Daniel M Wegner
Biographic Data
| ID | 3464802 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Daniel M Wegner |
| GIVEN NAMES | Daniel M |
| FAMILY NAME | Wegner |
| SIGNATURE | WEGNER D M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Harvard University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 76 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 818 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 76 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Psychology, Canadian Edition
Psychology
Introducing Psychology
Robots with Display Screens
It is important for robot designers to know how to make robots that interact effectively with humans. One key dimension is robot appearance and in particular how humanlike the robot should be. Uncanny Valley theory suggests that robots look uncanny when their appearance approaches, but is not absolutely, human. An underlying mechanism may be that appearance affects users' perceptions of the robot's personality and mind. This study aimed to invest…
Does the Robot Have a Mind? Mind Perception and Attitudes Towards Robots Predict Use of an Eldercare Robot
Feeling robots and human zombies
When moving without volition
Introducing Psychology
Google Effects on Memory
Owing to Internet search, we are more likely to encode “where” aspects of memory rather than “what.”
Mistaking randomness for free will
Setting free the bears
A person who is asked to think aloud while trying not to think about a white bear will typically mention the bear once a minute. So how can people suppress unwanted thoughts? This article examines a series of indirect thought suppression techniques and therapies that have been explored for their efficacy as remedies for unwanted thoughts of all kinds and that offer some potential as means for effective suppression. The strategies that have some p…
Action embellishment
Naïve theories of behavior hold that actions are caused by an agent's intentions, and the subsequent success of an action is measured by the satisfaction of those intentions. However, when an action is not as successful as intended, the expected causal link between intention and action may distort perception of the action itself. Four studies found evidence of an intention bias in perceptions of action. Actors perceived actions to be more success…
Causes and consequences of mind perception
Blaming God for Our Pain
Believing in God requires not only a leap of faith but also an extension of people’s normal capacity to perceive the minds of others. Usually, people perceive minds of all kinds by trying to understand their conscious experience (what it is like to be them) and their agency (what they can do). Although humans are perceived to have both agency and experience, humans appear to see God as possessing agency, but not experience. God’s unique mind is d…
Time warp
To escape blame, don't be a hero—Be a victim
Modulating the sense of agency with external cues
Moral Judgment and Distributive Justice
This research focused on the modes of distributive justice employed by individuals differing in the maturity of their moral judgments. Based upon a social exchange model, theoretical distinctions were made among five modes of distribution response: self-interest, parity, equity, social responsibility, and individual responsibility. Each of 44 male subjects aged 13–18 was led to believe that he was a member of a group of four students who were to …
Torture and judgments of guilt
Moral typecasting
Moral agency is the capacity to do right or wrong, whereas moral patiency is the capacity to be a target of right or wrong. Through 7 studies, the authors explored moral typecasting-an inverse relation between perceptions of moral agency and moral patiency. Across a range of targets and situations, good- and evil-doers (moral agents) were perceived to be less vulnerable to having good and evil done to them. The recipients of good and evil (moral …
The gravity of unwanted thoughts
The role of thought suppression in building mental blocks
Psychological effects of thought acceleration
Six experiments found that manipulations that increase thought speed also yield positive affect. These experiments varied in both the methods used for accelerating thought (i.e., instructions to brainstorm freely, exposure to multiple ideas, encouragement to plagiarize others' ideas, performance of easy cognitive tasks, narration of a silent video in fast-forward, and experimentally controlled reading speed) and the contents of the thoughts that …
Dimensions of Mind Perception
Participants compared the mental capacities of various human and nonhuman characters via online surveys. Factor analysis revealed two dimensions of mind perception, Experience (for example, capacity for hunger) and Agency (for example, capacity for self-control). The dimensions predicted different moral judgments but were both related to valuing of mind.
