Future events are inherently uncertain in terms of possible delays and outcomes. The perception and estimation of such uncertainty might not only affect the construal of future events but also play a critical role in intertemporal preference. This article presents one interview and two vignette studies that examined how people perceive and estimate the uncertainty in the delays and outcomes of future events, as well as their interrelationships in the gain and loss domains. It was found that the perceived distributions of future delays tended to be positively skewed for both gains and losses, whereas the perceived distributions of future outcomes tended to follow asymmetric distributions as well, but different scenarios and measuring methods might lead to different measured directions of perceived skewness. Furthermore, for both gains and losses, anticipated (i.e., the estimated most likely) delays and outcomes are positively associated with the range (i.e., the level of perceived uncertainty) of the relevant estimates, respectively. Finally, the estimation of outcomes is often contingent on estimated delays in terms of possible outcomes, their range, and the shape of the relevant distribution. Overall, this research presents a richer and more comprehensive picture of perceived uncertainty in the delays and outcomes of future events. More broadly, the current findings have significant theoretical and empirical implications for understanding and improving human judgment, estimation, and intertemporal decisions in general. Future research on intertemporal preference should incorporate this long-overlooked picture to generate more realistic stimuli for a better understanding of the cognitive and affective mechanisms underlying real-life intertemporal decisions.
Health behavior procrastination (e.g., exercise procrastination and bedtime procrastination), which has been linked to self-control failure, has attracted increasing attention in health psychology. Given evidence that meaning in life is positively associated with self-control, the present study aimed to examine the associations between meaning in life and health behavior procrastination via self-control. Three waves of data, with one-month intervals between assessments, were collected from 713 undergraduate students from a medical department in China. The Three-dimensional Meaning in Life Scale, Brief Self-Control Scale, Exercise Procrastination Scale, and Bedtime Procrastination Scale were used to assess meaning in life, self-control, and health behavior procrastination. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that Time 1 meaning in life positively predicted Time 2 self-control, which, in turn, negatively predicted exercise procrastination and bedtime procrastination at Time 3. A small indirect longitudinal association between Time 1 meaning in life and Time 3 health behavior procrastination through Time 2 self-control was also observed. The present study provides support for the longitudinal association between meaning in life and health behavior procrastination, although the evidence was more limited support for exercise procrastination. It also provides statistical evidence for a small indirect longitudinal association through self-control. These findings contribute to understanding the longitudinal associations between meaning in life and health behavior procrastination.
Perceived economic inequality has wide-ranging effects on individuals’ sociopsychological consequences, yet relatively little is known about how it shapes individuals’ self-perceptions in the workplace. The present study ( N = 1018) addresses this gap by examining whether perceived economic inequality, as a macro-level environmental factor, fosters working self-objectification and by identifying financially contingent self-worth (FCSW) as a key psychological mechanism. In addition, we investigate whether these processes contribute to the rationalization of exploitative workplace practices. Across four studies, we provide converging evidence for our hypotheses. Study 1 found that perceptions of economic inequality at the national level and in daily life were positively associated with working self-objectification. Studies 2–4 established the causal relationship between perceived economic inequality and working self-objectification through experimental designs employing fictitious society paradigms. These studies (Studies 2–4) consistently show that FCSW mediates the relationship between perceived economic inequality and working self-objectification, suggesting that individuals who base their self-worth on financial success are more likely to perceive themselves as tools in the workplace. Importantly, Study 3 demonstrated that the intervention aimed at reducing FCSW mitigated the effect of subjective economic inequality on working self-objectification. Finally, Study 4 uncovered a critical downstream consequence: increased FCSW and working self-objectification driven by perceived economic inequality led individuals to rationalize exploitative workplace practices, such as unpaid overtime. Together, these findings extend the literature on subjective economic inequality by demonstrating its influence on individuals’ self-perception in the workplace. By linking macro-level inequality to micro-level psychological processes, this research highlights how structural conditions may contribute to the internalization and perpetuation of exploitative organizational norms.
Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty characterised by challenges in reading and spelling abilities; these struggles are linked to academic challenges and emotional stress during adolescence. These difficulties are associated with lower levels of self-efficacy and motivation, which are essential for students to engage in learning and overcome challenges in achieving academic success. This narrative review synthesises papers from 2012 to 2024 that examine secondary school students aged 13–17 years with dyslexia. It adopts Bandura's Social Cognitive theory to categorise the literature into personal factors (self-efficacy, motivation, past achievements, emotions, self-regulation), environmental factors (e.g., teacher, family and peer support, classroom practices, assistive technology) and behavioural outcomes (e.g., academic achievement and psychological well-being). The findings reveal that individuals with dyslexia typically experience lower levels of academic self-efficacy and motivation, which is often linked to literacy challenges or inconsistent support systems and negative educational experiences. Evidence from correlational and intervention studies showed that approaches involving multisensory and personalised instruction, technology-enhanced learning, and supportive relationships among teachers and peers were identified as meaningful contributors, and are associated with small to moderate gains in self-efficacy, motivation, and various academic and emotional outcomes. Family support and a positive school environment are related to higher levels of motivational beliefs and learning behaviour among adolescents with dyslexia. The synthesis highlights important gaps in the research field, especially for adolescents with dyslexia and experiences in cultural, instructional and technological learning environments. Future studies should employ larger, more diverse samples, especially in underrepresented Asian contexts, and adopt longitudinal designs to explore how early, sustained, and digitally supported interventions can enhance self-efficacy and promote academic resilience within this population.
Accurate self-assessment of Big Five personality traits in middle childhood remains challenging. To address this gap, this study developed and validated the Chinese Pictorial Big Five Personality Inventory for Children (CPBFI-C), a novel self-report tool designed for children as young as 6 years old. The CPBFI-C was developed based on the facet-informed structure of the Big Five Inventory-2, with items sampled to represent diverse facet content within each domain and combined with pictorial stimuli tailored to Chinese cultural contexts to enhance comprehension and engagement. In Study 1, based on a sample of 2,484 primary school students (Sample 1, aged 6–14), the CPBFI-C demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, good test–retest reliability, and excellent structural validity via exploratory structural equation modeling. Crucially, the scale achieved strict measurement invariance across age groups (6–9 vs. 10–14 years) and partial strict invariance across sex. Furthermore, partial scalar invariance was established between the picture-based version and the text-only version administered to Sample 2, which comprised 2,282 students in Grades 4–7. The alignment method was employed for sex and test format and confirmed approximate measurement invariance, thus allowing for meaningful group comparisons. These results support the scale's robust psychometric properties across diverse demographics and formats. In Study 2, utilizing three independent subsamples for external validation, the CPBFI-C showed statistically significant and meaningful self–other agreement with parent-reported personality. Furthermore, it exhibited strong external validity through theoretically consistent correlations with children's self-reported depressive symptoms and teacher-evaluated academic performance. Alignment-with-covariates analysis further showed broadly comparable associations across sex groups. In summary, the CPBFI-C is a reliable, valid, and engaging instrument, and provides researchers with an effective Big Five self-assessment tool for measuring children as young as 6 years old.
Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Vallerand's hierarchical model of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, this research developed the Work Motivation Inventory (WMI). Two studies were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of this scale. Study 1 (N = 497) utilized Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to identify an initial eight-factor structure as a preliminary exploratory finding. In Study 2 (N = 604), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to further refine the scale and validate its final structure. This process resulted in a 40-item full version and a 24-item short form. The validated WMI possesses a seven-factor hierarchical structure, comprising: Amotivation, External Regulation (as a second-order factor with Material and Social sub-factors), Introjected Regulation, Identified Regulation, Intrinsic Motivation to Know, Intrinsic Motivation to Accomplish, and Intrinsic Motivation to Experience Stimulation. Reliability and validity analyses indicated that both the full and short versions possess high internal consistency and criterion-related validity. The WMI provides a psychometrically sound tool for measuring work motivation, offering practical and theoretical insights for building learning organizations, and understanding the underlying structure of work motivation.
Intertemporal choices involve decisions that balance trade-offs occurring at different points in time. Previous research on self–other differences in intertemporal choice, often interpreted through a psychological-distance framework, has produced mixed findings. The authors propose that part of this heterogeneity reflects systematic changes in response randomness under greater psychological distance, which can alter observed choice proportions and recovered discounting indices even when underlying time preferences are not systematically shifted. To test this response-randomness hypothesis, they conducted a pre-registered within-subject eye-tracking experiment ( N = 100), in which the participants completed the same set of monetary intertemporal choices for themselves and for an anonymous stranger. Behaviorally, the participants chose a higher proportion of the larger-later options when deciding for the anonymous stranger than when deciding for themselves. However, multiple analyses converged on increased response randomness when deciding for the anonymous stranger. The authors examined the intertemporal preferences using a standard hyperbolic discounting model and quantified choice errors as deviations from the model-predicted responses. In addition, they applied a hierarchical Bayesian implementation of dynamic decision field theory to estimate a decision threshold parameter indexing response randomness, and examined whether this parameter statistically mediated the self–other difference in choice proportions. Across the measures, the choices for others were consistently noisier. The participants produced more choice errors, and the decision threshold was lower when choosing for the anonymous stranger, indicating reduced response consistency. The differences in response randomness were strongly associated with differences in time preference across roles and mediated the effect of role on the proportion of larger-later choices. The eye-tracking results further showed reduced engagement and less systematic information search for others, indexed by shorter total dwell time, reduced information inspection, and lower systematicity of the search. Trial-level mediation further suggested that reduced information acquisition and less systematic search partially contributed to choice differences across conditions. Together, these findings indicate that socially distanced intertemporal choices are accompanied by noisier responding and altered information processing, helping to clarify why self–other patterns in the literature can appear inconsistent across tasks and analytic approaches.
Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for the maturation of functional brain networks, supporting cognitive and behavioral development. While normative developmental trajectories of functional networks have been well documented, patterns of individual variability and their developmental changes remain to be clarified. Using cross-sectional resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging datasets from 257 children (aged 6–12 years) and 60 healthy adults (aged 18–29 years), the authors characterized the spatial organization of individual variability in functional networks and its developmental progression. Additionally, a longitudinal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging dataset of 137 children (baseline age 6–12 years) was used to examine the individual uniqueness of functional network organization over an approximately one-year developmental interval. In children and adolescents, individual variability exhibited an adultlike spatially heterogeneous pattern, with lower variability mainly in primary visual and sensorimotor cortices and higher values primarily in association regions (e.g., frontoparietal network) involved in higher-order cognition. Spatial similarity to the adult variability pattern increased linearly with age. Developmental changes in individual variability were functional-systems-specific, showing a significant decrease in the visual system but relatively modest changes in the default mode and ventral/dorsal attention systems. Longitudinal identification analyses further demonstrated high individual discriminability based on whole-brain connectivity, as well as higher-order systems including the frontoparietal, default mode, and dorsal attention networks. These findings advance understanding of how individual-variability and individual-specific functional-connectivity signatures are organized and evolve during late childhood, providing a developmental reference for connectome-based individualized characterization.
A large number of studies have shown that economic inequality, as a macro social environmental factor, has a significant impact on individual's unethical behavior, but its psychological mechanisms have not been well understood. Based on the existing literature, this paper proposes a three-level model in which economic inequality affects unethical behavior through societal (e.g., immoral and competitive normative climates), interpersonal (e.g., relative deprivation, risk-seeking tendency), and intrapersonal (e.g., perceptions of unfairness, moral disengagement) psychological process. Visibility of inequality, socioeconomic status, power, attributions for inequality, system-justifying beliefs, descriptive framework of inequality may moderate the relationship between economic inequality and unethical behavior. The three-level model helps us understand the mechanisms by which economic inequality affects unethical behavior, and provides a framework for future research on the impact of economic inequality on people's psychology and behaviors. Future research should further explore the potential differences in the impact of subjective and objective economic inequality on unethical behavior, as well as the potential differences in the effects of economic inequality on various types of unethical behavior. It is also necessary to explore other potential explanatory mechanisms and moderating factors, and to conduct cross-cultural studies on the subsequent effects of economic inequality.
Notwithstanding its growing popularity and advantages over exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, no studies have as yet employed psychometric network analysis with clinical subjects for attempting to resolve the dilemma about the dimensional structure of one of the most widely employed self-report measures of psychopathology: the Symptom Checklist-90-R [SCL-90-R]. This is the first study to do so. Clique Percolation, a network community detection algorithm that can accomodate overlapping nodes (symptoms), was applied to SCL-90-R self-ratings of a combined psychiatric patient and community sample ( n = 2,069). Thirteen replicable and reliable primary communities (dimensions) that also differentiated the patient from the community sample in the predicted direction were yielded: Dysphoria , Interpersonal Sensitivity , Negative Self-Evaluation , Cognitive-Performance Deficits , Anxiety-Fear , Agoraphobia , Hostility , Social Anxiety , Somatic Anxiety , Cardiopulmonary Symptoms , Mistrust , Thought-Related Delusions , and Existential Distress . Visual inspection of the conditional associations between these 13 primary communities suggested the possibility of three higher-order dimensions: Panic with agoraphobia, Depression, and Interpersonal difficulties. The primary dimensions of Hostility and Thought-Related Delusions were the two least central dimensions in this visual alignment. Thirteen primary symptom dimensions are now available for further research on measurement invariance across relevant subject parameters (e.g., gender, age, clinical status) and for obtaining data on symptom status at initial patient interview and on patient reported outcome (to monitor treatment progress). Tentatively, in the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology [HiTOP], Hostility could be located in the Antagonistic Disinhibited Spectrum and Thought-Related Delusions in the Thought Disorder Spectrum. The remaining 11 primary dimensions could all be allocated to the HiTOP Internalizing Spectrum.
