Papers by James S. Uleman
Journal of experimental social psychology, 2009
Can psychological distance affect how much perceivers form spontaneous trait inferences (STI) fro... more Can psychological distance affect how much perceivers form spontaneous trait inferences (STI) from others' behaviors? On the basis of construal level theory (CLT) which posits that distant (vs. near) entities are represented more in terms of their abstract, global, and decontextualized features, we predicted that perceived distance would increase the tendency for perceivers to draw spontaneous trait inferences from behavioral information about actors. In two experiments, participants learned about people who were perceived as being distant or proximal to the self, and STI formation was subsequently assessed. We found that perceivers were more likely to form STIs about distant vs. near actors from the same behavioral information. These findings generalized across two distance dimensions: space and time. In addition, we found that priming individuals to adopt a high-level (vs. low-level) construal mindset also resulted in increased STI (Experiment 3). In sum, psychological distance facilitates STI formation, and this occurs via high-level construal of actors and their behaviors.
A reversal of the Stroop interference effect, through scanning
Interference on the Stroop test has been explained on the basis of a stronger habit (word reading... more Interference on the Stroop test has been explained on the basis of a stronger habit (word reading) interfering with a weaker one (color naming) on an incongruous color-word (CW) card. Since scanning for words is slower (weaker) than scanning for colors, it was predicted that making the Stroop a scanning task would produce more interference with scanning for words rather
Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 2000
Cultural differences in individualism and collectivism (I-C) describe important variations in how... more Cultural differences in individualism and collectivism (I-C) describe important variations in how the self relates to others, but existing scales may be too broad-band to precisely measure this aspect of I-C. They also do not distinguish among particular ingroups and types of interdependence with them. The Circles of Closeness scale addresses these limitations. Initial results from Euro-American, Asian-American, Dutch, Turkish, and Japanese samples of college students are presented. The scales have high alpha reliability. Different results were obtained for three ingroups – immediate family, relatives, and friends – and six closeness types – emotional, supportive, identity, reputational, similarity, and harmony. These factors significantly interacted with each other, arguing for a more differentiated view of I-C.
Stressing the person: Legal and everyday person attributions under stress
Biological Psychology, 2014
When determining the cause of a person&am... more When determining the cause of a person's behavior, perceivers often overweigh dispositional explanations and underweigh situational explanations, an error known as the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE). The FAE occurs in part because dispositional explanations are relatively automatic, whereas considering the situation requires additional cognitive effort. Stress is known to impair the prefrontal cortex and executive functions important for the attribution process. We investigated if stress increases dispositional attributions in common place and legal situations. Experiencing a physiological stressor increased participants' cortisol, dispositional attributions of common everyday behaviors, and negative evaluations. When determining whether a crime was due to the defendant's disposition or the mitigating situation, self-reported stress correlated with increased dispositional judgments of defendant's behavior. These findings indicate that stress may make people more likely to commit the FAE and less favorable in their evaluations of others both in daily life and when making socially consequential judicial decisions.
Social Cognition, 2001
Two studies compared spontaneous trait use by Latinos and Anglo-Americans, with trait-implying be... more Two studies compared spontaneous trait use by Latinos and Anglo-Americans, with trait-implying behaviors equated over cultures on their intentional trait implications. In Study 1, only Anglos showed activation of trait concepts on a lexical decision task. In Study 2, with the more complex stimuli set, Anglos showed greater binding (linkage) of trait concepts and/or behaviors to the actors performing the behaviors. Results were consistent with the more frequent use of trait terms by Euro-Americans than by those from collectivist cultures, especially in open-ended self-descriptions and causal explanations, and illustrate the value of investigating activation and binding as two separable stages of spontaneous trait inference. The results also show that spontaneous inferences can reveal cultural differences that intentional inferences do not.
Sex Roles, 1986
Two studies were done to see whether self-descriptions on the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) are s... more Two studies were done to see whether self-descriptions on the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) are stable across various social roles, or whether adopting familiar gender-segregated social roles produces more traditionally sex-typed BSRI self-descriptions.
A nonparametric comparison of two small samples with many ties
Psychological Bulletin, 1968
Describes an exact nonparametric test suitable for testing whether 1 sample is stochastically lar... more Describes an exact nonparametric test suitable for testing whether 1 sample is stochastically larger than another. The advantage of the test over currently available forms of the Mann-Whitney U test is that it can handle small samples with numerous ties. Comparisons with the Mann-Whitney and normal approximations to it are presented. The use of the statistic is illustrated with data
Annual Review of Psychology - ANNU REV PSYCHOL, 2008
People make social inferences without intentions, awareness, or effort, i.e., spontaneously. We r... more People make social inferences without intentions, awareness, or effort, i.e., spontaneously. We review recent findings on spontaneous social inferences (especially traits, goals, and causes) and closely related phenomena. We then describe current thinking on some of the most relevant processes, implicit knowledge, and theories. These include automatic and controlled processes and their interplay; embodied cognition, including mimicry; and associative versus rule-based processes. Implicit knowledge includes adult folk theories, conditions of personhood, self-knowledge to simulate others, and cultural and social class differences. Implicit theories concern Bayesian networks, recent attribution research, and questions about the utility of the disposition-situation dichotomy. Developmental research provides new insights. Spontaneous social inferences include a growing array of phenomena, but they have been insufficiently linked to other phenomena and theories. We hope the links suggested in this review begin to remedy this. 329 Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2008.59:329-360. Downloaded from arjournals.annualreviews.org by NEW YORK UNIVERSITY -BOBST LIBRARY on 12/29/07. For personal use only.
Personality differences in spontaneous personality inferences at encoding
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986
In this article, a method is described for studying personality differences in the spontaneous en... more In this article, a method is described for studying personality differences in the spontaneous encoding of complex information about others, and is illustrated in a study of authoritarianism (F). Two sets of sentences were developed in pretesting. In the first set, events suggested a consensual disposition for each sentence actor to either high F (HF) or low F (LF) subjects.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2010
Traits can be either descriptive or causal, summarizing people and behavior, or explaining behavi... more Traits can be either descriptive or causal, summarizing people and behavior, or explaining behavior. We hypothesized that isolated traits are primarily causal. Participants made rapid judgments of causal relations between 128 word pairs, including 32 trait-action pairs. Fenker, Waldmann, and Holyoak showed that causal relations are identified faster when words appear in a predictive sequence (cause ? effect) than in a diagnostic sequence (effect ? cause). They hypothesized that this occurs because causes always occur before effects. However traits are always inferred after behavioral observations. Nevertheless, if they are causally linked, participants may identify predictive sequences (clumsy ? stumble) faster than diagnostic sequences (blush ? shy). Participants did just that, and just as strongly as for nonsocial causes, suggesting that traits are primarily causal concepts.
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Papers by James S. Uleman