{"title":"The Privileges We Do and Do Not See: The Relative Salience of Interpersonal and Circumstantial Benefits.","authors":"Julia M Smith, Shai Davidai, Tom Gilovich","doi":"10.1177/01461672241247083","DOIUrl":"10.1177/01461672241247083","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>People attend more to disadvantages in their lives than to advantages, a phenomenon known as the <i>Headwinds/Tailwinds Asymmetry</i>. In seven studies (<i>N</i> = 1,526), we present an important caveat to this pattern: When people do notice and acknowledge their advantages, they mostly focus on the benefits they receive from other people (i.e., interpersonal benefits), as opposed to benefits they receive because of their demographics, personal traits, and life circumstances (i.e., circumstantial benefits). We demonstrate that people notice and remember others who helped them rather than hurt them and that they notice the help they receive from people more than from favorable, non-interpersonal factors. Finally, we find that the tendency to notice interpersonal advantages is related to a social norm requiring people to acknowledge helpful others (but not other advantages) and that changing the salience of this norm affects people's likelihood of acknowledging the support they have received from others.</p>","PeriodicalId":19834,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"2217-2230"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140868415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When Does Competence Matter? Character as a Moderator in the Development of Trust.","authors":"Xuchang Zheng, Wanxin Wang, Jonathan Pinto","doi":"10.1177/01461672231167693","DOIUrl":"10.1177/01461672231167693","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article examines the relationship between the two fundamental attributes of the trustee: character and competence. Although the trust research predominantly adopts an additive perspective, our research emphasizes a moderation (i.e., multiplicative) relationship and the significance of their interaction. We find that competence is an important but not always reliable predictor of trust. First, the positive effect of competence is conditional on the trustee's high character. Second, higher competence can have a lower marginal effect as character decreases. Furthermore, situational assurance weakens the effect of character on competence, which explains the additive joint effect found in previous research. Our modified trust game also makes a methodological contribution by examining the interaction between the various personal and situational sources of trust (as compared with the lone operationalization of character in the classic trust game). We discuss the shortcomings of the additive perspective and the implications of our method and findings.</p>","PeriodicalId":19834,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"2231-2247"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12446735/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9758833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Differential Behavioral Pathways Linking Personality to Leadership Emergence and Effectiveness in Groups.","authors":"Tobias M Härtel, Felix Hoch, Mitja D Back","doi":"10.1177/01461672241246388","DOIUrl":"10.1177/01461672241246388","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study integrates leadership process models with process models of personality and behavioral personality science to examine the behavioral-perceptual pathways that explain interpersonal personality traits' divergent relation to group leadership evaluations. We applied data from an online group interaction study (<i>N</i> = 364) alternately assigning participants as leaders conducting brief tasks. We used four variable types to build the pathways in multiple mediator models: (a) Self-reported personality traits, (b) video recordings of expressed interpersonal behaviors coded by 6 trained raters, (c) interpersonal impressions, and (d) mutual evaluations of leadership emergence/effectiveness. We find interpersonal big five traits to differently relate to the two leadership outcomes via the behavioral-perceptual pathways: Extraversion was more important to leadership emergence due to impressions of assertiveness evoked by task-focused behavior being strongly valued. Agreeableness/emotional stability were more important to leadership effectiveness due to impressions of trustworthiness/calmness evoked by member-focused/calm behavior being stronger valued.</p>","PeriodicalId":19834,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"2166-2182"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12446710/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140853836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Makenzie J O'Neil, Ryan S Hampton, Michelle N Shiota
