International Journal Of Psychology[JOURNAL]
Sun
200 papers
Evolving Attitudes to Ukrainian and Russian Minorities in Czechia During the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Democrats Stay the Course.
Klicperova-Baker M, Kveton P, Jelinek M … +1 more , Chlad V
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41644171 · Full text
This panel study examines changes in attitudes towards Ukrainian and Russian minorities in the Czech Republic and their links to disinformation beliefs and democratic commitment. The data were obtained from 490 responden...
This panel study examines changes in attitudes towards Ukrainian and Russian minorities in the Czech Republic and their links to disinformation beliefs and democratic commitment. The data were obtained from 490 respondents in a Czech quota sample (age 18-69; M = 46.09, SD = 13.40; 45.7% women). Between 2022 and 2025, mean favorability towards both groups declined: evaluations of Ukrainians shifted from slightly positive to slightly negative, while evaluations of Russians dropped from slightly to markedly negative. A repeated measures ANOVA showed that these changes were moderated by respondents' belief in disinformation and democratic orientation. Respondents resilient to disinformation and committed to democracy ('Rational Pro-Ukrainians') maintained positive attitudes towards Ukrainians and showed only a medium further decline in already negative attitudes towards Russians. In contrast, respondents vulnerable to disinformation and less democratically oriented ('Generally Disinformed' and 'Pro-Russians') displayed a sharp decline in attitudes towards Ukrainians-to strongly negative, polarising levels-while their views of Russians deteriorated only slightly. The results suggest that pro-democratic individuals remained guided by empathy, humanism and in-group solidarity (Social Identity Theory), whereas disinformed non-democrats adopted out-group, threat-based perceptions (Realistic Threat Theory). Overall, rationality and democratic commitment appear to buffer against disinformation and polarisation, sustaining solidarity with democratic allies.
Grief Trajectories in Men and Women: A Linear Mixed Model Approach.
Redondo-Armenteros A, Zech E, Fernández-Alcántara M … +6 more , Cherblanc J, Côté I, Bergeron-Leclerc C, Cruz-Quintana F, Pérez-Marfil MN, Boever C
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41639017 · Publisher ↗
Gender differences in grief expression have been widely studied, yet findings remain inconsistent. Some research reports higher grief intensity in women, while others find no difference. Two possible explanations are: (a...
Gender differences in grief expression have been widely studied, yet findings remain inconsistent. Some research reports higher grief intensity in women, while others find no difference. Two possible explanations are: (a) the neglect of third variables interacting with gender, and (b) men and women follow distinct grief trajectories. This study employed an observational longitudinal design to examine both hypotheses using data from Canada, Belgium and Spain. A total of 1328 bereaved adults were assessed between two and five times at different post-loss intervals. Sociodemographic, loss-related, grief and psychopathological variables were collected. Linear mixed models identified predictors of grief symptomatology and compared trajectories by gender. Results revealed significant gender differences in grief intensity, even after adjusting for other variables. However, no significant interaction between gender and time was found, indicating that men and women differ in intensity but follow similar grief trajectories. These findings may reflect gendered emotional socialisation: women may be more socially conditioned toward introspection and verbalization, which are more readily detected by standard assessment tools. Conversely, men's grief expression may be underestimated by existing instruments. Methodologically, the underrepresentation of men in grief research and the reliance on tools built on narrow conceptualisations of grief limit generalizability.
Gender Differences in Affective and Neural Responses to Teacher Praise and Criticism in University Students: An fNIRS Study.
Wu P, Da H, Zeb I … +2 more , Lei G, Zhang Y
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41631618 · Publisher ↗
Teacher praise and criticism significantly influence students' learning and emotional development, yet the neural basis of how males and females process evaluative language remains unclear. This study used functional nea...
Teacher praise and criticism significantly influence students' learning and emotional development, yet the neural basis of how males and females process evaluative language remains unclear. This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine gender differences in neural responses to emotional evaluation in educational contexts. A total of 35 female and 34 male students were recruited to listen to audio recordings of teacher evaluations with positive, negative, and neutral valences while their brain activity was monitored. Self-esteem and depression were incorporated as covariates in generalised linear model (GLM) and repeated-measures ANOVA analyses. The results showed that although there were no gender differences in behavioural responses, the brain activation (particularly in the right DLPFC) and functional connectivity (particularly inter-hemispheric connectivity) of men showed a preference for negative evaluations, while women showed a preference for positive evaluations. Male students also showed stronger local efficiency (i.e., more segregated processing and synchronised local neural circuitry) when responding to emotional stimuli, whereas females showed more global efficiency (i.e., more integrated, widespread and interconnected whole-brain processing). These findings reveal fundamental gender divergences in neural processing of social-evaluative stimuli, highlighting distinct neurocognitive strategies for emotional regulation and may help tailor teaching communication to support diverse student needs.
