Are shy people reluctant to ask for help?

Examined the help-seeking behaviors of shy and not-shy men and women. In Study 1, Ss worked on an impossible task in the presence of a male or female confederate whom they were told had just successfully completed the task. Shy Ss asked for help no less frequently than did not-shy Ss overall, but they did seek help less frequently from opposite-sex confederates than from same-sex confederates. In Study 2, shy and not-shy men and women were required to call a man and a woman and ask them to complete a questionnaire. All respondents agreed to return the questionnaire. However, when shy Ss (compared with not-shy Ss) called opposite-sex respondents, fewer of the questionnaires were actually returned. When making their calls, shy Ss sounded somewhat less warm and confident than did not-shy Ss, and they also spoke less fluently. Fluency, in turn, predicted response rate for the shy subjects calling respondents of the opposite sex.     

Internet use by the socially fearful: addiction or therapy?

The Internet has often been argued to have adverse psychological consequences, such as depression or anxiety symptoms, among "over-users." The present study offers an alternative understanding, suggesting the Internet may be used as a forum for expanding social networks and consequently enhancing the chance of meaningful relationships, self-confidence, social abilities, and social support. An online sample of 188 people was recruited over the Internet, while paper and pencil tests were administered to an offline sample group of 27 undergraduate university students, who were regular Internet users. Subjects completed the Zung Depression Scale (ZDS), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire?Revised Short Scale (EPQ-R Short), Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) scale, Internet Use Questionnaire (IUQ), and an Internet Effects Questionnaire (IEQ). Results suggested that there was no relationship between time spent online and depression, anxiety, or social fearfulness. Those who primarily used the Internet for online chat believed that the Internet is psychologically beneficial to them, but also believed that frequent Internet users are lonely and that the Internet can be addictive. It is argued that "chat" users who are socially fearful may be using the Internet as a form of low-risk social approach and an opportunity to rehearse social behavior and communication skills, which, may help them improve interaction with offline, face-to-face, social environments.     

Control over social interactions: an important reason for young people's use of the Internet and mobile phones for communication?

This paper reports some research that was undertaken to determine why young people choose to use certain communication media, especially the Internet and mobile phones for social purposes. Focus group methodology was employed in achieving this aim. Specifically, two focus groups containing young people aged 18-20 years were asked to discuss the question "why do you use different communication media, such as the Internet and mobile phones, in your social lives?" Discussions from the sessions were recorded on audiotapes, and then transcribed, and analyzed according to the principles of Grounded Theory. A number of categories emerged from the data. The most significant category indicated that young people often liked to use communication media such as the Internet and mobile phones to communicate because these afforded them control over their interactions. In particular, the data seemed to suggest that participants felt that because some communication media such as email, text messaging and instant messaging can be used asynchronously as well as synchronously, they allow one time to stop and think before giving a response if this is desired, or, alternatively, allowed one to retain the conversational nature of interactions if this is preferred. This gave participants greater control over interactions than they would have if, say, communicating via voice calls using the telephone or face-to-face, which are necessarily synchronous.     

Social exclusion and donation behaviour: What conditions motivate the socially excluded to donate?

Previous research has indicated that social exclusion can result in people becoming more focused on themselves than on others, and this may reduce their likelihood of engaging in prosocial behaviour. However, the question of how to promote prosocial behaviour in people who have experienced social exclusion remains. This study comprised two experiments that address this question in the context of donation advertising. Experiment 1 examined participants’ donation intentions after experiencing social exclusion in a ball‐passing game. Experiment 2 followed the same design as Experiment 1, except that real‐life donation behaviour was measured. Consistent with prior findings, our results indicated that those who experienced social exclusion displayed lower donation intentions (Experiment 1) and donated less (Experiment 2) than did those who did not experience social exclusion. However, when those who experienced social exclusion watched advertisements that only portrayed alienated people, they showed as much donation intent as those who did not experience social exclusion (Experiment 1) and ultimately donated more (Experiment 2). These findings indicate that social exclusion may increase an individual's tendency to help others who also are alienated.     

