Breaking self-focused orientation in people who perceive economic scarcity: The influence of transcendent motivation to promote an abstract mindset and prosocial behavioral intentions.

Previous research shows that being in a situation of economic scarcity promotes a more concrete mindset that motivates behavioral decisions based on action difficulty and their short-term outcomes, which frequently entails negative consequences. However, a concrete mindset can be counteracted by inducing an abstract mindset to help people focus on final broad goals. We explored how focusing on transcendent motives (vs. self-oriented) promotes a more abstract mindset facilitating prosocial behavioral intentions. Study 1 (pre-post design) explored whether focusing on transcendent motives for engaging in activities promoted a more abstract mindset compared to focusing on self-oriented motives. Using a 2 × 2 design with two consecutive opposing primes, Study 2 tested how inducing a transcendent orientation could reverse the effect caused by perceiving economic scarcity, promoting greater orientation toward others and prosocial behavioral intentions. In Study 1 participants who generated transcendent motives for behaviors presented a greater increase in the abstraction of construal level, compared to those who only generated self-oriented motives for the same behaviors. Study 2 demonstrated that, when participants who perceived economic scarcity were focused on transcendent motives (vs. self-oriented) to promote a more abstract mindset, their orientation toward others increased. Interestingly, for people perceiving economic scarcity, whose own difficulties could reduce prosocial behaviors, the greater orientation toward others promoted a greater intention to engage in demanding prosocial behaviors. We provide evidence of new strategies to promote abstraction in individuals and increase their involvement in prosocial behavioral intentions, especially for those perceiving economic scarcity.

A culturally targeted video to promote genetic counseling in a community sample of at-risk US Latina women: The role of the concrete mindset.

Latina women, who are at increased risk of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC), have lower use of genetic counseling and testing (GCT) than non-Hispanic White women. In a recent study, culturally targeted video improved psychosocial outcomes related to GCT. Additional analyses examine whether the culturally targeted video improved positive reactions in women who focus on difficulties (concrete mindset) versus women who focus on the final goals (abstract mindset). Participants (N = 32) completed surveys before and immediately after watching the video. The surveys measured attitudes, emotions, and women's mindset. Before watching the video, women with a concrete mindset reported more negative attitudes and negative emotions about GCT than women with an abstract mindset. After watching the video, women with a concrete mindset reported negative attitudes and feelings at levels comparable to those of women with an abstract mindset, reflecting a reduction in their negative attitudes and emotions. The sample size limits the power to find statistically significant differences. Results support the relevance of considering the audience's mindset in the development and testing of public health messages to promote the use of GCT.

Future-oriented emotions in the prediction of binge-drinking intention and expectation: the role of anticipated and anticipatory emotions.

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) offers a parsimonious explanation of purposive behavior, but in the study of healthy and risk behaviors its sufficiency may be questioned. Working with binge-drinking, a very common risk behavior in Spanish undergraduate students, we used two strategies for improving predictions from TPB: using behavioral intention (BI) and behavioral expectation (BE) as proximal antecedents of behaviors and adding as new predictors two future-oriented emotions (anticipated and anticipatory). Hierarchical regression analyses show that while anticipated emotions improved TPB explanations of BI, anticipatory emotions improved the explanations of BE. The present results show the influence of future emotions in the prediction of behavioral intention and behavioral expectation.

The links among relative financial scarcity, thinking style, fatalism, and well-being.

In the present research, we examined the links among relative financial scarcity, thinking style, fatalism, and well-being and their roles in predicting protective behaviors against COVID-19. Study 1 (N = 120) revealed that after an experimental manipulation to induce the perception of relative financial scarcity (versus financial abundance), people who perceived higher relative financial scarcity changed their thinking style to a more concrete mindset. In Study 2 (N = 873), the relative financial abundance-scarcity situation was measured, and the results showed that the greater the perceived relative financial scarcity was, the more concrete the mindset and the lower the sense of well-being. Importantly, we found that individuals who felt poorer but maintained an abstract thinking style reported higher well-being. Study 3 (N = 501) examined the influence of a concrete thinking style in people who perceived that their economic situation had worsened with the pandemic. The results showed that when this vulnerable population presented a more concrete mindset, they reported lower well-being, higher fatalism, and lower protective behavior against COVID-19. Thus, maintaining an abstract mindset promotes higher well-being, lower fatalism, and greater protective behaviors against COVID-19, even under economic difficulties. Because thinking style can be modified, our results encourage the development of new social intervention programs to promote an abstract mindset when people face important challenges.

