Distinguishing Family from Friends

Kinship and friendship are key human relationships. Increasingly, data suggest that people are not less altruistic toward friends than close kin. Some accounts suggest that psychologically we do not distinguish between them; countering this is evidence that kinship provides a unique explanatory factor. Using the Implicit Association Test, we examined how people implicitly think about close friends versus close kin in three contexts. In Experiment 1, we examined generic attitudinal dispositions toward friends and family. In Experiment 2, attitude similarity as a marker of family and friends was examined, and in Experiments 3 and 4, strength of in-group membership for family and friends was examined. Findings show that differences exist in implicit cognitive associations toward family and friends. There is some evidence that people hold more positive general dispositions toward friends, associate attitude similarity more with friends, consider family as more representative of the in-group than friends, but see friends as more in-group than distant kin

Going That Extra Mile: Individuals Travel Further to Maintain Face-to-Face Contact with Highly Related Kin than with Less Related Kin

The theory of inclusive fitness has transformed our understanding of cooperation and altruism. However, the proximate psychological underpinnings of altruism are less well understood, and it has been argued that emotional closeness mediates the relationship between genetic relatedness and altruism. In this study, we use a real-life costly behaviour (travel time) to dissociate the effects of genetic relatedness from emotional closeness. Participants travelled further to see more closely related kin, as compared to more distantly related kin. For distantly related kin, the level of emotional closeness mediated this relationship - when emotional closeness was controlled for, there was no effect of genetic relatedness on travel time. However, participants were willing to travel further to visit parents, children and siblings as compared to more distantly related kin, even when emotional closeness was controlled for. This suggests that the mediating effect of emotional closeness on altruism varies with levels of genetic relatednes

Managing Relationship Decay Network, Gender, and Contextual Effects

Relationships are central to human life strategies and have crucial fitness consequences. Yet, at the same time, they incur significant maintenance costs that are rarely considered in either social psychological or evolutionary studies. Although many social psychological studies have explored their dynamics, these studies have typically focused on a small number of emotionally intense ties, whereas social networks in fact consist of a large number of ties that serve a variety of different functions. In this study, we examined how entire active personal networks changed over 18 months across a major life transition. Family relationships and friendships differed strikingly in this respect. The decline in friendship quality was mitigated by increased effort invested in the relationship, but with a striking gender difference: relationship decline was prevented most by increased contact frequency (talking together) for females but by doing more activities together in the case of males

When job performance is all relative: how family motivation energizes effort and compensates for intrinsic motivation

Supporting one's family is a major reason why many people work, yet surprisingly little research has examined the implications of family motivation. Drawing on theories of prosocial motivation and action identification, we propose that family motivation increases job performance by enhancing energy and reducing stress, and it is especially important when intrinsic motivation is lacking. Survey and diary data collected across multiple time points in a Mexican maquiladora generally support our model. Specifically, we find that family motivation enhances job performance when intrinsic motivation is low—in part by providing energy, but not by reducing stress. We conclude that supporting a family provides a powerful source of motivation that can boost performance in the workplace, offering meaningful implications for research on motivation and the dynamics of work and family engagement

Infidelity-Revealing Snapchat Messages Arouse Different Levels of Jealousy Depending on Sex, Type of Message and Identity of the Opposite Sex Rival

Research highlighting sex-differentiated jealousy resulting from imagined scenarios has now been reaffirmed when the infidelity-revealing message is discovered on a social media platform. Participants in the current study were presented with both sexually and emotionally charged infidelity-revealing scenarios featuring a same-sex sibling, a friend and a stranger in the format of a ‘Snapchat’ message. Men indicated significantly higher jealousy to sexual as opposed to emotional messages with the reverse pattern evident in women. Sex differences were also evident in the extent of jealousy elicited by ‘third-party’ identity. Women were significantly more jealous when the imagined infidelity occurred between their sister compared to both a best friend and a stranger with males showing significantly lower jealousy directed towards their brother compared to a stranger. These findings are supportive not only of a parental investment (PI) interpretation of sex differences in jealousy but also an interpretation consistent with aspects of inclusive fitness theory

When race and gender go without saying

We hypothesize that people fail to designate typical race and gender features because of communication pragmatics and because people assume that their category norms-their implicit sense of which features are typical or atypical of a category-are shared. In Experiment 1, participants wrote what made celebrities typical or not typical of their occupations. Participants almost never designated typical race and gender when instructed to describe how celebrities were typical, although they often designated atypical features when instructed to say how celebrities were not typical. Experiment 2 showed that verbal designation of race and gender occurs most when features are either atypical or are unshared with one's communication partner, and that designating atypical features under such circumstances facilitates communication. Experiment 3 showed that the common ground goal determines the higher rate of designating atypical than typical race and gender features. Implications for the communication of bias are discussed

Cultural and translation challenges in assessing health literacy among immigrants from the former Soviet Union

Health literacy is an important foundation for health promotion and an under-recognized risk factor for immigrant and refugee groups. Yet measuring health literacy among diverse ethnic and linguistic populations presents complex challenges. We describe cultural and translation challenges encountered in measuring health literacy among Russian-speaking immigrants to the USA and offer a mixed-methods approach to understanding them. The Rx-Health Literacy (RxHL) study used cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative data to examine health literacy and medication adherence among five cultural and four language groups (Latinx, Vietnamese, African-American, Russian-speaking immigrant and White American) who are patients at Caring Health Center, a federally qualified health center in Springfield, MA. We translated an existing health literacy scale into Russian and Vietnamese and examined item difficulty across cultural groups. We conducted qualitative cognitive interviews to learn more about Russian speakers' understandings of the scale. Health literacy scores varied by cultural group, and the range of correct responses was much greater among Russian speakers than in other groups. Percentage correct varied by 69.7% for Russian speakers, compared with 25.0-44.0% for other groups. These findings indicate greater variability in health literacy levels among this group compared with others. Cognitive interviews with Russian-speaking participants revealed multiple interpretations of several items, suggesting that the English version of the scale contained embedded meanings associated with an American health care context that were not captured in the translated instrument. Combining qualitative and quantitative research methods allows for greater insight into contextual and translation factors that may shape the results of translated instruments in unanticipated ways.12 month embargo; first published 05 October 2023This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]