Personal Motivations and Systemic Incentives: Scientists on Questionable Research Practices.

As concern over the use of questionable research practices (QRPs) in academic science has increased over the last couple of decades, some reforms have been implemented and many others have been debated and recommended. While many of these proposals have merit, efforts to improve scientific practices are more likely to succeed when they are responsive to the prevailing views and concerns of scientists themselves. To date, there have been few efforts to solicit wide-ranging input from researchers on the topic of needed reforms. This article is a qualitative report of responses from federally funded scientists to the question of what should be done to address the problem of QRPs in their disciplines. Overall, participants were concerned about how institutional and career-oriented incentives encourage the use of QRPs. Compared to previous recommendations, participants had surprisingly little confidence in the ability of ethics training to improve research integrity.

Grounds for Ambiguity: Justifiable Bases for Engaging in Questionable Research Practices.

The current study sought to determine research scientists' sensitivity to various justifications for engaging in behaviors typically considered to be questionable research practices (QRPs) by asking them to evaluate the appropriateness and ethical defensibility of each. Utilizing a within-subjects design, 107 National Institutes of Health principal investigators responded to an invitation to complete an online survey in which they read a series of research behaviors determined, in prior research, to either be ambiguous or unambiguous in their ethical defensibility. Additionally, each behavior was paired with either an ostensibly sound or unsound reason for the behavior. Consistent with hypotheses, the results indicated that scientists perceived QRPs as more appropriate and defensible when paired with a justifiable motive relative to when paired with a clearly unethical motive, particularly for QRPs that are more ambiguous in their ethicality. In fact, ambiguous QRPs were perceived as categorically defensible when given a justifiable motive. This suggests scientists are sensitive to contextual factors related to QRPs' appropriateness, which could inform how institutions develop appropriate training modules for research integrity.

Callous-unemotional traits and empathy deficits: Mediating effects of affective perspective-taking and facial emotion recognition.

Although empathy deficits are thought to be associated with callous-unemotional (CU) traits, findings remain equivocal and little is known about what specific abilities may underlie these purported deficits. Affective perspective-taking (APT) and facial emotion recognition may be implicated, given their independent associations with both empathy and CU traits. The current study examined how CU traits relate to cognitive and affective empathy and whether APT and facial emotion recognition mediate these relations. Participants were 103 adolescents (70 males) aged 16-18 attending a residential programme. CU traits were negatively associated with cognitive and affective empathy to a similar degree. The association between CU traits and affective empathy was partially mediated by APT. Results suggest that assessing mechanisms that may underlie empathic deficits, such as perspective-taking, may be important for youth with CU traits and may inform targets of intervention.

The Influence of Disclosure and Ethics Education on Perceptions of Financial Conflicts of Interest.

This study explored how disclosure of financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) influences naïve or "lay" individuals' perceptions of the ethicality of researcher conduct. On a between-subjects basis, participants read ten scenarios in which researchers disclosed or failed to disclose relevant financial conflicts of interest. Participants evaluated the extent to which each vignette represented a FCOI, its possible influence on researcher objectivity, and the ethics of the financial relationship. Participants were then asked if they had completed a college-level ethics course. Results indicated that FCOI disclosure significantly influenced participants' perceptions of the ethicality of the situation, but only marginally affected perceptions of researcher objectivity and had no significant influence on perceptions of the existence of FCOIs. Participants who had previously completed a college-level ethics course appeared more sensitive to the importance of FCOI disclosure than those who lacked such background. This result suggests that formal ethical training may help individuals become more critical consumers of scientific research.

Overgeneralizing belonging: limited exposure to baby-faced targets increases the feeling of social belonging.

We tested the hypothesis that exposure to babyish faces can serve a social surrogacy function, such that even limited exposure to babyish faces can fulfill social belongingness needs. We manipulated the sex and facial maturity of a target face seen in an imagined social interaction, on a between-participants basis. Regardless of target sex, individuals indicated greater satisfaction of social belongingness needs following an imagined interaction with a babyish face, compared to a mature adult face. These results indicate that brief exposure to babyish (relative to mature) faces, even without an extensive interaction, can lead to the satisfaction of social belongingness needs.

Interdisciplinary lessons and recommendations for the evaluation of replicability in behavioral sciences.

