Children's ability to recognize facial expressions plays a critical role in their emotional understanding and cognitive development. Previous research suggests that mindfulness training can effectively enhance children's facial expression recognition, yet the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, and evidence from real-world educational settings is limited. This study first conducted a cross-sectional analysis to examine the relationship between mindfulness and emotion recognition in preschoolers, with attention level tested as a mediator. A randomized controlled trial was then implemented: the intervention group received a 4-month mindfulness-based curriculum, while the control group engaged in regular non-mindfulness classroom activities. Children's facial expression recognition and attentional stability were assessed before the intervention, immediately after, and three months post-training using standardized facial recognition and cancelation tasks. Results showed that mindfulness training significantly improved both emotion recognition and attentional stability. Moreover, increases in mindfulness predicted long-term gains in facial expression recognition, with changes in attentional stability fully mediating this relationship. These findings suggest that integrating mindfulness into early childhood education may be helpful for enhancing attentional stability and emotional perception, offering valuable insights for promoting young children's emotional and social development.
This paper investigates how digital social comparison (DSC) shapes multidimensional self-concept (appearance, competence, etc.) among 398 young adults via a 12-week longitudinal experiment. Results reveal time-varying improvements in general self-concept but persistent negative effects of upward DSC. Mediation analyses identify self-discrepancy and ideal internalization as key psychological mechanisms, moderated by self-compassion, platform modality (e.g., visual platforms), and target type (e.g., influencers). Exploratory findings highlight gender/platform differences. The study clarifies DSC's role in digital identity formation, informing digital well-being interventions and platform design.
This study was designed to explore whether metaphorical cognitive restructuring has an additional effect on alleviating depression and suicide ideation among adolescents compared with literal cognitive restructuring. Participants with a score > 7 on the Beck Depression Inventory in the intervention (n = 30) and control (n = 30) groups were treated with metaphorical cognitive restructuring and general language interventions, respectively. The intervention effect was evaluated using the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation - Chinese Version, Heartland Forgiveness Scale, and Self in a Social Context - Social Connectedness Scale. After the intervention, participants showed meaningful improvements in forgiveness and social connectedness, as well as reduction in depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation.
Psychological security, the subjective perception of environments and relationships as stable, predictable, and controllable, shapes how individuals interpret ambiguity. We examined how this security drives interpretation biases across early and later processing stages in social and nonsocial contexts among 228 participants. Individuals with high psychological security consistently showed a positive interpretation bias across all stages, whereas those with low security lacked this pattern. Notably, only in social contexts did the low-security group lack an early positive bias and develop a later-stage negative interpretation bias, defined as the tendency to draw pessimistic conclusions during delayed elaborative processing. This effect was absent in nonsocial situations. These findings clarify underlying cognitive mechanisms, providing a theoretical foundation for future practical applications.
The public widely uses social media platforms to access science-related information, yet their design encourages rapid scrolling and often conceals sender details. Building on social categorization theory, we hypothesize that limited sender profile information impairs users' ability to distinguish between scientists and laypeople in science communication. In two preregistered online experiments (total N = 599), we used the Who said what? paradigm to investigate whether users can accurately categorize a sender's role or whether role confusion occurs. Results indicate that participants were prone to confuse sender roles, particularly when sender information was not immediately visible. Role confusion decreased, and correct role categorization increased when individuals were exposed to sender information and when they actively accessed this information via clicking.
We propose that higher self-compassion reduces individuals' perceptions of a downside risk to self-change. In Study 1 (N = 490), we surveyed participants' self-compassion and goal perceptions while recently giving up an important attachment. In Study 2 (N = 163), we examined these topics prospectively over 10 baseline and 10 challenge days, in which participants tried to restrict their social media use to <= 30 min/day. Both studies controlled for prior well-being. Higher self-compassion predicted higher perceptions of goal feasibility (Study 1) and lower fear of failure, fear of missing out, and perceived downside risks to reducing social media use before and during the challenge phase (Study 2). These findings provide new insight into self-compassion's role in behavioral decision-making and self-control.
Affective rumination is pervasive among employees, particularly in the high-pressure context of the BANI era, and has detrimental effects on employees' creativity. Identifying effective interventions to alleviate such rumination is therefore crucial. Drawing on data from 632 valid responses collected through the experience sampling method in three phases at FT Technology Company, this study explores the associations between mindfulness interventions, affective rumination, and employee creativity. Findings show mindfulness reduces rumination, which in turn boosts creativity. Perceived organizational support and hindrance time pressure moderate the mindfulness-rumination link, with organizational support strengthening the indirect effect. These findings offer theoretical contributions and practical insights for organizations on enhancing mindfulness training and stress management to promote creativity.
