Campus Racial Climate, Psychological Well-being, and Race-Based Traumatic Stress Symptoms Among Monoracial Black and Biracial Black Students Following Heightened Exposure to Police Brutality.

The spring of 2020 was characterized by highly visible acts of police brutality and a heightened attention to systemic racism that created a macro-stressor for Black-identifying individuals. The current study aimed to capture college students' perceptions of campus racial climate, subjective well-being, and race-based trauma symptoms during this time. Results indicated that racial identity was associated with students' mental well-being, perceptions of campus racial climate, and experiences of traumatic stress symptoms. Monoracial Black and biracial Black students differed from non-Black students in their perceptions of campus racial climate and their traumatic stress symptoms. Monoracial Black and biracial Black students differed from one another on reports of subjective well-being. A unique pattern of correlations among the study variables emerged for each group. Our findings document the race-based trauma symptoms experienced by monoracial Black and biracial Black students in the spring of 2020 and provide a foundation for future research to examine factors that uniquely contribute to the well-being of monoracial Black and biracial Black students.

Thinking about time: identifying prospective temporal illusions and their consequences.

Time is fundamentally abstract, making it difficult to conceptualize and vulnerable to mental distortions. Nine preregistered experiments identify temporal illusions that characterize prospective time judgments and corresponding consequences for decision making in a variety of domains. Using visual illusions as a grounding metaphor, studies 1-4 demonstrated that the temporal distance between two dates was perceived as closer together as those two dates were imagined further into the future (e.g., Vanishing Point); the length of a single day whether negative (e.g., a 12 h illness-Study 2a) or positive (e.g., 12 h with a good friend-Study 2b) was estimated to feel longer when embedded within a short versus long trip (e.g., the Delbouef Illusion); a 60 min activity was expected to go by more quickly when adjacent activities were 90 (vs. 30) min (e.g., Ebbinghaus Illusion); and a 9 + 1 day vacation was expected to be considerably lengthier than an 11-1 day vacation (e.g., Representational Momentum). Four additional studies explored moderating factors (Studies 5 and 6) and the impact of distortions on downstream non-time judgments including the forecasted emotional intensity of a negative event (Study 6), estimations of fair monetary compensation for lost time (Study 7), and willingness to make prosocial time commitments (Study 8). Implications for uncovering additional temporal illusions as well as practical applications for leveraging the relativity of prospective time to achieve desired cognitive and behavioral outcomes are discussed.

Proximity with limited humanity: How hosting a tent city impacted college students' perceptions of individuals experiencing homelessness.

The current manuscript assessed the impact of a community intervention-hosting a government-sanctioned homeless encampment-on perceptions of individuals experiencing homelessness. College students' perceptions of individuals experiencing homelessness were collected before and after a tent city resided on campus. Perceptions were assessed utilizing a measure of dehumanization that probed the presumed importance of physiological and psychological needs. Data about contact with individuals experiencing homelessness were also collected. Hosting a tent city did not improve community-wide perceptions of individuals experiencing homelessness. For a subset of participants who explicitly mentioned interactions with tent city members, awareness of the importance of physiological needs increased. Assessments of intergroup contact during hosting did not moderate changes in perceptions, though contact prior to hosting did have a modest impact. Specifically, students who had the fewest prior interactions were more likely to show improved perceptions of middle-level need (e.g., love and belonging) importance. There was no evidence to suggest any enhancements in perceptions of high-level needs (e.g., feeling independent and respected). Contact that organically occurs when a community hosts a tent city has limited potential to enhance markers of humanness. Implications for the contact hypothesis and recommendations for future hosting sites are discussed.

The Mental Landscape of Imagining Life Beyond the Current Life Span: Implications for Construal and Self-Continuity.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: With rapid advancements in medicine, technology, and nutrition, the future holds the possibility of longer and healthier lives. Despite garnering attention from myriad disciplines, psychological perspectives on life extension are scarce. In three studies, we addressed this gap by exploring key mental characteristics and psychological variables associated with simulating an expanded life span and thus an extremely distant future self. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Three studies investigated the construal (i.e., valence, vividness, and visual perspective) of extremely distant future simulations and the extent to which participants felt connected to their future selves (i.e., self-continuity). Studies 1 and 2 investigated the characteristics of imagery associated with different ages ranging from near the current species maximum (e.g., 120, 150) to more highly hypothetical ages (e.g., 201, 501). Study 3 probed the mental construal of extreme aging among different populations (i.e., life-extension supporters, students, and Mechanical Turk workers). Studies also assessed participants' general feelings about the ethicality and likelihood of techniques that halt or reverse biological aging to help individuals live beyond the current life expectancy. RESULTS: Participants in all studies reported being able to vividly imagine expanded aging scenarios (increased chronological, without biological, and aging), but these simulations were characterized by a decreased sense of connection to one's future self (i.e., self-continuity) compared to a control condition. Temporal distance did not, however, impact ratings of self-continuity when comparing experimental conditions (i.e., imagining one's self 120 vs 150 or 201 vs 501). Curiously, a sense of self-continuity (when simulating oneself well beyond the current life expectancy) remained intact for individuals who belonged to a community of life-extension supporters. The perceived likelihood and ethicality of extended life-span scenarios also varied significantly across different populations. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: The current work is the first to quantify the disconnect between one's current and extremely distant (i.e., beyond the current life expectancy) future self. Given the behavioral implications of feeling disconnected from one's future self (e.g., failing to save for retirement or care for one's own physical health), these findings inform a critical barrier of extended life spans and provide insight into potential remedies (e.g., enhancing the perceived likelihood of living longer). Theoretical implications of hypotheticality and temporal distance, two key dimensions of Construal Level Theory, and their impact on the construal and self-continuity associated with future simulations are also discussed.

It wasn't me: The role of perspective in self-perceptions of responsibility.

Perceiving oneself as agentic is dependent upon the integration of conscious intention, a corresponding outcome, and body-congruent sensorimotor information. Altering these critical cues, such as the vantage point from which an event is viewed, can have a notable impact on one's sense of agency, including an increased sense of ownership over another person's actions or a reduced sense of responsibility (or control) over one's own actions. In three studies, we investigated whether mentally simulated and written perspectives could have similar effects. Participants were asked to consider ambiguous actions from either a first-person or a third-person perspective. Results revealed that third-person perspectives reduced judgments of personal responsibility for positive and negative actions. Perceptions of personal action execution as well as the perceived overlap between one's real and imagined self were identified as mediators of the reduced sense of responsibility that characterized negative, but not positive, events constructed from a third-person perspective.

Mental Simulation of Visceral States Affects Preferences and Behavior.

Preferences and behavior are heavily influenced by one's current visceral experience, yet people often fail to anticipate such effects. Although research suggests that this gap is difficult to overcome-to act as if in another visceral state-research on mental simulation has demonstrated that simulations can substitute for experiences, albeit to a weaker extent. We examine whether mentally simulating visceral states can impact preferences and behavior. We show that simulating a specific visceral state (e.g., being cold or hungry) shifts people's preferences for relevant activities (Studies 1a-2) and choices of food portion sizes (Study 3). Like actual visceral experiences, mental simulation only affects people's current preferences but not their general preferences (Study 4). Finally, people project simulated states onto similar others, as is the case for actual visceral experiences (Study 5). Thus, mental simulation may help people anticipate their own and others' future preferences, thereby improving their decision making.