PSYC3121 Lecture Notes PDF

PSYC3121 Lecture Notes Week 1 Introduction to Social Neuroscience Study relation between mind and brain Assume that psychological state is a function of physiological states Examines how nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are involved in sociocultural processes Definit...

PSYC3121 Lecture Notes Week 1 Introduction to Social Neuroscience Study relation between mind and brain Assume that psychological state is a function of physiological states Examines how nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are involved in sociocultural processes Definition Use of non-invasive physiological IV or DV to gain insights into psychological questions Methods: provide an independent method, provides information that is not accessible through other psychological methods Both a conceptual & methodological system - Assessment can only be devised properly with reference to the research question, theoretical constructs and their operationalisation, experimental design and hypothesis Tools - many different measures from classic measures, newer measures, manipulations Benefits of neuroscience Understanding structures, chemicals, molecules involved in disorders can lead to treatment Know functions of structures to assist in neurosurgery Unbiased, observable measures that give psychological research credibility to other sciences Integrate research from different approaches Generates new, testable ideas Points to breath, complexity of social psychological processes & emotions - Emotion is not only self-reported feelings, often unaware - Motivates cognition and action - Organises responses - Assesses event significance - Provides information/meaning - social/relational Non-invasive measures Measures of real-time information May be sensitive to things that we ourselves cannot be Ideally suited for populations that have limited verbal/cognitive capacity Problems of inference One to one - an element in psychological set is associated with one element in physio set - Love = oxytocin - Aggression = testosterone This is rare but many psychologists talk like this which is Sceptical One to many: 1 psycho is associated with many physio - Love = oxytocin, activity in mPFC, dopamine - More common Many to one - 2 or more elements are association with same physio - Oxytocin is involved in social interaction, sexual reproduction etc - Hard to make one to one inferences Importance of theory and methods Hypotheses derived from theory to predict psychological variables that would involve physio response Multiple measures of the construct - Physio, self-report, behavioural Problems for Social Neuroscience Interpretive ambiguity Time resolution and time courses of various systems/measures differ substantially - Hormones in saliva ~ 15 minutes - Event-related potentials ~ milliseconds - fMRI ~ seconds Spatial resolution What is the functional significance of observed physiological measures? Obstacles to bridging the mind-body gap Cost - time and financial Invasiveness - apply eeg cap to participant, invasive in the lab Inadequate technical knowledge Problems with data acquisition and analysis Faulty inference Neuro Contributions to Social Psychology Issues Anger is not aggression Self-reported anger correlates weakly with behaviour aggression Anger & Motivational tendencies Relationship between anger and behavioural aggression is likely to be influenced by other variables Anger is often associated with approach motivation Anger with approach-motivated tendencies: urge to act outwardly and go toward the angering stimulus Anger is most likely to lead to aggression when anger is approach-oriented Asymmetrical Frontal Cortical Activity & Approach/Withdrawal Lesion studies Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation Biofeedback studies (reduce depression) Neuroimaging studies - PET, fMRI, EEG, ERP Reciprocal relationship between Left and Reft - When the left is on, the right tends to be less activated Neuro studies should use multiple methods to be more confident in results from converging results State Anger and Left PFC Manipulations of anger cause increased relative left frontal cortical activity - Induced anger through interpersonal insults, radio editorials, photos that evoke anger Increase in approach-motivation associated with anger causes increase in relative left frontal activation These measured by EEG Frontal asymmetry → tDCS tDCS: Transcranial direct current stimulation Weak electrical Currents from the battery is applied to the scalp Anodal electrode: positive intensity, Cathogal electrode: negative intensity tDCS Study Manipulate frontal asymmetry with brain stimulation to investigate effect of anger on aggression after provocation After tDCS to increase relative left prefrontal cortical activity (condition 1), self-reported anger to the insult should be more strongly related to aggression No such relation was expected for (2) tDCS to increase relative right PFC activity and (3) sham tDCS condition Cover Story & Essay 2 separate experiments: impression formation & cognitive performance Write persuasive essay on a controversial issue  Other participant evaluates it While person evaluates; 3 conditions 1. Increase in relative left frontal cortical activity [+ stimulation in left, - right] 2. Increase in relative right frontal cortical activity [+ stimulation in right, - left 3. Sham [no stimulation] Insulting feedback - Evaluations based on 6 characteristics (eg. intelligence, respectability) on 9-point scale - Negative ratings: between 2-4 - Additional comments, in (gender-matched) handwriting After that… Behavioural Aggression Taylor Aggression paradigm Competitive reaction time game 20 trials (randomly won half) Winner gives noise blasts to loser of each round Measured decibel level and duration Measured self-reported anger & other emotions Results: As predicted, anger is more correlated with aggression when there is increase in relative left frontal cortical activity No relationship between anger and aggression if increase in relative right frontal cortical activity or sham Discussion Angry participants → more aggression after tDCS to increase relative elft frontal cortical activity Suggests that approach motivation increases the correlation between anger and aggression Cyberball: Ostracism Cyberball - Manipulates feeling of ostracism in the lab In the inclusion round, people receive the ball, but in the exclusion round, you don’t receive the ball When people experience ostracism, they experience a lot of psychological states such as anger and sadness Social rejection Following social rejection - Increased anger: greater left frontal cortical activity - Increased sadness: greater right frontal cortical activity Asymmetry can predict the emotions people experience Jealousy from ostracism Jealousy often occurs when someone you care about rejects you and you may be angry and somewhat jealous Modified the cyberball paradigm by adding face to the players, males picked a women to play with - during the task the participants gets slowly ignored by the woman Jealousy was directly associated with greater left frontal cortical activity to female with ball during ostracism Jealousy & tDCS Can this be replicated by manipulating frontal cortical activity? Manipulate asymmetric frontal activity and measure self-reported jealousy 15 min of transcranial direct current stimulation to: - Increase left or - Right frontal cortical activity - Sham conditions Ostracised or not by desired opposite sex partner Results When people received left frontal cortical activity, and excluded they experienced most jealousy Week 2 Cognitive Dissonance Theory Overview: The Beginning of the Theory Research Paradigms - Belief Disconfirmation - Free Choice/Difficult Decision - Effort Justification - Induced Compliance Origins of the theory Natural disasters in India & Anxiety-justifying rumours When prophecy fails How people respond but people are met with disconfirming evidence their their beliefs When prophecy fails Mariam keech - experimented with automatic writing, messages said flood is coming The seekers - members were committed and gave up their jobs, relationships and possessions It said aliens will save them at dawn World didn’t end and aliens didn’t come Then mariam keech, said aliens said they need more members to the group Conditions under which increased fervour following disconfirmation of belief 1. A belief must be held with deep conviction and it must have some relevance to action 2. The person holding the belief must have committed himself to it… must have taken some important action that is difficult to undo 3. The belief must be sufficiently specific and sufficiently concerned with the real world so that events may unequivocally refute the belief 4. Such undeniable disconfirmatory evidence must occur and must be recognised by the individual holding the belief 5. The individual believer must have social support. If the believer is a member of a group of convinced persons who can support one another, the belief is maintained and the believers can persuade non-members that the belief is correct When prophecy fails Expectation of apocalypse but no apocalypse Logical - abandon original belief - But they are resistant to change this belief. Too much commitment - Suggestion of being saved - Felt much better  - Social support provides supportive evidence for initial belief - reduces discomfort A cognition is an element of knowledge; The theory of cognitive dissonance Dissonance = averse drive state Magnitude = D/D + C - Each cognition is multiply by importance Dissonance reduction Reduce dissonance by - Subtract dissonant cognitions - Add consonant cognitions - Increase importance of consonant cognitions - Decrease importance of dissonant cognitions Consonant cognition = believe masks are safety precaution, wear masks Dissonant cognition = believe masks are safety precaution, don’t wear masks Example:  Tension in action and belief Can reduce dissonance = by stop smoking But increase dissonance = believe research is not conclusive and continue smoking cigarettes Example Engage in behaviour you want to avoid - overeat Generative cognition - eating Add consonant cognitions - wow that tasted great [justify eating behaviour] Increase importance of consonant - enjoying fine tastes makes life worth living Subtract dissonant cognitions - i don’t need to eat healthy Decrease the importance of dissonant - eating healthy is overrated Belief disconfirmation Belief is highly resistant to change Information disconfirms belief and info is difficult to discard Reduce