The rise of robots increases job insecurity and maladaptive workplace behaviors: Multimethod evidence.

Robots are transforming the nature of human work. Although human-robot collaborations can create new jobs and increase productivity, pundits often warn about how robots might replace humans at work and create mass unemployment. Despite these warnings, relatively little research has directly assessed how laypeople react to robots in the workplace. Drawing from cognitive appraisal theory of stress, we suggest that employees exposed to robots (either physically or psychologically) would report greater job insecurity. Six studies-including two pilot studies, an archival study across 185 U.S. metropolitan areas (Study 1), a preregistered experiment conducted in Singapore (Study 2), an experience-sampling study among engineers conducted in India (Study 3), and an online experiment (Study 4)-find that increased exposure to robots leads to increased job insecurity. Study 3 also reveals that this robot-related job insecurity is in turn positively associated with burnout and workplace incivility. Study 4 reveals that self-affirmation is a psychological intervention that might buffer the negative effects of robot-related job insecurity. Our findings hold across different cultures and industries, including industries not threatened by robots. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

How social stressors at work influence marital behaviors at home: An interpersonal model of work-family spillover.

Drawing on conservation of resources and related theories, this study develops and tests an interpersonal model of work-family spillover. Our model specifies how social stressors at work (i.e., workplace incivility, abusive supervision, interpersonal conflict) result in the experience of a social-based form of work-family conflict, ultimately influencing marital behaviors at home, on a daily basis. The mediating role of burnout and the moderating role of trust were also examined. A 2-week experience-sampling study with daily employee surveys at work and at home and with spousal ratings for employees' marital behaviors in the evening provided general support for the proposed relationships. Within individuals, social stressors at work were associated with burnout symptoms, which mediated the effect of workplace social stressors on social-based work-family conflict. In line with congruence response models, we found that those who are more trusting were more negatively affected by social stressors at work. Finally, on evenings when employees experienced social-based work-family conflict, their spouses reported more withdrawn and angry behaviors and less supportive behaviors shown toward them. Overall, the present research explicates a specific form of work-family conflict, one in which social stressors in one domain result in negative behaviors in the other domain via burnout experiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Crowdsourcing hypothesis tests: Making transparent how design choices shape research results.

To what extent are research results influenced by subjective decisions that scientists make as they design studies? Fifteen research teams independently designed studies to answer five original research questions related to moral judgments, negotiations, and implicit cognition. Participants from 2 separate large samples (total N > 15,000) were then randomly assigned to complete 1 version of each study. Effect sizes varied dramatically across different sets of materials designed to test the same hypothesis: Materials from different teams rendered statistically significant effects in opposite directions for 4 of 5 hypotheses, with the narrowest range in estimates being d = -0.37 to + 0.26. Meta-analysis and a Bayesian perspective on the results revealed overall support for 2 hypotheses and a lack of support for 3 hypotheses. Overall, practically none of the variability in effect sizes was attributable to the skill of the research team in designing materials, whereas considerable variability was attributable to the hypothesis being tested. In a forecasting survey, predictions of other scientists were significantly correlated with study results, both across and within hypotheses. Crowdsourced testing of research hypotheses helps reveal the true consistency of empirical support for a scientific claim. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).