Stephanie J. Tobin

We examined two threats to belonging and related needs on Facebook: lurking (Study 1) and ostracism (Study 2). In Study 1, participants were either allowed or not allowed to share information on Facebook for 48 hours. Those who were not allowed to share information had lower levels of belonging and meaningful existence. In Study 2, participants engaged in a laboratory-based Facebook activity. Half of the profiles were set up so that participants would not receive any feedback on their status updates. Participants who did not receive feedback on their updates had lower levels of belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence. Together, these findings indicate that a lack of information sharing and feedback can threaten belonging needs.

People occasionally choose to cut themselves off from their online social network by taking extended breaks from Facebook.This study investigated whether abstaining from Facebook reduces stress but also reduces subjective well-being because of the resulting social disconnection.Participants (138 active Facebook users) were assigned to either a condition in which they were instructed to give up Facebook for five days or continue to use Facebook as normal.Perceived stress and well-being, as well as salivary cortisol, were measured before and after the test period.Relative to those in the Facebook Normal condition, those in the No Facebook condition experienced lower levels of cortisol and life satisfaction.Our results suggest that the typical Facebook user may occasionally find the large amount of social information available taxing, and Facebook vacations could ameliorate this stress-at least in the short-term.

The aim of this preregistered study was to identify dispositional predictors of podcast listening and examine the associations between aspects of podcast listening, dispositional predictors, and psychological outcomes. Three hundred and six adults from a range of countries completed an online questionnaire that assessed individual difference predictors (the Big Five personality factors, curiosity, need for cognition, need to belong, age, and gender), aspects of podcast listening (amount, format, setting, device, and social aspects), and potential outcomes (autonomy, competence, relatedness, meaning, mindfulness, and smartphone addiction). As predicted, openness to experience, interest-based curiosity, and need for cognition positively predicted podcast listening. Contrary to predictions, need to belong negatively predicted podcast listening, and time spent listening to podcasts was not associated with autonomy, competence, relatedness, meaning, mindfulness, or smartphone addiction. However, certain aspects of podcast listening (e.g., parasocial relationships and social engagement) were related to positive outcomes and to our predictor variables. Furthermore, neuroticism negatively predicted podcast listening. Overall, the findings support the idea that informational motives can play a role in podcast listening, and that some aspects of listening are associated with positive outcomes.

Social media have become a pervasive part of contemporary culture and are an essential part of the daily lives of an increasing number of people. Its popularity has brought unlimited opportunities to compare oneself with other people. This meta-analysis combined and summarized the findings of previous experimental research, with the aim of generating causal conclusions regarding the effects of exposure to upward comparison targets on self-evaluations and emotions in a social media context. We identified 48 articles involving 7679 participants through a systematic search and entered 118 effect sizes into a multilevel, random-effects meta-analysis. Analyses revealed an overall negative effect of upward social comparison relative to downward comparison and controls on social media users’ self-evaluations and emotions (g = −0.24, p < .001). Specifically, there were significant negative effects of upward comparison on each outcome variable: body image (g = −0.31, p < .001), subjective well-being (g = −0.19, p < .001), mental health (g = −0.21, p < .001) and self-esteem (g = −0.21, p < .001). This meta-analysis indicates that contrast is the dominant response to upward comparison on social media, which results in negative self-evaluations and emotions.

Causal uncertainty about one’s own outcomes (CU-Own) is associated with negative affect, depression, and a lack of perceived primary control. We predicted that accommodation, or secondary control, would act as a psychological buffer for high—CU-Own individuals, reducing negative affect and depression.We tested this hypothesis in two studies: one cross-sectional (Study 1) and one longitudinal (Study 2). Participants completed measures of CU-Own, harmony control, and depression in Study 1 and measures of CU-Own, harmony control, flexible goal adjustment, and negative affect in Study 2. Analyses reveal that the CU-Own-depression and CU-Own—negative affect associations were weaker when harmony control or flexible goal adjustment was high. Additional analyses in Studies 1 and 2 examined the roles played by primary control, locus of control, optimism, pessimism, and causal importance. Implications for the CU and accommodation literatures are discussed.