Disentangling Emotions during the Coronavirus Outbreak in Spain: Inner Emotions, Descriptive Feeling Rules and Socioemotional Conventions.

For constructionism, language is the link among different levels of analysis of emotional events, from individual to interpersonal and macrosocial. The interaction among these emotional levels allows us to construe an emotional episode and label it with an emotion word, coordinate with the emotions perceived in others, and represent events as a society. Across two studies, we found similarities and differences among inner emotions experienced (individual level), emotions perceived in others (descriptive feeling rules, interpersonal level) and emotions shared on the internet (socioemotional conventions, macrosocial level), with all these emotional targets focused on the COVID-19 outbreak. The results indicate a similarity between the emotional meaning of COVID-19 in society and the descriptive feeling rules, whereas the reported inner emotions were clearly distinct: Joy was irrelevant at the interpersonal and macrosocial levels but clearly important at the individual level. A mismatch also appeared for fear and hope. While fear was the most predominant emotion at the interpersonal and macrosocial levels during most of the phases, it was moderately predominant at the individual level. Hope followed the opposite pattern, being the most relevant emotion at the individual level but less relevant at the interpersonal and macrosocial levels. Each level might have different consequences: Mixed emotions at the individual level might promote resilience; fear perceived in other people might motivate protective behaviors; and sadness socially shared during Christmas might generate greater empathy. These results support the complexity of emotional concepts and the suitability of exploring them at different levels of analysis.

Anticipated emotions and personal experience for predicting behavioral intentions and behavioral expectations.

We tested how anticipated emotions interact with personal experience in risk behavior to improve predictions from TPB on behavioral intention (BI) and behavioral expectation (BE) for sex without condom (Study 1) and excessive drinking (Study 2). In the moderate-high experience group, anticipated emotional profiles (AEPs) improve TPB prediction from 28% to 45% in the case of BI and from 19% to 40% in that of BE in relation to sexual risk behavior (Study 1), and from 23% to 36% in the case of BI and from 17% to 31% in that of BE in relation to binge drinking (Study 2). However, in the low-experience group (Study 2) AEPs improve TPB predictions for BI (12% to 34%) but not for BE, showing that in less experienced people BI and BE are not equivalent: anticipated emotions have different relevance in their prediction. These results were replicated using a general negative anticipated emotion index (averaging emotional categories).

Mixed emotional appeals in emotional and danger control processes.

Negative emotional appeals do not always help to reduce risk behaviors. We report two studies about a new strategy based on the presentation of appeals with mixed sequential emotions (e.g., sadness/fear-joy/relief). Study 1 shows that a mixed message generates lower post-message discomfort than an exclusively negative message; moreover, in this first study, reported probability of performing the risk behavior, binge drinking, in the future is also lower in the mixed condition. Study 2 replicates these results and relates them to the extended parallel process model (EPPM) (Witte, 1992). Here, the mixed emotional message again generates lower post-message discomfort than the negative one, and participants are motivated to control the danger (response efficacy is evaluated more positively in the mixed condition).

Using abstractness to confront challenges: How the abstract construal level increases people's willingness to perform desirable but demanding actions.

