Rainer Greifeneder
Biographic Data
| ID | 199318 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rainer Greifeneder |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rainer |
| FAMILY NAME | Greifeneder |
| SIGNATURE | GREIFENEDER R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Basel |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0725-5626 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 49 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 103 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 49 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Generalized loss of trust following political betrayal: Cross‐country evidence in the context of elections
This research investigates how perceptions of political betrayal —that is, the perceived violation of mutually known pivotal expectations by a political entity—shape political trust. We test a generalization hypothesis that the loss of trust might extend beyond the specific political entity (i.e., the one who betrayed) and generalize to others. Across three preregistered studies (one cross‐sectional and two longitudinal) in Germany, the UK, and t…
Does Lower Psychological Need Satisfaction Foster Conspiracy Belief? Longitudinal Effects Over 3 Years in New Zealand
Although conspiracy belief may arise from a frustration of psychological needs, research has yet to investigate these relationships over time. Using four annual waves of longitudinal panel data in New Zealand (2019–2022; N = 55,269), we examined the relationship between four psychological needs (namely belonging, control, meaning in life, and self-esteem) and conspiracy belief. Results from four random-intercept cross-lagged panel models reveal s…
Ostracism as a threat to modern democracies: Evidence from 11 European countries
Ostracism—being ignored and excluded—has been shown to fuel threats to democracies, including increased willingness to engage in violent actions, endorsement of partisan falsehoods, and belief in political conspiracy theories. Recently, low social belonging has been linked with lower voter turnout and increased populist party support, thus illustrating how an individual's social experiences may prove consequential for political processes. Importa…
Through thick and thin: How friendship and psychological flexibility shape our response to being ostracized
Introduction: Social connections are vital to human wellbeing, yet interactions often entail misunderstandings and disappointments. When ostracized, people react with strong emotional pain. In this experiment, we investigated whether principles derived from psychotherapy and/or the presence of a friend could mitigate negative reflexive and reflective reactions to ostracism induced using the Cyberball experiment. We tested how participants respond…
Motivated to trust? Promotion and prevention focus are distinctly related to the tendency to trust others
The present work brings together perspectives from trust and the self-regulation literature to investigate how people’s regulatory focus, a form of self-regulation and motivational orientation, relates to their generalised trust. Regulatory focus theory distinguishes between two different ways that humans can self-regulate and pursue their goals: a prevention orientation (i.e. greater focus on security, ought goals, and a loss-avoidance mindset) …
Narcissists’ experience of ostracism
Ostracism-being excluded and ignored-has severe, negative consequences. What is less clear is why some individuals become frequent targets of ostracism in the first place. In two nationally representative panel surveys, one experience sampling study, and six experiments ( N total = 77,289), we examine associations between grandiose narcissism and ostracism. Cross-sectional panel data (Study 1) and a 14-day experience sampling study (Study 2) show…
Ostracism in everyday life: A framework of threat and behavioral responses in real life
7,943 assessments including 767 ostracism experiences in 7 days) show that ostracism is an aversive experience that takes place in a range of contexts and relationships, as often as two to three times per week on average. Reconciling previously mixed findings regarding ostracism's effects on behavior and extending existing theory, we propose a novel framework of behavioral reactions based on need-threat levels: When psychological needs are severe…
How deep a divide do we tolerate? Measuring the willingness to engage with differently minded others (Wedo)
Fostering contact across political camps is crucial to combat affective polarization and to sustain healthy democratic discourse. Researchers therefore have become increasingly interested in better understanding the factors that promote or hamper political exchange. The present research contributes to this goal by introducing WEDO, a new measure to assess the willingness to engage with differently minded others based on behavioral preferences in …
Similarity reduces blame: Consequences of observer-target similarity in social exclusion situations