We examined changes in loneliness over time. Study 1 was a cross-temporal meta-analysis of 48 samples of American college students who completed the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale (total N = 13,041). In Study 1, loneliness declined from 1978 to 2009 (d = -0.26). Study 2 used a representative sample of high school students from the Monitoring the Future project (total N = 385,153). In Study 2, loneliness declined from 1991 to 2012. Declines were similar among White students (d = -0.14), Black students (d = -0.17), male students (d = -0.11), and female students (d = -0.11). Different loneliness factors showed diverging trends. Subjective isolation declined (d = -0.20), whereas social network isolation increased (d = 0.06). We discuss the declines in loneliness within the context of other cultural changes, including changes to group membership and personality.

Research assessing online trolling-a behavior designed to trigger or antagonize other users for entertainment-has largely focused on identifying individual differences that underlie the behavior. Less attention has been given to how situational factors influence trolling, such as the disinhibiting effects of anonymity. In this study, we evaluated the roles of both individual differences and levels of anonymity in online trolling. We assessed these through experimentation, a relatively novel approach in trolling research. Australian undergraduate students (n = 242, 167 women, 75 men, Mage = 21.18) were allocated to one of three conditions: an anonymous condition where they were not visible to one another, an identifiable condition where they were visible to one another, or an external condition where they completed the study outside of a controlled laboratory environment. Participants first read a short news article before interacting in an online group discussion where participants could chat freely. The first comment participants wrote was later coded for trolling. Participants also completed assessments of psychopathy, sadism, and a global assessment of trolling. As predicted, participants in the anonymous condition trolled more than those in the identifiable condition. No differences were seen between these two conditions and the external condition. Analyses also revealed that sadism and global trolling were positively associated with trolling in the chat room, but psychopathy showed no association. These results demonstrate the importance of both individual differences and the disinhibiting effects of anonymity when investigating the complex nature of trolling.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the relative impact of direct and indirect (ad hominem) attacks on science claims. Four hundred and thirty-nine college students (Experiment 1) and 199 adults (Experiment 2) read a series of science claims and indicated their attitudes towards those claims. Each claim was paired with one of the following: A) a direct attack upon the empirical basis of the science claim B) an ad hominem attack on the scientist who made the claim or C) both. Results indicate that ad hominem attacks may have the same degree of impact as attacks on the empirical basis of the science claims, and that allegations of conflict of interest may be just as influential as allegations of outright fraud.

This study sought to examine whether interpersonal goals can help us understand who engages in social-capital-building responsive behaviors and envy-eliciting passive behaviors on Facebook. One hundred eighty-eight adults completed measures of interpersonal goals (compassionate and self-image), Facebook use (posting, responding, and searching), social capital sources and benefits, social comparison, and envy, along with various control measures. Serial mediation analyses revealed that compassionate goals significantly predicted four distinct social capital benefits (offline participation, emotional support, horizon broadening, and networking value) through greater Facebook responding and sources of social capital. Furthermore, self-image goals significantly predicted envy through greater Facebook searching and social comparison. These effects were significant with and without controlling for age, gender, Facebook friends, Facebook frequency, Facebook hours, self-esteem, attachment style, social desirability, and the other interpersonal goal and Facebook behaviors. Consistent with research on interpersonal goals in offline interactions, compassionate goals predicted more responsive behaviors and better social outcomes, while self-image goals predicted a competitive mindset and negative emotion. These findings extend the social networking site (SNS) literature by identifying a relevant new individual difference associated with SNS use and key outcomes related to well-being.

