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Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Social Psychology

Universal Biases In Self-Perception: Better And More Human Than Average, Steve Loughnan, Bernhard Leidner, Guy Doron, Nick Haslam, Yoshihisa Kashima, Jennifer Tong, Victoria Yeung Dec 2010

Universal Biases In Self-Perception: Better And More Human Than Average, Steve Loughnan, Bernhard Leidner, Guy Doron, Nick Haslam, Yoshihisa Kashima, Jennifer Tong, Victoria Yeung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There is a well-established tendency for people to see themselves as better than average (self-enhancement), although the universality of this phenomenon is contested. Much less well-known is the tendency for people to see themselves as more human than average (self-humanizing). We examined these biases in six diverse nations: Australia, Germany, Israel, Japan, Singapore, and the USA. Both biases were found in all nations. The self-humanizing effect was obtained independent of self-enhancement, and was stronger than self-enhancement in two nations (Germany and Japan). Self-humanizing was not specific to Western or English-speaking cultures and its magnitude was less cross-culturally variable than self-enhancement. …


How Does Facebook Browsing Affect Self-Awareness And Social Well-Being: The Role Of Narcissism, Lin Qiu, Han Lin, Angela K. Y. Leung Nov 2010

How Does Facebook Browsing Affect Self-Awareness And Social Well-Being: The Role Of Narcissism, Lin Qiu, Han Lin, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Social networking sites such as Facebook have become extremely popular recently. In this research, we studied how Facebook browsing affects self-awareness and social well-being. Our results show that after Facebook browsing, individuals high in narcissism raised their public self-awareness while those low in narcissism reduced their public self-awareness. We also found that individuals low in narcissism perceived their friends' lives to be better than their own and consequently experienced negative social well-being and emotion. However, this effect did not occur for individuals high in narcissism.


The Cultural Dynamics Of Rewarding Honesty And Punishing Deception, Cynthia S. Wang, Angela K. Y. Leung Nov 2010

The Cultural Dynamics Of Rewarding Honesty And Punishing Deception, Cynthia S. Wang, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recent research suggests that individuals reward honesty more than they punish deception. Five experiments showed that different patterns of rewards and punishments emerge for North American and East Asian cultures. Experiment 1 demonstrated that Americans rewarded more than they punished, whereas East Asians rewarded and punished in equivalent amounts. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that these divergent patterns by culture could be explained by greater social mobility experienced by Americans. Experiments 4 and 5 examined how certain consequences of social mobility, approach—avoidance behavioral motivations and trust and felt obligation, can lead to disparate reward and punishment decisions within the two …


The Effect Of Group Attitude Diversity And Attitude Strength On Subsequent Cooperation, Ming-Hong Tsai, Margaret Shih Jun 2010

The Effect Of Group Attitude Diversity And Attitude Strength On Subsequent Cooperation, Ming-Hong Tsai, Margaret Shih

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Groups often have members who hold opposing opinions on specific issues. The presence of undecided people within a group may promote cooperation among group members who hold opposing views on an issue under consideration. The study examined the joint effects of group attitude diversity (i.e. mixed attitude diversity vs. polarized attitude diversity) and one’s strength of attitude on the cooperation. In groups considering a controversial issue with no undecided group members (i.e. polarized attitude diversity), people with strong attitudes were less likely than those with weak attitudes to cooperate with group members who held opposing views. However, the above differences …


Who Is James Bond? The Dark Triad As An Agentic Social Style, Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, Emily A. Teicher Jun 2010

Who Is James Bond? The Dark Triad As An Agentic Social Style, Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, Emily A. Teicher

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

If the Dark Triad are costly traits for individuals to have and individuals are predisposed to avoid interacting with selfish individuals, how do those who have those traits extract resources from their environment? We contend that a specific set of personality traits will enable individuals to do so. We showed that those who are disagreeable, extraverted, open, and have high self-esteem along with low levels of neuroticism and conscientiousness score high on the Dark Triad (Study 1: N = 216). Additionally, having a more individualistic and competitive approach to others and not a strongly altruistic orientation will also help those …


Understanding The Psychological Motives Behind Microblogging, Lin Qiu, Angela K. Y. Leung, Jun Hao Ho, Qi Min Yeung, Kevin Joseph Francis, Pei Fen Chua Jun 2010

Understanding The Psychological Motives Behind Microblogging, Lin Qiu, Angela K. Y. Leung, Jun Hao Ho, Qi Min Yeung, Kevin Joseph Francis, Pei Fen Chua

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This research aims to understand the psychological motives behind microblogging. We conducted two studies to investigate if social exclusion and existential anxiety would lead to a high tendency to microblog. Our results show that participants did not use microblogging to satisfy their needs for social connection and affiliation, but highly extraverted participants did use it to relieve their existential anxiety.


