Alessandro Gabbiadini

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca | UNIMIB · Department of Psychology - Human and Behavior Technological Center MIBTEC

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has forced governments to impose a lockdown, and many people have suddenly found themselves having to reduce their social relations drastically. Given the exceptional nature of similar situations, only a few studies have investigated the negative psychological effects of forced social isolation and how they can be m...

Nowadays, binge-watching (i.e., watching multiple episodes of a TV series in one session) has become a widespread practice of media consumption, raising concerns about its negative outcomes. Nevertheless, previous research has overlooked the underlying psychological mechanisms leading to binge-watching. In the present work, we investigated some of...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly developing technology that has the potential to create previously unimaginable chances for our societies. Still, the public’s opinion of AI remains mixed. Since AI has been integrated into many facets of daily life, it is critical to understand how people perceive these systems. The present work investigate...

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly expanding field that aims to develop machines capable of performing tasks that were previously considered unique to humans, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making. The recent release of several tools based on AI (e.g. ChatGPT) has sparked debates on the potential of thi...

The ubiquity of human art prompted evolutionary psychologists to explore its origins as a potential adaptation to the environment. Here we focus on emotionally charged art and posit that affective affordances embedded into some artworks play a pivotal role in explaining why these artworks are enjoyed from an evolutionary perspective. Such features,...

Virtual Reality (VR) technologies have entered many aspects of daily life (e.g., workplace, education, gaming). VR users report that time flows faster when immersed in a virtual environment. Such an effect is supported by recent scientific evidence (Mullen & Davidenko, 2021). Indeed, a familiarity effect could foster such a time compression effect....

Over the last few years, the use of social media has been increasing exponentially. At the same time, several studies have reported an intensification of materialistic tendencies, especially among the youth, those who use social media the most. Although several studies have already investigated the consequences of their use, more is needed to know...

Artificial intelligence’s (AI) progress holds great promise in tackling pressing societal concerns such as health and climate. Large Language Models (LLM) and the derived chatbots, like ChatGPT, have highly improved the natural language processing capabilities of AI systems allowing them to process an unprecedented amount of unstructured data. Howe...

The young adult can experience psychological difficulties related to the delicate phase of life he/she is going through. Many of them show psychological difficulties but only a small portion receive the needed care. In this regard, internet-based interventions represent an important resource. MindBlooming is a seven-week intervention delivered thro...

Artificial intelligence's progress holds great promise in assisting society in addressing pressing societal issues. In particular Large Language Models (LLM) and the derived chatbots, like ChatGPT, have highly improved the natural language processing capabilities of AI systems allowing them to process an unprecedented amount of unstructured data. T...

Educational chatbots come with a promise of interactive and personalized learning experiences, yet their development has been limited by the restricted free interaction capabilities of available platforms and the difficulty of encoding knowledge in a suitable format. Recent advances in language learning models with zero-shot learning capabilities,...

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to several changes in academic teaching practices. Although educational digital technologies have been crucial during the initial phases of the pandemic, their forced adoption has led to negative consequences. In the present study, we aimed to integrate the Technology Acceptance Model theoretical framework (Dav...

Using a socio-psychological approach and drawing on the Intergroup Threat Theory, our study demonstrates that when faced with ChatGPT's ability to reproduce the complexity of human language and conversation, participants reported significantly higher levels of negative emotions than those in the control group. These negative emotions predicted part...

Despite the widespread prevalence of mental health problems, most psychological distress remains untreated. Internet-based psychological interventions can be an essential tool for increasing treatment availability and accessibility. The main objective of the MindBlooming project is to design and implement an innovative Internet-based multi-approach...

Diversi autori/autrici descrivono l’avvento dell’Intelligenza Artificiale (IA) come una rivoluzione del genere umano capace di portare cambiamenti ancora più grandi di quelli portati dalle rivoluzioni industriali. Sulla base di questa premessa, il presente articolo si focalizza sulle possibili conseguenze psicologiche derivanti dall’utilizzo e dall...

Exposure to violent video games can cause a wide array of harmful consequences to adolescents. This study shows preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of a brief intervention to decrease aggression and increase self-control following exposure to a violent video game. Participants (157 high-school students; age range: 13–19) were randomly assigne...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.554678.].

The paper presents an open usable tool, the ACME shop paradigm, for experimentally studying self-objectifcation due to objectifying work activities. The paradigm consists of a simulation in which participants are asked to perform an objectifying (repetitive, fragmented, and other directed) vs a nonobjectifying work activity. Two studies tested the...