As the scientific community becomes aware of low replicability rates in the extant literature, peer-reviewed journals have begun implementing initiatives with the goal of improving replicability. Such initiatives center around various rules to which authors must adhere to demonstrate their engagement in best practices. Preliminary evidence in the psychological science literature demonstrates a degree of efficacy in these initiatives. With such efficacy in place, it would be advantageous for other fields of behavioral sciences to adopt similar measures. This letter provides a discussion on lessons learned from psychological science while similarly addressing the unique challenges of other sciences to adopt measures that would be most appropriate for their field. We offer broad considerations for peer-reviewed journals in their implementation of specific policies and recommend that governing bodies of science prioritize the funding of research that addresses these measures.

Cross-race responses to mental illness cues.

Much research suggests mental health diagnoses elicit stigmatization of individuals. The current study builds upon this literature at the intersection of same- and cross-race perceptions. Black and White participants viewed Black and White targets paired with either a mental health diagnosis (e.g., depression), a physical health diagnosis (e.g., high blood pressure), or no health information (control) while indicating each target's favorability and how much social distance they would want from them. Overall, people were more stigmatizing toward targets with a mental health diagnosis than a physical health diagnosis or no diagnosis. Black targets with a mental health diagnosis were stigmatized more than White targets with a mental health diagnosis and White participants displayed a greater aversion to Black targets with a mental health diagnosis than did Black participants. Results contribute to the mental health stigma literature and suggest it may be particularly problematic for White perceivers' attitudes toward Black individuals with mental health diagnoses. Findings may shed light on the racial differences in treatment-seeking amongst Black and White individuals.

Perception and motivation in face recognition: a critical review of theories of the Cross-Race Effect.

Although humans possess well-developed face processing expertise, face processing is nevertheless subject to a variety of biases. Perhaps the best known of these biases is the Cross-Race Effect--the tendency to have more accurate recognition for same-race than cross-race faces. The current work reviews the evidence for and provides a critical review of theories of the Cross-Race Effect, including perceptual expertise and social cognitive accounts of the bias. The authors conclude that recent hybrid models of the Cross-Race Effect, which combine elements of both perceptual expertise and social cognitive frameworks, provide an opportunity for theoretical synthesis and advancement not afforded by independent expertise or social cognitive models. Finally, the authors suggest future research directions intended to further develop a comprehensive and integrative understanding of biases in face recognition.

Preliminary Evidence for an Association between Journal Submission Requirements and Reproducibility of Published Findings: A Pilot Study.

Systemic efforts have been employed to improve the reproducibility of published findings in psychology. To date, little research has been conducted evaluating how well these efforts work. In an effort to bridge this gap, the current study looked at journal submission requirements intended to encourage authors to engage in best practices for facilitating reproducible science and offers preliminary evidence for their potential efficacy. We calculated reproducibility indices (p-curves) for three randomly selected empirical studies published in each of 23 psychology journals in 2019 and correlated quantitative results from those analyzes with the number of submission requirements for each journal that intended to ensure compliance with best reporting practices. Results indicated a greater number of submission requirements at a given outlet was associated with indices indicating greater likelihood of reproducibility of findings. We frame findings as impetus for future, more extensive, research to identify causal links between submission requirements and reproducibility.

The Effect of Workplace Gender Composition on Investment Interest in Hypothetical Companies.

The current study extends previous work on gendered workplace attitudes by manipulating the workplace gender composition (CEO gender, employee gender) of traditional male and female employment sectors. Participants reported general financial investment interest in purported male-role congruent (science laboratory) and female-role congruent (daycare) start-up companies, where CEO gender and employee gender were orthogonally manipulated. Participants had more favorable investment attitudes toward daycares when the CEO was a woman, and especially favorable investment attitudes when both the CEO and employees were women. These findings were stronger for participants higher in hostile sexism. For science laboratories, participants reported equivalent investment attitudes, regardless of CEO gender, as long as the employee gender composition matched the CEO gender (i.e., female CEO + female employees). These findings suggest that social role expectations influence investment attitudes in predictable ways for traditional female employment sectors, but in more nuanced ways for traditional male employment sectors.

Crowd Salience Reduces Aversion to Facially Communicated Psychopathy but Not Narcissism.

