Acute stress can boost and buffer hedonic consumption:The role of individual differences in consumer life history strategies

Mixed findings on the relationship between acute stress and the tendency to engage in hedonic food consumption suggest that stress may both boost and buffer hedonic eating. The present research aims to contribute to reconciling these mixed findings by focusing on the role of individual differences in consumer life history strategies (LHS) –short-term, impulsive, reward-sensitive (fast) vs. long-term, reflective, goal-oriented (slow) self-regulatory strategies– that might drive hedonic eating. We propose and show that stress may boost hedonic consumption among fast LHS consumers, while the relationship is buffered (non-significant) among their slow LHS counterparts. Moreover, we find that this stress-induced eating among fast LHS consumers is also cue-driven such that fast (but not slow) LHS consumers show a higher sensitivity to scarcity cues signaling the desirability of a palatable food under conditions of stress. Finally, we find that a cue indicating a high caloric content of the food may curb the tendency for fast LHS consumers to engage in (over) consumption of hedonic foods under stress

Nudging health:Scarcity cues boost healthy consumption among fast rather than slow strategists (and abundance cues do the opposite)

We examine the effectiveness of specific nudges in the choice environment to foster healthy choice and consumption among consumers with fast vs. slow life history strategies (LHS)––short-term, impulsive, reward-sensitive (fast) vs. long-term, reflective, controlled (slow) foci––associated with low and high socio-economic status (SES), respectively. The results of two experiments, conducted in a field and an online setting, show that consumers with a fast, rather than slow, life-history strategy are more susceptible to scarcity cues, boosting choice and actual consumption of healthy foods when these cues are associated with the healthy option. Conversely, for slow LHS consumers, the evidence suggests that scarcity cues are less influential, and instead abundance cues tend to foster healthy choice. Finally, in line with the LHS logic, acute food craving mediates the impact of scarcity vs. abundance cues for fast, but not slow, strategists, while perceptions of socially validated trust in the food source fulfill this role for slow, but not fast, strategists

Другі всеукраїнські Кулішеві читання з філософії етнокультури

25-26 лютого 2010 р. в Чернігівському національному педагогічному університеті були проведені Другі всеукраїнські Кулішеві читання з філософії етнокультури, присвячені 20-річчю кафедри філософії та культурології, яка й виступила основним організатором заходу

Science skepticism across 24 countries

Efforts to understand and remedy the rejection of science are impeded by lack of insight into how it varies in degree and in kind around the world. The current work investigates science skepticism in 24 countries (N = 5973). Results show that while some countries stand out as generally high or low in skepticism, predictors of science skepticism are relatively similar across countries. One notable effect was consistent across countries though stronger in WEIRD nations: General faith in science was predicted by spirituality, suggesting that it, more than religiosity, may be the ‘enemy’ of science acceptance. Climate change skepticism was mainly associated with political conservatism, especially in North America. Other findings were observed across WEIRD and non-WEIRD nations: Vaccine skepticism was associated with spirituality and scientific literacy, GM skepticism with scientific literacy, and evolution skepticism with religious orthodoxy. Levels of science skepticism are heterogeneous across countries, but predictors of science skepticism are heterogeneous across domains

A brief measure of social media self-control failure

People often fail in controlling their social media use when it conflicts with other goals and obligations. To facilitate research on understanding social media self-control failures, we constructed a brief social media self-control failure (SMSCF)-scale to assess how often social media users give in to social media temptations. Social media users (N = 405) completed a survey (including a 4-week follow-up) to test the scale's psychometric properties. The self-report SMSCF-scale showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Demonstrating its construct validity, the SMSCF-scale was moderately related to existing problematic media use and general self-control scales. Demonstrating its predictive validity, the SMSCF-scale was positively related to social media use and feelings of guilt about one's social media use and was negatively related to psychological wellbeing. The SMSCF-scale provides a useful indicator of social media self-control failure that could facilitate future research on the psychological processes underlying social media self-control failures

Spontaneous approach reactions toward social media cues

Why is it difficult to resist social media temptations? One reason might be that social media users have strong and spontaneous approach reactions to social media cues. In the present study, daily Facebook users (N = 228) completed a Stimulus-Response Compatibility (SRC) task, which assessed their spontaneous approach reactions to Facebook cues. Results showed that participants were faster in approaching than avoiding Facebook related (vs. control) pictures, regardless of their general tendency to experience Facebook self-control failures. Thus, contrary to expectations, spontaneous approach reactions to social media cues were not related to people's daily experienced social media self-control failure

Self-affirmation and self-control: counteracting defensive processing of health information and facilitating health behavior change

Accepting personally relevant health information and successfully changing one’s health behavior accordingly is valuable for long-term health and wellbeing. However, both steps pose different self-control dilemmas. It is no surprise, therefore, that people may resist health information and maintain unhealthy behavior. In this chapter, we consider the problem of responding adaptively to health risk information from a self-control perspective, and discuss how a self-affirmation intervention (that typically requires people to reflect on their important personal values or attributes) may improve self-control in the context of health information processing and health behavior change

Psychological distance cues in online messages: interrelatedness of probability and spatial distance

Growing evidence reveals that people rely on heuristic cues when processing online information. The current research, by adopting a construal level theory approach, examined whether psychological distance cues within online messages influence message processing. According to construal level theory, spatial and hypothetical distances (i.e., probabilities, likelihoods) share an association based on psychological distance. Construal level literature suggests that people overgeneralize this association and attribute unlikely events to distant places and likely events to close-by places. The current research provides a novel test of this relationship in an online communication setting. In two within-subjects experiments (Studies 1 and 2), we presented participants tweets depicting likely and unlikely events, and measured whether they attribute them to spatially close or far sources. Confirming our predictions, participants utilized the psychological distance cues and attributed the likely tweets to spatially close and the unlikely tweets to spatially far sources. In two follow-up experiments, we tested the same relationship by employing between-subjects designs. In Study 3 where participants saw one spatial distance and both likely and unlikely tweets, participants formed the same association albeit less strongly and attributed the unlikely tweets to spatially distant sources. In Study 4, where participants saw two spatial distances and only one tweet, the expected association was not formed. Findings suggest that comparison of likelihood information is necessary to form an association between source location and tweet likelihood. The implications of psychological distance and a construal level theory approach are discussed in the context of online heuristics and persuasion