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Are You Listening to Me? The Negative Link Between Extraversion and Perceived Listening
Francis Flynn, Hanne Collins & Julian Zlatev
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Extraverts are often characterized as highly social individuals who are highly invested in their interpersonal interactions. We propose that extraverts' interaction partners hold a different view - that extraverts are highly social, but not highly invested. Across six studies (five preregistered; N = 2,456), we find that interaction partners consistently judge more extraverted individuals to be worse listeners than less extraverted individuals. Furthermore, interaction partners assume that extraversion is positively associated with a greater ability to modify one's self-presentation. This behavioral malleability (i.e., the "acting" component of self-monitoring) may account for the unfavorable lay belief that extraverts are not listening.
Friend-shield protection from the crowd: How friendship makes people feel invulnerable to COVID-19
Eline De Vries & Hyunjung Crystal Lee
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, forthcoming
Abstract:
When deciding whether to eat inside a restaurant or how many health protection items to purchase, individuals in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) era tend to consider the infection risk of crowds of generalized others. With a field study and four experiments, the present study identifies associations between COVID-19 and friendship (e.g., thinking of a friend while reading COVID-19-related news, perceiving a friend as the source of infection, noting friends' presence during potential COVID-19 exposure) that decrease both infection risk perceptions and protective behaviors. The sense of safety that stems from psychological closeness of friends reduces perceived virus infection risks associated with third-party crowds. The distinction between psychological closeness and safety toward friends versus acquaintances widens with clear in-group/out-group boundaries, such that this friend-shield effect is especially pronounced among people whose group boundaries are well established. Limiting interactions to close friends and family members is a common protective measure to reduce COVID-19 transmission risk, but the study findings demonstrate that this practice also unintentionally creates other issues, in that people tend to perceive reduced health risks and engage in potentially hazardous health behaviors. By identifying this risk and encouraging more holistic responses, this research offers implications for individuals, health officials, and policymakers.
Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort
Kaitlin Woolley & Ayelet Fishbach
Psychological Science, April 2022, Pages 510-523
Abstract:
Achieving personal growth often requires experiencing discomfort. What if instead of tolerating discomfort (e.g., feeling awkward or uncomfortable), people actively sought it out? Because discomfort is usually experienced immediately and is easy to detect, we suggest that seeking discomfort as a signal of growth can increase motivation. Five experiments (total N = 2,163 adults) tested this prediction across various areas of personal growth: taking improvisation classes to increase self-confidence, engaging in expressive writing to process difficult emotions, becoming informed about the COVID-19 health crisis, opening oneself to opposing political viewpoints, and learning about gun violence. Across these areas of personal development, seeking discomfort as a signal of self-growth motivated engagement and increased perceived goal achievement relative to standard instructions. Consistent with our theorizing, results showed that these effects occurred only in areas of personal growth that cause immediate discomfort.
Consumers' love for technological gadgets is linked to personal growth
Justin McManus & Sergio Carvalho
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Loving technological gadgets could be considered an expression of material values, and thereby a behavior that is associated with reduced well-being. In two studies (N = 926, American and Canadian adults), we investigate whether gadget loving is associated with indicators of well-being that, to date, have gone undocumented by research. Results from a pilot study show that although people, overall, perceive technological gadgets to be materialistic purchases (compared to all tested product categories) and consumers of these products to be materialistic people (particularly when gadgets are purchased for novelty vs. utility), individual differences in gadget loving are most associated with learning motives rather than motives associated with materialism (e.g., status signaling). Results from the main study (a cross-sectional survey wherein participants completed individual difference measures of gadget loving, orientation-to-happiness, competence, and personal growth) indicate that (1) gadget loving interacts with an orientation-to-engagement (but not pleasure) to relate to greater personal growth, and (2) this interaction is explained by increases in competence. These results contravene the assumption that gadget loving is solely a manifestation of materialism.
Routines and Meaning in Life: Does Activity Content or Context Matter?
Fahima Mohideen & Samantha Heintzelman
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
People feel that their lives are more meaningful while engaging in behaviors more closely aligned with their routines. Does the behavioral content of these routines and the contextual factors surrounding their enactment matter for this relationship? In two experience sampling studies (N = 93, 1,512 episodes; N = 97, 1,629 episodes), we test whether the relationship between routines and meaning in life (MIL) depends on the content of the activities. We found that the degree to which one's current activity is a routine positively related to momentary MIL beyond other meaningful features (e.g., relationships, goals, prosociality) of that activity. We conducted Study 2 in the context of mass routine disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found even stronger relationships between routine enactment and concurrent MIL in this context which held controlling for factors, including perceived chaos, mood, and anxiety. These findings suggest that routines uniquely relate to MIL, beyond the meaningfulness of their content and across contexts.
Illusory Feelings, Elusive Habits: People Overlook Habits in Explanations of Behavior
Asaf Mazar & Wendy Wood
Psychological Science, April 2022, Pages 563-578
Abstract:
Habits underlie much of human behavior. However, people may prefer agentic accounts that overlook habits in favor of inner states, such as mood. We tested this misattribution hypothesis in an online experiment of helping behavior (N = 809 adults) as well as in an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study of U.S. college students' everyday coffee drinking (N = 112). Both studies revealed a substantial gap between perceived and actual drivers of behavior: Habit strength outperformed or matched inner states in predicting behavior, but participants' explanations of their behavior emphasized inner states. Participants continued to misattribute habits to inner states when incentivized for accuracy and when explaining other people's behavior. We discuss how this misperception could adversely influence self-regulation.