Mayiwar, Lewend & Björklund, Fredrik (2021)

Fear from Afar, Not So Risky After All: Distancing Moderates the Relationship Between Fear and Risk Taking

Frontiers in Psychology, 12 Doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.674059

A growing line of research has shown that individuals can regulate emotional biases in risky judgment and decision-making processes through cognitive reappraisal. In the present study, we focus on a specific tactic of reappraisal known as distancing. Drawing on appraisal theories of emotion and the emotion regulation literature, we examine how distancing moderates the relationship between fear and risk taking and anger and risk taking. In three pre-registered studies (Ntotal = 1,483), participants completed various risky judgment and decision-making tasks. Replicating previous results, Study 1 revealed a negative relationship between fear and risk taking and a positive relationship between anger and risk taking at low levels of distancing. Study 2 replicated the interaction between fear and distancing but found no interaction between anger and distancing. Interestingly, at high levels of distancing, we observed a reversal of the relationship between fear and risk taking in both Study 1 and 2. Study 3 manipulated emotion and distancing by asking participants to reflect on current fear-related and anger-related stressors from an immersed or distanced perspective. Study 3 found no main effect of emotion nor any evidence of a moderating role of distancing. However, exploratory analysis revealed a main effect of distancing on optimistic risk estimation, which was mediated by a reduction in self-reported fear. Overall, the findings suggest that distancing can help regulate the influence of incidental fear on risk taking and risk estimation. We discuss implications and suggestions for future research.

Mayiwar, Lewend & Lai, Linda (2019)

Replication of Study 1 in "Differentiating Social and Personal Power" by Lammers, Stoker, and Stapel (2009)

Social Psychology, 50(4), s. 261- 269. Doi: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000388 - Full text in research archive

We performed an independent, direct, and better powered (N = 295) replication of Study 1, an experiment (N = 113) by Lammers, Stoker, and Stapel (2009). Lammers and colleagues distinguished between social power (influence over others) and personal power (freedom from the influence of others), and found support for their predictions that the two forms of power produce opposite effects on stereotyping, but parallel effects on behavioral approach. Our results did not replicate the effects on behavioral approach, but partially replicated the effects on stereotyping. Compared to personal power, social power produced less stereotyping, but neither form of power differed significantly from the control condition, and effect sizes were considerably lower than the original estimates. Potential explanations are discussed.

Mayiwar, Lewend & Løhre, Erik (2021)

Fearful speakers use negative frames to describe outcomes.

[Academic lecture]. Social and Community Psychology Conference 2021.

It is well-established that listeners’ decisions depend on how outcomes are described to them, or framed. But how do speakers frame outcomes? For instance, will a manager frame an investment decision in terms of chances of failure (negative frame) or success (positive frame)? Drawing on the Appraisal Tendency Framework, we propose that emotions associated with uncertainty (e.g., fear) increase speakers' preference for negative framing, whereas emotions associated with certainty (e.g., anger) increase speakers' preference for positive framing. In our preregistered experiment (N = 700; Prolific), participants responded to measures of dispositional worry and anger and completed two framing tasks in different contexts (recruitment and medical treatment). In these tasks, we told participants that a medical treatment/job applicant had an estimated 40% (vs. 20%) chance of failure and a 60% (vs. 80%) chance of success. Next, we asked them whether they would describe the estimated outcome to their manager in terms of chances of failure or chances of success. Supporting our preregistered predictions, dispositionally worried people were more likely to choose negative frames (e.g., medical treatment has a 40% chance of failure), whereas dispositionally angry people were more likely to choose positive frames (e.g., medical treatment has a 60% chance of success). These associations were quite weak, and only emerged in the condition that presented participants with more balanced chances (i.e., 40% chance failure/60% chance success), suggesting that fear and anger may only influence frame selection when an outcome is ambiguous.

Mayiwar, Lewend & Hærem, Thorvald (2021)

Arousal and Risk Taking: the Moderating Role of Reappraisal

[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management.

Researchers have provided important insight into the cognitive and emotional aspects of risk taking. In the present study we investigated the role of incidental physiological arousal - an affective component that has received relatively little attention and cognitive processing. Moreover, to gain further insight into the relation between arousal and risk taking, we examined the moderating role of habitual cognitive reappraisal. We found that incidental physiological arousal and intuitive processing predicted a higher likelihood of risk taking, whereas analytical processing predicted a lower likelihood of risk taking. Furthermore, we found that the relationship between physiological arousal and risk taking was stronger among individuals low on habitual cognitive reappraisal. Overall, the present study contributes to dual process theories of decision making as well the growing line of research on emotion regulation and risk taking. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Mayiwar, Lewend (2021)

Fear, Anxiety, and Construal Level: Does Anxiety Broaden Mental Scope?

[Academic lecture]. Distances in Organizations (DIO).

Fear is an emotion that has interested scholars and practitioners across different domains, such as psychology, economics, and politics. It has been widely studied in domains like decision making under risk and uncertainty (Wake et al., 2020), and underlies well-known phenomena like loss aversion (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Ruggeri et al., 2020). While antecedents and outcomes of fear have been extensively studied, the construct itself has not received much empirical investigation. This is surprising given that researchers have made important conceptual distinctions between fear and other related emotions like anxiety. In this paper, I draw on Construal Level Theory (CLT; Trope & Liberman, 2010) and the regulatory scope framework (Trope et al., 2021) to propose that fear and anxiety differ in their underlying level of construal and regulatory scope. Anxiety, unlike fear, constitutes a so-called “high-level construal” emotion because it broadens mental scope, directing attention towards more abstract and distant targets (Öhman, 2009; Trope & Liberman, 2010). The findings from this study may hold important implications for organizations, particularly those that frequently deal with crises. During the initial stages of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the virus was a distant and abstract threat to many countries. This distance may have reduced levels of fear that would otherwise have prompted earlier implementation of safety measures. Manipulating the construal level at which crisis scenarios are presented or processed can influence their effectiveness.

Mayiwar, Lewend (2020)

Psychological Distance and Risk Taking: Unpacking Emotional and Cognitive Mechanisms

[Academic lecture]. Distances in Organizations (DIO), McGill University.