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Shared Neural Mechanisms Underlying Social Warmth and Physical Warmth
Tristen Inagaki & Naomi Eisenberger
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many of people’s closest bonds grow out of socially warm exchanges and the warm feelings associated with being socially connected. Indeed, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying thermoregulation may be shared by those that regulate social warmth, the experience of feeling connected to other people. To test this possibility, we placed participants in a functional MRI scanner and asked them to (a) read socially warm and neutral messages from friends and family and (b) hold warm and neutral-temperature objects (a warm pack and a ball, respectively). Findings showed an overlap between physical and social warmth: Participants felt warmer after reading the positive (compared with neutral) messages and more connected after holding the warm pack (compared with the ball). In addition, neural activity during social warmth overlapped with neural activity during physical warmth in the ventral striatum and middle insula, but neural activity did not overlap during another pleasant task (soft touch). Together, these results suggest that a common neural mechanism underlies physical and social warmth.
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Danny Osborne, Liz Wootton & Chris Sibley
Social Psychology, Fall 2013, Pages 354-360
Abstract:
Documenting the relationship between Agreeableness and political conservatism has proven elusive. We address this anomaly by showing that two aspects of Agreeableness - politeness and compassion - have countervailing relationships with political conservatism through right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO). To test this, we analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of New Zealanders (N = 4,553). Politeness was positively, but compassion was negatively, correlated with political conservatism. Consistent with the differential mediation hypothesis derived from the dual process model of ideology and prejudice, these opposing relationships were differentially mediated by RWA and SDO. This attenuated the bivariate relationship between the higher-order trait of Agreeableness and political conservatism. These results demonstrate the complex relationship between personality and political orientation.
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Is Efficiency Overrated? Minimal Social Interactions Lead to Belonging and Positive Affect
Gillian Sandstrom & Elizabeth Dunn
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
When we buy our daily cup of coffee, sometimes we engage in a social interaction with the barista, and sometimes we are in a rush. Every day we have opportunities to transform potentially impersonal, instrumental exchanges into genuine social interactions, and the happiness literature suggests that we may reap benefits by doing so; in other words, treating a service provider like we would an acquaintance (i.e., weak tie) might make us happier. In the current study, people who had a social interaction with a barista (i.e., smiled, made eye contact, and had a brief conversation) experienced more positive affect than people who were as efficient as possible. Further, we found initial evidence that these effects were mediated by feelings of belonging. These results suggest that, although people are often reluctant to have a genuine social interaction with a stranger, they are happier when they treat a stranger like a weak tie.
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Short Term Effects of Gossip Behavior on Self-Esteem
Jennifer Cole & Hannah Scrivener
Current Psychology, September 2013, Pages 252-260
Abstract:
Gossip is a frequent social activity, yet there is little research on the experience of providing gossip and how it impacts upon well-being of the gossiper. The present research aimed to investigate the effect of gossip behavior on the self-esteem of the gossiper. In Study 1, 140 participants were asked to write either a positive or negative description of a target person. Self-esteem was significantly reduced after providing a negative description but there was no effect of providing a positive one. In Study 2, 112 participants were asked to share information about someone they knew. Self-esteem decreased significantly regardless of the valence of the information. This research suggests that the act of gossiping is one which leads to self‐criticism regardless of valence.
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Dar Meshi, Carmen Morawetz & Hauke Heekeren
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, August 2013
Abstract:
Our reputation is important to us; we've experienced natural selection to care about our reputation. Recently, the neural processing of gains in reputation (positive social feedback concerning one's character) has been shown to occur in the human ventral striatum. It is still unclear, however, how individual differences in the processing of gains in reputation may lead to individual differences in real-world behavior. For example, in the real-world, one way that people currently maintain their reputation is by using social media websites, like Facebook. Furthermore, Facebook use consists of a social comparison component, where users observe others' behavior and can compare it to their own. Therefore, we hypothesized a relationship between the way the brain processes specifically self-relevant gains in reputation and one's degree of Facebook use. We recorded functional neuroimaging data while participants received gains in reputation, observed the gains in reputation of another person, or received monetary reward. We demonstrate that across participants, when responding to gains in reputation for the self, relative to observing gains for others, reward-related activity in the left nucleus accumbens predicts Facebook use. However, nucleus accumbens activity in response to monetary reward did not predict Facebook use. Finally, a control step-wise regression analysis showed that Facebook use primarily explains our results in the nucleus accumbens. Overall, our results demonstrate how individual sensitivity of the nucleus accumbens to the receipt of self-relevant social information leads to differences in real-world behavior.
