Close Associates
Troubling Consequences of Online Political Rumoring
Kelly Garrett
Human Communication Research, April 2011, Pages 255-274
Abstract:
Fear that the Internet promotes harmful political rumoring is merited but not for reasons originally anticipated. Although the network accelerates and widens rumor circulation, on the whole, it does not increase recipient credulity. E-mail, however, which fosters informal political communication within existing social networks, poses a unique threat to factual political knowledge. A national telephone survey conducted immediately after the 2008 U.S. presidential election provides evidence that aggregate Internet use promotes exposure to both rumors and their rebuttals, but that the total effect on rumor beliefs is negligible. More troublingly, the data demonstrate that rumors e-mailed to friends/family are more likely to be believed and shared with others and that these patterns of circulation and belief exhibit strong political biases.
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Give them what they want: The benefits of explicitness in gift exchange
Francesca Gino & Francis Flynn
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Five studies show that gift recipients are more appreciative of gifts they explicitly request than those they do not. In contrast, gift givers assume that both solicited and unsolicited gifts will be equally appreciated. At the root of this dilemma is a difference of opinion about what purchasing an unsolicited gift signals: gift givers expect unsolicited gifts will be considered more thoughtful and considerate by their intended recipients than is actually the case (Studies 1-3). In our final two studies, we highlight two boundary conditions for this effect: identifying a specific gift and using money as a gift. When gift recipients request one specific gift, rather than providing a list of possible gifts, givers become more willing to purchase the requested gift (Study 4). Further, although givers believe that recipients do not appreciate receiving money as much as receiving a solicited gift, recipients feel the opposite about these two gift options (Study 5).
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A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students
Gregory Walton & Geoffrey Cohen
Science, 18 March 2011, Pages 1447-1451
Abstract:
A brief intervention aimed at buttressing college freshmen's sense of social belonging in school was tested in a randomized controlled trial (N = 92), and its academic and health-related consequences over 3 years are reported. The intervention aimed to lessen psychological perceptions of threat on campus by framing social adversity as common and transient. It used subtle attitude-change strategies to lead participants to self-generate the intervention message. The intervention was expected to be particularly beneficial to African-American students (N = 49), a stereotyped and socially marginalized group in academics, and less so to European-American students (N = 43). Consistent with these expectations, over the 3-year observation period the intervention raised African Americans' grade-point average (GPA) relative to multiple control groups and halved the minority achievement gap. This performance boost was mediated by the effect of the intervention on subjective construal: It prevented students from seeing adversity on campus as an indictment of their belonging. Additionally, the intervention improved African Americans' self-reported health and well-being and reduced their reported number of doctor visits 3 years postintervention. Senior-year surveys indicated no awareness among participants of the intervention's impact. The results suggest that social belonging is a psychological lever where targeted intervention can have broad consequences that lessen inequalities in achievement and health.
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Best Friends Forever?: Race and the Stability of Adolescent Friendships
Jesse Rude & Daniel Herda
Social Forces, December 2010, Pages 585-607
Abstract:
Our research uses two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to analyze the stability of same- and cross-race friendships. We find the following: First, interracial friendships are less stable than same-race friendships, even after controlling for a variety of contextual and dyadic characteristics, such as school racial composition and friends' similarities in attitudes and behaviors. Second, measures of dyadic similarity (aside from race) are weak predictors of friendship stability. Third, measures of reciprocity and closeness are strong predictors of friendship stability and appear to dampen the effects of racial difference. These results indicate that race is of continuing significance in structuring the social lives of American adolescents. They call into question the assumption that the factors that drive friendship formation also drive friendship stability. And, they suggest that more attention should be paid to the quality of interracial friendships, as measured by degree of reciprocity and closeness.
