Who attains social status? Effects of personality and physical attractiveness in social groups

Assessing Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills in Just a Few Minutes: 96-, 45-, and 20-Item Short Forms of the BESSI

Social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills matter for individuals' well-being and success. The behavioral, emotional, and social skills inventory (BESSI) uses 192 items to assess 32 specific SEB skills across five broad skill domains. This research developed three short forms of the BESSI-192 and explored their measurement properties, predictive validity, and cross-cultural comparability. We found that BESSI-96, BESSI-45, and BESSI-20 largely captured the psychological content of the BESSI-192 measure, retained a robust multidimensional structure, and demonstrated adequate reliability. At the domain and facet level, the BESSI short forms showed patterns of associations with external criteria that were similar to the BESSI-192 and preserved most of the BESSI-192's predictive power. The BESSI short forms also demonstrated full or partial measurement invariance between the primarily U.S.-based and German adult samples. We conclude by discussing contexts in which the short forms may be useful for researchers and practitioners.

"Us big boys gotta find a way that works": A qualitative study of casual sexual experiences among larger-bodied, White and Latino sexual minority men

Compared to their heterosexual counterparts, sexual minority men (SMM) are more likely to report that their own body image negatively impacts their sex lives, are more vulnerable to weight stigma, and more frequently experience size-based discrimination. Additionally, in comparison to heterosexual men, SMM report higher levels of anti-fat bias, both directed at themselves and intimate partners. Given this literature, we qualitatively examined how nine larger-bodied SMM (Mage = 37.89, SD = 12.42) experience and navigate weight stigma when seeking out casual sex. Our analytic process revealed four primary themes: Building a Gate, Letting Partners Past the Gate, Joy Inside the Gate, and When the Gate Fails. The gate refers to the protection that participants employed to avoid negative, unsafe, or fatphobic sexual encounters. Participants shared that they were aware of weight stigma within their own community, and many assumed (or were explicitly told) that their bodies were undesirable to potential partners. Further, participants readily delineated between fat attraction and fat fetishization, whereby the latter was universally framed as negative and degrading. These findings highlight the complex experience of engaging in casual sex for larger-bodied SMM and identify strategies these men use to protect themselves from body shame and weight stigma.

How does the status of errant robot affect our desire for contact? - The moderating effect of team interdependence

Technological breakthroughs such as artificial intelligence and sensors make human-robot collaboration a reality. Robots with highly reliable, specialised skills gain informal status in collaborative teams, but factors such as unstructured work environments and task requirements make robot error inevitable. So how do status differences of errant robots affect the desire for contact, and do team characteristics also have an impact? This paper describes an intergroup experiment using the Experimental Vignette Method (EVM), based on the Expectation Violation Theory, 214 subjects were invited to test the following hypotheses: (1) Errant robot status has an influence on employees' desire for contact and support for robotics research through negative emotions; (2) Team interdependence is a boundary condition for the effect of errant robot status on negative emotions. This paper contributes to the literature on employee reactions to robot errors in human-robot collaboration and provides suggestions for robot status design.

The Associations of Peer-Rated Popularity and Likeability With Dark Triad Personality Traits in Adolescent Groups

One of the most significant challenges in adolescence is the pursuit of social acceptance, which can manifest in various forms, including likeability and popularity. Achieving social acceptance is associated with positive outcomes, while its absence is linked to adverse consequences. Existing research into the personality determinants impacting the ability to elicit likeability or gain popularity remains limited, primarily focusing on the influence of Big Five traits. This study aimed to explore the relationships between self-reported Dark Triad traits -encompassing Machiavellianism, subclinical psychopathy, and subclinical narcissism- and peer-rated likeability and popularity in a naturalistic high school classroom setting. The sample comprised 184 secondary students (98 females, 86 males) with an average age of 16.29 (SD = 1.36). Participants self-reported their Dark Triad traits and provided peer ratings through sociometric questions related to likeability and popularity. Our findings indicated that narcissism was significantly and positively associated with both likeability and popularity. In contrast, psychopathy and Machiavellianism exhibited minimal associations with measures of social acceptance. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Gay Community Stress in Sexual Minority Men and Women: A Validation Study in the Netherlands

Intraminority gay community stress theory posits that social stressors within sexual minority communities of men may be risk factors for mental health problems in gay and bisexual men. The recently developed 20-item Gay Community Stress Scale (GCSS) is a valid and reliable measure of gay community stress, but was not yet validated in the Netherlands. This study developed a Dutch-translated version of the GCSS and validated this scale in sexual minority men and sexual minority women, as it was hypothesized that sexual minority women may also experience intraminority stress. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were subsequently performed in independent samples of men and women, and produced a 16-item GCSS for men and a 12-item GCSS for women. The four-factor structure of the original GCSS was replicated in men and women, and encouraging support for discriminant and concurrent validity of the GCSS was found in both men and women. The total scale and subscales were internally consistent in men (α and ω ≥ .87) and in women (α and ω ≥ .78). The Dutch-translated GCSS seems to offer a valid and reliable way to assess intraminority stress in Dutch-speaking sexual minority men and sexual minority women, although further validation is warranted.

