How Self-Control Shapes the Meaning of Choice

How Self-Control Shapes the Meaning of Choice. Aner Sela, Jonah Berger and Joshua Kim
Journal of Consumer Research, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2962435

Abstract: Self-control is an important driver of choice, but might it also change choice's meaning, making it seem less indicative of preference? Decades of research suggest that preference and choice are often intertwined. Choice often originates from one's preferences. As a result, choice is often seen as a reflection of preference, leading people to infer their preferences by observing their own choices. We suggest that self-control attenuates this process. Because self-control often overrides personal desires in favor of external constraints, norms, and long-term considerations, we propose that self-control is associated with a sense of attenuated correspondence between choice and individual preference. Five experiments suggest that when the notion of self-control is salient, people are less likely to see their choices as reflecting their preferences or to infer preference from previous choices. As a result, evoking the notion of self-control attenuates the tendency to view choice as indicative of preference, even in contexts unrelated to where self-control was originally evoked. Thus, self-control shapes not only choice itself, but also the perceived meaning of choice.

Keywords: Self-control, Inferences, Choice, Preference, Self-perception

Changes in cognitive flexibility and hypothesis search across human life history from childhood to adolescence to adulthood

Changes in cognitive flexibility and hypothesis search across human life history from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Alison Gopnik et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jul 25 2017, Pages 7892-7899, www.pnas.org/content/114/30/7892.short

Abstract: How was the evolution of our unique biological life history related to distinctive human developments in cognition and culture? We suggest that the extended human childhood and adolescence allows a balance between exploration and exploitation, between wider and narrower hypothesis search, and between innovation and imitation in cultural learning. In particular, different developmental periods may be associated with different learning strategies. This relation between biology and culture was probably coevolutionary and bidirectional: life-history changes allowed changes in learning, which in turn both allowed and rewarded extended life histories. In two studies, we test how easily people learn an unusual physical or social causal relation from a pattern of evidence. We track the development of this ability from early childhood through adolescence and adulthood. In the physical domain, preschoolers, counterintuitively, perform better than school-aged children, who in turn perform better than adolescents and adults. As they grow older learners are less flexible: they are less likely to adopt an initially unfamiliar hypothesis that is consistent with new evidence. Instead, learners prefer a familiar hypothesis that is less consistent with the evidence. In the social domain, both preschoolers and adolescents are actually the most flexible learners, adopting an unusual hypothesis more easily than either 6-y-olds or adults. There may be important developmental transitions in flexibility at the entry into middle childhood and in adolescence, which differ across domains.

Keywords: causal reasoning, social cognition, cognitive development, adolescence, life history

A Birther and a Truther: The Influence of the Authoritarian Personality on Conspiracy Beliefs

A Birther and a Truther: The Influence of the Authoritarian Personality on Conspiracy Beliefs. Sean Richey. Politics & Policy, June 2017, Pages 465-485, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12206/full

Abstract: I find that 10 percent of Americans believe in both "trutherism" and "birtherism." Even among citizens who say they like Bush or Obama, or are from the same party, many still believe in conspiracies implicating the presidents. It is crucial to understand why so many Americans believe obviously erroneous conspiracies that denigrate a president who otherwise has their support. I predict that the authoritarian personality creates a predisposition to believe in conspiracies based on the tendency of those high in this trait to have greater anxiety and cognitive difficulties with higher order thinking. Using 2012 American National Election Study data, I find a clear and robust relationship between the authoritarian personality and conspiratorial beliefs. In all models, authoritarianism is a chief predictor for a predisposition toward both conspiratorial beliefs. This suggests that psychological propensities are an important explanation of why so many citizens believe in conspiracy theories.

---
Remember too: Imhoff, R., and Lamberty, P. K. (2017) Too special to be duped: Need for uniqueness motivates conspiracy beliefs. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol., doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2265, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.2265/full

Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One's Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One's Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity. Adrian Ward et al. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, April 2017, Pages 140-154, http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/691462

Abstract: Our smartphones enable - and encourage - constant connection to information, entertainment, and each other. They put the world at our fingertips, and rarely leave our sides. Although these devices have immense potential to improve welfare, their persistent presence may come at a cognitive cost. In this research, we test the "brain drain" hypothesis that the mere presence of one's own smartphone may occupy limited-capacity cognitive resources, thereby leaving fewer resources available for other tasks and undercutting cognitive performance. Results from two experiments indicate that even when people are successful at maintaining sustained attention - as when avoiding the temptation to check their phones - the mere presence of these devices reduces available cognitive capacity. Moreover, these cognitive costs are highest for those highest in smartphone dependence. We conclude by discussing the practical implications of this smartphone-induced brain drain for consumer decision-making and consumer welfare.



