Studies have shown that anomie, that is, the perception that a society's leadership and social fabric are breaking down, is a central predictor of individuals' support for authoritarianism. However, causal evidence for this relationship is missing. Moreover, previous studies are ambiguous regarding the mediating mechanism and lack empirical tests for the same. Against this background, we derive a set

Why do people not perceive their close others accurately, although they have ample information about them? We propose that one reason for such errors may be bias based on personal values. Personal values may serve as schemas defining what people see as positive, and thus affect perceptions of others' behavior, values, and traits. We propose that, in close relationships, people see others as sharing

Although much is known about why people engage in collective action participation (e.g., politicized identity, group-based anger), little is known about the psychological consequences of such participation. For example, can participation in collective action facilitate attitude moralization (e.g., moralize their attitudes on the topic)? Based on the idea that collective action contexts often involve

Exploring how psychological constructs and their outcomes vary across geographic regions is a rapidly expanding area of research, yet fundamental questions remain. Can constructs designed to describe individual variation in attitudes be interpreted in the same way when aggregated to regional levels? To what extent are they related or distinct? We tested the relationship between individual and regional

We propose that, although deeply personal, meaning is facilitated by interpersonal processes. Namely, we theorize that experiencing a sense of shared reality with a close partner (i.e., perceiving an overlap in inner states about the world in general) reduces uncertainty about one's environment, which in turn promotes meaning in work and life. In the current research, we test this hypothesis across

Crime is an issue with severe consequences for individuals, economies, and society at large. Developing effective crime prevention strategies requires a clear understanding of who is likely to engage in crime and why. A promising approach in this regard likely is integrating established criminological theories with established models of basic personality structure. Correspondingly, the present investigation

What makes cultural products such as edutainment (i.e., online talks) successful versus not? Asked differently, which characteristics make certain addresses more (vs. less) appealing? Across 12 field and lab studies, we explore when, why, and for whom the information load carried in TED talks causes them to gain (vs. lose) popularity. First and foremost, we uncover a negative effect whereby increases

Nostalgia is a sentimental longing for the past that is experienced across people from various cultures and across the lifespan. Though nostalgia has typically been conceptualized as a mixed emotion, prior research has primarily focused on positive effects. We hypothesized that nostalgia can additionally have certain negative effects. In particular, nostalgia shares certain features with envy, a negative

The current research presents and tests a new model: The Vicious Cycle of Status Insecurity. We define status insecurity as doubting whether one is respected and admired by others. Status insecurity leads people to view status as a limited and zero-sum resource, where a boost in the status of one individual inherently decreases that of other individuals. As a result, the insecure become reluctant to

Much research has found self-awareness to be associated with positive qualities, but we explore cases in which self-awareness sends a negative signal to others. Specifically, we propose that when a target person appears to be high in social self-awareness-that is, the person seems to accurately know what others think of them-observers infer that the target's actions are more intentional because the

Frontal alpha asymmetry has been proposed as a ubiquitous marker of state and trait approach motivation, but recent meta-analyses found weak or nonexistent links with personality traits. It has been suggested that frontal asymmetry may show stronger individual differences in situations that elicit approach motivation (state-trait interaction). To investigate this with sufficient statistical power,

Stress experiences have been found to vary at both the interindividual and intraindividual levels. The present study investigated the concurrent and longitudinal associations between values and stress at both the between-person and the within-person levels. We considered multiple aspects of stress, including self-reported stressor exposure and perceived stress, as well as general and domain-specific

Compassionate love, generally defined as giving oneself for the good of another, has been receiving increased attention, especially in the context of romantic relationships. The purpose of the present research was to examine compassionate love "where it begins," namely, in the family. Seven studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that compassionate love would be correlated with various kinds

People's attitudes toward almost any stimulus (e.g., brands, people, food items) can change in line with the valence of co-occurring stimuli (e.g., images, messages, other people), a phenomenon known as the evaluative conditioning (EC) effect. Recent research has shown that EC effects are not always controlled, which is problematic in many circumstances (e.g., advertising, misinformation). We examined

Why do we care so much for friends-much more than one might predict from reciprocity alone? According to a recent theory, organisms who cooperate with each other come to have a stake in each other's well-being: A good cooperator is worth protecting-even anonymously if necessary-so they can be available to cooperate in the future. Here, we present three experiments showing that reciprocity creates a

