André Mata
Biographic Data
| ID | 203000 |
|---|---|
| NAME | André Mata |
| GIVEN NAMES | André |
| FAMILY NAME | Mata |
| SIGNATURE | MATA A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Lisbon |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5087-4919 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 82 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Learning psychology changes deep-rooted beliefs about the nature of psychological phenomena: Effects on intuitive dualism and beliefs about science
Learning about certain disciplines can change students’ way of thinking (e.g., economy students become less cooperative, philosophy students become more reflective). We explore whether studying psychology affects students’ beliefs about whether certain psychological phenomena can be explained by science, and whether they stem from a material (brain) or immaterial (soul) basis. A total of 315 psychology students at different levels into their stud…
Lay perceptions of psychology: The (mis)match between lay beliefs and explanatory stances
People do not think that all psychological phenomena are equally explainable through science: Psychological phenomena associated with a high first-person subjective experience (henceforth, FPSE; i.e. associated with a strong phenomenological experience) are considered less scientifically explainable than low-FPSE psychological phenomena (i.e. those lacking such phenomenological quality). We contrast two possible accounts for this finding: 1) a ge…
People underestimate how receptive other people are to different political opinions
Absolute moral perceptions of the self and others: People are bad, a person is good, I am great
For decades, psychologists have appreciated that the average person sees themselves as better than average, particularly in moral domains. Although self-other comparisons permit establishing normative violations, they leave unanswered whether people see themselves and others positively or negatively in an absolute sense. The present research introduces a novel measure of moral thresholds to identify the behavioral tipping point that subjectively …
Self-serving beliefs about science: Science justifies my weaknesses (but not other people’s)
This research explored the strategic beliefs that people have about science and the extent to which it can explain moral and immoral behaviors. Although people do not believe that science is able to explain certain aspects of their mind, they might nevertheless accept a scientific explanation for their immoral behaviors if that explanation is exculpatory. In a first study, participants reflected on moral and immoral deeds that they performed or t…
The spirit is noble, but the flesh is corrupt: Lay beliefs about the bases of (im)moral behavior
Motivated bias blind spot: People Confess to More or Less Bias Depending on Its Desirability
Though people readily claim that others fall prey to several biases, they are less likely to recognize those same biases in themselves – a tendency termed bias blind spot (Pronin et al. in Personality Social Psychol Bull 23:369–381, 2002). The bias blind spot is believed to emerge due to people’s overreliance on introspection for assessing their biases (which is unlikely to turn up evidence of bias), while bias in other people is ascribed based o…
Love is in the soul, math is in the brain: Dualist intuitions and belief in psychological science
The Perceived Authenticity of Attitudes Toward Groups: Attitudinal Expressions Are Seen as More Genuine When Ascribed to Individuals Than to Collectives
We assessed perceptions of other people's attitudinal responses toward various groups. Critically, those responses were described as the specific responses of a single person or as the typical responses of people in general. Participants perceived the exact same responses to be more authentic when these were ascribed to an individual rather than to a collective of individuals. Implications for the social perception of individuals versus collectiv…
The Social Amplification of Distortions in Representations of Ratios
When faced with a choice between two ratios, some people prefer the option with the larger numerator instead of the larger ratio. In this study, participants read texts containing two options involving ratios, indicated their preference between those options, and recalled the texts. Using the serial reproduction method, the recall protocols were then given to other participants to read, judge, and recall. Results show that some people’s represent…
The social amplification of illusory correlations
Illusory correlations are thought to underlie many undesirable judgements and behaviours, such as those that result in out‐group discrimination. In this research, illusory correlations are investigated in a dynamic fashion using the serial reproduction paradigm. Specifically, participants learned about members of certain groups and behaviours that they performed or attributes that they possessed. Afterwards, they were asked to recall that informa…
Pluralistic Ignorance for Automatic and Controlled Expressions of Prejudice: People Believe That Others Can Correct Their Automatic Biases, But Still Overestimate Others' Prejudice
Previous research shows clear evidence of pluralistic ignorance regarding prejudice: People believe that others are more prejudiced than they are. However, it is not clear whether these inferences pertain to automatic or controlled prejudice. In this study, participants completed automatic and controlled attitudinal measures regarding several groups, and they estimated how other people would respond to those measures. Participants underestimated …
Why leading is (almost) as important as winning
Reversing the cumulative redundancy bias to demonstrate metacognitive flexibility in cue utilization
Intermediate levels of scientific knowledge are associated with overconfidence and negative attitudes towards science
Deliberate ignorance in moral dilemmas: Protecting judgment from conflicting information
Attitude similarity and interpersonal liking: A dominance of positive over negative attitudes
Metacognition in moral decisions: Judgment extremity and feeling of rightness in moral intuitions
