{"title":"Reward Association With Mental States Shapes Empathy and Prosocial Behavior.","authors":"Yi Zhang, Leor Hackel","doi":"10.1177/09567976251351304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251351304","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Valuing the welfare of others is a fundamental aspect of empathy and prosocial behavior. How do people develop this valuation? Theories of associative learning suggest that people can associate social cues, such as smiles, with personal reward, thus feeling good when others thrive. Yet people often display <i>generalized</i> concern for others' welfare, regardless of the specific cues present. We propose that Pavlovian conditioning allows people to associate reward directly with others' abstract mental states, learning that another's happiness predicts their own reward. In four online experiments with 1,500 U.S.-based adults recruited from CloudResearch, participants' monetary outcomes were congruently or incongruently predicted by a target's mental states. Participants who experienced congruent learning reported more empathic feelings toward the target in novel situations. The values attached to mental states further influenced participants' prosocial choices. These results demonstrate how associative learning of abstract mental states can give rise to generalizable empathy and influence moral behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"9567976251351304"},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144732916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Corrigendum to \"The Impact of Implicit-Bias-Oriented Diversity Training on Police Officers' Beliefs, Motivations, and Actions\".","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/09567976251362783","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251362783","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"9567976251362783"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144715187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
André Vaz, Moritz Ingendahl, André Mata, Hans Alves
{"title":"\"Stop the Count!\"-How Reporting Partial Election Results Fuels Beliefs in Election Fraud.","authors":"André Vaz, Moritz Ingendahl, André Mata, Hans Alves","doi":"10.1177/09567976251355594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251355594","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In seven studies, we investigated how reporting partial vote counts influences perceptions of election legitimacy. Beliefs in election fraud, as in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, may be fueled by the <i>cumulative redundancy bias</i> (CRB), which skews perceptions toward early leaders in partial vote counts. In line with this prediction, participants (Prolific adult participants from the United States and the United Kingdom) consistently rated early leaders more favorably and were more likely to suspect fraud when the eventual winner gained a late lead. This effect persisted across simulated elections (Studies 1-3) and real-world vote counts from the 2020 election in Georgia (Study 4). It is important to note that fraud suspicions already arose before the count was completed (Study 5) and persisted despite explanatory interventions (Study 6). Partisanship did not eliminate the CRB's influence on fraud beliefs (Study 7). Our findings suggest that the sequential reporting of vote counts may amplify false perceptions of election fraud and could be mitigated by revising how results are communicated.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"9567976251355594"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144708536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Native Now, Equity Now: Implicit Associations Between Native Peoples and the Past Predict Reduced Support for Racial Equity.","authors":"J Doris Dai, Stephanie A Fryberg, Arianne E Eason","doi":"10.1177/09567976251350958","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251350958","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although over 8 million Native peoples live in the United States, American culture is infused with representations depicting them as people of the past (i.e., the Native-past stereotype). Four studies (total <i>N</i> = 38,009 non-Native American adults who voluntarily visited the Project Implicit website) examined the prevalence of the implicit Native-past stereotype among non-Native individuals and whether this stereotype predicted lower support for Native equity. We developed a Native-past Implicit Association Test to index the implicit Native-past stereotype and document the extent to which people associate Native peoples (vs. White Americans) with the past (vs. the present). Results showed that over two-thirds of non-Native participants demonstrated at least slight implicit Native-past associations (Cohen's <i>d</i>s > 0.41). Moreover, stronger Native-past associations predicted greater minimization of contemporary Native racism and, subsequently, lower support for policies designed to advance Native equity. This work suggests that the prevalent Native-past stereotype may harm many aspects of contemporary Native peoples' lived experiences.