For Your Sanity
Vitamin S: Why Is Social Contact, Even With Strangers, So Important to Well-Being?
Paul Van Lange & Simon Columbus
Current Directions in Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Even before COVID-19, it was well known in psychological science that people’s well-being is strongly served by the quality of their close relationships. But is well-being also served by social contact with people who are known less well? In this article, we discuss three propositions that support the conclusion that the benefits of social contact also derive from interactions with acquaintances and even strangers. The propositions state that most interaction situations with strangers are benign (Proposition 1), that most strangers are benign (Proposition 2), and that most interactions with strangers enhance well-being (Proposition 3). These propositions are supported, first, by recent research designed to illuminate the primary features of interaction situations. This research shows that situations with strangers often represent low conflict of interest. Also, in interactions with strangers, most people exhibit high levels of low-cost cooperation (social mindfulness) and, if the need is urgent, high levels of high-cost helping. We close by sharing research examples showing that even very subtle interactions with strangers yield short-term happiness. Broader implications for COVID-19 and urbanization are discussed.
Multitasking as Consumer Compensatory Control
Jerry Han & Susan Broniarczyk
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Consumer multitasking (i.e., working on multiple tasks simultaneously) is a widespread modern phenomenon, yet the literature lacks an understanding of when and why consumers multitask. We experimentally show that consumers engage in multitasking behavior as a way to compensate for feelings of low control. Specifically, across five main studies and seven Web Appendix studies using two different multitasking paradigms, we find that consumers feeling low (vs. high) control volitionally choose to multitask more on subsequent tasks, rather than do the tasks sequentially (i.e., one task at a time). Mediation and moderation evidence demonstrate that this effect is driven by increased motivations to use time resources efficiently for those feeling low (vs. high) control. We also find that multitasking generally results in suboptimal consumer decision making and decreased task performance. An intervention that altered consumer lay beliefs regarding multitasking and time efficiency was effective in lowering multitasking behavior for consumers experiencing low control during the COVID-19 pandemic. By investigating a cause of consumer multitasking and the underlying mechanism, our studies contribute to research on consumer multitasking, perceptions of control, and resource allocation with important implications for advertisers and marketing managers.
Personality Traits Predict Long-Term Physical Health via Affect Reactivity to Daily Stressors
Kate Leger et al.
Psychological Science, May 2021, Pages 755-765
Abstract:
Researchers hypothesize that how people react to daily stressful events partly explains the relationship between personality and health, yet no study has examined longitudinal associations between these factors. The current study focused on the role of negative affect reactivity to daily stressful events as a mediating pathway between personality and physical health outcomes using three waves of data spanning 20 years from a nationwide probability sample of 1,176 adults. Results indicated that negative affect reactivity partially mediated personality and physical health. Wave 1 neuroticism was associated with greater negative affect reactivity at Wave 2, which predicted the development of chronic conditions and functional limitations at Wave 3. Higher conscientiousness at Wave 1 was associated with less negative affect reactivity at Wave 2, which predicted better physical health at Wave 3. These findings highlight the usefulness of using a daily-stress framework for understanding how personality impacts health over time, which has important implications for stress management and disease prevention.
Storytelling increases oxytocin and positive emotions and decreases cortisol and pain in hospitalized children
Guilherme Brockington et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1 June 2021
Abstract:
Storytelling is a distinctive human characteristic that may have played a fundamental role in humans’ ability to bond and navigate challenging social settings throughout our evolution. However, the potential impact of storytelling on regulating physiological and psychological functions has received little attention. We investigated whether listening to narratives from a storyteller can provide beneficial effects for children admitted to intensive care units. Biomarkers (oxytocin and cortisol), pain scores, and psycholinguistic associations were collected immediately before and after storytelling and an active control intervention (solving riddles that also involved social interaction but lacked the immersive narrative aspect). Compared with the control group, children in the storytelling group showed a marked increase in oxytocin combined with a decrease in cortisol in saliva after the 30-min intervention. They also reported less pain and used more positive lexical markers when describing their time in hospital. Our findings provide a psychophysiological basis for the short-term benefits of storytelling and suggest that a simple and inexpensive intervention may help alleviate the physical and psychological pain of hospitalized children on the day of the intervention.
Emotional acknowledgment: How verbalizing others’ emotions fosters interpersonal trust
Alisa Yu, Justin Berg & Julian Zlatev
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, May 2021, Pages 116-135
Abstract:
People often respond to others’ emotions using verbal acknowledgment (e.g., “You seem upset”). Yet, little is known about the relational benefits and risks of acknowledging others’ emotions in the workplace. We draw upon Costly Signaling Theory to posit how emotional acknowledgment influences interpersonal trust. We hypothesize that emotional acknowledgment acts as a costly signal of the perceiver’s willingness to expend personal resources to meet the needs of the expresser. Across six studies, we found convergent evidence that emotional acknowledgment led to greater perceptions of costliness, and in turn, to higher evaluations of trust. These effects were stronger for negative than positive emotions because acknowledging negative emotions involved a greater perceived cost. Moreover, inaccurate acknowledgment fostered greater trust than not acknowledging when positive emotions were mislabeled as negative, but not when negative emotions were mislabeled as positive. These findings advance theory on key dynamics between emotion and language in work-related relationships.
Low competitive status elicits aggression in healthy young men: Behavioural and neural evidence
Macià Buades-Rotger et al.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, forthcoming
Abstract:
Winners are commonly assumed to compete more aggressively than losers. Here, we find overwhelming evidence for the opposite. We first demonstrate that low-ranking teams commit more fouls than they receive in top-tier soccer, ice hockey and basketball men’s leagues. We replicate this effect in the laboratory, showing that male participants deliver louder sound blasts to a rival when placed in a low-status position. Using neuroimaging, we characterize brain activity patterns that encode competitive status as well as those that facilitate status-dependent aggression in healthy young men. These analyses reveal three key findings. First, anterior hippocampus and striatum contain multivariate representations of competitive status. Second, interindividual differences in status-dependent aggression are linked with a sharper status differentiation in the striatum and with greater reactivity to status-enhancing victories in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Third, activity in ventromedial, ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is associated with trial-wise increases in status-dependent aggressive behaviour. Taken together, our results run counter to narratives glorifying aggression in competitive situations. Rather, we show that those in the lower ranks of skill-based hierarchies are more likely to behave aggressively and identify the potential neural basis of this phenomenon.