The effects of social belonging and kindness on stress and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal experiment

Because the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has introduced significant stressors to people's lives, more research on self-directed strategies to cope with pandemic-related stress is needed. In the current longitudinal experiment (N = 614), we investigated the emotional benefits of two self-directed strategies—belonging affirmation and recalling kindness—during the Delta (October 2021) and Omicron (February 2022) waves of the pandemic. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three activity conditions (belonging affirmation, recalling kindness, or control), which they performed weekly for 4 weeks. Contrary to our pre-registered hypothesis, belonging affirmation and recalling kindness did not promote greater well-being overall; however, belonging affirmation led to well-being improvements indirectly via increases in positive emotions. Furthermore, the benefits of belonging affirmation were moderated by pandemic wave. That is, during the Omicron wave, but not the Delta wave, belonging affirmation led to improved life satisfaction, positive emotions, and connectedness, decreased loneliness and negative emotions, and marginally reduced perceived stress and anxiety. These results provide preliminary evidence for the well-being benefits of belonging affirmation and suggest the importance of evaluating coping strategies throughout different stages of a long-term stressor.     

BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT OF CAFFEINISM: REDUCING EXCESSIVE COFFEE DRINKING

Excessive coffee drinking can have deleterious effects because of the large amounts of caffeine that are ingested. Caffeine is thought to be addicting, and prolonged and excessive use can lead to caffeinism, a condition that has serious behavioral and physiological side effects. The present study developed and evaluated a treatment program to reduce excessive daily coffee drinking to moderate and presumably safer levels. Three habitual coffee drinkers received individualized changing criterion programs that systematically and gradually reduced their daily caffeine intake. The coffee drinkers were required to self-monitor and plot their daily intake of caffeine. They received monetary prizes for not exceeding the treatment phase criteria and forfeited a portion of their pretreatment deposit when they did. Their coffee drinking decreased from almost nine cups per day (over 1100 mg of caffeine) during baseline to less than three cups per day (less than 343 mg) at the end of treatment or a reduction of 69%. The treatment effect was maintained during a 10-month follow-up, averaging a 67% reduction from baseline. The program appears to be a reasonable method of reducing and then maintaining daily caffeine intake at less harmful levels.     

Influence of Self‐Affirmation on Responses to Gain‐ Versus Loss‐Framed Antismoking Messages

Self‐affirmation has been shown to reduce biased processing of threatening health messages. In this study, the impact of self‐affirmation on college smokers' reactions to gain‐ versus loss‐framed antismoking public service announcements (PSAs) was examined. A consistent pattern of interaction was observed wherein self‐affirmation produced more favorable responses to loss‐framed PSAs and more unfavorable responses to gain‐framed PSAs. Self‐affirmation also reduced smoking intention in the loss frame condition and increased antismoking self‐efficacy across framing conditions. These findings are discussed in light of previous research linking self‐affirmation to increased message scrutiny.     

Alcohol consumption,dating relationships,and preliminary sexual outcomes in collegiate natural drinking groups

This study tested the effects of committed relationships and presence of dates on alcohol consumption and preliminary sexual outcomes in natural drinking groups (NDGs). Undergraduate drinkers (N = 302) answered an online questionnaire on their most recent participation in a NDG. The interaction between relationship commitment and presence of a date on alcohol consumption was significant. Among students not in committed relationships, those dating within their NDG reported heavier drinking than those not dating. Students in committed relationships drank less than those who were not committed only when their partners were present. The positive correlation between drinking and sexual contact was significant only for those who were not in committed relationships. Implications for future research and interventions are discussed.     

Autonomy and defensiveness: Experimentally increasing adaptive responses to health-risk information via priming and self-affirmation

Health information is often ineffective in motivating health-behaviour change. One way to improve information effectiveness might be to highlight autonomy, which is associated with less defensiveness and more adaptive psychological functioning. Three studies assessed whether experimentally elevating autonomy led to adaptive responses to risk information about alcohol consumption. In Study 1 (N?=?104), participants completed either an autonomy prime or a neutral prime task and read either risk information about the dangers of alcohol consumption or neutral information. Among high-risk participants in the autonomy prime condition, those who read risk information reported greater autonomous motivation towards moderate alcohol consumption than did those in the neutral information condition. Study 2 (N?=?157) compared two types of autonomy prime tasks with a neutral condition. For high-risk participants who read risk information, the autonomy prime tasks elicited greater autonomous motivation, more positive attitudes and greater intentions to drink in moderation than did the neutral prime task. Study 3 (N?=?130) found that for high-risk participants who read risk information, autonomy prime participants reported less subsequent alcohol consumption than did neutral prime participants. The results are discussed in terms of the benefits of autonomy for adaptive responses to risk information.     

