Shutterstock
Previous research has shown that thoughts of tough economic times make women want to spend more on attractiveness-related products — ostensibly to attract a well-off mate. A new study finds that this may be quite a basic instinct. Women were shown brief images of products, and then an asterisk appeared in the same or a different location on the screen, and the women had to indicate the asterisk’s location as quickly as possible. In other words, the test measured visual fixation on various products. Regardless of their self-reported financial status, women who had first read an article about a severe economic recession were more fixated on attractiveness-related products (lipstick, form-fitting jeans, or dress) compared to other products.
Sacco, D. et al., “Evidence for the Lipstick Effect at the Level of Automatic Visual Attention,” Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences (forthcoming).
Mixed signals
Does a heterosexual man always object to an antigay remark? Apparently not, unless that man is in the closet. In experiments with both Canadians and Americans, psychologists presented heterosexual men and women with fake Facebook profiles and online conversations in which one male makes an antigay comment to which another male either objects or doesn’t object. Even if the objecting male’s profile depicted him in an opposite-sex relationship, observers were more likely to think he was gay and tended to like him less because he was a complainer.
Cadieux, J. Chasteen, A., “You Gay, Bro? Social Costs Faced by Male Confronters of Antigay Prejudice,” Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (forthcoming).
Lacking in a material world
Continue reading below
The juggernaut of materialism is causing lots of societal disruptions, particularly in China. Researchers there have found that people who were induced to feel deprived relative to others — whether in considering an unfair business scenario or in writing about an experience where they didn’t get something they deserved that others did get — became more desirous of material gain and fame. This was also true even if the relative deprivation was not the result of unfair treatment.
Zhang, H. et al., “Personal Relative Deprivation Boosts Materialism,” Basic and Applied Social Psychology (forthcoming).
Too smart to listen
A big problem in politics is closed-mindedness. While many people have legitimate expertise, new research suggests that just thinking that you’re an expert makes you more closed-minded. Not only do people consider it normal for an expert to be more closed-minded, but people also reported being more closed-minded themselves after they were made to think they had above-average political or general knowledge.
Ottati, V. et al., “When Self-Perceptions of Expertise Increase Closed-Minded Cognition: The Earned Dogmatism Effect,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (November 2015).
A tall glass of truth
If you’re ever hauled into an interrogation room, ask for a glass of water. No, make that five glasses. In an experiment, one set of participants was videotaped arguing positions on controversial issues that they either did or didn’t actually agree with. Some of these participants had been randomly assigned to drink five glasses of water 45 minutes before the videotaping session. Another set of participants separately evaluated these videos. The full-bladder participants who were lying were judged to be the most confident and convincing, provided longer, more complex stories, and were significantly less likely to be identified as liars. The theory behind this effect is that exercising self-control in one domain (one’s bladder) facilitates the exercise of self-control in another domain (deception).
Fenn, E. et al., “The Inhibitory Spillover Effect: Controlling the Bladder Makes Better Liars,” Consciousness and Cognition (December 2015).
Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist. He can be reached at kevin.lewis.ideas@gmail.com.