Historical narratives encode how people today perceive, understand, and reconstruct past realities. One basic form focuses on historical trajectories and encodes perceived changes. Here, we show that perceived changes in economic inequality are predicted by its objective changes over time, while both diverge from shifts in public attention to economic inequality. Using the Fill-Mask Association Test (FMAT), a new social computing paradigm, we quantified public perceptions of changes in economic inequality from 1800 to 2019, as represented semantically in large contemporary English-language texts. Perceived changes are consistent with how economic inequality has actually changed in the long history, which was replicated using various time series analysis methods (e.g., cross-correlation, vector autoregression, Granger causality test). In contrast, public attention to economic inequality, as measured by word frequency in Google Books, did not fluctuate in line with either objective or perceived changes. Our findings demarcate the objective–subjective relationships of economic inequality from a historical-psychological perspective. Objective changes are accurately perceived and encoded in natural language texts, forming a collective memory of economic inequality in history.
Chile's recent history offers an ideal setting for analyzing the changes in people's intolerance of economic inequality. The authors focused on the period between 2016 and 2022, during which the country experienced strong collective action against economic inequality-the so-called "social outburst." They used data from the Longitudinal Social Study of Chile (Estudio Longitudinal Social de Chile), a nationally representative longitudinal panel survey initiated in 2016 with a baseline sample of 2,927 participants. In 2018, a refreshment sample of 1,500 participants was added to the study. Latent Class Growth Analysis was employed to identify distinct subgroups of Chileans with varying intolerance toward economic inequality over time. Three trajectories were found: high intolerance, ascending intolerance, and descending intolerance. The authors then investigated the factors that were most likely to account for these trends in 2016. Educational attainment and satisfaction with the current constitution were key factors for differentiating these trajectories. Finally, the authors analyzed differences in political attitudes and behaviors between the groups that exhibited different trajectories in 2022, showing that the high intolerance group participated more in collective action and displayed greater interest in politics compared to both the descending and ascending intolerance groups. The results are discussed, highlighting the importance of focusing on changes within individuals in intolerance toward economic inequality.
Despite the prevalence of intertemporal decision-making in interpersonal contexts, few studies shed light on how the facial expression of the proposer influences the recipient's intertemporal choices during human interactions. Addressing this gap, the authors conducted a three-experiment investigation into how smiling-one of the most important facial expressions conveying a willingness to engage in cooperative and pleasant social exchanges-shapes others' intertemporal choices. Experiment 1 examined the effect of smiling on intertemporal choices in a real-life context; Experiment 2 focused on the mediating role of interpersonal trust in a laboratory setting; and Experiment 3 explored how environmental uncertainty moderated the influence of smiling on intertemporal choices. The results demonstrate that smiling led to more farsighted choices through the mediation of interpersonal trust, and environmental uncertainty moderated the mediating role of interpersonal trust. Thus, this research may provide a tool to nudge people into making far-sighted choices.
Functional interactions among regions are largely shaped by the underlying structural architecture of the human brain. However, how structural networks develop during the prenatal period to support functional activity and cognitive development later in life remains poorly understood. In this study, we employed multi-modal MRI data from 40 neonates, aged 31 to 42 postmenstrual weeks, to characterize the maturation of structure-function coupling during the third trimester. We further examined whether this coupling could predict neurocognitive outcomes at two years of age. During this period, higher structure-function coupling was observed in the frontal and occipital lobes, whereas lower coupling was evident in the temporal lobe and limbic system. As development progressed, coupling in the frontal and parietal regions increased significantly, suggesting enhanced structural support for functional networks in these high-order cognitive related areas. Support vector regression analysis further revealed that structure-function coupling at birth significantly predicted the cognitive and language scores at two years of age. Together, these findings highlight the critical role of early structural organization in shaping subsequent cognitive development.
