Sander L Koole | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (original) (raw)
Papers by Sander L Koole
Human-Centric Intelligent Systems
Research indicates that interpersonal synchronisation leads to more closeness, mutual coordinatio... more Research indicates that interpersonal synchronisation leads to more closeness, mutual coordination, alliance, or affiliation between the synchronized persons. There is a pathway leading from interpersonal interaction to interpersonal synchronisation, and then to interpersonal affiliation. If persons act on temporal patterns of synchrony, this suggests that they possess a facility to detect such patterns. Therefore, we assume here that persons indeed detect when temporal patterns of synchrony occur and that a stronger affiliation or connection may grow from this detection. We developed a multi-adaptive agent model that contains detector states for both intrapersonal and interpersonal synchrony, which in turn dynamically affect interpersonal affiliation. We evaluated the behaviour of two agents in multiple simulation experiments in which stochastic stimuli were manipulated. Several expected types of patterns were reproduced computationally, and our multi-adaptive agent model may serve...
Item does not contain fulltex
Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2021
Abstract Due to mounting concerns about the psychological well-being of university students, it i... more Abstract Due to mounting concerns about the psychological well-being of university students, it is useful to consider whether and how the quality of the physical study environment can improve students' functioning. The present study examined the presence of potted plants within a university library study room on students' self-reported mood (i.e., fatigue and vigor), self-reported cognitive performance (i.e., attention and productivity), perceived environmental quality (i.e., room satisfaction, attractiveness, and comfort), and recorded duration of stay in the study room. We conducted a real-life quasi-experimental study in which potted plants were introduced in one study room (intervention group) whereas nothing changed in another study room (control group). Cross-sectional data of the dependent and co-variables were collected among separate groups of students pre- and post-intervention using questionnaires (N = 445) and recordings of students' duration of stay in the study room (N = 1029). The pretest-posttest change in attractiveness (B = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.33; 0.72) and comfort (B = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.08; 0.51) was greater in the study room with potted plants than the pretest-posttest change in attractiveness and comfort in the study room without plants. Students’ reasons to study in the room with potted plants next time they study included the perceived environmental quality, atmosphere, it being more relaxing, the homey feel, and indoor climate. Nevertheless, the pretest-posttest change in vigor (B = 0.29, 95% CI = −0.57; −0.01) was lower in the room with potted plants than the pretest-posttest change in vigor in the study room without plants, and no meaningful associations between the presence of potted plants and fatigue, cognitive performance, and duration of stay in the study room were found. Overall, findings suggest that students preferred the study room with potted plants to the one without. However, the findings do not support the hypothesis that adding potted plants to a study room improves mood or cognitive performance among students.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2020
Abstract In language, people often refer to decision difficulty in terms of spatial distance. Spe... more Abstract In language, people often refer to decision difficulty in terms of spatial distance. Specifically, decision-difficulty is expressed as proximity, for instance when people say that a decision was “too close to call”. Although these expressions are metaphorical, we argue, in line with research on conceptual metaphor theory, that they reflect how people think about difficult decisions. Thus, here we examine whether close spatial distance can actually make decision-making harder. In six experiments (total N = 672), participants chose between two choice options presented either close together or far apart. As predicted, close (rather than far) choice options led to more difficulty, both in self-report (Experiment 1A–1C) and behavioral measures (decision-time, Experiment 2 and 3). Identifying a boundary condition, we show that close choice options lead to more difficulty only for within-category choices (Experiment 3). The too-close-to-call effect is theoretically and methodologically relevant for a broad array of research where choice options are visually presented, ranging from social cognition, judgment and decision-making to more applied settings in consumer psychology and marketing.
Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2018
The present research examined the influence of ambient lighting on approach-oriented motivation a... more The present research examined the influence of ambient lighting on approach-oriented motivation and emotions. Because darkness is associated with inactivity, the authors hypothesized that dark (vs. bright) environments would lower approach motivation. Consistent with this, in Experiment 1 (N = 80) participants reported less approach motivation in a dark (vs. bright) room. In Experiment 2 (N = 112), state anger-an approach-oriented emotion-was reduced among participants high (vs. low) on trait anger when participants were interviewed in a dark (vs. bright) environment. It thus appears that subtle variations in ambient lighting may moderate approach-oriented motivations and emotions. These findings could have broad implications for understanding how environment conditions may facilitate or impair the regulation of human motivation and emotion.