Relationship between Personality Traits and Subjective Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood: Moderating Role of Independent and Interdependent Self-Construal

During emerging adulthood, individuals' subjective well-being declines owing to challenges regarding identity, work, and romantic relationships. Although the relationships among personality traits, self-construal, and well-being have been examined, studies have focused on personal rather than relational subjective well-being. Furthermore, self-construal's moderating effect on the relationship between personality traits and subjective well-being remains unclear. Therefore, this study examined the relationships among the Big-five personality traits and subjective well-being (life satisfaction, happiness, and interdependent happiness) and the moderating effect of self-construal among 1548 Japanese emerging adults (Mage = 22.24, SD = 1.01). Regression analysis indicated that all aspects of subjective well-being were negatively associated with neuroticism and positively associated with extraversion, independent and interdependent self-construal. Further, agreeableness was positively associated with personal and relational well-being. Independent or interdependent self-construal can moderate the relationships between neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness and subjective well-being. Overall, these findings provide valuable insights for improving Japanese emerging adults' well-being.

The nature of status: Navigating the varied approaches to conceptualizing and measuring status

Members of small groups fundamentally desire status as status underpins members' self-concept and dictates behavior in groups. Moreover, group members readily orient and update status perceptions that index the social standing of themselves and other members. Yet, our understanding is obscured by variability in how researchers study status. In the current review, we crystallize knowledge regarding the nature of status by characterizing variability in definitions, measures, and analytic frameworks. We advocate a definition of status that draws together attributes of respect, admiration, and voluntary deference. We also distinguish reputational and relational status operationalizations and address implications pertaining to measurement along with downstream decisions involving data management and analysis. We encourage a deliberate approach to ensure congruency in how status is defined, measured, and analyzed within a research program. This review also guides theory and hypothesis generation regarding how status-related processes may vary based on different forms of status or differing contexts.

Differential Behavioral Pathways Linking Personality to Leadership Emergence and Effectiveness in Groups

This study integrates leadership process models with process models of personality and behavioral personality science to examine the behavioral-perceptual pathways that explain interpersonal personality traits' divergent relation to group leadership evaluations. We applied data from an online group interaction study (N = 364) alternately assigning participants as leaders conducting brief tasks. We used four variable types to build the pathways in multiple mediator models: (a) Self-reported personality traits, (b) video recordings of expressed interpersonal behaviors coded by 6 trained raters, (c) interpersonal impressions, and (d) mutual evaluations of leadership emergence/effectiveness. We find interpersonal big five traits to differently relate to the two leadership outcomes via the behavioral-perceptual pathways: Extraversion was more important to leadership emergence due to impressions of assertiveness evoked by task-focused behavior being strongly valued. Agreeableness/emotional stability were more important to leadership effectiveness due to impressions of trustworthiness/calmness evoked by member-focused/calm behavior being stronger valued.

Are many sex/gender differences really power differences?

This research addresses the long-standing debate about the determinants of sex/gender differences. Evolutionary theorists trace many sex/gender differences back to natural selection and sex-specific adaptations. Sociocultural and biosocial theorists, in contrast, emphasize how societal roles and social power contribute to sex/gender differences beyond any biological distinctions. By connecting two empirical advances over the past two decades-6-fold increases in sex/gender difference meta-analyses and in experiments conducted on the psychological effects of power-the current research offers a novel empirical examination of whether power differences play an explanatory role in sex/gender differences. Our analyses assessed whether experimental manipulations of power and sex/gender differences produce similar psychological and behavioral effects. We first identified 59 findings from published experiments on power. We then conducted a P-curve of the experimental power literature and established that it contained evidential value. We next subsumed these effects of power into 11 broad categories and compared them to 102 similar meta-analytic sex/gender differences. We found that high-power individuals and men generally display higher agency, lower communion, more positive self-evaluations, and similar cognitive processes. Overall, 71% (72/102) of the sex/gender differences were consistent with the effects of experimental power differences, whereas only 8% (8/102) were opposite, representing a 9:1 ratio of consistent-to-inconsistent effects. We also tested for discriminant validity by analyzing whether power corresponds more strongly to sex/gender differences than extraversion: although extraversion correlates with power, it has different relationships with sex/gender differences. These results offer novel evidence that many sex/gender differences may be explained, in part, by power differences.

