Chemosignalling effects of human tears revisited: Does exposure to female tears decrease males’ perception of female sexual attractiveness?

Gelstein et al. reported the results of three experiments suggesting a dampening influence of inhalation of female emotional tears on males’ arousal and perception of female sexual attractiveness, specifically in non-sexual situations. This prompted the hypothesis that crying exerts its influence on others not only via the auditory and visual mode but also via chemosignals. In three studies, we attempted to replicate and extend Gelstein et al.’s findings by including an additional condition with irritant tears, by using pictures of sexually attractive women, and by testing related hypotheses on the pro-social effects of exposure to tears. All three studies, separately or combined in a meta-analysis, failed to replicate the original inhibitory effects of tears. In addition, sniffing tears did not affect measures of connectedness, aggression and pro-social behaviour. It is concluded that the effects of female tears on male arousal and perception of female sexual attractiveness, if any, are very weak at best. Rather, it seems that crying exerts its strong inter-personal effects through the visual and auditory sensory channels.     

Meaning is Not a Reflex: Context Dependence of Spatial Congruity Effects

In two experiments, Brookshire, Ivry, and Casasanto (2010) showed that words with positive and negative emotional valence can activate spatial representations with a high degree of automaticity, but also that this activation is highly context dependent. Lebois, Wilson‐Mendenhall, and Barsalou (2015) reported that they “aimed to replicate” our study but found only null results in the “Brookshire et al. replication” conditions. Here we express concerns about three aspects of this paper. First, the study was not an attempt to replicate ours; it was a different study that adapted our method. Second, Lebois et al. did not accurately represent our theoretical position. Third, Lebois et al.’s main conclusion, that spatial congruity effects depend on the task context, was not supported by their data. Despite these concerns, we agree with Lebois et al.'s overall message that spatial aspects of words' meanings are activated differently in different contexts. This was a main conclusion of our study as well.     

Warm and touching tears: tearful individuals are perceived as warmer because we assume they feel moved and touched

ABSTRACT

Recent work investigated the inter-individual functions of emotional tears in depth. In one study (Van de Ven, N., Meijs, M. H. J., & Vingerhoets, A. (2017). What emotional tears convey: Tearful individuals are seen as warmer, but also as less competent. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56(1), 146–160. Https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12162) tearful individuals were rated as warmer, and participants expressed more intentions to approach and help such individuals. Simultaneously, tearful individuals were rated as less competent, and participants expressed less intention to work with the depicted targets. While tearful individuals were perceived as sadder, perceived sadness mediated only the effect on competence, but not on warmth. We argue that tearful individuals might be perceived as warm because they are perceived as feeling moved and touched. We ran a pre-registered extended replication of Van de Ven et al. Results replicate the warmth and helping findings, but not the competence and work effects. The increase in warmth ratings was completely mediated by perceiving feeling moved and touched. Possible functions of feeling moved and touched with regard to emotional tears are discussed.     

When will is not the same as should: The role of modals in reasoning with legal conditionals

Naïve reasoners reject logically valid conclusions from conditional rules if they can think of exceptions in which the antecedent is true, but the consequent is not. However, when reasoning with legal conditionals (e.g., “If a person kills another human, then this person should be punished for manslaughter”) people hardly consider exceptions but evaluate conclusions depending on their own sense of justice. We show that participants’ reluctance to consider exceptions in legal reasoning depends on the modal auxiliary used. In two experiments we phrased legal conditionals either with the modal “should” (i.e., “ . . . then this person should be punished”), or with “will” (i.e., “ . . . then this person will be punished”) and presented them as modus ponens or modus tollens inferences. Participants had to decide whether the offender should or will be punished (modus ponens) or whether the offender indeed committed the offence (modus tollens). For modus ponens inferences phrased with “should” we replicate previous findings showing that participants select conclusions on the basis of their own sense of justice (Experiments 1 and 2). Yet, when the legal conditional is phrased with the modal “will” this effect is attenuated (Experiments 1 and 2), and exceptions are considered (Experiment 1). The modal auxiliary did not affect modus tollens inferences.     

A new look at the schema therapy model: organization and role of early maladaptive schemas

This study reexamined the organization of Young’s 18 early maladaptive schemas and their hypothesized associations with experiences of need-thwarting parental experiences in childhood and the “vulnerable child” mode of emotional distress in adulthood. A large Danish sample (N = 1054) of 658 clinical- and 391 nonclinical adults completed measures of early maladaptive schemas, parenting styles, and the vulnerable child mode. We identified four higher-order schema domains as most appropriate in terms of interpretability and empirical indices (“Disconnection & Rejection”, “Impaired Autonomy & Performance”, “Excessive Responsibility & Standards”, and “Impaired Limits”). All four schema domains were differentially associated with conceptually relevant need-thwarting parental experiences. Apart from “Impaired Limits”, the schema domains meaningfully accounted for the association between need-thwarting parental experiences in childhood and emotional states of feeling like a “vulnerable child” in adulthood. We conclude that four domains of early maladaptive schemas are empirically and conceptually consistent with Young’s schema therapy model of personality pathology and longstanding emotional disorders. Findings warrant replication using different populations and if possible a prospective multi-method design. A scoring key for computing the four schema domains is provided.     

