Seeking the safety of sociofugal space: Environmental design preferences following social ostracism

There's no place like dorm: actual-ideal dorm ambiance as a unique predictor of undergraduate mental health

ABSTRACTUndergraduate students are a high risk population for mental health challenges. Critically, residing in a setting that fails to evoke desired emotions and perceptions may have important implications for psychological wellbeing. Although previous research has investigated the relationship between student satisfaction and architecture/building amenities, little research has investigated how the ambiance of students' residences relates to mental health. Across a pair of studies, we evaluate the relationship between actual-ideal ambiance congruency (A-IAC) and mental health outcomes and mood. In Study 1, participants completed a pair of Q-sort tasks that required them to describe both their ideal room ambiance and their current room's actual ambiance. The discrepancy between these sorts was predictive of depressive symptoms, even when controlling for key covariates (e.g., personality, health, academics). In Study 2, these results were replicated among roommate pairs using dyadic analyses, while also being predictive of anxiety symptoms. Collectively, these studies reveal a novel environmental predictor of student wellbeing that can be of value for university staff. Ultimately, these findings suggest that having the ability to create one's ideal space may prove to be beneficial and possibly protective for the mental health of undergraduate university students.

Does narcissus prefer to be alone? Narcissistic personality features and the preference for solitude

OBJECTIVE

To examine the associations that narcissistic personality traits had with the preference for solitude.

BACKGROUND

Preference for solitude may be impacted by various characteristics. Narcissism may be one such characteristic given its association with specific motivations for engagement with other individuals (e.g., status attainment).

METHOD

We examined whether the associations that narcissism had with the preference for solitude were moderated by perceived attainment of status or instability of status.

RESULTS

Across three studies (N = 627/479/675), extraverted narcissism had the expected aversion to solitude. Antagonistic narcissism and neurotic narcissism did not have consistent associations with the preference for solitude across these studies, nor did the perceived attainment of status consistently moderate the links between narcissistic personality features and the preference for solitude. However, perceived instability of status moderated the associations that extraverted narcissism and antagonistic narcissism had with the preference for solitude. More specifically, the more stable status was perceived to be, the greater the aversion to solitude for those high in extraverted narcissism and the greater the preference for solitude for those high in antagonistic narcissism.

CONCLUSIONS

This pattern of results suggests that the motivations underlying preferences for solitude differ depending on particular narcissistic traits that predict whether one is more concerned with maintaining, gaining, or losing status. These results build upon what is known about the connections that narcissism has with the preference for solitude.

Feminist Social Vision: Seeing Through the Lens of Marginalized Perceivers

Social vision research, which examines, in part, how humans visually perceive social stimuli, is well-positioned to improve understandings of social inequality. However, social vision research has rarely prioritized the perspectives of marginalized group members. We offer a theoretical argument for diversifying understandings of social perceptual processes by centering marginalized perspectives. We examine (a) how social vision researchers frame their research questions and who these framings prioritize and (b) how perceptual processes (person perception; people perception; perception of social objects) are linked to group membership and thus comprehensively understanding these processes necessitates attention to marginalized perceivers. We discuss how social vision research translates into theoretical advances and to action for reducing negative intergroup consequences (e.g., prejudice). The purpose of this article is to delineate how prioritizing marginalized perspectives in social vision research could develop novel questions, bridge theoretical gaps, and elevate social vision's translational impact to improve outcomes for marginalized groups.

Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic as a predictor of daily psychological, social, and health-related outcomes

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, striking public health measures have been implemented to encourage physical distancing in order to slow the spread of disease. However, the impact of these measures on health and wellbeing is not well understood. In the current study a daily diary methodology was used to investigate the effects of social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic on a variety of outcomes with 230 undergraduate students. Participants completed an online diary for 3 days, reporting on daily social distancing behaviors, psychological wellbeing/resources, social/interpersonal connection with others, health behaviors, and health outcomes. Overall, daily social distancing (close adherence to social distancing guidelines) was associated with decreases in psychological wellbeing/resources, less social/interpersonal connection with others (including technology-mediated communication), fewer positive health behaviors, and increased reports of stress-related physical illness symptoms. Discussion centers on implications of these findings as well as the importance of identifying ways to mitigate the effects of these necessary but costly measures on health and wellbeing.

Leaving the Loners Alone: Dispositional Preference for Solitude Evokes Ostracism

What are the interpersonal consequences of seeking solitude? Leading theories in developmental research have proposed that having a general preference for solitude may incur significant interpersonal costs, but empirical studies are still lacking. In five studies (total N = 1,823), we tested whether target individuals with a higher preference for solitude were at greater risk for ostracism, a common, yet extremely negative, experience. In studies using self-reported experiences (Study 1) and perceptions of others’ experiences (Study 2), individuals with a stronger preference for solitude were more likely to experience ostracism. Moreover, participants were more willing to ostracize targets with a high (vs. low) preference for solitude (Studies 3 and 4). Why do people ostracize solitude-seeking individuals? Participants assumed that interacting with these individuals would be aversive for themselves and the targets (Study 5; preregistered). Together, these studies suggest that seeking time alone has important (and potentially harmful) interpersonal consequences.

