Beyond Directional Motivated Reasoning: Social Identity and Partisan Truth. This project aims to develop and test a new model of psychological processes by which people come to understand information as true or not. This project expects to generate advances in knowledge about how different groups produce opposing understandings of the world ("partisan truth"), despite equally rational and unbiased psychological processes. Expected outcomes include the development of a single framework to explain ....Beyond Directional Motivated Reasoning: Social Identity and Partisan Truth. This project aims to develop and test a new model of psychological processes by which people come to understand information as true or not. This project expects to generate advances in knowledge about how different groups produce opposing understandings of the world ("partisan truth"), despite equally rational and unbiased psychological processes. Expected outcomes include the development of a single framework to explain current piecemeal findings, expanding the analysis to current and socially-urgent partisan debates over truth (eg, vaccine hesitancy). Significant benefits include advancing knowledge and the development of guidelines to aid policy-makers and educators in the ultimate reduction of social discord caused by partisan truth.Read moreRead less
Leveraging Emotion Goals for Emotion Regulation Success. Understanding how a person wants to feel–their emotion goal–is the first step in helping people manage their emotions, but no research has investigated how to set successful emotion goals. This project aims to undertake the first investigation of what constitutes an effective emotion goal. Using experience sampling and lab methods, this project will generate new knowledge about emotion goals that lays the emotional infrastructure for indiv ....Leveraging Emotion Goals for Emotion Regulation Success. Understanding how a person wants to feel–their emotion goal–is the first step in helping people manage their emotions, but no research has investigated how to set successful emotion goals. This project aims to undertake the first investigation of what constitutes an effective emotion goal. Using experience sampling and lab methods, this project will generate new knowledge about emotion goals that lays the emotional infrastructure for individuals and communities to flourish. Expected outcomes include a new literature on emotion goals and refined methods to study emotions in everyday life. Benefits include a stronger foundation for theory, enhanced research capacity, and education for Australians on how to regulate emotional turmoil. Read moreRead less
Speed of Information Processing Across the Ages: the Structure of Cognitive Abilities in Children, Adults, and the Elderly. Does speed information processing determine intelligence? The study addresses this question by examining the structure of cognitive abilities and speed of processing in children, adults, and the elderly. The project will advance theory by testing whether speed of processing mediates developmental cognitive change during childhood and old age. Outcomes include contributing t ....Speed of Information Processing Across the Ages: the Structure of Cognitive Abilities in Children, Adults, and the Elderly. Does speed information processing determine intelligence? The study addresses this question by examining the structure of cognitive abilities and speed of processing in children, adults, and the elderly. The project will advance theory by testing whether speed of processing mediates developmental cognitive change during childhood and old age. Outcomes include contributing to a complete model of cognition, laying the foundations for a future major longitudinal study which will provide evidence on the direction of causality between speed of processing measures and cognitive abilities, and provide norms for a computerised, commercial test battery.Read moreRead less
Thwarted Identity: The Missing Link Between Psychopathology and Prejudice. Prejudice and the extremist violence that arises from it are typically explained either by the psychopathology of individual perpetrators, or by their membership of extremist groups. This project will seek to reconcile these competing explanations and resolve this impasse that has obstructed progress in combating prejudice. This project develops a new framework specifying causal and reciprocal links between the novel conc ....Thwarted Identity: The Missing Link Between Psychopathology and Prejudice. Prejudice and the extremist violence that arises from it are typically explained either by the psychopathology of individual perpetrators, or by their membership of extremist groups. This project will seek to reconcile these competing explanations and resolve this impasse that has obstructed progress in combating prejudice. This project develops a new framework specifying causal and reciprocal links between the novel concept of thwarted identity, psychopathology, ideology, and prejudice. Expected outcomes are new policy solutions and novel targets for interventions to reduce prejudice and extremist violence, which will deliver significant benefit by addressing these pernicious social problems.Read moreRead less
Mapping the psychology of accent-based discrimination. Accentism is commonplace, but our understanding of why people discriminate against certain accents is limited. This project will develop a Global Database for Accented English, an archive of piloted speech samples that dramatically reduces interpretational difficulties plaguing existing research. This resource enables the most robust test to date of what causes accent bias in schools and workplaces. Experiments will also examine the conditio ....Mapping the psychology of accent-based discrimination. Accentism is commonplace, but our understanding of why people discriminate against certain accents is limited. This project will develop a Global Database for Accented English, an archive of piloted speech samples that dramatically reduces interpretational difficulties plaguing existing research. This resource enables the most robust test to date of what causes accent bias in schools and workplaces. Experiments will also examine the conditions under which accent bias is most pronounced, and why its effects are particularly strong for women. Understanding mechanisms underpinning accent bias is a precondition for reducing a problem that threatens Australia’s status as a successful and economically vital multicultural society.Read moreRead less
