Psychology Research Digest
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology - Vol 128, Iss 4
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology publishes original papers in all areas of personality and social psychology. It emphasizes empirical reports but may include specialized theoretical, methodological, and review papers.
Failing to express emotion on 911 calls triggers suspicion through violating expectations and moral typecasting.
Coming to suspect that someone has engaged in wrongdoing based on their unexpected behavior is a common phenomenon—yet, little is known about what triggers initial suspicion. We investigated how violating expectations for high emotionality during a traumatic event can trigger suspicion that one has engaged in immoral—or even criminal—activity through moral typecasting. Five studies demonstrate this theory in a criminal context with dire real-world consequences: 911 callers reporting violent crimes generating suspicion by exhibiting unexpected behavior, which could trigger confirmation bias in investigations leading to wrongful convictions. Using both real and tightly controlled simulated 911 calls, we demonstrated that failing to express the expected level of emotion on a 911 call reporting a violent crime led laypeople and police to morally typecast the caller as more of a moral agent capable of perpetrating immoral acts and less of a moral patient capable of being the victim of immoral acts—ultimately increasing suspicion that they were involved in the crime and support for treating them as a suspect. We advance moral psychological theory by demonstrating that failing to express expected levels of emotion about a moral violation can shape moral inferences about someone’s capacity to commit versus be the victim of moral wrongs, thereby generating suspicion that they might have engaged in wrongdoing. We demonstrated this theory in criminal settings to explain how one tragedy can become two: altruistic witnesses calling 911 to plead for help on behalf of another person becoming suspects of the crime they reported because they failed to exhibit the expected emotional demeanor. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>The bigger the problem the littler: When the scope of a problem makes it seem less dangerous.
Across 15 studies (N = 2,636), people who considered the prevalence of a problem (e.g., 4.2 million people drive drunk each month) inferred it caused less harm, a phenomenon we dub the big problem paradox. People believed dire problems—ranging from poverty to drunk driving—were less problematic upon learning the number of people they affect (Studies 1–2). Prevalence information caused medical experts to infer medication nonadherence was less dangerous, just as it led women to underestimate their true risk of contracting cancer. The big problem paradox results from an optimistic view of the world. When people believe the world is good, they assume widespread problems have been addressed and, thus, cause less harm (Studies 3–4). The big problem paradox has key implications for motivation and helping behavior (Studies 5–6). Learning the prevalence of medical conditions (i.e., chest pain, suicidal ideation) led people to think a symptomatic individual was less sick and, as a result, to help less—in violation of clinical guidelines. The finding that scale warps judgments and de-motivates action is of particular relevance in the globalized 21st century. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 24 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Prejudice and stereotypes at regional and individual levels: Related but distinct.
Exploring how psychological constructs and their outcomes vary across geographic regions is a rapidly expanding area of research, yet fundamental questions remain. Can constructs designed to describe individual variation in attitudes be interpreted in the same way when aggregated to regional levels? To what extent are they related or distinct? We tested the relationship between individual and regional attitudes across four studies in the domain of intergroup attitudes. Participants reported explicit prejudices and stereotypes toward 14 different social groups, and incorporating data from Project Implicit, we compared the characteristics of regional and individual operationalizations of prejudice. Further, we tested whether attitudes related to one another in the same way across levels using representational similarity analysis. Drawing from construct validity theory, we find evidence that regional prejudice is an emergent property of individual attitudes, to which it is related but distinct. These findings contextualize stereotype and prejudice constructs in regional analyses in psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 12 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Buying (quality) time predicts relationship satisfaction.