Interactive Relationships in Marital Attachment: A Cross-Lagged Panel Network Analysis.
Luo X, Wei X, Yang F … +2 more , Ren M, Xia Y
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41628912 · Publisher ↗
Attachment theory is one of the key frameworks for understanding close relationships, yet how marital attachment interacts within a dyadic context remains unclear. Using two-wave longitudinal data with a 6-month interval...
Attachment theory is one of the key frameworks for understanding close relationships, yet how marital attachment interacts within a dyadic context remains unclear. Using two-wave longitudinal data with a 6-month interval collected from 501 heterosexual spousal pairs, the present study examined interactive relationships in marital attachment within a dyadic context through cross-lagged panel network (CLPN) analysis. Firstly, the results found that wives' attachment components more strongly predicted husbands' attachment components within CLPN. Secondly, wives' attachment avoidance component, not show feel deep down, more strongly predicted other components and husbands' components within CLPN. Finally, bidirectional associations were observed between wives' and husbands' attachment avoidance components. These findings deepen our understanding of marital attachment interactions and offer practical insights for marital and family practices aimed at improving marital relationships.
The Neural Basis of Personality Styles Effect on Depression: Brain Structure and Multivariate Pattern Study.
Liu H, Song X
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41628907 · Publisher ↗
Advancements in functional MRI have linked neurostructural and functional architecture to personality traits, but few studies focus on personality styles. This study examines 99 patients with moderate to severe depressio...
Advancements in functional MRI have linked neurostructural and functional architecture to personality traits, but few studies focus on personality styles. This study examines 99 patients with moderate to severe depression and 97 matched controls, categorised into four personality styles using the Eysenck personality questionnaire. The study aims to identify behavioural and neurological differences between depressed and control groups. An SVM algorithm was used to differentiate between these groups within the same personality styles. Results indicated that the depression group exhibited lower grey matter volume in several brain regions, including the left superior parietal, left fusiform, left superior temporal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, right precentral and left cingulate. These neuroanatomical changes facilitated successful discrimination between depressed and control groups. The study provides new insights into the neurobiological basis of personality styles and their role in the development of depression.
Impaired Processing of Bodily Signals Is Associated With Borderline Personality Traits: Insights From the Predictive Coding Model.
Chi X, Hu K, Ma Y … +2 more , Liu Q, Chai H
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41621821 · Publisher ↗
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is marked by emotional instability and intense negative affect. The Predictive Coding Model posits that impaired prediction of bodily signals may underlie such deficits, though empir...
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is marked by emotional instability and intense negative affect. The Predictive Coding Model posits that impaired prediction of bodily signals may underlie such deficits, though empirical validation remains lacking. In this study, we compared a high BPD-trait group (score ≥ 6 on the Chinese Version of the McLean Screening Instrument for BPD, without a BPD diagnosis) with a low BPD-trait group (score ≤ 2). Participants were examined using the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness-2 (MAIA-2) for interoceptive sensitivity (IS), the Heartbeat Counting Task (HBCT) for interoceptive accuracy (IA) and heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEP) as the neural correlates of cardiac interoceptive processing. Results showed that the high BPD-trait group scored lower in the two subscales of the MAIA-2 (Not-Worrying and Trusting); however, no differences were observed for the HBCT. Furthermore, HEP amplitudes were significantly modulated by attention in the low BPD-trait group, with higher amplitudes during the heartbeat-focused condition, whereas the high BPD-trait group exhibited consistently high amplitudes across both conditions. Within the predictive coding framework, the observed pattern (intact IA, low interoceptive trust and altered HEP responses) may indicate a rigidity in precision weighting that impairs adaptive interoceptive modulation in individuals with BPD traits.
A Second Perspective on First Impressions: Does the Valence-Dominance Model Extend to Bodies in Front and Profile View?
Wells L, Brooks KR
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41621819 · Publisher ↗
A widely accepted model of first impressions posits that trait judgements of faces have two orthogonal underlying dimensions: 'valence' (trustworthiness) and 'dominance'. Studies have tested whether this model extends to...
