Higher inequality creates an environment of restlessness in which both the poor and the rich feel obliged to seek wealth and status, albeit for different reasons

Restless in an Unequal World: Economic Inequality Fuels the Desire for Wealth and Status. Zhechen Wang, Jolanda Jetten, Niklas K. Steffens. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, April 3, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221083747

Abstract: Building on theories explaining social outcomes of economic inequality, our research examined the psychological impact of inequality on the desire for wealth and status. Our studies provide both experimental (Studies 1 and 3, Ns = 321 and 596) and correlational (Study 2; N = 141,477 from 73 countries and regions) evidence that higher inequality heightens people’s desire for wealth and status. Notably, this effect of inequality on desire is independent of the influence of societal wealth. Moreover, our results reveal social class differences in why inequality fuels motivations: Lower-class individuals are more likely to respond to higher inequality with a heightened desire reflecting self-improvement concerns, whereas upper-class individuals are more likely to respond with a heightened desire reflecting social comparison concerns. These findings suggest that higher inequality creates an environment of restlessness in which both the poor and the rich feel obliged to seek wealth and status, albeit for different reasons.

Keywords: economic inequality, social class, desire for wealth, desire for status

The overall effect size of having same-sex parents on the developmental outcomes of the children was positive and significantly different from that of heterosexual parents

A meta-analysis examining the relationship between parents’ sexual orientation and children's developmental outcomes. Mario I. Suárez,Elizabeth W. Stackhouse, Jeffrey Keese & Christopher G. Thompson. Journal of Family Studies, Apr 6 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2022.2060121

Abstract: Despite the Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage, the current political climate has emboldened state legislatures in the United States to push for anti-LGBTQ adoption legislation, some citing that LGBTQ couples have a negative effect on children. This meta-analysis synthesized data from 32 studies on 6 developmental outcomes (child gender role behaviour, gender identity, sexual orientation, cognitive function, psychological adjustment, and quality of parent–child relationship). The overall effect size of having same-sex parents on the developmental outcomes of the children was positive and significantly different from that of heterosexual parents. Moderator analyses found that location, socioeconomic status, type of relationship, date of publication, and the child's sexual preference were significant. We provide implications for practitioners and policy, as well as recommendations for future research in this area.

Keywords: Meta-analysissame-sex parentsLGBQqueerdevelopmentalsexual orientation

39,606 working adults in 49 countries: The self-employed consistently exhibit stronger religiosity of behaving, bonding, and belonging than paid workers

Individual Religiosity and Career Choice: Does Cultural Religiosity Moderate the Relationship? Abu H. Ayob, Shifa Mohd Nor. Cross-Cultural Research, April 6, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/10693971221080622

Abstract: Although research on the influence of religion on entrepreneurial entry has progressed substantially, the conceptual and empirical approaches are still far from being conclusive. To advance, we utilize the big our religious dimensions to examine how internal (believing and behaving) and external (bonding and belonging) religiosity may affect the propensity of individuals to be self-employed rather than paid employees. Together, we test if the country’s level of religiosity moderates the relationship. Drawing on the recent World Values Survey Wave 7 (2017–2021), we analyzed data from a sample of 39,606 working adults in 49 countries. In general, we found that the self-employed consistently exhibit stronger religiosity of behaving, bonding, and belonging than paid workers. However, the moderating effects suggest that religiosity at the country level prevails over individual religiosity—consistent with the idea that social environment is a more dominant factor even in individual decision making.

Keywords: religiosity, big four religious dimensions, cultural religiosity, career choice, self-employment, World Values Survey

We found that only 37% of asexual adults had concordant sexual and romantic orientations and that most asexual adults self-identify as either sex-neutral (41%) or sex-averse (54%)

Concordance Between Romantic Orientations and Sexual Attitudes: Comparing Allosexual and Asexual Adults. Alyssa N. Clark & Corinne Zimmerman. Archives of Sexual Behavior, Apr 5 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-021-02194-3

