The effectiveness of the prosocial goals intervention: A randomized controlled trial.
Social Psychology, Vol 54(5), 2023, 320-325; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000526The aim of our study was to test the effectiveness of the prosocial goals intervention in adolescents. We tested its effects on prosocial behavior as assessed by the decomposed game (DG) and the Efforts for Charity Index (ECI) capturing actual behavior leading to charitable donations. We applied a randomized controlled trial with four measurements. The results showed statistically significant effects of the intervention on the ECI, even when the baseline level of prosocial behavior and participants’ age were controlled for, but revealed no signific...
Source: Social Psychology - August 10, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Correction to Windmann et al. (2021).
Social Psychology, Vol 54(3), 2023, 193; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000519Reports an error in "Constructing the Facets of Altruistic Behaviors (FAB) Scale" by Sabine Windmann, Lucie Binder and Martin Schultze (Social Psychology, 2021, Vol 52[5], 299-313). In this article, a plus sign is missing in equation (4), p. 303. The correct formula is provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2022-06384-002.) Behavior is effectively altruistic to the degree that it is costly for the actor while benefiting others. In a series of preregistered studies, we constructed a 15-item self-report ...
Source: Social Psychology - May 11, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The limits of antiatheist prejudice: Social perception of those who harm animals.
Social Psychology, Vol 54(3), 2023, 180-192; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000516People tend to perceive atheists as being immoral. We tested whether this perception also applies to moral transgressions against animals. Study 1 (N = 288) and Study 2 (N = 306, pre-registered) utilized a conjunction fallacy paradigm to show that people attributed harming animals most frequently to criminals, then to God-believers, and least often to nonbelievers. Study 3 (N = 248, pre-registered) used a job-choice paradigm and found that people choose a God-believer over an atheist for a job involving animal harm because the God-believer was suppos...
Source: Social Psychology - May 11, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The good old days and the scary future ones: National nostalgia fosters collective angst through increased perceived anomie in present society.
Social Psychology, Vol 54(3), 2023, 168-179; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000514Building on the social psychology literature on collective memory, we tested if national nostalgia fosters collective angst through greater perceived societal anomie among French participants. Consistent with our predictions, a correlational study (N = 535) and an experimental study (N = 370) showed that nostalgia for France’s past predicted greater angst regarding its future through increased perceptions that present French society is more anomic than before. These findings suggest that (1) our representations of the national past shapes how we pe...
Source: Social Psychology - May 11, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Situational cues in thoughts about the future: Relationships with self-reported and actual self-regulation success.
Social Psychology, Vol 54(3), 2023, 151-167; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000511Based on stimulus–response learning accounts, we argue that including situational cues in thought about intended actions is an important aspect of self-regulation success in general and in successfully implementing delayed intentions. Accordingly, in Study 1 (N = 328), we replicate a previous study and show a positive relationship between the self-reported inclusion of situational cues in thoughts about intended actions and beliefs of self-regulation success. In Study 2 (N = 136), we find a similar tendency when measuring self-regulation success wi...
Source: Social Psychology - March 27, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Power, self-esteem, and body image.
Social Psychology, Vol 54(3), 2023, 136-150; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000510We expected power—the perceived capacity to influence others—to be an antecedent of positive body image because power is closely linked to self-esteem, which in turn is linked to body image. In a cross-sectional study (N = 318), sense of power was positively related to body appreciation and satisfaction with one’s appearance. Self-esteem partially mediated this effect. In an experimental study (N = 114), participants assigned to a high-power group indicated more body appreciation, reported more body satisfaction, and estimated themselves to be ...
Source: Social Psychology - March 23, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Hippies next to right-wing extremists? Identifying subgroups of antilockdown protesters in Germany using latent profile analysis.
We examined what these protestors might (and might not) have in common. A large study with antilockdown protestors in Germany (N = 1,700) revealed four subgroups: centrists, politically undifferentiated, left-wingers, and right-wingers. Beyond that, these subgroups demonstrated striking similarities: All endorsed conspiracy beliefs, misinformation, esotericism, and vaccine hesitancy to a similar extent. These beliefs share that they are scientifically unfounded and epistemically unwarranted. They may unite individuals from diverse political backgrounds in the antilockdown protests. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, a...
Source: Social Psychology - March 23, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
How parental support affects Latina girls during the COVID-19 pandemic: Empathic accuracy and posttraumatic growth effects on empathy and altruistic sharing.
