New Research From Psychological Science

Cognitive Abilities and Educational Attainment as Antecedents of Mental Disorders: A Total Population Study of Males
Magnus Nordmo, Hans Fredrik Sunde, Thomas H. Kleppestø, et al.

The positive relation between mental health and educational attainment is well established, yet the extent to which cognitive abilities influence this gradient or independently predict mental health outcomes remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the association between adolescent cognitive abilities, educational attainment, and adult mental health. Cognitive ability was ascertained in Norwegian military conscript test data (N = 272,351; mean age 17.8 years; males only), whereas mental disorders were ascertained using the Norwegian register of primary care diagnoses received between the age of 36–40. Higher cognitive abilities were associated with a monotonically decreasing risk of developing all the studied mental disorders except bipolar disorder. The association held even when comparing the cognitive abilities of brothers raised in the same family, attesting that cognitive ability and mental disorders are not associated because both arise from the same family background circumstances. Similarly, individuals with higher educational attainment had fewer mental health disorders. The association between low cognitive abilities and the risk of mental disorders was notably stronger in males with low educational attainment, compared to those with high educational attainment. These individuals may be an underutilized target group for mental-disorder prevention.

Protecting Public Goods or Helping Free Riders? A Real-Life Moral Dilemma in Interethnic and Intraethnic Encounters 
Kasper Otten, Vincent Buskens, Wojtek Przepiorka, Naomi Ellemers 

People often protect public goods by sanctioning free riders. This occurs in simple situations in which protecting the public good does not conflict with other moral considerations. How do people navigate situations in which protecting the public good comes at the expense of helping someone? We theorized that people would prioritize the needs of the public or another individual on the basis of the individual’s group membership. To test this theory, we conducted a field experiment with male confederates approaching adult male travelers passing through check-in gates at Dutch train stations. The confederates requested to follow the travelers without checking in themselves. We observed whether travelers sanctioned the free rider by rejecting and disapproving of this request or helped by opening the gates. At three train stations, 801 travelers were approached by 10 different confederates. Group membership was varied by having five native-majority and five ethnic-minority confederates. Robust evidence was found for travelers being more likely to help native-majority free riders and to sanction ethnic-minority free riders. 

Introspective Access or Retrospective Inference? Mind-Wandering Reports Are Shaped by Performance Feedback
Naya Polychroni, Mahiko Konishi, Isa Steinecker, Devin B. Terhune 

Most mind-wandering paradigms use self-reports following task performance, but the extent to which these reports are confounded by performance cues is unknown. In two experiments with adult human participants, we examined whether self-reports and confidence therein are influenced by performance indicators during visual metronome response tasks. In Experiment 1 (N = 40), sham feedback modulated reports independently of behavioral performance with participants more likely to report mind wandering after incorrect than correct sham feedback. In Experiment 2 (N = 111), we replicated this pattern using a more implicit manipulation of perceived performance—a surreptitious delay in the onset of response targets. Participants were more likely to report mind wandering after this delay than they were in control trials. In both experiments, confidence in on-task reports was lower when the corresponding indicator (falsely) implied poor performance. These findings suggest that mind-wandering reports and experiential state confidence are partly confounded by performance monitoring and have implications for experience-sampling methodologies. 

Becoming an Ostrich: The Development of Information Avoidance 
Radhika Santhanagopalan, Jane L. Risen, Katherine D. Kinzler 

Adults selectively avoid useful information. We examined the development of information avoidance in 5- to 10-year-old American children (N = 320). In Experiment 1, children considered scenarios that might elicit information avoidance: protecting against negative emotions, maintaining perceptions of likeability and competence, preserving beliefs and preferences, and acting in self-interest. When a motivation for avoidance was present, children were more likely to avoid learning information, particularly with age. Experiment 2 presented the self-interest scenario (a moral “wiggle room” task) involving real payoffs. Although children could reveal their partner’s payoff without cost, older children capitalized on moral “wiggle room” by avoiding this information and choosing the self-interested payoff. In Experiment 3, we considered conditions under which even young children might avoid information, finding that they too avoided information when explicitly encouraged to protect their emotions. Additional qualitative findings probed children’s open-ended responses about why people seek and avoid information. Together, these experiments document the origins of information avoidance. 

Polygenic Associations With Educational Attainment in East Versus West Germany: Differences Emerge After Reunification 
Deniz Fraemke, Yayouk E. Willems, Aysu Okbay, et al. 

Using a DNA-based polygenic index, we explored geographical and historical differences in polygenic associations with educational attainment in East and West Germany around the time of reunification. This index was derived from a prior genome-wide association study on educational attainment in democratic countries. In 1,930 individuals aged 25 to 85 years from the SOEP-G[ene] cohort, the magnitude of polygenic associations with educational attainment did not differ between East and West Germany before reunification but increased in East Germany thereafter. This gene–environment interaction remained robust when we probed for variance dispersion. A control analysis using a polygenic index of height suggests that this interaction is unlikely to reflect a general trend toward greater genetic associations in East Germany after reunification. The observed amplification of education-genetic associations aligns with theories suggesting heightened genetic influences on educational attainment during periods of greater social and educational opportunity. We emphasize the need for replication in larger German genetic data sets. 

