The sound of power: conveying and detecting hierarchical rank through voice.

The current research examined the relationship between hierarchy and vocal acoustic cues. Using Brunswik's lens model as a framework, we explored how hierarchical rank influences the acoustic properties of a speaker's voice and how these hierarchy-based acoustic cues affect perceivers' inferences of a speaker's rank. By using objective measurements of speakers' acoustic cues and controlling for baseline cue levels, we were able to precisely capture the relationship between acoustic cues and hierarchical rank, as well as the covariation among the cues. In Experiment 1, analyses controlling for speakers' baseline cue levels found that the voices of individuals in the high-rank condition were higher in pitch and loudness variability but lower in pitch variability, compared with the voices of individuals in the low-rank condition. In Experiment 2, perceivers used higher pitch, greater loudness, and greater loudness variability to make accurate inferences of speakers' hierarchical rank. These experiments demonstrate that acoustic cues are systematically used to reflect and detect hierarchy.

A secondary analysis of three types of social support in relation to self-efficacy, disease impact, and depression in fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVE: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain condition associated with depression. However, self-efficacy (belief in own ability to manage symptoms) and social support may be protective. This study tested three types of social support (emotional, tangible, and instrumental) for moderation of the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between FM impact and depression over time. METHODS: Six hundred participants with FM were randomly assigned to no intervention, social support group, or combined self-management and social support. The Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire, FM-modified Arthritis Self-Efficacy Scale, and Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression surveys were administered at baseline, 6, 12, and 18 months. There were no significant intervention effects on the variables of interest, however, participants' scores were used to assess four longitudinal models. RESULTS: Self-efficacy showed mediation both between (b = 0.104, p < .001, 95% CI = [0.071, 0.137]) and within (b = 0.89, p < .001, 95% CI = [0.073, 0.106]) individuals. Only tangible support demonstrated moderation of the relationship between FM impact and self-efficacy, and only between individuals (b = 0.154, p = .022, 95% CI = [0.022, 0.287]). CONCLUSION: The results indicated that self-efficacy attenuated a portion of the effect of FM impact on depression over time. Additionally, higher levels of tangible support (the belief that your social network can provide you with assistance) were related to weaker influence of FM impact on self-efficacy over time. These factors may be important targets for the prevention of depression in people with FM.

Hiring a pediatric health care advocate for advisory and support services.

In this study, factors that influence a person's likelihood of hiring a pediatric health care advocate (HCA) for support and/or advisory services were examined. Participants were asked to read vignettes in which a child's symptom severity, probability of mortality, and age were manipulated. A significantly higher likelihood of hiring an HCA for advisory services than for support services was found. A significant interaction between level of mortality and type of service indicated that when mortality was depicted as high, participants reported a greater likelihood of hiring an HCA for support services than for advisory services.

Across the thin blue line: police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot.

Police officers were compared with community members in terms of the speed and accuracy with which they made simulated decisions to shoot (or not shoot) Black and White targets. Both samples exhibited robust racial bias in response speed. Officers outperformed community members on a number of measures, including overall speed and accuracy. Moreover, although community respondents set the decision criterion lower for Black targets than for White targets (indicating bias), police officers did not. The authors suggest that training may not affect the speed with which stereotype-incongruent targets are processed but that it does affect the ultimate decision (particularly the placement of the decision criterion). Findings from a study in which a college sample received training support this conclusion.

Stereotypes, Emotions, and Behaviors Toward Lesbians, Gay Men, Bisexual Women, and Bisexual Men.

The utility of the Stereotype Content Model (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002) and the Behaviors from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes map (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2007) were examined in the context of heterosexuals' attitudes toward sexual minorities. Heterosexual adults completed a survey measuring stereotypes, emotions, and behavioral tendencies toward lesbians, gay men, bisexual women, and bisexual men. Stereotype content differed across groups and showed "gendered" and "valenced" effects on emotions and behavioral tendencies. Competence predicted behaviors for men, whereas warmth and competence predicted behaviors for women, and, for the most part, more was better. Admiration and contempt mediated most of these relationships across most subgroups, but pity and envy played smaller roles for some subgroups. Across all groups, competence played a more predictive role than warmth.

