Psychological effects of reading: the role of nostalgia in re-reading favorite books.

Nostalgia evoked through various experiences (e.g., scents, music) has been shown to enhance emotional well-being and reduce social pain. We propose that reading a familiar book similarly can elicit nostalgia, and provide emotional benefits through narrative transportation beyond that of reading a new book. We tested the relationship between reading new versus familiar books, nostalgia, narrative transportation, and indices of social connectedness. Participants were randomly assigned to re-read a favorite novel, read a new novel of interest, or read a set of newspaper articles. Re-reading elicited greater nostalgia and social connectedness than reading a new novel or newspaper. Narrative transportation and nostalgia fully mediated the effect of reading condition on social connectedness. We discuss implications for our understanding homeostatic nature of nostalgia and mental transportation.

Gray (Literature) Matters: Evidence of Selective Hypothesis Reporting in Social Psychological Research.

Selective reporting practices (SRPs)-adding, dropping, or altering study elements when preparing reports for publication-are thought to increase false positives in scientific research. Yet analyses of SRPs have been limited to self-reports or analyses of pre-registered and published studies. To assess SRPs in social psychological research more broadly, we compared doctoral dissertations defended between 1999 and 2017 with the publications based on those dissertations. Selective reporting occurred in nearly 50% of studies. Fully supported dissertation hypotheses were 3 times more likely to be published than unsupported hypotheses, while unsupported hypotheses were nearly 4 times more likely to be dropped from publications. Few hypotheses were found to be altered or added post hoc. Dissertation studies with fewer supported hypotheses were more likely to remove participants or measures from publications. Selective hypothesis reporting and dropped measures significantly predicted greater hypothesis support in published studies, supporting concerns that SRPs may increase Type 1 error risk.

The Ties That Bind: University Nostalgia Fosters Relational and Collective University Engagement.

Does nostalgia for one's time at university predict current intentions to engage with the university? In Study 1, United States participants' nostalgia for their university experience (university nostalgia) at a southern public university predicted stronger intentions to socialize with fellow alumni, attend a future reunion, volunteer for their university, and donate money to their university. Study 2 replicated these findings with alumni from a northeastern private university, and extended them by finding that the links between university nostalgia and university engagement emerged even when controlling for the positivity of university experience. In both studies, feelings of university belonging mediated most of the associations between university nostalgia and university engagement. In Study 2, the positivity of the university experience moderated the relation between university nostalgia and two indices of university engagement. Specifically, university nostalgia was more strongly associated with intentions to attend a reunion and donate money among those who had a relatively negative university experience. Nostalgia for one's university past predicts future engagement with the university as well as its members.

Data from the Human Penguin Project, a cross-national dataset testing social thermoregulation principles.

In the Human Penguin Project (N = 1755), 15 research groups from 12 countries collected body temperature, demographic variables, social network indices, seven widely-used psychological scales and two newly developed questionnaires (the Social Thermoregulation and Risk Avoidance Questionnaire (STRAQ-1) and the Kama Muta Frequency Scale (KAMF)). They were collected to investigate the relationship between environmental factors (e.g., geographical, climate etc.) and human behaviors, which is a long-standing inquiry in the scientific community. More specifically, the present project was designed to test principles surrounding the idea of social thermoregulation, which posits that social networks help people to regulate their core body temperature. The results showed that all scales in the current project have sufficient to good psychometrical properties. Unlike previous crowdsourced projects, this dataset includes not only the cleaned raw data but also all the validation of questionnaires in 9 different languages, thus providing a valuable resource for psychological scientists who are interested in cross-national, environment-human interaction studies.

Development of the Collectivist-Sensitive Trait Forgivingness Scale.

Mounting evidence suggests that experiences of forgiveness vary across cultures. However, culturally sensitive conceptualizations of forgiveness lack empirical support, in part because psychometrically sound instruments designed to capture unique aspects of forgiveness in non-Western cultures are rare. For this reason, we developed the Collectivist-Sensitive Trait Forgivingness Scale (TFS-CS), which is designed to measure trait forgivingness within societies characterized by a blend of individualistic and collectivistic worldviews. In Study 1 (N = 597), exploratory factor analysis revealed a 16-item three-factor structure of third-party forgiveness, collectivistic forgiveness, and interpersonal resentment among South Africans. In Study 2 (N = 897), the three-factor model replicated in an independent South African sample. Findings also offered preliminary evidence supporting the construct validity of the TFS-CS. Overall, these studies support a conceptualization of trait forgivingness with similarities and differences relative to Western models and highlight the importance of appreciating the influence of culture when measuring forgiveness.

Mindfulness increases prosocial responses toward ostracized strangers through empathic concern.

Four studies tested the proposition that mindfulness and its training fostered prosociality toward ostracized strangers. In discovery Study 1, dispositional mindfulness predicted greater empathic concern for, and more helping behavior toward, an ostracized stranger. Using an experimental design, Study 2 revealed that very briefly instructed mindfulness, relative to active control instructions, also promoted prosocial responsiveness to an ostracized stranger. Study 3 ruled out alternative explanations for this effect of mindfulness, showing that it did not promote empathic anger or perpetrator punishment, nor that the control training reduced prosocial responsiveness toward an ostracized stranger rather than mindfulness increasing it. Study 4 further ruled out the alternative explanation of relaxation in the experimental effects of mindfulness. In all studies, empathic concern mediated the relation between mindfulness and one or both of the helping behavior outcomes. Meta-analyses of the four studies revealed stable, medium sized effects of mindfulness instruction on prosocial emotions and prosocial behavior. Together these findings inform about circumstances in which mindfulness may increase prosocial responsiveness, and deepen our understanding of the motivational bases of prosociality. (PsycINFO Database Record