Vera Hoorens
Biographic Data
| ID | 115935 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Vera Hoorens |
| GIVEN NAMES | Vera |
| FAMILY NAME | Hoorens |
| SIGNATURE | HOORENS V |
| AFFILIATIONS | KU Leuven |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4855-9861 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Hiking the Hypothetical Trail in Two Directions: How Reversing the Direction of Comparisons Can Advance Psychology
Comparisons in psychological research are often directional, with one entity (a group, situation, condition, or measurement) that is the "target" of the comparison being compared to a baseline or reference point (the "referent"). A particular unidirectional framing often gets entrenched in a research tradition. This can be problematic because people (including researchers) focus disproportionately on the target rather than on the referent of dire…
The importance of feeling above-average morally versus agentically
Which is more important for a positive self concept: feeling moral or feeling agentic? Research on self-superiority (better-than-average) beliefs, “self-superiority” for short, offers inconsistent evidence. Seemingly supporting the “morality hypothesis,” mean self-superiority is greater for morality. Seemingly supporting the “agency hypothesis,” individual differences in self-esteem correlate more strongly with self-superiority on agency. In thre…
Are Women Brave or Braver Than Men? Judgments of Implicit and Explicit Intergroup Comparisons
People learn about social groups by reading and hearing verbal statements. We investigated if the perceived truth and acceptability of such statements depend on whether they are implicitly vs. explicitly comparative (e.g., “Women are brave” vs. “Women are braver than men”). Participants (Study 1: Ns = 259; Study 2: N = 246) rated the truth, acceptability, familiarity, and positivity of implicitly vs. explicitly comparative, stereotypical vs. coun…
Interpretations of Generic Versus Comparative Statements About Groups: Similarities and Differences
We compare interpretations of two kinds of statements that are important for stereotype transmission: generics (e.g., “women are helpful”) and comparatives (e.g., “women are more helpful than men”). Participants ( N = 338) read and interpreted generic or comparative statements about positive and negative features of gender (Experiment A) and age groups (Experiment B). We found similarities and differences. Participants interpreted both generics a…
Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models
Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countrie…
Do optimism and moralization predict vaccination? A five-wave longitudinal study
OBJECTIVE: To examine if personal and comparative optimism, perceived effectiveness, and moralization of vaccination predict people's decision to get vaccinated. METHODS: ≍ 5,000/wave) in Belgium over a six months period (December 2020-May 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the predictors were demographic factors, personal and comparative optimism for three aspects of COVID-19 (infection, severe disease, good outcome), perceived effectiven…
Self-uniqueness beliefs and adherence to recommended precautions. A 5-wave longitudinal Covid-19 study
Psychometric Properties and Correlates of Precarious Manhood Beliefs in 62 Nations
Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data …
Comparative optimism about infection and recovery from Covid‐19; Implications for adherence with lockdown advice
BACKGROUND: Comparative optimism, the belief that negative events are more likely to happen to others rather than to oneself, is well established in health risk research. It is unknown, however, whether comparative optimism also permeates people's health expectations and potentially behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVES: Data were collected through an international survey (N = 6485) exploring people's thoughts and psychosocial behavi…
Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teaching: Students’ Self-Affirmation Reduces the Bias by Lowering Evaluations of Male Professors
Country‐level and individual‐level predictors of men's support for gender equality in 42 countries
Men sometimes withdraw support for gender equality movements when their higher gender status is threatened. Here, we expand the focus of this phenomenon by examining it cross‐culturally, to test if both individual‐ and country‐level variables predict men's collective action intentions to support gender equality. We tested a model in which men's zero‐sum beliefs about gender predict reduced collective action intentions via an increase in hostile s…
The hubris hypothesis: The downside of comparative optimism displays
Why Self-enhancement Provokes Dislike: The Hubris Hypothesis and the Aversiveness of Explicit Self-superiority Claims
Most people believe that they are in many respects superior to others. When they publicly express their superiority, they may do so in an explicitly or implicitly comparative manner (“I am better than others” vs. “I am good”). According to the hubris hypothesis, observers dislike explicit self-superiority claims, because these suggest a negative view of others and hence of the observers. The results of two experiments were consistent with the hub…
Less is more? Think again! A cognitive fluency-based more–less asymmetry in comparative communication
Differences between groups, individuals, or objects can be framed in multiple ways. One can, for instance, say that men generally earn more than women or that women generally earn less than men. Showing that these logically equivalent expressions are not psychologically equivalent, we demonstrate a robust more-less asymmetry in the use of and responses to comparative statements. More specifically, we show that people use "more than" statements mo…
What’s really in a Name-Letter Effect? Name-letter preferences as indirect measures of self-esteem
