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The Effect of Negative Energy News on Social Trust and Helping Behavior
Abstract
Due to the fast development of science and technology, people increasingly like to get information from the Internet rather than newspapers and magazines. However, recently, this accessible online information has been filled with enormous negative news or neutral news with negative headlines. Therefore, the current study conducted three experiments to examine how negative online news affects social trust and helping behavior. The results of experiment 1 showed that individuals were inclined to demonstrate an attentional bias on and perform a preference for the negative news during the eye-movement task and indicated that individuals were easily affected by negative online news compared with positive online news. Based on experiment 1, experiment 2 used the guiding effect of online news and found that relative to some readers who were presented with positive news, others who read negative news showed less helping behavior, and this relationship was completely mediated by social trust. In experiment 3, we changed the headline of every neutral news story into two versions, one with a neutral headline and another with a negative headline, and found more negative cognition, lower social trust, and less helping behavior when individuals read negative headlines. Results of the current study supported the general learning model and the social cognitive theory, which showed that negative news had an impact on individuals' cognition, such as social trust, and then influenced their helping behavior. In particular, negative headlines led to a severely negative effect on social trust and helping behavior.
... This selection bias for negative news occurred despite self-reported preferences for positive stories (Trussler & Soroka, 2014). Han et al. (2019) similarly showed that both a self-reported negative-news-preference group and a positive-newspreference group demonstrated more interest and bias toward negative news, as measured by viewing time, number of fixations, pupil size, and eye movement. Therefore, even when seeking general information on a news topic (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic), negativity bias appears to predispose individuals to selectively attend to negatively valenced stories (e.g., death and devastation), rather than positively valenced stories (e.g., health care heroism). ...
... Graf et al. (2020) showed that increasing negative valence in news can fuel prejudice toward minority groups. Drawing on social cognitive theory, Han et al. (2019) argued that negative news leads to decreased helping behavior by diminishing social trust. Baden et al. (2019) found that catastrophically framed news stories that evoke negative emotions decrease intention to take constructive actions to address the issues. ...
... For example, manipulating the negative valence in news stories about minority groups can increase participants' intention to distance themselves from minorities (Graf et al., 2020). Similarly, negative news has been associated with negative affect, decreased helping behaviors (Han et al., 2019), decreased prosocial intentions (Baden et al., 2019), and poor self-control . In sum, the evidence suggests that negative news consumption has the potential to fuel pessimistic thoughts about the current situation and the future, cognitions that may result in maladaptive (e.g., risky, sensation-seeking) behaviors. ...
Negativity bias predicts that individuals will attend to, learn from, and prioritize negative news more than positive news. Drawing from the addiction components model, this cross-sectional study conceptualized and measured “doomscrolling” as excessive thoughts, urges, or behaviors related to the consumption of negative news on social media platforms. Participants were a convenience sample (N = 747) of Iranian social media users. The 8-item, unidimensional Social Media Doomscrolling Scale showed excellent psychometric properties. Men were more likely than women to report doomscrolling. Most respondents reported arousal following doomscrolling. Doomscrolling was negatively associated with psychological wellbeing, satisfaction with life, and motivation to avoid unhealthy behaviors. Doomscrolling was positively associated to impulsivity, engagement in risky behaviors, depression, and future anxiety. Results suggest that doomscrolling is an arousing activity that has the potential to exacerbate worrisome thoughts about future, breed feelings of hopelessness, cultivate appetite for risk, and stifle health consciousness.
... In comparison to the last century, the present consumer has constant access to information being frequently over exposed to different types of messages and content in the online environment. Consumers can get information anytime and anywhere but are frequently confronted with exaggerated opinions on facts or even fake messages [1] creating a skeptical opinion of users related to online information. Several studies have shown that an overexposure to information leads frequently to a lower cognitive capability of users to read and acknowledge the entirety of the information [2] or even reduces their media-literacy and ability to think critically [3]. ...
... Several studies have shown that an overexposure to information leads frequently to a lower cognitive capability of users to read and acknowledge the entirety of the information [2] or even reduces their media-literacy and ability to think critically [3]. Negative information especially leads to lower social trust in the presented messages [1] The objective of this research is to determine the impact of present trends on the ability of online consumers to develop skeptical and critical opinions regarding the information presented in the online environment. We analyze the development of a skeptical opinion on news information related to three actual tendencies: technology and artificial intelligence (AI) development, the trust and the need to check the existing information and the influence of celebrity trend setters. ...
... We analyze the development of a skeptical opinion on news information related to three actual tendencies: technology and artificial intelligence (AI) development, the trust and the need to check the existing information and the influence of celebrity trend setters. New technologies and AI development are an important factor of user generated content and they are responsible for the multiplication of news and therefor impact the critical thinking on media and information sources [1,3]. The second relation has been the one related to celebrity endorsement and media information. ...
The present consumer is surrounded every day by a huge amount of data and information and is confronted with the need to process the received information. Based on the existing content and the development of user generated content and fake news, consumers develop more and more a skeptical opinion regarding existing media information. In this paper we determine four clusters of consumers based on technology and artificial intelligence (AI) acceptance, skeptical opinion regarding media information, need for validation of received information and the influence of celebrity trend setters. For each of the clusters, we analyze the relationship between the skeptical opinion of consumers related to social media information and some present trends about the development of technologies and AI, the influence of celebrity trend setters and the need to check the received information. The results of the research show that the development of technologies and AI have an influence on the skeptical opinion related to media information for some consumer groups. The celebrity trend setter has a significant influence on the skeptical opinion only for one of the consumer groups. The need for information and news validation is related to the skeptical opinion regarding media information, but in different ways for the determined clusters.
... These characteristics may help employees know more about coworkers' competences, skills, and their similar preferences, which can be conducive to employees' trust in their coworkers. Several studies highlight a close association between trust and helping behavior [13,[19][20][21]. Therefore, we expect that trust in coworkers may mediate the association between communication visibility and employee helping behavior. ...
... Communication visibility nurtures an environment that may result in trust in coworkers, but this does not mean that employees engage in helping behavior. Social cognitive theory proposes that both personal factors and environmental factors affect individual behavior [20,22]. As a personal factor, proactive personality refers to a relatively stable behavioral tendency to identify opportunities to change things at work and to act on the impulses [23][24][25]. ...
... Therefore, employees are willing to engage in more helping behavior. Several studies have highlighted a close relationship between trust and helping behavior [20]. Combining communication visibility theory with social cognitive theory, we argue that employees are more likely to engage in helping behavior when employees trust their coworkers as a result of communication visibility. ...
Extant research focuses on the antecedents of employee helping behavior, but the role of social technologies in enhancing employee helping behavior remains understudied. The purpose of our research is to investigate the relationship between communication visibility and employee helping behavior. Drawing on both communication visibility theory and social cognitive theory, we propose that the association between communication visibility and helping behavior is mediated by employee psychological state assessed by a cognitive state variable: trust in coworkers. Further, we also propose that proactive personality moderates the positive effect of trust in coworkers on employee helping behavior. We examined our hypothesized relationships using 149 employees collected in a field experiment in China. As hypothesized, we find that trust in coworkers mediates the relationship between communication visibility and helping behavior. Moreover, proactive personality strengthens the effectiveness of communication visibility. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and practice.
... Considering that people who hold a high level of social trust tend to be optimistic and altruistic, they may believe that they are useful, and their actions will bring benefits to the environment, society, and other people [46]. Hence, these people may actively engage in green food consumption because they believe that their green food consumption will create additional values for society [4,47]. For example, when consumers trust their society and other people, consumers may think that if they purchase environmentally friendly foods, then their purchase behavior will generate goodwill for the society. ...
... These people may believe that they are not able to contribute to society. Hence, the lack of trust people may behave in egoistic manners and even take actions that harm others and society [44,47]. In other words, when people hold a low level of social trust, they do not believe in their ability to improve social and environmental issues. ...
... In other words, when people hold a low level of social trust, they do not believe in their ability to improve social and environmental issues. They may not engage in green food consumption because they lack confidence and may perceive green food consumption as unnecessary activities [47]. Therefore, the influence of perceived consumer effectiveness on green food consumption will likely vary between people who hold a high level of social trust as compared with those who hold a low level of social trust. ...
Green food consumption is a core issue that contributes to solving environmental pollution and achieving sustainable development. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of green food consumption and social trust in the relationship between perceived consumer effectiveness and psychological wellbeing to provide new insights into green food consumption, based on social ideal theory and social trust theory. Using a sample data of 514 consumers in China, the results of structural equation modeling showed that perceived consumer effectiveness was positively related to psychological wellbeing. Furthermore, green food consumption mediated the relationship between perceived consumer effectiveness and psychological wellbeing. In addition, social trust moderated the relationship between perceived consumer effectiveness and green food consumption. Social trust also moderated the indirect effect of perceived consumer effectiveness on psychological wellbeing through green food consumption. The findings of this study enrich the extant literature relating to green food consumption and have practical implications for business managers and policymakers.
