Turn that frown upside down
Barry Schlenker, John Chambers & Bonnie Le
Journal of Research in Personality, forthcoming
Abstract:
Political conservatives are happier than liberals. We proposed that this happiness gap is accounted for by specific attitude and personality differences associated with positive adjustment and mental health. In contrast, a predominant social psychological explanation of the gap is that conservatives, who are described as fearful, defensive, and low in self-esteem, will rationalize away social inequalities in order to justify the status quo (system justification). In 4 studies, conservatives expressed greater personal agency (e.g., personal control, responsibility), more positive outlook (e.g., optimism, self-worth), more transcendent moral beliefs (e.g., greater religiosity, greater moral clarity, less tolerance of transgressions), and a generalized belief in fairness, and these differences accounted for the happiness gap. These patterns are consistent with the positive adjustment explanation.
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Do Mood Swings Drive Business Cycles and is it Rational?
Paul Beaudry, Deokwoo Nam & Jian Wang
NBER Working Paper, December 2011
Abstract:
This paper provides new evidence in support of the idea that bouts of optimism and pessimism drive much of US business cycles. In particular, we begin by using sign-restriction based identification schemes to isolate innovations in optimism or pessimism and we document the extent to which such episodes explain macroeconomic fluctuations. We then examine the link between these identified mood shocks and subsequent developments in fundamentals using alternative identification schemes (i.e., variants of the maximum forecast error variance approach). We find that there is a very close link between the two, suggesting that agents' feelings of optimism and pessimism are at least partially rational as total factor productivity (TFP) is observed to rise 8-10 quarters after an initial bout of optimism. While this later finding is consistent with some previous findings in the news shock literature, we cannot rule out that such episodes reflect self-fulfilling beliefs. Overall, we argue that mood swings account for over 50% of business cycle fluctuations in hours and output.
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Cassie Mogilner, Jennifer Aaker & Sepandar Kamvar
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Consumers want to be happy, and marketers are increasingly trying to appeal to consumers' pursuit of happiness. However, the results of six studies reveal that what happiness means varies, and consumers' choices reflect those differences. In some cases, happiness is defined as feeling excited, and in other cases, happiness is defined as feeling calm. The type of happiness pursued is determined by one's temporal focus, such that individuals tend to choose more exciting options when focused on the future, and more calming options when focused on the present moment. These results suggest that the definition of happiness, and consumers' resulting choices, are dynamic and malleable.
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Happiness and Time Preference: The Effect of Positive Affect in a Random-Assignment Experiment
John Ifcher & Homa Zarghamee
American Economic Review, December 2011, Pages 3109-3129
Abstract:
We conduct a random-assignment experiment to investigate whether positive affect impacts time preference, where time preference denotes a preference for present over future utility. Our result indicates that, compared to neutral affect, mild positive affect significantly reduces time preference over money. This result is robust to various specification checks, and alternative interpretations of the result are considered. Our result has implications for the effect of happiness on time preference and the role of emotions in economic decision making, in general. Finally, we reconfirm the ubiquity of time preference and start to explore its determinants.
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Hui-Tzu Grace Chou & Nicholas Edge
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, forthcoming
Abstract:
Facebook, as one of the most popular social networking sites among college students, provides a platform for people to manage others' impressions of them. People tend to present themselves in a favorable way on their Facebook profile. This research examines the impact of using Facebook on people's perceptions of others' lives. It is argued that those with deeper involvement with Facebook will have different perceptions of others than those less involved due to two reasons. First, Facebook users tend to base judgment on examples easily recalled (the availability heuristic). Second, Facebook users tend to attribute the positive content presented on Facebook to others' personality, rather than situational factors (correspondence bias), especially for those they do not know personally. Questionnaires, including items measuring years of using Facebook, time spent on Facebook each week, number of people listed as their Facebook "friends," and perceptions about others' lives, were completed by 425 undergraduate students taking classes across various academic disciplines at a state university in Utah. Surveys were collected during regular class period, except for two online classes where surveys were submitted online. The multivariate analysis indicated that those who have used Facebook longer agreed more that others were happier, and agreed less that life is fair, and those spending more time on Facebook each week agreed more that others were happier and had better lives. Furthermore, those that included more people whom they did not personally know as their Facebook "friends" agreed more that others had better lives.
