Evidence for the role of affective theory of mind in face-name associative memory

Poor face-name recall has been associated with age-related impairments in cognitive functioning, namely declines in episodic memory and executive control. However, the role of social cognitive function - the ability to remember, process, and store information about others - has been largely overlooked in this work. Extensive work has shown that social and nonsocial cognitive processes rely on unique, albeit overlapping, mechanisms. In the current study, we explored whether social cognitive functioning - specifically the ability to infer other people's mental states (i.e., theory of mind) - facilitates better face-name learning. To do this, a sample of 289 older and young adults completed a face-name learning paradigm along with standard assessments of episodic memory and executive control alongside two theory of mind measures, one static and one dynamic. In addition to expected age differences, several key effects emerged. Age-related differences in recognition were explained by episodic memory, not social cognition. However, age effects in recall were explained by both episodic memory and social cognition, specifically affective theory of mind in the dynamic task. Altogether, we contend that face-name recall can be supported by social cognitive functioning, namely understanding emotions. While acknowledging the influence of task characteristics (i.e., lures, target ages), we interpret these findings in light of existing accounts of age differences in face-name associative memory.

Comparing data quality from an online and in-person lab sample on dynamic theory of mind tasks

Nearly half the published research in psychology is conducted with online samples, but the preponderance of these studies rely primarily on self-report measures. The current study validated data quality from an online sample on a novel, dynamic task by comparing performance between an in-lab and online sample on two dynamic measures of theory of mind-the ability to infer others' mental states. Theory of mind is a cognitively complex construct that has been widely studied across multiple domains of psychology. One task was based on the show The Office®, and has been previously validated by the authors with in-lab samples. The second was a novel task based on the show Nathan for You®, which was selected to account for familiarity effects associated with The Office. Both tasks measured various dimensions of theory of mind (inferring beliefs, understanding motivations, detecting deception, identifying faux pas, and understanding emotions). The in-person lab samples (N = 144 and 177, respectively) completed the tasks between-subject, whereas the online sample (N = 347 from Prolific Academic) completed them within-subject, with order counterbalanced. The online sample's performance across both tasks was reliable (Cronbach's α = .66). For The Office, the in-person sample outperformed the online sample on some types of theory of mind, but this was driven by their greater familiarity with the show. Indeed, for the relatively unfamiliar show Nathan for You, performance did not differ between the two samples. Together, these results suggest that crowdsourcing platforms elicit reliable performance on novel, dynamic, complex tasks.

Stigma Toward Substance Dependence: Causes, Consequences, and Potential Interventions

Substance dependence is a prevalent and urgent public health problem. In 2021, 60 million Americans reported abusing alcohol within the month prior to being surveyed, and nearly 20 million Americans reported using illegal drugs (e.g., heroin) or prescription drugs (e.g., opioids) for nonmedical reasons in the year before. Drug-involved overdose rates have been steadily increasing over the past 20 years. This increase has been primarily driven by opioid and stimulant use. Despite its prevalence, drug dependence is one of the most stigmatized health conditions. Stigma has myriad negative consequences for its targets, including limiting their access to employment and housing, disrupting interpersonal relationships, harming physical and mental health, and reducing help-seeking. However, because research on stigma toward people with substance use disorders (SUDs) is relatively sparse compared with research on stigma toward other mental illnesses, the field lacks a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences of SUD stigma. Moreover, it remains unclear how, if at all, these factors differ from other types of mental illness stigma. The goal of this review is to take stock of the literature on SUD stigma, providing a clear set of foundational principles and a blueprint for future research and translational activity.

Contact reduces substance use stigma through bad character attributions, especially for U.S. health care professionals

OBJECTIVE

People with substance use disorders (SUDs) are faced with pervasive stigma. Education-based interventions tend to emphasize biological causes of dependency; however, health care professionals still stigmatize people who use substances despite being more knowledgeable about biological causes. There may be an important moderating role of personal contact since health care professionals may treat people in the throes of dependency.

METHOD

We tested how substance use stigma may be explained by causal attributions, working in health care, and personal contact. A nationally representative sample of the U.S. general population (N = 6,812) was collected with targeted oversampling of health care professionals (N = 788). Using a vignette paradigm, desire for social distance was measured along with causal attributions and contact.

RESULTS

Health care professionals were no less stigmatizing than the general population. However, attributing substance dependency to bad character was robustly associated with stigma, but these beliefs were moderated by the interaction between working in health care and contact. Mediation decomposition confirmed that contact transmitted its effect by lowering bad character attributions, and this mediation was significantly stronger for health care professionals.

CONCLUSIONS

Health care professionals and the general population may hold similar levels of stigma when accounting for attributions, and personal contact plays an important role. We discuss the implications of these results for stigma-reduction campaigns and emphasize deconstructing personal culpability narratives surrounding substance use disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Determining Whether Older Adults Use Similar Strategies to Young Adults in Theory of Mind Tasks

OBJECTIVES

Theory of mind-the ability to infer others' mental states-declines over the life span, potentially due to cognitive decline. However, it is unclear whether deficits emerge because older adults use the same strategies as young adults, albeit less effectively, or use different or no strategies. The current study compared the similarity of older adults' theory of mind errors to young adults' and a random model.

METHODS

One hundred twenty older adults (MAge = 74.68 years; 64 female) and 111 young adults (MAge = 19.1; 61 female) completed a novel theory of mind task (clips from an episode of the sitcom The Office®), and a standard measure of cognitive function (Logical Memory II). Monte Carlo resampling estimated the likelihood that older adults' error patterns were more similar to young adults' or a random distribution.

RESULTS

Age deficits emerged on the theory of mind task. Poorer performance was associated with less similarity to young adults' response patterns. Overall, older adults' response patterns were ~2.7 million times more likely to match young adults' than a random model. Critically, one fourth of older adults' errors were more similar to the random distribution. Poorer memory ability contributed to this relationship.