Sexual Hookups and Alcohol Consumption Among African American and Caucasian College Students: A Pilot Study

This study investigated college students’ sexual hooking up and its associations with alcohol consumption for men and women; furthermore, potential differences related to ethnicity were investigated. Students at a midsized southeastern university who identified as Caucasian or African American (N = 227) completed a survey assessing sexual behavior, demographics, and alcohol consumption. Heavy drinking was associated with ever hooking up, number of hookup partners, hookup frequency, and level of sexual contact during hooking up for Caucasian students, but not for their African American peers. Among Caucasians, moderate drinking men reported more intense sexual contact during hookups than their female peers who were moderate drinkers; sexual contact levels were more similar for men and women who were either nondrinkers or heavy drinkers. Limitations and strengths are discussed, as are ideas for future studies on hooking up and for educational efforts to protect against potentially negative outcomes of hooking up.     

Brief counseling to reduce AIDS risk in intravenous drug users and their sexual partners: Preliminary results

Intravenous drug users (N = 88) and their sexual partners (N = 45) were randomly assigned to either a brief counseling intervention or an information-brochure only condition (aimed at reducing behavioral risk for HIV infection). At 10 day follow-up, intravenous drug users exposed to brief counseling were more knowledgeable about risk behaviors, and reported higher levels of self-efficacy and communication skill, and more frequent use of condoms and sterilisation of needles. At 90 day follow-up, intravenous drug users were more accepting of guidelines to reduce sex-related risk and reported greater self-efficacy in relation to drugs. Sexual partners who received brief counseling showed a small reduction in unprotected sex (at 90-day follow-up), while those receiving brochures were slightly less likely to use condoms. Methodological problems of the study are discussed.     

Autonomy and defensiveness: experimentally increasing adaptive responses to health-risk information via priming and self-affirmation

Health information is often ineffective in motivating health-behaviour change. One way to improve information effectiveness might be to highlight autonomy, which is associated with less defensiveness and more adaptive psychological functioning. Three studies assessed whether experimentally elevating autonomy led to adaptive responses to risk information about alcohol consumption. In Study 1 (N?=?104), participants completed either an autonomy prime or a neutral prime task and read either risk information about the dangers of alcohol consumption or neutral information. Among high-risk participants in the autonomy prime condition, those who read risk information reported greater autonomous motivation towards moderate alcohol consumption than did those in the neutral information condition. Study 2 (N?=?157) compared two types of autonomy prime tasks with a neutral condition. For high-risk participants who read risk information, the autonomy prime tasks elicited greater autonomous motivation, more positive attitudes and greater intentions to drink in moderation than did the neutral prime task. Study 3 (N?=?130) found that for high-risk participants who read risk information, autonomy prime participants reported less subsequent alcohol consumption than did neutral prime participants. The results are discussed in terms of the benefits of autonomy for adaptive responses to risk information.     

Diet, exercise, and physical discomfort in college students

778 students in a 4-yr. urban commuter college were tested to determine the effects of exercise and diet on self-reported discomfort. High exercisers reported significantly less physical discomfort than moderate or low exercisers. Greater consumption of sweets and fast food were significantly related to reported physical discomfort regardless of levels of exercise. High levels of fruit and vegetable consumption were associated with less discomfort in high exercisers. High dairy consumption was significantly related to fewer symptoms for high exercisers. Men who reported high ingestion of caffeine had significantly more discomfort than those who reported moderate to lower ingestion of caffeine.     

Effects of Implementation Intentions Linking Suppression of Alcohol Consumption to Socializing Goals on Alcohol‐Related Decisions

This article investigates the effects of implementation intentions that connect the suppression of alcohol consumption to socializing goals on the decision to accept an offer of a free alcoholic drink. Participants were university students (N = 48) who were randomly assigned to an implementation intention condition or a control condition. The results show that participants who formed implementation intentions were less likely to accept the offer of a free alcoholic drink than were participants who did not form implementation intentions. In addition, the results demonstrate that the implementation intention effect held among habitual alcohol drinkers. The results of the present study suggest that implementation exercises can successfully suppress habitual alcohol consumption.     

