Celebrating organizational history triggers social identity threat among Black Americans.

Many mainstream organizations celebrate their historical successes. In their history, however, they often marginalized racial minorities, women, and other underrepresented groups. We suggest that when organizations celebrate their histories, even without mentioning historical marginalization, they can undermine belonging and intentions to join the organization among historically marginalized groups. Four experiments demonstrate that Black participants who were exposed to an organization that celebrated their history versus the present showed reduced belonging and intentions to participate in the organization. These effects were mediated by expectations of biased treatment in the organization. Further, when organizations had a history of Black people in power, celebrating history was no longer threatening, highlighting that the negative effects of celebrating history are most likely when organizations are or are assumed to be majority-White and have treated Black Americans poorly. Taken together, these findings suggest that emphasizing organizational history can be a source of social identity threat among Black Americans.

Girls are good at STEM: Opening minds and providing evidence reduces boys' stereotyping of girls' STEM ability.

Girls and women face persistent negative stereotyping within STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). This field intervention was designed to improve boys' perceptions of girls' STEM ability. Boys (N = 667; mostly White and East Asian) aged 9-15 years in Canadian STEM summer camps (2017-2019) had an intervention or control conversation with trained camp staff. The intervention was a multi-stage persuasive appeal: a values affirmation, an illustration of girls' ability in STEM, a personalized anecdote, and reflection. Control participants discussed general camp experiences. Boys who received the intervention (vs. control) had more positive perceptions of girls' STEM ability, d = 0.23, an effect stronger among younger boys. These findings highlight the importance of engaging elementary-school-aged boys to make STEM climates more inclusive.

When seeing stigma creates paternalism: Learning about disadvantage leads to perceptions of incompetence.

The present research examines the conditions under which educating non-stigmatized individuals about the experiences of members of stigmatized groups leads to paternalistic or more respectful views of the target. We propose that when these efforts ask members of non-stigmatized groups to focus only on the difficulties experienced by stigmatized targets, they will lead to more paternalistic views of targets because they portray targets as being in need of help. In contrast, we propose that when these efforts take a broader focus on stigmatized targets and include their resilience in the face of their difficulties, they will lead to more respectful views of targets. Four studies supported these predictions. Across studies, White participants who focused only on a Black target's difficulties subsequently perceived the target as more helpless and less competent than controls. Participants who focused on the target's resilience in the face of difficulties perceived him as more competent.

Stereotype Threat.

When members of a stigmatized group find themselves in a situation where negative stereotypes provide a possible framework for interpreting their behavior, the risk of being judged in light of those stereotypes can elicit a disruptive state that undermines performance and aspirations in that domain. This situational predicament, termed stereotype threat, continues to be an intensely debated and researched topic in educational, social, and organizational psychology. In this review, we explore the various sources of stereotype threat, the mechanisms underlying stereotype-threat effects (both mediators and moderators), and the consequences of this situational predicament, as well as the means through which society and stigmatized individuals can overcome the insidious effects of stereotype threat. Ultimately, we hope this review alleviates some of the confusion surrounding stereotype threat while also sparking further research and debate.

Mathematical models for the acoustic response of a solids-loaded encapsulated bubble.

A method of active acoustic resonance interference spectroscopy is introduced for estimation of bubble properties. A modified form of Rayleigh-Plesset equation for forced oscillation of either a single free bubble or elastic shell encapsulated microbubble with attached solids loading is solved by the regular perturbation method for steady oscillatory solutions as a result of small amplitude acoustic excitation by a point sinusoidal oscillator. A model for the total pressure field at an acoustic receiver in an incompressible liquid is then solved by the regular perturbation method. Closed-form analytical solutions are found for pressure power at the acoustic receiver as a function of the excitation frequency and strength; the properties of the bubble, liquid, and encapsulating shell; and the geometry of the active monitoring system. The receiver pressure power exhibits a maximum due to bubble resonance and a minimum due to destructive interference between source and bubble response pressure fields at higher excitation frequencies. The inverse problem is solved to derive unique closed-form analytical estimators for bubble equilibrium size, attached solids mass loading, and encapsulating layer dilatational viscosity as a function of the frequencies of the fundamental resonance maximum, interference minimum, second harmonic maximum total average acoustic power, monitoring system, and phase properties.

A crossover pilot study evaluating the functional outcomes of two different types of robotic movement training in chronic stroke survivors using the arm exoskeleton BONES.