“Tears of joy” and “tears and joy?” personal accounts of dimorphous and mixed expressions of emotion

In this investigation two distinct theoretical frameworks were applied to personal accounts of experiencing both smiles and crying, informally referred to as “tears of joy.” Dimorphous theory posits that such expressions arise from a positive or negative appraisal, and a single corresponding emotional experience. In contrast, mixed emotions theoretically arise from simultaneous positive and negative appraisals, positive and negative emotions, which might also culminate in two expressions of emotion. Across three experimental studies participants were exposed to a positive story, or a story with mixed positive and negative aspects. Participants reported on their appraisals, emotions, and personal accounts of their expressions. Explicit, freely-written, and implicit measures, as well as participants’ own explanations for their reported smiling and crying all converged on patterns supporting both dimorphous and mixed expressions of emotion. Data suggest the subjective experience of both “tears of joy” and “tears and joy.”     

An investigation of mental rotation in infancy using change detection

Two experiments were conducted to examine mental rotation in 6- to 12-month-old infants (N = 166) using a change detection task. These experiments were replications of Lauer and Lourenco (Lauer et al., 2015; Lauer & Lourenco, 2016), using identical stimuli and variations of their procedure, including an exact replication conducted in a laboratory setting (Experiment 1), and an online assessment using Lookit (Scott et al.,2017; Scott & Schulz, 2017) (Experiment 2). Both experiments failed to replicate the results of the original study; in neither experiment did infants’ behavior provide evidence that they mentally rotated the object. Results are discussed in terms of the robustness of mental rotation in infancy and about limits in our experimental procedures for uncovering perceptual and cognitive abilities in infants.     

On the forgetting of word associations: Parkin et al. reconsidered

Summary This paper represents an extension of Levinger and Clark's (1961) study, in which it was shown that associations to emotional stimuli were more readily forgotten than those to neutral stimuli, and a replication of Parkin, Lewinsohn and Folkard's (1982) study which demonstrated the reversal of this effect with delayed retention testing. The aim of the present two experiments was to replicate the results of the latter under conditions with minimal deviations from the methodology of either study. The present data indicated that more associations to emotional stimuli were forgotten regardless of the length of the interpolated retention interval. The results are seen as being inconsistent with the Parkin et al. reinterpretation of the Levinger and Clark paradigm and, therefore, as calling for further replication.     

Disruptive effects of prior information on tachistoscopic recognition

Smith, Haviland, Reder, Brownell, and Adams (1976) found tachistoscopic letter recognition to be disrupted by advance information about possible letter alternatives. An association of “before-disruption” with a bias to respond “same” in same-different judgment led Smith et al. to conclude that incidental mask features corresponding to a precued letter were erroneously incorporated into the target letter decision. Experiments 1 and 2 in the present study failed to replicate the before-disruption effect under conditions similar to those of Smith et al., although precuing produced a strong bias to respond “same.” Similarity between “same” and “different” alternatives was manipulated in Experiment 3 by selecting letter pairs differing in one critical feature (P-R, O-Q, C-G, F-E) for one group of subjects, and re-pairing the same letters (P-G, O-E, C-R, F-Q) for another group. Contrary to Smith et el., precuing interacted significantly with pair similarity, such that before-disruption occurred only with similar alternatives. In contrast, precuing produced equivalent “same-bias” in both groups. The dependence of before-disruption on pair similarity was extended to two-alternative forced-choice recognition in Experiment 4. Together with inconsistencies in the Smith et al. data and more detailed analysis of present recognition errors, the results suggest (1) the before-disruption and same-bias effects of precuing are mediated by separate mechanisms, and (2) before-disruption reflects loss of target letter information rather than direct incorporation of extraneous mask features.     

Emotional job demands and burnout among oncology care providers

Abstract

Recent studies by Söderfeldt et al. (1996) and de Jonge et al. (1999) have demonstrated that Karasek's operationalization of job demands in his well-known Job Demands-Control (JD-C) Model (Karasek, 1979), i.e. quantitative demands, cannot capture the complexities of working with patients or clients in health care work. In the current study on burnout among 816 Dutch oncology care providers, the “traditional” JD-C Model was extended by including two types of emotional job demands. Moreover, “susceptibility to emotional contagion” was included as a potential moderator of the relationship between emotional job demands and burnout. Emotional job demands significantly contributed to the prediction of burnout, after controlling for quantitative job demands and job control. In addition, care providers' susceptibility to emotional contagion moderated the relationship between “confrontation with death and dying” and burnout. Care providers high in susceptibility to emotional contagion were more “vulnerable” to the stress associated with high emotional demands than their counterparts.     

