Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation that, over time, causes a victim to doubt their sense of reality, often leading to a loss of agency and emotional and mental instability. Currently, mechanistic explanations for gaslighting are rooted in unfalsifiable psychodynamic theory. We propose a theoretical framework that draws upon prediction error minimization, symbolic interactionism, attachment

The circumstances under which people are more likely to use their attitude certainty were examined. Across three studies, participants shared their attitudes on current topics (e.g. refugees). Then, attitude certainty was either measured or manipulated, depending on the study. Elaboration was assessed via need for cognition or manipulated after forming attitudes and certainty, just before the behavioural

Automated decision‐making systems have become increasingly prevalent in morally salient domains of services, introducing ethically significant consequences. In three pre‐registered studies (N = 804), we experimentally investigated whether people's judgements of AI decisions are impacted by a belief alignment with the underlying politically salient context of AI deployment over and above any general

Despite the growing presence of artificial intelligence (AI)-based agents in human daily life, there remains a dearth of exploration and synthesized evidence on the social aspects of human-AI interaction. Researchers have increasingly viewed AI agents as a distinct form of media persona, sparking interest in the phenomenon of parasocial interaction (PSI) with these entities. Building on this emerging

This study revisits an alleged ‘sedative’ effect of intergroup friendship on minority support for social change. Focusing on support for political action and empowering policies among Indigenous minorities in Chile, we examine both friendship with majority Chileans and personal discrimination; we distinguish ethnic and politicized minority identifications as hypothetical processes connecting intergroup

ObjectiveMost prominent theories of authoritarianism maintain that it is deeply tied to threat, and yet few large‐scale cross‐cultural tests have evaluated this link. Furthermore, there are ongoing debates about (a) the degree that realistic (versus symbolic) threats predict authoritarianism and (b) the degree that the threat–authoritarianism link occurs across the political spectrum.MethodTo fill

Believing that differences between women and men should be recognized and valued—that is, endorsing gender identity awareness—is a common way of approaching gender diversity, including efforts to promote equity. However, such approaches can also reinforce stereotypes and justify existing inequalities, particularly when they reflect essentialist attributions for gender differences (Martin, 2023). To

When witnessing aggression, individuals often empathize more with victims than with aggressors, which may bias their perceptions and interpretations of the transgressions. However, the mechanisms underlying these biases remain poorly understood. Through two experiments, we investigated whether people's decisions to condemn aggressors are influenced by their predisposition to sympathize with the victim

ObjectiveTrait anger can impact emotional states, appraisals of others, and cognition. The study aim was to assess in fathers whether these associations are exacerbated by infant crying.MethodThree hundred sixty‐eight fathers were randomly assigned to infant cry, infant babble, or a non‐infant‐related control while completing assessments of cognitive scope, impulse control, or mentalizing. Trait anger

Just a few years after the U.S. government’s decision to fully fund the Human Genome Project (HGP) in 1990, an important harbinger of things to come was the publication of the controversial 1994 book The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray. The authors’ most controversial claim was that human intelligence was at least 60 percent genetic. At that time, the national advisory group

The current research examines perceived ingroup strengths and their relationship with collective efficacy, generalized power, and resistance among Black Americans. Two studies investigated how different perceptions of ingroup strengths (e.g. collective resilience, ingroup solidarity, intergroup coalitions, ingroup resistance, and intergroup respect) were associated with generalized power perceptions

Trust is vital for success in all kinds of social interactions. But how do people decide whether an individual can be trusted? One factor people may consider is that individual's social class. We hypothesize that people trust others from lower social class contexts more than others from higher class contexts; we also consider nuances between current and childhood class context and between trust as

Understanding potential costs of social identity switching contributes to our knowledge of how people manage their various group memberships in a fast‐paced and interconnected world. Recent research demonstrates that people can switch between demographic social identities seamlessly. The current studies advance this research by (1) moving beyond demographic identities to identities that are not perceptually

We investigated the preregistered hypothesis that an optimistic bias in updating beliefs about climate change (i.e., integrating good news more than bad news) cross‐sectionally (NStudy 1 = 109) and longitudinally (NStudy 2 = 407) predicts self‐reported pro‐environmental behaviour (PEB). To test this, we employed an experimental task in which participants were presented with multiple climate change

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic condition marked by widespread pain, psychological distress, and significant societal costs. This study evaluates the feasibility of a mobile health (mHealth) application designed to support cognitive-behavioral therapy for FM by enabling real-time tracking of patient-reported outcomes and adaptive treatment modifications within public health care settings. Thirty-six

Across both wealthy and non‐wealthy nations, research finds public support for wealthy countries taking greater climate action. However, it is unclear whether this is driven by a belief that wealthier nations have greater economic capacity to respond or a greater historic responsibility for causing climate change. We explore this idea in the context of climate aid policies, which direct support to