The Role of Sexual and Romantic Attraction in Human Mate Preferences

Sex differences in mate preferences are ubiquitous, having been evidenced across generations and cultures. Their prevalence and persistence have compellingly placed them in the evolutionarily adaptive context of sexual selection. However, the psycho-biological mechanisms contributing to their generation and maintenance remain poorly understood. As such a mechanism, sexual attraction is assumed to guide interest, desire, and the affinity toward specific partner features. However, whether sexual attraction can indeed explain sex differences in partner preferences has not been explicitly tested. To better understand how sex and sexual attraction shape mate preferences in humans we assessed how partner preferences differed across the spectrum of sexual attraction in a sample of 479 individuals that identified as asexual, gray-sexual, demisexual or allosexual. We further tested whether romantic attraction predicted preference profiles better than sexual attraction. Our results show that sexual attraction accounts for highly replicable sex differences in mate preferences for high social status and financial prospects, conscientiousness, and intelligence; however, it does not account for the enhanced preference for physical attractiveness expressed by men, which persists even in individuals with low sexual attraction. Instead, sex differences in physical attractiveness preference are better explained by the degree of romantic attraction. Furthermore, effects of sexual attraction on sex differences in partner preferences were grounded in current rather than previous experiences of sexual attraction. Taken together, the results support the idea that contemporary sex differences in partner preferences are maintained by several psycho-biological mechanisms that evolved in conjunction, including not only sexual but also romantic attraction.

Physical attractiveness, same-sex stimuli, and male venture capitalists' financial risk-taking

Financial risk-taking is central to venture capital decision-making, which is increasingly approached from a heuristics and biases perspective. While previous research has identified entrepreneurs’ physical attractiveness as an important heuristic cue in VCs’ investment decisions, this study addresses the role of VCs’ own physical attractiveness in relation to the financial risks they take. Using a dataset for a representative sample of 341 male entrepreneur and male VC dyads in the context of stage financing, this study finds that VCs of below-average attractiveness are more sensitive to the physical attractiveness of the entrepreneur when compared to VCs of average attractiveness. Also, the nature of this effect changes from the first to the second investment round for VCs of below-average attractiveness. Combined, these findings imply that VCs’ funding decisions may be subject to mechanisms that stem from their own physical attractiveness. Theoretical implications for VC decision-making and same-sex stimuli are discussed.

Social status qualifiers: dimensions and determinants of factors shaping social status for women and men in Sweden

This study contributes to our understanding of what lifestyle factors affect the social status of women and men in contemporary postmaterialist societies. We examine the dimensions and determinants of social status qualifiers among Swedish people using a survey of 1,650 Swedish respondents who ranked the importance of 14 qualifiers for the social status of a woman and a man. The analysis showed surprisingly strong similarities in what factors affect the social status of women and men - both in the importance of individual status qualifiers and in the three underlying status dimensions: The highest-ranked dimension included status qualifiers related to external material resources and properties. The second most important dimension comprised interactional resources such as manners, looks, being married and having children. The third dimension concerned the importance of interest and engagement in politics, the environment, and fine art, which were of the least importance for social status. The few significant differences in ascriptions of status for a woman or a man were rather gender stereotypical. In addition, the analysis revealed some significant differences in status perceptions among the respondents: Gender, class, educational background, and country of birth were among the main determinants of such differences.

A Short Measure of the Big Five Aspects: Development and Validation of the BFAS-40

We present psychometric evidence for the BFAS-40, an abbreviated measure of the Big Five Aspects Scale (DeYoung et al., 2007). In Study 1, we developed the BFAS-40 using metaheuristic algorithms and cross-validated the factor structure of the shortened measure. In Study 2, we demonstrated that the BFAS and BFAS-40 correlate with external criteria in similar ways. In Studies 3 and 4, we provide convergent validity evidence by examining correlations between the BFAS-40 and other measures of typical and clinically relevant personality. Finally, in Study 5, we provide evidence of test-retest reliability as well as additional construct validity evidence. Across these five studies, we demonstrate that the BFAS-40 is a short, reliable, and valid measure of the Big Five Aspects.

Establishing the associations between the Big Five personality traits and self-reported number of close friends: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study

Close friends are important across the life span, who spend time together, provide support, and share happiness. But what determines the number of close friends one would have? One of the most important factors would be personality traits, which capture the most basic differences among individuals in terms of how they feel, think, and behave. This report aimed to establish the associations between the Big Five personality traits and the number of close friends cross-sectionally and longitudinally. By analyzing a cross-sectional (N = 32, 990) and longitudinal dataset (N = 22, 383) from Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), the current report found that Neuroticism has a negative connection with the number of close friends, whereas Agreeableness, Openness, and Extraversion were positively connected to the number of close friends in the cross-sectional study. In the longitudinal study, Openness was positively associated with changes in the number of close friends.