BACKGROUND: To date, the limited degrees of freedom (DOF) of most robotic training devices hinders them from providing functional training following stroke. We developed a 6-DOF exoskeleton ("BONES") that allows movement of the upper limb to assist in rehabilitation. The objectives of this pilot study were to evaluate the impact of training with BONES on function of the affected upper limb, and to assess whether multijoint functional robotic training would translate into greater gains in arm function than single joint robotic training also conducted with BONES. METHODS: Twenty subjects with mild to moderate chronic stroke participated in this crossover study. Each subject experienced multijoint functional training and single joint training three sessions per week, for four weeks, with the order of presentation randomized. The primary outcome measure was the change in Box and Block Test (BBT). The secondary outcome measures were the changes in Fugl-Meyer Arm Motor Scale (FMA), Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT), Motor Activity Log (MAL), and quantitative measures of strength and speed of reaching. These measures were assessed at baseline, after each training period, and at a 3-month follow-up evaluation session. RESULTS: Training with the robotic exoskeleton resulted in significant improvements in the BBT, FMA, WMFT, MAL, shoulder and elbow strength, and reaching speed (p < 0.05); these improvements were sustained at the 3 month follow-up. When comparing the effect of type of training on the gains obtained, no significant difference was noted between multijoint functional and single joint robotic training programs. However, for the BBT, WMFT and MAL, inequality of carryover effects were noted; subsequent analysis on the change in score between the baseline and first period of training again revealed no difference in the gains obtained between the types of training. CONCLUSIONS: Training with the 6 DOF arm exoskeleton improved motor function after chronic stroke, challenging the idea that robotic therapy is only useful for impairment reduction. The pilot results presented here also suggest that multijoint functional robotic training is not decisively superior to single joint robotic training. This challenges the idea that functionally-oriented games during training is a key element for improving behavioral outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT01050231.

Characterization of acoustic emissions resulting from particle collision with a stationary bubble.

The present work characterizes the acoustic emissions resulting from the collision of a particle driven under gravity with a captive bubble. Conventional methods to investigate the bubble particle collision interaction model measure a descriptive parameter known as the collision time. During such a collision, particle impact may cause a strong deformation and a following oscillation of the bubble-particle interface generates detectable passive acoustic emissions (AE). Experiments and models presented show that the AE frequency monotonically decreases with the particle radius and is independent of the impact velocity, whereas the AE amplitude has a more complicated relationship with impact parameters.

Examining Beliefs About the Benefits of Self-Affirmation for Mitigating Self-Threat.

Self-affirmation-reflecting on a source of global self-integrity outside of the threatened domain-can mitigate self-threat in education, health, relationships, and more. Whether people recognize these benefits is unknown. Inspired by the metamotivational approach, we examined people's beliefs about the benefits of self-affirmation and whether individual differences in these beliefs predict how people cope with self-threat. The current research revealed that people recognize that self-affirmation is selectively helpful for self-threat situations compared with other negative situations. However, people on average did not distinguish between self-affirmation and alternative strategies for coping with self-threat. Importantly, individual differences in these beliefs predicted coping decisions: Those who recognized the benefits of self-affirmation were more likely to choose to self-affirm rather than engage in an alternative strategy following an experience of self-threat. We discuss implications for self-affirmation theory and developing interventions to promote adaptive responses to self-threat.

Closed-form analytical solutions of the time difference of arrival source location problem for minimal element monitoring arrays.

Closed-form analytical solutions are found for the time difference of arrival (TDOA) source location problem. Solutions are found for both two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) source location by formulating the TDOA equations in, respectively, polar and spherical coordinate systems, with the radial direction coincident with the assumed geodesic path of signal propagation to a reference sensor. Quadratic equations for TDOA 2D and 3D source location based on the spherical intersection (SX) scheme, in some cases permitting dual physical solutions, are found for three and four sensor element monitoring arrays, respectively. A method of spherical intersection subarrays (SXSAs) is developed to derive from these quadratic equations globally unique closed-form analytical solutions for TDOA 2D and 3D source location, for four and five sensor element monitoring arrays, respectively. Errors in 2D source location for introduced bias in time differences of arrival are shown to have a strong geometrical dependence. The SXSA and SX methods perform well in terms of accuracy and precision at high levels of arrival time bias for both 2D and 3D source location and are much more efficient than nonlinear least-squares schemes. The SXSA scheme may have particular applicability to accurately solving source location problems in demanding real-time situations.

Latent ability: grades and test scores systematically underestimate the intellectual ability of negatively stereotyped students.

