On the relationship between green space and civic engagement: The roles of well-being, outgroup trust, and activity level.

Much research has been devoted to the positive effect of green space on prosociality, but little is known about its impact on civic engagement. It is also unclear how the effect takes place. This research fills the voids by regressing 2440 US citizen's civic engagement on the vegetation density and park area in their neighborhoods. It further examines if the effect is due to changes in well-being, interpersonal trust, or activity level. Park area predicts higher civic engagement, which is mediated by higher trust in outgroups. However, the data is inconclusive about the effect of vegetation density and the well-being mechanism. In contrast to the activity hypothesis, the effect of parks on civic engagement is stronger in unsafe neighborhoods, suggesting that they are valuable resources to combat neighborhood problems. The results bring insights into how individuals and communities can benefit the most from green spaces in the neighborhood.

The effects of environmental resource and security on aggressive behavior.

Exposure to different environments has been reported to change aggressive behavior, but previous research did not consider the underlying elements that caused such an effect. Based on previous work on environmental perception, we examined the role of environmental resource and security in altering aggression level. In three experiments, participants were exposed to environments that varied in resource (High vs. Low) and security (High vs. Low) levels, after which aggression was measured. The environments were presented through visual priming (Experiments 1-2) and a first-person gameplay (Experiment 3). We observed a consistent resource-security interaction effect on aggression, operationalized as the level of noise blast (Experiment 1) and number of unpleasant pictures (Experiments 2-3) delivered to strangers by the participants. High resource levels associated with higher aggression in insecure conditions, but lower aggression in secure conditions. The findings suggest that the adaptive value of aggression varies under different environmental constraints. Implications are discussed in terms of the effects of adverse environments on aggression, and the nature's effects on social behavior. Aggr. Behav. 43:304-314, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Too hot to help or too cold to care? On the links between ambient temperature, volunteerism, and civic engagement.

We investigated the relationship between ambient temperature and prosocial behaviour in real-life settings. It was guided by two mechanisms of opposite predictions, namely (1) higher temperatures decrease prosociality by harming well-being, and (2) higher temperatures increase prosociality by promoting the embodied cognition of social warmth. In Study 1, U.S. state-level time-series data (2002-2015) supported the first mechanism, with higher temperatures predicting lower volunteer rates through lower well-being. Study 2 furthered the investigation by probing the relationship between neighbourhood temperature and civic engagement of 2268 U.S. citizens. The data partially supported the well-being mechanism and reported findings contradictory to the social embodiment mechanism. Higher temperatures predicted lower interpersonal trust and subsequently lower civic engagement. The unexpected finding hinted at a cognitive effect of heat and a compensatory mechanism in social thermoregulation. We discussed the findings regarding their methodological strengths and weaknesses, with cautions made on ecological fallacies and alternative models.

Attitudes toward cosmetic surgery patients: the role of culture and social contact.

Cosmetic surgery is increasingly popular globally, but how cosmetic surgery patients are socially evaluated is largely unknown. The present research documents attitudes toward these patients in multiple cultures (Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States). Across these cultures, attitudes toward cosmetic surgery patients were predominantly negative: Participants ascribed more negative attributes to cosmetic surgery patients and found cosmetic surgery not acceptable. Also, participants in Hong Kong and Japan were not willing to form social relationships, particularly intimate ones, with these patients. These attitudes were less negative in the United States than in Hong Kong and Japan, partly because social contact, which reduced negativity in attitudes toward cosmetic surgery patients, was more prevalent in the United States. These findings bear important implications for the subjective well-being of cosmetic surgery patients, who very often expect improvement in their social relationships through the surgery.

What Explains the Association between Usage of Social Networking Sites (SNS) and Depression Symptoms? The Mediating Roles of Self-Esteem and Fear of Missing Out.

The goal of the study was to understand the mechanisms of how social networking sites (SNS) usage is related to depression symptoms, as measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CESD). Three studies were conducted to examine the mediation roles of self-esteem and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO). In Study 1, among 347 Chinese college students, time spent on SNS was negatively associated with self-esteem; while self-esteem then negatively associated with depression symptoms. In Study 2, among 180 Chinese college students, time spent on SNS was positively related to FoMO; while FoMO then positively related to depression symptoms. In Study 3, among 233 Chinese university students, both self-esteem and FoMO were simultaneously included in the mediation model to test their respective roles in explaining depression symptoms. Results showed that more time spent on SNS was related to lower self-esteem, and higher FoMO, respectively; while self-esteem then negatively, and FoMO then positively, explained depression symptoms, respectively. In addition, when participants spent 3.5 h (Study 1), 2.5 h (Study 2), and 2.54 h (Study 3) on SNS, they reached the cutoff for subthreshold depression, as measured by CESD. Combining results from three studies, both self-esteem and FoMO mediated the relation between SNS usage and depression symptoms. This study provides implications to understand the mechanism of SNS-related depression.

Nature Does Not Always Give You a Helping Hand: Comparing the Prosocial Effects of Nature at Different Resource and Security Levels.

Humans become more prosocial after nature exposure. We proposed that the prosocial effect pertains to resource (e.g., food, water) and security (e.g., shelter, concealment) features in natural environments. Four studies tested the idea that prosociality changes with variations in environmental resource and security. Study 1 reported that urban greenspace, a resource feature to urban dwellers, predicted more volunteering in low-crime cities, but less so in high-crime cities. Studies 2 and 3 compared prosociality after exposure to natural sceneries in a Resource (high/low) × Security (high/low) design. Participants were more prosocial in the high-resource-high-security and low-resource-low-security conditions. Study 4 compared the four natural environments with two control conditions (urban, shape). It reported that not all natural environments led to higher prosociality, nor did any of them undermine prosociality. The findings supported heterogeneity in nature's prosocial effect. Implications are discussed in relation to urban greening and the evolutionary basis of nature's effect.