Those who (enjoy to) hurt: The influence of dark personality traits on animal- and human directed sadistic pleasure.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Sadistic pleasure - gratuitous enjoyment from inflicting pain on others - has devastating interpersonal and societal consequences. The current knowledge on non-sexual, everyday sadism - a trait that resides within the general population - is scarce. The present study therefore focussed on personality correlates of sadistic pleasure. It investigated the relationship between the Dark Triad traits, and both dispositional and state-level sadistic pleasure. METHODS: N = 120 participants filled out questionnaires to assess their level of Dark Triad traits, psychopathy subfactors, and dispositional sadism. Then, participants engaged in an animal-directed task in which they were led to believe that they were killing bugs; and in a human-directed task where they could ostensibly noise blasts another participant. The two behavioral tasks were administered within-subjects, in randomized order. Sadistic pleasure was captured by increases in reported pleasure from pre-to post-task. RESULTS: All Dark Triad traits related to increased dispositional sadism, with psychopathy showing the strongest link. The coldheartedness psychopathy subscale showed a unique combination with both self-reported sadism and increased pleasure following bug grinding. LIMITATIONS: Predominantly female and student sample, limiting generalizability of findings. CONCLUSIONS: Out of all Dark Triad components, psychopathy showed the strongest link with gaining pleasure from hurting others. The results underscore the differential predictive value of psychopathy's subcomponents for sadistic pleasure. Coldheartedness can be considered especially disturbing because of its unique relationship to deriving joy from irreversible harm-infliction (i.e. killing bugs). Our findings further establish psychopathy - and especially its coldheartedness component - as the most adverse Dark Triad trait.

Taboos and Self-Censorship Among U.S. Psychology Professors.

We identify points of conflict and consensus regarding (a) controversial empirical claims and (b) normative preferences for how controversial scholarship-and scholars-should be treated. In 2021, we conducted qualitative interviews (n = 41) to generate a quantitative survey (N = 470) of U.S. psychology professors' beliefs and values. Professors strongly disagreed on the truth status of 10 candidate taboo conclusions: For each conclusion, some professors reported 100% certainty in its veracity and others 100% certainty in its falsehood. Professors more confident in the truth of the taboo conclusions reported more self-censorship, a pattern that could bias perceived scientific consensus regarding the inaccuracy of controversial conclusions. Almost all professors worried about social sanctions if they were to express their own empirical beliefs. Tenured professors reported as much self-censorship and as much fear of consequences as untenured professors, including fear of getting fired. Most professors opposed suppressing scholarship and punishing peers on the basis of moral concerns about research conclusions and reported contempt for peers who petition to retract papers on moral grounds. Younger, more left-leaning, and female faculty were generally more opposed to controversial scholarship. These results do not resolve empirical or normative disagreements among psychology professors, but they may provide an empirical context for their discussion.

Evolution, culture, and the possibility of peace.

Glowacki's work meshes well with our view of human nature as having evolved to use culture to improve survival and reproduction. Peace is a cultural achievement, requiring advances in social organization and control, including leaders who can implement policies to benefit the group, third-party mediation, and intergroup cooperation. Cultural advances shift intergroup interactions from negative-sum (war) to positive-sum (trade).

Prosocial motives underlie scientific censorship by scientists: A perspective and research agenda.

Science is among humanity's greatest achievements, yet scientific censorship is rarely studied empirically. We explore the social, psychological, and institutional causes and consequences of scientific censorship (defined as actions aimed at obstructing particular scientific ideas from reaching an audience for reasons other than low scientific quality). Popular narratives suggest that scientific censorship is driven by authoritarian officials with dark motives, such as dogmatism and intolerance. Our analysis suggests that scientific censorship is often driven by scientists, who are primarily motivated by self-protection, benevolence toward peer scholars, and prosocial concerns for the well-being of human social groups. This perspective helps explain both recent findings on scientific censorship and recent changes to scientific institutions, such as the use of harm-based criteria to evaluate research. We discuss unknowns surrounding the consequences of censorship and provide recommendations for improving transparency and accountability in scientific decision-making to enable the exploration of these unknowns. The benefits of censorship may sometimes outweigh costs. However, until costs and benefits are examined empirically, scholars on opposing sides of ongoing debates are left to quarrel based on competing values, assumptions, and intuitions.

