How and why aversive personality is expressed in political preferences.

Political orientation reflects beliefs, opinions, and values that are, at least in part, rooted in stable interindividual differences. Whereas evidence has accumulated with regard to the relevance of basic personality dimensions, especially concerning the sociocultural dimension of political ideology, less attention has been paid to the more specific dispositional tendency to assign a higher weight to one's own utility above others' (i.e., socially aversive personality), which is likely to play a pivotal role concerning the economic dimension of political ideology in particular. In three studies with over 66,000 participants from 38 countries, we show that individuals with elevated levels in aversive personality tend to endorse more right-wing political orientations in terms of a single left-right dimension, hold relevant ideological beliefs tied to both sociocultural and economic conservatism, and report corresponding electoral voting behavior. We further provide support for the idea that this overlap between a dispositional tendency toward aversive behavior and a right-wing political orientation can be attributed to shared belief systems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Compilation and Validation of Two Short Forms to Measure HEXACO Dimensions in Elementary School Children.

Personality trait measures for children are rarely based on the HEXACO Model of Personality, although research using this framework could provide important insights into the structure and development of children's personalities. There is no HEXACO measure for elementary school children to date, and existing measures for older children seem inappropriate for this age group (e.g., due to some item content). We thus compiled two HEXACO-based short forms for measuring personality in elementary school children (8-10 years old) via parent reports. We applied a meta-heuristic item sampling algorithm (Ant Colony Optimization) in a training sample with 1,641 parent reports of 122 administered items. We selected a 54-Item Short Form comprising a latent facet structure and an 18-Item Ultra-Short Form comprising a correlated factors model for all six HEXACO dimensions but no facet structure. Both short forms showed good model fit in a holdout sample (n = 411) and sufficiently high re-test correlations after six months. Convergent and divergent validities for maximal performance measures and socio-emotional constructs (also measured six months after the initial personality assessment) were largely in line with theoretical assumptions. Overall, our study provides support for construct, re-test, and (predictive) criterion validity for the selected short forms.

Using sequences of life-events to predict human lives.

Here we represent human lives in a way that shares structural similarity to language, and we exploit this similarity to adapt natural language processing techniques to examine the evolution and predictability of human lives based on detailed event sequences. We do this by drawing on a comprehensive registry dataset, which is available for Denmark across several years, and that includes information about life-events related to health, education, occupation, income, address and working hours, recorded with day-to-day resolution. We create embeddings of life-events in a single vector space, showing that this embedding space is robust and highly structured. Our models allow us to predict diverse outcomes ranging from early mortality to personality nuances, outperforming state-of-the-art models by a wide margin. Using methods for interpreting deep learning models, we probe the algorithm to understand the factors that enable our predictions. Our framework allows researchers to discover potential mechanisms that impact life outcomes as well as the associated possibilities for personalized interventions.

Sticky tradition impedes selection of creative ideas.

Creativity is a driving force for human development and has fascinated scholars for centuries. Surprisingly little is known about the cognitive underpinnings of putting creative ideas into action, however. To shed light on this part of the creative process, we tracked how hand movements unfolded when choosing between either a traditional or a creative use of a given object. Participants could freely decide between both options (Experiment 1, N = 51 adults) or were prompted to select a specific use (Experiment 2, N = 51 adults). Temporal as well as spatial measures of action unfolding revealed behavior to be strongly biased toward traditional options when choosing an available, more creative option eventually. Creative behavior thus comprises two obstacles: not only coming up with new ideas, but also overcoming a lasting bias toward using old ones. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The moderating role of trust in pandemic-relevant institutions on the relation between pandemic fatigue and vaccination intentions.

This research helps to clarify the relation between pandemic fatigue (PF) and vaccination intentions (VI). Theoretically, two patterns seem plausible. First, as with any other health protective measure, PF might reduce the motivation to get vaccinated. Second, PF might increase the motivation to get vaccinated because vaccination reduces the number of (other) health protective measure needed. We tested these two opposing predictions and further explored the moderating role of trust in pandemic-relevant institutions on the link between PF and VI in two large-scale survey studies from Denmark and Germany (collected between 2020 and 2021; total N > 22,000). Data was analyzed using multiple regression models. Analyses reveal a negative link between PF and VI that is less pronounced for people high in trust. Results remain stable when accounting for covariates and quadratic trends. Thus, trust might buffer the negative relation between PF and VI.