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is the change of a conditioned stimulus's evaluation due to its pairing with an unconditioned stimulus (US). While learning typically shows negativity biases, we found no such biases in a reanalysis of meta-analytic EC data. We provide and test a cognitive-ecological answer for this lack of negativity bias. We assume that negativity effects follow from ecological differences

How does living in an environment with many or few family relatives shape our psychology? Here, we draw upon ideas from behavioral ecology to explore the psychological effects of ecological relatedness-the prevalence of family relatives in one's environment. We present six studies, both correlational and experimental, that examine this. In general, people and populations that live in ecologies with

Discrimination in the evaluation of others is a key cause of social inequality around the world. However, relatively little is known about psychological interventions that can be used to prevent biased evaluations. The limited evidence that exists on these strategies is spread across many methods and populations, making it difficult to generate reliable best practices that can be effective across contexts

Although the structure of subjective well-being (SWB) has been examined in various studies, no consensus on its structure has yet been reached. This may be due to a neglect of the construct's dynamic aspects and domain satisfaction as a core aspect of SWB. This article aimed to overcome existing research gaps by applying network modeling to longitudinal data of 32,700 adults (24-64 years old) from

A great deal of research in dual-process models has been devoted to highlighting differences in the structure and function of the implicit and explicit attitude constructs. However, the two forms of attitudes can also demonstrate important shared properties, and prior work suggests that one similarity may be in factors that determine measurement reliability. To better explore this issue, Study 1 analyzed

Are people better at recognizing individuals of more relevant groups, such as ingroup compared to outgroup members or high-status compared to low-status individuals? Previous studies that associated faces with group information found a robust effect of group on face recognition but only tested it using the same images presented during the learning phase. They therefore cannot tell whether group information

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are often perceived as lacking humanlike qualities, leading to a preference for human experts over AI assistance. Extending prior research on AI aversion, the current research explores the potential aversion toward those using AI to seek advice. Through eight preregistered studies (total N = 2,317) across multiple AI use scenarios, we found that people denied humanness

How do descriptive norms shape injunctive norm beliefs, and what does this tell us about the cognitive processes underlying social norm cognition? Across six studies (N = 2,671), we examined whether people update their injunctive norm beliefs-as well as their moral judgments and behavioral intentions-after receiving descriptive norm information about how common (or uncommon) a behavior is. Specifically

This research synthesis sought to determine the magnitude of associations between major personality dimensions and components of diet. A comprehensive literature search identified 49 articles (584 effect sizes; 151,750 participants) that met the inclusion criteria. Pooled mean effects were computed using inverse-variance weighted random effects meta-analysis. Mean effect sizes from 98 separate meta-analyses

A "big two" model has shown stronger cross-cultural replicability and links to theory than other contemporary models of personality trait structure. However, its theoretical and measurement models require better specification. We address this to create an initial English-language version of the Cross-Cultural Big Two Inventory with an empirically informed and culturally decentered approach, meaning

Despite a large body of research concerning the effects of psychological distance, our understanding about how different dimensions of distance interact and influence cognition is still limited. In this study, we moved beyond first-order approximations of the effects of psychological distance, to map the effects of multidimensional events as they appear in the world. We developed a novel experimental

Despite decades of research, it has been difficult to resolve debates about the existence and nature of partisan bias-the tendency to evaluate information more positively when it supports, rather than challenges, one's political views. Whether partisans display partisan biases, and whether any such biases reflect motivated reasoning, remains contested. We conducted four studies (total N = 4,010) in

Ideal partner preferences (i.e., ratings of the desirability of attributes like attractiveness or intelligence) are the source of numerous foundational findings in the interdisciplinary literature on human mating. Recently, research on the predictive validity of ideal partner preference matching (i.e., Do people positively evaluate partners who match vs. mismatch their ideals?) has become mired in

Stereotypes are strategically complex. We propose that people hold not just stereotypes about what groups are generally like (e.g., "men are competitive") but stereotypes about how groups behave toward specific groups (e.g., "men are competitive toward")-what we call directed stereotypes. Across studies, we find that perceivers indeed hold directed stereotypes. Four studies examine directed stereotypes

Attachment theory, as originally outlined by Bowlby (1973, 1980, 1969/1982), suggests that the ways people think, feel, and behave in close relationships are shaped by the dynamic interplay between their genes and their social environment. Research on adult attachment, however, has largely focused on the latter, providing only a partial picture of how attachment styles emerge and develop throughout

