Social Motivation: Costs and Benefits of Selfishness and Otherishness

Perceiving greater commitment increases selfishness among disagreeable people

Perceiving that a partner is highly committed tends to benefit close relationships. However, there may be relational drawbacks to perceiving high commitment. In particular, given that high commitment may signal that a partner is unlikely to leave the relationship, perceiving that a partner is highly committed might lead people low in agreeableness to feel comfortable behaving more selfishly toward that partner. One correlational study consisting of a highly diverse sample of individuals (n = 307), one observational study of newlywed couples (n = 202), and one experiment with undergraduate couples (n = 252) examined whether the implications of perceived partner commitment for selfish behaviors depend on agreeableness. Results demonstrated that perceiving high commitment resulted in more selfish behavior among disagreeable participants (Studies 1-3), but less selfish behavior among agreeable participants (Studies 1 and 3). Together, these results suggest that signaling commitment to disagreeable partners may backfire in romantic relationships.

Hiding in plain view: An historical perspective on the study of morality in personality psychology

OBJECTIVE

We aim to identify the major ideas and trends in the study of morality within personality psychology over the past 100 years.

METHOD

Our historical review is organized into three sections, examining moral dimensions in personality from the standpoints of the person as (1) a social actor (moral traits), (2) a motivated agent (the mental infrastructure of morality), and (3) an autobiographical author (moral life stories).

RESULTS

Within the field of personality psychology, a great deal of research into morality has been hiding for decades in plain view. Accordingly, we trace the history of research on socialization and instrumental competence, altruism, moral traits and virtues, the dimensions of morality inherent in the authoritarian personality, personal values, moral reasoning, moral intuitions, and the life stories constructed by people who have distinguished themselves for moral excellence, as evidenced in extraordinary bravery, compassion, or generativity.

CONCLUSIONS

In a multitude of ways, human beings express and experience individual differences in their moral engagement of the world, all of which fall within the purview of personality psychology.

Unveiling the veil: exploring how wellbeing motivations shape anonymous and public prosocial behavior in Indonesia

Indonesia is often regarded as a country with a strong inclination toward prosocial behavior, with both public and anonymous acts of kindness being commonplace. However, there is a notable gap in related research regarding the predictors of such behaviors. Previous studies have highlighted how individuals with diverse motives for wellbeing are inclined to either assist or hinder others. The present study explored the role of eudaimonic, hedonic, and extrinsic motives for wellbeing in predicting public and anonymous prosocial behavior. Using convenience sampling, 254 Indonesian undergraduate students (18-25 years old) from a private university participated in an online survey. The data were analyzed with correlational design and structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that the eudaimonic motive for wellbeing positively predicted anonymous prosocial behavior. Interestingly, no significant impact of hedonic motives on either public or anonymous prosocial behavior was observed. On the other hand, the extrinsic motive for wellbeing emerged as a positive predictor of public prosocial behavior. The absence of a discernible effect of the hedonic motive on either form of prosocial behavior highlights the need for further research into the complex interplay between motives for well-being and altruistic actions. This research represents a pioneering exploration into the distinct impacts of individuals' pursuit of wellbeing on their approaches to altruistic actions, providing valuable insights for understanding and promoting prosocial behavior in society.

Testing Sexual Strategy Theory in Norway

Choosing a romantic partner for a long-term relationship is one of the most significant decisions one makes during our lifetime. We have inherited an evolved framework from our ancestors that contains traits, as well as preferences for these traits, to solve this task. We use this framework consciously or unconsciously to choose prospective romantic partners. Following this reasoning, sexual strategy theory (SST) has been proposed for predicting which traits women and men prefer in a romantic partner for a long-term relationship. These predictions were empirically tested in the current work based on a sample of 1193 Norwegian adolescents who responded to an online questionnaire. We implemented the study hypotheses, derived from SST, in three statistical models, which were tested using structural equation modeling. In brief, our results revealed that women only valued resources more than men when we controlled for materialistic traits. This finding contrasts with SST's prediction that women would value resources more than men, independently of other variables. As for the second prediction that men value physical attractiveness more than women, this pattern existed universally and was independent of, for instance, how egalitarian they were. We thus conclude that SST was only partially supported and that variables that may reflect societal circumstances (e.g., wealth, gender, equality) should be considered when examining the mate choice behavior of women and men. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed.

Bidirectional relations between altruistic tendency and benign/malicious envy among adolescents: A longitudinal study and weekly diary study

Altruism is a prosocial tendency that has developed through long-term evolutionary selection. The present study adopts social comparison and evolutionary psychology theories to examine how benign/malicious envy can affect altruism and how altruism can affect the two types of envy in turn, respectively. In Study 1, 513 adolescents participated in a three-wave longitudinal survey to explore the relationships between dispositional altruistic tendency and dispositional benign/malicious envy. The cross-lagged analysis showed a long-term and stable negative bidirectional relationship between dispositional altruistic tendency and dispositional malicious envy and a short-term positive bidirectional relationship between dispositional altruism and dispositional benign envy. In Study 2, 109 adolescents kept a weekly diary for seven consecutive weeks to record state levels of altruistic tendency and benign/malicious envy in their daily lives. The hierarchical linear model demonstrated that weekly altruistic tendency and weekly benign envy could positively predict each other, and weekly altruistic tendency presented a negative bidirectional relationship with weekly malicious envy. These findings offer an effective way to study the relationship between human behavior and emotions from perspectives of social comparison and evolutionary psychology theories. Meanwhile, it also has practical significance for the harmonious development of society.

