Minding
Enduring Relationships: Social Aspects of Perceived Interactions with the Dead
Karen Cerulo
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, October 2023
Abstract:
Is it possible to interact with the dead? Belief in such encounters is more widespread than we might think. Yet sociologists, unlike other disciplines, have not fully engaged the question. Here, I review both long-standing theoretical objections to such research and recent theories that encourage attention to the issue. Leaning on the latter, I use closed- and open-ended survey data collected from 535 Americans to explore what I call "living-deceased perceived interaction." My data show that nearly half of my study participants report meaningful and regular interactions with deceased relatives and friends who were important in their lives. I examine the characteristics of such interactions -- how and when they are performed and what these experiences mean to respondents. I also investigate the role of one's social location in initiating interactions with the dead. Finally, I explore the social benefits, if any, these interactions provide for individuals who engage in them.
Prototypes of People With Depression
Ignazio Ziano & Yasin Koc
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article investigates the content and the consequences of the prototypes of people with depression in a multimethod fashion. Fourteen preregistered studies (total N = 5,023, with U.S. American, British, and French adult participants) show that laypeople consider people with depression as having specific psychological, social, and physical features (e.g., unattractive, overweight, unsuccessful, introverted). Target prototypicality influences how much laypeople believe others have depression, how much observers believe that depression-like symptoms cause someone to experience psychological pain, and how much professional mental health care is appropriate for others. This effect was not reduced by instructing people to focus on the symptoms and ignore the target features yet was weakly reduced by informing them of the effect. We discuss theoretical implications for the understanding of prototypes of people with depression and practical implications for alleviating the impact of prototypes.
Anger has benefits for attaining goals
Heather Lench et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Functional accounts of emotion have guided research for decades, with the core assumption that emotions are functional -- they improve outcomes for people. Based on functional accounts of emotion, we theorized that anger should improve goal attainment in the presence of challenges. In seven studies, goal attainment was assessed in situations that involved varying levels of challenges to goal attainment. Across studies, anger compared to a neutral condition resulted in behavior that facilitated greater goal attainment on tasks that involved challenges. With a goal to solve difficult puzzles, anger resulted in more puzzles correctly solved (Study 1). With a goal to attain prizes, anger increased cheating rates and numbers of unearned prizes (Study 2). With a goal to do well in a video game, anger increased scores on a game with challenges to be avoided, but not other scores (Study 3). In two studies, examining the consequences of anger in response to the challenging task that was the focus of that anger, anger decreased reaction time with goals to win trials (Study 4), and predicted making the effort to vote in two contentious elections (Study 5). With a goal to protect financial resources, anger increased action taken to prevent loss compared to a physiological arousal condition (Study 6).
Future-present relationship insensitivity: A new perspective on psychological myopia and psychological hyperopia
Sarah Wei & Christopher Hsee
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, forthcoming
Abstract:
How much joy versus pain people choose to experience for the present often inversely affects how much joy versus pain they will experience in the future. Do people make choices that maximize their overall happiness? Prior research suggests that people are generally myopic (i.e., over-choosing joy for the present). We suggest that the prior research may have biasedly focused only on situations in which the future is more important than the present. Rather, people are generally insufficiently sensitive to the relative importance of the present versus the future. When the future is more important than the present, people over-choose joy for the present, thus appearing myopic, but when the future is less important than the present, people under-choose joy for the present, thus appearing hyperopic. Six experiments (along with a reason-exploration study) demonstrate our propositions and show that forcing or nudging people to choose less (more) joy for the present when the future is more (less) important increases their overall happiness. This research challenges the popular view that people are generally myopic, and supports emerging research showing that people are generally situation-insensitive and can exhibit seemingly opposite biases (e.g., myopia and hyperopia) in different situations.
Childhood adversity and youth suicide risk: The mediating role of intolerance of uncertainty
Emily Jones et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, January 2024
Abstract:
Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is a well-established risk factor for suicidality in adolescence and young adulthood. However, the specific mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. Existing research and theoretical frameworks suggest alterations in cognitive and affective processes may account for this association. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) exacerbates negative affect and arousal states and may contribute to sustained distress. It is therefore plausible that ACEs may be associated with high IU, and in turn, high IU may be associated with increased suicide risk. The present study directly tests this hypothesis in a cohort of youth (18-19 years) with varying ACE exposure. Participants with and without a history of trauma (N = 107) completed a battery of self-report questionnaires to assess ACEs, IU, and suicide risk. Results revealed ACEs were significantly associated with both IU and suicide risk. IU and suicide risk were also correlated. Importantly, findings demonstrated a significant indirect effect of ACEs on suicide risk through IU. Findings converge with broader literature on the relationship between childhood adversity and suicidality and extend previous research by highlighting IU as a mediator of this relationship, positing IU as a potentially viable target for suicide prevention among those with a history of ACEs.
Positive -- more than unbiased -- self-perceptions increase subjective authenticity
Erica Bailey & Sheena Iyengar
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Authenticity is often described using terms like "real," "genuine," and "true" suggesting that unbiased and objective self-perception is a core component of the construct. However, people tend to view themselves in an overly positive way. Therefore, we propose that experiencing a positive self -- versus an unbiased self -- will increase authenticity. We find support for this in seven studies (Ntotal = 1,795) with two operationalizations of self-rated authenticity: attributed and state authenticity. We find that authenticity emerges from positive self-beliefs (Study 1), positive personality assessments (Study 2), and positive self-expressions (Study 3a and b). Further, we find that these effects are not driven only by positivity, but positive selves (Study 4), and mediated by the identity centrality (Study 5). Finally, Study 6 finds that this positivity bias does not extend to other-rated authenticity: People who present an overly positive self seem less authentic to others relative to a mixed or negative self-presentation. Taken together, these findings suggest that being "unreal" through positive self-illusions can, paradoxically, make one feel more real.
Severity of Depressive Symptoms Moderates the Sympathoinhibitory Effect of Local Skin Warming Following Exposure to A Social Stressor
Mark Tyler et al.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Depression is the leading cause of disease burden globally. Existing antidepressant treatments that target the central nervous system have limited efficacy and come at the cost of significant side effects. Thus, there is growing interest in novel therapeutic interventions for the prevention and treatment of depression, including interventions that target interoceptive signaling. The thermosensory system may hold particular promise, given evidence that depression is associated with impairments in thermosensory functioning, and that whole-body hyperthermia produces an antidepressant effect in patients with major depressive disorder. In this study, we investigated whether the severity of depressive symptoms in a non-clinical population moderated the effect of local skin warming on subjective and physiological stress responses following exposure to an acute social stressor. Following exposure to the stressor, participants (N = 90) rested their arm on a heat blanket that was either turned on (local skin warming condition) or left off (control condition). We demonstrate that local skin warming increased fingertip temperature, a marker of reduced sympathetic nervous system activity, but only for participants with high levels of depressive symptoms. While local skin warming also inhibited salivary alpha amylase, severity of depressive symptoms did not moderate this effect, and no effect was found for electrodermal activity. These data highlight the importance of incorporating peripheral physiology in our conceptualization of the pathophysiology of depression and show that changes in sympathetic nervous system activity may underpin the antidepressant effect of warm stimuli.