Previous research has shown that while considering future behavioral intentions, desirability is more salient in making decisions in an abstract mindset than in a concrete one. Based on this premise, we test whether behavioral intentions to engage in desirable but difficult actions are more likely in an abstract mindset than a concrete mindset. We experimentally manipulated (Studies 1 through 4 using cognitive primes) and measured as a personal disposition (Study 5 using the Behavioral Identification Form) the construal level to evaluate its influence on the willingness to perform challenges. The behaviors tested focused on self-benefits (Studies 4 and 5) and benefits to others (Studies 1 through 3 and 5). Studies 1 and 2 included only demanding behaviors, whereas Studies 3 through 5 included both difficult and easy conditions. In Studies 1 and 2, the participants were more motivated to attempt a difficult task when they were in an abstract mindset. In Studies 3 through 5, the participants in the abstract (compared to concrete) mindset reported a greater willingness and commitment to attempt desirable but demanding behaviors. Finally, in Study 5, the influence of the construal level on the global behavioral plan index (three behaviors) was moderated by feasibility. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Bright Side of Abstraction: Abstractness Promoted More Empathic Concern, a More Positive Emotional Climate, and More Humanity-Esteem After the Paris Terrorist Attacks in 2015.

ANTECEDENTS: Previous research on citizens' reactions after terrorist events has shown that positive reactions can also emerge alongside pain and horror. Positive emotions have been widely associated with an abstract style of thinking. In the context of the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015, we explored Spanish citizens' positive reactions - empathic concern, positive emotional climate, and esteem for humanity - and examined the relationships of these responses with an abstract (vs. concrete) style of thinking. METHOD: A longitudinal study was designed involving an online questionnaire that was administered 10 days, 3 weeks, and 2 months after the attacks (N = 253). RESULTS: Empathic concern and personal distress toward Parisians decreased from the weeks following the attacks to 2 months later, with empathic concern always being more intense than personal distress. Emotional climate was perceived as more hostile than positive, although positive feelings persisted. People reported moderately positive esteem for humanity. Individuals with a more abstract style of thinking reported greater empathic concern, a more positive emotional climate, and more esteem for humanity. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support and extend previous research showing that abstraction enhances people's resilience, even under traumatic circumstances such as those surrounding a terrorist attack.

The Relationships between Economic Scarcity, Concrete Mindset and Risk Behavior: A Study of Nicaraguan Adolescents.

Background: Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, with an extremely low human development index (HDI). Fifty-two percent of the Nicaraguan population are children and adolescents under 18 years of age. Nicaraguan adolescents present several risk behaviors (such as teenage pregnancies, consumption of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis). Our study examines the links between risk behaviors, fatalism, real economic scarcity, and concrete construal level for adolescents with low and middle-low socioeconomic status in Nicaragua. Methods: Nicaraguan adolescents (N = 834) from schools located in especially vulnerable areas (low economic status) or in neighborhoods with middle-low social class completed several scales and questions to evaluate fatalism (SFC-social fatalism scale), construal level (BIF) and their past and future risk behaviors (smoking cigarettes, smoking cannabis, unsafe sex, and alcohol consumption). Results: We identified that the poorest individuals who maintained a concrete style of thinking had the highest rates of past and future risk behaviors. This vulnerable group also reported the highest levels of fatalism, i.e., negative attitudes and feelings of helplessness. Encouragingly, the adolescents who were able to maintain an abstract mindset reported healthier past and future habits and lower fatalism, even when they belonged to the lowest social status. In the middle-low economic group, the construal level was not as relevant to maintaining healthy habits, as adolescents reported similar rates of past and future risk behavior at both construal levels. Conclusions: All these results support the importance of considering construal level when studying vulnerable populations and designing risk prevention programs.

Revisiting the difference between instrumental and terminal values to predict (stimulating) prosocial behaviours: The transcendental-change profile.

Past research suggests that the connection between values and people's behaviour may not be as straightforward and robust as has been claimed. We propose that a more holistic and discriminative view that acknowledges the influence of a specific combination of values on specific kinds of behaviour is needed. In the current project, we test two hypotheses regarding the transcendental-change profile (TCP). First, that TCP is characterized by a combination of the readiness to engage in those challenges (instrumental) that can make the world a better place (terminal). Second, the centrality of the TCP facilitates performance of those prosocial actions that are perceived as stimulating and global. The results of five studies support the reliability and validity of this conceptualization of TCP (Studies 1 and 2), and show that when the prosocial initiative is perceived as either global (Study 3) or stimulating (Studies 4 and 5), the TCP is the strongest predictor of the willingness and commitment to engage in such prosocial action.

Kama muta: Conceptualizing and measuring the experience often labelled being moved across 19 nations and 15 languages.