Cooperation underlies the ability of groups to realize collective benefits (e.g., creation of public goods). Yet, cooperation can be difficult to achieve when people face situations with conflicting interests between what is best for individuals versus the collective (i.e., social dilemmas). To address this challenge, groups can implement rules about structural changes in a situation. But what institutional

Across 15 studies (N = 2,636), people who considered the prevalence of a problem (e.g., 4.2 million people drive drunk each month) inferred it caused less harm, a phenomenon we dub the big problem paradox. People believed dire problems-ranging from poverty to drunk driving-were less problematic upon learning the number of people they affect (Studies 1-2). Prevalence information caused medical experts

Americans in lower (vs. higher) social class contexts are less likely to believe they contribute to society. Helping others by giving one's time is an important way of contributing to others that also varies with social class. Five studies (N = 7,326) investigated whether one source of the social class disparity in perceived contributions is a default model that considers helping distant others (i

Although fear of missing out (FOMO) has become a widely experienced phenomenon, the specific social situations and cognitions driving the FOMO experience have not yet been closely studied. Across seven experiments (N = 5,441), we find that FOMO occurs when people miss events involving valued social groups and is driven by the perception of missed bonding and concerns about how this may negatively affect

Romantic partners tend to be more similar in self-reported personality traits than would be expected by chance. This similarity can be due to the choice of a similar partner, partners becoming more similar to each other over time, or dissimilar couples breaking up. To examine whether these processes (choice, convergence, or breakup) explain personality trait similarities in couples, we followed a sample

Perceivers hold ecology stereotypes-beliefs about how the environments others live in shape their behavior. Drawing upon a life history perspective, we examine the stereotypes people hold about those who live in relatively harsh and unpredictable ecologies. First, across diverse demographic groups and societies (the United States, India, Japan, Romania, the United Kingdom), people believe that individuals

The widely documented "outgroup homogeneity effect" refers to people's tendency to view members of groups to which they do not belong (outgroups) as more similar to one another than members of their own groups (ingroups). Here, we present evidence for a novel but related phenomenon: People tend to view members of different minority groups as collectively more similar to one another than members of

Gentrification impacts nearly every major city in the United States, posing a potential threat to lower social class residents' sense of belonging in their neighborhoods. In one survey and three preregistered experiments, we investigated how gentrification affects the belonging of residents across the social class spectrum and how to invest in working-class neighborhoods without undermining lower social

Fit hypotheses are a common theme in psychological theories. Various theoretical approaches postulate that fit is also relevant for the within-person dynamics of personality states. A better understanding of these dynamics is important to comprehend the functioning of personality and its relations to relevant life outcomes. Two forms of fit are relevant for personality states: personality states that

In humans and animals, body posture is used in social and affective contexts to communicate social information, signal intentions, and prepare the individual for adaptive action. However, though stable individual differences in affect and social cognition are well studied, body posture continues to be typically studied in the context of state variation, and it remains unknown if trait-level differences

All of us experience self-change in relationships, but our subjective experiences of change may not always align with external metrics of such change. We hypothesized that people with higher attachment avoidance are more likely to experience self-change as a loss, which in turn predicts lower relationship commitment. We further hypothesized, however, that there would be a disparity in perceptions,

When meeting people for the first time, we often strive to perceive others and express our own personalities accurately. Does this benefit social connection by promoting greater perceiver liking of targets, or might it instead hinder liking for some targets and in some contexts? In the present studies, we examined whether the links between accuracy and perceiver liking differ as a function of target

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a key effect in attitude formation, leading to changes in the liking of neutral attitude objects due to their pairing with positive or negative stimuli. Despite EC's significance, current theories and most empirical findings are limited to stimulus pairings with a single affective stimulus at a time. In contrast, social environments often involve more complex combinations

Given that creative ideation has been widely characterized as involving disinhibition, we tested whether a brief creative ideation effort increased subsequent indulgence through the choice of real or imagined rewards. Across 10 experiments (and an additional four in the Supplemental Material) and 3,412 participants (including the ones in the Supplemental Material), we show that a short creative ideation

Existing research examining the creation of positive and prosocial interpersonal relations has established moral elevation as an approach-oriented emotion to be associated with a range of positive and prosocial outcomes. In this article and with the goal to identify emotional mechanism for improving intergroup relations in contexts of conflict, we examined the effects of moral elevation on enhancing

