Social messages of crying faces: Their influence on anticipated person perception,emotions and behavioural responses

The present study examined the beliefs of people on how they respond to individuals with different kinds of facial expressions, including crying. A total of 104 participants viewed photographs of individuals posing crying, neutral, anger, and fear expressions. They indicated how they would judge the person, how they would feel in the presence of the person, and how they would respond to the person. Compared to individuals expressing other emotions, crying individuals were perceived as less emotionally stable and less aggressive. Participants reported more feelings of sadness in response to crying faces. Crying faces also reportedly evoked more emotional support and less avoidance behaviour. Indirect support was found for the idea that crying is an attachment behaviour designed to elicit empathy and support in others.     

What counts as an acceptable reason for not communicating emotional support?

This study investigated assessments of the acceptability of and negative relational implications for the reasons given for someone not providing emotional support. A representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 1598) participated in a survey experiment that included thinking of a person from whom they would expect such support, imagining that they did not receive support from this person, and being shown one of 16 reasons to explain the nonsupport. Participants evaluated that reason for its acceptability and its negative relational ramifications. As predicted, some nonsupport reasons were judged as more acceptable than were others, and they generated fewer negative relational ramifications. Participants who experienced nonsupport by a friend viewed their reasons as more acceptable than those experiencing nonsupport from family members. Despite this, greater negative relational ramifications were reported when friends compared to family members did not communicate support. Women's nonsupport was viewed as less acceptable compared to men's; however, there were no gender differences in the negative relational ramifications of nonsupport. When tested in a mediation model, acceptability mediated the relationship between expectations and negative relational ramifications, but there was also an unexpected direct negative effect between expectations and negative relational ramifications.     

The positives of negative emotions: willingness to express negative emotions promotes relationships

Four studies support the hypothesis that expressing negative emotion is associated with positive relationship outcomes, including elicitation of support, building of new close relationships, and heightening of intimacy in the closest of those relationships. In Study 1, participants read vignettes in which another person was experiencing a negative emotion. Participants reported they would provide more help when the person chose to express the negative emotion. In Study 2, participants watched a confederate preparing for a speech. Participants provided more help to her when she expressed nervousness. In Study 3, self-reports of willingness to express negative emotions predicted having more friends, controlling for demographic variables and extraversion. In Study 4, self-reports of willingness to express negative emotion measured prior to arrival at college predicted formation of more relationships, greater intimacy in the closest of those relationships, and greater received support from roommates across participants' first semester of college.     

Crying in Middle Childhood: A Report on Gender Differences

The aims of this study were (1) to confirm gender differences in crying in middle childhood and (2) to identify factors that may explain why girls cry more than boys in a Dutch sample (North Holland and Utrecht). We examined 186 children's (age: 9-13?years) self-reports on crying, catharsis, seeking support for feelings, and internalizing feelings. Girls reported a greater crying frequency and crying proneness, and more emotional and physical catharsis after crying. In addition, they more frequently sought support for feelings and more often experienced sadness and somatic complaints than boys. Seeking help for negative feelings and the experience of sadness and somatic complaints were positively associated with crying frequency and crying proneness. Emotional catharsis was positively linked to crying proneness. Support was found for the potential mediating role of sadness and somatic complaints with respect to the gender difference in crying frequency and for the potential mediating role of emotional catharsis and somatic complaints for crying proneness. This study demonstrates that gender differences in crying frequency already exist in middle childhood and the findings suggest a linkage between these gender differences in crying and psychosocial factors.     

Support Person Presence and Child Victim Testimony: Believe it or Not

This study examined the effects of support person presence on participants’ perceptions of an alleged child sexual abuse victim and defendant. Two hundred jury-eligible community members (n = 100 males) viewed a DVD of an 11-year-old girl's simulated courtroom testimony either with or without a female support person seated next to her. Participants found the child victim to be less accurate and trustworthy, and the defendant to be less guilty and less likely to have sexually abused children, when the support person was present. Participants who viewed the female support person (n = 100) believed that she had probably coached and spent a great deal of time with the child victim before testifying. Female participants perceived the child to be more accurate, and the defendant to be more guilty and likely to have sexually abused children, than male participants. The degree to which the child victim's testimonial behavior violated participants’ expectancies mediated the negative relation between support person presence and child victim accuracy and trustworthiness. Support person presence was positively associated with expectancy violation, which in turn was negatively associated with child victim accuracy and trustworthiness. These preliminary findings suggest that seating a support person next to an alleged child victim in court may have the unintended effect of decreasing the child's perceived credibility and, if replicated, suggest that alternative seating arrangements might be necessary. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Young adults’ reactions to infant crying