Social Psychology, Vol 54(1-2), 2023, 95-109; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000476The current study focuses on a sample of low- to middle-income school-age Latina girls and their parents and examines how children’s distress proneness interacts with parental empathic accuracy and posttraumatic growth in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to predict children’s empathy and prosocial behavior toward unknown others. Approximately 2–3 months into state-mandated stay-at-home orders, 55 parent–daughter dyads were recruited to participate in this four-session longitudinal study. To assess distress proneness, daughters (ages 8–13 ...
Source: Social Psychology - March 9, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Populist attitudes predict compliance-related attitudes and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic via trust in institutions.
Social Psychology, Vol 54(1-2), 2023, 78-94; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000500While previous research discussed populism as a phenomenon of declining trust, we investigated the predictive value of populist attitudes for citizens’ trust, attitudes, and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, we tested the role of trust in several institutions simultaneously. As preregistered, the cross-sectional (N = 1,090) and longitudinal (n = 216) data collected (April to June, 2020) in Germany (n = 617) and Poland (n = 473) showed that stronger populist attitudes predicted higher trust in (a) alternative news media but less trus...
Source: Social Psychology - March 9, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic: How defense strategies relate to empathic reactions during lockdowns.
Social Psychology, Vol 54(1-2), 2023, 66-77; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000501The COVID-19 pandemic with its substantial changes to social life affects social cognitions, which are important for solidarity during a global crisis. We investigated how distal defense strategies for dealing with threat, perceived threat, and contact experiences relate to people’s empathic reactions during lockdowns in two countries. In three studies (N = 1,332), we found that more experienced threat is associated with higher personal distress. In Germany, but not in the United Kingdom, people who applied social defenses reported more empathic co...
Source: Social Psychology - March 9, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
What mediates the effect of family disruption in the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s prosocial behavior: A multisite study.
This study of 2,516 families of 3–8-year-olds from six countries (China, Sweden, Australia, Italy, the USA, and the United Kingdom) examined whether children’s understanding or feelings about COVID-19 regulations mediated the expected association between COVID-19-related family disruption and children’s prosocial behavior, as indexed by parental ratings. For all six sites, family disruption indirectly predicted reduced prosocial behavior. Negative feelings about COVID-19 regulations mediated this association in all sites except China. Contrariwise, understanding of COVID-19 regulations was not implicated in the link ...
Source: Social Psychology - March 9, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
"Understanding others in moments of crisis” A special issue of Social Psychology.
Social Psychology, Vol 54(1-2), 2023, 1-3; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000515Social psychology in general may understand reactions to crises as a form of threat reaction that leads to different behavioral patterns. This special issue of Social Psychology pushes the field forward with cutting edge research and theory on emotion recognition (1), loneliness in older age (2), concern for others (3), downwards social comparision (4), family disruption and childrens pro-social behavior (5), defence strategies (6), populist attitudes for compliance (7), children’s distress and parental support (8), beliefs about people’s happiness...
Source: Social Psychology - March 9, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Parenting daughters does not increase monetary prosocial behavior: Evidence from the dictator game.
Social Psychology, Vol 53(6), 2022, 383-389; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000508Prior work suggests that parenting daughters makes the preferences of men more in line with those of women. We use behavior in a dictator game as a measure of pure social preferences to test whether parenting daughters increases prosociality, specifically charitable giving. Data are sourced from the German Socio-Economic Panel, where 1,461 participants decided how to split a 50€ endowment between themselves and (separately) a needing domestic or foreign recipient. Our results suggest that parenting daughters does not make men (nor women) more proso...
Source: Social Psychology - January 26, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The relationship between predominant promotion focus and spontaneous mental contrasting.
This study explored whether motivational features such as regulatory focus, as promotion focus and prevention focus, could affect people’s spontaneous use of a mental contrasting strategy. The present study hypothesized that promotion focus positively predicts spontaneous mental contrasting. Across the correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2) designs, predominantly promotion-focused university students spontaneously employed more mental contrasting strategies. The implications and suggestions for future research have been discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Social Psychology)
Source: Social Psychology - January 26, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
“‘Cause we are the champions of the world”: National narcissism and group-enhancing historical narratives.
Social Psychology, Vol 53(6), 2022, 357-367; doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000506National narcissism is a defensive form of group identity that is contingent on external validation and involves unrealistic belief in the nation’s greatness. Those high in national narcissism are susceptible to ingroup-enhancing narratives. In two pre-registered studies, conducted in Poland (N = 1,134) and the United Kingdom (N = 501), we hypothesized and found that national narcissism predicts support for historical policies that emphasize the great achievements and past dominance of one’s own group. Furthermore, we found that the relationship ...
Source: Social Psychology - January 26, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