DISCUSSION

Age deficits in theory of mind performance may be driven by a subset of older adults and be related to disparities in strategy use. A certain amount of cognitive ability may be necessary for older adults to engage similar strategies to young adults' during theory of mind.

Changes in stress predict worse mental health outcomes for college students than does loneliness; evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

Objectives: Although loneliness and stress have been widely implicated in worse mental health outcomes for college students, the relationship between them remains poorly understood. Participants: Data were collected from 111 undergraduates at a large Midwestern university in fall 2019 - winter 2020. A subset (N = 34) of those responded to a follow-up survey during the COVID-19 pandemic (May 2020). Methods: At both time points, participants completed measures of loneliness and stress, as well as well-validated measures of depression and anxiety. Results: Prior to the pandemic, stress mediated the positive relationship between loneliness and depression. During the pandemic, mental health outcomes, stress, and loneliness all increased. Stress, but not loneliness, predicted college students' worse mental health outcomes during the pandemic. Conclusions: Stress plays a key role in college students' worsening mental health. Reducing loneliness may be a potential strategy to mitigate the negative impact of stress on college students' mental health.

Intergroup relationships with people who use drugs: A personal network approach

Positive and meaningful intergroup contact between people who use drugs and those with the potential to provide positive social interactions has been identified as an important pathway to address the burden of drug use by reducing stigmatizing views and behaviors. Traditional approaches to intergroup contact typically rely on laboratory experiments or survey vignettes to examine the consequences of variation in contact conditions and relationships. Although seldom measured, contact occurs naturally through individuals' personal social networks. Here, we apply this latter approach to examine how the characteristics of drug use and social roles are associated with positive and meaningful intergroup contact in daily life. We leverage unique data from a state representative sample of Indiana residents aged 18 or older (n = 926) that completed a personal network interview and separately reported people they know who have a drug use problem. We first identified the respondents who nominated a person who uses drugs as a member of their core personal network and then evaluated the relationship, disease, and individual characteristics that were associated with that person's inclusion in the personal network. We find that primary relationships (e.g., having a spouse or child who uses drugs) are associated with meaningful contact with people who use drugs but that intense manifestations of disease characteristics (severe or problematic, danger to self) can limit the likelihood of contact. These findings demonstrate how the nature of intergroup contact can shape the types of relationships that have been shown to help reduce stigmatizing attitudes and the behavioral barriers to recovery, such as social isolation. Thus, core networks present a valuable approach to defining the factors that likely contribute to effective intergroup contact.

Disclosing political partisanship polarizes first impressions of faces

Americans’ increasing levels of ideological polarization contribute to pervasive intergroup tensions based on political partisanship. Cues to partisanship may affect even the most basic aspects of perception. First impressions of faces constitute a widely-studied basic aspect of person perception relating to intergroup tensions. To understand the relation between face impressions and political polarization, two experiments were designed to test whether disclosing political partisanship affected face impressions based on perceivers’ political ideology. Disclosed partisanship more strongly affected people’s face impressions than actual, undisclosed, categories (Experiment 1). In a replication and extension, disclosed shared and opposing partisanship also engendered, respectively, positive and negative changes in face impressions (Experiment 2). Partisan disclosure effects on face impressions were paralleled by the extent of people’s partisan threat perceptions (Experiments 1 and 2). These findings suggest that partisan biases appear in basic aspects of person perception and may emerge concomitant with perceived partisan threat.

Waiting Lists for Psychotherapy and Provider Attitudes Toward Low-Intensity Treatments as Potential Interventions: Survey Study

Background

Common mental disorders, including depression and anxiety, are leading causes of disability worldwide. Digital mental health interventions, such as web-based self-help and other low-intensity treatments (LITs) that are not digital (eg, bibliotherapy), have the potential to reach many individuals by circumventing common barriers present in traditional mental health care. It is unclear how often LITs are used in clinical practice, or whether providers would be interested in their use for treatment waiting lists.

Objective

The aims of this study were to (1) describe current practices for treatment waiting lists, (2) describe providers’ attitudes toward digital and nondigital LITs for patients on a waiting list, and (3) explore providers’ willingness to use digital and nondigital LITs and their decisions to learn about them.

Methods

We surveyed 141 practicing mental health care providers (eg, therapists and psychologists) and provided an opportunity for them to learn about LITs.

Results

Most participants reported keeping a waiting list. Few participants reported currently recommending digital or nondigital LITs, though most were willing to use at least one for patients on their waiting list. Attitudes toward digital and nondigital LITs were neutral to positive. Guided digital and nondigital LITs were generally perceived to be more effective but less accessible, and unguided interventions were perceived to be less effective but more accessible. Most participants selected to access additional information on LITs, with the most popular being web-based self-help.

Conclusions

Results suggest providers are currently not recommending LITs for patients on treatment waiting lists but would be willing to recommend them. Future work should explore barriers and facilitators to implementing digital and nondigital LITs for patients on treatment waiting lists.

Addiction onset and offset characteristics and public stigma toward people with common substance dependencies: A large national survey experiment

Drug-related overdose deaths topped 100,000 between 2020 and 2021. Opioids and stimulants are implicated as the primary drivers of this public health crisis. Stigma remains one of the primary barriers to treatment and recovery from substance use disorders. However, little is known about how stigma varies across different substance types, whether individuals are actively using or in recovery, and medical versus recreational onset. We examined these questions using data from the 2021 Shatterproof Addiction Stigma Index, the only nationally representative data available on this topic. Respondents (N = 7051) completed a vignette-based survey experiment to assess public stigma (social distance, prejudice, competence, and causal attributions) toward people with alcohol, opioid (following a prescription pain or recreational use onset), heroin, or methamphetamine dependencies. Vignette characters were described as active users or in recovery. Adjusting for covariates (e.g., race, age, gender), prejudice and desire for social distance were highest toward heroin and methamphetamine, and lowest toward alcohol dependence. The perceived onset of the dependency affected stigma. Specifically, prescription opioids with a recreational onset were more stigmatized than those with a medical onset. Moreover, individuals depicted as being in recovery were less stigmatized than those depicted as active users. Recovery status had the largest impact on prejudice and social distance toward methamphetamine, relative to other conditions. The nature and magnitude of substance dependency stigma differs across substance types and onset and offset conditions. Reducing stigma will require tailored strategies that consider the multidimensional nature of stigma toward people with addiction.