S.L. Koole, K. Rothermund, Editorial: "I Feel Better but I Don't Know Why": The Psy... more S.L. Koole, K. Rothermund, Editorial: "I Feel Better but I Don't Know Why": The Psychology of Implicit Emotion Regulation. A. Gyurak, J.J. Gross, A. Etkin, Explicit and Implicit Emotion Regulation: A Dual-Process Framework. K. Rothermund, A. Gast, D. Wentura, Incongruency Effects in Affective Processing: Automatic Motivational Counter-Regulation or Mismatch-Induced Salience? P. Freytag, M. Bluemke, K. Fiedler, An Adaptive-Learning Approach to Affective Regulation: Strategic Influences on Evaluative Priming. S.L. Koole, D.A. Fockenberg, Implicit Emotion Regulation under Demanding Conditions: The Moderating Role of Action versus State Orientation. S.G. Moore, M.J. Ferguson, T.L. Chartrand, Affect in the Aftermath: How Goal Pursuit Influences Implicit Evaluations. J. Vogt, L. Lozo, E.H. W. Koster, J. De Houwer, On the Role of Goal Relevance in Emotional Attention: Disgust Evokes Early Attention to Cleanliness. A. Eder, Control of Impulsive Emotional Behavior through Implementation Intentions. M.L. Meyer, E.T. Berkman, J.C. Karremans, M.D. Lieberman, Incidental Regulation of Attraction: The Neural Basis of the Derogation of Attractive Alternatives in Romantic Relationships. N.B. Jostmann, J.C. Karremans, C. Finkenauer, When Love is Not Blind: Rumination Impairs Implicit Affect Regulation in Response to Romantic Relationship Threat. M.B. Mikulincer, P.R. Shaver, The Effects of Implicit and Explicit Security Priming on Creative Problem Solving. H. Hopp, A.S. Troy, I.B. Mauss, The Unconscious Pursuit of Emotion Regulation: Implications for Psychological Health. T.B. Tran, M. Siemer, J. Joormann, Implicit Interpretation Biases Affect Emotional Vulnerability: A Training Study. M. Quirin, R.C. Bode, J. Kuhl, Recovering from Negative Events by Boosting Implicit Positive Affect.
Frontiers in psychology, 2015
Ambivalence refers to a psychological conflict between opposing evaluations, often experienced as... more Ambivalence refers to a psychological conflict between opposing evaluations, often experienced as being torn between alternatives. This dynamic aspect of ambivalence is hard to capture with outcome-focused measures, such as response times or self-report. To gain more insight into ambivalence as it unfolds, the current work uses an embodied measure of pull, drawing on research in dynamic systems. In three studies, using different materials, we tracked people's mouse movements as they chose between negative and positive evaluations of attitude objects. When participants evaluated ambivalent attitude objects, their mouse trajectories showed more pull of the non-chosen evaluative option than when they evaluated univalent attitude objects, revealing that participants were literally torn between the two opposing evaluations. We address the relationship of this dynamic measure to response time and self-reports of ambivalence and discuss implications and avenues for future research.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2015
NeuroImage, 2013
Corrigendum to “Tuning down the emotional brain: An fMRI study of the effects of cognitive load o... more Corrigendum to “Tuning down the emotional brain: An fMRI study of the effects of cognitive load on the processing of affective images” [NeuroImage 45/4(May 1, 2009) 1212–1219] Lotte F. Van Dillen⁎, Dirk J. Heslenfeld, Sander L. Koole a Department of Social Psychology, VU University, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands b Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuropsychology, VU University, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands c Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands
Depression and Anxiety, 2014
Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2012
Although replications are vital to scientific progress, psychologists rarely engage in systematic... more Although replications are vital to scientific progress, psychologists rarely engage in systematic replication efforts. In this article, we consider psychologists’ narrative approach to scientific publications as an underlying reason for this neglect and propose an incentive structure for replications within psychology. First, researchers need accessible outlets for publishing replications. To accomplish this, psychology journals could publish replication reports in files that are electronically linked to reports of the original research. Second, replications should get cited. This can be achieved by cociting replications along with original research reports. Third, replications should become a valued collaborative effort. This can be realized by incorporating replications in teaching programs and by stimulating adversarial collaborations. The proposed incentive structure for replications can be developed in a relatively simple and cost-effective manner. By promoting replications, th...