A widely accepted model of first impressions posits that trait judgements of faces have two orthogonal underlying dimensions: 'valence' (trustworthiness) and 'dominance'. Studies have tested whether this model extends to body perception, but results were inconsistent. Given previous findings that stimulus viewpoints can significantly alter trait ratings of bodies, the present study aimed to determine whether this confound can explain the discrepancy between previous studies. Participants rated 100 bodies in either frontal or profile view on 14 personality traits. The resulting data were then analysed using principal components analysis (PCA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The PCA and EFA produced two factors regardless of viewpoint, replicating the valence-dominance model for frontal and profile stimuli. As stimulus viewpoint did not strongly affect the underlying factors, the discrepancy between past papers is likely due to other stimulus differences. The present study confirmed that the valence-dominance model applies to body perception, raising the possibility that this model may apply to person perception more generally. Future research should determine whether these dimensions arise in other modalities, such as movement perception (e.g., walking gait) or touch perception (e.g., handshakes).
How Middle School Teachers With Different Creative Personality Types Cope With the Challenges of Online Teaching: A Typological Approach.
Chang YL, Wu CL
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41610867 · Publisher ↗
Teachers worldwide, including those in Taiwan, were compelled to transition from traditional classroom settings to online teaching because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This abrupt shift created numerous challenges. The ways...
Teachers worldwide, including those in Taiwan, were compelled to transition from traditional classroom settings to online teaching because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This abrupt shift created numerous challenges. The ways in which individuals cope with such difficulties are closely related to their creative personality traits. Unlike conventional correlational analyses that examine relationships between specific dimensions, a typological approach emphasizes differences among distinct groups across particular variables. This study explored the perceived difficulties and coping strategies of middle school teachers in Taiwan with different creative personality types when adapting to online teaching. A typological approach was first employed to classify various creative personality traits. Subsequently, the problems that teachers encountered during the online teaching were examined across four dimensions, as well as the strategies they used to cope with these challenges in relation to their creative personality type. Through cluster analysis, nine creative personality traits were categorized into four types: extremely low, weakly low, weakly high, and extremely high. The findings indicated that teachers with extremely low and weakly low creative personality types were more likely to experience difficulties in classroom management and teacher-student interaction. These teachers tended to engage in peer communication or participate in professional development workshops to enhance their information technology skills. They also expressed a greater willingness to apply online teaching technologies in physical classrooms to foster students' motivation to learn. Conversely, teachers with weakly high and extremely high creative personality types were more proactive in implementing and refining their IT skills.
WEIRD but Also Inconsistent: An Analysis of the Reporting Practices of Participant Samples Across Five Areas of Psychology.
Petrutiu L, Birney ME, Cooke R … +1 more , Stewart S
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41607094 · Full text
In this study, we systematically investigate the Methods sections of five journals covering core areas of Psychology: Social, health, clinical, developmental, and general psychological science. Journals were published by...
In this study, we systematically investigate the Methods sections of five journals covering core areas of Psychology: Social, health, clinical, developmental, and general psychological science. Journals were published by the British Psychology Society between January 2021 and December 2023 (N = 661; N = 1293). As expected, we found an over-reliance on Western perspectives: Participants from Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa made up 8.7% of samples combined. However, we also found substantial variation in whether and where participants' gender, race, SES indicators, and education were reported across different areas of Psychology, as well as different norms in the use of students and crowd-sourcing platforms. Given the challenges of representation in Psychology and the importance of interdisciplinary perspectives, we make a case for a unified standard of reporting that allows readers to more readily access how findings generalise to populations beyond those sampled.
Techno-Biophilia Design in Video Games and Its Positive Social Outcomes.
Zhang Z, Chen J, Geng L … +1 more , Qi Y
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41601426 · Publisher ↗
In the era of nature 2.0, new media rewires how we experience nature. To understand the psychological implications of this shift, three studies were conducted to explore the positive effects of techno-biophilia design in...
In the era of nature 2.0, new media rewires how we experience nature. To understand the psychological implications of this shift, three studies were conducted to explore the positive effects of techno-biophilia design in video games on various pro-social outcomes. In Study 1, online comments of certain popular video games were utilised to show a co-occurrence between the presence of nature elements and perceived natural beauty. Study 2, through the public goods game, then confirmed that individuals exposed to game scenes featuring natural landscapes reported statistically higher cooperative behaviour and helping intention, mediated by perceived natural beauty. Study 3 further recruited participants to participate in a virtual driving game, replicating the results by detecting higher climate change policy support and greater propensity for charitable donations among participants driving in the natural landscape. This research contributes to 'technology for good' through the exploration of nature element inclusion in video games, shedding light on techno-biophilia design and positive technology paradigm. It thus provides a foundational blueprint for how intelligent technologies of this era can be designed to foster inclusive pathways to the benefits of nature engagement, catering to diverse preferences and contexts.
