Give in
Too Impatient to Smell the Roses: Exposure to Fast Food Impedes Happiness
Julian House, Sanford DeVoe & Chen-Bo Zhong
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We tested whether exposure to the ultimate symbols of an impatience culture — fast food —undermines people’s ability to experience happiness from savoring pleasurable experiences. Study 1 found that the concentration of fast-food restaurants in individuals’ neighborhoods predicted their tendencies to savor. Study 2 revealed that exposure to fast-food primes impeded participants’ ability to derive happiness from pictures of natural beauty. Study 3 showed that priming fast food undermined positive emotional responses to a beautiful melody by inducing greater impatience, measured by both subjective perception of time passage and self-reports of impatience experienced during the music. Together, these studies show that as pervasive symbols of impatience, fast food can inhibit savoring, producing negative consequences for how we experience pleasurable events.
----------------------
Environmental Disorder Leads to Self-Regulatory Failure
Boyoun (Grace) Chae & Rui (Juliet) Zhu
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper examines the influence of environmental orderliness on consumers’ self-regulation. It is proposed that a disorganized environment threatens the individual’s sense of personal control. Because experiencing this control threat depletes resources, individuals exposed to a disorganized (vs. organized) environment are more likely to exhibit self-regulatory failure in subsequent tasks. The results from four studies provide support for this hypothesis. Further, they offer evidence of the underlying process by demonstrating that a perceived threat to control mediates the effect of environmental orderliness on self-regulation, and that providing individuals with an opportunity to recoup their resources mitigates this effect. This research has crucial practical implications concerning public health and consumer well-being.
----------------------
Do natural landscapes reduce future discounting in humans?
Arianne van der Wal et al.
Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 22 December 2013
Abstract:
An important barrier to enduring behavioural change is the human tendency to discount the future. Drawing on evolutionary theories of life history and biophilia, this study investigates whether exposure to natural versus urban landscapes affects people's temporal discount rates. The results of three studies, two laboratory experiments and a field study reveal that individual discount rates are systematically lower after people have been exposed to scenes of natural environments as opposed to urban environments. Further, this effect is owing to people placing more value on the future after nature exposure. The finding that nature exposure reduces future discounting — as opposed to exposure to urban environments — conveys important implications for a range of personal and collective outcomes including healthy lifestyles, sustainable resource use and population growth.
----------------------
Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym: An Evaluation of Temptation Bundling
Katherine Milkman, Julia Minson & Kevin Volpp
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We introduce and evaluate the effectiveness of temptation bundling — a method for simultaneously tackling two types of self-control problems by harnessing consumption complementarities. We describe a field experiment measuring the impact of bundling instantly gratifying but guilt-inducing “want” experiences (enjoying page-turner audiobooks) with valuable “should” behaviors providing delayed rewards (exercising). We explore whether such bundles increase should behaviors and whether people would pay to create these restrictive bundles. Participants were randomly assigned to a full treatment condition with gym-only access to tempting audio novels, an intermediate treatment involving encouragement to restrict audiobook enjoyment to the gym, or a control condition. Initially, full and intermediate treatment participants visited the gym 51% and 29% more frequently, respectively, than control participants, but treatment effects declined over time (particularly following Thanksgiving). After the study, 61% of participants opted to pay to have gym-only access to iPods containing tempting audiobooks, suggesting demand for this commitment device.
----------------------
Effects of anonymous peer observation on adolescents' preference for immediate rewards
Alexander Weigard et al.
Developmental Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research suggests that the presence of peers influences adolescent risk-taking by increasing the perceived reward value of risky decisions. While prior work has involved observation of participants by their friends, the current study examined whether observation by an anonymous peer could elicit similarly increased reward sensitivity. Late adolescent participants completed a delay discounting task either alone or under the belief that performance was being observed from a neighboring room by an unknown viewer of the same gender and age. Even in this limited social context, participants demonstrated a significantly increased preference for smaller, immediate rewards when they believed that they were being watched. This outcome challenges several intuitive accounts of the peer effect on adolescent risk-taking, and indicates that the peer influence on reward sensitivity during late adolescence is not dependent on familiarity with the observer. The findings have both theoretical and practical implications for our understanding of social influences on adolescents' risky behavior.
----------------------
Digital Peer Interactions Affect Risk Taking in Young Adults
Ross MacLean et al.