Greed: What Is It Good for?

What is greed good for? Greed is ubiquitous, suggesting that it must have some benefits, but it is also often condemned. In a representative sample of the Dutch population (N = 2,367, 51.3% female, Mage = 54.06, SD = 17.90), we examined two questions. First, inspired by Eriksson et al., we studied whether greedy people generate more personal and household income (economic outcomes), have more sexual partners, longer relationships, and more offspring (evolutionary outcomes), and are more satisfied in life (psychological outcomes). We found that greedy individuals had higher economic outcomes, mixed evolutionary outcomes, and lower psychological outcomes. Second, we compared greed and self-interest. We found that they differed in terms of economic outcomes, and partly in terms of evolutionary outcomes, but that they were similar in terms of psychological outcomes. This research provides insights into what greed is and does. Directions for further research are discussed.

Exploring the Effectiveness of Self-and Other-Focused Happiness: The Moderating Role of Job Resources

Purpose

This paper aims to redefine happiness goals and explore the conditions and mechanisms through which these redefined happiness goals influence work-related outcomes.

Methods

The study developed and validated scales for self-focused happiness and other-focused happiness through exploratory factor analyses of 244 employees and confirmatory factor analyses of 300 employees. The proposed theoretical model was subsequently tested using a time-lagged analysis with data from 556 supervisor-employee dyads.

Results

The findings provide strong evidence for the categorization of happiness goals into self-focused happiness and other-focused happiness. Furthermore, both self-focused and other-focused happiness significantly contribute to work-related vigor, subsequently influencing employee creativity. Additionally, the impact of these happiness goals on vigor and creativity is contingent upon the availability of job resources.

Conclusion

This study highlights the substantial role of self-focused and other-focused happiness in enhancing employee vigor and creativity. However, the extent of these effects depends on the level of available job resources. These outcomes carry notable implications for the fields of positive psychology, positive organizational behavior, and creativity.

Impact of spiritual values on tourists' psychological wellbeing: evidence from China's Buddhist mountains

Spiritual values can be a source of meaning for people, and can also determine their feelings, behavior, and mental health. In China's Buddhist mountains, we collected a total of 400 valid questionnaires from Mount Putuo and Mount Jiuhua, and identified spiritual values as transcendence, general connectedness, inner balance, positive life direction, and special religious feelings. We also explored the impact of these spiritual values on tourists' psychological wellbeing according to the PERMA model (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement). The results revealed that the more easily attained spiritual values (general connectedness, positive life direction, and special religious feelings) had a greater influence on psychological wellbeing than the less easily-attained spiritual values (transcendence and inner balance). Positive emotion and meaning, as components of psychological wellbeing, were strongly influenced by the four spiritual values, whereas engagement, accomplishment, and relationships were influenced by fewer spiritual values. The research contributes to the existing knowledge on spiritual values by analyzing their dimensions and relationships with tourists' wellbeing from different levels, and also provides empirical suggestions for the sustainable development of religious tourism destinations.

'When you give kindness out, you get it back ten times more': Ontario adults' prosocial behaviour during the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a collective opportunity to engage in prosocial behaviours, including kindness; however, little is known about the long-term impacts of the pandemic on such behaviours. As a part of a larger study (Health Outcomes for Adults During and Following the COVID-19 Pandemic), the purpose of this mixed methods research was two-fold: (1) to quantitatively explore adults' prosocial behaviour over time during the first 16 months of the pandemic in Ontario, Canada (April 2020-August 2021); and, (2) to more deeply explore, via focus groups, a sub-sample of Ontario adults' lived experiences of prosocial behaviour (assessed March 2022). A total of 2,188 participants were included in this study, with the majority of participants identifying as female (89.5%). At three time points, participants completed online questionnaires which included demographics, Prosocialness Scale for Adults, and three global kindness questions. A subset of participants (n = 42) also participated in one of six focus groups exploring their experiences of prosocial behaviour during the pandemic. A series of one-way repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that participants' self-reported prosocial behaviour increased significantly over time, while participants' awareness of kindness, engagement in acts of kindness, and view of kindness as crucial significantly decreased. Thematic analysis revealed three main themes: (1) shift in prosocial behaviour during the pandemic; (2) kindness from various perspectives; and, (3) prosocial burnout. This study provides insight into the longer-term effects of the pandemic on adults' prosocial behaviours and should be leveraged to help understand how individuals respond in times of crises.

