Psychology (Functional Area: Social and Personality)

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Open Access
What Makes For Credible Religious Testimony? Exploring Belief And Skepticism About Others' Religious Experiences
(2025-04-10) Farias Martelli, Graziela; White, Cindel
This thesis examines the role of testimony in the formation and transmission of religious beliefs, focusing on the factors that influence its perceived credibility. Testimony is vital for sharing and reinforcing beliefs about experiences that cannot be directly tested, as is often the case with religious beliefs. These beliefs are frequently rooted in personal, unusual, or supernatural experiences, making testimony essential for their dissemination. Across four studies, I analyzed narrative features, storyteller characteristics, and listener predispositions to uncover what makes religious testimony compelling. Sensory reactions, perceived similarity to personal experiences, and the level of supernatural belief of perceivers emerged as key predictors of credibility. Honest storytellers and those with greater religious knowledge were viewed as more credible, particularly by highly religious listeners. These findings emphasize the role of core preexisting beliefs and source trustworthiness in shaping how religious testimony is evaluated and transmitted, extending psychological theories of belief formation.
Open Access
Lay Beliefs About Sexual Satisfaction And Attributions For Low Desire In Relationships
(2025-04-10) Raposo, Stephanie; Muise, Amy
Sexuality plays a key role in shaping overall relationship happiness and stability, yet sexual desire tends to decline over time in relationships, which is a key reason for relationship dissolution. Theories of implicit (lay) beliefs about the maintenance of sexual satisfaction (i.e., sexual growth and sexual destiny beliefs) provide a valuable framework for understanding how people cope with sexual challenges, such as low desire, in a relationship. My dissertation extended theories of lay sexual beliefs by exploring associations with sexual and relationship well-being among people responding to both hypothetical and lived experiences of clinical low desire. I also tested novel mechanisms for these effects—the attributions that people make for the cause of their low desire. In Study 1, a study of individuals in relationships, sexual beliefs were associated with well-being, which was, in part, accounted for by the attributions people assigned to hypothetical low desire and arousal. In Study 2, sexual beliefs were differentially associated with relationship and sexual well-being in couples coping with clinically low desire. I found similar results in Study 3, a daily diary study of couples coping with clinically low desire, which were again, partially explained by daily attributions. Lastly, in Study 4, an experimental study, people oriented toward sexual growth (versus destiny) reported higher control attributions, which in turn was associated with people finding the situation less challenging. My dissertation demonstrated the critical and nuanced role of attributions in understanding how sexual beliefs are associated with relationship and sexual well-being in response to low desire.
Open Access
Belief In The Evil Eye
(2025-04-10) Aryaie, Mina; White, Cindel
Belief in the Evil Eye, a supernatural force thought to cause harm through a mere glance, is prevalent across many cultures worldwide. This research examines the psychological underpinnings of Evil Eye belief and its associations with attitudes, emotions, and interpersonal envy within a religiously diverse sample from Canada and the United States (total N =1357). The studies further investigate how demographic factors and individual differences are correlated with this belief. Correlation analyses further link Evil Eye beliefs with religiosity, porosity, and zero-sum thinking. Believers also tend to dislike compliments, jealousy, and showing off compared to non-believers. In free list descriptions, believers frequently attribute the negative outcomes of the Evil Eye to factors such as health, bad luck, harm and personal loss. These findings underscore the complex interplay between cultural context, individual differences, and supernatural beliefs, contributing to a deeper understanding of the psychology behind Evil Eye beliefs.
Open Access
Explicit And Implicit Perceptions Of Facial Trustworthiness: White And Black Perspectives In An Intergroup Context
(2025-04-10) Tran, Hannah; Kawakami, Kerry
Previous research demonstrates that our initial impressions of a person’s trustworthiness are influenced by the presence of meaningful combinations of facial features perceived as trustworthy (e.g., large round eyes, mouths with upturned corners). Although trustworthiness is crucial to interpersonal interactions, it may be even more important in racial intergroup contexts, wherein misunderstandings and miscommunications can fuel conflict and mistrust between groups. Across four experiments, I examined whether the way that facial cues influence evaluations of trustworthiness differs depending on the race of the target (the person being evaluated) and the race of the perceiver (the person doing the evaluation). Although both White and Black perceivers used facial cues to assess trustworthiness, the impact of target race varied depending on whether the task involved implicit or explicit responding. White participants explicitly rated Black compared to White faces as more trustworthy, but implicitly associated Black faces with untrustworthiness. Black participants also explicitly rated Black faces as more trustworthy, but target race did not impact their implicit trustworthiness judgements. The potential role of social concerns in intergroup trustworthiness evaluations and methodological implications for future research on perceptions of facial trustworthiness are discussed.