... Following the study, it was observed that after treatments were applied in attention performance and bias, positive outcomes were achieved relative to previous treatments [20]. A two-step research was conducted by Han et al. (2019). They focused on how the negative online news that people are exposed to on social media influences social confidence and helping behaviour. ...
... In the third phase of the experiment, headlines with neutral content were changed to negative, and one neutral and one negative were presented to participants. At the end of the third phase, participants were observed to display a negative cognitive bias, low aiding behaviour, and low social confidence after reading the negative headlines [21]. The study was a two-step process. ...
The purpose of this review paper was to examined the study on visual attentional bias processes and eye movements in this process and evaluate individuals' responses to positive and negative stimulus. The selective attention processes that individuals show to environmental stimuli and the eye movement behaviors. Accordingly, these are associated with autonomous defense mechanisms that occur during survival. This situation may differ according to various characteristics of the individual. Another differentiated situation is the individual's psychological well-being in the attention shift process. Many studies have shown that individuals with anxiety-related disorders or depression show more intense sensitivity to threatening stimuli. The eye-tracking method is important for characterizing and detecting individual differences reflected in the individual's attention switching process and attentional bias. Consequently, the differences in the reaction time of individuals with high levels of anxiety/depression were negative stimuli compared to other (positive, neutral) stimuli. Currently, the processes of attentional bias caused by threatening factors in individuals continue to be examined. Information on this situation are quite important for the detection and treatment processes of many psychological diseases. Therefore, the observation of eye movement behavior that is significant for the detection of other psycho-physiological conditions (cognitive, visual fatigue) that cause attentional bias.
... Similarly, individuals who watched positive social news (helping others) increased cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game and those who watched negative social news (bullying, child abuse, and dishonest behaviors) cheated more [46]. By impairing social trust, negative energy news reduced people's helping behaviors [47]. Therefore, through the mass media, charity misconduct would be broadly spread, and knowing its effect would be crucial for coming up with coping strategies. ...
... reported that they were from middle socioeconomic status (6). A previous study about the effect of negative energy news on helping behaviors presented online news stories to participants and asked for their willingness to help [47]. A similar experimental design has been adopted in Study 1. Two sets of news that differ in ways of spending donations (i.e., carrying out their duty or not) were presented to participants. ...
Charity organizations positively impact our societies but charity misconduct impairs people’s willingness to contribute to charity and functional health systems on public health issues. This study investigates the impact of charity misconduct on people’s willingness to offer help on public health issues and possible ways of reducing the negative impact brought by charity misconduct news through four studies (Ntotal = 1269). Results showed that charity misconduct on public health issues significantly reduced individuals’ willingness to offer help via both the charity involved with the misconduct and any charity they prefer (Study 1 and 2). Furthermore, news on charity misconduct reduced people’s general willingness to help in contexts that did not involve charity (Study 3). Finally, presenting charity nonmisconduct news after charity misconduct news increases individuals’ willingness to offer help via the nonmisconduct charity (Study 4), suggesting a potential way to nudge people to provide help in the fight against the negative impact brought by charity misconduct news. The findings show the backfire of reporting charity misconduct news and have important implications for potential ways to facilitate people to offer help.
... According to SCT, individual's thoughts and perceptions influence trust that further affects actual behavior (Han et al., 2019). There are two different types of trust: Cognitive trust which is developed due to high-quality relationship based on trustworthiness, and Affective trust which is the result of emotional attachments between truster and trusties (Shao & Yin, 2019). ...
... Both Cognitive and Affective trust positively affects information sharing among multicultural groups and individuals (Hsu et al., 2007). Trust is based on positive expectations and others response behaviors (Han et al., 2019). Therefore, voluntary sharing behavior in online communities could be predicted by individuals' trust (Xu et al., 2012;Liu et al., 2015). ...
Drawing upon social cognitive and social network theories, this study examines individual-level and network-level factors which potentially affect multicultural individuals' information sharing behavior via social media. The data has been collected from the foreigners (multicultural individuals) who visited visa centers in three different cities in China. The proposed model tests a combined effect of past sharing experience (PE), trust (TR), perceived benefit (PB), perceived richness (RI), and information sharing attitude (ATT) on information sharing behavior (Beh). The data has been analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM). The results illustrate PE, TR, and PB positively affects ATT which further influences Beh. Since scant studies focus on information sharing behavior of multicultural individuals, this research contributes to the IS literature, particularly to the information sharing via social media in a multicultural perspective. The results are likely to be useful guidance for practitioners and scholars intending to evaluate social media information sharing behavior.
... Sensitivity to negative content relates to higher altruistic behavior (IAB) (β = 0.146, P < 0.001), likely as a coping mechanism for emotional release and seeking social support. Research has found that social trust mediates the relationship between negative news and helping behavior, with excessive exposure to negative news reducing social trust and decreasing helping behavior (Han et al., 2019). Notably, CD-RISC scores are significantly positively correlated with IAB scores (β = 0.242, P < 0.001), indicating that individuals with strong resilience can maintain a positive mindset in the face of stress and challenges and are more capable of engaging in altruistic behavior. ...
Background
With the rapid development of the Internet and the widespread use of social media, online public opinion has profoundly impacted the psychology and behavior of college students. College students are in a crucial stage of psychological development and self-awareness, making them highly sensitive to online information and easily influenced by online public opinion.
Methods
This study employed a cross-sectional design to explore the psychological adaptation and behavioral responses of college students to online public opinion. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 2,294 college students across four universities in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, using an online questionnaire administered via Questionnaire Star. The study utilized three well-established scales: the Belief in a Just World (BJW) Scale, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and the Internet Altruistic Behavior (IAB) Scale. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0, encompassing descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, ANOVA, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analysis, with a significance level set at p < 0.05. Any responses with missing or inconsistent data were excluded from the analysis, ensuring a final effective response rate of 95.7%.
Results
Among the 2,294 participants, 60.1% were female, 56.8% were from rural areas, and 57.4% were non-only children. Univariate analysis showed significant relationships between BJW scores and gender, family economic status, parents’ attitudes, relationships with classmates, and emotional responses to negative online content (p < 0.001). CD-RISC scores were significantly related to only child status, family economic status, parents’ attitudes, relationships with classmates, and emotional responses to negative online content (p < 0.05). IAB scores were significantly related to gender, grade level, family economic status, parents’ attitudes, relationships with classmates, and emotional responses to negative online content (p < 0.05). Correlation analysis revealed significant associations among BJW, CD-RISC, and IAB. Multiple regression analysis identified key predictors for each scale, including gender, parents’ attitudes, relationships with classmates, emotional responses to negative online content, and various other factors (p < 0.001).
Conclusion
In the context of online public opinion, targeted interventions by families and schools are needed to regulate the psychological and behavioral states of college students, promoting good mental health and positive behavior in the complex online environment.
... Additionally, consuming negative news similarly has an impact on individual behavior. Specifically, consuming negative news is linked to negative emotions, reduced prosocial behavior [9], decreased prosocial intentions [10], and lower self-control [4]. ...
Background
Doomscrolling behavior is very common among college students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Doomscrolling Scale, thus providing a scientific basis for its application among Chinese university students.
Methods
The Chinese version of Doomscrolling Scale was developed through translation and revision of the original scale, conducting item and factor analysis, and validating it with validation factor analysis. The psychometric properties of the Doomscrolling Scale were assessed in 2885 Chinese university students.
Results
The internal consistency coefficients, two-month test-retest reliability, and split-half reliability of the Chinese version of the Doomscrolling Scale (including the 15-item and the 4-item short version) were high, and the mono-factorial scales fitted well to the theoretical model. Scores on the Chinese version of the Doomscrolling Scale were significantly associated with depression, anxiety, and smartphone addiction. The structural equation model indicates that doomscrolling can mediate the bidirectional relationship between insomnia disorder and depression.
Conclusions
The revised Chinese version of the Doomscrolling Scale is valid and reliable, which can facilitate research in this field. The association between doomscrolling and various mental disorders has been confirmed, and further research should be conducted to investigate its mechanisms of action.
... The research findings show that cybercrime issue sentiment in digital banking services has a positive and significant impact on trust. This finding is in line with previously established hypotheses and is consistent with previous research studies (Adiningtyas & Auliani, 2024;Bigné et al., 2023;Han et al., 2019;Niu et al., 2020), which indicate that negative sentiments and news can influence public trust. Additionally, cybercrime issue sentiment in digital banking services is a negative sentiment that affects trust. ...