They Cannot, They Will Not, or We Are Asking the Wrong Questions: Re-examining Age-Related Decline in Social Cognition

Social cognition is critical for successfully navigating social relationships. Current evidence suggests that older adults exhibit poorer performance in several core social-cognitive domains compared to younger adults. Neurocognitive decline is commonly discussed as one of the key arbiters of age-related decline in social-cognitive abilities. While evidence supports this notion, age effects are likely attributable to multiple factors. This paper aims to recontextualize past evidence by focusing issues of motivation, task design, and representative samples. In light of these issues, we identify directions for future research to aide our understanding of social-cognitive aging.

Social cognitive network neuroscience

Over the past three decades, research from the field of social neuroscience has identified a constellation of brain regions that relate to social cognition. Although these studies have provided important insights into the specific neural regions underlying social behavior, they may overlook the broader neural context in which those regions and the interactions between them are embedded. Network neuroscience is an emerging discipline that focuses on modeling and analyzing brain networks-collections of interacting neural elements. Because human cognition requires integrating information across multiple brain regions and systems, we argue that a novel social cognitive network neuroscience approach-which leverages methods from the field of network neuroscience and graph theory-can advance our understanding of how brain systems give rise to social behavior. This review provides an overview of the field of network neuroscience, discusses studies that have leveraged this approach to advance social neuroscience research, highlights the potential contributions of social cognitive network neuroscience to understanding social behavior and provides suggested tools and resources for conducting network neuroscience research.

Identifying peaks in attrition after clients initiate mental health treatment in a university training clinic

Mental health treatment noncompliance (preintake attrition, premature termination) has serious consequences both for mental health providers, as well as for individuals suffering from mental illness. However, prior work has examined preintake attrition and premature treatment termination separately, which limits our ability to determine when attrition is highest (before or after intake), and whether different factors predict attrition throughout the treatment process. Moreover, preintake attrition has been conceptualized as failing to attend a scheduled intake, thereby overlooking potential attrition that may occur earlier. The current investigation sought to fill these gaps using data from a university training mental health clinic. Of the 264 individuals who initiated contact with the clinic between 2012 and 2017, only about a quarter of individuals successfully completed therapy. Nearly 60% of prospective clients who contacted the clinic did not schedule intake. Although 10% of attrition occurred before the clinic could even recontact prospective clients, being placed on a waitlist accounted for the most attrition. Indeed, nearly two thirds of individuals placed on the waitlist did not schedule an intake, accounting for 30% of the overall sample. Client factors (age, previous psychotherapy engagement) did not predict preintake attrition, but wait times did. Having just one "no show" for an appointment predicted premature termination, decreasing the likelihood of completion to one in four. Together, these findings suggest that attrition was the highest prior to scheduling intake, and different factors predicted preintake attrition and premature termination. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Social cognitive abilities predict unique aspects of older adults' personal social networks

OBJECTIVE

The current study explores whether personal social network characteristics are associated with older adults' memory and/or social cognitive function (e.g., ability to infer other's mental states - theory of mind).

METHODS

120 older adults completed a social network interview, a memory measure, and two core measures of social cognitive functions: emotion recognition and theory of mind.

RESULTS

Variation in memory and social cognitive abilities predicted distinct aspects of older adults' social networks. Having better memory predicted having larger, less dense social networks, but better theory of mind was associated with having at least one acquaintance in the network, and having more heterogeneous social relationships within the network.

DISCUSSION

Together our findings suggest that disparate social cognitive abilities may serve unique functions, facilitating maintenance of beneficial social connections.

The Impact of Sheltering in Place During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Older Adults' Social and Mental Well-Being

OBJECTIVES

We examined whether social isolation due to the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders was associated with greater loneliness and depression for older adults, and, if so, whether declines in social engagement or relationship strength moderated that relationship.

METHODS

Between April 21 and May 21, 2020, 93 older adults in the United States who had completed measures characterizing their personal social networks, subjective loneliness, and depression 6-9 months prior to the pandemic completed the same measures via phone interview, as well as questions about the impact of the pandemic on their social relationships.

RESULTS

Older adults reported higher depression and greater loneliness following the onset of the pandemic. Loneliness positively predicted depression. Perceived relationship strength, but not social engagement, moderated this relationship such that loneliness only predicted depression for individuals who became closer to their networks during the pandemic. For those who felt less close, depression was higher irrespective of loneliness.

DISCUSSION

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected older adults' mental health and social well-being in the short term. Potential long-term impacts are considered.

The unique nature of public stigma toward non-medical prescription opioid use and dependence: a national study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Our ability to combat the opioid epidemic depends, in part, on dismantling the stigma that surrounds drug use. However, this epidemic has been unique and, to date, we have not understood the nature of public prejudices associated with it. Here, we examine the nature and magnitude of public stigma toward prescription opioid use disorder (OUD) using the only nationally representative data available on this topic.

DESIGN

General Social Survey (GSS), a cross-sectional, nationally representative survey of public attitudes.

SETTING

United States, 2018.

PARTICIPANTS/CASES

A total of 1169 US residents recruited using a probability sample.

MEASUREMENTS

Respondents completed a vignette-based survey experiment to assess public stigma toward people who develop OUD following prescription of opioid analgesics. This condition is compared with depression, schizophrenia, alcohol use disorder (AUD) and subclinical distress using multivariable logistic or linear regression.