Ostracism-being ignored and excluded-is part of many individuals' daily lives. Yet, ostracism is often studied in laboratory settings and rarely in natural settings. Here, we report one of the first investigations into ostracism in everyday life by documenting how often and where ostracism occurs; who the sources of ostracism are; and how ostracism affects targets' feelings and behaviors. Two experience

Changes in personality are often modeled linearly or curvilinearly. It is a simplifying-yet untested-assumption that the chosen sample-level model form accurately depicts all person-level trajectories within the sample. Given the complexity of personality development, it seems unlikely that imposing a single model form across all individuals is appropriate. Although typical growth models can estimate

A series of four studies systematically investigated the boundary conditions of the shame-concealment/pride-exposure relationship through an experimental paradigm. Experiment 1 developed an experimental procedure to assess the shame/pride-concealment/exposure relationship. Shame and pride were induced by randomly assigning participants to either low or high fictitious IQ score conditions, followed

Reasons for pursuing self-set goals have been linked to well-being. The present article examines the link between autonomous goal regulation (the why of goal pursuit) and well-being, considering the role of the basic psychological needs, effort, and goal progress. Three studies were conducted using experience sampling methods in which German-speaking participants (Study 1: N = 207, Study 2: N = 717

This study was an endeavor to map out a personality trait structure of the Swahili language that may be used to develop indigenous eastern African personality assessment instruments. We followed the psycho-lexical approach where we not only identified trait terms from the Swahili dictionary but also from free descriptions collected from indigenous Swahili speakers. In combination, these two routines

Adolescence is a formative life phase for the development of personality characteristics. Although past findings suggest Big Five traits alongside self-esteem as indicators for successful development, little is known about their longitudinal interplay. We addressed this research gap by integrating data from three longitudinal studies (NT1 = 1,088; Mage = 16.02 years, 72% female). We apply continuous

Amid heightened political polarization in the United States, have politics worked their way into the bedroom? An increase in political similarity between romantic partners has consequences not just for romantic relationships but for society as a whole; political homophily increases our political echo chambers and affects future generations. We drew upon 11 data sets with over 4,000 individuals (including

Many lifestyle and psychosocial factors are associated with a longer lifespan; central among these is social connectedness, or the feeling of belongingness, identification, and bond as part of meaningful human relationships. Decades of research have established that social connectedness is related not only to better mental health (e.g., less loneliness and depression) but also to improved physical

Intergroup crimes are a ubiquitous element of our political reality, as are attempts to redress these crimes through apologies. Six experiments (N = 2,432) demonstrate that the victim group's response to an offered apology has the power to shape uninvolved third parties' impressions of the conflicting groups and influence their willingness to support the victim group. Across a variety of intergroup

Ethnic identity is a major area of study across many disciplines including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and political science. Yet, little is known about changes in ethnic identity across the adult lifespan, and whether such changes are driven by normal aging processes (aging effects), unique societal influences linked with one's formative years (cohort effects), or social changes during a

Negative life events can lead to lasting changes in subjective well-being (SWB). However, people change differently in their SWB after negative life events, and our understanding of factors explaining these individual differences is still limited-possibly because research so far has neglected to investigate differences in the characteristics of the experienced events (e.g., perceived impact, causes

How different racial minorities experience racism differently remains underexplored in existing research. Here, we show that Asian and Black people are often dehumanized differently. Twelve studies spotlight a racial asymmetry in dehumanization using a wide array of methods (experimental, archival, and computational) and data sources (online samples, word embeddings, and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Reports an error in "Can't wait to pay: The desire for goal closure increases impatience for costs" by Annabelle R. Roberts, Alex Imas and Ayelet Fishbach (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Advanced Online Publication, Dec 14, 2023, np). The article is being made available open access under the CC-BY-ND-NC license. The correct copyright is "© 2023 The Author(s)." All versions of this article

Recent advances in large language models are enabling the computational intelligent analysis of psychology in natural language. Here, the Fill-Mask Association Test (FMAT) is introduced as a novel and integrative method leveraging Masked Language Models to study and measure psychology from a propositional perspective at the societal level. The FMAT uses Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers

Theoretical accounts of narcissism emphasize the dynamic shifting of self-states in response to social feedback. Status threats are thought to set narcissism's dynamics in motion. Naturalistic ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies have characterized dynamics of narcissistic grandiosity and vulnerability in relation to perceptions of the interpersonal environment. Experimental studies have emphasized