Past research has assumed that group differences in academic performance entirely reflect genuine differences in ability. In contrast, extending research on stereotype threat, we suggest that standard measures of academic performance are biased against non-Asian ethnic minorities and against women in quantitative fields. This bias results not from the content of performance measures, but from the context in which they are assessed-from psychological threats in common academic environments, which depress the performances of people targeted by negative intellectual stereotypes. Like the time of a track star running into a stiff headwind, such performances underestimate the true ability of stereotyped students. Two meta-analyses, combining data from 18,976 students in five countries, tested this latent-ability hypothesis. Both meta-analyses found that, under conditions that reduce psychological threat, stereotyped students performed better than nonstereotyped students at the same level of past performance. We discuss implications for the interpretation of and remedies for achievement gaps.

Interacting with sexist men triggers social identity threat among female engineers.

Social identity threat is the notion that one of a person's many social identities may be at risk of being devalued in a particular context (C. M. Steele, S. J. Spencer, & J. Aronson, 2002). The authors suggest that in domains in which women are already negatively stereotyped, interacting with a sexist man can trigger social identity threat, undermining women's performance. In Study 1, male engineering students who scored highly on a subtle measure of sexism behaved in a dominant and sexually interested way toward an ostensible female classmate. In Studies 2 and 3, female engineering students who interacted with such sexist men, or with confederates trained to behave in the same way, performed worse on an engineering test than did women who interacted with nonsexist men. Study 4 replicated this finding and showed that women's underperformance did not extend to an English test, an area in which women are not negatively stereotyped. Study 5 showed that interacting with sexist men leads women to suppress concerns about gender stereotypes, an established mechanism of stereotype threat. Discussion addresses implications for social identity threat and for women's performance in school and at work.

Inequality, discrimination, and the power of the status quo: Direct evidence for a motivation to see the way things are as the way they should be.

How powerful is the status quo in determining people's social ideals? The authors propose (a) that people engage in injunctification, that is, a motivated tendency to construe the current status quo as the most desirable and reasonable state of affairs (i.e., as the most representative of how things should be); (b) that this tendency is driven, at least in part, by people's desire to justify their sociopolitical systems; and (c) that injunctification has profound implications for the maintenance of inequality and societal change. Four studies, across a variety of domains, provided supportive evidence. When the motivation to justify the sociopolitical system was experimentally heightened, participants injunctified extant (a) political power (Study 1), (b) public funding policies (Study 2), and (c) unequal gender demographics in the political and business spheres (Studies 3 and 4, respectively). It was also demonstrated that this motivated phenomenon increased derogation of those who act counter to the status quo (Study 4). Theoretical implications for system justification theory, stereotype formation, affirmative action, and the maintenance of inequality are discussed.

The cost of lower self-esteem: testing a self- and social-bonds model of health.

The authors draw upon social, personality, and health psychology to propose and test a self-and-social-bonds model of health. The model contends that lower self-esteem predicts health problems and that poor-quality social bonds explain this association. In Study 1, lower self-esteem prospectively predicted reports of health problems 2 months later, and this association was explained by subjective reports of poor social bonds. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 but used a longitudinal design with 6 waves of data collection, assessed self-reports of concrete health-related behaviors (i.e., number of visits to the doctor and classes missed due to illness), and measured both subjective and objective indicators of quality of social bonds (i.e., interpersonal stress and number of friends). In addition, Study 2 showed that poor-quality social bonds predicted acute drops in self-esteem over time, which in turn predicted acute decreases in quality of social bonds and, consequently, acute increases in health problems. In both studies, alternative explanations to the model were tested.

Collaboration reduces the frequency of false memories in older and younger adults.

Older (mean age = 74.23) and younger (mean age = 33.50) participants recalled items from 6 briefly exposed household scenes either alone or with their spouses. Collaborative recall was compared with the pooled, nonredundant recall of spouses remembering alone (nominal groups). The authors examined hits, self-generated false memories, and false memories produced by another person's (actually a computer program's) misleading recollections. Older adults reported fewer hits and more self-generated false memories than younger adults. Relative to nominal groups, older and younger collaborating groups reported fewer hits and fewer self-generated false memories. Collaboration also reduced older people's computer-initiated false memories. The memory conversations in the collaborative groups were analyzed for evidence that collaboration inhibits the production of errors and/or promotes quality control processes that detect and eliminate errors. Only older adults inhibited the production of wrong answers, but both age groups eliminated errors during their discussions. The partners played an important role in helping rememberers discard false memories in older and younger couples. The results support the use of collaboration to reduce false recall in both younger and older adults.

Victoria's dirty secret: how sociocultural norms influence adolescent girls and women.