Undoing the Effects of Seizing and Freezing: Decreasing Defensive Processing of Personally Relevant Messages

Health messages are directed at those who are at risk of incurring adverse consequences. However, previous experiments have found that people process personally relevant health messages in a biased, defensive manner. We examine the role of elaboration as a mechanism to encourage less biased processing of personally relevant health appeals. Results demonstrate that high-relevance consumers freeze on the threatening information, leading to lower change appraisal (perceived severity, self-efficacy, and response efficacy) and decreased message persuasion. For these individuals, renewed elaboration on the consequences of caffeine (Experiment 1) and olestra (Experiment 2) consumption reduces defensive processing. This elaboration "unfreezes" message processing, leading to greater change appraisal and increased persuasion. These experiments provide guidelines for practitioners to design more effective messages.     

Autonomy and reactions to health-risk information

It has been suggested that autonomy promotes enhanced reflection on novel information and reduces defensive or biased information processing. This study investigated how autonomy affected people's reactions to known versus novel health-risk information in relation to three behaviours: sun exposure, alcohol consumption and salt intake. Participants (N = 321) completed a measure of autonomy, read either known or novel health-risk information and reported their relative autonomous motivation, attitudes, perceived behavioural control, subjective norm and intentions towards reducing the health-risk behaviour concerned. In line with our hypotheses, the results showed that higher autonomy participants reported greater relative autonomous motivation towards reducing health-risk behaviours than did lower autonomy participants; this effect was mediated by perceptions of the information as less freedom-threatening. The expected interaction between Autonomy and Information Type was not observed. The results indicate that autonomy is associated with greater relative autonomous motivation to engage in health behaviours, and that autonomous motivation may subsequently influence intentions to reduce health-risk behaviour following exposure to health-risk information.     

Effects of Social Norms Information and Self-Affirmation on Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Intentions and Behaviors

The separate and combined efficacy of a social norms and a self-affirmation intervention to motivate decreased sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption was examined in 2 experiments. College students were randomly assigned to receive information about SSB consumption risks, norms, both, or neither. In addition, participants performed either a self-affirmation or control task. Self-affirmation only weakly affected SSB consumption intentions and behaviors. However, participants in Experiment 2 who received risks information, norms information, or both reported greater SSB reduction intentions than did those who received no information. Two weeks later, those who received both types of information reported more frequent behavior change preparations, and it appears this effect may have been partially mediated by the changes in intentions to reduce SSB consumption.     

Intergroup conflict and barriers to common ground: A self‐affirmation perspective

Psychological barriers to conflict resolution stem, in part, from defensive responses to feelings of self‐threat. Self‐affirmation theory proposes that affirmations of global self‐worth—often achieved by writing or reflecting on core values—can broaden individuals' perspectives and potentially reduce biases in their intergroup judgments. In this paper, we review the extant literature on the use of self‐affirmation to potentially reduce intergroup biases in order to shed light on the role of self‐threat in perpetuating conflict. Self‐affirmation has been shown to impact 3 key aspects of intergroup conflict: (a) the strength with which conflict‐supporting beliefs are held, (b) the biased processing of conflict‐relevant information, and (c) the resistance to seeing common ground in negotiations. Discussion centers on the limits as well as the potential of self‐affirmation to promote openness and conflict resolution.     

Recalling Positive Events at Work Makes Employees Feel Happier,Move More,but Interact Less: A 6-Week Randomized Controlled Intervention at a Japanese Workplace

Simple self-administered activities, such as practicing gratitude or kindness, have been shown to increase happiness, yet only self-report measures have been used so far. Our study, conducted with a Japanese workplace sample, incorporated a novel technology to gather precise behavioral data reflecting participant movement and social interactions. Employees were randomly assigned to either recount three positive events at work (a positive activity) or list work tasks they completed (control) weekly for 6 weeks; furthermore, they reported their happiness levels and wore sociometric badges that recorded their behavior. Relative to controls, participants who considered good things at work not only reported relatively greater happiness over time but moved more upon arriving to work, engaged in less social interaction, and left the office earlier. Most of the findings were moderated by participant effort, such that those who put more effort into the positive activity also showed greater changes.     