New Well-Being Measures: Short Scales To Assess Flourishing And Positive And Negative Feelings, Ed Diener, Derrick Wirtz, William Tov, Chu Kim-Prieto, Dong-Won Choi, Shigehiro Oishi, Robert Biswas-Diener Jun 2010

New Well-Being Measures: Short Scales To Assess Flourishing And Positive And Negative Feelings, Ed Diener, Derrick Wirtz, William Tov, Chu Kim-Prieto, Dong-Won Choi, Shigehiro Oishi, Robert Biswas-Diener

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Measures of well-being were created to assess psychological flourishing and feelings—positive feelings, negative feelings, and the difference between the two. The scales were evaluated in a sample of 689 college students from six locations. The Flourishing Scale is a brief 8-item summary measure of the respondent’s self-perceived success in important areas such as relationships, self-esteem, purpose, and optimism. The scale provides a single psychological well-being score. The measure has good psychometric properties, and is strongly associated with other psychological well-being scales. The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience produces a score for positive feelings (6 items), a score for negative …


The Attractive Female Body Weight And Female Body Dissatisfaction In 26 Countries Across 10 World Regions: Results Of The International Body Project I, Viren Swami, David A. Frederick, Toivo Aavik, Lidia Alcalay, Juri Allik, Donna Anderson, Norman P. Li Mar 2010

The Attractive Female Body Weight And Female Body Dissatisfaction In 26 Countries Across 10 World Regions: Results Of The International Body Project I, Viren Swami, David A. Frederick, Toivo Aavik, Lidia Alcalay, Juri Allik, Donna Anderson, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study reports results from the first International Body Project (IBP-I), which surveyed 7,434 individuals in 10 major world regions about body weight ideals and body dissatisfaction. Participants completed the female Contour Drawing Figure Rating Scale (CDFRS) and self-reported their exposure to Western and local media. Results indicated there were significant cross-regional differences in the ideal female figure and body dissatisfaction, but effect sizes were small across high-socioeconomic-status (SES) sites. Within cultures, heavier bodies were preferred in low-SES sites compared to high-SES sites in Malaysia and South Africa (ds = 1.94-2.49) but not in Austria. Participant age, body mass index …


The Costs And Benefits Of The Dark Triad: Implications For Mate Poaching And Mate Retention Tactics, Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, David M. Buss Mar 2010

The Costs And Benefits Of The Dark Triad: Implications For Mate Poaching And Mate Retention Tactics, Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, David M. Buss

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Dark Triad – narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy – have traditionally been considered to be undesirable traits. However, emerging work suggest that not only may there be a positive side to possessing these traits but they may also serve important adaptive functions, even if the strategies associated with them are viewed as socially undesirable. In an online survey (N = 336), we investigated the costs and benefits of the Dark Triad within the domain of mating psychology. The social style and lower order personality traits of the Dark Triad traits facilitated increased mateships in the form of poaching mates from …


Conscientiousness And Forgivingness: A Meta-Analysis, Daniel Balliet Feb 2010

Conscientiousness And Forgivingness: A Meta-Analysis, Daniel Balliet

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Research examining the relationship between the Big Five traits and forgivingness has focused primarily on the traits agreeableness and neuroticism. To date, there are mixed findings on the relationship between conscientiousness and forgivingness. This paper presents research and theory that predicts a positive relationship between conscientiousness and forgivingness, and in order to examine this hypothesis, conducts a quantitative review of 15 studies (n = 2285) reporting this relationship. This analysis results in a small positive effect size (r = .17). Implications and directions for future research are discussed.


Intrasexual Competition And Eating Restriction In Heterosexual And Homosexual Individuals, Norman P. Li, April R. Smith, Vladas Griskevicius, Margaret J. Cason, Angela Bryan Jan 2010

Intrasexual Competition And Eating Restriction In Heterosexual And Homosexual Individuals, Norman P. Li, April R. Smith, Vladas Griskevicius, Margaret J. Cason, Angela Bryan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Restrictive eating attitudes and behaviors have been hypothesized to be related to processes of intrasexual competition. According to this perspective, within-sex competition for status serves the adaptive purpose of attracting mates. As such, status competition salience may lead to concerns of mating desirability. For heterosexual women and gay men, such concerns revolve around appearing youthful and, thus, thinner. Following this logic, we examined how exposure to high-status and competitive (but not thin or highly attractive) same-sex individuals would influence body image and eating attitudes in heterosexual and in gay/lesbian individuals. Results indicated that for heterosexuals, intrasexual competition cues led to …