I can relate
Money and relationships: When and why thinking about money leads people to approach others
Fei Teng et al.
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, November 2016, Pages 58-70
Abstract:
Monetary reminders have been shown to discourage people from affiliating with others. We proposed such an effect can be reversed when others are instrumental to people's goals. Results from four experiments converged to support our proposition. We found that thinking about money increased people's focus on the instrumentality aspects of others (Experiment 1). In a goal pursuit context, monetary reminders increased people's tendency to approach others who were instrumental to achieving their goals (Experiment 2). The effect of money prime on approaching others was dismissed or reversed when people were highly competent in achieving the goal themselves (Experiment 3) and when the instrumentality of others was ambiguous (Experiment 4). Moreover, these effects were driven by the perceived instrumentality of others (Experiments 2-4). Taken together, our findings suggest that thinking about money leads to an instrumentality orientation in social interactions, which changes how people view relationships and how they interact with others.
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Does the mortality risk of social isolation depend upon socioeconomic factors?
Andrew Patterson
Journal of Health Psychology, October 2016, Pages 2420-2433
Abstract:
This study considers whether socioeconomic status influences the impact of social isolation on mortality risk. Using data from the Alameda County Study, Cox proportional hazard models indicate that having a high income worsens the mortality risk of social isolation. Education may offset risk, however, and the specific pattern that emerges depends on which measures for socioeconomic status and social isolation are included. Additionally, lonely people who earn high incomes suffer especially high risk of accidents and suicides as well as cancer. Further research is needed that contextualizes the health risks of social isolation within the broader social environment.
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The need to belong motivates demand for authentic objects
George Newman & Rosanna Smith
Cognition, November 2016, Pages 129-134
Abstract:
The present studies examine how demand for certain types of authentic objects is related to a more fundamental need to form social connections with others. Specifically, Experiment 1 demonstrates that manipulating the need to belong leads to greater valuation of celebrity memorabilia. Experiment 2 provides converging evidence by demonstrating that individual differences in the need to belong moderate the relationship between beliefs in essence transfer (i.e., contagion) and valuation. This paper lends insight into the underlying motives behind demand for authentic objects and, more broadly, reinforces the compensatory role of consumption in satisfying core psychological needs.
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From Caregivers to Peers: Puberty Shapes Human Face Perception
Giorgia Picci & Suzanne Scherf
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Puberty prepares mammals to sexually reproduce during adolescence. It is also hypothesized to invoke a social metamorphosis that prepares adolescents to take on adult social roles. We provide the first evidence to support this hypothesis in humans and show that pubertal development retunes the face-processing system from a caregiver bias to a peer bias. Prior to puberty, children exhibit enhanced recognition for adult female faces. With puberty, superior recognition emerges for peer faces that match one's pubertal status. As puberty progresses, so does the peer recognition bias. Adolescents become better at recognizing faces with a pubertal status similar to their own. These findings reconceptualize the adolescent "dip" in face recognition by showing that it is a recalibration of the face-processing system away from caregivers toward peers. Thus, in addition to preparing the physical body for sexual reproduction, puberty shapes the perceptual system for processing the social world in new ways.
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Anthony Burrow & Nicolette Rainone
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Sociometer theory asserts that self-esteem is calibrated to one's perceived relational value. Accordingly, positive feedback should boost self-esteem because it signals acceptance by others. Yet, the extent to which self-esteem is sensitive to positive feedback may depend on individuals' sense of purpose. In two studies (N = 342), we tested purpose in life as a source of self-directed and prosocial motivation and predicted that having greater purpose would lessen sensitivity to social media feedback. Study 1 revealed that the number of likes individuals received on their Facebook profile pictures was positively associated with self-esteem. Study 2 replicated these findings experimentally by manipulating the number of likes individuals received on self-photographs posted to a mock Facebook site. In both studies, links between likes and self-esteem were diminished for those with greater purpose. Implications for purpose as a moderator of the self-esteem contingencies of positive social feedback are discussed.
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Kayo Fujimoto, Tom Snijders & Thomas Valente
Social Networks, January 2017, Pages 100-109
Abstract:
In this study, we examined the dynamics of the perception of "dislike" ties (reputational dislike) among adolescents within the contexts of friendship, perceived popularity, substance use, and Facebook use. Survey data were collected from a longitudinal sample of 238 adolescents from the 11th and 12th grades in one California high school. We estimated stochastic actor-based network dynamic models, using reports of reputational dislike, friendships, and perceived popularity, to identify factors associated with the maintenance and generation reputational dislike ties. The results showed that high-status adolescents and more frequent Facebook users tended to become perceived as or stay disliked by their peers over time. There was a tendency for friendships to promote the creation and maintenance of reputational disliking but not vice versa. Adolescents tended to perceive others as disliked when their friends also perceived them as disliked. There was no evidence that either cigarette smoking or drinking alcohol affected reputational dislike dynamics. This study highlights the important role that the hierarchical peer system, online peer context, and friendships play in driving information diffusion of negative peer relations among adolescents.
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Naltrexone increases negatively-valenced facial responses to happy faces in female participants
Isabell Meier et al.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, December 2016, Pages 65-68
Abstract:
Positive social cues, like happy facial expressions, activate the brain's reward system and indicate interest in social affiliation. Facial mimicry of emotions, which is the predominantly automatic and unconscious imitation of another person's facial expression, has been shown to promote social affiliation. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that the opioid system is vital to social affiliation in rodents, but there is less evidence in humans. We investigated whether a 50 mg administration of naltrexone, an opioid antagonist with highest affinity for the mu-opioid system, modulates emotional mimicry. A passive viewing task with dynamic facial expressions was used in a randomized placebo controlled between-subjects design. Mimicry was measured with electromyography (EMG) on three facial muscles, the corrugator supercilii and the depressor jaw muscle, associated with negatively-valenced emotions, and the zygomaticus major, which is activated during smiling. The results demonstrate an increase of negatively-valenced facial responses (corrugator and depressor) to happy facial expressions after naltrexone compared to placebo, consistent with lowered interest in social interaction or affiliation. Our findings provide evidence for a role of the opioid system in modulating automatic behavioral responses to cues of reward and social interaction, and translate to rodent models of the mu-opioid system and social affiliation.