{"title":"Be the Change You Want to See: Intergroup Helping Reduces InGroup Bias and Facilitates OutGroup Bias in Trading Behaviors.","authors":"Makenzie J O'Neil, Ryan S Hampton, Michelle N Shiota","doi":"10.1177/01461672241242182","DOIUrl":"10.1177/01461672241242182","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This research investigated how an instance of intergroup helping affects intergroup attitudes and cooperative behavior. Past research demonstrates that helping behavior elicits prosociality, both reciprocally and toward uninvolved third parties. However, much of this research has either ignored group membership altogether or has assumed a shared group identity between benefactor and beneficiary. Where intergroup helping has been directly evaluated, more negative intergroup attitudes are often observed. The current study examined the effects of an instance of intergroup helping, introduced during a card game, on the beneficiary's attitudes of closeness and cooperative trading behavior as well as those of ingroup and outgroup witnesses to the helping act. Results from this well-powered study (<i>N</i> = 1,249) indicate that although intergroup helping is less likely to impact feelings of closeness, intergroup cooperative trading increases for both the beneficiary and the intergroup observers. These findings add to the understanding of how helping impacts intergroup relations.</p>","PeriodicalId":19834,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"2135-2149"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140867824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Magdalena Formanowicz, Marta Beneda, Marta Witkowska, Jan Nikadon, Caterina Suitner
{"title":"<i>Mobilize</i> Is a Verb: The Use of Verbs and Concrete Language Is Associated With Authors' and Readers' Perceptions of a Text's Action Orientation and Persuasiveness.","authors":"Magdalena Formanowicz, Marta Beneda, Marta Witkowska, Jan Nikadon, Caterina Suitner","doi":"10.1177/01461672241238418","DOIUrl":"10.1177/01461672241238418","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In three studies, we investigated the role of linguistic features characterizing texts aiming to mobilize others. In Study 1 (<i>N</i> = 728), participants produced a leaflet either mobilizing others to engage in an action or expressing their thoughts about that action, and evaluated how action-oriented their text was. Mobilizing texts included more verbs and concrete words, and the presence of these linguistic characteristics was positively linked to participants' evaluations of their messages as action-oriented. In Studies 2 and 3 (<i>N</i> = 557 and <i>N</i> = 556), independent groups of participants evaluated texts produced in Study 1. Readers' perceptions of texts as action-oriented were associated with the same linguistic features as in Study 1 and further positively linked to perceived message effectiveness (Study 2) and behavioral intention (Study 3). The studies reveal how encoding and decoding of verbs and concrete words serve as distinct persuasive tools in calls to action.</p>","PeriodicalId":19834,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"2341-2356"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140877035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Perceived Power Polarizes Moral Evaluations.","authors":"Russell Roberts, Alex Koch","doi":"10.1177/01461672241245181","DOIUrl":"10.1177/01461672241245181","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We show an interactive effect of perceiver-target similarity in ideological beliefs and target power on impressions of target morality. Consistent with prior research, perceivers rated targets with dissimilar ideologies as less moral than targets with similar ideologies, but this difference in ratings was magnified for powerful targets relative to less powerful targets. We argue that these results emerged because perceivers expected similar-ideology, powerful (vs. powerless) targets to help the self more, and expected dissimilar-ideology, powerful (vs. powerless) targets to hurt the self more. We establish this effect when people evaluate politicians (Study 1), groups, and individuals (Studies 2a-2b); demonstrate its predictive power over other kinds of interpersonal similarity; and show that it affects morality judgments uniquely when compared with other consequential dimensions of social evaluation. Finally, we manipulated power experimentally and showed the interaction when the difference between high- and low-power manipulations was controlled over just $1 (Studies 3-4).</p>","PeriodicalId":19834,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"2150-2165"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140852701","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hope Rose, Christopher A Sanders, Chloe Willett, Laura A King
{"title":"Target Happiness Attenuates Perceivers' Moral Condemnation of Prejudiced People.","authors":"Hope Rose, Christopher A Sanders, Chloe Willett, Laura A King","doi":"10.1177/01461672241240160","DOIUrl":"10.1177/01461672241240160","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Five experiments (combined <i>N</i> = 4,915) tested the prediction that the moral boost of happiness would persist for social targets with moral failings. In Studies 1 and 2, White and Black participants, respectively, judged happy (versus unhappy) racist targets more morally good. In Study 3, happy (versus unhappy) racist targets were judged more morally good and less (more) likely to engage in racist (good) behavior. Behavioral expectations explained the link between happiness and moral evaluations. Study 4 replicated Studies 1 to 3 in the context of sexism. In Study 5, happy (versus unhappy) targets who engaged in racially biased behavior were evaluated as more morally good, and this effect was explained by behavioral forecasts. Happiness boosts attributions of moral goodness for prejudiced people and does so via expectations for future behavior. Future directions are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":19834,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"2200-2216"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140852329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Emilie Auger, Sabrina Thai, Carolyn Birnie-Porter, John E Lydon