dissonance by increasing social support & persuading others Even among feminists, many women couldn’t solve that the doctor could be the mum Assessed feminism Sex-role logic problem or problem of same difficulty not related to feminism Judge affirmative action lawsuit where woman is not hired due to gender Measured reaction to lawsuit & affirmative action attitude Feminists who failed to solve problem judged decision to hire man as less just and had more positive attitude toward affirm act Those who failed, their feminism was attacked and hence they felt the need to act more feminist and see that hiring a man is less just - Intensified their original belief Another example Teenagers at church camp Sit on one side of room of other depending on belief in jesus Completed measure of belief in jesus as son of god Read article that claimed that jesus was a hoax Measured belief in jesus and belief in article 24% accepted the disconfirming article as true When believers are presented information that disconfirms and acknowledges that is it true, they show an increase in religious belief [intensifying their belief to reduce the dissonance] Results: Example: Religious participants Read news article about shooting death Inconsistency between child death during prayer for protection Affective reactions and transcendence was measured [god’s intervention in people’s lives’ 2 conditions: order they completed the measures [article, measure] or [measure, article] Results: High transcendence and opportunity to complete the measure after reading the article → showed the least agitation Study 2 Read the same article, completed no questionnaires, distraction questionnaires, religious affirmation Then completed similar affect questionnaire to study 1 Results:  Affirmed their religious belief after dissonance improves dissonance and reduces agitation Dissonance in politics Jesus does the opposite to trump but christians support trump Study measured support for trump Exposed to news article about trump's alleged sexual assaults or neutral article about space exploration Measured intention to share the following meme on their social media accounts - Where biden is accusing clinton of manipulating emails [opponents of trump] Then measured how accurate they thought the info in the article was Results: - People that supported trump and believed in the article were most likely to intend to share meme after trump sex scandal article - This did not occur after neural articlem Free Choice/Difficult Decision Paradigm Dissonance after a decision (free choice/difficult decision paradigm) After you make a difficult decision you schedule experience dissonance Results:  In the difficult decision phase = More positive rating of what they chose and negative rating of what they’ve rejected Effort Justification Suffering for something can cause us to find it more desirable The unpleasant effort is dissonant with our desire to do such The cognition that the activity is unpleasant is dissonant with engaging in the activity Dissonance should be greater the more unpleasant the activity Exaggerating the attractiveness of the outcome can reduce the dissonance (adding a consonant cognition) Study - Women participant in sex discussion group - Manipulated difficulty of joining the group ❖ Control - just listen to group discussion ❖ Mild - read erotic words to experimenter ❖ Severe - read erotic story to experimenters - Control & mild effort rated discussion as more boring and less interesting than sever effort Induced compliance Results: Commitment and motivation 100s of experiments have conceptually replicated effect Many used low vs high choice manipulation to vary dissonance - Low choice to engage in behaviour - many consonant cognitions - High choice to engage in behaviour - few consonant cognitions Illusion of choice makes them feel more committed to the behaviour increasing dissonance Commitment to undergo uncomfortable state can cause cognitive changes to reduce the dissonance Particularly when action is not externally justified [not payed or forced to do it] Hunger, third, pain, eating grasshopper Other ways of reducing dissonance Alcohol may eliminate dissonance Dissonance & Punishment Used rewards to get people to engage in behaviour that they didn’t want to engage in Severe threat = justifies not doing it Mild threat = person may generate own justifications [more dissonance] Study - Children rated attractiveness of toys - Could play with any toys except most attractive - If you play with this toy i will be upset [mild] or i will take the toys away [severe] - Experimenter left room & none played with toy - Mild rated toy less attractive; severe rated toy as more attractive Justification of Cruelty Tell another he is dull Participant given low or high choice to do this Rated person more negatively if in high as compared to low choice condition Hypocrisy Paradigm Believe one thing but do not always act in accord with this belief Believe you should use condoms to prevents STIs but do not always use them Knowledge that one has publicly preached a firmly held belief is dissonant with knowledge that one does not always act in accord with it Study  Results: Two cognitions = speech and mindful → generate cognition of speech drives behaviour, making you stick to the attitude of safe sex and condom use Paradoxes explained by dissonance? Negative self views given positive self view may push people away to maintain negative views Alternative explanations/Revisions to the theory Aversive consequences: feeling personally responsible for producing foreseeable negative consequences (lie to confederate) → attitude change Add a condition that confederate didn’t believe the lie, the participants did not change their attitudes like they had previously Problems with the “aversive consequences” revision Null effect in “lie not believed” condition The lie not being believed reduces the intensity of the dissonance Adverse consequences may simply intensity attitude change Unpersuaded confederate may have reduced the importance of behaviour or perceived effectiveness of behaviour  Revision does not explain belief disconfirmation or difficult decision paradigm results The Kool-Aid Experiment Memory cover story of the drink consumed Assignment to drink pleasant or unpleasant tasting beverage - mixed with vinegar or sugar Write statements that says they liked beverage, under low vs high choice Told to discard in trash prior to writing Assessed attitudes towards drinking Results: Other revisions - when writing attitudinal statement alone, they show the dissonance effect by changing attitude to be consistent with their behaviour Low liking for low choice → forced compliance Self-consistency revision Dissonance occurs when individuals behave in ways that make them feel foolish, immoral or irrational - Inconsistent with being competent, moral and rational Predicts that individuals with high self-esteem (SE) should have more dissonance, because they conceive of themselves are more competent, moral and rational - Evidence is very mixed on SE Dissonance occurs in species (rats,pigeons) that lack these self-conceptions Dissonance not related to high self conceptions Self affirmation revision Cognitive inconsistency is not the cause of the attitude change Individuals have acted in ways that threatened their self-integrity Affirming their self worth should eliminate attitude change But this may be trivialisation - reducing the important of the dissonant cognition Priming participants with the problems of world hunger, important but not self-view, also decreases attitude change Self-affirmation actually causes participants to rate dissonant cognitions as less important  Predicts that individuals with low SE should have more dissonance, because they have fewer resources to protect themselves from self-threats - But mixed evidence Dissonance occurs in species that lack concerns with self-integrity - Plays some role, but not key driving force of dissonance theory Self-based revisions Both predict people should show a decrease in self esteem after dissonance manipulation But in a study including compliance paradigm + trash can [kool-aid] No significant difference on state SE but difference on discomfort, general negative affect Cognitive dissonance Many theories but main is cognitive discrepancy evokes an aversive motivational state Why? Unequivocal behavioural orientation - when time comes to act, It's not about trying to not feel responsible or self concept, but trying to act without listening to battle of internal forces Action-based model of dissonance Cognitions are action tendencies - suggest ways we should behave Conflicting cognitions interfere with effective action Proximal motive of dissonance reduction efforts → reduce discomfort Distal motive of dissonance processes → promote effective action/pursuit of goals Post-decision processing Show assist with execution of decision Spreading of alternatives - View chosen as more positive, view rejected as more negative → allows you to act more effectively with choice Action orientation - “ready for getting things done” - Implementation of decisions is enhanced - Related to approach motivation - Greater relative left frontal cortical activity → approach motivation Study - induced compliance paradigm - High choice or low choice over writing an counterattitudinal essay - High choice results → more left frontal critical activity, more attitude change consistent with counterattitudinal behaviour Reduce left prefrontal critical activity → reduce dissonant effect (via neurofeedback) Results - When receive neurofeedback to increase left frontal activity, the attitude between chosen and rejected becomes more distinct - Decreasing left prefrontal activity will decrease approach motivation and decreases spreading of alternatives effect between options Action-based model of dissonance - Summary Supine body posture & dissonance reduction Recline during low approach states (following foal accomplishment) Supine body posture decreases approach motivation Predicts that it would decrease dissonance reduction Experiment 1 Task: name the colour of the font Results: - Upright = like reward is high for difficult task, low for easy task - Supine = like is higher for easy task, low for difficult task Difficult tasks don’t evoke more liking to incentive in supine Experiment 2 Results: Supine no change in attitudes, suggesting that the position eliminates the spreading of alternatives effect Simpler inconsistencies Dissonance experiments are complex Dissonance - same neural and motivational processes as simple