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My role is my castle - The appeal of family roles after experiencing social exclusion
Nilüfer Aydin et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present research investigated whether perceived social exclusion would lead women to embrace the social group of the family (and its traditional gender roles). In two studies, it was found that in comparison to a social inclusion manipulation, a social exclusion manipulation caused women to report significantly more positive inclinations towards traditional, gendered work allocations (Study 1 and 2). Moreover, seeking meaning in life mediated the relationship between social exclusion and the perceived attractiveness of the roles of mother and housewife (Study 2). In a third study, adherence to family-related concepts was examined in both socially excluded and included men, but no difference was found between the two groups. It thus appears that social exclusion does not enhance the attractiveness of familial relationships for men. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
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Strength of Social Tie Predicts Cooperative Investment in a Human Social Network
Freya Harrison, James Sciberras & Richard James
PLoS ONE, March 2011, e18338
Abstract:
Social networks - diagrams which reflect the social structure of animal groups - are increasingly viewed as useful tools in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology. Network structure may be especially relevant to the study of cooperation, because the action of mechanisms which affect the cost:benefit ratio of cooperating (e.g. reciprocity, punishment, image scoring) is likely to be mediated by the relative position of actor and recipient in the network. Social proximity could thus affect cooperation in a similar manner to biological relatedness. To test this hypothesis, we recruited members of a real-world social group and used a questionnaire to reveal their network. Participants were asked to endure physical discomfort in order to earn money for themselves and other group members, allowing us to explore relationships between willingness to suffer a cost on another's behalf and the relative social position of donor and recipient. Cost endured was positively correlated with the strength of the social tie between donor and recipient. Further, donors suffered greater costs when a relationship was reciprocated. Interestingly, participants regularly suffered greater discomfort for very close peers than for themselves. Our results provide new insight into the effect of social structure on the direct benefits of cooperation.
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Potential social interactions are important to social attention
Kaitlin Laidlaw et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Social attention, or how spatial attention is allocated to biologically relevant stimuli, has typically been studied using simplistic paradigms that do not provide any opportunity for social interaction. To study social attention in a complex setting that affords social interaction, we measured participants' looking behavior as they were sitting in a waiting room, either in the presence of a confederate posing as another research participant, or in the presence of a videotape of the same confederate. Thus, the potential for social interaction existed only when the confederate was physically present. Although participants frequently looked at the videotaped confederate, they seldom turned toward or looked at the live confederate. Ratings of participants' social skills correlated with head turns to the live, but not videotaped, confederate. Our results demonstrate the importance of studying social attention within a social context, and suggest that the mere opportunity for social interaction can alter social attention.
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Co-Residence Patterns in Hunter-Gatherer Societies Show Unique Human Social Structure
Kim Hill et al.
Science, 11 March 2011, Pages 1286-1289
Abstract:
Contemporary humans exhibit spectacular biological success derived from cumulative culture and cooperation. The origins of these traits may be related to our ancestral group structure. Because humans lived as foragers for 95% of our species' history, we analyzed co-residence patterns among 32 present-day foraging societies (total n = 5067 individuals, mean experienced band size = 28.2 adults). We found that hunter-gatherers display a unique social structure where (i) either sex may disperse or remain in their natal group, (ii) adult brothers and sisters often co-reside, and (iii) most individuals in residential groups are genetically unrelated. These patterns produce large interaction networks of unrelated adults and suggest that inclusive fitness cannot explain extensive cooperation in hunter-gatherer bands. However, large social networks may help to explain why humans evolved capacities for social learning that resulted in cumulative culture.
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How level of construal guides the interpretation of ambiguous interpersonal situations
Kai Epstude & Jens Förster
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Interpreting ambiguous situations is a task individuals face on a daily basis. In romantic contexts the accurate interpretation of these situations is of particular importance. In the present set of studies we investigated how level of construal guides individual perception in these cases. When a high level of construal was induced participants likely interpreted a given interpersonal situation as the start or the continuation of a long lasting relationship. When a low level of construal was induced the same situations were more likely interpreted as leading to a one-night stand (in a dating situation) or involving little chance of a common future for both actors (in a break-up situation). In sum, the present studies demonstrate construal level to be a crucial determinant of the interpretation of ambiguous romantic situations. We discuss these findings in relation to the functional independence of love and sex, level of construal, and social perception.
