Quiz 2 Flashcards
(160 cards)
How does our unconscious transform from the physical to the psychological
Relate the exaptation (re-use) of pre-existing innate concepts and structures from early learning concerning the physical world from evolved motives like survival and reproduction to metaphorically related physical concepts which activate the psychological concepts.
Bargh & Morsella 2008: did conscious replace unconscious
Conscious capacities did not replace unconscious mechanisms
Analogy- nuclear power plants still use transistors and cathode ray tube displays because they can’t be taken off-line to replace old technology
Daniel Dennett 1991: our use of analogies
We often use analogies for behaviour, for example: warmth searching = security seeking
Rozin 1976; Reber 1991: conscious depends on unconscious
Unconscious mechanisms furnish inputs into conscious choice and decision processes — the later evolving conscious circuits start with, and depend on, the unconscious mechanisms, so the later are ‘locked in’ the mind forever.
Gollwitzer et al. 2020: broken patterns
Dislike of broken patterns (non-social deviancy) predicts greater moral condemnation and punishment of harm and purity violations.
Gollwitzer 2017: Why do we dislike deviance? And how it’s related to prejudice
Children and adults dislike of broken patterns is correlated with measures of racism and prejudice. “Types” of people and types of behaviour that ‘break the pattern’ are different from what most people are like or do, can be disliked merely because they are different.
Hills, Gladstone et al: Forging through the mind
Participants that played a game where they searched for treasure, food, gold, etc were faster and more productive in searching their memories for examples of types of events or remembering various features of their past. Searching one’s mind for memories is akin to foraging for food, it’s that physical physiological relationship.
McDonald, Webster, Stillman, Tice and Baumeister: Does Tylenol cure breakups
Tylenol reduced the amount of physical pain but also the amount of emotional pain that the individual was feeling because our mind conflates emotional pain with physical pain
Esienberger, Lieberman, Williams: does rejection hurt
Same region of the brain lit up when feeling emotional pain as it does when feeling physical pain
Michael Anderson: Neural Re-use
Distributed representations and circuits that can be applied to analogous, more abstract contexts and situations. Our brain uses similar structures for different contexts that are similar
Gilbert et al. 2005; Xu et al 2015: hunger and shopping
Hunger makes you buy more both at the supermarket (Gilbert), but also at Walmart and Target (Xu). Self reported hunger is correlated with the amount of money spent on the shoppers’ receipts. Hungry people also take more free stuff if it is available
Huang, Sedlovskaya, Ackerman, & Bargh: Disease avoidance and political attitudes
Vaccination against a virus reduces negative attitudes towards immigrants
Using disinfectant after being reminded of the dangers of the flu virus reduces negative attitudes towards immigration
Concern for physical safety underlies concern for social/cultural safety
Zhong & Liljenquist: physical and moral cleansing
Study 1: Participants who imagine themselves committing moral transgressions were more likely to chose hand wipes as a gift rather than something else
Study 2: hand copied stories of moral transgressions then rated several products — rated cleaning products higher
Study 3: willingness to help a desperate grad student was very dependent on whether or not the participant washed their hands after remembering a time where the did something morally wrong. Participants who cleaned there hands were less likely to help.
Lee Schwarz 2019: cleansing of states
Washing hands also washes away temporary states, such as luck, or short term memory. Thats why hockey players don’t shave during the playoffs or athletes don’t wash their gear. Cleansing is a separation between two properties
Chapman et al. 2009: EMG muscle responses to stimuli
Same EMG muscle responses to physically disgusting stimuli and morally disgusting behaviour
Schnall et al 2008: moral judgments in dirty or clean rooms
Moral judgments are more negative and severe when made in clean rooms vs dirty rooms or after exposure to unclean vs clean objects. Highlights the relationship between disgust and moral condemnation (Haidt), and cleanliness and moral purity or goodness.
John Bowlby: Attachment and Loss
Physical warmth is naturally conflated with social warmth in early experience
Williams & Bargh 2008: physical warmth creates social warmth
Example: Drinking a hot beverage gives the feeling of physical warmth which is conflated with social warmth and unconsciously alters our behaviour
Solomon Asch: warm and cold as central traits
Warm or cold descriptors used as traits of individual’s personality
Fiske, Glick, Xu, Cuddy: warm and cold as traits
Traits perceived as either warm or cold dictate universal dimensions of outgroup stereotypes
Williams and Bargh: temperature priming and personality impressions
Replaced the words warm or cold with physical sensations of warm or cold given the same character traits otherwise, people tended to view a person more positively after feeling warm objects vs cold
Ijzerman et al. 2012: warmth priming of daycare aged children
Daycare children primed with warmth shared more if their stickers with other children
Kang, Williams, Clark, Bargh: social neuroscience research: the role of insula
Left anterior insula becomes more activated following cold versus warm temperature sensation , and also becomes more activated following betrayals of trust in the economics game.
Zhong & Leonardelli 2008: warmth after rejection
Greater preference for warm food such as soup for lunch compared to cold food after a rejection experience