Effect of Socioeconomic Status on Altruistic Behavior in Chinese Middle School Students: Mediating Role of Empathy

Previous studies have shown that socioeconomic status is correlated to altruistic behavior. The role of empathy as one of the motivations for altruistic behavior is gradually gaining attention among researchers. This study explores the role of empathy in the mechanisms of socioeconomic status and altruistic behavior in Chinese adolescents. A total of 253 middle school students from Northern China participated in this study, which included the dictator game and Interpersonal Relation Index. Results showed that (1) low-SES students behaved more generously than high-SES students; (2) the students were more generous to the low-SES recipients, as shown when offering them more money in the dictator game; (3) affective rather than cognitive empathy mediates the relationship between socioeconomic status and altruistic behavior. The findings provide evidence for the validation of the empathy-altruism hypothesis in a group of Chinese adolescents. Meanwhile, it reveals the path to improving altruistic behavior through the promotion of empathy, especially for individuals of high socioeconomic status.

Motives for spousal involvement in a Partner's diabetes management: Considering the role of gender and links to diet-related involvement

Using data from 148 middle-aged and older adult spouses whose partners had type 2 diabetes, we sought to examine spouses' motives for involvement in their partners' diabetes management and whether these motives were related to common types of diabetes-related spousal involvement; we also sought to understand gender differences in these dynamics. Spouses indicated being motivated to be involved in their partners' diabetes management due to altruistic motives to the greatest extent and egoistic motives to the least extent. Results from multivariable regression analyses that controlled for gender, marital quality, and spouses' own conditions requiring dietary changes revealed that all types of motives were related to the frequency of providing diet-related spousal support, whereas only egoistic motives were related to the frequency of exerting diet-related spousal control. We did not find gender differences in any motives nor in associations with spousal involvement. Findings have potential implications for couples-oriented chronic illness interventions.

Motivating Proactive Biorisk Management

Scholars and practitioners of biosafety and biosecurity (collectively, biorisk management or BRM) have argued that life scientists should play a more proactive role in monitoring their work for potential risks, mitigating harm, and seeking help as necessary. However, most efforts to promote proactive BRM have focused on training life scientists in technical skills and have largely ignored the extent to which life scientists wish to use them (ie, their motivation). In this article, we argue that efforts to promote proactive BRM would benefit from a greater focus on life scientists' motivation. We review relevant literature on life scientists' motivation to practice BRM, offer examples of successful interventions from adjacent fields, and outline ideas for possible interventions to promote proactive BRM, along with strategies for iterative development, testing, and scaling.

Why help others? Insights from rodent to human early childhood research

Helping behavior are actions aiming at assisting another individual in need or to relieve their distress. The occurrence of this behavior not only depends on automated physiological mechanisms, such as imitation or emotional contagion, that is, the individual's emotion and physiological state matching with others, but also needs motivation to sustain. From a comparative and developmental perspective, we discover that the motivation for helping behavior has a deep foundation both phylogenetically and ontogenetically. For example, empathic concern for others, relieving personal distress and the desire for social contact are universal motivations across rodents, non-human primates and human early childhoods. Therefore, a circle-layered model integrating evidences for motivation for helping behavior from rodent to human early childhood research is proposed: the inner circle contains the emotional-behavioral system and the outer circle contains the affective-cognitive system. The application of this model has significance for both behavioral neuroscience research and cultivating prosocial behavior in human society.

The Qwantify app dataset: A remote experience sampling study of desire, emotion, and well-being

Experiences of desire—the feeling of wanting to have, do, or experience something—are pervasive and varied. Recent theoretical advances draw attention to characterizing this variation. Thus, this study investigated experiences of desire in everyday life and co-occurring social, physical, and emotional states, including facets of emotional experiences known to be related to well-being (e.g., perceived loneliness and stress). The Qwantify app was designed to run a remote experience sampling study. Through the app, participants were randomly alerted during their daily life to report on their experience in the moment. During the data collection period, any individual could download the freely available Qwantify app and participate in the study, without providing identifying information or communicating with researchers. Similar to other remote experience sampling studies, an incentive for participants to engage in the study was unlocking visualizations of their own data. Over 600 participants downloaded the app, completed the sign-up process, and responded to at least one experience sampling alert. Approximately 40% of these participants went on to respond to 50 alerts. The purpose of this report is to describe this experience sampling dataset such that it can be used to test a variety of hypotheses, including hypotheses regarding individual differences.

Motivation and empathic accuracy during conflict interactions in couples: it's complicated!

The aim of this study was to broadly investigate the role of relationship-, self-, and partner-serving motivation in empathic accuracy in couples' conflict interactions. To this end, a laboratory study was set up in which couples (n = 172) participated in a conflict interaction task, followed immediately by a video-review task during which they reported their own feelings and thoughts and inferred those of their partner to assess empathic accuracy. We used both trait and state measures of relationship-, self-, and partner-serving motivation, and we experimentally induced these three categories of motivation. Relationship-serving state motivation predicted greater empathic accuracy. In contrast, experimentally induced partner-serving motivation resulted in less empathic accuracy for men. Self-serving motivation was not found to be associated with empathic accuracy, nor were any of the trait measures. These findings underscore the complexity of the association between motivation and empathic accuracy in partners' conflict interactions.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11031-022-09982-x.

