Subliminal fatty acid-induced gut-brain signals attenuate sensitivity to exteroceptive rewards in food but not in sex or financial domains, in healthy men.

Background Reward sensitivity can generalize across domains, but evidence for generalization of suppressive reward-related stimulation is sparse, especially in the context of interoceptive nutrient-related stimuli. We hypothesized that subliminal fatty acid-induced gut-brain signals could attenuate sensitivity to exteroceptive rewards, not only within the food domain but also across domains. Method Intragastric infusion of 2.5 g lauric acid (fat condition) or saline (saline condition) was administered to 59 healthy heterosexual male volunteers in a blinded fashion. To assess whether the resulting interoceptive signals attenuate reward sensitivity within the food domain, participants rated the palatability of food images and performed a progressive ratio task. To assess whether such attenuation effect generalizes to the sexual and financial reward domains, participants rated attractiveness of female face images and performed an intertemporal monetary choice task. Results Participants' ratings of food images were lower (F1,172 = 4.51, p = 0.035, Cohen's d: -0.20) in the fat condition. The progressive ratio task terminated earlier in the fat condition compared to saline (F1,52 = 4.17, p = 0.046, odds ratio = 0.31, 95%CI [0.11, 0.98]). Participants' ratings of female face images did not differ between conditions (F1,172 = 1.85, p = 0.19, Cohen's d: -0.15). Moreover, the monetary discounting rate did not differ significantly between conditions. Conclusion Overall, these findings suggest a domain-specific effect of subliminal fatty acid infusion on decreasing reward sensitivity.

Reinstating the Resourceful Self: When and How Self-Affirmations Improve Executive Performance of the Powerless.

Research has found that lack of power impairs executive functions. In the present research, we show that this impairment is not immutable. Across three studies and focusing on inhibitory control as one of the core facets of executive functions, our investigation shows that self-affirmation attenuates the previously documented decrements in inhibitory control of the powerless (Studies 1-3). We also examine boundary conditions of this effect and demonstrate that self-affirmation is most effective insofar as the powerless lack self-esteem (Study 2). Finally, we directly test the underlying process of this effect and demonstrate that self-affirmation increases an efficacious self-view among the powerless, which in turn improves their inhibitory control abilities (Study 3). Overall, we conclude that reinstating an efficacious self-view through self-affirmation offsets the impairments in inhibitory control abilities of the powerless and reduces the cognitive performance gap between the powerless and the powerful.

Defecatory urge increases cognitive control and intertemporal patience in healthy volunteers.

BACKGROUND: Past research has demonstrated that moderate urge to urinate improves inhibitory control, specifically among participants with higher behavioral inhibition sensitivity (BIS). The effect was absent when the urge exceeded intolerable level. The present research examines whether rectal distension-induced urge to defecate has similar effects. METHODS: The moderate and high defecatory urge were induced by rectal distension in healthy volunteers (n = 35), while they completed Stroop task and monetary delay discounting task. The difference of average reaction time between incongruent and congruent trials in the Stroop task (Stroop interference) and the preference for larger-later rewards in the delay discounting task were the primary outcomes. KEY RESULTS: Participants with high BIS (n = 17) showed greater ability to inhibit their automatic response tendencies, as indexed by their Stroop interference, under moderate urge relative to no urge (128 ± 41 ms vs 202 ± 37 ms, t64  = 2.07; P = 0.021, Cohen's d: 0.44), but not relative to high urge (154 ± 45 ms, t64  = 1.20; P = 0.12, Cohen's d: 0.30). High BIS participants also showed a higher preference for larger-later reward in the delay discounting task under high (odds ratio = 1.51 [1.02-2.25], P = 0.039) relative to no urge, but not relative to moderate urge (odds ratio = 1.02 [0.73-1.42], P = 0.91). In contrast, rectal distension did not influence performance on either of the tasks in participants with low BIS (n = 18). CONCLUSIONS AND INFERENCE: These findings may be interpreted as a "spill-over" effect of inhibition of the urge to defecate to volitional cognitive control among healthy participants with high BIS.

Social Power Increases Interoceptive Accuracy.

Building on recent psychological research showing that power increases self-focused attention, we propose that having power increases accuracy in perception of bodily signals, a phenomenon known as interoceptive accuracy. Consistent with our proposition, participants in a high-power experimental condition outperformed those in the control and low-power conditions in the Schandry heartbeat-detection task. We demonstrate that the effect of power on interoceptive accuracy is not explained by participants' physiological arousal, affective state, or general intention for accuracy. Rather, consistent with our reasoning that experiencing power shifts attentional resources inward, we show that the effect of power on interoceptive accuracy is dependent on individuals' chronic tendency to focus on their internal sensations. Moreover, we demonstrate that individuals' chronic sense of power also predicts interoceptive accuracy similar to, and independent of, how their situationally induced feeling of power does. We therefore provide further support on the relation between power and enhanced perception of bodily signals. Our findings offer a novel perspective-a psychophysiological account-on how power might affect judgments and behavior. We highlight and discuss some of these intriguing possibilities for future research.

