Stay Positive
Michael Dodd et al.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 5 March 2012, Pages 640-649
Abstract:
We report evidence that individual-level variation in people's physiological and attentional responses to aversive and appetitive stimuli are correlated with broad political orientations. Specifically, we find that greater orientation to aversive stimuli tends to be associated with right-of-centre and greater orientation to appetitive (pleasing) stimuli with left-of-centre political inclinations. These findings are consistent with recent evidence that political views are connected to physiological predispositions but are unique in incorporating findings on variation in directed attention that make it possible to understand additional aspects of the link between the physiological and the political.
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How Power Corrupts Relationships: Cynical Attributions for Others' Generous Acts
Ena Inesi, Deborah Gruenfeld & Adam Galinsky
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Five studies explored whether power undermines the quality of relationships by creating instrumental attributions for generous acts. We predicted that this cynical view of others' intentions would impede responses that nurture healthy relationships. In the first three studies, the powerful were more likely to believe that the favors they received were offered for the favor-giver's instrumental purposes, thereby reducing power-holders' thankfulness, desire to reciprocate, and trust. These effects emerged when power was manipulated through hierarchical roles or primed semantically, and when participants recalled past favors or imagined future ones. Using income disparity as a proxy for power, Study 4 found that instrumental attributions for favors in marriages led to lower levels of relationship commitment among high-power spouses. Study 5 provided evidence that favors are critical in triggering power-holders' diminished trust. We connect our theory and findings to both a political scientist's writings on the nature of love and power almost half a century ago as well as the dilemma voiced by many celebrities who find true relatedness elusive. Overall, power provides a reason to doubt the purity of others' favors, creating a cynical perspective on others' generosity that undermines relationships.
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Shame for money: Shame enhances the incentive value of economic resources
Chia-Chi Wang et al.
Judgment and Decision Making, January 2012, Pages 77-85
Abstract:
Shame leads to devaluation of the social self, and thus to a desire to improve self-esteem. Money, which is related to the notion of one's ability, may help people demonstrate competence and gain self-esteem and respect from others. Based on the perspectives of feelings-as-information and threatened ego, we tested the hypothesis that a sense of shame heightens the desire for money, prompting self-interested behaviors as reflected by monetary donations and social value orientation. The results showed that subjects in the shame condition donated less money (Experiment 1) and exhibited more self-interested choices in the modified decomposed game (Experiment 2). The desire for money as reflected in overestimated coin sizes mediated the effect of shame on self-interested behavior. Our findings suggest that shame elicits the desire to acquire money to amend the threatened social self and improve self-esteem; however, it may induce a self-interested inclination that could harm social relationships.
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Temporal Patterns of Happiness and Information in a Global Social Network: Hedonometrics and Twitter
Peter Sheridan Dodds et al.
PLoS ONE, December 2011, e26752
Abstract:
Individual happiness is a fundamental societal metric. Normally measured through self-report, happiness has often been indirectly characterized and overshadowed by more readily quantifiable economic indicators such as gross domestic product. Here, we examine expressions made on the online, global microblog and social networking service Twitter, uncovering and explaining temporal variations in happiness and information levels over timescales ranging from hours to years. Our data set comprises over 46 billion words contained in nearly 4.6 billion expressions posted over a 33 month span by over 63 million unique users. In measuring happiness, we construct a tunable, real-time, remote-sensing, and non-invasive, text-based hedonometer. In building our metric, made available with this paper, we conducted a survey to obtain happiness evaluations of over 10,000 individual words, representing a tenfold size improvement over similar existing word sets. Rather than being ad hoc, our word list is chosen solely by frequency of usage, and we show how a highly robust and tunable metric can be constructed and defended.