“The Group Knobe Effect”: evidence that people intuitively attribute agency and responsibility to groups

In the current paper, we present and discuss a series of experiments in which we investigated people’s willingness to ascribe intentions, as well as blame and praise, to groups. The experiments draw upon the so-called “Knobe Effect”. Knobe [2003. “Intentional action and side effects in ordinary language.” Analysis 63: 190–194] found that the positiveness or negativeness of side-effects of actions influences people’s assessment of whether those side-effects were brought about intentionally, and also that people are more willing to assign blame for negative side-effects of actions than they are to assign praise for positive side-effect of actions. Building upon this research, we found evidence that the positiveness or negativeness of side-effects of group actions influences people’s willingness to attribute intentions to groups (Experiment 1a), and that people are more willing to assign blame to groups for negative side-effects of actions than they are to assign praise to groups for positive side-effects of actions (Experiment 1b). We also found evidence (Experiments 2a, 2b, 3 and 4) that the “Group Knobe Effect” persists even when intentions and blame/praise are attributed to groups non-distributively, indicating that people tend not to think of group intentions and group blame/praise in distributive terms. We conclude that the folk are collectivist about group intentions, and also about the blameworthiness and praiseworthiness of groups.     

Proximity attitudes toward objects and people: reference to a category and a self-representation?

The relative strength of similarity to self and category typicality as predictors of proximity attitudes (social distance) toward people of varying race and objects associated with people of varying race was investigated. Similarity to self and category typicality were significant predictors of proximity attitudes toward both objects and people, but similarity to self was the significantly stronger predictor. The predictive utility of similarity to self was greater for object judgments than person judgments, but category typicality was a better predictor of person judgments than object judgments. Although the results provide evidence of ingroup favoritism in proximity attitudes toward people, the ingroup bias did not extend to objects associated with people. Category typicality was positively related to attitudes, even for distanced groups. The role of predictability of the target in determining proximity attitudes is discussed.     

Should people pursue feelings that feel good or feelings that do good? Emotional preferences and well-being

Is it adaptive to seek pleasant emotions and avoid unpleasant emotions all the time or seek pleasant and unpleasant emotions at the right time? Participants reported on their preferences for anger and happiness in general and in contexts in which they might be useful or not (i.e., confrontations and collaborations, respectively). People who generally wanted to feel more happiness and less anger experienced greater well-being. However, when emotional preferences were examined in context, people who wanted to feel more anger or more happiness when they were useful, and people who wanted to feel less of those emotions when they were not useful, experienced greater well-being. Such patterns could not be explained by differences in the perceived usefulness of emotions, intelligence, perceived regulatory skills, emotional acceptance, social desirability, or general emotional preferences. These findings demonstrate that people who want to feel unpleasant emotions when they are useful may be happier overall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Sometimes stories sell: When are narrative appeals most likely to work?

Research has demonstrated that narratives can be effective in eliciting attitude change, especially when recipients become transported into the narrative. In three studies, we addressed whether some people are predisposed to be influenced by narratives and whether narrative and rhetorical appeals are differentially effective for different people. In Study 1, participants read an experimental or a control narrative, and completed measures of attitudes, need for affect (NFA), need for cognition (NFC), transportation, and transportability. The results revealed that NFA and NFC were positively correlated with transportation and transportability. In Study 2, participants read either a narrative appeal or a rhetorical appeal about cervical cancer and completed a measure of attitudes and the individual difference constructs. Study 3 was a replication of Study 2 using a different topic (organ donation). In both studies, the results revealed a consistent pattern of correlations among the individual difference measures. Further, we found that although the narrative and rhetorical appeals were judged to be of equal efficacy, the persuasiveness of the narrative appeal differed as function of individual differences in NFA and NFC. The implications for narrative persuasion are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why do people need self-esteem? Converging evidence that self-esteem serves an anxiety-buffering function.

Three studies were conducted to assess the proposition that self-esteem serves an anxiety-buffering function. In Study 1, it was hypothesized that raising self-esteem would reduce anxiety in response to vivid images of death. In support of this hypothesis, Ss who received positive personality feedback reported less anxiety in response to a video about death than did neutral feedback Ss. In Studies 2 and 3, it was hypothesized that increasing self-esteem would reduce anxiety among individuals anticipating painful shock. Consistent with this hypothesis, both success and positive personality feedback reduced Ss' physiological arousal in response to subsequent threat of shock. Thus, converging evidence of an anxiety-buffering function of self-esteem was obtained.     