Frontiers in Psychology
Terror Management Theory (TMT; Greenberg et al., 1997) proposes that mortality concerns may lead ... more Terror Management Theory (TMT; Greenberg et al., 1997) proposes that mortality concerns may lead people to reject other cultures than their own. Although highly relevant to multiculturalism, TMT has been rarely tested in a European multicultural society. To fill this void, two studies examined the effects of mortality salience (MS) among native Dutch people with varying levels of national identification and self-esteem. Consistent with TMT, MS led to less favorable attitudes about Muslims and multiculturalism among participants with high (rather than low) national identification and low (rather than high) self-esteem (Study 1). Likewise, MS led participants with high national identification and low selfesteem to increase their support of Sinterklaas, a traditional Dutch festivity with purported racist elements (Study 2). Together, these findings indicate that existential concerns may fuel resistance against multiculturalism, especially among people with low self-esteem who strongly identify with their nationality.
Journal of Open Psychology Data, 2018
The dataset includes data from the two studies reported in our 'Terror Management in a Multicultu... more The dataset includes data from the two studies reported in our 'Terror Management in a Multicultural Society' paper. The data was collected at the psychology lab at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2013/2014 among Dutch-speaking student samples. The dataset consists of the measures described in the paper. The data can be used for replication purposes, meta-analyses, and exploratory analyses, as well as cross-cultural comparisons of mortality salience effects. The authors also welcome collaborative research based on re-analyses of the data.
Linguistic category priming is a novel paradigm to examine automatic influences of language on co... more Linguistic category priming is a novel paradigm to examine automatic influences of language on cognition (Semin, 2008). An initial article reported that priming abstract linguistic categories (adjectives) led to more global perceptual processing, whereas priming concrete linguistic categories (verbs) led to more local perceptual processing (Stapel & Semin, 2007). However, this report was compromised by data fabrication by the first author, so that it remains unclear whether or not linguistic category priming influences perceptual processing. To fill this gap in the literature, the present article reports 12 studies among Dutch and US samples examining the perceptual effects of linguistic category priming. The results yielded no evidence of linguistic category priming effects. These findings are discussed in relation to other research showing cultural variations in linguistic category priming effects (IJzerman, Saddlemyer, & Koole, 2014). The authors conclude by highlighting the importance of conducting and publishing replication research for achieving scientific progress.
Brain Sciences
Prior laboratory experiments among healthy samples found that training avoidance movements to ang... more Prior laboratory experiments among healthy samples found that training avoidance movements to angry faces may lower anger and aggression, especially people high in trait anger. To enrich this training and make it more suitable for clinical applications, the present researchers developed it into a Virtual Reality Game for Aggressive Impulse Management (VR-GAIME). The current study examined the effects of this training in a randomized controlled trial among forensic psychiatric outpatients with aggression regulation problems (N = 30). In addition to the aggression replacement training, patients played either the VR-GAIME or a control game. Aggressive behavior was measured pre-, half-way, and post-treatment via self-report and clinicians ratings. No difference was found between the VR-GAIME and the control game. However, the participants reported gaining more insight into their own behavior and that of others. Future VR intervention tools in clinical settings may capitalize more on the...
Cognition and Emotion
ABSTRACT People can intuitively distinguish semantically coherent from incoherent word triads, ev... more ABSTRACT People can intuitively distinguish semantically coherent from incoherent word triads, even without knowing the common denominator. Drawing on cognitive linguistics, the present authors suggest that intuitive coherence judgments are driven by the thematic relations of the triad words. Words are thematically related when they perform different roles in the same scenario (e.g. CHICKEN and EGG are related via a production theme). Thematic relations differ from associations (CHICKEN and LITTLE are associated with a Disney movie) and taxonomic relations, which specify common attributes between concepts (CHICKEN and SPARROW are both birds). Consistent with the thematic integration model, word triads with thematic (rather than taxonomic) relations were more often judged as coherent (Study 1). Moreover, priming thematic (rather than taxonomic) processing led to more intuitive coherence judgments of word triads (Study 2). In three published datasets, thematic relations between triads’ word pairs predicted over half of the variance in intuitive coherence judgments (Study 3). Finally, when the existence of a common denominator and thematic relations were independently manipulated, thematic relations drove intuitive coherence judgments (Study 4). These findings demonstrate that intuition draws on people’s thematic knowledge about the world.