Purpose – This study aims to identify the factors influencing the adoption of mobile banking in the context of cybercrime issues in digital banking services by focusing on a case study of Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) customers.Methodology – This study examined five independent variables as mediators: cybercrime issue sentiment, security perceptions, convenience, digital literacy, cybersecurity awareness, and trust. It involves 100 BSI customer respondents and is analyzed using the SEM-PLS method.Findings – The findings indicate that Cybercrime issue sentiment and perceived security positively impact trust. However, this trust does not influence mobile banking adoption, suggesting that other factors may dominate adoption decision-making. Convenience and cybersecurity awareness affect mobile banking adoption, whereas digital literacy does not.Implications – Cybercrime is a crucial aspect of mobile banking usage, making customer awareness essential. To increase customer trust, BSI needs to strengthen and enhance digital security and educate customers about cybersecurity risks. Improving the convenience of mobile banking services is crucial to attracting more users. Cybersecurity awareness is also essential; therefore, BSI needs to conduct educational programs and campaigns to improve digital literacy and reduce the negative impact of cybercrime.Originality – The implications provide insights for banks, especially BSI, in maintaining customer trust and increasing mobile banking adoption. The results are expected to assist customers and BSI in focusing on cybersecurity, protecting personal data, and enhancing user convenience. Understanding the factors influencing mobile banking adoption in the continually evolving digital banking environment can help banks take relevant action and focus on customer needs.
... Teachers' statement about the negative effect of negative news on their mental or mood is quite understandable as there have been several studies revealing that exposure to negative news seems to negatively impact one's mental state (Han et al., 2019). Therefore, teachers' preference to avoid news due to content and impact seems well-founded (Bazán et al., 2021). ...
... Panic feeling after a disaster comes from the uncertainty of information, especially when public opinion information is filled with a large amount of negative information, such as about a lack of goods, inability to rescue in time, secondary disasters, etc. People are not sure about the authenticity of this information, which leads to distrust of media content and exacerbates people's panic feeling [30][31][32]. In addition, the panic feeling caused by negative public opinion information further expands the scope of panic feeling as consumers communicate with each other. ...
Panic buying is now a frequent occurrence in many countries, leading to stockouts and supply chain disruptions. This paper highlights consumers’ panic buying behavior in different types of regions and the impact of different replenishment strategies after an emergency supply disruption. Panic buying behavior occurs when consumers try to mitigate the negative impact of a supply disruption. Therefore, this paper develops a consumer-based agency model to study the correlation between public opinion and panic buying and simulates the influence of consumers’ panic buying behavior under different situations in a complex network. The results show that the spread of panic feelings can lead to panic buying behavior among consumers, which then shocks the retailer market. The distribution of supplies according to the type of city and the number of people can have an impact on consumer panic buying behavior, and when the government adopts a restrictive strategy, implementing a quota policy or uniform rationing is very effective in reducing the number of consumers participating in panic buying.
... AI recommender systems may capture this pattern and form their sentiment prejudices in news selection, which leads to the sentiment manipulation of recommended news. As a human-in-the-loop system, the sentiment bias is further magnified during the iterative interactions between users and news feed providers, which may generate unforeseeable negative psychological and societal impacts (Han et al., 2019;Johnston and Davey, 1997). ...
Artificial intelligence (AI) is empowering personalized online news delivery to accommodate people’s information needs and combat information overload. However, AI models learned from user data are inheriting and amplifying some underlying human prejudice such as the sentiment bias of news reading, which may lead to potential negative societal effects and ethical concerns. Here, substantial evidence shows that AI is manipulating the sentiment orientation of news displayed to users by promoting the presence chance of negative news, even if there is no human interference. To mitigate this manipulation, a sentiment-debiasing method based on a decomposed adversarial learning framework is proposed, which can reduce 97.3% of sentiment bias with only 2.9% accuracy sacrifice. Our work provides the potential in improving AI’s responsibility in many human-centered applications such as online journalism and information spread.
... Extant research has confirmed that related services provided by online platforms can affect users' psychology and behaviors [11][12][13][14]. In this paper, we posit that online environmental platform services (OEPS) will impact users' GCB. ...
With the continuous prominence of environmental problems, some online environmental platforms have been built in China. Such platforms provide an important carrier for public to learn environmental knowledge and participate in environmental protection. However, whether such platforms can play a substantive role in promoting users' green consumption behaviors is still unclear. Focusing on this question, the influence of online environmental platform services on public green consumption behaviors is explored. A model based on the theory of stimulus-organism-response is established to analyze the influential mechanism, using the online environmental platform services as the independent variable, users' green consumption behaviors as the dependent variable, environmental attitude as the mediator, and users' price sensitivity as the moderator. Survey data are used to test the model. The empirical results show that online environmental platform services have a significant positive impact on users' green consumption behaviors. Environmental attitude plays a partial mediating role and price sensitivity negatively moderates the mediating role of environmental attitude. Suggestions are given from the perspectives of platform operators and government. This paper provides both theoretical and practical implications for sustainable consumption.
... Uzasadnienie dla przewagi negatywnych wiadomości odnaleźć można w znanym -tak dziennikarzom, jak medioznawcom -twierdzeniu: bad news is good news. Dążąc do pozyskania uwagi odbiorców, media chętniej sięgają po treści nacechowane negatywnie, budzące silne emocje(Han, Sun, Gao, Zhou, & Jou, 2019). Popularne schematy myślowe, dostrzeżone w obu serwisach, przedstawia wykres 2.Wykres 2. Stereotypizacja Polaków i Ukraińców w badanych nagłówkach. ...
Cel: zasadniczym celem badań było sprawdzenie, czy w obrębie serwisów regionalnych jednej grupy medialnej (Agory SA) narracja na temat Ukraińców jest spójna, czy też dostrzec można w niej jakieś odmienności. Metody badań: podstawę metodologiczną stanowiła analiza zawartości, która objęła nagłówki zapowiadające teksty o Ukraińcach w dwóch portalach regionalnych „Gazety Wyborczej” – www.wroclaw.wyborcza.pl oraz www.rzeszow.wyborcza.pl – w latach 2015–2019. Zbadano zarówno aspekty formalne, m.in. długość nagłówków, sposób ich formułowania (relacje między twierdzeniami, pytaniami i wykrzyknieniami), jak i elementy treściowe, m.in. zasadnicze funkcje spełniane przez nagłówki, środki językowe, jakie się w nich pojawiają, oraz występowanie stereotypów. Wyniki i wnioski: uzyskane wyniki wskazują na wielowymiarowy wizerunek Ukraińców kształtowany przez regionalne serwisy „Gazety Wyborczej”. Między serwisami podkarpackim i dolnośląskim dostrzeżono wyraźne różnice, przede wszystkim w samej ekspozycji tematu (wyższej na Podkarpaciu) oraz w waloryzacji Ukraińców i Polaków, wzmacnianej przywoływanymi stereotypami. Podobny był natomiast rozkład funkcji nagłówków (dominacja funkcji ekspresywnej) oraz udział nagłówków, w których wzmiankowano o ważnej osobie lub instytucji. Autorzy tekstów korzystali również ze zbliżonych środków językowych (m.in. kolokwializmów, kontrastowych zestawień, pytań retorycznych). Zakodowane w nagłówkach medialne wizerunki Ukraińców na Dolnym Śląsku i Podkarpaciu, pomimo formalnych cech wspólnych, różnią się pod zasadniczym, treściowym względem, na co wpływa prawdopodobnie specyfika wydarzeń relacjonowanych przez dziennikarzy w każdym z tych regionów. Oryginalność i wartość poznawcza: przeprowadzona analiza wypełnia lukę w badaniach nad wizerunkiem Ukraińców w regionalnych internetowych portalach informacyjnych. Wskazanie podobieństw oraz różnic, występujących w nagłówkach jednej grupy medialnej w dwóch województwach, inspirować może do dalszych, bardziej obszernych badań dotyczących lidów oraz zasadniczej treści przekazów, kształtujących medialny obraz migrantów z Ukrainy w Polsce.
... The mood-congruency hypothesis (Bower, 1992) argues that individuals' positive moods are associated with their inclination towards perception of and attention to positive information. In contrast, individuals' negative moods are linked with their inclination towards perception of and attention to negative information (Han et al., 2019). Previous research revealed that adolescents in high need for cognition are often in a good mood, and those in low need for cognition are plagued by anxiety and stress (Bye & Pushkar, 2009;Gauthier et al., 2006;Johansson & Ölund, 2017;Lin et al., 2016;. ...