Who is blamed for social exclusion often depends on how justified observers perceive the exclusion. Here we hypothesize that observers' own similarity to the excluded person powerfully colors these perceptions. In particular, two studies ( N = 496) examine whether observers blame a socially excluded person less if they perceive themselves as similar to that person. Study 1 uses a correlation design and shows that the more similar individuals feel…
On the intricate relationship between data and theory, and the potential gain afforded by capturing very low levels of media trust: Commentary on Mangold (2024)
In his paper ‘Improving media trust research through better measurement: An item response theory perspective', Frank Mangold (2024) adopts an item response theory approach to rethink and reconceptualise an existing measure of media trust, originally developed to distinguish perceptions of news media as (1) balanced, (2) fair, and (3) current. Applying an Item Response Theory approach, Mangold argues that the three factors do not capture different…
Ostracizers’ mark of disgrace: Social exclusion increases the actor–observer difference
The actor–observer difference describes the tendency to explain own actions with variable and external aspects, but others’ actions with stable and internal characteristics. We test two opposing predictions of how changes in attribution vary as a function of being ignored and excluded. On the one hand, individuals may cope by psychologically distancing themselves from sources of exclusion, potentially producing stable and internal representations…
Unvaccinated and left out: The mismatch of vaccine supply and demand during Covid‐19 as a source of interpersonal and societal exclusion
At the beginning of the COVID‐19 vaccination campaign, many countries faced a mismatch between the demand and supply of vaccines. Particularly in countries where different rights were granted to vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, this situation may have fostered what we here refer to as policy‐induced feelings of social exclusion . Using data from Germany in spring 2021, we investigate how individuals’ vaccination status related to feelings…
It will (never) stop hurting: Do repeated or chronic experiences of exclusion lead to hyper- or hyposensitive psychological responses
Unlike one-time lab manipulations of exclusion, in real life, many people experience exclusion, from others and from groups, over extended periods, raising the question of whether individuals could, over time, develop hypo- or hypersensitive responses to chronic exclusion. In Study 1, we subjected participants to repeated experiences of inclusion or exclusion (three Cyberball games, time lag of three days, N = 194; 659 observations). We find that…
No man is an island: Men living alone during Covid ‐19 report lower need satisfaction and well‐being
Based on data from a large‐scale social survey in the United Kingdom, the present work examines the influence of household situation and gender on individuals' psychological needs and subjective well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Asked to compare their current state to that before the pandemic, men but not women living alone report a subjective decline in their basic psychological needs for meaningfulness and self‐esteem, as well as lower s…
Expecting exclusion: Does bracing for the worst buffer the pain of social exclusion
Evidence from different research areas suggests that expecting negative outcomes can buffer their adverse psychological effects. In the context of social exclusion, however, evidence for buffering effects of expectations on individuals’ immediate need threat is mixed and has not been examined in terms of cognitive bracing . We present four studies ( N = 1159) that test two competing hypotheses (no buffering vs. buffering effects) and focus on thr…
Young, unemployed, excluded: Unemployed young adults report more ostracism
Ostracism—being excluded and ignored—is commonly investigated in experimental settings, leaving specific societal risk groups greatly unexplored. Here, we examined whether individuals’ employment status and age affect ostracism frequency and outsider feelings. Using panel data from two countries, we find that especially younger unemployed (vs. younger employed or older unemployed) adults report experiencing ostracism more frequently (SOEP‐IS; N =…
A million reasons or just one? How coin flips impact the number of relevant reasons for decisions
When individuals face difficult decisions, they may turn to random decision‐making aids, such as coin flips, for support. Here, we show that flipping a coin before making a decision impacts the number of reasons that individuals consider when making consumer choices (Study 1), policy decisions (Study 2), personal decisions (Study 3) and breakup decisions (Studies 4a, 4b, 4c). In Studies 1 to 3, flipping a coin resulted in fewer reasons or a reduc…
This feels like the right choice: How decision aids may facilitate affect-based valuation
When individuals cannot make up their mind, they sometimes use a random decision-making aid such as a coin to make a decision. This aid may also elicit affective reactions: A person flipping a coin may (dis)like the outcome, and thus decide according to this feeling. We refer to this process as catalysing decisions and to the aid as catalyst. We investigate whether using a catalyst may not only elicit affect but also result in more affect-based d…
