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Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly
Abstract
Most texts on writing style encourage authors to avoid overly-complex words. However, a majority of undergraduates admit to deliberately increasing the complexity of their vocabulary so as to give the impression of intelligence. This paper explores the extent to which this strategy is effective. Experiments 1–3 manipulate complexity of texts and find a negative relationship between complexity and judged intelligence. This relationship held regardless of the quality of the original essay, and irrespective of the participants' prior expectations of essay quality. The negative impact of complexity was mediated by processing fluency. Experiment 4 directly manipulated fluency and found that texts in hard to read fonts are judged to come from less intelligent authors. Experiment 5 investigated discounting of fluency. When obvious causes for low fluency exist that are not relevant to the judgement at hand, people reduce their reliance on fluency as a cue; in fact, in an effort not to be influenced by the irrelevant source of fluency, they over-compensate and are biased in the opposite direction. Implications and applications are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... Language is instrumental for impression management between social contacts, but it is also critical for impression management in professional settings because self-presentation missteps can be associated with nontrivial consequences (e.g., losing a job; Sievers, Wodzicki, Aberle, Keckeisen, & Cress, 2015). For example, academics who use jargon to describe their research may be perceived as unintelligent (Oppenheimer, 2006), business executives who are less communicative may be perceived as more task-oriented and less human-oriented (de Vries, Bakker-Pieper, & Oostenveld, 2010), and physicians who post on social media about their patients may be perceived as improper or unethical (Bennett & Vercler, 2018;Chretien & Kind, 2013;Macauley et al., 2021). Self-presentation is critical to social and professional life, and central to this process is using language to manage how the self is perceived. ...
... For example, simple phrases in medicine that are typically negative (e.g., "radiography was impressive") are often misinterpreted as positive by most non-physicians, which might lead to different actions taken by patients for their health (Gotlieb et al., 2022). Clear and simple communication patterns are therefore preferable in medicine, but more broadly, clear and simple communication is linked to a range of positive outcomes in everyday life, including a speaker being perceived as more intelligent (Oppenheimer, 2006), more moral and warm (Markowitz, Kouchaki, Hancock, & Gino, 2021), and people often engage with simpler language more than complex language (Markowitz & Shulman, 2021). Therefore, one possible self-presentation strategy for physicians may include the use of simple language and the avoidance of jargon to communicate effectively to patients. ...
... Despite the wealth of evidence in this paper that suggests specific language dimensions associate with and affect perceptions of physicians, several hypothesized relationships also failed to obtain. For example, by drawing on processing fluency research (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009;Markowitz & Shulman, 2021;Oppenheimer, 2006), a preregistered prediction suggested that everyday common language would associate positively with physicians' star rating. While the direction of the effect was consistent with this prediction, the result was not statistically significant. ...
... Information presented in a simple manner, at least for relatively effortless tasks, is often perceived positively versus information that is presented in a complex manner because simplicity feels better to most people (Schwarz, 2004(Schwarz, , 2012. For example, simple and common words Oppenheimer, 2006), visually easy-to-perceive texts (Reber & Schwarz, 1999), and familiar stimuli (Zajonc, 1968) are typically preferred over complex and uncommon words, visually difficult-to-perceive texts, and less familiar stimuli. However, evidence suggests complexity can also lead to positive judgments of a target when effort is instrumental toward achieving a goal (Labroo & Kim, 2009;Markowitz & Shulman, 2021). ...
... For example, people tend to judge companies with common language in their values statements as more moral, warmer, and more trustworthy than companies with uncommon language in their values statements . The authors of academic abstracts with simple words (compared to complex synonyms of the same word) are perceived as more intelligent as well (Oppenheimer, 2006). Recent evidence also suggests common words associate positively with online behavior such as engaging with a Twitter post (Markowitz & Shulman, 2021). ...
... In linguistic fluency research, most studies evaluate the difficulty associated with processing simple/common words compared to complex/uncommon words. Recall, such lexical fluency effects suggest people prefer simple and everyday common words (e.g., job) over complex alternatives (e.g., occupation) when goal pursuit is not salient, and this general finding has received robust support (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009;Markowitz & Shulman, 2021;Oppenheimer, 2006Oppenheimer, , 2008Shulman & Bullock, 2019). However, there are complementary linguistic fluency concepts that have not been thoroughly investigated in prior research but can also expand our psychological understanding of how consuming different types of linguistic information can impact information processing in effortful tasks. ...
Research on processing fluency and instrumental goal activation suggests people often perceive complex information positively when effort in a task is valued. The current article evaluates this idea in five online petition samples (total N = 1,047,655 petitions and over 200 million words), assessing how the linguistic fluency of a petition associates with support. Consistent with prior work, petitions with lower rates of lexical fluency (fewer common words) associated with more signatures and an increased probability of petitions making a concrete change than those with higher rates of lexical fluency (more common words). Exploratory results suggest other forms of linguistic complexity also associated with petition support: petitions with more analytic writing (e.g., more formal and complex writing patterns) and with less structural fluency (less readable writing) received more signatures than those with less analytic writing and more structural fluency. Controlling for the political leaning of the petition writers as inferred by their language patterns revealed consistent effects. Crucially, the lexical fluency results were maintained across eight languages as well. Various types of linguistic complexity are therefore instrumental to get people to support online causes. Contributions to fluency theory and the psychology of giving are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... Much social science research has investigated the attributions people make or the impressions they form about writers given a paucity of (often superficial) information. The attributions that have been studied are wide-ranging: writer personality (Cole et al., 2005), writer intelligence (Oppenheimer, 2006), writer competence (Blankenship & Holtgraves, 2005), writer attractiveness (Van der Zanden et al., 2020), writer trustworthiness (Boland & Queen, 2016), writer reputation (Stiff, 2012), and trustworthiness of the writer's employer (Gretry et al., 2017). However, only Oppenheimer (2006) investigated the connection between specific linguistic features of style and the attributions people make about writers, as we do in the current study. ...
... The attributions that have been studied are wide-ranging: writer personality (Cole et al., 2005), writer intelligence (Oppenheimer, 2006), writer competence (Blankenship & Holtgraves, 2005), writer attractiveness (Van der Zanden et al., 2020), writer trustworthiness (Boland & Queen, 2016), writer reputation (Stiff, 2012), and trustworthiness of the writer's employer (Gretry et al., 2017). However, only Oppenheimer (2006) investigated the connection between specific linguistic features of style and the attributions people make about writers, as we do in the current study. ...
... Research has established a range of attribution outcomes. Many consequences focus on whether readers accept or reject the writer: as a potential roommate (Boland & Queen, 2016), a romantic partner (Van der Zanden et al., 2020), a coworker (Brown et al., 2016), a graduate student (Oppenheimer, 2006) or an organizational representative (Beason, 2001). Some consequences involve whether readers are persuaded by the writer's message: to agree with the writer's interpretation (Craig & Amernic, 2011), to help the writer (Morin-Lessard & McKelvie, 2019), to fund the writer's business pitch (Muir et al., 2017), or to buy the writer's product (Stiff, 2012). ...
One line of prior research has focused on the effect of style on readers’ ability to comprehend or willingness to engage with a message. A separate line has illuminated the effect of errors on the impressions readers form about writers, identifying potentially serious consequences (e.g., the willingness to accept the writer as a coworker or to fund the writer’s business pitch). To date, few studies have investigated the effect of style on the impressions readers form of business writers. In this paper, we report a study of the relationship between business writer attributions and word- or sentence-level style features often emphasized by advocates of plain style. Using data from 614 respondents, we found statistically significant evidence that business writers conveyed (a) confidence by avoiding non-requisite words, jargon, and nominals and by using standard connotations and grammar, and (b) professionalism by avoiding non-requisite words and hedges and by using standard homonyms.
... According to processing fluency research, information that is communicated or presented in a simple manner tends to be favored compared to information that is communicated or presented in a complex manner because simplicity feels better to most people (for a review, see Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009). Many studies support this simpler-is-better hypothesis (see Markowitz & Shulman, 2021): visually clear images (Oppenheimer, 2006) and stimuli with simple language (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2006;Markowitz et al., 2021a) are often rated more positively than visually unclear images and complex language. This pattern occurs in relatively effortless tasks (e.g., engaging with social media), and has been observed in the lab and field studies (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009;Markowitz & Shulman, 2021;Oppenheimer, 2008;Shulman & Bullock, 2020). ...
