Glossary
Adversarial Collaboration
A research project where researchers have different views and predictions, or support opposing theories.
Agentic State
The agentic state is a psychological condition where individuals see themselves as agents executing the wishes of an authority figure, thereby absolving themselves of responsibility for their actions.
A priori power analysis
Before a study is conducted (“a priori”), researchers use a statistical method to estimate the minimum sample size needed to reliably detect a specified effect size. Often, researchers aim for tests that have at least 80% power, that means that the tests can correctly reject a null hypothesis when it is false in at least 80% of cases. This analysis guides the determination of the planned sample size.
Attitude
The cognition, affect and behavioral tendencies towards a certain object.
Availability Heuristic
A mental shortcut where people estimate the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind, which can lead to overestimating rare but memorable occurrences.
Bias
A systematic distortion of perception or judgment.
Causal Relationship
A causal relationship refers to the situation when an event is the direct result of a preceding event. In the research context, causal relationships occur when the manipulation of an independent variable causes and explains the observed effects in a dependent variable that would otherwise not occur. Conversely, correlation is a statistical measure that describes the magnitude and direction of the relationship between two or more variables. In contrast to causal relationships, correlation does not imply that changes in the independent variable will automatically lead to and explain the observed effects in the dependent variable.
Ceiling Effect
A ceiling effect is said to occur when a high proportion of subjects in a study have maximum scores on the variable.
Cherry-Picking
Reporting only the data, outcomes, or time frames that support one’s hypothesis while ignoring or dismissing those that do not. This makes the story or articles simpler and might make them more publishable, but provides a distorted view of the evidence.
Cognition
Cognitions can be thought of as bits of knowledge, such as opinions, attitudes, or beliefs about the world, about oneself or one’s behavior. If two cognitions are relevant to each other, but the opposite of one follows from the other, these cognitions are said to be inconsistent.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance describes the discomforting state that people experience when they hold cognitions that are relevant to each other but inconsistent with each other—meaning that one bit of knowledge suggests the opposite of another bit of knowledge.
Conceptual Replication
A study that aims to recreate the gist of a prior study without using an identical procedure. These studies often aim to explore boundary conditions, the influence of specific variables, or aim to broaden and extend a certain finding.
Confederate
A confederate is a person who is secretly working with the experimenter and plays a scripted role in the study.
Confirmatory Study
A research investigation that tests (often preregistered) hypotheses derived from theory or prior empirical research.
Contact Interventions (Chapter 12, Chapter 20)
Carefully tailored interventions that apply intergroup contact in real-world settings to try and reduce prejudice among social groups.
Construct Validity
The extent to which a test measures the theoretical construct or concept it is intended to measure.
Demand Characteristics
These are cues in an experiment that give away what the researcher expects, which can lead participants to change their behavior to fit those expectations.
Discriminant Validity
The extent to which a test is unrelated to measures designed to assess theoretically distinct constructs.
Dual Process Theories
A set of theories that distinguish human thought into two sub-systems: a fast, intuitive system (System 1) and a slow, deliberate system (System 2). The former appears to be independent of cognitive control, whereas the latter is effortless and relies on working memory and cognitive capacity.
Dynamogenesis
An increase in the mental or motor activity of an already functioning bodily system that accompanies any added sensory stimulation.
Effect Size
In statistics, the effect size refers to a value that indicates the magnitude of the relation between independent and dependent variable. In factorial designs (experiments), the effect size gives us information on how large the difference between groups is.
Effect Size
A quantitative measure of the magnitude of a phenomenon, used to assess the practical significance of research findings.
Editorial
An introductory article written by the editors of a special issue in an academic journal. It outlines the purpose, scope, and significance of the special issue, provides an overview of the included articles, and often highlights key themes, trends, or gaps in the research field.
Ego Depletion
A concept that describes willpower as a limited resource that can be used up (depleted).
Experiment (Chapter12, Chapter 20)
A study where researchers deliberately manipulate one or more variables and randomly assign participants to different conditions. Random assignment helps ensure the groups are similar before the intervention, so differences in outcomes are more likely to be caused by the manipulation rather than by pre-existing differences.
False Consensus Effect
A cognitive bias where individuals overestimate the extent to which others share their beliefs, preferences, and behaviors.
Foot-in-the-door
Foot-in-the-door is a two-step procedure for enhancing compliance in which a minor initial request is presented immediately before a more substantial target request. Agreement to the initial request makes people more likely to agree to the target request than would have been the case if the latter had been presented on its own.
