Happiness Maximization Is a WEIRD Way of Living.

Psychological science tends to treat subjective well-being and happiness synonymously. We start from the assumption that subjective well-being is more than being happy to ask the fundamental question: What is the ideal level of happiness? From a cross-cultural perspective, we propose that the idealization of attaining maximum levels of happiness may be especially characteristic of Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies but less so for others. Searching for an explanation for why "happiness maximization" might have emerged in these societies, we turn to studies linking cultures to their eco-environmental habitat. We discuss the premise that WEIRD cultures emerged in an exceptionally benign ecological habitat (i.e., faced relatively light existential pressures compared with other regions). We review the influence of the Gulf Stream on the Northwestern European climate as a source of these comparatively benign geographical conditions. We propose that the ecological conditions in which WEIRD societies emerged afforded them a basis to endorse happiness as a value and to idealize attaining its maximum level. To provide a nomological network for happiness maximization, we also studied some of its potential side effects, namely alcohol and drug consumption and abuse and the prevalence of mania. To evaluate our hypothesis, we reanalyze data from two large-scale studies on ideal levels of personal life satisfaction-the most common operationalization of happiness in psychology-involving respondents from 61 countries. We conclude that societies whose members seek to maximize happiness tend to be characterized as WEIRD, and generalizing this across societies can prove problematic if adopted at the ideological and policy level.

Disentangling boredom from depression using the phenomenology and content of involuntary autobiographical memories.

Recurrent involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) are memories retrieved unintentionally and repetitively. We examined whether the phenomenology and content of recurrent IAMs could differentiate boredom and depression, both of which are characterized by affective dysregulation and spontaneous thought. Participants (n = 2484) described their most frequent IAM and rated its phenomenological properties (e.g., valence). Structural topic modeling, a method of unsupervised machine learning, identified coherent content within the described memories. Boredom proneness was positively correlated with depressive symptoms, and both boredom proneness and depressive symptoms were correlated with more negative recurrent IAMs. Boredom proneness predicted less vivid recurrent IAMs, whereas depressive symptoms predicted more vivid, negative, and emotionally intense ones. Memory content also diverged: topics such as relationship conflicts were positively predicted by depressive symptoms, but negatively predicted by boredom proneness. Phenomenology and content in recurrent IAMs can effectively disambiguate boredom proneness from depressive symptoms in a large sample of undergraduate students from a racially diverse university.

Collective UK nostalgia predicts a desire to leave the European Union.

Collective nostalgia is an emotion experienced when one sentimentally recalls events or things related to a particular social identity. We investigated the relationship between collective nostalgia about the United Kingdom (UK) and UK citizens' desire to leave the European Union (EU). We collected data of UK citizens twice prior to the UK's official withdrawal from the European Union (N = 347 and N = 240) and once afterwards (N = 236). Cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis, utilizing cross-lagged panel models, supported the hypothesis that collective UK nostalgia increased the desire to leave the European Union. We additionally hypothesized that the relationship between these variables would be mediated positively by ties to UK citizens and negatively by ties to EU citizens. Exploratory and longitudinal analysis, however, indicated that strength of ties to UK and EU citizens predicts levels of collective UK nostalgia which, in turn, predicts desire to leave the European Union. Specifically, ties to UK citizens were associated with increased collective nostalgia and a desire to leave the EU and ties to EU citizens were associated with reduced collective nostalgia and a desire to re-join the European Union. We discuss the implications of the findings as well as making suggestions for future studies.

A cognitive balance approach to understanding intergroup attitudes in post-Brexit Northern Ireland.

Cognitive balance theory posits that a drive for cognitively consistent thoughts modulates interpersonal relations. We extended cognitive balance theory to intergroup relations and tested it in a real-life setting where intergroup relations are under strain: Northern Ireland in the wake of the UK's withdrawal from the EU. We predicted that when the groups of Irish people and British people in Northern Ireland are perceived as more compatible, intergroup bias would be lower than when groups are perceived as less compatible. We collected data of residents of Northern Ireland before the UK's official withdrawal from the EU (N = 604) and after (N = 350). As hypothesized, attitudes towards British people positively related to attitudes towards Irish people when participants perceived the groups as more compatible. We found the opposite relationship at low levels of perceived compatibility. Exploratory cross-lagged panel analyses did not show that these effects occurred longitudinally, suggesting that cognitive balance does not drive judgements over time possibly because people are less likely to notice inconsistent responses across different time points. The present research demonstrates that intergroup attitudes assessed at a certain point in time follow cognitive balance principles.

Corrigendum: Flattening the COVID-19 curve: Emotions mediate the effects of a persuasive message on preventive action.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1047241.].

Locating nostalgia among the emotions: A bridge from loss to love.