Social pain by non-social agents: Exclusion hurts and provokes punishment even if the excluding source is a computer
Prior research has shown that being excluded by computer-agents in experimental exclusion paradigms threatens individuals' basic needs to a similar extent as being excluded by humans. It is less clear, however, why this similarity between computer and human exclusion occurs, and whether it applies only to reactions immediately after the exclusion event (reflexive stage), or also to reactions that occur further downstream (e.g., reflective stage).…
Deciding advantageously after flipping a coin
Folk wisdom, advice columns, and pop culture suggest that when undecided, individuals may flip a coin - not to simply follow the suggestion, but to inspect their reaction to the outcome and then use the reaction to decide. While being intuitively appealing, it remains an open question whether this strategy results in advantageous decisions. Here we used an adapted version of the Iowa Gambling Task to test whether flipping a coin before making a d…
Truth feels easy: Knowing information is true enhances experienced processing fluency
Your phone ruins our lunch: Attitudes, norms, and valuing the interaction predict phone use and phubbing in dyadic social interactions
Phubbing—ignoring another person in order to use a smartphone instead—is an increasingly common behavior that disrupts interactions and harms relationships. Using the frameworks of the theory of planned behavior and an interaction value approach, we examined the driving factors of phubbing frequency. Four preregistered predictors were tested: attitudes toward phubbing, subjective norms of phubbing, interaction value, that is, the extent of valuin…
The Psychology of Fake News: Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation
This chapter investigates two aspects of misinformation: how to determine whether information (such as a news story) is true, and how the truthfulness of information affects its diffusion or spread. The chapter has a particular focus on the significance of social media for misinformation (in particular fake news): its prevalence, impact, and methods for identifying and studying the phenome- non. We review recent literature on how computational me…
Whom to punish? How observers sanction norm‐violating behavior in ostracism situations
When observing ostracism, individuals can either side with the target or the sources of ostracism. Here we demonstrate that side‐taking depends on whether the target previously acted in adherence to or in violation of perceived social norms. In four studies, a target behaved either norm‐consistently or violated a social norm, and was subsequently either excluded by the sources or was not. Next, participants could sanction the behavior of the obse…
The experience of ostracism over the adult life span
Ostracism, that is, being excluded and ignored by others, is a highly painful and threatening experience for individuals. Most empirical research on ostracism has been carried out in the lab or focused on samples in specific contexts. Here, we investigate the effects of age on how individuals experience ostracism within a broad, representative sample of the adult German population (the Socio-Economic Panel). We find a generally negative relation …
Who gets ostracized? A personality perspective on risk and protective factors of ostracism
Ostracism, excluding and ignoring others, results from a variety of factors. Here, we investigate the effect of personality on the likelihood of becoming a target of ostracism. Theorizing that individuals low in conscientiousness or agreeableness are at risk of getting ostracized, we tested our hypotheses within 5 preregistered studies: Four experiments investigating participants' willingness to ostracize targets characterized by different person…
Who’s to blame? Dissimilarity as a cue in moral judgments of observed ostracism episodes
When observing an ostracism episode, observers may wish to know whether ostracism is justified or not. If ostracism appears unjustified, observers will likely blame the sources and sympathize with the target; if it appears justified, observers will likely blame and devalue the target. Here we introduce the "social dissimilarity rule," which holds that observers base their moral judgments on dissimilarities between the members of the observed grou…
The experience of ostracism over the adult life span
Ostracism, that is, being excluded and ignored by others, is a highly painful and threatening experience for individuals. Most empirical research on ostracism has been carried out in the lab or focused on samples in specific contexts. Here, we investigate the effects of age on how individuals experience ostracism within a broad, representative sample of the adult German population (the Socio-Economic Panel). We find a generally negative relation …
Faced with exclusion: Perceived facial warmth and competence influence moral judgments of social exclusion
Whom to punish? How observers sanction norm‐violating behavior in ostracism situations