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Happy as a lark: Morning-type younger and older adults are higher in positive affect
Renée Biss & Lynn Hasher
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
A literature on young adults reports that morning-type individuals, or "larks," report higher levels of positive affect compared with evening-type individuals, or "owls" (Clark, Watson, & Leeka, 1989; Hasler et al., 2010). Morning types are relatively rare among young adults but frequent among older adults (May & Hasher, 1998; Mecacci et al., 1986), and here we report on the association between chronotype and affect in a large sample of healthy younger and older adults. Overall, older adults reported higher levels of positive affect than younger adults, with both younger and older morning types reporting higher levels of positive affect and subjective health than age mates who scored lower on morningness. Morningness partially mediated the association between age and positive affect, suggesting that greater morningness tendencies among older adults may contribute to their improved well-being relative to younger adults.
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Amanda Forest & Joanne Wood
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The popular media have publicized the idea that social networking websites (e.g., Facebook) may enrich the interpersonal lives of those who struggle to make social connections. The opportunity that such sites provide for self-disclosure - a necessary component in the development of intimacy - could be especially beneficial for people with low self-esteem (LSEs), who are normally hesitant to self-disclose and who have difficulty maintaining satisfying relationships. We suspected that the Facebook context would reduce the perceived riskiness of self-disclosure, thus encouraging LSEs to express themselves more openly. Three studies examined whether LSEs see Facebook as a "safe" and appealing medium for self-disclosure, and whether their actual Facebook posts enable LSEs to reap social rewards. Although LSEs considered Facebook an appealing venue for self-disclosure, the low positivity and high negativity of their disclosures elicited undesirable responses from others.
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Two Types of Value-Affirmation: Implications for Self-Control Following Social Exclusion
Aleah Burson, Jennifer Crocker & Dominik Mischkowski
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The authors tested the hypothesis that affirming self-transcendent values attenuates negative consequences of self-threat better than affirming self-enhancement values. If value-affirmation buffers against threat because it bolsters the self, then affirming either a self-transcendent or self-enhancement value should similarly prevent typical decreased self-control after exclusion. However, if value-affirmations buffer the effects of threat because they promote self-transcendence, then affirming values related to self-transcendence should provide a better buffer against decreased self-control after exclusion. Ninety-two undergraduate students received either intentional or unintentional social exclusion. Participants then affirmed either a self-transcendent or self-enhancement value, or wrote about their daily routine. Consistent with predictions, participants ate more cookies when they were intentionally rather than unintentionally excluded; this effect was attenuated by affirming an important value, especially a self-transcendent value. This suggests that value-affirmation may be a particularly effective method of coping with self-threats when it increases self-transcendence.
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Jessica Chiang et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 7 February 2012, Pages 1878-1882
Abstract:
Research has consistently documented that social relationships influence physical health, a link that may implicate systemic inflammation. We examined whether daily social interactions predict levels of proinflammatory cytokines IL-6 and the soluble receptor for tumor necrosis factor-α (sTNFα RII) and their reactivity to a social stressor. One-hundred twenty-two healthy young adults completed daily diaries for 8 d that assessed positive, negative, and competitive social interactions. Participants then engaged in laboratory stress challenges, and IL-6 and sTNFαRII were collected at baseline and at 25- and 80-min poststressor, from oral mucosal transudate. Negative social interactions predicted elevated sTNFαRII at baseline, and IL-6 and sTNFαRII 25-min poststressor, as well as total output of sTNFα RII. Competitive social interactions predicted elevated baseline levels of IL-6 and sTNFαRII and total output of both cytokines. These findings suggest that daily social interactions that are negative and competitive are associated prospectively with heightened proinflammatory cytokine activity.
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The Neural Bases of Social Pain: Evidence for Shared Representations With Physical Pain
Naomi Eisenberger
Psychosomatic Medicine, February-March 2012, Pages 126-135
Abstract:
Experiences of social rejection or loss have been described as some of the most "painful" experiences that we, as humans, face and perhaps for good reason. Because of our prolonged period of immaturity, the social attachment system may have co-opted the pain system, borrowing the pain signal to prevent the detrimental consequences of social separation. This review summarizes a program of research that has explored the idea that experiences of physical pain and social pain rely on shared neural substrates. First, evidence showing that social pain activates pain-related neural regions is reviewed. Then, studies exploring some of the expected consequences of such a physical pain-social pain overlap are summarized. These studies demonstrate that a) individuals who are more sensitive to one kind of pain are also more sensitive to the other and b) factors that increase or decrease one kind of pain alter the other in a similar manner. Finally, what these shared neural substrates mean for our understanding of socially painful experience is discussed.