Forced-Compliance Paradigm
A very early paradigm of cognitive dissonance initially stemming from the persuasion field where participants are asked to perform a discrepant behavior (mainly a speech or essay), being more or less incentivized for doing it. Classic studies (e.g., Festinger and Carlsmith 1959) report counter-intuitive results showing more attitude change when paid a small amount of money in comparison to a bigger amount. This contradicted predominant theoretical frameworks at the time, such as the reinforcement theory (Skinner 1958), which would have predicted that people adjust their attitudes especially when they receive a high reward.
Generalized Drive
The presence of others leads to an increase in generalized drive, thus facilitating habitualized dominant responses.
Group Cohesion
Group cohesion describes how connected and committed people feel to the group.
Groupthink
A psychological phenomenon that occurs when members of a group strive for consensus and harmony, often at the expense of critical thinking or considering alternative options.
Habituation
Habituation is a phenomenon where we get used to a stimulus, following its repeated exposure. As a consequence, the reaction to the stimuli is reduced.
Heuristic
Heuristics refer to simple processes that assist individuals to identify adequate, but imperfect, answers to complex questions (Kahneman 2011).
Implicit Association Test
A reaction-time task that measures the strength of automatic associations between concepts (e.g., flowers and positivity) by comparing how quickly people classify paired categories. Faster responses indicate stronger underlying associations.
Implicit Attitude
An enduring mental disposition toward something that is not consciously identified and of which a person may lack awareness.
Incongruent Association
A mental relationship between two objects or concepts characterized by lack of harmony or misalignment.
Induced-Compliance Paradigm
An evolution of the forced-compliance paradigm (Linder, Cooper, and Jones 1967) where participants have to perform a behavior that is inconsistent with their attitudes—typically writing or delivering a counter-attitudinal essay. In this version, all participants engage in the discrepant task, but they differ in the justification provided. Half are explicitly told they have a free choice in performing the task (freedom condition), while the other half are simply asked to do it, as in the original forced-compliance paradigm. The key difference lies in the source of justification: an external incentive in the traditional condition, versus perceived freedom of choice in the revised one. The classic results show a greater change in the attitude in the choice condition (high choice) compared to the control condition (low choice).
Intergroup Bias (Chapter 12, Chapter 20)
Tendency to favour one’s own social group (ingroup) over other groups (outgroups), which often leads to negative attitudes or behaviours toward outgroup members.
Intuitive Behavior
Behavior that occurs through automatic, prepotent and effortless cognitive operations. Commonly referred to as “System 1”, these mental operations are fast, associative and hard to control (Kahneman, 2002; Stanovich & West, 2000).
Meta-analysis (Chapter 12, Chapter 20)
A statistical technique that combines the results of multiple independent studies to estimate an overall effect. Meta-analyses can reveal patterns across a large body of research, but the quality of their conclusions depends on the quality and comparability of the included studies.
Moderator
A variable that modifies the relationship between independent and dependent variables.
Motivation
Motivation encompasses internal and external factors that initiate and sustain behavior in service of a goal.
Multi-Lab Study
A research project in which researchers working at several different locations (laboratories) implement the same experimental design and then analyse the data together.
Multimethod Study
Research that employs two or more distinct methods.
Norms
These are shared rules or expectations within a group about how members should think, feel, or behave. They guide behavior by defining what is considered acceptable or unacceptable in that social context.
Obedience
Obedience is the act of following orders or instructions from an authority figure, often without questioning the morality or consequences of those actions.
Observational Research
A study design where researchers measure variables as they naturally occur, without manipulating them. Observational studies can reveal associations between variables but cannot, on their own, establish that one causes the other.
Orbicularis Oris Muscles
These are circular muscles around the mouth that close the lips and produce puckering, as in kissing or whistling.
Paradigm
Within Kuhn’s (1962) tradition, a paradigm transcends mere methodological procedure, constituting instead a foundational scientific framework that combines theoretical principles, methodological standards, and empirical expectations. This comprehensive system guides scientific practice by providing explanatory models and predicting experimental outcomes. The paradigm’s coherence depends on the alignment of these elements—when empirical results contradict theoretical predictions or methodological applications fail to produce expected findings, the entire paradigm faces fundamental challenges.
Paradigm
The term paradigm refers to “the set of common beliefs and agreements shared between scientists about how problems should be understood and addressed” (Kuhn 1962). Paradigms reflect the assumptions associated with the state-of-affairs. In the experimental context, these assumptions directly shape the methodological strategies employed to address a research question and influence the interpretation of empirical findings.
Power Analysis
A power analysis is used in research to estimate the probability that an effect, if it does exist, could be found in the data given. Usually, a power analysis is conducted to estimate the minimum sample size needed to detect a certain effect before running the study (a priori).
Precognition or Premonition
The conscious cognitive awareness or affective apprehension of a future event that could not otherwise be anticipated through any known inferential process (Bem 2011).