When observing ostracism, individuals can either side with the target or the sources of ostracism. Here we demonstrate that side‐taking depends on whether the target previously acted in adherence to or in violation of perceived social norms. In four studies, a target behaved either norm‐consistently or violated a social norm, and was subsequently either excluded by the sources or was not. Next, participants could sanction the behavior of the obse…
Belonging to a majority reduces the immediate need threat from ostracism in individuals with a high need to belong
Ostracism—being ignored and excluded—threatens the basic human needs for belonging, self‐esteem, control, and meaningful existence. This work introduces belonging to a majority as a buffer against the immediate negative impact of ostracism on basic needs for individuals with a high need to belong, for whom social groups are especially relevant. Three studies show that for individuals high in the need to belong, need threat was attenuated by membe…
You should go for diversity, but I'd rather stay with similar others: Social distance modulates the preference for diversity
When Fluency Signals Truth: Prior Successful Reliance on Fluency Moderates the Impact of Fluency on Truth Judgments
Repeated statements are more frequently judged to be true. One position relates this so‐called “truth effect” to metacognitive experiences of fluency, suggesting that repeated statements are more frequently judged to be true because they are processed more fluently. Although most prior research focused on why repetition influences truth judgments, considerably less is known about when fluency is used as information. The present research addresses…
Your phone ruins our lunch: Attitudes, norms, and valuing the interaction predict phone use and phubbing in dyadic social interactions
Phubbing—ignoring another person in order to use a smartphone instead—is an increasingly common behavior that disrupts interactions and harms relationships. Using the frameworks of the theory of planned behavior and an interaction value approach, we examined the driving factors of phubbing frequency. Four preregistered predictors were tested: attitudes toward phubbing, subjective norms of phubbing, interaction value, that is, the extent of valuin…
Experiential fluency and declarative advice jointly inform judgments of truth
Unconscious processes improve lie detection
The capacity to identify cheaters is essential for maintaining balanced social relationships, yet humans have been shown to be generally poor deception detectors. In fact, a plethora of empirical findings holds that individuals are only slightly better than chance when discerning lies from truths. Here, we report 5 experiments showing that judges' ability to detect deception greatly increases after periods of unconscious processing. Specifically,…
Guiding trustful behavior: The role of accessible content and accessibility experiences
Trust has been identified as a key ingredient to the prosperity of close relationships, organizations, and societies. While research mainly focused on the antecedents and consequences of trust, much less is known about how individuals assess whether there are enough reasons to warrant trustful action. Two experiments explored the how and when of this assessment, suggesting that antecedents may not only be integrated as content information per se …
Ostracism in everyday life: A framework of threat and behavioral responses in real life
7,943 assessments including 767 ostracism experiences in 7 days) show that ostracism is an aversive experience that takes place in a range of contexts and relationships, as often as two to three times per week on average. Reconciling previously mixed findings regarding ostracism's effects on behavior and extending existing theory, we propose a novel framework of behavioral reactions based on need-threat levels: When psychological needs are severe…
It will (never) stop hurting: Do repeated or chronic experiences of exclusion lead to hyper- or hyposensitive psychological responses
Unlike one-time lab manipulations of exclusion, in real life, many people experience exclusion, from others and from groups, over extended periods, raising the question of whether individuals could, over time, develop hypo- or hypersensitive responses to chronic exclusion. In Study 1, we subjected participants to repeated experiences of inclusion or exclusion (three Cyberball games, time lag of three days, N = 194; 659 observations). We find that…
Helping Made Easy: Ease of Argument Generation Enhances Intentions to Help
Previous work has shown that self-generating arguments is more persuasive than reading arguments provided by others, particularly if self-generation feels easy. The present study replicates and extends these findings by providing evidence for fluency effects on behavioral intention in the realm of helping. In two studies, participants were instructed to either self-generate or read two versus ten arguments about why it is good to help. Subsequent…
Shaping cooperation behavior: The role of accessibility experiences and uncertainty
