Digital Commons Network^™

Does Watching Videos With Natural Scenery Restore Attentional Resources? A Critical Examination Through A Pre-Registered Within-Subject Experiment, Andree Hartanto, Nicole Lee Anne Teo, Verity Y. Q. Lua, Keith Tay, Nicole R. Y. Chen, Nadyanna M. Majeed

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Existing studies have shown that direct exposure to a real nature environment has a restorative effect on attentional resources after a mentally fatiguing task. However, it remains unclear whether virtual nature simulations can serve as a substitute for real nature experienced in the outdoors to restore executive attention. Given the mixed findings in the literature, the present study sought to examine if viewing videos with natural scenery (vs. a control with urban scenery) restores participants’ working memory capacity – measured by an operation span task – in a high-powered pre-registered within-subject experimental study. Overall, our within-subject experiment did not find …

Can Conflict Cultivate Collaboration? The Positive Impact Of Mild Versus Intense Task Conflict Via Perceived Openness Rather Than Emotions, Ming-Hong Tsai

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Public Significance Statement In contrast to previous research on the negative associations between conflict and collaboration, the current investigation demonstrates the positive effects of conflict on collaboration and performance and offers practical suggestions on beneficial conflict expressions. Specifically, when people debate and deliberate about their different viewpoints about task-related issues, they tend to collaborate and thus achieve high task performance by enhancing their perceptions of others' openness rather than by influencing their emotions.Previous research has demonstrated negative associations between task-relevant conflicts and collaboration. To supplement the previous findings and explore the potential benefits of conflicts, we differentiate between two types …

Insights Into Accuracy Of Social Scientists' Forecasts Of Societal Change, Igor Grossma, Andree Hartanto, Nadyanna M. Majeed, Et Al See Comments For Full List Of Authors

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment on social media, and gender-career and racial bias. Following provision of historical trend data on the domain, social scientists submitted pre-registered monthly forecasts for a year (Tournament 1; N=86 teams/359 forecasts), with an opportunity to update forecasts based on new data six months later (Tournament 2; N=120 teams/546 forecasts). Benchmarking forecasting accuracy revealed that social …

Anxiety Disorders And Executive Functions: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis Of Reaction Time And Accuracy, Nadyanna M. Majeed, Yi Jing Chua, Meenakshi Kothari, Manmeet Kaur, Frosch Y. X. Quek, Matthew H. S. Ng, Wee Qin Ng, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Anxiety disorders, one of the most common classes of psychological disorders, have been shown to result in a decreased quality of life. Although some research suggests that anxiety disorders are linked to impairments in executive functioning, the inconsistency in the current literature yields an unclear conclusion on the relationship between the two. The current meta-analysis systematically investigated 55 records (N = 4601; kReactionTime = 44, kAccuracy = 79) that compared various groups with anxiety disorders to healthy controls on executive function tasks. Overall, our meta-analysis showed that individuals with anxiety disorders exhibited significant deficits in performance efficiency (reaction times) on …

Toxic Effect Of Fear Of Losing Out On Self-Esteem: A Moderated Mediation Model Of Conformity And Need For Cognitive Closure In Singapore, Sheila Xi Rui Wee, Chi-Ying Cheng, Haelim Choi, Ciping Goh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Kiasu (fear of losing out, FoLO) is considered the single most defining adjective that captures Singapore identity, and it is well-observed in other Asian cultures as well. Despite the widespread endorsement of kiasu in Singapore, there is limited empirical research on the theoretical conception of kiasu as a psychological construct. To empirically investigate kiasu, we validated the construct and measurement of the FoLO mindset in Study 1. In Study 2, we hypothesized and found a negative association between FoLO and Singaporeans’ self-esteem, which was mediated by a higher tendency of conformity. In addition, we hypothesized and found that individuals’ need …

Responses To Covid-19 Threats: An Evolutionary Psychological Analysis., Stephen M. Colarelli, Tyler J. Mirando, Kyunghee Han, Norman P. Li, Carter Vespi, Katherine A. Klein, Charles P. Fales

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Responses to COVID-19 public health interventions have been lukewarm. For example, only 64% of the US population has received at least two vaccinations. Because most public health interventions require people to behave in ways that are evolutionarily novel, evolutionary psychological theory and research on mismatch theory, the behavioral immune system, and individual differences can help us gain a better understanding of how people respond to public health information. Primary sources of threat information during the pandemic (particularly in early phases) were geographic differences in morbidity and mortality statistics. We argue that people are unlikely to respond to this type of …