Thin Ideal Internalization Assessment (THIINA): Development and Psychometric Validation of a New Measure of Female Body Image

Thin ideal internalization is widely implicated in women's body image and eating disturbances. A recently proposed multidimensional operationalization of internalization suggests the brevity and construct validity of existing questionnaires may limit the assessment of thin ideal internalization. Therefore, this research aimed to develop a new questionnaire (i.e., Thin Ideal Internalization Assessment; THIINA) to comprehensively assess thin ideal internalization. In Study 1, 301 female participants were administered the THIINA. Exploratory factor analyses revealed the 17-item THIINA had a stable 3-factor structure reflecting thin idealization, thin overvaluation, and thin behavioral drive. In Study 2, 337 female participants were administered the THIINA and validation measures. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed stability of the 3-factor structure and findings supported convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of the THIINA. Support for temporal stability was found within a sub-sample of participants (n = 132). The THIINA demonstrated strong psychometric properties, a stable three-factor structure representing theoretically-driven domains, and support for the creation of a composite score representing overall thin ideal internalization. These findings suggest the multidimensional operationalization and measurement of thin ideal internalization could improve theoretical and clinical understanding of the impact of thin ideal internalization on women's body image and eating.

Frustration-aggression hypothesis reconsidered: The role of significance quest

One of the oldest scientific theories of human aggression is the frustration-aggression hypothesis, advanced in 1939. Although this theory has received considerable empirical support and is alive and well today, its underlying mechanisms have not been adequately explored. In this article, we examine major findings and concepts from extant psychological research on hostile aggression and offer an integrative conception: aggression is a primordial means for establishing one's sense of significance and mattering, thus addressing a fundamental social-psychological need. Our functional portrayal of aggression as a means to significance yields four testable hypotheses: (1) frustration will elicit hostile aggression proportionately to the extent that the frustrated goal serves the individual's need for significance, (2) the impulse to aggress in response to significance loss will be enhanced in conditions that limit the individual's ability to reflect and engage in extensive information processing (that may bring up alternative, socially condoned means to significance), (3) significance-reducing frustration will elicit hostile aggression unless the impulse to aggress is substituted by a nonaggressive means of significance restoration, (4) apart from significance loss, an opportunity for significance gain can increase the impulse to aggress. These hypotheses are supported by extant data as well as novel research findings in real-world contexts. They have important implications for understanding human aggression and the conditions under which it is likely to be manifested and reduced.

Status-impact assessment: is accuracy linked with status motivations?

Status hierarchies are ubiquitous across cultures and have been over deep time. Position in hierarchies shows important links with fitness outcomes. Consequently, humans should possess psychological adaptations for navigating the adaptive challenges posed by living in hierarchically organised groups. One hypothesised adaptation functions to assess, track, and store the status impacts of different acts, characteristics and events in order to guide hierarchy navigation. Although this status-impact assessment system is expected to be universal, there are several ways in which differences in assessment accuracy could arise. This variation may link to broader individual difference constructs. In a preregistered study with samples from India (N = 815) and the USA (N = 822), we sought to examine how individual differences in the accuracy of status-impact assessments covary with status motivations and personality. In both countries, greater overall status-impact assessment accuracy was associated with higher status motivations, as well as higher standing on two broad personality constructs: Honesty-Humility and Conscientiousness. These findings help map broad personality constructs onto variation in the functioning of specific cognitive mechanisms and contribute to an evolutionary understanding of individual differences.

Exploring the peer status prototypes: A large-scale latent profile analysis on high-school students from four European countries

Peer status - the regard other group members have of an individual - is fundamental for youth development. Different research traditions developed independent theoretical frameworks conceiving the dimensions underlying social status, and this led to identifying a variety of peer status prototypes. In this work, we explored whether a classification based on the four dimensions of popularity, aggression, dislike, and victimization could integrate the scattered peer status profiles found in the different traditions. A latent profile analysis on 16,224 European students identified the peer status prototypes of popular, bullies, disliked, victims, and average students. Both the peer- and self-reported correlates supported that the five profiles accounted for the large variety of the students' profiles in the literature. These findings suggest that the adoption of a multidimensional approach supported by advanced statistical procedures could identify students' peer status profiles more effectively, replacing classifications based on cutoffs, and leading to a unified students' classification.

Social Elite in Imperial China: Their Destinies as Documented by the Historical Literature and Their Personality as Defined by the Contemporary Five-Factor Model