... Finally, structural fluency considers the ease or difficulty associated with comprehending a message considering its sentence and word length. Longer sentences and words are more disfluent than shorter sentences and words (Flesch, 1948;Markowitz & Hancock, 2016;Oppenheimer, 2006). Consistent with the lexical fluency and analytic writing fluency effects, online petitions with less structural fluency (less readable writing) had more signatures than those with more structural fluency. ...
Prior work suggests when instrumental goals are salient, linguistic complexity associates with positive behavioral outcomes compared to linguistic simplicity. The current work tested this idea using descriptions from over 1,000 online realty advertisements to associate with housing prices. The evidence suggested linguistic complexity (e.g., fewer common words, more analytic writing, and less readable writing) indeed associated with higher housing prices. These data explicated the contingent-on-effort hypothesis: linguistic complexity is favored when people value effort in a particular setting.
... Since non-native speakers are already aware that they might be perceived as less competent and could be subjected to negative stereotype, they allocate more resources, e ort and perseverance to prove their competencies and disprove irrelevant evaluations based on their accent Roberson & Kulik, 2007). When speakers with non-native accent realize that listeners' evaluation of speakers' speech quality and inferred intelligence judgment are unrelated, speakers' with non-native accent start suspecting the accuracy of listeners' feedback and engage in feedback discounting (Oppenheimer, 2006). Research on cognitive uency (Oppenheimer, 2006) has reported that nonnative speakers then attempt to compensate such negative feedback with extra e orts and perseverance (Wilson & Brekke, 1994). ...
... When speakers with non-native accent realize that listeners' evaluation of speakers' speech quality and inferred intelligence judgment are unrelated, speakers' with non-native accent start suspecting the accuracy of listeners' feedback and engage in feedback discounting (Oppenheimer, 2006). Research on cognitive uency (Oppenheimer, 2006) has reported that nonnative speakers then attempt to compensate such negative feedback with extra e orts and perseverance (Wilson & Brekke, 1994). ...
Social science has predominantly discussed accent bias against non-native speakers, although not always. In this paper, positive consequences and favoritism of non-native accent will be reviewed along with the legal provision available in the USA to counter accent based discrimination. Specifically, this paper will present how listeners exhibited preferential treatments towards speakers with non-native accent and how some non-native speakers are more immune to negative discrimination. Brief introduction to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act will also be presented as a potential legal provision available to employees, students and to anyone if they are discriminated against due to their non-native accent.Crossing the Border: International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 5(2) 2017: 3-14
... By keeping content constant and varying the complexity of vocabulary, it was possible to investigate the effectiveness of complexity." Oppenheimer's experiments involved Stanford students and one featured Descartes' Meditation IV (Oppenheimer 2006). 37 Bryan Magee remarked of the style of some of his fellow philosophers: "The truth is that many of today's leading philosophers are privately the subject of complaint from their own professional colleagues for the unwelcomingness (sic) of their writing.…One of them has given his name to a mode of writing in which the further the writer advances into each sentence, the more remote the end of it seems to become." ...
... "All in all, the effect is extremely robust: needless complexity leads to negative evaluations."(Oppenheimer 2006). 38 http:// gunni ng-fog-index. com/ where you can upload text for a rough and ready score. Note the site disclaimer.39 For an account of the serial (mis)interpretations see Miriam Green's book(Green 2019) and her earlier papers in Philosophy of Management(Green 2005(Green -2016.Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. R ...
This is an expanded version of an interview with Nigel Laurie, based on his contribution to the 11th Annual Australasian Business Ethics Network (ABEN) Conference, held on 8 December 2021. The conference theme Calculative silences and the agency of business ethics scholars is the focus of this interview. After studying philosophy at Glasgow and Guelph in Canada and a career in IBM, Nigel Laurie established his own management consultancy and went on to found the Philosophy of Management journal in 2001. He edited it for its first 8 years and led the early international Philosophy of Management conferences at St Anne’s College, Oxford. In this interview Nigel reflects on his experiences as a consultant in government, the public, private and third sectors across the world and as a visiting academic and offers insights on leadership, agency, analogies, silences and voices for ethics education and practice.
... Research suggests that the way a message is presented will influence cognitive easefor example, by maximising contrast between characters and the background, or the use of colours, such as blue or red rather than green and yellow. Moreover, Oppenheimer (2006) found that couching familiar ideas in pretentious language is taken as a sign of poor intelligence and low credibility. Kahneman (2012, p63) agrees when he states, 'If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do.' ...
Significance judgements lie at the heart of EIA and provide the basis and justification for overall decision-making. Although the subjective nature of significance judgements is widely recognized, there has been limited research aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of its implications. This paper builds on the growing tradition of exploring learning from psychology in dealing with challenges in EIA practice, in this case, significance judgements. The aim of this research is therefore, to gain a deeper understanding of the psychology underpinning significance judgements. This is achieved by applying 10 concepts from psychology to the four steps in the ‘significance spectrum model’, namely: decide thresholds, make predictions, judge acceptability and consider mitigation. The results suggest that significance judgements should (with underpinning concepts from psychology provided in parentheses) aim for a limited number of key thresholds (paradox of choice); design thresholds with future gains in mind (loss aversion), reconsider probability scoring (possibility and certainty effect); avoid judgements based on limited information (What You See Is All There Is, WHYSIATI); utilise statistical prediction over expert opinion (expert fallacy); communicate carefully (priming, framing and cognitive ease); and consider personal attitudes and biases (affect heuristic).
... This research supports a stronger connection between these constructs and competence. One possible explanation is that, when speech is difficult to process, listeners may be more likely to interpret the listener as being unable to communicate rather than unwilling 34,63 . Critically, these results indicate that the negative social judgments arising from processing disfluency can be improved through only brief exposure to the speaker. ...
Prior research has revealed a native-accent advantage, whereby nonnative-accented speech is more difficult to process than native-accented speech. Nonnative-accented speakers also experience more negative social judgments. In the current study, we asked three questions. First, does exposure to nonnative-accented speech increase speech intelligibility or decrease listening effort, thereby narrowing the native-accent advantage? Second, does lower intelligibility or higher listening effort contribute to listeners’ negative social judgments of speakers? Third and finally, does increased intelligibility or decreased listening effort with exposure to speech bring about more positive social judgments of speakers? To address these questions, normal-hearing adults listened to a block of English sentences with a native accent and a block with nonnative accent. We found that once participants were accustomed to the task, intelligibility was greater for nonnative-accented speech and increased similarly with exposure for both accents. However, listening effort decreased only for nonnative-accented speech, soon reaching the level of native-accented speech. In addition, lower intelligibility and higher listening effort was associated with lower ratings of speaker warmth, speaker competence, and willingness to interact with the speaker. Finally, competence ratings increased over time to a similar extent for both accents, with this relationship fully mediated by intelligibility and listening effort. These results offer insight into how listeners process and judge unfamiliar speakers.
... If people have already been exposed to misinformation, debunking is an alternative strategy. Debunkings should include a factual alternative to the misinformation, explained COVID-19 22 clearly, simply, and if possible, visually (Danielson, Sinatra, & Kendeou, 2016;Oppenheimer, 2006). Debunkings should also provide details on why the misinformation is false, explaining why the misinformation is false and why the factual alternative is correct (Seifert, 2002). ...
Beliefs play a central role in our lives. They lie at the heart of what makes us human, they shape the organization and functioning of our minds, they define the boundaries of our culture, and they guide our motivation and behavior. Given their central importance, researchers across a number of disciplines have studied beliefs, leading to results and literatures that do not always interact. The Cognitive Science of Belief aims to integrate these disconnected lines of research to start a broader dialogue on the nature, role, and consequences of beliefs. It tackles timeless questions, as well as applications of beliefs that speak to current social issues. This multidisciplinary approach to beliefs will benefit graduate students and researchers in cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, political science, economics, and religious studies.
... Finally, Oppenheimer (2006) provides evidence that easier to process texts are deemed to be written by more intelligent authors. In particular, he shows that using overly complex words comes with being judged of lower intelligence. ...