Surprisingly Happy to Have Helped: Underestimating Prosociality Creates a Misplaced Barrier to Asking for Help

Performing acts of kindness increases well-being, yet people can be reluctant to ask for help that would enable others' kindness. We suggest that people may be overly reluctant because of miscalibrated expectations about others' prosocial motivation, underestimating how positively others will feel when asked for help. A pretest identified that interest in asking for help was correlated with expectations of how helpers would think and feel, but a series of scenarios, recalled experiences, and live interactions among adult participants in the United States (total N = 2,118) indicated that those needing help consistently underestimated others' willingness to help, underestimated how positively helpers would feel, and overestimated how inconvenienced helpers would feel. These miscalibrated expectations stemmed from underestimating helpers' prosocial motivation while overestimating compliance motivation. This research highlights a limitation of construing help-seeking through a lens of compliance by scholars and laypeople alike. Undervaluing prosociality could create a misplaced barrier to asking for help when needed.

Beyond Reciprocity: Forgiveness, Generosity, and Punishment in Continuing Dyadic Interactions

There is a long-standing debate in philosophy and the social sciences about how selfishness and cooperation function in dyadic social exchanges. Dyads are the foundation of our social lives, and reciprocity has long been considered the dominant strategy for dyadic interactions. We will argue the repertoire of human behavior during social exchanges ranges from punishment to generosity, and that the nuances of the relationship and interaction will dictate which behavior is likely to occur. We will examine emotional consequences of punishment, reciprocity, and forgiveness in long-term dyadic social exchanges. Finally, we argue that dyads move beyond reciprocity to a more forgiving, generous strategy to reestablish cooperation, and continue the relationship when noncooperation arises, once the motivations shift has occurred.

Exploring the impact of leader humility on different types of voice: the role of employee other-oriented motivations

Drawing on social learning theory and taking a motivational perspective, this study mainly investigates how leader humility can promote employees' other-oriented motivations, and uncovers the other-serving motivational mechanism through which leader humility can impact their employees' different types of voice behavior. By collecting data from 152 leader–subordinate dyads through an online survey, the results revealed that leader humility was positively related to both employees' prosocial motivation and organizational concern motivation. Meanwhile, these two motivations play mediating roles in explaining how leader humility can positively affect employees' supportive voice and challenging voice. It is noteworthy that leader humility, which features highlighting the value and strength of others, is more likely to trigger employees' prosocial motivation and thus influence their voice behavior. This research extends our understanding of leader humility, employee motivation, and workplace voice. Practical implications and limitations of the results are also discussed.

Psychological Selfishness

Selfishness is central to many theories of human morality, yet its psychological nature remains largely overlooked. Psychologists often draw on classical conceptions of selfishness from evolutionary biology (i.e., selfish gene theory), economics (i.e., rational self-interest), and philosophy (i.e., psychological egoism), but such characterizations offer limited insight into the psychology of selfishness. To address this gap, we propose a novel framework in which selfishness is recast as a psychological construction. From this view, selfishness is perceived in ourselves and others when we detect a situation-specific desire to benefit the self that disregards others' desires and prevailing social expectations for the situation. We argue that detecting and deterring such psychological selfishness in both oneself and others is crucial in social life-facilitating the maintenance of social cohesion and close relationships. In addition, we show how using this psychological framework offers a richer understanding of the nature of human social behavior. Delineating a psychological construct of selfishness can promote coherence in interdisciplinary research on selfishness and provide insights for interventions to prevent or remediate the negative effects of selfishness.

Perceived social support-giving moderates the association between social relationships and interleukin-6 levels in blood

Although positive social relationships are assumed to relate to lower levels of chronic systemic inflammation, the empirical evidence on this association is mixed. This study examines whether perceived social support-giving (i.e., the belief that one can be available to give social support to others, henceforward referred to as perceived support-giving) moderates associations between social relationships and inflammation using data from the longitudinal follow-up of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the U.S. (MIDUS II). Middle-aged adults (N = 1054) completed self-report questionnaires on social integration, perceived support-availability from others, positive relations with others, perceived support-giving, socio-demographic information, and health-related information and provided blood samples for measurement of interleukin-6 (IL-6) as a marker of systemic inflammation. The results showed that perceived support-giving moderated the associations between IL-6 and indicators of positive social relationships, including social integration, perceived support-availability, and positive relations with others. Indicators of positive social relationships were associated with lower IL-6 among individuals higher, but not lower, in perceived support-giving. The moderating effects of perceived support-giving held after adjusting for socio-demographic and health-related covariates. Therefore, positive social relationships are associated with lower IL-6 only for individuals who believe they can give more support in those relationships. In addition, preliminary evidence indicated that the moderating effects of perceived support-giving might be further qualified by gender, being significant only in women.

For me or for others? The better-than-average effect and negative feelings toward average others during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the first outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many people expressed hatred toward others whom they believed were responsible for the situation. Such increase in negative affect could be resultant of the better-than-average effect (BTAE), which refers to the phenomenon of believing that one is superior to average others. This study investigated the relationship between the BTAE and emotional valence toward others and tested whether the relationship was moderated by allocentric goals (i.e., concerned with the interests of others rather than themselves) and culture. Participants from the U.S. (N = 210) and South Korea (N = 214) were asked about their perceptions on whether they were better than others at preventing the COVID-19 infection, how they felt about others regarding COVID-19, and for whom they were preventing COVID-19. The results indicated that people showing more BTAE in relation to preventing the COVID-19 infection reported more negative emotional valence toward others, but the relationship was moderated by allocentric goals. In particular, the U.S. participants with higher allocentric goals reported less negatively valenced emotions, while the same was not found in Korean participants. The findings suggest the power of allocentric goals in diminishing the BTAE in some cultures, which may possibly explain the negative emotions some people experience when following social distancing rules.

