Disease-preventive behaviors and subjective well-being in the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Safety precautions and activity restrictions were common in the early, pre-vaccine phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized that higher levels of participation in potentially risky social and other activities would be associated with greater life satisfaction and perceived meaning in life. At the same time, prosocial COVID-preventive activities such as mask wearing should enhance life satisfaction. METHOD: We assessed the impact of COVID-preventive behaviors on psychological well-being in October 2020. A nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (n = 831) completed a demographic questionnaire, a COVID-related behaviors questionnaire, a Cantril's Ladder item, and the Multidimensional Existential Meaning Scale. Two hierarchical linear models were used to examine the potential impact of COVID-preventive behaviors on life satisfaction and meaning in life while accounting for the influence of demographic factors. RESULTS: The study revealed significant positive relationships between COVID-preventive behaviors and subjective well-being. Wearing a mask was significantly associated with higher life satisfaction, while maintaining social distancing of six feet and avoiding large groups were significantly associated with higher perceived meaning in life. Social activities including dining at restaurants and visiting friends and family were also significantly associated with higher life satisfaction and meaning in life, respectively. CONCLUSION: The study's findings support the conclusion that disease prevention measures such as social distancing and mask wearing do not reduce, and may enhance, subjective well-being during a pandemic. Utilizing the unique context of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine relationships between behavior and subjective well-being, the study also indicates that shallow or medium-depth social activities are likely to be more central to life satisfaction, whereas narrower, deeper social interactions with friends and family are more important to perceived meaning in life.

The proust effect: Scents, food, and nostalgia.

Autobiographical memories activated by the senses, particularly smell and taste, can be among the most potent and influential, an experience labelled the Proust Effect. Contemporary research has helped to explain the physiological, neurological, and psychological reasons underlying this phenomenon. Nostalgic memories triggered by taste and smell are especially self-relevant, arousing, and familiar. These memories have an even more positive emotional profile than nostalgic memories elicited by other means, with individuals reporting lower levels of negative or ambivalent emotions. Scent-evoked and food-evoked nostalgia also confer numerous psychological benefits, including enhanced self-esteem, feelings of social connectedness, and deeper meaning in life. Such memories might be harnessed in clinical or other settings.

Food-evoked nostalgia.

In three studies, we examined food as an elicitor of nostalgia. Study 1 participants visualised eating either a nostalgic or regularly consumed food. Study 2 participants visualised consuming 12 foods. Study 3 participants consumed 12 flavour samples. Following their food experiences, all participants responded to questions regarding the profile of food-evoked nostalgia (i.e. autobiographical relevance, arousal, familiarity, positive and negative emotions) and several psychological functions (i.e. positive affect, self-esteem, social connectedness, meaning in life). Study 2 and 3 participants also reported their state nostalgia. Results revealed that food is a powerful elicitor of nostalgia. Food-evoked nostalgia has a similar contextual profile to previously examined elicitors, but is a predominantly positive emotional experience. Food-evoked nostalgia served multiple psychological functions and predicted greater state nostalgia.

Psychological effects of reading: the role of nostalgia in re-reading favorite books.

Nostalgia evoked through various experiences (e.g., scents, music) has been shown to enhance emotional well-being and reduce social pain. We propose that reading a familiar book similarly can elicit nostalgia, and provide emotional benefits through narrative transportation beyond that of reading a new book. We tested the relationship between reading new versus familiar books, nostalgia, narrative transportation, and indices of social connectedness. Participants were randomly assigned to re-read a favorite novel, read a new novel of interest, or read a set of newspaper articles. Re-reading elicited greater nostalgia and social connectedness than reading a new novel or newspaper. Narrative transportation and nostalgia fully mediated the effect of reading condition on social connectedness. We discuss implications for our understanding homeostatic nature of nostalgia and mental transportation.

Making America Great Again? National Nostalgia's Effect on Outgroup Perceptions.

Nostalgia is a fond longing for the past that has been shown to increase feelings of meaning, social connectedness, and self-continuity. Although nostalgia for personal memories provides intra- and interpersonal benefits, there may be negative consequences of group-based nostalgia on the perception and acceptance of others. The presented research examined national nostalgia (a form of collective nostalgia), and its effects on group identification and political attitudes in the United States. In a sample of US voters (N = 252), tendencies to feel personal and national nostalgia are associated with markedly different emotional and attitudinal profiles. Higher levels of national nostalgia predicted both positive attitudes toward President Trump and racial prejudice, though there was no evidence of such relationships with personal nostalgia. National nostalgia most strongly predicted positive attitudes toward president Trump among those high in racial prejudice. Furthermore, nostalgia's positive relationship with racial prejudice was partially mediated by perceived outgroup threat. Results from this study will help us better understand how the experience of national nostalgia can influence attitudes and motivate political behavior.