---
Remember too: Selectively Distracted: Divided Attention and Memory for Important Information. By Catherine Middlebrooks, Tyson Kerr & Alan Castel. Psychological Science, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797617702502

On the inability to ignore useless advice: A case for anchoring in the judge-advisor-system

On the inability to ignore useless advice: A case for anchoring in the judge-advisor-system. Thomas Schultze, Andreas Mojzisch & Stefan Schulz-Hardt. Experimental Psychology, May/June 2017, Pages 170-183, http://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1618-3169/a000361

Abstract: Research in the judge-advisor-paradigm suggests that advice is generally utilized less than it should be according to its quality. In a series of four experiments, we challenge this widely held assumption. We hypothesize that when advice quality is low, the opposite phenomenon, namely overutilization of advice, occurs. We further assume that this overutilization effect is the result of anchoring: advice serves as an anchor, thus causing an adjustment toward even useless advice. The data of our four experiments support these hypotheses. Judges systematically adjusted their estimates toward advice that we introduced to them as being useless, and this effect was stable after controlling for intentional utilization of this advice. Furthermore, we demonstrate that anchoring-based adjustment toward advice is independent of advice quality. Our findings enhance our understanding of the processes involved in advice taking and identify a potential threat to judgment accuracy arising from an inability to discount useless advice.

Keywords: judgment, decision-making, advice taking, anchoring, social influence

The Advantage of Being Oneself: The Role of Applicant Self-Verification in Organizational Hiring Decisions

The Advantage of Being Oneself: The Role of Applicant Self-Verification in Organizational Hiring Decisions. Celia Moore et al. Journal of Applied Psychology, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28639809

Abstract: In this paper, we explore whether individuals who strive to self-verify flourish or flounder on the job market. Using placement data from 2 very different field samples, we found that individuals rated by the organization as being in the top 10% of candidates were significantly more likely to receive a job offer if they have a stronger drive to self-verify. A third study, using a quasi-experimental design, explored the mechanism behind this effect and tested whether individuals who are high and low on this disposition communicate differently in a structured mock job interview. Text analysis (LIWC) of interview transcripts revealed systematic differences in candidates’ language use as a function of their self-verification drives. These differences led an expert rater to perceive candidates with a strong drive to self-verify as less inauthentic and less misrepresentative than their low self-verifying peers, making her more likely to recommend these candidates for a job. Taken together, our results suggest that authentic self-presentation is an unidentified route to success on the job market, amplifying the chances that high-quality candidates can convert organizations’ positive evaluations into tangible job offers. We discuss implications for job applicants, organizations, and the labor market.

Does Culture Pay? Compensating Differentials, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Practices

Does Culture Pay? Compensating Differentials, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Practices. By Christos Andreas Makridis. Stanford Working Paper, June 2017, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2990210

Abstract: Work-place practices are becoming an increasingly important mechanism for retaining and motivating employees. Using a new survey tool in partnership with PayScale.com between 2014 and 2016, I first document new facts about the dispersion of employee engagement and organizational practices in the labor market, and, secondly, recover a willingness to pay for these amenities. I show that the provision of these amenities creates a time-varying, firm-specific rent that amplifies traditional selection problems. My identification strategy exploits variation in employees’ outside option, which is uncorrelated with contemporaneous organizational factors, but still capitalizes work-place amenities. My estimates imply that employees are willing to pay 2% of their earnings for a standard deviation rise in organizational practices. Through a back-of-the-envelope calculation, I show that these amenities have a benefit-cost ratio of 1.4.

Keywords: Organizational practices, job satisfaction, turnover, compensating differentials, productivity.