Cognition and Emotion
To commemorate that Cognition & Emotion was established three decades ago, we asked some distingu... more To commemorate that Cognition & Emotion was established three decades ago, we asked some distinguished scholars to reflect on past research on the interface of cognition and emotion and prospects for the future. The resulting papers form the Special Issue on Horizons in Cognition and Emotion Research. The contributions to Horizons cover both the field in general and a diversity of specific topics, including affective neuroscience, appraisal theory, automatic evaluation, embodied emotion, emotional disorders, emotion-linked attentional bias, emotion recognition, emotion regulation, lifespan development, motivation, and social emotions. We hope that Horizons will spark constructive debates, while offering guidance for the future growth and development of research on the interface between cognition and emotion. Finally, we provide an update on how Cognition & Emotion has fared over the past year, and announce some changes in editorial policies and the editorial board.
Procedia Computer Science
Abstract Emotion regulation is a vital psychological process that allows people to manage their o... more Abstract Emotion regulation is a vital psychological process that allows people to manage their own emotional states. Recent psychological research has highlighted the importance of flexibility in emotion regulation, such that people can alternative between different emotion regulation strategies. A strategy is chosen depending upon the demands of the situation. This means that healthy emotion regulation is context-sensitive. This paper presents a computational model which models this form of flexible adaptation in emotion regulation in a simplified scenario in which the person has to switch between expressive suppression and attention modulation in managing anger in different work situations. Simulation results are reported that illustrate the capacity of the model to display adaptivity in emotion regulation across different contexts.
Frontiers in psychology, 2018
People differ in action vs. state orientation, that is, in the capacity for volitional action con... more People differ in action vs. state orientation, that is, in the capacity for volitional action control. Prior research has shown that people who are action-rather than state-oriented are better able to perceive and satisfy own motives (e.g., affiliation, achievement, power), which translates into greater psychological well-being (Baumann et al., 2005; Baumann and Quirin, 2006). However, most of the extant literature has been limited to samples from European countries or the US. To address this shortcoming, the present paper investigated the associations between action vs. state orientation, psychological well-being, and anxious style of motive enactment among samples in Germany, New Zealand, and Bangladesh (combined = 862). To examine the consistency of our results across countries, a multi-group structural equation model (SEM) was used to examine the associations between action orientation, anxious motive enactment, and well-being. Subsequent mediation analyses assessed whether anxi...
Human-Centric Intelligent Systems
Research indicates that interpersonal synchronisation leads to more closeness, mutual coordinatio... more Research indicates that interpersonal synchronisation leads to more closeness, mutual coordination, alliance, or affiliation between the synchronized persons. There is a pathway leading from interpersonal interaction to interpersonal synchronisation, and then to interpersonal affiliation. If persons act on temporal patterns of synchrony, this suggests that they possess a facility to detect such patterns. Therefore, we assume here that persons indeed detect when temporal patterns of synchrony occur and that a stronger affiliation or connection may grow from this detection. We developed a multi-adaptive agent model that contains detector states for both intrapersonal and interpersonal synchrony, which in turn dynamically affect interpersonal affiliation. We evaluated the behaviour of two agents in multiple simulation experiments in which stochastic stimuli were manipulated. Several expected types of patterns were reproduced computationally, and our multi-adaptive agent model may serve...