inconsistencies Dissonance state in response to simple inconsistencies - Demonstrate minimal conditions for dissonance - Elucidate influences of basic cognitive processes on emotions Eg. walk in the rain and you don’t get wet Experiment: given flashing words with a sentence that makes sense and doesn’t make sense → simple form of inconsistency - Measured if a negative effect occurs? - Record EEG - EMG over corrugator supercilii (brow) - Event-related potentials (ERPs) = result of signal averaging Example: difference in ERP with different words at N400 Measured implicit affect - Affect determines ratings of novel neutral stimuli - Subliminal emotional faces → ratings of unfamiliar chinese characters - Implicit positive and negative affect test = rate neutral, novel non-words Positive stimuli would lead to positive ratings of novel stimuli Results:  Larger ratings on emg, arousal for incongruent, larger self-report affect for congruent Simple Inconsistencies Week 3 Positive emotions What is an emotion? Emotions consists of neural circuits, response systems and a felling state/process that motivates and organises cognition and action It provides information and may include cognitive appraisals and interpretation of its feeling state, expression or social signals It may motivate approach or avoidance behaviour, exercise control/regulation or responses Basic emotions Basic emotions in facial expression - Joy, surprise, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, contempt [verified] Basic emotions = evolutionary physiological responses to situations - Universally shared - Not learned or shared but prewired responses to a set of stimuli What makes an emotion positive? Consequences - good vs bad - But all emotions are adaptive, so all are good Appraisals - Goal congruent vs goal incongruent Subjective feeling - Positive emotions in rats via tickling them; rats enjoyed it by approaching the associated glove that tickled Functions of emotions Functions of positive emotions Arise in situations where there are opportunities to flourish Positive emotions → broaden cognition → build resources → greater well-being Produces more experience of positive emotions, creating an upward spiral! Happiness inducing behaviours Relationships, cultivating optimism, acts of kindness, savouring, health eating, exercise, commit to goals,flow, gratitude, new coping methods, forgiveness, avoid worry, spiritual activities, meditation Possible basic (enjoyable) emotions Sensory pleasures, amusement, relief, excitement, wonder ,ecstasy, naches, fiero Difference between other affective states and basic emotions Other affective states (moods) do not have universal, distinctive signals And may not have distinctive antecedents But are moods, temperaments really different categorically than basic emotions? Positive affect = used to encompass a range of positive emotions Consequences of Positive Emotions Dominant view that positive affect causes one to “broaden and build” Broaden attention & cognition Build resources Studies on this model Outcomes: - Categorization - Unusual word association - Social categorization - Attention Manipulations of positive affect - Giving gifts - Watching funny film - Recalling a pleasant memory - Writing about a positive life event Positive emotion manipulations Past manipulations could be said to evoke low approach motivated positive affect - Post-goal positive affect, positive experience once you receive - However, positive affects occur pre-goal & may be associated with heightened approach motivation Approach motivation = urge to move toward Low to high approach motivated PA - Panksepp -- SEEKING (high approach) vs. PLAY (low approach) - Knutson -- pre-goal (desire) vs. post-goal - Berridge & Robinson – wanting vs. liking High approach-motivated PA may reduce breadth of attention, cognition, and behavior as one “reaches toward” the desired goal  - Zero in Hypothesis: - Low approach → low positive affect → broadening - High positive affect → narrowing Approach Positive affects High approach positive affect may be particularly important in biologically necessary processes - Food - Mating May also be problematic - Over-eating - Infidelity - Drug abuse Neural Circuitry of Positive affective states Low vs. high approach-motivated positive affective states differentially influence relative left frontal cortical activity - High approach states increase left frontal cortical activity; desire Nucleus accumbens is also more active during high approach than low approach positive affect Other regions – reward areas — striatum, basal ganglia, amygdala, motor cortex, show differences between low and high approach Experiment 1 Compared humor film (low approach PA) to chocolate film (high approach PA) On local/global bias, as measured by Kimchi’s task - Measures attentional narrowing and broadening Looked at houses then either chocolate or cats, then task Task look at top figure, and pick which of the bottom 2 match Local bias = pick same shape, global matter = pick the configuration High approach caused more local bias and processed more narrowly Summary Low vs. high approach motivated positive affects have very different effects on attentional breadth Low approach PA broadens attention - Fredrickson, Gasper & Clore, Isen High approach PA narrows attention - Moderated by BAS & motivational strength (time since eaten, more hungry more narrowing) Do positive affective states varying in approach motivation influence other cognitive processes? Visual Spatial Memory Central vs. Peripheral memory - Memory for centrally or peripherally presented stimuli - Separate from emotional object or scene Centrally presented stimuli should be better remembered in a pre-goal state (high approach) than in a neutral state → narrowing Peripherally presented stimuli should be better remembered in post-goal states (low approach) than in neutral → broadening Comparing pre-goal and post-goal positive affect Reward trials vs. Neutral trials - 60 Reward Trials - 60 Neutral Trials Win money ($0.15) on reward trials (total of $10) - Must respond faster than average participant - Reaction time game: Direction of the center arrow Cannot win money on neutral trials Reward cue, then neutral words in the centre, then arrow displayed, win 15 cents, then word in the peripherally Neutral cue, the centre word, arrow pointed in incongruent, then word in the centre Surprise Recognition test Words presented again along with new (foil) words Indicate if remembered appearing during game or not  Pre-goal → where you were cued that this was a reward trial, then - In pre-goal high approach, they will be highly focussed in the centre and increased words recognised - If told no reward, neutral, then not as good memory Post-goal → if won money then still positive affect (low approach), better in the peripheral than neutral Summary - Memory Experiment High approach-motivated (pre-goal) positive state caused better memory for centrally presented stimuli than neutral state Low approach-motivated (post-goal) positive state caused better memory for peripherally presented stimuli than neutral state Summary - other studies used monetary incentive delay task Pre-goal positive affect / high approach PA - More local attention Post-goal positive affect / low approach PA - More global attention Does motivational intensity within positive affect alter categorization? Positive affect (low approach) broadened cognitive categorization - e.g., more likely to say that “camel” fits the category “vehicle” - Camel does not represent vehicle, nut in positive affect state, you may say so Manipulation of Motivation Within Positive Affect Subjects asked to move sensors placed on zygomatic (cheek) major up toward their ears Under cover story of interest in how facial movement affects EEG Then, subjects adopted 1 of 3 body positions - Upright body position - Leaning forward body position - high approach positive affect, - Leaning backward body position - low approach positive affect Body Posture & Physio Reactions Leaning forward causes greater relate Left Frontal cortical Activation than reclining Learning forward increases appetitive psychophysiological responses (EEG/ERP/startle eye blinks) to appetitive stimuli Zhown exemplars of category and test how well this stimuli fits the category [common] In uncommon example ie. how well does ring fit in clothing category - If in low approach PA, you would more likely pick that it does belong in the category than if you were in high approach PA Categorisation of Weak Exemplars  Recline and smiling, more likely to say it fits, but leaning forward less likely Summary of Categorisation EXP Low approach positive affect → broader cognitive categorization High approach positive affect → narrower cognitive categorization Conclusions – Functions Low motivational intensity → low approach PA → broadening of cognition - Coasting in PA (Carver, 2004), once you’ve achieved the goal, then you can look more broadly - Opens one to new opportunities High motivational intensity → narrowing of cognition - Focus on goal acquisition - Assists in goal accomplishment Terror Management Theory Becker’s Analysis 2 fundamental questions: How are we as humans the same as other animals? - We all possess biological proclivity for self-preservation How are we as humans different from other animals (how do we survive)? - Ability to think Example: “I was here last Thursday, I’m here this Thursday, I won’t be here next Thursday.” Consequences of ability to think temporally, symbolically, & self-reflectively Freedom from reactivity; more flexible in our behaviour Self-regulation Self-consciousness Mental states allowed us to experience awe and dread AWARENESS OF DEATH + BIOLOGICAL PROCLIVITY TO LIVE = ANXIETY/TERROR So what do we do? Culture: shared symbolic conception of reality that imbues the world with meaning, order, and permanence → allows us to reduce anxiety How did we get here? explanation of creation What do we do while we’re here? roles, identities, value prescriptions What happens after we’re here? promise of immortality [heaven, remembrance] Implications for understanding reactions to others in our social world Self-esteem & beliefs are culturally relative Self esteem & beliefs are fragile constructions needing social validation Existence of others with alternative beliefs threatens faith in the validity of our own Terror Management Theory (TMT) But terror is managed by: Cultural worldviews that imbue life with meaning; Provide death-transcendence to those who meet standards of value (self-esteem) The management of terror Cultural