Seven studies examine the association between time-saving purchases (e.g., housecleaning and meal delivery services) and relationship satisfaction. Study 1 uses an 11-year longitudinal panel survey to show that increases in time-saving purchases predict long-term increases in relationship satisfaction. Study 2 replicates these findings with a 6-week daily diary study, demonstrating that time-saving purchases predict daily increases in relationship satisfaction, particularly for members of dual-income couples who are experiencing higher levels of stress. Studies 3 through 4b reveal that time-saving purchases are most beneficial when couples translate this influx of temporal resources into quality time spent together. Study 5 identifies two key aspects of quality time—positive mood when together and perceived support—that uniquely predict relationship satisfaction. Study 6, a preregistered study, provides evidence for our conceptual model: Members of committed relationships who make time-saving purchases more effectively manage daily stressors (i.e., household chores) and spend more quality time together, which predicts increased relationship satisfaction. Once again, these benefits are strongest for individuals experiencing higher levels of stress. These findings develop a nuanced framework connecting time-saving purchases to relationship satisfaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>A needs-based level of construal: Members of perceived victim and perpetrator groups prefer to represent transgressions at different levels of abstraction.
Informed by the needs-based model of reconciliation, we hypothesized that members of perceived perpetrator groups would prefer more abstract representations of historical or present transgressions than members of perceived victim groups. Six lab experiments (total N = 2,363; preregistered) and one study that examined the language used in Twitter posts (1,496 tweets; preregistered) supported this hypothesis across different intergroup contexts: the Holocaust (Jews and Germans), the war in Ukraine (Ukrainian and Russian official news agencies), and the massacres in Kafr Qasim and Ma’ale Akrabim (Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel). This effect was topic-specific (Study 1), ruling out cultural differences as an alternative explanation. Random assignment of participants to a context in which their in-group was the perpetrator or victim strengthened causal inference (Jewish Israelis in Study 3). Moreover, the different representation preferences were associated with perceived perpetrator (victim) group members’ need to restore their in-group’s moral (agentic) identity (Studies 3 and 4), and affirming these identity dimensions reduced the discrepancy in the representation preferences of members of perceived victim and perpetrator group (Study 5). Yielding evidence for important downstream consequences, members of perceived perpetrator and victim groups were readier to reconcile with out-group members who shared (vs. did not share) their representation preferences (Study 6), which was associated with need satisfaction (Study 7). Practical implications are discussed pertaining to the representation of transgressions in real-life contexts such as history books, memorials, museums, or news reports. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Personality trait similarity in recently cohabiting couples: Partner choice, convergence, or selective breakup?
Romantic partners tend to be more similar in self-reported personality traits than would be expected by chance. This similarity can be due to the choice of a similar partner, partners becoming more similar to each other over time, or dissimilar couples breaking up. To examine whether these processes (choice, convergence, or breakup) explain personality trait similarities in couples, we followed a sample of 1,180 German couples (N = 2,360 individuals; age range = 17–82 years old) from right after moving in together (ranging from 0 to 4 years after) up to 16 years thereafter. Using bivariate latent growth curve models, we found that couples were already similar in openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness in the first years of moving in together. Although couples showed correlated change in conscientiousness, this did not increase similarity. Response surface analyses showed that separation risk was generally unrelated to dissimilarity. Furthermore, romantic partners did not become more dissimilar in the years before separation. Taken together, these results suggest that personality similarity in cohabiting couples is fully driven by choosing a similar partner. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and research on personality similarity in romantic relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Linking Big Five personality traits to components of diet: A meta-analytic review.
This research synthesis sought to determine the magnitude of associations between major personality dimensions and components of diet. A comprehensive literature search identified 49 articles (584 effect sizes; 151,750 participants) that met the inclusion criteria. Pooled mean effects were computed using inverse-variance weighted random effects meta-analysis. Mean effect sizes from 98 separate meta-analyses provided evidence that lower levels of neuroticism, r = −.05 (95% confidence interval, CI [−.09, −.01]), and higher levels of extraversion, r = .07 (95% CI [.03, .11]); openness, r = .13 (95% CI [.07, .18]); agreeableness, r = .07 (95% CI [.04, .11]); and conscientiousness, r = .12 (95% CI [.08, .16]), are associated with a healthier diet. Personality traits related to fruit and vegetable consumption; sugar intake (e.g., candy, sugary drinks); salt intake; consumption of meat, dairy, and fiber; low-fat foods; fast food and snacks; convenience foods; breakfast frequency; meal irregularity; and emotional and restrained eating. There was evidence of publication bias complicating conclusions for conscientiousness and meat eating. Random effects metaregression showed that agreeableness had a stronger positive association with healthy eating among older adults. These findings should be of interest to health care professionals developing health care services that aim to promote healthy eating. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>The dynamics of self-esteem and depressive symptoms across days, months, and years.