Individual differences in social traits such as the affiliation motive are closely linked to the formation and maintenance of social relationships. Most previous research focused on long-term characteristics or momentary assessments of social relationships (e.g., social network size, relationship quality), whereas theoretical accounts have emphasized the temporal dynamics, that is, how social interactions

Is low self-esteem a risk factor for depression, and do experiences of depression deteriorate an individual's self-esteem? In this preregistered study, we used continuous time modeling to investigate how prospective effects between self-esteem and depression change as a function of the time interval over which the effects are observed. Analyses were based on data from six measurement waves of the Longitudinal

Technological advancement has transformed nearly every aspect of modern life. Nonetheless excessive use of smartphone has become a matter of concern. Adolescents and young adults tend to be more attached or addictive to smartphones and their effects are seen either physically or psychologically. However, there are still no established diagnostic criteria for smartphone addiction in The Diagnostic and

This study examines the neural underpinnings of the intention to use cognitive training digital therapeutics among older adults with subjective memory complaints. A total of 23 older adults with a clinical dementia rating score of 0.5-commonly interpreted as indicative of very mild cognitive impairment-participated in cognitive training using a smartphone application. Leveraging functional near-infrared

This study investigated how one’s gender, life goals, and self-stereotyping influence career interests in Germany, Nigeria, and Turkey. We examined agency and communion traits, as well as future goals related to status and family, to explore how gendered self-perceptions and life goals are associated with career interests among emerging adults (18–25 years) and adults under the age of 35 (25–34 years)

Using a scenario approach, two studies (total N = 400) investigate how straight cis people would react if they got flirtatious advances from an other-gender trans versus cis person (Study 1) and if their romantic partner came out as trans (Study 2). Both studies focus on gender differences and take participants’ level of general transphobia into account. Study 1 showed that, compared to women, men

IntroductionMost research investigating relationships between the Big Five and emotional states has focused on how emotional attributes relate to Extraversion and Neuroticism. However, the potential for discrete emotional states to enable a richer understanding of the emotive nature of all Big Five traits and their subtraits has been neglected.MethodsParticipants (N = 203) completed the Big Five Aspects

Stimuli selection in psychology experiments is typically unsystematic, undocumented, and irreproducible. This makes confounds likely to arise. The statistical analysis of psychology experiments with multiple stimuli, in turn, is typically reported at the aggregate level, averaging across stimuli. This makes confounds unlikely to be detected. Here, we propose changing both the design and analysis of

The present study addresses a fundamental yet largely neglected question about personality development: To what extent are changes in parent personality traits associated with changes in their child's personality traits? Numerous developmental processes suggest that parent and child personality might have transactional associations over time, contributing to their codevelopment. This codevelopment

People are fundamentally social creatures, seeking connectedness driven by a need to belong. Belonging is a subjective feeling that helps us recognize our connection to people, social groups, culture, places, and experiences. In turn, belongingness can support mental well-being through positive interpersonal interactions and encouragement in both face-to-face and online environments. Advancements in

Many descendants of migrants feel belonging to both the national group and the ethnic minority group of their family (dual identity), but they often experience that majority members see them only as ethnic minority members. This could hamper their potential to improve intergroup relations. Because social networks tend to be homogeneous, having friends from a particular group could be interpreted as

We analyzed the effect of collective efficacy on mobilizing allies for Roma rights and the role of legitimizing ideologies and perceived discrimination as moderators. In an online experiment, pooling two samples of non‐Roma Hungarians (n = 397) and Spaniards (n = 339), participants were randomly assigned to a high (vs. low) efficacy condition and reported their perceived collective efficacy, collective

We advance health lifestyle research by developing the concept of agentic recombination to capture how individuals uniquely combine health behaviors to form adult health lifestyles. Using data from the 2005 to 2019 Transition to Adulthood Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we examine intergenerational transmission of health behaviors, directionality of health behaviors, and health lifestyles

The contact hypothesis stipulates that contact between social groups can reduce intergroup prejudice, implying that contact changes people (i.e., within‐person effects). However, recent research suggests that more intergroup contact might simply be associated with less intergroup prejudice (i.e., between‐person effects). We explore primary but also secondary contact effects, whereby contact with one

Governments around the world fear a loss of social cohesion and a risk of harm to individuals and democratic processes that stem from politicization, polarization and radicalization. We argue that these processes of social influence provide the motivation for—but are not sufficient for—mobilization (the behaviour of engaging in collective action). To be able to collectively act, people require the

Deepfakes can distort reality and communicate disinformation so convincing that individuals find it difficult to differentiate real from fake, which can have significant real-world effects. Faced with the challenges of Deepfakes, individuals will assign responsibility for Deepfakes to various entities and that responsibility allocation will influence many issues including regulation, distribution,

Automated vehicles (AVs) have the potential to significantly enhance road safety, traffic efficiency, and mobility access by supporting or replacing human control during driving. However, the success of this transition hinges on people's attitudes. This study explores the dimensionality and factor interactions in the adaptation of the technology acceptance model (TAM) to conditional AVs applied to

