Strong correlational but no causal evidence on the link between the perception of scientific consensus and support for vaccination.

We examine the relationships between the perception of the scientific consensus regarding vaccines, and vaccine attitudes and intentions (N total = 2,362) in the context of COVID-19 disease. Based on the correlational evidence found (Study 1), perceived scientific consensus and vaccine attitudes are closely related. This association was stronger among people who trust (vs. distrust) scientists; however, political ideology did not moderate these effects. The experimental evidence (Studies 2-3) indicates that consensus messaging influences the perception of consensus; nonetheless, the effects on vaccine attitudes or intentions were non-significant. Furthermore, message aiming at reducing psychological reactance was similarly ineffective in changing attitudes as traditional consensus message.

The role of fear, closeness, and norms in shaping help towards war refugees.

The paper investigates the psychological factors associated with the unprecedented assistance that Poles have offered refugees from Ukraine since the outset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Building on social identity theory, and examining the current social context in Poland, we focus on three social identity dimensions, i.e., a feeling of closeness towards refugees from Ukraine, anticipatory fears (of a Russian invasion), and a community norm of helping. These three dimensions predict collective helping resulting from a sense of a common fate and a feeling of togetherness with Ukrainians. We tested this hypothesis in a study (N = 1066) conducted between 11 and 17 March 2022. Participants were asked about their helping activities during the previous week; they also responded to questions on different measures of social identity processes. The results support our expectations, revealing that closeness, anticipatory fears, and social norms are associated with two forms of help: benevolent and activist. The results of the study contribute to the discussion on social identity processes underlying offers of help to people fleeing from war-zones. Thus, they enhance our understanding of the role of citizens in terms of their contribution to helping refugees, and can be used to improve responses to other humanitarian crises.

The Role of Political Ideology and Open-Minded Thinking Style in the (in)Accuracy of Factual Beliefs.

The paper investigates the role of political ideology and an open-minded thinking style (i.e., the tendency to reason based on rules of inference rather than intuitive heuristics) with respect to the accuracy of factual beliefs. In line with political asymmetry theory, we assumed that right-wing beliefs, in contrast to left-wing beliefs, are associated with more inaccurate factual beliefs. We also expected that the open-minded thinking style acts as a buffer against inaccurate factual beliefs among people with right-wing (but not left-wing) political affinities. To test these hypotheses, we conducted three studies (total N = 1120) in which participants holding right- and left-wing beliefs, and displaying differing degrees of the open-minded thinking style (as measured by the Active Open-minded Thinking Style questionnaire), assessed policy-relevant facts congenial to left- as well as right-wing beliefs. The results of the study confirm the hypotheses proposed. The paper's findings contribute to the ongoing discussion around the ideological underpinnings of (un)biased cognition and the controversies concerning the role of cognitive factors in ideological polarization. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11109-022-09789-z.

Helping when the desire is low: Expectancy as a booster.

One might assume that the desire to help (here described as Want) is the essential driver of helping declarations and/or behaviors. However, even if desire to help (Want) is low, intention to help may still occur if the expectancy regarding the perceived effectiveness of helping is high. We tested these predictions in a set of three experimental studies. In all three, we measured the desire to help (Want) and the Expectancy that the aid would be impactful for the victim; in addition, we manipulated Expectancy in Study 3. In Studies 1 and 3, we measured the participants' declaration to help while in Study 2, their helping behavior was examined. In all three studies, we used variations of the same story about a victim. The results supported our hypothesis. Thus, the studies help to tease apart the determinants of helping under conditions of lowered desire to do so, an issue of great importance in public policymaking.

Motivational effects on brain activity: need for closure moderates the impact of task uncertainty on engagement-related P3b.

Need for cognitive closure (NFC), that is, individual's aversion toward uncertainty and the desire to reduce it quickly usually manifests in effort minimizing cognitive strategies. Recent studies, however, demonstrated that it is also linked with laborious processing when the task itself induces uncertainty. Although this pattern was observed when testing behaviors and cardiovascular activity, it has never been tested on a neurocognitive level. To fill this gap, we investigate whether NFC moderates the impact of task uncertainty on engagement-related P3b component of brain activity. In the experiment, we recorded the electroencephalographic activity of the brain while participants performed a sampling task which provides uncertainty manipulation within participants. We also manipulated NFC between participants. As predicted, we did not find any differences between high and low NFC participants in the P3b component at lower levels of uncertainty. However, at the highest level of uncertainty, the P3b component decreases significantly among low but not high NFC participants. That is because gaining certainty and achieving closure is not a critical epistemic goal for low NFC and thus, exerting extra effort to gain certainty is not justified.