... intelligence (Alter and Oppenheimer, 2006;Oppenheimer, 2006). ...
This thesis explores the use and effects of maximisers when included within Health and Nutrition (H&N) claims on food product packaging, with direct relevance for industry practice. Four separate studies were carried out in support of this thesis, one field study and three online experimental studies. The effects of the maximiser language device were investigated through an online field experiment, conducted through the Facebook Ads Manager platform, with the results demonstrating that the use of maximisers has a positive effect on product likeability among Facebook users. The first online experimental study then demonstrated the informality features of maximisers, and highlighted the importance of consumer perceived congruence bet ween the language used in advertising a product and the retail environment in which the product is encountered. Results from this study showed that the used of maximisers in H&N claims has a positive direct effect on product likeability. The second online experimental study extended on the concept of perceived congruence from the first online study, investigating the congruence between the use of language and customer comments and reviews, and its effect on perceptions of and purchase intentions towards a product. The study demonstrated the sincerity and affirmation features of maximisers, and showed the interaction of these features with online reviews, with the presence of maximisers having a moderating influence of product perceptions when bad reviews are present. The third and final online experimental study tested the effect of maximisers in a realistic setting, investigating the effects of cognitive load on evaluations of and purchase intentions towards a product. The findings showed maximisers work effectively when consumers are cognitively available, with a reversed effect apparent when consumers are subjected to a high cognitive load. The findings from the experimental studies have potential for impact in industry practice in the marketing and advertising of food products, and for the design of food packaging, as well as for policy-makers aiming to protect consumers and consumer interests related to food advertising.
... La fluidité est associée à plusieurs sensations, perceptions et activités cognitives (Travers, 2015 ;Van Boven et Caruso, 2015) comme la vision (Reber, Winkielman et Schartz, 1998), l'écoute (Heyduk, 1975, la mémoire (Schwarz et al., 1991 ;Tversky et Kahneman, 1973), l'encodage de l'information (Hertzog, Dunlosky, Robinson et Kidder, 2003), la lecture (Whittlesea et Williams, 1998 ;Oppenheimer, 2006 ;Alter et Oppenheimer, 2008), le raisonnement (Day et Gentner, 2007) ou bien encore la prise de décision (Anderson, 2003). ...
La distance psychologique est omniprésente dans l’esprit du consommateur et influence ses attitudes et son comportement envers les produits hédoniques. Cependant, des contradictions sont présentes dans la littérature quant à la direction (positive ou négative) des effets de la distance psychologique sur les réponses du consommateur envers les produits hédoniques. En effet, certaines recherches avancent que l’augmentation de la distance psychologique influence positivement les réponses du consommateur envers les produits hédoniques. Alors que d’autres suggèrent l’effet inverse, à savoir une influence négative de l’augmentation de la distance psychologique sur les réponses du consommateur envers les produits hédoniques. L’objectif de cette recherche est de réconcilier ces contradictions en examinant sous quelles conditions la distance peut avoir un effet positif ou négatif. Sur la base d’un état de l’art de la littérature et d’une étude qualitative, nous proposons que le degré de proéminence du besoin de justification (non saillant vs saillant) du consommateur au moment où il évalue le produit hédonique modère ses effets et constitue une condition sous laquelle la distance psychologique peut avoir un effet positif ou négatif sur les réponses du consommateur envers les produits hédoniques. Trois expérimentations ont été conduites pour le test de nos hypothèses. Les deux premières suggèrent qu’en condition de besoin de justification non saillant, l’augmentation de la distance psychologique a une influence négative sur les réponses attitudinales et comportementales du consommateur envers les produits hédoniques. La troisième expérimentation, quant à elle, propose qu’en condition de besoin de justification saillant, l’augmentation de la distance psychologique a un effet positif sur la réponse comportementale du consommateur envers le produit hédonique. Cette recherche contribue à la littérature sur le concept de distance psychologique en précisant sous quelles conditions (c.-à-d. besoin de justification saillant vs non saillant) la distance peut avoir un effet positif ou négatif sur les réponses des consommateurs envers les produits hédoniques.
... For instance, people tend to perceive the writer of disfluent text to be less intelligent, but this effect is reversed when they are aware of an alternative source of disfluency. Specifically, when the perceptually disfluent text is attributed to a printer low in toner ink, people tend to overcompensate for their reliance on the fluency cue and give higher intelligence ratings to the author of the perceptually disfluent text (Oppenheimer, 2006). Given this, consumers should only misattribute disfluency (fluency) to novelty (familiarity) ...
Contrary to conventional belief and the existing literature, recent research has shown that difficult‐to‐read fonts on marketing communications may evoke perceptual disfluency and enhance consumer evaluation toward unique, complex, or security‐related products. However, no research has examined the psychological mechanism that underlies the positive effects of perceptual disfluency. The current research presents five experiments to address this study gap. Specifically, Studies 1 and 2 provide empirical evidence that perceptual disfluency may lead to perceived novelty and in turn evoke the feeling‐of‐interest, perceived innovativeness, and intention to try a product. Studies 3 and 4 replicate these findings and show that such an indirect effect of perceptual disfluency is mitigated by the presence of salient novelty cues and prior product knowledge, providing further support for the hypothesized disfluency–novelty–interest relationship. Study 5 extended these findings by showing that digital ad banners with disfluent text may enhance click‐throughs in a natural viewing task of a news website. The current findings empirically demonstrate a mechanism that not only underlies the positive effects of perceptual disfluency but also aligns with the fluency–familiarity–liking relationship found in the existing literature.
... Importantly, Schwarz et al. (1991) found that even compared to the cognitive content of a message, subjective processing fluency had a stronger influence on judgments and evaluations. A collection of studies manipulated types of linguistic processing, demonstrating that more fluent lexical (Whittlesea & Williams, 1998), syntactic (Oppenheimer, 2006), and phonetic (Alter & Oppenheimer, 2006, 2008 processing led to more positive evaluations. ...
Guided by communication accommodation theory and the fluency principle of language attitudes, this experimental study examined the serial mediation effects of processing fluency and inferred motives on language attitudes toward standard- and non-standard-accented speech. Using the matched guise technique, participants were randomly assigned to listen to an audio recording read in either a Standard American English (SAE) or Indian Tamil English (ITE) accent. Compared to the ITE accent, participants who listened to the SAE accent reported significantly higher processing fluency of the speaker's talk, more positive inferred cognitive motive from the speaker, and attributed higher solidarity to the speaker. However, the experimental conditions yielded no differences in inferred affective motive or status evaluations. Mediation analysis indicated significant indirect effects on status and solidarity through processing fluency and inferred cognitive motives as serial mediators. The indirect effects through inferred affective motive were not significant. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... Consequently, when trying to get ideas to catch on, subtle linguistic shifts may increase impact. Communicators often think that using complex language will make them seem more intelligent (Oppenheimer, 2006), but simpler language may actually be more effective. ...
Why do some things succeed in the marketplace of ideas? While some argue that content drives success, others suggest that style, or the way ideas are presented, also plays an important role. To provide a stringent test of style's importance, we examine it in a context where content should be paramount: academic research. While scientists often see writing as a disinterested way to communicate unobstructed truth, a multi-method investigation indicates that writing style shapes impact. Separating style from content can be difficult as papers that tend to use certain language may also write about certain topics. Consequently, we focus on a unique class of words linked to style (i.e., function words such as "and," "the," and "on") that are completely devoid of content. Natural language processing of almost 30,000 articles from a range of disciplines finds that function words explain 13-27% of language's impact on citations. Ancillary analyses explore specific categories of function words to suggest how style matters, highlighting the role of writing simplicity, personal voice, and temporal perspective. Experiments further underscore the causal impact of style. The results suggest how to boost communication's impact and highlight the value of natural language processing for understanding the success of ideas.
... as another possible explanation. Building upon psychology research (most notably Oppenheimer (2006); as well as Shah & Oppenheimer (2007)), she explains that simply the perceived ease of processing the given information may act as a heuristic for viewing the given information as more reliable and the messenger as more credible. 95 ...