Self-esteem and depressive symptoms are important predictors of a range of societally relevant outcomes and are theorized to influence each other reciprocally over time. However, existing research offers only a limited understanding of how their dynamics unfold across different timescales. Using three data sets with different temporal resolutions, we aimed to advance our understanding of the temporal unfolding of the reciprocal dynamics between self-esteem and depressive symptoms. Across these data sets, participants (Ntotal = 6,210) rated their self-esteem and depressive symptoms between 6 and 14 times across days, months, and years, respectively. Using continuous time dynamic models, we found limited evidence for significant within-person cross-lagged effects between self-esteem and depressive symptoms. Only in the yearly data set, a cross-lagged effect from depressive symptoms to self-esteem emerged quite consistently. However, in all data sets, cross-lagged effects were small in size (−0.04 ≤ β ≤ −0.01). These findings suggest that the reciprocal dynamics between self-esteem and depressive symptoms may be less robust than commonly thought. Furthermore, exploratory analyses indicated that these effects depended on people’s overall levels of depressive symptoms, suggesting that theoretical frameworks that highlight transactions between self-esteem and depression may not generalize across all levels of depressive symptoms. Finally, self-esteem and depressive symptoms were strongly correlated within measurements, similarly stable over time, and changed similarly in response to negative life events, provoking questions as to their conceptual distinctiveness and measurement approaches. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Basic personality and actual criminal convictions.
Crime is an issue with severe consequences for individuals, economies, and society at large. Developing effective crime prevention strategies requires a clear understanding of who is likely to engage in crime and why. A promising approach in this regard likely is integrating established criminological theories with established models of basic personality structure. Correspondingly, the present investigation derives hypotheses from three criminological theories—self-control theory/general theory of crime, situational action theory, and general strain theory—on the relation between the HEXACO personality dimensions and crime. The preregistered hypotheses were tested by linking HEXACO data of a Danish adult personality panel (N = 12,496) to official records on all criminal convictions of the participants registered within the past 41 years. Results revealed negative associations of honesty–humility, emotionality, agreeableness versus anger, and conscientiousness with crime (0.71 ≤ odds ratios ≤ 0.88). Except for agreeableness, effects were robust to controlling for relevant background variables (e.g., sex, age, education, income). The relation of the HEXACO dimensions varied only slightly across different types of offenses (e.g., interpersonal crimes, property crimes). In sum, this investigation provides a robust theoretical and empirical basis for how personality relates to crime. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 12 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Evaluating the psychological and social nature of actual and perceived liking gaps.
Our beliefs about how much we are liked tend to be less positive than liking judgments of others, a finding termed the “liking gap.” Because much of the past work has studied liking gaps at the sample level, it has overlooked important nuances in how these gaps can be measured and experienced. We introduce a distinction between the actual liking gap (i.e., a between-person discrepancy between how much others actually like us and how much we think others like us) and the perceived liking gap (i.e., a within-person discrepancy between how much we like others and how much we think others like us). Across three large first-impression samples (Ntotal = 2,753), we use condition-based regression analyses to examine (a) who tends to exhibit these gaps, and (b) how people experience social interactions marked by gaps. Our findings suggest that people display two types of gaps, actual and perceived, that are psychologically distinct. Larger negative perceived liking gaps were related to indicators of insecurity (i.e., lower self-esteem, higher social anxiety, and higher neuroticism), whereas actual gaps did not show the same pattern. Neither gap was reliably associated with the quality of people’s social interaction. Finally, our approach also allowed us to isolate the unique effect of feeling liked as a robust, consistent correlate of both psychological adjustment and interaction quality. Overall, this research offers new insights into the (mal)adaptiveness of two types of liking gaps. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.
- Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (1930)
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