Agneta H Fischer
Biographic Data
| ID | 197919 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Agneta H Fischer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Agneta H |
| FAMILY NAME | Fischer |
| SIGNATURE | FISCHER A H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 553 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Anti-establishment sentiments: Realistic and symbolic threat appraisals predict populist attitudes and conspiracy mentality
Previous research has found that populist attitudes and conspiracy mentality - here summarised as anti-establishment attitudes - increase when people feel threatened. Two types of intergroup threat have been distinguished, namely realistic threats (pertaining to socio-economic resources, climate, or health), and symbolic threats (pertaining to cultural values). However, there is no agreement on which types of threat and corresponding appraisals w…
The dynamics of interpersonal emotion regulation: How sharers elicit desired (but not necessarily helpful) support
When in distress, people often seek help in regulating their emotions by sharing them with others. Paradoxically, although people perceive such social sharing as beneficial, it often fails to promote emotional recovery. This may be explained by people seeking-and eliciting-emotional support, which offers only momentary relief. We hypothesized that (1) the type of support sharers seek shapes corresponding support provided by listeners, (2) the int…
(Not) showing you feel good, can be bad: The consequences of breaking expressivity norms for positive emotions
The avatar will see you now: Support from a virtual human provides socio-emotional benefits
When people are in emotional distress, they often seek support. Virtual humans may provide unique and complementary benefits to human support provision, given that virtual humans are readily available and help sharers overcome socio-evaluative threats, thereby increasing willingness to disclose. Here, we examined whether talking to a virtual human elicits socio-emotional benefits, and whether this is moderated by the type of support provided. To …
Toward an Integrative Psychometric Model of Emotions
Emotions are part and parcel of the human condition, but their nature is debated. Three broad classes of theories about the nature of emotions can be distinguished: affect-program theories, constructionist theories, and appraisal theories. Integrating these broad classes of theories into a unifying theory is challenging. An integrative psychometric model of emotions can inform such a theory because psychometric models are intertwined with theoret…
Good vibrations: A review of vocal expressions of positive emotions
Researchers examining nonverbal communication of emotions are becoming increasingly interested in differentiations between different positive emotional states like interest, relief, and pride. But despite the importance of the voice in communicating emotion in general and positive emotion in particular, there is to date no systematic review of what characterizes vocal expressions of different positive emotions. Furthermore, integration and synthe…
Teachers' multicultural attitudes and perspective taking abilities as factors in culturally responsive teaching
BackgroundCulturally responsive teaching (CRT) has been associated with increased student engagement and achievement. Its practice in classrooms, however, has been shown to be less than optimal. Nonetheless, certain teacher qualities have been suggested to facilitate its practice.AimsThe current study sought quantitative evidence in support of two of these teacher qualities, namely teachers' multicultural attitudes, and their perspective taking a…
Practice what you preach: The moderating role of teacher attitudes on the relationship between prejudice reduction and student engagement
Perceived to feel less: Intensity bias in interethnic emotion perception
Different faces of empathy: Feelings of similarity disrupt recognition of negative emotions
Empathizing with others is widely presumed to increase our understanding of their emotions. Little is known, however, about which empathic process actually help people recognize others' feelings more accurately. Here, we probed the relationship between emotion recognition and two empathic processes: spontaneously felt similarity (having had a similar experience) and deliberate perspective taking (focus on the other vs. oneself). We report four st…
We are sorry, they don’t care: Misinterpretation of facial embarrassment displays in Arab–White intergroup contexts
Embarrassment displays show others that one is aware of one's own misbehavior and willing to make up for it. The facial actions of embarrassment, however, are partly similar to those of disinterest, which has an opposite function, signaling that one is not concerned about one's self in relation to others. In the context of negative intergroup relations, embarrassment displays of outgroup members may therefore be misinterpreted as disinterest. In …
Emotional expressions as social signals of rejection and acceptance: Evidence from the Affect Misattribution Paradigm