FINDINGS

Adjusting for covariates (e.g. race, age, gender), US residents were significantly more likely to label symptoms of OUD a physical illness [73%, confidence interval (CI) = 66-80%; P < 0.001] relative to all other conditions, and less likely to label OUD a mental illness (40%, CI = 32-48%; P < 0.001). OUD was significantly less likely to be attributed to bad character (37%, CI = 30-44%; P < 0.001) or poor upbringing (17%, CI = 12-23%; P < 0.001) compared with AUD. Nonetheless, perceptions of competence associated with OUD (e.g. ability to manage money; 41%, CI = 33-49%; P < 0.01) were lower than AUD, depression and subclinical distress. Moreover, willingness to socially exclude people with OUD was very high (e.g. 76% of respondents do not want to work with a person with OUD), paralleling findings on traditional targets of strong stigma (i.e. AUD and schizophrenia).

CONCLUSIONS

US residents do not typically hold people with prescription opioid use disorder responsible for their addiction, but they express high levels of willingness to subject them to social exclusion.

A stronger relationship between reward responsivity and trustworthiness evaluations emerges in healthy aging

Older adults (OA) evaluate faces to be more trustworthy than do younger adults (YA), yet the processes supporting these more positive evaluations are unclear. This study identified neural mechanisms spontaneously engaged during face perception that differentially relate to OA' and YA' later trustworthiness evaluations. We examined two mechanisms: salience (reflected by amygdala activation) and reward (reflected by caudate activation) - both of which are implicated in evaluating trustworthiness. We emphasized the salience and reward value of specific faces by having OA and YA evaluate ingroup male White and outgroup Black and Asian faces. Participants perceived faces during fMRI and made trustworthiness evaluations after the scan. OA rated White and Black faces as more trustworthy than YA. OA had a stronger positive relationship between caudate activity and trustworthiness than YA when perceiving ingroup, but not outgroup, faces. Ingroup cues might intensify how trustworthiness is rewarding to OA, potentially reinforcing their overall positivity.

Psychological distance reduces the effect of internalized stigma on mental health treatment decisions

Although stigma is a major barrier to treatment for those with mental health concerns, it is poorly understood when stigma is more or less influential in mental health treatment decisions. In the current work, we examined whether psychological distance - the removal of an event from direct experience - reduced the influence of internalized stigma on willingness to seek treatment. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that psychological distance versus proximity (e.g., seeking treatment in three months vs. in two days, respectively) decreases the negative influence of stigma on willingness to seek treatment. We focused on a population for whom mental health treatment decisions are personally-relevant: individuals who had previously sought mental health treatment. Experiment 1 showed that the extent to which these individuals internalized (i.e., personally endorsed) stigma about mental illness predicted lower intentions to make an appointment with a mental health care provider for themselves (but not another person). Experiment 2 replicated this result using a different measure of psychological distance (temporal distance) and extended this finding to behavior (time spent reading mental health resources). Overall, this research demonstrated that internalized stigma disrupts mental health treatment-seeking intentions and behaviors when they are psychologically proximal, but not when they are distant. Potential applications of these results are discussed.

Empowering the Next Generation to End Stigma by Starting the Conversation: Bring Change to Mind and the College Toolbox Project

OBJECTIVE

To examine outcomes in a 4-year college pilot program built on stigma change research. U Bring Change to Mind (UBC2M) was developed and launched at Indiana University (IU) in 2014 as an institutionally supported, student-led organization to make campuses "safe and stigma-free zones." The accompanying College Toolbox Project (CTP) assessed change in student prejudice and discriminatory predispositions as well as perceptions and behaviors at follow-up.

METHOD

All entering Class of 2019 students were invited to complete a Web-based survey (N = 3,287; response rate = 44.6%). In their third year, students were sent a follow-up survey. Stigma indicators for 1,132 students completing both waves were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate regressions. Models controlled for social desirability, prior contact, socio-demographics, and self-reported mental illness. Participation was examined for potential biases.

RESULTS

Statistically significant positive changes in attitudes and behavioral predispositions emerged. Although fewer students with prior contact endorsed stigma items initially, they reported significant reduction at follow-up. UBC2M active engagement was associated with lowering prejudice. Both passive and active engagement predicted change in discriminatory predispositions as well as current inclusive behaviors and positive perceptions of campus mental health culture.

CONCLUSION

A long-term, community-based, student empowerment approach with institutional supports is a promising avenue to reduce stigma on college campuses, to develop the next generation of mental health leaders, and to potentially reduce societal levels of stigma in the long run. CTP provides evidence that both contact and contextual visibility matter, and that UBC2M offers a nationally networked organizational strategy to reduce stigma.

Countries and Cultural Differences in the Stigma of Mental Illness: The East–West Divide

Mental illness is a global public health crisis. Although rates of untreated cases stand as a primary problem, stigma is a significant obstacle. Yet, global differences in levels and roots of stigma remain poorly understood. Using the Stigma in Global Context–Mental Health Study (SGC-MHS) data, we analyzed data on two components of stigma—prejudice and discriminatory potential—attached to clinically diagnostic cases of depression and schizophrenia. We examined whether stigma was higher in the East than West. Furthermore, we hypothesized that the link between prejudice and discriminatory potential in the East was due, in part, to cultural differences in the attributions about mental illness. With SGC-MHS’ nationally representative vignette data from over 11,000 respondents in 11 relevant countries (four Eastern, seven Western), analyses replicated past research of higher levels of stigma and more moral attributions in Eastern countries, particularly for depression. Moreover, prejudice-related disclosure spillover concerns predicted discriminatory potential (social distance) in the East, but not the West; this was driven by a greater emphasis on moral attributions in the East. Finally, exploratory analyses found that Western respondents endorsed higher discrimination for minority (vs. majority) group members with mental illness. In Eastern countries, the same pattern emerged for schizophrenia, but the reverse occurred for depression—greater stigma for majority as compared with minority group members. Together, these findings suggest that cultural differences in the sources of prejudice and attributions about the etiology of mental illness contribute, at least in part, to global differences in the profile of stigma.