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Daniel Wann, Paula Waddill, Josh Polk & Stephen Weaver
Group Dynamics, March 2011, Pages 75-89
Abstract:
Previous work has consistently found positive relationships between levels of sport team identification and social psychological well-being. According to the Team Identification-Social Psychological Health Model, these effects result from the increased social connections fans generate through their interest in the team. The current pair of investigations was designed to test the hypotheses that (1) team identification is positively related to social well-being and (2) team identification is positively related to social connections. In addition, the interrelationships among the variables were investigated (i.e., tests for mediation and moderation). In Study 1, a sample of 161 college students completed a questionnaire assessing demographics, identification with a local team, connections gained by following the team, and social well-being. Results indicated that, as expected, team identification was positively related to both well-being and social connections. Subsequent analyses failed to find evidence that social connections mediated or moderated the relationship between team identification and social psychological health. Study 2 (N = 199 students from the same university as Study 1) replicated the results of the initial study using a more general measure of social connections (i.e., the Campus Connectedness Scale). Discussion includes the implications for the Team Identification-Social Psychological Health Model and the directionality between identification and social connections.
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Rain on My Parade: Perceiving Low Self-Esteem in Close Others Hinders Positive Self-Disclosure
Jennifer MacGregor & John Holmes
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Ample evidence suggests that the behavior of people with low self-esteem (LSEs) can lead to problems in close relationships. To the authors' knowledge, however, no research has investigated the role that perceptions of close others' self-esteem play in undermining beneficial relational processes. In this article, the authors propose that capitalization, a process associated with greater relationship quality, might be hindered by the friends, partners, or family members of LSEs. Across three experiments, the authors show that people are reluctant to disclose their positive experiences (i.e., capitalize) when they believe that the recipient has low self-esteem. Furthermore, the results suggest that people hold back from LSEs largely because they expect the interaction to go poorly for themselves, not because they are concerned about making LSEs feel inferior.
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"I Think You Think I Think You're Lying": The Interactive Epistemology of Trust in Social Networks
Mihnea Moldoveanu & Joel Baum
Management Science, February 2011, Pages 393-412
Abstract:
We investigate the epistemology of trust in social networks. We posit trust as a special epistemic state that depends on actors' beliefs about each others' beliefs as well as about states of the world. It offers new ideas and tools for representing the core elements of trust both within dyads and larger groups and presents an approach that makes trust measurable in a noncircular and predictive, rather than merely postdictive, fashion. After advancing arguments for the importance of interactive belief systems to the successful coordination of behavior, we tune our investigation of trust by focusing on beliefs that are important to mobilization and coordination and show how trust functions to influence social capital arising from network structure. We present empirical evidence corroborating the importance of higher-order beliefs to understanding trust and the interactive analysis of trust to the likelihood of successful coordination.
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The Evolution of Intergroup Bias: Perceptions and Attitudes in Rhesus Macaques
Neha Mahajan et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, March 2011, Pages 387-405
Abstract:
Social psychologists have learned a great deal about the nature of intergroup conflict and the attitudinal and cognitive processes that enable it. Less is known about where these processes come from in the first place. In particular, do our strategies for dealing with other groups emerge in the absence of human-specific experiences? One profitable way to answer this question has involved administering tests that are conceptual equivalents of those used with adult humans in other species, thereby exploring the continuity or discontinuity of psychological processes. We examined intergroup preferences in a nonhuman species, the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta). We found the first evidence that a nonhuman species automatically distinguishes the faces of members of its own social group from those in other groups and displays greater vigilance toward outgroup members (Experiments 1-3). In addition, we observed that macaques spontaneously associate novel objects with specific social groups and display greater vigilance to objects associated with outgroup members (Experiments 4-5). Finally, we developed a looking time procedure - the Looking Time Implicit Association Test, which resembles the Implicit Association Test (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995) - and we discovered that macaques, like humans, automatically evaluate ingroup members positively and outgroup members negatively (Experiments 6-7). These field studies represent the first controlled experiments to examine the presence of intergroup attitudes in a nonhuman species. As such, these studies suggest that the architecture of the mind that enables the formation of these biases may be rooted in phylogenetically ancient mechanisms.