The meaning of tears: Which sex seems emotional depends on the social context
The media coverage sometimes given to crying women points to the importance of understanding whether gender affects interpretations of crying. This article reports two studies that examined whether observers infer different emotions or dispositions from crying men and women. Study 1 showed that, in the absence of information about the social context of crying, participants inferred gender‐stereotypical traits and emotions. Study 2's manipulation …
On the social influence of emotions in groups: Interpersonal effects of anger and happiness on conformity versus deviance
How do emotional expressions of group members shape conformity versus deviance in groups? We hypothesized that angry and happy responses to a group member's deviating opinion are interpreted as signals of imminent rejection versus acceptance. In 5 studies, the majority's expressions of anger led the deviant individual to feel rejected, whereas expressions of happiness made the deviant feel accepted. Because conformity can be seen as strategic beh…
Veiled Emotions: The Effect of Covered Faces on Emotion Perception and Attitudes
The present study explores the relative absence of expressive cues and the effect of contextual cues on the perception of emotions and its effect on attitudes. The visibility of expressive cues was manipulated by showing films displaying female targets whose faces were either fully visible, covered by a niqab, or partially visible (control condition). Targets expressed anger, shame, and happiness in the three different face conditions. Results sh…
Face the noise: Embodied responses to nonverbal vocalizations of discrete emotions
Extensive prior research has shown that the perception of an emotional facial expression automatically elicits a corresponding facial expression in the observer. Theories of embodied emotion, however, suggest that such reactions might also occur across expressive channels, because simulation is based on integrated motoric and affective representations of that emotion. In the present studies, we examined this idea by focusing on facial and experie…
Beyond smile dynamics: Mimicry and beliefs in judgments of smiles
The judgment that a smile is based on "true," usually positive, feelings affects social interaction. However, the processes underlying the interpretation of a smile as being more or less genuine are not well understood. The aim of the present research was to test predictions of the Simulation of Smiles Model (SIMS) proposed by Niedenthal, Mermillod, Maringer, and Hess (2010). In addition to the perceptual features that can guide the judgment of a…
Taking your place or matching your face: Two paths to empathic embarrassment
Empathic responding may be elicited by different processes, depending on the available situational and affective cues. We investigated two such processes, perspective-taking and nonverbal mimicry. In Study 1, participants watched an embarrassed or unembarrassed confederate dancing to music while either remaining objective or engaging in perspective-taking. Both manipulations affected empathic embarrassment. Study 2 further examined the effects of…
Moving faces, looking places: Validation of the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (Adfes)
We report two studies validating a new standardized set of filmed emotion expressions, the Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set (ADFES). The ADFES is distinct from existing datasets in that it includes a face-forward version and two different head-turning versions (faces turning toward and away from viewers), North-European as well as Mediterranean models (male and female), and nine discrete emotions (joy, anger, fear, sadness, surprise, disgu…
The Social Costs and Benefits of Anger as a Function of Gender and Relationship Context
Gender and Emotion: Social Psychological Perspectives
When the Mind Forms Fear: Embodied Fear Knowledge Potentiates Bodily Reactions to Fearful Stimuli
In the present study, the authors tested whether conceptual fear knowledge can (a) evoke bodily reactions and (b) enhance subsequent bodily reactions to fearful stimuli. Participants unscrambled neutral or fear sentences and subsequently viewed fearful and neutral pictures in combination with startle sounds. As predicted, the authors found embodied reactions (i.e., increased electrodermal and corrugator activity) while participants unscrambled fe…
Embodied emotion concepts: How generating words about pride and disappointment influences posture
Embodiment theories predict that activating conceptual knowledge about emotions can be accompanied by re‐experiencing bodily states, since simulations of sensory, motor, and introspective experiences form the foundation of conceptual representations of emotion. In the present study, we examine whether the activation of the specific emotion concepts of pride and disappointment are embodied in the sense that they are accompanied by changes in postu…
The role of emotion in computer-mediated communication: A review