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Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold
R.I.M. Dunbar et al.
Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 22 March 2012, Pages 1161-1167
Abstract:
Although laughter forms an important part of human non-verbal communication, it has received rather less attention than it deserves in both the experimental and the observational literatures. Relaxed social (Duchenne) laughter is associated with feelings of wellbeing and heightened affect, a proximate explanation for which might be the release of endorphins. We tested this hypothesis in a series of six experimental studies in both the laboratory (watching videos) and naturalistic contexts (watching stage performances), using change in pain threshold as an assay for endorphin release. The results show that pain thresholds are significantly higher after laughter than in the control condition. This pain-tolerance effect is due to laughter itself and not simply due to a change in positive affect. We suggest that laughter, through an endorphin-mediated opiate effect, may play a crucial role in social bonding.
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Social strain and cortisol regulation in midlife in the US
Esther Friedman et al.
Social Science & Medicine, February 2012, Pages 607-615
Abstract:
Chronic stress has been implicated in a variety of adverse health outcomes, from compromised immunity to cardiovascular disease to cognitive decline. The hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis has been postulated to play the primary biological role in translating chronic stress into ill health. Stressful stimuli activate the HPA-axis and cause an increase in circulating levels of cortisol. Frequent and long-lasting activation of the HPA-axis, as occurs in recurrently stressful environments, can in the long run compromise HPA-axis functioning and ultimately affect health. Negative social interactions with family and friends may be a significant source of stress in daily life, constituting the type of recurrently stressful environment that could lead to compromised HPA functioning and altered diurnal cortisol rhythms. We use data from two waves (1995 and 2004-2005) of the Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS) study and from the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE) and piecewise growth curve models to investigate relationships between histories of social strain and patterns of diurnal cortisol rhythms. We find that reported levels of social strain were significantly associated with their diurnal cortisol rhythm. These effects were more pronounced for individuals with a history of greater reported strain across a ten-year period.
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Life Regrets and the Need to Belong
Mike Morrison, Kai Epstude & Neal Roese
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present research documents a link between regret and the need to belong. Across five studies, using diverse methods and samples, the authors established that regrets involving primarily social relationships (e.g., romance and family) are felt more intensely than less socially based regrets (e.g., work and education). The authors ruled out alternative explanations for this pattern and found that it is best explained by the extent to which regrets are judged to constitute threats to belonging. Threats to belonging at the regret level and the need to belong at the individual level were strong predictors of regret intensity across multiple regret domains. These findings highlight the central role social connectedness plays in what people regret most.
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Erik Giltay et al.
Journal of Psychosomatic Research, March 2012, Pages 205-213
Objective: Low circulating levels of testosterone have been associated with major depression, but there is more limited evidence for differences in patients with anxiety disorders. The use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and other antidepressants is associated with sexual side effects, warranting testing for interactions with testosterone.
Methods: Data are from 722 male and 1380 female participants of The Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA), who were recruited from the community, general practice care, and specialized mental health care. Depressive and anxiety diagnoses were assessed using the DSM-IV Composite International Diagnostic Interview. To smooth the episodic secretion, the four morning saliva samples per participant and the two evening samples were pooled before testosterone analysis.