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in a landmark decision that reversed decades of legal precedent for abortion access at the national level, instead returning decisions about reproductive autonomy to individual states. This decision both reflects and produces abortion stigma, which has been linked to harmful psychosocial outcomes among abortion recipients. In a sample of 269

Men’s gender roles have changed dramatically over the past few decades. We examined whether the evaluation of this discontinuity in men’s gender roles predicts cis men's attitudes toward gender equality, and whether nostalgic reverie for traditional gender relations mediates this association. Support was found for our hypothesized mediation model across three studies (and an internal meta-analysis

Emotional responses to anthropogenic climate change have attracted significant attention. People negotiate emotions through culturally available frameworks. This study, based on 18 focus group discussions, explores in detail three instances of how Norwegian youth engage affectively with climate change. Utilising affect and discourse theory, we conceptualise affective dilemmas as conflicts arising from

The development of Large Language Models (LLMs) has sparked significant debate regarding their capacity for Theory of Mind (ToM)-the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others. This systematic review examines the extent to which LLMs exhibit Artificial ToM (AToM) by evaluating their performance on ToM tasks and comparing it with human responses. While LLMs, particularly GPT-4, perform

As algorithms increasingly shape user experiences on digital platforms, concerns have emerged regarding their opacity and potential negative consequences. In response, platforms have introduced transparency features such as algorithm-based recommendation explanations and user control features. However, empirical research on the effects of these approaches and how they vary according to user characteristics

Emotion detection is crucial in various domains, including psychology, health, social sciences, and marketing. Specifically, in psychology, identifying negative emotions in short Spanish texts, such as tweets, is vital for understanding individuals' emotional states. However, this process is challenging because of factors such as lack of context, cultural nuances, and ambiguous expressions. Although

The stigma of incarceration contributes to the global reoffending crisis and remains a barrier to reintegration into receiving communities. Recent research suggests that the key to solving this problem may lie in shared transformative experiences. We tested whether the salience of such experiences can overcome stigma among members of receiving communities when they act as gatekeepers for formerly incarcerated

Given growing political polarization in recent years, partisan dislike-defined as the negativity that individuals display at the prospect of having close social relations with supporters of the other party-has received increasing attention. While traditional work in social and political psychology has held that conservatives display greater outgroup hostility than liberals, the worldview conflict perspective

To effectively address support for intergroup violence, we must understand the psychology promoting it. Dehumanization-the explicit and blatant denial of an outgroup's humanity-is widely considered one such promoter, which has informed extensive research and practice on support for intergroup violence. Nonetheless, dehumanization is often intertwined with intense dislike, raising concerns that dehumanization's

Socializing, moving, working, and leisure form the foundation of human experience. We examined whether these foundational, ostensibly nonpolitical behaviors are nevertheless bifurcated along political fault lines, revealing "lifestyle polarization." Study 1 quantified the association between political identity and 61 social, movement, work, and leisure behaviors collected from smartphone sensors and

Existing research into values and relationship formation highlights the role of individuals' own values or value similarity between the parties. We consider the formation of functional relationships with professionals, which cannot be fully explained by documented value‐based mechanisms. Instead, we examine the role of professionals' values as perceived by others. We study two occupations that require

Dominant groups often resist possible changes to the hierarchical status quo. Might such tendencies be partly rooted in negative-yet potentially malleable-meta-beliefs about how disempowered groups would use power if they gained control? We investigate these questions across three studies and eight independent samples (Total N = 7,460 analyzed responses) in the context of Black-White relations in the

The desire to appear virtuous can motivate people to punish wrongdoers, a desirable outcome when punishment is clearly deserved. Yet claims that "virtue signaling" is fueling a culture of outrage suggest that reputation concerns may inspire even potentially unmerited punishment. Moreover, might reputation do more to drive punishment in ambiguous situations, where punishment is less clearly deserved

The objective of this study was to examine the perspectives and culturally embedded experiences associated with the stigma of women consuming alcohol in Italy. A total of 80 Italian women (aged 18–28) with varying drinking profiles were selected to participate in focus group interviews. The interviews were subjected to a thematic analysis in accordance with the social process of stigma as delineated

Academic Abstract Although disadvantage and advantage jointly make up inequality, inequality is often one-sidedly framed as disadvantage. Concurrently, efforts to raise awareness for advantages are growing. Many studies have examined whether and how it matters if inequality is framed as advantage or disadvantage. However, empirical and conceptual integration of this work is lacking. For empirical integration

Academic Abstract Current theories on dispositional–situational attributions suggest that East Asians’ attributions are more external compared to Westerners. However, empirical studies yield mixed findings. I reflect on historical, philosophical, and sociological resources in China and the United States to address this inconsistency. This paper (a) proposes a new attributional dimension borrowed from