Background: The association between personality and life outcome has been widely studied in Western countries, and one might question whether the association exists in China. The official documentation from the Twenty-Six Histories of Imperial China, which presents life-long data on the social elite, may offer a convenient way to realize this effort. Meanwhile, a possible association might help identify competent personalities and offer treatment hints for personality disorders or other psychiatric deviations worldwide. Methods: Based on these historical records (about 618–1911 AD) on 18 social elite groups with long longevity (Macrobian group) and 30 with normal lifespans (Control group), we assessed personality traits/facets using the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and destiny using the Destiny Evaluation Questionnaire (DEQ). Results: Compared to the Controls, the Macrobian group scored higher on the DEQ’s Health and Destiny in General and lower on the NEO-PI-R traits Openness to Experience and Extraversion and facets such as Openness to Fantasy, Openness to Aesthetics, Openness to Feelings, Excitement-Seeking, and Self-Consciousness. In the Macrobian group, the Trust and Compliance facets predicted the DEQ’s Family and Marriage and Social Relationships aspects, respectively; Conscientiousness and its facets Dutifulness, Self-Discipline, and Competence predicted Family and Marriage, Career Achievement, and Destiny in General, respectively; and the Self-Consciousness facet predicted worse performance in Career Achievement, Family and Marriage, and Social Relationships and the Depression facet of Destiny in General. In the Control group, Openness to Feelings positively and Anxiety negatively predicted Health. Conclusions: Less self-focused attention and more interdependence between individuals were beneficial to several aspects of individual destiny in Imperial China, which might be profound for the individual career development and clinical treatment of personality disorders in contemporary society.

Personality descriptions influence perceived cuteness of children and nurturing motivation toward them

The current empirical evidence regarding the effects of personality on physical attractiveness is limited to adult faces. In two preregistered studies, we demonstrated that personality descriptions influenced perceived cuteness, warmth, competence of young children, and female adults' nurturing motivation toward them. Study 1 showed that participants rated children accompanied by positive personality descriptions as cuter, friendlier, and more intelligent than their initial ratings. Negative personality descriptions reduced perceived cuteness in children, which in turn reduced nurturing motivation. Study 2 showed that negative personality descriptions consistently reduced perceived cuteness and warmth ratings after manipulation, regardless of the initial level of perceived cuteness. After one week, cuteness and warmth ratings in the positive personality condition tended to return to their initial ratings. However, the effect of negative personality descriptions on cuteness ratings persisted for all children. Together, our findings suggest that female adults' perception of cuteness and nurturing motivation are induced not only by children's appearance but also their personality.

Salary, flexibility or career opportunity? A choice experiment on gender specific job preferences

Using the evaluation of hypothetical job offers in a discrete choice experiment, we analyse which characteristics of employment positions are relevant to men and women when deciding between job offers. Thereby, we investigate whether preferences for work arrangements are gender specific. The analysis shows that on average, women have a stronger preference for part-time work than men, and that the career prospect of a job is more important to men than to women. Furthermore, we use heterogeneity within genders to study whether gender specific preference patterns result from gendered considerations of family formation. We find that certain men and women, especially those who plan to have children and have traditional intentions about the division of labor in the household, evaluate work relationships more strongly according to gender roles than others. This analysis of hypothetical employment choices provides valuable insight into the preference structure of men and women, which proves to be heterogeneous within and between genders.

Gay and Straight Men Prefer Masculine-Presenting Gay Men for a High-Status Role: Evidence From an Ecologically Valid Experiment

There is increased acceptance of gay men in most Western societies. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that feminine-presenting gay men are still disadvantaged compared to gay men who present in a more traditionally masculine way. Though gay men themselves may be complicit in perpetuating this bias, studies that demonstrate this possibility are scant. Whereas most studies on perceptions of feminine-presenting gay men have manipulated gender nonconformity via written descriptions, research suggests that behavioural cues such as voice and body-language can mitigate or exacerbate prejudice toward a stereotyped individual. In the current study, audio-visual stimuli were created to investigate how masculine versus feminine behaviour would impact status endowment from other gay and heterosexual men. In total, 256 men (Mage = 42.73, SD = 14.48: half gay; half heterosexual) cast, from a selection of six video-taped candidates, one gay man to play a lead role in a purported ad for a tourism campaign. In the videos, the actors delivered a script related to the tourism campaign in a manner where their voice and body-language was manipulated to come across as either masculine or feminine-presenting. Findings indicated that gay and heterosexual participants showed a significant preference for the masculine videoclips. For heterosexual men, the preference for masculine-presenting actors was predicted by greater anti-gay sentiment, whereas internalised anti-gay prejudice did not predict a preference for masculine-presentation among gay men. Implications of the findings for discourse and education on intraminority prejudice and suggestions for future research are offered.

Internal fights over resources: The effect of power struggles on team innovation

Power hierarchy is a recently growing topic among scholars. Although the previous literature has emphasized the importance of understanding power hierarchy in teams and demonstrated the negative consequences of power struggles among team members in team performance, it neglected to explore how power struggles impact other team functioning and outcomes. Drawing on social information processing theory and the team learning behavior model discussed, this study proposes that power struggles send aggressive social information to team members, and such social information negatively influences team learning. Social information emitted by power struggles undermines psychological safety and creates hostility and interpersonal tensions, which reduce team members' providing new ideas and information sharing. In addition, this study proposes a positive relationship between team learning and team innovation since team learning provides two key conditions (i.e., active knowledge integration and appropriate team climate) for successful team innovation. Lastly, this study suggests the mediating role of team learning between power struggles and team innovation. Using a sample of 99 teams from two organizations in Korea, this study tested the proposed model. In sum, this study found that (1) power struggles are negatively related to team learning, (2) team learning is positively related to team innovation, and (3) team learning mediates the relationship between power struggles and team learning.