Results: Morning median testosterone levels were 25.2 pg/ml in men and 16.2 pg/ml in women, with lower evening levels of 18.2 and 14.1 pg/ml, respectively. Significant determinants of testosterone levels were sex, age, time of the day, use of contraceptives, and smoking status. Female patients with a current (1-month) depressive disorder (effect size 0.29; P = 0.002), generalized anxiety disorder (0.25; P = 0.01), social phobia (0.30; P < 0.001), and agoraphobia without panic disorder (0.30; P = 0.02) had lower salivary testosterone levels than female controls. Higher testosterone levels were found in male and female participants using SSRIs than in non-users (effect size 0.26; P < 0.001).
Conclusion: Salivary testosterone levels are lower in female patients with a depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, and agoraphobia as compared to female controls. SSRIs may increase salivary testosterone in men and women.
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Bert Uchino et al.
Health Psychology, forthcoming
Objectives: The quality of one's personal relationships has been linked to morbidity and mortality across different diseases. As a result, it is important to examine more integrative mechanisms that might link relationships across diverse physical health outcomes. In this study, we examine associations between relationships and telomeres that predict general disease risk. These questions are pursued in the context of a more comprehensive model of relationships that highlights the importance of jointly considering positive and negative aspects of social ties.
Method: One hundred thirty-six individuals from a community sample (ages 48 to 77 years) completed the social relationships index, which allows a determination of relationships that differ in their positive and negative substrates (i.e., ambivalent, supportive, aversive, indifferent). Telomere length was determined from peripheral blood mononuclear cells via quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
Results: Participants who had a higher number of ambivalent ties in their social networks evidenced shorter telomeres. These results were independent of other relationship types (e.g., supportive) and standard control variables (e.g., age, health behaviors, and medication use). Gender moderated the links between ambivalent ties and telomere length, with these associations seen primarily in women. Follow-up analyses revealed that the links between ambivalent ties and telomeres were primarily due to friendships, parents, and social acquaintances.
Conclusion: Consistent with epidemiological findings, these data highlight a novel and integrative biological mechanism by which social ties may affect health across diseases and further suggest the importance of incorporating positivity and negativity in the study of specific relationships and physical health.
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How Guilt and Pride Shape Subsequent Self-Control
Wilhelm Hofmann & Rachel Fisher
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present research utilized experience sampling data to investigate how guilt and pride experiences in response to self-control failure versus success affect future self-control when encountering the same type of temptation (thematic self-control). Guilt showed signs of a "mixed blessing" such that previous guilt led to an increase in subsequent self-regulatory goal importance and conflict awareness; however, accounting for these beneficial effects, guilt also had a detrimental residual effect on the successful inhibition of recurring temptation. Pride, in contrast, had uniformly positive effects on subsequent self-control in the form of increased goal importance, increased conflict, and increased likelihood to use self-control to resist temptation. These results contrasted in theoretically important ways from an analysis of short-term spillover effects of incidental guilt and pride on thematically unrelated subsequent self-control. Potential mechanisms and implications of these findings are discussed.
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Bart Soenens & Bart Duriez
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent studies suggest that conservatism is beneficial for individuals' well-being and self-esteem, particularly in late adulthood. In the present article, it is argued that, although conservatism may have a self-esteem enhancing function, it may also relate to a contingent type of self-esteem, which, in turn, relates to ill-being. In a sample of 227 late adults, we examined associations between conservatism, contingent self-esteem, and indices of ill-being (i.e., depressive symptoms, despair, and death anxiety). Conservatism was related positively to contingent self-esteem and was related indirectly to ill-being through its association with contingent self-esteem. Participants' age did not moderate these associations. Our findings raise questions about the adaptive role of conservatism in late adults' personal adjustment and suggest that conservatism entails at least some vulnerability for ill-being.