Journal of Research on Adolescence, forthcoming
Abstract:
Digital interactions are an increasingly common communication method among young adults, but little is known about whether such remote exchanges influence riskiness. The current study examined whether observing and interacting with, versus simply observing, a digital peer affect risk taking in young adults aged 18–25. Participants who remotely viewed risky behavior by a peer or computer increased risk taking; however, compared to a control condition, only exposure to risk-encouraging messages from a digital peer resulted in sustained risk-taking behavior. These findings suggest that short text-based messages from a risk-encouraging digital peer can influence risk-taking behavior in young adults. Given the rapid proliferation of digital communication among this age group, these results highlight a potentially important source of peer influence on risky behavior.
----------------------
Eric Drollette et al.
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, January 2014, Pages 53–64
Abstract:
The present study examined the effects of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on aspects of cognitive control in two groups of children categorized by higher- and lower-task performance. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were collected in 40 preadolescent children during a modified flanker task following 20 min of treadmill walking and seated rest on separate occasions. Participants were bifurcated into two groups based on task performance following the resting session. Findings revealed that following exercise, higher-performers maintained accuracy and exhibited no change in P3 amplitude compared to seated rest. Lower-performers demonstrated a differential effect, such that accuracy measures improved, and P3 amplitude increased following exercise. Lastly, both groups displayed smaller N2 amplitude and shorter P3 latency following exercise, suggesting an overall facilitation in response conflict and the speed of stimulus classification. The current findings replicate prior research reporting the beneficial influence of acute aerobic exercise on cognitive performance in children. However, children with lower inhibitory control capacity may benefit the most from single bouts of exercise. These data are among the first to demonstrate the differential effect of physical activity on individuals who vary in inhibitory control, and further support the role of aerobic exercise for brain health during development.
----------------------
Competitive Disadvantage Facilitates Risk-Taking
Sandeep Mishra, Pat Barclay & Martin Lalumière
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Risk-sensitivity theory predicts that organisms are more likely to take risks when they are unlikely to achieve their goals through safer, low-risk means. Those who are competitively disadvantaged are less likely to succeed in social competition and should consequently show elevated risk-taking. We experimentally tested this hypothesis by exposing participants to cues of relative competitive disadvantage or relative competitive advantage via feedback from a purported intelligence test. Participants then made a number of high-risk or low-risk economic decisions (Experiment 1). Experiment 2 built on this design by either maintaining or ameliorating cues of relative competitive (dis)advantage. Results indicate that cues of relative competitive disadvantage led to increased risk-taking, and that risk-taking can be reduced when cues of disadvantage are ameliorated. Since risk-taking tends to generalize across domains, these results can potentially apply to a number of problematic risky behaviors.
----------------------
Personality and psychographics of three types of gamblers in the United States
Andrew Carver & John McCarty
International Gambling Studies, Fall 2013, Pages 338-355
Abstract:
Using the results of the Experian Marketing Services' Simmons® National Consumer Study (NCS) (N0 = 24,581), this paper studies the characteristics of three types of US. gamblers: regular lottery players (N1 = 1100), heavy casino gamblers (N2 = 636) and online gamblers (N3 = 291). We explore each type of gambler using measures of several personality and psychographic variables: impulsiveness, desire for control, materialism, risk taking, self-centredness, introversion, sensation seeking and financial prudence. We find that while all three groups have elevated levels of impulsiveness and materialism relative to non-gamblers (p < 0.01), most noteworthy are the online gamblers, who have higher levels of risk taking, desire for control, self-centredness and sensation seeking compared to casino gamblers, lottery players and non-gamblers (p < 0.01). This study additionally emphasizes the importance of considering demographics when investigating psychographics, as some of the psychographics related to gambling are conditioned on age. In addition, we find that online gamblers who also engage in other forms of gambling may be distinct from those who do not, suggesting they are not a homogeneous group.
----------------------
Robert Leeman et al.
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: Although impulsivity, sensation-seeking, and part-time employment have each been linked to risky behaviors in adolescents, their inter-relationships are less well-understood. We examined data from adolescents to assess the following predictions: (1) sensation-seeking would relate closely to substance use and gambling; (2) impulsivity would relate closely to alcohol, drug, and gambling problems; and (3) these relationships would be particularly strong among those holding part-time jobs.
Method: High-school students (N = 3,106) were surveyed to provide data on impulsivity, sensation-seeking, and part-time job status. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine relationships with gambling, substance use (i.e., alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana) and related problems.
Results: Both impulsivity and sensation-seeking related significantly to substance use and impulsivity to gambling. Impulsivity had stronger associations with drug and gambling problems than sensation-seeking did. Students with paid part-time jobs were more likely to drink alcohol, binge drink, and use marijuana. Sensation-seeking had a particularly strong relationship to heavy cigarette smoking among students with part-time jobs. Conversely, there was little relationship between part-time job status and smoking among low sensation-seekers.
