Search Results

Stereotype Boost: Positive Outcomes from the Activation of Positive Stereotypes

Margaret J. Shih, Todd L. Pittinsky, and Geoffrey C. Ho

in Stereotype Threat: Theory, Process, and Application

Stereotype boost theory (SBT) runs in parallel to stereotype threat theory (STT). Although the primary concern of STT is the pernicious effects of negative stereotypes on performance, SBT examines ... More

Stereotype boost theory (SBT) runs in parallel to stereotype threat theory (STT). Although the primary concern of STT is the pernicious effects of negative stereotypes on performance, SBT examines how positive stereotypes can improve performance. In this chapter, we review the research on stereotype boosts conducted to date. Specifically, we review the evidence for stereotype boost, and clarify the distinctions between stereotype boost and stereotype lift. Stereotype performance boosts result from exposure to positive stereotypes, whereas stereotype lift results from exposure to negative stereotypes about another group. We also outline the conditions under which the activation of positive stereotypes can boost performance. We examine the role that the method of stereotype activation and the characteristics of the individual play in determining whether or not activating a positive stereotype will lead to a performance boost. Finally, we investigate the potential mechanisms that could cause positive stereotypes to boost performance. We find evidence for many potential mechanisms that may underlie stereotype performance boosts, including reducing anxiety, increasing efficiency in neural processing, and activating ideomotor processes. It is possible that many of these mechanisms may be working together to boost performance. Finally, in reviewing the research, we find that although some findings from stereotype threat research can be applied or generalized to stereotype boosts, many of the findings from stereotype threat cannot be applied or generalized to stereotype boosts. This suggests that stereotype boost is a separate phenomenon from stereotype threat that may involve different underlying processes.Less

Consultants: Enabling Teams to Improve

Scott Tannenbaum and Eduardo Salas

in Teams That Work: The Seven Drivers of Team Effectiveness

Consultants are often asked to help boost teamwork and collaboration. This chapter is written for internal consultants, for example, people in a human resource business partner, organization ... More

Consultants are often asked to help boost teamwork and collaboration. This chapter is written for internal consultants, for example, people in a human resource business partner, organization development, learning and development, or quality role, as well as external consultants who supports teams across different organizations. Consultants can be called upon to help a struggling team, to coach a team leader, or to advise a senior leader on how to promote greater collaboration throughout a unit or organization. To address any of these needs, it helps to understand what really drives teamwork. This chapter offers 10 tips for applying the science of teamwork as a consultant.Less

The attentional boost and the attentional blink

Christian N. L. Olivers

in Attention and Time

This chapter examines the relation between attentional blink and the so-called attentional boost. It discusses the results from research about attention and explains that attentional boost can be ... More

This chapter examines the relation between attentional blink and the so-called attentional boost. It discusses the results from research about attention and explains that attentional boost can be described as a rapid, automatic, and goal-driven attentional response. It argues that there is ample behavioural evidence that attention acts rapidly and often transiently in response to the detection of a relevant stimulus and that the location of a stimulus is more rapidly detected than its exact features.Less

The Lorentz group

Adam M. Bincer

in Lie Groups and Lie Algebras: A Physicist's Perspective

The Lorentz group is defined. Special relativity is viewed as the statement that the laws of Physics are invariant under rotations in a four-dimensional space-time. These generalized rotations leave ... More

The Lorentz group is defined. Special relativity is viewed as the statement that the laws of Physics are invariant under rotations in a four-dimensional space-time. These generalized rotations leave invariant a quadratic form with an indefinite metric, which results in the Lorentz group being non-compact. Its six generators are the ordinary angular momentum J and the boosts N , which are Hermitian in a unitary representation. By identifying the group of proper orthochronous Lorentz transformations with SO0 (3,1) the commutation relations of J and N and the expressions for the two Lorentz Casimirs follow. It is shown the covering group of SO0 (3,1) is SL(2,C). Matrix elements of N are calculated with the help of the Wigner–Eckart theorem and the principal series and complementary series of infinite-dimensional unitary representations is described. Finite-dimensional non-unitary representations are obtained and used to describe the relativistic wave equations of Klein–Gordon, Dirac, Weyl, Proca and Maxwell. Biographical notes on Minkowski, Klein, Gordon, Dirac and Proca are given.Less