Open Access
The Impact of Changing Emotional Expressions on the Own-Race Bias
(2025-04-10) Fargnoli Brown, Zoe Yumeng; Kawakami, Kerry
People tend to better recognize racial ingroup compared to outgroup faces, a widely demonstrated effect known as the Own-Race Bias (ORB). Past research demonstrating this effect has typically presented the same facial stimuli during encoding and recognition. Across three experiments, I investigated whether changing emotional expressions (angry versus neutral) impacted White perceivers’ recognition of White and Black faces. Results from Experiment 1 indicated that participants demonstrated a strong ORB when neutral or angry expressions were presented during both encoding and recognition. Results from Experiment 2 demonstrated that when neutral expressions changed to angry expressions, although overall recognition accuracy decreased, participants still showed a strong ORB. Results from Experiment 3 indicated that when angry expressions changed to neutral expressions, participants showed a larger decrease in recognition accuracy for White compared Black targets, ultimately reducing the ORB. The implications of these findings for facial recognition in an intergroup context are discussed.
Open Access
Pro-Wealth Or Anti-Elite Bias? Examining Attitudes Toward The Wealthy
(2024-11-07) Allen, Erik John Kenneth; Steele, Jennifer
Wealth inequality is arguably one of the most consequential societal issues today. An understudied aspect of wealth inequality is people’s spontaneous and self-reported attitudes toward the wealthy, those in the working class, and people who are poor. Across four studies, participants completed various Implicit Association Tests (Greenwald et al., 1998) to measure their bias toward wealth groups using different stimuli and ways of framing the wealthy and non-wealthy social groups. Participants also completed self-report measures and standardized scales to assess explicit attitudes toward these groups. Across these studies, participants showed biases on the implicit measures that favoured the wealthy to varying degrees of magnitude, but their self-reported attitudes showed more favourability toward the middle class, working class, and poor compared to the upper class and wealthy. These results can be situated within the broader Bias of Crowds framework and suggest that participants have acquired societal biases favouring the elite.
Open Access
Racial Discrimination: The Role of Psychological Factors
(2024-11-07) Phung, Naomi Thu; Greenglass, Esther
Since racial discrimination is associated with mental health consequences (Vargas et al., 2020) such as depression (Flores et al., 2008) and anxiety (Ong et al., 2009), the following research investigated how racialized individuals cope with these consequences as well as the roles that learned helplessness (a psychological state resulting in uncontrollable distress; Hiroto & Seligman, 1975), and general self-efficacy (the belief in one’s ability to organize and execute action to manage prospective situations; Bandura, 1995) may have. Correlational results for Study 1 replicated existing relationships in the literature except for one. The results of Study 2 showed that contrary to hypotheses, general self-efficacy did not moderate the mediation of learned helplessness in the relationships between racial discrimination to feelings depression or anxiety. This research contributes to the existing research on the negative consequences of racial discrimination by providing ideas for future research.
Open Access
The Impact of the Emotional Tone of Confrontation on Perceptions of Confronters of Sexism
(2024-03-16) Chan, Courtney; Kawakami, Kerry
Despite the numerous benefits associated with confronting sexism, many women refrain from doing so due to social consequences and negative perceptions. Utilizing an online scenario study, the present research further examines these perceptions, exploring whether a woman confronting with an angry, sad, or disgusted tone may impact how she is perceived on a series of traits related to likability, power, morality, masculinity, and age, whether the emotional tone of the confrontation impacts beliefs about her obligation to confront, and expectations of future behavior for both the confronter and the perpetrator. Findings revealed that an angry or disgusted confronter was perceived as more powerful than a sad confronter. Additionally, participants felt she was more obligated to confront when angry and anticipated future confrontations when disgusted. Notably, the emotional tone did not influence expectations regarding the perpetrator's future behavior. Discussion explores implications of these findings and suggests potential avenues for future research.