LGBTQ Adolescents’ Positive and Negative Emotions and Experiences in U.S. High Schools

In a national survey of more than 19,000 U.S. high school students, we compared how LGBTQ youth and their non-LGBTQ peers felt at school and how they perceived social and academic experiences. We examined differences in emotions and school experiences across gender identities, sexual identities, and their intersections. LGBTQ adolescents reported significantly more frequent negative emotions and bullying, consistent with previous research. LGBTQ students also reported less frequent experiences of positive emotions at school and less frequent positive school experiences (i.e., positive peer and teacher relationships, subjective task value, and persistence support). Students who were both gender and sexual identity minority reported the most frequent negative and least frequent positive experiences at school, compared to students who were neither a gender or sexual identity minority. Analyses of the intersection of gender and sexual identity showed that heterosexual male students experienced more frequent positive emotions and school experiences, and fewer negative emotions and bullying, compared to all other groups. We discuss how these differences might be addressed through school interventions and future research.     

High school drinking and its consequences

The present study surveyed 930 high school students regarding self-reported alcohol use, their perceptions of parents and peers, and the negative consequences of drinking. Two-fifths of males and one-fifth of females reported frequent problem (binge) drinking. Problem drinkers reported more negative consequences associated with drinking. In addition, problem drinkers reported greater susceptibility to peer pressure, perceived their peers as drinking more, and reported less parental monitoring and more use of alcohol by parents. The results demonstrate the importance of both parent and peer variables in adolescent substance use and highlight the negative consequences of drinking reported by high school students.     

Testing multiple means of self-affirmation

The effects of self-affirmation manipulations are not yet well understood because several different affirmation manipulations have been tested using multiple dependent variables. The aim of the present research was to establish whether global self-feelings and self-esteem, or interpersonal positive feelings are affected by affirming the self. Experiment 1 showed that completing a kindness questionnaire led to adolescent girls reporting more positive interpersonal feelings, but no greater self-feelings or self-esteem than completing an opinions (control) questionnaire. Experiment 2 showed again that self-affirmation did not affect self-esteem, and that there were few differences between writing an essay about a cherished value, writing an essay about kindness, or completing a questionnaire about kindness in boosting positive interpersonal feelings. The findings are discussed in relation to self-affirmation theory and the possible practical implications of self-affirmation for aiding the delivery of social and health messages.     

Use of positive interventions: Does neuroticism moderate the sustainability of their effects on happiness?

Previous research indicates that performing positive activities boosts happiness. The present studies examined whether neuroticism would moderate the sustainability of the effects of positive activities on happiness. Study 1 showed that the effects of counting blessings/kindness daily for seven days lasted a week after participants stopped performing the activity, but only for low-neuroticism individuals (who reported increased happiness) and not high-neuroticism individuals. However, a week post-intervention, gratitude-/kindness-listing participants were more likely to choose an amusing rather than a sad film, regardless of neuroticism differences. This suggests that behavioral choice is more sensitive to positive intervention effects than self-reported happiness. In Study 2, high-neuroticism individuals who occasionally visualized and wrote about their best possible selves over three weeks were happier than their counterparts in the control condition. The present research illustrates that although neuroticism moderates the sustainability of positive intervention effects, encouraging continuance of positive activities may produce more lasting effects.     

Effects of Self‐Affirmation,Narratives, and Informational Messages in Reducing Unrealistic Optimism About Alcohol‐Related Problems Among College Students

This study examines intervention approaches to improve the accuracy of risk judgments among college students with unrealistic optimism about alcohol‐related problems. We conducted a randomized experiment with 2 self‐affirmation (affirmed, nonaffirmed) and 3 message conditions (narrative, informational, no treatment control). Results indicate that providing risk information to unrealistic optimists, while concomitantly protecting their self‐concept via either self‐affirmation or narratives, may reduce defensive reactions and align their perceived risk more closely with their actual risk. Self‐affirmation reduced unrealistic optimism only among those exposed to an informational message, not those exposed to a narrative. The narrative message appeared to increase perceived risk among unrealistic optimists via transportation and identification with the character. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this work.