Meanness is a multifaceted construct that is central to psychopathy. This study reports the development of the Meanness in Psychopathy-Self Report (MiP-SR) across three waves of MTurk data collection involving approximately 300 participants in each wave. The MiP-SR’s items were written without reference to specific antisocial behaviors, and its 26 trait scales aggregated into three factors. Malice assesses an aggressive, haughty, remorseless misuse of others. Coldness assesses an unempathetic, unemotional detachment from people. Imperviousness assesses a resistance to socially mediated negative emotions. Malice related to nearly all measures of psychopathy, narcissism and antagonism, and reduced honesty and humility. Coldness related to callous-unemotional psychopathy, detachment and restricted affectivity, and avoidant attachment along with reduced empathy. Imperviousness related to boldness and callous-affective psychopathy, reduced vulnerable narcissism and negative affectivity, and positive emotionality along with reduced anxious attachment. Together, the MiP-SR’s factors incrementally predicted most criterion-related variables beyond the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure’s Meanness scale.

The current research tested the hypothesis that an increase in perceived disease vulnerability would create more feelings of disgust and a reduced willingness to help persons with dissimilar attitudes. To test these hypotheses, two studies were performed. In the first study, 173 university undergraduates indicated their willingness to help a target person who held similar or dissimilar attitudes. Then the participants’ feelings of disgust about helping, and perceived vulnerability to disease were measured. In the second study, 127 university undergraduates read materials designed to make a disease threat or a non-disease threat salient then indicated their willingness to help a target person with similar or dissimilar attitudes. As predicted a concern about disease and attitude similarity interacted to influence willingness to help and this effect was mediated by feelings of disgust.

Previous work has noted that math anxiety may have a profound effect on math performance; however extant research has relied on measures that explicitly assess math anxiety. This study examined the effects of implicit math anxiety on the performance of a math achievement task. We hypothesized that combined measure of implicit anxiety and explicit anxiety would better predict math achievement than measures of explicit math anxiety alone. In addition, we hypothesized that an individuals' measured implicit anxiety and measured explicit anxiety would share only a modest correlation. To test these hypotheses, 175 participants completed measures of explicit anxiety, an implicit associations test designed to measure implicit anxiety, and a measure of math achievement. As expected, math achievement was better predicted when implicit anxiety was combined with explicit anxiety. Furthermore, scores on the implicit and explicit anxiety measures were not significantly correlated. These results suggest that implicit and explicit math anxiety are two distinct constructs, thus traditional methods for helping students deal with math anxiety may not be entirely successful if the implicit component is ignored.

Certainly one of the first things that we notice when meeting someone new is how physically attractive that they are. Although the vast majority of studies in the literature suggest favoritism for physically attractive humans, some research indicates that negative biases may occur as well. This discrepancy in the literature may simply indicate the failure of differing experimental methods to adequately tap the same construct; however, it is also a likely indicator of moderating factors at work. This study employs an episodic memory task to demonstrate the moderating effects of self-esteem threat on physical attractiveness attributions. Furthermore, results indicate that attractiveness-based stereotypes are susceptible to fluctuations in self-esteem, such that individuals experiencing a threat to self-esteem become more reliant on stereotyping.

Robotic social intelligence is increasingly important. However, measures of human social intelligence omit basic skills, and robot-specific scales do not focus on social intelligence. We combined human robot interaction concepts of beliefs, desires, and intentions with psychology concepts of behaviors, cognitions, and emotions to create 20 Perceived Social Intelligence (PSI) Scales to comprehensively measure perceptions of robots with a wide range of embodiments and behaviors. Participants rated humanoid and non-humanoid robots interacting with people in five videos. Each scale had one factor and high internal consistency, indicating each measures a coherent construct. Scales capturing perceived social information processing skills (appearing to recognize, adapt to, and predict behaviors, cognitions, and emotions) and scales capturing perceived skills for identifying people (appearing to identify humans, individuals, and groups) correlated strongly with social competence and constituted the Mind and Behavior factors. Social presentation scales (appearing friendly, caring, helpful, trustworthy, and not rude, conceited, or hostile) relate more to Social Response to Robots Scales and Godspeed Indices, form a separate factor, and predict positive feelings about robots and wanting social interaction with them. For a comprehensive measure, researchers can use all PSI 20 scales for free. Alternatively, they can select the most relevant scales for their projects.

This study tested the hypothesis that the impact of sex and sex ratio on mating strategies (where favorable sex ratios increase the likelihood of men moving towards an unrestricted sociosexual orientation and of women moving towards a restricted sociosexual orientation) would be strongest for persons low in mate-value. Further, it was proposed that the effects of mate-value and sex-ratio would be mediated by changes in perceived mating opportunities. To test these hypotheses, male and female participants read a report designed to manipulate perceived sex ratio. The report gave participants the perception that there were either more men or more women available in their current environment. Participants then completed measures of their perceived mate-value and mating strategy (sociosexual orientation). As predicted, the interaction between the sex of the participant and sex ratio was strongest for persons low in mate-value.