AimTo determine whether young childless adults show negative emotions and cognitive disturbances when listening to infant crying, compared to other disturbing noises, and whether negative emotions and cognitive disturbances are associated.MethodsWe tested the cognitive performances and emotional reactions of 120 childless participants on a working memory task while being subjected to different disturbing noises including infant crying.ResultsParticipants had the least correct trials on the working memory task, and showed the most negative emotions, when hearing infant crying as compared to the other noises. Participants also showed less positive emotions when hearing infant crying as compared to working in silence. Overall, negative emotions were associated with less correct trials on the working memory task, except in the infant crying condition. Furthermore, cognitive performance and emotional reactions to infant crying were unrelated to personality characteristics.ConclusionNegative emotions and cognitive disturbances may be general adult responses to infant crying that are not limited to parents. These results suggest a broadly present human emotional and cognitive response to infant crying, that may underlie a general predisposition to care for infants in distress.     

Physical pain induces negative person perception

We examined the hypothesis that pain increases negative person perception of irrelevant others in both medical and laboratory settings in three studies. Patients perceived a nurse as more negative if the injection they received from the nurse produced more pain (Pilot Study). Patients rated neutral faces as more negative after receiving an injection than before it (Study 1). Participants who performed a painful cold pressor task rated neutral faces as more negative than a control group, but this effect only appeared for those with low perceived social support (Study 2). These findings suggest that one's experience of physical pain may be metaphorically transferred to perceptions of completely irrelevant others, inducing negative interpersonal perception. And perceived social support can ameliorate the negative effect.     

Stop crying! The impact of situational demands on interpersonal emotion regulation

ABSTRACT

Crying is a common response to emotional distress that elicits support from the environment. People may regulate another’s crying in several ways, such as by providing socio-affective support (e.g. comforting) or cognitive support (e.g. reappraisal), or by trying to emotionally disengage the other by suppression or distraction. We examined whether people adapt their interpersonal emotion regulation strategies to the situational context, by manipulating the regulatory demand of the situation in which someone is crying. Participants watched a video of a crying man and provided support by recording a video message. We hypothesised that when immediate down-regulation was required (i.e. high regulatory demand), participants would provide lower levels of socio-affective and cognitive support, and instead distract the crying person or encourage them to suppress their emotions, compared to when there is no such urgency (i.e. low regulatory demand). As predicted, both self-reported and behavioural responses indicated that high (as compared to low) regulatory demand led to a reduction in socio-affective support provision, and a strong increase in suppression and distraction. Cognitive support provision, however, was unaffected by regulatory demand. When the context required more immediate down-regulation, participants thus employed more regulation strategies aimed at disengaging from the emotional experience. This study provides a first step in showing that people take the context into account when attempting to regulate others’ emotions.     

Effects of Interpersonal Affect Upon Fairness Judgment

We examined the effect of interpersonal affect on fairness judgment. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to write down fair and unfair behaviors that positive and negative persons performed, giving as many examples as possible within 5 minutes. Participants wrote more fair behaviors for the positive person than for the negative, and wrote more unfair behaviors for the negative person than for the positive. In Experiments 2 and 3, subjects rated the perceived frequency of 60 behaviors (30 fair and 30 unfair). In both experiments, they evaluated fair behaviors by the positive person to be more frequent than those of the negative, and unfair behaviors by the negative person to be more frequent than those of the positive. The results indicate that fairness judgment is influenced by the participant's positive and negative affect toward the judged object. The effects of positive and negative interpersonal affect on fairness judgment are discussed.     