In 3 studies, we examined the hypothesis that the effects of stereotype usage on target judgments are moderated by causal uncertainty beliefs and related accuracy goal structures.In Study 1, we focused on the role of chronically accessible causal uncertainty beliefs as predictors of a target's level of guilt for an alleged academic misconduct offense.In Study 2, we examined the role of chronic causal uncertainty reduction goals and a manipulated accuracy goal; in Study 3, we investigated the role of primed causal uncertainty beliefs on guilt judgments.In all 3 studies, we found that activation of causal uncertainty beliefs and accuracy concerns was related to a reduced usage of stereotypes.Moreover, this reduction was not associated with participants' levels of perceived control, depression, state affect, need for cognition, or personal need for structure.Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the model of causal uncertainty and, more generally, in terms of the motivational processes underlying stereotype usage. Chronic and Temporarily Activated Causal Uncertainty Beliefs and Stereotype UsageWithin the past decade, there has been an explosion of renewed interest in goals and their effects on cognition, affect, and behavior (Gollwitzer & Bargh, 1996; Higgins & Sorrentino, 1990; Sorrentino & Higgins, 1986; 1996).Although much of this work focused on specific goal contents and their affective and behavioral sequelae, a major interest of contemporary theorists and researchers has been the various cognitive processes involved in goal-directed action.Individuals (e.g., Carver & Scheier, 1990;Weary & Edwards, 1996) working within this more recent tradition generally have viewed goals as cognitive representations of desired end states, and they have focused their attention on the cognitive processes and strategies employed in the pursuit of goal attainment and/or disengagement.In addition to this focus on the cognitive bases of motivation and goal pursuit, several investigators (e.g., Bargh & Gollwitzer, 1994;Spencer, Fein, Wolfe, Fong, & Dunn, 1998) also have begun to focus on the possible implicit, or automatic, activation of goal-relevant cognitive structures.These investigators have reasoned that if goals are represented as cognitive structures, then they, just like other cognitive structures (e.g., social roles, stereotypes, schemas, scripts), ought to be capable of automatic activation by environmental stimuli.Consistent with this reasoning, a recent study reported by Chartrand and Bargh (1996) found that temporarily primed impression formation or memorization goals produced the same effects as had explicit manipulations of them.The present research also focuses on the effects of implicit and explicit goal activation on cognitive processes.Here, however, we focus on the activation of what is thought for some perceivers to be a chronically accessible goal, causal uncertainty reduction (Weary & Edwards, 1996).Moreover, we examine the effects of causal uncertainty resolution within the highly

Specific affordances of online spaces allow people to experiment with their self-presentation. Whereas some use these affordances for self-discovery, others may use them to behave malevolently. This study examined the Dark Triad – Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism – in relation to self-presentation style and beliefs about the benefits of self-presenting in online environments. A sample of 322 adult participants completed a cross-sectional survey assessing both Dark Triad traits and online self-presentation styles and beliefs. Both Machiavellianism and psychopathy were associated with adaptable and inauthentic self-presentation. Machiavellianism was additionally associated with beliefs that online environments allow for freedom in self-presentation. Finally, those high in narcissism presented an authentic self-online and believed that online environments are not beneficial to self-presentation. We conclude that the affordances of the online world appeal to individuals differently, depending on their dispositional tendencies.

Prosocial behaviours are actions that have a positive impact on others. Those who act prosocially in videogames are more likely to be prosocial after the game. In-game rewards may impact this prosocial transfer to real life but there are mixed findings. The aim of this research was to determine the impact that in-game rewards for helping have on post-game prosocial behaviour. We partially replicated and extended a prior study that showed an impact of in-game rewards on a post-game charitable donation. While playing a videogame, players voluntarily chose to help a non-player character or not and were rewarded or not based on their experimental condition. Pre- and post-gameplay questionnaires were used to measure trait empathy, prosocial self-concept, and reasoning for in-game helping. Participants were then offered a bonus compensation and given the opportunity to donate some amount of it to charity. Moral Reasoning was positively associated with donation behaviour, successfully replicating some prior findings. However, in-game rewards did not affect reasoning or donation behaviour. The outcomes of this research help both researchers and developers better understand how rewards affect players’ reasoning and how to better utilise games as a method to increase prosocial behaviour in people.

The purpose of this paper was to use the revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory as a framework to understand loneliness. We expected higher loneliness to be associated with high reward sensitivity and low punishment sensitivity. We tested how reward and punishment sensitivity could affect loneliness by exploring potential mediators including shyness, sociability, communal orientation, and acceptance. We tested 370 participants using an online questionnaire. High punishment sensitivity, but not anxiety, predicted higher loneliness. This association was mediated by higher shyness and lower psychological acceptance. High reward sensitivity was associated with lower loneliness. This association was mediated by lower shyness, higher sociability, higher communal orientation, and higher acceptance. The mediated model with reward and punishment sensitivity accounted for over half the variance in loneliness. Considered in isolation, acceptance predicted over a quarter of the variance in loneliness. These results allow us to identify those at risk of loneliness and, by addressing the mediators, especially acceptance, suggest possible interventions for loneliness.

We examined how perceived causal expertise affects the processing of causal persuasive arguments.In Study 1, participants received strong or weak causal arguments from a contentarea expert who was high or low in causal expertise.Participants in the high causal expertise condition processed the causal arguments carefully: they were more persuaded by strong compared to weak causal arguments.In Study 2, participants received a high or low causal confidence prime and then read a message from a source who was high or low in content-area expertise.The message contained strong or weak, causal or non-causal arguments.Participants who received both the causal confidence prime and the high content-area expertise information processed the causal arguments carefully: they were more persuaded by strong compared to weak causal arguments.These findings demonstrate that causal and content-area expertise can increase motivation to attend to causal arguments.Implications for the persuasion literature are discussed.