Drawing on social cognitive theory, need for cognition might have a significant influence on adolescents’ creative self-efficacy. However, no studies, to date, have investigated this relationship. To address this gap in the literature, this study used a 3-year longitudinal design to investigate the effect of need for cognition on adolescents’ creative self-efficacy. Moreover, to better understand this effect, we also investigated the mediating roles of perceived parenting behaviors and perceived teacher support, and the possible gender differences. The sample included 221 Chinese adolescents (mean age = 14.58, 48% girls) followed across 3 years. The results revealed that need for cognition had a beneficial effect on adolescents’ creative self-efficacy. Moreover, perceived parental autonomy support and perceived parental psychological control mediated the effect of need for cognition on creative self-efficacy. Lastly, there exist gender differences in these mediation effects. Perceived parental autonomy support only mediated the effect of need for cognition on boys’ creative self-efficacy, whereas perceived parental psychological control only mediated the influence of need for cognition on girls’ creative self-efficacy. Our findings help clarify developmental pathways linking need for cognition to adolescents’ creative self-efficacy, and the underlying mediation mechanisms.
... In another definition, it is accepted as the risk of confrontation and communication with others with the idea that they will behave appropriately (Vu & et al, 2019). They also defined social trust as the socially acquired and validated expectations and commitments that individuals have towards each other and the organizations and institutions related to their social life (Han & et al, 2019). Social trust in interpersonal, abstract and professional relationships is an important factor in the development of society and a prerequisite for the formation of social bonds and agreements and promotes cooperation, collaboration and collaboration (Guo & et al, 2017). ...
... Previous studies have revealed the relationship between dark triad personality traits in adolescents and their cyber aggression (Pabian et al., 2015); however, the potential psychological mechanism of dark triad personality traits on cyber aggression in adolescents is unclear. In cyberspace, many factors will affect individuals' interpersonal beliefs, which have an important impact on their psychology and behavior (Han, Sun, Gao, Zhou, & Jou, 2019). Belief in virtuous humanity, as a type of subjective cognitive factors, reflects one's perceptions and expectations regarding the essential goodness, trustworthiness, and dependability of others in one's social world (Lopez, Melendez, Sauer, Berger, & Wyssmann, 1998;Yao & Enright, 2020;Zhang, Zhao, & Xu, 2016). ...
Cyber aggressive behavior among adolescents is a widespread concern. However, little is known about the influencing factors and psychological mechanism of cyber aggressive behavior in adolescents. This study examined whether dark personality traits would be associated with cyber aggression in adolescents, whether belief in virtuous humanity would mediate the relationship between dark personality traits and cyber aggression, and whether self-control would play a moderating role in the links. A total of 675 Chinese college students completed a series of anonymous questionnaires regarding dark personality traits, belief in virtuous humanity, self-control, and cyber aggression. Results showed the following: (1) dark personality was positively related to cyber aggression in adolescents; (2) belief in virtuous humanity mediated the relationship between dark personality traits (i.e., Machiavellianism and psychopathy) and cyber aggression; (3) self-control play a moderating role in the relationship between dark personality traits (i.e., Machiavellianism and psychopathy) and cyber aggression, and the relationship between belief in virtuous humanity and cyber aggression. This study could help demonstrate the risk and protective factors and psychological mechanism of cyber aggressive behavior in adolescents. Some theoretical and practical implications and limitations were also discussed.
... This answer gave ideas and criticisms on the development of news media in Indonesia in the future. For our research, this answer also uncovered respondents' perspectives on news that gave them anxiety, and it tells certain factors about current news in Indonesia that are uncomfortable to news consumers [70]. ...
Development of the internet as a source of information has penetrated many aspects of human life, which is shown in the increasingly diverse substance of news in online news sources. Previous studies have stated that the presentation of the substance of online news information can have negative impacts, especially the emergence of anxiety in users; thus, managing the presentation of information becomes important. This study intends to explore factors that should be considered as possible anxiety-inducers for readers of news sites. Analyses of areas of interest (AOIs), fixation, and heat maps from respondents’ eye activity obtained from eye-tracker data have been compiled with Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) measurement results to analyze anxiety among newsreaders. The results show that text is the dominant center of attention in various types of news. The reason for the higher anxiety that arises from text on online news sites is twofold. First, there are the respondents’ experiences. Second, text usage allows for boundless possibilities in respondents’ imaginations as a response to the news that has occurred.
Based on the cognitive-behavioral model of pathological internet use, this study explored the relationship between zhongyong thinking (doctrine of the mean) and internet addiction, and examined the mediation of maladaptive cognition and the moderation of subject. Convenience sampling was used to select 1,518 college students for the questionnaire. The participants were 15–26 years old (M = 19.77; SD = 1.45), including 776 male and 742 female students. The results showed that zhongyong thinking was significantly negatively correlated with maladaptive cognition (r = −0.19, p < 0.001) and internet addiction (r = −0.14, p < 0.001). Maladaptive cognition was significantly positively correlated with internet addiction (r = 0.46, p < 0.001). After controlling for age, gender, zhongyong thinking negatively predicted internet addiction (B = −0.06, p < 0.05), maladaptive cognition positively predicted Internet addiction (B = 0.45, p < 0.001). Zhongyong thinking negatively predicted maladaptive cognition (B = −0.19, p < 0.001). Moreover, the bias-corrected bootstrapping mediation test indicated that the process by which zhongyong thinking predicted Internet addiction through maladaptive cognition was significant, indirect effect = −0.08, SE = 0.01, 95% CI = [−0.11, −0.06]. Subject has no moderating effect on the relationship between zhongyong thinking and maladaptive cognition. The interaction between zhongyong thinking and subject was not a significant predictor of maladaptive cognition (B = 0.05, p > 0. 05). The present results suggest that zhongyong thinking as a traditional Chinese wisdom can still play an important role in regulating young people's behavior in the digital age.
Sergilediğimiz her bir davranışın temelinde üç temel unsur vardır. Birincisi, davranışı tetikleyen durumdur. İkincisi, bu duruma yanıt olarak geliştirilen stratejilerin birer davranış haline gelmesidir. Üçüncüsü, davranışın sonuçlarıdır. Maruz kalınan her bir içerik, beynin içinde çeşitli elektrik dalgalanmalarının olmasına neden olur. Sonuç olarak empatik kaygı, stresle birlikte duygu durum bozukluklarına yol açar. Bu yeni duygu durumları ile beraber insanlar yeni davranışlar edinirler. Medya, beyin ve psikolojinin etkileşimi uzun yıllardır ihmal edilmektedir. Çoğunlukla olumsuz içerikler üzerine kurulu olan medyanın insan beyni üzerindeki etkisini, öz saygı üzerindeki gücünü, travmatik bir olayla ne kadar eşit olduğunu, insanların neden negatif haberlere özel ilgi gösterdiğini, ebeveyn - medya - çocuk bağlamında çocuk gelişiminin aşamalarını öğrenerek güçlü stratejiler geliştirmek bu kitap rehberliğinde sizin elinizde.
This study aimed to examine how active use of social networking services influences Chinese adolescents’ flourishing - the serial mediation of online and offline social capital. 872 Chinese adolescents (392 boys and 480 girls, mean age = 12.59 years, SD = 0.725) completed the Multidimensional Scale of Social Networking Site Use, Flourishing Scale, and Internet Social Capital Scales. The results indicated that: (1) active use of social network sites positively influences adolescents’ flourishing; (2) online and offline social capital were serial mediators between active social networking services use and flourishing in models for the entire sample; and (3) the serial mediation effect was consistent across genders. The results of this study provide a theoretical and empirical basis for the targeted promotion of rational and healthy Internet usage behavior, while ensuring wholesome social adaptation among adolescents.
Background
Recently, a study revealed that people liked others significantly more than they estimated that others liked them. Thus, the study found that people tended to underestimate how much others liked them, a phenomenon the authors called the Liking Gap. However, the logic and testing of the study existed unclear nature. In order to show whether people underestimate the positivity of impression they left on others, we directly compare the estimate of the impression we left on others with others’ actual impression of us, which make the logic clear. Besides, we explored the new findings with regard to the mechanism of the effect.
Methods
Based on this idea, in study 1, we explored whether there is indeed a negative deviation effect in the estimate of the impression people left on others in short interpersonal communication. In study 2, we investigated the potential psychological mechanisms of that effect.
Results
In Study 1, the results revealed that people estimated that others liked them significantly less than others actually liked them. That is, a negative deviation effect did occur, and even if people were clear about their liking for others, the effect still existed. In Study 2, we provided evidence that a negative deviation effect existed not just because people are too focused on their own-negative thoughts in conversational performance but rather because people had a psychological defense towards others in their first communication.
Conclusion
People significantly underestimate how much they are liked and its reason is that their psychological defense towards others in their initial communication. The results of the study are beneficial for people in social interaction and provide them with new ways of thinking in interpersonal communication and mutual contact.
Purpose
Anchored on social trust theory, social identity theory and signalling theory, this study investigates the process of how consumers respond to online retailers' corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Design/methodology/approach
Following the hypo-deductive research design, a unique model was developed to link online retailers' CSR with consumer purchase intention through brand identification and word of mouth (WOM). This model was subsequently tested and validated by conducting an online survey to 239 customers of a major online retailer in China, that is, JD.com.