Abstract: Sexual and romantic orientations are often considered one and the same, and attitudes about engaging in sexual behavior are assumed to be predominantly positive. The current study explored the concordance between sexual and romantic orientations among allosexual and asexual adults as well as the frequency with which they identify as having a sex-positive, sex-neutral, or sex-averse attitude. As expected, allosexual adults were largely sex-positive (82%) and almost all (89%) had a romantic orientation that matched their sexual orientation. In contrast, we found that only 37% of asexual adults had concordant sexual and romantic orientations and that most asexual adults self-identify as either sex-neutral (41%) or sex-averse (54%). Further, we used a semantic differential task to assess sexual intimacy attitudes and how they varied for adults based on sexual attitude. Asexual adults, regardless of sexual attitude, had less positive attitudes overall than allosexual adults. Interestingly, aromantic asexual adults did not have more negative attitudes about sexual intimacy than romantic asexual participants. Although asexual adults held less positive attitudes about sex than allosexual adults, there was considerable heterogeneity within our asexual sample. The current study provides further insight into the concordance between romantic and sexual orientation, and the associations among sexual and intimacy attitudes for both allosexual and asexual adults. These findings will have implications for future research on how asexual adults navigate romantic relationships.

Time after time: Factors predicting murder series' duration

Time after time: Factors predicting murder series' duration. April Miin Miin Chai et al. Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 81, July–August 2022, 101915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101915

Abstract

Purpose: The duration of time that the serial offender remains free in the community to commit murders may be seen as a direct measure of their longevity; a sign of their success. The aim of this study is to predict the duration of the serial homicide series by examining the factors that contribute to the length of time a serial murderer is able to remain free of police detection.

Methods: Generalized estimating equations with a negative binomial link function were used to examine factors predicting the duration of series in a sample of 1258 serial murder cases.

Results: Results showed that offenders' criminal history, race (i.e., White and Hispanic), and victims of minority backgrounds significantly predicted longer duration in their murder series. A combination of multiple killing methods and atypical methods also predicted longer murder series, while the moving of the victim's body predicted shorter duration in the series.

Conclusions: This study builds upon the serial homicide literature, particularly the duration of the series. Results from this study help inform investigative efforts in serial homicide cases.

Psychopathy and crimes against humanity: A conceptual and empirical examination of human rights violators

Psychopathy and crimes against humanity: A conceptual and empirical examination of human rights violators. Robert D. Hare et al. Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 81, July–August 2022, 101901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101901

Abstract

Purpose: There is a dearth of empirical data on the contributions of personality, psychopathology, and psychopathy to terrorism and its actors. Because of a fortuitous set of circumstances, we had access to a sample of men convicted of crimes against humanity (CAH) committed during the Pinochet regime, each rated by expert clinicians on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). We also had PCL-R ratings for samples of general offenders and community participants.

Methods: We determined the psychometric properties of the PCL-R for these samples, performed structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the factor structure of the PCL-R, and conducted a latent profile analysis (LPA) of the obtained factors to identify classes or subtypes within the samples.

Results: The PCL-R's psychometric properties and factor structure were in accord with findings from other countries and settings. The PCL-R total scores of the CAH and general offenders were virtually the same but much higher than those of the community sample. However, the CAH group had extraordinarily high scores on the Interpersonal/Affective facets yet relatively low scores on the Lifestyle/Antisocial facets. LPA identified the expected four latent classes, with most CAH men located within the Callous-Conning class.

Conclusions: The results of this study provide unique information about the psychopathic propensities of a sample of state violators of human rights. Their pattern of PCL-R scores was consistent with an extreme disposition for self-serving, callous, and ruthless treatment of others, without guilt or remorse, and in the absence of a prior documented history of severe antisocial behavior.

---

The relevance of the above outline is that the participants in the current study were members of the DINA, CNI, or related military and police organizations, referred to as the Armed Forces. They operated in an unstable political and socioeconomic environment that fostered and rewarded both the “bright” and “shadow” aspects of leadership (Fisher, Hutchings, & Sarros, 2010). The former includes physical courage, risk-taking, adaptability, self-reliance, and support of subordinates. The latter involves unethical or unlawful behaviors of leaders and followers, influenced or facilitated by being in a dangerous, chaotic, or violent environment. As noted by Fisher et al. (2010, p. S107), “The lack of taboos and prohibitive rules found in war may allow leaders to rationalize behaviors that would be unacceptable in a different context.” Before and during the Pinochet years, the socioeconomic and political conditions provided a fertile environment for ambitious men with bright and shadow leadership qualities who shared the regime's view that communism was a threat to the country. We might argue that such a milieu would be particularly favorable for those most willing and able to exploit the opportunities afforded by “darkness and chaos,” with little concern for the morality of their actions. Babiak and Hare (2019, p. 164) suggested, “[P]sychopaths are emotionally unaffected by the human physical and psychological carnage that accompanies chaotic disasters. They are, by nature, predisposed to take callous but pragmatic advantage of the turmoil and terror experienced by others.” Why, then, is there such a dearth of research on psychopathy and terrorism?