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Texting While Stressed: Implications for Students’ Burnout, Sleep, and Well-Being
Karla Klein Murdock
Psychology of Popular Media Culture, forthcoming
Abstract:
Text messaging has become an integral part of social life, especially among adolescents and young adults. As a potentially continuously accessible form of communication, texting may affect individuals’ psychosocial functioning in interesting - and unexplored - ways. The current study examines links among interpersonal stress, text messaging behavior, and 3 indicators of college students’ health and well-being: burnout, sleep problems, and emotional well-being. It was proposed that high rates of text messaging may exacerbate the effects of interpersonal stress on these aspects of students’ health and well-being. Participants included 83 first-year undergraduate students. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that higher levels of interpersonal stress were significantly associated with compromises in all 3 areas of functioning. A higher number of daily texts was directly associated with more sleep problems. The number of daily texts moderated the association between interpersonal stress and both burnout and emotional well-being; interpersonal stress was associated with poorer functioning only at higher levels of texting. Promising future directions for research on texting behavior are discussed.
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Maria Koutamanis et al.
Computers in Human Behavior, November 2013, Pages 2265-2272
Abstract:
The first aim of this study was to investigate whether instant messaging (IM) influences adolescents’ ability to initiate offline friendships. The second aim was to study the validity of two underlying mechanisms that may account for this relationship: (a) the opportunities offered by IM to communicate with a variety of people, and (b) to disclose intimate information. A three-wave longitudinal study was conducted among 690 Dutch adolescents (10-17 years old). Results show that adolescents’ IM use increased their ability to initiate offline friendships over time. Furthermore, IM use indirectly increased adolescents’ ability to initiate offline friendships through the diversity of their online communication partners. These findings suggest that adolescents can practice social skills online and learn to relate to a variety of people, which, over time, may increase their ability to initiate offline friendships.
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Chadly Stern & Tessa West
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Interactions with new acquaintances are often filled with anxiety that can reduce the desire for long-term contact. The present research tested whether providing participants with implementation intentions (“if-then” plans) that specify how to act when feeling anxious boosted interest in sustained contact and close interpersonal distance. Implementation intentions led to increased interest in sustained contact during anxiety-provoking interactions in the laboratory (Study 1) and daily interracial interactions (Study 2). They also led to closer interpersonal distance in anticipation of interracial interactions (Study 3). Implementation intentions were more effective than forming goal-directed responses (Studies 1, 2, & 3), or not forming a self-regulation strategy (Studies 2 & 3), and were effective over multiple interactions and across time, despite being learned only once (Study 2). Participants across conditions reported similar levels of anxiety, suggesting that promoting an interest in sustained contact can be accomplished without reducing anxiety, but rather, by shielding individuals from the negative effects of anxiety during social interactions.
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Oxytocin Sharpens Self-other Perceptual Boundary
Valentina Colonnello et al.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent cross-species research has demonstrated that the neurohormone oxytocin plays a key role in social interaction and cognitive processing of others’ emotions. Whereas oxytocin has been shown to influence social approach, trust, and bond formation, a potential role of the oxytocinergic system in blurring or enhancing the ability to differentiate between one's self and other's related stimuli is unknown. Thus, we investigated whether oxytocin affects the ability to differentiate between self- and other-related stimuli using a facial morphing procedure. In a placebo-controlled, double-blind study, 44 healthy men received either 24 IU oxytocin or placebo intranasally. After 45 minutes, we measured participants’ ability to differentiate their own identity while viewing a photo of themselves morphing into the photo of an unfamiliar face. Oxytocin administration shortened the latency of self-other differentiation. Additionally, when asked to rate the pleasantness of the unmorphed photos, the oxytocin-treated participants rated their own and the unfamiliar face as comparably pleasant. Oxytocin increases the ability to recognize differences between self and others and increases positive evaluation of others. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that impaired oxytocin signaling may be involved in the development and manifestation of human psychopathologies in which self-recognition is altered.
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Psychosocial Benefits of Cross-Ethnic Friendships in Urban Middle Schools
Sandra Graham, Anke Munniksma & Jaana Juvonen
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
To examine the unique functions of same- and cross-ethnic friendships, Latino (n = 536) and African American (n = 396) sixth-grade students (Mage = 11.5 years) were recruited from 66 classrooms in 10 middle schools that varied in ethnic diversity. Participants reported on the number of same- and cross-ethnic friends, perceived vulnerability, friendship quality, and the private regard dimension of ethnic identity. Whereas same-ethnic friendships were uniquely associated with stronger private regard, more ethnic diversity and cross-ethnic friendships were uniquely associated with less perceived vulnerability. Multilevel structural equation modeling tested whether cross-ethnic friendships mediated the diversity-vulnerability relation. Although cross-ethnic friendships did not significantly mediate this relation at the classroom level, these friendships predicted less vulnerability at the individual student level.