Item does not contain fulltex
Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2021
Abstract Due to mounting concerns about the psychological well-being of university students, it i... more Abstract Due to mounting concerns about the psychological well-being of university students, it is useful to consider whether and how the quality of the physical study environment can improve students' functioning. The present study examined the presence of potted plants within a university library study room on students' self-reported mood (i.e., fatigue and vigor), self-reported cognitive performance (i.e., attention and productivity), perceived environmental quality (i.e., room satisfaction, attractiveness, and comfort), and recorded duration of stay in the study room. We conducted a real-life quasi-experimental study in which potted plants were introduced in one study room (intervention group) whereas nothing changed in another study room (control group). Cross-sectional data of the dependent and co-variables were collected among separate groups of students pre- and post-intervention using questionnaires (N = 445) and recordings of students' duration of stay in the study room (N = 1029). The pretest-posttest change in attractiveness (B = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.33; 0.72) and comfort (B = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.08; 0.51) was greater in the study room with potted plants than the pretest-posttest change in attractiveness and comfort in the study room without plants. Students’ reasons to study in the room with potted plants next time they study included the perceived environmental quality, atmosphere, it being more relaxing, the homey feel, and indoor climate. Nevertheless, the pretest-posttest change in vigor (B = 0.29, 95% CI = −0.57; −0.01) was lower in the room with potted plants than the pretest-posttest change in vigor in the study room without plants, and no meaningful associations between the presence of potted plants and fatigue, cognitive performance, and duration of stay in the study room were found. Overall, findings suggest that students preferred the study room with potted plants to the one without. However, the findings do not support the hypothesis that adding potted plants to a study room improves mood or cognitive performance among students.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2020
Abstract In language, people often refer to decision difficulty in terms of spatial distance. Spe... more Abstract In language, people often refer to decision difficulty in terms of spatial distance. Specifically, decision-difficulty is expressed as proximity, for instance when people say that a decision was “too close to call”. Although these expressions are metaphorical, we argue, in line with research on conceptual metaphor theory, that they reflect how people think about difficult decisions. Thus, here we examine whether close spatial distance can actually make decision-making harder. In six experiments (total N = 672), participants chose between two choice options presented either close together or far apart. As predicted, close (rather than far) choice options led to more difficulty, both in self-report (Experiment 1A–1C) and behavioral measures (decision-time, Experiment 2 and 3). Identifying a boundary condition, we show that close choice options lead to more difficulty only for within-category choices (Experiment 3). The too-close-to-call effect is theoretically and methodologically relevant for a broad array of research where choice options are visually presented, ranging from social cognition, judgment and decision-making to more applied settings in consumer psychology and marketing.
Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2018
The present research examined the influence of ambient lighting on approach-oriented motivation a... more The present research examined the influence of ambient lighting on approach-oriented motivation and emotions. Because darkness is associated with inactivity, the authors hypothesized that dark (vs. bright) environments would lower approach motivation. Consistent with this, in Experiment 1 (N = 80) participants reported less approach motivation in a dark (vs. bright) room. In Experiment 2 (N = 112), state anger-an approach-oriented emotion-was reduced among participants high (vs. low) on trait anger when participants were interviewed in a dark (vs. bright) environment. It thus appears that subtle variations in ambient lighting may moderate approach-oriented motivations and emotions. These findings could have broad implications for understanding how environment conditions may facilitate or impair the regulation of human motivation and emotion.
S.L. Koole, K. Rothermund, Editorial: "I Feel Better but I Don't Know Why": The Psy... more S.L. Koole, K. Rothermund, Editorial: "I Feel Better but I Don't Know Why": The Psychology of Implicit Emotion Regulation. A. Gyurak, J.J. Gross, A. Etkin, Explicit and Implicit Emotion Regulation: A Dual-Process Framework. K. Rothermund, A. Gast, D. Wentura, Incongruency Effects in Affective Processing: Automatic Motivational Counter-Regulation or Mismatch-Induced Salience? P. Freytag, M. Bluemke, K. Fiedler, An Adaptive-Learning Approach to Affective Regulation: Strategic Influences on Evaluative Priming. S.L. Koole, D.A. Fockenberg, Implicit Emotion Regulation under Demanding Conditions: The Moderating Role of Action versus State Orientation. S.G. Moore, M.J. Ferguson, T.L. Chartrand, Affect in the Aftermath: How Goal Pursuit Influences Implicit Evaluations. J. Vogt, L. Lozo, E.H. W. Koster, J. De Houwer, On the Role of Goal Relevance in Emotional Attention: Disgust Evokes Early Attention to Cleanliness. A. Eder, Control of Impulsive Emotional Behavior through Implementation Intentions. M.L. Meyer, E.T. Berkman, J.C. Karremans, M.D. Lieberman, Incidental Regulation of Attraction: The Neural Basis of the Derogation of Attractive Alternatives in Romantic Relationships. N.B. Jostmann, J.C. Karremans, C. Finkenauer, When Love is Not Blind: Rumination Impairs Implicit Affect Regulation in Response to Romantic Relationship Threat. M.B. Mikulincer, P.R. Shaver, The Effects of Implicit and Explicit Security Priming on Creative Problem Solving. H. Hopp, A.S. Troy, I.B. Mauss, The Unconscious Pursuit of Emotion Regulation: Implications for Psychological Health. T.B. Tran, M. Siemer, J. Joormann, Implicit Interpretation Biases Affect Emotional Vulnerability: A Training Study. M. Quirin, R.C. Bode, J. Kuhl, Recovering from Negative Events by Boosting Implicit Positive Affect.
