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Research Collection School of Social Sciences

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Articles 361 - 390 of 413

Full-Text Articles in Social Psychology

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 …


Culture, Psyche, And Body Make Each Other Up, Dov Cohen, Angela K. Y. Leung, Hans Ijzerman Dec 2009

Culture, Psyche, And Body Make Each Other Up, Dov Cohen, Angela K. Y. Leung, Hans Ijzerman

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The commentaries make important points, including ones about the purposeful uses of embodiment effects. Research examining such effects needs to look at how such effects play themselves out in people's everyday lives. Research might usefully integrate work on embodiment with work on attribution and work in other disciplines concerned with body–psyche connections (e.g., research on somaticizing versus “psychologizing” illnesses and hypercognizing versus hypocognizing emotions). Such work may help us understand the way positive and negative feedback loops operate as culture, psyche, and body make each other up.


Well-Being On Planet Earth, Ed Diener, William Tov Dec 2009

Well-Being On Planet Earth, Ed Diener, William Tov

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Gallup World Poll allows a look at how humanity is flourishing, based on the answers of survey respondents sampled from across the globe. Several conclusions are clear. First, how people are doing depends enormously on the society in which they live, and nations vary from doing very well to extremely poorly. In terms of subjective well-being, nations vary greatly, in both judgments of overall life and in positive and negative emotions. The best predictors of global life judgments were income and ownership of modern conveniences, whereas the best predictors of emotions were social factors such as the control of …


The Hard Embodiment Of Culture, Dov Cohen, Angela K. Y. Leung Dec 2009

The Hard Embodiment Of Culture, Dov Cohen, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The way humans move and comport their bodies is one way they (literally) carry their culture. In pre-wired embodiments, body comportment triggers basic, evolutionarily prepared affective and cognitive reactions that subsequently prime more complex representations. Culture suffuses this process, because (1) cultural artifacts, affordances, and practices make certain body comportments more likely, (2) cultural practices, rituals, schemas, and rules promote the learning of an otherwise underspecified connection between a given body comportment and a particular basic reaction, and (3) cultural meaning systems elaborate basic affective and cognitive reactions into more complex representations. These points are illustrated with three experiments that …


Culture As Common Sense: Perceived Consensus Versus Personal Beliefs As Mechanisms Of Cultural Influence, Xi Zou, Kim-Pong Tam, Michael W. Morris, Sau-Lai Lee, Ivy Yee-Man Lau, Chi-Yue Chiu Oct 2009

Culture As Common Sense: Perceived Consensus Versus Personal Beliefs As Mechanisms Of Cultural Influence, Xi Zou, Kim-Pong Tam, Michael W. Morris, Sau-Lai Lee, Ivy Yee-Man Lau, Chi-Yue Chiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The authors propose that culture affects people through their perceptions of what is consensually believed. Whereas past research has examined whether cultural differences in social judgment are mediated by differences in individuals’ personal values and beliefs, this article investigates whether they are mediated by differences in individuals’ perceptions of the views of people around them. The authors propose that individuals who perceive that traditional views are culturally consensual (e.g., Chinese participants who believe that most of their fellows hold collectivistic values) will themselves behave and think in culturally typical ways. Four studies of previously well-established cultural differences found that cultural …


Deep Rationality: The Evolutionary Economics Of Decision Making, Douglas T. Kenrick, Vladas Griskevicius, Jill M. Sundie, Norman P. Li, Jessica Yexin Li, Steven L. Neuberg Oct 2009

Deep Rationality: The Evolutionary Economics Of Decision Making, Douglas T. Kenrick, Vladas Griskevicius, Jill M. Sundie, Norman P. Li, Jessica Yexin Li, Steven L. Neuberg

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What is a “rational” decision? Economists traditionally viewed rationality as maximizing expected satisfaction. This view has been useful in modeling basic microeconomic concepts, but falls short in accounting for many everyday human decisions. It leaves unanswered why some things reliably make people more satisfied than others, and why people frequently act to make others happy at a cost to themselves. Drawing on an evolutionary perspective, we propose that people make decisions according to a set of principles that may not appear to make sense at the superficial level, but that demonstrate rationality at a deeper evolutionary level. By this, we …


