Many prestigious jobs and recognized social roles are often associated with men, which may lead to discrimination and underrepresentation of women. Psychological explanations of these inequalities could be drawn from role congruity theory, stereotypes, and male-as-norm bias. We conducted four experiments to examine gender mistranslation of female scholars, singers, and models using a novel Found-in-Translation Task. In Studies 1 (N = 671) and 2 (N = 288), participants translated texts about scientists with unspecified gender from English to Polish. Male scientists were rarely mistranslated, whereas female scientists were mistranslated over 80% of the time, even in feminized fields and despite encouragement to use the internet. Study 3 (N = 203) with singers showed moderately lower rates. It was only in Study 4 (N = 202) featuring models that these rates were much lower. These findings demonstrate persistent gender stereotypes and the male-as-norm phenomenon.
The writing process poses a challenge for many students worldwide. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs can benefit students and influence their success in school. Specifically, the ability to regulate emotions can be a critical factor in academic achievement. Confidence judgments are a metacognitive process that occurs after a student provides an answer or solution, by which the learner evaluates the correctness of their response. This judgment is crucial for regulating learning. The study’s aim was to examine the effect of a unique intervention program that integrates the development of emotional regulation skills and fosters metacognitive abilities when writing for third-grade students at a public elementary school. This intervention was applied in an experimental group where each participant learned to regulate their negative emotions using a variety of strategies. Furthermore, during the intervention, each participant in the experimental group wrote a story for a picture and assessed their own performance upon completion of the task, utilizing a specialized ruler designed to enhance confidence judgment. To facilitate the acquisition of narrative writing skills in both the experimental and control groups, a metacognitive schema was employed. The study’s results indicate that experimental group participants demonstrated significant post-intervention improvement in written language skills, positive emotions, and metacognitive components, when compared to the control group, which showed no change. The assimilation and training of emotional skills and confidence judgments among third-grade students during writing is deemed necessary.
Following a decade of profound political and economic instability in Europe, Greece emerged during the COVID-19 crisis as a unique setting for examining moral persuasion in public health. This experimental study explored how different moral framings, utilitarian, deontological and value-based, shaped vaccination-related beliefs and intentions. Utilitarian appeals were most persuasive overall, especially for immediate behavioral intent. Yet, deontological messages proved effective among individuals with low trust in institutions and high fatalistic tendencies, suggesting that appeals to duty resonate when faith in systemic order erodes. In contrast, value-based appeals unexpectedly triggered stronger disgust responses, which in turn weakened vaccine acceptance. Here, disgust acted not just emotionally but symbolically, as a form of moral distancing from messages seen as intrusive or paternalistic. These findings reveal that persuasion is not neutral, it is filtered through affective and ideological schemas. The effectiveness of moral appeals depends on how they align or clash with recipients’ lived moral frameworks.
Social grooming theory posits that relevance is a key feature of gossip whereas prosocial gossip theory emphasizes norm violations. To determine which theory better captures participants’ perceptions of gossip compared to non-gossip, 197 participants viewed 16 videos that varied by statement type (gossip vs. target-present), relevance (relevant vs. irrelevant), and violation (violates norms vs. does not violate norms). Participants rated each speaker’s intention on four social functions: usefulness, relationship building, entertaining, and influence. They also rated the speaker’s attitude and perceived severity. In support of the social grooming and prosocial gossip theories, relevant statements containing norm violations were rated as better serving the social functions. However, only strengthening relationships was improved by gossiping. The speaker’s attitude was also rated more positively for gossip statements. Our findings support both the social grooming and prosocial gossip theories, demonstrating that people view gossip more favourably when it is relevant and includes norm violations.
Personality is connected to the affective system, memory, and numerous aspects of cognition, including language. This article aims to: 1) review, in a narrative fashion, how certain personality traits influence verbal expression and second language acquisition; and 2) explore the possibility that different languages (L1, L2, L3, etc.) may affect the personalities of bilinguals or multilinguals in distinct ways. In particular, it presents a case study on language-dependent self-perception in Friulian-Italian bilinguals. Results are presented in relation to a selection of theoretical models of personality: attachment theory, the biosocial model, and the five-factor model. The most robust findings indicate that attachment styles are related to communication styles, and that big-five personality traits are linked to language characteristics and second language acquisition. The need for further research in this area is warranted, especially regarding the impact on certain aspects of personality during verbal expression in a second language.