This research investigated the metacognitive underpinnings of moral judgment. Participants in two studies were asked to provide quick intuitive responses to moral dilemmas and to indicate their feeling of rightness about those responses. Afterwards, participants were given extra time to rethink their responses, and change them if they so wished. The feeling of rightness associated with the initial judgments was predictive of whether participants …
Real people or mere numbers? The influence of kill-save ratios and identifiability on moral judgements ( ¿Personas reales o meros números? La influencia de la proporción vidas sacrificadas/vidas salva…
In moral dilemmas, decision-making can be based on more utilitarian or deontological reasoning. In two experimental studies, we manipulated the number of people to be sacrificed (1 to save 5 vs. 3 to save 5) and whether personalizing information about them was presented. Results provide the first evidence of how the effects of kill-save ratios and identifiability of the potential victims are contingent on one another. Specifically, this research …
A diffusion model analysis of belief bias: Different cognitive mechanisms explain how cognitive abilities and thinking styles contribute to conflict resolution in reasoning
Cue competition in mental state inference: Blocking effects in learning to interpret the behaviors of others
Science can explain other people’s minds, but not mine: Self-other differences in beliefs about science
Four studies show that people differ in their lay beliefs concerning the degree to which science can explain their mind and the minds of other people. In particular, people are more receptive to the idea that the psychology of other people is explainable by science than to the possibility of science explaining their own psychology. This self-other difference is moderated by the degree to which people associate a certain mental phenomenon with int…
Observing Synchrony in Dyads: Effects on Observers’ Expectations and Intentions
This research tested whether observing members of a dyad behave in synchrony influences observers’ expectations and intentions about that dyad. In four studies, participants observed a dyad move in synchrony and were asked to make inferences about them. Results suggest that interpersonal synchrony serves as a social cue, such that observers expect the members of the dyad to work well together. Moreover, synchrony makes observers more likely to wa…
The redundancy in cumulative information and how it biases impressions
The present work identifies a so-far overlooked bias in sequential impression formation. When the latent qualities of competitors are inferred from a cumulative sequence of observations (e.g., the sum of points collected by sports teams), impressions should be based solely on the most recent observation because all previous observations are redundant. Based on the well-documented human inability to adequately discount redundant information, we pr…
Social metacognition in moral judgment: Decisional conflict promotes perspective taking
A series of studies explored people's metacognition about moral judgments. These studies begin by demonstrating a metacognitive asymmetry: When faced with a dilemma, consequentialist responders tend to feel more conflict than deontological responders, such that they feel more compelled to give the alternative response. As a consequence, they are aware that other people might make different judgments from them. Deontological responders, on the oth…
Patterns and Universals of Adult Romantic Attachment Across 62 Cultural Regions: Are Models of Self and of Other Pancultural Constructs
As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, a total of 17,804 participants from 62 cultural regions completedthe RelationshipQuestionnaire(RQ), a self-reportmeasure of adult romanticattachment. Correlational analyses within each culture suggested that the Model of Self and the Model of Other scales of the RQ were psychometrically valid within most cultures. Contrary to expectations, the Model of Self and Model of Other dimensions …
The metacognitive advantage of deliberative thinkers: A dual-process perspective on overconfidence
We explored whether the thinking mode--deliberative versus intuitive--that people use to solve a problem or make a judgment influences their awareness of their own and others' performance. The results of 7 studies support the hypothesis that deliberative thinkers have a metacognitive advantage over intuitive thinkers: Deliberative thinkers are aware of both the deliberative solution and the intuitive alternative; realizing that the deliberative s…
Deliberate ignorance in moral dilemmas: Protecting judgment from conflicting information
Social metacognition in moral judgment: Decisional conflict promotes perspective taking
A series of studies explored people's metacognition about moral judgments. These studies begin by demonstrating a metacognitive asymmetry: When faced with a dilemma, consequentialist responders tend to feel more conflict than deontological responders, such that they feel more compelled to give the alternative response. As a consequence, they are aware that other people might make different judgments from them. Deontological responders, on the oth…
The redundancy in cumulative information and how it biases impressions
The present work identifies a so-far overlooked bias in sequential impression formation. When the latent qualities of competitors are inferred from a cumulative sequence of observations (e.g., the sum of points collected by sports teams), impressions should be based solely on the most recent observation because all previous observations are redundant. Based on the well-documented human inability to adequately discount redundant information, we pr…
Reasoning about others' reasoning
Intermediate levels of scientific knowledge are associated with overconfidence and negative attitudes towards science
What's next? Disentangling availability from representativeness using binary decision tasks
The Presenter's Paradox Revisited: An Evaluation Mode Account
Three experimental studies demonstrate that evaluation mode influences the assessment of product bundles. Consumers' preferences for product bundles are more pronounced in a joint evaluation mode, where the bundle is directly contrasted to its single counterpart (i.e., the bundle without its add-on), than in a separate evaluation mode, where the bundle is evaluated in isolation. An attentional explanation is suggested: consumers pay more attentio…