JEL: L20, M51, M52, M54, M55

Poisoned Praise: Discounted Praise Backfires and Undermines Subordinate Impressions in the Minds of the Powerful

Poisoned Praise: Discounted Praise Backfires and Undermines Subordinate Impressions in the Minds of the Powerful. Jonathan Kunstman, Christina Fitzpatrick & Pamela Smith
Social Psychological and Personality Science, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550617712028?journalCode=sppa

Abstract: High-power people frequently receive compliments from subordinates, yet little is known about how high-power people respond to praise. The current research addresses this gap in the empirical literature by testing the primary hypothesis that high-power people discount others’ praise more than equal- and low-power people. Secondary hypotheses also tested whether high-power people’s tendency to discount positive feedback would paradoxically heighten negative perceptions of others. Evidence from two experiments (one preregistered) reveals that high-power participants discounted feedback from others more than low- and equal-power participants. However, high-power people’s tendency to discount feedback only produced negative partner perceptions when positive feedback, but not neutral feedback, was discounted. These results suggest that compliments may sometimes backfire and lead high-power people to discount praise and form negative impressions of subordinates.

Social-Recognition versus Financial Incentives? Exploring the Effects of Creativity-Contingent External Rewards on Creative Performance

Social-Recognition versus Financial Incentives? Exploring the Effects of Creativity-Contingent External Rewards on Creative Performance. Ravi Mehta, Darren Dahl & Rui (Juliet) Zhu. Journal of Consumer Research, https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jcr/ucx062/3738819/Social-Recognition-versus-Financial-Incentives?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Abstract: The present work examines the role of creativity-contingent monetary versus social-recognition rewards on creative performance and provides new insights into the underlying motivational processes through which these rewards affect consumer creativity. A series of five studies demonstrate that within the context of creativity contingency, monetary rewards induce a performance focus, while social-recognition rewards induce a normative focus. Such performance (normative) focus in turn enhances (attenuates) approach motivation to be original and hence leads to higher (lower) originality in a creative task. Thus, this work not only advances the current understanding of how and why two types of widely used creativity-contingent external rewards may have contrasting effects on creative performance, but it also offers important practical insights to managers who utilize reward systems in cultivating consumer creativity in their innovation platforms.

Keywords: creativity, innovation, approach motivation, monetary rewards, normative focus, social-recognition rewards

Cyclical Population Dynamics of Automatic Versus Controlled Processing: An Evolutionary Pendulum

Cyclical Population Dynamics of Automatic Versus Controlled Processing: An Evolutionary Pendulum. David Rand et al. Psychological Review, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2972420

Abstract: Psychologists, neuroscientists, and economists often conceptualize decisions as arising from processes that lie along a continuum from automatic (i.e., “hardwired” or overlearned, but relatively inflexible) to controlled (less efficient and effortful, but more flexible). Control is central to human cognition, and plays a key role in our ability to modify the world to suit our needs. Given its advantages, reliance on controlled processing may seem predestined to increase within the population over time. Here, we examine whether this is so by introducing an evolutionary game theoretic model of agents that vary in their use of automatic versus controlled processes, and in which cognitive processing modifies the environment in which the agents interact. We find that, under a wide range of parameters and model assumptions, cycles emerge in which the prevalence of each type of processing in the population oscillates between 2 extremes. Rather than inexorably increasing, the emergence of control often creates conditions that lead to its own demise by allowing automaticity to also flourish, thereby undermining the progress made by the initial emergence of controlled processing. We speculate that this observation may have relevance for understanding similar cycles across human history, and may lend insight into some of the circumstances and challenges currently faced by our species.

Numerical Nudging: Using an Accelerating Score to Enhance Performance

Numerical Nudging: Using an Accelerating Score to Enhance Performance. Luxi Shen & Christopher Hsee. Psychological Science, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28665190

Abstract: People often encounter inherently meaningless numbers, such as scores in health apps or video games, that increase as they take actions. This research explored how the pattern of change in such numbers influences performance. We found that the key factor is acceleration - namely, whether the number increases at an increasing velocity. Six experiments in both the lab and the field showed that people performed better on an ongoing task if they were presented with a number that increased at an increasing velocity than if they were not presented with such a number or if they were presented with a number that increased at a decreasing or constant velocity. This acceleration effect occurred regardless of the absolute magnitude or the absolute velocity of the number, and even when the number was not tied to any specific rewards. This research shows the potential of numerical nudging - using inherently meaningless numbers to strategically alter behaviors - and is especially relevant in the present age of digital devices.