Impact of assertive and accusatory communication of distress and anger: A verbal component analysis

Forty undergraduate women were asked to imagine discussing an important problem in their relationship with a personally close partner and to rate likely emotional and behavioral reactions to four kinds of statements: 1) assertive communication of distress, 2) assertive communication of anger, 3) accusatory communication of distress, and 4) accusatory communication of anger. Accusatory “you” statements were rated as more aversive and evoked more negative emotional and behavioral response inclinations than did assertive “I” messages. Statements including “anger” words evoked more negative emotional and behavioral response inclinations than statements including “distress” words. Findings were related to research on cue-controlled aggression and the work of Staats, which predicts ways that verbal labels (language) exert control over emotions and behavior.     

Questioning the preparatory function of counterfactual thinking

Why do individuals mentally modify reality (e.g., “If it hadn’t rained, we would have won the game”)? According to the dominant view, counterfactuals primarily serve to prepare future performance. In fact, individuals who have just failed a task tend to modify the uncontrollable features of their attempt (e.g., “If the rules of the game were different, I would have won it”), generating counterfactuals that are unlikely to play any preparatory role. By contrast, they generate prefactuals that focus on the controllable features of their ensuing behavior (e.g., “If I concentrate more, I will win the next game”). Here, we test whether this tendency is robust and general. Studies 1a and 1b replicate this tendency and show that it occurs regardless of whether individuals think about their failures or their successes. Study 2 shows that individuals generate relatively few controllable counterfactuals, unless explicitly prompted to do so. These results raise some questions regarding the generality of the dominant view according to which counterfactuals mainly serve a preparatory function.     

Financial aspirations,financial success,and overall life satisfaction: who? and how?

Nickerson et al. (2003, Psychological Science 14, pp. 531–536) demonstrated in a longitudinal study that the negative relation between aspirations for financial success and subjective well-being found by other researchers was mitigated by high household income. The present study first refined the analysis in Nickerson et al. (2003) and then explored two additional issues: (a) who aspires to financial success? and (b) how is financial success achieved? Analysis indicated that individuals with strong financial aspirations are socially inclined, confident, ambitious, politically conservative, traditional, conventional, and relatively less able academically, but not psychologically distressed. Financial success is achieved via the job and, for women only, via marriage. Financial aspirations influence job income both by influencing choice of occupation and by influencing job income within occupation; however, achieving financial success depends on having the personal resources to do so. Women with strong financial aspirations tend to marry for money (or money-making potential) regardless of their work status; men with strong financial aspirations do not.     

How to Do Things with Emotional Expressions: The Theory of Affective Pragmatics

It is widely accepted that emotional expressions can be rich communicative devices. We can learn much from the tears of a grieving friend, the smiles of an affable stranger, or the slamming of a door by a disgruntled lover. So far, a systematic analysis of what can be communicated by emotional expressions of different kinds and of exactly how such communication takes place has been missing. The aim of this article is to introduce a new framework for the study of emotional expressions that I call the theory of affective pragmatics (TAP). As linguistic pragmatics focuses on what utterances mean in a context, affective pragmatics focuses on what emotional expressions mean in a context. TAP develops and connects two principal insights. The first is the insight that emotional expressions do much more than simply expressing emotions. As proponents of the Behavioral Ecology View of facial movements have long emphasized, bodily displays are sophisticated social tools that can communicate the signaler's intentions and requests. Proponents of the Basic Emotion View of emotional expressions have acknowledged this fact, but they have failed to emphasize its importance, in part because they have been in the grip of a mistaken theory of emotional expressions as involuntary readouts of emotions. The second insight that TAP aims to articulate and apply to emotional expressions is that it is possible to engage in analogs of speech acts without using language at all. I argue that there are important and so far largely unexplored similarities between what we can “do” with words and what we can “do” with emotional expressions. In particular, the core tenet of TAP is that emotional expressions are a means not only of expressing what's inside but also of directing other people's behavior, of representing what the world is like and of committing to future courses of action. Because these are some of the main things we can do with language, the take home message of my analysis is that, from a communicative point of view, much of what we can do with language we can also do with non-verbal emotional expressions. I conclude by exploring some reasons why, despite the analogies I have highlighted, emotional expressions are much less powerful communicative tools than speech acts.     

“Being Religious” or “Being Spiritual” in America: A Zero‐Sum Proposition?