In Covid-19 Health Messaging, Loss Framing Increases Anxiety With Little-To-No Concomitant Benefits: Experimental Evidence From 84 Countries, Charles A. Dorison, Et. Al., Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The COVID-19 pandemic (and its aftermath) highlights a critical need to communicate health information effectively to the global public. Given that subtle differences in information framing can have meaningful effects on behavior, behavioral science research highlights a pressing question: Is it more effective to frame COVID-19 health messages in terms of potential losses (e.g., “If you do not practice these steps, you can endanger yourself and others”) or potential gains (e.g., “If you practice these steps, you can protect yourself and others”)? Collecting data in 48 languages from 15,929 participants in 84 countries, we experimentally tested the effects of message …

The Influence Of Parental Psychological Control On Offspring Anxiety Symptomatology: A Cognitive Model, Yu Ping Wong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Parental control has often been purported to be a risk factor for offspring anxiety. Recent studies however, identify that a particular dimension of control - parental psychological control - is an especially important contributor to anxiety. However, the mechanisms behind this relationship remain unknown. Thus, in this study, we seek to bridge this gap in the literature by examining whether a cognitive mechanism underlies this relationship. Drawing on Beck's model of emotional disorders, we propose that control- related beliefs and negative automatic thoughts would serially mediate the influence of psychological control on anxiety symptoms. Moreover, we sought to examine the …

Does Trait Self-Esteem Serve As A Resilience Factor In Maintaining Affective Well-Being? Findings From Daily Diary Studies In Singapore And The United States, Matthew H. S. Ng, Verity Y. Q. Lua, Nadyanna M. Majeed, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Research suggests that self-esteem could be a protective factor in stressful or unfavorable situations. However, little research has been done on the buffering role of self-esteem in the context of daily stressors on affective reactivity. Three daily diary studies (of which two were conducted in Singapore and one in the United States) were carried out to examine this relationship. In all three studies, trait self-esteem was measured at baseline. Subsequently, daily assessment was conducted on exposure to daily stressors, and positive and negative affect for seven to eight days. Multilevel modeling showed that trait self-esteem did not moderate the relationship …

Sorry, Locals Only: An Experimental Investigation Of The Affective, Behavioural, And Cognitive Consequences Of National Identity Denial, Nadyanna Binte Mohamed Majeed

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Existing literature shows that experiences of identity denial and questioning (IDQ) present two major consequences for racial minority groups: increased negative affect and behaviours to reassert one’s identity. The current thesis addresses two limitations in this literature—concerns about generalisability to non-US contexts, and potential consequences for cognitive functioning—by examining IDQ effects on individuals from distinct racial groups in Singapore. Through a correlational survey, Study 1 provided evidence for the incidence of IDQ in Singapore across the three racial groups, although IDQ reports were generally higher among racial minority groups (i.e., Malay and Indian) than the racial majority group (i.e., Chinese). …

A Critical Review On The Moderating Role Of Contextual Factors In The Associations Between Video Gaming And Well-Being, Andree Hartanto, Verity Yu Qing Lua, Frosch Yi Xuan Quek, Jose C. Yong, Matthew H. S. Ng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The appeal of video gaming has undoubtedly withstood the test of time. In view of its increasing popularity, lay people and researchers alike have taken an interest in the psychological consequences of video gaming. However, there seems to be a paradox associated with the effect of video gaming on gamers' well-being—namely, while most video game players cite “fun” as their motivation to play video games, video games continue to hold a notorious reputation among some researchers for being detrimental to mental health and emotional well-being as measured by indicators such as happiness, perceived stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. We suggest …

Tears Evoke The Intention To Offer Social Support: A Systematic Investigation Of The Interpersonal Effects Of Emotional Crying Across 41 Countries, J. H. Zickfeld, N. Van De Ven, O. Pich, T. Schubert, J. B. Berkessel, J. J. Pizarro, B. Bhushan, N. J. Mateo, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and likely uniquely human phenomenon. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue by evoking social support intentions. Initial experimental studies supported this proposition across several methodologies, but these were conducted almost exclusively on participants from North America and Europe, resulting in limited generalizability. This project examined the tears-social support intentions effect and possible mediating and moderating variables in a fully pre-registered study across 7007 participants (24,886 ratings) and 41 countries spanning all populated continents. Participants were presented with four pictures out of 100 …

Two Roads Diverged: An Alternative Perspective On The Easi Model, Nadhilla Velda Melia

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Research on the interpersonal effect of anger expressions on others’ concessionary behaviour has found conflicting results about whether anger expressions increase or decrease concessionary behaviour. The Emotions as Social Information (EASI) model (Van Kleef, 2009, 2014) proposed that these conflicting findings can be resolved by looking at inferential and affective processes. Specifically, anger expressions increase concessionary behaviour via inferential processes but decrease concessionary behaviour via affective processes. However, previous research has mainly focused on dominance-related inferences and reciprocal anger reactions. I propose that the relationship between anger expressions and concessionary behaviour is determined by the type of inferential and affective …