Going Beyond Traits: Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills Matter for Adolescents’ Success

The present research addresses three key questions about social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills. First, how do SEB skills relate with the Big Five traits and Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) core competencies? Second, how do SEB skills relate with consequential outcomes in adolescence? Third, do SEB skills provide incremental validity beyond personality traits? Results from a diverse sample of high school students ( N = 897) indicate that SEB skills converge with the Big Five traits and CASEL competencies in expected and conceptually meaningful ways. Analyses of self-reported and school-reported outcomes extend SEB skills’ nomological network by showing that they predict academic achievement and engagement, occupational interests, social relationships, civic engagement, and well-being. Finally, tests of incremental validity indicate that SEB skills provide unique information beyond personality traits and that this information matters for predicting outcomes during adolescence. These findings advance our understanding of the nature, correlates, and consequences of SEB skills.

A rising tide lifts all boats: Group performance and intragroup status

Early theories of status dynamics in small groups portrayed intragroup status as a limited resource—as the status of one group member rises, the status of another must fall. Recent theorizing presents an alternative view: that the amount of status available to group members can be variable rather than fixed. Building on this view, we theorize that the average level of intragroup status changes as a function of group performance, such that the intragroup status of an average group member is higher in groups with higher performance and lower in groups with lower performance. We further theorize that changes in group solidarity partly account for the link between group performance and intragroup status. Across three preregistered studies, we find support for these hypotheses, which we hope will kindle interest in identifying other factors that can account for changes in intragroup status equilibria.

Altruistic behaviors and cooperation among gifted adolescents

The present study is a differential study that describes the nature of the relationship between cooperation and altruistic behavior in a sample of gifted adolescents in three universities in Egypt and Kuwait University. It also identified the differences between males/females, and senior students/junior students in both cooperation and altruism. A total of 237 gifted adolescents—with average age 21.3 ± SD 2.6 years—from three Egyptian universities: Alexandria University, Sadat Academy for Management Sciences, and Suez University (in Egypt), and Kuwait University, were involved in this study. Measures used in the study include the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students (SRBCSS), Generative Altruism Scale (GAlS), and The Cooperative/Competitive Strategy Scale (CCSS). Results revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between altruism and cooperation among gifted adolescents. Also, findings show that there are statistically significant differences between males and females in both altruism and cooperation. In addition, there are differences statistically significant between senior students and junior students in both altruism and cooperation in favor of senior students. It is recommended that altruism and cooperation intervention-based programs should be designed to increase the adaptive behaviors of adolescents.

Gender and Context-Specific Effects of Vocal Dominance and Trustworthiness on Leadership Decisions

Objective

The evolutionary-contingency hypothesis, which suggests that preferences for leaders are context-dependent, has found relatively consistent support from research investigating leadership decisions based on facial pictures. Here, we test whether these results transfer to leadership decisions based on voice recordings. We examined how dominance and trustworthiness perceptions relate to leadership decisions in wartime and peacetime contexts and whether effects differ by a speaker’s gender. Further, we investigate two cues that might be related to leadership decisions, as well as dominance and trustworthiness perceptions: voice pitch and strength of regional accent.

Methods

We conducted a preregistered online study with 125 raters and recordings of 120 speakers (61 men, 59 women) from different parts in Germany. Raters were randomly distributed into four rating conditions: dominance, trustworthiness, hypothetical vote (wartime) and hypothetical vote (peacetime).

Results

We find that dominant speakers were more likely to be voted for in a wartime context while trustworthy speakers were more likely to be voted for in a peacetime context. Voice pitch functions as a main cue for dominance perceptions, while strength of regional accent functions as a main cue for trustworthiness perceptions.

Conclusions

This study adds to a stream of research that suggests that (a) people’s voices contain important information based on which we form social impressions and (b) we prefer different types of leaders across different contexts. Future research should disentangle effects of gender bias in leadership decisions and investigate underlying mechanisms that influence how people’s voices contribute to achieving social status.

