Frenemies
Jon Maner & Saul Miller
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
During the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, women's bodies prepare themselves for possible pregnancy and this preparation includes a dramatic increase in progesterone. This increase in progesterone may underlie a variety of functionally relevant psychological changes designed to help women overcome challenges historically encountered during pregnancy (e.g., warding off social threats and recruiting allies). This paper reports data supporting the hypothesis that increases in progesterone during the luteal phase underlie heightened levels of social monitoring — that is, heightened sensitivity to social cues indicating the presence of social opportunity or threat. Increases in progesterone during the luteal phase were associated with increased accuracy in decoding facial expressions (Study 1) and increased attention to social stimuli (Study 2). Findings suggest that increases in progesterone during the luteal phase may be linked functionally with low-level perceptual attunements that help women effectively navigate their social world.
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Travis Wilson, Philip Rodkin & Allison Ryan
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examined whether social goal orientation (i.e., demonstration–approach, demonstration–avoid, and social development goals) predicts changes in ethnic segregation among 4th and 5th grade African American and European American children (n = 713, ages 9–11 years) from fall to spring. Segregation measures were (a) same-ethnicity favoritism in friendships, (b) same-ethnicity favoritism in peer group affiliations, and (c) cross-ethnicity dislike. Social goal orientation was asymmetrically associated with ethnic segregation for the 2 groups. Among African Americans, aspiring to achieve high social status predicted increases in same-ethnicity favoritism and cross-ethnicity dislike. Among European Americans, aspiring to achieve high social status predicted decreases in same-ethnicity favoritism.
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Jaana Juvonen, Yueyan Wang & Guadalupe Espinoza
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, December 2013, Pages 1801-1810
Abstract:
There is a robust association between aggression and social prominence by early adolescence, yet findings regarding the direction of influence remain inconclusive in light of gender differences across various forms of aggressive behaviors. The current study examined whether physical aggression and spreading of rumors, as two gender-typed aggressive behaviors that differ in overt displays of power, promote and/or maintain socially prominent status for girls and boys during non-transitional grades in middle school. Peer nominations were used to assess physical aggression, spreading of rumors, and “cool” reputation (social prominence) during three time points between the spring of seventh grade and spring of eighth grade. Participants included 1,895 (54 % female) ethnically diverse youth: 47 % Latino, 22 % African-American, 11 % Asian, 10 % White and 10 % Other/Mixed ethnic background. Cross-lagged path analyses were conducted to test the directionality of the effects, and gender moderation was assessed by relying on multi-group analyses. The analyses revealed mainly reciprocal associations for each form of aggression, suggesting that boys, as well as girls, can both gain and maintain their status by spreading rumors about their peers, just as they do by physically fighting and pushing others in urban middle schools. The implications of the findings for interventions are discussed.
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Christian Hinsch & Kennon Sheldon
Journal of Consumer Behaviour, November/December 2013, Pages 496–505
Abstract:
Organizations are frequently turning to social Internet applications in an effort to form bonds with consumers. However, little research has addressed the impact of social Internet consumption on the individual. Two studies of regular social Internet consumers (i.e., users of Facebook and socially connected online games) examined the effects of prompted usage reduction or cessation upon participants. In both studies, participants benefitted on average during the reduction/cessation period, reporting increased life satisfaction and decreased procrastination. The Facebooker versus gamer factor had remarkably few effects (i.e., results generalized across these two groups). Implications are discussed for both consumers and organizations involved in social Internet activities.
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Pamela Black, Michael Woodworth & Stephen Porter
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although it is recognized that “dark personalities” engage in a high level of interpersonal manipulation and exploitation, little is known about whether or how they assess a target’s potential vulnerability prior to such behavior. This study examined the relation between the Dark Triad (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) and strategies used in the assessment of personality and emotional states related to vulnerability in others. Participants (N = 101) were asked to form impressions of stranger “targets” (with either high or low known vulnerability features) describing themselves across thin slice video, audio, or transcript modalities. Results indicated that dark personalities engaged in a relatively superficial interpersonal analysis and exhibited a “negative other” heuristic by which they generally perceived all targets as being weak and vulnerable to victimization. This negative other heuristic led to impairments in their ability to accurately assess certain features of others. We propose that instead of being keen “readers” of others, dark personalities may rely on their own personality and physical features (e.g., charm, good looks) to draw in vulnerable victims or adopt a “quantity over quality” strategy to find victims and then use active manipulation tactics to exploit them.