Development and validation of the pandemic fatigue scale.

The existence and nature of pandemic fatigue-defined as a gradually emerging subjective state of weariness and exhaustion from, and a general demotivation towards, following recommended health-protective behaviors, including keeping oneself informed during a pandemic-has been debated. Herein, we introduce the Pandemic Fatigue Scale and show how pandemic fatigue evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from one panel survey and two repeated cross-sectional surveys in Denmark and Germany (overall N = 34,582). We map the correlates of pandemic fatigue and show that pandemic fatigue is negatively related to people's self-reported adherence to recommended health-protective behaviors. Manipulating the (de)motivational aspect of pandemic fatigue in a preregistered online experiment (N = 1584), we further show that pandemic fatigue negatively affects people's intention to adhere to recommended health-protective behaviors. Combined, these findings provide evidence not only for the existence of pandemic fatigue, but also its psychological and behavioral associations.

Revisiting the Relation Between Steroid Hormones and Unethicality in an Exploratory, Longitudinal Study With Female Participants.

Research on the relation between hormones and unethical behaviors and tendencies has provided mixed results, hindering the understanding of the potential biological regulation of unethical behaviors and tendencies. We conducted an exploratory, longitudinal study (N = 257 women) allowing to estimate relations between, on the one hand, steroid hormones (testosterone, cortisol, estradiol, and progesterone) and conception probability and, on the other hand, a broad variety of measures related to unethicality (self-reported personality variables, cheating in committed relationships, self-serving economic dishonesty in a behavioral task, namely, the mind game). Contrary to theoretical assumptions of and results from some previous studies, we find no consistent relation between hormones and unethical behavior or tendencies in the majority of analyses. Yet, some small, exploratory associations emerged that call for (preregistered) replications, before more firm conclusions can be made.

The role of impulse and interference control in aversive personality: A comprehensive assessment.

Ethically and socially aversive behaviors have been attributed to several personality traits, including characteristics collectively referred to under the umbrella term of impulsivity. It is an open question, however, whether such characteristics are an integral part of ethically and socially aversive personality. Relying on three large samples (total N = 9854) and implementing longitudinal assessments, the present study provides a comprehensive investigation of the role of impulse and interference control in aversive personality. Based on contemporary conceptualizations of the impulsivity domain, a total of 17 dimensions spanning both self-reports and behavioral tasks are assessed. To represent aversive personality, we consider the D Factor of Personality (D), i.e., the basic disposition shared by all aversive traits. Results indicate that D co-occurs with a deficit in inhibiting the incorrect action when multiple actions are available, a preference for immediate rewards while failing to consider the consequences of one's actions, and maladaptive behavior directed towards regulating strong affect. However, most associations between D and dimensions of impulsivity were small or non-significant, thereby disconfirming the notion that characteristics related to a lack of impulse control are an integral feature of aversive personality in general.

Does resource scarcity increase self-serving dishonesty? Most people wrongly believe so.

Does resource scarcity increase people's inclination to engage in self-serving dishonesty? Whereas some theories suggest so, we found no evidence for this across four studies, but a fifth study revealed that most people (wrongly) believe that it does. More precisely, based on three well-powered preregistered online experiments (overall N = 4,193), complemented by two pilot studies (N = 51 and N = 49, respectively) and one manipulation check study (N = 424), we provide evidence that neither exogenously induced resource scarcity nor priming people into a scarcity mindset influences people's inclination to engage in self-serving dishonesty. Furthermore, by linking country-level poverty data to a country-level indicator of self-serving dishonesty based on a recent meta-analysis comprising 47 countries and more than 44,000 participants, we found that people living in poorer countries are no more inclined to engage in self-serving dishonesty than people living in richer countries. Finally, we found that most people-and especially men and people low in Agreeableness versus Anger-wrongly believe that people living in poorer countries are more willing to engage in self-serving dishonesty (N = 658). Overall, our investigation adds new evidence to the burgeoning literature on the link between resource scarcity (in the form of poverty) and unethical behavior (in the form of self-serving dishonesty). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Testing the equivalence of the aversive core of personality and a blend of agreeableness(-related) items.