Age differences in neural activity related to mentalizing during person perception

Mentalizing, or thinking about others' mental states, shapes social interactions. Older adults (OA) have reduced mentalizing capacities reflected by lower medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activation. The current study assessed if OA' lower mPFC activation reflects less spontaneous mentalizing during person perception. Younger adults (YA) and OA viewed ingroup White and outgroup Black and Asian faces and completed a mentalizing task during fMRI. Afterward, they completed a task in which they inferred mental states from faces. Using an mPFC region defined by the mentalizing task, OA had lower activity than YA during person perception. OA' mPFC activity toward faces positively related to their mentalizing outside the scanner. The extent of OA' lower mPFC activation during person perception may depend on their actual detection of mental states in faces. Further, YA', but not OA', mPFC activity distinguished between outgroups. OA' lower mentalizing-related mPFC activity may reduce their ability to individuate outgroup members.

Aging relates to a disproportionately weaker functional architecture of brain networks during rest and task states

Functional connectivity - the co-activation of brain regions - forms the basis of the brain's functional architecture. Often measured during resting-state (i.e., in a task-free setting), patterns of functional connectivity within and between brain networks change with age. These patterns are of interest to aging researchers because age differences in resting-state connectivity relate to older adults' relative cognitive declines. Less is known about age differences in large-scale brain networks during directed tasks. Recent work in younger adults has shown that patterns of functional connectivity are highly correlated between rest and task states. Whether this finding extends to older adults remains largely unexplored. To this end, we assessed younger and older adults' functional connectivity across the whole brain using fMRI while participants underwent resting-state or completed directed tasks (e.g., a reasoning judgement task). Resting-state and task functional connectivity were less strongly correlated in older as compared to younger adults. This age-dependent difference could be attributed to significantly lower consistency in network organization between rest and task states among older adults. Older adults had less distinct or segregated networks during resting-state. This more diffuse pattern of organization was exacerbated during directed tasks. Finally, the default mode network, often implicated in neurocognitive aging, contributed strongly to this pattern. These findings establish that age differences in functional connectivity are state-dependent, providing greater insight into the mechanisms by which aging may lead to cognitive declines.

Effects of executive ability on bias and ingroup perceptions in aging

Prior work on aging and prejudice has identified that declining executive ability underlies older adults' (OA') increased anti-outgroup bias. The current work, however, suggests that there may also be a motivational reason. Here, we explored the possibility that for OA with relatively lower executive ability, anti-outgroup bias may serve an ironic purpose of maximizing a fundamental social goal: maintaining ingroup positivity. OA are more motivated than young adults (YA) to maximize positivity in everyday life. This process, however, can be cognitively effortful. We tested the novel predictions that (a) OA' executive ability positively predicts their evaluations of ingroup members and (b) OA might preserve positive ingroup perceptions through anti-outgroup bias if they have lower executive ability. The present work tested these predictions using a timely example of an outgroup: Muslims. Study 1 verified that non-Muslim YA and OA identified with non-Muslims (vs. Muslims) as an ingroup. Study 2 then had 3 key findings. First, we replicated work showing a negative relationship between OA' executive ability and their anti-outgroup bias by showing a negative relationship with their anti-Muslim bias. Second, OA' higher executive ability related to their having more positive perceptions of ingroup non-Muslims. Finally, OA with lower executive ability had higher ingroup positivity by having higher anti-Muslim bias. These findings suggest that when OA lack the executive ability to directly maintain a motivational goal of being positive about themselves and their ingroups, they maintain positivity at the expense of others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The association of depression stigma with barriers to seeking mental health care: a cross-sectional analysis

Background: Stigma is one of several barriers to seeking mental health care. However, few studies have examined how stigma relates to other common barriers (e.g. attitudes about treatment, cost, time).Aims: This study investigated whether depression stigma (internalized or perceived) was related to other treatment-seeking barriers (attitudinal, structural) and whether depression severity influenced the strength of the association.Methods: We used multivariable-adjusted linear regression to model barrier outcomes as a function of internalized and perceived stigma in an undergraduate population (N = 2551). We evaluated potential effect modification by depression severity using likelihood-ratio tests.Results: Internalized stigma displayed a stronger association with overall barriers to care (including perceived need, negative treatment expectations, and structural barriers) than did perceived stigma. Higher internalized stigma predicted a stronger emphasis on each barrier to treatment measured. Sub-components of internalized stigma (e.g. alienation, stereotype endorsement) uniquely predicted a greater emphasis on distinct barriers.Conclusions: Internalized stigma is strongly linked to greater perception of barriers to mental health care. It may be necessary to address stigma and barriers concurrently rather than independently.

Culture Impacts the Neural Response to Perceiving Outgroups Among Black and White Faces