Why Can't I Resist Those "Puppy Dog" (or "Kitty Cat") Eyes? A Study of Owner Attachment and Factors Associated with Pet Obesity.

Attachment theory posits that patterns of interaction derived from the attachment system provide a starting point for understanding how people both receive and provide care. Extending this theory to human-animal interactions provides insights into how human psychology affects pets, such as pet obesity. The goal of this study was to determine how attachment anxiety and avoidance might contribute to pet obesity. We assessed 563 pet owners' attachment-related anxiety and avoidance, as well as additional attachment-related constructs (emotional rejection, evaluation concern, caregiving, and attentiveness to a pet). We also assessed various factors associated with pet obesity, including weight, body condition, daily treats, and daily interaction. The results indicate that dog owners high in attachment anxiety are concerned about how their pet may evaluate them, leading to more caregiving and attentiveness that results in more treats given per day, and a larger body condition (but not weight). In addition, owners high in attachment avoidance may seek to downplay the possibility of the dog negatively evaluating them, thus providing more negligent care. These findings suggest that attachment plays a unique role in shaping the pet-caregiver relationship and influences various elements that contribute to pet obesity, particularly in dogs. As such, the findings may lend a novel perspective to strategies for reducing pet obesity and provide a framework for future research into pet health.

The past as a resource for the bereaved: nostalgia predicts declines in distress.

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's past, can serve as a resource for individuals coping with discomforting experiences. The experience of bereavement poses psychological and physical risks. In a longitudinal study, we examined whether dispositional nostalgia predicted reductions in distress associated with the death of a loved one. Undergraduate students (N = 133) provided information regarding their loss (time elapsed since loss, expectedness) and levels of initial grief, nostalgia, and distress (hyperarousal, intrusion, avoidance) at three time points over a one-month period (Times 2 and 3 occurred one week and one month after the initial session, respectively). Individuals experiencing higher nostalgia reported a decrease in intrusive thoughts across time, whereas those experiencing lower nostalgia reported no change in intrusive thoughts across time. Hyperarousal (physical symptoms, negative feelings) decreased across time among individuals with higher initial grief who experienced greater nostalgia, but increased across time among those with higher initial grief who experienced lesser nostalgia. No changes occurred in avoidance. Nostalgia can palliate bereavement.

Gray (Literature) Matters: Evidence of Selective Hypothesis Reporting in Social Psychological Research.

Selective reporting practices (SRPs)-adding, dropping, or altering study elements when preparing reports for publication-are thought to increase false positives in scientific research. Yet analyses of SRPs have been limited to self-reports or analyses of pre-registered and published studies. To assess SRPs in social psychological research more broadly, we compared doctoral dissertations defended between 1999 and 2017 with the publications based on those dissertations. Selective reporting occurred in nearly 50% of studies. Fully supported dissertation hypotheses were 3 times more likely to be published than unsupported hypotheses, while unsupported hypotheses were nearly 4 times more likely to be dropped from publications. Few hypotheses were found to be altered or added post hoc. Dissertation studies with fewer supported hypotheses were more likely to remove participants or measures from publications. Selective hypothesis reporting and dropped measures significantly predicted greater hypothesis support in published studies, supporting concerns that SRPs may increase Type 1 error risk.

To Help or To Harm? Assessing the Impact of Envy on Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors.

Two studies examined how envy influences prosocial and antisocial behavior. In Experiment 1, participants in an envious state (relative to a neutral state) were less helpful: They picked up fewer dropped pencils in their immediate vicinity. We expanded upon these findings by examining how envy affected both helping and harming behavior in a competitive scenario. In Experiment 2, individuals in envious or neutral states assigned puzzle tasks to another student in a prisoner's dilemma style scenario. Prosocial and antisocial behaviors were assessed via the difficulty of the assigned puzzles (easy puzzles were considered helpful and difficult puzzles were harmful). We hypothesized that experiencing envy would result in greater motive to harm as well as greater likelihood of engaging in harmful behavior. The hypothesis was supported, suggesting that envy has detrimental ramifications that go beyond the individual and extend to interpersonal relationships.

