Associations between empathy and altruistic sharing behavior in Chinese adults

Previous research has shown that affective empathy, rather than cognitive empathy, significantly predicts people’s altruistic sharing behavior in economic games. However, most of these studies were conducted in Western populations. There might be cultural differences in the relations between empathy and altruism due to different levels of empathy between Western and Asian individuals. In this study, we measured different aspects of empathy in Chinese adults as well as their allocation offers in the dictator and ultimatum games. We found that cognitive empathy, but not affective empathy, was a significant predictor of adults’ altruistic sharing behavior in the two economic games. Subjective family income was also revealed to be a significant predictor of individuals’ altruism in the ultimatum game, such that people with lower subjective family income tended to be more generous. Potential implications of our findings are discussed.     

Dominance and competence face to face: Dissociations obtained with a reverse correlation approach

The article explores whether the traits representing the dimensions underlying the structure of facial and non-facial impressions are similarly mapped in the face space. Two studies examine whether the trustworthiness-by-dominance and the warmth-by-competence two-dimensional models overlap in face perception. In Study 1 (N = 200), we used a reverse-correlation task to obtain classification images (CIs) reflecting how each dimension is mapped onto a face. Results show that the similarity between CIs was higher between warmth and trustworthiness than between competence and dominance. In Study 2 (N = 31) the evaluations of each CI on each social dimension show a higher dissociation between dominance and competence than between trustworthiness and warmth. These results, obtained at both perceptual and judgment levels, suggest that there is only a partial correspondence between the two models that seems to be driven by the relationship that the competence and dominance dimensions establish with valence.     

Can emotional bonding be a liability? Status striving as an intervening mechanism in affective commitment and negative work behaviors relationship

IntroductionThe dark side of affective commitment has been ignored in the past literature on organizational commitment.ObjectivesUsing the tenants of moral self-licensing theory, we examined how affective commitment can cause negative outcomes. We hypothesized that affective commitment leads to unethical pro-organizational behaviors, careerism and counter-productive work behaviors through increased urge for status striving.Methods and resultsA multi-wave and two-source data was obtained (n = 306) from employees and their peers working in the service sector of Pakistan. Employing structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis our results indicate that high levels of affective commitment might unleash status striving which further creates unethical pro-organizational behaviors, careerism and CWBs.ConclusionThe current study opens up a new side in the affective commitment literature by examining status striving as an underlying mechanism through which affective commitment reveals its deleterious consequences for employees.     

A mechanism for biasing the appraisal process in affective agents

In this paper we present a mechanism to model the influence of agents’ internal and external factors on the emotional evaluation of stimuli in computational models of emotions. We propose the modification of configurable appraisal dimensions (such as desirability and pleasure) based on influencing factors. As part of the presented mechanism, we introduce influencing models to define the relationship between a given influencing factor and a given set of configurable appraisal dimensions utilized in the emotional evaluation phase. Influencing models translate factors’ influences (on the emotional evaluation) into fuzzy logic adjustments (e.g., a shift in the limits of fuzzy membership functions), which allow biasing the emotional evaluation of stimuli. We implemented a proof-of-concept computational model of emotions based on real-world data about individuals’ emotions. The obtained empirical evidence indicates that the proposed mechanism can properly affect the emotional evaluation of stimuli while preserving the overall behavior of the model of emotions.     

情绪调节自我效能感与心理健康的交叉滞后研究

摘 要：对531名青少年进行为期五个月的追踪,运用交叉滞后回归分析考察积极、沮丧、生气三种情绪调节自我效能感与心理健康（问题行为、抑郁和生活满意度）间的相互影响。结果：T1积极情绪调节自我效能感不能预测T2问题行为、抑郁和生活满意度;T1沮丧情绪调节自我效能感显著预测T2抑郁水平;T1生活满意度和抑郁显著预测T2生气情绪调节自我效能感。结论：高沮丧情绪调节自我效能感能保护青少年处于“低抑郁状态”,而生气情绪调节自我效能感更容易受到个体生活满意度和抑郁水平的影响,是青少年处于不良心理状态下的易感效能。     

Integrating a cognitive computational model of planning and decision-making considering affective information

Planning and decision-making are two of the cognitive functions involved in the solution of problems. These functions, among others, have been studied from the point of view of a new field known as cognitive informatics focused on the development of cognitive architectures, autonomous agents, and human robots that are capable of showing human-like behavior. We present an exhaustive study of current biological and computational models proposed in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive informatics. Also, we present a deep review of the brain areas involved in planning, decision-making, and affection. However, the majority of the proposed computational models are seeking to mimic human external behavior. This paper aims to contribute to the cognitive informatics field with an innovative cognitive computational model of planning and decision-making. The two main differences of our model with respect to the current models in the literature are: (i) our model considers affective and motivational information as a basic and essential trigger in planning and decision-making processes; (ii) our model attempts to mimic both the internal human brain as well as the external human behavior. We developed a computational model capable of offering a direct mapping from human brain areas to computational modules of our model. Thus, in this paper we present our model from a conceptual, formal, and computational approach in order to show how our proposal must be implemented. Finally, a set of tests were conducted in order to validate our proposal. These tests show an interesting comparison between the behavior of our prototype and the behavior exhibited by some people involved in a case study.     

The lack of dominance and choice deferral: Choosing to defer to cope with the feeling of being out of control

The present study aimed to explore whether emotional dominance can also account for choice deferral. This research manipulated emotional dominance through the difference in attractiveness among current alternatives in Experiment 1 and the readability of fonts for describing current options in Experiment 2, to investigate the role of dominance in choice deferral. The results revealed that increasingly submissive decision environments were related to more choice of deferral options. Mediation analyses indicated that dominance could mediate the effects of experimental manipulations on choice deferral, and that the actual choice of a deferral option was associated with more increase in dominance of retrospective emotion. The results indicate that dominance plays an important role in choice deferral and that choosing to defer can minimize the explicit confrontation of being out of control.     

Peering into the “black box” of education interventions and attitude change: Audience characteristics moderate the effectiveness…and then only toward specific targets

To probe the inconsistent link between education and attitude change toward minority social groups, we conducted a field study that focused on audience characteristics and education about lesbian, gay, and transgender (LGT) targets. Participants enrolled in a sexuality course were compared to those in a neurology course, both taught by the same professor. Multiple regression analyses predicted attitude change toward LGT targets from social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), ratings of professor’s characteristics, SDO by course interaction, and RWA by course interaction. Only the SDO by course interaction significantly predicted attitude change. Simple slopes analyses indicated that high-SDO participants in the sexuality course showed the most positive attitude change. These findings suggest that education may reduce prejudice for certain audience characteristics.     

The narcissism-overclaiming link revisited

The present research investigated how different dimensions of narcissism (i.e., assertive, antagonistic, and vulnerable) and content-specific forms of assertive narcissism (i.e., intellectual ability, physical attractiveness, social dominance) are related to overclaiming bias (i.e., the tendency to illegitimately claim knowledge). In the data from a large-scale online study (N = 1,658), the associations between overclaiming bias and any kind of narcissism were smaller than in many previous studies. Furthermore, assertive narcissism was more positively related to overclaiming bias than antagonistic and vulnerable narcissism were. Intellectual-ability-specific and social-dominance-specific assertive narcissism were more positively related to overclaiming bias than physical-attractiveness-specific assertive narcissism was. Finally, multiple regression analyses suggested that the narcissism-overclaiming link is most robust for social-dominance-specific assertive narcissism.