Stereotypic vision: how stereotypes disambiguate visual stimuli.

Three studies examined how participants use race to disambiguate visual stimuli. Participants performed a first-person-shooter task in which Black and White targets appeared holding either a gun or an innocuous object (e.g., a wallet). In Study 1, diffusion analysis (Ratcliff, 1978) showed that participants rapidly acquired information about a gun when it appeared in the hands of a Black target, and about an innocuous object in the hands of a White target. For counterstereotypic pairings (armed Whites, unarmed Blacks), participants acquired information more slowly. In Study 2, eye tracking showed that participants relied on more ambiguous information (measured by visual angle from fovea) when responding to stereotypic targets; for counterstereotypic targets, they achieved greater clarity before responding. In Study 3, participants were briefly exposed to targets (limiting access to visual information) but had unlimited time to respond. In spite of their slow, deliberative responses, they showed racial bias. This pattern is inconsistent with control failure and suggests that stereotypes influenced identification of the object. All 3 studies show that race affects visual processing by supplementing objective information.

The role of Afrocentric features in person perception: judging by features and categories.

Four studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that group-related physical features may directly activate related stereotypes, leading to more stereotypic inferences over and above those resulting from categorization. As predicted, targets with more Afrocentric features were judged as more likely to have traits stereotypic of African Americans. This effect was found with judgments of African Americans and of European Americans. Furthermore, the effect was not eliminated when a more sensitive measure of categorization processes (category accessibility) was used or when the judgement context made category distinctions salient. Of additional interest was the finding that category accessibility independently affected judgment, such that targets who could be more quickly categorized as group members were judged more stereotypically.

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.

Factors that influence the likelihood of hiring a health care advocate for a chronically ill child.

INTRODUCTION: In response to the increasing complexity of the health care system, the field of health care advocacy has emerged. However, little is known about variables that may influence a person's likelihood of hiring a health care advocate (HCA) for their chronically ill child. METHODS: Severity (high or low) and probability of mortality (high or low) of a child's chronic illness and the child's age (1, 7, or 13 years) were manipulated using vignettes. The dependent variable was a composite score of the eight items used to measure the participants' likelihood of hiring an HCA. RESULTS: Participants (N = 1052) were more likely to hire an HCA for a child who was 1 year old than for a child who was 13 years old. Participants were more likely to hire an HCA for a child whose chronic illness was low rather than high in severity and whose chronic illness was high rather than low in probability of mortality. DISCUSSION: Use of an HCA may increase patient satisfaction, decrease medical errors, and enhance pediatric health outcomes.

Stereotypes of mental disorders differ in competence and warmth.

Theoretical models of public stigma toward mental illness have focused on factors that perpetuate stigma toward the general label of "mental illness" or toward a handful of specific illnesses, used more or less interchangeably. The current work used the Stereotype Content Model (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002) to examine how one facet of public stigma--stereotype content--differs as a function of specific mental illnesses. Participants were recruited online from across the U.S. Study 1 demonstrated that the overarching category of people with mental illness was perceived as relatively incompetent, but not very hostile (i.e., relatively warm). Study 2 found that when the general label of mental illness was separated into thirteen individual disorders, distinct stereotype content toward four clusters of illnesses emerged. One cluster, typified by illnesses with psychotic features (e.g., schizophrenia), was perceived to be hostile and incompetent. A second cluster, comprised of mood and anxiety disorders, was perceived as average on both competence and warmth. A third cluster of illnesses with neuro-cognitive deficits was thought to be warm but incompetent. The fourth cluster included groups with sociopathic tendencies and was viewed as hostile but relatively competent. The results clearly demonstrate that the stereotype content that underlies public stigma toward individual mental illnesses is not the same for all disorders. Harnessing knowledge of differing stereotype content toward clusters of mental illnesses may improve the efficacy of interventions to counteract public stigma.