Function Approximation

Masashi Sugiyama and Motoaki Kawanabe

in Machine Learning in Non-Stationary Environments: Introduction to Covariate Shift Adaptation

This chapter discusses function learning methods under covariate shift. Ordinary empirical risk minimization learning is not consistent under covariate shift for misspecified models, and this ... More

This chapter discusses function learning methods under covariate shift. Ordinary empirical risk minimization learning is not consistent under covariate shift for misspecified models, and this inconsistency issue can be resolved by considering importance-weighted loss functions. Here, various importance-weighted empirical risk minimization methods are introduced, including least squares and Huber’s method for regression, and Fisher discriminant analysis, logistic regression, support vector machines, and boosting for classification. Their adaptive and regularized variants are also described. The numerical behavior of these importance-weighted learning methods is illustrated through experiments.Less

Reasoning Strategies

Stephen K. Reed

in Cognitive Skills You Need for the 21st Century

A dichotomy that has influenced much theoretical and applied research on reasoning is the distinction between System I and System II reasoning. System I is intuitive, fast, based on associations, and ... More

A dichotomy that has influenced much theoretical and applied research on reasoning is the distinction between System I and System II reasoning. System I is intuitive, fast, based on associations, and subject to biases. System II is analytic, slow, based on rules, and more competent. It should be kept in mind, however, that these distinctions do not always apply. A fast, correct response occurs when an expert automatically responds quickly, and a slow, incorrect response occurs when the answer is unknown. One tactic to improve reasoning is the use of nudges to steer people’s choices in a direction to improve their lives. Another tactic is the use of boosts to educate people to make better decisions. Action-based decision-making, such as firefighting and military engagement, requires making a series of decisions as the situation changes. Situation awareness is critical for making good decisions.Less

Peripheral Coding in the Nervous System

W. A. H. Rushton

in Sensory Communication

This chapter discusses the nature of the nerve message and compares it to a telephone message that is transmitted by telegraphing it in Morse code—or through a series of clicks. As with nerve ... More

This chapter discusses the nature of the nerve message and compares it to a telephone message that is transmitted by telegraphing it in Morse code—or through a series of clicks. As with nerve messages, a series of “clicks” is, in fact, all the brain ever receives from the nerves. Telephone wires are different, however, from nerves in that nerves are made not of metal but of dilute salt solution. Nerve signals need boosting every l mm, and the anatomical continuity of the nerve fiber is, in fact, interrupted every 1 mm by a “node of Ranvier,” which electrophysiology has shown to be a boosting station. If the telephone message is to preserve its quality, each node should restore to the signal exactly what was lost in traveling along the cable from the last node. The minutest fluctuation, therefore, from a perfect restoration will result in a signal that is either all or none.Less

“Responsible” Arms Transfer Policy and the Politics of Social Reputation

Jennifer L. Erickson

in Dangerous Trade: Arms Exports, Human Rights, and International Reputation

This chapter outlines a theoretical argument of social reputation in explaining the states' commitment and compliance with “responsible” arms export controls. Generally, the argument holds that ... More

This chapter outlines a theoretical argument of social reputation in explaining the states' commitment and compliance with “responsible” arms export controls. Generally, the argument holds that states support popular norms and policies in order to reap social benefits, such as positive self-image and increased international legitimacy. The argument proceeds in two parts. One is concerned with states seeking to signal that they possess the qualities of good international citizens, supporting peace and human rights. The other introduces the argument's domestic facet, claiming that the states' governments faced with arm trade scandal or the threat of it are more likely to seek improvements to their export practice, which is to conform more closely to policies and controls. The chapter finally provides alternative explanations premised on how states' interests—national security, economic gain, and defense boost—are conceived in conjunction to their commitment to meet international controls.Less

