Maintaining sanity
The overblown implications effect
Alice Moon, Muping Gan & Clayton Critcher
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
People frequently engage in behaviors that put their competencies on display. However, do such actors understand how others view them in light of these performances? Eight studies support an overblown implications effect (OIE): Actors overestimate how much observers think an actor’s one-off success or failure offers clear insight about a relevant competency (Study 1). Furthermore, actors overblow performances’ implications even in prospect, before there are experienced successes or failures on which to ruminate (Studies 2 and 3). To explain the OIE, we introduce the construct of working trait definitions — accessible beliefs about what specific skills define a general trait or competency. When actors try to adopt observers’ perspective, the narrow performance domain seems disproportionately important in defining the general trait (Study 4). By manipulating actors’ working trait definitions to include other (unobserved) trait-relevant behaviors, we eliminated the OIE (Study 5). The final 3 studies (Studies 6a–6c) more precisely localized the error. Although actors and observers agreed on what a single success or failure (e.g., the quality of a single batch of cookies) could reveal about actors’ narrow competence (e.g., skill at baking cookies), actors erred in thinking observers would feel this performance would reveal a considerable amount about the more general skill (e.g., cooking ability) and related specific competencies (e.g., skill at making omelets). Discussion centers on how the present theoretical account differs from previous explanations why metaperceptions err and identifies important open questions for future research.
This is not a drill: Anxiety on Twitter following the 2018 Hawaii false missile alert
Nikolas Jones & Roxane Cohen Silver
American Psychologist, forthcoming
Abstract:
The accuracy of emergency management alerts about dangerous threats to public safety is key for the protection of life and property. When alerts of imminent threats are believed to be real, uncontrollable, and impossible to escape, people who receive them often experience fear and anxiety, especially as they await the threat’s arrival (i.e., incubation of threat). However, what are the consequences when an alert turns out to be a false alarm? We explored psychological reactions (i.e., anxiety) to the 2018 Hawaii false ballistic missile alert using Twitter data from users across the state (1.2 million tweets, 14,830 users) 6 weeks before and 18 days after the event. We demonstrated that anxiety expressed on Twitter increased 4.6% on the day of the false alert and anxiety during the 38-min alert period increased 3.4% every 15 min. In addition, users who expressed either low, medium, or high prealert anxiety exhibited differential anxiety responses postalert, differential stabilization intervals (when anxiety stopped decreasing after the all-clear), and different postalert baselines relative to their prealert levels. Low prealert anxiety users expressed more anxiety at the onset of the alert and for longer relative to other groups. Moreover, anxiety remained elevated for at least 7 days postalert. Taken together, findings suggest that false alarms of inescapable and dangerous threats are anxiety-provoking and that this anxiety can persist for many people after the threat is dispelled. We offer several recommendations for how emergency management agencies should best communicate with the public after false alerts are transmitted.
Suggestion of cognitive enhancement improves emotion regulation
Quanshan Long et al.
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Cognitive training seems a promising approach to enhance emotion regulation. To establish a causal connection, researchers must compare the training intervention with a control group that accounts for improvements induced by some factors other than the training. Despite this familiar methodology, the influence of expectations on the transfer effects of training remains poorly understood. We tested this possibility in 2 experiments, where a procedure was designed to intentionally induce a placebo effect via the suggestion of cognitive enhancement to evaluate the role of expectation in emotion regulation gains from cognitive training. Both the Placebo and Control groups completed the identical short-term working memory training (20 min) in Experiment 1. New participants were recruited to complete a long-term pseudotraining program (7 days) in Experiment 2. The results from the 2 experiments consistently showed that the Placebo group, who expected benefits from the training, unlike the Control group, showed less negative emotion and better regulatory effects after pseudotraining, irrespective of the duration of the training. Thus, inadequate control of expectation is a fundamental design flaw that potentially undermines any causal inferences. These findings also suggest a novel perspective for optimizing the experimental designs in psychological interventions and advancing the understanding of emotion regulation enhancement.
Batching smartphone notifications can improve well-being
Nicholas Fitz et al.
