The present research proposes a metacognitive framework for understanding resistance to persuasion. It is suggested that when people resist persuasion, they can become more certain of their initial attitudes. Several experiments demonstrated that when participants resisted persuasion, attitude certainty increased, but only when the attack was believed to be strong. For attacks believed to be we...

This study was part of a comprehensive research project undertaken at the request of the SANTA Health Education Committee to evaluate the tuberculosis guidance programme. The aim of the research was to examine factors influencing black people's health perceptions and intentions concerning the combating of tuberculosis as well as vaccination of their children. Data were collected by means of a q...

Demanding work settings often require the deferral of intended actions. In 3 experiments, participants were to withhold a response until they encountered a task change (which occurred 5, 15, or 40 sec later). To approximate highly demanding settings, the experimenters sometimes divided attention during the delay period. During some of the delays the experimenters interrupted the participants wi...

Men typically predict women's sexual intentions to be higher than women say they are (Haselton & Buss, 2000). It is debated whether this cross-sex bias is because of men overestimating women's intentions (Murray et al., 2017), women underreporting their own intentions (Perilloux & Kurzban, 2015, 2017), or both. To unify the current debate, we decompose the part of the bias attributable to women...

A proper assessment of the relation between discourse structure and speaker's communicat ive intentions requires a better understanding of communicative intentions. This contribution proposes that there is a crucial difference between intending the hearer to entertain a certain belief (or desire, or intention), and intending to affect the strength with which the hearer entertains the belief (or...

Volitional control matters greatly for moral judgment: Coerced agents receive less condemnation for outcomes they cause. Less well understood is the psychological basis of this effect. Control may influence perceptions of intent for the outcome that occurs or perceptions of causal role in that outcome. Here, we show that an agent who chooses to do the right thing but accidentally causes a bad o...

The use of the word “eternal” in the title of Richard Horton's piece “Occupied Palestine, an eternal alliance for health” (March 30, p 1084)1 is apt. It fits with his evangelical intentions “to put science in the service of social justice and selfdetermination.”2 However, Horton omits important data, leading to the spurious conclusion that President Obama, by disappointing the Palestinians, is ...

Feedback supposedly enhances performance, attitudes and intentions but these benefits may depend on ratee’s reactions. A longitudinal design was used to overcome limitations of previous studies. Satisfaction with feedback predicted performance and correlated positively with commitment and satisfaction and negatively with turnover intentions. Implications of results are discussed and suggestions...

Two studies tested whether action control by implementation intentions is sensitive to the activation and strength of participants’ underlying goal intentions. In Study 1, participants formed implementation intentions (or did not) and their goal intentions were measured. Findings revealed a significant interaction between implementation intentions and the strength of respective goal intentions....

We spend much of our life predicting the future. This involves developing theories and making predictions about others' intentions, goals and about the consequences of the actions we are observing. Adapting our actions and behaviours to the environment is required for achieving our goals, and to do this the motor system relies on input from sensory modalities. However, recent theories suggest t...