A Creative Destruction Approach To Replication: Implicit Work And Sex Morality Across Cultures, Warren Tierney, Jay H. Iii. Hardy, Charles R. Ebersole, D. Viganola, E. G. Clemente, Christilene Du Plessis, Andree Hartanto, Nilotpal Jha, Theodore Charles Masters-Waage, Michael Schaerer

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How can we maximize what is learned from a replication study? In the creative destruction approach to replication, the original hypothesis is compared not only to the null hypothesis, but also to predictions derived from multiple alternative theoretical accounts of the phenomenon. To this end, new populations and measures are included in the design in addition to the original ones, to help determine which theory best accounts for the results across multiple key outcomes and contexts. The present pre-registered empirical project compared the Implicit Puritanism account of intuitive work and sex morality to theories positing regional, religious, and social class …

Is It Only The Thought That Counts; Or Do Gift Cost, Social Approval, And Relationship Satisfaction Matter Too?, Farah Binte Abdul Malik

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study investigated the effects of gift cost, social network (SN) approval, and relationship satisfaction on a gift receiver’s perception of the giver’s commitment to their romantic relationship. In addition to predictions of positive main effects (H1 to H3), it was predicted that relationship satisfaction would moderate the effects of gift cost (H4) and SN approval (H5). Participants were 227 undergraduates from Singapore who completed a survey online. A hierarchical moderated regression analysis was conducted, and the results supported all the hypotheses except H5. The novel findings were that receivers perceived their partners to be more committed when their SN …

Inflammation, Depression, And Anxiety Disorder: A Population-Based Study Examining The Association Between Interleukin-6 And The Experiencing Of Depressive And Anxiety Symptoms, Sean Teck Hao Lee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The uncovering of a positive association between inflammatory cytokine levels – Interkleukin-6 (IL-6) in particular – and the experiencing of depressive and anxiety symptoms is one of the most promising and enthusiastically-discussed finding in recent years. Despite considerable ambiguity in the directionality and underpinnings of this association, anti-inflammatory drugs are already being tested on mental health patients who present no physical symptoms of inflammation, risking potential adverse side effects. Researchers have thus urgently called for more rigorous empirical elucidations of this association. Based on a large, longitudinal, nationally representative sample of middle-aged adults in the United States (N = 1255), …

Are There Advantages To Believing In Fate? The Belief In Negotiating With Fate When Faced With Constraints, Au, Evelyn W. M., Krishna Savani

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Is cultural knowledge unique to a culture and inaccessible to other cultures, or is it a tool that can be recruited by individuals outside of that culture when the situation renders it relevant? As one test of this idea, we explored whether the applicability and benefits of a lay belief that originated from Chinese collective wisdom extends beyond cultural boundaries: negotiating with fate. Negotiating with fate postulates that fate imposes boundaries within which people can shape their outcomes through their actions. This belief contrasts fatalism, which has been traditionally interpreted as believing that fate dictates people’s life outcomes and renders …

The Paradoxical Consequences Of Choice: Often Good For The Individual, Perhaps Less So For Society?, Shilpa Madan, Kevin Nanakdewa, Krishna Savani, Hazel Rose Markus

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The proliferation of products and services, together with the rise of social media, affords people the opportunity to make more choices than ever before. However, the requirement to think in terms of choice, or to use a choice mind-set, may have powerful but unexamined consequences for judgment and decision making, both for the chooser and for others. A choice mind-set leads people to engage in cognitive processes of discrimination and separation, to emphasize personal freedom and independent agency, and to focus on themselves rather than others. Reviewing research from social psychology, legal studies, health and nutrition, and consumer behavior, we …

Will Society Break Down When Women Earn More Than Men?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Relationships may be even happier when females pull in the big bucks

To Thank Or Not To Thank: Understanding The Differences Between Gratitude And Indebtedness After Receiving A Favor Through Emotion Appraisals, Motivations And Behaviors, Ze Ling Nai

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Objective: This study aimed to distinguish between daily experiences of gratitude and indebtedness through three stages - emotional appraisals, motivations to reciprocate and behavioural tendencies. Through these three stages, I aimed to gain a better insight into the emotional process involved before and after receiving favours. Method: 196 participants were recruited from Singapore Management University to take part in a 14-day diary study. Every two days, participants were asked to report a favour they received over the past two days and evaluate the favour based on their appraisals of the experience. They were also asked to report their motivation to …

The Effects Of Perceived Decision-Making Styles On Evaluations Of Openness And Competence That Elicit Collaboration, Ming-Hong Tsai, Nadhilla Velda Melia, Verlin B. Hinsz

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

When interacting with a task partner, individuals often rely upon characteristics they infer about their partner to determine their level of collaboration with the partner. To explore social perception processes related to collaboration, we examined perceptions of an actor’s decision-making style as predictors. Using different methods in various research settings, we found that compared with perceptions of an actor’s intuitive decision-making style or of a nonspecific decision-making style, perceptions of an actor’s rational decision-making style were more positively associated with inferences of the actor’s openness and competence, both of which were in turn associated with the perceiver’s collaborative intention with …