Dysfunctional Schemas from Preadolescence as One Major Avenue by Which Meaning Has Impact on Mental Health.

A main way by which meaning influences mental health is by the formation of interpersonal schemas that specify what to expect from others and how to treat them. Particularly during preadolescence (a developmental phase focused on interpersonal skills), young people living in a stressful or hurtful environment can form atypical schemas that can help them survive but that produce serious problems when later applied to newly forming adult relationships. We provide three case studies illustrating this process. A boy learned to cope by withdrawing from social interaction and excelling in schoolwork. A girl learned to cope by denying her own needs and sacrificing herself for the welfare of others. Another girl coped by pervasive distrust of others and by becoming assertively independent. These children learned well enough to adapt to these dysfunctional relationships so as to suffer as little as possible, and they even developed some personal skills and resources. However, the rigid schemas had a destructive impact on their adult relationships. Proposals for interventions to change meaning and behaviors are discussed.

Cooperation in the Time of COVID.

Humans evolved to be hyper-cooperative, particularly when among people who are well known to them, when relationships involve reciprocal helping opportunities, and when the costs to the helper are substantially less than the benefits to the recipient. Because humans' cooperative nature evolved over many millennia when they lived exclusively in small groups, factors that cause cooperation to break down tend to be those associated with life in large, impersonal, modern societies: when people are not identifiable, when interactions are one-off, when self-interest is not tied to the interests of others, and when people are concerned that others might free ride. From this perspective, it becomes clear that policies for managing pandemics will be most effective when they highlight superordinate goals and connect people or institutions to one another over multiple identifiable interactions. When forging such connections is not possible, policies should mimic critical components of ancestral conditions by providing reputational markers for cooperators and reducing the systemic damage caused by free riding. In this article, we review policies implemented during the pandemic, highlighting spontaneous community efforts that leveraged these aspects of people's evolved psychology, and consider implications for future decision makers.

Self-control, limited willpower and decision fatigue in healthcare settings.

We argue that willpower as well as its depletion may, in some circumstances, adversely impact on clinical decision-making and patient care. This psychological phenomenon has been dubbed ego depletion in social psychology. Willpower and its depletion which is known as 'ego depletion' are well-established and validated theoretical constructs in social psychology and have been studied across a range of experimental contexts. Willpower is closely related to the concept of self-control, which refers to the ability to regulate one's own behaviour and actions in order to pursue and achieve either a short- or long-term goal. We outline the clinical relevance of willpower and its depletion in relation to clinical case examples drawn from three of the authors' clinical experience with the view of developing a clinical-research agenda for future research studies. We examine willpower and its depletion in the context of three clinical case examples, which include (i) doctor-patient interactions, (ii) willpower and its depletion in relation to challenging interpersonal interactions with clinical and non-clinical work colleagues and (iii) willpower and its depletion in response to working within a challenging and unpredictable clinical environment. In contrast to the more widely recognised external resources (including space, staff allocations and night shifts), a greater understanding of how this important but under-recognised internal resource can be depleted in response to a range of different factors within clinical settings has the potential to inform and improve patient care through a renewed focus on the developing interdisciplinary clinical studies which draw upon contemporary findings from social psychology. Future work aimed at developing evidence-based interventions to help mitigate the negative impact of impaired self-control and decision fatigue within healthcare systems may in turn lead to improved patient care as well as more effective healthcare service and delivery.

How do aspects of selfhood relate to depression and anxiety among youth? A meta-analysis.

Adolescents' sense of self has important implications for their mental health. Despite more than two decades of work, scholars have yet to amass evidence across studies to elucidate the role of selfhood in the mental health of adolescents. Underpinned by the conceptual model of selfhood, this meta-analytic review investigated the strength of associations of different facets of selfhood and their associated traits with depression and anxiety, moderating factors that attenuate or exacerbate these associations, and their causal influences. Using mixed-effects modeling, which included 558 effect sizes from 298 studies and 274 370 adolescents from 39 countries, our findings revealed that adolescents' self-esteem/self-concept [r = -0.518, p < 0.0001; (95% CI -0.49 to -0.547)] and self-compassion [r = -0.455, p < 0.0001; (95% CI -0.568 to -0.343)] demonstrating largest effect sizes in their associations with depression. Self-esteem/self-concept, self-compassion, self-awareness, self-efficacy, and self-regulation had similar moderate negative associations with anxiety. Meta-regressions revealed that adolescent age and type of informants (parents v. adolescents) were important moderators. Findings on causal influences indicated bidirectional causations, particularly low self-esteem/self-concept, self-awareness and self-efficacy drive higher depression and vice-versa. In contrast, the different self traits did not demonstrate specific causal direction with anxiety. These results pinpoint self traits that are pivotal in relating to adolescent mental health functioning. We discussed the theoretical implications of our findings in terms of how they advance theory of selfhood for adolescent mental health, and the practical implications of building selfhood as cultivating psychological skills for mental health.