Outgroup members (e.g., individuals whose racial identity differs from perceivers') are stigmatized in Eastern and Western cultures. However, it remains an open question how specific cultural influences affect stigmatization. In this study, we assessed whether cultural learning (i.e., social information acquired from the people in one's environment) associated with Chinese individuals' relocation to the United States differentiated the response to multiple outgroups. Two types of cultural learning predict diverging responses to outgroups - awareness of stereotypes about different racial outgroups is associated with increased negative affect and cognitive control toward the stereotyped outgroup. Conversely, intergroup contact attenuates those responses, and does so to a greater extent for individuals from Western cultures. As Chinese-Americans would have had more opportunities to have contact with both White and Black individuals (relative to the Chinese participants), we explored their responses to outgroups as well. Because the neural regions associated with stereotyping and intergroup contact have been well-characterized, we used neuroimaging to disentangle these possibilities. Eighteen White American, 18 Chinese-American, and 17 Chinese participants - who had relocated to the United States less than 1 year prior - viewed images of Black and White individuals while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants also completed measures of awareness of cultural stereotypes in the United States about Black and White individuals, implicit bias, and experiences with White and Black individuals. Behaviorally, White American and Chinese-American participants had more intergroup contact with either race than did Chinese participants, but there was no effect of participant group on stereotype knowledge or implicit bias. When viewing faces of White (as compared to Black) individuals while undergoing fMRI, White American (relative to Chinese) participants had attenuated activation in regions of the brain associated with cognitive control, including the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsal striatum, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Chinese-Americans' neural response to either race did not differ from White American or Chinese participants. Taken together, outgroup biases seemed to emerge in a culturally-dependent way based on variability in intergroup contact, but not necessarily awareness of stereotypes.

Age differences in specific neural connections within the Default Mode Network underlie theory of mind

Theory of mind (i.e., the ability to infer others' mental states) - a fundamental social cognitive ability - declines with increasing age. Prior investigations have focused on identifying task-evoked differences in neural activation that underlie these performance declines. However, these declines could also be related to dysregulation of the baseline, or 'intrinsic', functional connectivity of the brain. If so, age differences in intrinsic connectivity may provide novel insight into the mechanisms that contribute to poorer theory of mind in older adults. To examine this possibility, we assessed younger and older adults' theory of mind while they underwent task-based fMRI, as well as the intrinsic functional connectivity measured during resting-state within the (task-defined) theory of mind network. Older adults exhibited poorer theory of mind behavioral performance and weaker intrinsic connectivity within this network compared to younger adults. Intrinsic connectivity between the right temporoparietal junction and the right temporal pole mediated age differences in theory of mind. Specifically, older adults had weaker intrinsic connectivity between right temporoparietal junction and right temporal pole that explained their poorer theory of mind behavioral performance. These findings broaden our understanding of aging and social cognition and reveal more specific mechanisms of how aging impacts theory of mind.

Age Effects on Trustworthiness Activation and Trust Biases in Face Perception

Objective

Older adults evaluate faces as being more trustworthy than do younger adults. The present work examined whether aging is associated with changes in the dynamic activation of trustworthiness categories toward faces, and if category activation relates to enhanced trust.

Method

Younger and older adults categorized faces as trustworthy or untrustworthy while computer mouse trajectories were recorded to measure dynamic category activation.

Results

Older, but not younger, adults had more dynamic category activation (i.e., trustworthy and untrustworthy) when they viewed untrustworthy versus trustworthy faces. This tendency predicted a bias (pronounced with age) toward evaluating faces as being trustworthy.

Discussion

A pronounced trust bias in aging may be related to greater dynamic activation of trustworthiness (vs untrustworthiness) when perceiving faces.

Reduced cognitive capacity impairs the malleability of older adults' negative attitudes to stigmatized individuals

BACKGROUND

Although engaging explicit regulatory strategies may reduce negative bias toward outgroup members, these strategies are cognitively demanding and thus may not be effective for older adults (OA) who have reduced cognitive resources. The current study therefore examines whether individual differences in cognitive capacity disrupt OA' ability to explicitly regulate their bias to stigmatized individuals.

METHODS

Young and OA were instructed to explicitly regulate their negative bias toward stigmatized individuals by using an explicit reappraisal strategy. Regulatory success was assessed as a function of age and individual differences in cognitive capacity (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, the role of executive function in implementing cognitive reappraisal strategies was examined by using a divided attention manipulation.

RESULTS

Results from Experiment 1 revealed that individual differences in OA' cognitive capacity disrupted their ability to regulate their negative emotional response to stigma. In Experiment 2, it was found that dividing attention in young adults (YA) significantly reduced their regulatory success as compared to YA' regulatory capacity in the full attention condition. As expected, dividing YA' attention made their performance similar to OA with relatively preserved cognitive capacity.

CONCLUSION

Together, the results from this study demonstrated that individual differences in cognitive capacity predicted OA' ability to explicitly regulate their negative bias to a range of stigmatized individuals.

Configural face processing impacts race disparities in humanization and trust

The dehumanization of Black Americans is an ongoing societal problem. Reducing configural face processing, a well-studied aspect of typical face encoding, decreases the activation of human-related concepts to White faces, suggesting that the extent that faces are configurally processed contributes to dehumanization. Because Black individuals are more dehumanized relative to White individuals, the current work examined how configural processing might contribute to their greater dehumanization. Study 1 showed that inverting faces (which reduces configural processing) reduced the activation of human-related concepts toward Black more than White faces. Studies 2a and 2b showed that reducing configural processing affects dehumanization by decreasing trust and increasing homogeneity among Black versus White faces. Studies 3a-d showed that configural processing effects emerge in racial outgroups for whom untrustworthiness may be a more salient group stereotype (i.e., Black, but not Asian, faces). Study 4 provided evidence that these effects are specific to reduced configural processing versus more general perceptual disfluency. Reduced configural processing may thus contribute to the greater dehumanization of Black relative to White individuals.

Looking the part (to me): effects of racial prototypicality on race perception vary by prejudice

Less racially prototypic faces elicit more category competition during race categorization. Top-down factors (e.g. stereotypes), however, affect categorizations, suggesting racial prototypicality may enhance category competition in certain perceivers. Here, we examined how prejudice affects race category competition and stabilization when perceiving faces varying in racial prototypicality. Prototypically low vs high Black relative to White faces elicited more category competition and slower response latencies during categorization (Experiment 1), suggesting a pronounced racial prototypicality effect on minority race categorization. However, prejudice predicted the extent of category competition between prototypically low vs high Black faces. Suggesting more response conflict toward less prototypic Black vs White faces, anterior cingulate cortex activity increased toward Black vs White faces as they decreased in racial prototypicality, with prejudice positively predicting this difference (Experiment 2). These findings extend the literature on racial prototypicality and categorization by showing that relative prejudice tempers the extent of category competition and response conflict engaged when initially perceiving faces.