The Influence of Facial Characteristics on the Relation between Male 2D:4D and Dominance.

Although relations between 2D:4D and dominance rank in both baboons and rhesus macaques have been observed, evidence in humans is mixed. Whereas behavioral patterns in humans have been discovered that are consistent with these animal findings, the evidence for a relation between dominance and 2D:4D is weak or inconsistent. The present study provides experimental evidence that male 2D:4D is related to dominance after (fictitious) male-male interaction when the other man has a dominant, but not a submissive or neutral face. This finding provides evidence that the relationship between 2D:4D and dominance emerges in particular, predictable situations and that merely dominant facial characteristics of another person are enough to activate supposed relationships between 2D:4D and dominance.

Trusting others: the polarization effect of need for closure.

Because trust-related issues inherently involve uncertainty, we expected individuals' social-cognitive motivation to manage uncertainty--which is captured by their need for closure--to influence their level of trust in others. Through the results of 6 studies, we showed that higher need for closure was related to more polarized trust judgments (i.e., low trust in distant others and high trust in close others) in the case of both chronic and situational need for closure. Moreover, participants with high need for closure did not revise their level of trust when they received feedback about the trustees' actual trustworthiness, whereas participants with low need for closure did. Overall, our findings indicate that polarized (either high or low, as opposed to moderate) and persistent levels of trust may serve people's seizing and freezing needs for achieving cognitive closure.

Are social value orientations expressed automatically? Decision making in the dictator game.

Drawing on the social intuitionist model, the authors studied the hypothesis that social value orientations are expressed automatically in behavior. They compared spontaneous and more deliberated decisions in the dictator game and confirmed that social values determine behavior when responses are based on the automatic system. By means of both mediation and experimental analyses, the authors further demonstrate that the automatic expression of social value orientations is mediated by perceptions of interpersonal closeness. A reasoning process can subsequently override these automatic responses and disconnect decisions from perceptions of interpersonal closeness. This results in lower levels of other-regarding behavior, at least for prosocials.

Inhibitory spillover: increased urination urgency facilitates impulse control in unrelated domains.

Visceral states are known to reduce the ability to exert self-control. In the current research, we investigated how self-control is affected by a visceral factor associated with inhibition rather than with approach: bladder control. We designed four studies to test the hypothesis that inhibitory signals are not domain-specific but can spill over to unrelated domains, resulting in increased impulse control in the behavioral domain. In Study 1, participants' urination urgency correlated with performance on color-naming but not word-meaning trials of a Stroop task. In Studies 2 and 3, we found that higher levels of bladder pressure resulted in an increased ability to resist impulsive choices in monetary decision making. We found that inhibitory spillover effects are moderated by sensitivity of the Behavioral Inhibition System (Study 3) and can be induced by exogenous cues (Study 4). Implications for inhibition and impulse-control theories are discussed.

Hungry for money: the desire for caloric resources increases the desire for financial resources and vice versa.

This report attempts to provide an evolutionary explanation for humans' motivation to strive for money in present-day societies. We propose that people's desire for money is a modern derivate of their desire for food. In three studies, we show the reciprocal association between the incentive value of food and of money. In Study 1, hungry participants were less likely than satiated participants to donate to charity. In Study 2, participants in a room with an olfactory food cue, known to increase the desire to eat, offered less money in a give-some game compared with participants in a room free of scent. In Study 3, participants' desire for money affected the amount of M&M's they ate in a subsequent taste test, but only among participants who were not restricting their food intake in order to manage their weight.

Do not prime hawks with doves: the interplay of construct activation and consistency of social value orientation on cooperative behavior.

Low and high consistent pro-socials and pro-selfs were primed with neutral, morality, or might concepts in mixed-motive situations. The authors expected participants' social value orientation to influence cooperative behavior among (a) high consistent individuals in all prime conditions and (b) low consistent individuals in the neutral prime condition only. The authors also expected the primes to influence cooperative behavior more among low than high consistent individuals. Four experiments using supra-liminal (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) or subliminal (Experiment 3) priming and 2-person (Experiments 1-3) or N-person (Experiment 4) social dilemmas partially supported these initial predictions. One intriguing exception was that morality primes reduced cooperation among high consistent pro-selfs. Experiments 2-4 allowed testing for the potential role of expectations in shaping participants' cooperative behavior.