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Brain Hyperconnectivity in Children with Autism and its Links to Social Deficits
Kaustubh Supekar et al.
Cell Reports, 14 November 2013, Pages 738-747
Abstract:
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting nearly 1 in 88 children, is thought to result from aberrant brain connectivity. Remarkably, there have been no systematic attempts to characterize whole-brain connectivity in children with ASD. Here, we use neuroimaging to show that there are more instances of greater functional connectivity in the brains of children with ASD in comparison to those of typically developing children. Hyperconnectivity in ASD was observed at the whole-brain and subsystems levels, across long- and short-range connections, and was associated with higher levels of fluctuations in regional brain signals. Brain hyperconnectivity predicted symptom severity in ASD, such that children with greater functional connectivity exhibited more severe social deficits. We replicated these findings in two additional independent cohorts, demonstrating again that at earlier ages, the brain of children with ASD is largely functionally hyperconnected in ways that contribute to social dysfunction. Our findings provide unique insights into brain mechanisms underlying childhood autism.
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Oxytocin enhances brain function in children with autism
Ilanit Gordon et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Following intranasal administration of oxytocin (OT), we measured, via functional MRI, changes in brain activity during judgments of socially (Eyes) and nonsocially (Vehicles) meaningful pictures in 17 children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD). OT increased activity in the striatum, the middle frontal gyrus, the medial prefrontal cortex, the right orbitofrontal cortex, and the left superior temporal sulcus. In the striatum, nucleus accumbens, left posterior superior temporal sulcus, and left premotor cortex, OT increased activity during social judgments and decreased activity during nonsocial judgments. Changes in salivary OT concentrations from baseline to 30 min postadministration were positively associated with increased activity in the right amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex during social vs. nonsocial judgments. OT may thus selectively have an impact on salience and hedonic evaluations of socially meaningful stimuli in children with ASD, and thereby facilitate social attunement. These findings further the development of a neurophysiological systems-level understanding of mechanisms by which OT may enhance social functioning in children with ASD.
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Differential effects of the KiVa anti-bullying program on popular and unpopular bullies
Claire Garandeau, Ihno Lee & Christina Salmivalli
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study utilized data from the evaluation of the Finnish KiVa program in testing the prediction that school bullies' high perceived popularity would impede the success of anti-bullying interventions. Multiple-group structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses were conducted on a subsample of 911 third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders identified as perpetrators of bullying. They belonged to 77 Finnish schools, including 39 schools implementing the KiVa program and 38 control schools. Data on peer-reported bullying and perceived popularity were collected before program implementation and one year later. Controlling for sex, age, and initial levels of bullying, KiVa participation resulted in lower rates of bullying (indicated by fewer peer nominations) after one year for bullies of low and medium popularity. However, there was no significant effect for those high in popularity, suggesting that popular bullies are less responsive to anti-bullying interventions than less popular bullies.
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Texting everywhere for everything: Gender and age differences in cell phone etiquette and use
Deborah Kirby Forgays, Ira Hyman & Jessie Schreiber
Computers in Human Behavior, February 2014, Pages 314–321
Abstract:
The majority of research on cell phone use has focused on adolescent and young adult users with less attention on cell phone use by those older than 25 years of age. In this study, adult participants from 18 to 68 years completed a survey about their own use of cell phones and the contexts in which they considered cell phone use appropriate. There were age and gender differences in beliefs about the etiquette as to when cell phone use was appropriate. Older participants and women advocated for more restricted cell phone use in most social situations. Men differed from women in that they viewed cell phone calls as more appropriate in virtually all environments including intimate settings. Across all age groups in all communication settings, cell phones were used to text. The only exception was that romantic partners were more likely to receive a call than a text. In the younger age groups, texting communication is so normative that over 25% had dumped or were dumped by a romantic partner. The preponderance of gender similarities point to cell phone usage as a stable communication vehicle for maintaining social contact.
