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People reliably encode information more effectively when it is related in some way to the self—a phenomenon known as the self-reference effect. This effect has been recognized in psychological research for almost 40 years, and its scope as a tool for investigating the self-concept is still expanding. The self-reference effect has been used within a broad range of psychological research, from cultural to neuroscientific, cognitive to clinical. Traditionally, the self-reference effect has been investigated in a laboratory context, which limits its applicability in non-laboratory samples. This paper introduces an online version of the self-referential encoding paradigm that yields reliable effects in an easy-to-administer procedure. Across four studies (total N = 658), this new online tool reliably replicated the traditional self-reference effect: in all studies self-referentially encoded words were recalled significantly more than semantically encoded words (d = 0.63). Moreover, the effect sizes obtained with this online tool are similar to those obtained in laboratory samples, and are robust to experimental variations in encoding time (Studies 1 and 2) and recall procedure (Studies 3 and 4), and persist independent of primacy and recency effects (all studies). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful watershed management and changes in water quality conditions are dependent upon changes in human behaviors. Those tasked with managing watersheds and other natural resources often assume that people are not acting to protect or restore their resources because they lack the necessary knowledge and understanding. However, individual behaviors are impacted by a variety of social, psychological, institutional, and economic factors that need to be understood for successful implementation of watershed management strategies. This paper provides an introduction to the field of human dimensions of watershed management, an overview of social science concepts that have been found to explain water-related behaviors, and how social information can be translated into actionable items in a management plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implicit associations and biases are carried without awareness or conscious direction, yet there is reason to believe they may be influenced by social pressures. In this paper, I study social pressure as a motive to give, as well as giving itself under conditions of implicit bias. In doing so, I pair the Implicit Association Test (IAT), commonplace in other social sciences, with a laboratory dictator game with sorting. I find that despite its popularity, the IAT does not predict dictator giving and social pressure does not explain acts of giving from biased dictators. These results are indicative of the meaningful difference between having an implicit bias and acting on one. As such, results can be thought of as a bound on the external validity of the IAT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]