PsyCh journal最新文献

Combining the dictator game (DG) and the ultimatum game (UG), this study recruited 546 Chinese children (321 boys, aged 9-12 years) as distributors, and found that both peer comparison and social value orientation (SVO) significantly influenced children's distributive fairness from late childhood to early adolescence. Results showed that as the unfairness of peer proposals increased, participants decreased the amount of gold coins distributed to the receiver in both tasks, revealing a peer comparison effect. This effect was more pronounced for adolescents than for children in both tasks. In addition, participants' fair distribution behaviors in the DG showed a three-way interaction effect of SVO, grade, and peer comparison. Specifically, for proselfs, children were not influenced by peers and consistently proposed self-interested distributions, whereas adolescents exhibited a peer comparison effect; for prosocials, both children and adolescents were influenced by peers, but children decreased the amount of their distributions only when they saw peers make extremely unfair distributions, whereas adolescents decreased the amount of their distributions when they saw peers make both mildly and extremely unfair distributions. This study highlights the importance of social environment and personal trait in shaping children's fair distribution behavior during the transition from late childhood to early adolescence.

Beyond the specific cognitive capacities like numerical or verbal intelligence and cognitive speed, the so-called soft skills, namely, psychological capacities, have become highly important in modern life. This is the first representative study on the distribution of work-relevant psychological capacities in the general population. We investigate capacities in different age groups, gender, and their relation with basic sociodemographics. A representative sample of 2531 people aged 14-95 years was investigated concerning work-relevant psychological capacities with the mini self-rating for psychological activities and participation (Mini-ICF-APP-S). The strongest capacities in young people were mobility, flexibility, proactivity, contact to thirds, and group interaction. Other capacities were stronger in midlife (30-59 years), such as adjustment to rules and routines, planning and structuring, decision making and judgement, application of competence and knowledge, assertiveness, dyadic relationships, endurance, and self-care. Women reported better dyadic relationship capacities, and men felt more assertive. The study provides, for the first time, representative data on a broad range of psychological capacities according to an internationally validated capacity concept. Good psychological capacities occur not primarily in youth, but especially in midlife and older age. Regarding demographic change, this implies older people are highly competent in the working world.

Since there are many sources of unconscious information in our minds, there is a possibility that multiple channels of unconscious information can affect a response at the same time. However, this question has been largely ignored by researchers. In the present study, we presented two opposite pointing arrows as the masked primes followed by a target arrow. The results suggested that the two directions in which the two prime arrows are pointing influenced the response to the target simultaneously and additively, that is, the overall priming effect caused by the two opposite pointing prime arrows was equal to the net effect of the individual congruent effect elicited by the same pointing prime arrow and the individual incongruent priming effect induced by the prime arrow poitning in the opposite direction. In addition, in Experiment 1, a biased delayed response to the target was observed when the target arrow and the opposite pointing prime arrow were closely positioned in space due to Gestalt continuity and closure grouping. According to these results, the "independent unconscious influence" and "reverse unconscious selection" hypotheses are proposed.

Representing the mental state of the partner lays the foundation for successful social interaction. While the representation of group members has been extensively studied, it is unclear how intergroup interactions affect it. In three experiments utilizing the joint flanker task, we found that competition between groups brought about a greater joint flanker effect (Experiment 1). Such phenomenon was not due to competition per se, as competition that occurred between individuals from different groups did not enhance the joint flanker effect (Experiment 2). Using the minimal grouping method to directly manipulate group entitativity, we found that the joint flanker effect was larger when participants perceived the group as being more closely connected; conversely, when they perceived the group as less close, the joint flanker effect was attenuated (Experiment 3). These results suggested that beliefs about the group may be key to how group competition enhanced the joint flanker effect. The potential cognitive mechanisms producing this phenomenon are fully discussed. Overall, our study is the first to explore the impact of intergroup interactions on the joint flanker effect and provides a new perspective on understanding the relationship between within-group representations and intergroup interactions.

This study investigated the efficacy of combined cognitive bias modification (CBM) on perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty. Fifty-four university students scoring over 70.5 on the Brief Symptom Measure were randomly assigned to experimental and placebo control groups. The CBM intervention was administered online for 4 weeks. Assessments were given at baseline, after the 4-week intervention, and 1 month post-intervention. Results showed a statistically significant decrease in two dimensions of perfectionism, concern over mistakes and parental criticism, and intolerance of uncertainty of those in the experimental group, compared to those in the control group. The findings related to the interpretation of perfectionism revealed a significant interaction effect of time and direction of sentences for the experimental group. Lastly, the experimental group's interpretation bias scores for intolerance of uncertainty showed a statistically significant increase after the intervention compared to those in the control group. The study's findings provide preliminary support for the effectiveness of CBM on perfectionism and intolerance of uncertainty.

Awe has been theorized as a kind of self-transcendence emotion that has an important impact on individual social behavior. Based on the self-transcendence of awe, this study examined how awe can increase small-self and self-other inclusion to facilitate cooperation among individuals across three studies (N = 1162). First, the relationship between awe, cooperative propensity, and the mediating role of small-self and self-other inclusion in the relationship was examined using questionnaires on trait levels (Study 1). Second, awe emotions were induced from the state level through behavioral experiments to verify the facilitative effect on cooperative behavior in multiple rounds of public goods dilemma (Study 2). Third, by adding the induction of negative awe to discuss the impact of different valence of awe on cooperative behavior, the mediating role of small-self and self-other inclusion was supported (Study 3). Results show that awe has a facilitative effect on cooperation, which provides strong evidence for the positive social function of self-transcendent emotional awe.

Corruption is a political and economic issue that has a detrimental impact on social and economic development. This study investigated the predictive effect of dispositional awe on corruption, and the underlying mechanisms from the perspective of connectedness. A sample of 548 (N_female = 371) individuals, aged between 16 and 71 years old (M = 21.18, SD = 3.39), was collected. Participants completed scales to measure dispositional awe, the sense of connectedness, corruption, and social desirability. Structural equation modelling and a bootstrap procedure were used to analyze the relationship between the variables. Results showed that dispositional awe negatively predicted corruption, including the tendencies for giving and accepting bribes, and this could be explained by the sense of connectedness, after controlling for the effect of social desirability. The findings highlight the significance of dispositional awe in relation to corruption, enhance our understanding of the underlying mechanisms connecting the two variables, and provide practical implications for the prevention of corruption.