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"9567976251350958"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144664046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gender Essentialism Leads to Biased Learning Opportunities That Shape Women's Career Interests.","authors":"Audrey Aday, Holly R Engstrom, Toni Schmader","doi":"10.1177/09567976251353753","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251353753","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Gender differences in occupational interests are often assumed to reflect sex differences in empathizing or systemizing preferences. Do such essentialized explanations lead people to provide gender-biased learning affordances that constrain women's career interests? In Study 1 (<i>N</i> = 292), North American STEM professionals endorsing a biologically essentialized (vs. sociocultural) explanation for gender differences in occupational interests provided women (men) with more empathizing (systemizing) learning affordances in a mock management task. Study 2 replicated these gendered affordances by experimentally manipulating essentialized explanations (<i>N</i> = 379; participants were North American men with management experience in male-dominated fields). In Study 3, North American undergraduate women (<i>N</i> = 300) who received gendered learning affordances reported greater interest in, and possible alignment with, empathizing work assignments, whereas those who received countergendered affordances reported greater interest in, and possible alignment with, systemizing assignments. These results reveal that gender-essentialist beliefs can foster self-fulfilling gender gaps in occupational interests.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"9567976251353753"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144643250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adherence to Personal Resolutions Across Time, Culture, and Goal Domains.","authors":"Kaitlin Woolley, Laura M Giurge, Ayelet Fishbach","doi":"10.1177/09567976251350960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251350960","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Goal setting is only somewhat more common than the failure to follow through on one's goals. Recognizing the challenge of long-term behavior change, we asked what best predicts long-term goal adherence: extrinsic motivation (the extent to which goal pursuit is experienced as a means to an end) or intrinsic motivation (the extent to which the same goal pursuit is experienced as an end in itself). In a year-long longitudinal study, U.S. adults set extrinsic New Year's resolutions, but intrinsic motivation predicted adherence to these goals more than extrinsic motivation (Study 1). These findings emerged among adults in China (Study 2) and when measuring goal adherence objectively using the number of steps U.S. adults walked over 2 weeks (Study 3). Understanding how intrinsic motivation affects long-term persistence critically informs interventions that promote goal pursuit. Indeed, increasing intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) motivation increased U.S. adults' goal adherence (Study 4). Overall, intrinsic motivation both predicted and causally increased goal adherence.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"9567976251350960"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144643249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andrew J Petkus, Chandra A Reynolds, Vibeke S Catts, Kaare Christensen, Deborah Finkel, Marianne Nygaard, Perminder S Sachdev, Nancy L Pedersen, Margaret Gatz
{"title":"Terminal Increases in Depressive Symptoms in a Multinational Twin Consortium.","authors":"Andrew J Petkus, Chandra A Reynolds, Vibeke S Catts, Kaare Christensen, Deborah Finkel, Marianne Nygaard, Perminder S Sachdev, Nancy L Pedersen, Margaret Gatz","doi":"10.1177/09567976251351022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251351022","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In later older adulthood, individuals report increased depressive symptoms, whereas gender differences in depressive symptoms narrow. We evaluated whether terminal decline (i.e., accelerated worsening in proximity to death) explained these patterns. We examined the longitudinal trajectories of depressive symptoms in 2,411 participants (baseline age: 29-95 years) from the Interplay of Genes and Environments Across Multiple Studies consortium representing three countries (Sweden, Denmark, and Australia). Joint modeling revealed that individuals reporting larger annual increases in depressive symptoms after age 70 were at increased risk of death. Piecewise linear multilevel models with random changepoints revealed accelerated increases in depressive symptoms approximately 4 years before death. Co-twin control analyses with 98 twin pairs found that the deceased twin had significantly larger accelerations in depressive symptoms compared with the surviving twin. Men experienced more severe mortality-related increases compared with women. Terminal decline partially explains the increase in depressive symptoms in later older adulthood.