Social belonging, compassion, and kindness: Key ingredients for fostering resilience, recovery, and growth from the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to increases in anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, burnout, grief, and suicide, particularly for healthcare workers and vulnerable individuals. In some places, due to low vaccination rates and new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerging, psychosocial strategies for remaining resilient during an ongoing multi-faceted stressor are still needed. Elsewhere, thanks to successful vaccination campaigns, some countries have begun reopening but questions remain regarding how to best recover, adjust, and grow following the collective stress and loss caused by the pandemic.

METHOD

Here, we briefly describe three evidence-based strategies that can help foster individual and collective recovery, growth, and resilience: cultivating social belonging, practicing compassion, and engaging in kindness.

RESULTS

Social belonging involves a sense of interpersonal connectedness. Practicing compassion involves perceiving suffering as part of a larger shared human experience and directing kindness toward it. Finally, engaging in kindness involves prosocial acts toward others.

CONCLUSIONS

Together, these strategies can promote social connectedness and help reduce anxiety, stress, and depression, which may help psychologists, policymakers, and the global community remain resilience in places where cases are still high while promoting adjustment and growth in communities that are now recovering and looking to the future.

Practicing Other-Focused Kindness and Self-Focused Kindness Among Those at Risk for Mental Illness: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial

People with reduced levels of mental well-being might be at risk for developing future mental illness. Although several positive psychology interventions successfully improve mental well-being and psychological distress, less is known about their efficacy in a sample at risk for mental disorders. A Dutch sample of 289 participants with low or moderate levels of well-being were randomly assigned to other-focused kindness with reflection, other-focused kindness without reflection, self-focused kindness, or waitlist control (Trial register: NTR6786). Results of multilevel growth curve analyses revealed that other-focused kindness, but not self-focused kindness, led to improvements in the primary outcome mental well-being relative to waitlist control up to 6-week follow-up. By contrast, only other-focused kindness without reflection led to improvements in psychological distress. The three kindness conditions mainly did not differ from one another, and mainly no differences were found up to 6-months follow-up. An exception was that perceived stress was significantly more reduced up to 6-week and 6-months follow-up when people practiced other-focused kindness without reflection then when participants had practiced self-focused kindness. These findings point to the benefits of practicing kindness for others when people might be at risk for future mental illness. The study also indicates that reflecting about practicing kindness does not seem to have added value.

Compassionate goals predict COVID-19 health behaviors during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

We predicted that people with compassionate goals to support others and not harm them practiced more COVID-19 health behaviors during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic to protect both themselves and others from infection. Three studies (N = 1,143 American adults) supported these predictions and ruled out several alternative explanations. Compassionate goals unrelated to the health context predicted COVID-19 health behaviors better than the general motivation to be healthy (Studies 2 and 3). In contrast, general health motivation predicted general health behaviors better than did compassionate goals. Compassionate goals and political ideology each explained unique variance in COVID-19 health behaviors (Studies 1-3). Compassionate goals predict unique variance in COVID-19 health behaviors beyond empathic concern, communal orientation, and relational self-construal (Study 3), supporting the unique contribution of compassionate goals to understanding health behaviors. Our results suggest that ecosystem motivation is an important predictor of health behaviors, particularly in the context of a highly contagious disease.

Health behavior adherence and emotional adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic in a US nationally representative sample: The roles of prosocial motivation and gratitude

RATIONALE

Substantial health behavior change (e.g., social distancing, mask-wearing) is needed to slow COVID-19. Yet, adherence to these guidelines varies, and avoiding social contact may contribute to declines in emotional adjustment.

OBJECTIVE AND METHODS

Drawing on prior research linking social motives to health behavior and well-being, we investigated the associations among social motives (prosocial motivation, gratitude) and resilience to social distancing (health behavior adherence, emotional adjustment) in a US nationally representative sample (N = 1007) collected in April 2020.

RESULTS

Prosocial motivation, but not gratitude, correlated with health behavior adherence and social distancing practice. Conversely, gratitude, but not prosocial motivation, correlated with emotional adjustment (daily accomplishments, meaning in life, thriving, psychological distress, positive and negative affect). Analyses controlled for gratitude/prosocial motivation, self-focused motivation, COVID-19 worries, work arrangement, stay-at-home order, likelihood of COVID-19 diagnosis, and demographics.

CONCLUSION

Public health campaigns focusing on the benefits of health behaviors for others, rather than just oneself, may promote adherence and emotional adjustment.

Comparing the effects of emotional disclosure and peer helping writing on psychological distress among Chinese international students: The moderating role of rumination

OBJECTIVES

This study tested the effects of emotional disclosure writing and peer helping writing in reducing psychological distress among Chinese international students. This study also examined whether rumination and ambivalence over emotion expression moderated the effects of emotional disclosure and peer helping writing.