Anxiety Buffer: - Faith in a cultural worldview -- a set of beliefs about the nature of reality shared by groups of persons  It manages terror by coloring life with meaning, order, stability, and permanence. Cultural worldviews provide an explanation of the origins of life, prescriptions of behavior for feeling good and valuable, and routes of obtaining immortality. Self-esteem -- an individual’s belief concerning how well you are living up to the standards of value prescribed by the worldview - High christian, and you think you are a good person → high self-esteem Basic Implications Needs for worldview faith and self-esteem are universal. Self-esteem is derived from cultural standards of value - behaviors and attributes that provide self esteem may vary by culture. Because self-esteem and worldview faith buffer anxiety, much intrapersonal and interpersonal behavior will be directed toward maintaining and defending self esteem and faith in the worldview. Anxiety-Buffer Research Anxiety-buffer hypothesis: if a psychological structure provides protection against anxiety, then strengthening that structure should make one less prone to exhibit anxiety, and weakening that structure should make one more prone to exhibit anxiety. Negative correlation of self-esteem and anxiety Self-esteem threats cause anxiety Defensive responses to self-esteem threats are mediated by anxiety Use of self-esteem defenses reduces anxiety Self-Esteem as an Anxiety Buffer Experiment 1: raising self-esteem reduces anxiety in response to graphic death related video Experiment 2: raising self-esteem reduces physiological arousal in response to the anticipation of painful electric shock The mortality salience hypothesis If our worldview and self-esteem protect us from the terror of realizing we are merely fragile creatures fated only to obliteration upon death, Reminders of mortality (Mortality Salience; MS) should intensify efforts to bolster and defend our Worldviews and Self-Esteem. - e.g., like more those who support our beliefs; like less those who threaten our beliefs after being reminded of our own mortality Effects of MS on reactions to those who violate or support the worldview Experiment 1: municipal court judges’ reactions to prostitutes Death anxiety scale or neutral scale Then assessed bond for alleged prostitute Results - When judges were primed on mortality, then they would charge a higher bond - Prostitutes oppose their worldview [illegal] Experiment 2 Reactions to prostitutes as a function of individual worldviews Subjects were university students Mortality Salience: asked questions about death Results: - In neutral, not difference in bonds - In mortality salient, those who were unfavourable, showed a increase in bond charges as opposed to those who were favourable and showed no difference between conditions Also found increased reward for cultural hero following MS. Death salience has been manipulated by questionnaires, watching videos of car accidents, and walking by a funeral home - Mortality salience increases to support their worldview Self-esteem & worldview defense Experiment 1: manipulated self-esteem and reactions to pro- and anti-US essayists Results: - Neutral self esteem condition and raised self-esteem condition - Neutral prime and mortality salient prime - DV = attitudes toward worldview supporters vs threateners, high numbers = more positive towards supporter - When people are neutral self esteem, mortality salience increases support for the world view and less favourable to world view threateners - When people’s self esteem is raised, there is no difference in attitudes to worldview supporters or threateners Time Course to MS Effects MS exerts effects on worldview defense after delay and distraction from MS. Immediately after typical MS prime, worldview defense is not influenced. Interpreted to indicate that individuals suppress death thoughts immediately after MS prime, and then death thoughts rebound after this suppression - Immediately, may think about being healthy or denying death in other ways Death Construct Accessibility People asked to fill out the blanks D E _ _ (DEAD, DEAR, DEER) - If you think about death, you would fill dead, but if not dear, or deer Immediately after typical MS prime, death construct accessibility is low - And then it increases after a delay & distraction [more likely to fill out dead words] Immediately after MS prime, death construct accessibility is high. Persons suppress death thoughts immediately after typical MS and then they rebound, and increase in cultural worldview defence Subliminal Primes Subliminal presentations of death words also causes increased worldview defense Does awareness of mortality increase aggression against someone who threatens our worldview? New measure of aggression = admission of hot sauce, hot chillies Aggression Study (McGregor et al., 1998 – JPSP, Study 1) Ps reminded of mortality or not Ps given an essay that either supports or disparages their political views. After evaluating the essay, participate in a 2nd study on taste preferences. Allocate taste samples to the author of the essay so that “experimenter can remind blind” Results: - When people read essays that threaten their world view, they allocated the most hot sauce if MS primed - If WV consistent, less hot sauce in the MS primed - These effects are specific to MS and makes people more or less aggressive depending on WV threat TMT & Climate Change Global threat (climate change) may increase sense of shared fate & goals of cooperation After increasing awareness of climate change, MS may increase support for cooperation  Pyszczynski et al (2012) - Study Primed with global climate change vs. local catastrophe - Melting ice caps, rising temps, long droughts vs Earthquake in San Francisco MS or dental pain DV: support for diplomacy scale - America’s strong military showing undermines its peaceful goals. Results - After people are primed with global climate change and MS they show an increase in support for peacekeeping - It eliminated the country group effect, think of it as all of us together, priming MS allows them to think of humanity RESEARCH TMT has inspired over 400 studies Critical Analysis Are the effects of mortality salience specific to concerns about death? Thinking about death may also evoke: – Negative affect, anxiety – Uncertainty – Worries about the future – Loneliness – Goal frustration – Absence of control – Cognitive inconsistency All of these effects may be due to Inconsistency Common instigator Common motivator – drive to reduce anxiety Common behavioral outcomes – Worldview defense – Other reactions Neuroscience of Inconsistency Compensation Many brain systems likely involved in detecting & reacting to inconsistencies – Amygdala, striatum, locus coeruleus Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays key role - Activated by dissonance manipulations - Activated by ostracism (dorsal ACC) - Activated by simple inconsistencies - Associated with negative affect - Associated with physical pain ❖ Ostracism → pain “Unconscious Vigilance” Subtle alarm → sensitization to affective stimuli - Alarm cues like death Emotion tags (involving various content-dedicated, evolved preferences) Unconscious Alarm Unconscious amygdala / anterior cingulate reactivity to novelty, reward, and especially threat. The Utility of Unconscious Vigilance Facilitate identification of the subtle threat. Facilitate identification of incidental hazards / resources in contexts of background threat. Efficiently capitalises on acquired preferences, co-opting a shared mechanism for use in numerous domains. …including group bias / “worldview defense”? Threats without Awareness → Worldview Defense Are these effects specific to death? In aversive control primes - anxiety from exams, giving speeches - Score high in distress but not increase worldview defence In uncertainty, death, isolation primes - No increase in distress,negative affect BUT increase in WD Affect is often discounted when we are made aware that it is incidental to the current evaluation, and hence informationally misleading. Awareness of distress following control threats may prevent worldview defence. (Such discounting need not be conscious.) - Ie. they can reevaluate and conclude that it was the exams that distressing, not the essay that ‘threatens’ my WV, that’s distressing Unconscious Vigilance and Worldview Defense Given that unconscious alarm reactions may be evoked by subtle threats and influence evaluations, worldview defence may result from unconscious vigilance toward emotionally evocative targets. If so, then the “worldview” content may be incidental to the affective response it elicits. Studies 1 - 2 Testing Output Specificity Terror Management Theory predicts: mortality-salience will bias ideological evaluations discriminately (in a selective way) Unconscious Vigilance predicts: - Mortality-salience will bias valenced targets unrelated to cultural attitudes indiscriminately - In other words, they will favour targets, unrelated to worldview beliefs (ie. sounds and images) Study 1 - Sound Bias Replicated standard worldview defense procedure: Filler scales → Death (Control) Cue → Self-Report Affect → Sound Ratings Pleasant sound vs aversive sound Results: After people thought about death, they showed more favorability to pleasant sound than unpleasant sounds Study 2 - Image Bias Filler scales → Death (Control) Cue → Self-Report Affect → Image Ratings Results: thinking about mortality, caused people to rate pleasant pictures more favourably than unpleasant pictures Summary of Unconscious Vigilance Explanation Worldview defense does not appear to owe to a content-dedicated adaptation for group bias Indiscriminate output biases (Studies 1 - 2) Indiscriminate input elicitors (Studies 3 - 4) - Where studies primed subliminal angry faces and showed increase worldview defence - Subliminal pain-related words increase worldview defence Plausible biological basis of unconscious vigilance (the “neural alarm” literature) Parsimony than TMT Conclusion TMT: self-preservation + awareness of death = anxiety Cultural worldview & self-esteem buffer us from anxiety We therefore defend Cultural Worldview & SE Theory explains much, esp. why folks defend CWV & SE so vigorously Unconscious Vigilance Alternative Explanation Focused on Mortality Salience & Worldview Defence effects MS influences reactions to emotion stimuli unrelated to CWV Other subtle non-MS primes cause worldview defence [broader] A Possible Integration The unconscious vigilance explanation may describe an evolutionarily older mechanism of reacting to threats - but rats would not respond to symbolic MS But it does not explain CWV & SE elaborations and strivings - Strong commitments to CWV (e.g., die for beliefs to obtain immortality) TMT processes co-opted this older mechanism & use it to defend CWV Week 4 Aggression What is aggression? How do researchers measure aggression? What is aggression? The Scientific Definition of Human Aggression Delivery of a noxious stimulus that the organism is motivated to avoid.  - A noxious stimulus is a strong stimulus that can damage or threaten Stimulus is delivered with the intent to harm. Types of Aggression 1. Reactive (hostile, affective, emotional, impulsive) Aggression Characterized by feelings of anger. Goal is to inflict harm for harm’s sake Provocation - induces a person to lose self-control and form intent to harm Most homicides are due to reactive aggression No evidence that the death penalty deters crime, as it’s due to losing self-control Possible Solutions: Better anger regulation, Better self-control over aggressive behavior, Better early interventions with at risk youth 2. Instrumental Aggression (proactive aggression) Means to an end (achieve a goal) - violent bank robbery - Ie. Main goal to get money, not violence More thoughtful and deliberate than reactive aggression - Can be considered “cold-blooded” Examples: Terrorism War Taking territory Violent robbery Organized crime violence Controlling forms of domestic violence Fraud Sometimes overlaps with reactive aggression (i.e., mixed goals) 3. Violence = special type of aggression that inflicts severe physical harm or death. Examples: physical assault, sexual assault, homicide Very popular in entertainment Almost entirely a male phenomenon 6 functions of violence - why do people do it 1. Escape from aversive situation 2. Attain a goal 3. Release of negative affective arousal 4. Resolve a conflict 5. Gain respect 6. Attack a culturally defined “enemy” (e.g., war, racist attack) 4. Indirect aggression (i.e., relational aggression) Aim is to destroy reputation or social sabotage Preferred by women more than men Examples: Silent treatment, Gossiping to harm someone’s social status How do researchers measure aggression? Challenges Aggression is a relatively infrequent behaviour. - Makes observation in the real-world difficult and time-consuming Must be ethical - Giving someone the opportunity to harm another can be problematic. Participants must not be aware that aggressive behaviour is being observed [Key] - Deception - to stop people from controlling aggressive responses - Avoids measurement reactivity How do Researchers Measure Aggression? -- Observation Observation in the real world - Field experiment or simply observing, Ideal for young children Study 1: Violence in Bars  - 12 bars in Canada - Recorded violence among young people. - 77.8% men only ▪ 3.4% women only [huge gender difference] - Violence in 1/3 of cases (kicking, punching, brawling) Study 2: Road rage - Participant behind confederate with either normal start or slow start at the light - Dependent Variable: Honking latency and duration How do Researchers Measure Aggression? – Laboratory Experiments Three elements 1. Typically elicit anger to examine reactive aggression 2. Experimental manipulation that increases or decreases aggression relative to a control group. 3. Random assignment 4. High internal validity Psychological realism - extent to which lab elicits the psychological processes Mundane realism less important - drinking in a lab is okay Anger Provocation #1: Insult - Provocation is the sense of being unjustly harmed - someone does you wrong - Being insulted by the experimenter or a confederate Study: Example from my lab - Participants given different anagrams: nvtnimereon - 1st minute: “Look, I can barely hear you. I need you to speak louder.” - 2nd minute: “Hey, I can barely hear you.” - 3rd minute: “Look, this is the third time I’ve had to say this! Can’t you follow directions!!!” Anger Provocation #2: - Ostracism (being ignored, silent treatment), Social rejection (being actively excluded) - Method: Cyberball - three people playing, and 2 people start playing with each other, leaving p out - Threatens need to belong and self-esteem. - Meta-analysis: “These results cast doubt on the theory that rejection triggers prosocial behavior, and instead suggest it is a robust elicitor of aggression.” Taylor Aggression Paradigm - Task: compete against, reaction time of the red square, manipulate low or high provocation Hot (Chilli) Sauce Paradigm - Under the guise of a taste test, participants allocate hot sauce to a confederate (who they are told hates hot sauce) and who will have to eat it all. How do Researchers Measure Aggression? – Other methods  Official records – crime reports and statistics Self-report and Other-reports - Peer nominations ❖ Typically children say who is most aggressive in their class. - Aggressive Personality ❖ Aggression Questionnaire, Displaced Aggression Questionnaire - Perpetration and Victimisation ❖ Sexual Experiences Survey, Indirect Aggression Scales, Conflict Tactics Scale Theories of Aggression Theories of Human Aggression - Psychoanalysis Freud (1930’s and 1940’s heyday) Primitive drives = Sex/Create (Eros) & Aggression/Destroy (Thanatos) “Hydraulic” model - freud believes people have to release anger, otherwise it toxic Belief in catharsis - When angry, being aggressive will reduce aggression [fake news] - When angry, being aggressive will make people feel better [true in short term yet untrue, with regret after] - In reality – believing in catharsis won’t make you feel better; it will make you more aggressive. [real science] Theories of Human Aggression - Evolutionary Theory Aggression as a useful adaptation - Seen throughout the animal kingdom Adaptation = characteristic or behaviour that increases “fitness” - reproduction - Our aggressive ancestors had more children on average than nonaggressive ancestors. ❖ Directly via kidnapping, rape ❖ Indirectly through using violence to obtain resources/status ❖ Keeping harems and multiple wives Men have evolved physical adaptations for violence. - e.g., larger bodies, greater upper body strength for using clubs, spears, swords, etc. Evolutionary Theory Ghengis Khan & his son Kubla Khan & many many offspring… 8% of modern Asian men have DNA linked to Ghengis Khan. What do men fight for? (Blake & Denson, 2019) What do men fight for? - Ultimate Aim: Reproductively relevant resources (status, valuables, money, land, animals, women) - Male violence peaks 18-30 years of age When do men fight? - When status is at stake.  - When there is competition for women (e.g., polygynous societies – men can have several wives) - When men’s opportunities to obtain resources are bleak (unemployed, unmarried, low status, low education, high income inequality). When do women fight? When fear of retaliation is low. When “low risk” forms of aggression can be used, indirect aggression When there is competition for men. Evolutionary Theory accounts for sex differences in aggression. Both men and women: insults, intimate partner violence Women only: indirect aggression - gossiping, spreading rumors Men only: physical, sexual, violent aggression, homicide Genes Genes are evolution’s mechanism Aggression is approximately 50% inherited. 5% of families commit 50% of all crime. Huge complication: Aggressive children are more likely to grow up in an aggressive home Epigenetics - how a person's environment and behaviors can impact how their genes function. - Gene activity is not fixed at birth. - Experiencing aversive events leads to stable changes in DNA - Becomes a problem among people genetically vulnerable to negative life events Example: Stress and Traumas People experience stress and traumas have critical windows: prenatal stage, childhood, adolescence, which influence oxytocin, serotonin, HPA axis, which aggressive behaviour Adverse environment: Theories of aggression: The General Aggression Model - most used model Social encounter Inputs - Situation variables = provocation, alcohol consumption, - Person variables = genetic predisposition, traits Influence these internal state – affect, cognition, arousal Outcomes - appraisal and decision processes - Thoughtful action: Leave it or ask himself if the other person meant it? → walk away, can be aggressive over time “I’ll get you later” - Impulsive Action: aggressive action GAM example: My (aggressive) trip to K-Mart K-Mart was hot, crowded and stinky. Noisy. → situation – cause negative affect – can increase behaviour  Tired from moving house. Very depleted. Bad mood, grumpy, hot, Male gender – person – cause negative affect, increase arousal Woman blocks the row with her trolley – provocation The rest is history… Outcome – knocked out the lady, made an impulsive action, could have made a thoughtful action of reappraising the situation Theories of Aggression: I 3 (pronounced I-cubed) theory Three orthogonal components: Instigation, Impellance, Inhibition (or Disinhibition) Instigation: Exposure to something or an event that creates an urge to aggress in most people. - Provocation, ostracism, ignored Impellance: Person or situation factors that increase the effect of the instigator on anger and aggressive behavioural inclinations or how the instigator is experienced. - When provoked, some people act aggressively, some don’t, what are these factors - Impelling factors: traits, hostile thinking styles, experiencing chronic pain (Dis)Inhibition: Person or situation factors that increase the likelihood that (or the intensity with which) people will override the effects of instigation and impellance. - Disinhibition increases aggression, like alcohol Disinhibition caused by alcohol Across the week, a similar number of assaults. On the weekend, more assaults and a good chunk is due to alcohol Key Differences Aspect General Aggression Model (GAM) I³ Model Focus Broad: Factors and processes Narrower: Impulse control in leading to aggression. aggression. Components Inputs → Routes → Outcomes Instigation, Impellance, Inhibition Scope Integrates various influences Emphasizes the tension between (person, situation, and context). impulses and control. Application General aggression research, Interpersonal aggression and including media effects. self-control studies. The two models can complement each other: GAM explains the broader framework for aggression. I³ provides a focused lens on how self-regulation mediates aggressive behaviors, especially in situations of provocation Week 5 Anger Regulation Overview: The decline of violence, Anger