Diese Dissertation umfasst drei Studien über die Relevanz von Finanzinformationen für Investitionsentscheidungen. Alle drei Studien sind empirischer Natur und untersuchen Finanzinformationen deutscher Firmen mit verschiedenen Forschungsmethoden. Die erste Studie beschreibt den Umfang und Detailierungsgrad von Finanzinformationen mit Bezug auf ein spezifisches Akquisitionsmerkmal: Earnouts. Sie liefert explorative Einblicke in die Berichterstattung über Earnouts und deren Zielerreichung in dem Zeitraum nach der Akquisition. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass Firmen aussagekräftige Earnout-Informationen veröffentlichen, wenn es sich um wesentliche Akquisitionen für das erwerbende Unternehmen handelt. Die zweite Studie untersucht den separaten Ausweis von außerordentlichen Posten in der Gewinn- und Verlustrechnung von kapitalmarktorientierten sowie nicht-kapitalmarktorientierten Unternehmen. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass kapitalmarktorientierte Unternehmen außerordentliche Posten häufiger aber nicht in unterschiedlicher Höhe ausweisen als nicht-kapitalmarktorientierte Unternehmen. Weiterhin bietet der separate Ausweis von außergewöhnlichen Posten den Nutzern von Finanzinformationen bedeutende Einblicke über deren Relevanz für die zukünftige finanzielle Entwicklung des jeweiligen Unternehmens. Die dritte Studie basiert auf einem Umfrageexperiment mit originalen Finanzinformationen und echten Kleinanlegern. In dieser Studie wird untersucht, wie die Übersetzung(squalität) von Finanzinformationen die Wahrnehmung von Kleinanlegern in Bezug auf Textmerkmale und mögliche Investitionsentscheidungen beeinflusst. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Textmerkmale relevant für die Investitionsentscheidung von Kleinanlegern sind. Weiterhin kann die Übersetzung von Finanzinformationen die Wahrnehmung der Kleinanleger von Textmerkmalen beeinflussen.
... Those expressing themselves in such language may be indifferent to truth (when it is the bullshit of the philosopher Harry Frankfurt [83]), insecure [84], ignorant [85] or incapable. If incapable, as an anonymous diplomat put it, 'what appears to be a sloppy or meaningless use of English may well be a perfectly correct use of English to express sloppy or meaningless ideas' (cited in [86]). ...
Continuing growth, insofar as it increases human environmental impact, is in conflict with the environment. ‘Green growth’, if it increases the absolute size of the economy, is an oxymoron. Environmental limits are discountenanced, a pretence made possible because they are difficult to specify in advance. The consequent weakness in public discourse, both moral and intellectual, has worsened into contradiction as it has become ever more studiously unadmitted. It is obscured with language that is misleading or self-contradictory, and even issues from institutions that exist (and are relied upon) to respect correctness. At its most conforming it gives rise to overshoot, by which statements meant to sound authoritative are in fact open to ridicule. Such untruthfulness perpetuates climate change inaction, and in a kind of direct action those using such language, contrary to their public or professional duty, could be asked to justify themselves in plain English.
... Numerous studies have shown how fluency, that is the ease with which a text can be processed, enhances its liking (Reber et al., 2004), perceived truthfulness (Dechêne et al., 2009), and its trustworthiness (Newman et al., 2014; for an overview, see Schwarz et al., 2020). When research was presented with high audio quality or easy-to-read fonts, thus in a way that could be processed easily instead of hard, it was perceived to be of higher quality and the associated researchers were perceived to be more competent and intelligent (Newman & Schwarz, 2018;Oppenheimer, 2006). When exercise routines and cooking recipes were presented in an easy-to-read (vs. ...
We investigated linguistic factors that affect peoples’ trust in science and their commitment to follow evidence-based recommendations, crucial for limiting the spread of COVID-19. In an experiment ( N = 617), we examined whether complex (vs. simple) scientific statements on mask-wearing can decrease trust in information and its sources, and hinder adherence to behavioral measures. In line with former research on social exclusion through complex language, we also examined whether complexity effects are mediated via feelings of social exclusion. Results indicate that negative effects of text complexity were present, but only for participants with a strong conspiracy mentality. This finding informs how to increase trust in science among individuals with a high conspiracy mentality, a population commonly known for its skepticism towards scientific evidence.
... Specifically, due to high familiarity, words with high subjective frequency may be processed more fluently than words with low subjective frequency (Oppenheimer, 2006). Moreover, people may base their JOLs on the explicit belief that words they are familiar with are easier for them to remember (see, e.g., Dunlosky et al., 2015;Mueller et al., 2016;Mueller et al., 2013; for the impact of idiosyncratic strategies on JOLs, see Bröder & Undorf, 2019). ...
Predictions of one’s future memory performance – judgments of learning (JOLs) – are based on the cues that learners regard as diagnostic of memory performance. One of these cues is word frequency or how often words are experienced in the language. It is not clear, however, whether word frequency would affect JOLs when other cues are also available. The current study aims to close this gap by testing whether objective and subjective word frequency affect JOLs in the presence of font size as an additional cue. Across three experiments, participants studied words that varied in word frequency (Experiment 1: high and low objective frequency; Experiment 2: a whole continuum from high to low objective frequency; Experiment 3: high and low subjective and objective frequency) and were presented in a large (48pt) or a small (18pt) font size, made JOLs, and completed a free recall test. Results showed that people based their JOLs on both word frequency and font size. We conclude that word frequency is an important cue that affects metamemory even in multiple-cue situations.
... When listeners believe that responsibility for successful communication (the communicative burden) lies with the speaker, perhaps due to context or language ideology (see Lippi-Green, 2012), perceptual disfluency is likely to be interpreted as a lack of warmth or competence on the part of the speaker (Dragojevic & Giles, 2016). Consistent with this prediction, students who read passages of text with longer vocabulary items or greater complexity experienced greater disfluency and rated the author as less intelligent (a competence trait) than did students who read a comparable but simpler passage (Oppenheimer, 2006). ...
Negative attitudes toward non-native speakers of English are well-documented and have adverse impacts on English learners in a variety of settings. Recent research has proposed that (i) disfluent processing of accented speech (i.e., the metacognitive feeling of effort that accompanies perceiving and integrating information) and (ii) stereotypes and categories associated with specific accents both play a role in these negative attitudes. Previous research has also shown that comprehension of accented speech becomes more accurate over time as listeners perceptually adapt to unfamiliar speech patterns. This dissertation tests the hypothesis that adaptation through listening experience leads to less effortful processing and thereby more positive attitudes, and more broadly investigates the relationship among processing fluency, the subjective perception of fluency, and attitudes toward a speaker with a non-native accent. In two experiments, participants listened to and transcribed sentences recorded by a speaker in either a non-native or native guise. The non-native accent was selected, based on pre-tests, to be difficult to categorize (e.g., as a native speaker of Spanish), in order to minimize attitude stereotypes associated with judgments of ethnicity or nationality and better isolate the influence of processing fluency. In Experiment 1, all participants listened to the sentences in clear audio. In Experiment 2, participants listened to sentences either in clear audio or mixed with speech-shaped noise, which provided an additional manipulation of processing fluency. Objective fluency was assessed using transcription accuracy in both experiments, in addition to pupil dilation during listening and transcription time in Experiment 1. Subjective fluency and attitudes toward the speaker on the dimensions of warmth, competence, and social closeness were measured at intervals using scale-response questions. The results show that pupil dilation and transcription time decrease with experience with a non-native accent, indicating improved objective processing fluency, though transcription accuracy results unexpectedly did not show evidence for adaptation to the accent. The results also provide no evidence that listeners’ subjective perception of fluency or attitudes toward the speaker change as objective fluency improves. Analysis of the relationship between these variables indicates that listeners’ perception of effort in comprehending non-native accented speech is more closely related to their attitudes and social evaluations of the speaker, rather than to objective processing effort. This dissertation adds two main contributions to research on the comprehension of and attitudes toward non-native speakers. First, it provides evidence that comprehension of non-native accented speech becomes easier over time using a physiological measure (pupil dilation) in addition to behavioral measures. Second, by comparing objective fluency, subjective fluency, and attitudes in the same task, it shows that the perception of effort does not necessarily reflect objective effort in comprehending accented speech, but instead appears to be associated with listeners’ social judgments. For listeners who experience difficulty understanding non-native accented speech, comprehension is likely to get easier in a short period of time as their cognitive systems adapt to unfamiliar speech patterns. The more a listener recognizes this increased ease, the more that ease may lead to improved attitudes toward the speaker.
