The affiliative consequences of same-race and cross-race mimicry.

Few studies have replicated and extended the classic mimicry → liking effect. The present research sought to (a) replicate the affiliative consequences of mimicry; (b) test whether the affiliative consequences hold in a context where mimicry may not be normative (i.e., cross-race interactions); and (c) investigate how excluded individuals respond to same- versus cross-race mimicry and non-mimicry. Participants wrote about a control topic or social exclusion and then engaged in a brief laboratory interaction in which they were mimicked or not mimicked by a confederate who was either same-race or cross-race. Then they reported how much they liked the confederate. Within the control condition, the effect of mimicry on affiliation depended on the race of the confederate - but this pattern did not emerge for excluded individuals. The study was unable to conclusively replicate and extend previous findings. The authors make recommendations to promote a more cumulative science of behavioral mimicry.

Conflating Temporal Advancement and Epistemic Advancement: The Progression Bias in Judgment and Decision Making.

When seeking out the truth about a certain aspect of the world, people frequently conduct several inquiries successively over a time span. Later inquiries usually improve upon earlier ones; thus, it is typically rational to expect the finding of a later inquiry to be closer to the truth than that of an earlier one. However, when no meaningful differences exist between earlier and later inquiries, later findings should not be considered epistemically superior. However, in these cases, people continue to regard findings from later inquiries as closer to the truth than earlier ones. In 10 experiments, when later inquiries conflicted with-but did not epistemically improve upon-earlier ones, participants' global judgments about the truth aligned more with later findings than earlier ones, an effect referred to as progression bias. The liability to progression bias may have severe ramifications for the well-being of the society and its members.

Facilitating women's success in business: Interrupting the process of stereotype threat through affirmation of personal values.

Two field experiments examined if and how values affirmations can ameliorate stereotype threat-induced gender performance gaps in an international competitive business environment. Based on self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988), we predicted that writing about personal values unrelated to the perceived threat would attenuate the gender performance gap. Study 1 found that an online assignment to write about one's personal values (but not a similar writing assignment including organizational values) closed the gender gap in course grades by 89.0% among 423 Masters of Business Administration students (MBAs) at an international business school. Study 2 replicated this effect among 396 MBAs in a different cohort with random assignment and tested 3 related mediators (self-efficacy, self-doubt, and self-criticism). Personal values reflection (but not reflecting on values including those of the organization or writing about others' values) reduced the gender gap by 66.5%, and there was a significant indirect effect through reduced self-doubt. These findings show that a brief personal values writing exercise can dramatically improve women's performance in competitive environments where they are negatively stereotyped. The results also demonstrate that stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson, 1995) can occur within a largely non-American population with work experience and that affirming one's core personal values (without organizational values) can ameliorate the threat. (PsycINFO Database Record

Understanding police and expert performance: when training attenuates (vs. exacerbates) stereotypic bias in the decision to shoot.

In three studies, we examined how training may attenuate (or exacerbate) racial bias in the decision to shoot. In Experiment 1, when novices read a newspaper article about Black criminals, they showed pronounced racial bias in a first-person-shooter task (FPST); when they read about White criminals, bias was eliminated. Experts (who practiced the FPST) and police officers were unaffected by the same stereotype-accessibility manipulation. However, when training itself (base rates of armed vs. unarmed targets in the FPST, Experiment 2a; or special unit officers who routinely deal with minority gang members, Experiment 2b) reinforced the association between Blacks and danger, training did not attenuate bias. When race is unrelated to the presence/absence of a weapon, training may eliminate bias as participants learn to focus on diagnostic object information (gun vs. no gun). But when training actually promotes the utility of racial cues, it may sustain the heuristic use of stereotypes.