Viewing nature scenes reduces the pain of social ostracism

In a series of four studies (Ns = 245, 135, 155, 222), we explored the effects of viewing nature scenes on promoting recovery from ostracism. We first manipulated experiences of ostracism, then randomly assigned participants to view photos of either nature, urban scenes, or neutral objects. Across all four studies, participants who viewed nature photos reported significantly lower levels of state social pain, along with significantly higher levels of affect balance and self-esteem. Moreover, when asked to look back and recall how they felt at the time of being ostracized, participants who viewed nature photos reported significantly higher levels of retrospective satisfaction of basic emotional needs than did participants in control conditions. An internal meta-analysis revealed an effect size of d = 0.58. These studies are the first, to our knowledge, to provide experimental evidence of how exposure to nature can alleviate the pain of social ostracism.

Seeking Solitude After Being Ostracized: A Replication and Beyond

Individuals may respond to ostracism by either behaving prosocially or antisocially. A recent paper provides evidence for a third response: solitude seeking, suggesting that ostracized individuals may ironically engage in self-perpetuating behaviors which exacerbate social isolation. To examine this counterintuitive response to ostracism, we conceptually replicated the original paper in three studies (N = 1,118). Ostracism experiences were associated with preference for solitude across four samples (Study 1), and being ostracized increased participants’ desires for solitude (Studies 2 and 3). Extending beyond the original paper, we demonstrated that only the experience of being ostracized, but not ostracizing others or the feeling of conspicuousness, triggered the desire for solitude. Diverging from the original paper, trait extraversion did not moderate the effect of ostracism on solitude desires. Taken together, the current research provides additional and stronger empirical evidence that solitude seeking is a common response to ostracism.

Protective Gun Ownership as a Coping Mechanism

Firearms are one of the central flashpoints in American life, and yet the motivations underlying their ownership have been generally understudied by psychologists. In this article, I review work from across the social sciences to model the psychological utility that people get from gun ownership. I propose the coping model of protective gun ownership and argue that those who own their weapon for protection are using their gun symbolically as an aid to manage psychological threats-to their safety, control, and sense of belongingness-that come from their belief that the world is a dangerous place and that society will not keep them safe. I discuss the ramifications of this coping strategy and present a research agenda for exploring this framework.

Ecologizing Social Psychology: The Physical Environment as a Necessary Constituent of Social Processes

Recent trends in social psychology point to increased interest in extending current theories by better incorporating the body (e.g., embodied cognition) and the broader interpersonal context (e.g., situations). However, despite being a critical component in early social theorizing, the physical environment remains in large part underdeveloped in most research programs. In this article, I outline an ecological framework for understanding the person-environment relationship. After introducing this perspective, I describe how this approach helps reveal the critical role played by the physical environment in a variety of social processes, including childhood development, interpersonal relationships, and social identity. Finally, I review a topic in environmental psychology that has received little attention among social psychologists: territories. I provide an ecological perspective on how the design, use, and personalization of this type of environment guide and constrain regulatory processes involving social behavior, identity expression, and emotional experience.

Brain Sensitivity to Exclusion is Associated with Core Network Closure

Humans are driven to pursue and preserve social relationships, and these motivations are reinforced through biological systems. In particular, individual differences in the tuning of biological systems that respond to social threats may motivate individuals to seek out differently structured social environments. Drawing on a sample of adolescent males who underwent fMRI brain imaging (n = 74) and contributed Facebook data, we examined whether biological responses to a common scenario - being excluded from an activity with peers - was associated with their social network structure. We find that neural responses during social exclusion in a priori hypothesized "social pain" regions of the brain (dACC, AI, subACC) are associated with the density and transitivity of core friendship networks. These findings suggest that neural reactivity to exclusion may be one factor that underlies network "safety". More broadly, the study shows the potential of linking social cognitive tendencies to social structural properties.

To defend or to affiliate: The effects of categorical similarity cues after social exclusion

This article proposed that after social exclusion, individuals may react in a hostile or amiable manner, which depends on the type of categorical similarity cues that new groups possess. For excluded individuals, groups that resemble their excluder would provoke a defensive attitude. They also exhibit hospitality to groups that resemble themselves to gain inclusion. In Experiment 1, social exclusion was manipulated by providing a scenario story regarding an individual who was excluded and subsequently wanted to join in new groups. The results indicated that participants in the social exclusion condition avoided groups that resembled the previous excluder, whereas groups that fit their characteristics were preferred. In experiment 2, the cognitive load was manipulated. Heavy cognitive load made participants in the social exclusion condition only avoid groups that resembled the excluder; in contrast, they exhibited no preference for groups that may be suitable for them.