METHOD

One hundred forty-four Chinese international students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: emotional disclosure, peer helping, or neutral control writing. Participants completed two 20-min writing sessions and questionnaires at baseline, 2-month follow-up, and 4-month follow-up.

RESULTS

We found no significant differences across the three writing conditions in levels of psychological distress over time. However, rumination emerged as a significant moderator in both emotional disclosure and peer helping intervention conditions. High ruminators generally experienced significant reductions in depressive symptoms, whereas low ruminators experienced increased depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrate that the benefits of writing interventions may vary as a function of rumination.

Creating a Compassionate World: Addressing the Conflicts Between Sharing and Caring Versus Controlling and Holding Evolved Strategies

For thousands of years, various spiritual traditions and social activists have appealed to humans to adopt compassionate ways of living to address the suffering of life. Yet, along with our potential for compassion and self-sacrifice, the last few thousand years of wars, slavery, tortures, and holocausts have shown humans can be extraordinarily selfish, callous, vicious, and cruel. While there has been considerable engagement with these issues, particularly in the area of moral psychology and ethics, this paper explores an evolutionary analysis relating to evolved resource-regulation strategies that can be called "care and share" versus "control and hold." Control and hold are typical of primates that operate through intimidatory social hierarchies. Care and share are less common in non-human primates, but evolved radically in humans during our hunter-gatherer stage when our ancestors lived in relatively interdependent, small, mobile groups. In these groups, individualistic, self-focus, and self-promoting control and hold strategies (trying to secure and accumulate more than others) were shunned and shamed. These caring and sharing hunter-gatherer lifestyles also created the social contexts for the evolution of new forms of childcare and complex human competencies for language, reasoning, planning, empathy, and self-awareness. As a result of our new 'intelligence', our ancestors developed agriculture that reduced mobility, increased group size, resource availability and storage, and resource competition. These re-introduced competing for, rather than sharing of, resources and advantaged those who now pursue (often aggressively) control and hold strategies. Many of our most typical forms of oppressive and anti-compassionate behavior are the result of these strategies. Rather than (just) thinking about individuals competing with one another, we can also consider these different resource regulation strategies as competing within populations shaping psychophysiological patterns; both wealth and poverty change the brain. One of the challenges to creating a more compassionate society is to find ways to create the social and economic conditions that regulate control and hold strategies and promote care and share. No easy task.

"We Feel Good": Daily Support Provision, Health Behavior, and Well-Being in Romantic Couples

Intimate partners are an important source of support when pursuing health goals. A vast amount of literature documents the role of social support in alleviating recipients’ distress and facilitating health behaviors. Less studied is the phenomenon that providing support may entail a benefit for the provider, particularly in the context of health behavior change. In the present study, we investigated whether providing social support in daily life would be associated with more health behavior, and emotional and relational well-being that same day, using a sample of romantic couples aiming to become more physically active. Ninety-nine inactive and overweight heterosexual romantic couples (=198 individuals) participated in this dyadic daily diary study. Both partners reported on the provision of social support, positive and negative affect, and relationship satisfaction in electronic end-of-day diaries across 14 consecutive days. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was objectively assessed via triaxial accelerometers (Actigraph GT3X+). Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM), dyadic data analyses indicated that providing support to the partner was associated with higher own MVPA, more own positive affect, less own negative affect, and more own relationship satisfaction (actor effects), over and above the effect of support provision on outcomes in the other partner (partner effects). The present findings suggest that the provision of daily social support in couples is strongly associated with enhanced well-being not only at a personal level but also at a relational level. Providing social support may also serve the function of relationship maintenance. Thus, shifting the focus away from the recipient to examine beneficial effects of social support in providers is highly relevant. Future research should address the question of when, why, and how giving support is beneficial.

The plasticity of well-being: A training-based framework for the cultivation of human flourishing

Research indicates that core dimensions of psychological well-being can be cultivated through intentional mental training. Despite growing research in this area and an increasing number of interventions designed to improve psychological well-being, the field lacks a unifying framework that clarifies the dimensions of human flourishing that can be cultivated. Here, we integrate evidence from well-being research, cognitive and affective neuroscience, and clinical psychology to highlight four core dimensions of well-being-awareness, connection, insight, and purpose. We discuss the importance of each dimension for psychological well-being, identify mechanisms that underlie their cultivation, and present evidence of their neural and psychological plasticity. This synthesis highlights key insights, as well as important gaps, in the scientific understanding of well-being and how it may be cultivated, thus highlighting future research directions.

Halfway to My Request Is Not Halfway to My Heart: Underestimating Appreciation for Partial Help

When being asked for help, people sometimes can only offer part of what is requested (i.e., partial help). The present research investigates whether helpers can accurately forecast how much help-seekers appreciate this understudied form of assistance. From multiple helping scenarios and a face-to-face interaction, we demonstrate an asymmetry in helpers' and help-seeker's appraisals of partial help: Helpers anticipated less appreciation for partial help than help-seekers felt in receiving it. This asymmetry arose from helpers' greater valuation of helping outcomes over intentions to be helpful than help-seekers'. Accordingly, when helpers' intentions were discounted, this asymmetry no longer persisted. Another account-helpers feel worse for breaking norms of helping than help-seekers-was not supported. We discuss several directions for future research on the psychology of partial prosocial behaviors.

