Better (or worse) for some than others: Individual differences in the positivity offset and negativity bias

People tend to respond with more positive than negative affect to mildly emotional stimuli (i.e., positivity offset) and respond more strongly to very negative than to matched positive stimuli (i.e., negativity bias). In the current study, the authors examine individual differences in the positivity offset and negativity bias and demonstrate that both are stable over time and generalize across different kinds of stimuli (e.g., pictures, sounds, words, games of chance). Furthermore, the positivity offset and negativity bias are not redundant with traditional personality measures and exhibit differential predictive validity, such that both types of measures predict behavior in meaningful ways. Implications for a comprehensive understanding of affect and emotion and their relationship to physical and mental health are discussed.     

Individual differences in positivity offset and negativity bias: Gender-specific associations with two serotonin receptor genes

Individual differences in the evaluation of affective stimuli, such as the positivity offset and negativity bias may have a biological basis. We tested whether two SNPs (HTR2A; 102T>C and HTR1A; 1019C>G) related to serotonin receptor function, a biological pathway associated with affective regulation, were differentially related to positivity offset and negativity bias for males and females. Participants were 109 cigarette smokers who rated a series of affective stimuli to assess reactions to positive and negative pictures. Gender × genotype interactions were found for both SNPs. Males with the 102T allele showed a greater positivity offset than males with the 102C allele. For females, in contrast, the 1019C allele was associated with a greater positivity offset than the 1019G allele, whereas the 102T allele was associated with a greater negativity bias than the 102C allele. Identifying how gender differences may moderate the effect of serotonin receptor genes on affective information processing may provide insight into their role in guiding behavior and regulating affect.     

Applying sampling theories to attitude learning in a virtual school class environment

According to sampling theories of attitude formation, evaluative learning depends on the sampling in the environment. We investigated teachers’ student evaluations in a simulated school class. Two experiments were designed to test distinct implications of experience-sampling models. While the model advanced by Fazio, Eiser, and Shook (2004) and Denrell (2005) led to the prediction of a negativity effect through asymmetric depolarization, another model (Fiedler, 1996) suggested a positivity effect through asymmetric polarization. Findings supported the latter contention. The selective tendency to oversample good students while neglecting weaker students was not radical enough to prevent the correction of negative impressions, precluding a negativity effect. Instead, extended selective sampling led to gradually increasing polarization of positive impressions, and facilitated detection of positive performance changes. While these findings can be reconciled with the Fazio–Denrell model, they highlight the crucial role of auxiliary psychological assumptions about attitude learning, as distinguished from the formal model itself.     

The recognition of affective states associated with players’ non-verbal behavior in volleyball

The visible non-verbal behavior of volleyball players after a point might indicate their affective state. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the point outcome (i.e., win vs. loss) and the importance of the situation (i.e., first vs. fifth set) influence how well the affective states (indexed through non-verbal behavior) can be recognized. For this purpose, 111 participants were presented 60 video excerpts showing the non-verbal behavior of volleyball teams immediately after a rally and asked whether the shown team had just won or lost a point. The results indicated that the recognition rate was significantly higher for won (80.09%) than for lost points (65.56%) as well as for points of the fifth set (77.84%) than for points of the first set (68.51%). Furthermore, an explorative analysis showed that the recognition rate was significantly higher for won points of the fifth set (89.19%) than for those of the first set (72.13%).     

Source dependence in the valuation of objects

We ran two experiments to test whether people value objects more highly when they obtain those objects due to exemplary performance at a task. In the first, subjects who believed they had obtained a prize due to their performance on a classroom exercise valued it more highly than those who believed they had obtained it by chance. In the second, subjects who obtained a prize due to exemplary performance on a task valued it more highly than those who obtained it due to their poor performance. In both experiments, this ‘source dependence’ effect is approximately equal in strength to the endowment effect, which compares the valuation of subjects with and without the prize. We suggest a possible explanation for this source-dependence effect based on associationism, and rule out two alternative explanations.     

Distinct effects of positive and negative music on older adults' auditory target identification performances

Older adults, compared to younger adults, are more likely to attend to pleasant situations and avoid unpleasant ones. Yet, it is unclear whether such a phenomenon may be generalized to musical emotions. In this study, we investigated whether there is an age-related difference in how musical emotions are experienced and how positive and negative music influences attention performances in a target identification task. Thirty-one young and twenty-eight older adults were presented with 40 musical excerpts conveying happiness, peacefulness, sadness, and threat. While listening to music, participants were asked to rate their feelings and monitor each excerpt for the occurrence of an auditory target. Compared to younger adults, older adults reported experiencing weaker emotional activation when listening to threatening music and showed higher level of liking for happy music. Correct reaction times (RTs) for target identification were longer for threatening than for happy music in older adults but not in younger adults. This suggests that older adults benefit from a positive musical context and can regulate emotion elicited by negative music by decreasing attention towards it (and therefore towards the auditory target).     

“We” are familiar but “It” is not: Ingroup pronouns trigger feelings of familiarity

The notion that language can shape social perception has a long history in psychology. The current work adds to this literature by investigating the relationship between ingroup-designating pronouns and perceptions of familiarity. In two experiments, participants were exposed to nonsense syllables that were primed with ingroup (e.g., we) and control (e.g., it) pronouns before perceptions of the syllables’ familiarity (Experiments 1 and 2) and positivity (Experiment 2) were assessed. Because previous work has shown that ingroup pronouns are perceived positively (Perdue, Dovidio, Gurtman, & Tyler, 1990), and that positivity can trigger familiarity (e.g., [Garcia-Marques et al., 2004] and [Monin, 2003]), we predicted that syllables primed with ingroup-designating pronouns would be perceived as more familiar and positive than would syllables primed with control pronouns. These predictions were confirmed. Additionally, Experiment 2 provided suggestive evidence that the effect of ingroup pronouns on perceived familiarity is mediated by positivity. Implications of these results for the literatures on how language shapes intergroup biases and on how positivity triggers feelings of familiarity are discussed.     

Prediction accuracy of text recall: Ease, effort and familiarity

Prediction accuracy of text recall was studied in two experiments. Text characteristics (i.e., consistency and distinctiveness) were manipulated in Experiment 1, and familiarity with the reading-task in Experiment 2. The results were also analyzed and discussed in terms of easy processing (Experiment 1), and in terms of increased and more active processing (Experiment 2). Text characteristics did not affect prediction accuracy. However, being familiar with the reading-task led to good and long-lasting prediction accuracy. Thus, subjects reading a school-book text, instructed to learn the contents of it demonstrated reliable memory awareness, both for immediate recall and for delay of one week. It was also suggested that increased processing demands and active reading enhances prediction accuracy.