers, drawing connections to Psalms, especially Psalm 88 (89). The term “ἀντιλήμπτωρ” is highlighted, linking it to God’s role as a helper in Psalms and its appearance in the vision. The anointing with oil in Perpetua’s vision is compared to New Testament references, where it serves purposes of exorcism and healing. The paper delves into the liturgical significance of oil, connecting it to the defense against defeat and the exorcism of evil. The paper suggests that the term “ἀντιλήμπτωρ” may have entered Perpetua’s vision through liturgical practices or the Psalter. Connections to Psalm 88 (89) are analyzed, with parallels found in Perpetua’s victory song, the image of a Lanista, and the defeat of an Egyptian reminiscent of Rahab in the Psalm. The transformation of Perpetua into a man is linked to the image of David in Psalm 88 (89), highlighting her role as a king-military commander. The image of the Egyptian is related to the images of Goliath and Pharaoh from Ezekiel’s prophecy. The paper concludes that these intersections between the vision and Psalm 88, such as the use of specific terms, anointing, and victorious themes, are not likely accidental and may indicate an unconscious influence. The Greek version of the vision is suggested to contain more recognizable liturgical allusions than the Latin version. The findings encapsulate the key points of a detailed analysis of the connections between Perpetua’s vision and Psalm 88 (89), highlighting the significance of these intersections in understanding the theological and liturgical context of the vision.

Beauty in the eyes of the beholder

We investigate the unconscious influence of beauty on perceptions of commonly-sought employee traits. To do this, we develop a set of photos rated for “societal attractiveness” and use eye-tracking technology to measure participants' pupil sizes while they rate the same set of photos on perceived levels of competence, friendliness, and trustworthiness. We find that the same autonomic response to attractiveness occurs even when participants are asked to rate individuals on traits other than attractiveness. Each additional millimeter of pupil dilation results in about a seven percentage point increase in the perception of rated characteristics. Our data also suggest that societal and personal perceptions of beauty are substitutes rather than complements. These findings contribute to our understanding of the unconscious biases underlying the beauty premium and highlight the importance of considering both personal and societal perceptions of beauty in evaluating individuals. These results are important for labor market outcomes and suggest the need for further research on the unconscious role of beauty in shaping economic opportunities.

THE INFLUENCE OF ANTHROPONYMS (PERSPECTIVES FROM PSYCHIATRISTS AND PSYCHOLOGISTS IN THE LATE 19TH TO EARLY 20TH CENTURY)

The aim of this scientific research is to analyze the contributions of psychiatrists and psychologists from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who focused on cases of obsessive attraction or uncontrollable fear related to personal names. The study examines the emotional reactions caused by personal names and surnames, as well as the influence of names on the behavior of individuals. The research focuses on anthroponyms as fundamental components of the naming system, exploring their impact on various aspects of individuals’ lives based on the cases described in the scientific works of psychiatrists and psychologists from that time period. Through an analysis of the counseling practices of late nineteenth-century psychiatrists, anthroponyms were reevaluated as subjects of irrational passion (onomatomania) or fear (onomatophobia). Undesirable thoughts related to names were believed to significantly affect the daily lives of patients during that era, although contemporary colleagues express doubts regarding this potential influence of anthroponyms. Subsequent studies documented intriguing connections between personal names and the behavior of their bearers: some individuals emulated the qualities associated with their names, while others sought to erase their anthroponyms from memory entirely. The research explores topics such as intentional transformations of anthroponyms to solve professional or personal problems, motives of namers influencing their choices for baby names, and the mechanisms behind forgetting personal names. This new perspective highlights how certain names can evoke powerful associations that influence various aspects of an individual’s life and can be used as tools of manipulation in communication, conveying respect or disrespect for the bearer. Additionally, psychologists have attempted to address the question of a possible correlation between a person’s name and their personal characteristics. Based on cases of unconscious name influence on behavior, it was proposed three categories where such influence is most notable: general influence on character and behavior, professional sphere, and personal relationships.