The Impact of AI-Based Educational Applications on University Students' Piano Skills and Self-Efficacy.
Tao C
Int J Psychol · 2026 Apr · PMID 41572486 · Publisher ↗
The incorporation of AI-powered applications into music education is becoming increasingly important, as these tools can extend practice support beyond the session and provide rapid performance feedback. The current stud...
The incorporation of AI-powered applications into music education is becoming increasingly important, as these tools can extend practice support beyond the session and provide rapid performance feedback. The current study investigated whether an app-assisted learning technique improves pianists' performance skills and self-efficacy compared to traditional instruction. Participants were separated into experimental and control groups and given pre- and post-test assessments. The psychometric instruments used included the Practical Piano Performance Assessment and the Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale. Statistical analysis, involving paired and independent t-tests, revealed that the experimental group showed significant improvements in piano performance (F = 113.528, p < 0.001) and in all four dimensions of self-efficacy-mastery experience (t = 7.031, p < 0.001), vicarious experience (t = 7.126, p < 0.001), verbal/social persuasion (t = 7.929, p < 0.001) and physiological states (t = 12.812, p < 0.001)-compared to the control group, which followed a standard curriculum. These findings highlight the practical value of AI-based applications that provide not only personalised real-time feedback but also interactive learning. Future research should explore the long-term effects of using this software and its potential in blended learning environments to optimise the curriculum.
The Mechanism of Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviour on Employees' Work-Family Enrichment and Conflict: A Flexibility Resource Perspective.
Yao Q, So C, Du J
Int J Psychol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41550009 · Publisher ↗
Existing research consistently highlights the critical role of family supportive supervisor behaviour (FSSB) in enhancing employees' family-to-work enrichment and mitigating work-to-family conflict. Traditionally, its me...
Existing research consistently highlights the critical role of family supportive supervisor behaviour (FSSB) in enhancing employees' family-to-work enrichment and mitigating work-to-family conflict. Traditionally, its mechanisms of influence have been explained through the transfer of affective and cognitive resources. This study extends prior work by exploring the pathways through which FSSB affects work-family enrichment and conflict, drawing on the flexibility resource perspective and integrating insights from work-family enrichment theory. Based on a survey of Chinese employees, our findings reveal that FSSB enhances work-family enrichment by increasing employees' family time adequacy and facilitating family-to-work resource spillover. Similarly, FSSB reduces work-to-family conflict through improvements in family time adequacy and family-to-work resource spillover. Furthermore, gender serves as a boundary condition influencing family-to-work resource spillover, with females demonstrating a greater capacity to leverage resource spillover. This research offers practical insights for organisations and supervisors seeking to utilise flexibility resources to promote employees' work-family balance effectively.
Status Speeds Decisions? Cultural Differences in the Impact of Subjective Socioeconomic Status on Decision Difficulty Between China and the United States.
Ma M, Dong S, Lin S … +1 more , Zhang L
Int J Psychol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41536048 · Publisher ↗
Decision difficulty refers to the perceived level of difficulty individuals experience when making decisions. This study investigates how subjective socioeconomic status (SES) relates to decision difficulty across cultur...
Decision difficulty refers to the perceived level of difficulty individuals experience when making decisions. This study investigates how subjective socioeconomic status (SES) relates to decision difficulty across cultural contexts, drawing on self-construal theory and the social cognitive theory of social class. Individuals with higher subjective SES may experience decision difficulty differently depending on culturally shaped self-construal and cognitive tendencies. Study 1 used questionnaires to examine the relationship between subjective SES and decision difficulty in Chinese and American samples. Studies 2 and 3 experimentally manipulated subjective SES and measured decision difficulty in consumer and social domains. Across all three studies, subjective SES negatively predicted decision difficulty in the Chinese sample, but positively predicted it in the American sample. These findings suggest that subjective SES and culture jointly influence how individuals experience decision difficulty.
Threat of Immigrants From Muslim and Christian Orthodox Countries: Is the Authoritarian Reaction to the Threat From Immigrants Moderated by Immigrant Group's Origin?
Radkiewicz P
Int J Psychol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41532419 · Publisher ↗
Previous research showed that even imaginary forms of realistic and symbolic threats to the national group caused by the arrival of immigrants could trigger an authoritarian reaction in the host country. However, as it w...
