{"title":"Calling in crisis: How intolerance of uncertainty shaped occupational calling before and during the pandemic","authors":"Qing Yang, Yicheng Wang","doi":"10.1111/bjop.70013","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjop.70013","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected physical and mental health, while also posing potential challenges to future career prospects. College students are a special group facing the dual dilemma of potential disruptions to both their academic pursuits and career planning. As yet, little is known about how major stressful events or uncertain situations have influenced the occupational calling of students engaged in job preparation. We explored changes in occupational calling among Chinese college students before and after the COVID-19 outbreak (late 2019 and late 2020, <i>N</i> = 684; Study 1), and during the pandemic (May 2022 to March 2023, <i>N</i> = 460; Study 2). Given the pandemic's inherent uncertainty, individual differences in intolerance of uncertainty (IU) may shape how people perceive and respond to such events. Our findings indicated a significant decline in occupational calling from pre- to post-outbreak (Study 1), but no decline in the third year following the outbreak (Study 2). Interestingly, individuals with lower IU exhibited a steeper decline in occupational calling post-outbreak. These results not only deepen theoretical understanding of how major public crises influence the development of occupational calling, but also provide practical insights for supporting youth career development in an era marked by persistent uncertainty.</p>","PeriodicalId":9300,"journal":{"name":"British journal of psychology","volume":"117 1","pages":"54-75"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144682063","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}
Tobia Spampatti, Tobias Brosch, Christian Mumenthaler, Ulf J J Hahnel
{"title":"Blueprint of a smokescreen: Introducing the validated climate disinformation corpus for behavioural research on combating climate disinformation.","authors":"Tobia Spampatti, Tobias Brosch, Christian Mumenthaler, Ulf J J Hahnel","doi":"10.1111/bjop.70012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.70012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Behavioural science research has the potential to develop evidence-based strategies to fight disinformation about climate science and climate mitigation action; however, this research has yet to be conducted systematically with validated sets of climate disinformation stimuli. Here, we present the Climate Disinformation Corpus, a collection of climate disinformation statements designed to systematize experimental research testing future disinformation interventions. Using computational social science techniques, we gathered climate disinformation stimuli from the social media platform Twitter/X. We identified 78 statements containing disinformation about the existence, the causes, the consequences of climate change, the reliability and objectivity of climate scientists, and arguing for the delay of climate policies. The Climate Disinformation Corpus showed good heterogeneity across 15 validation measures (e.g., perceived persuasiveness, perceived trustworthiness, and sharing intentions) in a validation study involving a representative sample of N = 503 British participants. Furthermore, the climate disinformation statements were correlated with four individual differences measures related to belief in climate science and support for climate actions, congruently with theoretical expectations. We conclude with practical suggestions on implementing the Climate Disinformation Corpus in disinformation research according to different research questions.</p>","PeriodicalId":9300,"journal":{"name":"British journal of psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144667126","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":"Choosing to know: Children's decision to actively request social-norm information and their sharing behaviour","authors":"Hagit Sabato, Ilana Ritov","doi":"10.1111/bjop.70011","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjop.70011","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We examined the sharing behaviour of children (aged 6–12) when presented with a generous vs. a selfish norm of sharing, or after having a choice of whether or not to request the (same) social-norm information. We found that with age children shared more overall and were more influenced by the generous norm in their recommendations to others. Moreover, the results show a significant effect of information-seeking on children's behaviour: children who were presented with the choice to request social-norm information and actively chose to request it were significantly more influenced by the information in their own sharing decisions and in their recommendation to others, compared with children who were presented with the same social-norm information without asking for it. The findings highlight the importance of an active search for information, rather than the information content per se, as a key factor in understanding the effect of social-norm information on children's sharing behaviour.</p>","PeriodicalId":9300,"journal":{"name":"British journal of psychology","volume":"117 1","pages":"35-53"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjop.70011","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144648640","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":"Lonely individuals reveal proximal social avoidance and distal general approach motivation: Evidence from time perception in social and non-social contexts","authors":"Chunlin Wu, Rui Guo, Youguo Chen, Changquan Long","doi":"10.1111/bjop.70010","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjop.70010","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Loneliness is a major public health issue, leading to serious physical and mental health problems. Research has shown that trait-like, chronically lonely individuals exhibit either avoidance or approach behaviour towards social connections. However, how social avoidance and approach motivation co-occur in trait-like, chronically lonely individuals remains unclear. We hypothesized that loneliness would first induce social avoidance and then approach motivation, given the inherent negative bias of loneliness and the general process model of threat and defence, which asserts that threat first activates avoidance motivation followed by approach motivation. To test this hypothesis, we used sub- and supra-second time bisection tasks in social and non-social contexts based on the motivational dimensional model of time perception. The results showed that high-loneliness (HL) and low-loneliness (LL) individuals had similar sub-second time estimates in non-social contexts. However, HL individuals lengthened time in the sub-second range in social contexts and shortened time in the supra-second range compared to LL individuals, regardless of social or non-social context. These findings suggest that HL individuals exhibit proximal social avoidance and distal general approach as a defence mechanism, which is consistent with the general process model of threat and defence and extends the evolutionary theory of loneliness.