Invisible social grouping facilitates the recognition of individual faces

Emerging evidence suggests a specialized mechanism supporting perceptual grouping of social entities. However, the stage at which social grouping is processed is unclear. Through four experiments, here we showed that participants’ recognition of a visible face was facilitated by the presence of a second facing (thus forming a social grouping) relative to a nonfacing face, even when the second face was invisible. Using a monocular/dichoptic paradigm, we further found that the social grouping facilitation effect occurred when the two faces were presented dichoptically to different eyes rather than monocularly to the same eye, suggesting that social grouping relies on binocular rather than monocular neural channels. The above effects were not found for inverted face dyads, thereby ruling out the contribution of nonsocial factors. Taken together, these findings support the unconscious influence of social grouping on visual perception and suggest an early origin of social grouping processing in the visual pathway.

Preparing VET Students in Vocational Education for Affective Involvement in a Value Conflict: Practicing Affective Perceptual Awareness

ABSTRACT Students in vocational education and training (VET) need to be prepared for coping with value conflicts they will face in their professional lives. Development of awareness of one’s feelings is an essential aspect in this regard. Students need to be aware of their own inner feelings to decrease the unconscious influence of inner feelings on their actions in a value conflict. The purpose of this study is to contribute to a theoretical and practical basis for the design of affective learning experiences aimed to elicit VET students’ receptivity to inner self-exploration of their feelings and values. Students were put in an affective learning experience. Three groups of first- and second-year VET students (N = 36) participated in the affective learning experience. Most students did start to self-explore their feelings. However, our findings showed that they did not arrive at affective perceptual awareness. According to the students, deepening inner self-exploration into one’s own feelings and values can be stimulated by paying explicit attention to inner feelings, concrete instructions, room for reciprocal exchanges between students and the teacher’s participation in sharing inner feelings.

Assessment and treatment of a gender-dysphoric person with a traumatic history

ABSTRACT This paper presents a composite case based on a group of female-to-male transitioners with a history of trauma due to early separation or family illness. These early traumas may interfere with the process of integrating the mind and body. Symptoms of gender dysphoria often arise from, or increase in response to, subsequent separations later in life, as individuals transition from childhood to adulthood. Increased referrals to gender clinics are noted at puberty or the point of separation from the family, as individuals face the prospect of leaving home to go to university. Affected by anxieties associated with the onset of puberty or separation anxieties, these individuals sometimes seek a medical transition to gain control over their bodies. Exploring underlying psychoanalytic issues can help clinicians assess various conscious and unconscious influences, and help patients make more informed decisions on whether to pursue a medical transition. A focus on defence mechanisms and forms of thinking can help clinicians find ways of working with individuals who may be highly defensive and concrete in their thinking and feel threatened by the functioning of their minds.

Representation of Ethno-Kultural Metaphors in Chechen Poetry

The author in the article considers the uniqueness of the Chechen poetic picture of the world and the role of metaphor as a figurative means and mechanism of thinking in the translation of ethnocultural meanings. Based on the analysis of the poetic works of Chechen authors, dominant metaphor concepts in Chechen poetry are distinguished, an attempt is made to establish the system, internal structure and connections of metaphorical models, reveal their mental intentions and determine the role of metaphor in creating imagery in the artistic structure of a lyrical text. A practical analysis of the representation of basic ethno-cultural metaphors in a poetic work is carried out on the material of the lyrics of the classics of Chechen literature by M. Isaeva, Sh. Aishanova, A. Dudaeva, M. Mamakaeva, etc. It is revealed how metaphor participates in the creation of artistic reality, how the idea of metaphor, which has developed in cognitive linguistics, correlates with the realization of the symbolic load of the image in the lyrical text. The author defines the dominant ethno-cultural metaphors of the Chechen ethnos “mountain, tower, river, burka, papakha, dzhigit (monk), wolf, eagle” and a number of others and correlates them with the national axiological scale, namely its categories such as “freedom, fearlessness, inflexibility, love for the native land, protection of the motherland, honor, dignity” and others. Attention is drawn to the fact that the author’s picture of the world is under the unconscious influence of his ethnic worldview. The analysis allows us to conclude that the Chechen poetic text implements a single metaphorical complex in which the basic ethno-cultural concepts of the Chechen linguistic worldview interact, complementing and enriching each other.

