Timescales of Massive Human Entrainment

The past two decades have seen an upsurge of interest in the collective behaviors of complex systems composed of many agents entrained to each other and to external events. In this paper, we extend concepts of entrainment to the dynamics of human collective attention. We conducted a detailed investigation of the unfolding of human entrainment - as expressed by the content and patterns of hundreds of thousands of messages on Twitter - during the 2012 US presidential debates. By time locking these data sources, we quantify the impact of the unfolding debate on human attention. We show that collective social behavior covaries second-by-second to the interactional dynamics of the debates: A candidate speaking induces rapid increases in mentions of his name on social media and decreases in mentions of the other candidate. Moreover, interruptions by an interlocutor increase the attention received. We also highlight a distinct time scale for the impact of salient moments in the debate: Mentions in social media start within 5-10 seconds after the moment; peak at approximately one minute; and slowly decay in a consistent fashion across well-known events during the debates. Finally, we show that public attention after an initial burst slowly decays through the course of the debates. Thus we demonstrate that large-scale human entrainment may hold across a number of distinct scales, in an exquisitely time-locked fashion. The methods and results pave the way for careful study of the dynamics and mechanisms of large-scale human entrainment.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, 4 supplementary figures. 2nd version revised according to peer reviewers' comments: more detailed explanation of the methods, and grounding of the hypothese

Security motives and negative affective experiences during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: Self-regulation can help individuals cope during stressful events, but little is known about why and when this might occur. We examined if being more focused on prevention was linked to negative affective experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also examined possible underlying mechanisms for this association, and whether social support buffered it. Design: Pre-registered longitudinal study, with surveys every two weeks over one month (N = 1,269). Main outcome measures: Regulatory focus and worry for health (T1), adherence to self isolation and preventive health behaviors (T2), negative affective experiences, positive affect, frequency of online interactions, and perceived social support (T3). Results: Prevention focus was associated with health worries at baseline and linked to greater adherence to preventive health behaviors (T2). Only adherence to self-isolation was linked to more negative affective experiences (T3). Exploratory analyses showed that prevention focus was linked to more negative affective experiences (T3), but only for participants with fewer online interactions with their family and less perceived social support from family and friends. Conclusions: Prevention motives in threatening times can be a double-edged sword, with benefits for health behaviors and consequences for negative affective experiences. Having a strong social network during these times can alleviate these consequences.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Actively Participating in Live Events as an Avenue for Social Connection

Numerous studies document the benefits of social connection for both psychological and physical health, but less research exists on how social connection can be fostered in people’s day-to-day lives. One potential way people might build connection is through attending live events (e.g., going to a concert, wine tasting, book reading, fitness class, etc.). This project used machine learning to identify which characteristics of live events reliably predict feelings of social connectedness following event attendance. Across 1,551 longitudinal surveys of event-specific characteristics and experiences across a variety of event types, the strongest predictors of feeling socially connected were events that were in-person (versus virtual), involved active participation (versus passive participation), and those that were attended with others (versus alone), above and beyond baseline reports of socioemotional factors (e.g., loneliness, subjective happiness) and other individual differences (e.g., demographics, personality). These findings suggest that attending in-person, engaging events is a promising pathway through which people may build social connection with others

The Perks of Pet Ownership? The Effects of Pet Ownership for Well-being During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pet ownership has often been lauded as a protective factor for well-being, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. We expanded this question to consider how pet (i.e., species, number) and owner (i.e., pet relationship quality, personality, attachment orientations) characteristics affected the association between pet ownership and well-being in a pre-registered mixed method analysis of 767 people assessed three times in May 2020. In our qualitative analyses, pet owners listed both benefits and costs of pet ownership during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our quantitative analyses, we found that pet ownership was not reliably associated with well-being. Further, this association largely did not depend on the number of pets owned, the species of pet(s) owned, the quality of the human-pet relationship, or the owner’s psychological characteristics. Our findings are consistent with a large body of research showing null associations of pet ownership on well-being (quantitatively) but positive reports of pet ownership (qualitatively)

The effect of parental responsiveness and family conflict on inflammatory markers in a sample of youth with asthma

Prior evidence suggests that both parental responsiveness and family conflict are linked to the health and health-related biology of children. The current study examined how parental responsiveness and family conflict prospectively relate to children\u27s circulating levels of inflammatory immune markers. In a sample of 140 youth with asthma and their primary caregivers, youth wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) over four days to assess conflict and responsiveness in their family environments. At the end of the four-day period and one year later, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated, cultured, and assayed to determine stimulated levels of interleukin (IL)-5, interleukin (IL)-13, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ). Regression analyses revealed that parental responsiveness-but not conflict-predicted lower circulating levels of IL-5 (but not IL-13 or IFN-γ) at the one-year follow-up. The results held when controlling for EAR-observed family conflict, demographic markers, and baseline levels of IL-5