OBJECTIVE: There is an ongoing debate in personality research whether the common core of aversive ("dark") traits can be approximated by or even considered equivalent to one of the constructs that have been labeled "Agreeableness". In particular, it has been suggested that the low pole of (what we term) AG+, a broad blend of Big Five Agreeableness and the HEXACO factors Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Altruism, is essentially equivalent to the Dark Factor of Personality (D). Based on theoretical differences, we herein test empirically whether D and AG+ are isomorphic. METHODS: Self-report data on D, AG+, and eight criterion measures reflecting justifying beliefs, inflicting disutility on others, and affiliative tendencies were collected in a pre-registered study (N = 1156) and analyzed via confirmatory factor modeling. RESULTS: Results speak against unity of D and AG+ (35% shared variance) and support the notion that D subsumes a broader range of aversive content (i.e., justifying beliefs and inflicting disutility on others) than AG+, which, in turn, subsumes a slightly broader range of non-aversive, affiliative tendencies. CONCLUSION: We conclude that AG+ is non-equivalent to the common core of aversive traits, D.

A Closer Look on the Relation Between Nostalgia and Risk-Taking.

Building on the work of Zou et al. we (re-)investigated the relation between nostalgia and financial risk-taking across three preregistered, well-powered studies (overall N = 2,804). In Studies 1 and 2, we first tested whether nostalgia fosters or hampers dysfunctional or functional financial risk-taking. Finding no evidence to suggest that nostalgia fosters or hampers neither functional nor dysfunctional financial risk-taking, we tested in Study 3 if the link between nostalgia and financial risk-taking reported by Zou et al. could be replicated and extended to other domains of risk-taking. By and large, the relation between nostalgia and financial risk-taking could not be replicated nor extended to any other domains of risk-taking. Combined, the results nourish doubt on the robustness of the link between nostalgia and risk-taking observed by Zou et al.

A Short Scale to Measure Self-Reported Aversive Personality in Political Elites.

In order to explain the behavior of political elites, research increasingly considers personality traits. Within this line of research, a recent focus is on socially aversive - yet non-pathological - personality traits (e.g., Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy), with the idea to better understand behavior violating generally accepted ethical, moral, and social norms. Assessments of politicians' aversive personality traits have so far been almost exclusively based on observer reports of experts and voters. Herein, by contrast, we introduce the Political Elites Aversive Personality Scale ("PEAPS") particularly tailored to measure self-reported aversive personality among politicians. More precisely, based on two studies with German politicians, we develop a 6-item short scale comprising aspects of different socially aversive personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and spitefulness). The scale shows an acceptable model fit, an acceptable internal consistency, an acceptable measurement equivalence, and meaningful correlations with other (self-reported) psychological traits and campaign behavior. Moreover, the scale significantly contributes to the explanation of candidates' negative campaigning, going beyond the explanatory power of models capturing broad, basic personality traits. Overall, the suggested scale provides interesting links to research in (political) psychology and can help to explain attitudes, behavior, and performance of political elites.

Rethinking aversive personality: Decomposing the Dark Triad traits into their common core and unique flavors.

OBJECTIVE: To explain and predict unethical behavior, much attention has been devoted to the "Dark Triad of Personality", a set of three socially aversive personality traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Despite its popularity, research on the Dark Triad has been beset by recurring concerns surrounding the distinctiveness of its components. Herein, we propose an alternative theoretical view that conceptualizes the Dark Triad traits as specific manifestations of the common core of aversive traits (conceptualized as the Dark Factor of Personality, D) flavored by unique, essentially non-aversive characteristics. METHOD: In two studies (total N > 1000), we test this idea by examining the conceptual and empirical overlap and specificity of the Dark Triad traits vis-à-vis D and each other. RESULTS: Findings support the conceptualization of the Dark Triad traits as flavored manifestations of D and also reveal a marked discrepancy between the current conceptualization of the Dark Triad traits and the empirical structure of its subdimensions. In fact, evidence clearly failed to support the existence of a triad of traits. CONCLUSION: Conceptualizing single aversive traits as a conjunction of core D aspects and essentially non-aversive characteristics (admiration; disinhibition vs. planfulness; vulnerability vs. boldness) holds promise to move the field forward.