Psychologists and other behavioral scientists face several difficulties in researching terrorism and terrorists. These include definitional issues, the sheer complexity and diversity of terrorist organizations and actors, difficulty in gaining access to the actors, poor research designs, and failure to use validated clinical and forensic measures of personality traits and mental disorders. Victoroff (2005) noted that terrorism research is expensive, potentially dangerous, and may involve ethical concerns from institutional review boards (IRBs). Interestingly, Mills, Massoumi, and Miller (2020) have discussed the ethics of researching terrorism and political violence. Monahan (2015) has outlined the often-insurmountable difficulties he and his colleagues have in gaining Institutional Review Board [IRB] approval and institutional access to groups of known terrorists, particularly for research to identify risk factors for the future commission of terrorist acts.4 Morrison, Silke, and Bont (2021) have proposed a framework for IRBs to evaluate research proposals for terrorism research.

Behavioral scientists may be reluctant to study terrorism because it intrudes into other stakeholders' domains. As put by Horgan (2017, p. 201), “To characterize terrorism as an expression of psychological disturbance is problematic. At the very least, it might appear to belittle the social and political context in which terrorism flourishes while also cloaking the psychological development of the terrorist in unnecessary and misleading ideological baggage.” Behavioral scientists also may find—as did we—that it is daunting to enter fields of inquiry and debate that are vast, heterogeneous, imbued with ideological and political dynamics, and lacking in the fruits of impartial empirical endeavors. Schuurman (2020, p. 1020) described terrorism as “a field of study in which experts mostly talked amongst themselves, endlessly referencing books, articles, and media reports.” Our attempts to review the literature on terrorism—more accurately, the literature—confirmed Schuurman's description and revealed that journal, chapter, and book citation rates generally were surprisingly low for such vital topics.

Unlike most academic studies, which have ready access to student or offender participants, “...active terrorists are not likely to cooperate with psychological or psychiatric assessment...authorities may deny access to incarcerated terrorists because of security and secretive concerns. The result is that the data derived from systematic investigations are severely limited” Piccinni et al. (Piccinni, Marazziti, & Veltri, 2017, p. 142). In a review of recent terrorism research, Schuurman (2020) reported that only two of 2552 articles in nine journals devoted to terrorism involved clinical assessments, a situation he considered to be “...particularly problematic [and] urgently in need of a more extensive and robust empirical basis”(p. 1020).” However, according to Lutz (2010, p. 33), “Governments, much to the dismay of academics everywhere, are more interested in practical research (often narrowly defined) and not very interested in the pure research that so many academics are particularly fond of.” Even without the above obstacles, constructive and informative psychopathy research in this field requires willing participants and researchers with the training and experience to conduct reliable and valid clinical/forensic (PCL-R) assessments of the participants, not solely with self-report personality tests or inventories. In our view, self-reports are helpful but not sufficient for the individual assessment of psychopathy.

There is relatively little systematic empirical research on the personality and psychopathology of terrorists, with some notable exceptions discussed below. Well-known truisms about the topic are somewhat discouraging for potential researchers. As stated by Monahan (2012, p. 179), “In no society studied to date have personality traits been found to distinguish those who engage in terrorism from those who refrain from it.” Piccinni et al. (2017) stated, “No evidence exists that terrorist behavior is caused by either prior psychiatric disorders or psychopathy” (p.143). Corner et al. (2021) put it more forcefully, “The search for a single ‘terrorist personality was always overly ambitious, yet at the same time overly simplistic. It was doomed to failure from the start.” It also was naïve, or perhaps merely an early and convenient starting point for understanding the nature of those who engage in terroristic acts. No doubt for these reasons, Ferguson and McAuley (2021, p. 6) stated, “The research on how and why people become involved in violent extremism has moved away from answers based on psychopathology or personality profiles” to the roles of social and collective identity. The authors did not rule out the contribution of personality factors to understanding terrorism. Still, they noted that “community and societal context along with global ideological forces” might have more explanatory value than personality traits, a view consistent with much of the literature on terrorism and violent extremism. However, Merari (2010, p. 253) commented, “By and large, the opinion that terrorists do not have a common psychological profiles rests on the absence of research rather than on direct findings” [our emphasis].

