Expressive suppression (ES) is generally thought to be a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy because frequent ES use is associated with negative psychosocial functioning. However, these findings are typically based on trait-level questionnaires to capture ES use, and fail to capture functional features of ES use in the moment, such as effort and success, and emotion characteristics, such as intensity, that might motivate ES use. In order to assess potential differences in momentary ES effort and success, and emotional intensity, we recruited High (N = 99) and Low (N = 98) Suppressors (N = 197, 82.7
Dominance and prestige are two strategies people use to attain high social rank in their groups. Dominance relies on the use of coercion and force, whereas prestige relies on sharing expertise and knowledge and serving as a role model. Although we know much about the behavior of dominant and prestigious leaders, we know much less about basic mental representations that guide people’s understanding of dominance and prestige. Two experiments tested predictions regarding spatial representations that may reflect people’s understanding of the two leadership strategies. Both experiments indicated that, compared to avatars representing dominant leaders, avatars representing prestigious male leaders were placed in closer physical proximity to subordinate group members. Findings align with work in proxemics and suggest that people conceptualize prestigious (relative to dominant) male leaders as more embedded within the groups they serve. Broader discussion centers on contributions of the current work to literature on group behavior and social cognition.
Touch aversion and touch avoidance—negative attitudes toward and behavioural avoidance of physical contact—vary considerably across individuals and relationship contexts. However, the factors underlying these differences remain poorly understood. This observational study systematically investigated the relationships between different measures of touch aversion, their behavioural manifestations, and associated individual traits. We examined touch aversion using multiple questionnaires (Touch Avoidance Questionnaire, Social Touch Questionnaire, and a novel Receptivity measure), alongside behavioural measures of touchability (body accessibility) and discomfort distance preferences. Individual difference measures included autistic traits, sensory sensitivity, threat sensitivity, and attachment style. Results revealed both convergent validity and distinctions between touch aversion measures. Whereas most measures showed intercorrelations, partner-specific touch aversion represented a distinct dimension. Contrary to expectations, discomfort distance preferences were unrelated to touch aversion measures. However, touchability showed meaningful associations with touch attitudes, with relationship-specific patterns. Partner touch aversion was more strongly related to touchability with loved ones, whereas stranger touch aversion was more strongly related to touchability with strangers. Among the individual traits, sensory sensitivity was related to partner touch aversion, and threat sensitivity was related to both stranger touch aversion and general negative attitudes toward touch. In addition, sensory sensitivity mediated the relationship between threat sensitivity and stranger touch aversion, suggesting these psychological processes work together rather than independently. These findings highlight the importance of considering relationship context when studying touch preferences and suggest that threat-related processing may be a key factor in individual differences in touch aversion.
This research examined whether observers can accurately detect physical exertion and how their ratings align with athletes’ self-reports and physiological indicators. Across five independent studies (conducted 2024–2025 in Germany), 276 observers evaluated exertion from short video clips of 103 athletes differing in age (children and adults), exertion stage (rested, medium, high), and activity type (sprinting, running, cycling, workouts, track and field) to test the primary hypothesis that people can detect exertion based on thin slices of behavior. Observers reliably detected exertion based on the results of ANOVA and Pearson correlation analyses: ratings increased with physical load and correlated strongly with both self-reports and heart rate data, indicating reliance on valid perceptual cues. Comparisons showed slightly stronger correlations between self-reports and heart rate than between observer ratings and heart rate. Notably, after highly strenuous tasks, observers tended to underestimate exertion relative to athletes’ self-ratings. These findings highlight the accuracy of thin-slice judgments of exertion while revealing systematic underestimation at peak effort, offering insights with practical implications for sports performance monitoring and training feedback.