Multi-Site Replications in Social Psychology: Reflections, Implications, and Future Directions.

Social psychology findings have fared poorly in multi-site replication attempts. This article considers and evaluates multiple factors that may contribute to such failures, other than the "crisis" assumption that most of the field's published research is so badly flawed that it should be dismissed wholesale. Low engagement by participants may reduce replicability of some findings (while not affecting certain others). Incentives differ between original researchers and replicators. If multi-site replications are indeed biased toward failure, this may have a damaging effect on the field's ability to build correct theories.

Fast optimism, slow realism? Causal evidence for a two-step model of future thinking.

Many researchers report that people have an optimistic bias when making predictions, but sometimes cautious realism is found. One resolution is that future thinking has two steps: The desired outcome is imagined first, followed by a sobering reflection on potential difficulty of getting there. Five experiments supported this two-step model (USA and Norway; N = 3213; 10,433 judgments), showing that intuitive predictions are more optimistic than reflective predictions. Participants were randomly assigned to rely on fast intuition under time-pressure or slow reflection after time-delay. In Experiment 1, participants in both conditions thought positive events were more likely to happen to them than to other people and that negative events were less likely, replicating the classic finding of "unrealistic optimism". Crucially, this optimistic tendency was significantly stronger in the intuitive condition. Participants in the intuitive condition also relied more on heuristic problem-solving (CRT). Experiments 2-3 found that participants in the intuitive condition thought they were at lower health risk than participants in the reflective condition. Experiment 4 provided a direct replication, with the additional finding that intuitive predictions were more optimistic only for oneself (and not about the average person). Experiment 5 failed to identify any intuitive difference in perceived reasons for success versus failure, but observed intuitive optimism in binary prediction of a future exercise habit. Experiment 5 also found suggestive evidence for a moderating role of social knowledge: Reflective predictions about oneself became more realistic than intuitive predictions only when the person's base-rate beliefs about other people were fairly accurate.

Multi-Site Replications in Social Psychology: Reflections, Implications, and Future Directions

Social psychology findings have fared poorly in multi-site replication attempts. This article considers and evaluates multiple factors that may contribute to such failures, other than the “crisis” assumption that most of the field’s published research is so badly flawed that it should be dismissed wholesale. Low engagement by participants may reduce replicability of some findings (while not affecting certain others). Incentives differ between original researchers and replicators. If multi-site replications are indeed biased toward failure, this may have a damaging effect on the field’s ability to build correct theories. (AU)

Leisure and meaning in life.

How people engage in leisure is an important but frequently underappreciated aspect of meaning in life. Leisure activities range from highly engaging and meaningful to subjectively trivial. Leisure itself is largely defined by meaning: The essence of leisure lies less in the specific activity than in the subjective perception of freedom, choice, and intrinsic motivation. People desire their lives to be meaningful, and leisure activities offer varying degrees of satisfying the basic needs for meaning (here covered as purpose, value, efficacy, and self-worth). Leisure activities vary along multiple conceptual dimensions, such as active vs. passive, seeking vs. escaping, solitary vs. interpersonal, and we consider the implications of these for meaningfulness. The most common leisure activity in modern society, watching television, encapsulates some of the paradoxes of leisure and meaningfulness. The study of how leisure enhances meaning in life is rich and ripe for future research.

A Review of Multisite Replication Projects in Social Psychology: Is It Viable to Sustain Any Confidence in Social Psychology's Knowledge Base?

