Journal of Social Psychology最新文献

Empathy, whether state or trait, is an individual's ability to adopt another's perspective, feel another's feelings, or identify with another's situation (Campbell & Babrow, 2004; Davis, 1983; Nezlek etal., 2007). Research reliably shows relationships between empathy and parasocial interactions (e.g. psychological engagements with fictional characters; Giles, 2002; Tsao, 1996; Zillmann, 1994). The current study sought to identify the relationship between the type of parasocial interactions and subsequent changes in state-level empathy via an experimental design. Results indicate state-level empathy changes are contingent upon valence (i.e. Favorite vs. Least Favorite) and status (i.e. Real vs. Parasocial) of the imagined interaction.

Media are a key social agent shaping society's responses to measures implemented in the fight against terrorism. We argue that emotions elicited by media narratives on terrorist attacks are decisive to understand the link between the news media consumption and citizens' support for military intervention in the Middle East, as well as for security measures in the home country. In two studies conducted after the Brussels attacks (N = 250) and the Barcelona attacks (N = 633), we tested the explanatory role of emotions - specifically fear and hatred - in the association between media narratives and these two outcomes. The results of both studies show that hatred explained the positive relationship between news media consumption and support for military intervention, and to a lesser degree, agreement with security measures. In contrast, the positive relationship between news media consumption and agreement with security measures was explained by fear. This research underscores the need to consider how emotions are utilized in media discourse. We discuss practical implications of our findings for promoting ethical journalism.

Research on the experience of being tolerated has focused on single events, ignoring the important question of whether the experience of being tolerated depends on previous experiences. We examined whether the experience of being tolerated has a negative impact on minority team members depending on whether they had previously been rejected or fully accepted. In a pre-registered study with 440 participants, we used a recently developed experimental paradigm to simulate workstyle minority status in virtual teams. These participants were randomly assigned to experience rejection or acceptance followed by being tolerated. Experiencing tolerance after rejection was strongly positive, reducing negative well-being, increasing positive future expectations about interactions with majority team members, and reducing people's intention to withdraw from their teams. By contrast, experiencing tolerance after acceptance was weakly but consistently negative, with increased negative well-being, increased negative future expectations, and increased withdrawal intentions. Lastly, despite tolerance being more harmful than acceptance, that harmfulness did not translate into greater willingness to raise one's voice and express discontent about not being valued.

Research on the relationship between fertility and gender ideology revealed inconsistent results. In the present study, we argue that inconsistencies may be due to the fact that such a relationship may be nonlinear. We hypothesize a U-shaped relationship between two dimensions of gender ideology (i.e., primacy of breadwinner role and acceptance of male privilege) and fertility rates. We conducted a cross-national analysis of 60 countries using data from the World Values Survey as well as the World Population Prospects 2019. Controlling for gross domestic product, we found support for a U-shaped relationship between gender ideology and fertility. Higher levels of fertility rates were found at lower and especially higher levels of traditional gender ideology, while a medium level of gender ideology was associated with the lowest fertility rate. This curvilinear relationship is in agreement with the phase of the gender revolution in which the country is located.

Recent longitudinal research by others analyzing the relation between racial-ethnic diversity and individualism-collectivism in the 50 American states over the period 2000-2018 suggests that racial-ethnic diversity promotes individualism. The present study used a cross-sectional approach based on 2013 data to determine whether a relation mirroring the longitudinal pattern exists between racial-ethnic diversity and individualism-collectivism across the 50 states. Two measures of state racial-ethnic diversity were related to four measures of state individualism-collectivism using Pearson correlation and partial correlation controlling for state socioeconomic status. All correlations between diversity and individualism were negative and all those between diversity and collectivism were positive. The absolute magnitudes ranged from .43 to .68 for the Pearson correlations and from .43 to .67 for the partial correlations. Contrary to the earlier longitudinal findings, the current results show that states with higher racial-ethnic diversity are less individualistic and more collectivistic.