In two studies, we examined how individual differences in causal uncertainty (CU), causal importance (CI), and initial attitudes affected the processing of a persuasive message that contained causal or non-causal arguments.We predicted that high CU individuals' doubts about their causal understanding of events would be activated when they were presented with counterattitudinal arguments.When these individuals also placed a high value on causal understanding (high CI), they should scrutinize any available causal explanations.As a result, they should be more persuaded by strong compared to weak causal arguments.In support of these predictions, we found in two studies that high CU/high CI participants were more persuaded by strong compared to weak counterattitudinal causal arguments.Mediational analyses in Study 2 revealed that high CU/high CI participants were more persuaded by strong causal arguments because they were more confident in them.Implications for the CU model and persuasion processes are discussed.

We examined whether individuals use alcohol in order to cope with causal uncertainty (i.e., doubt about the causes of events). We predicted that higher levels of causal uncertainty would be associated with stronger coping motives, which, in turn, would predict more problems with alcohol. We also examined age as a moderator, with the expectation that stronger associations would be found among younger adults.Two hundred sixty-three adults who drank alcohol at least occasionally completed questionnaires assessing causal uncertainty, correlates of causal uncertainty, motives for drinking, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related problems.Moderated mediation analyses revealed that among younger adults, causal uncertainty had a significant indirect effect on problems with alcohol through coping with depression and enhancement motives. Among older adults, there were no significant associations between causal uncertainty and alcohol motives or problems. The effect via the coping with depression motive held even after controlling for alcohol consumption and the major cognitive and affective correlates of causal uncertainty, whereas the effect via the enhancement motive became nonsignificant.Our results are consistent with the idea that younger adults use alcohol to cope with causal uncertainty, putting them at greater risk for alcohol-related problems.

One way to restore a sense of control is to system justify. Individuals high in trait reactance are particularly motivated to regain a sense of control in the face of freedom loss. But will high-reactance individuals system justify to restore control, given that they typically oppose authority? Based on the Compensatory Control Model (CCM), we propose that high-reactance individuals' motivation to compensate for control loss will, at times, overcome this aversion to authority and lead to increased system justification. In Study 1, high-reactance American participants were shown to hold stronger oppositional attitudes toward government authority (i.e., they showed reduced system justification). In Studies 2–4, only high-reactance participants increased their support of government when personal control was reduced. Thus, for high-reactance individuals, the need for control compensation overpowers the need to hold anti-authority attitudes. Outcomes support a CCM account of control compensation for those high (not low) in trait reactance.

Three experiments examined the effects of group size on reactions to ostracism and inclusion. Participants engaged in an online introduction activity with 2 or 6 other people and received likes from everyone (inclusion) or no one (ostracism). In Studies 1 and 2, group size had a significant effect on need satisfaction only when participants were ostracized, with larger groups threatening needs to a greater extent. These effects were evident during and immediately after the task, but not after a reflection period and delay. In Study 3, being ostracized by a larger group increased sadness and anger only when ostracism was public. Together, these results indicate that people react more negatively to ostracism by larger groups, but do not reap greater benefits in terms of need satisfaction or affect when included by larger groups. Implications for the ostracism literature and social media use are discussed.

Past research has revealed positive associations between attachment anxiety and problematic social networking site (SNS) use and between attachment anxiety and sensitivity to feedback on an SNS. The aim of this study was to examine whether feedback sensitivity could account for the association between attachment anxiety and problematic SNS use. Two hundred eighty-three adults completed an online survey containing measures of adult attachment style in close relationships, sensitivity to feedback on Facebook, problematic Facebook use, and various control variables (Big Five personality traits, self-esteem, and demographics). A mediation analysis revealed the predicted indirect effect of attachment anxiety on problematic Facebook use through feedback sensitivity. Higher levels of attachment anxiety predicted greater sensitivity to feedback on Facebook, which in turn predicted higher levels of problematic Facebook use. Full mediation was observed with the control variables (attachment avoidance, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness to experience, self-esteem, age, and gender) in the model, and partial mediation was observed without the control variables. These findings replicate past research on attachment anxiety and extend our understanding by establishing a positive association between sensitivity to comments and likes on Feedback and problematic Facebook use.