Chronotype variation drives night-time sentinel-like behaviour in hunter–gatherers

Chronotype variation drives night-time sentinel-like behaviour in hunter–gatherers. David Samson et al. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, July 12 2017, http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1858/20170967

Abstract: Sleep is essential for survival, yet it also represents a time of extreme vulnerability to predation, hostile conspecifics and environmental dangers. To reduce the risks of sleeping, the sentinel hypothesis proposes that group-living animals share the task of vigilance during sleep, with some individuals sleeping while others are awake. To investigate sentinel-like behaviour in sleeping humans, we investigated activity patterns at night among Hadza hunter–gatherers of Tanzania. Using actigraphy, we discovered that all subjects were simultaneously scored as asleep for only 18 min in total over 20 days of observation, with a median of eight individuals awake throughout the night-time period; thus, one or more individuals was awake (or in light stages of sleep) during 99.8% of sampled epochs between when the first person went to sleep and the last person awoke. We show that this asynchrony in activity levels is produced by chronotype variation, and that chronotype covaries with age. Thus, asynchronous periods of wakefulness provide an opportunity for vigilance when sleeping in groups. We propose that throughout human evolution, sleeping groups composed of mixed age classes provided a form of vigilance. Chronotype variation and human sleep architecture (including nocturnal awakenings) in modern populations may therefore represent a legacy of natural selection acting in the past to reduce the dangers of sleep.

Only one small sin: How self-construal affects self-control

Only one small sin: How self-construal affects self-control. Janina Steinmetz and Thomas Mussweiler. British Journal of Social Psychology, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28653379

Abstract: Past research has shown that self-construal can influence self-control by reducing interdependent people's impulsivity in the presence of peers. We broaden these findings by examining the hypothesis that an interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal fosters self-control even in the absence of peers and for non-impulsive decisions. We further explore whether this effect could be mediated by the more interrelated (vs. isolated) processing style of interdependent (vs. independent) people. Such an interrelated (vs. isolated) processing style of temptations makes the impact of a single temptation more salient and can thereby increase self-control. Study 1 demonstrated that more interdependent participants show more self-control behaviour by refraining from chocolate consumption to secure a monetary benefit. Studies 2a and 2b highlighted a link between self-construal and trait self-control via the processing of temptations. Study 3 suggested that an interrelated (vs. isolated) perspective on temptations could mediate the effect of (primed) self-construal on self-control. Taken together, self-construal shapes self-control across various decision contexts.

Expectations Influence How Emotions Shape Behavior

Expectations Influence How Emotions Shape Behavior. Tamir M, Bigman YE. Emotion, doi: 10.1037/emo0000351. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28682088

Abstract: Emotions shape behavior, but there is some debate over the manner in which they do so. The authors propose that how emotions shape behavior depends, in part, on how people expect emotions to shape behavior. In Study 1, angry (vs. calm) participants made more money in a negotiation when they expected anger to be beneficial. In Study 2, angry (vs. calm) participants killed more enemies in a computer game when they expected anger (but not calmness) to promote performance. In Study 3, excited (vs. calm) participants were more creative when they expected excitement to promote performance, whereas calm (vs. excited) participants were more creative when they expected calmness to promote performance. These findings demonstrate that, at least sometimes, what emotions do depends on what we expect them to do.

When My Object Becomes Me: The Mere Ownership of an Object Elevates Domain-Specific Self-Efficacy

When My Object Becomes Me: The Mere Ownership of an Object Elevates Domain-Specific Self-Efficacy. Victoria Wai-lan Yeung et al. Applied Psychology, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apps.12099/abstract

Abstract: Past research on the mere ownership effect has shown that when people own an object, they perceive the owned objects more favorably than the comparable non-owned objects. The present research extends this idea, showing that when people own an object functional to the self, they perceive an increase in their self-efficacy. Three studies were conducted to demonstrate this new form of the mere ownership effect. In Study 1, participants reported an increase in their knowledge level by the mere ownership of reading materials (a reading package in Study 1a, and lecture notes in Study 1b). In Study 2, participants reported an increase in their resilience to sleepiness by merely owning a piece of chocolate that purportedly had a sleepiness-combating function. In Study 3, participants who merely owned a flower essence that is claimed to boost creativity reported having higher creativity efficacy. The findings provided insights on how associations with objects alter one's self-perception.