Frontiers in psychology, 2015
Ambivalence refers to a psychological conflict between opposing evaluations, often experienced as... more Ambivalence refers to a psychological conflict between opposing evaluations, often experienced as being torn between alternatives. This dynamic aspect of ambivalence is hard to capture with outcome-focused measures, such as response times or self-report. To gain more insight into ambivalence as it unfolds, the current work uses an embodied measure of pull, drawing on research in dynamic systems. In three studies, using different materials, we tracked people's mouse movements as they chose between negative and positive evaluations of attitude objects. When participants evaluated ambivalent attitude objects, their mouse trajectories showed more pull of the non-chosen evaluative option than when they evaluated univalent attitude objects, revealing that participants were literally torn between the two opposing evaluations. We address the relationship of this dynamic measure to response time and self-reports of ambivalence and discuss implications and avenues for future research.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2015
NeuroImage, 2013
Corrigendum to “Tuning down the emotional brain: An fMRI study of the effects of cognitive load o... more Corrigendum to “Tuning down the emotional brain: An fMRI study of the effects of cognitive load on the processing of affective images” [NeuroImage 45/4(May 1, 2009) 1212–1219] Lotte F. Van Dillen⁎, Dirk J. Heslenfeld, Sander L. Koole a Department of Social Psychology, VU University, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands b Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuropsychology, VU University, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands c Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands
Depression and Anxiety, 2014
Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2012
Although replications are vital to scientific progress, psychologists rarely engage in systematic... more Although replications are vital to scientific progress, psychologists rarely engage in systematic replication efforts. In this article, we consider psychologists’ narrative approach to scientific publications as an underlying reason for this neglect and propose an incentive structure for replications within psychology. First, researchers need accessible outlets for publishing replications. To accomplish this, psychology journals could publish replication reports in files that are electronically linked to reports of the original research. Second, replications should get cited. This can be achieved by cociting replications along with original research reports. Third, replications should become a valued collaborative effort. This can be realized by incorporating replications in teaching programs and by stimulating adversarial collaborations. The proposed incentive structure for replications can be developed in a relatively simple and cost-effective manner. By promoting replications, th...
Frontiers in Psychology
Terror Management Theory (TMT; Greenberg et al., 1997) proposes that mortality concerns may lead ... more Terror Management Theory (TMT; Greenberg et al., 1997) proposes that mortality concerns may lead people to reject other cultures than their own. Although highly relevant to multiculturalism, TMT has been rarely tested in a European multicultural society. To fill this void, two studies examined the effects of mortality salience (MS) among native Dutch people with varying levels of national identification and self-esteem. Consistent with TMT, MS led to less favorable attitudes about Muslims and multiculturalism among participants with high (rather than low) national identification and low (rather than high) self-esteem (Study 1). Likewise, MS led participants with high national identification and low selfesteem to increase their support of Sinterklaas, a traditional Dutch festivity with purported racist elements (Study 2). Together, these findings indicate that existential concerns may fuel resistance against multiculturalism, especially among people with low self-esteem who strongly identify with their nationality.
Journal of Open Psychology Data, 2018
The dataset includes data from the two studies reported in our 'Terror Management in a Multicultu... more The dataset includes data from the two studies reported in our 'Terror Management in a Multicultural Society' paper. The data was collected at the psychology lab at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2013/2014 among Dutch-speaking student samples. The dataset consists of the measures described in the paper. The data can be used for replication purposes, meta-analyses, and exploratory analyses, as well as cross-cultural comparisons of mortality salience effects. The authors also welcome collaborative research based on re-analyses of the data.
Linguistic category priming is a novel paradigm to examine automatic influences of language on co... more Linguistic category priming is a novel paradigm to examine automatic influences of language on cognition (Semin, 2008). An initial article reported that priming abstract linguistic categories (adjectives) led to more global perceptual processing, whereas priming concrete linguistic categories (verbs) led to more local perceptual processing (Stapel & Semin, 2007). However, this report was compromised by data fabrication by the first author, so that it remains unclear whether or not linguistic category priming influences perceptual processing. To fill this gap in the literature, the present article reports 12 studies among Dutch and US samples examining the perceptual effects of linguistic category priming. The results yielded no evidence of linguistic category priming effects. These findings are discussed in relation to other research showing cultural variations in linguistic category priming effects (IJzerman, Saddlemyer, & Koole, 2014). The authors conclude by highlighting the importance of conducting and publishing replication research for achieving scientific progress.