regulation The decline of violence I--cubed (I3 ) theory 3 components - Instigation - when provoked, mistreated, rejected → make aggressive - Impellance - trait aggressiveness, ruminate → make aggressive - Other side – Inhibition – if inhibit these urges to aggress then you won’t be aggressive Eg. Alcohol weakens inhibitory ability → we need to regulate and control our anger Decrease in Homicide rates in Europe since 1300 Decrease in rates of domestic and non-domestic violent assaults. Australia is safe as. 2021 Stats: “The offender rate in Australia was the lowest since the time series began in 2008-09.” Aggression was still the most common offence: Why decline? Self-control is key. Culture has evolved to teach self-control and emotion regulation. Acquiring emotion regulation skills early is key. For boys, aggression is pretty stable by 8 years old. r =.29 for aggression at age 8 and age 48 Anger regulation study 2 sessions, 3 years apart [6-10 vs 9-13] Compared maladaptive (venting) versus adaptive (problem focus) Venting predicted aggression 12 months later. Teaching anger regulation can lead to decline of aggression What is the most difficult emotion to change or control? Anger! – from Evolutionary advantage to help ancestors survive The good news about anger Anger = emotion Aggression = behaviour People report getting angry anywhere from several times per week to several times per day. - This anger hardly ever turns into aggression for most people. For most people, anger dissipates in 10-20 minutes all by itself The bad news about anger Treatments like CBT for anger are somewhat less effective than treatments for depression and anxiety. Frequent, uncontrolled anger increases risk of early mortality via cardiovascular disease. Anger can lead to social isolation and unemployment…and violence and even jail Anger Regulation What are some ways you reduce the amount of anger you experience in response to instigation? At least) four possible responses to provocation 1. Suppress the anger. (expressive suppression) 2. Cognitively process the incident so that you are no longer angry. (cognitive reappraisal) 3. Dwell on the anger. (rumination) 4. Distract yourself. (distraction) The Process Model of Emotion Regulation  Situation: go to the party or not - Situation modification - don’t talk or talk – helps regulate emotion Aspect - attentional deployment — watch karaoke or watch ex flirt Meaning - new partner is better than you, or good to see ex happy = cognitive change reappraisal If not reappraisal and continue with ‘new partner is better than you’ → emotional response: jealousy, anger Responses → get drunk, response modulation: suppression The process model of emotional regulation → suppression = response-focussed strategy Worry is an emotional response Reappraisal is an antecedent-focussed response strategy (cognitive change) Mindfulness may be a attentional deployment response or a response-focussed strategy Alcohol consumption may be a behavioural response but is not solely response-focussed Experiment 1 Trait Reappraisal and Trait Suppression Methods of emotional regulation Study: Trait reappraisal is associated with better mental health. Correlations between the negative emotionality and trait measures.*p <.05, **p <.01 (all tests 2-tailed). Suppression did nothing But reappraisal lead to decrease depression, anxiety and stress Provocation increased anger, SBP, and DBP [blood pressure] Trait Reappraisal showed less anger, less systolic BP, less diastolic BP [didn’t take it personally Trait Suppression did not affect anger, blood pressure Rumination, Reappraisal and Distraction during autobiographical recall From Left = reappraisal condition, rumination condition, campus layout - cognitive involving, spontaneous – people showed distraction is how they regulate Reappraisal and heart rate variability (HRV) HRV indicates flexible emotion regulation ability (Appelhans, 2006). Greater high frequency HRV = greater parasympathetic nervous system activity - “rest and digest”, We recorded HRV while 131 undergraduate women viewed an anger-inducing video of a fellow student arguing for a position counter to that of the participant on an important political issue.  Immediately prior to viewing, participants were instructed to reappraise, suppress their emotions, or simply watch the video as normal. Results: - Anger was highest in the suppression condition - HRV, highest decrease in the reappraisal group, more flexible regulation experience - Reappraisal = physiological indicator of emotional flexibility What is angry rumination? - pretty bad “Perseverative thinking about a personally meaningful anger inducing event” - Encompasses provocations that happen to you personally as well as people or groups you care about. - Need not be uncontrollable. The content of angry rumination - Focusing/relieving anger provocations, Planning revenge Bushman - STUDY 602 male and female undergraduates All provoked via essay feedback Rumination condition – Punch bag while thinking of the person who made you mad Distraction condition – Punch bag while thinking of becoming physically fit Control condition – Sit quietly for two minutes Noise blast - TAP paradigm Results: - Levels of Anger: Rumination > Distraction > Control - Rumination blasted people the most, then distraction, then control People still believe angry rumination is a positive thing. Study: - Participants engaged in cognitive bias modification (CBM) training intended to induce positive or negative beliefs about rumination. - After CBM training, all participants showed a positive belief bias towards rumination! Angry rumination can lead to poor health-relevant outcomes. Delayed cardiovascular and endocrine recovery to provocation Poor sleep quality following provocation Maladaptive coping with ethnic discrimination: - Greater engagement in in unsafe sex, substance use, and aggressive, dangerous, and illegal behaviors Hormones and Behaviour 3 Hormones Cortisol — Testosterone — Oxytocin Cortisol  Cortisol: End Product of the HPA Axis Roles of Cortisol: - Cortisol referred to as a “stress hormone” - Important to remember that it is also provides survival benefits ❖ Controls inflammation ❖ Stimulates glucose and fatty acids ❖ Sensitizes cells to other neuroendocrines ❖ Promotes attention and storage of memory - At excessive levels, cortisol can impair memory, causes atrophy of hippocampus, and promotes loss of nerve cells Cortisol and social behavior Cortisol is linked to social stress and anxiety Dominance confrontations - Low ranking primates show elevated cortisol when hierarchy is maintained through intimidation Increase in social stressors, increases cortisol Increase in social support, decreases cortisol Dominance confrontations - Primates show cortisol in response to status challenges - “the lack of control, predictability, etc., accompanying social instability which stimulates cortisol secretion” In humans, SES is a key indicator of rank in the hierarchy. Being poor or even just feeling poor (i.e., subjective social status) predicts a host of poor health outcomes. Disadvantaged groups and minorities are more likely to experience lower subjective social status and social evaluative threat. Social Evaluative Threat Social self-preservation theory - Threats to social status or esteem elicit the experience of negative self-evaluative emotions [shame, humiliation]  - Lead to adaptive behavioral changes in threat, e.g., activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Social Evaluative Stress Social evaluative threat is key to cortisol release - Like public speaking/verbal interaction [speech], or public speaking/cognitive task combination [speech and task] The ‘Gold Standard’ for inducing a cortisol response in the lab: The Trier Social Stress Test Give a speech in front of a disapproving panel of “linguistics experts” AND do mental arithmetic (e.g., count backwards in 13’s from 1000). Subjective social status Completed the MacArthur subjective social status scale [1-10, where 10 is best off] Assigned to social evaluative threat (in front of a panel) or non-social evaluative threat condition (alone in a room). Cortisol assessed 4 times. Results: - Everyone is flat in cortisol from baseline to recovery - EXCEPT for the group with social evaluative threat, and high subjective social status ❖ High SSS when hierarchy becomes unstable – sensitive to threats Cortisol and attention to threat High levels of cortisol associated with selective attention to angry faces Thus, cortisol is released when we are socially threatened and makes us sensitive to social threats. Testosterone Testosterone: End product of the HypothalamicPituitary-Gonadal (HPG) axis Testosterone in the Public Mind: Testosterone's role in bad behaviour is largely a myth Does testosterone relate to aggression? Correlation between levels of testosterone & aggression in animals is strong. Correlation between levels of testosterone & aggression in humans is weak - Many studies show no correlation at all Testosterone is more related to status-seeking, power & dominance; hence more in animals Increasing social status increases testosterone - Losing social status decreases testosterone When facing social competition or social threat, individuals show (short term) increases in testosterone Victory and inclination to defend status increases testosterone Study of tennis players Winners show increase and high testosterone for longer, losers decreases testosterone Winning an aggression paradigm increased testosterone in women No effects of cortisol Testosterone influences the decision to compete again (or not) Testosterone decrease may protect against losing again. – protects you from fighting again Participants were told that they would be competing against each other on a test of an important type of intelligence called “spatial processing speed”. No testosterone effects in winners, but in losers… When losers had a decrease in testosterone, only ⅕ wanted to compete again When losers had an increase in testosterone, ¾ wanted to compete again Testosterone drives whether people want to compete again An experimental approach (Vermeer et al., 2020) 150 mg testosterone via gel or placebo Paradigm consisted of a repeated 9-player competition where participants had to exert effort to compete for rank position by responding as fast as possible to multiple targets on screen Task varied on reward then manipulated high versus low rank in competitive task - ranking manipulation Participants with exogenous testosterone (gel) (vs. placebo) exerted greater competitive effort (responded