People show a preference for the letters occurring in their name (Name-Letter Effect), a phenomenon that has inspired the development of a frequently used indirect measure of self-esteem. This article reviews the literature on the Name-Letter Effect as the basis for this measure. It discusses the tasks that have been used to measure name-letter preferences and the algorithms that have been designed to extract self-esteem scores from them. It also…
A Gricean approach to the use of consensus and distinctiveness in causal attributions of verbally described interpersonal events
Various causal attribution theories, starting with the covariation model, argue that people use consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency information to causally explain events and behaviors. Yet, the visual presentation of the covariation model in the form of a cube is based on the assumptions that these dimensions generally affect attributions independently, symmetrically, and equally. A Gricean analysis suggests that these assumptions may no…
The Hubris Hypothesis: You Can Self‐Enhance, But You'd Better Not Show It
We tested whether and why observers dislike individuals who convey self‐superiority through blatant social comparison (the hubris hypothesis). Participants read self‐superiority claims (“I am better than others”; Experiments 1–7), noncomparative positive claims (“I am good”; Experiments 1–2, 4), self‐equality claims (“I am as good as others”; Experiments 3–4, 6), temporally comparative self‐superiority claims (“I am better than I used to be”; Exp…
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Witchcraft: A Reappraisal
The German scholar Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535) is portrayed as an opponent of witch beliefs and witch trials. However, the evidence for this image is less convincing than once thought. Agrippa's involvement in a witch trial in the city of Metz was dictated by his position as a legal advisor to the magistrate and perhaps also inspired by personal animosity towards the local inquisitor, Nicolas Savin. The favorable views o…
The ISI Change phenomenon: When contradicting one stereotype changes another
How probable isprobably? It depends on whom you're talking about
Two studies tested whether people interpreted verbal chance terms in a self-serving manner. Participants read statements describing the likelihood of events in their own future and in the future of a randomly chosen other. They interpreted the chance terms numerically. Chance terms were interpreted as denoting a higher probability when they were used to describe the likelihood of pleasant events in one's own future than when they were used to des…
Time is an amazingly variable amount of money: Endowment and ownership effects in the subjective value of working time
The optimal impact phenomenon: Beyond the third person effect
According to the third person hypothesis, people believe that the media have a greater effect on other people's attitudes and behaviours than on their own attitudes and behaviours. A self-enhancement explanation for the third person effect was tested, stating that people perceive their own responses to the media not as weaker but as more appropriate than other people's responses. Subjects rated the relative attitudinal impact of messages that are…
The optimal impact phenomenon: Beyond the third person effect
According to the third person hypothesis, people believe that the media have a greater effect on other people's attitudes and behaviours than on their own attitudes and behaviours. A self-enhancement explanation for the third person effect was tested, stating that people perceive their own responses to the media not as weaker but as more appropriate than other people's responses. Subjects rated the relative attitudinal impact of messages that are…
Self‐Favoring Biases, Self‐Presentation, and the Self‐Other Asymmetry in Social Comparison
The relationship between self‐favoring biases in social comparison, favorable self‐presentation, and well‐being and the self‐other asymmetry effect was examined. Participants gave comparative chance estimations and trait ratings for positive and negative future events and traits. One‐half of the participants compared themselves to the average other, while the remainder compared the average other to themselves. All participants completed measureme…
Self-enhancement and Superiority Biases in Social Comparison
An overview of self-related superiority biases in social comparison is presented. Included are false consensus, false uniqueness, pluralistic ignorance, illusory superiority, unrealistic optimism, the sensitive and multifaceted self, the “Barnum” effect and the self-other asymmetry. Important conceptual and theoretical problems characterizing the field are pointed out and a review of cognitive explanations is presented. It is argued that most sup…
Country‐level and individual‐level predictors of men's support for gender equality in 42 countries
Men sometimes withdraw support for gender equality movements when their higher gender status is threatened. Here, we expand the focus of this phenomenon by examining it cross‐culturally, to test if both individual‐ and country‐level variables predict men's collective action intentions to support gender equality. We tested a model in which men's zero‐sum beliefs about gender predict reduced collective action intentions via an increase in hostile s…
Mastery pleasure versus mere ownership: A quasi‐experimental cross‐cultural and cross‐alphabetical test of the name letter effect
Four studies test both the alternative explanation advanced by Hoorens and Todorova (1988) for Nuttin's (1984, 1985, 1987) name letter effect (NLE), and two interpretations for an unexplained finding of the former authors. Flemish, Hungarian and Thai children show an increasing rather than a decreasing NLE over primary school grades (studies 1, 2 and 4). Thai university students and school children prefer own name letters in their ‘mother’ alphab…
The name letter effect: Attachment to self or primacy of own name writing