Higher dimensional black holes

in Advanced General Relativity: Gravity Waves, Spinning Particles, and Black Holes

The study of higher dimensional black holes is motivated and the higher dimensional black hole solutions of Einstein’s vacuum field equations are described. The generalization to space–times with ... More

The study of higher dimensional black holes is motivated and the higher dimensional black hole solutions of Einstein’s vacuum field equations are described. The generalization to space–times with arbitrary dimensions of the Gibbons–Penrose inequality and of the hoop conjecture is established. Light-like boosts of non-rotating and rotating higher dimensional black holes are constructed.Less

Evolution: The Model of the Loaded Dice

Zoltan Torey and Daniel C. Dennett

in The Crucible of Consciousness: An Integrated Theory of Mind and Brain

This chapter focuses on the evolution of the mind-boosted brain and the implication of its achievement of reflective consciousness. The growth of knowledge and the marginalization of myths encourage ... More

This chapter focuses on the evolution of the mind-boosted brain and the implication of its achievement of reflective consciousness. The growth of knowledge and the marginalization of myths encourage the brain’s self-analysis and leads to attempts at identifying its role in evolution. With the brain now able to understand the context in which it is embedded, epistemological questions are raised that must be addressed if the concept of the mind-boosted brain is to be held. This task is complicated by the brain’s mandate to protect itself and by the possibility that its expanding knowledge will destabilize it. It is no longer acceptable to opt for mythologies by rejecting the knowledge that could be the key to its evolutionary role. The possibility that objectivity, at least on higher levels of understanding, is not at variance with organismic interests is also explored here.Less

One Way to Feel Better

C. Daniel Batson

in A Scientific Search for Altruism: Do We Only Care About Ourselves?

Bob Cialdini and several colleagues claimed that heightened empathy brings with it increased sadness, and that it is the egoistic desire to relieve this sadness by getting a mood boost that motivates ... More

Bob Cialdini and several colleagues claimed that heightened empathy brings with it increased sadness, and that it is the egoistic desire to relieve this sadness by getting a mood boost that motivates empathy-induced helping. This new egoistic explanation was tested against the empathy–altruism hypothesis in four ways: (a) whether receiving an unrelated mood-enhancing experience reduces helping by individuals feeling high empathy; (b) whether learning that their mood can’t be improved reduces their helping; (c) whether expecting to have an unrelated mood-enhancing experience reduces their helping; and (d) whether they are as likely to help to relieve a need other than the one for which empathy was induced. Although results of initial experiments provided some support for the sadness-relief hypothesis, clearer tests supported the empathy–altruism hypothesis instead. Apparently, the empathy–helping relationship isn’t simply a product of an egoistic desire to get a mood boost and relieve empathy-associated sadness.Less

Making Ballet Central to British Wartime Experience

Karen Eliot

in Albion's Dance: British Ballet during the Second World War

After closing all theaters when war began, government authorities recognized the public’s need for morale-boosting entertainment and re-opened them. Ballet could raise public morale as audiences ... More

After closing all theaters when war began, government authorities recognized the public’s need for morale-boosting entertainment and re-opened them. Ballet could raise public morale as audiences responded to ballet’s evocation of beauty and found kinesthetic satisfaction in ballet’s physicality. Dancers’ emphasis on hard work, sacrifice, pragmatism, and idealism also aligned with the public mood. New companies, many sponsored by CEMA and ENSA, and all with varying missions were created to respond to a recognized public need for art and entertainment. Coincidentally, they employed out-of-work dancers, thus saving female dancers from military duties. The backgrounds and origins of several ballet companies are examined with reference to their repertoire and the audiences they attracted. Despite dancers’ efforts to contribute toward public good, there were instances of greed and self-interest. Some complained of mistreatment by Harold Rubin, director of the Arts Theatre and the producer behind the Lunch-Time Ballets.Less