Rising Above vs. Falling Below: When and Why Status Change Affects Interpersonal Helping in Workgroups

The current research sheds new light on how and why status hierarchies impact interpersonal helping by examining people’s reactions to recently experienced status change. Specifically, we incorporate findings from research on the self-serving attributional bias to theorize about how the direction of status change (i.e., a gain or a loss) can shape the extent to which people accept or deflect personal responsibility for their change in status, which we argue will then impact other-concern and, thus, their willingness to help. Further, we identify status change legitimacy as a key contingency that will strengthen or weaken the psychological and behavioral effects of status change. Among firefighter teams (Study 1), participants in the laboratory (Studies 2 and 3), and student teams (Study 4), we show that (1) status change impacts interpersonal helping through its impact on changes in other-concern and (2) status change legitimacy moderates the effect of status change on both other-concern and interpersonal helping. Additionally, we document an asymmetry with regards to the effects of status change on both other-concern and helping behavior (i.e., with the negative impact of a status loss being stronger than the positive impact of a status gain). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

When and why does status threat at work bring out the best and the worst in us? A temporal social comparison theory

This paper seeks to explain when and why people respond to status threat at work with behaviors oriented toward either self-improvement or interpersonal harming. To that end, we extend the established static social comparison perspective on status threat. Specifically, we introduce the notion of temporal proximity of status threat, which is informed by five temporal social comparison markers. We argue that people construe distal future status gaps as a challenge (and thus show self-improvement-oriented responses), but construe a more proximal status gap as a threat (and thus engage in negative interpersonal behaviors). Further, we introduce three factors of uncertainty that may render the underlying temporal comparison less reliable, and thereby less useful for guiding one's response. Overall, our temporal social comparison theory integrates and extends current theorizing on status threat in organizations by fully acknowledging the dynamic nature of social comparisons. Plain Language Summary Employees often compare themselves to others to evaluate their status. If they perceive that their status is at threat or risk losing status, they engage in behaviors to prevent status loss. These behaviors can be positive, aimed at improving one's position or they can be negative, aimed at harming others. This paper develops a theoretical framework to examine when employees engage in more challenge- vs. threat-oriented behaviors. We argue that an important question how employees react to status threat is its temporal proximity—will an employee's status be threatened in the near versus distal future? We propose that the more distal (vs. proximate) the status threat is, the more employees gravitate towards challenge- and less threat-oriented behaviors. But how do employees know when a status threat occurs in the future? We argue that employees will compare their past status trajectories to co-workers’ status trajectories to mentally extrapolate the temporal proximity of such a threat. More specifically, we propose five characteristics (temporal markers) of social comparison trajectories that inform employees about the temporal proximity: their relative current position, the relative velocity and acceleration of their status trajectory, their relative mean status level, and their relative minimum and maximum status. Moreover, we suggest that employees’ conclusions from these markers are weakened by uncertainty in the “data stream” of social comparison information over time, that is, the length of the time span available, the amount of interruptions in this data stream, and the number of fluctuations in their own and others’ status trajectories.

Status Competition and Implicit Coordination: Based on the Role of Knowledge Sharing and Psychological Safety

Implicit coordination is an important research topic in the field of social cognition. Previous studies have studied implicit coordination behavior from the perspective of team mental model but ignored the internal mechanism of individual status competition motivation on implicit coordination behavior. Based on the differences of status competition motivation, the individual status competition motivation is divided into prestige-type and dominant-type. With knowledge sharing as the mediating variable and psychological safety as the moderating variable, this research constructed a process model of the influence of status competition motivation on implicit coordination behavior. The empirical study was carried out with a sample of 367 employees of 44 enterprises. The research results show the following findings: (1) Status competition has a differentiated impact on implicit coordination. Prestige-type status competition has a significant positive impact on implicit coordination behavior, while dominant-type status competition has a significant negative impact on implicit coordination behavior. (2) Knowledge sharing plays a mediating role between status competition (prestige-type status competition and dominant-type status competition) and implicit coordination. (3) Psychological safety positively moderates the relationship between prestige-type status competition, dominant-type status competition, and knowledge sharing. The research results provide a new perspective for the field of implicit coordination; reveal the mechanism of status competition motivation in implicit coordination, which is of great significance to the practice of enterprise team management and human resource management.

The Effects of Partner Extraversion and Agreeableness on Trust

Existing research has documented the social benefits (i.e., higher popularity and liking) of extraversion and agreeableness. Do these positive reputational consequences extend to social dilemma situations that require trust? We found that people do not trust extraverts more than introverts. Instead, people's trust decisions are guided by their partner's level of agreeableness. In a trust game (Studies 1 and 2), individuals were more likely to trust a partner who was described as agreeable (vs. disagreeable); and, in a laboratory study of work groups, participants trusted more (vs. less) agreeable group members (Study 3). Individuals anticipated others' preferences for agreeable partners and tried to come across as more agreeable, but not more extraverted, in social dilemmas (Study 4). These findings suggest that the social benefits of agreeableness (but not extraversion) extend to social interactions involving trust and highlight the importance of target personality traits in shaping trust decisions.

