Sarah Ainsworth

• University of Hull

Self-control depletion has been linked both to increased selfish behavior and increased susceptibility to situational cues. The present research tested two competing hypotheses about the consequence of depletion by measuring how people allocate rewards between themselves and another person. Seven experiments analyzed behavior in standard dictator g...

Three experiments tested the behavioral effects of prospection on risk tolerance, trust, and moral judgment. While previous research shows that people generally hold positive beliefs about their futures, our analysis demonstrates that actively thinking about one's future engenders conservative behaviors to avoid potential losses or harm. In Experim...

Social networking sites offer new avenues for interpersonal communication that may enable people to build social capital. The meta-analyses reported in this paper evaluated the relationship between social network site (SNS) use and 2 types of social capital: bridging social capital and bonding social capital. The meta-analyses included data from 58...

Gowdy & Krall's target article complements our recent theorizing on group behavior. In our comment, we elucidate complementary aspects of the two theories and highlight the importance of differentiation of selves for human groups to reap the benefits of ultrasociality. We propose that achieving optimal group outcomes depends on the differentiation...

Informed by our interdisciplinary research program on collaborative recall, we argue that Baumeister et al. should consider: (1) group success as a balance between differentiation and integration (not differentiation alone); (2) variation in constellations of people and processes within and across groups; and (3) nuanced measurement of what people...

The target article proposed that differentiation of selves is a crucial moderator of group outcomes, such that differentiation of selves contributes to beneficial outcomes of groups while limiting undesirable outcomes. In this response, we aim to complement the target article by refining and expanding several aspects of the theory. We address our c...

This paper seeks to make a theoretical and empirical case for the importance of differentiated identities for group function. Research on groups has found that sometimes groups perform better and other times worse than the sum of their individual members. Differentiation of selves is a crucial moderator. We propose a heuristic framework that divide...

Four studies measured or manipulated beliefs in free will to illuminate how such beliefs are linked to other aspects of personality. Study 1 showed that stronger belief in free will was correlated with more gratitude, greater life satisfaction, lower levels of perceived life stress, a greater sense of self-efficacy, greater perceived meaning in lif...

Counterfactual thoughts are based on the assumption that one situation could result in multiple possible outcomes. This assumption underlies most theories of free will and contradicts deterministic views that there is only one possible outcome of any situation. Three studies tested the hypothesis that stronger belief in free will would lead to more...

Throughout history, men have tended to be more violent than women. Evolutionary theories suggest that this sex difference derives in part from their historically greater need to compete with other men over access to potential mates. In the current research, men and women (Experiment 1) or men only (Experiments 2 and 3) underwent a mating motive pri...

Humans evolved to possess psychological mechanisms that help them avoid coming into contact with infectious diseases. Those mechanisms promote vigilance to and avoidance of disease cues, including heuristic cues displayed by other people (e.g., old age, obesity). The current research demonstrated that hunger—a state that sensitizes people to the pr...

Three experiments tested the effects of ego depletion on economic decision making. Participants completed a task either requiring self-control or not. Then participants learned about the trust game, in which senders are given an initial allocation of $10 to split between themselves and another person, the receiver. The receiver receives triple the...

Van de Vliert's findings fit nicely with our recent arguments implying that (1) differentiated selfhood is partly motivated by requirements of cultural groups, and (2) free will mainly exists within culture. Some cultural groups promote individual freedom, whereas others constrict it so as to maintain elites' power and privilege. Thus, freedom is,...

Any evolved disposition for fairness and cooperation would not replace but merely compete with selfish and other antisocial impulses. Therefore, we propose that human cooperation and fairness depend on self-regulation. Evidence shows reductions in fairness and other prosocial tendencies when self-regulation fails.

Does disbelief in free will reduce people's willingness to exert the effort needed for autonomous thought and action rather than simply conforming to group norms? Three studies tested the hypothesis that disbelief in free will would be associated with greater conformity than a belief in free will. In Study 1 (correlational), participants who expres...

Two studies (N = 80; N = 91) investigated whether sharing an autobiographical memory increases empathy for a person experiencing chronic pain. Across studies, empathy was assessed after reading a pain‐related narrative of either a 25‐ or 85‐year‐old target and again after assignment to one of two recall conditions. Conditions involved recalling a p...

There are sizable gender differences in aggressive behavior, with men displaying a much higher propensity for violence than women. Evolutionary theories suggest that men's more violent nature derives in part from their historically greater need to compete over access to potential mates. The current research investigates this link between mating and...