Prosocial Orientations: Distinguishing Compassionate Goals From Other Constructs

The compassionate goals scale was developed to assess the intentions underlying prosocial behaviors. Over the past 10 years, it has been shown to predict prosociality. However, research has not yet examined how compassionate goals relate to other measures of prosocial orientations or demonstrated that compassionate goals predict unique variance beyond them. Three studies addressed this shortcoming in the existing literature. Across studies, participants completed measures of compassionate goals, compassionate love, communal orientation, communion, unmitigated communion, and empathic concern. The participants also reported giving to strangers (study 1) and giving to close others (study 2). Study 3 was dyadic in nature—the participants reported their reasons for giving to friends and gratitude, and friends reported their gratitude toward the participants. Despite strong correlations between the compassionate goals scale and other prosocial orientation measures, compassionate goals items are empirically distinct from items assessing other prosocial orientations. The compassionate goals measure accounts for unique variance in giving, reasons for giving, and gratitude. Path analyses support a dyadic process—that compassionate goals predict more other-focused reasons for giving, which then predict friends’ gratitude toward the participants. While the compassionate goals measure does overlap with other well-established and commonly used measures of prosocial orientation measures, it accounts for unique variance in giving-related outcomes, suggesting that intentions are an important aspect of prosocial orientations.

Future Time Perspective and Perceived Social Support: The Mediating Role of Gratitude

Future time perspective, perceived social support, and dispositional gratitude are topics of interest that positively influence people’s psychological health. Although gratitude has been positively associated with future time perspective and social support, this is the first study to investigate its mediating role in the relationships of future time perspective with perceived social support. A convenience sample of 1256 adults (55.1% women), mean age 34.55 years (SD = 13.92), completed self-reported measures of future time perspective (conceptualized as remaining time and opportunities), dispositional gratitude, and received and given social support. Results indicated that higher dispositional gratitude mediated the relationship between the perception of more remaining time and opportunities and greater perception of received and given social support. These findings highlight the importance of considering dispositional characteristics to better understand the impact of perceived future on the individuals’ subjective experience of social exchanges. Interventions addressing future time perspective and dispositional gratitude might have beneficial effects on individuals’ social well-being.

The Emerging Science of Virtue

Numerous scholars have claimed that positive ethical traits such as virtues are important in human psychology and behavior. Psychologists have begun to test these claims. The scores of studies on virtue do not yet constitute a mature science of virtue because of unresolved theoretical and methods challenges. In this article, we addressed those challenges by clarifying how virtue research relates to prosocial behavior, positive psychology, and personality psychology and does not run afoul of the fact-value distinction. The STRIVE-4 (Scalar Traits that are Role sensitive, include Situation × Trait Interactions, and are related to important Values that help to constitute Eudaimonia) model of virtue is proposed to help resolve the theoretical and methods problems and encourage a mature science of virtue. The model depicts virtues as empirically verifiable, acquired scalar traits that are role sensitive, involve Situation × Trait interactions, and relate to important values that partly constitute eudaimonia (human flourishing). The model also holds that virtue traits have four major components: knowledge, behavior, emotion/motivation, and disposition. Heuristically, the STRIVE-4 model suggests 26 hypotheses, which are discussed in light of extant research to indicate which aspects of the model have been assessed and which have not. Research on virtues has included survey, intensive longitudinal, informant-based, experimental, and neuroscientific methods. This discussion illustrates how the STRIVE-4 framework can unify extant research and fruitfully guide future research.

Me first: Neural representations of fairness during three-party interactions

One hallmark of human morality is a deep sense of fairness. People are motivated by both self-interest and a concern for the welfare of others. However, it remains unclear whether these motivations rely on similar neural computations, and the extent to which such computations influence social decision-making when self-fairness and other-fairness motivations compete. In this study, two groups of participants engaged in the role of responder in a three-party Ultimatum Game while being scanned with functional MRI (N = 32) or while undergoing high-density electroencephalography (N = 40). In both studies, participants accepted more OtherFair offers when they themselves received fair offers. Though SelfFairness was reliably decoded from scalp voltages by 170 ms, and from hemodynamic responses in right insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, there was no overlap between neural representations of fairness for self and for other. Distinct neural computations and mechanisms seem to be involved when making decisions about fairness in three-party contexts, which are anchored in an egocentric, self-serving bias.

The effects of obligation on relationships and well-being over time in middle adulthood

Previous research has offered mixed evidence on whether obligation in relationships benefits or harms individuals and their relationships. Given that few studies are prospective and consider multiple close relationships, we used 18-year longitudinal data to model whether obligation is associated with differences in relational and individual well-being over time. Because prior mixed findings may be attributed to differential influences of obligation across development, we also considered age. Light obligation predicted higher levels of relational and individual well-being; substantive obligation sometimes predicted lower levels of well-being. Both types of obligation mostly did not predict changes in relationships and well-being over time except substantive obligation predicted slower increases in friend support. The associations between light and substantive obligation were largely uniform across age. The only exception was for substantive obligation and friend support; substantive obligation was associated with a slower increase in friend support only for younger adults (<39 years old). This study extends previous research by examining obligation among middle-aged adults, addressing a critical developmental gap in this literature. Findings suggest that understanding people’s obligations toward close others is important not only for their own well-being but also their relationships in adulthood.