This research examined the experience of extradyadic infatuation, i.e., the tendency to think and to have feelings and desires about someone outside one's committed relationship, building on previous work on sexual fantasies and "crushes". This research examined the experience of extradyadic infatuation, i.e., the tendency to think and to have feelings and desires about someone outside one's committed relationship, building on previous work on sexual fantasies and "crushes". While past research mostly focused on the intensity of the extradyadic attraction, we aimed to explore the psychological dynamics of this experience. To this end, across three studies (total N = 546), we developed and examined the Extradyadic Infatuation Scale (EIS) and its relationships with other personal and relationship characteristics. Our first study examined the dimensionality and reliability of EIS. The second investigated its factorial structure, its criterion and construct validity through its associations with actual infidelity behaviors, authenticity and intimacy in one's committed relationship, as well as its links with two other psychological dynamics of the committed relationship, i.e., and jealousy and respect for one's partner. The third study examined the temporal stability of the EIS. The results suggest that the EIS has good psychometric properties and that individuals scoring higher on this scale are less emotionally intimate with, less respectful of, and more jealous of their committed partner. These associations may reflect, at least partly, ways in which extradyadic infatuation can increase the likelihood of infidelity and extend existing knowledge on the psychological and relational dynamics associated with extradyadic attraction.
The achievement goal perspective highlights the importance of mastery-approach goals in facilitating students' academic achievement. However, a socio-ecological lens would suggest that the effectiveness of these mastery-approach goals might vary across different levels of income inequality, specifically national- and school-level income inequality. Understanding the role of income inequality is essential for advancing a socio-ecologically sensitive achievement goal approach. This study examines whether the association between mastery-approach goals and academic achievement is moderated by national- and school-level income inequality. Our hypothesis is that the adaptive benefits associated with mastery-approach goals are weaker in socio-ecological contexts with higher national- and school-level income inequality. The study involved 273,269 students nested in 10,785 schools from 33 countries. The results revealed that both national- and school-level income inequality significantly moderated the associations between mastery-approach goals and academic achievement in the three focal subjects of mathematics, reading, and science. Both national- and school-level income inequality weakened the positive role of mastery-approach goals, and this was especially pronounced for lower socioeconomic status students. These findings underscore the importance of considering socio-ecological contexts when evaluating the impact of mastery-approach goals on academic outcomes, highlighting the need to address both achievement goals and broader socio-ecological contexts to support academic success for all students.
Understanding how intrapersonal emotions shape prosocial behavior remains a central question in social and affective science. This research examines the roles of self-experienced emotions and trait empathy across three complementary studies. Study 1 (N = 503) assessed stable emotionality, trait empathy, and dispositional prosocial tendencies. Study 2 (N = 80) employed a daily diary design to capture how daily emotional fluctuations and trait empathy related to daily prosocial actions over time. Study 3 (N = 466) manipulated emotional states through video exposure to examine their effects on donation and volunteering, while testing trait and state empathy mechanisms. Across the three studies, we found that both positive and negative self-emotions were associated with higher prosocial behavior, but mainly among individuals with lower trait empathy, while high-empathy individuals remained consistently prosocial regardless of emotional states. This pattern supports an affect-as-compensation framework, suggesting that self-emotions may serve as motivational signals that compensate for weaker trait empathy. These effects varied in strength depending on contextual factors such as temporal accumulation or prosocial task type. Importantly, we identified distinct mechanisms behind this compensation: among low-empathy individuals, the effects of positive self-emotion were linked to higher other-oriented state empathy, empathic concern and empathic hopefulness, even after accounting for interpersonal emotions. In contrast, the effects of negative self-emotion were not reliably associated with state empathy and were instead related to greater norm-focused reasoning, suggesting a possible non-empathic motivational pathway. Together, this research offers an integrative answer to what kinds of emotions matter, who they affect, and how their effects unfold. It advances theories of emotion-driven prosociality by clarifying boundary conditions and mechanisms, and provides practical implications for cultivating prosociality.
This research investigates the relationship between perceived economic inequality and collective nostalgia in China, proposing that inequality perceptions foster longing for an idealized past, with conspiracy beliefs mediating this process. A pilot study (N = 319) revealed a significant association between perceived economic inequality and collective nostalgia. Study 1 (N = 320) confirmed the mediating role of conspiracy beliefs, while Study 2 (N = 300) replicated these findings. Study 3 (N = 360) experimentally manipulated perceived economic inequality, showing that higher inequality perceptions increased collective nostalgia, with conspiracy beliefs mediating this effect. Together, these findings provide a novel theoretical perspective on how perceived economic inequality shapes collective emotional responses, offering broader implications for understanding public reactions to inequality in contemporary societies.
