Capturing Fluctuations in Pathogen Avoidance: the Situational Pathogen Avoidance Scale.

Pathogen avoidance is an important motive underlying human behavior and is associated with numerous psychological processes-including biases against social groups heuristically associated with illness. Although there are reliable measurement scales to assess chronic dispositional levels of pathogen avoidance, no measurement scale currently exists to directly assess moment-to-moment fluctuations in pathogen avoidance. This paper presents the Situational Pathogen Avoidance (SPA) scale, which assesses situational variability in pathogen avoidance, especially as it pertains to avoidance of social stimuli. Across six studies, we demonstrate the reliability and validity of the SPA scale, show that the scale is influenced by situational activation of pathogen avoidance motives, and demonstrate that it mediates the association between pathogen avoidance motives (both chronic and situational) and social biases against obese and foreign targets. The SPA scale provides a valuable measurement tool for researchers who study pathogen avoidance and to those who study social biases more generally.

Internal motivation to respond without prejudice fosters respectful responses in interracial interactions.

As society becomes increasingly racially diverse, fostering positive interracial interactions is more important than ever. Unfortunately, previous work suggests that there are barriers to positive interracial interactions including White people's concerns about being liked and being seen as nonprejudiced and Black people's concerns about being respected and being seen as competent (Bergsieker, Shelton, & Richeson, 2010). The current work tested the hypothesis that these seemingly divergent impression management concerns do not always lead White people to have an approach to interracial interactions that is "incompatible" with Black interaction partner's concerns about being respected. We argue that White people who are internally motivated to respond without prejudice (Plant & Devine, 1998) are aware that Black interaction partners want to be respected, are concerned about showing this respect, and demonstrate this respect by focusing on getting to know and engaging with Black interaction partners during interracial interactions. On the other hand, White people who are externally motivated to respond without prejudice are focused on their own concerns about appearing prejudiced and focus on themselves and their own experience rather the needs of Black interaction partners. The results of six studies supported our predictions. Overall, the current work provides an important link between research on impression management concerns and motivations to respond without prejudice and suggests that the key to cultivating positive interracial interactions may be to increase White people's internal motivation and knowledge that Black people want to be respected. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Relationship between Suicidal Responses and Traumatic Brain Injury and Severe Insomnia in Active Duty, Veteran, and Civilian Populations.

This study examined how a positive traumatic brain injury (TBI) screening and insomnia severity relate to suicidal outcomes across active duty, veteran, and civilian samples. Data were used from 3,993 participants from 19 studies. We conducted a series of analyses by group to identify which significantly differed on the variables of interest. TBI and insomnia each had independent relationships with outcomes over and above the impact of the other factor. Veterans presented as clinically worse across the outcomes. However, the relationship between insomnia and suicidal responses was stronger for active duty military compared to veterans. Continued research on TBIs and insomnia severity across groups will improve quality of care for those at risk of suicide.

The dark side of morality: Prioritizing sanctity over care motivates denial of mind and prejudice toward sexual outgroups.

Moral values bind communities together and foster cooperation, yet these same values can lead to the derogation and marginalization of outgroups. Five studies tested a theoretical framework proposing that preferentially endorsing moral values of sanctity versus care (the sanctity-care trade-off) produces a motivational bias whereby people perceive sexual outgroup members as less human. This denial of mind, in turn, legitimizes expressions of prejudice and discrimination toward sexual outgroups. Study 1 showed that natural variations in people's moral values predicted denial of mind and prejudice. Study 2 replicated this pattern, examining political liberals and conservatives, and demonstrating that moral values and denial of mind help explain the relationship between personal politics and prejudice. Study 3 measured people's moral values by examining people's willingness to trade-off a moral value for money and used this measure to predict denial of mind, prejudice, and decreased willingness to help transgender individuals. Study 4 used religion to boost sanctity values and found a corresponding increase in denial of mind and prejudice. Finally, Study 5 reduced denial of mind and prejudice by intensifying concerns about care. Together, these studies demonstrate that moral values importantly influence how people decide who possesses a mind and is entitled to moral rights and who is mindless and allowed to be hurt or neglected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Do Gender Differences in Perceived Prototypical Computer Scientists and Engineers Contribute to Gender Gaps in Computer Science and Engineering?

