People tend to grossly underestimate the trustworthiness of other people. We tested whether this cynicism grows out of an asymmetry in the feedback people receive when they decide to trust others. When people trust others, they painfully learn when other people prove to be untrustworthy; however, when people refrain from trusting others, they fail to learn of instances when the other person wou...

We examine the importance of group membership in stigma and its role in the e€ectiveness of self-protective cognitions in three experiments. In Experiment 1, men are asked to interact with an attractive female who will judge their value as a potential date, and either eat a mint or a clove of raw garlic prior to the interview. Although the stigmatized-by-garlic men discounted negative feedback ...

BACKGROUND One factor that has consistently been shown to enhance learning in typical participants is self-controlled practice. OBJECTIVES The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the learning benefits of self-controlled feedback found previously in non-disabled adults would also be found in adults with Down syndrome. METHODS Participants with Down syndrome practiced a linear...

Background: One factor that has consistently been shown to enhance learning in typical participants is self-controlled practice. Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the learning benefits of self-controlled feedback found previously in non-disabled adults would also be found in adults with Down syndrome. Methods: Participants with Down syndrome practiced a linear ...

Over the past years self-tracking of physiological parameters has become increasingly common: more and more people are keeping track of aspects of their physiological state (e.g., heart rate, blood sugar, and blood pressure). To shed light on the possible effects of self-tracking of physiology, a study was conducted to test whether physiology feedback has acute effects on self-reported stress a...

Giving corrective feedback (CF) is an essential part of the teaching and learning process, and the way it should beneficially be done has been the focus of attention for numerous researchers especially when traditional ways of CF provision are not possible, particularly in rare situations such as outbreaks of diseases. This study investigated how different ways of giving feedback; namely, throu...

Two experiments investigated how self-esteem guides people's emotional responses to changing evaluative feedback. In both experiments, participants received an initial evaluation (either positive or negative) followed by a second evaluation (either positive or negative). Emotional reactions to the second evaluation were then assessed. High self-esteem participants found feedback that was consis...

When people selectively forget feedback that threatens the self (mnemic neglect), are those memories permanently lost or potentially recoverable? In two experiments, participants processed feedback pertaining either to themselves or to another person. Feedback consisted of a mixture of positive and negative behaviors exemplifying traits that were both central and peripheral to participants’ sel...