English-speakers sometimes say that they feel "moved to tears," "emotionally touched," "stirred," or that something "warmed their heart;" other languages use similar passive contact metaphors to refer to an affective state. The authors propose and measure the concept of kama muta to understand experiences often given these and other labels. Do the same experiences evoke the same kama muta emotion across nations and languages? They conducted studies in 19 different countries, 5 continents, 15 languages, with a total of 3,542 participants. They tested the construct while validating a comprehensive scale to measure the appraisals, valence, bodily sensations, motivation, and lexical labels posited to characterize kama muta. The results are congruent with theory and previous findings showing that kama muta is a distinct positive social relational emotion that is evoked by experiencing or observing a sudden intensification of communal sharing. It is commonly accompanied by a warm feeling in the chest, moist eyes or tears, chills or piloerection, feeling choked up or having a lump in the throat, buoyancy, and exhilaration. It motivates affective devotion and moral commitment to communal sharing. Although the authors observed some variations across cultures, these 5 facets of kama muta are highly correlated in every sample, supporting the validity of the construct and the measure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Abstractness and Messages Describing Consequences Promote Healthier Behavioral Intentions.

Many health-risk behaviors present a self-control conflict in which the short-term outcomes of an action conflict with its long-term consequences. Across three studies, we find that an abstract construal level leads people to focus on long-term rather than short-term consequences when both are described in a message (vs. no message). Studies 1 and 2 explore this hypothesis through a risk behavior (snacking on sugary products), and Study 3 does the same through a health behavior (physical exercise). In Study 1, the Behavioral Identification Form scale is used to measure the construal level as a personal disposition; Studies 2 and 3 use a priming task designed by Freitas, Gollwitzer, and Trope to manipulate the construal level. All these studies show that, under an abstract mindset, people who have read a mixed-outcome message (vs. no message) tend to base their behavioral plans on long-term outcomes. Individually or in small groups (e.g. school class, therapy groups) health messages can be presented along with protocols to change construal level and thus, promote healthier intentions.

Abstract Construal Level and its Link to Self-Control and to Cross-Situational Consistency in Self-Concept: Predicting Health-Risk Behavioral Intentions.

From a dispositional perspective, we extend the action identification theory (Vallacher & Wegner, 1987) and construal level theory (Trope & Liberman, 2003) to cross-situational consistency of self and self-control. Two studies examined the relationships among the abstract mindset (Vallacher & Wegner, 1989), cross-situational consistency in self-concept (Vignoles et al., 2016), and self-control (Tangney, Baumeister, and Boone 2004). In Study 1, participants (N = 725) characterized by high cross-situational consistency showed more abstraction in their thinking (p < .001, ηp2 = .17). In Study 2 (N = 244) cross-situational consistency and self-control explained 10% of construal level, with self-control being a significant predictor (p < .001). Construal level and cross-situational consistency explained 17% of self-control; both were significant predictors (p < .001). Self-control explained 8% of cross-situational consistency (p < .001). Study 2 showed that participants with higher levels of abstraction, cross-situational consistency, and self-control reported a greater intention to control their future sugar intake (p < .001). Data supported relationships among abstract construal level, cross-situational consistency and self-control.

In vivo evaluation of the effects of 10% carbamide peroxide and 3.5% hydrogen peroxide on the enamel surface.

OBJECTIVES: Bleaching of vital teeth performed at home by the patient under the dentist's supervision, using low-concentration peroxides and custom-fitted trays specifically designed for this purpose, is one of several options for this type of dental treatment, whether alone or in combination with another in-office bleaching technique. The objective of this study is to analyse the effect on the enamel surface of two bleaching products recommended for this technique. MATERIALS & METHODS: Two bleaching products were used: VivaStyle (Vivadent), a 10% carbamide peroxide, and FKD (Kin), a 3.5% hydrogen peroxide. They were applied in trays to the anterior teeth of 20 patients (10 in each group). The application times were 2 and 3 hours a day respectively for 28-33 days. Replicas of the tooth surfaces before and after treatment were obtained. These were observed with a scanning electron microscope. RESULTS: The images obtained showed that the tooth surfaces remained entire and the enamel surface structures remained normal. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that neither of the products affects the enamel surface: no post-operatory changes were observed.