Previous research showed that even imaginary forms of realistic and symbolic threats to the national group caused by the arrival of immigrants could trigger an authoritarian reaction in the host country. However, as it was evidenced that many Europeans have a negative image of Muslims, the authoritarian reaction may have resulted from the fact that the threatening immigrant group came from Muslim countries. The reported study examined whether a similar reaction would occur if the immigrant-origin group was not stereotypically perceived as threatening (the receiving country was Poland). For this purpose, an experimental study (N = 460) was conducted, in which the threat from Muslim immigrants was contrasted with the threat from the neighbouring Christian Orthodox countries. In the reported study, authoritarian reaction occurred with similar strength for both compared immigrant groups. This suggests the authoritarian reaction to the threat from immigrants is a phenomenon independent of the immigrants' origin.
Influential Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Adolescents: A Comparison of No Siblings Versus With Siblings.
Zhang P, Ma X, Zhou X … +2 more , Zhang S, Zheng X
Int J Psychol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41524158 · Publisher ↗
In China, the Three-Child Policy has increased the proportion of adolescents with more siblings, offering a context to test resource dilution theory where parental resources per child decline as sibling number grows, pot...
In China, the Three-Child Policy has increased the proportion of adolescents with more siblings, offering a context to test resource dilution theory where parental resources per child decline as sibling number grows, potentially affecting mental health. Existing studies link larger sibling counts to higher adolescent depressive symptoms, but rely on scale total scores, ignoring that symptoms vary in impact. This approach masks specific symptom dimensions, hindering identification of high-risk domains. To address this, we compared depressive symptom networks in 1179 Chinese adolescents (no siblings vs. ≥ 1 sibling) using the 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale through network analysis. Core findings showed unhappiness and sadness were central symptoms in both groups, but key differences emerged: adolescents with no siblings emphasised hopelessness and feeling disliked, while those with siblings prioritised depressed mood and perceived life failure. Despite similar network structures, sibship size influenced symptomatic profiles, suggesting interventions for clinical depression in Chinese adolescents may need tailoring based on the number of siblings to target unique high-risk symptoms.
Relationships Between Identification With All Humanity and Universalism and Benevolence: The Importance of Distinguishing Interpersonal and Ideological Prosocial Values.
Nezlek JB, Hamer K, Wlodarczyk A
Int J Psychol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41514349 · Publisher ↗
In three studies conducted in the United States (n = 598), Poland (n = 1000) and Chile (n = 311), we measured participants' Identification With All Humanity and their endorsement of Universalist and Benevolent values as...
In three studies conducted in the United States (n = 598), Poland (n = 1000) and Chile (n = 311), we measured participants' Identification With All Humanity and their endorsement of Universalist and Benevolent values as defined by Schwartz and colleagues. In all three studies, when IWAH scores were regressed onto values scores, IWAH scores were significantly (positively) related to the endorsement of Universalism values and were not significantly related to the endorsement of Benevolence values. With one exception, this was also true for the subscales of the two measures of values. The present results confirm a recent model of prosociality that distinguishes ideological and interpersonal prosociality. Although Universalism and Benevolence are both prosocial values, they refer to different domains of prosociality, ideological and interpersonal respectively, and IWAH is related to the former but not to the latter.
Exploring Body-Specific Associations in Swipe Gestures: A Study on Hand Dominance and Emotional Valence.
Maisto M, Serino S, Gallucci M … +1 more , Actis-Grosso R
Int J Psychol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41491628 · Full text
The Body-Specificity Hypothesis suggests that the area around the dominant hand is perceived positively, contrasting with a negative perception around the non-dominant hand. Given the pervasive use of interactive technol...
The Body-Specificity Hypothesis suggests that the area around the dominant hand is perceived positively, contrasting with a negative perception around the non-dominant hand. Given the pervasive use of interactive technologies, our study aimed to investigate body-specific associations in real-world settings, examining whether these are modulated by mainstream digital gestures like swiping. N = 30 right-handed participants (Experiment 1) and N = 30 left-handed participants (Experiment 2) were asked to make valence judgements on 28 valence-laden images on a tablet, with each hand in separate sessions, engaging in a congruent task (swipe towards the dominant side-positive, swipe towards the non-dominant side-negative) and an incongruent task (the opposite response pattern). Following the valence judgement task, participants assessed the intensity of their responses using a 9-point Likert scale. Results indicated that right-handers were faster in the congruent condition than in the incongruent condition and showed faster responses when swiping for negative images with the non-dominant hand. Left-handed participants did not show differences in response times but evaluated images as more positive/negative in the congruent condition compared to the incongruent. Overall, these findings support the Body-Specificity Hypothesis and underscore the importance of considering the embodied-cognition-framework as susceptible to the influence of technology use.
