Discrimination in the evaluation of others is a key cause of social inequality around the world. However, relatively little is known about psychological interventions that can be used to prevent biased evaluations. The limited evidence that exists on these strategies is spread across many methods and populations, making it difficult to generate reliable best practices that can be effective across contexts. In the present work, we held a research contest to solicit interventions with the goal of reducing discrimination based on physical attractiveness using a hypothetical admissions task. Thirty interventions were tested across four rounds of data collection (total N > 20,000). Using a signal detection theory approach to evaluate interventions, we identified two interventions that reduced discrimination by lessening both decision noise and decision bias, while two other interventions reduced overall discrimination by only lessening noise or bias. The most effective interventions largely provided concrete strategies that directed participants' attention toward decision-relevant criteria and away from socially biasing information, though the fact that very similar interventions produced differing effects on discrimination suggests certain key characteristics that are needed for manipulations to reliably impact judgment. The effects of these four interventions on decision bias, noise, or both also replicated in a different discrimination domain, political affiliation, and generalized to populations with self-reported hiring experience. Results of the contest for decreasing attractiveness-based favoritism suggest that identifying effective routes for changing discriminatory behavior is a challenge and that greater investment is needed to develop impactful, flexible, and scalable strategies for reducing discrimination. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This chapter first briefly reviews the literature on stereotype and prejudice development and maintenance to show that common cognitive and psychological processes can cause intelligent and caring people to have erroneous, negative, and hurtful attitudes toward others. It describes a class project that developed to help the students decrease their negative thoughts and feelings toward outgroups and increase their commitment to equality and diversity education. Multiple and interacting methods and processes are involved in the formation and maintenance of stereotypes and prejudice. Stereotypes are formed through social categorization, with the specific stereotype content being influenced by processes such as illusory correlations, self-fulfilling prophecies, and faulty attributions. Many researchers have noted the limits of cognitive processes in prejudice reduction. Research indicates that empathy is related to many positive feelings and behaviors, whereas a lack of empathy is associated with negative feelings and behaviors.

This study examined the relationship between cigarette smoking and body perception across measured body weight among adolescents aged 12-19 years, using 2005-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. Adjustment showed that normal weight girls who perceived themselves as overweight had a significantly higher smoking prevalence ratio of 2.03 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.22-3.40). The prevalence of cigarette smoking and weight misperceptions among adolescent girls indicates a need for topics addressing body perception and body image among students to be included in smoking prevention programs in schools. In addition, factors that shape adolescent girls' perception of body weight should be examined.

In Reply Dr Fleminger and Ms Fleminger suggest that both the TBI itself and also constitutional factors, such as prior deliberate self-harm, may be responsible for the high suicide rates after TBI found in our study. 1Our study showed that the incidence rate ratio of suicide was increased by 1.90 times after adjusting for relevant covariates, including fractures not involving the skull, chronic medical diseases, socioeconomic status, and preinjury factors such as prior mental illness and deliberate self-harm.We adjusted our estimates for confounding effects more rigorously than prior studies that have yielded higher risk estimates after TBI; thus, our estimates were more conservative.Moreover, the suicide rate associated with TBI was found to be 1.73 times higher than for other fractures not involving the skull, which was a way of taking accident proneness due to constitutional factors into account.Nevertheless, in an observational study, adjustment may not completely eliminate confounding.The fact that the group with TBI had higher rates of deliberate self-harm before the TBI than the group without TBI could still have influenced our results.Prior research has shown that mental illness and deliberate self-harm are the main risk factors for suicide.Although we adjusted for these factors, the risk of suicide after deliberate self-harm and after first psychiatric diagnosis continues to be high for many years. 2,3A prior meta-analysis estimated that in absolute numbers, "only" relatively few individuals (4.2%) died by suicide after engaging in deliberate self-harm over a 10-year follow-up, 4 although some die of other causes. 5Those who survive will consequently be at risk of TBI.As such, individuals engaging in deliberate self-harm carry a long-term suicide risk and, as pointed out by Fleminger and Fleminger, they are at higher risk of experiencing subsequent TBI.A secondary finding in our study was the paradoxical effect that individuals engaging in deliberate self-harm but not subsequently experiencing a TBI had a higher suicide risk than those engaging in deliberate self-harm and subsequently experiencing a TBI, as seen in the interaction analyses.We agree that it is possible that this result reflects a survivor effect-individuals engaging in deliberate self-harm had to survive the immediate period of higher yet relatively low absolute suicide risk to be at risk of TBI later-rather than being due only to differences in personality traits and accident proneness.