Prejudice
A negative attitude toward a group and its members, often based on stereotypes rather than direct experience.
Pre-registration
The process of formally specifying the hypotheses, methods, and planned analyses of a study before any data is collected or examined. Preregistration distinguishes genuine predictions from post hoc explanations, fosters transparency, and increases the credibility and interpretability of research findings (Nosek et al. 2018; van den Akker et al. 2023).
Pre-registration
Pre-registrations are documents outlining the research plan (materials, analyses) and hypotheses prior to the research being conducted.
Priming
A psychological phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus (e.g., a word, image, or idea) influences how you respond to a later stimulus, often without conscious awareness.
Priming
Priming refers to the effects of a subtle cue on future behavior. The primed stimulus works by activating related concepts and making them easier to access. Typical priming techniques include the very short exposure of participants to a visual, auditory, olfactory, or haptic cue. For instance, presenting the word “lion” may lead to faster categorization of the word “cat” because the two concepts represent the same “animal” category.
Psychological Reactance
Psychological reactance states that individuals have certain freedoms with regard to their behaviour. If these behavioural freedoms are reduced or threatened with reduction, the individual will be motivationally aroused to regain them.
Publication Bias
Refers to distortions in which publications with significant results are more likely to be published than studies with non-significant results.
Publication Bias
The phenomenon that research findings are more likely to be published when the results are statistically significant.
Public Goods Game
Public Goods Games (PGG) refer to multi-player experimental scenarios in which individuals are required to suppress selfish behavior and cooperate to attain a mutually beneficial outcome. In this design, individuals can choose to voluntarily contribute to a common pool that will be multiplied and equally distributed across all group members. Individuals who do not contribute may free-ride on the contribution of cooperators which imposes the risk of exploitation. Although avoiding contribution is commonly rewarded in PGG, if the number of defectors is large no collectively beneficial outcomes are achieved (Gómez-Gardeñes et al. 2011; Tomassini and Antonioni 2020).
Pygmalion Effect
The phenomenon in which higher expectations from others lead to improved performance.
Questionable Research Practices
Unethical behaviors in research which produce unreliable results and reduce the validity of the findings.
Reflective Behavior
Reflective behavior is supported by “System 2” and relies on effortful and slow mental operations that are deliberately controlled through reason (Kahneman, 2002).
Registered Report
A publishing format where peer review comes before researchers conduct the study. Research first submit Introduction and Method sections, alongside the detailed hypotheses and plan of data analysis to test them. Only after this phase (Stage 1 Registered report) is reviewed and accepted, researchers start collecting the data and write the full report (Stage 2). This ensures that theoretically valuable and methodologically sound research is published regardless of the results.
Representativity or Representativeness
The extent to which a study sample reflects a well-defined target population, such that the estimates or the interpretation of results can be generalised to that population (Rudolph et al. 2023).
Selection Bias
Selection bias occurs when the participants selected for the study are not representative of the wider population, which can distort the research findings.
Special Issue
A collection of articles on a specific topic, typically published together in a single issue of an academic journal. Special issues are often edited by guest editors and aim to provide a comprehensive exploration of the chosen theme or field of study.
Stereotype
Stereotypes are beliefs about people held because of their membership in a social group.
Stereotype Threat
Stereotype threat refers to an individual’s fear that their own characteristics or behaviors could confirm negative stereotypes about their group.
Subliminal
Subliminal refers to the exposure of stimuli for such a short amount of time that humans are not aware of the stimuli perceived and therefore cannot actively process the information.
Treatment and Control Conditions (Chapter 12, Chapter 20)
In experimental design, treatment condition refers to the participants who are randomly chosen to undergo the intervention (e.g., to play in the mixed soccer team). Control condition refers to the participants who are subject to intervention-like treatment that lacks the critical aspect of the intervention (e.g., those allocated to play in the all-Christian soccer team). Here, the critical aspect is intergroup contact within the team.
Type I Error / Alpha Error / False Positives
Inferring from a statistical test that a certain effect exists, although it does not exist in reality.
Tyranny
Tyranny refers to a system of unequal power in which one group or its representative use authority in an arbitrary or oppressive way over another group.
Working Memory
Working memory refers to a part of human cognitive functioning that temporarily stores information and holds available to be “worked with”.
Zygomaticus Major Muscles
These bilateral facial muscles, when activated, raise the corners of the mouth in an upward and lateral direction, facilitating expressions such as smiling.
Social Comparison Theory
According to the social comparison theory, people are motivated to assess their own beliefs and skills by comparing them to external images. These images can be comparisons to other people or a reference to physical reality. Individuals have a tendency to view images portrayed by others as accessible and realistic and subsequently make comparisons between themselves, other people, and these idealized images.