Gender Gaps in Deceptive Self-Presentation on Social-Media Platforms Vary With Gender Equality: A Multinational Investigation

Deceptive self-presentation on social-media platforms appears to be common. However, its prevalence and determinants are still largely unknown, partly because admitting such behavior is socially sensitive and hard to study. We investigated deceptive self-presentation from the perspective of mating theories in two key domains: physical attractiveness and personal achievement. A truth-telling technique was used to measure deceptive self-presentation in a survey of 12,257 adults (51% female) across 25 countries. As hypothesized, men and women reported more deceptive self-presentation in the domain traditionally most relevant for their gender in a mating context. However, contrary to lay beliefs ( N = 790), results showed larger gender differences in deceptive self-presentation in countries with higher gender equality because there is less gender-atypical (relative to gender-typical) deceptive self-presentation in these countries. Higher gender equality was also associated with less deceptive self-presentation for men and women worldwide.

“Lay beliefs about phobias” 25 years later: Conceptually Replicating and Extending Furnham (1995), on the Treatment of Phobias, in 2020

Following a change in the professional atmosphere over the last several decades, there has been mounting interest in furthering clinical understandings of client and layperson preferences within psychotherapy. Curious about lay beliefs about phobias in particular, we sought to replicate a 1995 study by Adrian Furnham in order to examine how beliefs by laypersons regarding phobias have changed in the 25 years from 1995 to 2020. Situating our results against a backdrop of research suggesting that people prefer therapist directivity, we find not only that that psychotherapy preferences have changed since 1995 but that in 2020, there is support for a gentler, more relational approach to psychotherapy and behavioral change. While people do indicate a desire for directivity and therapeutic techniques provided by the therapist, there is an indication in our data that they wish for these to be positive and blended with less directive methods, as seen in person-centered therapy approaches.

“Lay Beliefs About Phobias” 25 Years Later: A 2020 Conceptual Replication of Furnham (1995), on the Development of Phobias

Fears are relatively quick, adaptive responses to environmental stimuli and inner, cognitive events and sensations which allow for one’s survival. Some take a more severe form and morph into phobias–extreme fear resulting in functional impairments. While some researchers are concerned with clinical definitions and theories of phobia, others are interested in what the general public believes. Adrian Furnham, in a 1995 study, Lay Beliefs About Phobias, was one. Now, based on data collected 25 years later (2020), we report a conceptual replication of this work. Results suggest that people today most concisely believe the development of phobias is predicated on one’s personality; traumatic events; psychoanalytic and behavioral-learning associations; genetic and biochemical influences; cognitive style, such as tendencies to catastrophize; and cultural and social factors.

Psychological barriers to effective altruism: An evolutionary perspective

People usually engage in (or at least profess to engage in) altruistic acts to benefit others. Yet, they routinely fail to maximize how much good is achieved with their donated money and time. An accumulating body of research has uncovered various psychological factors that can explain why people’s altruism tends to be ineffective. These prior studies have mostly focused on proximate explanations (e.g., emotions, preferences, lay beliefs). Here, we adopt an evolutionary perspective and highlight how three fundamental motives—parochialism, status, and conformity—can explain many seemingly disparate failures to do good effectively. Our approach outlines ultimate explanations for ineffective altruism and we illustrate how fundamental motives can be leveraged to promote more effective giving.

Evaluating witness testimony: Juror knowledge, false memory, and the utility of evidence-based directions

Eyewitness evidence is often important in criminal cases, but false or misleading eyewitness evidence is known to be a leading cause of wrongful convictions. One explanation for mistakes that jurors are making when evaluating eyewitness evidence is their lack of accurate knowledge relating to false memory. This article examines lay beliefs relating to memory and ways in which they diverge from expert consensus. It identifies ways in which current directions provided to jurors in this area are likely to be deficient in influencing juror knowledge and in helping them apply that knowledge in a case context, and develops criteria that can be used to assess the likely effectiveness of directions. A new evidence-based training direction is designed based on these criteria, and tested in a mock jury study (N = 411). Results suggest that the proposed direction is more effective than a basic direction in influencing juror knowledge and facilitating the application of that knowledge to case facts.

Going healthy: how product characteristics influence the sales impact of front-of-pack health symbols

Manufacturers increasingly adopt health symbols, which translate overall product healthiness into a single symbol, to communicate about the overall healthiness of their grocery products. This study examines how the performance implications of adding a front-of-pack health symbol to a product vary across products. We study the sales impact of a government-supported health symbol program in 29 packaged categories, using over four years of scanner data. The results indicate that health symbols are most impactful when they positively disconfirm pre-existing beliefs that a product is not among the healthiest products within the category. More specifically, we find that health symbols are more effective for (i) products with a front-of-pack taste claim, (ii) lower priced products, and (iii) private label products. Furthermore, these results are more pronounced in healthier categories than in unhealthier categories. Our findings imply that health symbols can help overcome lay beliefs among consumers regarding a product’s overall healthiness. As such, adding a health symbol provides easy-to-process information about product healthiness for the consumer and can increase product sales for the manufacturer.

Lay Beliefs About Who Can Bridge the Black–White Racial Gap During Interracial Exchanges

For group discussions about fraught racial topics between Black and White Americans to be beneficial, conversation participants must view the person who facilitates as effective at communicating both the perspectives of Black and White Americans. We identify a biracial advantage in this domain. In three studies (total N = 710), we tested how a facilitator’s race affects their perceived effectiveness in communicating with both Black and White Americans. Both Black and White participants expected Black and White monoracial facilitators to more effectively engage with racial in-group than racial out-group members. However, they expected biracial facilitators to be equally effective in communicating with both Black and White groups. Both Black and White participants also expected biracial facilitators to use productive learning strategies (perspective taking, showing empathy) more than White facilitators, and either more than or equally to Black facilitators, suggesting one reason why people expect biracial facilitators to perform well in these moments.

The impact of lay beliefs about AI on adoption of algorithmic advice

There is little research on how consumers decide whether they want to use algorithmic advice or not. In this research, we show that consumers’ lay beliefs about artificial intelligence (AI) serve as a heuristic cue to evaluate accuracy of algorithmic advice in different professional service domains. Three studies provide robust evidence that consumers who believe that AI is higher than human intelligence are more likely to adopt algorithmic advice. We also demonstrate that lay beliefs about AI only influence adoption of algorithmic advice when a decision task is perceived to be complex.