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Social vigilantism (SV) is an enduring individual difference that assesses the tendency of individuals to impress and propagate their "superior" beliefs onto others to correct others' more "ignorant" opinions. After establishing a reliable measure of SV, three studies showed that SV was associated with greater expressions of belief superiority (whether reacting to others holding dissimilar or similar beliefs) and greater resistance to persuasion (via increased rates of counterarguing and greater attitude stability after persuasion appeals) even after controlling for relevant individual differences (narcissism, dogmatism, psychological reactance, and need for cognition), as well as attitude importance and extremity. Thus, SV predicts expressions of belief superiority and resistance to persuasion above and beyond characteristics of the attitude and individual difference variables previously studied in the attitude literature. SV is a meaningful construct in increasing the understanding of persuasion, attitude resistance, and attitude dissemination that can be applied in a variety of psychological domains.

Via four studies (N = 901), we developed an improved Belief in Superstition Scale (BSS) composed of three distinct components (belief in bad luck, belief in good luck, and the belief that luck can be changed), whose structure was supported through exploratory (Study 1) and confirmatory (Studies 2 and 3) factor analyses using divergent samples. We found that among theoretical predictors, higher 'chance' locus of control (i.e., the belief that chance/fate controls one's life) best predicted all three BSS subscales (Studies 2-3). In Study 3, we found that BSS subscale scores were reliable, but largely invariant across age and education with a non-general psychology sample. In Study 4, the BSS subscales best predicted participants' superstitious attitudes and behaviour in a new lottery drawing paradigm among other commonly used superstition scales. Taken together, our results indicate that the BSS is a valuable addition to the burgeoning research on superstitious attitudes and behaviour.

Many humans seemingly crave imaginative involvement, especially fantasy, spending billions of dollars on its industry (e.g., Harry Potter). However, we argue that individuals subjectively experience imaginative involvement at different levels of cognitive (imagery vividness) and emotional (engagement) intensity. Two studies examined the effects of fantasy proneness and absorption on imagery vividness and engagement after completing various flying or control visualization tasks. After having first confirmed the structure of fantasy proneness as comprising three dimensions—fantasy intensity, childhood make-believe, and extrasensory experiences—our studies showed that across visualization tasks, fantasy intensity best predicted imagery vividness, while absorption best predicted engagement. Further, increased positive mood fully mediated the relationship between absorption and engagement. Ultimately, not everyone experiences imaginative involvement the same: certain individuals report greater engagement and a more emotionally enriching experience.

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