The 10 most-cited articles in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2021

Authoritarianism has been the subject of scientific inquiry for nearly a century, yet the vast majority of authoritarianism research has focused on right-wing authoritarianism. In the present studies, we investigate the nature, structure, and nomological network of left-wing authoritarianism (LWA), a construct famously known as "the Loch Ness Monster" of political psychology. We iteratively construct a measure and data-driven conceptualization of LWA across six samples (N = 7,258) and conduct quantitative tests of LWA's relations with more than 60 authoritarianism-related variables. We find that LWA, right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation reflect a shared constellation of personality traits, cognitive features, beliefs, and motivational values that might be considered the "heart" of authoritarianism. Relative to right-wing authoritarians, left-wing authoritarians were lower in dogmatism and cognitive rigidity, higher in negative emotionality, and expressed stronger support for a political system with substantial centralized state control. Our results also…

= 868), awe-induced authentic-self pursuit was linked with higher general prosociality, but lower inauthentic prosociality. The findings invite a reexamination of awe's relation with the self, while highlighting the complexity and intricacy of that relation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

It is widely assumed that experiences of awe transform the meaning of daily stresses. Across six studies we tested whether and how the experience of awe is associated with reduced daily stress levels in the moment and, in so doing, leads to elevated life satisfaction. We first documented that individuals who tend to experience greater awe on a daily basis (Study 1) or who report higher levels of trait-like awe (Study 2) report lower levels of daily stress, even after controlling for other positive emotions. In follow-up experiments, after primed with awe (compared with amusement, joy, and pride), individuals reported lower levels of daily stress (Studies 3 and 5) and exhibited lower levels of sympathetic autonomic arousal when talking about their daily stresses (Study 4). Finally, in a naturalistic study, participants who took in an awe-inspiring view at the top of a 200-foot tower reported reduced levels of daily stress and central everyday concerns (Study 6). Mediation analyses revealed that (a) the association between awe and reduced daily stress can be explained by an appraisal…

Whether people's current motivation levels increase or decline also hinge on their social environment. The current research tightly integrates motivational principles from self-regulation research with social comparison processes. In a preregistered experience sampling study including more than 5,400 social comparison situations from people's everyday life, we investigated how discrepancy assessments between the self and a comparison standard influence people's motivation and affect. Results revealed a nonlinear relationship between negative discrepancies (upward comparisons) and effort investment ("pushing"): Whereas motivational pushing increases with negative discrepancies, more extreme upward comparisons were associated with less pushing, but increased disengagement ("giving up"). The effect of negative discrepancies on pushing motivation was even more pronounced for people perceiving high control in their domain of comparison or when the domain was considered as important. Positive discrepancies (downward comparisons), on the other hand, were related to a reduction in effort…

People may want deep and meaningful relationships with others, but may also be reluctant to engage in the deep and meaningful conversations with strangers that could create those relationships. We hypothesized that people systematically underestimate how caring and interested distant strangers are in one's own intimate revelations and that these miscalibrated expectations create a psychological barrier to deeper conversations. As predicted, conversations between strangers felt less awkward, and created more connectedness and happiness, than the participants themselves expected (Experiments 1a-5). Participants were especially prone to overestimate how awkward deep conversations would be compared with shallow conversations (Experiments 2-5). Notably, they also felt more connected to deep conversation partners than shallow conversation partners after having both types of conversations (Experiments 6a-b). Systematic differences between expectations and experiences arose because participants expected others to care less about their disclosures in conversation than others actually did…

= 3,277), we demonstrate that egalitarian advocates endorse less prejudice toward, and show more support for, women and racial minorities, but harbor more prejudice toward (Studies 1 and 2), and show less advocacy for (Studies 3-6), older individuals. We demonstrate downstream consequences of this effect, such as support for, and resource allocation to, diversity initiatives (Studies 3-6). Further, we isolate perceived opportunity blocking as a critical mediator, demonstrating that egalitarian advocates believe that older individuals actively obstruct more deserving groups from receiving necessary resources and support to get ahead (Studies 4-6). Finally, we explore the intersectional nature of this effect (Study 7). Together this research suggests that when it comes to egalitarianism, equality for all may only mean equality for some. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Many people living in modern society feel like they do not have enough time and are constantly searching for more. But is having limited discretionary time actually detrimental? And can there be downsides of having too much discretionary time? In two large-scale data sets spanning 35,375 Americans and two experiments, we explore the relationship between the amount of discretionary time individuals have and their subjective well-being. We find and internally replicate a negative quadratic relationship between discretionary time and subjective well-being. These results show that whereas having too little time is indeed linked to lower subjective well-being caused by stress, having more time does not continually translate to greater subjective well-being. Having an abundance of discretionary time is sometimes even linked to lower subjective well-being because of a lacking sense of productivity. In such cases, the negative effect of having too much discretionary time can be attenuated when people spend this time on productive activities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all…

= 581; 50% male) between 14 and 86 years of age completed up to 3 waves (T1-T3) of Big Five trait questionnaires and experience-sampling assessments during 6 years. During each three-week experience-sampling period, participants reported their momentary affect and occurrences of hassles on average 55 times. Latent change models showed that increases over time in affective reactivity to daily hassles were associated with increases in neuroticism. This effect was consistent from T1 to T2 as well as from T2 to T3, and most pronounced in young adulthood. Importantly, the results were specific to associations between stress reactivity and neuroticism because changes in frequency of hassles in daily life did not predict changes in neuroticism, and stress reactivity did not consistently predict changes in the other Big Five traits. The findings help to inform theoretical models that outline how short-term states might contribute to gradual longer-term changes in traits like neuroticism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

> 1,400), we demonstrate that state mindfulness cultivated via focused-breathing meditation can dampen the relationship between transgressions and the desire to engage in reparative prosocial behaviors. Experiment 1 showed that induced state mindfulness reduced state guilt. Experiments 2a-2c found that induced state mindfulness reduced the willingness to engage in reparative behaviors in normally guilt-inducing situations. Experiments 3a and 3b found that guilt mediated the negative effect of mindfulness meditation on prosocial reparation. Experiment 4 demonstrated that induced state mindfulness weakened the link between a transgression and reparative behavior, as well as documented the mediating role of guilt over and above other emotions. Finally, in Experiment 5, we found that loving kindness meditation led to significantly more prosocial reparation than focused-breathing meditation, mediated by increased other-focus and feelings of love. We discuss theoretical and practical implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The study of volitional personality change has received increasing attention in recent years, suggesting that individuals want to change for the better particularly on those socially desirable characteristics that they lack. However, individuals do not want to change for the better on all (even socially desirable) traits alike. In a meta-analytic summary of evidence on the Big Five, we demonstrate that individuals' trait levels are only negatively related to their change goals for Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness, but not for Agreeableness and Openness to Experience. In three studies, two of them preregistered, we replicated these meta-analytic findings using the HEXACO model, showing negative relations between trait levels and change goals for all dimensions, except Honesty-Humility and Openness to Experience. Strikingly, however, these trait-specific differences in correlations of trait levels and change goals disappeared once providing individuals with personality feedback before assessing their change goals, suggesting that individuals may generally want to…