Women are vastly underrepresented in the fields of computer science and engineering (CS&E). We examined whether women might view the intellectual characteristics of prototypical individuals in CS&E in more stereotype-consistent ways than men might and, consequently, show less interest in CS&E. We asked 269 U.S. college students (187, 69.5% women) to describe the prototypical computer scientist (Study 1) or engineer (Study 2) through open-ended descriptions as well as through a set of trait ratings. Participants also rated themselves on the same set of traits and rated their similarity to the prototype. Finally, participants in both studies were asked to describe their likelihood of pursuing future college courses and careers in computer science (Study 1) or engineering (Study 2). Across both studies, we found that women offered more stereotype-consistent ratings than did men of the intellectual characteristics of prototypes in CS (Study 1) and engineering (Study 2). Women also perceived themselves as less similar to the prototype than men did. Further, the observed gender differences in prototype perceptions mediated the tendency for women to report lower interest in CS&E fields relative to men. Our work highlights the importance of prototype perceptions for understanding the gender gap in CS&E and suggests avenues for interventions that may increase women's representation in these vital fields.

Initial validation of brief measures of suicide risk factors: Common data elements used by the Military Suicide Research Consortium.

The Military Suicide Research Consortium (MSRC) developed a 57-item questionnaire assessing suicide risk factors, referred to as the Common Data Elements (CDEs), in order to facilitate data sharing and improve collaboration across independent studies. All studies funded by MSRC are required to include the CDEs in their assessment protocol. The CDEs include shortened measures of the following: current and past suicide risk, lethality and intent of past suicide attempts, hopelessness, thwarted belongingness, anxiety sensitivity, posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, traumatic brain injury, insomnia, and alcohol abuse. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the CDE items drawn from empirically validated measures. Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the overall structure of the CDE items, and confirmatory factor analyses were used to evaluate the distinct properties of each scale. Internal consistencies of the CDE scales and correlations with full measures were also examined. Merged data from 3,140 participants (81.0% military service members, 75.6% male) across 19 MSRC-funded studies were used in analyses. Results indicated that all measures exhibited adequate internal consistency, and all CDE shortened measures were significantly correlated with the corresponding full measures with moderate to strong effect sizes. Factor analyses indicated that the shortened CDE measures performed well in comparison with the full measures. Overall, our findings suggest that the CDEs are not only brief but also provide psychometrically valid scores when assessing suicide risk and related factors that may be used in future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

Judged by the Company You Keep? Exposure to Nonprejudiced Norms Reduces Concerns About Being Misidentified as Gay/Lesbian.

Social contagion concerns, heterosexuals' fears about being misidentified as gay/lesbian, can lead to avoidant and hostile responses toward gay men/lesbians. We argue that apprehension about becoming the target of prejudice if misidentified as gay/lesbian contributes to contagion concerns. We hypothesized that exposing heterosexuals to others' nonprejudiced attitudes would reduce their contagion concerns. Consistent with these predictions, perceptions of peer prejudice statistically predicted contagion concerns, over and above personal prejudice (Study 1). In addition, participants exposed to a nonprejudiced versus a high-prejudiced norm (or control condition) expressed lower contagion concerns and less anxious/avoidant responses toward gay men/lesbians (Studies 2 and 4). Finally, exposure to fellow students' nonprejudiced views resulted in lower contagion concerns than a control group (Study 3) due to decreased concerns about becoming the target of prejudice if misidentified as gay/lesbian (Study 4). These results provide evidence that changing perceptions of others' prejudice can reduce contagion concerns.

White ≠ Poor: Whites Distance, Derogate, and Deny Low-Status Ingroup Members.