Attack, disapproval, or withdrawal? The role of honour in anger and shame responses to being insulted
Insults elicit intense emotion. This study tests the hypothesis that one's social image, which is especially salient in honour cultures, influences the way in which one reacts to an insult. Seventy-seven honour-oriented and 72 non-honour oriented participants answered questions about a recent insult episode. Participants experienced both anger and shame in reaction to the insult. However, these emotions resulted in different behaviours. Anger led…
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is! Explaining Collective Action Tendencies Through Group-Based Anger and Group Efficacy
Insights from appraisal theories of emotion are used to integrate elements of theories on collective action. Three experiments with disadvantaged groups systematically manipulated procedural fairness (Study 1), emotional social support (Study 2), and instrumental social support (Study 3) to examine their effects on collective action tendencies through group-based anger and group efficacy. Results of structural equation modeling showed that proced…
The role of honour concerns in emotional reactions to offences
We investigated the role of honour concerns in mediating the effect of nationality and gender on the reported intensity of anger and shame in reaction to insult vignettes. Spain, an honour culture, and The Netherlands, where honour is of less central significance, were selected for comparison. A total of 260 (125 Dutch, 135 Spanish) persons participated in the research. Participants completed a measure of honour concerns and answered questions ab…
Beat them or ban them: The characteristics and social functions of anger and contempt
This article reports 3 studies in which the authors examined (a) the distinctive characteristics of anger and contempt responses and (b) the interpersonal causes and effects of both emotions. In the 1st study, the authors examined the distinction between the 2 emotions; in the 2nd study, the authors tested whether contempt could be predicted from previous anger incidents with the same person; and in the 3rd study, the authors examined the effects…
Attack, disapproval, or withdrawal? The role of honour in anger and shame responses to being insulted
Insults elicit intense emotion. This study tests the hypothesis that one's social image, which is especially salient in honour cultures, influences the way in which one reacts to an insult. Seventy-seven honour-oriented and 72 non-honour oriented participants answered questions about a recent insult episode. Participants experienced both anger and shame in reaction to the insult. However, these emotions resulted in different behaviours. Anger led…
Honor in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe
The authors report two studies on notions of honor (i.e., the situations and behaviors associated with honor, its enhancement, and its loss) in a Mediterranean country (Spain) and a northern European country (the Netherlands). A total of 271 persons (140 Spanish, 131 Dutch) participated in Study 1, and a total of 327 persons (169 Spanish, 158 Dutch) participated in Study 2. The main aim of Study 1 was to characterize Spain and the Netherlands in …
The Role of Honor-Related Values in the Elicitation, Experience, and Communication of Pride, Shame, and Anger: Spain and the Netherlands Compared
The authors investigated how honor-related values affect pride, shame, and anger. Spain and the Netherlands were selected for comparison because honor-related values are relatively more important in Spain, whereas individualistic values are relatively more important in the Netherlands. A total of 327 (169 Spanish, 158 Dutch) persons participated in the research. Participants answered questions about autobiographical experiences of pride, shame, a…
Sex Differences in Emotionality: Fact or Stereotype
One consistent element of Western sex stereotypes is that women are emotional, whereas men are rational. This is also widely spread in psychology and defended by feminist authors who equate women's relationality with their emotionality. In this article the concept of `emotionality' is criticized and the assumption that women are generally more emotional than men is questioned. A large amount of empirical research on sex differences in emotions is…
The Past and the Pending: The Antecedents and Consequences of Group-Based Anger in Historically and Currently Disadvantaged Groups
Two studies investigated the role of domain relevance in the experience of group-based anger among disadvantaged groups using structural equation models. In the first study, Surinamese people to whom the slavery past was more relevant made stronger attributions of outgroup-blame and experienced more anger. This effect was above and beyond the influence of group identification. In the second study relevance of women’s status position in society pr…
The Social Costs and Benefits of Anger as a Function of Gender and Relationship Context
Reconciling Emotions with Western Personhood
Teachers' multicultural attitudes and perspective taking abilities as factors in culturally responsive teaching