Open Access
Interpersonal Factors Underlying Self-Concept Change: Role of Sociotropy and Autonomy
(2024-03-16) Galfi-Pechenkov, Ingrid; McCann, C Douglas
The beliefs, ideas, and theories we have about ourselves (i.e., the "self-concept") are powerful determinants of how we think, feel, and act. This dissertation was interested in one aspect of the self-concept that is concerned with the need for relationships and positive interchanges with others and the need for independence and personal achievement (Beck, 1983). Beck (1983) termed these concerns sociotropy and autonomy. It has been theorized the self-concept can shift with situational demands (e.g., Beck et al., 2021). This dissertation employed Beck's (1983) sociotropy-autonomy model of personality as a framework to investigate interpersonal factors underlying change in self-concept content and mood. Four empirical studies looked at: a) the extent to which sociotropy-autonomy predict spontaneous self-concept content and mood, b) the effect of contextual cues about interpersonal orientation on patterns of spontaneous self-descriptions and mood, and c) participants' subjective interpretations of situation descriptions and elements that may be important in situation appraisals among sociotropic and autonomous individuals. A key finding was that for those scoring high on sociotropy, an increased focus on independent aspects of the self-concept was associated with less negative mood and negative self-descriptions, but may not have reflected a shift to individualistic views of the self-concept as previous research suggests. Results are discussed in terms of clinical, theory, and research implications. One implication of the results is that constructing the self-concept can be done more intentionally.
Open Access
Science = South Asian? Examining Stereotyping and Perceived Employability of South Asian Women and Men
(2023-12-08) Lapytskaia, Christina; Steele, Jennifer
Past research has established the existence and negative consequences of gender stereotypes in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Far less is known about the existence and impact of racial stereotypes in STEM, particularly as they interact with gender stereotypes for racial minority women. To address this gap, in the current research I examined science stereotyping of South Asian people, who belong to a rapidly growing ethnic minority group in North America that has been largely excluded from past research. Across five studies, I adopted a multimethod approach, using implicit, indirect, and explicit measures to examine race and gender stereotypes, as well as stereotyping at the intersection of both identities, with a focus on South Asian versus White male and female targets. Across implicit and explicit measures, and with both racially diverse and race specific (South Asian/White; Study 2a) samples, I found evidence of both race (Studies 1a and 1b) and gender (Studies 2a, 2b, 3) stereotyping in STEM, with science being more associated with South Asian (versus White) and male (versus female) targets. The only exception was when South Asian women were paired with White men; in this case evidence was more mixed, as responses consistent with both gender (Study 1b, 2b, 3) and race (Study 2b) stereotyping was found on the implicit measures. The current research also examined the role of science stereotypes in employment recommendations (the indirect measure). Across all studies, targets of South Asian descent were viewed more positively in scientific domains, suggesting the potential for a positive employment bias in these fields. However, in line with compartmentalization models of intersectional stereotyping, perceptions of South Asian men were often more positive than of South Asian women, and this was true across implicit, indirect, and explicit measures. Taken together, these findings suggest that the unique combination of race and gender stereotypes South Asian women face can be context dependent, especially when compared to the experiences of South Asian men, White men, or White women. This research reinforces the need to examine gender and racial stereotyping from an intersectional perspective.
Open Access
What's past is prologue: Assessing the interplay of history, identity, and sociopolitical attitudes in Canada
(2023-12-08) Padgett, Jessica Kate; Lalonde, Richard N.