Are eyewitness accounts biased? Evaluating false memories for crimes involving in-group or out-group conflict

Eyewitness testimony has been shown to be unreliable and susceptible to false memories. Whether eyewitness memory errors are influenced by the victim's group membership (relative to both the eyewitness and perpetrator) is underexplored. The current study used complementary behavioral and neuroimaging approaches to test the hypothesis that intragroup conflict heightens participants' susceptibility to subsequent false memories. Healthy young adults witnessed and later answered questions about events in which the perpetrator and victim were either 1) identified as in-group members relative to each other and the eyewitness, 2) out-group members relative to the eyewitness, but not each other, or 3) out-group members relative to each other (Experiments 1a and 1b). When perpetrators and victims were in-group members (intragroup conflict), participants showed heightened false memory rates. Moreover, false memories increased upon crime realization. Neuroimaging data analysis revealed that salient (as compared to ambiguous) intragroup conflict elicited heightened activation in neural regions associated with resolving cognitive conflict (anterior cingulate cortex; ACC). Increased functional connectivity between the ACC and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex was associated with subsequent false memories (Experiment 2). Results suggest that the social salience of the intragroup conflict may have been associated with participants' increased susceptibility to false memories.

Age-Related Physical Changes Interfere With Judgments of Male Sexual Orientation From Faces

Although studies have shown that sexual orientation can be judged from faces, this research has not considered how age-related differences in perceivers or targets affect such judgments. In the current work, we evaluated whether accuracy differed among young adults (YA) and older adults (OA) for young and old men's faces by recruiting a sample of YA and OA in the lab, a community sample of sexual minority men, and a sample of online participants. We found that OA and YA judged sexual orientation with similar accuracy. Perceptions of gender atypicality mediated the difference in judging older and younger targets' sexual orientation. Although participants used positive affect to correctly discern sexual orientation regardless of target age, perceptions of masculinity were valid only for judgments of YA.

Age and executive ability impact the neural correlates of race perception

Decreased executive ability elicits racial bias. We clarified the neural correlates of how executive ability contributes to race perception by comparing young adults (YA) to a population with highly variable executive ability: older adults (OA). After replicating work showing higher race bias in OA vs YA and a negative association between bias and executive ability, a subsample of White YA and OA perceived Black and White faces and cars during functional magnetic resonance imaging. YA had higher executive ability than OA, and OA had higher variability in executive ability. When perceiving Black vs White faces, YA exhibited more dorsolateral prefrontal cortex recruitment-a region previously implicated in regulating prejudiced responses-than OA. Moreover, OA with relatively impaired executive ability had more amygdala activity toward Black faces vs OA with relatively intact executive ability, whereas responses to White faces did not differ. Both YA and OA with relatively intact executive ability had stronger amygdala-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex connectivity when perceiving Black vs White faces. These findings are the first to disentangle age from executive ability differences in neural recruitment when perceiving race, potentially informing past behavioral work on aging and race perception.

Does Older Adults' Cognitive Function Disrupt the Malleability of Their Attitudes toward Outgroup Members?: An fMRI Investigation

In the current study we examine how individual differences in older adults' global cognitive function impacts the extent to which their attitudes toward stigmatized individuals are malleable. Because prior research has elucidated the neural processes that are involved in evaluating stigmatized individuals who are responsible or not responsible for their condition, a cognitive neuroscience approach may be well-suited to answer this question. In the current study, 36 older and 17 young adults underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while evaluating images of homeless people who were described as being responsible or not responsible for their condition. They also indicated how much pity they felt for each of the individuals in order to determine the extent to which their attitudes were malleable (e.g., more pity for not-responsible as compared to responsible individuals). Participants' cognitive function and baseline measure of their attitudes toward stigmatized individuals (including homeless individuals) were assessed. Results revealed that although older adults' attitudes were malleable, the extent to which this was true varied due to individual differences in their global cognitive function. Specifically, the difference in the magnitude of older adults' self-reported pity for not-responsible as compared to responsible homeless individuals was predicted by their global cognitive function. Moreover, the difference in pity that older adults expressed toward not-responsible as compared to responsible homeless individuals was related to activity in the left insula and the anterior cingulate cortex (regions implicated in empathy). These results suggest that attitude malleability is affected by individual differences in global cognitive function.

Examining the effects of emotion regulation on the ERP response to highly negative social stigmas

In order to determine if highly negative stigma is a more salient cue than other negative emotional, non-stigmatized cues, participants underwent electroencephalography while passively viewing or actively regulating their emotional response to images of highly negative stigmatized (e.g., homeless individuals, substance abusers) or highly negative non-stigmatized (e.g., a man holding a gun, an injured person) individuals. Event-related potential (ERP) analyses focused on the N2 (associated with detecting novelty), the early positive potential (associated with processing emotion), and a sustained late positive potential (associated with modulating regulatory goals). A salience effect for highly negative stigma was revealed in the early positive potential, with higher magnitude ERP responses to images of highly negative stigmatized as compared to highly negative non-stigmatized individuals 355 ms poststimulus onset. Moreover, the amplitude of this effect was predicted by individual differences in implicit bias. Our results also demonstrated that the late positivity response was not modulated by regulatory goals (passively view versus to reappraise) for images of highly negative stigmatized individuals, but was for images of highly negative, non-stigmatized individuals (replicating previous findings). Our findings suggest that the neural response to highly negative stigma is salient and rigid.

