Nathan L. Arbuckle’s research while affiliated with Canisius College and other places

Research using economic decision-making tasks has established that direct reciprocity plays a role in prosocial decision-making: people are more likely to help those who have helped them in the past. However, less is known about how considerations of mutual exchange influence decisions even when the other party’s actions are unknown and direct reciprocity is therefore not possible. Using a two-party economic task in which the other’s actions are unknown, Study 1 shows that prosociality critically depends on the potential for mutual exchange; when the other person has no opportunity to help the participant, prosocial behavior is drastically reduced. In Study 2, we find that theories regarding the other person’s intentions influence the degree of prosociality that participants exhibit, even when no opportunity for direct reciprocity exists. Further, beliefs about the other’s intentions are closely related to one’s own motivations in the task. Together, the results support a model in which prosociality depends on both the social conditions for mutual exchange and a mental model of how others will behave within these conditions, which is closely related to knowledge of the self.

Experiences of discrete emotion play important roles in a variety of psychological domains. Yet, current measures of discrete emotion face significant limitations. Biological and behavioral measures often do not capture subjective experiences related to discrete emotions, while self-reports are susceptible to reporting biases. An indirect measure of discrete emotions would help address the limitations of existing measures; however, few such measures exist. Across 4 studies, we offer an indirect measure of discrete emotion. Our results provide evidence that our measure can distinguish between participants' experiences of same-valenced emotions (Study 1), is relatively less susceptible to deliberate attempts to suppress emotional responses (Studies 2 and 3), and is also relatively less susceptible to the influence of social norms (i.e., gender stereotypes) in self-reported discrete emotions than an explicit measure (Study 4). Overall, these findings demonstrate that our measure of discrete emotions can capture discrete emotional responses above and beyond affective valence, is indirect, and measures affective processes contributing to discrete emotional responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Compassion has been associated with eudaimonia and prosocial behavior, and has been regarded as a virtue, both historically and cross‐culturally. However, the psychological study of compassion has been limited to laboratory settings and/or standard survey assessments. Here, we use an experience sampling method (ESM) to compare naturalistic assessments of compassion with standard assessments, and to examine compassion, its variability, and associations with eudaimonia and prosocial behavior. Participants took a survey which included standard assessments of compassion and eudaimonia. Then, over four days, they were repeatedly asked about their level of compassion, eudaimonia, and situational factors within the moments of daily life. Finally, prosocial behavior was tested using the Dual Gamble Task and an opportunity to donate task winnings. Analyses revealed within‐person associations between ESM compassion and eudaimonia. ESM compassion also predicted eudaimonia at the next ESM time point. While not impervious to situational factors, considerable consistency was observed in ESM compassion in comparison with eudaimonia. Further, ESM compassion along with eudaimonia predicted donating behavior. Standard assessments did not. Consistent with virtue theory, some individual's ESM reports displayed a probabilistic tendency toward compassion, and ESM compassion predicted ESM eudaimonia and prosocial behavior toward those in need. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Empathic concern has traditionally been conceived of as a spontaneous reaction to others experiencing pain or distress. As such, the potential role of more deliberate control over empathic responses has frequently been overlooked. The present fMRI study evaluated the role of such deliberate control in empathic concern by examining the extent to which a sample of offenders recruited through probation/parole could voluntarily modulate their neural activity to another person in pain. Offenders were asked to either passively view pictures of other people in painful or non-painful situations, or to actively modulate their level of concern for the person in pain. During passive viewing of painful versus non-painful pictures, offenders showed minimal neural activity in regions previously linked to empathy for pain (e.g., dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula). However, when instructed to try to increase their concern for the person in pain, offenders demonstrated significant increases within these regions. These findings are consistent with recent theories of empathy as motivational in nature, and suggest that limitations in empathic concern may include a motivational component.