Status Facilitates Cooperative Behaviour in Public Goods Games by Enhancing Perspective-Taking: The Moderating Effect of Power.
Sun Y, Guo J, Xu Z … +1 more , Liu Y
Int J Psychol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41491336 · Publisher ↗
Status, distinct from socioeconomic status and power, refers to the prestige and admiration an individual receives from others based on that individual's traits and performance. Existing research has emphasised the disti...
Status, distinct from socioeconomic status and power, refers to the prestige and admiration an individual receives from others based on that individual's traits and performance. Existing research has emphasised the distinctions between status and other social hierarchies but has paid less attention to its effects on interactive behaviour, particularly cooperation. This research systematically investigated how status shaped cooperative behaviour in public goods games, uncovering its underlying mechanism and boundary conditions. Study 1 used the story recall method to manipulate status and found that status facilitated cooperative behaviour by enhancing perspective-taking. Study 2 provided robust causal evidence for perspective-taking as the mediating mechanism through a manipulation-of-mediation-as-a-moderator design. Study 3 used a role-playing method to manipulate status and introduced power as a moderator, revealing that only under low power conditions did high status enhance perspective-taking, thus promoting cooperative behaviour. A supplemental study further indicated that high-status individuals' heightened perspective-taking and cooperative behaviour were primarily driven by strategic self-enhancement motivation. These findings illuminate the distinct pathways through which status fosters cooperation, contingent upon the level of power held.
Damned if They Do, Damned if They Don't: Lay Assumptions About "Evil" Individuals' Everyday Behaviours.
Burris CT, Kular SI, Knox C
Int J Psychol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41479164 · Publisher ↗
Reminiscent of person perception research involving central traits or the "horns"/negative halo effect, we tested the "evil through-and-through" (ETT) hypothesis-that is, that cues alluding to someone's "evil" thoughts l...
Reminiscent of person perception research involving central traits or the "horns"/negative halo effect, we tested the "evil through-and-through" (ETT) hypothesis-that is, that cues alluding to someone's "evil" thoughts lead to the presumed predominance of antisocial behaviours and to disallowance or adverse construal of ostensibly prosocial or mundane behaviours. Canadian undergraduates (N = 189) rated how likely one of six targets (three "evil" and three "not evil") had recently engaged in mildly antisocial, prosocial and morally neutral behaviours. Relative to "not evil" targets, participants assumed that "evil" targets engaged in more antisocial and mobility-related behaviours and fewer prosocial and self-care behaviours. Moreover, participants were more likely to attribute evil targets' action or inaction across all these domains to "bad" reasons (e.g., character flaws, preoccupation, pretence). In short, the "evil" are othered, and there appears to be little they can do (or not do) to shift this perception.
Connectome-Based Predictive Modelling Reveals Functional Connectivity Underpinning Social Anxiety in Healthy College Students.
Shi L
Int J Psychol · 2026 Feb · PMID 41472328 · Publisher ↗
Social anxiety refers to excessive fear of social situations and is then accompanied by social avoidance behaviours. While the neural mechanisms of social anxiety disorder in clinical populations have been widely investi...
Social anxiety refers to excessive fear of social situations and is then accompanied by social avoidance behaviours. While the neural mechanisms of social anxiety disorder in clinical populations have been widely investigated, the functional connectivity underlying social anxiety in the nonclinical population remains poorly understood. The present study addressed this gap by employing connectome-based predictive modelling (CPM) to identify resting-state functional connectivity associated with social anxiety in healthy college students. Our findings revealed a social anxiety connectome that contributed to predicting individuals' social anxiety, which mainly includes the connections within the default mode network (DMN) (i.e., positive network) and those between the frontal parietal network (FPN) and visual network (i.e., negative network). Importantly, the robustness and specificity of this connectome were validated by using different brain atlases and cross-validation schemes and controlling for the influence of general anxiety. Moreover, two sub-dimensions of social anxiety, i.e., social distress and social avoidance, showed distinct neural correlates, with social distress correlated with the positive network and social avoidance with the negative network. Together, these findings provide novel insights into the neural basis of social anxiety in nonclinical populations, highlighting specific functional connectivity associated with different facets of social anxiety.
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