Findings

Buddies

Kevin Lewis

April 24, 2016

Social Class and Social Worlds: Income Predicts the Frequency and Nature of Social Contact

Emily Bianchi & Kathleen Vohs

Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming

Abstract:
Does access to money predict social behavior? Past work has shown that money fosters self-sufficiency and reduces interest in others. Building on this work, we tested whether income predicts the frequency and type of social interactions. Two studies using large, nationally representative samples of Americans (N = 118,026) and different measures of social contact showed that higher household income was associated with less time spent socializing with others (Studies 1 and 2) and more time spent alone (Study 2). Income also predicted the nature of social contact. People with higher incomes spent less time with their families and neighbors and spent more time with their friends. These findings suggest that income is associated with how and with whom people spend their time.

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The Rural–Urban Difference in Interpersonal Regret

Asuka Komiya, Shigehiro Oishi & Minha Lee

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, April 2016, Pages 513-525

Abstract:
The present research examined rural–urban differences in interpersonal regret. In Study 1, participants who grew up in rural areas reported stronger interpersonal regret than those who grew up in large cities. In Study 2, we conducted an experiment and found that participants who were assigned to imagine a rural life reported greater interpersonal regret than those who were assigned to imagine an urban life. Moreover, this rural–urban difference was mediated by the degree to which participants wrote about informal social control such as gossip and reputation concerns. Finally, in Study 3, we used the pictorial eye manipulation, which evokes a concern for informal social control, and found that participants from large cities who were exposed to the eyes reported more intense interpersonal regret than those who were not exposed to the eyes. Together, these studies demonstrate that informal social control is a key to understanding rural–urban differences in interpersonal regret.

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The Dynamics of Social Support Inequality: Maintenance Gaps by Socioeconomic Status and Race?

Markus Schafer & Nicholas Vargas

Social Forces, forthcoming

Abstract:
A vast literature demonstrates how personal networks mirror and reproduce broader patterns of social inequality. The availability of key resources through informal mechanisms is an important way that high-status Americans retain a host of social advantages. Largely absent from this account of social capital inequality, however, is an explicit temporal dimension. The current article addresses that gap by targeting the dynamic nature of personal networks. Specifically, we consider whether race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with how US adults’ resource-providing ties persist or vanish between two time points. Using panel data from the Portraits of American Life Study, we find that non-Whites and lower-SES Americans tend to receive useful advice and practical help from fewer close ties than do White and higher-SES adults, while Black Americans are especially likely to receive financial assistance from their network members. Models fail to indicate that non-Whites lose these resourceful ties at a disproportionate rate over time. On the other hand, we find that income has a robust association with the ability to retain ties initially providing advice and help. We interpret the latter findings as a temporal manifestation of network-based inequality. The maintenance gap between higher- and lower-SES Americans, we argue, can reinforce other social capital disparities by shaping dependable access to important resources and by altering their ability to effectively mobilize resources. Network maintenance is a concept that could be useful to researchers studying how social capital matters for a variety of instrumental and expressive outcomes.

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“Selfie-ists” or “Narci-selfiers”?: A cross-lagged panel analysis of selfie taking and narcissism

Daniel Halpern, Sebastián Valenzuela & James Katz

Personality and Individual Differences, July 2016, Pages 98–101

Abstract:
We examine the widely popular social phenomenon of “selfies” (self-portraits uploaded and shared in social media) in terms of the observed positive relationship between this individualistic form of social media usage and narcissism. We conducted a cross-lagged analysis of a two-wave, representative panel survey to understand whether narcissists take selfies as an outlet for maintaining their positive self-views (the self-selection hypothesis), or if by taking selfies' users would increase their level of narcissism (the media effect hypothesis). The findings, however, are consistent with both hypotheses, suggesting a self-reinforcement effect: whereas narcissist individuals take selfies more frequently over time, this increase in selfie production raises subsequent levels of narcissism.

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Face and Emotion Expression Processing and the Serotonin Transporter Polymorphism 5-HTTLPR/rs22531

Andrea Hildebrandt et al.

Genes, Brain and Behavior, forthcoming

Abstract:
Face cognition, including face identity and facial expression processing, is a crucial component of socio-emotional abilities, characterizing humans as highest developed social beings. However, for these trait domains molecular genetic studies investigating gene-behavior associations based on well-founded phenotype definitions are still rare. We examined the relationship between 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphisms – related to serotonin-reuptake – and the ability to perceive and recognize faces and emotional expressions in human faces. For this aim we conducted structural equation modeling on data from 230 young adults, obtained by using a comprehensive, multivariate task battery with maximal effort tasks. By additionally modeling fluid intelligence and immediate and delayed memory factors, we aimed to address the discriminant relationships of the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphisms with socio-emotional abilities. We found a robust association between the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphism and facial emotion perception. Carriers of two long (L) alleles outperformed carriers of one or two S alleles. Weaker associations were present for face identity perception and memory for emotional facial expressions. There was no association between the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 polymorphism and non-social abilities, demonstrating discriminant validity of the relationships. We discuss the implications and possible neural mechanisms underlying these novel findings.