Throughout society, White people of low socioeconomic status (SES) face prejudice, often from racial ingroup members. The present research tested the ingroup distancing effect, which predicts that Whites' negative reactions to low-SES ingroup members are motivated responses to perceived threats to their personal and group-level status. To cope with perceived status threats, White people psychologically and physically distance themselves from low-SES Whites. Four studies provide converging support for this theorizing. Among White participants, low-SES Whites elicited derogation, impaired racial categorization and memory, and inflated perceived personal status. White participants explicitly perceived low-SES Whites as greater status threats than low-SES Blacks, and these perceptions of threat predicted increased discomfort in anticipated social situations with low-SES White targets. Moreover, threatened status led Whites who strongly identified with their racial ingroup to physically distance themselves from a low-SES White partner. This research demonstrates that concerns with status motivate prejudice against ingroup members.

A Religious Worldview: Protecting One's Meaning System Through Religious Prejudice.

For some people, religion strongly influences their worldviews. We propose that religious outgroups threaten the foundational beliefs of people with strong religious worldviews (RWVs) by endorsing alternative belief systems and that this threat contributes to religious prejudice. To examine these ideas, we developed a measure of RWV strength and assessed the role of RWV threat in religious prejudice. Across five studies, strength of RWV was related to religious prejudice, including derogation and denial of alternative religious viewpoints, as well as support for suppressing, avoiding, and even aggressing against religious outgroups. These responses were strongest toward religious outgroups whose worldviews were the most different, and therefore most threatening. Mediational analyses revealed that strong RWV people expressed heightened prejudice because of the worldview threat posed by religious outgroup members. These findings indicate that the avoidance and subjugation of religious outgroups can serve as a worldview protection strategy for some people.

Mating motives and concerns about being misidentified as gay or lesbian: implications for the avoidance and derogation of sexual minorities.

Recent research has demonstrated that concerns about being misidentified as gay or lesbian lead to the avoidance of gay men and lesbians. Because being misidentified as gay/lesbian can result in the loss of heterosexual people's mating opportunities, we predicted that the activation of mating motives would heighten concerns among some heterosexuals about being misidentified as gay/lesbian. To combat such misidentification, we argued that heterosexuals would express antipathy toward and avoid contact with gay/lesbian people. Consistent with predictions, the activation of mating motives led heterosexuals who were generally concerned about misclassification as gay/lesbian to denigrate (Study 1) and avoid (Study 2) gay/lesbian people. Activating mating motives increased heterosexual participants' concerns about being misclassified, which in turn heightened interest in avoiding gay/lesbian people (Study 3). These findings indicate that, although the motivation to find a romantic partner can have positive implications, it can contribute to negative responses to gay/lesbian people.

Concern over the misidentification of sexual orientation: social contagion and the avoidance of sexual minorities.

Membership in a valued group can provide an individual with a variety of benefits. As a result, people should be motivated to avoid being misidentified as a member of an outgroup, particularly a stigmatized outgroup. We argue that when group membership is not readily identifiable, concern over potentially being mistaken for a member of the outgroup (i.e., social contagion concerns) can be potent and can lead to avoidance of the outgroup. The current work shows that after controlling for negative attitudes toward homosexuality, social contagion concerns independently predict anxiety and avoidance in response to imagined, anticipated, and actual contact with a lesbian or gay individual. Results from these studies suggest that concern over misclassification of sexual orientation is an important and unique predictor of responses to contact with lesbian and gay people. Implications for intergroup contact and responses to other stigmatized groups are discussed.

Feeling in with the outgroup: outgroup acceptance and the internalization of the motivation to respond without prejudice.