Individual Differences in Orientations to Risk and Uncertainty. The main goal of this research project is to extend and integrate three individual-differences approaches to predicting and explaining human judgement and decision making (JDM) and risk-taking behaviours (RTB) under uncertainty: Cognitive-capacity, preferences and dispositions, and dual cognitive process approaches. It will achieve this by studying the joint impact of cognitive style, capacities, and RTB/JDM dispositions on performa ....Individual Differences in Orientations to Risk and Uncertainty. The main goal of this research project is to extend and integrate three individual-differences approaches to predicting and explaining human judgement and decision making (JDM) and risk-taking behaviours (RTB) under uncertainty: Cognitive-capacity, preferences and dispositions, and dual cognitive process approaches. It will achieve this by studying the joint impact of cognitive style, capacities, and RTB/JDM dispositions on performance in appropriate JDM tasks. JDM and RTB are at the root of managing uncertainty, human adaptiveness and rationality. This project will also extend our knowledge of gender differences in JDM and RTB, and lay foundations for systematic cross-cultural studies on this topic.Read moreRead less
Dehumanization: Understanding the attribution of lesser humanness to others. The proposed research will contribute to an improved understanding of the subtle ways in which humanness is denied to members of some social groups. These processes contribute to intergroup antagonism and intolerance, and to a failure to take adequate moral account of other people's suffering. Understanding dehumanization can enhance our ability to recognize and overcome its manifestations in public life and the communi ....Dehumanization: Understanding the attribution of lesser humanness to others. The proposed research will contribute to an improved understanding of the subtle ways in which humanness is denied to members of some social groups. These processes contribute to intergroup antagonism and intolerance, and to a failure to take adequate moral account of other people's suffering. Understanding dehumanization can enhance our ability to recognize and overcome its manifestations in public life and the community. Scientifically, the proposed work will contribute to the nation's reputation as a world leader in the psychological study of intergroup relations.Read moreRead less
Youth and violence: Occurrence, epidemiology and function. The expected national benefits that will arise from this project will include significant advances to policy and practice in the field, which will impact on service users and service providers at both individual and community levels. The project will foster research excellence and develop inter agency collaborations, thus advancing Australia's research and clinical leadership in the field. Taken altogether, this project has a strong pote ....Youth and violence: Occurrence, epidemiology and function. The expected national benefits that will arise from this project will include significant advances to policy and practice in the field, which will impact on service users and service providers at both individual and community levels. The project will foster research excellence and develop inter agency collaborations, thus advancing Australia's research and clinical leadership in the field. Taken altogether, this project has a strong potential to lead to further collaborations focussing on research priorities of national and international significance and to contribute to resources leading to better outcomes for young people. Read moreRead less
Who may judge a book by its cover? This project aims to build a model of how and why people vary in their impressions of others and in the accuracy of these impressions. People readily form impressions of others from their faces and these impressions influence crucial decisions: election results, court case outcomes and partner choices. To build this model, the project will apply twin data and construct a psychometric test to measure variation in facial impressions. The research is expected to l ....Who may judge a book by its cover? This project aims to build a model of how and why people vary in their impressions of others and in the accuracy of these impressions. People readily form impressions of others from their faces and these impressions influence crucial decisions: election results, court case outcomes and partner choices. To build this model, the project will apply twin data and construct a psychometric test to measure variation in facial impressions. The research is expected to lead to insights into this aspect of social perception, and to identify the sources of atypical or inaccurate facial judgements. This has applications in health contexts (to identify social impairment) and in security contexts (for personnel selection).Read moreRead less
Can Some Positive Emotions Increase Anger? The project will test the idea that high approach-motivated positive emotions (desire, determination) will intensify anger, whereas low approach-motivated positive emotions (satisfaction, amusement) will reduce anger. Anger and high approach-motivated emotions are similar in that they impel the person to move toward, or to approach. Thus, high approach-motivated positive emotions may blend with anger and make it more intense. The project is significant ....Can Some Positive Emotions Increase Anger? The project will test the idea that high approach-motivated positive emotions (desire, determination) will intensify anger, whereas low approach-motivated positive emotions (satisfaction, amusement) will reduce anger. Anger and high approach-motivated emotions are similar in that they impel the person to move toward, or to approach. Thus, high approach-motivated positive emotions may blend with anger and make it more intense. The project is significant because it aims to suggest, contrary to past ideas, that some positive emotions may increase anger. The project is innovative conceptually and methodologically as it aims to reveal that some positive emotions may increase anger-related responses.Read moreRead less