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In this study, we investigated Benson, Donahue, and Erikson's (1993) concept of faith maturity as expressed by institutions of higher education (IHE) claiming religious affiliation. We examined the institutional mission statements of 87 schools affiliated with six Protestant denominations in search of evidence of their intention to develop the Vertical (V) and Horizontal (H) dimensions of faith maturity (Benson, Donahue, & Erikson, 1993). Contrary to this conceptualization of a mature faith, expressions of V and H dimensions were negatively correlated. There was considerable variability in the expression of both V and H dimensions, with Southern Baptist institutions being highest in the V dimension, and United Church of Christ and Lutheran institutions being highest in the H dimension. Although expression of V and H characteristics did not match Benson et al.'s definition of a mature faith, there was some evidence these dimensions corresponded with institutional practices related to relevant student experiences. Overall, the H dimension was emphasized in the mission statements more than the V dimension. These findings have implications for reviewing institutional practices regarding student curricular and co-curricular experiences.

We report three studies investigating race‐based shifts in interpersonal judgments of SES, investigating potential racism‐related correlates and implications for social judgments. Study 1 examined differences in these race‐based shifts based on respondent race and SES, as well as social dominance orientation, while Study 2 investigated differences based on explicit racial prejudice and motivations to control prejudiced responses. While replicating the shifting standards effect, we observed no relation between either the demographic or prejudice measures and the shifting standards effect. Study 3 used individual differences in the tendency to make these race‐based shifts to predict discriminatory judgments in monetary expectations. Overall, the results supported individual tendencies to make race‐based shifts in judgments of another's SES, and suggest this shift is largely independent of several prominent racial prejudice constructs and predicts potentially discriminatory behaviour. The results are discussed in their implications for interracial and interclass interactions and discriminatory judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although racial stereotyping and prejudice research have received considerable attention, the important element of social class has been largely excluded from social psychological research. Using the Statement Recognition Procedure, two experiments investigated social categorization along race and social class dimensions, the influence of racial and social class prejudice on these categorizations, and differences between White and Black perceivers. Analyses conducted at the subtype of race and social class memberships demonstrated differing patterns of categorization based on subtype membership. For example, lower-class Black targets were primarily categorized by race, whereas middle-class Black targets were primarily categorized by social class. The results demonstrate the importance of considering social class membership independent of and in conjunction with race. Theoretical and methodological implications regarding the study for race and social class categorizations are discussed. Keywords: stereotypes; social class; categorization; prejudice

Pesticides, applied in large quantities in urban communities to control cockroaches, pose potential threats to health, especially to children, who have proportionately greater exposures and unique, developmentally determined vulnerabilities, integrated [...]

Based on social expectations associating White and Black racial categories with higher and lower ends of the social hierarchy, respectively, the criteria used in interpersonal judgments of social class categorizations should differ between White and Black targets, with Black targets needing objectively lower criteria than White targets to achieve a particular subjective level of social class. In an analysis of the occupations assigned to Working- and Middle-Class targets, respondents assigned occupations of higher financial and educational attainment, higher social status, more influence, and greater desirability to a White target than to a comparably described Black target. Despite this pattern, however, respondents judged the occupations assigned to a Black target as lower in prestige than those they assigned to a White target. The results are discussed in the context of interracial perceptions of social standing and motivations for societal change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shifting Standards Model (SSM) of stereotypic judgments is presented as a model of implicit bias that produces a psychological mechanism contributing to continued racial wage disparities. The SSM is used to explain race‐based differences in subjective evaluations of compensation decisions. We report three experimental studies in which research participants made compensation decisions for either a White or Black employee. Across three studies, participants judged a Black employee's raise as subjectively better than a comparably described White employee's raise. Participants who work in Human Resources fields (Study 3) and those with experience making compensation decisions (Study 2) were as likely as other participants to show evidence of the shifting standards effect. The findings are discussed in the context of individual implicit biases contributing to continued wage disparities and potential organizational practices to ameliorate these influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new methodology was employed to explore whether both high and low prejudiced Whites (Ws) spontaneously stereotype African Americans (AAs). The results reveal that both high and low prejudiced whites were more likely to report erroneously when the stereotypic behavior has been displayed beside an AA rather than a W photo.

Across three studies, respondents made SES judgments of targets varying in Race (White or Black) and SES (Low or High), including global subjective SES, financial success, and educational attainment. As Whites and Blacks are stereotypically associated with upper and lower SES, respectively, the Shifting Standards Model (SSM) of stereotype judgments predicted the pattern of interpersonal objective and subjective judgments. In Study 1, in a between‐subjects design, respondents rated Black targets significantly higher on subjective measures than White targets, even as the targets were rated as comparable on objective measures. Study 2 replicated these effects with a broader range of stimulus materials. In Study 3, the shifting standards effect was replicated using a within‐subjects design, further supporting the effect. The findings support the application of the SSM to race‐based shifts in interpersonal judgments of SES and are discussed regarding their implications for intergroup relations and workplace evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments examined the generality of the negativity bias, the tendency of perceivers to regard immoral behaviors as more informative or diagnostic about an individual's personal traits than moral behaviors. Both experiments yielded results indicating that perceivers are prone to the bias when information about others is inconsistent in its moral implications but not when information is consistent. Two category-based explanations for the results were considered, one postulating a two-stage process and the other proposing a simpler process that emphasizes the activation of perceivers' character schemas. The results of both experiments suggest that the negativity bias, although prevalent, is not as pervasive as sometimes thought to be and that character appraisals, once made, are not immutable.

The present studies furthered understanding of the implicit relationships between traditional religious (RS) and nonreligious supernatural (NRS) concepts. Moving beyond the study of explicit beliefs, we accounted for the distinctions within NRS concepts, applying recent developments in the understanding of the correspondence in beliefs in these phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]