Video games can satisfy people's basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This may lead them to develop a passion for the activity, which can be harmonious or obsessive. These different types of passions are associated with different well-being outcomes: harmonious passion (HP) is associated with positive effects such as Satisfaction with Life (SWL), obsessive passion (OP) is associated with adverse effects such as psychological distress. Although time spent playing video games has sometimes been found to be a predictor of poor well-being, there is a lack of understanding in its role in explaining the relationship between passion and well-being compared with other factors. Self-regulation is an important factor in predicting habits, including video game play. In this cross-sectional study (N = 182), we investigated whether self-regulation or playtime better mediated the associations between different passion orientations and well-being (i.e., SWL, global subjective well-being, and psychological distress) among video game players. A path analysis revealed that people with higher HP for video games reported higher levels of self-regulation and those with higher OP for video games reported lower levels of self-regulation. Our findings also indicate that self-regulation provides a more comprehensive explanation for the relationship between passion and well-being. Overall, this study provides further support for the importance of self-regulation as a determinant of well-being in video game players rather than more arguably surface-level metrics such as time spent playing. These findings have implications for game developers and clinicians who design interventions for individuals who may experience unregulated video game play.

Online trolling is often linked to sadism and psychopathy. Yet, little research has assessed why people high in these traits seek online environments to achieve their nefarious goals. We employ a functionalist approach to examine whether people high in sadism and psychopathy are motivated to seek the affordances of online environments (e.g., anonymity) to reveal their malevolent self-aspects by engaging in trolling behavior. A sample of 515 university undergraduates (Mage = 20.47) read vignettes depicting trolling incidents and rated the acceptability of the perpetrators' actions and whether they had ever written similar comments. Participants then completed measures of psychopathy, sadism, and toxic anonymous motivations. We find that toxic anonymous motivations partially mediate the relationship between psychopathy and sadism, and online trolling. Whereas trolling is often understood through its underlying personality traits, toxic motivations to seek anonymity may be a more proximal predictor of who is likely to troll online.

Anonymous environments are more accessible than ever. As such, it is important to understand not only how anonymity can change human behavior but also why people are motivated to seek anonymity in online spaces. In four studies, we investigated differences in motivations for seeking anonymity online and their associations with related dispositional factors and online behavior. We found that some people were motivated to seek anonymity to self-express or behave toxically. Both motivations to seek anonymity were associated with low self-concept clarity and high Machiavellianism but differed in their relation to traits such as self-consciousness and psychopathy. Further analyses suggested that people selectively engage in behaviors in anonymous online environments, in line with the specific gratifications they seek through anonymity. We conclude that people seek anonymity to pursue self- or other-related goals that are otherwise more difficult or costly to pursue when identifiable.

In 3 studies, we examined the hypothesis that the effects of stereotype usage on target judgments are moderated by causal uncertainty beliefs and related accuracy goal structures. In Study 1, we focused on the role of chronically accessible causal uncertainty beliefs as predictors of a target's level of guilt for an alleged academic misconduct offense. In Study 2, we examined the role of chronic causal uncertainty reduction goals and a manipulated accuracy goal; in Study 3, we investigated the role of primed causal uncertainty beliefs on guilt judgments. In all 3 studies, we found that activation of causal uncertainty beliefs and accuracy concerns was related to a reduced usage of stereotypes. Moreover, this reduction was not associated with participants' levels of perceived control, depression, state affect, need for cognition, or personal need for structure. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the model of causal uncertainty and, more generally, in terms of the motivational processes underlying stereotype usage.

We examined whether sharing photographs of known others on Instagram was associated with greater satisfaction and happiness. We asked 113 Instagram users to describe a number of the photographs they had shared on Instagram: 1 that made them feel happy and the 5 they had shared most recently (excluding the nominated happy photograph). For each photograph, participants indicated its content and rated how much satisfaction they obtained from looking at it and sharing it. Participants also completed a measure of motivations for using Instagram. We found that the nominated happy photograph was more likely to contain a known other than the average recent photograph. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the number of photographs of known others and satisfaction. Greater social interaction motivation predicted sharing more photographs of known others, which predicted greater satisfaction. The nominated happy photograph was also more likely to contain the self than the average recent photograph, although the number of recent photographs of the self was not associated with satisfaction. Receiving more comments on photographs was associated with greater satisfaction. Overall, the results are consistent with the idea that social connection is associated with happiness and satisfaction on Instagram.