"I've grown so much": Temporal self-appraisals across the college experience.

How accurate are retrospective self-views? Though elevated views of the self are ubiquitous, there may be a notable exception: the past self. A diminished past self implies growth and development of the present self. One class of college students was followed across four years. Students rated their personal growth, purpose in life, self-esteem, and life satisfaction at the beginning of their college career and halfway through their college career. Just prior to graduation, they retrospectively rated themselves at those two time points. Compared to their actual assessments, retrospective assessments recalled less personal growth, less life purpose, lower self-esteem (but higher life satisfaction). Thus, the past self was reduced and college careers were falsely recalled as involving greater growth and development.

Anticipated nostalgia: Looking forward to looking back.

Anticipated nostalgia is a new construct that has received limited empirical attention. It concerns the anticipation of having nostalgic feelings for one's present and future experiences. In three studies, we assessed its prevalence, content, emotional profile, and implications for self-regulation and psychological functioning. Study 1 revealed that anticipated nostalgia most typically concerns interpersonal relationships, and also concerns goals, plans, current life, and culture. Further, it is affectively laden with happiness, sadness, bittersweetness, and sociality. Studies 2 and 3 assessed the implications of anticipated nostalgia for self-regulation and psychological functioning. In both studies, positive evaluation of a personal experience was linked to stronger anticipated nostalgia, and anticipated nostalgia was linked to savouring of the experience. In Study 3, anticipated nostalgia measured prior to an important life transition predicted nostalgia a few months after the transition, and post-transition nostalgia predicted heightened self-esteem, social connectedness, and meaning in life.

Nostalgia and Heroism: Theoretical Convergence of Memory, Motivation, and Function.

This article seeks to develop theoretical convergences between the science of nostalgia and the science of heroism. We take four approaches in forging a conceptual relationship between these two phenomena. First, we examine the definitions of nostalgia and heroism from scholars, laypeople, and across cultures, noting how the history of defining the two phenomena has shaped current conceptualizations. Second, we demonstrate how nostalgic experiences consist of reminiscences about our own personal heroism and about cultural role models and heroes. A review of heroism research, moreover, shows also that our recall of our heroes and of heroism is tinged with nostalgia. Third, we make linkages between heroism and nostalgia research focusing on functions, inspiration, sociality, and motivation. Nostalgia researchers have illuminated the functions of nostalgia implicating the self, existential concerns, goal pursuit, and sociality. Our review shows that heroism researchers invoke similar categories of hero functionality. Finally, we propose three areas of future research that can profit from the merging of nostalgia and heroism science, involving the mechanisms by which (a) heroism can fuel nostalgia, (b) nostalgia can promote heroic action, and (c) wisdom results from nostalgic reverie.

The Ties That Bind: University Nostalgia Fosters Relational and Collective University Engagement.

Does nostalgia for one's time at university predict current intentions to engage with the university? In Study 1, United States participants' nostalgia for their university experience (university nostalgia) at a southern public university predicted stronger intentions to socialize with fellow alumni, attend a future reunion, volunteer for their university, and donate money to their university. Study 2 replicated these findings with alumni from a northeastern private university, and extended them by finding that the links between university nostalgia and university engagement emerged even when controlling for the positivity of university experience. In both studies, feelings of university belonging mediated most of the associations between university nostalgia and university engagement. In Study 2, the positivity of the university experience moderated the relation between university nostalgia and two indices of university engagement. Specifically, university nostalgia was more strongly associated with intentions to attend a reunion and donate money among those who had a relatively negative university experience. Nostalgia for one's university past predicts future engagement with the university as well as its members.

Whatever it takes: Attitude alignment in close relationships following third-party rejection.

Individuals seek to affirm their belonging in many ways, but will they change even strongly held attitudes to do so? Attitude alignment is one mechanism by which individuals maintain ongoing relationships. We tested whether individuals would engage in greater attitude alignment (shifting their attitudes to match a romantic partner's attitudes) following rejection. Participants (N = 190) and their dating partners reported their attitudes about 51 social issues and received feedback that a third party (confederate) did or did not reject them. Dating partners then discussed two disagreed-upon social issues: One issue was peripheral to self and central to partner (PC) and one issue central to self and peripheral to partner (CP). Participants completed a post-discussion attitude measure. In the absence of rejection, individuals engaged in greater attitude alignment for PC than CP issues; following rejection, they engaged in similarly high levels of attitude alignment for both issue types. Rejected (vs. not rejected) individuals also engaged in greater attitude alignment for CP issues. Rejection led individuals to change centrally held attitudes typically more resistant to change, arguably to enhance their sense of belonging in a valued relationship.