Bulgarian students who first learned to write in the Cyrillic alphabet prefer own name letters in the Cyrillic but also in the Roman alphabet, with which they became acquainted only many years later. These findings which are intra‐individually correlated, support Nuttin S interpretation of the Name Letter Effect in terms of attachment to self and contradict a ‘primacy of own name writing’ explanation
Time is an amazingly variable amount of money: Endowment and ownership effects in the subjective value of working time
Self-uniqueness beliefs and adherence to recommended precautions. A 5-wave longitudinal Covid-19 study
Less is more? Think again! A cognitive fluency-based more–less asymmetry in comparative communication
Differences between groups, individuals, or objects can be framed in multiple ways. One can, for instance, say that men generally earn more than women or that women generally earn less than men. Showing that these logically equivalent expressions are not psychologically equivalent, we demonstrate a robust more-less asymmetry in the use of and responses to comparative statements. More specifically, we show that people use "more than" statements mo…
The name letter effect: Attachment to self or primacy of own name writing
Bulgarian students who first learned to write in the Cyrillic alphabet prefer own name letters in the Cyrillic but also in the Roman alphabet, with which they became acquainted only many years later. These findings which are intra‐individually correlated, support Nuttin S interpretation of the Name Letter Effect in terms of attachment to self and contradict a ‘primacy of own name writing’ explanation
Mastery pleasure versus mere ownership: A quasi‐experimental cross‐cultural and cross‐alphabetical test of the name letter effect
Four studies test both the alternative explanation advanced by Hoorens and Todorova (1988) for Nuttin's (1984, 1985, 1987) name letter effect (NLE), and two interpretations for an unexplained finding of the former authors. Flemish, Hungarian and Thai children show an increasing rather than a decreasing NLE over primary school grades (studies 1, 2 and 4). Thai university students and school children prefer own name letters in their ‘mother’ alphab…
Self-enhancement and Superiority Biases in Social Comparison
An overview of self-related superiority biases in social comparison is presented. Included are false consensus, false uniqueness, pluralistic ignorance, illusory superiority, unrealistic optimism, the sensitive and multifaceted self, the “Barnum” effect and the self-other asymmetry. Important conceptual and theoretical problems characterizing the field are pointed out and a review of cognitive explanations is presented. It is argued that most sup…
Self‐Favoring Biases, Self‐Presentation, and the Self‐Other Asymmetry in Social Comparison
The relationship between self‐favoring biases in social comparison, favorable self‐presentation, and well‐being and the self‐other asymmetry effect was examined. Participants gave comparative chance estimations and trait ratings for positive and negative future events and traits. One‐half of the participants compared themselves to the average other, while the remainder compared the average other to themselves. All participants completed measureme…
The optimal impact phenomenon: Beyond the third person effect
According to the third person hypothesis, people believe that the media have a greater effect on other people's attitudes and behaviours than on their own attitudes and behaviours. A self-enhancement explanation for the third person effect was tested, stating that people perceive their own responses to the media not as weaker but as more appropriate than other people's responses. Subjects rated the relative attitudinal impact of messages that are…
The optimal impact phenomenon: Beyond the third person effect
According to the third person hypothesis, people believe that the media have a greater effect on other people's attitudes and behaviours than on their own attitudes and behaviours. A self-enhancement explanation for the third person effect was tested, stating that people perceive their own responses to the media not as weaker but as more appropriate than other people's responses. Subjects rated the relative attitudinal impact of messages that are…
Time is an amazingly variable amount of money: Endowment and ownership effects in the subjective value of working time
How probable isprobably? It depends on whom you're talking about
Two studies tested whether people interpreted verbal chance terms in a self-serving manner. Participants read statements describing the likelihood of events in their own future and in the future of a randomly chosen other. They interpreted the chance terms numerically. Chance terms were interpreted as denoting a higher probability when they were used to describe the likelihood of pleasant events in one's own future than when they were used to des…
The Hubris Hypothesis: You Can Self‐Enhance, But You'd Better Not Show It
We tested whether and why observers dislike individuals who convey self‐superiority through blatant social comparison (the hubris hypothesis). Participants read self‐superiority claims (“I am better than others”; Experiments 1–7), noncomparative positive claims (“I am good”; Experiments 1–2, 4), self‐equality claims (“I am as good as others”; Experiments 3–4, 6), temporally comparative self‐superiority claims (“I am better than I used to be”; Exp…
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Witchcraft: A Reappraisal
The German scholar Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535) is portrayed as an opponent of witch beliefs and witch trials. However, the evidence for this image is less convincing than once thought. Agrippa's involvement in a witch trial in the city of Metz was dictated by his position as a legal advisor to the magistrate and perhaps also inspired by personal animosity towards the local inquisitor, Nicolas Savin. The favorable views o…