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Self-Affirmation Through the Choice of Highly Aesthetic Products
Claudia Townsend & Sanjay Sood
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract
Just as good looks bestow an unconscious "beauty premium" on people, high aesthetics bestows an unrecognized benefit on consumer goods. Specifically, choosing a product with good design affirms the consumer's sense of self. Choice of a highly aesthetic product was compared with choice of products superior on other attributes including function, brand, and hedonics to show that only aesthetics influences a consumer's personal values. In study 1 a prior self-affirming task leads to a decrease in choice share of a highly aesthetic option. Studies 2 and 3 mimic prior research on self-affirmation, however with choice of a highly aesthetic product replacing a traditional self-affirmation manipulation. Choosing a product with good design resulted in increased openness to counter-attitudinal arguments and reduced propensity to escalate commitment towards a failing course of action. There are numerous implications of this form of self-affirmation, from public policy to retail therapy.
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A load on my mind: Evidence that anhedonic depression is like multi-tasking
Keith Bredemeier et al.
Acta Psychologica, January 2012, Pages 137-145
Abstract:
Multi-tasking can increase susceptibility to distraction, affecting whether irrelevant objects capture attention. Similarly, people with depression often struggle to concentrate when performing cognitively demanding tasks. This parallel suggests that depression is like multi-tasking. To test this idea, we examined relations between self-reported levels of anhedonic depression (a dimension that reflects the unique aspects of depression not shared with anxiety or other forms of distress) and attention capture by salient items in a visual search task. Furthermore, we compared these relations to the effects of performing a concurrent auditory task on attention capture. Strikingly, both multi-tasking and elevated levels of anhedonic depression were associated with increased capture by uniquely colored items, but decreased capture by abruptly appearing items. At least with respect to attention capture and distraction, depression seems to be functionally comparable to juggling a second, unrelated cognitive task.
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Real estate prices: An international study of seasonality's sentiment effect
Guy Kaplanski & Haim Levy
Journal of Empirical Finance, January 2012, Pages 123-146
Abstract:
The current study shows that real estate prices in several countries reveal a significant and persistent seasonality, where the highest rates of return are obtained in the spring and early summer, and the lowest rates of return are obtained in the fall. This seasonality is explained by a joint effect of the change in the number of daylight hours and the latitude of the area zone under consideration. Notably, latitude affects real estate prices above and beyond the effect of the change in the number of daylight hours, which by itself is a function of latitude. This joint effect is robust to the two explanations for seasonality given in the literature: the Matching Theory and the Bargaining Power Hypothesis, as well as to several macroeconomic variables. The effect also conforms to the well-known Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which has been found in other studies to affect people's health, their risk attitude, and consequently their risk perception and investment decisions which, in turn, affect asset prices.
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Do Victims of Injustice Punish to Improve Their Mood?
Mario Gollwitzer & Brad Bushman
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research has shown that angry people sometimes aggress to improve their mood. The present research tests whether people who have been treated unjustly seek revenge (i.e., retributive punishment) to improve their mood. The authors hypothesized that retributive punishment is generally not fuelled by a desire to improve one's mood, whereas more destructive forms of aggression (e.g., venting one's anger against people or inanimate objects) are. In Study 1, half of the participants were led to believe that their mood was frozen. In Study 2, half of the participants were led to believe that their mood would automatically improve at the end of the study by visiting a "good mood room" with snacks, beverages, and media. Retributive punishment was not affected by either mood management manipulation, whereas destructiveness was. Study 3 expands these findings by showing that retributive reactions were only reduced by a mood improvement manipulation when self-focus was induced.
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Increasing prevalence of depression from 2000 to 2006
Ingelise Andersen et al.
Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, December 2011, Pages 857-863
Aim: Depression is the leading cause of disability and is projected to become the second highest burden of disease (measured in disability-adjusted life years) by 2020, but only a few studies have examined changes over time in the occurrence of depression. The aim of this study is to provide evidence to the hypothesis that the prevalence of depression is rising in the Danish population. We will do that in a longitudinal design among adult Danes by studying the trends from 2000 to 2006 of major depressive disorder (MDD) as well as the distribution across the whole Major Depression Inventory (MDI) scale. In addition, we will investigate whether the trend in MDD is similar across socioeconomic groups.
Methods: A random sample of 4759 Danes in their forties and fifties were followed in a longitudinal study based on postal questionnaires answered in 2000 and 2006.
Results: The prevalence of MDD increased from 2.0% to 4.9% during 2000-06. Also the distribution of the MDI score in its entirety moves higher up the scale, with the 90th percentile changing from 12 in year 2000 to 20 in 2006. The increasing prevalence is in absolute terms more pronounced among women in their forties and in lower socioeconomic positions.
