Bringing relationships into consumer decision‐making

The primary purpose of our target article was to stimulate further interest in and research on consumer decision-making in close relationships. In this response, we discuss some of the major comments provided by each set of commentators by highlighting their main points, clarifying some misconceptions, and explaining why our dyadic framework is a logical starting-point for research on how relationships affect consumer decisions.     

Classifying a Person as a Sexual Partner: The Impact of Contextual Factors

This study assessed the influence of five factors on respondents' judgments of whether two hypothetical actors, Tom and Lucy, would consider each other to be "sexual partners." The factors were: respondent's gender, actor's gender, type of act (vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse), frequency of act (once, several times), and actors' dating status (not dating, dated once, dated for three months). 223 undergraduates (mean age 22.2 - 2.2 years; 65% female) read 16 hypothetical heterosexual behavior scenarios featuring Tom and Lucy and judged whether Tom (Lucy) would consider Lucy (Tom) to be a "sexual partner." Respondents thought the actors would be more likely to consider each other sexual partners if they had engaged in vaginal or anal intercourse as opposed to oral sex; if they had more frequent sex; or if they were in a steady dating relationship. Researchers and health care professionals should take contextual/situational factors into account when they ask respondents about their sexual partners.     

Emotional well-being: The role of social achievement goals and self-esteem

The current study examined how self-esteem and social achievement goals affect individuals’ emotions independently and jointly using the data collected from 367 college students. Social development goals were related to positive emotions (i.e., love and joy). Social demonstration-avoid goals were related to maladaptive patterns (low levels of joy but high levels of fear, shame and sadness). Social demonstration-approach goals were positively associated with joy but had null relations with all other emotions. The results indicated that social development goals buffered students with low self-esteem against negative emotions and amplified the positive emotional experiences. In contrast, social demonstration-avoid goals were especially harmful for students with low self-esteem.     

The intervening role of Agreeableness in the relationship between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Machiavellianism: Reassessing the potential dark side of EI

Previous research into the potential ‘dark’ side of trait emotional intelligence (EI) has repeatedly demonstrated that trait EI is negatively associated with Machiavellianism. In this study, we reassess the potential dark side of trait EI, by testing whether Agreeableness mediates and/or moderates the relationship between trait EI and Machiavellianism. Hypothesized mediation and moderation effects were tested using a large sample of 884 workers who completed several self-report questionnaires. Results provide support for both hypotheses; Agreeableness was found to mediate and moderate the relationship between trait EI and Machiavellianism. Overall, results indicate that individuals high in trait EI tend to have low levels of Machiavellianism because they generally have a positive nature (i.e. are agreeable) and not because they are emotionally competent per se. Results also indicate that individuals high in ‘perceived emotional competence’ have the potential to be high in Machiavellianism, particularly when they are low in Agreeableness.     

Preference for online social interactions among young people: Direct and indirect effects of emotional intelligence

The social skills model of generalized problematic internet use predicts that individuals who perceive themselves as having low social competencies are at risk to develop a preference for online social interactions (POSI), which, in turn, might lead to compulsive use of Internet communication services. The present study aims to investigate if self-reported emotional intelligence (EI)—interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities—has an effect on POSI levels, and if this effect is mediated by the subjective importance attached to the major controllability (RC) and reduced non-verbal cues (RNVC) of computer mediated communication. 192 high schools and college students were recruited. Results from structural equation modeling show that Intrapersonal EI predicts both RC and RNVC, which, in turn, predicts the level of POSI. A partial mediation effect was found. On the other hand, Interpersonal EI is significantly associated with POSI, but this association cannot be explained by RC and RNVC. Its effect on POSI seems to be either direct or explained by variables not considered in the present study.     