Our social identities are built and maintained through a variety of cultural tools that help us feel a sense of cohesion with the groups to which we belong. Although Canadians belong to a wide variety of distinct cultural groups, something that can tie them together is a shared sense of history. In this dissertation, I consider the important role that social representations of history play in Canadian identity and how identity and history work together to inform contemporary sociopolitical views. Manuscripts 1 and 2 are based on data that was collected from Canadian universities in Toronto, Halifax, and Québec City. Manuscript 1 examines the values and identities of undergraduate students from these three regional-linguistic groups. We found that while participants from the two English-speaking regional groups had a strong sense of Canadian identity, the Québec City participants did not and instead held a stronger provincial identity. Manuscript 2 focussed on the content of young Canadians’ social representations of history and their historical biases. We again found a contrast between our English-speaking regional groups and Québec City, whereby the former seemed to have a less unified set of collective memories and the latter held a consistent narrative about Québécois nation-building and cultural conflict. We also found that all three groups held a positivity bias about Canadian history that was related to Canadian identity. Manuscript 3 was based on two community samples of Canadians who were presented with biased historical narratives to influence their current sociopolitical attitudes. Although we found no evidence of this effect, we did discover that Canadians believe that historical events related to marginalized groups are much more important than historical events that aren’t directly related to such groups. Evidence of a positivity bias was found again, whereby positive events related to historically oppressed groups were considered especially important. Altogether, this dissertation enhances our understanding of Canadian identity and the contemporary sociopolitical values of Canadians. It also offers original insights for the social representations of history literature by cataloguing the unique collective memories of a multicultural country and providing evidence of a robust relationship between history and social identity.
Open Access
The Barriers That People with Lower Social Class Background Face in Attaining Prestige: The Case of Volubility
(2023-12-08) Arshad, Memoona; Cheng, Joey
Prestige hierarchies appear to exist universally across all human groups, contexts, and cultures, from friendship groups on the playground to boardrooms in the office. Although the demonstration of skills, abilities, and competencies are typically the fundamental drivers of relative prestige standing within a group, evidence indicates that demographic traits and characteristics—such as gender, race, ethnicity, personality traits—can also have non-negligible effects on prestige conferral independently of actual abilities. Social class—an individual’s income, wealth, or material possession—is yet another demographic variable that can contribute to within-group prestige asymmetries. Here, we examine how an individual’s social class is associated with the degree of actual (rather than presumed) prestige (i.e., respect and admiration) they acquire in the context of a given team or group (rather than society at large). Across two studies of 4-person zero-acquaintance groups (Ns = 336 & 512 in Studies 1 & 2, respectively), we demonstrate that people higher in social class acquire greater prestige (even when their social class is not readily apparent), and that volubility—the amount of time that one spends speaking, which is a key behavioral cue of power and agency—acts as a mediating mechanism that accounts for the emergence of these class-based prestige disparities. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these class-based barriers on fairness and meritocracy in how individuals are advanced to prestige and social success.
Open Access
Perceptions and Consequences of Confronting Sexism: A Multi-Method Examination of Context and Confronter Identities
(2023-12-08) Vaccarino, Elysia; Kawakami, Kerry
Despite the numerous benefits of confronting prejudice, people rarely stand up to expressions of intergroup bias. Across three papers and nine studies, using a multi-method approach spanning scenario studies, reverse correlation paradigms, and an immersive interpersonal interaction, the present research investigated consequences and support for confrontation across confronter identities and contexts and their associated outcomes. In three experiments, Paper 1 examined expectations for confrontation related to a sexist incident, evaluations of the actors across confronting responses, and support for confrontation. These questions were investigated across various confronter identities (female target versus male witness) and context (social versus professional). In four experiments, Paper 2 used a reverse correlation paradigm to explore attributes (i.e., likeability, morality, masculinity, power, and age) associated with mental images of confronters versus nonconfronters of sexism. These perceptions were examined across varying confronter identities (female target, male witness, self). In two experiments, Paper 3 implemented an online chat interaction to investigate how confronting or passive responses affected perceptions of competence and likeability, support for confrontation, and leadership outcomes. Together, the results provide novel evidence for not only the disadvantages but also the advantages associated with confronting sexism across confronter identity and contexts. Benefits of confronting, particularly in domains related to power, competence, and leadership are highlighted.
Open Access
Social Attention in Diverse Social Worlds: Biculturalism, Racial Diversity, and Regional Culture Shape Gaze Cueing Behaviour
(2023-12-08) Lo, Ronda; Lalonde, Richard N.