Sexual Desire in the Time of COVID-19: How COVID-Related Stressors are Associated with Sexual Desire in Romantic Relationships

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting social distancing measures have caused widespread social and economic disruptions, resulting in spikes in unemployment and financial instability, along with drastic changes to people's ability to feel socially connected. Many of the changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic are risk factors for depressive symptoms, which are associated with lower levels of sexual desire. The current research (N = 4,993) examined whether responses to external stressors brought on by COVID-19 (i.e., financial concern, worry, loneliness, stress) were associated with sexual desire among a multi-national sample of people in relationships (Studies 1-2), and whether this association was, in part, due to reports of depressive symptoms (Study 2). In the period immediately following the onset of the pandemic, more financial concern (Study 1) and worry (Study 2) were associated with higher sexual desire, while other factors, like stress (Studies 1-2), were associated with lower desire. We also followed a subset of participants every two weeks during the initial stages of the pandemic and at times when people reported greater stress, loneliness, financial strain, or worry than their average, they reported greater depressive symptoms, which, was in turn, associated with lower sexual desire. Results suggest that the social isolation and stress resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has mixed associations with sexual desire at the onset of the pandemic. But over time, when people report heightened COVID-related stressors, they tend to report lower sexual desire for their partner, in part because these stressors are associated with more depressive symptoms

Financial stress and glucocorticoid resistance: The moderating role of parental involvement

Objectives: Socioeconomic status (SES) health disparities have been documented among youth with asthma, with children growing in more socioeconomically disadvantaged homes experiencing worse asthma symptoms and greater levels of inflammation than children from well-off families. However, recent evidence suggests that certain individual and family-level factors can mitigate these health disparities. In a group of children affected by asthma, we investigated the potential moderating role of parental involvement on financial stress and asthma-related immune responses, assessed via leukocytes glucocorticoid resistance (GR). Methods: One hundred and forty-three youth (age 10-16) with asthma completed measures of parental involvement, while their primary caregiver reported their level of education, income, and financial stress, which was objectively assessed with the UCLA Life Stress Interview. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from youth participants\u27 blood were isolated, cultured, and assayed to determine mitogen-stimulated (PMA/INO + Etho) and mitogen/hydrocortisone-stimulated (PMA/INO + Cort) levels of interleukin(IL)-5, IL-13, and interferon(IFN)-γ. GR was calculated by subtracting log-transformed cytokines concentration in the PMA/INO + Etho samples from log-transformed cytokines concentration in the PMA/INO + Cort samples. A composite of GR for Th-2 cytokines was derived by combining IL-13 and IL-5 (N = 143), while a separate measure of GR for IFN-γ, a Th-1 cytokine (N = 132), was derived. Results: Regression analyses showed significant interaction effects between parental involvement and financial stress on the GR Th-2 cytokines composite (b = -0.122, SE = 0.044, p \u3c .01), but not on GR for IFN-γ (b = -0.058, SE = 0.043, ns). Specifically, financial was negatively associated with Th-2 cytokines GR among children reporting low levels of parental involvement, but not among children reporting high levels of parental involvement. Further, moderated mediation analyses suggested that financial stress mediated the link between lower SES (income and education) and greater GR for Th-2 only for those children who reported lower levels of parental involvement. Conclusions: These results highlight the protective role of parental involvement on health-related biological processes modulated by SES among youth with asthma

Sexual Desire in the Time of COVID-19: How COVID-Related Stressors Are Associated with Sexual Desire in Romantic Relationships

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting social distancing measures have caused widespread social and economic disruptions, resulting in spikes in unemployment and financial instability, along with drastic changes to people's ability to feel socially connected. Many of the changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic are risk factors for depressive symptoms, which are associated with lower levels of sexual desire. The current research (N = 4,993) examined whether responses to external stressors brought on by COVID-19 (i.e., financial concern, worry, loneliness, stress) were associated with sexual desire among a multi-national sample of people in relationships (Studies 1–2), and whether this association was, in part, due to reports of depressive symptoms (Study 2). In the period immediately following the onset of the pandemic, more financial concern (Study 1) and worry (Study 2) were associated with higher sexual desire, while other factors, like stress (Studies 1–2), were associated with lower desire. We also followed a subset of participants every two weeks during the initial stages of the pandemic and at times when people reported greater stress, loneliness, financial strain, or worry than their average, they reported greater depressive symptoms, which was, in turn, associated with lower sexual desire. Results suggest that the social isolation and stress resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have mixed associations with sexual desire at the onset of the pandemic. But over time, when people report heightened COVID-related stressors, they tend to report lower sexual desire for their partner, in part because these stressors are associated with more depressive symptoms