BackgroundCulturally responsive teaching (CRT) has been associated with increased student engagement and achievement. Its practice in classrooms, however, has been shown to be less than optimal. Nonetheless, certain teacher qualities have been suggested to facilitate its practice.AimsThe current study sought quantitative evidence in support of two of these teacher qualities, namely teachers' multicultural attitudes, and their perspective taking a…
Practice what you preach: The moderating role of teacher attitudes on the relationship between prejudice reduction and student engagement
On the social influence of emotions in groups: Interpersonal effects of anger and happiness on conformity versus deviance
How do emotional expressions of group members shape conformity versus deviance in groups? We hypothesized that angry and happy responses to a group member's deviating opinion are interpreted as signals of imminent rejection versus acceptance. In 5 studies, the majority's expressions of anger led the deviant individual to feel rejected, whereas expressions of happiness made the deviant feel accepted. Because conformity can be seen as strategic beh…
Different faces of empathy: Feelings of similarity disrupt recognition of negative emotions
Empathizing with others is widely presumed to increase our understanding of their emotions. Little is known, however, about which empathic process actually help people recognize others' feelings more accurately. Here, we probed the relationship between emotion recognition and two empathic processes: spontaneously felt similarity (having had a similar experience) and deliberate perspective taking (focus on the other vs. oneself). We report four st…
Emotional expressions as social signals of rejection and acceptance: Evidence from the Affect Misattribution Paradigm
The Social Regulation of Emotions in Jealousy Situations: A Comparison between Italy and the Netherlands
Potential discrepancies between felt and communicated emotions elicited by two typical antecedents of jealousy that varied in terms of their seriousness were studied by means of a structured questionnaire. Italian (N = 301) and Dutch (N = 262) men and women attributed felt and shared emotions to a story protagonist. The emotions investigated included jealousy, anger, anxiety, sadness, insecurity, surprise, embarrassment, irritation, disgust, frus…
The meaning of tears: Which sex seems emotional depends on the social context
The media coverage sometimes given to crying women points to the importance of understanding whether gender affects interpretations of crying. This article reports two studies that examined whether observers infer different emotions or dispositions from crying men and women. Study 1 showed that, in the absence of information about the social context of crying, participants inferred gender‐stereotypical traits and emotions. Study 2's manipulation …
Face the noise: Embodied responses to nonverbal vocalizations of discrete emotions
Extensive prior research has shown that the perception of an emotional facial expression automatically elicits a corresponding facial expression in the observer. Theories of embodied emotion, however, suggest that such reactions might also occur across expressive channels, because simulation is based on integrated motoric and affective representations of that emotion. In the present studies, we examined this idea by focusing on facial and experie…
Embodied emotion concepts: How generating words about pride and disappointment influences posture
Embodiment theories predict that activating conceptual knowledge about emotions can be accompanied by re‐experiencing bodily states, since simulations of sensory, motor, and introspective experiences form the foundation of conceptual representations of emotion. In the present study, we examine whether the activation of the specific emotion concepts of pride and disappointment are embodied in the sense that they are accompanied by changes in postu…
(Not) showing you feel good, can be bad: The consequences of breaking expressivity norms for positive emotions
Sex Differences in Emotionality: Fact or Stereotype
One consistent element of Western sex stereotypes is that women are emotional, whereas men are rational. This is also widely spread in psychology and defended by feminist authors who equate women's relationality with their emotionality. In this article the concept of `emotionality' is criticized and the assumption that women are generally more emotional than men is questioned. A large amount of empirical research on sex differences in emotions is…
What is it that is Constructed
Reconciling Emotions with Western Personhood
The Social Regulation of Emotions in Jealousy Situations: A Comparison between Italy and the Netherlands
Potential discrepancies between felt and communicated emotions elicited by two typical antecedents of jealousy that varied in terms of their seriousness were studied by means of a structured questionnaire. Italian (N = 301) and Dutch (N = 262) men and women attributed felt and shared emotions to a story protagonist. The emotions investigated included jealousy, anger, anxiety, sadness, insecurity, surprise, embarrassment, irritation, disgust, frus…