Conclusions: The rising MDI score indicates that MDD as well as mental health generally is of public health concern.
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Acute intranasal oxytocin improves positive self-perceptions of personality
Christopher Cardoso, Mark Ellenbogen & Anne-Marie Linnen
Psychopharmacology, forthcoming
Rationale: Research suggests the experimental manipulation of oxytocin facilitates positive interactions, cooperation, and trust. The mechanism by which oxytocin influences social behavior is not well understood.
Objective: We explored the hypothesis that oxytocin alters how people perceive themselves, which could be one mechanism by which oxytocin promotes prosocial behavior.
Method: In a between-subject, randomized, and double-blind experiment, 100 university students received a 24 I.U. dose of intranasal oxytocin or placebo, and then completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and other self-report measures 90 min later.
Results: Intranasal oxytocin increased ratings of NEO-PI-R extraversion and openness to experiences [F(1,98) = 4.910, p = .025, partial η 2 = .05; F(1,98) = 6.021, p = .016, partial η 2 = .06], particularly for the following facets: positive emotions (d = 0.48, p < .05), warmth (d = 0.47, p < .05), openness to values (d = 0.45, p < .05) and ideas (d = 0.40, p < .05), trust (d = 0.44, p < .05), and altruism (d = 0.40, p < .05). Oxytocin had no influence on ratings of negative emotionality, conscientiousness, rejection sensitivity, depression, worry, self-esteem, and perceived social support.
Conclusion: The administration of oxytocin improved participants' self-perceptions of their personality, at least for certain traits important for social affiliation. Increased positive self-referential processing may be one mechanism by which oxytocin promotes positive social behaviors.
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Face the noise: Embodied responses to nonverbal vocalizations of discrete emotions
Skyler Hawk, Agneta Fischer & Gerben Van Kleef
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Extensive prior research has shown that the perception of an emotional facial expression automatically elicits a corresponding facial expression in the observer. Theories of embodied emotion, however, suggest that such reactions might also occur across expressive channels, because simulation is based on integrated motoric and affective representations of that emotion. In the present studies, we examined this idea by focusing on facial and experiential reactions to nonverbal emotion vocalizations. In Studies 1 and 2, we showed that both hearing and reproducing vocalizations of anger, disgust, happiness, and sadness resulted in specific facial behaviors, as well as congruent self-reported emotions (Study 2). In Studies 3 and 4, we showed that the inhibition of congruent facial actions impaired listeners' processing of emotion vocalizations (Study 3), as well as their experiences of a concordant subjective state (Study 4). Results support the idea that cross-channel simulations of others' states serve facilitative functions similar to more strict imitations of observed expressive behavior, suggesting flexibility in the motoric and affective systems involved in emotion processing and interpersonal emotion transfer. We discuss implications for embodiment research and the social consequences of expressing and matching emotions across nonverbal channels.
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Who expressed what emotion? Men grab anger, women grab happiness
Rebecca Neel et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
When anger or happiness flashes on a face in the crowd, do we misperceive that emotion as belonging to someone else? Two studies found that misperception of apparent emotional expressions - "illusory conjunctions" - depended on the gender of the target: male faces tended to "grab" anger from neighboring faces, and female faces tended to grab happiness. Importantly, the evidence did not suggest that this effect was due to the general tendency to misperceive male or female faces as angry or happy, but instead indicated a more subtle interaction of expectations and early visual processes. This suggests a novel aspect of affordance-management in human perception, whereby cues to threat, when they appear, are attributed to those with the greatest capability of doing harm, whereas cues to friendship are attributed to those with the greatest likelihood of providing affiliation opportunities.
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Sad people are more accurate at face recognition than happy people
Peter Hills, Magda Werno & Michael Lewis
Consciousness and Cognition, December 2011, Pages 1502-1517
Abstract:
Mood has varied effects on cognitive performance including the accuracy of face recognition (Lundh & Ost, 1996). Three experiments are presented here that explored face recognition abilities in mood-induced participants. Experiment 1 demonstrated that happy-induced participants are less accurate and have a more conservative response bias than sad-induced participants in a face recognition task. Using a remember/know/guess procedure, Experiment 2 showed that sad-induced participants had more conscious recollections of faces than happy-induced participants. Additionally, sad-induced participants could recognise all faces accurately, whereas, happy- and neutral-induced participants recognised happy faces more accurately than sad faces. In Experiment 3, these effects were not observed when participants intentionally learnt the faces, rather than incidentally learnt the faces. It is suggested that happy-induced participants do not process faces as elaborately as sad-induced participants.