Further, he advocated for the use of standard psychological tests and clinical interviews, as in his studies of suicide bombers. In this sense, the truisms mentioned above are misleading. In any event, behavioral scientists now direct their efforts to the development of theories and research on group and individual differences among terrorists (Corner et al., 2021; Doering et al., 2020; Horgan, 2017; Monahan, 2015), and within various forms of terrorism (Victoroff, 2005).

Some investigators now argue that it is essential to renew efforts to examine the roles of psychology and psychopathology—especially psychopathy—in accounting for the behaviors of terrorists (Gill & Corner, 2017; Horgan, 2017). Zepinic (2018) commented that psychopaths in power are involved in crimes against humanity, use terrorism as a methodology rather than ideology, do not consider themselves criminals, and rarely if ever, are assessed for psychopathy [our emphasis]. Bogerts et al. (2018, p. 131) suggested that a significant proportion of terrorists have a “biological predisposition to violent behavior.” The primary basis for this suggestion is the authors' review of the burgeoning literature on the structural and functional brain anomalies associated with psychopathy, empathy, and aggression and the argument that the violence of both psychopaths and terrorists is planned, instrumental, and remorseless.

Criminology, a discipline traditionally concerned with social, economic, and group factors, now considers personality—more specifically, psychopathy—as an integral part of its accounts of criminality. DeLisi (2009, p. 268, Note 2) commented, “Despite the long clinical history of psychopathy, it was arguably only ‘introduced’ to criminology in 1996 (Hare, 1996).” Fox, Jennings, and Farrington (2015) described how the interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy had provided insights into the ten leading developmental and life-course (DLC) theories in criminology. “It is important to incorporate such personality constructs into key criminological theoretical frameworks” (Fox et al., 2015, p. 275). Correctly measured, psychopathy has much to contribute to the understanding of terrorism and its actors, over and above the contributions of environmental forces (Bogerts et al., 2018; Gill & Corner, 2017).

At one time, there was speculation that the clinical construct of psychopathy could help to explain the dynamics of terrorism. However, the zeitgeist was not receptive to this suggestion. In an informative review and integration, Gill and Corner (2017) described how psychopathy (and more generally, mental disorders) progressed from being early keys to understanding terrorism to be part of more inclusive contextual-social-political-psychological variables. They noted that the empirical research was of poor quality and often confused psychopathy with more general psychopathology. Interestingly, Corner and Gill (2022, p. 392) commented, “Standard clinical procedures require direct access to individuals in clinical settings for prolonged periods. These protocols were not followed in terrorism studies.”

Further, “The lack of valid concepts and objective empirical research, alongside the advancement of psychological research concerning psychopathy, and development of the widely accepted validated measure (PCL-R) aided the gradual demise of the psychopath as-terrorist theory. This permitted other psychological theories to come to the fore.” The PCL-R provided a clinical/empirical measure that made it difficult for commentators to use the term casually and allowed clinicians and researchers to study both groups and the individuals therein. Häkkänen-Nyholm and Nyholm (2012, p. 195) commented, “...even if there are no empirical studies about the subject, a very dangerous situation may occur when you have persons with psychopathic traits in the lead of both the nation's politics and the military. In practice, the military and political leadership may be personified in one person.” Of course, the name that immediately comes to mind is Pinochet. However, we did not assess him and therefore did not comment on his personality traits; many others have done so.

In their review, Corner et al. (2021) identified only two studies that used a validated measure of psychopathy, the short form of the SRP (SRP-SF; Paulhus et al., 2016). Each study conducted an online survey of community participants to examine the association between the SRP-SF and self-reported right-wing authoritarianism (Jones, 2013) or self-sacrifice for a cause (Bélanger, Caouette, Sharvit, & Dugas, 2014). Most of the other reviewed studies had administered self-report inventories of normal-range personality traits—considered by some to be pertinent to psychopathy—to a variety of community and terrorist samples. These studies tell us little about the psychopathy-terrorism link. Investigation of the nexus between psychopathy and terrorism is demanding. It requires access to sizable groups of individuals involved in specified types of terrorist acts. It is essential to consider the milieu in which the acts occurred and to use validated clinical/forensic measures of psychopathy for group and individual analyses.