Emotional Expression Of Capacity And Trustworthiness In Humor And In Social Dilemmas, Norman P. Li, Daniel Balliet Oct 2009

Emotional Expression Of Capacity And Trustworthiness In Humor And In Social Dilemmas, Norman P. Li, Daniel Balliet

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Humor and social dilemmas are two disparate areas that have been linked to emotions. However, they tend to have been studied apart from considerations of emotion and emotional expression. We provide an overview of how such areas might be illuminated by Vigil's socio-relational framework, and how capacity and trustworthiness are communicated in humor and social dilemmas.


An Evolutionary Perspective On Humor: Sexual Selection Or Interest Indication?, Norman P. Li, Vladas Griskevicius, Kristina M. Durante, Peter K. Jonason, Derek J. Pasisz, Katherine Aumer Jul 2009

An Evolutionary Perspective On Humor: Sexual Selection Or Interest Indication?, Norman P. Li, Vladas Griskevicius, Kristina M. Durante, Peter K. Jonason, Derek J. Pasisz, Katherine Aumer

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Are people who are funny more attractive? Or does being attractive lead people to be seen as funnier? The answer may depend on the underlying evolutionary function of humor. While humor has been proposed to signal “good genes”, the authors propose that humor also functions to indicate interest in social relationships—in initiating new relationships and in monitoring existing ones. Consistent with this interest indicator model, across three studies both sexes were more likely to initiate humor and to respond more positively and consider the other person to be funny when initially attracted to that person. The findings support that humor …


The Role Of Ideal Affect In The Experience And Memory Of Emotions, Christie N. Scollon, Amanda H. Howard, Amanda E. Caldwell, Sachiyo Ito Jun 2009

The Role Of Ideal Affect In The Experience And Memory Of Emotions, Christie N. Scollon, Amanda H. Howard, Amanda E. Caldwell, Sachiyo Ito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

According to Affect Valuation Theory (Tsai et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1031-1039), culture influences how people want to feel (ideal affect). Integrating Affect Valuation Theory with the Time-sequential Framework of Subjective Well-being (KIM-Prieto et al. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 261-300), we proposed that cultural norms influence the memory, but not the experience, of emotion. The present study examined the role of ideal affect in relation to experience sampling and retrospective reports of emotion. Ideal affect correlated with retrospective reports but not experience sampling reports. Extraversion and neuroticism were more strongly related to experience sampling reports …


Multiracial Identity Integration: Perceptions Of Conflict And Distance Among Multiracial Individuals, Chi-Ying Cheng, Fiona Lee Mar 2009

Multiracial Identity Integration: Perceptions Of Conflict And Distance Among Multiracial Individuals, Chi-Ying Cheng, Fiona Lee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article examines how multiracial individuals negotiate their different and sometimes conflicting racial identities. Drawing from previous work on bicultural identity integration (see Benet-Martinez and Haritatos, 2005), we proposed a new construct, multiracial identity integration (MII), to measure individual differences in perceptions of compatibility between multiple racial identities. We found that MII is composed of two independent subscales: that describes whether different racial identities are perceived as disparate, and that describes whether different racial identities are perceived as in conflict. We also found that recalling positive multiracial experiences increased MII, while recalling negative multiracial experiences decreased MII. These findings have …


Toward A More Complete Understanding Of The Link Between Multicultural Experience And Creativity, William W. Maddux, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu, Adam D. Galinsky Feb 2009

Toward A More Complete Understanding Of The Link Between Multicultural Experience And Creativity, William W. Maddux, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu, Adam D. Galinsky

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Responds to G. J. Rich's comments on the current author's original article which presented evidence supporting the idea that multicultural experience can facilitate creativity. Rich has argued that our review, although timely and important, was somewhat limited in scope, focusing mostly on smaller forms of creativity ("little c": e.g., paper-and-pencil measures of creativity) as well as on larger forms of multicultural experience ("Big M": e.g., living in a foreign country). We agree with many aspects of Rich's assessment. The issue of whether different forms of multicultural experience can affect Big C creativity is of interest to both scholars and laypeople …


