The “erasing race” effect is the reduction of the salience of “race” as an alliance cue when recalling coalition membership, once more accurate information about coalition structure is presented. We conducted a random-effects model meta-analysis of this effect using five United States studies (containing nine independent effect sizes). The effect was found (ρ = 0.137, K = 9, 95% CI = 0.085 to 0.188). However, no decline effect or moderation effects were found (a “decline effect” in this context would be (...) a decrease in the effect size over time). Furthermore, we found little evidence of publication bias. Synthetically correcting the effect size for bias stemming from the use of an older method for calculating error base rates reduced the magnitude of the effect, but the it remained significant. Taken together, these findings indicate that the “erasing race” effect generalizes quite well across experimental contexts and would, therefore, appear to be quite robust. We reinterpret the theoretical basis for these effects in line with Brunswikian evolutionary-developmental theory and present a series of predictions to guide future research in this area. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:Price discrimination is the practice of charging different customers different prices for the same product. Many people consider price discrimination unfair, but economists argue that in many cases price discrimination is more likely to lead to greater welfare than is the uniform pricing alternative—sometimes for every party in the transaction. This article shows i) that there are many situations in which it is necessary to engage in differential pricing in order to make the provision of a product possible; and (...) ii) that in many such situations, the seller does not obtain an above-average rate of return. It concludes that price discrimination is not inherently unfair. The article also contends that even when conditions i) and/or ii) do not obtain, price discrimination is not necessarily unethical. In itself, the fact that some people get an even better deal than do others does not entail that the latter are wronged. (shrink)

Inhibition of return refers to the phenomenon that a person is slower to respond to targets at a previously cued location. The present study aimed to explore whether target-reward association is subject to IOR, using event-related potentials to explore the underlying neural mechanism. Each participant performed a localization task and a color discrimination task in an exogenous cueing paradigm, with the targets presented in colors previously associated with high- or low-reward probability. The results of both tasks revealed that (...) the N1, Nd, and P3 components exhibited differential amplitudes between cued and uncued trials under low reward, with the N1 and Nd amplitudes being enhanced for uncued trials compared to cued trials, and the P3 amplitude being enhanced for cued trials vs. uncued trials. Under high reward, however, no difference was found between the amplitudes on cued and uncued trials for any of the components. These findings demonstrate that targets that were previously associated with high reward can be resistant to IOR and the current results enrich the evidence for interactions between reward-association and attentional orientation in the cueing paradigm. (shrink)