Purpose. The nature of moral decision-making in those with pronounced psychopathic traits has been passionately debated, both in scientific literature and in the public policy arena. Research investigating the relationship between psychopathic traits and moral decision-making capacities has been largely inconclusive. However, recent research suggests individuals with elevated psychopathic traits may exhibit abnormal moral intuitions regarding the prevention of harm (Harm) and promotion of fairness (Fairness). Although moral intuitions are widely assumed to be related to moral judgement, no research has simultaneously examined the relations among psychopathy, moral intuition, and moral judgement. Methods. We hypothesized that psychopathic traits would not be directly related to moral judgement outcomes but would be indirectly related by way of Harm and Fairness moral intuitions. To test these hypotheses, 121 undergraduate students and 205 community residents, across two studies, completed measures of psychopathy, moral intuitions, and moral judgement. Results. Higher psychopathy scores were associated with decreased concerns about preventing harm and promoting justice across both samples. Individuals higher in psychopathic traits did not evidence deficits in moral judgement. Conclusions. Our findings indicate that, although individuals with elevated psychopathic traits may organize their sense of morality differently, they can accurately discern moral from immoral decisions.

Although it has been established that utilizing perspective taking leads to increases in empathy-related responses, it remains unknown how these techniques affect individuals who experience deficits in empathy (e.g., those higher in callousness). The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of perspective taking in increasing empathy-related responses (e.g., congruent affective reactions, empathic concern, perceived closeness with the target, and prosocial helping behaviors) for individuals lower and higher in the callous affect (CA) traits of psychopathy. In this study, 296 college students listened to a radio broadcast about a target in need with specific perspective taking instructions (e.g., “feel with target” or “imagine-self as target”) and completed measures assessing empathy-related responses. Results indicate individuals higher in CA are lower in empathy-related responses, but this deficit may be tempered by asking these individuals to imagine themselves as the target compared to asking them to feel the emotions of the target. These findings increase our understanding of the relationship between CA, perspective taking, and empathy-related responses and imply that perspective taking techniques may have differential effects among those higher in CA traits.

Socially acceptable body weight is increasing.1 If more individuals who are overweight or obese are satisfied with their weight, fewer might be motivated to lose unhealthy weight. This study assessed the trend in the percentage of adults who were overweight or obese and trying to lose weight during 3 periods from 1988 through 2014. We used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), an ongoing, stratified, multistage probability sample of the US noninstitutionalized population designed to represent the health and nutritional status of the general population. A strength of NHANES is that the sampling approaches, interviews, and physical examination methods are standardized across surveys and have been published extensively elsewhere.2 NHANES protocol was approved by the National Center for Health Statistics institutional review board, and written informed consent was obtained.2 The current analysis was categorized as exempt by the Georgia Southern University institutional review board.

This study examined the influence of masculinity on the coping mechanisms of undergraduate Black men. Black male college students were recruited from a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) and a Predominately White Institution (PWI) and asked to complete a survey. Survey results ( N = 162) showed most Black college men identify with mainstream society or Black masculinity. Results also showed that the type of masculinity identified does determine whether a positive or negative relationship exists with the type of coping method used. In addition, the type of masculinity identified with was determined by the campus (HBCU, PWI) participants attended. Future research directions are discussed.