The Dark Triad: Facilitating A Short-Term Mating Strategy In Men, Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, Gregory D. Webster, David P. Schmitt Feb 2009

The Dark Triad: Facilitating A Short-Term Mating Strategy In Men, Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, Gregory D. Webster, David P. Schmitt

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This survey (N=224) found that characteristics collectively known as the Dark Triad (i.e. narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism) were correlated with various dimensions of short-term mating but not long-term mating. The link between the Dark Triad and short-term mating was stronger for men than for women. The Dark Triad partially mediated the sex difference in short-term mating behaviour. Findings are consistent with a view that the Dark Triad facilitates an exploitative, short-term mating strategy in men. Possible implications, including that Dark Triad traits represent a bundle of individual differences that promote a reproductively adaptive strategy are discussed. Findings are discussed in …


Oestradiol Level And Opportunistic Mating In Women, Kristina M. Durante, Norman P. Li Jan 2009

Oestradiol Level And Opportunistic Mating In Women, Kristina M. Durante, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The ovarian steroid hormone oestradiol plays a crucial role in female fertility, sexual motivation and behaviour. We investigated the relationship between oestradiol and the likelihood that women would engage in opportunistic mating. Two salivary samples were taken from normally cycling women within the peri-ovulatory and luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. At both testing sessions, participants also completed selfperceived desirability scales and provided subjective reports of sexual and social motivations, and satisfaction with their primary relationship partner. Oestradiol level was positively associated with a woman’s self- and other-perceived physical attractiveness and with inclinations to mate outside her current relationship. Oestradiol …


The “Booty Call”: A Compromise Between Men And Women's Ideal Mating Strategies, Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, Margaret J. Cason Jan 2009

The “Booty Call”: A Compromise Between Men And Women's Ideal Mating Strategies, Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, Margaret J. Cason

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Traditionally, research on romantic and sexual relationships has focused on 1-night stands and monogamous pairs. However, as the result of men and women pursuing their ideal relationship types, various compromise relationships may emerge. One such compromise is explored here: the ‘‘booty call.’’ The results of an act-nomination and frequency study of college students provided an initial definition and exploration of this type of relationship. Booty calls tend to utilize various communication mediums to facilitate sexual contact among friends who, for men, may represent low-investment, attractive sexual partners and, for women, may represent attractive test-mates. The relationship is discussed as a …


Connecting The Dots Within: Creative Performance And Identity Integration, Chi-Ying Cheng, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, Fion Lee Nov 2008

Connecting The Dots Within: Creative Performance And Identity Integration, Chi-Ying Cheng, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, Fion Lee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In two studies drawing from social identity theory and the creative-cognition approach, we found that higher levels of identity integration - perceived compatibility between two social identities - predict higher levels of creative performance in tasks that draw on both identity-relevant knowledge domains. Study 1 showed that Asian Americans with higher identity integration were more creative in developing new dishes using a given set of ingredients, but only when both Asian and American ingredients were available. Study 2 showed that female engineers with higher identity integration were more creative in designing a product, but only when the product was targeted …


Changes In Women's Choice Of Dress Across The Ovulatory Cycle: Naturalistic And Laboratory Task-Based Evidence, Kristina M. Durante, Norman P. Li, Martie G. Haselton Nov 2008

Changes In Women's Choice Of Dress Across The Ovulatory Cycle: Naturalistic And Laboratory Task-Based Evidence, Kristina M. Durante, Norman P. Li, Martie G. Haselton

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The authors tested the prediction that women prefer clothing that is more revealing and sexy when fertility is highest within the ovulatory cycle. Eighty-eight women reported to the lab twice: once on a low-fertility day of the cycle and once on a high-fertility day (confirmed using hormone tests). In each session, participants posed for full-body photographs in the clothing they wore to the lab, and they drew illustrations to indicate an outfit they would wear to a social event that evening. Although each data source supported the prediction, the authors found the most dramatic changes in clothing choice in the …


