From the heart: hand over heart as an embodiment of honesty

Motor movements increase the accessibility of the thought content and processes with which they typically co-occur. In two studies, we demonstrate that putting a hand on one’s heart is associated with honesty, both perceived in others and shown in one’s own behavior. Target persons photographed when performing this gesture appeared more trustworthy than the same targets photographed with both hands down (Study 1). Participants who put their hand on their hearts were more willing to admit their lack of knowledge (Study 2), compared to when they performed a neutral gesture. These findings replicate and extend the notion that bodily experience related to abstract concepts of honesty can influence both perceptions of others, and one’s own actions

Warmth and competence perceptions of key protagonists are associated with containment measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from 35 countries

It is crucial to understand why people comply with measures to contain viruses and their effects during pandemics. We provide evidence from 35 countries (Ntotal = 12,553) from 6 continents during the COVID-19 pandemic (between 2021 and 2022) obtained via cross-sectional surveys that the social perception of key protagonists on two basic dimensions—warmth and competence—plays a crucial role in shaping pandemic-related behaviors. Firstly, when asked in an open question format, heads of state, physicians, and protest movements were universally identified as key protagonists across countries. Secondly, multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses revealed that warmth and competence perceptions of these and other protagonists differed significantly within and between countries. Thirdly, internal meta-analyses showed that warmth and competence perceptions of heads of state, physicians, and protest movements were associated with support and opposition intentions, containment and prevention behaviors, as well as vaccination uptake. Our results have important implications for designing effective interventions to motivate desirable health outcomes and coping with future health crises and other global challenges.publishedVersio

Effects of Psychological Distance on Mental Abstraction: A Registered Report of Four Tests of Construal Level Theory

Construal level theory (CLT) proposes that psychological distance influences the level of abstraction at which something is mentally construed: things perceived as less probable (likelihood) or further away from the here (spatial distance), now (temporal distance), or self (social distance) are thought about more abstractly. This international multi-lab study tests four basic hypotheses derived from core assumptions of CLT and explores potential moderators and boundary conditions of the effects. Participants (N = 11,775) from 27 countries and regions were randomly assigned to one of four experimental protocols focused on different types of psychological distance (temporal, spatial, social, or likelihood), and each experiment manipulated psychological distance (close vs. distant). The protocols for temporal distance (N = 2,941) and spatial distance (N = 2,973) were direct replications of Liberman and Trope (1998, Study 1) and Fujita et al. (2006, Study 1), respectively. The remaining two protocols were paradigmatic replications, applying to social distance (N = 2,926) and likelihood (N = 2,936). The effects of psychological distance on construal level for the four present studies were (original effects within parentheses; positive effects are consistent with hypotheses): dtemporal = 0.08, 95% CI [0.003, 0.16] (cf. d = 0.92); dspatial = 0.04, 95% CI [-0.03, 0.11] (cf. d = 0.55); dsocial = -0.27, 95% CI [-0.34, -0.19]; and dlikelihood = 0.03, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.11]. Pretests indicated that valence and abstraction were confounded in response options on the outcome measure. Controlling for this confound eliminated the hypothesis-inconsistent effect of social distance, d = 0.006, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.07]. These findings provide limited evidence for the predictions of the theory and present a critical challenge for CLT

Perception of moral and immoral behavior of men as potential short-term or long-term partners.

Women pursue a dual sexuality strategy – when conception is possible (or in the short-term context), they prefer males with traits associated with fit genes they can pass on to their offspring, while being out of the fertile window (or in the long-term context) they prefer males that provide care (Haselton, 2018; Thornhill & Gangestad, 2008). However, little attention was directed at moral/immoral behaviors of potential short or long-term partners. How do women perceive the man who gains success due to his immoral behavior or fails because of refraining from immoral act? What role does the ovulatory cycle play in forming these judgments

Perception of moral and immoral behavior of men as potential short-term or long-term partners.

Women pursue a dual sexuality strategy – when conception is possible (or in the short-term context), they prefer males with traits associated with fit genes they can pass on to their offspring, while being out of the fertile window (or in the long-term context) they prefer males that provide care (Haselton, 2018; Thornhill & Gangestad, 2008). However, little attention was directed at moral/immoral behaviors of potential short or long-term partners. How do women perceive the man who gains success due to his immoral behavior or fails because of refraining from immoral act? What role does the ovulatory cycle play in forming these judgments

Whether you are smart or kind depends on how I feel: The influence of positive and negative mood on agency and communion perception

Feelings-as-information theory states that feelings inform us about the nature of our current situation and we rely on them to make our judgments. Beyond that, feelings tune our cognitive processes to meet situational requirements. Positive feelings result in relying on pre-existing knowledge structures and default strategies, whereas negative feelings hamper relying on routines and results in adapting systematic processing. Based on this premise, it was hypothesized that positive mood, elicited either by the perceived target or by the independent source, would lead to relying on accessible agentic or communal content in perceiving strangers, as well as familiar others, whereas negative mood would weaken these tendencies. Specifically, the three studies showed initial evidence that (a) positive mood leads to focusing on agencyrelated qualities in perception of unknown men to a greater extent than negative mood, (b) positive mood leads to focusing on communion-related qualities in perception of unknown women more than negative mood, and(c) positive mood leads to relying on communal content in perception of familiar others comparing to negative mood

Mapping the facet-model of communion and agency on women’s mate preferences in a short and a long term relationship

The primary goal of this project is to investigate to what extent the two fundamental dimensions of social perception (positive agency and positive communion) together with their sub-dimensions (assertiveness, competence, warmth and morality) map onto women’s mate preferences in a potential short and long term relationship