Dynamic neural mechanisms underlie race disparities in social cognition

Race disparities in behavior may emerge in several ways, some of which may be independent of implicit bias. To mitigate the pernicious effects of different race disparities for racial minorities, we must understand whether they are rooted in perceptual, affective, or cognitive processing with regard to race perception. We used fMRI to disentangle dynamic neural mechanisms predictive of two separable race disparities that can be obtained from a trustworthiness ratings task. Increased coupling between regions involved in perceptual and affective processing when viewing Black versus White faces predicted less later racial trust disparity, which was related to implicit bias. In contrast, increased functional coupling between regions involved in controlled processing predicted less later disparity in the differentiation of Black versus White faces with regard to perceived trust, which was unrelated to bias. These findings reveal that distinct neural signatures underlie separable race disparities in social cognition that may or may not be related to implicit bias.

The dissociable effects of stereotype threat on older adults' memory encoding and retrieval

The present study asks how subliminal exposure to negative stereotypes about age-related memory deficits affects older adults' memory performance. Whereas prior research has focused on the effect of "stereotype threat" on older adults' memory for neutral material, the present study additionally examines the effect on memory for positive and negative words, as well as whether the subliminal "threat" has a larger impact on memory performance when it occurs prior to encoding or prior to retrieval (as compared to a control condition). Results revealed that older adults' memory impairments were most pronounced when the threat was placed prior to retrieval as compared to when the threat was placed prior to encoding or no threat occurred. Moreover, the threat specifically increased false memory rates, particularly for neutral items compared to positive and negative ones. These results emphasize that stereotype threat effects vary depending upon the phase of memory it impacts.

Accuracy and consensus in judgments of trustworthiness from faces: behavioral and neural correlates

Perceivers' inferences about individuals based on their faces often show high interrater consensus and can even accurately predict behavior in some domains. Here we investigated the consensus and accuracy of judgments of trustworthiness. In Study 1, we showed that the type of photo judged makes a significant difference for whether an individual is judged as trustworthy. In Study 2, we found that inferences of trustworthiness made from the faces of corporate criminals did not differ from inferences made from the faces of noncriminal executives. In Study 3, we found that judgments of trustworthiness did not differ between the faces of military criminals and the faces of military heroes. In Study 4, we tempted undergraduates to cheat on a test. Although we found that judgments of intelligence from the students' faces were related to students' scores on the test and that judgments of students' extraversion were correlated with self-reported extraversion, there was no relationship between judgments of trustworthiness from the students' faces and students' cheating behavior. Finally, in Study 5, we examined the neural correlates of the accuracy of judgments of trustworthiness from faces. Replicating previous research, we found that perceptions of trustworthiness from the faces in Study 4 corresponded to participants' amygdala response. However, we found no relationship between the amygdala response and the targets' actual cheating behavior. These data suggest that judgments of trustworthiness may not be accurate but, rather, reflect subjective impressions for which people show high agreement.

Cognitive decline and older adults' perception of stigma controllability

Emerging research suggests that older adults who experience age-related declines in regulatory abilities may have more difficulty inhibiting their expression of negative bias to stigmatized individuals as compared with young adults. However, it remains largely unexplored why this might be. For instance, older adults may hold stigmatized individuals more accountable for their conditions as compared with young adults, which could subsequently increase their expression of negative bias. The current study investigated this question by testing 90 older adults and 44 young adults. Researchers found that older adults with relatively impaired executive function placed a greater emphasis on controllability when evaluating stigmatized individuals and rated the stigmatized conditions overall as being more changeable.

Does context matter in evaluations of stigmatized individuals? An fMRI study

The manner in which disparate affective responses shape attitudes toward other individuals has received a great deal of attention in neuroscience research. However, the malleability of these affective responses remains largely unexplored. The perceived controllability of a stigma (whether or not the bearer of the stigma is perceived as being responsible for his or her condition) has been found to polarize behavioral affective responses to that stigma. The current study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify the neural correlates underlying the evaluation of stigmatized individuals (people who are homeless) when perceptions of the controllability of their condition are altered. Results demonstrated that perceivers engaged neural networks implicated in inferring intentionality (e.g. the medial prefrontal cortex) when they evaluated a homeless individual who was described as being responsible for becoming homeless. Conversely, neural networks associated with resolving strong affective responses (e.g. insula) were engaged when evaluating a homeless individual who was described as not being responsible for becoming homeless.

How does the brain regulate negative bias to stigma?

The current study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether regulating negative bias to stigmatized individuals has a unique neural activity profile from general emotion regulation. Participants were presented with images of stigmatized (e.g. homeless people) or non-stigmatized (e.g. a man holding a gun) social targets while undergoing fMRI and were asked either to maintain or regulate their emotional response. Their implicit bias toward these stigmatized group members was also measured. Analyses were conducted in both, an event-related fashion, considering the event to be the onset of regulation, and in a blocked-design fashion, considering the sustained activity throughout the 8-s regulatory period. In the event-related (onset) analyses, participants showed more activity throughout the prefrontal cortex when initiating a regulatory response to stigmatized as compared with non-stigmatized images. This neural activity was positively correlated with their implicit bias. Interestingly, in the block (sustained) analyses, general emotion regulation elicited a more widespread pattern of neural activity as compared with stigma regulation. This activity was largely posterior, suggesting that general emotion regulation may engage more visuo-spatial processing as compared with stigma regulation. These findings suggest that regulating negative affect toward stigmatized targets may occur relatively more quickly than regulating negative affect toward non-stigmatized targets.

Older adults' decoding of emotions: role of dynamic versus static cues and age-related cognitive decline

Although age-related deficits in emotion recognition have been widely explored, the nature and scope of these deficits remain poorly understood. We conducted two experiments to examine whether these deficits are less pronounced when older adults evaluate dynamic compared with static images, and second, whether age-related cognitive decline exacerbates these deficits. Our results suggest that age-related cognitive decline exacerbates older adults' deficits in detecting anger, but only from static faces. Furthermore, older adults do not show emotion recognition deficits when evaluating global emotions from dynamic images of faces.