Heroic Helping: The Effects of Priming Superhero Images on Prosociality.

Two experiments examined how exposure to superhero images influences both prosociality and meaning in life. In Experiment 1 (N = 246) exposed individuals to scenes with superhero images or neutral images. Individuals primed with superhero images reported greater helping intentions relative to the control group, which, in turn, were associated with increased meaning in life (indirect effect only; no direct effect). In Experiment 2 (N = 123), individuals exposed to a superhero poster helped an experimenter in a tedious task more than those exposed to a bicycle poster, though no differences were found for meaning in life. These results suggest that subtle activation of superhero stimuli increases prosocial intentions and behavior.

Mindfulness increases prosocial responses toward ostracized strangers through empathic concern.

Four studies tested the proposition that mindfulness and its training fostered prosociality toward ostracized strangers. In discovery Study 1, dispositional mindfulness predicted greater empathic concern for, and more helping behavior toward, an ostracized stranger. Using an experimental design, Study 2 revealed that very briefly instructed mindfulness, relative to active control instructions, also promoted prosocial responsiveness to an ostracized stranger. Study 3 ruled out alternative explanations for this effect of mindfulness, showing that it did not promote empathic anger or perpetrator punishment, nor that the control training reduced prosocial responsiveness toward an ostracized stranger rather than mindfulness increasing it. Study 4 further ruled out the alternative explanation of relaxation in the experimental effects of mindfulness. In all studies, empathic concern mediated the relation between mindfulness and one or both of the helping behavior outcomes. Meta-analyses of the four studies revealed stable, medium sized effects of mindfulness instruction on prosocial emotions and prosocial behavior. Together these findings inform about circumstances in which mindfulness may increase prosocial responsiveness, and deepen our understanding of the motivational bases of prosociality. (PsycINFO Database Record

Meaning and death-thought accessibility.

Meaning is a central feature in human life, but death can disrupt a sense of meaning. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that meaning in life and meaning in death are distinct types of meaning when mortality is salient and differentially affect death-thought accessibility (DTA). In Experiment 1, imagining a specific scenario in which meaning is preserved beyond death reduced DTA relative to a standard mortality salience prime; moreover, these effects were not due to changes in self-esteem. In Experiment 2, imagining a meaningful life when mortality is salient elicited greater DTA, whereas imagining meaning in death elicited less DTA. Imbuing death with meaning attenuates DTA, whereas meaning in life increases DTA.

The interactive effects of mortality salience and political orientation on moral judgments.

In two studies, the authors examined how threat induced by reminders of mortality would moderate the effect of political orientation on moral judgments. In Study 1, university students (n = 113) categorized their political orientation, were randomly assigned to complete a fear of death or public speaking scale, and then completed a moral foundations questionnaire. In Study 2, university students (n = 123) rated their political orientations, were randomly assigned to write about their own death or dental pain, and then completed a moral foundations questionnaire. In both studies, mortality salience intensified the moral differences between liberals and conservatives. These findings were primarily the result of the reactions of liberals, who responded to mortality salience with increased ratings of the fairness/cheating virtue in Study 1 and the care/harm virtue in Study 2.

Scent-evoked nostalgia.

Can scents evoke nostalgia; what might be the psychological implications of such an evocation? Participants sampled 12 scents and rated the extent to which each scent was familiar, arousing and autobiographically relevant, as well as the extent to which each scent elicited nostalgia. Participants who were high (compared to low) in nostalgia proneness reported more scent-evoked nostalgia, and scents elicited greater nostalgia to the extent that they were arousing, familiar and autobiographically relevant. Scent-evoked nostalgia predicted higher levels of positive affect, self-esteem, self-continuity, optimism, social connectedness and meaning in life. In addition, scent-evoked nostalgia was characterised by more positive emotions than either non-nostalgic autobiographical memories or non-nostalgic non-autobiographical memories. Finally, scent-evoked nostalgia predicted in-the-moment feelings of personal (general or object-specific) nostalgia. The findings represent a foray into understanding the triggers and affective signature of scent-evoked nostalgia.