Levels of personal agency
Paradoxical effects of thought suppression
In a first experiment, subjects verbalizing the stream of consciousness for a 5-min period were asked to try not to think of a white bear, but to ring a bell in case they did. As indicated both by mentions and by bell rings, they were unable to suppress the thought as instructed. On being asked after this suppression task to think about the white bear for a 5-min period, these subjects showed significantly more tokens of thought about the bear th…
Levels of personal agency
This research examined individual differences in action identification level as measured by the Behavior Identification Form. Action identification theory holds that any action can be identified in many ways, ranging from low-level identities that specify how the action is performed to high-level identities that signify why or with what effect the action is performed. People who identify action at a uniformly lower or higher level across many act…
Covering up what can't be seen
Apparent mental causation
Moral typecasting
Moral agency is the capacity to do right or wrong, whereas moral patiency is the capacity to be a target of right or wrong. Through 7 studies, the authors explored moral typecasting-an inverse relation between perceptions of moral agency and moral patiency. Across a range of targets and situations, good- and evil-doers (moral agents) were perceived to be less vulnerable to having good and evil done to them. The recipients of good and evil (moral …
Does the Robot Have a Mind? Mind Perception and Attitudes Towards Robots Predict Use of an Eldercare Robot
The cognitive consequences of secrecy
Four research paradigms explored links from secrecy to the suppression and intrusive recurrence of secret thoughts. In Study I, keeping a word secret enhanced cognitive accessibility of the word on a Stroop color-naming task. Study 2 revealed that secret memory topics were recalled earlier than topics about which a lie or the truth was told. Study 3 showed that when participants were keeping secrets, their ratings ofsuppression and intrusive thin…
The hyperaccessibility of suppressed thoughts
The accessibility of suppressed thoughts was compared with the accessibility of thoughts on which Ss were consciously trying to concentrate. In Experiment 1, Ss made associations to word prompts as they tried to suppress thinking about a target word (e.g., house) or tried to concentrate on that word. Under the cognitive load imposed by time pressure, they gave the target word in response to target-related prompts (e.g., home) more often during su…
Transactive memory in close relationships
Ironic processes in the mental control of mood and mood-related thought
The mental control of mood and mood-related thought was investigated. In Experiment 1, Ss reminiscing about a happy or sad event were asked to make their mood positive, were given no instructions, or were asked to make their mood negative. Ss attempting mood control without an imposed cognitive load were successful, whereas those who attempted control while rehearsing a 9-digit number not only failed to control their moods but also showed self-re…
What do i think you're doing? Action identification and mind attribution
The authors examined how a perceiver's identification of a target person's actions co-varies with attributions of mind to the target. The authors found in Study 1 that the attribution of intentionality and cognition to a target was associated with identifying the target's action in terms of high-level effects rather than low-level details. In Study 2, both action identification and mind attribution were greater for a liked target, and in Study 3,…
Effects of subliminal priming of self and God on self-attribution of authorship for events
To escape blame, don't be a hero—Be a victim
Fanning old flames
Cognitive and electrodermal effects of suppressing thoughts of an old flame were examined in 2 experiments. Participants were asked to think aloud about an old flame--a past close relationship that either was or was not still desired--as their skin conductance level (SCL) was measured. Participants continued to think aloud as they were instructed either not to think about their old flame or to perform a comparison task. Participants were then ask…
The transparency of denial
This research tested a new conceptualization of the impression perseverance effect. Here, as in earlier studies, some actor and observer subjects were given false feedback about the actor-subjects ' performance in the experiment and then were informed during debriefing that the feedback had not been genuine. Other subjects, however, received a briefing about the falsity of the feedback before the task performance. These briefed subjects, like the…
Incrimination through innuendo
On being cool and collected
This study examined the influence of anticipated social interaction on the regulation of moods. Study 1 induced happy and sad moods through exposure to music. All participants expected to perform a second, unrelated experimental task either by themselves of with another participant. Participants who expected to do the task alone subsequently selected positive and negative news stories equally, but those who expected to interact preferred stories …
