Sunday, September 9, 2018

Significant correlations between the numerous variables and a main effect of sexual disgust, extraversion, and sensation seeking on enjoyment of horror films

So Disgusting, But You Can't Take Your Eyes Off the Screen: Can Personality Traits and Disgust Sensitivity Influence People's Love for Horror Movies? Ashley Marie Dillard. Western Carolina University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2018. 10788427. https://search.proquest.com/openview/1ed112229e7f7dc302084b163680e811/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Abstract: Personality traits have been found to be associated with disgust sensitivity. For example, sexual and moral disgust have been found to be strongly correlated with the honesty-humility factor in the HEXACO model (Tybur & de Vries, 2013). However, questions have been raised as to what makes some individuals find disgusting horror movies enjoyable, while others are left mortified. To better understand these differences, participants were assessed using the HEXACO-PI-R-60, the Three-Domain Disgust Scale, the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale, and an adapted Enjoyment of Frightening Films measure within the current study. Ultimately, the present study explored if there were any individual differences among people on personality and disgust sensitivity measures in regard to preference for horror movies. Nine out of sixteen of my hypotheses were supported within this study. The results revealed significant correlations between the numerous variables and a main effect of sexual disgust, extraversion, and sensation seeking on enjoyment of frightening films.

In the four-cycle period 2006-2012, 89% of Americans were in a highly competitive jurisdiction for at least one office; more Americans witness competition than citizens of Canada or the UK, other nations with SMSP-based systems

Bernard L. Fraga and Eitan D. Hersh (2018), "Are Americans Stuck in Uncompetitive Enclaves? An Appraisal of U.S. Electoral Competition", Quarterly Journal of Political Science: Vol. 13: No. 3, pp 291-311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/100.00017161

Abstract: Most elections in the United States are not close, which has raised concerns among social scientists and reform advocates about the vibrancy of American democracy. In this paper, we demonstrate that while individual elections are often uncompetitive, hierarchical, temporal, and geographic variation in the locus of competition results in most of the country regularly experiencing close elections. In the four-cycle period between 2006 and 2012, 89% of Americans were in a highly competitive jurisdiction for at least one office. Since 1914, about half the states have never gone more than four election cycles without a close statewide contest. More Americans witness competition than citizens of Canada or the UK, other nations with SMSP-based systems. The dispersed competition we find also results in nearly all Americans being represented by both political parties for different offices.

Subjects: Competitive Marketing Strategy,  Elections:Electoral behavior,  Elections:Electoral institutions,  Elections:Voting behavior,  Elections:Voting theory,  Elections,  Electoral behavior,  Electoral institutions,  Federalism,  Political participation,  Political parties,  Representation,  Voting behavior,  Voting theory

Keywords: Elections, competition, political geography

Is it time to kill the detection wizard? Emotional intelligence does not facilitate deception detection

Is it time to kill the detection wizard? Emotional intelligence does not facilitate deception detection. Nicolas Roulin, Marguerite Ternes. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 137, 15 January 2019, Pages 131-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.08.020

Highlights
•    Individuals high on emotional intelligence (EI) rely more on non-verbal information when attempting to detect deception.
•    EI and reliance on non-verbal information are unrelated to detection accuracy.
•    The popular notion that some people are naturally better at deception detection, or “detection wizards,” should be revisited.

Abstract: Being able to identify if someone is telling the truth or lying is essential in many social situations, for instance in police interrogations or employment interviews. Unfortunately, people are generally poor at lie detection. Some researchers have argued that a small category of individuals are detection wizards who can achieve substantially higher detection accuracy because they have high levels of emotional intelligence (EI) and are better able to identify non-verbal cues to deceit. These propositions have been popularized in the media and are appealing to some practitioners, but are based on very limited empirical evidence. We conducted three experimental studies to test these propositions, relying on different samples and using both trait and ability measures of EI. We measured deception detection using different approaches (in-person and video-based) and contexts (social interaction and job interview). One study measured skepticism, and another used eye-tracking technology to capture participants' reliance on non-verbal information. Results showed that high-EI individuals indeed rely more on non-verbal information. However, EI, skepticism, and the use of non-verbal cues are unrelated to deception detection. We thus argue that detection wizards are likely a myth, and it would be more productive to focus on evidence-based methods to improve deception detection.

Chivalry and attractiveness bias in police officer forensic judgments in Israel: Female offenders were treated more forgivingly than male offenders

Chivalry and attractiveness bias in police officer forensic judgments in Israel. Mally Shechory Bitton & Liza Zvi. The Journal of Social Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2018.1509043

ABSTRACT: The chivalry hypothesis and attractiveness bias were evaluated among 323 police officers and 364 students, serving as a control group. The participants were asked to read a description of a swindle, where the offender was either physically attractive or unattractive. They then had to assign a punishment to the offender and judge the blame ascribed to both offender and victim. The findings showed that the offender’s sex, more than his or her external appearance, affects differences in punishment severity. Female offenders were treated more forgivingly than male offenders. Nonetheless, analysis of blame attributions shows that attractive offenders are blamed more than unattractive offenders. Women were also found to dispense severe punishments more than men.

KEYWORDS: Attractiveness bias, chivalry hypothesis, judgments offenders, police officers