Timothy C. Brock’s research while affiliated with The Ohio State University and other places

Data from a large-scale advertising contesting study were analyzed to assess the overall level of recall of listed thoughts at a delay, and to determine the types of listed thoughts that were particularly retrievable. Female heads-of-household viewed a series of television commercials and listed thoughts about each. One week later, the respondents, who were recontacted by telephone, were able to recall the content of half of their listed thoughts. More importantly, comparisons of the recall rates for listed-thought categories supported theory-based predictions about the responses that should be particularly retrievable. Thoughts that contained evaluative content mere significantly more likely to be recalled than neutral thoughts, and unfavorable thoughts were slightly more likely to be recalled than favorable thoughts. Also, thoughts about the self were more likely to be recalled than thoughts that did not contain self-relevant content. This greater retrievability of self-relevant thoughts was true for commercials with standard executorial styles. However, for ads with a highly unusual presentation or spokesperson, thoughts about the ad execution appeared to be the most retrievable.

Social capital (Coleman, 19908. Coleman , J. S. 1990 . Foundations of social theory , Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press . View all references), democracy's wellspring (Putnam, 199336. Putnam , R. D. 1993 . Making democracy work: Civic traditions in modern Italy , Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press . View all references; Tocqueville, 183562. Tocqueville , A. 1835 . Democracy in America , Edited by: Mansfield , H. C. and Winthrop , D. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press . View all references/2000), must now accrue within a social fabric that has been changed by the ubiquitous adoption of technologies such as television and the Internet. Three studies (N = 313) of college students supported a theory of ersatz social behavior, which proposed that: a) the use of technological (replacement/ersatz) alternatives to real social interaction may be less conducive to the skill building and opinion formation that foster social capital; b) ersatz activities involve fewer costs (effort, risk of rejection) than real interactions; and c) ersatz alternatives are regularly chosen, even though real interaction is ostensibly preferred. The results provide increased understanding of when and how mediated interaction can be detrimental to social capital formation.

Comments on an article by Manning, Levine and Collins, which talks about the original 1964 Kitty Genovese murder 38-witness account. Brock feels there were inaccuracies that have not affected the story's scholarly impact, or lack of impact. First, the story did not launch the social psychology of helping. Second, the story itself in no way "curtailed the imaginative space of helping research in social psychology," as claimed by Manning et al. Third, Manning et al. noted that the social psychology of helping was not included in a recent litany of useful contributions of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).

Reviewers of research are more lenient when evaluating studies on important topics [Wilson, T. D., Depaulo, B. M., Mook, D. G., & Klaaren, K. J. (1993). Scientists’ evaluations of research: the biasing effects of the importance of the topic. Psychological Science, 4(5), 323–325]. Three experiments (N=145, 36, and 91 psychologists) investigated different explanations of leniency, including inflation of assessments (applying a heuristic associating importance with quality), oversight (failing to detect flaws), and error-weighting (prioritizing Type II error avoidance). In Experiment 1, psychologists evaluated the publishability and rigor of studies in a 2 (topic importance)×2 (accuracy motivation)×2 (research domain) design. Experiment 2 featured an exact replication of Wilson et al. and suggested that report length moderated the effects of importance on perceived rigor, but not on publishability. In Experiment 3, a manipulation of error-weighting replaced the manipulation of domain (Experiment 1). Results favored error-weighting, rather than inflation or oversight. Perceived seriousness of Type II error (in Experiments 1 and 3) and the error-weighting manipulation (in Experiment 3) predicted study evaluations.

Two studies tested whether the possession of a mental story-bank (a set of thematically related narratives) affected the processing of a related narrative. Three competing predictions were proposed: a story-bank may lead to reduced attention, increased attention, or selective attention to a new, related story. The results of Study 1 (N = 125 undergraduates) suggested that a prior story-bank led to more efficient processing of a target narrative (as indicated by recall data), favoring a selective attention interpretation. Study 2 (N = 114 undergraduates) showed that individuals who possessed a relevant story-bank were more persuaded by a related target narrative, also consistent with the selective attention interpretation. Story-banks thus appeared to facilitate, rather than hinder, processing of new narratives.

Two studies investigated the effect of fact or fiction labeling on the processing of advocacy communication. Labeling a communication as fact, rather than fiction, appeared to enhance critical processing (scrutiny). In 2 experiments, 392 students, who were low or high in need for cognition (NC) read a speech (nonnarrative). This discrepant speech, reported to be an actual event or a dramatic creation, enabled variation of label (fact/fiction), argument quality (strong/weak), and personal-outcome relevance (unspecified, Experiment 1; enhanced/reduced, Experiment 2). When personal relevance was unspecified (or reduced), speeches with a fact label instigated scrutiny for low-NC individuals; high-NC individuals engaged in scrutiny regardless of fact/fiction label. Under enhanced relevance, scrutiny was observed regardless of fact/fiction label and NC level. Across the experiments, communications labeled as fact were no more persuasive than those labeled as fiction.

This report analyzes one dimension of the pornography-control issue, i.e., the probable reactions of individuals who are confronted with information that is not freely or easily available to all. After a review of commodity theory and related research, it is concluded that making erotic materials more difficult to obtain, harassing and punishing pornographers and purveyors of pornography, and restricting certain materials to certain age groups may increase interest in the materials and render them more desirable than would have been the case without the restriction, harassment, or difficulty.

The hypothesis that responding to hecklers would produce more agreement with a speaker than not responding, stemmed from commodity theory (Brock, 1968). One hundred twenty-one introductory speech students participated in what they were told was a “speech workshop” (not a psychology experiment). Two types of responding to live hecklers were used: In one, the speaker responded in a calm, relevant manner; in the other, she responded in an upset, irrelevant manner. In a third condition, the speaker did not respond to the heckles. There were two additional conditions: One in which the speaker responded to interruptions, and a further control in which there were neither heckles nor interruptions. In these five conditions, the speaker either argued for or against the audience's position. Regardless of whether or not the speaker's position agreed with the audience's, upset-irrelevant responding decreased the speaker's persuasiveness over making no response, while calm-relevant responding tended to enhance persuasiveness. Finally, in agreement with all other empirical studies, it was clearly shown that heckling, whether responded to or not, did not improve the speaker's effectiveness.

White Americans have long resisted the idea of reparations to the descendants of slaves. We examine the psychological basis of such resistance, primarily testing the possibility that resistance may be a function of Whites’ perception of the ongoing cost of being Black. White participants (n = 958) across twelve independent samples (varying in age, student status, and geographic location) were asked variations of the question: How much should you be paid to continue to live the remainder of your life as a Black person? Participants generally required low median amounts, less than $10,000, to make the race change, whereas they requested high amounts,$1,000,000, to give up television. To the extent that larger amounts were requested, support for reparations also increased. Attempts to educate participants about Black cost0White privilege had negligible effects on assessments of the cost of being Black and support for reparations. Together, these results suggest that White resistance to reparations for Black Americans stems from fundamental biases in estimating the true cost of being Black. The implications of our findings for color-blind and multi-culturalist conceptual approaches are discussed. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, Vol. 3(2), 2006, pp. 261-297