Interactive Effects Of Multicultural Experiences And Openness To Experience On Creativity, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu Nov 2008

Interactive Effects Of Multicultural Experiences And Openness To Experience On Creativity, Angela K.-Y. Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Extensiveness of multicultural experiences and Openness to Experience were used to predict European American undergraduates' performance on two measures of creative potential: (a) generation of unusual uses of garbage bags and (b) retrieval of nonprototypical or normatively inaccessible exemplars in the conceptual domain of occupation. The results showed that having extensive multicultural experiences predicted better performance on both measures of creative potential only among participants who were open to experience. Among those who were not open, having more extensive multicultural experiences was associated with a lower level of creative potential. Implications of these findings for promoting creativity in schools are …


Attributionally More Complex People Show Less Punitiveness And Racism, Kim-Pong Tam, Al Au, Angela K. Y. Leung Aug 2008

Attributionally More Complex People Show Less Punitiveness And Racism, Kim-Pong Tam, Al Au, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Based on past findings that attributionally more complex people make less fundamental attribution error, it was hypothesized that they would show less punitiveness and racism. In a study of 102 undergraduates, this hypothesis received robust support. The effect of attributional complexity was significant in two different punitiveness measures, a rehabilitation support measure, and two different racism measures. Also, this effect still held when demographic variables, crime victimization history, and need for cognition were statistically controlled. Moreover, attributional complexity mediated the effect of need for cognition and gender on punitiveness and racism. Theoretical implications are discussed.


Reaping The Rewards Of Diversity: The Role Of Identity Integration, Chi-Ying Cheng, Melissa Sanders, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, Kristine Molina, Fiona Lee, Emily Darling, Yu Zhao May 2008

Reaping The Rewards Of Diversity: The Role Of Identity Integration, Chi-Ying Cheng, Melissa Sanders, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, Kristine Molina, Fiona Lee, Emily Darling, Yu Zhao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How does diversity affect individuals and the groups in which they are embedded? This article examines this question using recent theory and research on Identity Integration (II). II refers to an individual's perceptions about whether two distinct social identities, or social groups to which individuals belong, are viewed as compatible (high II) or not (low II). A review of extant research suggests that individuals with high II are better at simultaneously accessing multiple identities and identity-related knowledge and have improved well-being and social outcomes. Expanding on this work, we argue that individuals who have higher II, and social collectives that …


Multicultural Experience Enhances Creativity: The When And How, Angela K. Y. Leung, William W. Maddux, Adam D. Galinsky, Chi-Yue Chiu Apr 2008

Multicultural Experience Enhances Creativity: The When And How, Angela K. Y. Leung, William W. Maddux, Adam D. Galinsky, Chi-Yue Chiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Many practices aimed at cultivating multicultural competence in educational and organizational settings (e.g., exchange programs, diversity education in college, diversity management at work) assume that multicultural experience fosters creativity. In line with this assumption, the research reported in this article is the first to empirically demonstrate that exposure to multiple cultures in and of itself can enhance creativity. Overall, the authors found that extensiveness of multicultural experiences was positively related to both creative performance (insight learning, remote association, and idea generation) and creativity-supporting cognitive processes (retrieval of unconventional knowledge, recruitment of ideas from unfamiliar cultures for creative idea expansion). Furthermore, …


Predicting The Psychological Health Of Older Adults: Interaction Of Age-Based Rejection Sensitivity And Discriminative Facility, Debbie Sau-King Chow, Evelyn Wing-Mun Au, Chi-Yue Chiu Feb 2008

Predicting The Psychological Health Of Older Adults: Interaction Of Age-Based Rejection Sensitivity And Discriminative Facility, Debbie Sau-King Chow, Evelyn Wing-Mun Au, Chi-Yue Chiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We hypothesize that older adults who anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to social rejection because of their old age (i.e., have high age-based rejection sensitivity) are vulnerable to depression and poor social functioning. We further hypothesize that the association between age-based rejection sensitivity and poor psychological health would be attenuated among older adults who possess adequate cognitive coping ability--they can discern and respond discriminatively to subtle variations in situational demands (i.e., have high discriminative facility). Based on the results of a focus group study, we constructed an age-based rejection sensitivity measure, which predicts greater depression, poorer social functioning, …