Over 10 years of research has illustrated the benefits of internal motivation to respond without prejudice (IMS) for prejudice regulation and high-quality intergroup contact (see Plant & Devine, 1998). Yet, it is unclear how this motivation develops. The current work tested one route through which feelings of acceptance from outgroup members facilitate the development of IMS. Longitudinally, feeling accepted by outgroup members predicted increases in IMS across a 15-week period (Study 1). Experimental manipulations of outgroup acceptance also increased IMS toward racial outgroups (Studies 2 and 3). Furthermore, IMS mediated the relationship between outgroup acceptance and participants' increased willingness to pay money to increase opportunities for interracial contact (Study 2). Tests of mediation also demonstrated that feelings of acceptance mediated the effect of outgroup acceptance on internal motivation (Study 3). In addition, this pattern of responses held for members of both high- and low-status racial groups. This research demonstrates one pathway through which the fulfillment of fundamental needs influences motivated intergroup processes.

The basis of shooter biases: beyond cultural stereotypes.

White police officers and undergraduate students mistakenly shoot unarmed Black suspects more than White suspects on computerized shoot/don't shoot tasks. This bias is typically attributed to cultural stereotypes of Black men. Yet, previous research has not examined whether such biases emerge even in the absence of cultural stereotypes. The current research investigates whether individual differences in chronic beliefs about interpersonal threat interact with target group membership to elicit shooter biases, even when group membership is unrelated to race or cultural stereotypes about danger. Across two studies, participants with strong beliefs about interpersonal threats were more likely to mistakenly shoot outgroup members than ingroup members; this was observed for unfamiliar, arbitrarily formed groups using a minimal group paradigm (Study 1) and racial groups not culturally stereotyped as dangerous (Asians; Study 2). Implications for the roles of both group membership and cultural stereotypes in shaping decisions to shoot are discussed.

Motivated social categorization: fundamental motives enhance people's sensitivity to basic social categories.

This article presents an evolutionary framework for identifying the characteristics people use to categorize members of their social world. Findings suggest that fundamental social motives lead people to implicitly categorize social targets based on whether those targets display goal-relevant phenotypic traits. A mate-search prime caused participants to categorize opposite-sex targets (but not same-sex targets) based on their level of physical attractiveness (Experiment 1). A mate-guarding prime interacted with relationship investment, causing participants to categorize same-sex targets (but not opposite-sex targets) based on their physical attractiveness (Experiment 2). A self-protection prime interacted with chronic beliefs about danger, increasing participants' tendency to categorize targets based on their racial group membership (Black or White; Experiment 3). This work demonstrates that people categorize others based on whether they display goal-relevant characteristics reflecting high levels of perceived desirability or threat. Social categorization is guided by fundamental evolved motives designed to enhance adaptive social outcomes.

Selective responses to threat: the roles of race and gender in decisions to shoot.

Extensive work over the past decade has shown that race can bias perceptions and responses to threat. However, the previous work focused almost exclusively on responses to men and overlooked how gender and the interaction of race and gender influence decisions regarding use of force. In the current article, two studies examine the implications of gender (Study 1) and both race and gender (Study 2) for decisions to shoot criminal suspects on a computerized simulation. In Study 1, participants were biased away from shooting White female suspects compared to White male suspects. In Study 2, White participants showed a pronounced bias toward shooting Black men but a bias away from shooting Black women and White ingroup members, providing evidence of a behavioral threat-related response specific to outgroup men stereotypically associated with aggression. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Routes to positive interracial interactions: approaching egalitarianism or avoiding prejudice.

The current work examined factors that contribute to positive interracial interactions. It argues that the source of people's motivation to respond without prejudice and the goals and strategies they pursue in interracial interactions influence the quality of these interactions. Three studies show that non-Black participants who are highly internally motivated to respond without prejudice tend to focus on strategies and behaviors in interactions with Black people that approach a positive (i.e., egalitarian) outcome. As a result of engaging in these approach behaviors, their interracial interactions go more smoothly for both themselves and their interaction partners as compared to people less internally motivated. In contrast, externally motivated people tend to focus on avoiding negative (i.e., prejudiced) outcomes, which ironically results in their coming across to their partners as prejudiced. The implications of the findings for smoothing out the rocky road to positive intergroup interactions are discussed.