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Jennifer Watling Neal & Elise Cappella
Aggressive Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study explores whether findings linking positive perceptual bias to childhood aggression extend to perceptual bias in network centrality. We present data from nested regression models that examine associations between perceptual bias in network centrality and aggressive behavior in a sample of 421 urban African American second through fourth grade students. Children who overestimated their network centrality compared to peer-reports were less likely to be nominated by peers as overtly or relationally aggressive. Results run counter to threatened egotism theory, and instead support a resource control theory explanation of perceptual bias and aggression. Specifically, aggressive children may strategically limit the number of peers they report “hanging out with” to maintain social status within their peer group. Findings imply that not all forms of positive perceptual bias have a “dark side.”
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Enhancing social cognition by training children in emotion understanding: A primary school study
Veronica Ornaghi, Jens Brockmeier & Ilaria Grazzani
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, March 2014, Pages 26–39
Abstract:
We investigated whether training school-age children in emotion understanding had a significant effect on their social cognition. Participants were 110 children (mean age = 7 years 3 months) assigned to training and control conditions. Over a 2-month intervention program, after the reading of illustrated scenarios based on emotional scripts, the training group was engaged in conversations on emotion understanding, whereas the control group was simply asked to produce a drawing about the story. The training group outperformed the control group on emotion comprehension, theory of mind, and empathy, and the positive training outcomes for emotion understanding remained stable over 6 months. Implications of the findings are discussed.
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Jennifer Silk et al.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Sensitivity to social evaluation has been proposed as a potential marker or risk factor for depression, and has also been theorized to increase with pubertal maturation. This study utilized an ecologically valid paradigm to test the hypothesis that adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) would show altered reactivity to peer rejection and acceptance relative to healthy controls in a network of ventral brain regions implicated in affective processing of social information. 48 adolescents (ages 11-17), including 21 with a current diagnosis of MDD and 27 age- and gender-matched controls, received rigged acceptance and rejection feedback from fictitious peers during a simulated online peer interaction during functional neuroimaging. MDD youth showed increased activation to rejection relative to controls in the bilateral amygdala, subgenual anterior cingulate, left anterior insula, and left nucleus accumbens. MDD and healthy youth did not differ in response to acceptance. Youth more advanced in pubertal maturation also showed increased reactivity to rejection in the bilateral amygdala/parahippocampal gyrus and the caudate/subgenual anterior cingulate, and these effects remained significant when controlling for chronological age. Findings suggest that increased reactivity to peer rejection is a normative developmental process associated with pubertal development, but is particularly enhanced among youth with depression.
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Importance of having agreeable friends in adolescence (especially when you are not)
Jennifer Knack et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using the actor–partner interdependence model, we examined whether adolescent's agreeableness, best friend's agreeableness, and the interaction between adolescent-friend agreeableness are important for interpersonal functioning. Adolescents (N = 158) in fifth to eighth grades who were part of best friend pairs completed personality and friendship measures. Adolescents' adjustment and victimization experiences were assessed by peer nominations. For boys, best friend's agreeableness moderated the relationship between the target boy's agreeableness and overt victimization, relational victimization, and externalizing problems. For girls, best friend's agreeableness moderated the relationship between the target girl's agreeableness and internalizing problems and prosocial skills. This study provides an initial glimpse into how traits of friends can influence outcomes beyond what would be expected from adolescents' personality alone.
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There is no sweet escape from social pain: Glucose does not attenuate the effects of ostracism
Holly Miller et al.
Physiology & Behavior, 30 January 2014, Pages 8–14
Abstract:
Ostracism causes social pain and is known to activate regions of the brain that are involved in the representation of physical pain. Previous research has observed that acetominophen (a common pain reliever) can reduce the pain of exclusion. The taste and consumption of glucose can also relieve physical pain, and the purpose of the current study was to examine whether it might also reduce the negative emotional effects of ostracism. In an appropriately powered experiment, participants were given 25 g of glucose or a sucralose placebo before being ostracized while playing Cyberball. Strong effects of ostracism were observed, however, there was no effect of glucose on immediate or delayed self-reported needs or mood. These results are discussed in reference to the possibility that social pain is unlike physical pain since the latter is affected by glucose, which is believed to lessen pain by increasing endogenous opioid activity.