This study examined the effects of mate-value on women's implicit desire for long and short-term mates. It was hypothesized that when social desirability effects were minimized that low mate-value women would have more positive associations with men available for short-term relationships compared to high mate-value women. To test this hypothesis, 144 women were presented with men available for either a long or a short-term relationship. The participants were asked to state their explicit response to the men, complete a procedure designed to measure their implicit responses to the men, and a measure of mate-value. As expected, high mate-value women had fewer positive implicit responses to men only available for short-term relations compared to low mate-value women. This effect disappeared when explicit responses were examined.

This study examined the influence of the type of partner infidelity (sexual vs. emotional) and sex of participant on actual mate abandonment and mate retention behaviors. It was predicted that men would engage in significantly more mate abandonment behaviors after experiencing a physical infidelity and that women would engage in significantly more mate abandonment behaviors after experiencing an emotional infidelity. To test this hypothesis, men and women who had either experienced a sexual or emotional infidelity were recruited and were asked to complete several measures designed to indicate their behavioral responses to the infidelity. The men and women in the study showed the predicted asymmetrical pattern of behavioral choices in response to sexual and emotional infidelity.

Previous work has consistently found that belief in a just world is strongly correlated with societal privilege. In the present study, we examined the influence of physical attractiveness on belief in a just world. We hypothesized that physically attractive individuals would be stronger endorsers of belief in a just world, whereas less attractive individuals would be less likely to endorse belief in a just world. Both self-rated attractiveness (experiment one) and attractiveness rated by other persons (experiment two) were found to predict endorsement of belief in a just world. Additionally, both attractiveness measures were found to have a relationship with participant's level of life satisfaction. These findings suggest that physical attractiveness powerfully affects our subjective experience as a human and that just-world beliefs are driven, at least in part, by personal experience with inequality.

Although a considerable body of research has examined the impact of student attractiveness on instructors, little attention has been given to the influence of instructor attractiveness on students. This study tested the hypothesis that persons would perform significantly better on a learning task when they perceived their instructor to be high in physical attractiveness. To test the hypothesis, participants listened to an audio lecture while viewing a photograph of instructor. The photograph depicted either a physically attractive instructor or a less attractive instructor. Following the lecture, participants completed a forced choice recognition task covering material from the lecture. Consistent with the predictions; attractive instructors were associated with more learning. Finally, we replicated previous findings demonstrating the role attractiveness plays in person perception.

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of gender on suspicion towards claims made during courtship communications. It was hypothesized that participants would be more suspicious of claims made about reproductive relevant traits. To test the hypothesis, participants read a total of eight scenarios describing traits relevant to female reproduction (wealth, commitment, and child interest), traits relevant to male reproduction (physical beauty, youth, and sexual availability), and traits neutral to both genders (stargazing and game playing). After each scenario, participants indicated their suspiciousness about the veracity of the communication on five scales. As predicted, both men and women believed the neutral claim scenarios more than claims about reproductively significant traits. Women compared to men were more suspicious of claims related to wealth, commitment, and child interest, while men compared to women were more suspicious of claims related to physical beauty, youth, and sexual availability.

This study examined the effects of implicit anxiety on the performance of skin self-examinations. It was hypothesized that implicit anxiety would contribute to the prediction of skin self-examinations beyond the contributions of variables suggested by social-cognitive models of health behavior. In addition, it was hypothesized that implicit anxiety's impact on self-examinations would not be influenced by deliberative cognition about efficacy. To test these hypotheses, 128 participants completed measures of explicit anxiety, self and task efficacy, and an implicit associations test designed to measure implicit anxiety. As expected, self-examination behavior was better predicted when implicit anxiety was added to models containing explicit anxiety and efficacy. Furthermore, thoughts about efficacy did not moderate the effects of implicit anxiety on self-examination behavior.

Contact Information: Shane Westfall, PhD student, c/o Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Email: westfal2@unlv.nevada.edu Abstract This study examined the psychometric qualities of the Responsive Distress Scale, a measure of emotional contagion experienced by individuals. Participants (n = 149) completed the Responsive Distress Scale, in addition to several other measures. We then analyzed the psychometric qualities of internal consistency, convergent validity, individual item analyses, and conducted both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Convergent validity was high and internal consistency was acceptable. After conducting item analyses it became apparent that three items were problematic for the scale. Through factor analyses, we extracted two factors and identified these two factors as Negative Emotional Responsiveness and Event Responsiveness. We determined that the measure taps into two distinct constructs, rather than one. Future research might profitably divide this scale into two distinct subscales or focus entirely upon items that explicitly mention responses to other people’s distress. Introduction A fascinating aspect of human interaction is the capacity to influence the subjective experiences of others. Behaviors, attitudes and emotions are all subject to changes from the surrounding social environment. One key aspect of this phenomenon is responsive distress. Responsive distress is defined as “the tendency to feel negative emotions when in the presence of others who are feeling negative emotions” (Barchard, 2001, p. 15). Responsive distress can be measured utilizing the Responsive Distress Scale (Barchard, 2001). The current study aims to examine the Responsive Distress Scale (RDS), specifically to (1) examine its internal consistency, (2) examine its validity, (3) conduct an item analysis in order to determine how the internal consistency and validity of this measure could be improved and (4) conduct an item-level factor analysis.