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dc.contributor.authorAckerman, Joshua
dc.contributor.authorVaughn Becker, D.
dc.contributor.authorMortensen, Chad R.
dc.contributor.authorSasaki, Takao
dc.contributor.authorNeuberg, Steven L.
dc.contributor.authorKenrick, Douglas T.
dc.date.accessioned2012-11-06T18:20:52Z
dc.date.available2012-11-06T18:20:52Z
dc.date.issued2009-01
dc.date.submitted2008-10
dc.identifier.issn0022-1015
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/74579
dc.description.abstractThe unfavorable treatment of people with physical disfigurements is well-documented, yet little is known about basic perceptual and cognitive responses to disfigurement. Here, we identify a specialized pattern of cognitive processing consistent with the hypothesis that disfigurements act as heuristic cues to contagious disease. Disfigurements are often invariant across time and difficult to conceal, and thus observers can detect the presence of such cues without necessarily remembering the particular individuals bearing these cues. Indeed, despite the fact that disfigured faces were especially likely to hold disease-sensitive perceivers’ attention (Study 1), disfigured individuals were often confused with one another and thus not well remembered later (Study 2), revealing a disjunction of the typical relationship between elevated attention and elevated memory. We discuss the implications of our results for stigmatization of people with and without physical abnormalities and suggest the possibility that cognitive mechanisms for processing social information may be functionally tuned to the variant nature of important cues.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) (Grant MH64734)en_US
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA)en_US
dc.relation.isversionofhttp://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.12.008en_US
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0en_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/en_US
dc.sourcePubMed Centralen_US
dc.titleA Pox on the Mind: Disjunction of Attention and Memory in Processing Physical Disfigurementen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.citationAckerman, Joshua M. et al. “A Pox on the Mind: Disjunction of Attention and Memory in the Processing of Physical Disfigurement.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45.3 (2009): 478–485.en_US
dc.contributor.departmentSloan School of Managementen_US
dc.contributor.mitauthorAckerman, Joshua
dc.relation.journalJournal of Experimental Psychologyen_US
dc.eprint.versionAuthor's final manuscripten_US
dc.type.urihttp://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticleen_US
eprint.statushttp://purl.org/eprint/status/PeerRevieweden_US
dspace.orderedauthorsAckerman, Joshua M.; Vaughn Becker, D.; Mortensen, Chad R.; Sasaki, Takao; Neuberg, Steven L.; Kenrick, Douglas T.en
mit.licenseOPEN_ACCESS_POLICYen_US
mit.metadata.statusComplete


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