An effective way of identifying the psychological role of an emotion is by probing its position relative to other emotions, such as in terms of appraisals, occurrence, lay conceptualization, and consequences. A set of recent studies offer such comparisons for nostalgia against a backdrop of many other emotions. These studies depict nostalgia as an approach-oriented emotion that resembles positive emotions more closely than negative ones, and place nostalgia especially close to positive social emotions. A complementary new analysis of the correlations between nostalgia and 31 other emotions furthermore locates nostalgia between experiences related to loss and love. Altogether, recent work on nostalgia among the emotions portrays it as a psychological bridge from loss toward love.

Boring People: Stereotype Characteristics, Interpersonal Attributions, and Social Reactions.

Unfortunately, some people are perceived as boring. Despite the potential relevance that these perceptions might have in everyday life, the underlying psychological processes and consequences of perceiving a person as "boring" have been largely unexplored. We examined the stereotypical features of boring others by having people generate (Study 1) and then rate (Study 2) these. We focused on occupations (e.g., data analytics, taxation, and accounting), hobbies (e.g., sleeping, religion, and watching TV), and personal characteristics (e.g., lacking humor and opinions, being negative) that people ascribed to stereotypically boring others. Experiments then showed that those who were ascribed boring characteristics were seen as lacking interpersonal warmth and competence (Study 3), were socially avoided (Study 4), and enduring their company required compensation (Study 5). These results suggest that being stereotyped as a bore may come with substantially negative interpersonal consequences.

Whatever will bore, will bore: The mere anticipation of boredom exacerbates its occurrence in lectures.

BACKGROUND: Academic boredom is ubiquitous, and it leads to a range of adverse learning outcomes. Given that students often make estimates of how boring lectures are, does anticipating a lecture to be boring shape their actual experience of boredom? AIMS: The current research investigated whether anticipated boredom intensifies subsequent boredom felt in lectures. SAMPLES: We recruited undergraduate students to participate in three studies. METHODS: Study 1 (N = 121) and study 2 (N = 130) were conducted in natural university lecture environments. We found that students who anticipated a lecture to bore them more subsequently felt more bored by it. In study 3 (N = 92), we experimentally manipulated anticipated boredom before participants watched a lecture video. We found that those who were led to anticipate higher levels of boredom felt more bored by the video. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results converged to indicate that the mere expectation that a lecture will be boring may be sufficient to exacerbate its subsequent occurrence. We discuss these findings in the contexts of affective forecasting and education.

A three-dimensional taxonomy of achievement emotions.

We present a three-dimensional taxonomy of achievement emotions that considers valence, arousal, and object focus as core features of these emotions. By distinguishing between positive and negative emotions (valence), activating and deactivating emotions (arousal), and activity emotions, prospective outcome emotions, and retrospective outcome emotions (object focus), the taxonomy has a 2 × 2 × 3 structure representing 12 groups of achievement emotions. In four studies across different countries (N = 330, 235, 323, and 269 participants in Canada, the United States, Germany, and the U.K., respectively), we investigated the empirical robustness of the taxonomy in educational (Studies 1-3) and work settings (Study 4). An expanded version of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire was used to assess 12 key emotions representing the taxonomy. Consistently across the four studies, findings from multilevel facet analysis and structural equation modeling documented the importance of the three dimensions for explaining achievement emotions. In addition, based on hypotheses about relations with external variables, the findings show clear links of the emotions with important antecedents and outcomes. The Big Five personality traits, appraisals of control and value, and context perceptions were predictors of the emotions. The 12 emotions, in turn, were related to participants' use of strategies, cognitive performance, and self-reported health problems. Taken together, the findings provide robust evidence for the unique positions of different achievement emotions in the proposed taxonomy, as well as unique patterns of relations with external variables. Directions for future research and implications for policy and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Boredom belief moderates the mental health impact of boredom among young people: Correlational and multi-wave longitudinal evidence gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Young people's experience of boredom and its psychological health sequelae have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study examined the moderating role of boredom beliefs-the extent to which one affectively dislikes boredom (boredom dislike) and cognitively accepts it (boredom normalcy)-on the association between boredom experience and mental well-being. We also validated a new measure of boredom beliefs in two different samples of young people. METHOD: We report data from a correlational study with British young people aged 12-25 (Study 1; N = 2495) and a 16-week eight-wave within-subject study with Israeli adolescents aged 12-18 (Study 2; N = 314). RESULTS: Across both studies, disliking boredom was associated with higher frequency and intensity of boredom. Boredom dislike moderated the negative association between boredom and mental well-being, such that the association was more salient among those who strongly disliked boredom. Normalizing boredom was positively associated with mental well-being. The measure of boredom beliefs demonstrated fair validity and reliability. CONCLUSION: Results provide novel insights into the potential buffering effect of boredom beliefs against the mental health impact of boredom, particularly at a time of reduced activity. These findings generalize across two different countries.