Mattering at the Intersection of Psychology, Philosophy, and Politics

Mattering is an ideal state of affairs consisting of two complementary psychological experiences: feeling valued and adding value. Human beings can feel valued by, and add value to, self, others, work, and community. To make sure that the need for mattering is fulfilled, we must balance feeling valued with adding value. Moreover, we must balance adding value to self with adding value to others. Unfortunately, the dominant neoliberal philosophy does not support the values required to ensure the experience of mattering. Whereas a healthy and fair society would require equilibrium among values for personal, relational, and collective well-being, the dominant philosophy in many parts of the world favors personal at the expense of relational and collective values. Neoliberal economic and social policies have resulted in diminished sense of mattering for millions of people. Some people respond to cultural pressures to achieve higher status by becoming depressive or aggressive. Some marginalized groups, in turn, support xenophobic, nationalistic, and populist policies in an effort to regain a sense of mattering. To make sure that everyone matters, we must align the psychology, philosophy, and politics of mattering. The political struggle for a just and equitable distribution of mattering takes place in social movements and the policy arena. The perils and promises of these efforts are considered.

Conflicting influences of justice motivations on moral judgments

Humans are motivated by justice concerns, yet vary in their reactions to observing or experiencing injustice. At a proximate level, approach and avoidance represent core fundamental motivational systems which have been proposed to be involved in two independent moral systems: a prescriptive system responsive to obligations ("shoulds") and a proscriptive system concerned with prohibitions ("should nots"). It is unclear whether these motivational systems or personal involvement better explain the influence of justice dispositions on moral judgments. To clarify this theoretical argument, two experiments examined how dispositional self-oriented and other-oriented justice sensitivity influence condemnation of prescriptive and proscriptive violations while manipulating perspective between-subject or within-subject. Participants rated the permissibility of everyday moral transgressions, from the perspective of the victim or a neutral observer. In Study 1 (n = 235), self-oriented dispositions increased and other-oriented dispositions decreased the probability of rating prescriptive violations as permissible. Study 2 (n = 468) replicated the effect of other-oriented justice sensitivity. Overall, these results bridge the gap between motivational systems and self-other processing. They suggest that justice sensitivity is better conceptualised as distinct motivations which can exert opposing influences on moral decision-making. Moreover, personal involvement may not be as important as individual justice motivations for explaining everyday moral decision-making.

Researcher engagement in policy deemed societally beneficial yet unrewarded

Maintaining the continued flow of benefits from science, as well as societal support for science, requires sustained engagement between the research community and the general public. On the basis of data from an international survey of 1092 participants (634 established researchers and 458 students) in 55 countries and 315 research institutions, we found that institutional recognition of engagement activities is perceived to be undervalued relative to the societal benefit of those activities. Many researchers report that their institutions do not reward engagement activities despite institutions' mission statements promoting such engagement. Furthermore, institutions that actually measure engagement activities do so only to a limited extent. Most researchers are strongly motivated to engage with the public for selfless reasons, which suggests that incentives focused on monetary benefits or career progress may not align with researchers' values. If institutions encourage researchers' engagement activities in a more appropriate way - by moving beyond incentives - they might better achieve their institutional missions and bolster the crucial contributions of researchers to society.

Dispositional Greed Scale: evidências de sua estrutura interna e parâmetros dos itens

Resumo Este estudo objetivou conhecer as evidências da estrutura interna da Dispositional Greed Scale (DGS) e os parâmetros de seus itens. Contou-se com a participação de 338 pessoas com média de idade de 26,5 anos (DP = 8,18), que responderam a DGS e perguntas demográficas. Os resultados indicaram uma solução unifatorial da DGS (Ω = 0,75). Análises via Teoria de Resposta ao Item demonstraram que os itens da DGS discriminam adequadamente os participantes e exigem baixa a moderada quantidade de traço latente para serem endossados. Ademais, detectou-se funcionamento diferencial, quanto à variável sexo, em apenas um item da DGS que apresentou impacto reduzido nas curvas características do teste total. Conclui-se que a DGS reúne evidências que corroboram sua qualidade psicométrica, podendo ser utilizada em estudos futuros que objetivem mensurar a ganância no contexto brasileiro.

Individual Differences in Selfishness as a Major Dimension of Personality: A Reinterpretation of the Sixth Personality Factor

Research on the structure of personality has identified a sixth major trait that emerges in addition to the Big Five. This factor has been characterized in a number of ways—as integrity, morality, trustworthiness, honesty, values, and, most commonly, honesty-humility. Although each of these labels captures some of the attributes associated with the trait, none of them fully represents the range of associated characteristics. In this article, we provide a reinterpretation of the sixth factor as reflecting individual differences in selfishness and review research that supports this interpretation. Interpreting the sixth trait as dispositional selfishness parsimoniously represents the array of variables that are associated with the sixth factor and reflects the behaviors of people who score low versus high on the trait. This reinterpretation provides greater coherence to six-factor models of personality and suggests new directions for research on the sixth factor and on dispositional selfishness more generally.