Observing a directional gaze triggers an attention shift in the same direction as that gaze, also known as gaze cueing. Given that gaze cueing has been observed in human infants and monkeys, it is considered a universally evolved mechanism that provides the foundation for learning about one’s social world. Recent research, however, suggests that some features of gaze cueing may be shaped by culture. One such feature is whether the gaze cueing effect is interrupted by gazes embedded in the background (i.e., social context). In this dissertation, I unpack how biculturalism, racial diversity, and regional cultures can influence the extent to which gaze cueing from a focal gaze is interrupted by gazes in the social context. This dissertation uses a multi-gaze cueing task, in which a central foreground gaze and four background gazes are presented, and gaze cueing from the foreground gaze is measured. Chapter Two presents two experiments that test whether priming interdependent vs. independent self-construals can influence gaze cueing by increasing or decreasing interference from the background gazes in two different cultural populations. We found that interdependent self-construal priming was effective for bicultural East Asian Canadians, but not monocultural European Canadians. These findings suggest that being bicultural may provide the necessary long-term experience of shifting between different modes of social attention to allow self-construal primes to be effective. Chapter Three presents two experiments that test whether the social attention system prioritizes proximal features of the social environment, such as racial makeup. Across both experiments, East Asian Canadians, East Asians from East Asia, and European-descent North Americans exhibited greater attention to the gazes of own- vs. other-race faces in an ensemble coding manner. These findings suggest that gaze cueing is driven by perceived race. Chapter Four presents a comparison of gaze cueing behaviour across two extensively examined regions, North America and East Asia, and two less explored regions, and Middle East and South Asia. Results suggest that East Asians’ gaze cueing is interrupted by the gazes in the social context to a greater extent than North Americans. Middle Easterners and South Asians display “intermediate” levels of interference from the social context between East Asians and North Americans. Altogether, this dissertation presents evidence that social attention is shaped by cultural experiences found within and across regions.
Open Access
I'm Watching You: Examining Mate Value Discrepancy, Power, and Jealousy in Electronic Intrusion of Romantic Partners
(2023-08-04) Millett, Grace Kathleen; Struthers, C. Ward
Electronic intrusion (EI), the act of monitoring a romantic partner and violating their boundaries online, has gained empirical interest as a prevalent form of digital dating abuse (DDA). The present thesis sought to explore why individuals perpetrate EI against their partners. Within the framework of evolutionary theory, prior research has revealed high mate value discrepancies (MVD) predict greater DDA perpetration. In the present research two cross-sectional correlational studies test perceived MVD as a predictor of EI perpetration, jealousy as a moderator, and desire for power as a mediator of this association. Across both studies I found that contrary to predictions, MVD did not predict EI perpetration, jealousy did not moderate this association, and desire for power did not mediate the association. These findings contribute to the literature on this new form of partner abuse and suggest that further work is needed to understand why individuals perpetrate EI towards their partners.
Open Access
Zoom Usage and Cognitive Load
(2023-08-04) Carolli, Alecia; Greenglass, Esther
Self-evaluation during Zoom meetings is suspected to contribute to cognitive load. The current experimental study investigated the effects of having access to view oneself during a Zoom meeting on cognitive load, where participants either did or did not have access to view themselves, while on camera. During the call, cognitive load was assessed through performance on a task. Women in comparison to men, and those high on public self-consciousness, were expected to experience more cognitive load, especially when they could see themselves. The results found that at a low level of public self-consciousness, participants who could see themselves experienced higher cognitive load. Unexpectedly, the opposite occurred at a high level of public self-consciousness; participants who could not see themselves experienced higher cognitive load. Further investigation is required to determine the factors contributing to these results. Nonetheless, this work adds to the limited understanding of the psychological consequences of Zoom usage.
Open Access
Prove Me Wrong: The Impacts of Anxious Attachment and Non-Apology on Conflict Resolution in Romantic Relationships
(2023-08-04) Davison, Brianna Grace; Struthers, C. Ward
Managing conflict is an integral aspect of romantic relationships. When a romantic partner transgresses against the other partner, the way the victim of the transgression responds to conflict is often motivated by their attachment style and the post-transgression responses (PTRs) of their romantic partner. The present research involved 238 participants in romantic relationships. Participants completed an online study to assess the association between a victim's anxious attachment and destructive PTR (i.e., grudge-disdain, avoidance, and low forgiveness), the moderating role of a victim’s perception of their offending partner’s nonapology, and the mediating explanation of a victim’s perceived availability and responsiveness of an offending partner. A moderated mediation model was hypothesized and tested. Results confirmed that a victim’s perception of their offending partner’s nonapology moderated the association between victims’ anxious attachment and destructive PTRs. Perceived availability and responsiveness did not mediate the moderated association. Overall, these finds suggest that offending partners' PTRs play a role in motivating the post-transgression responses of anxiously attached victims.