Multisite (multilab/many-lab) replications have emerged as a popular way of verifying prior research findings, but their record in social psychology has prompted distrust of the field and a sense of crisis. We review all 36 multisite social-psychology replications (plus three articles reporting multiple ministudies). We start by assuming that both the original and the multisite replications were conducted in honest and diligent fashion, despite often yielding different conclusions. Four of the 36 (11%) were clearly successful in terms of providing significant support for the original hypothesis, and five others (14%) had mixed results. The remaining 27 (75%) were failures. Multiple explanations for the generally poor record of replications are considered, including the possibility that the original hypothesis was wrong; operational failure; low engagement of participants; and bias toward failure. The relevant evidence is assessed as well. There was evidence for each of the possibilities listed above, with low engagement emerging as a widespread problem (reflected in high rates of discarded data and weak manipulation checks). The few procedures with actual interpersonal interaction fared much better than others. We discuss implications in relation to manipulation checks, effect sizes, and impact on the field and offer recommendations for improving future multisite projects.

Neural correlates of fanhood: the role of fan identity and team brand strength.

Introduction: We analyzed the importance of fan identity and brand strength on fans' neural reactions to different team-related stimuli. Methods: A total of 53 fMRI scans with fans of two professional sport teams were conducted. Following up on a previous study we focused on the differences between fandom levels as well as the contrast between two team "brand" strength. Neural responses were compared among individuals based on their levels of fan identity. In sum, group comparisons between relatively high and lower identity and between weak and strong teams were made based on the notion that the latter reflects team brand strength (strong brand and weak brand). Results: Findings indicate that brain activity in emotion regulation, memory, and cognitive control circuits is influenced by the relative level of fan identity. Discussion: Higher-level identified fans showed increased reactivity to positive stimuli and the under-recruitment of their cognitive appraisal circuits, suggesting more vulnerability to marketers' messages. The strength of the team brand activates different neural mechanisms. Interestingly, the posterior cingulate showed larger recruitment both for weaker brands and lower fan identification, suggesting that visual memory processes are more active in these cases. Neurally processed content depends on the relative brand's strength, highlighting the importance of brand-focused communications.

Psychological and behavioral implications of self-protection and self-enhancement.

Self-protection can have psychological and behavioral implications. We contrast them with the implications of a self-enhancement strategy. Both self-enhancement and self-protection have costs and benefits as survival strategies, and we identify some of the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral tradeoffs associated with the differential preferences for each strategy. New analyses on a large existing data set confirm the target article's hypothesis that women are more attuned than men to potential negative consequences of innovations.

Training Willpower: Reducing Costs and Valuing Effort.

The integrative model of effortful control presented in a previous article aimed to specify the neurophysiological bases of mental effort. This model assumes that effort reflects three different inter-related aspects of the same adaptive function. First, a mechanism anchored in the salience network that makes decisions about the effort that should be engaged in the current task in view of costs and benefits associated with the achievement of the task goal. Second, a top-down control signal generated by the mechanism of effort that modulates neuronal activity in brain regions involved in the current task to filter pertinent information. Third, a feeling that emerges in awareness during effortful tasks and reflects the costs associated with goal-directed behavior. The aim of the present article is to complete this model by proposing that the capacity to exert effortful control can be improved through training programs. Two main questions relative to this possible strengthening of willpower are addressed in this paper. The first question concerns the existence of empirical evidence that supports gains in effortful control capacity through training. We conducted a review of 63 meta-analyses that shows training programs are effective in improving performance in effortful tasks tapping executive functions and/or self-control with a small to large effect size. Moreover, physical and mindfulness exercises could be two promising training methods that would deserve to be included in training programs aiming to strengthen willpower. The second question concerns the neural mechanisms that could explain these gains in effortful control capacity. Two plausible brain mechanisms are proposed: (1) a decrease in effort costs combined with a greater efficiency of brain regions involved in the task and (2) an increase in the value of effort through operant conditioning in the context of high effort and high reward. The first mechanism supports the hypothesis of a strengthening of the capacity to exert effortful control whereas the second mechanism supports the hypothesis of an increase in the motivation to exert this control. In the last part of the article, we made several recommendations to improve the effectiveness of interventional studies aiming to train this adaptive function."Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day."James (1918, p. 127).

Feeling good without doing good: Comment on Orth and Robins (2022).

Reviewing the literature of the past two decades, Orth and Robins (2022) conclude that high self-esteem yields reliable benefits. In this commentary, we caution that for objective outcome measures, these effects are variable- and domain-dependent. The allure of high self-esteem remains largely a matter of mind and memory, not behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).