How do shy people expand their social networks? Using social surrogates as a strategy to expand one's network

The authors examined the use of social surrogates by shy people to expand their social network when entering a new environment, following Bradshaw's social surrogate hypothesis. The authors conducted a panel survey of 70 friendship pairs of students 7 months after they entered university. The results revealed that when a friend acted as a surrogate, the shy students extended their joint networks more. In contrast, not-shy students extended their networks regardless of whether a friend acted as a surrogate. These results indicate that even shy people can adjust indirectly to new social circumstances because they can expand their social networks by using a close friend as a surrogate.     

Are pro-social or socially aversive people more physically symmetrical? Symmetry in relation to over 200 personality variables

Symmetry on bilateral body parts indicates evolutionary fitness. Thus, traits positively associated with symmetry are thought to have conferred fitness in evolutionary history. Studies of the relationships between personality traits and symmetry have been narrow and have produced inconsistent findings. In our study, we relate both body symmetry and facial symmetry to 203 personality variables and to the Big Five. Our results demonstrate that (a) symmetry is related to personality traits beyond chance, (b) socially aversive traits, such as aggression and Neuroticism are positively related to symmetry, and (c) pro-social traits such as empathy and Agreeableness are negatively related to symmetry. Such trait levels may developmentally adjust in response to symmetry or may be inherited with symmetry (i.e., dual inheritance).     

Is it disgusting to be reminded that you are an animal?

Six studies (Ns?=?65, 96, 120, 129, 40, 200) tested the hypothesis that being reminded of our animal nature makes us feel disgust. Participants from three cultural groups indicated the intensity of their disgust reactions to pleasant and unpleasant animal reminder stories and pictures as well as to a statement directly reminding them of their animal nature. Findings did not support the hypothesis: Pleasant animal reminders reminded respondents of their animal nature (even more powerfully than did unpleasant ones), but were not disgusting. The direct reminder of our animal nature was not disgusting. There was no significant correlation between disgust and being reminded of animal nature for disgusting (unpleasant) animal reminders. Thus, some disgusting events remind us of our animal nature, but they are not disgusting because they remind us of our animal nature. Animal reminders per se are not disgusting.     

Technological advancements and Internet sexuality: does private access to the Internet influence online sexual behavior?

The aim of this study was to investigate whether demographic characteristics and sexual behavior online and offline were associated with private, respectively, nonprivate access to the Internet in a Web sample of people who use the Internet for sexual purposes. A total of 1,913 respondents completed an online questionnaire about Internet sexuality, and 1,614 reported using the Internet for sexual purposes. The majority of these respondents reported having access to an Internet-connected computer no one else had access to (62 percent women and 70 percent men). The results showed that it is possible to differentiate between those who have access to an Internet-connected computer no one else has access to and those who have shared access to an Internet-connected computer. Not only did they differ in demographic characteristics, but also in the sexual activities they engaged in on the Internet. Different patterns were found for women and men. For example, men who had private access to Internet-connected computers were more likely than those who had shared access to seek information about sexual issues. Thus, having access to Internet computers no one else has access to may promote sexual knowledge and health for men. The results of this study along with the technological development implies that in future research, attention should be paid to where and how people access the Internet in relation to online behavior in general and online sexual behavior in particular.     

Reference in human and non-human primate communication: What does it take to refer?

The concept of functional reference has been used to isolate potentially referential vocal signals in animal communication. However, its relatedness to the phenomenon of reference in human language has recently been brought into question. While some researchers have suggested abandoning the concept of functional reference altogether, others advocate a revision of its definition to include contextual cues that play a role in signal production and perception. Empirical and theoretical work on functional reference has also put much emphasis on how the receiver understands the referential signal. However, reference, as defined in the linguistic literature, is an action of the producer, and therefore, any definition describing reference in non-human animals must also focus on the producer. To successfully determine whether a signal is used to refer, we suggest an approach from the field of pragmatics, taking a closer look at specific situations of signal production, specifically at the factors that influence the production of a signal by an individual. We define the concept of signaller’s reference to identify intentional acts of reference produced by a signaller independently of the communicative modality, and illustrate it with a case study of the hoo vocalizations produced by wild chimpanzees during travel. This novel framework introduces an intentional approach to referentiality. It may therefore permit a closer comparison of human and non-human animal referential behaviour and underlying cognitive processes, allowing us to identify what may have emerged solely in the human lineage.     

