Socially Good
A little good goes an unexpectedly long way: Underestimating the positive impact of kindness on recipients
Amit Kumar & Nicholas Epley
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
Performing random acts of kindness increases happiness in both givers and receivers, but we find that givers systematically undervalue their positive impact on recipients. In both field and laboratory settings (Experiments 1a through 2b), those performing an act of kindness reported how positive they expected recipients would feel and recipients reported how they actually felt. From giving away a cup of hot chocolate in a park to giving away a gift in the lab, those performing a random act of kindness consistently underestimated how positive their recipients would feel, thinking their act was of less value than recipients perceived it to be. Givers' miscalibrated expectations are driven partly by an egocentric bias in evaluations of the act itself (Experiment 3). Whereas recipients' positive reactions are enhanced by the warmth conveyed in a kind act, givers' expectations are relatively insensitive to the warmth conveyed in their action. Underestimating the positive impact of a random act of kindness also leads givers to underestimate the behavioral consequences their prosociality will produce in recipients through indirect reciprocity (Experiment 4). We suggest that givers' miscalibrated expectations matter because they can create a barrier to engaging in prosocial actions more often in everyday life (Experiments 5a and 5b), which may result in people missing out on opportunities to enhance both their own and others' well-being.
Status acuity: The ability to accurately perceive status hierarchies reduces status conflict and benefits group performance
Siyu Yu, Gavin Kilduff & Tessa West
Journal of Applied Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Humans are a fundamentally social species, having evolved in groups with status hierarchies. However, research on the dimensions of individual ability has largely overlooked the domain of status. Building upon research on the individual-level benefits of accurate status perceptions, we propose that there exists an individual dispositional ability to perceive groups' informal status hierarchies, which we call status acuity, and which has important implications for group dynamics. We find support for the existence and importance of status acuity across several studies. In Studies 1a and 1b, we develop and validate a measure of status acuity, find that it is distinct from previously studied individual abilities including emotional intelligence, cognitive intelligence, and accurate learning of social networks, and find that it predicts important individual outcomes at work. In Studies 2 and 3, we examine the effects of status acuity in face-to-face groups. As predicted, groups whose members have higher status acuity experience less status conflict, which benefits performance on creative idea-generation as well as problem-solving tasks. This work extends existing research on status and group dynamics, and contributes to our understanding of the constellation of human abilities, offering a new answer to the question: "How well does this person work in groups?"
Effects of restricting social media usage on wellbeing and performance: A randomized control trial among students
Avinash Collis & Felix Eggers
PLoS ONE, August 2022
Abstract:
Recent research has shown that social media services create large consumer surplus. Despite their positive impact on economic welfare, concerns are raised about the negative association between social media usage and well-being or performance. However, causal empirical evidence is still scarce. To address this research gap, we conduct a randomized controlled trial among students in which we track participants' daily digital activities over the course of three quarters of an academic year. In the experiment, we randomly allocate half of the sample to a treatment condition in which social media usage (Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat) is restricted to a maximum of 10 minutes per day. We find that participants in the treatment group substitute social media for instant messaging and do not decrease their total time spent on digital devices. Contrary to findings from previous correlational studies, we do not find any significant impact of social media usage as it was defined in our study on well-being and academic success. Our results also suggest that antitrust authorities should consider instant messaging and social media services as direct competitors before approving acquisitions.
Talking with strangers is surprisingly informative
Stav Atir, Kristina Wald & Nicholas Epley
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 23 August 2022
Abstract:
A meaningful amount of people's knowledge comes from their conversations with others. The amount people expect to learn predicts their interest in having a conversation (pretests 1 and 2), suggesting that the presumed information value of conversations guides decisions of whom to talk with. The results of seven experiments, however, suggest that people may systematically underestimate the informational benefit of conversation, creating a barrier to talking with-and hence learning from-others in daily life. Participants who were asked to talk with another person expected to learn significantly less from the conversation than they actually reported learning afterward, regardless of whether they had conversation prompts and whether they had the goal to learn (experiments 1 and 2). Undervaluing conversation does not stem from having systematically poor opinions of how much others know (experiment 3) but is instead related to the inherent uncertainty involved in conversation itself. Consequently, people underestimate learning to a lesser extent when uncertainty is reduced, as in a nonsocial context (surfing the web, experiment 4); when talking to an acquainted conversation partner (experiment 5); and after knowing the content of the conversation (experiment 6). Underestimating learning in conversation is distinct from underestimating other positive qualities in conversation, such as enjoyment (experiment 7). Misunderstanding how much can be learned in conversation could keep people from learning from others in daily life.