The present research investigates the influence on cooperative behavior of accessibility experiences associated with the retrieval of fairness‐relevant information from memory. We argue that the decision whether to cooperate in negotiations depends not only on information about the appropriateness of the negotiation procedure, but also on the experience of how difficult or easy it is to come up with this information. Supporting this hypothesis, i…
Losing more than gaining from overall stable prices: The differential perception of increasing versus decreasing prices made the Euro look like a price booster
The present research examined whether price trend misperceptions can be explained by the differential perception of increasing versus decreasing prices. We expected price increases (losses to consumers) to be perceived as being more intense than price decreases (gains to consumers) of the same magnitude. This tendency, in turn, should be positively associated with how people perceive the overall price trend. To test this reasoning, participants i…
Young, unemployed, excluded: Unemployed young adults report more ostracism
Ostracism—being excluded and ignored—is commonly investigated in experimental settings, leaving specific societal risk groups greatly unexplored. Here, we examined whether individuals’ employment status and age affect ostracism frequency and outsider feelings. Using panel data from two countries, we find that especially younger unemployed (vs. younger employed or older unemployed) adults report experiencing ostracism more frequently (SOEP‐IS; N =…
An unscathed past in the face of death: Mortality salience reduces individuals' regrets
Similarity reduces blame: Consequences of observer-target similarity in social exclusion situations
Who is blamed for social exclusion often depends on how justified observers perceive the exclusion. Here we hypothesize that observers' own similarity to the excluded person powerfully colors these perceptions. In particular, two studies ( N = 496) examine whether observers blame a socially excluded person less if they perceive themselves as similar to that person. Study 1 uses a correlation design and shows that the more similar individuals feel…
No man is an island: Men living alone during Covid ‐19 report lower need satisfaction and well‐being
Based on data from a large‐scale social survey in the United Kingdom, the present work examines the influence of household situation and gender on individuals' psychological needs and subjective well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Asked to compare their current state to that before the pandemic, men but not women living alone report a subjective decline in their basic psychological needs for meaningfulness and self‐esteem, as well as lower s…
Toss and turn or toss and stop? A coin flip reduces the need for information in decision-making
Less Than I Expected and oh so True? On the Interplay Between Expectations and Framing Effects in Judgments of Truth
This article investigates the negativity bias in truth judgments, which holds that negatively (vs. positively) framed statements are more likely to be judged true. Throughout four studies we find that expectations moderate the negativity bias. In particular, Study 1 failed to replicate the negativity bias with standard items. In Study 2 we investigated individuals' expectations regarding the statements. When systematically adjusting the percentag…
Towards a better understanding of the legibility bias in performance assessments: The case of gender-based inferences
Background. Handwriting legibility systematically biases evaluations in that highly legible handwriting results in more positive evaluations than less legible handwriting. Because performance assessments in educational contexts are not only based on computerized or multiple choice tests but often include the evaluation of handwritten work samples, understanding the causes of this bias is critical.Aims. This research was designed to replicate and …
Cognitive processes in procedural justice judgments: The role of ease‐of‐retrieval, uncertainty, and experience
In a field experiment with 517 job applicants, the processes underlying the formation of procedural justice judgments were investigated. It was hypothesized that procedural justice judgments may be based not only on content information (e.g., “What are fair aspects of the selection procedure?”), but also on the felt ease or difficulty with which this content information can be retrieved from memory (ease‐of‐retrieval; e.g., “How easily can I reca…
Depression and reliance on ease‐of‐retrieval experiences
The relationship between level of depressive symptomatology and reliance on the ease‐of‐retrieval heuristic was investigated. In two studies, differences in ease‐of‐retrieval were instigated by means of the paradigm introduced by Schwarz and co‐workers. Subsequently, participants were screened for depressive symptoms with the Allgemeine Depressionsskala (ADS, Experiments 1 and 2) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI, Experiment 2). In both expe…
Losing more than gaining from overall stable prices: The differential perception of increasing versus decreasing prices made the Euro look like a price booster