Despite the adaptive advantages of social affiliation in humans, the benefits of interpersonal contact are nonetheless bounded. The experience of crowding can emerge from an oversaturation of social affiliation, fostering avoidant behaviors and heightening vigilance toward interpersonal threats. Among these features indicative of threat includes facial structures connoting dark personality traits associated with a proclivity toward exploitative behavior. Despite the potential costs imposed by those exhibiting these features, individuals could nonetheless enjoy coalitional benefits from exploitative humans (i.e., protection). Two studies investigated whether crowding would foster aversion or interest toward facial structures connoting psychopathy and narcissism. Although crowd salience heightened tolerance for psychopathy (Study 1), providing evidence for a bodyguard hypothesis, narcissism was similarly aversive regardless of motivational state (Study 2). We frame results from an evolutionary perspective and provide tentative explanations for discrepant signal values through psychopathy and narcissism that could elicit disparate findings.

Demonstrate values: Behavioral displays of moral outrage as a cue to long-term mate potential.

Recent findings suggest that moral outrage signals trustworthiness to others, and such perceptions play a uniquely important role in identifying social opportunities. We conducted four studies (N = 870) investigating how displays of moral outrage are perceived in the specific context of mating. Results indicated participants, particularly women, found prospective mates describing outrage-signaling activism to be more desirable for long-term mating (Study 1), and this perception of desirability was similarly inferred among same-sex raters (Study 2). We further replicated findings in Study 1, while additionally considering the basis of women's attraction toward outraged behavior through candidate mediators (Studies 3). Although we found consistent evidence for the desirability of an ostensibly outraged target, Study 4 finally identified a boundary condition on the desirability of outrage, wherein mere expression of outrage (without activism) was insufficient to bolster attraction. We frame results from complementary perspectives of trust signaling and sexual strategies theory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Competing motives in a pandemic: Interplays between fundamental social motives and technology use in predicting (Non)Compliance with social distancing guidelines.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals were advised to adhere to social distancing guidelines limiting physical interpersonal contact. Humans have a suite of adaptations to satisfy belonging needs while avoiding diseased conspecifics. Competition between motivational systems may explain adherence and resistance to social distancing guidelines and how technologically mediated interactions further shape these decisions. This study is a preregistered analysis of data in a representative sample collected during the pandemic investigating how individual differences in affiliative and pathogen-avoidant motives predict interest in physical interactions (N = 2409). Germ aversion predicted disinterest in physical interactions and need to belong predicted interest. Additional analyses revealed technology use satisfied belonging motives that unexpectedly heightened interest in physical contact. Exploratory analyses further indicate that internet speed was similarly associated with greater interest in physical interactions. We frame these results through a competing fundamental social motives framework and discuss how to address future pandemics effectively.

Not Taking a Joke: The Influence of Target Status, Sex, and Age on Reactions to Workplace Humor.

The current study tasked undergraduates with serving as hypothetical human resource workers to evaluate complaints of offensive and inoffensive humor used by male and female employees in a fictitious company who varied in employment status and age. Offensive humor was deemed more problematic in its usage, particularly among female perceivers. Contrary to hypotheses, its usage was more problematic for male and older employees than for female and younger employees. In addition, participants were more averse to both offensive and inoffensive humor from high-status and older men relative to women with similar characteristics. We frame results with consideration of recent social trends.

Crowd Salience Heightens Tolerance to Healthy Facial Features.

OBJECTIVE: Recent findings suggest crowd salience heightens pathogen-avoidant motives, serving to reduce individuals' infection risk through interpersonal contact. Such experiences may similarly facilitate the identification, and avoidance, of diseased conspecifics. The current experiment sought to replicate and extend previous crowding research. METHODS: In this experiment, we primed participants at two universities with either a crowding or control experience before having them evaluate faces manipulated to appear healthy or diseased by indicating the degree to which they would want to interact with them. RESULTS: Crowding-primed participants reported a more heightened preferences for healthy faces than control-primed participants. Additionally, crowd salience reduced aversion toward healthy faces but did not heighten aversion to diseased faces. CONCLUSION: Results suggest crowding appears to heighten tolerance for health cues given the heightened proximal threat of infections through interpersonal contact within crowded environments. Conversely, this work extends previous findings by indicating this preference is not rooted in an aversion to cues of poor health. We frame findings from a threat management perspective in understanding how crowding fosters sensitivity toward pathogenic threats.