... Processing fluency impacts a large variety of human judgments: Fluently processed stimuli are believed to be more familiar (e.g., Jacoby & Whitehouse, 1989;Whittlesea, 1993), more frequent (e.g., Greifeneder & Bless, 2007;Tversky & Kahneman, 1973), of higher quality (e. g., Greifeneder et al., 2010;Oppenheimer, 2006), and are generally preferred (e.g., Reber, Winkielman, & Schwarz, 1998) to stimuli that are disfluently processed (for reviews, see Greifeneder, Bless, & Pham, 2011;Reber & Greifeneder, 2017;Schwarz, 2004a;Schwarz & Clore, 2007). Most importantly for the present research, they are more likely believed to be true rather than false (e.g., Begg et al., 1992;Reber & Schwarz, 1999; for reviews, see Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009;Dechêne et al., 2010). ...
Information is more likely believed to be true when it feels easy rather than difficult to process. An ecological learning explanation for this fluency-truth effect implicitly or explicitly presumes that truth and fluency are positively associated. Specifically, true information may be easier to process than false information and individuals may reverse this link in their truth judgments. The current research investigates the important but so far untested precondition of the learning explanation for the fluency-truth effect. In particular, five experiments (total N = 712) test whether participants experience information known to be true as easier to process than information known to be false. Participants in Experiment 1a judged true statements easier to read than false statements. Experiment 1b was a preregistered direct replication with a large sample and again found increased legibility for true statements-importantly, however, this was not the case for statements for which the truth status was unknown. Experiment 1b thereby shows that it is not the actual truth or falsehood of information but the believed truth or falsehood that is associated with processing fluency. In Experiment 2, true calculations were rated as easier to read than false calculations. Participants in Experiment 3 judged it easier to listen to calculations generally known to be true than to calculations generally known to be false. Experiment 4 shows an effect of truth on processing fluency independent of statement familiarity. Discussion centers on the current explanation for the fluency-truth effect and the validity of processing fluency as a cue in truth judgments.
... For competence perceptions, psychological distance has an arguable effect on competence perception; among Russians, psychological distance has been shown to only negatively predict the competence perceptions of one group (the Buryats) out of sixty possible groups (Grigoryev et al., 2019). There is also controversy regarding whether processing ease increases perceived competence (Oppenheimer, 2006) or decreases perceived competence (Kim & Dempsey, 2019), we left the link between competence perceptions and name recognizability as an exploratory measure. ...
Although easy names are known to help gain the trust of others, the underlying links between names and trust remain understudied, especially in non-alphabetic languages (e.g., Chinese). Drawing on the stereotype content model framework, the current research revealed that Chinese names’ recognizability had asymmetrical effects on warmth and competence perceptions. Although both warmth and competence perceptions contributed to trust judgments, only warmth perceptions mediated the influence of name recognizability on trust judgments. Specifically, individuals with easier names were perceived as warmer rather than more competent and were thus judged as being more trustworthy. The effect of name recognizability on warmth perceptions and trust judgments could not be attributed to pronunciations or semantic meanings. The current work fills an important research gap by revealing the psychological underpinnings of non-alphabet-based names in interpersonal perceptions. We discuss theoretical implications on processing fluency and the stereotype content model, as well as practical implications.
... As Daniel Oppenheimer points out in his article, "Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: Problems with using long words needlessly" people don't think you are smarter when you use big words. They actually think those using smaller words are smarter (Oppenheimer, 2006). ...
... Processing fluency, in general, refers to the subjective ease of processing information (Alter and Oppenheimer, 2009;Oppenheimer, 2008). It has been shown to influence perception of statements; the more fluent a statement, the more true (Reber and Schwarz, 1999;Unkelbach and Rom, 2017), the more frequent (Kahneman and Tversky, 1973;Schwarz et al., 1991), the more likeable (Reber et al., 1998;Winkielman and Cacioppo, 2001), and the more intelligent its source (Oppenheimer, 2006). With this idea in mind, Lev-Ari and Keysar (2010) proposed that since foreign or regional accented-speech is harder to process than native or familiar-accented speech (Cristia et al., 2012;Floccia et al., 2009;Munro and Derwing, 1995), foreign speakers may be harder to believe. ...
This study investigated the impact of the speaker’s identity generated by the voice on sentence processing. We examined the relation between ERP components associated with the processing of the voice (N100 and P200) from voice onset and those associated with sentence processing (N400 and late positivity) from critical word onset. We presented Dutch native speakers with sentences containing true (and known) information, unknown (but true) information or information violating world knowledge and had them perform a truth evaluation task. Sentences were spoken either in a native or a foreign accent. Truth evaluation judgments were not different for statements spoken by the native-accented and the foreign-accented speakers. Reduced N100 and P200 were observed in response to the foreign speaker’s voice compared to the native speaker’s. While statements containing unknown information or world knowledge violations generated a larger N400 than true statements in the native condition, they were not significantly different in the foreign condition, suggesting shallower processing of foreign-accented speech. The N100 was a significant predictor for the N400 in that the reduced N100 observed for the foreign speaker compared to the native speaker was related to a smaller N400 effect. These finding suggest that the impression of the speaker that listeners rapidly form from the voice affects semantic processing, which confirms that speaker’s identity and language comprehension cannot be dissociated.
... A different yet complementary form of fluency-lexical fluency-considers word choice and how simple words are more easily understood than complex words. A landmark paper by Oppenheimer (12) demonstrated that people had less favorable Significance How well do simple or complex language patterns predict meaningful behaviors in the field? We used nearly 1.1 million datapoints across 12 samples to demonstrate that language complexity is a positive or negative heuristic depending on instrumental goal activation (e.g., if effort in a task is associated with value). ...
Significance
How well do simple or complex language patterns predict meaningful behaviors in the field? We used nearly 1.1 million datapoints across 12 samples to demonstrate that language complexity is a positive or negative heuristic depending on instrumental goal activation (e.g., if effort in a task is associated with value). We substantiate the simpler-is-better hypothesis that suggests without instrumental goal activation, common words associate with favorable outcomes in social media, academia, and entertainment settings. With instrumental goal activation, however, complexity leads to more favorable outcomes in the form of money for charitable giving campaigns and NIH grants. We demonstrate the contingent nature of language complexity as a heuristic, with clear links to behavior in the field.
From marketers and consumers to leaders and health officials, everyone wants to increase their communications’ impact. But why are some communications more impactful? While some argue that content drives success, we suggest that style, or the way ideas are presented, plays an important role. To test style's importance, we examine it in a context where content should be paramount: academic research. While scientists often see writing as a disinterested way to communicate unobstructed truth, a multi‐method investigation indicates that writing style shapes impact. To separate content from style, we focus on a unique class of words linked to style (i.e., function words such as “and,” “the,” and “on”) that are devoid of content. Natural language processing of almost 30,000 articles from a range of disciplines finds that function words explain 4‐11% of overall variance explained and 11–27% of language content's impact on citations. Additional analyses examine particular style features that may shape success, and why, highlighting the role of writing simplicity, personal voice, and temporal perspective. Experiments further indicate the causal impact of style. The results suggest ways to boost communication's impact and highlight the value of natural language processing for understanding the success of ideas.
Objective:
This review synthesizes information from original research in the field of learning theory and the psychology of learning in order to provide evidence-based study methods to adult learners in the field of medicine.
Methods:
A literature review was conducted and results were synthesized in a narrative fashion.
Results:
Deeper levels of analysis produce longer lasting memory; therefore, the concept of creating a "desirable level of difficulty" when it comes to study material and methods has been shown to promote learning. When the learner uses a higher subjective level of effort in processing information, they can maximize the efficacy of their studying efforts. This review describes how memory encoding can be enhanced by applying several theories of learning psychology including the generation effect and the interleaving effect. The use of mnemonics, the "memory palace," and hand-written notes have also proven useful to enhance information recall. Methods that promote long-term learning including the spacing effect and delayed repetition are reviewed. Learning theory shows that the most effective learners use self-testing and forced recall to retain more information with limited study time.