The Social Identities of Female Leaders in Different Cultural Contexts
This paper examines the meanings of womanhood as part of female leaders' social identities in relation to the different socio-cultural contexts of Poland and the Netherlands. The empirical study consists of interviews about gender and leadership with 25 female leaders in each country. A combination of content analysis and discourse analysis techniques was used in order to interpret the interviews. The results show both similarities and difference…
Gender Differences in Motives for Regulating Emotions
The present study was designed to test the assumption that gender differences in emotion expression are based on differences in the motives held by men and women in social interactions. Three hundred and fourteen students participated in this study by completing a questionnaire. Each questionnaire contained two vignettes that varied with respect to type of emotion (anger, disappointment, fear or sadness), sex of target, and object-target relation…
The relation between gender and emotion in different cultures
The Western dichotomy Western cultures share the stereotypical belief that women are more emotional than men. This stereotype has long featured in Western philosophy, where a binary opposition between emotion and reason has been closely associated with the opposition between masculinity and femininity (Lloyd, 1984; Shields, 1984). The stereotype of the “emotional woman” and the “rational man” was fueled by the increase of sex segregation in the p…
The Role of Honor-Related Values in the Elicitation, Experience, and Communication of Pride, Shame, and Anger: Spain and the Netherlands Compared
The authors investigated how honor-related values affect pride, shame, and anger. Spain and the Netherlands were selected for comparison because honor-related values are relatively more important in Spain, whereas individualistic values are relatively more important in the Netherlands. A total of 327 (169 Spanish, 158 Dutch) persons participated in the research. Participants answered questions about autobiographical experiences of pride, shame, a…
Social context effects on facial activity in a negative emotional setting
Social context effects on facial activity in a negative emotional setting
Evidence for A. J. Fridlund's (e.g.. 1994) "behavioral ecology view" of human facial expression comes primarily from studies of smiling in response to positive emotional stimuli. Smiling may be a special case because it clearly can, and often does serve merely communicative functions. The present experiment was designated (a) to assess the generalizability of social context effects to facial expressions in response to negative emotional stimuli a…
Honor in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe
The authors report two studies on notions of honor (i.e., the situations and behaviors associated with honor, its enhancement, and its loss) in a Mediterranean country (Spain) and a northern European country (the Netherlands). A total of 271 persons (140 Spanish, 131 Dutch) participated in Study 1, and a total of 327 persons (169 Spanish, 158 Dutch) participated in Study 2. The main aim of Study 1 was to characterize Spain and the Netherlands in …
The role of honour concerns in emotional reactions to offences
We investigated the role of honour concerns in mediating the effect of nationality and gender on the reported intensity of anger and shame in reaction to insult vignettes. Spain, an honour culture, and The Netherlands, where honour is of less central significance, were selected for comparison. A total of 260 (125 Dutch, 135 Spanish) persons participated in the research. Participants completed a measure of honour concerns and answered questions ab…
Social influences on the emotion process
Philosophical and psychological theory has traditionally focused on intra-individual processes that are entailed in emotions. Recently sociologists, cultural anthropologists, and also social psychologists have drawn attention to the interpersonal nature of emotions. In this chapter we focus on the influence of others on emotional experiences and expressions. We summarise research on social context effects which shows that both emotional expressio…
Gender and Culture Differences in Emotion
In this article, the authors report a secondary analysis on a cross-cultural dataset on gender differences in 6 emotions, collected in 37 countries all over the world. The aim was to test the universality of the gender-specific pattern found in studies with Western respondents, namely that men report more powerful emotions (e.g., anger), whereas women report more powerless emotions (e.g., sadness, fear). The authors expected the strength of these…
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is! Explaining Collective Action Tendencies Through Group-Based Anger and Group Efficacy