I social media hanno rivoluzionato il nostro modo di comunicare, offrendo uno spazio virtuale che consente di instaurare relazioni sociali stabili e durature. A questo proposito, recentemente alcune online community di sostegno per persone affette da disturbi del comportamento alimentare (DCA) hanno attirato l’attenzione dei ricercatori. In partico...

The present study aims to investigate the indirect link between sexual objectification and belief in personal free will. We hypothesized that being subjected to objectifying commentary would lead women to self-objectify and, in turn, to perceive themselves as having less personal free will. In this study, 105 women were asked to sign up a website c...

In this study, we explored vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) responses, a psychophysiological index of cognitive self-regulatory control, to map the dynamics associated with empathic responses for pain towards an out-group member. Accordingly, Caucasian participants were asked to judge the experience of African and Caucasian actors to...

The present work explores the hostile tendencies elicited by romantic rejection in the increasingly common context of online dating. To empirically investigate this issue, we created an ad hoc online dating platform in which fictitious online dating partners romantically rejected heterosexual male and female participants. Results revealed that male...

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled "Does Pokémon Go lead to a more physically active life style?" (Gabbiadini et al., in press) [1]. In the study, 981 individuals completed a web survey, in which frequency of Pokémon Go usage, overall physically active behavior, and amount of Pokémon Go related physical...

Background: Recent studies suggest that about 6 out of 10 users have installed a fitness tracking application on their smartphone. Nevertheless, more than 59% of adults do not engage in sufficient daily physical activity and much remains unknown with regard to the effectiveness of mobile applications. By adopting the Theory of Planned Behavior, we...

Previous research suggests that Pokémon Go can be employed as an intervention for promoting healthy behav- ior on a large scale. In contrast, some scholars expressed concerns about the long-term effects of this mobile game, indicating that the impact of the app on exercise is just moderate. We hypothesized that Pokémon Go users are more active, but...

The present work explores whether self-objectification triggered by doing peculiar work activities would increase people’s conforming behavior. We conducted an experimental study in which participants (N = 140) were asked to perform a high objectifying activity (vs. low objectifying activity vs. baseline condition) simulating a real computer job. A...

In this issue, (Ferguson, C. J., & Donnellan, B. D., Journal of Youth and and Adolescence, published online 21 June 2017) criticize one of our studies (Gabbiadini, A., Riva, P., Andrighetto, L., Volpato, C., & Bushman, B. J., PLoS ONE, 11: 1–14, 2016) that found violent sexist video games can reduce empathy for female violence victims in male playe...

Violent video game playing has been linked to a wide range of negative outcomes, especially in adolescents. In the present research, we focused on a potential determinant of adolescents’ willingness to play violent video games: social exclusion. We also tested whether exclusion can predict increased aggressiveness following violent video game playi...

Despite their popularity, strategy video games have been poorly studied in social science. Because strategy video games require long gaming sessions and planning and management of resources for reaching long-term goals, we assumed that they would function as a virtual training center for self-regulation abilities in everyday life. Adopting the Stre...

Research has shown that exposure to violent media increases aggression. However, the neural underpinnings of violent-media-related aggression are poorly understood. Additionally, few experiments have tested hypotheses concerning how to reduce violent-media-related aggression. In this experiment, we focused on a brain area involved in the regulation...

Background. One of the most problematic modes of alcohol consumption in young adults is risky drinking in single episodes, which typically takes place in social contexts. Several studies have applied the Theory of Planned Behaviour to drinking intentions and behaviour in young people. However, previous studies shows that this model lacks a "bridge"...

The current work aims to extend the burgeoning literature on working objectification by investigating the effects of particular job activities on self-perception. By integrating relevant theoretical reflections with recent empirical evidence, we expected that performing objectifying (i.e., repetitive, fragmented and other-directed) tasks would affe...

Recentemente, la psicologia sociale ha mostrato come gli adolescenti riportino una marcata preferenza per contenuti mediatici violenti. Questo aspetto e’ particolarmente preoccupante, date le note conseguenze che tale esposizione comporta, quali un aumento delle tendenze aggressive, aumento di emozioni negative, diminuzione di empatiae minore pro-s...