Recent discussions of religious attitudes and behavior tend to suggest—and in a few cases, provide evidence—that Americans are becoming “more spiritual” and “less religious.” What do people mean, however, when they say they are “spiritual” or “religious”? Do Americans see these concepts as definitionally or operationally different? If so, does that difference result in a zero‐sum dynamic between them? In this article, we explore the relationship between “being religious” and “being spiritual” in a national sample of American Protestants and compare our findings to other studies, including Wade Clark Roof’s baby‐boomer research (1993, 2000), 1999 Gallup and 2000 Spirituality and Health polls, and the Zinnbauer et al. (1997) study of religious definitions. In addition to presenting quantitative and qualitative evidence about the way people think about their religious/spiritual identity, the article draws implications about modernity, the distinctiveness of religious change in the recent past, and the deinstitutionalization of religion.     

Methuselah and Company: A Case of Male Envy of Female Longevity

The Bible says that Methuselah, a direct descendent of Seth, the third born son of Adam and Eve, lived to the ripe old age of 969 years. On the assumption that this is a gross exaggeration, we asked ourselves why the writer (or writers) of the book of Genesis felt a need to exaggerate his age? On the basis of evidence that women live longer than men because they bear children and engage in maternal activities toward their offspring, we argue that the exaggerated ages of men in the Bible are a case of male envy of women because women have a longer life expectancy than men do. We suggest that this is an issue that is no less relevant to gender relations today. We propose that one way that men may deal with their envy of women is to assume the role of the “good-enough mother,” and that if this does not have the desired results, there is always humor.     

Hebb repetition effects for non-verbal visual sequences: determinants of sequence acquisition

We report four experiments premised upon the work of Horton et al. [(2008). Hebb repetition effects in visual memory: The roles of verbal rehearsal and distinctiveness. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61(12), 1769–1777] and Page et al. [(2013). Repetition-spacing and item-overlap effects in the Hebb repetition task. Journal of Memory and Language, 69(4), 506–526], and explore conditions under which the visual Hebb repetition effect is observed. Experiment 1 showed that repetition learning is evident when the items comprising the non-repeated (filler) sequences and the repeated (Hebb) sequences are different (no-overlap). However, learning is abolished when the filler and Hebb sequences comprise the same items (full-overlap). Learning of the repeated sequence persisted when repetition spacing was increased to six trials (Experiment 2), consistent with that shown for verbal stimuli (Page et al., 2013). In Experiment 3, it was shown that learning for the repeated sequence is accentuated when the output motor response at test is also repeated for the Hebb sequence, but only under conditions of no-overlap. In Experiment 4, repetition spacing was re-examined with a repeated motor output response (a closer methodological analogue to Page et al., 2013). Under these conditions, the gradient of Hebb repetition learning for six trial repetition intervals was markedly similar to that for three trial intervals. These findings further support the universality of the Hebb repetition effect across memory and are discussed in terms of evidence for amodality within-sequence memory.     

The effect of power on susceptibility to emotional contagion

Abstract

This study explored two questions: Do people tend to display and experience other people's emotions? If so, what impact does power have on people's susceptibility to emotional contagion? We speculated that the powerless should pay more attention to their superiors (than their superiors pay to them) and should thus be especially likely to “catch” their superion' emotions as well. College students, given the role of “teacher” (powerful person) or “learner” (powerless person), observed videotapes of another (fictitious) subject relating an emotional experience. They were asked what emotions they felt as they watched their partner describe the happiest and saddest event in his life. In addition, they were videotaped as they watched the tape. As predicted, clear evidence of emotional contagion was obtained in this controlled laboratory setting. However, a direct (rather than inverse) relation between power and emotional contagion was found. Powerful subjects were more likely to display their subordinate's feelings than subordinates were to display those of the powerful other. Several possible explanations for these unexpected results were proposed.     

The issue of force and energy in behavioral change

The issue of force and energy in behavioral change involves the following question. Assuming that certain ideas or cognitions help individuals to change their basic personality structure, is it important that these ideas be conveyed by the therapists, or by the clients, to themselves, in a vigorous, forceful and dramatic manner? This question, along with the concomitant one of “intellectual” versus “emotional” insight, has been neglected and avoided in much of the recent literature. This article considers these questions, tries to formulate an operational definition of force and energy in behavioral change, and suggests some specific things that clients may do to achieve “emotional” insight or elegant philosophic reconstruction.     

The Impact of P-hacking on “Redefine Statistical Significance”

In their proposal to “redefine statistical significance,” Benjamin et al. claim that lowering the default cutoff for statistical significance from .05 to .005 would “immediately improve the reproducibility of scientific research in many fields.” Benjamin et al. assert specifically that false positive rates would fall below 10% and replication rates would double under the lower cutoff. I analyze these claims here, showing how the failure to account for P-hacking and other widespread reporting issues leads to exaggerated and misleading conclusions about the potential impact of the .005 proposal.