Home » Archives by category » Psychology articles (Page 12)

(Psychological) Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder: Effects of Psychological Distance and Relative Intelligence on Men’s Attraction to Women

Interpersonal attraction may be shaped by (a) one’s psychological distance from a target (the subjective experience that a target is close to or far from the self) and (b) the perceived standing of a target on a trait relative to the self (as bet…

"We Are in This Together": Common Group Identity Predicts Majority Members’ Active Acculturation Efforts to Integrate Immigrants

Although integration involves a process of mutual accommodation, the role of majority groups is often downplayed to passive tolerance, leaving immigrants with the sole responsibility for active integration. However, we show that common group identity c…

Immorality East and West: Are Immoral Behaviors Especially Harmful, or Especially Uncivilized?

What makes some acts immoral? Although Western theories of morality often define harmful behaviors as centrally immoral, whether this is applicable to other cultures is still under debate. In particular, Confucianism emphasizes civility as fundamental …

Effects of Power on Mental Rotation and Emotion Recognition in Women

Based on construal-level theory (CLT) and its view of power as an instance of social distance, we predicted that high, relative to low power would enhance women’s mental-rotation performance and impede their emotion-recognition performance. The p…

Finding a Fit or Developing It: Implicit Theories About Achieving Passion for Work

“Passion for work” has become a widespread phrase in popular discourse. Two contradictory lay perspectives have emerged on how passion for work is attained, which we distill into the fit and develop implicit theories. Fit theorists believe that passion…

Nostalgia-Evoked Inspiration: Mediating Mechanisms and Motivational Implications

Six studies examined the nostalgia–inspiration link and its motivational implications. In Study 1, nostalgia proneness was positively associated with inspiration frequency and intensity. In Studies 2 and 3, the recollection of nostalgic (vs. ordi…

Mimicry Is Presidential: Linguistic Style Matching in Presidential Debates and Improved Polling Numbers

The current research used the contexts of U.S. presidential debates and negotiations to examine whether matching the linguistic style of an opponent in a two-party exchange affects the reactions of third-party observers. Building off communication acco…

Social Stigma and Sexual Minorities’ Romantic Relationship Functioning: A Meta-Analytic Review

To bolster knowledge of determinants of relationship functioning among sexual minorities, the current meta-analysis aimed to quantitatively review evidence for the association between social stigma and relationship functioning as well as examine potent…

Assessing Helping and Hurting Behaviors Through the Tangram Help/Hurt Task

Across six studies, we validated a new measure of helpful and hurtful behaviors, the Tangram Help/Hurt Task. Studies 1 to 3 provided cross-sectional correlational convergent and discriminant validity evidence for the Tangram Task using college-based an…

Some "Thing" to Talk About? Differential Story Utility From Experiential and Material Purchases

Psychological research has shown that experiential purchases (a hike in the woods, a trip to Rome) bring more happiness than material purchases (a designer shirt, a flat-screen television). The research presented in this article investigates one cause …