On Getting Along
Come a Bit Closer: Approach Motor Actions Lead to Feeling Similar and Behavioral Assimilation
Ravit Nussinson, Beate Seibt, Michael Häfner & Fritz Strack
Social Cognition, February 2010, Pages 40-58
Abstract:
We suggest that while approaching a target, individuals are tuned to cues indicating closeness. Conversely, while avoiding a target, individuals are tuned to cues indicating distance. For social targets, this means that approach should be associated with similarities whereas avoidance should be associated with differences between the self and the target. We therefore hypothesized that executing approach (as compared to avoidance) motor actions would (a) lead participants to perceive others as psychologically more similar to themselves, and (b) trigger assimilation to the other's behavior. The first prediction was confirmed in two studies where participants rated how psychologically similar persons depicted on photos were to themselves. The second prediction-behavioral assimilation to social information while performing approach motor actions, and behavioral contrast away from social information while performing avoidance motor actions-was confirmed in Study 3.
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Political groups in contact: The role of attributions for outgroup attitudes in reducing antipathy
Jason Popan, Jared Kenworthy, Mark Frame, Patricia Lyons & Sarah Snuggs
European Journal of Social Psychology, February 2010, Pages 86-104
Abstract:
In two cross-sectional surveys and one experiment, we tested the hypothesis that attributions for outgroup ideologies would mediate the relationship between quality of contact and reduced prejudice. In Study 1, a British sample (N = 85) rated their perceptions of, and attributions for, their political outgroup's (i.e., conservative or liberal) belief system. Supporting our hypothesis, the relationship between contact and outgroup attitudes was mediated by rationality attributions - attributions that outgroup members obtained their views via rational thought processes. Study 2 was a replication of Study 1 with an American sample (N = 229) and expanded construct measurement. The results of Study 2 replicated those of Study 1, showing support for rationality attributions as a mediator of the contact-prejudice link. In Study 3 (N = 132), we experimentally manipulated the priming of past positive or negative outgroup contact with individual outgroup members and measured the proposed mediational constructs with respect to that outgroup encounter. Results further supported the role of rationality attributions as mediators of the contact-prejudice link. The implications of these findings for perceptions and relations between antagonistic ideological groups are discussed.
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Promoting social behavior with oxytocin in high-functioning autism spectrum disorders
Elissar Andari, Jean-René Duhamel, Tiziana Zalla, Evelyn Herbrecht, Marion Leboyer & Angela Sirigu
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Social adaptation requires specific cognitive and emotional competences. Individuals with high-functioning autism or with Asperger syndrome cannot understand or engage in social situations despite preserved intellectual abilities. Recently, it has been suggested that oxytocin, a hormone known to promote mother-infant bonds, may be implicated in the social deficit of autism. We investigated the behavioral effects of oxytocin in 13 subjects with autism. In a simulated ball game where participants interacted with fictitious partners, we found that after oxytocin inhalation, patients exhibited stronger interactions with the most socially cooperative partner and reported enhanced feelings of trust and preference. Also, during free viewing of pictures of faces, oxytocin selectively increased patients' gazing time on the socially informative region of the face, namely the eyes. Thus, under oxytocin, patients respond more strongly to others and exhibit more appropriate social behavior and affect, suggesting a therapeutic potential of oxytocin through its action on a core dimension of autism.
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Health, Wartime Stress, and Unit Cohesion: Evidence From Union Army Veterans
Dora Costa & Matthew Kahn
Demography, February 2010, Pages 45-66
Abstract:
We find that Union Army veterans of the American Civil War who faced greater wartime stress (as measured by higher battlefield mortality rates) experienced higher mortality rates at older ages, but that men who were from more cohesive companies were statistically significantly less likely to be affected by wartime stress. Our results hold for overall mortality, mortality from ischemic heart disease and stroke, and new diagnoses of arteriosclerosis. Our findings represent one of the first long-run health follow-ups of the interaction between stress and social networks in a human population in which both stress and social networks are arguably exogenous.
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Reflexively Mindblind: Using Theory of Mind To Interpret Behavior Requires Effortful Attention
Shuhong Lin, Boaz Keysar & Nicholas Epley
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
People commonly interpret others' behavior in terms of the actors' underlying beliefs, knowledge, or other mental states, thereby using their "theory of mind." Two experiments suggest that using one's theory of mind is a relatively effortful process. In both experiments, people reflexively used their own knowledge and beliefs to follow a speaker's instruction, but only effortfully used their theory of mind to take into account a speaker's intention to interpret those instructions. In Experiment 1, people with lower working memory capacity were less effective than people with larger working memory capacity in applying their theory of mind to interpret behavior. In Experiment 2, an attention-demanding secondary task reduced people's ability to apply their theory of mind. People appear to be reflexively mindblind, interpreting behavior in terms of the actor's mental states only to the extent that they have the cognitive resources to do so.
