Moral disengagement moderates the predicted effect of trait self‐control on self‐reported aggression

An increasing number of studies reveal that self‐control is an important preventative factor for aggression. However, the involvement of potential explanatory variables has received less research attention. Drawing upon the feedback‐loop model of self‐control, the current research assumed that the preventing effect of trait self‐control on aggression may be moderated by moral disengagement. Self‐reported measures of trait self‐control, moral disengagement and aggression were administered to 946 Chinese university students. Results show that trait self‐control had a negative effect on physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger and hostility, whereas moral disengagement positively predicted each of these constructs. Of particular importance was a significant interaction between trait self‐control and moral disengagement for verbal aggression and hostility. Specifically, the preventing effect of trait self‐control on these two types of aggression was more pronounced in individuals with low rather than high moral disengagement. In conclusion, low conditional endorsement of transgressive acts and having high trait self‐control are both important individual‐difference variables that explain reduced aggression.     

The Interface Between Core Affects and the Challenge–Skill Relationship

Different models have been developed to describe human experiences. One of these models is the core affect model, which states that the core of emotional experience is a simple state of feeling good or bad, energized or drowsy. Another model is the experience fluctuation model (EFM), which has been developed to map how emotions and other experiences fluctuate along with the relationship between challenges and skills. In this study, we first mathematically refined the EFM. Second, we tested if fluctuations in core affect could be modeled with a continuous wave-like sine function (Study 1). Third, we applied the sine function to our own experience-sampling data, which we collected via mobile phones from 55 university students, and located each challenge–skill relationship in a two-dimensional core affect space (Study 2). The results were consistent in both studies and showed that fluctuations in core affect dimensions, measured as a function of the relationship between challenges and skills, can be modeled with the sine function. The results also indicated that there is a systematic link between challenge–skill relationships and core affect: High challenge–high skill situations were connected to a very active and pleasant core affect, whereas high challenge–low skill situations were connected to a quite active but unpleasant core affect, low challenge–low skill situations to a very passive and unpleasant core affect, and low challenge–high skill situations to a quite passive and pleasant core affect. Compared to previous studies, this study presents a more fine-grained and comprehensive level of information on the relationship between core affect and challenges and skills.     

Self‐specific Optimism Bias in Belief Updating Is Associated with High Trait Optimism

People learn more from new information when it leads to favorable future outlooks and thus can maintain optimism despite conflicting evidence. In two studies (N = 20 and 26), we investigated whether this optimism bias in belief updating is self‐specific by modifying a recently introduced learning paradigm. In each trial, participants had to estimate the probability of experiencing a negative future event, were then presented with the population base rate of that event, and were subsequently asked for a second, updated estimation. In half of the 88 trials with varying events, estimations were made for oneself, in the other half for a similar other. We tested whether the updates (differences between the first and second estimates) following undesirable base rate were lower than those following desirable base rates, and whether this difference was greater for self relative to other. In both studies, the overall results support the presence of a self‐specific optimism bias in belief updating. However, taking into account trait optimism (TO) as a moderator variable revealed that this was the case only in participants with high TO, whereas those with low TO showed optimistic belief updating for both self and other. In Study 2, we additionally controlled for possible misclassifications of base rate desirability. Taken together, the optimism bias in belief updating was demonstrated by a selective neglect of unfavorable information. A self‐specific influence of this bias in individuals with high TO may ultimately cause the impression of a more positive future outlook relative to others. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

人际控制感对合作行为的影响:一项囚徒困境的ERPs研究

社会困境中的合作行为是通过抑制个体利益最大化的诱惑从而满足集体利益最大化的过程。研究采用囚徒困境游戏范式考察个体的合作行为,通过设置决策顺序操控人际控制感的高低,利用ERPs技术探讨了人际控制感影响合作行为的神经机制。行为结果发现:高人际控制感条件下个体做出合作行为的频率显著高于低人际控制感。ERPs结果发现:个体在高人际控制感条件下博弈时顶枕区所诱发的P2波幅更小,且右侧额区所诱发的N2波幅也更小。这表明被试在高人际控制感条件下感知到的不确定性更小,冲突控制水平更高,从而更能抑制利己诱惑,表现出更多的合作行为。     

A matter of font type: The effect of serifs on the evaluation of scientific abstracts

Text‐based communication is one of the substantial ways of spreading scientific information. While the content and contextual aspects of written words have been widely researched, the impact of font characteristics on text perception is an almost blank page. The following study deals with the influence of serifs on the evaluation of online‐presented scientific abstracts. Yet there is only evidence for faster reading times when texts are presented in sans‐serif fonts, although the opposite is stated in parts of the literature. The present work examines if the presence or absence of serifs also have an impact on the appraisal of scientific texts when all other important font characteristics do not change. For this purpose, 188 university students participated in an online experiment and rated different aspects of scientific abstracts as well as of the research outlined in the abstracts. The results show that missing serifs led to increased reading speed. However, and in contrast to the perceptual fluency hypothesis, the presence of serifs had a positive effect on all evaluation dimensions. The results of a second study with 187 participants also indicated that reading fluency counteracted the liking of texts. Implications for future studies and media production are discussed.     

Subjective power and emotions in everyday interpersonal interactions: Counterparts' constrictive posture as moderator

Power is one of the vital components embedded within interpersonal interactions, but few studies have studied it in everyday life context. This experience sampling study examined the associations of subjective power with emotional well-being and investigated the moderating effects of counterpart' postures in the associations. Our results demonstrated that individuals reported higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions when they perceived higher subjective power. Their positive emotions were positively correlated with counterparts' expansive postures while negative emotions were positively correlated with counterparts' constrictive postures. The subjective power-negative emotion associations were stronger when counterparts displayed higher level of constrictive posture. Our findings provide an evidence base for a comprehensive understanding on the role of subjective power and perception of counterparts' power-related posture in dyadic communications in emotional well-being.     

Intentionality as a constituting condition for the own self--and other selves

Introspectively, the awareness of actions includes the awareness of the intentions accompanying them. Therefore, the awareness of self-generated actions might be expected to differ from the awareness of other-generated actions to the extent that access to one's own and to other's intentions differs. However, we recently showed that the perceived onset times of self- vs. other-generated actions are similar, yet both are different from comparable events that are conceived as being generated by a machine. This similarity raises two interesting possibilities. First we could infer the intentions of others from their actions. Second and more radically, we could equally infer our own intentions from the actions we perform rather than sense them. We present two new experiments which investigate the role of action effects in the awareness of self- and other-generated actions by means of measuring the estimated onset time. The results show that the presence of action effects is necessary for the similarity of awareness of self- and other-generated actions.     

语言线索对空间关系表征的影响及其机制

语言的获得会对空间认知产生深刻的影响。关于语言与空间认知,近些年来,不仅有大量的相关研究发现语言能力跟空间认知能力之间存在着密切的关联,还出现了实验研究,来试图直接揭示语言对空间关系表征的影响。研究发现,在一系列涉及不同空间关系的任务中,相较于非语言线索,语言线索提示的效果明显更好。在此基础上,从语言编码的特点和加工过程等方面进一步分析语言的作用机制,发现在空间表征中语言主要起到了选择和整合的作用,语言的作用过程是即时性的。建议未来研究在空间任务和语言表述形式上有更多的变式,从而更全面地来揭示语言的作用。