Pictures used to measure empathy toward a female victim of violence (for illustrative purposes only). Participants indicated how much pain they thought the girl was feeling, and how much they thought she was suffering (1 = not at all to 7 = very much; Cronbach α = .79). (DOCX)

Empathy-putting oneself in another's shoes-has been described as the "social glue" that holds society together. This study investigates how exposure to sexist video games can decrease empathy for female violence victims. We hypothesized that playing violent-sexist video games would increase endorsement of masculine beliefs, especially among partici...

Past research suggested that—from the perspective of perpetrators—animal metaphors are a powerful means to reinforce social exclusion and to foster hostile behaviors against the targets of social exclusion. In the current work, we focus on the consequences of this dehumanizing form of social exclusion from the perspective of victims. In two studies...

The present study investigates the effects of playing violent-sexist video games on empathy for female violence victims. Playing violent-sexist video games increased endorsement of masculine beliefs, especially among participants who highly identify with dominant and aggressive male game characters. The endorsement of masculine beliefs reduced empa...

We summarize the main findings of Bushman, Gollwitzer, and Cruz (this issue), highlight its empirical contributions, and note interesting patterns and implications for future research. The results demonstrate the invalidity of the common claim that no consensus exists among experts on the reality of harmful media violence effects on children and ad...

Being excluded from a desired relationship or group causes negative emotions and triggers aggression (Twenge et al., 2001; Williams, 2009). But what happens when one is excluded from all humanity? History has shown that exclusion through dehumanizing animal metaphors has been one of the most important means to exclude others (e.g., Haslam & Loughna...

Online video games are a popular leisure activity around the world; such virtual environments enable new ways for social identity to develop. This study investigated the motives affecting social identification processes in the massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft (WoW). In this video game, players interact with ot...

The present research examines the effects of violent video games on three immoral behaviors: lack of self-control, cheating, and aggression. We hypotesized that people high in moral disengagement may be more affected by violent video games than others.

Violent video games glorify and reward immoral behaviors (e.g., murder, assault, rape, robbery, arson, motor vehicle theft). Based on the moral disengagement theory, we predicted that violent games would increase multiple immoral behaviors (i.e., lack of self-control, cheating, aggression), especially for people high in moral disengagement. High sc...

Violent video games glorify and reward immoral behaviors (e.g., murder, assault, rape, robbery, arson, motor vehicle theft). Based on the moral disengagement theory, we predicted that violent games would increase multiple immoral behaviors (i.e., lack of self-control, cheating, aggression), especially for people high in moral disengagement. High sc...

Online video games are a popular leisure activity around the world; such virtual environments allow new ways for social identity to develop. This study investigates the motives affecting social identification processes in the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft (WoW). In this video game, players interact with oth...

We investigated the motivations that in uence the binge drinking using the Model of Goal directed Behavior theoretical frameworks (MGB, Perugini & Bagozzi, 2001) considering also the in uences of the reference group.

Abstract The survival of a virtual community is guaranteed by the users' creation of content. However, the literature has found that the percentage of users who create innovative content is very modest. The content contribution process can also be interpreted as a social collective action in which we-intentions play a primary role. Nevertheless, so...

Several studies have repeatedly shown that violent/action video games increase aggressive tendencies. The present study provides preliminary evidence that exposure to these games also affects the process of moral disengagement. High school students (N = 385) were recruited, and the impact of both recency and frequency of their exposure to the video...

The main aim of this dissertation is to examine in depth some aspects of the participation process to a virtual community. We used the model of goal-directed behavior (MGB, Perugini & Bagozzi, 2001) to investigate the role of motivational factors in the processes of active contribution and use of web community resources in online communities. Given...

The semantics of the communication in Internet is different from the one on printed paper, and this difference also persists in the administration of web surveys. In social psychology, and more generally in all the social science disciplines, there are few reviews and methodological studies available to a researcher describing the use of specific c...

p> Italian Fascist propaganda was compared with contemporary right-wing material to explore how political propaganda depicts specific target groups in different historical periods. Taking the theory of delegitimization as the theoretical framework, we analyzed visual images concerning despised social groups used by the Fascist regime and current...

Recalling the Italian colonial experience elicits the collective emotions of guilt, shame, and ingroup-focused anger. We expected that these emotions would predict different reparation intentions in favor of the colonized populations’ descendants. Students and non-students were recruited (N = 152) and asked to rate their emotions of collective guil...

The paper presents a study about one of the most successful cases of social software: Wikipedia. In particular we focused on the investigation of some socio-psychological aspects related to the use of the Italian Wikipedia. In our study, we considered Wikipedia active users classified into three different roles: registered users, administrators, an...