Pretty crowds are happy crowds: the influence of attractiveness on mood perception.

Empirical findings predominantly support a happiness superiority effect in visual search and emotion categorization paradigms and reveal that social cues, like sex and race, moderate this advantage. A more recent study showed that the facial attribute attractiveness also influences the accuracy and speed of emotion perception. In the current study, we investigated whether the influence of attractiveness on emotion perception translates into a more general evaluation of moods when more than one emotional target is presented. In two experiments, we used the mood-of-the-crowd (MoC) task to investigate whether attractive crowds are perceived more positively compared to less attractive crowds. The task was to decide whether an array of faces included more angry or more happy faces. Furthermore, we recorded gaze movements to test the assumption that fixations on happy expressions occur more often in attractive crowds. Thirty-four participants took part in experiment 1 as well as in experiment 2. In both experiments, crowds presenting attractive faces were judged as being happy more frequently whereas the reverse pattern was found for unattractive crowds of faces. Moreover, participants were faster and more accurate when evaluating attractive crowds containing more happy faces as well as when judging unattractive crowds composed of more angry expressions. Additionally, in experiment 1, there were more fixations on happy compared to angry expressions in attractive crowds. Overall, the present findings support the assumption that attractiveness moderates emotion perception.

Valuing humans over animals - Gender differences in meat-eating behavior and the role of the Dark Triad.

Empirical findings demonstrate gender differences in attitudes toward meat consumption and actual meat-eating behavior. Furthermore, several studies have found that men score higher on all three Dark Triad personality dimensions (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy). In this study, we investigated whether these personality differences mediate the association between gender and meat-eating justification, which in turn was expected to predict meat consumption. Two-hundred-fifty-seven participants took part in the study. We replicated the finding that men score higher on direct justification strategies with respect to meat consumption and report less often that they are vegetarians or vegans. Moreover, and most importantly, gender differences in Machiavellianism (but not in the other Dark Triad traits) significantly mediated these gender differences in meat-eating justification strategies, which in turn predicted meat consumption. These findings support the idea that Machiavellianism is partly able to explain gender differences in meat-eating justification, which is associated with higher meat consumption.

Postponing sleep after a stressful day: Patterns of stress, bedtime procrastination, and sleep outcomes in a daily diary approach.

Sleep problems and stress are common among students and are associated with negative effects on academic performance as well as mental and physical health risks, but studies exploring mediating factors between stress and sleep on a daily basis are scarce. This study aimed to investigate the relationship of daily stress, Bedtime procrastination (BP) (i.e., postponing bedtime without external reasons), and sleep outcomes controlling for trait factors such as self-control. N = 96 students at a German university (M = 22.2 years, SD = 4.0) wore a sleep-tracking wearable (Fitbit Charge HR) for two weeks to assess sleep duration and to calculate the gap between the intended time to go to sleep and the objectively measured time of falling asleep. Stress, intended time to go to sleep, and sleep quality were assessed via daily diaries. Established questionnaires were used to measure trait self-control, trait BP, and smartphone addiction. Multilevel analyses indicated that more stress experienced during the day was associated with more BP (b = 2.32, p = 0.008), shorter sleep duration (b = -3.46, p = 0.003), and lower sleep quality (b = 1.03, p = 0.005) after controlling for several trait factors. The association of daily stress with sleep outcomes (quality and duration) was partly mediated by BP. Our findings indicate that BP might be one factor that contributes to stress-linked decreases in sleep duration and quality. Potential reasons for stress-related later time to fall asleep-like higher physiological arousal or stress-related worries-should be investigated in future studies.

On the difficulty to think in ratios: a methodological bias in Stevens' magnitude estimation procedure.

In the field of new psychophysics, the magnitude estimation procedure is one of the most frequently used methods. It requires participants to assess the intensity of a stimulus in relation to a reference. In three studies, we examined whether difficulties of thinking in ratios influence participants' intensity perceptions. In Study 1, a standard magnitude estimation procedure was compared to an adapted procedure in which the numerical response dimension was reversed so that smaller (larger) numbers indicated brighter (darker) stimuli. In Study 2, participants first had to indicate whether a stimulus was brighter or darker compared to the reference, and only afterwards they estimated the magnitude of this difference, always using ratings above the reference to indicate their perception. In Study 3, we applied the same procedure as in Study 2 to a different physical dimension (red saturation). Results from Study 1 (N = 20) showed that participants in the reversal condition used more (less) extreme ratings for brighter (darker) stimuli compared to the standard condition. Data from the unidirectional method applied in Study 2 (N = 34) suggested a linear psychophysical function for brightness perception. Similar results were found for red saturation in Study 3 (N = 36) with a less curved power function describing the association between objective red saturation and perceived redness perception. We conclude that the typical power functions that emerge when using a standard magnitude estimation procedure might be biased due to difficulties experienced by participants to think in ratios.

Measuring Achievement, Affiliation, and Power Motives in Mobility Situations: Development of the Multi-Motive Grid Mobility.

The current study introduces the Multi-Motive Grid Mobility (MMG-M) in an age-stratified sample (N = 206) that aims to disentangle six motive components - hope of success, hope of affiliation, hope of power, fear of failure, fear of rejection, and fear of power - in mobility-related and mobility-unrelated scenarios. Similar to the classical Multi-Motive Grid (MMG), we selected 14 picture scenarios representing seven mobility and seven non-mobility situations. The scenarios were combined with 12 statements from the MMG. Both the MMG-M and MMG were assessed to allow comparability between psychometric criteria. The results of confirmatory factor analyses yielded a good model fit for a six-factor solution with an additional mobility factor for the MMG-M. Internal consistency of the items was similar to the MMG. Lastly, we investigated associations between the motive components and mobility-related variables. We found that risk awareness was positively related to all fear components in both mobility and non-mobility scenarios. Most importantly, physical constraint was positively associated with fear of rejection and fear of power in mobility situations underlining the importance to create support systems to reduce these concerns in people's everyday lives.