The ISI Change phenomenon: When contradicting one stereotype changes another
What’s really in a Name-Letter Effect? Name-letter preferences as indirect measures of self-esteem
People show a preference for the letters occurring in their name (Name-Letter Effect), a phenomenon that has inspired the development of a frequently used indirect measure of self-esteem. This article reviews the literature on the Name-Letter Effect as the basis for this measure. It discusses the tasks that have been used to measure name-letter preferences and the algorithms that have been designed to extract self-esteem scores from them. It also…
A Gricean approach to the use of consensus and distinctiveness in causal attributions of verbally described interpersonal events
Various causal attribution theories, starting with the covariation model, argue that people use consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency information to causally explain events and behaviors. Yet, the visual presentation of the covariation model in the form of a cube is based on the assumptions that these dimensions generally affect attributions independently, symmetrically, and equally. A Gricean analysis suggests that these assumptions may no…
Why Self-enhancement Provokes Dislike: The Hubris Hypothesis and the Aversiveness of Explicit Self-superiority Claims
Most people believe that they are in many respects superior to others. When they publicly express their superiority, they may do so in an explicitly or implicitly comparative manner (“I am better than others” vs. “I am good”). According to the hubris hypothesis, observers dislike explicit self-superiority claims, because these suggest a negative view of others and hence of the observers. The results of two experiments were consistent with the hub…
Less is more? Think again! A cognitive fluency-based more–less asymmetry in comparative communication
Differences between groups, individuals, or objects can be framed in multiple ways. One can, for instance, say that men generally earn more than women or that women generally earn less than men. Showing that these logically equivalent expressions are not psychologically equivalent, we demonstrate a robust more-less asymmetry in the use of and responses to comparative statements. More specifically, we show that people use "more than" statements mo…
The hubris hypothesis: The downside of comparative optimism displays
Comparative optimism about infection and recovery from Covid‐19; Implications for adherence with lockdown advice
BACKGROUND: Comparative optimism, the belief that negative events are more likely to happen to others rather than to oneself, is well established in health risk research. It is unknown, however, whether comparative optimism also permeates people's health expectations and potentially behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVES: Data were collected through an international survey (N = 6485) exploring people's thoughts and psychosocial behavi…
Gender Bias in Student Evaluations of Teaching: Students’ Self-Affirmation Reduces the Bias by Lowering Evaluations of Male Professors
Country‐level and individual‐level predictors of men's support for gender equality in 42 countries
Men sometimes withdraw support for gender equality movements when their higher gender status is threatened. Here, we expand the focus of this phenomenon by examining it cross‐culturally, to test if both individual‐ and country‐level variables predict men's collective action intentions to support gender equality. We tested a model in which men's zero‐sum beliefs about gender predict reduced collective action intentions via an increase in hostile s…
Psychometric Properties and Correlates of Precarious Manhood Beliefs in 62 Nations
Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data …
Gendered Self-Views Across 62 Countries: A Test of Competing Models
Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countrie…
Do optimism and moralization predict vaccination? A five-wave longitudinal study
OBJECTIVE: To examine if personal and comparative optimism, perceived effectiveness, and moralization of vaccination predict people's decision to get vaccinated. METHODS: ≍ 5,000/wave) in Belgium over a six months period (December 2020-May 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the predictors were demographic factors, personal and comparative optimism for three aspects of COVID-19 (infection, severe disease, good outcome), perceived effectiven…
Self-uniqueness beliefs and adherence to recommended precautions. A 5-wave longitudinal Covid-19 study
Are Women Brave or Braver Than Men? Judgments of Implicit and Explicit Intergroup Comparisons
People learn about social groups by reading and hearing verbal statements. We investigated if the perceived truth and acceptability of such statements depend on whether they are implicitly vs. explicitly comparative (e.g., “Women are brave” vs. “Women are braver than men”). Participants (Study 1: Ns = 259; Study 2: N = 246) rated the truth, acceptability, familiarity, and positivity of implicitly vs. explicitly comparative, stereotypical vs. coun…
Interpretations of Generic Versus Comparative Statements About Groups: Similarities and Differences
We compare interpretations of two kinds of statements that are important for stereotype transmission: generics (e.g., “women are helpful”) and comparatives (e.g., “women are more helpful than men”). Participants ( N = 338) read and interpreted generic or comparative statements about positive and negative features of gender (Experiment A) and age groups (Experiment B). We found similarities and differences. Participants interpreted both generics a…
Psychology (25 works) · Social Psychology (23 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (12 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (9 works) · Cognitive psychology (7 works) · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Optimism (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (5 works)