The Well-Being Of Nations: Linking Together Trust, Cooperation, And Democracy, William Tov, Ed Diener Jan 2008

The Well-Being Of Nations: Linking Together Trust, Cooperation, And Democracy, William Tov, Ed Diener

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The theme of this chapter is that cooperative and trusting social relationships tend to enhance people’s subjective well-being (happiness and life satisfaction), and that in turn positive feelings of well-being tend to augment cooperation and trust. Extensive empirical work now supports the fact that sociability, interpersonal warmth, community involvement, and interpersonal trust are heightened by positive emotions. New analyses based on the World Value Survey show that nations that are high on subjective well-being (SWB) also tend to be high on generalized trust, volunteerism, and democratic attitudes. Additional analyses indicate that the association of SWB to volunteerism and democratic attitudes …


On Being A Mindful Authoritarian: Is Need For Cognition Always Associated With Greater Tolerance Of Deviant And Stigmatized Groups?, Kim-Pong Tam, Angela K. Y. Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu Jan 2008

On Being A Mindful Authoritarian: Is Need For Cognition Always Associated With Greater Tolerance Of Deviant And Stigmatized Groups?, Kim-Pong Tam, Angela K. Y. Leung, Chi-Yue Chiu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Previous research shows that the motivation to be mindful is associated with less intolerance toward deviant and stigmatized groups. The present research examines authoritarianism as a possible moderator of this seemingly robust finding. We obtained consistent evidence from two studies that authoritarianism (right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation) moderates the relationship between need for cognition and punitiveness. Among low authoritarians, need for cognition was negatively associated with punitiveness and dispositional attribution of crimes and positively associated with support for rehabilitation of criminals. However, among high authoritarians, the pattern reversed. These results are discussed in the context of some recent advances in …


The Stress-Affiliation Paradigm Revisited: Do People Prefer The Kindness Of Strangers Or Their Attractiveness?, Norman P. Li, Rose A. Halterman, Margaret J. Cason, George P. Knight, Jon K. Maner Jan 2008

The Stress-Affiliation Paradigm Revisited: Do People Prefer The Kindness Of Strangers Or Their Attractiveness?, Norman P. Li, Rose A. Halterman, Margaret J. Cason, George P. Knight, Jon K. Maner

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Two studies employed a classic affiliation-under-stress paradigm and examined people's preferences for affiliating with kind versus attractive same- and opposite-sex targets. When men were under default conditions of low stress, they preferred to affiliate with attractive women. However, men placed in a high stress situation instead preferred to interact with kind women. Regardless of stress level, women preferred to affiliate with kind, rather than attractive, men. When choosing among interaction partners of their own sex, participants uniformly chose to interact with kind others, regardless of stress level. This research builds on traditional stress-affiliation research, which has focused on whether people …


The Soft Embodiment Of Culture: Camera Angles And Motion Through Time And Space, Angela K. Y. Leung, Dov Cohen Sep 2007

The Soft Embodiment Of Culture: Camera Angles And Motion Through Time And Space, Angela K. Y. Leung, Dov Cohen

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Cultural assumptions about one's relation to others and one's place in the world can be literally embodied in the way one cognitively maps out one's position and motion in time and space. In three experiments, we examined the psychological perspective that Asian American and Euro-American participants embodied as they both comprehended and produced narratives and mapped out metaphors of time and space. In social situations, Euro-American participants were more likely to embody their own perspective and a sense of their own motion (rather than those of a friend), whereas Asian American participants were more likely to embody a friend's perspective …


What Do People Desire In Others? A Sociofunctional Perspective On The Importance Of Different Valued Characteristics, Catherine A. Cottrell, Steven L. Neuberg, Norman P. Li Feb 2007

