Social norms are enforced by friends: The effect of relationship closeness on bystanders’ tendency to confront perpetrators of uncivil,immoral, and discriminatory behaviors

When witnessing an uncivil, immoral, or discriminatory behavior, bystanders have the opportunity to “speak up” and confront the perpetrator about his/her act. We examined whether the closeness of the relationship between the bystander and the perpetrator affects the bystander's reaction. We asked middle schoolers, high schoolers, and university students (N = 1,386) to indicate how they would react if they were to witness each of 26 uncivil, immoral, or discriminatory behaviors. We experimentally manipulated the relationship to the perpetrator, who was described as a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. Results showed that the closer the relationship to the perpetrator the greater the bystander's self-reported likelihood of “speaking up.” The findings speak to the role of close relationships in the perpetuation of social norms. They also suggest ways to curb anti-social behaviors in a variety of school and organizational settings.     

Couples' narratives of shared‐self,possessions and consumption experiences

How consumers use possessions and consumption to enact their shared‐self has been underexplored in earlier consumer research. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the emergence of couple‐level (or partnered) shared‐self. A narrative research method was used in Hong Kong, which allowed for an inter‐temporal narrative about the informants' important possessions. Our findings revealed key characteristics regarding the way in which informants' interpretations of shared selves developed over time. This included sharing and negotiating resources (e.g., a house or money) with their partners, integrating similar perspectives (e.g., interests and lifestyle) to their partners', and including their partners as part of the self. This study provides the basis for future research to see how these findings hold up at other stages of partnered relationships. This research provides a conceptualization – a temporal model of couples' shared‐self – that could contribute to and enhance the existing literature on the interrelationship between possessions and the extended self. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How many trials are required for parameter estimation in diffusion modeling? A comparison of different optimization criteria

Diffusion models (Ratcliff, 1978) make it possible to identify and separate different cognitive processes underlying responses in binary decision tasks (e.g., the speed of information accumulation vs. the degree of response conservatism). This becomes possible because of the high degree of information utilization involved. Not only mean response times or error rates are used for the parameter estimation, but also the response time distributions of both correct and error responses. In a series of simulation studies, the efficiency and robustness of parameter recovery were compared for models differing in complexity (i.e., in numbers of free parameters) and trial numbers (ranging from 24 to 5,000) using three different optimization criteria (maximum likelihood, Kolmogorov–Smirnov, and chi-square) that are all implemented in the latest version of fast-dm (Voss, Voss, & Lerche, 2015). The results revealed that maximum likelihood is superior for uncontaminated data, but in the presence of fast contaminants, Kolmogorov–Smirnov outperforms the other two methods. For most conditions, chi-square-based parameter estimations lead to less precise results than the other optimization criteria. The performance of the fast-dm methods was compared to the EZ approach (Wagenmakers, van der Maas, & Grasman, 2007) and to a Bayesian implementation (Wiecki, Sofer, & Frank, 2013). Recommendations for trial numbers are derived from the results for models of different complexities. Interestingly, under certain conditions even small numbers of trials (N < 100) are sufficient for robust parameter estimation.     

Oxytocin and the emergence of individual differences in the social regulation of stress

The ability to use social support to regulate stress is critical to mental and physical health. Here, we posit that the oxytocin system contributes to the variability in individual responses to social support. We first review the evidence that oxytocin is related to both social functioning and stress regulation. We focus on results from molecular genetics suggesting that individual variations in both of these functions are associated with natural variations in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). We then describe research that exploits this natural variation to directly and experimentally test relationships between the oxytocin system, social support, and stress regulation in both infants and adults. On the basis of our findings, we propose a novel theoretical model of how biological processes might interact with psychological beliefs about relationships—even in infants—to affect long‐term patterns of social regulation of stress.     

Let’s twist again! Embodiment effects in spatial judgments on human figures rotated along a vertical axis

We investigated whether individuals used mental rotation and embodiment for arm laterality judgments of human figures that were stepwise rotated from back view to front view along a vertical axis. In Experiment 1, figures’ heads were always shown in profile, while only the bodies were rotated. Judgments were faster and more correct when figures were presented in back view compared to front view, but the relation between reaction times (RTs) and rotation angles was not strictly linear. In addition, judgments on figures in anatomically possible postures were better than on figures in impossible postures. In Experiment 2, figures’ heads were turned together with their body. RTs and rotation angles were linearly related. Results suggest that individuals use both mental rotation and a more direct matching between their own body and that of the figures, when making arm laterality judgments of human figures that are rotated along a vertical axis.     

Responding to social and symbolic extrafoveal cues: cue shape trumps biological relevance

Psychological Research - Social cues presented at visual fixation have been shown to strongly influence an observer’s attention and response selection. Here we ask whether the same holds for...     

Personality Traits Predict Smartphone Usage

The present study investigates to what degree individual differences can predict frequency and duration of actual behaviour, manifested in mobile application (app) usage on smartphones. In particular, this work focuses on the identification of stable associations between personality on the factor and facet level, fluid intelligence, demography and app usage in 16 distinct categories. A total of 137 subjects (87 women and 50 men), with an average age of 24 (SD = 4.72), participated in a 90‐min psychometric lab session as well as in a subsequent 60‐day data logging study in the field. Our data suggest that personality traits predict mobile application usage in several specific categories such as communication, photography, gaming, transportation and entertainment. Extraversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness are better predictors of mobile application usage than basic demographic variables in several distinct categories. Furthermore, predictive performance is slightly higher for single factor—in comparison with facet‐level personality scores. Fluid intelligence and demographics additionally show stable associations with categorical app usage. In sum, this study demonstrates how individual differences can be effectively related to actual behaviour and how this can assist in understanding the behavioural underpinnings of personality. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology