Social Psychological and Personality Science

Although positive emotions as a class can build interpersonal resources, recent evidence suggests a unique and direct role for gratitude. In the current research, we shine the spotlight on what happens between a grateful person and the benefactor to illuminate what can build a bridge between them. Specifically, we draw on work calling gratitude an “other-praising” emotion. In an original study and a conceptual replication that included two independent samples, couples had video-recorded conversations in which one member expressed gratitude to the other (n = 370). Expresser’s other-praising behavior was robustly positively associated with the benefactor’s postinteraction perception of expresser responsiveness, personal good feelings in general, and felt loving in particular. Several practical and theoretical alternative explanations are ruled out. By clarifying the specific behavioral and subjective psychological mechanisms through which expressed gratitude promotes relationships, this work advances affective and relationship science, two domains that cut across disciplines within psychology.

Sara B. Algoe

Laura E. Kurtz

Nicole M. Hilaire

Putting the “You” in “Thank You”

将“你”融入“谢谢你”

Five studies tested the hypothesis that gratitude is linked to lower levels of aggression. Although gratitude increases mental well-being, it is unknown whether gratitude mitigates against aggression. Gratitude motivates people to express sensitivity and concern for others and stimulates prosocial behavior. Aggression, defined as intentionally harming another person who is motivated to avoid the harm, runs counter to the motivation to increase others’ welfare and should be reduced among grateful people. Cross-sectional, longitudinal, experience sampling, and experimental designs yielded converging evidence to show that gratitude is linked to lower aggression. Higher empathy mediated the relationship between gratitude and lower aggression. These findings have widespread applications for understanding the role of emotion on aggression and can inform interventions aimed at reducing interpersonal aggression.

C. Nathan DeWall

Nathaniel M. Lambert

Richard S. Pond

Todd B. Kashdan

Frank D. Fincham

A Grateful Heart is a Nonviolent Heart

感恩的心是和平的心

Western culture has become obsessed with happiness, while treating negative emotions like sadness, depression, or anxiety as pathological and nonnormative. These salient cultural norms communicate social expectations that people should feel “happy” and not “sad.” Previous research has shown that these “social expectancies” can increase feelings of sadness and reduce well-being. In this study, we examined whether these perceived social pressures might also lead people to feel socially disconnected—lonely—when they do experience negative emotions? Drawing on a large stratified sample prescreened for depressive symptoms and utilizing both trait measures and moment-to-moment “experience sampling” over a 7-day period, we found that people who felt more negative emotions and also believe that others in society disapprove of these emotions reported more loneliness. Our data suggest that social pressures to be happy and not sad can make people feel more socially isolated when they do feel sad.

Brock Bastian

Peter Koval

Yasemin Erbas

Marlies Houben

Madeline Pe

Peter Kuppens

Sad and Alone

悲伤与孤独

People seek out and interpret political information in self-serving ways. In four experiments, we show that people are similarly self-serving in the political information they share with others. Participants learned about positive and negative effects of increasing the minimum wage (in Studies 1–3) or of banning assault weapons (Study 4). They then indicated how likely they would be to mention each effect to close others. Participants were more inclined to share information that was consistent with their political orientation than information that was not. This effect persisted even when participants believed the information, suggesting that selective communication is not just a reflection of motivated skepticism. We also observed ideological differences. Liberals were most biased with their political opponents, whereas conservatives were most biased with their political allies. This biased information sharing could distort the flow of political information through social networks in ways that exacerbate political polarization.

Pierce D. Ekstrom

Calvin K. Lai

The Selective Communication of Political Information

政治信息的定向传播

Women who have not yet entered science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields underestimate how well they will perform in those fields (e.g., Correll, 2001 ; Meece, Parsons, Kaczala, &amp; Goff, 1982). It is commonly assumed that female role models improve women’s beliefs that they can be successful in STEM. The current work tests this assumption. Two experiments varied role model gender and whether role models embody computer science stereotypes. Role model gender had no effect on success beliefs. However, women who interacted with nonstereotypical role models believed they would be more successful in computer science than those who interacted with stereotypical role models. Differences in women’s success beliefs were mediated by their perceived dissimilarity from stereotypical role models. When attempting to convey to women that they can be successful in STEM fields, role model gender may be less important than the extent to which role models embody current STEM stereotypes.

Sapna Cheryan

John Oliver Siy

Marissa Vichayapai

Benjamin J. Drury

Saenam Kim

Do Female and Male Role Models Who Embody STEM Stereotypes Hinder Women’s Anticipated Success in STEM?

 embody STEM stereotypes 的男女榜样是否会阻碍女性在 STEM 领域预期成功的实现？

The notion that political orientation is linked to prosociality has been voiced by many, suggesting that supporters of left-wing parties and ideologies may favor prosociality more than supporters of right-wing parties and ideologies. However, evidence for this proposition is inconclusive. We conducted a large-scale, preregistered analysis of the relation between political orientation and prosociality in a heterogeneous German sample (189 ≤ n≤ 1,836) using five different measures of political orientation, six incentivized economic game paradigms to measure prosocial behavior, and 10 measures of trait prosociality. Whereas we found only weak support for left-wing political preferences to be associated with more prosocial behavior, stronger evidence for said link was apparent for trait prosociality. Overall, our study suggests that political orientation and prosociality are indeed linked, thus supporting theoretical arguments. However, this link is relatively weak and depends on the way prosociality is measured.

Bernhard Schubach

Isabel Thielmann

Does a Left-Wing Political Orientation Really Go Along With Greater Prosociality? A Large-Scale Empirical Investigation

左翼政治倾向真的与更大的亲社会性相关吗？一项大规模实证研究

This paper provides a conceptual replication and extension of Carter and Weber investigating the effects of generalized trust on deception detection. Three alternative predictions were tested: trust lowers accuracy, trust increases accuracy, or trust facilitates accuracy for truths but inhibits lie detection. Compared to Carter and Weber, our experiment involved different stimulus materials, a much larger sample, and the inclusion of a lie prevalence measure. As anticipated, Carter and Weber’s finding were not replicated. Neither generalized trust nor lie prevalence predicted deception detection accuracy or truth bias. We speculate about why generalized trust appears to play little role in deception detection.

Timothy R. Levine

David M. Markowitz

Kim B. Serota

Miranda V. Brunn

A Registered Conceptual Replication and Extension of Carter and Weber (2010): Generalized Trust, Lie Prevalence, and Deception Detection

卡特和韦伯（2010）研究的注册概念复制与扩展：普遍信任、谎言普遍性及欺骗检测

The relationship between social status and green consumption is pivotal in addressing the climate crisis, yet previous research reveals conflicting perspectives. We analyze a nationally representative panel survey of more than 63,000 British respondents, tracking their green consumption, attitudes, and behaviors across multiple years. The findings reveal a previously unidentified S-shaped relationship between social status and green consumption, challenging existing models that propose inverted U-shaped, negative linear, or positive linear associations. This S curve demonstrates a gradual increase in green consumption at lower levels of social status, followed by a steep rise in the middle range and then a leveling off among the highest-status individuals. Crucially, this pattern persists even when we control for income, with high-status individuals exhibiting stronger proenvironmental attitudes and engaging more in nonpecuniary green behaviors. These findings offer insights for policymakers and marketers aiming to promote eco-friendly behaviors across socioeconomic segments.

Joe J. Gladstone

Silvia Bellezza

Sustainability Across the Status Spectrum: The S-Shaped Relationship Between Social Status and Green Consumption

社会地位谱系中的可持续性：社会地位与绿色消费的S形关系

Interpersonal trust impacts societal and individual outcomes, affecting economic growth, democracy, and well-being. Trust levels vary both within and across countries, raising the question of what factors influence interpersonal trust. Existing research indicates that an individual’s socioeconomic status influences their level of trust, with wealthier individuals tending to be more trusting. This article examines a further effect of wealth on interpersonal trust, namely whether people perceive wealthier individuals as more trustworthy. Using a novel method for uncovering stereotypes while avoiding social desirability bias, we investigate whether wealth cues are associated with the perceived trustworthiness of targets. Our study, conducted with diverse participants across different cultures (Brazil, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, France, Nigeria, Philippines, and the United Kingdom), consistently demonstrates that wealthier targets are seen as more trustworthy. This culturally widespread negative stereotyping of poorer individuals may contribute to observed patterns of interpersonal trust.

Mélusine Boon-Falleur

Jean-Baptiste André

Nicolas Baumard

Daniel Nettle

Household Wealth is Associated With Perceived Trustworthiness in a Diverse Set of Countries

家庭财富与在多个国家中的感知可信度相关

This registered report investigates the role of the target’s sex in selfish dishonest behavior. Informed by moral typecasting theory, we hypothesized individuals to be more dishonest toward male than female targets, and this effect will be stronger among male than female decision-makers. A total of 3,166 male and female participants from nine countries were incentivized to lie and increase their payoffs at the cost of another same-sex, opposite-sex, or unmentioned-sex participant with zero risks of detection, punishment, or reputational consequences. We did not find statistically significant evidence of female targets being cheated less than male targets overall. However, we found a significant interaction between the target and decision-maker, albeit a different nature than predicted. Female decision-makers cheated female (vs. male) targets 53.6% less, while male decision-makers cheated male and female targets similarly. Linking target characteristics and moral decision-making, our research suggests that female ingroup favoritism may underlie gender bias in interpersonal dishonest behavior.

Jareef Martuza

A Registered Report on Gender Bias in Interpersonal Dishonesty: Are Females and Males Cheated Differently?

性别偏见与人际不诚实行为的注册报告：女性和男性是否受到不同程度的欺骗？

Abbreviation	Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci.
Journal Impact	4.49
Quartiles(Global)	PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL(Q1)

ISSN	1948-5506, 1948-5514
h-index	92
Top Journals	Yes

Publication Information	Publisher: Sage Periodicals Press，Publishing cycle: ，Journal Type: journal，Open Access Journals: No
Basic data	Year of publication: 2010，Proportion of original research papers: 100.00%，Self Citation Rate:2.30%， Gold OA Rate: 36.67%

Social Psychological and Personality Science

Journal Citation Format

A journal article with 1 author

A journal article with 2 authors

A journal article with 3 authors

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Books Citation Format

Thesis Citation Format

Web sites Citation Format

Patent Citation Format

Staying up late manually editing references? ivySCI automatically matches journals and helps you generate references with a single click.

Share Submission Experience