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Ping Dong & Robert Wyer
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, January 2014, Pages 1-14
Abstract:
A theory of information processing proposed by Wyer and Srull (1989) is used to conceptualize the characteristics of a get-acquainted conversation that influence perceptions of its duration. These perceptions are partly determined by whether persons focus their attention on things their partner says or on things they personally say, and this, in turn, depends on their partner’s physical attractiveness. Participants’ estimates of a conversation’s duration immediately after it occurs are based on their enjoyment of the conversation and were shorter when the person on whom they had focused talked a lot than when (s)he said very little. After a 2-3 day delay, however, they base their estimates on the amount of the conversation they could remember and estimate that it lasted longer in the former condition than in the latter. These conclusions were confirmed in both simulated conversations and an actual interaction between partners of the opposite sex. Thus, individuals’ immediate and delayed estimates of the duration of an interaction can be opposite in direction, and this difference is driven by both the characteristics of the conversation (i.e., speaker dominance) and social and motivational factors that could influence people’s focus of attention (i.e., the attractiveness of their conversation partner).
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Do Academically-Engaged Adolescents Experience Social Sanctions from the Peer Group?
David Schwartz, Brynn Kelly & Mylien Duong
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, September 2013, Pages 1319-1330
Abstract:
Existing theoretical perspectives suggest that adolescents who are characterized by high achievement may experience social sanctions from peers. The central premise is that, in many North American settings, adolescent peer groups are characterized by negative attitudes toward the school environment. To test these hypotheses, we examined associations between indicators of low social power (unpopularity and victimization by peers) and academic competence for 415 adolescents (193 boys; 222 girls) attending an urban high school. This school served neighborhoods that were characterized by a moderate degree of economic distress and the students were predominately of Hispanic American descent. A short-term longitudinal design was used, with two waves of data collected over consecutive school years. The adolescents completed a peer nomination inventory assessing relational and overt victimization by peers, unpopularity, and social rejection. In addition, we obtained math and language arts grades from school records, and we assessed behavioral engagement in school with a self-report inventory. Structural equation models did not reveal a strong pattern of longitudinal change in social standing with peers or academic functioning. However, we found positive correlations between academic achievement and problematic peer relationships in both years of the project. We also found evidence that gender moderates these associations, with the effects reaching significance only for boys. Our results provide evidence that, in some settings, high achieving adolescents can be prone to negative treatment or marginalization by peers.
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Nightmare frequency is related to a propensity for mirror behaviors
Tore Nielsen, Russell Powell & Don Kuiken
Consciousness and Cognition, December 2013, Pages 1181-1188
Abstract:
We previously reported that college students who indicated engaging in frequent dream-enacting behaviors also scored high on a new measure of mirror behaviors, which is the propensity to imitate another person’s emotions or actions. Since dream-enacting behaviors are frequently the culmination of nightmares, one explanation for the observed relationship is that individuals who frequently display mirror behaviors are also prone to nightmares. We used the Mirror Behavior Questionnaire (MBQ) and self-reported frequencies of nightmares to assess this possibility. A sample of 480 students, consisting of 188 males (19.2 ± 1.73 years) and 292 females (19.0 ± 1.55 years) enrolled in a first-year university psychology course, participated for course credit. They completed a battery of questionnaires that included the 16-item MBQ, plus an item about nightmare frequency (NMF) in the past 30 days. NMF scores were split to create low, medium, and high NMF groups. MBQ total scores were significantly higher for female than for male subjects, but an interaction revealed that this was true only for Hi-NMF subjects. MBQ Factor 4, Motor Skill Imitation, paralleled this global interaction for females, whereas MBQ Factor 3, Sleepiness/Anger Contagion, was elevated only for Hi-NMF males. Item analyses indicated that Hi- and Med-NMF females scored higher than Lo-NMF females on the 3 items of Factor 4 that reflect voluntary imitation (imitating famous/cartoon voices, being a physically active spectator, and learning new skills by observing), as well as on 2 other items that reflect involuntary imitation (contagious yawning and self-rated empathy). Although Hi- and Lo-NMF males differed most clearly on the sleepiness item of Factor 3, all 3 items on this factor (including anger contagion and contagious yawning) are plausibly associated with perception of and response to social threat. Results provide evidence that among females nightmares are associated with voluntary and involuntary mirror behaviors during wakefulness, while among males nightmares are associated with threat-related mirror behaviors during wakefulness. They thus support the possibility that the association between mirror behaviors and dream-enacting behaviors is due to a common mirror neuron mechanism that underlies mirror behaviors and nightmares and that involves motor, rather than emotional, resonance. These results have implications for understanding the comorbidity of nightmares and other pathological symptoms such as imitative suicidal behaviors, the influence of observational learning on dissociative symptomatology, and the predominance of threat and aggression in the dream enacting behaviors of REM sleep behavior disorder.