Flattening the COVID-19 curve: Emotions mediate the effects of a persuasive message on preventive action.

Introduction: Across four countries (Canada, USA, UK, and Italy), we explored the effects of persuasive messages on intended and actual preventive actions related to COVID-19, and the role of emotions as a potential mechanism for explaining these effects. Methods: One thousand seventy-eight participants first reported their level of concern and emotions about COVID-19 and then received a positive persuasive text, negative persuasive text, or no text. After reading, participants reported their emotions about the pandemic and their willingness to take preventive action. One week following, the same participants reported the frequency with which they engaged in preventive action and behaviors that increased the risk of contracting COVID-19. Results: Results revealed that the positive persuasive text significantly increased individuals' willingness to and actual engagement in preventive action and reduced risky behaviors 1 week following the intervention compared to the control condition. Moreover, significant differences were found between the positive persuasive text condition and negative persuasive text condition whereby individuals who read the positive text were more willing and actually engaged in more preventive action compared to those who read the negative text. No differences were found, however, at the 1-week follow-up for social distancing and isolation behaviors. Results also revealed that specific discrete emotions mediated relations between the effects of the texts and preventive action (both willing and actual). Discussion: This research highlights the power of educational interventions to prompt behavioral change and has implications for pandemic-related interventions, government policy on health promotion messages, and future research.

Consumed by Boredom: Food Choice Motivation and Weight Changes during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Boredom is an established cause and correlate of eating behavior. Yet, existing work offers a scattered range of plausible motivations for why this is. We examined among 302 people representative of the adult UK population what motivations they had for selecting food during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this related to boredom. As predicted, bored people choose food less for health reasons and more for convenience. Boredom reduced ethical and 'natural content' motivations for selecting food and was not associated with choosing food to regulate one's mood or to experience unfamiliarity. Boredom was also associated with greater absolute changes in weight over the course of the pandemic. Boredom did not predict weight gains or losses overall. These findings offer insights into the role that boredom plays in eating motivations in particular and health-relevant outcomes in general.

The efficient measurement of individual differences in meaning motivation: The need for sense-making short form.

People differ in the extent to which they express a need for sense-making (NSM), and these individual differences are important to understand in light of meaning-making processes. To quantify this important variable, we originally proposed a need for sense-making scale. We now propose a refined, similarly reliable short version of the scale (NSM-SF). The 7-item NSM-SF was validated across a series of four studies (combined N = 1,243). NSM-SF showed psychometric properties and correlations consistent with its longer forerunner. Additionally, results indicated that the need for sense-making was moderately positively related to the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, relatedness and competence), and it related negatively to the frustration of these needs. The research offers a useful, brief tool for assessing the NSM construct and broadens our understanding of basic psychological motivations.

Effects of captions, transcripts and reminders on learning and perceptions of lecture capture.

Lecture capture is popular within Higher Education, but previous research suggests that students do not always optimally select content to review, nor do they make the most of specific functions. In the current study conducted in the 2019/20 academic year, we used a repeated-measures crossover design to establish the effects of transcripts with closed captioning, and email reminders, on use (self-reported and system analytics), perceptions of lecture capture and student performance, as measured by multiple-choice question (MCQ) tests designed to assess the module learning outcomes. System analytics (N = 129) and survey data (N = 42) were collected from students alongside qualitative data from semi-structured interviews (N = 8). We found that students value lecture capture highly, but do not access it extensively during the teaching period. The availability of transcripts and closed captions did not impact the amount of capture use or performance on MCQ tests, but did result in more positive perceptions of capture, including increased likelihood of recommending it to others. The use of email reminders referring students to specific segments of capture and reminding them of the functionality had no impact on any measure, although qualitative data suggested that the content of reminders may be used in revision rather than during the teaching period, which fell outside the period we investigated. Collectively, these data suggest that the use of captions and transcripts may be beneficial to students by allowing dual processing of visual and audio content, and a searchable resource to help consolidate their learning but there is little evidence to support reminders. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41239-022-00327-9.

Self-objectification in women predicts approval motivation in online self-presentation.

Researchers have examined self-objectification - viewing oneself as an object rather than a subject - in terms of its impact on intrapersonal factors, such as mental health and cognitive performance. However, few have examined how self-objectification relates to interpersonal factors. The present research addressed this gap by testing the impact of self-objectification on social approval motivation among women. Study 1 (n = 103) found that individual differences in self-objectification correlated positively with approval motivation. Study 2 (n = 94) replicated these results and found that women who reported higher self-objectification were more willing to modify their social media profile pictures unrealistically. In Study 3 (n = 100), higher self-objectifying women were more willing to unrealistically modify their profile pictures even if this exceeded normative levels, which was replicated in Study 4 (n = 199). These results suggest that women's self-objectification is associated with a desire for approval from others and this desire manifests in a willingness to modify self-presentation.

