Universität zu Köln

Alves, Hans, Koch, Alex ORCID: 0000-0002-6267-8066 and Unkelbach, Christian ORCID: 0000-0002-3793-6246 (2017). The Common Good Phenomenon: Why Similarities Are Positive and Differences Are Negative. J. Exp. Psychol.-Gen., 146 (4). S. 512 - 529. WASHINGTON: AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC. ISSN 1939-2222

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Abstract

Positive attributes are more prevalent than negative attributes in the social environment. From this basic assumption, 2 implications that have been overlooked thus far: Positive compared with negative attributes are more likely to be shared by individuals, and people's shared attributes (similarities) are more positive than their unshared attributes (differences). Consequently, similarity-based comparisons should lead to more positive evaluations than difference-based comparisons. We formalized our probabilistic reasoning in a model and tested its predictions in a simulation and 8 experiments (N = 1,181). When participants generated traits about 2 target persons, positive compared with negative traits were more likely to be shared by the targets (Experiment 1a) and by other participants' targets (Experiment 1b). Conversely, searching for targets' shared traits resulted in more positive traits than searching for unshared traits (Experiments 2, 4a, and 4b). In addition, positive traits were more accessible than negative traits among shared traits but not among unshared traits (Experiment 3). Finally, shared traits were only more positive when positive traits were indeed prevalent (Experiments 5 and 6). The current framework has a number of implications for comparison processes and provides a new interpretation of well-known evaluative asymmetries such as intergroup bias and self-superiority effects.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Alves, Hans UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Koch, Alex UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-6267-8066 UNSPECIFIED Unkelbach, Christian UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-3793-6246 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-235354
DOI:	10.1037/xge0000276
Journal or Publication Title:	J. Exp. Psychol.-Gen.
Volume:	146
Number:	4
Page Range:	S. 512 - 529
Date:	2017
Publisher:	AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
Place of Publication:	WASHINGTON
ISSN:	1939-2222
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Human Sciences Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Human Sciences > Department Psychologie Center of Excellence C-SEB
Subjects:	Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language PERCEIVED SIMILARITY; IMPRESSION-FORMATION; VALENCE ASYMMETRIES; EXPOSURE FREQUENCY; PERSON PERCEPTION; JUDGMENT BIASES; SOCIAL JUDGMENT; UNIQUE FEATURES; SELF; INFORMATION Multiple languages Psychology, Experimental Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/23535