Weinen

This contribution describes the present state of research concerning human crying, in particular the conditions that induce crying, the context and the intra-individual and inter-individual effects of shedding emotional tears. Crying is regarded not only as a psychobiological process with certain effects on the physical and mental well-being of the crying person, but also as a process which has a strong impact on the social environment. A comprehensive model of adult crying is presented, which not only accounts for these behavioral differences, but which also covers the reasons for crying, its social contexts, its consequences for the crying person and its inter-individual effects. In addition, the role of moderating variables is clarified. It is emphasized that there is no clear evidence in support of the hypothesis that crying brings relief and is healthy. It is suggested that the appropriate question is ?under which conditions can crying bring relief?” rather than ?does crying bring relief?” Furthermore, the impact of crying on the social environment is pointed out by which it facilitates the provision of social support and it may reduce aggression. Seen from a coping perspective, crying thus may both serve emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping functions.     

Great Expectations: The Negative Consequences of Falling Short1

The present study shows conditions under which a positive stereotypic belief–Asians are good in mathematics–can have negative consequences. Participants graded a poorly performed mathematical assignment that they believed was the work of an Asian or a White target person. Under no accuracy instructions, participants who spent less time grading (unmotivated participants) assigned fewer points to the Asian than the White target. There was no difference in assignment of points to the Asian or the White target when participants were given accuracy instructions or spent more time grading (motivated participants). The findings suggest that group members may experience negative consequences when they fall short of “great expectations” stemming from a positive stereotypic belief about their group.     

Moral credentialing by association: the importance of choice and relationship closeness

People express more prejudice if they have established their "moral credentials." Five studies explored the acquisition of moral credentials through associations with racial minorities, particularly close relationships that are personally chosen. Participants choosing to write about a positive experience with a Black person (Study 1) or Hispanic person (Study 2) subsequently expressed more preference for Whites and tolerance of prejudice than did other participants. In Study 3, the credentialing effect of choice was diminished when participants were given an incentive for that choice. Participants in Study 4 who wrote about a Black friend were more credentialed than those who wrote about a Black acquaintance, regardless of whether the experience was positive or negative. Study 5 suggested that participants strategically referred to close associations with minorities when warned of a future situation in which they might appear prejudiced.     

Applying imagined contact to improve physiological responses in anticipation of intergroup interactions and the perceived quality of these interactions

This experiment (N = 49) is the first to show that imagined contact can buffer anticipatory physiological responses to future interactions, and improve the quality of these interactions. Participants imagined a positive interaction with a person with schizophrenia, or in a control condition, a person who did not have schizophrenia. They then interacted with a confederate whom they believed had schizophrenia. Participants in the imagined contact condition reported more positive attitudes and less avoidance of people with schizophrenia, displayed smaller anticipatory physiological responses, specifically smaller changes in interbeat interval and skin conductance responses, and had a more positive interaction according to the confederate. These findings support applying imagined contact to improve interactions with people with severe mental illnesses.     

Men's Reactions to Hypothetical Forceful Sexual Advances from Women: The Role of Sexual Standards,Relationship Availability,and the Beauty Bias

The study investigated 142 college men's reactions to a vignette in which they were to imagine receiving a physically forceful sexual advance from a female casual acquaintance. Participants were predominantly middle-class Caucasian students from psychology classes. Results revealed that men with more restricted sexual standards had significantly more negative reactions to the advance than did men with less restricted standards. Further, only 16% of men with more restricted sexual standards, compared to 34% of men with less restricted standards, said they would consent to sex with the vignette woman. Men who were instructed to assume that they had a girlfriend in the scenario situation had more negative reactions to the advance than did men who assumed that they did not have a girlfriend. Evidence was found for a beauty bias: men who read that the initiator was average looking had less positive reactions than did men who read that the initiator was very attractive. Results add support to the authors' Sexual Opportunity Model explaining men's reactions to coercive sexual contact with women.     