Arousal-induced attention to self
Vicarious Agency
Participants watched themselves in a mirror while another person behind them, hidden from view, extended hands forward on each side where participants' hands would normally appear. The hands performed a series of movements. When participants could hear instructions previewing each movement, they reported an enhanced feeling of controlling the hands. Hearing instructions for the movements also enhanced skin conductance responses when a rubber band…
Depression and mental control
In three experiments we examined depressed individuals' mental control abilities and strategies. Experiment 1 revealed that although depressed college students were initially successful in suppressing negative material, they eventually experienced a resurgence of unwanted negative thoughts. Analysis of subjects' stream-of-consciousness reports indicated that this resurgence was associated with the use of negative thoughts as distracters from the …
Everyday magical powers
These studies examined whether having thoughts related to an event before it occurs leads people to infer that they caused the event--even when such causation might otherwise seem magical. In Study 1, people perceived that they had harmed another person via a voodoo hex. These perceptions were more likely among those who had first been induced to harbor evil thoughts about their victim. In Study 2, spectators of a peer's basketball-shooting perfo…
Origins of Ruminative Thought
The purpose of this paper is to discuss theories of the origin of ruminative thought. We begin by providing a working definition of rumination, separating rumination from other forms of cognitive activity and distinguishing ruminations from ordinary memories. Then, we review what we believe are the major categories of theory that attempt to account for the existence and nature of rumination. These include theories of traumatization, incompletenes…
The suppression of exciting thoughts
We examined how the suppression of an exciting thought influences sympathetic arousal as indexed by skin conductance level (SCL). Subjects were asked to think aloud as they followed instructions to think about or not to think about various topics. Experiment 1 showed that trying not to think about sex, like thinking about sex, elevates SCL in comparison to thinking about or not thinking about less exciting topics (e.g., dancing). Experiment 2 rev…
Timescale bias in the attribution of mind
In this research, the authors found that people use speed of movement to infer the presence of mind and mental attributes such as intention, consciousness, thought, and intelligence in other persons, animals, and objects. Participants in 4 studies exhibited timescale bias--perceiving human and nonhuman targets (animals, robots, and animations) as more likely to possess mental states when those targets moved at speeds similar to the speed of natur…
The concentration of responsibility
Racial factors in helping behavior
Attribute generality
Observers' focus of attention in the simulation of self-perception
This research was designed to assess the effects of a manipulation of observers' focus of attention--from a focus on the actor to a focus on the actor's situation--upon observers' attributions of attitude to an actor in a simulation of a forced-compliance cognitive dissonance experiment. Observers induced through empathy instructions to focus attention on the actor's situation inferred less actor attitude positivity than did observers given no sp…
The concentration of responsibility
Hidden Brain Damage Scale
Arousal-induced attention to self
Incrimination through innuendo
Justice and the Awareness of Social Entities11The preparation of this chapter and of the research reported in Section IV. B. was supported in part by NSF Grant BNS 78-26380 and by a grant from the Tri…
Where leading questions can lead
A theoretical analysis of the structure of social interaction led us to postulate two distinct processes through which leading questions may mislead people. When a questioner asks a leading question of a respondent, observers may use their knowledge of conversational rules to infer that the questioner had an evidentiary basis for the question. Hence, observers will treat the question as conjectural evidence for the view of the respondent implied …
On sending artifact in search of artifact
Two studies are reported that show the McDonald, Harris, and Maher critique of our earlier experiment to be mistaken. In the first study, arousal-induced attention to self was demonstrated in a field setting devoid of any of the artifactual covariates of arousal induction suggested by these researchers. In the second study, a replication of the McDonald et al. experiment was conducted in which a crucial manipulation check that they failed to make…
The emergence of action
People sometimes find themselves doing things that they did not set out to do. The theory of action identification suggests that people will make such discoveries under certain circumstances and then will continue to perform the action as newly understood; new action, then, will be the result. This action emergence phenomenon was investigated in two experiments. Each was designed to test the idea that people would embrace a new understanding of a…