Individual differences and weight bias: Do people with an anti-fat bias have a pro-thin bias?

While levels of weight bias vary among individuals, it is not clear why one person possesses stronger anti-fat attitudes than another person. This investigation examined whether individual differences commonly associated with greater anti-fat bias are also associated with a greater preference for thinness among people of varying levels of weight. Young adults (62% women; 84% Caucasian) recruited from psychology classes (N = 308) rated four male and female figures with approximate BMIs of 18.5, 25, 30, and 40, on measures of dislike and personality characteristics and completed measures assessing weight controllability, attitudes toward the obese, and perceptual reliance. Greater negative attitudes, weight controllability beliefs, and perceptual reliance were positively associated with greater dislike and negative personality attributes among obese/severely obese figures, but inversely related among low normal weight figures. Individuals who judge others based on physical features or who view obesity as controllable evidence greater weight bias and a stronger preference for thin body types.     

Religiosity and obesity: are overweight people more religious?

The present study was undertaken to test the recently advanced hypothesis that highly religious people are more prone to obesity than is true for people in general. Based on a sample of over 6000 middle- to older-aged women, the study found essentially no support for the hypothesis. The only possible exception was in the case of members of certain denominations with historically high birth rates.     

Resisting self-compassion: Why are some people opposed to being kind to themselves?

Although self-compassion is associated with positive emotions, resilience, and well-being, some people resist recommendations to treat themselves with kindness and compassion. This study investigated how people’s personal values and evaluations of self-compassionate behaviors relate to their level of self-compassion. After completing measures of trait self-compassion and values, participants rated how they would view themselves after behaving in a self-compassionate and self-critical way. Overall, participants associated self-compassion with positive attributes that connote emotional well-being, yet only those who were low in trait self-compassion associated self-compassionate responding with negative attributes that involve low motivation, self-indulgence, low conscientiousness, and poor performance. Participants’ endorsement of basic values was not meaningfully related to their evaluations of self-compassionate vs. self-critical behaviors or to self-compassion scores. We propose that self-compassion might operate as an instrumental value insofar as those high vs. low in self-compassion differ in their beliefs about whether self-compassion affects performance-related outcomes positively or negatively.     

Need to train your rat? There is an App for that: A touchscreen behavioral evaluation system

The increasing demand for highly automated and flexible tasks capable of assessing visual learning and memory in nonhuman animals has led to the exciting development of a wide array of prefabricated touchscreen-equipped systems. However, the high cost of these prefabricated systems has led many researchers to develop or modify their own preexisting equipment. We developed a freely downloadable App, the Touchscreeen Behavioral Evaluation System (TBES) for use in conjunction with an iPad (Apple, Cupertino, California) as an alternative to prefabricated touchscreen systems. TBES allows for stimulus presentation and data collection on an iPad. The touchscreen technology offered by the iPad is attractive to researchers due to its affordability, reliability, and resistance to false inputs. We highlight these, as well as the feasibility and procedural flexibility of TBES, in an effort to promote our system as a competitive alternative to those currently available.     

Who is this?: Identity and presence in robot-mediated communication

Because a telepresence robot is intended for use in telecommunications, conveying the presence of a remote sender is an important issue. Even though certain characteristics of robots such as identity could be effective at generating a sense of presence, this risks yielding a distortion of presence in the remote sender. Thus, in order to find effective ways to increase presence, we executed an experiment comparing a telepresence robot with high identity and a telepresence robot with low identity. The 60 participants in this study engaged in a video call with a remote sender using either a telepresence robot with high identity or a telepresence robot with low identity. The results showed that participants felt more remote sender presence when interacting with the telepresence robot with low identity than they did with the one with high identity. On the other hand, when a telepresence robot has high identity, participants felt more presence toward the robot than they did toward the one with low identity. In the second study (N = 72), participants experienced two types of telepresence robots (identity level: a telepresence robot with high identity vs. a telepresence robot with low identity) with two types of remote senders (number of remote senders: single remote sender vs. multiple remote senders). The identity level of the robot and the number of remote senders affected the presence of the remote sender, telepresence, and the presence of the robot. We discuss in detail the implications for the design of telepresence robots in terms of increasing presence.