Brain Sciences
Prior laboratory experiments among healthy samples found that training avoidance movements to ang... more Prior laboratory experiments among healthy samples found that training avoidance movements to angry faces may lower anger and aggression, especially people high in trait anger. To enrich this training and make it more suitable for clinical applications, the present researchers developed it into a Virtual Reality Game for Aggressive Impulse Management (VR-GAIME). The current study examined the effects of this training in a randomized controlled trial among forensic psychiatric outpatients with aggression regulation problems (N = 30). In addition to the aggression replacement training, patients played either the VR-GAIME or a control game. Aggressive behavior was measured pre-, half-way, and post-treatment via self-report and clinicians ratings. No difference was found between the VR-GAIME and the control game. However, the participants reported gaining more insight into their own behavior and that of others. Future VR intervention tools in clinical settings may capitalize more on the...
Cognition and Emotion
ABSTRACT People can intuitively distinguish semantically coherent from incoherent word triads, ev... more ABSTRACT People can intuitively distinguish semantically coherent from incoherent word triads, even without knowing the common denominator. Drawing on cognitive linguistics, the present authors suggest that intuitive coherence judgments are driven by the thematic relations of the triad words. Words are thematically related when they perform different roles in the same scenario (e.g. CHICKEN and EGG are related via a production theme). Thematic relations differ from associations (CHICKEN and LITTLE are associated with a Disney movie) and taxonomic relations, which specify common attributes between concepts (CHICKEN and SPARROW are both birds). Consistent with the thematic integration model, word triads with thematic (rather than taxonomic) relations were more often judged as coherent (Study 1). Moreover, priming thematic (rather than taxonomic) processing led to more intuitive coherence judgments of word triads (Study 2). In three published datasets, thematic relations between triads’ word pairs predicted over half of the variance in intuitive coherence judgments (Study 3). Finally, when the existence of a common denominator and thematic relations were independently manipulated, thematic relations drove intuitive coherence judgments (Study 4). These findings demonstrate that intuition draws on people’s thematic knowledge about the world.
Cognition and Emotion
To commemorate that Cognition & Emotion was established three decades ago, we asked some distingu... more To commemorate that Cognition & Emotion was established three decades ago, we asked some distinguished scholars to reflect on past research on the interface of cognition and emotion and prospects for the future. The resulting papers form the Special Issue on Horizons in Cognition and Emotion Research. The contributions to Horizons cover both the field in general and a diversity of specific topics, including affective neuroscience, appraisal theory, automatic evaluation, embodied emotion, emotional disorders, emotion-linked attentional bias, emotion recognition, emotion regulation, lifespan development, motivation, and social emotions. We hope that Horizons will spark constructive debates, while offering guidance for the future growth and development of research on the interface between cognition and emotion. Finally, we provide an update on how Cognition & Emotion has fared over the past year, and announce some changes in editorial policies and the editorial board.
Procedia Computer Science
Abstract Emotion regulation is a vital psychological process that allows people to manage their o... more Abstract Emotion regulation is a vital psychological process that allows people to manage their own emotional states. Recent psychological research has highlighted the importance of flexibility in emotion regulation, such that people can alternative between different emotion regulation strategies. A strategy is chosen depending upon the demands of the situation. This means that healthy emotion regulation is context-sensitive. This paper presents a computational model which models this form of flexible adaptation in emotion regulation in a simplified scenario in which the person has to switch between expressive suppression and attention modulation in managing anger in different work situations. Simulation results are reported that illustrate the capacity of the model to display adaptivity in emotion regulation across different contexts.
Frontiers in psychology, 2018
People differ in action vs. state orientation, that is, in the capacity for volitional action con... more People differ in action vs. state orientation, that is, in the capacity for volitional action control. Prior research has shown that people who are action-rather than state-oriented are better able to perceive and satisfy own motives (e.g., affiliation, achievement, power), which translates into greater psychological well-being (Baumann et al., 2005; Baumann and Quirin, 2006). However, most of the extant literature has been limited to samples from European countries or the US. To address this shortcoming, the present paper investigated the associations between action vs. state orientation, psychological well-being, and anxious style of motive enactment among samples in Germany, New Zealand, and Bangladesh (combined = 862). To examine the consistency of our results across countries, a multi-group structural equation model (SEM) was used to examine the associations between action orientation, anxious motive enactment, and well-being. Subsequent mediation analyses assessed whether anxi...