The Nomological Net of Knowledge, Self-Reported Knowledge, and Overclaiming in Children.

Research on self-reported knowledge and overclaiming in children is sparse. With the current study, we aim to close this gap by developing an overclaiming questionnaire measuring self-reported knowledge and overclaiming that is tailored to children. Moreover, we examine the nomological net of self-reported knowledge and overclaiming in childhood discussing three perspectives: Overclaiming as (a) a result of deliberate self-enhancement tendencies, (b) a proxy for declarative knowledge, and (c) an indicator of creative engagement. We juxtaposed overclaiming, as indicated by claiming familiarity with non-existent terms, and self-reported knowledge with fluid and crystallized intelligence, creativity, and personality traits in a sample of 897 children attending third grade. The results of several latent variable analyses were similar to findings known from adult samples: We found no strong evidence for any of the competing perspectives on overclaiming. Just like in adults, individual differences in self-reported knowledge were strongly inflated by overclaiming, and only weakly related to declarative knowledge.

The Dispositional Essence of Proactive Social Preferences: The Dark Core of Personality vis-à-vis 58 Traits.

Individuals differ in how they weigh their own utility versus others'. This tendency codefines the dark factor of personality (D), which is conceptualized as the underlying disposition from which all socially and ethically aversive (dark) traits arise as specific, flavored manifestations. We scrutinize this unique theoretical notion by testing, for a broad set of 58 different traits and related constructs, whether any predict how individuals weigh their own versus others' utility in proactive allocation decisions (i.e., social value orientations) beyond D. These traits and constructs range from broad dimensions (e.g., agreeableness), to aversive traits (e.g., sadism) and beliefs (e.g., normlessness), to prosocial tendencies (e.g., compassion). In a large-scale longitudinal study involving the assessment of consequential choices (median N = 2,270; a heterogeneous adult community sample from Germany), results from several hundred latent model comparisons revealed that no meaningful incremental variance was explained beyond D. Thus, D alone is sufficient to represent the social preferences inherent in socially and ethically aversive personality traits.

Making rights from wrongs: The crucial role of beliefs and justifications for the expression of aversive personality.

Whereas research focusing on stable dispositions has long attributed ethically and socially aversive behavior to an array of aversive (or "dark") traits, other approaches from social-cognitive psychology and behavioral economics have emphasized the crucial role of social norms and situational justifications that allow individuals to uphold a positive self-image despite their harmful actions. We bridge these research traditions by focusing on the common core of aversive traits (the dark factor of personality [D]) and its defining aspect of involving diverse beliefs that serve to construct justifications. In particular, we theoretically specify the processes by which D is expressed in aversive behavior-namely, through diverse beliefs and the justifications they serve. In six studies (total N > 25,000) we demonstrate (a) that D involves higher subjective justifiability of those aversive behaviors that individuals high in D are more likely to engage in, (b) that D uniquely relates to diverse descriptive and injunctive beliefs-related to distrust (e.g., cynicism), hierarchy (e.g., authoritarianism), and relativism (e.g., normlessness)-that serve to justify aversive behavior, and (c) a theoretically derived pattern of moderations and mediations supporting the view that D accounts for aversive behavior because it fosters subjective justifiability thereof-at least in part owing to certain beliefs and the justifications they afford. More generally, our findings highlight the role of (social) cognitions within the conceptual definitions of personality traits and processes through which they are expressed in behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Measuring parents' readiness to vaccinate themselves and their children against COVID-19.