The present research examined whether price trend misperceptions can be explained by the differential perception of increasing versus decreasing prices. We expected price increases (losses to consumers) to be perceived as being more intense than price decreases (gains to consumers) of the same magnitude. This tendency, in turn, should be positively associated with how people perceive the overall price trend. To test this reasoning, participants i…
On Writing Legibly: Processing Fluency Systematically Biases Evaluations of Handwritten Material
Evaluations of handwritten essays or exams are often suspected of being biased, such as by mood states or individual predilections. Although most of these influences are unsystematic, at least one bias is problematic because it systematically affects evaluations of handwritten materials. Three experiments revealed that essays in legible as compared to less legible handwriting were evaluated more positively. This robust finding was related to a ba…
Can There Ever Be Too Many Options? A Meta-Analytic Review of Choice Overload
The choice overload hypothesis states that an increase in the number of options to choose from may lead to adverse consequences such as a decrease in the motivation to choose or the satisfaction with the finally chosen option. A number of studies found strong instances of choice overload in the lab and in the field, but others found no such effects or found that more choices may instead facilitate choice and increase satisfaction. In a meta-analy…
Cognitive processes in procedural justice judgments: The role of ease‐of‐retrieval, uncertainty, and experience
In a field experiment with 517 job applicants, the processes underlying the formation of procedural justice judgments were investigated. It was hypothesized that procedural justice judgments may be based not only on content information (e.g., “What are fair aspects of the selection procedure?”), but also on the felt ease or difficulty with which this content information can be retrieved from memory (ease‐of‐retrieval; e.g., “How easily can I reca…
Guiding trustful behavior: The role of accessible content and accessibility experiences
Trust has been identified as a key ingredient to the prosperity of close relationships, organizations, and societies. While research mainly focused on the antecedents and consequences of trust, much less is known about how individuals assess whether there are enough reasons to warrant trustful action. Two experiments explored the how and when of this assessment, suggesting that antecedents may not only be integrated as content information per se …
Shaping cooperation behavior: The role of accessibility experiences and uncertainty
The present research investigates the influence on cooperative behavior of accessibility experiences associated with the retrieval of fairness‐relevant information from memory. We argue that the decision whether to cooperate in negotiations depends not only on information about the appropriateness of the negotiation procedure, but also on the experience of how difficult or easy it is to come up with this information. Supporting this hypothesis, i…
When Do People Rely on Affective and Cognitive Feelings in Judgment? A Review
Although people have been shown to rely on feelings to make judgments, the conditions that moderate this reliance have not been systematically reviewed and conceptually integrated. This article addresses this gap by jointly reviewing moderators of the reliance on both subtle affective feelings and cognitive feelings of ease-of-retrieval. The review revealed that moderators of the reliance on affective and cognitive feelings are remarkably similar…
Towards a better understanding of the legibility bias in performance assessments: The case of gender-based inferences
Background. Handwriting legibility systematically biases evaluations in that highly legible handwriting results in more positive evaluations than less legible handwriting. Because performance assessments in educational contexts are not only based on computerized or multiple choice tests but often include the evaluation of handwritten work samples, understanding the causes of this bias is critical.Aims. This research was designed to replicate and …
When Fluency Signals Truth: Prior Successful Reliance on Fluency Moderates the Impact of Fluency on Truth Judgments
Repeated statements are more frequently judged to be true. One position relates this so‐called “truth effect” to metacognitive experiences of fluency, suggesting that repeated statements are more frequently judged to be true because they are processed more fluently. Although most prior research focused on why repetition influences truth judgments, considerably less is known about when fluency is used as information. The present research addresses…
Unconscious processes improve lie detection
The capacity to identify cheaters is essential for maintaining balanced social relationships, yet humans have been shown to be generally poor deception detectors. In fact, a plethora of empirical findings holds that individuals are only slightly better than chance when discerning lies from truths. Here, we report 5 experiments showing that judges' ability to detect deception greatly increases after periods of unconscious processing. Specifically,…
A Matter of Vertical Position: Consequences of Ostracism Differ for Those Above Versus Below Its Perpetrators
