Personality at Face Value: Facial Appearance Predicts Self and Other Personality Judgments among Strangers and Spouses

Character judgments, based on facial appearance, impact both perceivers’ and targets’ interpersonal decisions and behaviors. Nonetheless, the resilience of such effects in the face of longer acquaintanceship duration is yet to be determined. To address this question, we had 51 elderly long-term married couples complete self and informant versions of a Big Five Inventory. Participants were also photographed, while they were requested to maintain an emotionally neutral expression. A subset of the initial sample completed a shortened version of the Big Five Inventory in response to the pictures of other opposite sex participants (with whom they were unacquainted). Oosterhof and Todorov’s (in Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:11087–11092, 2008) computer-based model of face evaluation was used to generate facial trait scores on trustworthiness, dominance, and attractiveness, based on participants’ photographs. Results revealed that structural facial characteristics, suggestive of greater trustworthiness, predicted positively biased, global informant evaluations of a target’s personality, among both spouses and strangers. Among spouses, this effect was impervious to marriage length. There was also evidence suggestive of a Dorian Gray effect on personality, since facial trustworthiness predicted not only spousal and stranger, but also self-ratings of extraversion. Unexpectedly, though, follow-up analyses revealed that (low) facial dominance, rather than (high) trustworthiness, was the strongest predictor of self-rated extraversion. Our present findings suggest that subtle emotional cues, embedded in the structure of emotionally neutral faces, exert long-lasting effects on personality judgments even among very well-acquainted targets and perceivers.     

Career Engagement: Investigating Intraindividual Predictors of Weekly Fluctuations in Proactive Career Behaviors

This study applied a microlevel perspective on how within‐individual differences in motivational and social‐cognitive factors affected the weekly fluctuations of engagement in proactive career behaviors among a group of 67 German university students. Career self‐efficacy beliefs, perceived career barriers, experienced social career support, positive and negative emotions, and career engagement were assessed weekly for 13 consecutive weeks. Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that above average levels of career engagement within individuals were predicted by higher than average perceived social support and positive emotions during a given week. Conversely, within‐individual differences in self‐efficacy, barriers, and negative emotions had no effect. The results suggest that career interventions should provide boosts in social support and positive emotions.     

Comparing Subjective and Objective Quality of Life Criteria: A Case Study of Green Space and Public Transport in Vienna,Austria

Social Indicators Research - A future-oriented spatial planning has to face the challenges of integrating ecological, social, and economic aspects of living. This is often seen as a principle to...     

Transfer Pricing in Transition Economies: Evidence from Ukraine

Faced with possibilities and challenges of doing business under different regulatory regimes, transnational corporations have developed a number of transfer mechanisms to take advantage of profit maximization opportunities. Transfer pricing is a transfer mechanism widely used by transnational corporations. Implications of transfer pricing for profitability and the need for transfer pricing regulation are well understood by national governments, which is reflected in the fact that more than 60 governments have introduced some form of transfer pricing controls. Transfer pricing is a challenging issue for transition economies as their transfer pricing regulatory systems are less mature than those of developed countries. The authors have initiated an empirical study on transfer pricing strategies in the Ukrainian market. In addition, the national regulatory regime for transfer pricing was evaluated compared to international best practices. This article is an attempt to draw attention of the research community and Ukrainian policy-makers to transfer pricing issues in Ukraine.      

Interkulturelles Training

With proceeding internationalization and globalization of society the demands of working life have changed in the last decades. To meet these demands executives and professionals cooperating with foreign partners abroad or in Germany need the central key qualification of intercultural competence. This important key qualification does not evolve automatically from intercultural experiences, but has to be acquired during an extensive learning process, which is mainly organized in intercultural trainings. This text first describes what intercultural competence is and how it is developed. Based on scientific findings on developmental stages of intercultural competence central aspects of intercultural trainings are covered in detail. Objectives and methods of various intercultural training formats are outlined to illustrate the conceptualization and outcomes of learning effective trainings. The text concludes with future developments of intercultural training in the light of expatriates facing increasing demands regarding the quality of their work. Trainee groups will become more culturally heterogeneous, more trainings will be needed that moderate acculturation processes while staying abroad, training contents and methods have to be adapted according to local customs, modern information technology will play a major role, and family members coming along have to be involved in the training process.     

Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington,D.C.: Results of the National Demonstration Project,June--July 1993

This paper reports the results of a prospective experiment in which a group of approximately 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi assembled in Washington, D.C., from June 7 to July 30, 1993. It was hypothesized that levels of violent crime in the District of Columbia would fall substantially during the Demonstration Project, as a result of the group's effect of increasing coherence and reducing stress in the collective consciousness of the District. A 27-member Project Review Board comprising independent scientists and leading citizens approved the research protocol and monitored the research process. Weekly crime data was derived from database records provided by the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (DCMPD), which are used in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. Statistical analysis considered the effect of weather variables, daylight, historical crime trends and annual patterns in the District of Columbia, as well as trends in neighboring cities. Consistent with previous research, levels of homicides, rapes and assaults (HRA crimes) correlated with average weekly temperature. Robberies approximately followed an annually recurring cycle. Time series analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, showed that HRA crimes dropped significantly during the Demonstration Project, corresponding with increases in the size of the group; the maximum decrease was 23.3% (p < 2 × 10–9) [24.6% using a longer baseline, with 1988--1993 data (p < 3 × 10–5)], coincident with the peak number of participants in the group during the final week of the assembly. When the same period in each of the five previous years was examined, no significant decreases in HRA crimes were found. Robberies did not decrease significantly. However, a model that jointly estimated the effect of the Demonstration Project on both HRA crimes and robberies showed a significant reduction in violent crimes overall of 15.6% (p = 0.0008). Further analysis showed that the effect of the coherence-creating group on reducing HRA crimes could not be accounted for by additional police staffing. The time series analysis for HRA crimes gave results that are highly robust to alternative model specifications, and showed that the effect of the group size was cumulative and persisted after the Demonstration Project ended. Also, calculation of the steady state gain based on the time series model predicted that a permanent group of 4,000 coherence-creating experts in the District would have a long-term effect of reducing HRA crimes by 48%.     

Abuse of disabled children in Ghana

Even though disabled children are targets of various forms of abuse, such issues remain mostly undocumented open secrets in many countries including Ghana. The article is based on a qualitative data provided by three key informants. Six stories emerged from the data and are discussed in terms of four main forms of abuse. Labelling theories are employed to strengthen the discussions. The article is aimed at increasing awareness on the various forms of abuse experienced by disabled children in Ghana. The study is also meant to capture the attentions of stakeholders that have the responsibility to end abusive practices against disabled children in Ghana.