Conclusions: These findings further support the relevance of sensation-seeking, impulsivity, and part-time job status to risky behaviors among adolescents. Sensation-seeking and impulsivity had unique relationships to risky behaviors, in accordance with theory and prior evidence. Impulsive adolescents may be in particular need for interventions to reduce drug use and gambling. Although part-time jobs can be beneficial, parents and caregivers should be mindful of potential negative ramifications of paid work outside the home.
----------------------
Stopping anger and anxiety: Evidence that inhibitory ability predicts negative emotional responding
David Tang & Brandon Schmeichel
Cognition & Emotion, Winter 2014, Pages 132-142
Abstract:
Research has begun to suggest that cognitive ability contributes to emotional processes and responses. The present study sought novel evidence for this hypothesis by examining the relationship between individual differences in the capacity for inhibitory control and responses to a common emotion-induction procedure involving autobiographical memories. Participants first completed a stop-signal task to measure inhibitory control and then underwent an anger, anxiety, or neutral emotion induction. Performance on the stop-signal task predicted emotional responses such that participants with poorer inhibitory control reported larger increases in anger following the anger induction and larger increases in anxiety across emotion induction conditions, relative to better inhibitors. These results suggest that individual differences in cognitive ability may influence the intensity of emotional states induced by common laboratory methods of emotion induction.
----------------------
Who Is ‘Behavioral’? Cognitive Ability and Anomalous Preferences
Daniel Benjamin, Sebastian Brown & Jesse Shapiro
Journal of the European Economic Association, December 2013, Pages 1231–1255
Abstract:
In this paper, we ask whether variation in preference anomalies is related to variation in cognitive ability. Evidence from a new laboratory study of Chilean high-school students with similar schooling backgrounds shows that small-stakes risk aversion and short-run discounting are less common among those with higher standardized test scores. The relationship with test scores survives controls for parental education and wealth. We find some evidence that elementary-school GPA is predictive of preferences measured at the end of high school. Two laboratory interventions provide suggestive evidence of a possible causal impact of cognitive resources on expressed preferences.
----------------------
Money Imbued With Essence: How We Preserve, Invest, and Spend Inherited Money
Orit Tykocinski & Thane Pittman
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, November/December 2013, Pages 506-514
Abstract:
The unique nature of inherited money is reflected in financial decisions concerning such bequests. A legacy originates in somber circumstances and bears the distinctive characteristics of the deceased. In four experiments and a survey among inheritors we found that people tended to preserve the inheritance; participants were reluctant to spend the legacy on hedonic goods or risk it by investing in the stock market. Inheritors with a close relationship with the deceased were more likely to seek uses congenial to the personality and the values of the departed. The results are discussed in terms of magical thinking and coping with bereavement.
----------------------
Mario Wenzel, Thomas Kubiak & Tamlin Conner
Cognition & Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Positive affect (PA) can either improve or impair self-control performance, depending on whether two tasks are dissimilar, and thus require flexible releasing and switching, or similar, which requires stable maintenance. The present study suggests that this effect is mediated by attentional shifts. The authors found that participants under PA, who performed on two dissimilar tasks and had to switch to a new response dimension, were less attentive to distracting information compared to neutral affect (NE), leading to better performance. In contrast, participants under PA who did not have to switch, were more attentive to distracting information compared to participants under NE. These findings highlight the opposite effects of PA on consecutive self-control.
----------------------
Nathan Carter et al.
Journal of Applied Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The personality trait of conscientiousness has seen considerable attention from applied psychologists due to its efficacy for predicting job performance across performance dimensions and occupations. However, recent theoretical and empirical developments have questioned the assumption that more conscientiousness always results in better job performance, suggesting a curvilinear link between the 2. Despite these developments, the results of studies directly testing the idea have been mixed. Here, we propose this link has been obscured by another pervasive assumption known as the dominance model of measurement: that higher scores on traditional personality measures always indicate higher levels of conscientiousness. Recent research suggests dominance models show inferior fit to personality test scores as compared to ideal point models that allow for curvilinear relationships between traits and scores. Using data from 2 different samples of job incumbents, we show the rank-order changes that result from using an ideal point model expose a curvilinear link between conscientiousness and job performance 100% of the time, whereas results using dominance models show mixed results, similar to the current state of the literature. Finally, with an independent cross-validation sample, we show that selection based on predicted performance using ideal point scores results in more favorable objective hiring outcomes. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.