</p>","PeriodicalId":9300,"journal":{"name":"British journal of psychology","volume":"117 1","pages":"16-34"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144648641","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":"Not so different and not deficient: First- and continuing-generation students' selves and self-discrepancies","authors":"Xiaolu Zhang, Veronika Job, Christina Bauer","doi":"10.1111/bjop.70009","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjop.70009","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Previous research has often portrayed first-generation college students – students whose parents do not have a four-year university degree – through a deficit lens, depicting them as lacking in skills, knowledge or potential compared to continuing-generation students. It, however, remains unknown how first-generation and continuing-generation students perceive themselves with respect to their own goals and obligations. Who do they want to be and to what extent do they think of themselves as meeting their own goals and obligations? To answer these questions, we assessed students' ideal and ought selves, as well as self-discrepancies, based on Higgins's theory (Higgins, 1987), in a relatively large sample of students in the US (<i>N</i> = 1244) across three waves. Overall, we found no significant differences in the content of ideal and ought selves, or perceived self-discrepancies between first-generation and continuing-generation students. Responses were strikingly similar, with both groups mentioning almost identical characteristics for their ideal and ought selves. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in ideal or ought self-discrepancies between the two groups of students. Despite common deficit narratives, first-generation students did not think of themselves as being further away from their aspired selves than continuing-generation students.</p>","PeriodicalId":9300,"journal":{"name":"British journal of psychology","volume":"117 1","pages":"3-15"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjop.70009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144616297","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":"Familiar faces facilitate perspective-taking in children","authors":"Xuan Wu, Minjie Wen, Jie He, Xiaoqing Gao","doi":"10.1111/bjop.70008","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjop.70008","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Familiar faces elicit more confident and interactive behaviour in adults than unfamiliar faces. However, it remains unclear whether familiarity influences children's social functioning. Here, we investigated how face familiarity would affect 9- to 11-year-old children's perspective-taking ability. We assessed perspective-taking ability with an adapted version of the Director Task where the Director's face was a picture of a familiar peer or a stranger. In Study 1 (<i>N</i> = 34), children showed a higher perspective-taking ability when facing a familiar peer than a stranger. In Study 2 and Study 3 (<i>N</i> = 30 respectively), children built up familiarity with originally unfamiliar faces through either social interaction or person knowledge learning. Face familiarity developed through social interaction but not person knowledge learning promoted children's subsequent perspective-taking ability. Based on these findings, we propose a link between face familiarity and social functioning, which can quickly set the mind to different socially prepared states.</p>","PeriodicalId":9300,"journal":{"name":"British journal of psychology","volume":"116 4","pages":"1189-1204"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144599455","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}
Emma Simpson, Christopher Carroll, Anthea Sutton, Jessica Forsyth, Annabel Rayner, Shijie Ren, Matthew Franklin, Emily Wood
{"title":"Clinical and cost-effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing for treatment and prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis","authors":"Emma Simpson, Christopher Carroll, Anthea Sutton, Jessica Forsyth, Annabel Rayner, Shijie Ren, Matthew Franklin, Emily Wood","doi":"10.1111/bjop.70005","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjop.70005","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The objective was to provide up-to-date clinical and cost-effectiveness evidence investigating eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) for treatment or prevention of adult post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We conducted a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cost-effectiveness studies assessing PTSD symptoms in adults, published since the NICE 2018 guidelines. EMDR was compared with trauma-focused-cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT), waitlist or usual care. Six databases were searched in September 2023. Risk of bias was assessed. Data synthesis included Bayesian meta-analyses of standardized mean differences if sufficient data were available from at least three RCTs. From 2038 records, 17 studies met the eligibility criteria. One modelling-based study reported cost-effectiveness, finding EMDR the most cost-effective intervention compared to 10 others, including TF-CBT. Sixteen RCTs (<i>n</i> = 1031) providing clinical PTSD outcome data were identified. Most studies had small sample sizes, and all but one was at high/moderate risk of bias. Additionally, 13 RCTs from NICE 2018 guidelines contributed to meta-analyses. EMDR treatment was generally of shorter duration with a lower burden on patient time. Meta-analyses found EMDR was statistically significantly better than waitlist/usual care. There was no significant difference in treatment effect between EMDR and TF-CBT, both reported significantly improved PTSD symptoms.</p>","PeriodicalId":9300,"journal":{"name":"British journal of psychology","volume":"116 4","pages":"1128-1149"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjop.70005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144567136","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}