Remember me? Psychopathic traits and emotional memory in an undergraduate sample

We investigated the effects of psychopathy on emotional memory among a predominantly female undergraduate sample. Undergraduates (N = 153, mean age = 20.1; 80.1% female; 57.1% Caucasian) completed a facial memory task. Participants were presented with a series of faces (sad, scared, angry, happy, neutral), completed a self-report measure of psychopathy, and were presented with another series of faces (with some from the first phase, and some new). Participants were asked whether they recognized each face from the first set, and reaction time (RT) was measured. Although memory for emotional faces did not differ from neutral faces, there were main effects of emotion, gender and psychopathy on RT. A significant 3-way interaction revealed that males who were higher in psychopathy had slower RTs; they were slow to remember sad, angry and neutral faces. In conclusion, psychopathy may affect emotional memory differently across gender. Specifically, undergraduate men, but not women, with higher psychopathy levels may show impaired memory for emotional faces. Implications for future studies of emotional memory and psychopathy are discussed.     

Mirror,mirror on the wall,which form of narcissist knows self and others best of all?

We examined the relationships of narcissism and its various facets with measures of cognition, such as perspective-taking/theory of mind, emotional intelligence, empathy, and systemizing, in a non-clinical sample of 368 undergraduate students. Social and physical causal reasoning was assessed using a novel procedure, which allowed for a thorough examination of participants’ attributions of causes to social and non-social events. Results revealed that individuals high in grandiosity scored higher on measures of social reasoning, emotional intelligence, perspective-taking, systemizing, and empathy. Other facets of narcissism, as well as the overall construct of narcissism, were negatively associated with emotional intelligence, empathy, and perspective-taking. These results suggest that the facets of narcissism may differ considerably in their associations with various aspects of social cognition, which should prompt researchers to further examine the heterogeneous nature of narcissism.     

Production of spontaneous and posed facial expressions in patients with Huntington's disease: Impaired communication of disgust

Several studies have reported impairment in the recognition of facial expressions of disgust in patients with Huntington's disease (HD) and preclinical carriers of the HD gene. The aim of this study was to establish whether impairment for disgust in HD patients extended to include the ability to express the emotion on their own faces. Eleven patients with HD, and 11 age and education matched healthy controls participated in three tasks concerned with the expression of emotions. One task assessed the spontaneous production of disgust-like facial expressions during the smelling of offensive odorants. A second assessed the production of posed facial expressions during deliberate attempts to communicate emotion. The third task evaluated HD patients’ ability to imitate the specific facial configurations associated with each emotion. Foul odours induced fewer disgust-like facial reactions in HD patients than in controls, and patients’ posed facial expressions of disgust were less accurate than the posed disgust expressions of controls. The effect was selective to disgust; patients had no difficulty posing expressions of other emotions. These impairments were not explained by compromised muscle control: HD patients had no difficulty imitating the facial movements required to display disgust. Viewed together with evidence of difficulty in other aspects of disgust in HD, the findings suggest that a common substrate might participate in both the processing and the expression of this emotion.     

Resistance to extinction of human evaluative conditioning using a between‐subjects design

Surprise has been described in various contexts as a neutral, a positive, or a negative emotion. Six experiments are reported in which surprise ratings of unexpected positive and negative outcomes, with identical prior probabilities, were compared. For unexpected occurrences of events that are beyond the control of the protagonist, successes were consistently perceived as more surprising than failures. For unexpected action controlled outcomes for which the protagonist was partly responsible, failures were rated as more surprising than successes. The findings are interpreted as being due to an implicit contrast between out-of-control situations and success, in the first case, and between goal-directed efforts and failure, in the second.     

Category-bounded emotional enhancement: spillover effects in the valuation of public goods

ABSTRACT

We examined whether enhancing (vs. not enhancing) the emotionality of a referent public good influences the subsequent valuation of a target public good. We predicted that it would and that the directionality of its impact would depend on a fundamental cognitive process – categorisation. If the target and referent goods belong to the same domain, we expected that the effect on the target would be in the same direction as the emotional enhancement of the referent (assimilation effect). However, if the target and referent goods belong to different domains, we expected that the effect on the target would be either negligible or in the opposite direction to that of the emotional enhancement of the referent (null or contrast effect). In Experiment 1 we examined the impact of emotionally enhancing a referent public good on feelings towards a target public good, whereas in Experiment 2 on the willingness to contribute towards a target public good. The results support the predicted interaction, which was driven by an assimilation effect for same-domain goods and a null effect for different-domain goods. In doing so, the present findings highlight the interplay between cognition and emotion in the valuation of public goods. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.