Pluralistic Ignorance for Automatic and Controlled Expressions of Prejudice: People Believe That Others Can Correct Their Automatic Biases, But Still Overestimate Others' Prejudice
Previous research shows clear evidence of pluralistic ignorance regarding prejudice: People believe that others are more prejudiced than they are. However, it is not clear whether these inferences pertain to automatic or controlled prejudice. In this study, participants completed automatic and controlled attitudinal measures regarding several groups, and they estimated how other people would respond to those measures. Participants underestimated …
Absolute moral perceptions of the self and others: People are bad, a person is good, I am great
For decades, psychologists have appreciated that the average person sees themselves as better than average, particularly in moral domains. Although self-other comparisons permit establishing normative violations, they leave unanswered whether people see themselves and others positively or negatively in an absolute sense. The present research introduces a novel measure of moral thresholds to identify the behavioral tipping point that subjectively …
Motivated bias blind spot: People Confess to More or Less Bias Depending on Its Desirability
Though people readily claim that others fall prey to several biases, they are less likely to recognize those same biases in themselves – a tendency termed bias blind spot (Pronin et al. in Personality Social Psychol Bull 23:369–381, 2002). The bias blind spot is believed to emerge due to people’s overreliance on introspection for assessing their biases (which is unlikely to turn up evidence of bias), while bias in other people is ascribed based o…
The Perceived Authenticity of Attitudes Toward Groups: Attitudinal Expressions Are Seen as More Genuine When Ascribed to Individuals Than to Collectives
We assessed perceptions of other people's attitudinal responses toward various groups. Critically, those responses were described as the specific responses of a single person or as the typical responses of people in general. Participants perceived the exact same responses to be more authentic when these were ascribed to an individual rather than to a collective of individuals. Implications for the social perception of individuals versus collectiv…
The Social Amplification of Distortions in Representations of Ratios
When faced with a choice between two ratios, some people prefer the option with the larger numerator instead of the larger ratio. In this study, participants read texts containing two options involving ratios, indicated their preference between those options, and recalled the texts. Using the serial reproduction method, the recall protocols were then given to other participants to read, judge, and recall. Results show that some people’s represent…
Attitude similarity and interpersonal liking: A dominance of positive over negative attitudes
Patterns and Universals of Adult Romantic Attachment Across 62 Cultural Regions: Are Models of Self and of Other Pancultural Constructs
As part of the International Sexuality Description Project, a total of 17,804 participants from 62 cultural regions completedthe RelationshipQuestionnaire(RQ), a self-reportmeasure of adult romanticattachment. Correlational analyses within each culture suggested that the Model of Self and the Model of Other scales of the RQ were psychometrically valid within most cultures. Contrary to expectations, the Model of Self and Model of Other dimensions …
Reasoning about others' reasoning
The metacognitive advantage of deliberative thinkers: A dual-process perspective on overconfidence
We explored whether the thinking mode--deliberative versus intuitive--that people use to solve a problem or make a judgment influences their awareness of their own and others' performance. The results of 7 studies support the hypothesis that deliberative thinkers have a metacognitive advantage over intuitive thinkers: Deliberative thinkers are aware of both the deliberative solution and the intuitive alternative; realizing that the deliberative s…
The Presenter's Paradox Revisited: An Evaluation Mode Account
Three experimental studies demonstrate that evaluation mode influences the assessment of product bundles. Consumers' preferences for product bundles are more pronounced in a joint evaluation mode, where the bundle is directly contrasted to its single counterpart (i.e., the bundle without its add-on), than in a separate evaluation mode, where the bundle is evaluated in isolation. An attentional explanation is suggested: consumers pay more attentio…
Judgment of Covariation: A Review
This paper reviews a selection of influential studies on judgment of covariation in order to examine how accurate are people’s covariation judgments in general, and how sophisticated are the strategies they use to make those judgments. Very different answers have been given to these questions, depending on several factors, including the method that is used to assess people’s performance on these tasks, and the motivation that people to have to re…
Forecasting the duration of emotions: A motivational account and self-other differences
This research investigates the forecasts that people make about the duration of positive versus negative emotions, and tests whether these forecasts differ for self versus for others. Consistent with a motivated thinking framework, six studies show that people make optimistic, asymmetric forecasts that positive emotions will last longer than negative ones. However, for other people, wishful thinking is absent, and therefore people make less optim…
What's next? Disentangling availability from representativeness using binary decision tasks
Observing Synchrony in Dyads: Effects on Observers’ Expectations and Intentions
This research tested whether observing members of a dyad behave in synchrony influences observers’ expectations and intentions about that dyad. In four studies, participants observed a dyad move in synchrony and were asked to make inferences about them. Results suggest that interpersonal synchrony serves as a social cue, such that observers expect the members of the dyad to work well together. Moreover, synchrony makes observers more likely to wa…