Noncompliance with Masking as a Coalitional Signal to US Conservatives in a Pandemic.

Humans have evolved perceptual acuity toward environmental cues heuristically associated with communicable disease that elicits an aversion. One heuristic cue that humans utilize to infer contamination threat is ingroup-outgroup status, with prejudices arising toward outgroup members due to potential novel pathogen exposure. The current study sought to investigate how disease responses in the US population have been modulated by the COVID-19 pandemic, given its origins in China, an outgroup population. We predicted that participants expressing heightened perceived vulnerability to disease and greater levels of conservatism would report higher levels of aversion towards targets not wearing a mask, particularly among Asian targets, given the association of COVID-19 with Asian populations. Results indicate that conservative individuals were more comfortable with both Asian and White targets if they were not wearing a mask, particularly male targets. We contextualize these findings by identifying how mask-wearing during the pandemic could be more communicative of one's coalitional affiliation rather than a protective health measure for more conservative persons.

Political Orientation and Belief in Science in a U.S. College Sample.

Lay skepticism toward empirically supported scientific research has increased significantly in recent years. Given that part of the social contract of science is the betterment of society, it is critical for the scientific community to identify factors underlying public dismissal versus support of scientific evidence. The current study explores how individual differences in political ideology influence acceptance of factual and nonfactual information, with differences in truth-seeking values as a potential mediating variable. Participants rated their agreement with true and untrue (i.e., nonempirically supported) statements and completed self-report assessments of political ideology and personal endorsement of values associated with promoting truth. More politically, liberal individuals reported greater agreement with both scientific facts and untrue statements. Furthermore, endorsement of truth-seeking values mediated the relation between liberal ideology and agreement with facts (but not nonfactual statements). Results suggest that interventions to increase individuals' acceptance of facts may benefit from stimulating greater support for truth-seeking values and behavior.

Ethical Consistency and Experience: An Attempt to Influence Researcher Attitudes Toward Questionable Research Practices Through Reading Prompts.

Over the past couple of decades, the apparent widespread occurrence of Questionable Research Practices (QRPs) in scientific research has been widely discussed in the research ethics literature as a source of concern. Various ways of reducing their use have been proposed and implemented, ranging from improved training and incentives for adopting best practices to systematic reforms. This article reports on the results of two studies that investigated the efficacy of simple, psychological interventions aimed at changing researcher attitudes toward QRPs. While the interventions did not significantly modify researchers' reactions to QRPs, they showed differential efficacy depending on scientists' experience, suggesting complexities in researcher psychology and the ethics of QRPs that merit further study.

Skin in the Game: Personal Accountability and Journal Peer Review.

Two preregistered studies explored the likelihood paper reviewers would request clarification from authors regarding potential questionable research practices (QRPs). Study 1 participants were instructed to imagine reviewing a journal manuscript as either a coauthor or peer reviewer and rate the extent to which they would request clarification from the author when encountering potential QRPs. Participants reported greater likelihood of requesting clarification when assigned to the coauthor relative to the peer reviewer role. Study 2 participants were assigned to either an anonymous or open-review condition and rated the extent to which they would seek clarification from an author regarding potential QRPs. Men (but not women) in the open review condition reported greater likelihood of seeking clarification about potential QRPs than men in the blind review condition. Results provide tentative evidence that motivational factors influence the peer review process, and suggestions are made for improving peer review practices.

The look of fear and anger: facial maturity modulates recognition of fearful and angry expressions.

The current series of studies provide converging evidence that facial expressions of fear and anger may have co-evolved to mimic mature and babyish faces in order to enhance their communicative signal. In Studies 1 and 2, fearful and angry facial expressions were manipulated to have enhanced babyish features (larger eyes) or enhanced mature features (smaller eyes) and in the context of a speeded categorization task in Study 1 and a visual noise paradigm in Study 2, results indicated that larger eyes facilitated the recognition of fearful facial expressions, while smaller eyes facilitated the recognition of angry facial expressions. Study 3 manipulated facial roundness, a stable structure that does not vary systematically with expressions, and found that congruency between maturity and expression (narrow face-anger; round face-fear) facilitated expression recognition accuracy. Results are discussed as representing a broad co-evolutionary relationship between facial maturity and fearful and angry facial expressions.