The present studies tested whether the salience of sociocultural norms for ideal appearance leads women to base their self-worth more strongly on appearance, which in turn leads them to feel more concerned with others' perceptions and less satisfied with their bodies. Study 1 tested this model by manipulating the salience of the sociocultural norm among female university students. The model was supported. In Study 2 an intervention challenging the legitimacy of the sociocultural norm was delivered to female and male adolescents. Compared to controls, females who received this intervention were less accepting of the sociocultural norms for appearance, based their self-worth less strongly on appearance, and in turn were less concerned with others' perceptions and were more satisfied with their bodies. The implications for women are discussed.

The two-dimensional source location problem for time differences of arrival at minimal element monitoring arrays.

The time difference of arrival (TDOA) source localization inverse problem is analyzed for two-dimensional signal propagation detected by a small number of sensor elements in a monitoring array. Nonlinear least-squares solutions are found based on the assumptions of geodesic rays propagating at constant speed. The two-dimensional (2D) TDOA source location problem is shown in the case of three sensors to have dual possible solutions for some combinations of arrival time differences. In the case of four non-collinear sensors, there are unique solutions for all physically possible combinations of time differences. Dual solutions to the three-sensor problem are associated with a small range of arrival time differences but large regions in physical space. The locations of the dual solutions are separated by a wide variety of distances, which in some cases prevent the use of alternative reasoning to remove the ambiguity. Three-sensor TDOA cannot be reliably used for 2D source location unless the source is a priori known to be within either the spatial region spanned by the sensor array or the external zones of unique solution. Determining the minimum number of sensors necessary to unambiguously solve the source location problem assists in cost-effective design of sensor arrays.

Establishing a causal chain: why experiments are often more effective than mediational analyses in examining psychological processes.

The authors propose that experiments that utilize mediational analyses as suggested by R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986) are overused and sometimes improperly held up as necessary for a good social psychological paper. The authors argue that when it is easy to manipulate and measure a proposed psychological process that a series of experiments that demonstrates the proposed causal chain is superior. They further argue that when it is easy to manipulate a proposed psychological process but difficult to measure it that designs that examine underlying process by utilizing moderation can be effective. It is only when measurement of a proposed psychological process is easy and manipulation of it is difficult that designs that rely on mediational analyses should be preferred, and even in these situations careful consideration should be given to the limiting factors of such designs.

Clearing the air: identity safety moderates the effects of stereotype threat on women's leadership aspirations.

Exposing participants to gender-stereotypic TV commercials designed to elicit the female stereotype, the present research explored whether vulnerability to stereotype threat could persuade women to avoid leadership roles in favor of nonthreatening subordinate roles. Study 1 confirmed that exposure to the stereotypic commercials undermined women's aspirations on a subsequent leadership task. Study 2 established that varying the identity safety of the leadership task moderated whether activation of the female stereotype mediated the effect of the commercials on women's aspirations. Creating an identity-safe environment eliminated vulnerability to stereotype threat despite exposure to threatening situational cues that primed stigmatized social identities and their corresponding stereotypes.

On the cultural guises of cognitive dissonance: the case of easterners and westerners.

Cognitive dissonance and effects of self-affirmation on dissonance arousal were examined cross-culturally. In Studies 1 and 2, European Canadians justified their choices more when they made them for themselves, whereas Asian Canadians (Study 1) or Japanese (Study 2) justified their choices more when they made them for a friend. In Study 3, an interdependent self-affirmation reduced dissonance for Asian Canadians but not for European Canadians. In Study 4, when Asian Canadians made choices for a friend, an independent self-affirmation reduced dissonance for bicultural Asian Canadians but not for monocultural Asian Canadians. These studies demonstrate that both Easterners and Westerners can experience dissonance, but culture shapes the situations in which dissonance is aroused and reduced. Implications of these cultural differences for theories of cognitive dissonance and self-affirmation are discussed.

Types of high self-esteem and prejudice: how implicit self-esteem relates to ethnic discrimination among high explicit self-esteem individuals.

There is increasing recognition that high self-esteem is heterogeneous. Recent research suggests that individuals who report having high self-esteem (i.e., have high explicit self-esteem) behave more defensively to the extent that they have relatively low implicit self-esteem. The current studies test whether individuals with high explicit self-esteem are more likely to discriminate ethnically, as a defensive technique, to the extent that they have relatively low implicit self-esteem. The results support this prediction. Among participants with high explicit self-esteem, all of whom were threatened by negative performance feedback, those with relatively low implicit self-esteem recommended a more severe punishment for a Native, but not a White, student who started a fist-fight. In Study 2, this pattern was not apparent for participants with relatively low explicit self-esteem.