Socioeconomic Status Shapes Dyadic Interactions: Examining Behavioral and Physiologic Responses 
Jacinth J. X. Tan, Tessa V. West, Wendy Berry Mendes 

With more opportunities for diverse interactions, little is known about how social interactions involving people of different socioeconomic status (SES) may unfold. We investigated social-attunement patterns in dyadic interactions involving SES. Unacquainted adults recruited from a community in the United States interacted with similar-or-different-SES partners in the lab (N = 130 dyads). Attunement was assessed throughout the interaction by examining physiological linkage —how much a person’s physiological change is predicted by another’s physiological change over time. Overall, low-SES participants showed stronger physiological linkage—indicating greater attunement—to partners across SES. Participants also appeared more comfortable when interacting with low-SES partners. There were no SES differences in dominance during the conversation. After the interaction, participants reported liking similar-SES partners more than different-SES partners. These patterns suggest that during interactions, lower-SES individuals are more other-focused than high-SES individuals, and in-group preference prevails. We note limitations in the racial representation of our sample.

Adherence to Personal Resolutions Across Time, Culture, and Goal Domains 
Kaitlin Woolley, Laura M. Giurge, Ayelet Fishbach 

Goal setting is only somewhat more common than the failure to follow through on one’s goals. Recognizing the challenge of long-term behavior change, we asked what best predicts long-term goal adherence: extrinsic motivation (the extent to which goal pursuit is experienced as a means to an end) or intrinsic motivation (the extent to which the same goal pursuit is experienced as an end in itself). In a year-long longitudinal study, U.S. adults set extrinsic New Year’s resolutions, but intrinsic motivation predicted adherence to these goals more than extrinsic motivation (Study 1). These findings emerged among adults in China (Study 2) and when measuring goal adherence objectively using the number of steps U.S. adults walked over 2 weeks (Study 3). Understanding how intrinsic motivation affects long-term persistence critically informs interventions that promote goal pursuit. Indeed, increasing intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) motivation increased U.S. adults’ goal adherence (Study 4). Overall, intrinsic motivation both predicted and causally increased goal adherence. 

Gender Essentialism Leads to Biased Learning Opportunities That Shape Women’s Career Interests 
Audrey Aday, Holly R. Engstrom, Toni Schmader 

Gender differences in occupational interests are often assumed to reflect sex differences in empathizing or systemizing preferences. Do such essentialized explanations lead people to provide gender-biased learning affordances that constrain women’s career interests? In Study 1 (N = 292), North American STEM professionals endorsing a biologically essentialized (vs. sociocultural) explanation for gender differences in occupational interests provided women (men) with more empathizing (systemizing) learning affordances in a mock management task. Study 2 replicated these gendered affordances by experimentally manipulating essentialized explanations (N = 379; participants were North American men with management experience in male-dominated fields). In Study 3, North American undergraduate women (N = 300) who received gendered learning affordances reported greater interest in, and possible alignment with, empathizing work assignments, whereas those who received countergendered affordances reported greater interest in, and possible alignment with, systemizing assignments. These results reveal that gender-essentialist beliefs can foster self-fulfilling gender gaps in occupational interests. 

Native Now, Equity Now: Implicit Associations Between Native Peoples and the Past Predict Reduced Support for Racial Equity 
J. Doris Dai, Stephanie A. Fryberg, Arianne E. Eason 

Although over 8 million Native peoples live in the United States, American culture is infused with representations depicting them as people of the past (i.e., the Native-past stereotype). Four studies (total N = 38,009 non–Native American adults who voluntarily visited the Project Implicit website) examined the prevalence of the implicit Native-past stereotype among non–Native individuals and whether this stereotype predicted lower support for Native equity. We developed a Native-past Implicit Association Test to index the implicit Native-past stereotype and document the extent to which people associate Native peoples (vs. White Americans) with the past (vs. the present). Results showed that over two-thirds of non-Native participants demonstrated at least slight implicit Native-past associations (Cohen’s ds > 0.41). Moreover, stronger Native-past associations predicted greater minimization of contemporary Native racism and, subsequently, lower support for policies designed to advance Native equity. This work suggests that the prevalent Native-past stereotype may harm many aspects of contemporary Native peoples’ lived experiences. 

“Stop the Count!”—How Reporting Partial Election Results Fuels Beliefs in Election Fraud 
André Vaz, Moritz Ingendahl, André Mata, Hans Alves 

In seven studies, we investigated how reporting partial vote counts influences perceptions of election legitimacy. Beliefs in election fraud, as in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, may be fueled by the cumulative redundancy bias (CRB), which skews perceptions toward early leaders in partial vote counts. In line with this prediction, participants (Prolific adult participants from the United States and the United Kingdom) consistently rated early leaders more favorably and were more likely to suspect fraud when the eventual winner gained a late lead. This effect persisted across simulated elections (Studies 1–3) and real-world vote counts from the 2020 election in Georgia (Study 4). It is important to note that fraud suspicions already arose before the count was completed (Study 5) and persisted despite explanatory interventions (Study 6). Partisanship did not eliminate the CRB’s influence on fraud beliefs (Study 7). Our findings suggest that the sequential reporting of vote counts may amplify false perceptions of election fraud and could be mitigated by revising how results are communicated. 

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