Cognitive Interdependence in Close Relationships
The transparency of denial
This research tested a new conceptualization of the impression perseverance effect. Here, as in earlier studies, some actor and observer subjects were given false feedback about the actor-subjects ' performance in the experiment and then were informed during debriefing that the feedback had not been genuine. Other subjects, however, received a briefing about the falsity of the feedback before the task performance. These briefed subjects, like the…
Transactive Memory
What do people think they're doing? Action identification and human behavior
Issues in the cognitive representation and control of action are broached from the perspective of action identification theory. This theory holds that any action can be identified in many ways, ranging from low-level identities that specify how the action is performed to high-level identities that signify why or with what effect the action is performed. The level of identification most likely to be adopted by an actor is said to be dictated by pr…
Paradoxical effects of thought suppression
In a first experiment, subjects verbalizing the stream of consciousness for a 5-min period were asked to try not to think of a white bear, but to ring a bell in case they did. As indicated both by mentions and by bell rings, they were unable to suppress the thought as instructed. On being asked after this suppression task to think about the white bear for a 5-min period, these subjects showed significantly more tokens of thought about the bear th…
Depression and mental control
In three experiments we examined depressed individuals' mental control abilities and strategies. Experiment 1 revealed that although depressed college students were initially successful in suppressing negative material, they eventually experienced a resurgence of unwanted negative thoughts. Analysis of subjects' stream-of-consciousness reports indicated that this resurgence was associated with the use of negative thoughts as distracters from the …
Levels of personal agency
This research examined individual differences in action identification level as measured by the Behavior Identification Form. Action identification theory holds that any action can be identified in many ways, ranging from low-level identities that specify how the action is performed to high-level identities that signify why or with what effect the action is performed. People who identify action at a uniformly lower or higher level across many act…
That's easy for you to say
White bears and other unwanted thoughts
The suppression of exciting thoughts
We examined how the suppression of an exciting thought influences sympathetic arousal as indexed by skin conductance level (SCL). Subjects were asked to think aloud as they followed instructions to think about or not to think about various topics. Experiment 1 showed that trying not to think about sex, like thinking about sex, elevates SCL in comparison to thinking about or not thinking about less exciting topics (e.g., dancing). Experiment 2 rev…
The role of thought suppression in the bonding of thought and mood
The idea that thought suppression creates a unique bond between the suppressed item and one's mood state, such that the reactivation of one leads to the reinstatement of the other, was examined. In Experiment 1, subjects who were induced by music to experience positive or negative moods reported their thoughts while trying to think or not think about a white bear. When all subjects were subsequently asked to think about a white bear, those who we…
Transactive memory in close relationships
The hyperaccessibility of suppressed thoughts
The accessibility of suppressed thoughts was compared with the accessibility of thoughts on which Ss were consciously trying to concentrate. In Experiment 1, Ss made associations to word prompts as they tried to suppress thinking about a target word (e.g., house) or tried to concentrate on that word. Under the cognitive load imposed by time pressure, they gave the target word in response to target-related prompts (e.g., home) more often during su…
Ironic processes in the mental control of mood and mood-related thought
The mental control of mood and mood-related thought was investigated. In Experiment 1, Ss reminiscing about a happy or sad event were asked to make their mood positive, were given no instructions, or were asked to make their mood negative. Ss attempting mood control without an imposed cognitive load were successful, whereas those who attempted control while rehearsing a 9-digit number not only failed to control their moods but also showed self-re…
Psychology (70 works) · Social Psychology (55 works) · Cognitive psychology (47 works) · Social Psychology (29 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (23 works) · Cognition (22 works) · Developmental psychology (16 works) · Epistemology (16 works) · Neuroscience (16 works) · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes (15 works)