Conclusions:
The application of these learning methods may help to improve information retention and productiveness among adult learners.
Extensive research shows that atypical actors who defy established contextual standards and norms are subject to skepticism and face a higher risk of rejection. Indeed, atypical actors combine features, behaviors, or products in unconventional ways, thereby generating confusion and instilling doubts about their legitimacy. Nevertheless, atypicality is often viewed as a precursor to sociocultural innovation and a strategy to expand the capacity to deliver valued goods and services. Contextualizing the conditions under which atypicality is celebrated or punished has been a significant theoretical challenge for organizational scholars interested in reconciling this tension. Thus far, scholars have focused primarily on audience-related factors or actors’ characteristics (e.g., status and reputation). Here, we explore how atypical actors can leverage linguistic features of their narratives to counteract evaluative discounts by analyzing a unique collection of 78,758 narratives from crafters on Etsy, the largest digital marketplace for handmade items. Marrying processing fluency theory with linguistics literature and relying on a combination of topic modeling, automated textual analysis, and econometrics, we show that categorically atypical producers who make more use of abstraction, cohesive cues, and conventional topics in their narratives are more likely to overcome the evaluative discounts they would ordinarily experience.
Given the burgeoning usage of influencers in social media marketing, the need to understand how consumers react to sponsored messages is on the rise. Drawing on the signaling theory, Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), and the message sidedness literature, this study illustrates the interaction effect between two types of sponsorship disclosures—brand influence disclosure (brand vs. honest opinion) and compensation type disclosure (gift vs. payment vs. sales commission)—on purchase intentions via influencer credibility, influencer-follower parasocial interaction (PSI), and brand attitudes. Through an experiment with 401 female participants, we found that a proper combination of these two types of disclosures generates a two-sided disclosure message and motivates people to scrutinize this two-sided message, which will boost influencer credibility, PSI, brand attitudes, and eventually, purchase intentions.
Plain language summaries (PLS) are accessible, short, peer‐reviewed summaries of scholarly journal articles written in non‐technical language. The aim of PLS is to enable a broader audience of experts and non‐experts to understand the original article. Here, we outline the evidence base for the value and impact of PLS and how they can enable diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in scholarly publishing. PLS can diversify readership and authorship, address information inequity, include typically under‐represented stakeholders and provide an accessible route into scholarly literature.
Is formal simplicity a guide to learning in humans, as simplicity is said to be a guide to the acceptability of theories in science? Does simplicity determine the difficulty of various learning tasks? I argue that, similarly to how scientists sometimes preferred complex theories when this facilitated calculations, results from perception, learning and reasoning suggest that formal complexity is generally unrelated to what is easy to learn and process by humans, and depends on assumptions about available representational and processing primitives. “Simpler” hypotheses are preferred only when they are also easier to process. Historically, “simpler”, easier‐to‐process, scientific theories might also be preferred if they are transmitted preferentially. Empirically viable complexity measures should build on the representational and processing primitives of actual learners, even if explanations of their behaviour become formally more complex.
Can leaders’ names have an impact on their compensation and firm performance? We reason about how and why certain leaders’ names are related to higher financial compensation, yet unrelated to their ability to lead a company and thus firm performance. Based on a sample of 6,132 CEOs working at large, publicly traded (S&P 1500) firms, we find that CEOs who have more “fluent” names—or names associated with feelings of cognitive ease (e.g., shorter length, more common)—obtain greater financial as well as non-financial perks, even though they are no more competent. Therefore, the study looks beyond the influence of sex- and race-typed names to help explain the observed mismatch between top management compensation and firm performance. We discuss the theoretical implication of this study for the cognitive bias and discrimination literature, and managerial implications for strategic human resource management.
Beliefs play a central role in our lives. They lie at the heart of what makes us human, they shape the organization and functioning of our minds, they define the boundaries of our culture, and they guide our motivation and behavior. Given their central importance, researchers across a number of disciplines have studied beliefs, leading to results and literatures that do not always interact. The Cognitive Science of Belief aims to integrate these disconnected lines of research to start a broader dialogue on the nature, role, and consequences of beliefs. It tackles timeless questions, as well as applications of beliefs that speak to current social issues. This multidisciplinary approach to beliefs will benefit graduate students and researchers in cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, political science, economics, and religious studies.
Using debt crowdfunding data, we investigate whether borrowers’ writing style is associated with an online lender and borrower behaviors, whether the information contained in linguistic style can mitigate information asymmetry in peer-to-peer markets, and whether online investors correctly interpret the economic value of written texts. Peer-to-peer lenders bid more aggressively, are more likely to fund, and charge lower rates to online borrowers whose writing is more readable, more positive, and contains fewer deception cues. Moreover, such borrowers are less likely to default. Online investors, however, fail to fully account for the information contained in borrowers’ writing.
This paper investigates the impact of company name fluency on acquisitions. We hypothesize that a company's name fluency, used by potential acquirers as a mental shortcut, influences not only its visibility to investors, but also the level of interest from potential acquirers, increasing the company's acquisition probability. After correcting for endogeneity, company name fluency is positively associated with both the probability of being an acquisition target and an acquisition premium. Reasons for a higher acquisition premium for targets with higher name fluency are identified as reduced need to hire top‐tier investment banks and higher synergy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This article develops theoretical, algorithmic, perceptual, and interaction aspects of script legibility enhancement in the visible light spectrum for the purpose of scholarly editing of papyri texts. Novel legibility enhancement algorithms based on color processing and visual illusions are compared to classic methods in a user experience experiment. (1) The proposed methods outperformed the comparison methods. (2) Users exhibited a broad behavioral spectrum, under the influence of factors such as personality and social conditioning, tasks and application domains, expertise level and image quality, and affordances of software, hardware, and interfaces. No single enhancement method satisfied all factor configurations. Therefore, it is suggested to offer users a broad choice of methods to facilitate personalization, contextualization, and complementarity. (3) A distinction is made between casual and critical vision on the basis of signal ambiguity and error consequences. The criteria of a paradigm for enhancing images for critical applications comprise: interpreting images skeptically; approaching enhancement as a system problem; considering all image structures as potential information; and making uncertainty and alternative interpretations explicit, both visually and numerically.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10032-021-00386-0.
Fluency is the experienced ease of ongoing mental operations, which increases the subjective positivity of stimuli attributes. This may happen because fluency is inherently positive. Alternatively, people may learn the meaning of fluency from contingencies within judgment-contexts. We test pseudocontingencies (PCs) as a mechanism through which fluency’s meaning is learned. PCs are inferred correlations between two attributes due to the observation of their jointly skewed base rates – people relate what is frequent in one attribute to what is frequent in the other. Using online seller evaluations as the dependent variable, we manipulated base rates of seller name-fluency and seller reputation, creating conditions where name-fluency aligned positively or negatively with reputation. However, participants evaluated high-fluency name sellers more positively across base-rate conditions, although we observed negative PCs between seller reputation and a fluency-neutral dimension in a follow-up study. We discuss the implications for the debate regarding fluency's positive vs. malleable nature.
Das zweite Kapitel untersucht die Besonderheit von Fachsprachen. Fachsprachen sind für Experten notwendig, um komplexe Sachverhalte eindeutig zu benennen. Für Laien sind sie zwar schwer verständlich, erfüllen aber deren Normenerwartung. Die Hauptverantwortlichen für schlechte Verständlichkeit sind der Nominal- und der Passivstil sowie Schachtelsätze. Die Rechtssprache wird in die Kategorien Fachsprache, Transformationssprache und Umgangssprache eingeteilt. Alle Kategorien erfüllen jeweils eine der vier Funktionen: Recht, Verbot, Gebot oder Information.