Aging, effort, and stereotyping: The evidence for the moderating role of self-involvement.

A study with young and older adults (N = 91) investigated the effect of self-involvement on stereotyping tendency and effort mobilization. We hypothesized that the impact of self-involvement varies as a function of age: increased self-involvement should lead older adults to engage in more effortful information processing and decreased stereotyping, whereas increased self-involvement should have no impact on effort mobilization and stereotyping tendency in young adults. Young and older adults read narratives under low and high-self-involvement conditions before performing a recognition test that measured their stereotyping tendency. Effort was assessed as cardiovascular responses. We found that older adults in the high-self-involvement condition presented low stereotyping tendency (similar to that of young people) in comparison to older adults in the low-self-involvement condition. Furthermore, older adults in the high-self-involvement condition had decreased high-frequency heart rate variability in comparison to the other conditions, but only during the recognition test; this suggests increased effort mobilization. These findings indicate that self-involvement decreases older adults' stereotyping tendency, possibly through effort mobilization.

Religious fundamentalism is associated with hyperactive performance monitoring: ERP evidence from correct and erroneous responses.

The aim of the current study was to examine whether action monitoring is associated with religious fundamentalism. Participants performed a stop-signal task that required response inhibition to a simple auditory tone. The level of their religious fundamentalism was measured on a scale. Analysis with mixed-effects linear models revealed significantly larger error-related negativity, correct-related negativity, and post-error positivity components in individuals scoring higher on religious fundamentalism, pointing to their increased engagement in response monitoring. However, it was not accompanied by improved behavioral performance. The electrophysiological results of our study suggest that individuals high in religious fundamentalism engage more in monitoring for conflict between outcomes of their actions and standards of correct behavior. Our findings also point to a possible association between a fundamentalist mindset and higher levels of negative affect, uncertainty, anxiety, and distress, as measured by response-related brain activity.

Motivation to comply with task rules and multitasking performance: The role of need for cognitive closure and goal importance.

In three studies, we examined the role task rules play in multitasking performance. We postulated that rules should be especially important for individuals highly motivated to have structure and clear answers, i.e., those high on need for cognitive closure (NFC). High NFC should thus be related to greater compliance with task rules. Specifically, given high goal importance, NFC should be more strongly related to a multitasking strategy when multitasking is imposed by the rules, and to a mono-tasking strategy when monotasking is imposed by the rules. This should translate into better multitasking or mono-tasking performance, depending on condition. Overall, the results were supportive as NFC was related to a more mono-tasking strategy in the mono-tasking condition (Studies 1 and 2 only) and more dual-tasking strategy in the dual-tasking condition (Studies 1-3). This translated into respective differences in performance. The effects were significant only when goal importance was high (Study 1) and held when cognitive ability was controlled for (Study 2).

Individual differences in decisiveness: ERP correlates of response inhibition and error monitoring.

The aim of the current study was to examine whether and how self-reported decisiveness is associated with response inhibition and performance monitoring. We hypothesized that these two cognitive control mechanisms, both of which are often associated with decision making, would differ in individuals varying in decisiveness. We focused on ERP correlates and behavioral measures of inhibition and error processing in the stop-signal task. We expected a negative relationship between decisiveness and behavioral measures of inhibitory control. We also hypothesized that stop-signal-locked N1 and P3 components and response-locked error-related negativity (ERN) would be less pronounced when participants self-reported higher levels of decisiveness. Correlation analysis identified an association between high decisiveness, long stop-signal reaction time, and low inhibition rate. Analysis with mixed-effects linear models revealed that stop signals evoked less pronounced N1 and P3 in individuals scoring higher on decisiveness in both successfully and unsuccessfully inhibited trials. Additionally, high decisiveness was linked to reduced error monitoring, as indicated by decreased ERNs. Importantly, we also found positive association between P3 onset latency and decisiveness, suggesting that individuals scoring higher on this measure have relatively less ability to rapidly engage the stopping process. Thus, our findings primarily indicate that decisiveness is negatively associated with the efficiency of both response inhibition and error monitoring. They also suggest that highly decisive people may share some characteristics of diminished cognitive control with impulsive individuals.

Religious Fundamentalism Modulates Neural Responses to Error-Related Words: The Role of Motivation Toward Closure.