Vertical position in space has been linked to perceptions of power, and high-power individuals have been shown to be less influenced by both the situational context and other people. Building on this literature, we hypothesized that a high spatial position as compared with a low one would reduce the threat from social exclusion and might help prevent aggressive acts of retaliation. To investigate this hypothesis, two arrangements of “Cyberball”—a…
The Cold Heart: Reminders of Money Cause Feelings of Physical Coldness
Mere reminders of money have been shown to cause socially “cold” behavior. Recent research suggests that the metaphor of “social coldness” is bodily grounded and thus linked to actual sensations of physical coldness. We therefore hypothesized that reminding individuals of money causes them to feel physically colder. This hypothesis was put to test in two studies, drawing on predictions from psychophysiological thermal perception. In Study 1, indi…
An unscathed past in the face of death: Mortality salience reduces individuals' regrets
Faced with exclusion: Perceived facial warmth and competence influence moral judgments of social exclusion
Belonging to a majority reduces the immediate need threat from ostracism in individuals with a high need to belong
Ostracism—being ignored and excluded—threatens the basic human needs for belonging, self‐esteem, control, and meaningful existence. This work introduces belonging to a majority as a buffer against the immediate negative impact of ostracism on basic needs for individuals with a high need to belong, for whom social groups are especially relevant. Three studies show that for individuals high in the need to belong, need threat was attenuated by membe…
It takes time (not money) to understand: Money reduces attentiveness to common ground in communication
Helping Made Easy: Ease of Argument Generation Enhances Intentions to Help
Previous work has shown that self-generating arguments is more persuasive than reading arguments provided by others, particularly if self-generation feels easy. The present study replicates and extends these findings by providing evidence for fluency effects on behavioral intention in the realm of helping. In two studies, participants were instructed to either self-generate or read two versus ten arguments about why it is good to help. Subsequent…
Who’s to blame? Dissimilarity as a cue in moral judgments of observed ostracism episodes
When observing an ostracism episode, observers may wish to know whether ostracism is justified or not. If ostracism appears unjustified, observers will likely blame the sources and sympathize with the target; if it appears justified, observers will likely blame and devalue the target. Here we introduce the "social dissimilarity rule," which holds that observers base their moral judgments on dissimilarities between the members of the observed grou…
Experiential fluency and declarative advice jointly inform judgments of truth
You should go for diversity, but I'd rather stay with similar others: Social distance modulates the preference for diversity
Toss and turn or toss and stop? A coin flip reduces the need for information in decision-making
Less Than I Expected and oh so True? On the Interplay Between Expectations and Framing Effects in Judgments of Truth
This article investigates the negativity bias in truth judgments, which holds that negatively (vs. positively) framed statements are more likely to be judged true. Throughout four studies we find that expectations moderate the negativity bias. In particular, Study 1 failed to replicate the negativity bias with standard items. In Study 2 we investigated individuals' expectations regarding the statements. When systematically adjusting the percentag…
The Psychology of Fake News: Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation
This chapter investigates two aspects of misinformation: how to determine whether information (such as a news story) is true, and how the truthfulness of information affects its diffusion or spread. The chapter has a particular focus on the significance of social media for misinformation (in particular fake news): its prevalence, impact, and methods for identifying and studying the phenome- non. We review recent literature on how computational me…
Whom to punish? How observers sanction norm‐violating behavior in ostracism situations
When observing ostracism, individuals can either side with the target or the sources of ostracism. Here we demonstrate that side‐taking depends on whether the target previously acted in adherence to or in violation of perceived social norms. In four studies, a target behaved either norm‐consistently or violated a social norm, and was subsequently either excluded by the sources or was not. Next, participants could sanction the behavior of the obse…
Psychology (46 works) · Social Psychology (42 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion (19 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (16 works) · Cognitive psychology (15 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (15 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Ostracism (11 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (10 works)