Supplemental Materials
What a _____ Thing to Do! Formally Characterizing Actions by their Expected Effects
by D. Wood et al., 2015, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000030
Table S1
Characteristic Pairs Used to Generate Action Instances
HEXACO dimension
Agreeableness
Agreeableness
Trait 1
Trait 2
kind-hearted, caring
courteous, polite
unfriendly, cold
rude, inconsiderate
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Extraversion
Extraversion
Emotionality
Emotionality
Emotionality
trusting, unsuspicious
dependable, reliable
disorganized, messy
impulsive, spontaneous
outgoing, sociable
bold, assertive
happy, joyful
calm, relaxed
confident, self-assured
stable, well-adjusted
truthful, honest
selfish, self-centered
conceited, egotistical
intelligent, smart
traditional, conventional
narrow-minded, close-minded
suspicious, guarded
undependable, unreliable
organized, neat
careful, cautious
bashful, shy
submissive, unassertive
sad, unhappy
tense, anxious
afraid, scared
angry, hostile
untruthful, dishonest
giving, generous
modest, humble
unintelligent, foolish
untraditional, unconventional
open-minded, open to new experiences
Honesty/Humility
Honesty/Humility
Honesty/Humility
Openness
Openness
Openness
×+
+
+
+
+
-
*+
*+
*+
-
×+
+
+
×+
+
+
+
+
+
+
*+
×+
*+
*-
+
×+
+
+
×+
×
*+
+
+
×
×-
-
+
+
+
+
×
+
+
*+
×
*+
+
×
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
*+
-
+
-
+
-
outgoing/sociable
bold/assertive
+
+
*+
-
confident/self-assured
*-
-
+
+
-
*+
+
*-
truthful/honest
×
kind-hearted/caring
+
+
-
intelligent/smart
careful/cautious
+
+
-
dependable/reliable
organized/neat
Action Expected Effects
Do what others would prefer
Fulfilling commitments
Being rejected
Someone else being rejected
Surprising others
Drawing attention
Expressing desires/values
Effort expended
Work others need to do in future
Acquire knowledge/information
Gaining status
Connection/relation to others
Exposure to social situations
Work to do in the future
Being in a predictable situation
Order/structure in environment
Sensory stimulation/excitement
Meeting achievement goals
Providing accurate information
Physical harm/pain to self
Physical harm/pain to others
industr/hard-working
Table S2
Hypothesized Relationships between Action Expected Effects and Characterizations
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
Note. Each cell depicts hypothesized associations between different expected effects of an action and
its characterization. “+” and “-“ indicate whether the relationship is expected to be positive or negative,
respectively. Multiplication terms (×) indicate that the feature is not expected to have a main effect in
characterization but might moderate the effect of necessary terms. Action effects hypothesized to be
necessary to characterizing the action by the associated term (i.e., necessary components of the
conceptual template) are indicated both in bold and by an asterisk (*).
Figure S1. Screen shot of a scenario (Item #69 in Supplemental Table S3) presented to participants in the
Action Characterization condition.