Examining the relationship between brain activity and religious fundamentalism, this study explores whether fundamentalist religious beliefs increase responses to error-related words among participants intolerant to uncertainty (i.e., high in the need for closure) in comparison to those who have a high degree of toleration for uncertainty (i.e., those who are low in the need for closure). We examine a negative-going event-related brain potentials occurring 400 ms after stimulus onset (the N400) due to its well-understood association with the reactions to emotional conflict. Religious fundamentalism and tolerance of uncertainty were measured on self-report measures, and electroencephalographic neural reactivity was recorded as participants were performing an emotional Stroop task. In this task, participants read neutral words and words related to uncertainty, errors, and pondering, while being asked to name the color of the ink with which the word is written. The results confirm that among people who are intolerant of uncertainty (i.e., those high in the need for closure), religious fundamentalism is associated with an increased N400 on error-related words compared with people who tolerate uncertainty well (i.e., those low in the need for closure).

Age-related within-task adaptations in sequential decision making: Considering cognitive and motivational factors.

Many decisions require sequentially searching through the available alternatives. In these tasks, older adults have been shown to perform worse than younger adults, but the reasons why age differences occur are still unclear. In the present research, we tackle this question by investigating which strategies older and younger adults adopt and how these strategies relate to individual differences in cognitive (mental speed, working memory capacity) and motivational (need for cognitive closure) variables. To achieve this goal, we conducted two studies in which older and younger adults performed a computerized sequential choice task. Study 1 indicated that older adults changed their decision-making strategies throughout the task by reducing the number of options they considered. This change in strategy did not decrease performance because searching less allowed older adults to choose more promising options. In the second study we manipulated whether a long or short search was optimal. In the beginning older adults performed worse than younger adults independent of whether short or long search was adaptive. However, in the second half of the task we found age differences in performance when long search was required, but not when short search was required. In both studies whether or not older adults changed their strategy depended on their need for cognitive closure, suggesting that avoiding cognitive closure facilitates adaptive flexibility. Together, the two studies provide evidence for compensatory strategy adaptations among older adults completing sequential choice tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record

From Threat to Relief: Expressing Prejudice toward Atheists as a Self-Regulatory Strategy Protecting the Religious Orthodox from Threat.

We claim that religious orthodoxy is related to prejudice toward groups that violate important values, i.e., atheists. Moreover, we suggest that expressing prejudice may efficiently reduce the threat posed by this particular group among people who hold high levels, but not low levels, of orthodox belief. We tested these assumptions in an experimental study in which, after being exposed to atheistic worldviews (value-threat manipulation), high and low orthodox participants were allowed (experimental condition) or not (control condition) to express prejudice toward atheists. Threat was operationalized by cardiovascular reactivity, i.e., heart rate (HR); the higher the HR index, the higher the threat. The results found that people who hold high (vs. low) levels of orthodox belief responded with increased HR after the threat manipulation. However, we observed decreased HR after the expression of prejudice toward atheists among highly orthodox participants compared to the control condition. We did not find this effect among people holding low levels of orthodox belief. Thus, we conclude that expressing prejudice toward this particular group may be an efficient strategy to cope with the threat posed by this group for highly orthodox people. The results are discussed in light of previous findings on religious beliefs and the self-regulatory function of prejudice.

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going": Motivation towards closure and effort investment in the performance of cognitive tasks.

Previous studies have demonstrated that the need for closure (NFC), which refers to an individual's aversion toward uncertainty and the desire to quickly reduce it, leads to reluctance to invest effort in judgments and decision making. However, we argue that NFC may lead to either an increase or a decrease in effort depending on the availability of easy vs. difficult means to achieve closure and perceived importance of the task goal. We found that when closure could be achieved via both less and more demanding means, NFC was associated with decreased effort unless the task was perceived as important (Study 1). However, when attaining closure was possible via demanding means only, NFC was associated with increased effort, regardless of the task importance (Study 2). Moreover, NFC was related to choosing a more instrumental strategy for the goal of closure, even if this strategy required effort (Study 3). The results are discussed in the light of cognitive energetics theory.

Many faces of dogmatism: Prejudice as a way of protecting certainty against value violators among dogmatic believers and atheists.

In this article, we suggest that dogmatic beliefs, manifested as strong beliefs that there is no God (i.e., dogmatic atheism) as well as strong beliefs in God (i.e., religious orthodoxy), can serve as a cognitive response to uncertainty. Moreover, we claim that people who dogmatically do not believe in religion and those who dogmatically believe in religion are equally prone to intolerance and prejudice towards groups that violate their important values. That is because prejudice towards these groups may be an efficient strategy to protect the certainty that strong beliefs provide. We tested these assumptions in two studies. In Study 1 and Study 2, we demonstrated that dogmatic beliefs mediate the relationship between intolerance to uncertainty and both, religious orthodoxy and dogmatic atheism. In addition, in Study 2 we showed that both the religiously orthodox and dogmatic atheists become prejudiced towards groups that violate their values and that these effects are especially strong under experimentally induced uncertainty. In this study, we focused on atheists and homosexuals as groups that pose a threat to Christian's religious worldviews, and Catholics and pro-life supporters as groups that pose a threat to the values of atheists. The results are discussed in relation to past research on dogmatism and religion, as well as with reference to what this means for the study of prejudice.