Unhealthy behaviors, like substance use, poor dietary intake, and physical inactivity, are highly harmful yet pervasive. Cognitive dissonance can motivate behavior change by highlighting the discrepancy between one's behavior and its known consequences. This systematic review reports the effectiveness of dissonance-based interventions for non-clinical health behavior change. Twenty-one studies were included, most commonly targeting exercise, condom use, alcohol use, driving safety, and COVID-19 precautions. Most interventions utilized the induced compliance and/or hypocrisy induction paradigms. Sixteen (76.2%) found beneficial effects on health behaviors measured at a follow-up. The studies demonstrated moderate risk of bias, particularly in outcome assessment, as most relied on self-report measures. Nevertheless, dissonance-based interventions may be effective in eliciting health behavior change.
Across three studies (N = 2,309), we examined the relationship between attachment insecurity and aspects of exchange orientation. Study 1 showed that attachment anxiety was related to exchange orientation toward romantic partners and acquaintances, and calculative mindset, whereas attachment avoidance was related to exchange orientation toward romantic partners and a calculative mindset. Preregistered Study 2 replicated these links longitudinally. Preregistered Study 3 revealed distinct mechanisms: need for cognitive closure mediated the link between anxiety and exchange orientation, while desire for control mediated the link between avoidance and exchange orientation. Together, we show that exchange orientation functions as a compensatory mechanism, providing predictability and alleviating uncertainty for individuals with high attachment anxiety and preserving autonomy for individuals with high attachment avoidance.
This paper extends research on how mental illness (MI) labels affect personality inference by introducing a target face. We hypothesized that the influence of label/stereotypes is limited by how individuals perceive facial cues as fitting the label. In three experiments, participants rated targets on competence, warmth, dominance, and trustworthiness based on face photos paired with either a healthy or MI label (Experiment 1), or with labels of depression and schizophrenia (Experiments 2 and 3). As predicted, labels influenced perceptions only when facial features were seen as fitting the label. In these cases, MI and schizophrenia labels increased perceived dominance and reduced other traits. When perceived to match the face, the depression label produced a distinct stereotype profile from MI, aligning with previous findings. These findings highlight the interplay between top-down and bottom-up processes in person perception, corroborating that subtle mismatches with stereotypes can reduce the biasing effects of MI labels.
This three-wave longitudinal study examined how prosocial behavior promotes psychological well-being among 1,219 older adults (aged 55+) in Hong Kong. Data were collected at T1 (September 2024), T2 (January 2025), and T3 (May 2025). Cross-lagged panel modeling and mediation analyses revealed that T1 prosocial behavior predicted T3 psychological well-being, mediated by T2 meaning in life and self-efficacy. Loneliness moderated the meaning pathway, with stronger effects for lonelier individuals. Self-rated health positively predicted mediators and psychological well-being. These findings highlight prosocial engagement as a mechanism fostering purpose and competence, especially among the lonely. Promoting prosociality, meaning-making, and health offers a culturally resonant strategy for mental health in aging Asian populations.
The present study examines how role-playing and simulations influence political participation and critical thinking among young individuals within the context of political and ideological education. The study involved 220 students from a university in China (M = 19.39; SD = 0.52). Participants in the experimental group demonstrated notable improvements in active participation, informational participation, civic engagement, and critical thinking relative to the control group. Post-test results indicated the superiority of the experimental group. Correlational analysis revealed a relationship between political participation and critical thinking, highlighting a strong correlation between active participation and problem analysis (r = 0.730).
Stereotyping and discrimination against individuals with overweight and obesity represent some of the most pervasive forms of prejudice. Across five studies (N = 1,131), we investigated whether sense of power contribute to increased social distance, thereby increasing negative stereotypes of obese individuals. Results revealed that individuals with a higher sense of power were more likely to exhibit more negative obesity stereotypes, regardless of whether sense of power was assessed as a measured construct (Study 1 and 3) or experimentally manipulated via a word-search task (Study 2a) or a recall task (Study 2b and 4). Moreover, social distance emerged as a key mechanism mediating the relationship between sense of power and obesity stereotypes (Study 3 and 4). By examining both explicit and implicit obesity stereotypes, this research offered a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the psychological processes underlying these effects. Taken together, our findings highlighted the significant interpersonal consequences of sense of power and underscored the crucial role of social distance in shaping obesity stereotypes.