In 4 studies, the authors examined whether making outcome expectancies distinct resulted in their use as comparison standards and, consequently, in contrastive dispositional inferences for a target's behaviors. The expectancies examined were based on either chronic future-event expectancies (Study 1) or temporary, manipulated expectancy standards (Studies 2-4). Analyses revealed that when contextual expectancies were distinct or separable from target information, participants' dispositional judgments were contrasted from them under cognitive load and overcorrected (assimilated to them) under no load. These effects were mediated by participants' behavior categorizations. Evidence suggestive of a proceduralized form of correction for task difficulty and an effortful awareness-based correction for the effects of expectancies also were found. Results are examined in light of recent models of the dispositional inference process.

We examined the role of reward sensitivity and the motivation to balance ‘have-to’ and ‘want-to’ goals in vicarious goal satiation. In Experiment 1, participants who read about a target who completed an academic goal performed worse on an academic (‘have-to’) task and were more interested in engaging in inherently rewarding (‘want-to’) activities than participants who read about an incomplete goal. In Experiment 2, after reading about a target who completed a ‘have-to’ goal, participants who were more sensitive to rewards performed worse on a similar ‘have-to’ task. Furthermore, in Experiment 3, this effect was significant only when participants saw their task as more of a work (i.e., ‘have-to’) task. Together, these findings support the idea that motivation for rewards plays a role in vicarious goal satiation and that other people's goal pursuits can affect observers' perceived balance of ‘have-to’ and ‘want-to’ goals.

Past research has found that high levels of causal uncertainty (CU) are associated with less reliance on available stereotypes. In the current research, we examined lack of category fit and a consequent movement along the impression formation continuum as the underlying process. Participants who were high or low in CU read about an honors student or junior. They learned 10 details: 5 suggested a low GPA and 5 suggested a high GPA. We found that high compared to low CU participants relied on the honors student stereotype less and predicted a lower GPA in the honors student condition. This effect was mediated by perceived typicality. High compared to low CU participants thought the target resembled a typical honors student to a lesser extent. In addition, an examination of participants' open-ended comments about the target revealed that high compared to low CU participants were further along the impression formation continuum.

A decade ago, we developed a model focusing on causal uncertainty beliefs and feelings, and associated uncertainty reduction strategies, This model built upon the functionalist theories of uncertainty (Berlyne, 1960; Kagan, 1972; Tolman & Brunswick, 1935). All of these theories posit that some uncertainty is, of necessity, inherent in perceivers' understanding of the world. That is, they argue that because of the limitations of humans' cognitive and perceptual systems, our knowledge of the structure of the world is probabilistic, When cognitive representations of the world are incompatible with our experience or with other stored representations of reality, then we experience uncertainty and an inability to predict the future. The functionalist theories all also share the notion that such uncertainty motivates us to take action, to gain new knowledge or to relate an uncertain stimulus to stored knowledge about which we might be more certain. Whatever the strategy employed to resolve uncertainty, the desire to know is viewed as fundamental to our survival. Over the past decade, we have continued our research on the role of CU beliefs and feelings in social information processing with an eye toward testing a number of the key assumptions and central hypotheses of the CU model. After a decade of work, it would seem to be a propitious time to take stock of the model and currently available research, and we will do so in this chapter. We also will attempt to provide additional conceptual detail for some parts of the model that originally were left underdeveloped.

A series of five experiments examined how the evaluation of a scientific finding was influenced by information about the number of studies that had successfully replicated the initial finding. The experiments also tested the impact of frame (negative, positive) and numeric format (percentage, natural frequency) on the evaluation of scientific findings. In Experiments 1 through 4, an attitude difference score served as the dependent measure, while a measure of choice served as the dependent measure in Experiment 5. Results from a diverse sample of 188 non-institutionalized U.S. adults (Experiment 2) and 730 undergraduate college students (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) indicated that attitudes became more positive as the replication rate increased and attitudes were more positive when the replication information was framed positively. The results also indicate that the manner in which replication rate was framed had a greater impact on attitude than the replication rate itself. The large effect for frame was attenuated somewhat when information about replication was presented in the form of natural frequencies rather than percentages. A fifth study employing 662 undergraduate college students in a task in which choice served as the dependent measure confirmed the framing effect and replicated the replication rate effect in the positive frame condition, but provided no evidence that the use of natural frequencies diminished the effect.