Findings
Analysis using structural equation modelling demonstrates that online retailers' CSR is positively associated with consumer purchase intention, and brand identification positively mediates such an association. In addition, WOM exhibits a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived online retailers' CSR and consumer purchase intention and between brand identification and consumer purchase intention.
Practical implications
Online retailers must endeavour to employ CSR as a strategy to enhance consumer purchase intention and behaviour. Moreover, they should develop communication programmes that highlight their engagement in CSR activities to improve their brand image and facilitate consumers' positive WOM.
Originality/value
To the best of the researchers' knowledge, this study is the first to examine the mediating roles of brand identification and WOM in the relationship between online retailers' CSR and customer purchase intention. Furthermore, this study extends current knowledge about online retailers' CSR and its potential impact in emerging economies by focussing on the context of China.
To increase internet traffic, some online media try to attract attention by presenting pictures that cover the sexual organs of the body. However, compared with naked pictures, it remains unclear whether these covered pictures can evoke similar levels of sexual arousal in heterosexual young adults and category-specific patterns in men. To examine the above problems, this research divided female and male pictures into 4 types (fully dressed pictures, naked pictures, covered pictures and underwear-wearing pictures). Behavioral experiments, eye-movement technology and ERP measurements were employed to explore the different levels of sexual arousal between men and women in response to pictures of different sexes and types. The results revealed that the level of sexual arousal induced by covered pictures was significantly higher than that induced by naked pictures. There was no significant difference in the P300 amplitude of the parietal lobe between covered pictures and naked pictures, but in the frontal lobe, the P300 amplitude induced by covered pictures was significantly higher than that induced by naked pictures. The results indicated that unlike the process of sexual arousal induced by naked pictures, the process of sexual arousal induced by covered pictures not only included the processing of visual stimuli but also required the frontal lobe to actively construct to perceive pictures of covered sexual organs as naked pictures and thus induce sexual arousal. In addition, we also found that both covered pictures (as reflected in the levels of sexual arousal and the average amplitude of P300) and naked pictures (as reflected in the levels of sexual arousal, the number of fixations and the average amplitude of P300) can induce category specificity in heterosexual men. On the one hand, this research extends knowledge regarding sexual cognition and finds that covered pictures can also evoke category specificity in men; on the other hand, from the perspective of brain cognition, the difference in sexual cognitive processing between covered pictures and naked pictures is recognized.
Five studies examined the effects of priming the secure base schema on intergroup bias. In addition, Studies 1-2 examined the effects of dispositional attachment style, Studies 2-5 examined a mood interpretation. Study 3 examined the mediating role of threat appraisal, and Studies 4-5 examined the effects of secure base priming while inducing a threat to self-esteem or cultural worldview. Secure base priming led to less negative evaluative reactions toward out-groups than positive affect and neutral control conditions. In addition, whereas the effects of secure base priming did not depend on attachment style and were not explained by mood induction, they were mediated by threat appraisal and occurred even when self-esteem or cultural worldview was threatened. The discussion emphasizes the relevance of attachment theory for understanding intergroup attitudes.
Social news, unlike video games or TV programs, conveys real-life interactions. Theoretically, social news in which people help or harm each other and violate rules should influence both prosocial and violation behaviors. In two experiments, we demonstrated the spreading effects of social news in a social interaction context emphasizing social conventions and a nonsocial interaction context emphasizing moral norms. Across the two studies, the results showed that positive social news increased cooperation (decreased defection) but had no effect on cheating, whereas negative social news increased cheating but with no change in cooperation (or defection). We conclude that there is a spreading impact of positive social news in the conventional norm domain and of negative social news in the moral norm domain.
A wide range of cognitive, affective, and behavioral phenomena are discussed in the light of an elaborate positive-negative asymmetry concept. It involves a propensity to expect positive life outcomes (positivity bias) combined with high reactivity to negative stimuli.
Numerous studies have shown a 'negativity bias' in emotion processing and effect of menstrual phase on emotion processing. Most of these results, however, did not match the arousal of different types of stimuli. The present study examined the time course of negative emotion processing across different menstrual phases (e.g., late luteal/premenstrual phase and follicular phase) when the arousal level of negative and neutral stimuli was equal. Following previous studies, an oddball paradigm was utilized in present study. Participants viewed neutral and negative (highly (HN) and moderately negative (MN)) stimuli with matched arousal and were asked to make deviant vs. standard judgments. The behavioral results showed a higher accuracy for HN stimuli than neutral stimuli, and the other comparisons were not significant. The major event-related potential (ERP) finding was that N2 amplitude was larger for MN than neutral in the late luteal phase, whereas such difference was absent during the follicular phase. Moreover, The N2 for HN stimuli was larger in late luteal phase than in follicular phase. Therefore, female may be with higher sensitivity to MN stimuli during late luteal phase than during follicular phase when the arousal of stimuli was well controlled. These results provide additional insight to premenstrual affective syndrome and affective disorder.
Three experimental studies, one correlational study, and a meta-analysis tested key hypotheses concerning the short-term and long-term impact of exposure to violent video games. Experiment 1 found that violent video games in general increase the accessibility of aggressive thoughts. Experiments 2 and 3 found that playing violent video games increased aggression, even when arousal and affect were controlled. Experiments 2 and 3 also found that trait hostility and trait aggression were positively related to laboratory aggression. Furthermore, there was correlational evidence of a link between repeated exposure to violent video games and trait aggressiveness. Mediational analyses suggested that the trait effects and the violent video game effects on laboratory aggression were partially mediated by revenge motivation. The correlational study uncovered links between habitual exposure to violent video games, persistent aggressive cognitions, and self-reported aggressive behavior. A destructive testing regression approach found that the video game violence/aggression link remained significant even after stressing the link by partialling out sex, narcissism, emotional susceptibility, and Big Five personality factors. However, consistent with prior empirical and theoretical work emphasizing the importance of media violence in the creation of habitual aggressive patterns of thought, partialling out aggressive attitudes reduced the video game violent/aggression link to nonsignificance. The meta-analyses revealed significant effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, affect, and cognition; on cardiovascular arousal; and on prosocial behavior. A best-practices meta-analytic approach revealed that contrary to media industry claims, better conducted studies tend to yield stronger effects of violent video games on aggression and aggression-related variables than do more poorly conducted studies.
Three studies examined preferences for outcomes to self and a codisputant. Studies 1 and 2 estimated social utility functions from judgments of satisfaction with alternative outcomes. Comparing functional forms, we found that a utility function, including terms for own payoff and for positive and negative discrepancies between the parties' payoff (advantageous and disadvantageous inequality), provides a close fit to the data. The typical utility function is steeply increasing and convex for disadvantageous inequality and weakly declining and convex for advantageous inequality. We manipulated dispute type (personal, business) and disputant relationship (positive, neutral, or negative) and found that both strongly influence preferences for advantageous but not disadvantageous inequality. A third study contrasted implications of the social utility functions with predictions of individual utility theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This chapter examines youth access to violent video games as well as the existing theory and literature on potential negative effects of violent video games. In addition the author presents a meta-analysis of the effects of video games on the domains of aggressive behavior, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, aggressive cognition, and prosocial behavior. The author concludes with lessons learned from the existing literature that should be taken into account in future studies. These lessons include the need for more attention to variability among violent video games when comparing effects of violent and nonviolent games, the need for larger sample sizes in order to reliably detect violent video game effects, the importance of nonviolent or control comparison conditions, the need for more comprehensive reporting of results so as to allow for the calculation of effect sizes, and measures used to quantify video game exposure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two experiments examine whether exposure to generic violence can display infrahumanization towards out-groups. In Study 1, participants had to solve a lexical decision task after viewing animal or human violent scenes. In Study 2, participants were exposed to either human violent or human suffering pictures before doing a lexical decision task. In both studies, the infrahumanization bias appeared after viewing the human violent pictures but not in the other experimental conditions. These two experiments support the idea of contextual dependency of infrahumanization, and suggest that violence can prime an infrahuman perception of the out-group. Theoretical implications for infrahumanization and potential underlying mechanisms are discussed. Dehumanization and violence are two related phenomena. Empirical evidence supports the idea that dehumanization increases aggres-sive behaviors towards out-groups, and triggers moral exclusion. This process facilitates the feelings of having no obligation to apply moral human standards to out-groups (Bar-Tal, 1990; Kelman, 1973; Opotow, 1990). Research has also shown that perceiving other persons as humans activates empathic reactions that would make it diffi cult to mistreat them (Bandura, 1990). However, if a person dehumanizes the others, self-sanctions disappear, and he/she can mistreat them without suffering from guilt feelings.