Im diesem Kapitel werden die Ursachen für schwere Verständlichkeit von Rechtstexten aufgezeigt. Verständlichkeit ist messbar, und mithilfe von Verständlichkeitsindizes kann der Grad der Verständlichkeit ermittelt werden. Neben grammatischen Parametern sorgen Überschneidungen mit der Alltagssprache für Verwirrung. Sie lernen in diesem Kapitel Strategien zur besseren Verständlichkeit kennen und erhalten eine Liste mit neun linguistischen Regeln für verständliches Formulieren. Zahlreiche Vorher-Nachher-Beispiele aus unterschiedlichen Rechtsbereichen erhellen diese Regeln. Im Übungsteil können Sie diese Regeln anwenden und schwer verständliche Textbeispiele verbessern.
In this study, participants were presented with two tasks: the Implicit Association Test (IAT), and a mock trial task. In both tasks, the auditory stimuli were produced by native or foreign-accented speakers, and presented either free of noise or mixed with background white noise, to estimate the role of processing fluency on jurors’ appraisals. In the IAT, participants showed positive implicit biases toward native speech, and negative implicit biases toward foreign-accented speech. In the mock trial task, participants gave much harsher sentences to the foreign-accented than native defendant, but only when defendants’ statements were free of noise. Moreover, we found that participants’ implicit biases were a relevant predictor of the sentences they gave to the defendants. Our results suggest that categorization/stereotyping is the main mechanism responsible for the effect of defendants’ accents on jurors’ appraisals, and that members of an estimated group who violate social norms are punished more severely.
Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) presents a significant threat to global health, requiring multifaceted action by individuals and policymakers. Advocates must persuade others to act. Making communication about AMR more effective could plausibly increase support for action. The Wellcome Trust-funded ‘Reframing Resistance’ project used communications research to develop framing recommendations for the language practitioners use to describe AMR. The aim of this study was to explore how this language influenced attitudes and behaviours towards AMR.
Methods: This study was a randomised trial to evaluate the effects of different styles of AMR framing language upon attitudinal and behavioural measures. Participants (n=1,934) were recruited in October 2019 using an on-line tool called “Prolific” and randomly assigned to review five variations of AMR narratives: four experimental frames which incorporated different combinations of language recommended by the framing guidelines, or a control frame without these features, taken from UN AMR communications. Participants were then asked a series of attitudinal and behavioural questions in relation to the AMR narrative they reviewed. Attitudes were measured using five-point Likert-type scales and behaviours were measured using binary variables. Descriptive analysis was used to explore respondents’ characteristics and multivariable logistic regression models were used to establish independent associations between AMR frames and respondents’ attitudes and behaviours.
Results: Participants who reviewed narratives that followed framing language guidelines were more likely to donate money or sign a petition, and rated narratives as more usable and important than participants who reviewed the control framing.
Conclusions: While larger trials with more diverse participants are needed to confirm generalisability, these results suggest that applying framing to communications could help advocates of AMR to drive action. Furthermore, the study reinforces the value of randomised studies to empirically test the impact of frames upon behaviour and indicates the potential for a more extensive programme of research.
A Monte Carlo study compared 14 methods to test the statistical significance of the intervening variable effect. An intervening variable (mediator) transmits the effect of an independent variable to a dependent variable. The commonly used R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986) approach has low statistical power. Two methods based on the distribution of the product and 2 difference-in-coefficients methods have the most accurate Type I error rates and greatest statistical power except in 1 important case in which Type I error rates are too high. The best balance of Type I error and statistical power across all cases is the test of the joint significance of the two effects comprising the intervening variable effect.
Argues that people use systematic rules for assessing cause, both in science and everyday inference. By explicating the processes that underlie the judgment of causation, the authors review and integrate various theories of causality proposed by psychologists, philosophers, statisticians, and others. Because causal judgment involves inference and uncertainty, the literature on judgment under uncertainty is also considered. It is suggested that the idea of a "causal field" is central for determining causal relevance, differentiating causes from conditions, determining the salience of alternative explanations, and affecting molar versus molecular explanations. Various "cues-to-causality" such as covariation, temporal order, contiguity in time and space, and similarity of cause and effect are discussed, and it is shown how these cues can conflict with probabilistic ideas. A model for combining the cues and the causal field is outlined that explicates methodological issues such as spurious correlation, "causalation," and causal inference in case studies. The discounting of an explanation by specific alternatives is discussed as a special case of the sequential updating of beliefs. Conjunctive explanations in multiple causation are also considered. (120 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Guidelines and tips are offered for writing a
Psychological Bulletin review article that will be accessible to the widest possible audience. Techniques are discussed for organizing a review into a coherent narrative, and the importance of giving readers a clear take-home message is emphasized. In addition, advice is given for rewriting a manuscript that has been reviewed and returned with an invitation to revise and resubmit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Can language use reflect personality style? Studies examined the reliability, factor structure, and validity of written language using a word-based, computerized text analysis program. Daily diaries from 15 substance abuse inpatients, daily writing assignments from 35 students, and journal abstracts from 40 social psychologists demonstrated good internal consistency for over 36 language dimensions. Analyses of the best 15 language dimensions from essays by 838 students yielded 4 factors that replicated across written samples from another 381 students. Finally, linguistic profiles from writing samples were compared with Thematic Apperception Test coding, self-reports, and behavioral measures from 79 students and with self-reports of a 5-factor measure and health markers from more than 1,200 students. Despite modest effect sizes, the data suggest that linguistic style is an independent and meaningful way of exploring personality.
A Monte Carlo study compared 14 methods to test the statistical significance of the intervening variable effect. An intervening variable (mediator) transmits the effect of an independent variable to a dependent variable. The commonly used R. M. Baron and D. A. Kenny (1986) approach has low statistical power. Two methods based on the distribution of the product and 2 difference-in-coefficients methods have the most accurate Type I error rates and greatest statistical power except in 1 important case in which Type I error rates are too high. The best balance of Type I error and statistical power across all cases is the test of the joint significance of the two effects comprising the intervening variable effect.
A general theory of domain identification is used to describe achievement barriers still faced by women in advanced quantitative areas and by African Americans in school. The theory assumes that sustained school success requires identification with school and its subdomains; that societal pressures on these groups (e.g., economic disadvantage, gender roles) can frustrate this identification; and that in school domains where these groups are negatively stereotyped, those who have become domain identified face the further barrier of stereotype threat, the threat that others' judgments or their own actions will negatively stereotype them in the domain. Research shows that this threat dramatically depresses the standardized test performance of women and African Americans who are in the academic vanguard of their groups (offering a new interpretation of group differences in standardized test performance), that it causes disidentification with school, and that practices that reduce this threat can reduce these negative effects.
People have erroneous intuitions about the laws of chance. In particular, they regard a sample randomly drawn from a population as highly representative, that is, similar to the population in all essential characteristics.
Presents a summary and synthesis of the author's work on attribution theory concerning the mechanisms involved in the process of causal explanations. The attribution theory is related to studies of social perception, self-perception, and psychological epistemology. Two systematic statements of attribution theory are described, discussed, and illustrated with empirical data: the covariation and the configuration concepts. Some problems for attribution theory are considered, including the interplay between preconceptions and new information, simple vs. complex schemata, attribution of covariation among causes, and illusions in attributions. The role of attribution in decision making and behavior is discussed. (56 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
According to a two-step account of the mere-exposure effect, repeated exposure leads to the subjective feeling of perceptual fluency, which in turn influences liking. If so, perceptual fluency manipulated by means other than repetition should influence liking. In three experiments, effects of perceptual fluency on affective judgments were examined. In Experiment 1, higher perceptual fluency was achieved by presenting a matching rather than nonmatching prime before showing a target picture. Participants judged targets as prettier if preceded by a matching rather than nonmatching prime. In Experi- ment 2, perceptual fluency was manipulated by figure-ground contrast. Stimuli were judged as more pretty, and less ugly, the higher the con- trast. In Experiment 3, perceptual fluency was manipulated by presen- tation duration. Stimuli shown for a longer duration were liked more, and disliked less. We conclude (a) that perceptual fluency increases liking and (b) that the experience of fluency is affectively positive, and hence attributed to positive but not to negative features, as reflected in a differential impact on positive and negative judgments. 0
Nonfamous names presented once in an experiment are mistakenly judged as famous 24 hr later. On an immediate test, no such false fame occurs. This phenomenon parallels the sleeper effect found in studies of persuasion. People may escape the unconscious effects of misleading information by recollecting its source, raising the criterion level of familiarity required for judgments of fame, or by changing from familiarity to a more analytic basis for judgment. These strategies place constraints on the likelihood of sleeper effects. We discuss these results as the unconscious use of the past as a tool vs its conscious use as an object of reflection. Conscious recollection of the source of information does not always occur spontaneously when information is used as a tool in judgment. Rather, conscious recollection is a separate act. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Human reasoning is accompanied by metacognitive experiences, most notably the ease or difficulty of recall and thought generation and the fluency with which new information can be processed. These experiences are informative in their own right. They can serve as a basis of judgment in addition to, or at the expense of, declarative information and can qualify the conclusions drawn from recalled content. What exactly people conclude from a given metacognitive experience depends on the naive theory of mental processes they bring to bear, rendering the outcomes highly variable. The obtained judgments cannot be predicted on the basis of accessible declarative information alone; we cannot understand human judgment without taking into account the interplay of declarative and experiential information.