People tend to rate prosocial or positive behavior as more strongly influenced by the actor's genes than antisocial or negative behavior. The current study tested whether people would show a similar asymmetry when rating the role of genes in their own behavior, and if so, what variables might mediate this difference. Participants were prompted to think about an example of their own behavior from the past year that was either prosocial or antisocial. Those in the prosocial condition rated the role of genetics in causing the behavior as significantly greater than did those in the antisocial condition. A mediation analysis suggested that this asymmetry could be accounted for by a tendency to view prosocial behavior as more natural and more aligned with one's true self than antisocial behavior. These findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that people's reasoning about genetics may be influenced by evaluative judgments.

The authors are proposing a theoretical model explaining the behavior of individuals tested through experiments on obedience toward authority conducted according to Milgram's paradigm. Their assumption is that the participant faces typical avoidance-avoidance conflict conditions. Participant does not want to hurt the learner in the adjacent room but he or she also does not want to harm the experimenter. The solution to this conflict, entailing hurting on of the two, may be different depending on the spatial organization of the experiment. In the study, experimental conditions were modified, so that the participant was (vs. was not) in the same room as the experimenter and was (vs. was not) in the same room as the learner. Forty individuals (20 women and 20 men) were tested in each of the four experimental conditions. It turns out that the physical presence of the experimenter was conducive to obedience, while the physical presence of the learner reduced it.

We offer an alternative conceptualization of the construct of susceptibility to emotional contagion and four related studies where two separate measures were developed and initially validated. The Contagion of Affective Phenomena Scale-General (CAPS-G) is a 5-item scale that measures the general susceptibility to the contagion of affect, and the Contagion of Affective Phenomena Scale - Emotion (CAPS-E) assesses six distinct emotions. Study 1 generated items with experts. Study 2 explored and confirmed construct validity and the factorial structure of both measures using exploratory structural equation modeling. Study 3 established test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, and discriminant validity. Study 4 found predictive validity with a sample of competitive swimmers. In four separate samples, a 21-item and 6-factor first-order structure of CAPS-E provided the best model fit. We provide initial evidence that supports the use of CAPS-E and CAPS-G as reliable and valid measures of the susceptibility to contagion of affective phenomena.

Prior research has shown that U.S. cultures of honor have higher rates of depression and suicide. While links between honor endorsement and suicide have been established in the literature, a direct test of the primary mechanism underlying this association (reputation damage leading to depression) has not yet been tested. The current study sought to address whether shifts in perceived reputation might be associated with higher levels of depression for honor endorsing individuals. An online sample of 305 participants were tracked across two time points, assessing perceived individual reputation and perceived family reputation, as well as depressive symptoms. Analyses revealed that higher levels of honor concern at Time 1 were linked with higher levels of depressive symptoms at Time 2, but only for those with low perceived reputation - these relationships held while controlling for the stability in reputation and depression across time points, as well as controlling for participants' gender. Findings provide the first empirical evidence that reputation damage may contribute to detriments in mental health in honor endorsers.

According to the self-expansion model, people increase their positive self-concept content when they form and maintain romantic relationships, and self-expansion is an important predictor of relationship outcomes. Although thought to be universal, no prior research has examined self-expansion among sexual minority individuals. In the current study, sexual minority (N = 226) and heterosexual (N = 104) participants completed measures of self-expansion and relationship outcomes, and sexual minority participants completed measures of sexual minority stress. Overall, sexual minorities reported similar levels of self-expansion as heterosexuals, and sexual minority status did not moderate the association between self-expansion and relationship satisfaction, investments, or quality of alternatives. However, sexual minority status moderated the association between self-expansion and commitment. For sexual minority participants, self-expansion negatively correlated with sexual minority stressors (i.e. internalized homonegativity, concealment, inauthenticity) and moderated the association between internalized homonegativity and relationship satisfaction and commitment, as well as concealment and relationship satisfaction and commitment, such that the negative association between sexual minority stressors and relationship outcomes was weaker in relationships characterized by high (vs. low) levels of self-expansion.