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Delinquency and the Structure of Adolescent Peer Groups
Derek Kreager, Kelly Rulison & James Moody
Criminology, February 2011, Pages 95-127
Abstract:
Gangs and group-level processes were once central phenomena for criminological theory and research. By the mid-1970s, however, gang research primarily was displaced by studies of individual behavior using randomized self-report surveys, a shift that also removed groups from the theoretical foreground. In this project, we return to the group level to test competing theoretical claims about delinquent group structure. We use network-based clustering methods to identify 897 friendship groups in two ninth-grade cohorts of 27 Pennsylvania and Iowa schools. We then relate group-level measures of delinquency and drinking to network measures of group size, friendship reciprocity, transitivity, structural cohesion, stability, average popularity, and network centrality. We find significant negative correlations between group delinquency and all of our network measures, suggesting that delinquent groups are less solidary and less central to school networks than nondelinquent groups. Additional analyses, on the one hand, reveal that these correlations are explained primarily by other group characteristics, such as gender composition and socioeconomic status. Drinking behaviors, on the other hand, show net positive associations with most of the network measures, suggesting that drinking groups have a higher status and are more internally cohesive than nondrinking groups. Our findings shed light on a long-standing criminological debate by suggesting that any structural differences between delinquent and nondelinquent groups are likely attributable to other characteristics coincidental with delinquency. In contrast, drinking groups seem to provide peer contexts of greater social capital and cohesion.
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Lisa Diamond, Angela Hicks & Kimberly Otter-Henderson
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research suggests that cardiac vagal regulation (indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia, or RSA) provides a physiological substrate for affect regulation, which presumably underlies adaptive interpersonal functioning. The authors tested these associations in the context of daily interactions between 68 cohabiting couples. Participants underwent a laboratory assessment of RSA during rest and also during a series of psychological stressors. Subsequently, they kept daily measures of affect and interaction quality for 21 days. Individual differences in baseline and stress levels of RSA moderated within-person associations between daily affect and the quality of couple interactions. The pattern of results differed for women versus men. Men with lower vagal tone or higher vagal reactivity had stronger associations between daily negative affect and daily negative interactions, and men with higher vagal tone had more positive daily interactions overall. Women with higher vagal tone had stronger associations between daily positive affect and daily positive interactions.
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Kennon Sheldon, Neetu Abad & Christian Hinsch
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, April 2011, Pages 766-775
Abstract:
Does using Facebook help people to meet their relatedness needs? Study 1 shows that more frequent Facebook usage paradoxically correlates with more relatedness satisfaction (connection) and more relatedness dissatisfaction (disconnection). Study 2 supports a 2-process explanation of this finding, showing that disconnection motivates greater usage as a coping strategy, whereas connection results from greater usage. Study 3 examines the effects of depriving participants of Facebook use for 48 hr. Further supporting the 2-process view, connection decreased, but disconnection was unaffected during the deprivation period; however, those who became more disconnected during the deprivation period engaged in more Facebook use during a 2nd, unconstrained 48-hr period, whereas changes in connection did not predict later use. In Study 4, participants set a Facebook reduction goal; initial disconnection interfered with and predicted worse performance in this goal. Implications for theories of psychological needs, behavioral motives, and adaptive coping are considered.
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Middle School Friendships and Academic Achievement in Early Adolescence: A Longitudinal Analysis
Marie-Hélène Véronneau & Thomas Dishion
Journal of Early Adolescence, February 2011, Pages 99-124
Abstract:
Early adolescence is a critical transition period for the maintenance of academic achievement. One factor that school systems often fail to take into account is the influence of friends on academic achievement during middle school. This study investigated the influence of friends' characteristics on change in academic achievement from Grade 6 to Grade 8 and the role of students' own characteristics as moderators of this relationship. The sample included 1,278 participants (698 girls). Linear regressions suggest that students with academically engaged friends may achieve to levels higher than expected in Grade 8. However, when considering the significant, negative influence of friends' problem behavior, the role of friends' school engagement became nonsignificant. Low-achieving girls who had high-achieving friends in Grade 6 had lower academic achievement than expected by Grade 8. In contrast, high-achieving girls seemed to benefit from having high-achieving friends. Implications for theory and prevention efforts targeting young adolescents are discussed.