Abstract The level of presence, or immersion, individuals feel is very likely to influence the effect media has on them. This project examines,the causes and consequences,of presence in the context of violent video game play. In a between subjects design, 227 participants were randomly,assigned to play either a violent or a non violent video game. The results are consistent with what would be predicted by social learning theory, and are consistent with previous presence research. Causal modeling,analyses reveal two separate paths to presence: from individual differences and condition. The first path reveals that individual differences (previous game use and gender) predict presence. Those who frequently play video games reported higher levels of presence than those who play video games less frequently. Males play more games but, when game use was controlled for, felt less presence than women. The second path is related to perceived violence: those who perceived the game to be more violent felt more presence than those who perceived less violence in the game. Both of these paths were influenced by frustration with the game. Those who felt more presence felt more hostility, and were more verbally aggressive than those who felt lower levels of presence. Higher levels of presence led to increased physically aggressive intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Keywords--- Presence as immersion, video games, aggressive affect, violence, aggression, and social learning theory. The causes and consequences,of presence3 The causes and consequences of presence: Considering the influence of violent video games
Meta-analytic procedures were used to test the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, empathy/desensitization, and prosocial behavior. Unique features of this meta-analytic review include (a) more restrictive methodological quality inclusion criteria than in past meta-analyses; (b) cross-cultural comparisons; (c) longitudinal studies for all outcomes except physiological arousal; (d) conservative statistical controls; (e) multiple moderator analyses; and (f) sensitivity analyses. Social-cognitive models and cultural differences between Japan and Western countries were used to generate theory-based predictions. Meta-analyses yielded significant effects for all 6 outcome variables. The pattern of results for different outcomes and research designs (experimental, cross-sectional, longitudinal) fit theoretical predictions well. The evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior. Moderator analyses revealed significant research design effects, weak evidence of cultural differences in susceptibility and type of measurement effects, and no evidence of sex differences in susceptibility. Results of various sensitivity analyses revealed these effects to be robust, with little evidence of selection (publication) bias.
Previous research has documented that playing violent video games has various negative effects on social behavior in that it causes an increase in aggressive behavior and a decrease in prosocial behavior. In contrast, there has been much less evidence on the effects of prosocial video games. In the present research, 4 experiments examined the hypothesis that playing a prosocial (relative to a neutral) video game increases helping behavior. In fact, participants who had played a prosocial video game were more likely to help after a mishap, were more willing (and devoted more time) to assist in further experiments, and intervened more often in a harassment situation. Results further showed that exposure to prosocial video games activated the accessibility of prosocial thoughts, which in turn promoted prosocial behavior. Thus, depending on the content of the video game, playing video games not only has negative effects on social behavior but has positive effects as well.
Although dozens of studies have documented a relationship between violent video games and aggressive behaviors, very little attention has been paid to potential effects of prosocial games. Theoretically, games in which game characters help and support each other in nonviolent ways should increase both short-term and long-term prosocial behaviors. We report three studies conducted in three countries with three age groups to test this hypothesis. In the correlational study, Singaporean middle-school students who played more prosocial games behaved more prosocially. In the two longitudinal samples of Japanese children and adolescents, prosocial game play predicted later increases in prosocial behavior. In the experimental study, U.S. undergraduates randomly assigned to play prosocial games behaved more prosocially toward another student. These similar results across different methodologies, ages, and cultures provide robust evidence of a prosocial game content effect, and they provide support for the General Learning Model.
Imagine that the neighborhood you are living in is covered with graffiti, litter, and unreturned shopping carts. Would this
reality cause you to litter more, trespass, or even steal? A thesis known as the broken windows theory suggests that signs
of disorderly and petty criminal behavior trigger more disorderly and petty criminal behavior, thus causing the behavior to
spread. This may cause neighborhoods to decay and the quality of life of its inhabitants to deteriorate. For a city government,
this may be a vital policy issue. But does disorder really spread in neighborhoods? So far there has not been strong empirical
support, and it is not clear what constitutes disorder and what may make it spread. We generated hypotheses about the spread
of disorder and tested them in six field experiments. We found that, when people observe that others violated a certain social
norm or legitimate rule, they are more likely to violate other norms or rules, which causes disorder to spread.
Negative (adverse or threatening) events evoke strong and rapid physiological, cognitive, emotional, and social responses. This mobilization of the organism is followed by physiological, cognitive, and behavioral responses that damp down, minimize, and even erase the impact of that event. This pattern of mobilization-minimization appears to be greater for negative events than for neutral or positive events. Theoretical accounts of this response pattern are reviewed. It is concluded that no single theoretical mechanism can explain the mobilization-minimization pattern, but that a family of integrated process models, encompassing different classes of responses, may account for this pattern of parallel but disparately caused effects.
One of the functions of automatic stimulus evaluation is to direct attention toward events that may have undesirable consequences for the perceiver's well-being. To test whether attentional resources are automatically directed away from an attended task to undesirable stimuli, Ss named the colors in which desirable and undesirable traits (e.g., honest, sadistic) appeared. Across 3 experiments, color-naming latencies were consistently longer for undesirable traits but did not differ within the desirable and undesirable categories. In Experiment 2, Ss also showed more incidental learning for undesirable traits, as predicted by the automatic vigilance (but not a perceptual defense) hypothesis. In Experiment 3, a diagnosticity (or base-rate) explanation of the vigilance effect was ruled out. The implications for deliberate processing in person perception and stereotyping are discussed.
The present study tested whether the pupillary response can be applied to study the variation in processing load during simultaneous interpretation. In Experiment 1, the global processing load in simultaneous interpretation as reflected in the average pupil size was compared to that in two other language tasks, listening to and repeating back an auditorily presented text. Experiment 1 showed clear differences between the experimental tasks. In Experiment 2, the task effect was replicated using single words as stimuli. Experiment 2 showed that momentary variations in processing load during a lexical translation task are reflected in pupil size. Words that were chosen to be more difficult to translate induced higher levels of pupil dilation than did easily translatable words. Moreover, repeating back words in a non-native language was accompanied by increased pupil dilations, in comparison to repetition in the subject's native language. In sum, the study lends good support to the use of the pupillary response as an indicator of processing load.
The impact of cognitive and affective perspective taking on empathic arousal and altruistic responding was investigated in an American, working adult, ethnically diverse population. Altruistic helping, operationalized as the number of hours a participant volunteered to help counsel other adult students, depended on the type of perspective induced. Cognitive and affective perspectives were induced by instructing participants to pay attention to and discern (a) the thoughts of the stimulus person, (b) the feelings of the stimulus person, or (c) distracting, irrelevant details that provided a comparison condition. Participants in the affective perspective-taking condition reported greater empathic arousal than control participants. Participants in the affective perspective-taking condition also offered more help than did those in the cognitive perspective-taking condition or in the control condition.
Eye-movement-contingent display changes were used to control the visibility of characters during the reading of Chinese text. Characters outside a window of legible text were masked by dissimilar characters, and effects of viewing constraints were ascertained in several oculomotor measures. The results revealed an asymmetric perceptual span that extended 1 character to the left of the fixated character and 3 characters to its right. The size of right-directed saccades extended across 2 to 2 1/2 character spaces, indicating that the perceptual spans of successive fixations overlapped slightly and that some linguistic information was integrated across fixations. The relatively small spatial overlap of successive spans appears to reflect a text-specific process. However, the results also revealed substantial similarities in the coding of morphographic Chinese and alphabetic English texts, indicating that text-specific coding routines are subordinated to general coding principles.
Negative information tends to influence evaluations more strongly than comparably extreme positive information. To test whether this negativity bias operates at the evaluative categorization stage, the authors recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs), which are more sensitive to the evaluative categorization than the response output stage, as participants viewed positive, negative, and neutral pictures. Results revealed larger amplitude late positive brain potentials during the evaluative categorization of (a) positive and negative stimuli as compared with neutral stimuli and (b) negative as compared with positive stimuli, even though both were equally probable, evaluatively extreme, and arousing. These results provide support for the hypothesis that the negativity bias in affective processing occurs as early as the initial categorization into valence classes.
The automatic processing of information was investigated, varying valence (positive vs. negative) and relevance (other-relevant traits [ORT] vs. possessor-relevant traits [PRT]; G. Peeters, 1983) of stimuli. ORTs denote unconditionally positive or negative consequences for persons in the social environment of the holder of the trait (e.g., honest, brutal) whereas PRTs denote unconditionally positive or negative consequences for the trait holder (e.g., happy, depressive). In 2 experiments using the Stroop paradigm, larger interference effects were found for ORTs than PRTs. This is due to the behavior-relatedness of ORTs. In a go/no-go lexical decision task (Experiment 3), participants either had to withdraw their finger from a pressed key (i.e., "avoid") or had to press a key (i.e., "approach") if a word was presented. Responses to negative ORTs were relatively faster in the withdraw condition, whereas positive ORTs were relatively faster in the press condition.