Self-image threat decreases stereotyping: The role of motivation toward closure.

Some prior research indicated that self-image threat may lead people to stereotyping and prejudiced evaluations of others. Other studies found that self-image threat may promote less stereotypical thinking and unprejudiced behavior. In a series of three studies, we demonstrate that self-image threat may lead to either more or less stereotypical perception of the outgroup depending on the level of the individuals` motivation toward closure (NFC). The results reveal that when individuals high (vs. low) in NFC perceived a member of an outgroup, they are less likely to use stereotypical traits if their self-image had been threatened by negative feedback (Study 1) or if they had imagined an example of their own immoral activity (Studies 2 and 3). Moreover, our results demonstrate that the fear of invalidity resulting from self-image threat induction is responsible for the foregoing effects (Study 3). These results are discussed in light of theories of motivational readiness and lay epistemics.

Power boosts reliance on preferred processing styles.

A significant amount of research has proposed that power leads to heuristic and category based information processing, however, the evidence is often contradictory. We propose the novel idea that power magnifies chronically accessible information processing styles which can contribute to either systematic or heuristic processing. We examine heuristic (vs. systematic) processing in association with the need for closure. The results of three studies and a meta-analysis supported these claims. Power increased heuristic information processing, manifested in the recognition of schema consistent information, in the use of stereotypical information to form impressions and decreased the complexity of categorical representations, but only for those participants who, by default, processed information according to simplified heuristics, i.e., are high in need for closure. For those who prefer this processing style less, i.e., low in need for closure, power led to the opposite effects. These findings suggest that power licenses individuals to rely on their dominant information processing strategies, and that power increases interpersonal variability.

Search for Expectancy-Inconsistent Information Reduces Uncertainty Better: The Role of Cognitive Capacity.

Motivation and cognitive capacity are key factors in people's everyday struggle with uncertainty. However, the exact nature of their interplay in various contexts still needs to be revealed. The presented paper reports on two experimental studies which aimed to examine the joint consequences of motivational and cognitive factors for preferences regarding incomplete information expansion. In Study 1 we demonstrate the interactional effect of motivation and cognitive capacity on information preference. High need for closure resulted in a stronger relative preference for expectancy-inconsistent information among non-depleted individuals, but the opposite among cognitively depleted ones. This effect was explained by the different informative value of questions in comparison to affirmative sentences and the potential possibility of assimilation of new information if it contradicts prior knowledge. In Study 2 we further investigated the obtained effect, showing that not only questions but also other kinds of incomplete information are subject to the same dependency. Our results support the expectation that, in face of incomplete information, motivation toward closure may be fulfilled efficiently by focusing on expectancy-inconsistent pieces of data. We discuss the obtained effect in the context of previous assumptions that high need for closure results in a simple processing style, advocating a more complex approach based on the character of the provided information.

The Dirty Dozen Scale: Validation of a Polish Version and Extension of the Nomological Net.

In five studies (total N = 1300) we developed and validated a Polish version of the Dirty Dozen measure (DTDD-P) that measures the three traits of the Dark Triad, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. We detail the presence and stability of a bifactor structure of the 12 items and present evidence for good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. We examine the nomological network surrounding the Dark Triad and show that both the Dark Triad total score and the subscales have acceptable validity. We also present evidence on the Dark Triad and moral behavior. Dark Triad predicts utilitarian moral choice (e.g., approval for sacrificing somebody's life for the sake of saving others) and this link is mediated by low empathic concern. In total, our results suggest that the Polish Dirty Dozen-Parszywa Dwunastka-is valid, stable, and useful for the study of lingering puzzles in the literature.

Individual differences in response to uncertainty and decision making: The role of behavioral inhibition system and need for closure.

In two studies, we examined the influence of behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and need for closure (NFC) on information processing in decision making. We expected that BIS would regulate behavior in a decisional context and that this relationship would be mediated by epistemic motivation expressed by NFC. In addition, drawing on contradictory findings in the literature on anxiety, NFC, and information processing, we investigated the moderating role of decision rules. The results supported our predictions. BIS was strongly and positively related to NFC, and through NFC it was related to decision-making style. Moreover, decision task characteristics moderated the relationship between NFC and decision making. When a task did not offer a confident decision rule, high NFC participants prolonged the information search more than low NFC individuals. However, when a reliable strategy was suggested, high NFC participants behaved in line with it. These results are discussed within an uncertainty management framework.