Open Access
Improving Police Response to Autistic Persons: A Community-Informed, Attributional Approach
(2023-08-04) Salerno, Alisha Carmela; Schuller, Regina
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that can affect social interaction, communication, and behaviour. autistic individuals may react differently in stressful situations, such as police encounters, which can subsequently lead to adverse outcomes. The current research examines police response toward autistic individuals. In the first paper, I examined how autistic community members perceive the challenges police may face when interacting with autistic individuals, as well as explored community-informed recommendations on how interactions between the police and autistic people can be better managed. In the second paper, across four studies, I examined decision-making in police interactions with autistic people through a lens of attribution theory, exploring how autistic-characteristic behaviour affects attributions and responses. Taken together, this research represents a novel exploration of decision-making toward autistic people in police encounters, and how these interactions can be better managed, using an evidence-based, community-informed approach.
Open Access
The Goal of Gaming: The Motivations Behind Playing Different Videogame Genres
(2023-08-04) Quinlan, Joshua Augustus; Mar, Raymond
Videogames are a massively popular form of media that offer a wide variety of experiences to a wide variety of people. However, a great deal of videogames research does not reflect this nuance, instead treating videogame exposure as a homogenous monolith. This dissertation aims to capture this nuance, contributing to our understanding of videogames through the lenses of genres, types of gamers, and needs. We first identify a list of videogame genres for use in research and the factor structure underlying those genres (Study 1). Using those factors, we then identify a gamer typology that largely replicates across multiple samples (Studies 2–4). We then examine whether different genres and different gamer profiles are uniquely associated with different forms of videogame need satisfaction (Study 4). Our predicted associations between genres and needs are mostly supported by the data, but the predicted associations between profiles and needs are only partially supported by the data. Finally, across two waves of data, we examine how the need frustration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have affected the use of games to satisfy needs, and how that affected well-being (Study 5). We hypothesized that people would change their gaming habits to satisfy the most frustrated needs, which would in turn lead to better well-being. Broadly speaking, we find this effect only for autonomy, and not for relatedness or competence. We also find that, in some cases, gaming to satisfy needs is associated with worse well-being. This latter finding could be due to people relying too heavily on videogames to try to address their malaise, without success. Overall, we provide a novel and nuanced look into the relations among videogame genres, the people who play them, and the needs that they satisfy.
Open Access
Financial (In)Security is Tied to Personal Well-Being for Men and Relationship Well-Being for Women When Women Endorse Sexist Attitudes
(2023-08-04) Liepmann, Alexandra; Muise, Amy
Benevolent sexism undermines gender equality by ascribing men and women to traditional gender roles, with women as warm caregivers and men as protectors and financial providers. The appeal of these beliefs for women lay in the security and financial provision that men provide. However, if partners do not live up to these ideals (i.e., men violate the expectations of providing financial security), both men and women could experience poorer well-being. Specifically, men could experience lower personal well-being (anxiety) and women could experience lower relational well-being (lower relationship satisfaction). We examined how men and women’s benevolent sexism moderated the association between men’s reports of financial security and men and women’s well-being. In the current study, we followed 171 mixed-gender couples (who were tracked weekly and over several months), during a time of heightened financial insecurity, the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that when women were higher (compared to lower) in benevolent sexism, men’s anxiety was negatively associated with their financial security, such that they felt more anxiety when they reported lower financial security. When women endorsed benevolent sexism, and had a partner who reported lower financial security, women experienced lower relationship satisfaction. The findings support a key tenet of Ambivalent Sexism Theory — men’s role as the financial provider — and demonstrate that when women hold gendered expectations that are violated, there are negative outcomes for both men and women’s well-being. Implications, including how gendered expectations in relationships can undermine well-being in the face of challenges, are discussed.