To reach high vaccination rates against COVID-19, children and adolescents should be also vaccinated. To improve childhood vaccination rates and vaccination readiness, parents need to be addressed since they decide about the vaccination of their children. We adapted the 7C of vaccination readiness scale to measure parents' readiness to vaccinate their children and evaluated the scale in a long and a short version in two studies. The study was first evaluated with a sample of N = 244 parents from the German COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) and validated with N = 464 parents from the Danish COSMO. The childhood 7C scale showed acceptable to good psychometric properties in both samples and explained more than 80% of the variance in vaccination intentions. Additionally, differences in parents' readiness to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 were strongly determined by their readiness to vaccinate themselves, explaining 64% of the variance. Vaccination readiness and intentions for children changed as a function of the children's age explaining 93% of differences between parents in their vaccination intentions for their children. Finally, we found differences in correlations of components with self- versus childhood vaccination, as well as between the children's age groups in the prediction of vaccination intentions. Thus, parents need to be targeted in specifically tailored ways, based on the age of their child, to reach high vaccination rates in children. The scale is publicly available in several languages (www.vaccination-readiness.com).

Beyond (low) Agreeableness: Toward a more comprehensive understanding of antagonistic psychopathology.

In clinical psychopathology research, up to seven traits have been suggested as instances of antagonistic psychopathology. Those antagonistic traits, in turn, are commonly viewed as reflections of low Agreeableness as per the Big Five (BF-AG). However, specific theoretical differences between antagonistic traits suggest that other broad, basic dimensions beyond BF-AG ought to provide further points of correspondence. Specifically, whereas primarily affective antagonistic traits are closely aligned with BF-AG, primarily behavioral antagonistic traits are better aligned with Honesty-Humility (HH) from the HEXACO model and primarily cognitive antagonistic traits are better aligned with the common core of aversive traits (the Dark Factor of Personality, D). Indeed, from a theoretical perspective, D seems to be the only candidate sufficiently covering all aspects of antagonistic traits (affect, behavior, and cognition) to a comparable extent and thus affording a balanced representation of antagonistic psychopathology. We critically test these conjectures in a large and heterogeneous online sample (N = 3,396), investigating the overlap between antagonistic traits and basic personality via structural equation modeling. Results show that BF-AG, HH, and D each yield particularly strong ties to one group of antagonistic traits (affective, behavioral, and cognitive, respectively), while D offers the most balanced representation of all (groups of) antagonistic traits.

Sensitive attitudes and adherence to recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic: Comparing direct and indirect questioning techniques.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, various behavioral measures were imposed to curb the spread of the virus. In a preregistered study based on a quota-representative sample of adult Danish citizens (N = 1031), we compared the prevalence estimates of self-reported handwashing, physical distancing, and attitudes toward the behavioral measures between people surveyed with a direct and an indirect questioning approach (i.e., the crosswise model). Moreover, we investigated two possible predictors of sensitive behaviors and attitudes, namely empathy for people vulnerable to the virus and Honesty-Humility from the HEXACO Model of Personality. We also examined the interaction of both predictors with the questioning format. Survey participants reported more violation of guidelines regarding handwashing and physical distancing when asked indirectly rather than directly, whereas attitudes regarding the behavioral measures did not differ between the two questioning formats. Respondents with less empathy for people vulnerable to COVID-19 reported more violations of handwashing and physical-distancing, and those low on Honesty-Humility reported more violations of physical distancing.

Integrating psychosocial variables and societal diversity in epidemic models for predicting COVID-19 transmission dynamics.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, governments must make decisions based on a variety of information including estimations of infection spread, health care capacity, economic and psychosocial considerations. The disparate validity of current short-term forecasts of these factors is a major challenge to governments. By causally linking an established epidemiological spread model with dynamically evolving psychosocial variables, using Bayesian inference we estimate the strength and direction of these interactions for German and Danish data of disease spread, human mobility, and psychosocial factors based on the serial cross-sectional COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO; N = 16,981). We demonstrate that the strength of cumulative influence of psychosocial variables on infection rates is of a similar magnitude as the influence of physical distancing. We further show that the efficacy of political interventions to contain the disease strongly depends on societal diversity, in particular group-specific sensitivity to affective risk perception. As a consequence, the model may assist in quantifying the effect and timing of interventions, forecasting future scenarios, and differentiating the impact on diverse groups as a function of their societal organization. Importantly, the careful handling of societal factors, including support to the more vulnerable groups, adds another direct instrument to the battery of political interventions fighting epidemic spread.