{"title":"On Creating Deeper Relationship Bonds: Felt Understanding Enhances Relationship Identification.","authors":"Emilie Auger, Sabrina Thai, Carolyn Birnie-Porter, John E Lydon","doi":"10.1177/01461672241233419","DOIUrl":"10.1177/01461672241233419","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Relational experiences play a critical role in shaping how individuals see themselves. In four studies (<i>N</i>=945) using person-perception, longitudinal, and experimental designs, we demonstrate that feeling understood changes individuals' self-concept by increasing the centrality of a specific relationship (relationship identification). Study 1 showed that participants perceived an individual to be more identified with their relationship when their partner was high (vs. low) in understanding. Study 2 extended these results by examining individuals in romantic relationships longitudinally. The results of Studies 1 and 2 were distinct for understanding compared to acceptance and caring. Studies 3 and 4 manipulated felt understanding. Recalling many versus few understanding instances (Study 3) and imagining a close other being low versus high in understanding (Study 4) led individuals to feel less understood, which reduced identification in their friendships and romantic relationships. Furthermore, Study 4 suggests that coherence may be one mechanism through which felt understanding increases relationship identification.</p>","PeriodicalId":19834,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"2248-2265"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12446700/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140111089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inhyun Han, Peter Belmi, Melissa Thomas-Hunt, Catherine Summers
{"title":"Managers Can Support Employees in Working-Class Contexts by Promoting Growth Mindsets.","authors":"Inhyun Han, Peter Belmi, Melissa Thomas-Hunt, Catherine Summers","doi":"10.1177/01461672241235625","DOIUrl":"10.1177/01461672241235625","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>White-collar workplaces are critical \"gateway\" contexts. They play a crucial role in providing valuable opportunities and upward social mobility. Some groups are less likely, however, to feel they belong in these settings. For example, those with a college degree may feel relatively at ease. However, those without may be uncertain about whether they will be fully included. We examine one possibility for addressing these class-based belonging gaps. A growing education literature demonstrates the power of growth mindsets. We extend this research to the workplace and test its benefits. In two preregistered experiments (<i>N</i> = 1,777), we find that endorsing growth mindsets can support working-class (WK) individuals. When managers have a growth mindset, WK individuals report high sense of belonging. The effect occurred because managers with growth mindsets reduced identity threat. A preregistered survey of employees in the real world (<i>N</i> = 300) triangulated these findings. Sense of belonging was higher among those who believed their manager had a growth mindset. Furthermore, they reported greater job satisfaction and commitment. These findings have important implications for the growing conversation on addressing class divides.</p>","PeriodicalId":19834,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"2307-2322"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140861286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pierce D Ekstrom, Marti Hope Gonzales, Allison L Williams, Elliot Weiner, Rafael Aguilera
{"title":"On the Defensive: Identity, Language, and Partisan Reactions to Political Scandal.","authors":"Pierce D Ekstrom, Marti Hope Gonzales, Allison L Williams, Elliot Weiner, Rafael Aguilera","doi":"10.1177/01461672241247084","DOIUrl":"10.1177/01461672241247084","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We investigated how individuals judge politicians embroiled in scandal. Drawing on social identity and realistic group conflict theory, we predicted that beyond an overall ingroup bias, partisans would be particularly forgiving of in-party politicians who denied or justified their misconduct rather than apologize for it. By insisting that they did nothing wrong, these politicians defend the public image of their party and signal their commitment to partisan goals. We find qualified support for this prediction across three experiments. Participants did not respond <i>negatively</i> to in-party politicians who apologized but did react more positively to those who denied or justified wrongdoing (relative to silence). These accounts worked only for in-party politicians and were more effective for those whose misconduct furthered their party's agenda or whose seat was high-status or pivotal for party goals. In intergroup contexts like politics, people may accept explanations for misconduct that they would otherwise find offensive.</p>","PeriodicalId":19834,"journal":{"name":"Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"2323-2340"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140870804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}