The redundancy in cumulative information and how it biases impressions
The present work identifies a so-far overlooked bias in sequential impression formation. When the latent qualities of competitors are inferred from a cumulative sequence of observations (e.g., the sum of points collected by sports teams), impressions should be based solely on the most recent observation because all previous observations are redundant. Based on the well-documented human inability to adequately discount redundant information, we pr…
Social metacognition in moral judgment: Decisional conflict promotes perspective taking
A series of studies explored people's metacognition about moral judgments. These studies begin by demonstrating a metacognitive asymmetry: When faced with a dilemma, consequentialist responders tend to feel more conflict than deontological responders, such that they feel more compelled to give the alternative response. As a consequence, they are aware that other people might make different judgments from them. Deontological responders, on the oth…
Science can explain other people’s minds, but not mine: Self-other differences in beliefs about science
Four studies show that people differ in their lay beliefs concerning the degree to which science can explain their mind and the minds of other people. In particular, people are more receptive to the idea that the psychology of other people is explainable by science than to the possibility of science explaining their own psychology. This self-other difference is moderated by the degree to which people associate a certain mental phenomenon with int…
Metacognition in moral decisions: Judgment extremity and feeling of rightness in moral intuitions
This research investigated the metacognitive underpinnings of moral judgment. Participants in two studies were asked to provide quick intuitive responses to moral dilemmas and to indicate their feeling of rightness about those responses. Afterwards, participants were given extra time to rethink their responses, and change them if they so wished. The feeling of rightness associated with the initial judgments was predictive of whether participants …
Real people or mere numbers? The influence of kill-save ratios and identifiability on moral judgements ( ¿Personas reales o meros números? La influencia de la proporción vidas sacrificadas/vidas salva…
In moral dilemmas, decision-making can be based on more utilitarian or deontological reasoning. In two experimental studies, we manipulated the number of people to be sacrificed (1 to save 5 vs. 3 to save 5) and whether personalizing information about them was presented. Results provide the first evidence of how the effects of kill-save ratios and identifiability of the potential victims are contingent on one another. Specifically, this research …
A diffusion model analysis of belief bias: Different cognitive mechanisms explain how cognitive abilities and thinking styles contribute to conflict resolution in reasoning
Cue competition in mental state inference: Blocking effects in learning to interpret the behaviors of others
Deliberate ignorance in moral dilemmas: Protecting judgment from conflicting information
Attitude similarity and interpersonal liking: A dominance of positive over negative attitudes
Why leading is (almost) as important as winning
Reversing the cumulative redundancy bias to demonstrate metacognitive flexibility in cue utilization
Intermediate levels of scientific knowledge are associated with overconfidence and negative attitudes towards science
The Social Amplification of Distortions in Representations of Ratios
When faced with a choice between two ratios, some people prefer the option with the larger numerator instead of the larger ratio. In this study, participants read texts containing two options involving ratios, indicated their preference between those options, and recalled the texts. Using the serial reproduction method, the recall protocols were then given to other participants to read, judge, and recall. Results show that some people’s represent…
The social amplification of illusory correlations
Illusory correlations are thought to underlie many undesirable judgements and behaviours, such as those that result in out‐group discrimination. In this research, illusory correlations are investigated in a dynamic fashion using the serial reproduction paradigm. Specifically, participants learned about members of certain groups and behaviours that they performed or attributes that they possessed. Afterwards, they were asked to recall that informa…
Pluralistic Ignorance for Automatic and Controlled Expressions of Prejudice: People Believe That Others Can Correct Their Automatic Biases, But Still Overestimate Others' Prejudice
Previous research shows clear evidence of pluralistic ignorance regarding prejudice: People believe that others are more prejudiced than they are. However, it is not clear whether these inferences pertain to automatic or controlled prejudice. In this study, participants completed automatic and controlled attitudinal measures regarding several groups, and they estimated how other people would respond to those measures. Participants underestimated …
Self-serving beliefs about science: Science justifies my weaknesses (but not other people’s)
This research explored the strategic beliefs that people have about science and the extent to which it can explain moral and immoral behaviors. Although people do not believe that science is able to explain certain aspects of their mind, they might nevertheless accept a scientific explanation for their immoral behaviors if that explanation is exculpatory. In a first study, participants reflected on moral and immoral deeds that they performed or t…
The spirit is noble, but the flesh is corrupt: Lay beliefs about the bases of (im)moral behavior
Psychology (28 works) · Social Psychology (24 works) · Cognitive psychology (17 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Epistemology (14 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (14 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (12 works) · Cognition (8 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works)