Other- (vs. self-) oriented meaning interventions enhance momentary work engagement through changes in work meaningfulness.

We tested whether a short, online meaning intervention boosts momentary work engagement (MWE) through an increase in perceived work meaningfulness. In Study 1 (N = 227), employees who were asked to write why their work was meaningful subsequently experienced higher work meaningfulness and higher MWE compared to a control group. Work meaningfulness mediated the relationship between the intervention and MWE. Study 2, conducted among employees (N = 254), found that writing about how one's work serves a greater good (vs. how it advances personal career, vs. control) led to an increase in work meaningfulness, which consequently predicted MWE. The research examines a new tool to enhance work meaningfulness that can be easily and widely applied and that provides insight into how sources of meaningful work are related to work meaningfulness and to important occupational outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Boredom proneness, political orientation and adherence to social-distancing in the pandemic.

Research recently showed that boredom proneness was associated with increased social distancing rule-breaking in a sample collected early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we explore data collected early in the pandemic to examine what factors might drive this relation. We focus on political affiliation. Given the functional account of boredom as a call to action, we hypothesized that this urge to act may drive individuals towards outlets replete with symbolic value (e.g., ideology, identity). In addition, given the politicization of some social distancing rules (e.g., mask wearing), we explored whether those who adhere to strong political ideologies-particularly conservative ideologies-would be more likely to rule-break. Moderation analyses indicated that boredom proneness and social (but not fiscal) conservatism were indeed predictive of rule-breaking. These results highlight the need for both clear messaging emphasizing the strength of communal identity and action (i.e., that "We are all in this together") and for interventions that emphasize shared collective values in contexts that appeal directly to social conservatives.

Attention Drifting In and Out: The Boredom Feedback Model.

We synthesize established and emerging research to propose a feedback process model that explicates key antecedents, experiences, and consequences of the emotion boredom. The proposed Boredom Feedback Model posits that the dynamic process of boredom resembles a feedback loop that centers on attention shifts instigated by inadequate attentional engagement. Inadequate attentional engagement is a discrepancy between desired and actual levels of attentional engagement and is a product of external and internal influences, reflected in objective resources and cognitive appraisals. The model sheds light on several essential yet unresolved puzzles in the literature, including how people learn to cope with boredom, how to understand the relation between self-control and boredom, how the roles of attention and meaning in boredom can be integrated, why boredom is associated with both high- and low-arousal negative emotions, and what contributes to chronic boredom. The model offers testable hypotheses for future research.

What is boredom proneness? A comparison of three characterizations.

OBJECTIVE: Boredom proneness is associated with various problematic behaviors and mental health issues. Despite its wide-ranging implication, boredom proneness as a trait-like construct suffers from conceptual ambiguity and measurement issues. We examined whether boredom proneness represents individual differences in (a) the frequency of getting bored, (b) the intensity of boredom, and/or (c) a holistic perception of life being boring (perceived life boredom). METHOD: Across Study 1 (U.S. Sample, N = 495; HK Sample, N = 231) and Study 2 (N = 608), we tested the construct validity of boredom proneness by estimating its association with measures of the three possible characterizations (convergent validity), and examined to what extent associations between boredom proneness and variables relevant to well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, psychological distress) could be reproduced with the three potential characterizations (concurrent validity). RESULTS: Results suggest that each of the three characterizations represents some aspect of boredom proneness, and they generally reproduced boredom proneness' associations with other variables. Among them, perceived life boredom had the strongest convergent and concurrent validity. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide novel insights into the characterization of boredom proneness and its hitherto poorly understood relationship with psychological well-being.

Citizen vain? Exposure to the UK citizenship test predicts milder demands from immigrants across the political spectrum.

Passing the Life in the UK Test is an essential requirement for those who seek UK citizenship. This citizenship test, attempted around 150,000 times per year, has incurred criticism for its content and difficulty, and for its role in causing psychological distress. We examined, among a representative adult UK population, people's reactions to this important instrument. Results showed that two-thirds (66.4%) of UK residents, most of whom held citizenship, failed their own countries' citizenship test. Participants on the right (vs. left) of the political and ideological spectrum were more likely to overestimate their own performance and demand higher performance from immigrants than left-leaning voters, even though these voters' actual performance did not differ. Strikingly, completing the Life in the UK Test caused participants to subsequently endorse milder test requirements, a finding that generalized well across political ideology and voter categories. Initial overconfidence in one's own test performance mediated this change in attitudes. Results suggest that support for improving the Life in the UK Test can be garnered across the political spectrum by confronting people with the content of this life-changing tool.