Making feelings great again
Decreases in psychological well-being among American adolescents after 2012 and links to screen time during the rise of smartphone technology
Jean Twenge, Gabrielle Martin & Keith Campbell
Emotion, September 2018, Pages 765-780
Abstract:
In nationally representative yearly surveys of United States 8th, 10th, and 12th graders 1991–2016 (N = 1.1 million), psychological well-being (measured by self-esteem, life satisfaction, and happiness) suddenly decreased after 2012. Adolescents who spent more time on electronic communication and screens (e.g., social media, the Internet, texting, gaming) and less time on nonscreen activities (e.g., in-person social interaction, sports/exercise, homework, attending religious services) had lower psychological well-being. Adolescents spending a small amount of time on electronic communication were the happiest. Psychological well-being was lower in years when adolescents spent more time on screens and higher in years when they spent more time on nonscreen activities, with changes in activities generally preceding declines in well-being. Cyclical economic indicators such as unemployment were not significantly correlated with well-being, suggesting that the Great Recession was not the cause of the decrease in psychological well-being, which may instead be at least partially due to the rapid adoption of smartphones and the subsequent shift in adolescents’ time use.
Confiding Secrets and Well-Being
Michael Slepian & Edythe Moulton-Tetlock
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
How does confiding secrets relate to well-being? The current work presents the first empirical examination of mechanisms by which confiding diverse real-world secrets to known others predicts well-being. We examined over 800 participants with more than 10,000 secrets in total, finding that confiding a secret does not predict reduced instances of concealment. Rather, confiding a secret predicts higher well-being through perceived coping efficacy. Correlational and experimental studies find that through confiding a secret, people feel they obtain social support and are more capable in coping with the secret. Additionally, through perceived coping efficacy, confiding a secret predicts less frequent mind wandering to the secret. Confiding predicts higher well-being through changing the way and how often people think about their secret.
Trigger warning: Empirical evidence ahead
Benjamin Bellet, Payton Jones & Richard McNally
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, December 2018, Pages 134-141
Methods: We randomly assigned online participants to receive (n = 133) or not receive (n = 137) trigger warnings prior to reading literary passages that varied in potentially disturbing content.
Results: Participants in the trigger warning group believed themselves and people in general to be more emotionally vulnerable if they were to experience trauma. Participants receiving warnings reported greater anxiety in response to reading potentially distressing passages, but only if they believed that words can cause harm. Warnings did not affect participants' implicit self-identification as vulnerable, or subsequent anxiety response to less distressing content.
How does nature exposure make people healthier?: Evidence for the role of impulsivity and expanded space perception
Meredith Repke et al.
PLoS ONE, August 2018
Abstract:
Nature exposure has been linked to a plethora of health benefits, but the mechanism for this effect is not well understood. We conducted two studies to test a new model linking the health benefits of nature exposure to reduced impulsivity in decision-making (as measured by delay discounting) via psychologically expanding space perception. In study 1 we collected a nationwide U.S. sample (n = 609) to determine whether nature exposure was predictive of health outcomes and whether impulsive decision-making mediated the effect. Results indicated that Nature Accessibility and Nature Exposure From Home significantly predicted reduced scores on the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales (DASS) (p < .001, p = .03, respectively) and improved general health and wellbeing (p < .001, p < .01, respectively). Nature Accessibility also predicted reduced impulsive decision-making (p < .01), and Nature Accessibility showed significant indirect effects through impulsive decision-making on both the DASS (p = .02) and general health and wellbeing (p = .04). In Study 2, a lab-based paradigm found that nature exposure expanded space perception (p < .001), and while the indirect effect of nature exposure through space perception on impulsive decision-making did not meet conventional standards of significance (p < .10), the pattern was consistent with hypotheses. This combination of ecologically-valid and experimental methods offers promising support for an impulsivity-focused model explaining the nature-health relationship.
Good Credit and the Good Life: Credit Scores Predict Subjective Well-Being
Joe Gladstone & Ashley Whillans
Harvard Working Paper, June 2018
Abstract:
Can money buy happiness? To examine this question, research in economics, psychology, and sociology has focused almost exclusively on examining the associations between income, spending or wealth and subjective well-being. Moving beyond this research, we provide the first empirical evidence that credit scores uniquely predict happiness. Across two samples, from the United Kingdom (N=615) and the United States (N=768), credit scores predicted life satisfaction even after controlling for a range of financial covariates, including income, spending, savings, debt, and home-ownership. Respondents with higher credit scores felt more optimistic about their future, promoting happiness. Further, the relationship between credit scores and wellbeing was moderated by participants’ prior awareness of their score. Together, these results suggest that creditworthiness can plausibly increase well-being, either directly or indirectly, meaning that interventions to improve creditworthiness could improve consumer welfare.
Principal component analysis identifies differential gender-specific dietary patterns that may be linked to mental distress in human adults
Lina Begdache et al.
Nutritional Neuroscience, forthcoming
Methods: An anonymous internet-based survey was sent through social media platforms to different social and professional networks. Multivariate analyses were used for data mining. Data were stratified by gender and further by tertiles to capture the latent variables within the patterns of interest.
Results: Mental distress in men associated with a consumption of a Western-like diet. In women, mental wellbeing associated with a Mediterranean-like diet and lifestyle. No other patterns in both genders were linked to mental distress. Based on the generated prototypes, men are more likely to experience mental wellbeing until nutritional deficiencies arise. However, women are less likely to experience mental wellbeing until a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle are followed. In men, dietary deficiencies may have a profound effect on the limbic system; whereas dietary sufficiency in women may potentiate the mesocortical regulation of the limbic system.
Belief in Social Mobility Mitigates Hostility Resulting From Disadvantaged Social Standing
Christina Sagioglou, Matthias Forstmann & Tobias Greitemeyer
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Comparing economically unfavorably with similar others has detrimental consequences for an individual, ultimately resulting in low physical health, delinquency, and hostility. In four studies (N = 2,032), we examined whether believing in a mobile society — one offering fair chances and opportunity — mitigates hostile emotions resulting from disadvantaged social standing. We find that with increasing mobility belief, negative comparisons have gradually less impact on hostility. Specifically, measured (Studies 1 and 4) and manipulated (Studies 2 and 3) social mobility belief moderated the link between induced high versus low social status, experiencing relative deprivation, and hostile affect. A positive outcome on the surface, social mobility belief may indirectly contribute to the maintenance of social inequality by appeasing anger about perceived injustice.