faster) as the task progressed, but only for individuals with a low rank position Choice to compete again: - High rank, choice to compete was high - Low rank group, placebo group they didn’t care to compete again, - But in the low rank, unstable rank, T group, they acted like the high rank people [high choice to compete] Testosterone summary Not a particularly good predictor of aggression unless that is a way to obtain status. Is a better determinant of status-seeking behavior in humans than aggression. Predicts desire to compete again – gotta get that status! Oxytocin Hormone that acts as a neuromodulator in the brain Released in large amounts immediately prior to and after childbirth High post-natal levels also facilitate breastfeeding and bonding with infant Some evidence for love and puppy love… Study 1: - Measured oxytocin prior to lab visit in 129 romantically involved adults. - Partner expressed gratitude to them in the lab. - Greater oxytocin prior was associated with greater perceptions of the expresser’s responsiveness and gratitude, and experienced greater love. Study 2: - Mutual human-dog gazing increased oxytocin levels. - Administering oxytocin increased gazing in dogs, which increased oxytocin in their owners. - Wolves, who rarely engage in eye contact with their human handlers, seemed resistant to this effect. Effects of Acute Oxytocin Administration Administer via nasal spray; double blind Test social effects such as memory for faces, empathic accuracy, trust behavior in games, prosocial behavior Oxytocin & Prosociality Situational or individual difference factors moderated 60% of the outcomes reported - Not clear effect of the hormone, there are moderating factors 21% of the studies on oxytocin and prosociality report negative – that is, antisocial (i.e., not prosocial) – effects, such as increasing feelings of envy, mistrust, attachment insecurity or outgroup derogation Acute oxytocin administration can increase aggression First completed stress test & cold pain task Inclinations toward intimate partner violence Results: - In placebo condition - no difference in violent inclination after the task - In oxytocin condition - People with high trait physical aggressiveness reported more violent inclinations towards partner - Opposite of the love effect  Oxytocin may increase aggression by lowering perceptions of danger that normally inhibit people from retaliating Higher aggression in breastfeeding women was due to lower stress responses to provocation. Aggression task Prefeeding and postfeeding confrontation showed no difference in results between groups Breast feeders had the highest aggression > Formula > Nulliparous OT & Trust Positive effects of oxytocin on trust disappear if the potentially trusted other is portrayed as untrustworthy, is unknown, or is a member of a social out-group OT decreased trust with outgroups OT decreased trust with those who are highly rejection sensitive OT increases ethnocentrism Associations words with in-group and out-group Some words were uniquely human words between the in group and outgroup - e.g., thorough, broad minded, humble, conservative, rude, polite, shallow. If you use more of these human words towards the ingroup, then you see your ingroup as more human Results: - Overall the out-group is seen as less human than the in-group - That effect is largest in the oxytocin condition Two moral dilemmas: - (A) a case of blowing up a person who was stuck in a hole in a cave in order for five other people to escape - (B) a case of denying a person access to a lifeboat to prevent the boat from sinking - Results: people are more likely to sacrifice the outgroup (small for the placebo), bigger effect for oxytocin Mechanisms by which OT may influence social cognition/behavior The social salience hypothesis - Oxytocin enhances the perception of social stimuli; - thus, enhancing responses to both positive and negative (e.g., provocation) social stimuli. - May account for both the socially desirable and socially undesirable effects of OT ❖ magnify prosociality when dealing with familiar, close or reliable others ❖ but diminish prosociality under situations of competition or when interacting with an out-group. Oxytocin Summary Oxytocin may be a “double-edged” sword. It facilitates romantic bonding, but may exacerbate ingroup bias at the expense of outgroups. Week 7 Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal communication = Communicative actions that don't have verbal content (i.e., words) Nonverbal communication – 2 parties Body posture The way that the body is positioned, including whether one is standing or sitting, the relative positions of body parts, and how much space the body occupies Body postures communicate information to others Body postures communicate information to ourselves Body postures communicate information to others Study: Dominance How accurately will participants judge images in terms of dominance? Method: - Rate the faces/body postures in terms of dominance using the scale from 1 (very submissive) to 8 (very dominant).  - Faces were displayed either for a brief (27 ms, 40 ms, or 94 ms) or an unlimited (self-paced) amount of time. Results: - Participants in the self-paced condition, the 94 ms condition, and the 40 ms condition perceived dominance and submission from the faces/body postures at levels significantly greater than chance. Mere glimpse of just an outline of a face or body can allow accurate perception on dominance and submission Our ability to quick and efficient Study: Dominance, trustworthiness, and competence Research Question: How dominant, trustworthy, and competent are the speakers? Method: - Politician speeches were converted to stick figure animation videos. - The politicians' movements and overall body postures were coded to extract horizontal and vertical movements of different body parts. Results - Speakers were rated as higher in dominance and lower in trustworthiness: ❖ When the postures were expansive (horizontally and vertically) ❖ When many expansive movements occurred. - No associations with competence! People tend to interpret dominance and trustworthiness, but not competence, based on the expansiveness and frequency of politicians' body movements. ***Expansive = open body posture, Contractive = closed body posture Study: Romantic Attraction Research questions: - How often will expansive (vs. contractive) profiles be swiped “right”? - How will expansive profiles be perceived in terms of dominance compared to contractive profiles? Method: Manipulated online dating profiles to feature pictures with expansive postures or contractive postures Results: Profiles with expansive posture were more likely to be swiped right. This effect was explained by perceived dominance Adopting a confident and open body posture not only makes us more attractive but also boosts our chances of being seen positively by potential attractive partners Body postures communicate information to ourselves Study: Inferences about the self Research question: - How do you see yourself as a potential professional? (i.e., as a candidate for the job market, a good interviewee for a new position, a good performer on-the-job, and a satisfied future employee ?) Method:  - Enacting particular (confident vs doubtful) body posture while simultaneously listing (positive vs negative) self-attributes related to participants` potential professional success. Results: - In a doubtful posture, negative and positive attitudes towards self did not differ - In a confident posture, positive attitudes towards self was significantly higher than negative attitudes People tend to rely on their thoughts about themselves more confidently while holding confident body posture. In a doubtful posture, they tend to ignore these thoughts. Study: Cognitive functions – memory Research questions: - How fast will the participant generate the memory? - How many memories will participants be able to retrieve freely and when prompted after 2 weeks? Method: Eight memories recalled while holding congruent or incongruent poses. - Congruent pose example: “Please, sit up straight in the chair as if you are attending a concert, and clap your hands several times. Now, think of a memory of a particular time you were at a concert and clapped your hands.” - Incongruent pose example: “Please, sit down in the chair and tell me a memory of one particular time you placed your hand on your heart, for example when saying the pledge of allegiance.” → usually pledge is done standing up Results: - During the experiment, memory generation was faster when participants held a congruent (vs. an incongruent) body posture. - Two weeks later, recall was better for memories while holding a congruent vs. an incongruent body posture. People are likely to recall memories of past events, when the body position is similar to the one in the original experience. Power poses → power poses may not significantly influence how we behaviour, but might influence how we feel Study: Culture as the boundary condition for power posing Research Question: Is the effect of expansive body postures on feelings of power universal or does it vary by culture? Method: Participants from the U.S. and East Asia sat in the computer chair in a specific posture for 3 mins, followed by the self-report measure of sense of power. Culture as the boundary condition for power posing Poses: expansive-hands-spread-on-desk pose, expansive-upright-sitting pose, expansive-feet-on-desk pose, constricted-sitting pose Results: Sense of power - In a constricted pose, no difference in feelings of power - In expansive-feet-on-desk pose, US showed higher increase in sense of power than Asia, no difference on posture for Asia Eye Gaze Eyes serving as a key channel for both expressing and interpreting nonverbal communication Study: Conversational gaze behaviour Methods: - Participants engaged in a 4-minute getting acquainted/ natural conversation with a stranger (another participant), while wearing eye-tracking glasses. Variables measured: Actual gaze patterns and perceived eye contact Results: - Perceived eye contact occurring for ~70% of conversation. - Actual eye contact ranged from 0–45% of conversation. - Actual face gaze: mutual face gaze occurred for ~60% of conversation People often believe they are making eye contact when, in reality, they are simply looking at each other's faces. Facial Expression Smize - smile with one’s eyes Zygomatricus major is involved with pulling the corners of the mouth upward into a smile Orbicularis Oculi, muscle above the eyes Related to genuine smiles (Duchenne smiles) Study: Can we fake Duchenne smiles? → duchenne smiles involve eyes and are genuine Method: - Participants were asked to: 1) pose a facial expression of fake or genuine smiles in role-plays that conveyed certain social messages (Role-Play task), and then 2) imitate Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles from photographs (imitation task). 