Past research found that compassionate goals were associated with more responsive behaviors on Facebook, which in turn were associated with greater social capital. The current study aimed to examine whether compassionate goals were associated with greater well-being, through greater efforts to visibly attend to Facebook friends and feeling more connected to Facebook friends. We predicted that there would be an indirect effect of compassionate goals on satisfaction with life through Facebook relationship maintenance behaviors and Facebook social connectedness. Two hundred sixty-two adult Facebook users completed an online questionnaire containing measures of compassionate goals, Facebook relationship maintenance behaviors, Facebook social connectedness, satisfaction with life, and various control variables (Big Five personality traits, self-image goals, frequency and duration of Facebook use, number of Facebook friends, age, and gender). A serial mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect effect of compassionate goals on satisfaction with life through Facebook relationship maintenance behaviors and Facebook social connectedness. Higher levels of compassionate goals predicted more Facebook relationship maintenance behaviors, more Facebook relationship maintenance behaviors predicted greater Facebook social connectedness, and greater Facebook social connectedness predicted higher satisfaction with life. The indirect effect was significant with and without controlling for other aspects of Facebook use, self-image goals, Big Five personality traits, gender, age, and recruitment method. These findings replicate and extend past research by establishing new pathways and outcomes associated with compassionate goals. Overall, this study contributes important insights into supportive and beneficial ways of using social media.

Secondary control (acceptance of and adjustment to negative events) is thought to promote positive affect. We examined the opposite path: could positive affect increase secondary control, particularly among individuals high in causal uncertainty, who stand to benefit from it the most? In two studies, participants completed a causal uncertainty scale, thought about a problem while listening to affect-inducing music or no music, and then completed items that assessed secondary control. In Study 1, the music induced positive or negative affect. In Study 2, the music induced affect that was high or low in activation and positive or negative in valence. In both studies, we found that positive affect-inducing music increased secondary control among high causal uncertainty participants. Furthermore, trait affect did not account for the effects of causal uncertainty, and music did not influence primary control. These findings show that secondary control can fluctuate as a function of state affect.

We examined the effects of temporarily accessible causal uncertainty and causal importance on persuasion. Participants completed a scrambled sentence priming task, read strong or weak, causal or noncausal arguments, and then reported their attitudes. We found that participants primed with high levels of causal uncertainty and importance thought carefully about the causal arguments. They were more persuaded by the strong compared to weak causal arguments, and this effect was partially mediated by the favorability of their message-relevant thoughts. Participants primed with high causal uncertainty and low causal importance were more persuaded by strong compared to weak noncausal arguments, but this effect was not mediated by thoughts. We discuss the implications of these findings for the causal uncertainty and persuasion literatures.

The authors examined the roles of chronic expectancies and other contextual information in the dispositional inference process within the domain of ability judgments. Prior to viewing a videotaped performance under either cognitive load or no load, participants in Studies 1 and 2 were given additional information designed to constrain their categorizations of the performance. In Study 2, chronic future-event expectancies also were assessed. Analyses revealed that when under cognitive load, participants’ ability inferences were assimilated to the constraint information (Studies 1 and 2) and to chronic expectancies (Study 2). Furthermore, Study 2 analyses revealed that these effects were mediated by participants’ behavior categorizations. Evidence suggestive of a proceduralized form of correction for task difficulty (Studies 1 and 2) and an effortful, awareness-based correction for the constraint information and for chronic expectancies also was found. Results are examined in light of recent models of the dispositional inference process.

The current research examined task difficulty and affect activation level as factors that determine the relevance of affect as information in a performance context. Participants viewed a series of pictures designed to elicit an affective state that was high or low in activation and positive or negative in valence. They completed an easy or difficult anagram task and then rated their satisfaction with their performance. Analyses revealed that low activation affect was used as information for judging one's performance on the difficult task and high activation affect was used as information for judging one's performance on the easy task. In these cases, the valence of participants' affect influenced their judgments about their performance, such that positive affect resulted in greater satisfaction. These findings suggest that affective states with activation levels that match one's typical level of energy after a particular task are seen as more relevant for judging one's performance.

People who are high in causal uncertainty doubt their own ability to understand the causes of social events. In three studies, we examined the effects of target and perceiver causal uncertainty on attitudes toward the target. Target causal uncertainty was manipulated via responses on a causal uncertainty scale in Studies 1 and 2, and with a scenario in Study 3. In Studies 1 and 2, we found that participants liked the low causal uncertainty target more than the high causal uncertainty target. This preference was stronger for low relative to high causal uncertainty participants because high causal uncertainty participants held more uncertain ideals. In Study 3, we examined the value individuals place upon causal understanding (causal importance) as an additional moderator. We found that regardless of their own causal uncertainty level, participants who were high in causal importance liked the low causal uncertainty target more than the high causal uncertainty target. However, when participants were low in causal importance, low causal uncertainty perceivers showed no preference and high causal uncertainty perceivers preferred the high causal uncertainty target. These findings reveal that goal importance and ideals can influence how perceivers respond to causal uncertainty in others.