Bored and better: Interpersonal boredom results in people feeling not only superior to the boring individual, but also to others
Jonathan Gallegos, Karen Gasper & Nathaniel Schermerhorn
Self and Identity, forthcoming
Abstract:
Four experiments tested the hypothesis that meeting someone new who is boring would result in people feeling superior to the boring individual, which would then result in people viewing themselves as better than others and increased confidence. Respondents reported greater feelings of superiority, meaninglessness, and difficulty paying attention when they wrote about meeting a new, boring individual than a new or manipulative individual. Feeling superior, but not meaninglessness and attention, mediated the effect of interpersonal boredom on viewing oneself as better than others, but not on confidence. These finding did not occur when people wrote about a boring task or a disliked, manipulative individual. The experiments elucidate how interpersonal boredom, albeit a negative experience, can enhance people's sense of self.
Motivational underpinnings of social media use
Allison Garibaldi, Grace Waldfogle & James Szalma
Psychology of Popular Media, forthcoming
Abstract:
The effect of social media use on psychological well-being has been a pressing topic of discussion for the past several years. Previous research has found, paradoxically, that social media use may be associated with both increased and decreased well-being. Some studies have suggested that one's motivation for using social media may be implicated in well-being outcomes as a result of social media use. This study sought to further explore the role of motivation for social media use, and how it may differ across different social media platforms (i.e., Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and total time spent on social media). Specifically, the present study tested whether time spent on social media and motives for social media use mediate the relationship between feelings of social connection and disconnection. Results indicated that time spent on social media and motives for use do not mediate the relationship between connection and disconnection for any of the platforms or for total use. However, tests of direct effects revealed that disconnection predicts more total time spent on social media across platforms, but not time spent on any specific platform. Similarly, using social media for friendship and information predicted higher levels of social connection when total social media use was included as a mediator. In contrast, using social media for connection (i.e., forming new relationships) did not predict higher feelings of social connection for any of the platforms or for total use. In general, there were few significant cross-platform differences, as most direct effects were significant only for total time spent on social media. Although use for connection did not significantly predict higher feelings of social connection, it did predict time spent on Snapchat, Facebook, and total time spent on social media, though this was not the case for use for friendship and only true for total time spent in the case of use for information. These results suggest that motives for social media use can affect feelings of social connectedness, but the underlying mechanism of this effect is still unclear.
No social media for six hours? The emotional experience of Meta's global outage according to FoMO, JoMO and internet intensity
Tal Eitan & Tali Gazit
Computers in Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
On October 4, 2021, a severe technical service failure of Meta (previously Facebook) caused a worldwide "outage" for six hours. Billions of people, not able to access their social media accounts, experienced different levels of stress. This study took advantage of these unique circumstances to test the stress caused by sudden lack of online access using three main factors: the fear of missing out (FoMO) effect, social media intensity, and demographic factors. In the two days immediately following this event, we conducted an online survey, with 571 adults responding. Using both quantitative and qualitative analyses, data were collected to explore the emotional experiences and predictors of the stress adults underwent during the social media outage. The content analysis revealed four types of reactions: (1) feeling anxious at first, but then feeling better after realizing the outage was global; (2) having only negative feelings; (3) having only positive feelings and even experiencing a version of the joy of missing out (JoMO); and (4) feeling indifferent. A hierarchical regression indicated that stress can be significantly predicted by FoMO, social media intensity, emotional experience, age, and marital status. In addition, FoMO and intensity were found to be mediators between age and stress. Finally, we found associations between stress and gender and employment, with self-employed women experiencing less stress than men and not self-employed women experiencing more stress than men. The findings are discussed in light of the FoMO vs. JoMO effects, the social comparison theory, and the role of demographic factors in reducing or increasing stress when social media is not available.