Anxiety is an unpleasant, yet highly adaptive, aspect of human life. When coupled with the presence of specific situational threat cues, anxiety can promote functional threat-mitigating responses. Two experiments examined associations between anxiety and psychological responses that can reduce the threat of infectious pathogens. In each study, state anxiety was associated with heightened aversion toward possible sources of infectious disease (Study 1) and with prejudice toward a group heuristically associated with disease (Study 2), but only when the presence of situational pathogen cues was primed experimentally. State anxiety was unrelated to those outcomes in non-pathogen control priming conditions. These results highlight the joint roles that anxiety and situational pathogen cues may play in the avoidance of pathogens. At a broader level, findings provide insight into the processes by which general feelings of anxiety can promote functionally specific threat-management strategies.

Laboratory studies have linked variability in temperature to the psychology of social affiliation. In colder ambient environments, for example, people report greater loneliness, and they pursue both physical warmth and social affiliation (i.e., social warmth). Here, a field experiment tested whether tactile warmth eliminates the effect of colder ambient temperatures on desires for social affiliation. Consistent with previous research, people expressed greater intentions to affiliate on colder days. However, tactile warmth eliminated this effect. On colder (but not warmer) days exposure to a tactile warmth manipulation eliminated heightened desires for social affiliation. Findings suggest that seemingly subtle changes in temperature can have important implications for the psychology of social affiliation, and such findings apply to real-world contexts outside the laboratory.

Experiencing the tactile sensation of warmth can affect cognition and behavior across a variety of domains, including affiliation, aggression, and consumer choice. Yet few investigations have provided a theoretical rationale for when and why such effects occur. Five experiments tested the hypothesis that the tactile experience of warmth can satisfy a person's acutely active desire for social affiliation. Across 5 experiments, the tactile experience of warmth (vs. control temperatures) reduced outcomes that would otherwise be aimed at restoring a person's level of social affiliation, but this effect was observed only among people who had just been excluded (not those undergoing a control procedure) and only among people low in fear of negative evaluation-those people known to experience strongly activated affiliative motives following exclusion. Findings suggest that warmth-a sensation signaling the proximity of a close relationship partner-satisfies currently active affiliative motives. More broadly, findings provide a theoretical framework for understanding ways in which effects of sensory primes depend upon the motivational state of the perceiver.

Approach and avoidance motivations underlie much of human behavior. This paper examines an as-yet under-investigated contributor to those motivations – chemosensory responsivity. Based on the logic that the chemical senses help the perceiver to detect ecological threats, we predicted that individual differences in chemosensory responsivity may predict approach-avoidance motivations. Specifically, because people with below or above average sensory responsivity may be unable to reliably discriminate threats from nonthreats in their environment, they may consequently adopt a compensatory shift from approach to avoidance motivations. The current project tested for such a curvilinear relationship between chemosensory responsivity and approach-avoidance motivation. In Study 1, chemosensory responsivity was indexed by combined performance on the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test with detection of bitterness in a taste strip containing phenylthiocarbamide. Approach versus avoidance motivation was measured with the line bisection task. Study 2 provided a conceptual replication using self-report measures. Study 3 used a new psychophysical measure directly assessing olfactory detection thresholds, and extended the investigation to perceptions of threat-related facial expressions. In all three studies, results revealed a quadratic effect of sensory responsivity on approach-avoidance motivation, such that participants scoring relatively low or relatively high on sensory responsivity displayed higher levels of avoidance-related cognition. Elucidating the link between sensory processing and general motivational orientations has the potential to inform understanding of higher-order social cognitive functioning.

Recent research demonstrates fundamental links between low-level bodily states and higher order psychological processes. How those links interact with the surrounding social context, however, is not well-understood. Findings from two experiments indicate that the psychological link between physical warmth and social affiliation depends on the situation in which the warmth is experienced. Participants who had been primed with physical threat (as compared with control conditions) responded to warmth with stronger increases in affiliative motivation. This effect replicated across different threat and warmth primes. These findings support a view in which physical sensations interact dynamically with aspects of the immediate situation to influence the activation and application of higher order social processes. This view implies that many embodied psychological processes could function to help people respond adaptively to situational threats and opportunities.

Recent research demonstrates fundamental links between low-level bodily states and higher order psychological processes. How those links interact with the surrounding social context, however, is not well-understood. Findings from two experiments indicate that the psychological link between physical warmth and social affiliation depends on the situation in which the warmth is experienced. Participants who had been primed with physical threat (as compared with control conditions) responded to warmth with stronger increases in affiliative motivation. This effect replicated across different threat and warmth primes. These findings support a view in which physical sensations interact dynamically with aspects of the immediate situation to influence the activation and application of higher order social processes. This view implies that many embodied psychological processes could function to help people respond adaptively to situational threats and opportunities.

The current article provides evidence that the psychological consequences of incidental haptic sensations depend on motivations within the perceiver and, consequently, the effects of those sensations are moderated by motivationally relevant aspects of the individual and the immediate social context. Results from two experiments demonstrate that the physical experience of heat promotes hostile social responses, but that the strength of this effect depends on an interaction between factors in the person (level of fear of negative evaluation) and the situation (whether or not someone has just experienced rejection). People primed with heat (compared to neutral temperature) displayed increases in aggressive cognitions (Experiment 1) and aggressive behavior (Experiment 2), but those effects were observed only after rejection (not in a control condition) and only among individuals high in fear of negative evaluation (those who typically respond with agonistic motives following rejection). Findings suggest that motivationally relevant aspects of the person and situation are critical to understanding the priming effects of haptic sensations.

Recent experiments in embodied social cognition suggest a fundamental link between physical warmth and social affiliation. Findings from two experiments support the hypothesis that physical warmth serves as a symbolic cue signaling the close proximity of a source of affiliation. In Experiment 1, participants perceived a warm object as being physically closer than a cold object. In Experiment 2, being primed with warmth led participants to display higher levels of self-reported social affiliative motivation. In both studies, effects were moderated by individual differences in attachment style; priming effects were pronounced among those low in attachment avoidance and those high in attachment anxiety. These findings contribute to a growing literature suggesting deep connections between perception, physical experience, and social cognition.

Self-assessments are often prone to error. Past research has identified cognitive and motivational biases that lead self-assessments astray. In the present paper, we discuss how behavior shaped by social norms leaves the negative information that people require for accurate self-assessments invisible. First, social norms lead people to suppress critical feedback in favor of more positive evaluations. Although people recognize that they prefer to provide positive feedback to others, they fail to consider that they might be the recipient of incomplete feedback. As a result, they are left with overconfident self-impressions. Second, social norms lead people to hide their own negative emotional experiences from others. Again, people are aware that this positivity norm influences their own behavior but do not apply this knowledge to their understanding of others. As a result, people regard their own negative emotions as more socially aberrant than is actually the case.