Anonymity is widely available in online environments, yet more needs to be understood about why people seek it out. In three studies ( N = 677), we used a novel dictator game to assess how financial motivations, cost, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy influence people’s choice to seek anonymity. We found that: (1) People sought anonymity to keep more money for themselves or to give more money to their partner. (2) Those high in Machiavellianism viewed anonymity as valuable and were motivated to keep more money for themselves only when they were anonymous. (3) Those high in psychopathy viewed anonymity as less valuable and were less likely to pay to be anonymous to achieve their goals. Our findings shed new light on the complex interplay of individual differences, motivations, and situational affordances in shaping people’s behavior.

The current study examined on-line behavior recategorization as a mechanism underlying corrections for contextual influences in dispositional inferences. After watching an initial comparison video that portrayed either a successful or unsuccessful performance on a spatial ability task, cognitive load and no load participants watched and made real-time ratings of a target performance. The comparison video was expected to exert a contrastive influence on participants' automatic impressions of the performance (behavior categorizations) and the child's intelligence (dispositional inferences). Load participants' on-line and post-video performance and ability ratings showed this expected effect, as did no load participants' initial on-line performance ratings. However, no load participants' later on-line and post-video ratings did not. These findings support the notion that corrections for contextual influence can occur at the level of behavior identification as perceivers encode behavioral cues.

The purpose of this paper was to document the use of social media in romantic relationships. More specifically, we examined whether the information that people desired to share (i.e., desired relationship visibility) and shared in practice (i.e., actual relationship visibility) about their romantic relationships on Facebook was predicted by their level of relational commitment. A sample of 139 couples, users of Facebook, aged 17 to 30 years, participated in the study. Participants completed questionnaires and used the Friendship application on Facebook (which gathered data directly from their Facebook accounts). The mediating role of desired relationship visibility in the link between relational commitment and actual relationship visibility on Facebook (i.e., declared relationship status and transient relationship visibility) was investigated using path analyses for dyadic data. Results of actor-partner interdependence mediation model analyses confirmed that women’s relational commitment was positively associated with their desired relationship visibility on Facebook. Men’s and women’s desired relationship visibility were, in turn, associated with their own and their partner’s declared relationship status and their own transient relationship visibility on Facebook. Our results provided evidence of the dyadic nature of Facebook self-presentations of coupledom.

Causal attributions explain why events and behaviors occur. Researchers typically distinguish between dispositional attributions (something about the person caused the event) and situational attributions (something about the environment caused the event). The current article reviews classic attribution theories and contemporary dual process models of person perception. It presents common attributional biases such as the correspondence bias, actor–observer effect, and self-serving attributions, and describes the conditions under which perceivers are motivated and are able to correct for such biases. Individual and cultural differences in attribution are considered. Lastly, the implications of attributions for motivation, well-being, academic performance, and marital satisfaction are discussed.

We examined two threats to belonging and related needs on Facebook: lurking (Study 1) and ostracism (Study 2). In Study 1, participants were either allowed or not allowed to share information on Facebook for 48 hours. Those who were not allowed to share information had lower levels of belonging and meaningful existence. In Study 2, participants engaged in a laboratory-based Facebook activity. Half of the profiles were set up so that participants would not receive any feedback on their status updates. Participants who did not receive feedback on their updates had lower levels of belonging, self-esteem, control, and meaningful existence. Together, these findings indicate that a lack of information sharing and feedback can threaten belonging needs.

People occasionally choose to cut themselves off from their online social network by taking extended breaks from Facebook. This study investigated whether abstaining from Facebook reduces stress but also reduces subjective well-being because of the resulting social disconnection. Participants (138 active Facebook users) were assigned to either a condition in which they were instructed to give up Facebook for five days or continue to use Facebook as normal. Perceived stress and well-being, as well as salivary cortisol, were measured before and after the test period. Relative to those in the Facebook Normal condition, those in the No Facebook condition experienced lower levels of cortisol and life satisfaction. Our results suggest that the typical Facebook user may occasionally find the large amount of social information available taxing, and Facebook vacations could ameliorate this stress—at least in the short-term.