Successful social interaction partly depends on appraisal of others from their facial appearance. A critical aspect of this appraisal relates to whether we consider others to be trustworthy. We determined the neural basis for such trustworthiness judgments using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjects viewed faces and assessed either trustworthiness or age. In a parametric factorial design, trustworthiness ratings were correlated with BOLD signal change to reveal task-independent increased activity in bilateral amygdala and right insula in response to faces judged untrustworthy. Right superior temporal sulcus (STS) showed enhanced signal change during explicit trustworthiness judgments alone. The findings extend a proposed model of social cognition by highlighting a functional dissociation between automatic engagement of amygdala versus intentional engagement of STS in social judgment.
Game theory, the formalized study of strategy, began in the 1940s by asking how emotionless geniuses should play games, but ignored until recently how average people with emotions and limited foresight actually play games. This book marks the first substantial and authoritative effort to close this gap. Colin Camerer, one of the field's leading figures, uses psychological principles and hundreds of experiments to develop mathematical theories of reciprocity, limited strategizing, and learning, which help predict what real people and companies do in strategic situations. Unifying a wealth of information from ongoing studies in strategic behavior, he takes the experimental science of behavioral economics a major step forward. He does so in lucid, friendly prose. Behavioral game theory has three ingredients that come clearly into focus in this book: mathematical theories of how moral obligation and vengeance affect the way people bargain and trust each other; a theory of how limits in the brain constrain the number of steps of "I think he thinks . . ." reasoning people naturally do; and a theory of how people learn from experience to make better strategic decisions. Strategic interactions that can be explained by behavioral game theory include bargaining, games of bluffing as in sports and poker, strikes, how conventions help coordinate a joint activity, price competition and patent races, and building up reputations for trustworthiness or ruthlessness in business or life.
This chapter reviews methodological choice points that need to be considered when raw data are used to define basic oculomotor events, such as fixations and saccades. Oculomotor measures provide distinct methodological advantages in the study of cognitive and perceptual processes. They appear sensitive to a wide range of “cognitive processes” and can be obtained under relatively natural task conditions. Derivation and use of these measures is not, however, straightforward. The chapter also considers the usage of these oculomotor events for the indexing of perceptual and cognitive processes. Attention is given to viewing duration measures, as these are used as the primary indicator of cognitive processes in eye movement research. The discussion is limited in that the raising of measurement-related and methodological issues is not followed by the presentation of specific solutions. There are no “de facto” standard measurements that define basic oculomotor events (fixations and saccades). Furthermore, processing assumptions that underlie the translation of oculomotor events into measures of cognitive processes are increasingly challenged. It remains unclear whether some definitions of oculomotor events and some oculomotor measures are more effective than others.
A rapid response to a threatening face in a crowd is important to successfully interact in social environments. Visual search tasks have been employed to determine whether there is a processing advantage for detecting an angry face in a crowd, compared to a happy face. The empirical findings supporting the “anger superiority effect” (ASE), however, have been criticized on the basis of possible low-level visual confounds and because of the limited ecological validity of the stimuli. Moreover, a “happiness superiority effect” is usually found with more realistic stimuli. In the present study, we tested the ASE by using dynamic (and static) images of realistic human faces, with validated emotional expressions having similar intensities, after controlling the bottom-up visual saliency and the amount of image motion. In five experiments, we found strong evidence for an ASE when using dynamic displays of facial expressions, but not when the emotions were expressed by static face images.
This study employs information obtained from media content analyses, as well as economic and political data, to investigate negativity in unemployment news between 2001 and 2010 in Germany. The data indicate a substantial bias in terms of the amounts of negative and positive reports, compared with the actual development of unemployment. Moreover, the media tend to place negative unemployment reports more prominently than positive ones. The estimates suggest that the bias is not the consequence of journalists asymmetrically interpreting the official unemployment numbers. Instead, it is associated with the exploitation of often non-economic information and structural influences in the process of news production.
Whether video game play affects social behavior is a topic of debate. Many argue that aggression and helping are affected by video game play, whereas this stance is disputed by others. The present research provides a meta-analytical test of the idea that depending on their content, video games do affect social outcomes. Data from 98 independent studies with 36,965 participants revealed that for both violent video games and prosocial video games, there was a significant association with social outcomes. Whereas violent video games increase aggression and aggression-related variables and decrease prosocial outcomes, prosocial video games have the opposite effects. These effects were reliable across experimental, correlational, and longitudinal studies, indicating that video game exposure causally affects social outcomes and that there are both short- and long-term effects.
In Experiment 1, subjects completed an attitude survey to identify items toward which they held positive and negative attitudes. Subsequently, subjects were instructed to count the number of positive (or negative) stimuli in a series. Each series contained six attitude stimuli from a given semantic category (e.g., fruits), and the structure of the series was varied so that positive and negative stimuli, as indexed by subjects' idiosyncratic attitudes, were evaluatively consistent or inconsistent within the series. In Experiment 2, subjects were exposed to personality traits that were positive or negative in series of six. Again, the structure of the series was varied so that positive and negative traits were evaluatively consistent or inconsistent within the series. Results of Experiments 1 and 2 indicated that although the event-related brain potential did not differ as a function of stimulus valence per se, evaluatively inconsistent, in contrast to consistent, stimuli evoked a larger amplitude late P300-like positive component that was maximal over the centroparietal region.
Helping and aggression are core topics in social psychology. So far, abundant evidence that violent media decreases helping and increases aggression has been collected. However, recent theoretical and empirical work has demonstrated that the media may also increase prosocial outcomes and decrease antisocial outcomes. In fact, exposure to media with prosocial content increases the accessibility of prosocial thoughts, empathy, and helping behavior and decreases aggression and aggression-related cognition and affect. The present article reviews this research and provides an overview of when and why media exposure instigates helping and reduces aggression.
Accusations of political bias in the media are often made by members of both political parties, yet there have been few systematic studies of such bias to date. This paper develops an econometric technique to test for political bias in news reports that controls for the underlying character of the news reported. Our results suggest that American newspapers tend to give more positive news coverage to the same economic news when Democrats are in the Presidency than for Republicans. When all types of news are pooled into a single analysis, our results are highly significant. However, the results vary greatly depending upon which economic numbers are being reported. When GDP growth is reported, Republicans received between 16 and 24 percentage point fewer positive stories for the same economic numbers than Democrats. For durable goods for all newspapers, Republicans received between 15 and 25 percentage points fewer positive news stories than Democrats. For unemployment, the difference was between zero and 21 percentage points. Retail sales showed no difference. Among the Associated Press and the top 10 papers, the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Associated Press, and New York Times tend to be the least likely to report positive news during Republican administrations, while the Houston Chronicle slightly favors Republicans. Only one newspaper treated one Republican administration significantly more positively than the Clinton administration: the Los Angeles Times' headlines were most favorable to the Reagan administration, but it still favored Clinton over either Bush administration. We also find that the media coverage affects people's perceptions of the economy. Contrary to the typical impression that bad news sells, we find that good economic news generates more news coverage and that it is usually covered more prominently. We also present some evidence that media treats parties differently when they control both the presidency and the congress.
Two experiments evaluated differential predictions from two cognitive for- mulations of anxiety. According to one view, attentional biases for threat reect vulnerability to anxiety; and as threat inputs increase, high trait anxious individuals should become more vigilant, and low trait individuals more avoidant, of threat (Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1988, 1997). However, according to a ``cognitive-motivational'' view, trait anxiety inuences the appraisal of stimulus threat value, rather than the direction of attentional bias, and both high and low trait anxious individuals should exhibit greater vigilance for high rather than mild threat stimuli (Mogg & Bradley, 1998). To test these predictions, two experiments examined the effect of manipulating stimulus threat value on the direction of attentional bias. The stimuli included high threat and mild threat pictorial scenes presented in a probe detection task. Results from both studies indicated a signi® cant main effect of stimulus threat value on attentional bias, as there was increased vigilance or reduced avoidance of threat, as threat value increased. This effect was found even within low trait anxious individuals, consistent with the ``cognitive-motivational'' view. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.