3) Next, naive viewers judged the genuineness of the produced smiles. Instructions for role-play: - Fake smile - masked disliking - you act friendly, even though you don’t mean it - Genuine smile - happy with friends, you agree with your friends idea Results:  - Role-Play task: 1/3 of all smiles that participants were instructed to pose were considered by raters as Duchenne smiles.. Duchenne smiles were perceived as more genuine than non-Duchenne smiles - Imitation task: 71% of the participants successfully imitated the photographed Duchenne smile. 69 % of participants successfully imitated the non-Duchenne smile. Duchenne smiles looked marginally more genuine than non-Duchenne smiles. Some people can fake genuine smiles; this ability is a trait that differs from person to person. Study: Decoding Fake smiles Research Question: Which face areas will be mimicking the faces presented to participants? Method: Participants watched short films of genuine (spontaneous) or faked (deliberate) smiles of other people with electrodes attached to their faces to measure muscles on their face - Interested in activity involving 3 muscles: Orbicularis Oculi (responsible for eye smiling), Zygomatricus major (responsible for mouth smiling) & corrugator supercilii (muscle when furrowing eyebrows) Results: - Greater activation in the facial muscles when they viewed genuine smiles compared to fake smiles - This activation was strong for Orbicularis Oculi & Zygomaticus major - Saw general relaxation and lower activation in corrugator supercilii when watching genuine smiles ❖ This muscle is not activated in smiling, hence people naturally and accurately make facial expressions ❖ Facial mimicry can be a promising method to differentiate genuine and fake smiles Proxemics Study: Proxemics tracks social needs Research Question: Will children choose to sit closer to a stranger after witnessing ostracism? Method: - Children (around 4 years old) randomly watched two short videos depicting social exclusion (ostracism condition) or no exclusion (control condition) - Videos: moving shapes without facial features (pentagons and teardrops); - Ostracism condition: a single shape enters the scene and tries to approach the group, but the group rejects it. - Control - no exclusion - Task: children had to pick a seat in a row of chairs with an experimenter sitting at one end of the row Results: - Ostracism group sat closer to the experimenter than the control - Witnessing ostracism might activate the subconscious desire for social connection Gestures  Gestures = much communicative body and hand movements that are learned, culturally specific, and at least partly symbolic [ie. thumbs up] Study: Gestures vs Facial Expressions Research Question: Will participants respond slower and less accurate when the valences of the hand and face are incongruent compared to congruent? Method: Participants watched short videos of an actor displaying either congruent or incongruent facial expressions and gestures. They were instructed to focus on the target stimulus (either hand or face) and categorize it as either positive or negative. - Congruent (e.g., a positive gesture with a negative facial) - Incongruent (e.g., a positive gesture with a positive facial expression) Results: - Participants were more accurate on the face-attend (compared to gesture-attend) trials, and - More accurate on congruent face-attend trials compared to incongruent face-attend trials. - We process gestures and faces expressions together, when they don’t match it takes longer Haptic - Touch Study: Communication of emotions via touch Research Question: How accurately the person being touched will decode the intended emotions? Method: Pairs of strangers ENCODER: make contact with other participant`s body to communicate specific emotion: Anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust, love, surprise, sympathy DECODER: choose the emotion that was communicated Results: - P showed high levels of decoding accuracy for all emotions, best = anger Communication of emotions via touch Most-used behaviour to communicate each emotion: - Anger – Hitting, Fear – Trembling, Sadness – Stroking, Disgust – Pushing - Surprise – Squeezing, Happiness – Swinging, Love – Stroking - Sympathy - Patting Modern Biases Positive Stereotypes | Modern prejudice, Stereotype Content Model Stereotypes Stereotypes are biased thoughts about a person due to the incorrect belief that the category accurately describes them. Positive stereotypes: A stereotype that describes the admirable, desirable, or beneficial qualities - Eg. men are strong, women are caring  Negative stereotypes: A stereotype that describes the undesirable, objectionable, or unacceptable - Eg. young people are lazy, old people are bad in technology Expresser (person who expresses it) → Target (subject to the stereotype) Study: Expressors Research Question: How likable, biased, and qualified is a candidate according to viewers? Method: African American participants viewed videos showing interviews with candidates for position on a diversity committee - Split into control and positive stereotype condition Positive stereotype condition: “It’s really important to emphasize the different positive contributions of minority groups that enrich campus life for everyone. For example, I think it’s great that so many of the Black students are involved in sports. Black people are just so athletic and it’s a good example of trying to succeed by using their natural talents.” Rated white people on how likable, biased, and qualified Results: - Participants in positive stereotype condition perceived candidate as less likeable than control - Candidates were also perceived as more bias and less qualified Conclude: using positive stereotype can have negative impact of expressers and may be perceived less desirable Experimental: Expressers & Targets Method: Manipulating the expression of a positive stereotype vs no stereotype in various domains DV: - Target belief that expressor holds a negative stereotype - Target’s impressions of the expresser’s prejudice - Target’s experience of depersonalisation ***Latent Negative Stereotype Theory suggests that when someone shares a positive stereotype about a group, it can imply they also believe negative stereotypes about that group, even if they don’t say so outright. - Eg. "Women are naturally caring," it might hint that they also believe women are less capable in other areas, like leadership or technical skills. Study 1 - gender – impact on target and expresser He looks at you and says, “I know women are really gentle. These animals will love you. Have a good time!” DV: Assigning negative stereotypes to the expresser and perceiving them as sexist & feeling depersonalized? Results: - Expressor held Negative stereotype beliefs: higher in positive stereotype vs no-stereotype condition  - Expressor was Perceptions of prejudice (being sexist): higher in positive stereotype vs no-stereotype condition - Target felt sense of being depersonalized: higher in positive stereotype vs no-stereotype condition - Positive stereotypes have negative effect on target and the perception of the expressors Study 2 - Ethnicity Imagine while you are studying, you are approached by a classmate who says: “Can you help me with these two problems? I know Asians are typically good at this stuff.” Dependent variables: Assigning negative stereotypes to the expresser and perceiving them as racist & feeling depersonalized? Results: - Expressor holding negative stereotype beliefs: higher in positive stereotype vs no-stereotype condition - Perceptions of expressor prejudice (being racist): higher in positive stereotype vs no-stereotype condition - Target Sense of being depersonalized: higher in positive stereotype vs no-stereotype condition Study 3 - Ethnicity Positive stereotype condition vs categorisation condition 1. Demographic questions: “I’m a junior, you are? “I’m white and you’re asian (categorisation condition only) 2. Math problem: “I know all Asians are good at math. How about you take this math one, and ill work on this one” (categorisation condition) DV: Assigning negative stereotypes to the expressor and perceiving them as racist & feeling depersonalised Results: - Expressor holding negative stereotype beliefs: higher in positive stereotype vs no-stereotype condition - Perceptions of expressor prejudice (being racist): higher in positive stereotype vs no-stereotype condition - Target Sense of being depersonalized: higher in positive stereotype vs no-stereotype condition Does being a target of a positive stereotype impact performance? Experimental Study: Targets Method: Women and men were exposed to 1) a positive gender-related stereotype, 2) another stereotype (women only) 3) no stereotype DV: Performance on a test of gender-stereotyped ability Study 1:  Women read about: Neutral content (Group 1), the “women are beautiful” stereotype (Group 2) the, “women are communal” stereotype (Group 3) DV: Math test performance Results: Women who read about the “women are communal” positive stereotype had lower math test performance relative to the other conditions, but only among women who cared a lot about math. Study 2: Men read about: neutral content (Group 1) the “men are agentic” stereotype (Group 2) DV: socio-emotional test performance Results - Men who read about the “men are agentic” positive stereotype had lower socio-emotional test performance, but only among men who cared a lot about socio-emotional skills. “Stereotype threat” “Compensatory stereotype” – Women are communal & Men are agentic STEREOTYPE CONTENT MODEL (SCM) WARMTH: good-natured, trustworthy, tolerant, friendly, sincere COMPETENCE: capable, skillful, intelligent, confident Study 3: Low in competence → low in warmth Study 4: Warmth and competence level, elicit specific emotions SCM: Immigrants Can the SCM explain regional differences in how immigrants are perceived? Expect regional differences in warmth perceptions of immigrant groups. Expect differences in perceived competition to under these regional differences in warmth Participants: 176 students in German-speaking Switzerland (orange on map) 179 students in French-speaking Switzerland (green on map) Method: - Warmth of the immigration g