showing 9 related works from this author
Cognitive Structuring and Its Cognitive-Motivational Determinants as an Explanatory Framework of the Fear-Then-Relief Social Influence Strategy
2017
According to the fear-then-relief technique of social influence, people who experience anxiety whose source is abruptly withdrawn usually respond positively to various requests and commands addressed to them. This effect is usually explained by the fact that fear invokes a specific program of action, and that when the source of this emotion is suddenly and unexpectedly removed, the program is no longer operative, but the person has not yet invoked a new program. This specific state of disorientation makes compliance more likely. In this paper, an alternative explanation of the fear-then-relief effect is offered. It is assumed that the rapid change of emotions is associated with feelings of …
Mood, cognitive structuring and medication adherence
2018
A study with a placebo was conducted. Healthy university students were given a placebo and were told to make one pill every day for a week. Participants were informed that the medicine improved mood. The extent to which they conformed to this instruction was treated as an index of compliance. Our results show that for women, but not for men, positive mood and cognitive structuring or negative mood and lack of cognitive structuring significantly predicted participants' compliance. A new model of medication adherence, based on the role of the patient's mood and cognitive structuring processes in decision making is presented in the paper.
Cognitive structuring and placebo effect
2017
Abstract In much of the research concerning the placebo phenomenon, the idea that placebo effects may vary in strength depending on a patient's personal characteristics or traits has been investigated. Findings regarding possible personality differences in placebo response, however, are conflicting and non-systematic. In this article a new theoretical attempt to explain the placebo phenomenon is offered. The authors postulate that the power of the placebo effect is moderated by the extent of use of cognitive structuring, which in turn is influenced by the interaction between the individuals' level of need for cognitive closure and their ability to achieve this state. To test this assumption…
Unrealistic Optimism in the Time of Coronavirus Pandemic: May It Help to Kill, If So—Whom: Disease or the Person?
2020
Objective: The results of numerous empirical studies have showed the occurrence of so-called unrealistic optimism. Thus, we aimed to investigate whether in the situation of an imminent coronavirus pandemic, people would still perceive themselves as being less exposed to the disease than others. Methods: Survey studies were conducted to examine the level of unrealistic optimism. Participants (n = 171, 67.3% of women) in a subjective way judged the risk of their coronavirus infection and the likelihood that this would happen to an average student of the same sex from their class. The survey was conducted in three waves: prior to the announcement of the first case of coronavirus (2&ndash
I like You Even Less at Christmas Dinner! Prejudice Level as a Function of an Approaching National or Religious Holiday
2019
In many conducted psychological studies, it has been demonstrated that attitudes towards minority groups can change under the influence of electoral campaigns, as well as terrorist attacks, or stre...
Media intervention program for reducing unrealistic optimism bias: The link between unrealistic optimism, well-being, and health.
2021
Unrealistic optimism is the tendency to perceive oneself as safer than others in situations that equally threaten everybody. By reducing fear, this bias boosts one's well-being; however, it is also a deterrent to one's health. Three experiments were run in a mixed-design on 1831 participants to eliminate unrealistic optimism (measured by two items-probability of COVID-19 infection for oneself and for others; within-subjects) toward the probability of COVID-19 infection via articles/videos. A between-subject factor was created by manipulation. Ostensibly, daily newspaper articles describing other people diligently following medical recommendations (experiment 1) and videos showing people who…
Parent-Child Physical Resemblance as Cues of Man’s Paternity
2019
The article presents the hypothesis that in the formation of judgements about a man’s biological fatherhood based on similarity of physical characteristics, people may take into consideration not only the similarity of father to child, but also of mother to child. The objective of the experiment was to conduct an initial investigation of that assumption. In the experiment, participants were presented with descriptions in which information was manipulated concerning the similarity of child to mother vs. to father vs. to neither of them. A total of 312 students of both sexes took participation in the experiment, having agreed to take part in a short psychological study immediately after class…
Need for closure moderates the break in the message effect
2016
Abstract Cutting the message into smaller portions is a common practice in the media. Typically such messages consist of a headline followed by a story elaboration. In a series of studies Dolinski and Kofta (2001) have shown that such a break in the message increases the effect of the information provided in the headline over that of a story which actually contained information inconsistent with that headline. A possible explanation of this effect, based on the concept of the need for cognitive closure, is presented in the article. The experiment shows the break-in-the-message effect is found mainly for participants with high need for closure but not for those with low such need.
Research on Unrealistic Optimism among HoReCa Workers as a Possible Future Hotspot of Infections
2021
As we are facing a new surge of the highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19, there is an urgent need for research to reduce the harm before this next wave hits. In the present paper, we present data that is alarming. We have found that HoReCa (hotels, restaurants, and catering services) workers, who are highly exposed to many new social interactions in close contact, present an unrealistic optimism (UO) bias: they perceive themselves as less at risk to this virus in comparison to others. From the literature, we already know that individuals holding this view are less involved in preventive actions and present more risky behaviors. In the face of the delta variant, this leads to the conc…