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Adriana Manago, Tamara Taylor & Patricia Greenfield
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Is there a trade-off between having large networks of social connections on social networking sites such as Facebook and the development of intimacy and social support among today's generation of emerging adults? To understand the socialization context of Facebook during the transition to adulthood, an online survey was distributed to college students at a large urban university; participants answered questions about their relationships by systematically sampling their Facebook contacts while viewing their Facebook profiles online. Results confirmed that Facebook facilitates expansive social networks that grow disproportionately through distant kinds of relationship (acquaintances and activity connections), while also expanding the number of close relationships and stranger relationships, albeit at slower rates. Those with larger networks estimated that larger numbers of contacts in their networks were observing their status updates, a form of public communication to one's entire contact list. The major function of status updates was emotional disclosure, the key feature of intimacy. This finding indicates the transformation of the nature of intimacy in the environment of a social network site. In addition, larger networks and larger estimated audiences predicted higher levels of life satisfaction and perceived social support on Facebook. These findings emphasize the psychological importance of audience in the Facebook environment. Findings also suggest that social networking sites help youth to satisfy enduring human psychosocial needs for permanent relations in a geographically mobile world - college students with higher proportions of maintained contacts from the past (primarily high school friends) perceived Facebook as a more useful tool for procuring social support.
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Profiling: Predicting Social Anxiety From Facebook Profiles
Katya Fernandez, Cheri Levinson & Thomas Rodebaugh
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research on Facebook has suggested that individuals' profiles are an accurate portrayal of the self and that it may be possible to identify traits such as narcissism and extraversion by viewing a Facebook profile. It has been suggested, however, that largely internal experiences, such as anxiety, should be less detectable in such contexts. In the current study, the authors tested if objective criteria (e.g., number of interests) on users' profiles (N = 62) could discriminate between individuals who were higher and lower in social anxiety. The authors asked six coders to view each participant's Facebook profile and rate the participant's level of social anxiety and then tested whether these ratings correlated with the participant's own self-reported social anxiety level. Our results suggest that social anxiety is recognizable both in objective criteria on the Facebook profile page and from raters' impressions of the Facebook profile. Clinical and research implications are discussed.
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Expensive Egos: Narcissistic Males Have Higher Cortisol
David Reinhard et al.
PLoS ONE, January 2012, e30858
Background: Narcissism is characterized by grandiosity, low empathy, and entitlement. There has been limited research regarding the hormonal correlates of narcissism, despite the potential health implications. This study examined the role of participant narcissism and sex on basal cortisol concentrations in an undergraduate population.
Methods and Findings: Participants were 106 undergraduate students (79 females, 27 males, mean age 20.1 years) from one Midwestern and one Southwestern American university. Narcissism was assessed using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and basal cortisol concentrations were collected from saliva samples in a laboratory setting. Regression analyses examined the effect of narcissism and sex on cortisol (log). There were no sex differences in basal cortisol, F(1,97) = .20, p = .65, and narcissism scores, F(1,97) = .00, p = .99. Stepwise linear regression models of sex and narcissism and their interaction predicting cortisol concentrations showed no main effects when including covariates, but a significant interaction, β = .27, p = .04. Narcissism was not related to cortisol in females, but significantly predicted cortisol in males. Examining the effect of unhealthy versus healthy narcissism on cortisol found that unhealthy narcissism was marginally related to cortisol in females, β = .27, p = .06, but significantly predicted higher basal cortisol in males, β = .72, p = .01, even when controlling for potential confounds. No relationship was found between sex, narcissism, or their interaction on self-reported stress.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the HPA axis is chronically activated in males with unhealthy narcissism. This constant activation of the HPA axis may have important health implications.
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The implications of adult identity for educational and work attainment in young adulthood
Janel Benson, Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson & Glen Elder
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study investigates the relation of young adult identities (ages 18-22 years), reflecting subjective age and psychosocial maturity, to educational and career attainment in young adulthood (ages 25-29 years). Add Health data show that having an older subjective age alone does not curtail attainment; the critical issue is the level of psychosocial maturity that accompanies subjective age. Those with older subjective ages and low psychosocial maturation have the lowest attainment at ages 25-29 years, while those with older subjective ages and high psychosocial maturation show considerable progress toward work-related attainment. For those with younger subjective ages, a lower level of psychosocial maturity is not as detrimental to attainment.