Prejudice control and interracial relations: the role of motivation to respond without prejudice.

A decade of research indicates that individual differences in motivation to respond without prejudice have important implications for the control of prejudice and interracial relations. In reviewing this work, we draw on W. Mischel and Y. Shoda's (1995, 1999) Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS) to demonstrate that people with varying sources of motivation to respond without prejudice respond in distinct ways to situational cues, resulting in differing situation-behavior profiles in interracial contexts. People whose motivation is self-determined (i.e., the internally motivated) effectively control prejudice across situations and strive for positive interracial interactions. In contrast, people who respond without prejudice to avoid social sanction (i.e., the primarily externally motivated) consistently fail at regulating difficult to control prejudice and respond with anxiety and avoidance in interracial interactions. We further consider the nature of the cognitive-affective units of personality associated with motivation to respond without prejudice and their implications for the quality of interracial relations.

Effect of alcohol on race-biased responding: the moderating role of internal and external motivations to respond without prejudice.

OBJECTIVE: This experiment was a systematic examination of how drinking, available response time, and levels of internal and external motivations to respond without prejudice interact to affect responses in a behavioral assessment of the race bias of social drinkers. METHOD: Ninety-one white undergraduate social drinkers (45 women) were randomly assigned within gender to alcohol (expect alcohol/receive alcohol), placebo (expect alcohol/receive placebo), or simple no-alcohol control (expect no alcohol/receive no alcohol) conditions. Participants then performed a sequential priming task, the Weapons Identification Task, designed to assess race-biased responding, under nonspeeded (2,000 ms) or speeded (500 ms) instructional sets. RESULTS: Relative to both placebo and simple no-alcohol control groups, participants who consumed alcohol to an average peak breath alcohol concentration of .08 exhibited higher rates of race-biased errors but only under speeded conditions. Further, this effect was moderated by individual differences such that alcohol-induced, race-biased errors were elevated among all participants, except those whose motives to respond without prejudice were primarily internal. Personal motivations to respond without prejudice also moderated the responses of participants in the placebo group, such that those restrained primarily by external concerns uniquely evinced more race-biased errors than participants in the other motive groups. CONCLUSIONS: Both alcohol intoxication and alcohol expectancy can increase race-biased errors but only under speeded conditions and in a manner moderated by participants' levels of internal and external motives to respond without prejudice.

The active control of prejudice: unpacking the intentions guiding control efforts.

To date, there is little direct evidence that people who are motivated to respond without prejudice actively work to reduce their prejudice. The authors explored people's efforts to control prejudice for an upcoming interracial interaction. They proposed that people who were motivated to respond without prejudice should exert effort to control prejudice but that their efforts should reflect the intentions underlying their motivation. Behavioral evidence was provided across 3 studies supporting the contention that external motivation to respond without prejudice results in the intention to hide prejudice and that externally motivated people actively work to reduce detectable prejudice. In contrast, internal motivation gives rise to the intention to be free of prejudice, and internally motivated people actively work to eliminate any form of prejudice whether or not it would be apparent to others. The short- and long-term implications of these differential intentions are discussed.

Racing to help: racial bias in high emergency helping situations.

The present work explored the influence of emergency severity on racial bias in helping behavior. Three studies placed participants in staged emergencies and measured differences in the speed and quantity of help offered to Black and White victims. Consistent with predictions, as the level of emergency increased, the speed and quality of help White participants offered to Black victims relative to White victims decreased. In line with the authors' predictions based on an integration of aversive racism theory and the arousal: cost-reward perspective on prosocial behavior, severe emergencies with Black victims elicited high levels of aversion from White helpers, and these high levels of aversion were directly related to the slower help offered to Black victims but not to White victims (Study 1). In addition, the bias was related to White individuals' interpretation of the emergency as less severe and themselves as less responsible to help Black victims rather than White victims (Studies 2 and 3). Study 3 also illustrated that emergency racial bias is unique to White individuals' responses to Black victims and not evinced by Black helpers.