Socialites
Network Structure in Small Groups and Survival in Disasters
Benjamin Cornwell & Jing-Mao Ho
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
People in disaster and emergency situations (e.g., building fires) tend to adhere to the social obligations and expectations that are embedded in their preexisting roles and relationships. Accordingly, people survive or perish in groups — specifically, alongside those to whom they were connected before the situation emerged. This article uses social network analysis to expand on this collective behavior account. Specifically, we consider structural heterogeneity with respect to the internal configurations of social ties that compose small groups facing these situations together. Some groups are composed of cohesive subsets of members who can split off from each other during evacuation without violating their group’s internal role-based expectations. We argue that groups that possess this “breakaway” structure can respond to emergencies more flexibly. We explore this using data from the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire of 1977, which killed 165 people. Our data include 303 groups (“parties”) that consisted of 746 people who were present in the dining room where most of the fatalities occurred. Fatality rates were significantly lower in groups that were internally structured such that they could split up in different ways during the escape while still maintaining their strongest social bonds.
The balance of giving versus receiving social support and all-cause mortality in a US national sample
Edith Chen et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 15 June 2021
Abstract:
While numerous studies exist on the benefits of social support (both receiving and giving), little research exists on how the balance between the support that individuals regularly give versus that which they receive from others relates to physical health. In a US national sample of 6,325 adults from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, participants were assessed at baseline on hours of social support given and received on a monthly basis, with all-cause mortality data collected from the National Death Index over a 23-y follow-up period. Participants who were relatively balanced in the support they gave compared to what they received had a lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who either disproportionately received support from others (e.g., received more hours of support than they gave each month) or disproportionately gave support to others (e.g., gave many more hours of support a month than they received). These findings applied to instrumental social support (e.g., help with transportation, childcare). Additionally, participants who gave a moderate amount of instrumental social support had a lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who either gave very little support or those who gave a lot of support to others. Associations were evident over and above demographic, medical, mental health, and health behavior covariates. Although results are correlational, one interpretation is that promoting a balance, in terms of the support that individuals regularly give relative to what they receive in their social relationships, may not only help to strengthen the social fabric of society but may also have potential physical health benefits.
Stranger, Lover, Friend?: The Pain of Rejection Does Not Depend
Anne Böckler, Annika Rennert & Tim Raettig
Social Psychology, May/June 2021, Pages 173-184
Abstract:
Social exclusion, even from minimal game-based interactions, induces negative consequences. We investigated whether the nature of the relationship with the excluder modulates the effects of ostracism. Participants played a virtual ball-tossing game with a stranger and a friend (friend condition) or a stranger and their romantic partner (partner condition) while being fully included, fully excluded, excluded only by the stranger, or excluded only by their close other. Replicating previous findings, full exclusion impaired participants’ basic-need satisfaction and relationship evaluation most severely. While the degree of exclusion mattered, the relationship to the excluder did not: Classic null hypothesis testing and Bayesian statistics showed no modulation of ostracism effects depending on whether participants were excluded by a stranger, a friend, or their partner.
Loudness Perceptions Influence Feelings of Interpersonal Closeness and Protect Against Detrimental Psychological Effects of Social Exclusion
Deming Wang et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
We propose that perceptions of auditory loudness and interpersonal closeness are bidirectionally related. Across 12 experiments (total N = 2,219; 10 preregistered; with Singaporean, British, U.S. American, and Australian participants), we demonstrated that louder audio made people feel physically (Study 1a) and socially (Study 1b) closer to others, presumably because loudness activates interpersonal closeness-related concepts implicitly (Studies 1c and 1d). This loudness–interpersonal closeness effect was observed across diverse samples (Studies 2a, 3a, and S1), for longer listening intervals (Study 2b), and in natural settings (Studies 3a and 3b). Conversely, individuals made to feel socially excluded rated their surroundings as quieter (Study 4). Furthermore, following social exclusion, individuals showed a preference for louder volume (Study 5). Finally, exposure to loud stimuli mitigated detrimental psychological effects of social exclusion (Study 6). Theoretical implications for the social cognition of loudness, social exclusion and compensatory strategies, and practical implications for ameliorating loneliness are discussed.
Ostracism in Real Life: Evidence That Ostracizing Others Has Costs, Even When It Feels Justified
Nicole Legate, Netta Weinstein & Richard Ryan
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, July/August 2021, Pages 226-238
Abstract:
An extensive literature on ostracism shows clear costs for targets; less clear is whether sources of ostracism also face costs. Further, most ostracism experiments fail to speak to ostracism in “real life.” Two studies informed by self-determination theory (SDT) tested whether ostracizers suffer in comparable ways to targets of ostracism in real-life experiences. Results of a diary study found both ostracizing and being ostracized related to worse psychological health because of thwarted psychological needs for autonomy and relatedness. A follow-up experiment found that ostracizing, even when it felt justified, yielded psychological costs, and all groups involved in ostracism suffered because of thwarted autonomy and relatedness. Findings provide evidence for SDT hypotheses concerning inherent costs of harming others.
The positive-passion hypothesis: Grandiose but not vulnerable narcissism relates to high-approach positive affect following provocation
William Hart et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Affect figures prominently in theories of narcissists' reaction to provocation, but because these theories focus on negative affect, high-approach positive affect has not been studied. Here, we posited the “positive-passion hypothesis,” which states grandiose- but not vulnerable-narcissistic individuals experience high-approach positive affect rather than negative affect when provoked, which can co-occur with aggressive behavior. In this study, participants simulated provocations that varied in extent. Regardless of provocation level, grandiose- and vulnerable-narcissistic individuals indicated greater aggression, and only vulnerable-narcissistic individuals indicated greater anticipated negative affect in the situation. Consistent with the positive-passion hypothesis, regardless of provocation level, grandiose-narcissistic individuals indicated greater anticipated high-approach positive affect (controlling for feelings of surprise and calmness) in the situation, but vulnerable-narcissistic individuals did not. The effects of the narcissism forms seemed determined by the type(s) of goals adopted in a provoking situation.
Becoming the King in the North: Identification with fictional characters is associated with greater self–other neural overlap
Timothy Broom, Robert Chavez & Dylan Wagner
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, June 2021, Pages 541–551
Abstract:
During narrative experiences, identification with a fictional character can alter one’s attitudes and self-beliefs to be more similar to those of the character. The ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) is a brain region that shows increased activity when introspecting about the self but also when thinking of close friends. Here, we test whether identification with fictional characters is associated with increased neural overlap between self and fictional others. Nineteen fans of the HBO series Game of Thrones performed trait evaluations for the self, 9 real-world friends and 9 fictional characters during functional neuroimaging. Overall, the participants showed a larger response in the vMPFC for self compared to friends and fictional others. However, among the participants higher in trait identification, we observed a greater neural overlap in the vMPFC between self and fictional characters. Moreover, the magnitude of this association was greater for the character that participants reported feeling closest to/liked the most as compared to those they felt least close to/liked the least. These results suggest that identification with fictional characters leads people to incorporate these characters into their self-concept: the greater the immersion into experiences of ‘becoming’ characters, the more accessing knowledge about characters resembles accessing knowledge about the self.