Previous research suggests undermining free will belief can have detrimental effects, but few studies have examined whether there may also be benefits to tempering a belief in free will. Two experiments examined whether exposure to arguments for determinism would increase forgiveness of self and others. In Study 1, 260 participants wrote about a time they hurt someone, then were exposed to either a free will or determinism condition, where they read material consistent with those positions. Those exposed to arguments in favor of determinism were subsequently more self-forgiving. In Study 2, 262 participants exposed to arguments in favor of determinism were more forgiving and less hateful toward a transgressor after writing about a time they were hurt by someone else. Results indicate that undermining free will belief may encourage forgiveness of self and others, and suggest there may be potential upsides to tempering a belief in free will.
Most previous studies have focused on the positive outcomes associated with beliefs in social mobility; however, relatively little is known about the factors that foster such beliefs in children within the family context. This longitudinal study aimed to examine the developmental process of children's social mobility beliefs. A sample of 581 children (Mage = 10.82 years, SD = 1.14) participated in this study and completed a series of paper-and-pencil questionnaires at two time points (T1 and T2) with a six-month interval between them. The results revealed that perceived parental support predicted increased social mobility beliefs over time. Moreover, perceived parental support at T1 positively predicted perceived parental expectations at T2, which, in turn, were positively associated with social mobility beliefs at T2, after controlling for baseline (T1) levels of this outcome. These findings highlight the crucial role of perceived parental support in facilitating children's perception of parental expectations regarding future socioeconomic status (SES), which in turn promotes their social mobility beliefs.
Men communicate more abstractly than women. In addition, lay people hold a gender abstraction stereotype such that people expect men to think more abstractly than women. The current research examines whether gender differences in abstraction as well as gender stereotypes about abstraction are moderated by context (cognitive task versus communicative task). Study 1 demonstrates that gender differences in abstraction are stronger in communication contexts than cognition contexts. Study 2 provides evidence to show that people hold descriptive and prescriptive gender stereotypes about both cognitive and communicative abstraction. Given that both cognitive and communicative abstraction are associated with greater leadership attributions, understanding gender differences and stereotypes related to abstraction is important to our understanding of gender disparities in leadership emergence.
Two field experiments (N = 376, N = 424) investigated hiring bias against gay men applying for open kindergarten teaching positions. Applicants signaled either presumed heterosexuality, a same-sex marriage, or LGBT* (or control) activism. Applications were sent to state-sponsored and denominational institutions in Germany, where the latter are legally permitted to discriminate. Effect sizes indicate small differences in callback rates between conditions, with applicants signaling LGBT* activism receiving fewer callbacks than both heterosexual and married gay applicants. In denominational institutions, bias against all gay applicants was pronounced, whereas callback rates in state-sponsored institutions were largely comparable across conditions. Our findings highlight that discrimination is context-dependent and that institutional policies influence the expression of biases.
This longitudinal study examined associations between complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) symptom profiles and psychological/interpersonal adjustment in Chinese university students with adverse childhood experiences. A total of 4,006 students (58.76% male; age 18-30 years, M = 22.05) completed measures at two time points over 1 year. Latent profile analysis identified four profiles: low symptom, DSO (disturbances in self-organization), PTSD, and CPTSD groups. Regression mixture modeling showed that the CPTSD group had the poorest adjustment, with elevated depression and lower companionship quality; the DSO group also reported notable emotional and relational problems. The low symptom group consistently showed the most favorable outcomes. Findings highlight the heterogeneity of CPTSD symptoms and the need for interventions addressing both trauma-related distress and interpersonal difficulties.
This study examined the association between cyberbullying attitude and depressive symptoms among cyberbullies with guilt and fear as mediators. Two studies (college students and working professionals) were conducted through three-wave data collection. The correlation and hierarchical regression suggest that cyberbullying attitude can be associated with the development of depressive symptoms in cyberbullies, irrespective of their age and gender. The mediation analysis using PROCESS confirmed that fear and guilt can be used as links between the said association. It is the first of its kind of study that suggests that having cyberbullying attitude can be associated with the develop depressive symptoms. Secondly, it is a pioneer study that suggests guilt and fear can help link the association between cyberbullying attitude and depressive symptoms in cyberbullies, especially in the Indian context.
