According to optimal distinctiveness theory (ODT; Brewer 1991), individuals prefer social groups that are relatively distinct compared to other groups in the individuals' social environment. Distinctive groups (i.e., groups of moderate relative size) are deemed "optimal" because they allow for...

The two phenomena of illusory correlation and the inverse base rate effect are both misperceptions of true contingencies and are evoked by training procedures with analogous structures. We therefore explored the possibility that they share a common underlying mechanism. In two experiments using...

We've all seen the oft-cited Gallup poll that reports that an alarming majority of the workforce is disengaged and unmotivated. In Alive at Work, social psychologist Dan Cable argues that the reason for all the unhappiness is biological: organizations, in an effort to routinize work and...