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Camouflaged attention: Covert attention is critical to social communication in natural settings

Kaitlin Laidlaw, Austin Rothwell & Alan Kingstone

Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming

Abstract:
The evolution of the human eye's unique high contrast morphology allows people to communicate with a simple look. Yet overt looking is not always preferred in social situations. Do covert shifts in attention – those that occur without a concomitant shift of the eyes or head – support this need? In the present field study, we discretely recorded pedestrians' looks to a confederate who performed an action - raising his hand to the side of his head and saying ‘Hey’ into a phone (private action), or raising his hand to the side of his head in greeting (i.e. a static wave) and saying ‘Hey’ (public action). Critically, pedestrians were not looking at the confederate at the start of the action. Despite this, pedestrians looked more in response to the public action (wave) than private action (phone). We argue that the observed difference in looking responses must be due to pedestrians first attending to the confederate covertly in order to assess the intention of his action, and only signaling this attention with a look when socially appropriate (e.g. to respond to a public action). Though the functional utility of covert attention has rarely been considered outside of controlled laboratory tasks, these results provide the first demonstration that covert attention plays a critical role in guiding appropriate social looking behaviour.

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Mortality salience increases language style matching and well-being

Cathy Cox & Mike Kersten

Self and Identity, forthcoming

Abstract:
The present research examined whether people imitate the language style of others (i.e., the use of function words) as a form of liking when mortality concerns are salient. In Study 1, participants answered questions about death or public speaking and then engaged in an instant messaging conversation with a confederate. In Study 2, participant pairs verbally discussed a news article about increasing homicide rates or the rise in academic pressure. Next, everyone completed measures of self-esteem, life satisfaction, and relationship need satisfaction. The results revealed that, in comparison to the control conditions, participants exhibited greater language style matching (LSM) following reminders of death (Studies 1 & 2). Further, mediational analyses showed that higher LSM after mortality salience was associated with better psychological and social well-being (Study 2). Although the threat of death has been shown to make people more hostile and disparaging toward dissimilar others, the present work suggests that individuals, even strangers, may feel closer through language coordination following thoughts of mortality.

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Forgive and Forget, or Forgive and Regret? Whether Forgiveness Leads to Less or More Offending Depends on Offender Agreeableness

James McNulty & Michelle Russell

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, May 2016, Pages 616-631

Abstract:
How does forgiveness predict the likelihood of reoffending? One survey study, one experiment, one 4-year longitudinal study, and one 2-week diary study examined the implications of forgiveness for reoffending in relationships. In all four studies, agreeableness interacted with partner forgiveness to predict subsequent offending; partner forgiveness was negatively associated with subsequent offending among more agreeable people but positively associated with subsequent offending among less agreeable people. Furthermore, Study 4 demonstrated a unique mechanism of each simple effect; relatively agreeable people engaged in fewer transgressions against more forgiving partners because they felt obligated to refrain from transgressing against such partners whereas relatively disagreeable people engaged in more transgressions against more forgiving partners because they perceived those partners were less easily angered. These studies indicate that completely understanding the intrapersonal and interpersonal consequences of forgiveness requires recognizing the dyadic nature of forgiveness and attending to qualities of the offender.

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Ask and You Shall (Not) Receive: Close Friends Prioritize Relational Signaling Over Recipient Preferences in Their Gift Choices

Morgan Ward & Susan Broniarczyk

Journal of Marketing Research, forthcoming

Abstract:
Gift givers balance their goal to please recipients with gifts that match recipients' preferences against their goal to signal relational closeness with gifts that demonstrate their knowledge of the recipient. Five studies in a gift registry context show that when close (vs. distant) givers receive attribution for the gifts they choose, they are more likely to diverge from the registry to choose items that signal their close relationships. We find that close givers' divergence from the registry is not the result of their altruistic search for a “better” gift, but a strategic effort to express relational signals, as it occurs only when they will receive attribution for their choice. We show that close givers reconcile their goal conflict by engaging in motivated reasoning, which results in their perceptual distortion of the gift options in favor of relationally signaling gifts. Ironically, distant givers are more likely to choose gifts from the registry, resulting in the selection of items that better match recipients' preferences.

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The extended ‘chilling’ effect of Facebook: The cold reality of ubiquitous social networking

Ben Marder et al.

Computers in Human Behavior, July 2016, Pages 582–592

Abstract:
Prior research has established the phenomenon of the ‘Chilling Effect’ where people constrain the self they present online due to peer-to-peer surveillance on Social Network Sites (SNS). However currently uninvestigated is the possibility that the threat of such surveillance on these sites might constrain the self presented offline in ‘reality’, known here as ‘the extended chilling effect’. The purpose of this study is to examine the existence of this ‘extended chilling effect’. Drawing on theories of self-awareness and self-presentation, the impact of surveillance in SNS is theorized to lead to an awareness of online audiences in offline domains, stimulating a self-comparison process that results in impression management. A mixed methods study of semi-structured interviews (n = 28) and a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment (n = 80), provides support for offline impression management in order to avoid an undesired image being projected to online audiences. The novel finding that the chilling effect has extended highlights the potential dangers of online peer-to-peer surveillance for autonomy and freedom of expression in our offline lives.

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Interactive Effects Between Extraversion and Oxytocin Administration: Implications for Positive Social Processes

Lauren Human, Katherine Thorson & Wendy Berry Mendes

Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming

Abstract:
Intranasal administration of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) appears to have positive social consequences, but these effects are often highly context- and person-specific. The present research examined whether the core personality trait of extraversion may be one important person-specific factor that plays a role in these associations. Across two double-blind randomized placebo-controlled studies (total ns: Study 1 = 121; Study 2 = 112), we observed significant interactions between OT administration and extraversion predicting prosocial outcomes. For individuals low in extraversion, OT administration relative to placebo led to greater perceived social connection and prosocial tendencies (Study 1) and more positive behavioral responses to help and greater trust of an interaction partner (Study 2). In contrast, OT administration was not beneficial for individuals high in extraversion. Overall, these findings contribute to growing evidence that OT administration has complex, person-specific effects on social behavior, indicating that extraversion plays an important role in these associations.


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