Attentional capture mediates the emergence and suppression of intrusive memories.

Intrusive memories hijack consciousness and their control may lead to forgetting. However, the contribution of reflexive attention to qualifying a memory signal as interfering is unknown. We used machine learning to decode the brain's electrical activity and pinpoint the otherwise hidden emergence of intrusive memories reported during a memory suppression task. Importantly, the algorithm was trained on an independent attentional model of visual activity, mimicking either the abrupt and interfering appearance of visual scenes into conscious awareness or their deliberate exploration. Intrusion of memories into conscious awareness were decoded above chance. The decoding accuracy increased when the algorithm was trained using a model of reflexive attention. Conscious detection of intrusive activity decoded from the brain signal was central to the future silencing of suppressed memories and laterforgetting. Unwanted memories require the reflexive orienting of attention and access to consciousness to be suppressed effectively by inhibitory control.

Narratives, Ontological Security, and Unconscious Phantasy: Germany and the European Myth During the so‐called Migration Crisis

This article synthesizes scholarship on narratives and Kleinian defense mechanisms against anxiety to develop a framework that enables a nuanced understanding of ontological security‐seeking dynamics in times of crisis. Using the case study of the German narrative of the European Union during the so‐called migration crisis of 2015, this article engages with the broader question of how unconscious phantasy influences and guides decision‐making processes on a collective level as well as the question of how exactly narratives help subjects to manage anxiety to maintain a sense of ontological security. We show that, in the case of Germany, the EU offers a highly affective political myth that has guided both the decision‐making of the government during the crisis and the construction of German self‐identity narratives by attempting to introject the good part‐object of “Europeanness.” Crucially, German self‐identity narratives and narratives on the EU were not only inextricably linked but the EU also became an idealized (Kleinian) part‐object. During the so‐called migration crisis, this fostered processes of projective identification whereby decisions subverting European values and humanitarian narratives as well as general “badness” were externalized and projected onto other member states, most notably the Visegrád states.

Metaphor and the scientific method: Why Lacan’s perspective isn’t helpful yet

Keefer (2022) argues that theoretical commitments to conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) impede research on metaphor in psychology. To jumpstart the field, he suggests adopting Lacan’s perspective. I disagree with this argument for a few reasons. First, CMT has a much more nuanced place in current research on metaphor than it would seem from the target article. Second, the field does engage with the hypotheses enumerated by Keefer: that metaphors emerge from a complex web of associations, have unconscious influence, and reflect deep-seated motivations. I review how contemporary research has approached these questions and show how the constraints cited in Keefer’s article stem from the field’s commitments to the scientific method and the computational theory of mind, rather than CMT. Finally, contrary to how they are framed in Keefer’s article, I argue that these constraints have enabled scientific progress to date and limit the impact of Lacan’s perspective moving forward.

Does unconscious socioeconomic bias influence tele-evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea? An exploratory analysis

Study objectivesWe examined the association between a patient's income and a provider's ability to identify risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) when assessed in-person versus via telemedicine. MethodsWe utilized data from a randomized interrater reliability study of 58 patients who were referred to a university sleep center. Participants volunteered their annual income bracket as part of data collection, although raters were blinded to these data. We assessed the inter-method reliability between the clinical impressions of a telemedicine rater and those of an in-person rater for pretest probability of OSA, stratified by income levels. ResultsInter-method reliabilities, assessed using weighted kappa, were 0.83, 0.24, and 0.66 for subjects with low (<$50,000/year), moderate ($50,000-$100,000/year) and high (>$100,000) incomes, respectively. The kappa statistics were significantly different (p = 0.005) between the low and moderate income groups. ConclusionsThere was a significant difference in the reliability values of telemedicine versus in-person assessments between the low and middle income brackets. This is despite the raters being unaware of the patients' income levels. This association might suggest possible unconscious bias in evaluating for OSA. With telemedicine in early development, it is important to create processes that will minimize bias that might result from patients’ economic disparities.