Social consensus and the encoding of consistent and inconsistent information: when one's future audience orients information processing

The present study investigated whether and how social consensus affects the way perceivers encode information concerning a deviant member of a stereotyped group. Participants formed an impression of a gay person described by means of both positive and negative behaviours. Participants also learned that they had to communicate their impression to an unidentified audience whose stereotype about gays was unknown or to an ingroup audience which was presented to be either positive or negative about gays. Results indicated that participants who ignored the identity of the audience and its position towards gays devoted more time to examine the information than participants who had been informed about the audience and its opinion about gays. More importantly, participants spent less (more) time to encode information that was in line (at odds) with the stereotype of the audience. Results are discussed in terms of the interplay between cognitive and social factors in general, and of recent evidence about inconsistency‐resolution effect and consensual beliefs in particular. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interpersonal reactions toward depression and anger

Two studies examined the effect of interpersonal attitude on reactions toward others' expression of anger or depression, Participants read a story in which their schoolmate experienced a negative event and expressed anger or depression, and reported their perceptions, affective reactions, and behavioural intentions such as support or rejection. The results indicated that an expression of anger elicited more negative reactions than an expression of depression only when a person whom participants disliked expressed the emotion. Furthermore, structural equation modelling indicated that the effect of interpersonal attitude on sympathy, blame, and support intention was mediated by the perception of the distressfulness of the event. The discussion considered the processes through which the expression of negative emotions evokes positive or negative interpersonal reactions.     

On shame and the perceived credibility of sexual assault allegations

Despite the high incidence of sexual assault, doubt about allegations is common. Previous research suggests that victims expressing positive or no emotion are perceived as less credible than those expressing negative emotions. However, little is known about which specific negative emotional expressions contribute to credibility in this context. In two studies (N = 623), participants read a date rape vignette. The alleged victim's statement was paired with a picture of a female person expressing either shame, sadness, or no emotion. Participants rated the credibility of her account and completed a measure of rape myth acceptance. Controlling for rape myth acceptance, allegations were perceived as more credible when accompanied by an expression of shame versus sadness (a negative, low arousal control condition). It is critical to be aware of the shame-credibility bias in this context to intervene and support those who have experienced sexual assault.     

Depictions of acne and psoriasis influence interpersonal aversion

The presence of a dermatological condition may deter contact with the affected person because it falsely signals the threat of infection. The current study investigated interpersonal aversion towards individuals with the appearance of acne and psoriasis. Participants (N = 196) either viewed a female face with the appearance of acne, psoriasis, or no visible dermatological condition. Participants rated the attractiveness of the person, and indicated their willingness for social and indirect contact with them. The person depicted with acne was rated significantly less attractive than the person with psoriasis or no dermatological condition. Participants reported significantly less willingness for indirect contact with the person depicted with acne or psoriasis compared to the person with no visible dermatological condition. In contrast, participants expressed more willingness for social contact with a person with acne than with the person with psoriasis or no dermatological condition. Group differences were significant when controlling for attractiveness ratings. Unwarranted fear of infection might underpin avoidance and discriminatory behaviour towards those with skin conditions. Further research is required to understand factors that influence avoidance of contact.     

Asymmetrical impact: vigilance for differences and self‐relevant stimuli

We hypothesized that people are ‘vigilant’ for differences between stimuli. In particular, we compared the reactions elicited by unexpected differences versus unexpected similarities. Participants imagined themselves in several situations where they learned something unexpected. This unexpected information showed either that two things previously thought to be similar were actually different or that two things previously thought to be different were actually similar. Also, the new information was either beneficial, neutral, or detrimental to the perceiver. Participants indicated for each situation how surprised they would be and how they would feel. Unexpected differences were rated as more surprising than unexpected similarities for positive and negative events, though not for neutral events. Participants also reported that beneficial differences would produce more positive affect than beneficial similarities, whereas detrimental differences would produce more negative affect than detrimental similarities. These findings support the asymmetrical impact hypothesis that differences have more psychological impact than similarities. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Grandiose Narcissism and Fairness in Social Exchanges

The present study explored how the personality variable, grandiose narcissism, was associated with various responses to unfairness such as retaliation, forgiveness and avoidance. Participants completed personality questionnaires and read a series of scenarios that depicted unfair treatment. They then answered questions concerning how they would respond to each scenario. Results revealed that grandiose narcissists were less likely to acquiesce and more likely to engage in revenge toward or avoid the person who treated them unfairly. Grandiose narcissism tended not to be associated with forgiveness in response to specific examples of unfair treatment. The consequences of narcissists’ more negative behavior during social exchanges are discussed, as are suggestions for future studies.