As prominently highlighted by Charles Darwin, music is one of the most mysterious aspects of human nature. Despite its ubiquitous presence across cultures and throughout recorded history, the reason humans respond emotionally to music remains unknown. Although many scientists and philosophers have offered hypotheses, there is little direct empirical evidence for any perspective. Here we address this issue, providing data which support the idea that music evolved in service of group living. Using 7 studies, we demonstrate that people's emotional responses to music are intricately tied to the other core social phenomena that bind us together into groups. In sum, this work establishes human musicality as a special form of social cognition and provides the first direct support for the hypothesis that music evolved as a tool of social living. In addition, the findings provide a reason for the intense psychological pull of music in modern life, suggesting that the pleasure we derive from listening to music results from its innate connection to the basic social drives that create our interconnected world. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

A recent study of the affect misattribution procedure (AMP) found that participants who retrospectively reported that they intentionally rated the primes showed larger effect sizes and higher reliability. The study concluded that the AMP's validity depends on intentionally rating the primes. We evaluated this conclusion in three experiments. First, larger effect sizes and higher reliability were associated with (incoherent) retrospective reports of both (a) intentionally rating the primes and (b) being unintentionally influenced by the primes. A second experiment manipulated intentions to rate the primes versus targets and found that this manipulation produced systematically different effects. Experiment 3 found that giving participants an option to "pass" when they felt they were influenced by primes did not reduce priming. Experimental manipulations, rather than retrospective self-reports, suggested that participants make post hoc confabulations to explain their responses. There was no evidence that validity in the AMP depends on intentionally rating primes.

Psychopathy can be considered as a dimension anchored on one end by a lack of concern for others. Even in its milder forms, psychopathy can lead to everyday antisocial behavior, such as plagiarism and cheating or getting into fistfights. Although a lack of concern for others is central to the concept of psychopathy, it is unclear whether this stems from differences in ability or motivation. In two studies, participants made decisions for themselves and others simultaneously following a manipulation of shared identity, which is known to increase the motivation for cooperative behavior. When the others were described as in-group members, participants higher in psychopathy showed greater concern for those others. This indicates that the lack of concern for others produced by everyday psychopathy is due to a lack of motivation to care about others, rather than a lack of ability to do so.

Research on person categorization suggests that people automatically and inflexibly categorize others according to group memberships, such as race. Consistent with this view, research using electroencephalography (EEG) has found that White participants tend to show an early difference in processing Black versus White faces. Yet, new research has shown that these ostensibly automatic biases may not be as inevitable as once thought and that motivational influences may be able to eliminate these biases. It is unclear, however, whether motivational influences shape the initial biases or whether these biases can only be modulated by later, controlled processes. Using EEG to examine the time course of biased processing, we manipulated approach and avoidance motivational states by having participants pull or push a joystick, respectively, while viewing White or Black faces. Consistent with previous work on own-race bias, we observed a greater P100 response to White than Black faces; however, this racial bias was attenuated in the approach condition. These data suggest that rapid social perception may be flexible and can be modulated by motivational states.

Recent research and theory has highlighted the dynamic nature of amygdala activation. Rather than simply being sensitive to a few limited stimulus categories, amygdala activation appears to be dependent on the goals of the perceiver. In this study, we extend this line of work by demonstrating that the means by which a person seeks to accomplish a goal also modulates the amygdala response. Specifically, we examine the modulatory effects of the aspects of neuroticism (volatility/withdrawal), a personality variable that has been linked to both generalized anxiety and differences in amygdala sensitivity. Whereas Neuroticism-Volatility is proposed to be associated with the fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS) and a sensitivity for any cues of negativity, Neuroticism-Withdrawal is proposed to be associated with the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and a generalized tendency toward passive avoidance. During fMRI scanning, participants were presented with positive, negative, and neutral images and were required to approach (move perceptually closer) or avoid (move perceptually farther away) stimuli in different blocks of trials. Consistent with hypotheses proposing a dissociation between these two aspects of neuroticism, participants higher in Neuroticism-Volatility had increased amygdala activation to negative stimuli (regardless of whether they were approached or avoided), whereas participants higher in Neuroticism-Withdrawal had increased amygdala activation to all approached stimuli (regardless of stimulus valence). These data provide further support for the motivational salience hypothesis of amygdala function, and demonstrate that both the ends and means of goal pursuit are important for shaping a response.