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"9567976251351022"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144643251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Socioeconomic Status Shapes Dyadic Interactions: Examining Behavioral and Physiologic Responses.","authors":"Jacinth J X Tan, Tessa V West, Wendy Berry Mendes","doi":"10.1177/09567976251350970","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251350970","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>With more opportunities for diverse interactions, little is known about how social interactions involving people of different socioeconomic status (SES) may unfold. We investigated social-attunement patterns in dyadic interactions involving SES. Unacquainted adults recruited from a community in the United States interacted with similar-or-different-SES partners in the lab (<i>N</i> = 130 dyads). Attunement was assessed throughout the interaction by examining <i>physiological linkage</i>-how much a person's physiological change is predicted by another's physiological change over time. Overall, low-SES participants showed stronger physiological linkage-indicating greater attunement-to partners across SES. Participants also appeared more comfortable when interacting with low-SES partners. There were no SES differences in dominance during the conversation. After the interaction, participants reported liking similar-SES partners more than different-SES partners. These patterns suggest that during interactions, lower-SES individuals are more other-focused than high-SES individuals, and in-group preference prevails. We note limitations in the racial representation of our sample.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"9567976251350970"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144637805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological SciencePub Date : 2025-07-01Epub Date: 2025-06-27DOI: 10.1177/09567976251346178
Kasper Otten, Vincent Buskens, Wojtek Przepiorka, Naomi Ellemers
{"title":"Protecting Public Goods or Helping Free Riders? A Real-Life Moral Dilemma in Interethnic and Intraethnic Encounters.","authors":"Kasper Otten, Vincent Buskens, Wojtek Przepiorka, Naomi Ellemers","doi":"10.1177/09567976251346178","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976251346178","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>People often protect public goods by sanctioning free riders. This occurs in simple situations in which protecting the public good does not conflict with other moral considerations. How do people navigate situations in which protecting the public good comes at the expense of helping someone? We theorized that people would prioritize the needs of the public or another individual on the basis of the individual's group membership. To test this theory, we conducted a field experiment with male confederates approaching adult male travelers passing through check-in gates at Dutch train stations. The confederates requested to follow the travelers without checking in themselves. We observed whether travelers sanctioned the free rider by rejecting and disapproving of this request or helped by opening the gates. At three train stations, 801 travelers were approached by 10 different confederates. Group membership was varied by having five native-majority and five ethnic-minority confederates. Robust evidence was found for travelers being more likely to help native-majority free riders and to sanction ethnic-minority free riders.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"514-527"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144512414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Psychological SciencePub Date : 2025-07-01Epub Date: 2025-07-09DOI: 10.1177/09567976251350965
Deniz Fraemke, Yayouk E Willems, Aysu Okbay, Ulman Lindenberger, Sabine Zinn, Gert Wagner, David Richter, Kathryn P Harden, Elliot M Tucker-Drob, Ralph Hertwig, Philipp Koellinger, Laurel Raffington
{"title":"Polygenic Associations With Educational Attainment in East Versus West Germany: Differences Emerge After Reunification.","authors":"Deniz Fraemke, Yayouk E Willems, Aysu Okbay, Ulman Lindenberger, Sabine Zinn, Gert Wagner, David Richter, Kathryn P Harden, Elliot M Tucker-Drob, Ralph Hertwig, Philipp Koellinger, Laurel Raffington","doi":"10.1177/09567976251350965","DOIUrl":"10.1177/09567976251350965","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Using a DNA-based polygenic index, we explored geographical and historical differences in polygenic associations with educational attainment in East and West Germany around the time of reunification. This index was derived from a prior genome-wide association study on educational attainment in democratic countries. In 1,930 individuals aged 25 to 85 years from the SOEP-G[ene] cohort, the magnitude of polygenic associations with educational attainment did not differ between East and West Germany before reunification but increased in East Germany thereafter. This gene-environment interaction remained robust when we probed for variance dispersion. A control analysis using a polygenic index of height suggests that this interaction is unlikely to reflect a general trend toward greater genetic associations in East Germany after reunification. The observed amplification of education-genetic associations aligns with theories suggesting heightened genetic influences on educational attainment during periods of greater social and educational opportunity. We emphasize the need for replication in larger German genetic data sets.</p>","PeriodicalId":20745,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Science","volume":" ","pages":"559-573"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144601298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}