During his years as mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani was perceived as undergoing changes in personality as a result of a number of personal crises and, later, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. One method by which to study individual differences is to explore the natural use of language of an individual. Giuliani's use of language was measured from 35 of his press conferences between his election in 1993 and late 2001. Significant changes in his linguistic style were found in the ways he identified with others, expressed emotions, and exhibited cognitive complexity. Implications for using an analysis of linguistic styles to understand personality are discussed.
This paper explores a judgmental heuristic in which a person evaluates the frequency of classes or the probability of events by availability, i.e., by the ease with which relevant instances come to mind. In general, availability is correlated with ecological frequency, but it is also affected by other factors. Consequently, the reliance on the availability heuristic leads to systematic biases. Such biases are demonstrated in the judged frequency of classes of words, of combinatorial outcomes, and of repeated events. The phenomenon of illusory correlation is explained as an availability bias. The effects of the availability of incidents and scenarios on subjective probability are discussed.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stanford University, 1993. Submitted to the Department of Sociology. Copyright by the author.
We define mental contamination as the process whereby a person has an unwanted response because of mental processing that is unconscious or uncontrollable. This type of bias is distinguishable from the failure to know or apply normative rules of inference and can be further divided into the unwanted consequences of automatic processing and source confusion, which is the confusion of 2 or more causes of a response. Mental contamination is difficult to avoid because it results from both fundamental properties of human cognition (e.g., a lack of awareness of mental processes) and faulty lay beliefs about the mind (e.g., incorrect theories about mental biases). People's lay beliefs determine the steps they take (or fail to take) to correct their judgments and thus are an important but neglected source of biased responses. Strategies for avoiding contamination, such as controlling one's exposure to biasing information, are discussed.
A general theory of domain identification is used to describe achievement barriers still faced by women in advanced quantitative areas and by African Americans in school. The theory assumes that sustained school success requires identification with school and its subdomains; that societal pressures on these groups (e.g., economic disadvantage, gender roles) can frustrate this identification; and that in school domains where these groups are negatively stereotyped, those who have become domain identified face the further barrier of stereotype threat, the threat that others' judgments or their own actions will negatively stereotype them in the domain. Research shows that this threat dramatically depresses the standardized test performance of women and African Americans who are in the academic vanguard of their groups (offering a new interpretation of group differences in standardized test performance), that it causes disidentification with school, and that practices that reduce this threat can reduce these negative effects.
Recent articles on familiarity (e.g. Whittlesea, B.W.A, 1993. Journal of Experimental Psychology 19, 1235) have argued that the feeling of familiarity is produced by unconscious attribution of fluent processing to a source in the past. In this article, we refine that notion: We argue that is not fluency per se, but rather fluent processing occurring under unexpected circumstances that produces the feeling. We demonstrate cases in which moderately fluent processing produces more familiarity than does highly fluent processing, at least when the former is surprising.
Statements of the form "Osorno is in Chile" were presented in colors that made them easy or difficult to read against a white background and participants judged the truth of the statement. Moderately visible statements were judged as true at chance level, whereas highly visible statements were judged as true significantly above chance level. We conclude that perceptual fluency affects judgments of truth.
B. W. A. Whittlesea and L. D. Williams (1998, 2000) proposed the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis to explain the source of feelings of familiarity. By that hypothesis, people chronically evaluate the coherence of their processing. When the quality of processing is perceived as being discrepant from that which could be expected, people engage in an attributional process; the feeling of familiarity occurs when perceived discrepancy is attributed to prior experience. In the present article, the authors provide convergent evidence for that hypothesis and show that it can also explain feelings of familiarity for nonlinguistic stimuli. They demonstrate that the perception of discrepancy is not automatic but instead depends critically on the attitude that people adopt toward their processing, given the task and context. The connection between the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis and the "revelation effect" is also explored (e.g., D. L. Westerman & R. L. Greene, 1996).
In the accompanying article (B. W. A. Whittlesea & L. D. Williams, 2001), surprising violation of an expectation was observed to cause an illusion of familiarity. The authors interpreted that evidence as support for the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis. This article extended the scope of that hypothesis, investigating the consequences of surprising validation of expectations. Subjects were shown recognition probes as completions of sentence stems. Their expectations were manipulated by presenting predictive, nonpredictive, and inconsistent stems. Predictive stems caused an illusion of familiarity, but only when the subjects also experienced uncertainty about the outcome. That is, as predicted by the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis, feelings of familiarity occurred only when processing of a recognition target caused surprise. The article provides a discussion of the ways in which a perception of discrepancy can come about, as well as the origin and nature of unconscious expectations.
Discounting is a causal-reasoning phenomenon in which increasing confidence in the likelihood of a particular cause decreases confidence in the likelihood of all other causes. This article provides evidence that individuals apply discounting principles to making causal attributions about internal cognitive states. In particular, the three studies reported show that individuals will fail to use the availability heuristic in frequency estimations when salient causal explanations for availability exist. Experiment 1 shows that fame is used as a cue for discounting in estimates of surname frequency. Experiment 2 demonstrates that individuals discount the availability of their own last name. Experiment 3, which used individuals' initials in a letter-frequency estimation task, demonstrates that simple priming of alternative causal models leads to discounting of availability. Discounting of cognitive states can occur spontaneously, even when alternative causal models are never explicitly provided.
Fluency--the ease with which people process information--is a central piece of information we take into account when we make judgments about the world. Prior research has shown that fluency affects judgments in a wide variety of domains, including frequency, familiarity, and confidence. In this paper, we present evidence that fluency also plays a role in categorization judgments. In Experiment 1, participants judged a variety of different exemplars to be worse category members if they were less fluent (because they were presented in a smaller typeface). In Experiment 2, we found that fluency also affected judgments of feature typicality. In Experiment 3, we demonstrated that the effects of fluency can be reversed when a salient attribution for reduced fluency is available (i.e., the stimuli are hard to read because they were printed by a printer with low toner). In Experiment 4 we replicated these effects using a within-subject design, which ruled out the possibility that the effects were a statistical artifact caused by aggregation of data. We propose a possible mechanism for these effects: if an exemplar and its category are closely related, activation of one will cause priming of the other, leading to increased fluency. Over time, feelings of fluency come to be used as a valid cue that can become confused with more traditional sources of information about category membership.
Confidence as inference from subjective experience. Talk presented at the meeting of the Society for Spontaneous discounting of availability in frequency judgment tasks
- R J Norwick
- N Epley
Norwick, R. J., & Epley, N. (November, 2002). Confidence as inference from subjective experience. Talk presented at the meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, Kansas City, MO. Oppenheimer, D. M. (2004). Spontaneous discounting of availability in frequency judgment tasks. Psychological Science, 15(2), 100–105.
Factors influencing spontaneous discounting of fluency in frequency judgment
- D M Oppenheimer
- B Monin
Oppenheimer, D. M., & Monin, B. (in prep). Factors influencing spontaneous discounting of fluency in frequency judgment.
Meditations on First Philosophy (S. Tweyman, Trans.). London: Routledge. (Original work published 1641)
- R Descartes
Descartes, R. (1993). Meditations on First Philosophy (S. Tweyman, Trans.). London: Routledge. (Original work published 1641).
London: Routledge. (Original work published 1641)
- Descartes
- Pennebaker