People person
We Look Like Our Names: The Manifestation of Name Stereotypes in Facial Appearance
Yonat Zwebner et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research demonstrates that facial appearance affects social perceptions. The current research investigates the reverse possibility: Can social perceptions influence facial appearance? We examine a social tag that is associated with us early in life - our given name. The hypothesis is that name stereotypes can be manifested in facial appearance, producing a face-name matching effect, whereby both a social perceiver and a computer are able to accurately match a person's name to his or her face. In 8 studies we demonstrate the existence of this effect, as participants examining an unfamiliar face accurately select the person's true name from a list of several names, significantly above chance level. We replicate the effect in 2 countries and find that it extends beyond the limits of socioeconomic cues. We also find the effect using a computer-based paradigm and 94,000 faces. In our exploration of the underlying mechanism, we show that existing name stereotypes produce the effect, as its occurrence is culture-dependent. A self-fulfilling prophecy seems to be at work, as initial evidence shows that facial appearance regions that are controlled by the individual (e.g., hairstyle) are sufficient to produce the effect, and socially using one's given name is necessary to generate the effect. Together, these studies suggest that facial appearance represents social expectations of how a person with a specific name should look. In this way a social tag may influence one's facial appearance.
---------------------
Neural Homophily: Similar Neural Responses Predict Friendship
Carolyn Parkinson, Adam Kleinbaum & Thalia Wheatley
Dartmouth College Working Paper, December 2016
Abstract:
We resemble our friends on a wide range of dimensions (e.g., age, gender), but do similarities between friends reflect deeper similarities in how we perceive, interpret, and respond to the world? To find out, we characterized the social network of a cohort of 279 students, a subset of whom participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study involving free viewing of video stimuli. We compared fMRI response time series between corresponding brain regions across pairs of individuals and found that neural response similarity decreased with increasing distance in the social network. These effects persisted after controlling for demographic similarity. Further, it was possible to accurately classify the distance between individuals in their social network based on the similarity of their fMRI response time series across brain regions. These results suggest that we are exceptionally similar to our friends in how we perceive and react to the world around us.
---------------------
Jessie Sun et al.
Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Why are trait extraversion and extraverted behaviors both associated with greater positive affect? Across 3 studies, we examined whether 2 aspects of social experience - perceived social contribution and social power - mediate the relation between extraversion and positive affect. Study 1 (N = 205) showed that trait measures of social contribution and power mediated the relation between trait extraversion and trait positive affect. Study 2 (N = 78) showed that state social contribution and power helped to explain the greater levels of state positive affect reported by participants who were instructed to enact extraverted behaviors. Finally, Study 3 (N = 62) showed that social contribution and power mediated the relation between natural fluctuations in extraverted behavior and positive affect states in daily life. In all 3 studies, multiple-mediator models showed that social contribution, but not power, independently mediated the relations that trait and state extraversion had with positive affect. This suggests that perceptions of positive influence - more so than a general sense of power - help to explain why extraverts and extraverted moments are happier. We link these findings to emerging trends in the study of personality dynamics and the potential benefits of acting "out of character."
---------------------
The Negative Consequences of Maximizing in Friendship Selection
David Newman et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous studies have shown that the maximizing orientation, reflecting a motivation to select the best option among a given set of choices, is associated with various negative psychological outcomes. In the present studies, we examined whether these relationships extend to friendship selection and how the number of options for friends moderated these effects. Across 5 studies, maximizing in selecting friends was negatively related to life satisfaction, positive affect, and self-esteem, and was positively related to negative affect and regret. In Study 1, a maximizing in selecting friends scale was created, and regret mediated the relationships between maximizing and well-being. In a naturalistic setting in Studies 2a and 2b, the tendency to maximize among those who participated in the fraternity and sorority recruitment process was negatively related to satisfaction with their selection, and positively related to regret and negative affect. In Study 3, daily levels of maximizing were negatively related to daily well-being, and these relationships were mediated by daily regret. In Study 4, we extended the findings to samples from the U.S. and Japan. When participants who tended to maximize were faced with many choices, operationalized as the daily number of friends met (Study 3) and relational mobility (Study 4), the opportunities to regret a decision increased and further diminished well-being. These findings imply that, paradoxically, attempts to maximize when selecting potential friends is detrimental to one's well-being.