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Peer Contagion in Child and Adolescent Social and Emotional Development
Thomas Dishion & Jessica Tipsord
Annual Review of Psychology, 2011, Pages 189-214
Abstract:
In this article, we examine the construct of peer contagion in childhood and adolescence and review studies of child and adolescent development that have identified peer contagion influences. Evidence suggests that children's interactions with peers are tied to increases in aggression in early and middle childhood and amplification of problem behaviors such as drug use, delinquency, and violence in early to late adolescence. Deviancy training is one mechanism that accounts for peer contagion effects on problem behaviors from age 5 through adolescence. In addition, we discuss peer contagion relevant to depression in adolescence, and corumination as an interactive process that may account for these effects. Social network analyses suggest that peer contagion underlies the influence of friendship on obesity, unhealthy body images, and expectations. Literature is reviewed that suggests how peer contagion effects can undermine the goals of public education from elementary school through college and impair the goals of juvenile corrections systems. In particular, programs that "select" adolescents at risk for aggregated preventive interventions are particularly vulnerable to peer contagion effects. It appears that a history of peer rejection is a vulnerability factor for influence by peers, and adult monitoring, supervision, positive parenting, structure, and self-regulation serve as protective factors.
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Do you two know each other? Transitivity, homophily, and the need for (network) closure
Francis Flynn, Ray Reagans & Lucia Guillory
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, November 2010, Pages 855-869
Abstract:
The authors investigate whether need for closure affects how people seek order in judging social relations. In Study 1, the authors find that people who have a high need for closure (NFC) were more likely to assume their social contacts were connected to each other (i.e., transitivity) when this was not the case. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors examine another form of order in network relations - racial homophily - and find that high-NFC participants were more inclined to believe that 2 individuals from the same racial category (e.g., African American) were friends than two racially dissimilar individuals. Furthermore, high-NFC individuals were more likely to make errors when judging a racially mixed group of people; specifically, they recalled more racial homophily (racially similar people sitting closer
together) than had actually appeared.
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Kuniaki Yanagisawa et al.
Social Neuroscience, April 2011, Pages 190-197
Abstract:
Social exclusion evokes social pain in excluded individuals. Neuroimaging studies suggest that this social pain is associated with activation of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), with further regulation of social pain being reflected in activation of the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC). The present study focused on factors that influence activation of the rVLPFC during social exclusion. We conducted a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) experiment to investigate whether two psychosocial resources (general trust and trait self-esteem) increase rVLPFC activity during social exclusion, thereby buffering against social pain. Thirty-seven undergraduates participated in an NIRS session in which they were socially rejected during an online ball-tossing game. Levels of general trust and trait self-esteem were negatively correlated with self-reported social pain in the exclusion conditions. Furthermore, general trust was positively correlated with rVLPFC activity, although there was no such relationship with self-esteem. rVLPFC activity mediated the relationship between general trust levels and social pain. The rVLPFC appears to be critical for the regulation of social pain. Taken together, these findings suggest that general trust and trait self-esteem probably have different impacts at different times over the course of a series of adaptive processes, all geared toward the modulation of social pain.
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The Effect of Gender, Ethnicity, and Income on College Students' Use of Communication Technologies
Reynol Junco, Dan Merson & Daniel Salter
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, December 2010, Pages 619-627
Abstract:
Because campus officials are relying on personal communication technologies to communicate with students, a question arises about access and usage. Although communication technologies are popular among college students, some evidence suggests that differences exist in ownership and use. We examined patterns of student ownership and use of cell phones and use of instant messaging, focusing on three predictors of digital inequality: gender, ethnicity, and income. Logistic and hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to analyze results from 4,491 students. The odds that female and white students owned cell phones were more than twice as high as for men and African-American students. Students in the $100,000-$149,000 per year income bracket were more than three times as likely to own a cell phone than those from the median bracket. However, being female, African-American, and/or from the highest income brackets was positively predictive of the number of text messages sent and the amount of time spent talking on a cell phone per week. We found no differences between students on the use of instant messaging. Implications of these results, as well as areas for further research, are provided.