How Does Public Health Investment Affect Subjective Well-Being? Empirical Evidence from China

Maximizing or improving residents’ subjective well-being is one of the basic purposes of public expenditure. As an important component of public expenditure, the impact of public health investment on residents’ subjective well-being receives considerable attention. Regarding the empirical evidence, this paper measures residents’ subjective well-being from the perspectives of overall cognitive happiness, life satisfaction, positive emotions and negative emotions, on the basis of a multi-level structural model of subjective well-being. Factor analysis is used to estimate the subjective well-being of residents at the province level in China, based on the China Family Panel Studies of 2018. In addition, structural equation modeling is employed to explore the impact of public health investment and its regional disparity on the subjective well-being of residents. The empirical results show that public health investment has a significant positive effect on residents’ subjective well-being. Moreover, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the regional disparity of public health investment and residents’ subjective well-being. Further study illustrates that the effects of public health investment and its regional disparity on residents’ subjective well-being are heterogeneous by group. Public health investment has a greater impact on the well-being of low- and middle-income, eastern and urban residents than high-income, midwest and rural residents.

Leader's Perception of Corporate Social Responsibility and Team Members' Psychological Well-Being: Mediating Effects of Value Congruence Climate and Pro-Social Behavior

Previous research, that showed that corporate social responsibility (CSR) had positive effects on the corporate image and performance, has attracted much attention and resulted in an increasing number of follow-up studies. However, CSR-related activities are focused on their effect on external stakeholders, although they are social service activities geared towards internal and external stakeholders, thus showing a research gap regarding the effects of internal stakeholders on organizational effectiveness. Therefore, this study investigated the mediating effects of the value congruence climate and prosocial behavior among the team members in the relationship between leader’s CSR perception and team members’ psychological well-being, using a multilevel analysis of the relationship between the team and individual level factors. For the empirical analysis, 69 teams (334 employees) were sampled from 23 Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Analyses revealed a positive effect of a leader’s CSR perception on the team members’ psychological well-being. Furthermore, a leader’s CSR perception had a positive effect on his/her team’s value congruence environment and team members’ prosocial behavior. The team’s value congruence environment and team members’ prosocial behavior were found to mediate the relationship between the leader’s CSR perception and team members’ psychological well-being. The relationships among these variables were investigated using a multilevel analysis model capable of simultaneous validation of team- and individual-level factors associated with team members’ psychological well-being. Future research directions were then discussed based on the theoretical and practical implications and limitations of the study results.

Are You Listening to Me? The Negative Link Between Extraversion and Perceived Listening

Extraverts are often characterized as highly social individuals who are highly invested in their interpersonal interactions. We propose that extraverts' interaction partners hold a different view-that extraverts are highly social, but not highly invested. Across six studies (five preregistered; N = 2,456), we find that interaction partners consistently judge more extraverted individuals to be worse listeners than less extraverted individuals. Furthermore, interaction partners assume that extraversion is positively associated with a greater ability to modify one's self-presentation. This behavioral malleability (i.e., the "acting" component of self-monitoring) may account for the unfavorable lay belief that extraverts are not listening.

Social hierarchies and social networks in humans

Across species, social hierarchies are often governed by dominance relations. In humans, where there are multiple culturally valued axes of distinction, social hierarchies can take a variety of forms and need not rest on dominance relations. Consequently, humans navigate multiple domains of status, i.e. relative standing. Importantly, while these hierarchies may be constructed from dyadic interactions, they are often more fundamentally guided by subjective peer evaluations and group perceptions. Researchers have typically focused on the distinct elements that shape individuals' relative standing, with some emphasizing individual-level attributes and others outlining emergent macro-level structural outcomes. Here, we synthesize work across the social sciences to suggest that the dynamic interplay between individual-level and meso-level properties of the social networks in which individuals are embedded are crucial for understanding the diverse processes of status differentiation across groups. More specifically, we observe that humans not only navigate multiple social hierarchies at any given time but also simultaneously operate within multiple, overlapping social networks. There are important dynamic feedbacks between social hierarchies and the characteristics of social networks, as the types of social relationships, their structural properties, and the relative position of individuals within them both influence and are influenced by status differentiation. This article is part of the theme issue 'The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies'.

Above and beyond: helping behaviors among nurses in positive and negative reciprocity relationships

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore antecedents of helping behaviors among nurses using a social exchange framework. The paper reports an investigation into the effects of reciprocity, perceived coworker efficacy and stress on active and passive helping behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

To test hypotheses, the authors performed random coefficient modeling on Mplus with data from 155 full-time nurses.

Findings

Nurses were willing to help coworkers regardless of perceived reciprocity levels in the relationship. Rather, their perceptions of the coworker's efficacy and previous behavior predicted helping.

Originality/value

This manuscript contributes to the literature in a number of ways. First, it provides empirical evidence that individuals will suppress or ignore reciprocity norms during an interdependent task. This lends credence to the idea that social exchanges may need to be examined in light of other variables or at other levels of analysis. Second, it demonstrates that investment behaviors (i.e. helping) can and do occur in exchange relationships despite low reciprocity. Overall, the data suggest that individuals are willing to maintain relationships despite a lack of returns.