The Perception Of Spontaneous And Volitional Laughter Across 21 Societies, Gregory A. Bryan, Daniel M. Fessler, Riccardo Fusaroli, Edward Clint, Dorsa Amir, Brenda Chavez, Kaleda K. Denton, Cinthya Diaz, Lealaiailoto T. Duran, Jana Fancovicova, Michal Fux, Erni F. Ginting, Youssef Hasan, Anning Hu, Shanmukh V. Kamble, Tatsuya Kameda, Kiri Kuroda, Norman P. Li, Et Al

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Laughter is a nonverbal vocalization occurring in every known culture, ubiquitous across all forms of human socialinteraction. Here, we examined whether listeners around the world, irrespective of their own native language andculture, can distinguish between spontaneous laughter and volitional laughter—laugh types likely generated by differentvocal-production systems. Using a set of 36 recorded laughs produced by female English speakers in tests involving 884participants from 21 societies across six regions of the world, we asked listeners to determine whether each laugh wasreal or fake, and listeners differentiated between the two laugh types with an accuracy of 56% to 69%. Acoustic analysisrevealed that …

What Does Embarrassment Have To Do With Our Choice Of Brands?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Everyone experiences moments of embarrassment – when their credit cards are rejected at the checkout, they are wearing their T-shirt inside out, or have to buy tampons or condoms in a store.

When people are embarrassed it is only natural they behave differently to try to make themselves feel better. But how do they cope with feeling embarrassed? What types of strategies do they adopt and how does all this relate to their self-esteem?

What Does "Happiness" Prompt In Your Mind? Culture, Word Choice, And Experienced Happiness, Ji Eun Shin, Eunkook M. Suh, Kimin Eom, Heejung S. Kim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What three words come to your mind in association with ‘‘happiness’’? We analyzed the 1563 words reported by 521 Korean and American participants in this free association task. The most frequently endorsed word was ‘‘family’’ in Korea, whereas the most popular word among Americans was ‘‘smile.’’ The overall frequency of social words(e.g., relationships, social emotions) reported by Koreans was higher, and the most often mentioned relationship type differed between the two groups (family in Korea; friend in the US). Nonetheless, both in Korea and the US, individuals who mentioned more social words were significantly more satisfied with their lives. The …

The Neural Basis Of Human Female Mate Copying: An Empathy-Based Social Learning Process, Jin-Ying Zhuang, Xiaoqing Ji, Zhiyong Zhao, Mingxia Fan, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural basis of human female mate copying.Consistent with previous mate copying effects, women's attractiveness ratings for target males increased significantlygreater after the males were observed paired with romantic partners versus ordinary friends, and this wasmainly accounted for by males being paired with attractive romantic partners. Attractiveness ratings for male targetswere lower when they were paired with an attractive opposite-sex friend. The fMRI data showed that the observationallearning process in mate copying recruited brain regions including the putamen, the inferior frontal gyrus, themiddle cingulate, the SMA, the insula, and the thalamus …

The Relationship Between Anxiety, Mind Wandering And Task-Switching: A Diffusion Model Analysis, Andree Hartanto

Dissertations and Theses Collection

Although the negative impact of anxiety on task-switching has been documented, little is known about the extent or mechanisms of this impairment primarily because of the complex nature of task-switching and difficulty in probing the occurrence of worries within participants. To address this issue, we employed a stochastic diffusion model analysis along with a novel thought-probe technique in task-switching paradigm. Across 152 participants, we found state anxiety was linked to higher switch costs in nondecision time but not drift rate parameter of diffusion model, which indicates that the locus of task-switching impairment in anxious individuals is pertinent to the efficiency …

What Motivates Workaholism And Should It Be Avoided?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

New study reveals why some people are prone to work too much

Towards Unobtrusive Mental Well-Being Monitoring For Independent-Living Elderly, Sinh Huynh, Hwee-Pink Tan, Youngki Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

It is essential to proactively detect mental health problems such as loneliness and depression in the independently-living elderly for timely intervention by caregivers. In this paper, we introduce an unobtrusive sensor-enabled monitoring system that has been deployed to 50 government housing ats with the independent-living elderly for two years. Then, we also present our initial findings from the 6-month sensor data between August 2015 and April 2016 as well as the survey data to measure the subjective well-being indicator. Our study showed the promising results that "room-level movements within a house" and "going out" behavior captured by our simple sensor …

Beauty And Inequality, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

A beautiful body opens doors in almost any society, but what constitutes a beautiful face is a matter of opinion…and racial preference

The 21st Century Woman, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

As gender roles change, organisations and society need to adapt to maximise professional and personal fulfillment for both women and men