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Feeling Close: Emotional Intensity Reduces Perceived Psychological Distance
Leaf Van Boven, Joanne Kane, Peter McGraw & Jeannette Dale
University of Colorado Working Paper, January 2010
Abstract:
The results of six experiments indicate that emotional intensity reduces perceived psychological distance. People who described events emotionally rather than neutrally perceived those events as less psychologically distant, including embarrassing autobiographical events (Experiment 1), past and future dentist visits (Experiment 2), positive and negative events (Experiment 3), and a national tragedy (Experiment 6). People also perceived an event (dancing in front of an audience) as less psychologically distant when they were in a more emotionally arousing social role (of performer) than in a less emotionally arousing social role (of observer, Experiment 4). Two findings bolster the causal role of emotional intensity in reducing perceived psychological distance. First, reported emotional intensity was negatively correlated with perceived psychological distance, and statistically mediated the effect of being in an emotionally arousing social role on perceived psychological distance (Experiment 4). Second, providing people with an alternative interpretation of their emotions (emotionally ambiguous whale "songs") significantly reduced, even reversed, the negative correlation between self-reported emotional intensity and perceived psychological distance (Experiment 5). These findings about emotional intensity are consistent with the broader idea that perceived psychological distance is grounded in and influenced by the phenomenology of objective distance. Implications for theories of psychological distance, emotionality, and choice are discussed.
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By their words ye shall know them: Language abstraction and the likeability of describers
Karen Douglas & Robbie Sutton
European Journal of Social Psychology, March 2010, Pages 366-374
Abstract:
According to the linguistic category model (LCM), behaviour can be described at concrete (e.g. Kath hit Kim) and abstract (e.g. Kath is aggressive) levels. Variations in these levels convey information about the person being described and the relationship between that person and the describer. In the current research, we examined the power of language abstraction to create impressions of describers themselves. Results show that describers are seen as less likeable when they use abstract (vs. concrete) language to describe the negative actions of others. Conversely, impressions of describers are more favourable when they opt for abstract descriptions of others' positive behaviours. This effect is partially mediated by the attribution of a communicative agenda to describers. By virtue of these attributional implications, language abstraction is an impression formation device that can impact on the reputation of describers.
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Here's Looking at You Kid: Mood Effects on Processing Eye Gaze as a Heuristic Cue
Carrie Wyland & Joseph Forgas
Social Cognition, February 2010, Pages 133-144
Abstract:
The present study investigated how mood state and the eye gaze of the target influence ratings of trustworthiness and friendliness in photographs of faces. In a pilot study, participants rated gaze cues as being more applicable to ratings of trustworthiness than friendliness. The main study found that all participants rated faces with averted, compared to direct, gaze as less trustworthy. However, this was not the case for friendliness; while participants in a positive mood rated faces with averted gaze as less friendly than faces with direct gaze, participants in a negative mood did not. This suggests that people in a negative mood may only use heuristics when they are considered highly applicable, whereas people in a positive mood may use heuristic cues more broadly, even when these cues are not necessarily considered appropriate. These findings have implications for understanding when, how, and why heuristic cues are differentially used based on one's mood state.
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Nadia Chernyak & Vivian Zayas
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although research has shown that social exclusion undermines well-being, past work has focused primarily on complete and unambiguous social exclusion in which all people in a situation exclude one individual. Might the presence of an inclusive other buffer individuals against the deleterious consequences of social exclusion? The present research investigates a novel situation, one-person exclusion, in which one person includes while another excludes. Participants played a virtual ball-tossing game in which they experienced two-person exclusion, one-person exclusion, or inclusion. Inclusive others did not buffer against the consequences of exclusion; experiencing one-person exclusion (vs. inclusion) led to perceived exclusion and lessened belongingness, similar to two-person exclusion. Moreover, instead of perceiving includers as a form of support, paradoxically, participants inaccurately believed that inclusive others had engaged in exclusion. These findings suggest that one-person exclusion is sufficient to elicit negative outcomes and that inclusive bystanders may be perceived as part of the exclusion.