Emotional ambivalence in risk behaviors: the case of occasional excessive use of alcohol.

The purpose of this paper is to study the differential and complementary role played by the theory of planned behavior (TPB) variables and by participants' emotions when recalling and describing previous experiences of such risk behavior in the prediction of the intention to repeat a risk behavior in the immediate future. We chose the behavior of occasional excessive drinking, a risk behavior characterized by evoking attitudinal ambivalence and eliciting mixed emotions, joy and sadness. The results show that emotional ambivalence is not equivalent to attitudinal ambivalence (whose indexes include that of the affective component), and that this emotional information is relevant for predicting the intention to repeat the risk behavior in the near future, enhancing the prediction of the TPB model.

At-home vital bleaching: a comparison of hydrogen peroxide and carbamide peroxide treatments.

Tray bleaching of vital teeth performed at home by the patient under the dentist s supervision, whether alone or in combination with any of the in-office techniques, provides an interesting alternative to other methods employed in this type of dental treatment. This bleaching procedure applies low-concentration peroxides to the enamel by means of a custom-made mouth tray specifically designed for this purpose. The aim of this study is to examine and compare two commercially-available bleaching products, at equivalent concentrations, for use in this technique: VivaStyle (Vivadent) and FKD (Kin); the former is a 10% carbamide peroxide and the latter a 3.5% hydrogen peroxide formulation. It examines the parameters that must be monitored during the application of this type of procedure and presents 6 cases (3 treated with one of the above-mentioned products and the other 3 with the other), establishing the bleaching power of the products and the appearance and intensity of post-operatory hypersensitivity. The results obtained show that both products are effective for the purpose for which they were designed. In general, dental hypersensitivity was minimal.

Construal level as a moderator of the role of affective and cognitive attitudes in the prediction of health-risk behavioural intentions.

In two preliminary control checks it was shown that affective attitudes presented greater abstraction than cognitive attitudes. Three further studies explored how construal level moderated the role of affective and cognitive attitudes in predicting one health-promoting behaviour (exercising) and two risk behaviours (sleep debt and binge drinking). There was a stronger influence of affective attitudes both when participants were in abstract (vs. concrete) mindsets induced by a priming task in Studies 1a and 1b, and when behavioural intentions were formed for the distant (vs. near) future in Study 2. In the case of concrete mindsets, the results were inconclusive; the interaction between construal level and cognitive attitudes was only marginally significant in Study 1b. The present research supports the assertion that in abstract mindsets (vs. concrete mindsets) people use more affective attitudes to construe their behavioural intentions. Practical implications for health promotion are discussed in the framework of construal-level theory.

How verb tense affects the construal of action: The simple past tense leads people into an abstract mindset.

Two experiments examined the influence of verb tense on how abstractly people construe action representations. Experiment 1 revealed that written descriptions of several daily events using the simple past tense (vs. simple present tense) resulted in actions and the action's target being seen as less likely and less familiar, respectively. In Experiment 2 participants wrote about a personal episode of binge drinking (using the simple past tense vs. simple present tense), and the resulting narratives were coded using the Linguistic Category Model (see Semin & Fiedler, 1991). Results revealed that events were described at a more abstract level when texts were written using the simple past tense (vs. simple present tense). The results are discussed in the context of other effects of verb form and in relation to construal level of events.

The Present Projects Past Behavior into the Future while the Past Projects Attitudes into the Future: How Verb Tense Moderates Predictors of Drinking Intentions.

Three studies examined how the use of the present versus the past tense in recalling a past experience influences behavioral intentions. Experiment 1 revealed a stronger influence of past behaviors on drinking intentions when participants self-reported an episode of excessive drinking using the present tense. Correspondingly, there was a stronger influence of attitudes towards excessive drinking when participants self-reported the episode in the past tense. Experiments 2 and 3 liked this effect to changes in construal level (Liberman, Trope, & Stephan, 2007; Trope & Liberman, 2003), with the present tense being similar to a concrete construal level and the past tense being similar to an abstract construal level.