Insights from appraisal theories of emotion are used to integrate elements of theories on collective action. Three experiments with disadvantaged groups systematically manipulated procedural fairness (Study 1), emotional social support (Study 2), and instrumental social support (Study 3) to examine their effects on collective action tendencies through group-based anger and group efficacy. Results of structural equation modeling showed that proced…
Emotion in Social Relations: Cultural, Group, and Interpersonal Processes
Within psychology, emotion is often treated as something private and personal. In contrast, this book tries to understand emotion from the 'outside,' by examining the everyday social settings in which it operates. Three levels of social influence are considered in decreasing order of inclusiveness, starting with the surrounding culture and subculture, moving on to the more delimited organization or group, and finally focusing on the interpersonal…
Anger and social appraisal: A "spicy" sex difference
The central objective of this study was to investigate the role of social appraisal in sex differences in anger expression. Anger expression was inferred from the amount of hot sauce given to the person who induced anger. Participants were randomly assigned to a social condition, in which they expected to meet this person, or to a nonsocial condition, in which they had no such expectation. Men and women differed in their anger expressions, despit…
The Past and the Pending: The Antecedents and Consequences of Group-Based Anger in Historically and Currently Disadvantaged Groups
Two studies investigated the role of domain relevance in the experience of group-based anger among disadvantaged groups using structural equation models. In the first study, Surinamese people to whom the slavery past was more relevant made stronger attributions of outgroup-blame and experienced more anger. This effect was above and beyond the influence of group identification. In the second study relevance of women’s status position in society pr…
Beat them or ban them: The characteristics and social functions of anger and contempt
This article reports 3 studies in which the authors examined (a) the distinctive characteristics of anger and contempt responses and (b) the interpersonal causes and effects of both emotions. In the 1st study, the authors examined the distinction between the 2 emotions; in the 2nd study, the authors tested whether contempt could be predicted from previous anger incidents with the same person; and in the 3rd study, the authors examined the effects…
The role of emotion in computer-mediated communication: A review
Attack, disapproval, or withdrawal? The role of honour in anger and shame responses to being insulted
Insults elicit intense emotion. This study tests the hypothesis that one's social image, which is especially salient in honour cultures, influences the way in which one reacts to an insult. Seventy-seven honour-oriented and 72 non-honour oriented participants answered questions about a recent insult episode. Participants experienced both anger and shame in reaction to the insult. However, these emotions resulted in different behaviours. Anger led…
Embodied emotion concepts: How generating words about pride and disappointment influences posture
Embodiment theories predict that activating conceptual knowledge about emotions can be accompanied by re‐experiencing bodily states, since simulations of sensory, motor, and introspective experiences form the foundation of conceptual representations of emotion. In the present study, we examine whether the activation of the specific emotion concepts of pride and disappointment are embodied in the sense that they are accompanied by changes in postu…
Gender and Emotion: Social Psychological Perspectives
When the Mind Forms Fear: Embodied Fear Knowledge Potentiates Bodily Reactions to Fearful Stimuli
In the present study, the authors tested whether conceptual fear knowledge can (a) evoke bodily reactions and (b) enhance subsequent bodily reactions to fearful stimuli. Participants unscrambled neutral or fear sentences and subsequently viewed fearful and neutral pictures in combination with startle sounds. As predicted, the authors found embodied reactions (i.e., increased electrodermal and corrugator activity) while participants unscrambled fe…
Beyond smile dynamics: Mimicry and beliefs in judgments of smiles
The judgment that a smile is based on "true," usually positive, feelings affects social interaction. However, the processes underlying the interpretation of a smile as being more or less genuine are not well understood. The aim of the present research was to test predictions of the Simulation of Smiles Model (SIMS) proposed by Niedenthal, Mermillod, Maringer, and Hess (2010). In addition to the perceptual features that can guide the judgment of a…
Psychology (40 works) · Social Psychology (35 works) · Emotions and Moral Behavior (25 works) · Social Psychology (19 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (17 works) · Developmental psychology (17 works) · Cognitive psychology (16 works) · Anger (14 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (11 works) · Communication (10 works)