57 research outputs found
What makes a minority to speak out? The effects of psychological standing, power, and status in expressing ingroup vs. outgroup minority opinion
No full textMinority opinion is hard to be expressed but has great value in group
decision making. Previous research suggests that the factors inhibiting or
facilitating minority opinion expression vary depending on the group
identity of minority opinion holders. In three experiments, we examined
whether and how group identity interacts with psychological standing
(Study 1), status (Study 2), and power (Study 3) in influencing minority
opinion expression. In Study 1, we compared the minority opinion
expression of ingroup and outgroup minorities with and without
psychological standing and found that psychological standing increased
the opinion expression of an outgroup minority only. In Study 2, we
manipulated status while keeping psychological standing constant. The
results showed that the effect of status was limited to the opinion
expression of an ingroup minority. In Study 3, we tested the effect of
power on minority opinion expression and found that power influenced
minority opinion expression regardless of group membership. Our
findings replicate previous research on the effect of psychological
standing and power and provide novel evidence on the relationship
among minority opinion expression, social identity, and social hierarchy
Friends or money? How spontaneous thought patterns reveal what happy people think about and prioritize in life
No full textFriends or money? How spontaneous thought patterns reveal what happy people think about and prioritize in life
No full textOn the relationship between the social brain, social connectedness, and wellbeing
No full textThe emergence of social neuroscience in the past two decades has offered a useful neurocognitive framework for understanding human social behavior. Of importance, social neuroscience research aimed to provide mechanistic explanations for the established link between wellbeing and social behavioral phenomena–particularly those reflective of social connectedness. Here, we provide an overview of the relevant literature focusing on recent work using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In general, fMRI research demonstrated that aspects of social connectedness that are known to either positively (e.g., social acceptance) or negatively (e.g., social isolation) impact wellbeing also modulated the activity of subcortical reward system accordingly. Similar modulatory influence was found for the activity of other brain regions such as the medial prefrontal cortex, which are typically regarded as components of the “social brain” that support a wide range of functions related to social cognition and behavior. Elucidating such individual differences in brain activity may shed light onto the neural underpinnings of the link between social connectedness and wellbeing
Individual differences in the gaze-cuing effect predict the sensitivity in recognizing others’ emotions and social norms
No full textJoint attention has long been hypothesized to lay the foundation of human sociality. However, there is little empirical evidence directly linking it to higher-level social cognitive processes, especially among healthy adults. Here, we used a gaze-cuing paradigm to examine whether individual differences in low-level socio-attentional processes involving gaze following can be extended to more complex forms of social cognition and behavior, in particular emotion recognition and social conformity
The brain’s functional network architecture reveals human motives
No full textIn humans, two completely different motives may nevertheless lead to exactly the same behavior. Because we can't directly observe motives, modern economists often completely disregard them. However, Hein et al., using fMRI, show that different human motives can yield observable responses in the brain (see the Perspective by Gluth and Fontanesi). In empathy-based and reciprocity-based altruistic behavior, the direction and the strength of functional connectivity between specific brain regions were different for each motive. Moreover, the connectivity patterns were independent of the behavioral implications of the motives.
Goal-directed human behaviors are driven by motives. Motives are, however, purely mental constructs that are not directly observable. Here, we show that the brain’s functional network architecture captures information that predicts different motives behind the same altruistic act with high accuracy. In contrast, mere activity in these regions contains no information about motives.
Empathy-based altruism is primarily characterized by a positive connectivity from the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to the anterior insula (AI), whereas reciprocity-based altruism additionally invokes strong positive connectivity from the AI to the ACC and even stronger positive connectivity from the AI to the ventral striatum. Moreover, predominantly selfish individuals show distinct functional architectures compared to altruists, and they only increase altruistic behavior in response to empathy inductions, but not reciprocity inductions
Striatal-hippocampal functional connectivity contributes to real-life positive anticipatory experiences and subjective well-being
No full textPositive anticipation has long been associated with happiness and well-being. However, little is known about how exactly positive anticipation influences one’s well-being in a real-life context and how the brain’s functional architecture supports this relationship. In the present study, we combined experience sampling method, model-based quantification, and resting-state fMRI to identify the neural predictors of real-world positive anticipatory experiences and subjective well-being
Striatal-hippocampal functional connectivity contributes to real-life positive anticipatory experiences and subjective well-being
No full textPositive anticipation has long been associated with happiness and well-being. However, little is known about how exactly positive anticipation influences one’s well-being in a real-life context and how the brain’s functional architecture supports this relationship. In the present study, we combined experience sampling method, model-based quantification, and resting-state fMRI to identify the neural predictors of real-world positive anticipatory experiences and subjective well-being
Individual differences in the gaze-cuing effect predict the sensitivity in recognizing others’ emotions and social norms
No full textJoint attention has long been hypothesized to lay the foundation of human sociality. However, there is little empirical evidence directly linking it to higher-level social cognitive processes, especially among healthy adults. Here, we used a gaze-cuing paradigm to examine whether individual differences in low-level socio-attentional processes involving gaze following can be extended to more complex forms of social cognition and behavior, in particular emotion recognition and social conformity
Individual differences in the gaze-cuing effect predict the sensitivity in recognizing others’ emotions and social norms
No full textJoint attention has long been hypothesized to lay the foundation of human sociality. However, there is little empirical evidence directly linking it to higher-level social cognitive processes, especially among healthy adults. Here, we used a gaze-cuing paradigm to examine whether individual differences in low-level socio-attentional processes involving gaze following can be extended to more complex forms of social cognition and behavior, in particular emotion recognition and social conformity
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