Computers in Human Behavior, December 2019, Pages 84-94
Abstract:
Every day, billions of us receive smartphone notifications. Designed to distract, these interruptions capture and monetize our time and attention. Though smartphones are incredibly helpful, their current notification systems impose underappreciated, yet considerable, mental costs; like a slot machine, they exploit our inherent psychological bias for variable rewards. With an app that we developed, we conducted a randomized field experiment (n = 237) to test whether batching notifications—delivering notifications in predictable intervals throughout the day—could improve psychological well-being. Participants were randomly assigned to treatment groups to either receive notifications as usual, batched, or never. Using daily diary surveys, we measured a range of psychological and health outcomes, and through our app system, we collected data on phone use behaviors. Compared to those in the control condition, participants whose notifications were batched three-times-a-day felt more attentive, productive, in a better mood, and in greater control of their phones. Participants in the batched group also reported lower stress, lower productivity, and fewer phone interruptions. In contrast, participants who did not receive notifications at all reaped few of those benefits, but experienced higher levels of anxiety and “fear of missing out” (FoMO). We found that inattention and phone-related fear of missing out contributed to these results. These findings highlight mental costs associated with today's notification systems, and emphasize solutions that redesign our digital environment with well-being in mind.
The gradual development of the preference for natural environments
Kimberly Meidenbauer et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Adults demonstrate aesthetic preferences for natural environments over urban ones. This preference has influenced theories like Biophilia to explain why nature is beneficial. While both adults and children show cognitive and affective benefits after nature exposure, it is unknown whether children demonstrate nature preferences. In the current study, 4-to-11-year-old children and their parents rated their preferences for images of nature and urban scenes. Parents' preferences matched those of a normative adult sample. However, children demonstrated robust preferences for urban over natural environments, and those urban preferences significantly decreased with age. Nature exposure around the home and nature-related activities, as reported by parents, did not predict children's preferences. Children with more nearby nature, however, had lower reported inattentiveness, but interestingly, this was unrelated to children's preferences for nature. These results provide an important step into future research on the role of preference in how children and adults benefit from nature.
Animal Visitation Program (AVP) Reduces Cortisol Levels of University Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Patricia Pendry & Jaymie Vandagriff
AERA Open, June 2019
Abstract:
University students report high levels of stress. Although causal work is limited, one popular approach to promote stress relief is animal visitation programs (AVPs). We conducted a randomized trial (N = 249) examining effects of a 10-minute AVP on students’ salivary cortisol levels. Undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: hands-on AVP (petting cats and dogs; n = 73), AVP observation (watching others pet animals; n = 62), AVP slideshow (viewing images of same animals; n = 57), or AVP waitlist (n = 57). Participants collected salivary cortisol upon waking, and two samples were collected 15 and 25 minutes after the 10-minute condition, reflecting cortisol levels at the beginning and end of the intervention. Controlling for students’ basal cortisol, time awake, and circadian pattern, students in the hands-on condition had lower posttest cortisol compared to slideshow (β = .150, p = .046), waitlist (β = .152, p = .033), and observation (β = .164, p = .040). A 10-minute college-based AVP providing hands-on petting of cats and dogs provides momentary stress relief.
Brief mindfulness training enhances cognitive control in socioemotional contexts: Behavioral and neural evidence
Jordan Quaglia et al.
PLoS ONE, July 2019
Abstract:
In social contexts, the dynamic nature of others’ emotions places unique demands on attention and emotion regulation. Mindfulness, characterized by heightened and receptive moment-to-moment attending, may be well-suited to meet these demands. In particular, mindfulness may support more effective cognitive control in social situations via efficient deployment of top-down attention. To test this, a randomized controlled study examined effects of mindfulness training (MT) on behavioral and neural (event-related potentials [ERPs]) responses during an emotional go/no-go task that tested cognitive control in the context of emotional facial expressions that tend to elicit approach or avoidance behavior. Participants (N = 66) were randomly assigned to four brief (20 min) MT sessions or to structurally equivalent book learning control sessions. Relative to the control group, MT led to improved discrimination of facial expressions, as indexed by d-prime, as well as more efficient cognitive control, as indexed by response time and accuracy, and particularly for those evidencing poorer discrimination and cognitive control at baseline. MT also produced better conflict monitoring of behavioral goal-prepotent response tendencies, as indexed by larger No-Go N200 ERP amplitudes, and particularly so for those with smaller No-Go amplitude at baseline. Overall, findings are consistent with MT’s potential to enhance deployment of early top-down attention to better meet the unique cognitive and emotional demands of socioemotional contexts, particularly for those with greater opportunity for change. Findings also suggest that early top-down attention deployment could be a cognitive mechanism correspondent to the present-oriented attention commonly used to explain regulatory benefits of mindfulness more broadly.