What Do People Desire In Others? A Sociofunctional Perspective On The Importance Of Different Valued Characteristics, Catherine A. Cottrell, Steven L. Neuberg, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Humans, as discriminately social creatures, make frequent judgments about others' suitability for interdependent social relations. Which characteristics of others guide these judgments and, thus, shape patterns of human affiliation? Extant research is only minimally useful for answering this question. On the basis of a sociofunctional analysis of human sociality, the authors hypothesized that people highly value trustworthiness and (to a lesser extent) cooperativeness in others with whom they may be interdependent, regardless of the specific tasks, goals, or functions of the group or relationship, but value other favorable characteristics (e.g., intelligence) differentially across such tasks, goals, or functions. Participants in …


Mate Preference Necessities In Long- And Short-Term Mating: People Prioritize In Themselves What Their Mates Prioritize In Them, Norman P. Li Jan 2007

Mate Preference Necessities In Long- And Short-Term Mating: People Prioritize In Themselves What Their Mates Prioritize In Them, Norman P. Li

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

People were given highly constrained low budgets of mate dollars to allocate across various characteristics pertaining to their ideal partners and to their ideal selves for long- and short-term mating. First, results replicated findings from LI et al. (2002) and LI and KENRICK (2006). For ideal long-term mates, men prioritized physical attractiveness and women prioritized social status. For ideal short-term mates, both sexes prioritized physical attractiveness. Second, people's design of their ideal selves mirrored what the opposite sex ideally desired in their mates. For a long-term mating context, men prioritized social status in themselves and women prioritized physical attractiveness in …


Love, Work, And Changes In Extraversion And Neuroticism Over Time, Christie N. Scollon, Ed Diener Dec 2006

Love, Work, And Changes In Extraversion And Neuroticism Over Time, Christie N. Scollon, Ed Diener

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The present study examined individual differences in change in extraversion, neuroticism, and work and relationship satisfaction. Of particular interest were the correlations between changes. Data were from the Victorian Quality of Life Panel Study (B. Headey & A. Wearing, 1989, 1992), in which an overall 1,130 individuals participated (ages 16 to 70). Respondents were assessed every 2 years from 1981 to 1989. Four major findings emerged. (a) There were significant individual differences in changes in extraversion and neuroticism. (b) change was not limited to young adulthood. (c) Development was systematic in that increased work and relationship satisfaction was associated with …


Sex Differences In Regret: All For Love Or Some For Lust?, Neal J. Roese, Ginger L. Pennington, Jill Coleman, Maria Janicki, Norman P. Li, Douglas T. Kenrick Jun 2006

Sex Differences In Regret: All For Love Or Some For Lust?, Neal J. Roese, Ginger L. Pennington, Jill Coleman, Maria Janicki, Norman P. Li, Douglas T. Kenrick

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Few sex differences in regret or counterfactual thinking are evident in past research. The authors discovered a sex difference in regret that is both domain-specific (i.e., unique to romantic relationships) and interpretable within a convergence of theories of evolution and regulatory focus. Three studies showed that within romantic relationships, men emphasize regrets of inaction over action (which correspond to promotion vs. prevention goals, respectively), whereas women report regrets of inaction and action with equivalent frequency. Sex differences were not evident in other interpersonal regrets (friendship, parental, sibling interactions) and were not moderated by relationship status. Although the sex difference was …


Beyond The Hedonic Treadmill: Revising The Adaptation Theory Of Well-Being, Ed Diener, Richard E. Lucas, Christie N. Scollon May 2006

Beyond The Hedonic Treadmill: Revising The Adaptation Theory Of Well-Being, Ed Diener, Richard E. Lucas, Christie N. Scollon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

According to the hedonic treadmill model, good and bad events temporarily affect happiness, but people quickly adapt back to hedonic neutrality. The theory, which has gained widespread acceptance in recent years, implies that individual and societal efforts to increase happiness are doomed to failure. The recent empirical work outlined here indicates that 5 important revisions to the treadmill model are needed. First, individuals' set points are not hedonically neutral. Second, people have different set points, which are partly dependent on their temperaments. Third, a single person may have multiple happiness set points: Different components of well-being such as pleasant emotions, …