Ceci Qing Cai, Rong Ma, Terry Hin Ng, Sarah J. White, Nadine Lavan
{"title":"Autistic adults form first impressions from voices in similar ways to non-autistic adults","authors":"Ceci Qing Cai, Rong Ma, Terry Hin Ng, Sarah J. White, Nadine Lavan","doi":"10.1111/bjop.70006","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjop.70006","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In everyday life, listeners spontaneously and rapidly form first impressions from others' voices. Previous research shows that, compared to non-autistic people, autistic people show similarities and differences in how they evaluate others based on their faces. However, it remains unclear whether autistic people form first impressions from voices in the same way as non-autistic people. We asked both autistic and non-autistic listeners to rate an inferred characteristic (trustworthiness) and an apparent characteristic (age) from voice recordings to establish how they form first impressions from voices. Non-autistic and autistic listeners formed first impressions for age and trustworthiness in similar ways. Specifically, both groups showed comparable overall ratings of age and trustworthiness of voices. Further, both autistic and non-autistic listeners required similar amounts of information to form an impression. Finally, when comparing trait impressions within- and across-groups, we again found no systematic evidence of impression formation differing between autistic and non-autistic people. These findings indicate that first impression formation is potentially a relative social strength in autism. This suggests that the social challenges encountered by autistic people may be confined to specific areas of social perception rather than being universally pervasive.</p>","PeriodicalId":9300,"journal":{"name":"British journal of psychology","volume":"116 4","pages":"1150-1163"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjop.70006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144552372","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}
Yadurshana Sivashankar, Philip He, Patrick Tsapoitis, Evan Skorski, Myra A. Fernandes
{"title":"The necessity of motoric engagement in enhancing route memory","authors":"Yadurshana Sivashankar, Philip He, Patrick Tsapoitis, Evan Skorski, Myra A. Fernandes","doi":"10.1111/bjop.70007","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjop.70007","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The relative contribution of decision-making and motor engagement at encoding, on route memory, was examined using virtual reality (VR). During encoding, participants explored 12 virtual environments for 40 s each. Navigation strategy during encoding was manipulated within-subjects. On Active trials, participants made decisions about their route of travel. On Guided trials, they followed a pre-determined path overlaid on the road, removing the need for decision-making. On Passive trials, participants simply viewed a set route, without initiating decision-making nor engaging movement during encoding. Following exploration of each environment, participants were asked to ‘re-trace their steps’ using the exact route they had just travelled. We also manipulated type of VR implementation (Desktop VR, Headset VR) between subjects. Movement in a Desktop-VR group was controlled via keyboard input, limiting motoric engagement. Movement in a Headset-VR group occurred using a VR-compatible steering wheel, requiring relatively greater motoric engagement. We found an effect of navigation strategy only in the Headset-VR group: route memory was significantly better following Active and Guided relative to Passive trials. Memory did not differ following Active relative to Guided trial types, suggesting that decision-making does not underlie the memory benefit. We suggest route memory is enhanced when initiating physical movement during encoding.</p>","PeriodicalId":9300,"journal":{"name":"British journal of psychology","volume":"116 4","pages":"1164-1188"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjop.70007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144552373","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":"Anti-social learning: The impact of language on mentalizing","authors":"Bryony Payne, Geoffrey Bird, Caroline Catmur","doi":"10.1111/bjop.70001","DOIUrl":"10.1111/bjop.70001","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Theories of cultural evolution suggest that humans may learn to represent others' minds through cultural practices including verbal instruction. It has been demonstrated that humans use less sophisticated mental state words when describing out-group members compared to in-group members, but whether this impacts on how out-group members' minds are represented has not yet been determined. The media is one of the main ways in which information about out-groups is shared; therefore, across three experiments we explored whether the language used in the media to describe out-groups, specifically language about mental states, shapes how recipients represent the minds of out-group members. All three experiments measured the extent to which participants represented out-group members as individuals with distinctive minds. Experiment 1 compared language in a left-leaning versus a right-leaning UK news source. Experiment 2 tested the effect of including or omitting mental states or first-person language, while Experiment 3 examined the impact of varying the amount of mental state language. We show that participants are more prone to take into account each out-group member's mind when inferring their mental states when mental state language is used to introduce them. This demonstrates the clear role of cultural learning on how people think about others' minds.</p>","PeriodicalId":9300,"journal":{"name":"British journal of psychology","volume":"116 4","pages":"1028-1049"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjop.70001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144539010","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}