Video games have become one of the favorite activities of children in America. A growing body of research links violent video game play to aggressive cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors. This study tested the predictions that exposure to violent video game content is: (1) positively correlated with hostile attribution bias; (2) positively correlated with arguments with teachers and physical fights; (3) negatively correlated with school performance; and (4) positively correlated with hostility. Participating in the study were 607 eighth and ninth graders from 4 schools. Each prediction was supported. Youth who exposed themselves to greater amounts of video game violence saw the world as a more hostile place, were more hostile themselves, got into arguments with teachers more frequently, were more likely to be involved in physical fights, and performed more poorly in school. Video game violence exposure was a significant predictor of physical fights even when respondent sex, hostility level, and weekly amount of game play were statistically controlled. The findings suggest that video game violence is a risk factor for aggressive behavior and that parental involvement in video game play may act as a protective factor for youth. Results support the framework of the General Aggression Model. (Contains 3 tables and 33 references.) (Author/KB)
Conducted 4 experiments with a total of 167 undergraduates to study how knowledge of remote social events affects interpersonal behavior and perception. In each experiment Ss were exposed to a news broadcast containing either prosocial or antisocial content preselected to reflect either the "best" or "worst" aspects of human nature. In Exp I, Ss played 1 round of a nonzero-sum game, and as predicted, those exposed to a "good" newscast chose cooperatively and expected others to choose cooperatively and to have cooperative goals for the game more often than those exposed to a "bad" news broadcast. Exps II, III, and IV concerned possible mediators of this behavior. Ss who heard a good newscast, in comparison with others who heard a bad one, were more inclined to believe that a relatively high percentage of people subscribed to beliefs and values concerning the well-being of others. The effects of these same newscasts on mood, as measured by the abbreviated form of the Nowlis Mood Adjective Check List, were not significant. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Previous research has shown that playing violent video games increased aggressive tendencies. However, as pointed out by the General Learning Model (GLM) [Buckley, K. E., & Anderson, C. A. (2006). A theoretical model of the effects and consequences of playing video games. In: P. Vorderer & J. Bryant (Eds.), Playing video games motives responses and consequences (pp. 363–378). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum], depending on their content, video games do not inevitably increase but may also decrease aggressive responses. Accordingly, the present research tested the hypothesis that playing prosocial video games decreases aggressive cognitions. In fact, playing a prosocial (relative to a neutral) video game reduced the hostile expectation bias (Experiment 1) and decreased the accessibility of antisocial thoughts (Experiment 2). Thus, these results lend credence to GLMs assumption that the effects of video game exposure depend to a great extent on the content of the game played.
Risk management has become increasingly politicized and contentious. Polarized views, controversy, and overt conflict have become pervasive. Risk-perception research has recently begun to provide a new perspective on this problem. Distrust in risk analysis and risk management plays a central role in this perspective. According to this view, the conflicts and controversies surrounding risk management are not due to public ignorance or irrationality but, instead, are seen as a side effect of our remarkable form of participatory democracy, amplified by powerful technological and social changes that systematically destroy trust. Recognizing the importance of trust and understanding the “dynamics of the system” that destroys trust has vast implications for how we approach risk management in the future.
Behavioral studies indicate that there exists a ‘negativity bias’ in the way surrounding events are processed. Particularly, it has been indicated that negative events elicit more rapid and more prominent responses than non-negative events. The objective of the present study was to explore the role of attention in relation to this negativity bias. Three groups of emotional pictures were used as stimuli: positive, negative and neutral. Event-related potentials were recorded from 35 subjects at F5, Fz, F6, C5, Cz, C6, P5, Pz and P6. Valence and arousal content of the stimulation was measured via a questionnaire. The experimental design ensured that subjects whose data were finally analyzed attended to the stimuli. ANOVAs showed that P200, an attention-related component, showed higher amplitudes and shorter latencies in response to negative stimuli than in response to positive stimuli. Additional partial correlation analyses indicated that P200 amplitude, but not latency, significantly associates (at frontal and central sites) with valence content of the stimulation. Therefore, due to the valence-related nature of the bias, it is concluded that intensity aspects (more than timing aspects) of the P200-related attentional processes are particularly involved in the negativity bias.
In this paper, we review research on automaticity with particular relevance to aggression. Once triggered by environmental features, preconscious automatic processes run to completion without any conscious monitoring. The basic experimental technique for studying automatic processes is priming. We review studies showing that priming, including subliminal priming, of mental constructs related to aggression leads to reliable effects on perceptions, judgments, and behavior. Specifically, after such priming, people perceive ambiguous behaviors as more aggressive and tend to act more aggressively themselves as well. We also review studies showing that: (a) prolonged exposure to violence can result in the development of chronic accessibility of aggressive constructs affecting how the social environment is interpreted, and (b) even goal-directed behavior can be automatically triggered by situational features if this behavior is consistently and frequently enacted in the same situation.
In adults, alcohol-related stimuli prime aggressive responding without ingestion or belief of ingestion. This represents either experiential or socially-and culturally-mediated learning. Using a laboratory-based competitive aggression paradigm, we replicated adult findings in 103 11-14 year old adolescents below the legal UK drinking age. Using a two-independent group design, priming with alcohol-related imagery led participants to deliver louder noise punishments in a competition task than priming with beverage-related images. This effect was stronger in participants scoring low on an internalization measure. Priming effects in relatively alcohol-naïve participants could constitute evidence of socio-cultural transmission of scripts linking alcohol use and aggression. The enhanced effect in lower internalization scorers suggests that alcohol priming might undermine behavioral inhibition processes in otherwise stable adolescents.
Although models of emotion have focused on the relationship between anger and approach motivation associated with aggression, anger is also related to withdrawal motivation. Anger-out and anger-in styles are associated with psychopathology and may disrupt the control of attention within the context of negatively valenced information. The present study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine whether anger styles uniquely predict attentional bias to negative stimuli during an emotion-word Stroop task. High anger-out predicted larger N200, P300, and N400 to negative words, suggesting that aggressive individuals exert more effort to override attention to negative information. In contrast, high anger-in predicted smaller N400 amplitude to negative words, indicating that negative information may be readily available (primed) for anger suppressors, requiring fewer resources. Individuals with an anger-out style might benefit from being directed away from provocative stimuli that might otherwise consume their attention and foster overt aggression. Findings indicating that anger-out and anger-in were associated with divergent patterns of brain activity provide support for distinguishing approach- and withdrawal-related anger styles.
Considerable studies reported that females are more susceptible to affective disturbances such as depression, anxiety disorder, and phobia compared to males. Based on the close relation between emotional sensitivity and liability to affective disturbances (Hofer et al. [2006]: NeuroImage 32, 854-862; Spearing [2001]: Bipolar disorder, 2nd ed. Bethesda (MA): National institute of Mental Health), this study investigated the neural mechanism underlying the females' liability to affective disturbances by hypothesizing that females are more susceptible to negative emotions than males. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded for highly negative (HN), moderately negative (MN), and neutral images in Experiment 1, and for highly positive, moderately positive, and neutral images in Experiment 2, whereas subjects (15 males and 15 females) performed a standard/deviant distinction task, irrespective of the emotional valence of deviants in both experiments. In addition to the prominent emotional reactions evoked by HN stimuli in both genders, Experiment 1 displayed conspicuous emotional responses of females to MN stimuli across N2 and P3 components, which were absent in males. In contrast, Experiment 2 demonstrated neither significant valence effect, nor significant valence by gender interaction effect at these components. Thus, although both genders are sensitive to HN stimuli, females, instead of males, are particularly susceptible to negative stimuli of lesser salience, and this female specific susceptibility does not exist to the positive stimuli. Therefore, females must be more susceptible to negative emotions in life settings, which may be one important mechanism underlying their higher prevalence of affective disturbances.
Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of foveal processing difficulty on the perceptual span in reading. Subjects read sentences while their eye movements were recorded. By changing the text contingent on the reader's current point of fixation, foveal processing difficulty and the availability of parafoveal word information were independently manipulated. In Experiment 1, foveal processing difficulty was manipulated by lexical frequency, and in Experiment 2 foveal difficulty was manipulated by syntactic complexity. In both experiments, less parafoveal information was acquired when processing in the fovea was difficult. We conclude that the perceptual span is variable and attentionally constrained. We also discuss the implications of the results for current models of the relation between covert visual-spatial attention and eye movement control in reading.
The effect of emotional charge of visual stimuli on cerebral activity was investigated through ERPs. This emotional charge is explained through two dimensions: arousal (relaxing-activating) and valence (attractive-repulsive). Stimuli were 12 paintings selected through questionnaires: three activating-attractive pictures (A+ group), three activating-repulsive (A-), three relaxing (R), and three neutral (N). The ERPs were recorded from the 31 subjects at F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P3, Pz and P4. N200 and P300 did not show significant reactions to the emotional charge of the stimuli. N300 showed greater amplitudes in response to activating stimuli: at frontal sites for A+ and at parietal sites for A-.
Evidence of preattentive and attentional biases in anxiety is evaluated from a cognitive-motivational perspective. According to this analysis, vulnerability to anxiety stems mainly from a lower threshold for appraising threat, rather than a bias in the direction of attention deployment. Thus, relatively innocuous stimuli are evaluated as having higher subjective threat value by high than low trait anxious individuals, and it is further assumed that everyone orients to stimuli that are judged to be significantly threatening. This account is contrasted with other recent cognitive models of anxiety, and implications for the etiology, maintenance and treatment of anxiety disorders are discussed.