For the world has always been like a yoke around my neck—My delight’s in the day of my downfall, my downfall the day of my greatest delight

CCLXIV

Your Honor the good friend who relieves pain/Su Señoría el buen amigo que alivia el dolor,

My only king, these poems* by Shlomoh ibn Gabirol about his heartache, the theme of this and next letters, are, I think, appropriate to let You know, Your Honor, how do I live without Your presence. Only a handful of English versions are available, and I cannot read Hebrew nor Arabic:/Mi único rey, estos poemas* de Solomón ibn Gabirol acerca de sus dolores del alma, el tema de esta carta, son, creo, apropriados para hacerle saber a Su Señoría cómo vivo sin Su presencia:

[On Leaving Saragossa/Al dejar Zaragoza]

[I’m buried, but not in a graveyard,                      [Sepultado, mas no en el cementerio,

in the coffin of my own home.                              que en mi morada está mi propia caja.

I suffer with neither father nor mother,                  Doliente estoy, de madre y padre falto,

indigent, young, and alone—                               [...], aislado y miserable;

on my own without even a brother,                      solitario, no tengo ni un hermano,

not a friend apart from my mind                           y salvo en el pensamiento, ni un amigo.

Let my eyes in the world wander,                         El mundo entero surca mi mirada,

they’ll never glimpse what I want:                         no encuentro en él aquello que deseo.

Death grows daily sweeter to me,                        Es preciosa la muerte a mis pupilas,

the world’s gossip means less and less.               es liviana la tierra a mis oídos.

[...]

For the world has always been                             Para mi ha sido el mundo como un yugo

like a yoke around my neck—                              encima de mi cuello. ¿Qué me queda

and what good does it do me to linger                  por hacer en la tierra todavía

by blindness and grief beset?                              que no sea cargar con mi ceguera?

My soul in my death will delight                            Mi alma ha de gozarse con mi muerte

if it leads to the Lord and his rest—                      si ha encontrado mi Roca de refugio:

I’d put an end to my life,                                      de mi vida me hastío y ya me hartara

an end to this dwelling in flesh.                            de que sea mi carne mi aposento.

My delight’s in the day of my downfall,                  El día de mi júbilo será el de mi quebranto

my downfall the day of my greatest delight].          y en el día de mi fatalidad está mi gozo.]

[On leaving Sefarad/Al dejar Sefarad]

                                                        [Vuelve, alma mía, a Dios, vuelve y retorna

                                                         tu corazón; suplícale; una lágrima

                                                         vierte delante de él: quizás ordene

                                                         que te saquen del pozo en el que yaces,

                                                         de entre bestiales hombres      que odias y abominas;

                                                         cuando escribes, no saben      si escribes o si tachas,

                                                         cuando hablas, ignoran      si eres veraz o mientes.

                                                         [...]

                                                         Me he quedado en la tierra      tan solo, que prefiero

                                                         entre ajenos andar nomadeando.

                                                         Ha caído en mi canto la aspereza

                                                         y solo Dios conoce mi sendero.]

[Praising Shemuel haNaguid/En alabanza de Samuel haNaguid]

                                                       [¿Quién es aquélla

                                                        que se alza y se asoma como la aurora?

                                                        [...]

                                                        Hechizos veo en ella, no siendo bruja.

                                                        [...]

                                                        Amigo de mi alma, amado, eres

                                                        bálsamo de dolores

                                                        y de toda dolencia remedio y curo.

                                                        Te he amado hasta el extremo; no tiene cabo

                                                        mi amor por ti. Estoy pronto,

                                                        examíname; el alma pónmela a prueba.

                                                        Por mi querencia

                                                        mi poema te alaba

                                                        creciendo en hablas puras, sin balbuceo.]

[To a friend that left/A un amigo que se fue]

                                                       [Por vuestras vidas,

                                                        las de los labios rojos, que arrastrasteis

                                                        mi corazón con sogas, a mi lado

                                                        tornad y de mi amor hacer memoria;

                                                        [...] llevadle mi saludo

                                                        a un hombre cuyos dichos

                                                        sobre mi corazón están grabados.

                                                        ¿Acaso has olvidado      mi llanto en aquel día

                                                        de la separación?

                                                        [...]

                                                        ¡Que tenga de nosotros      piedades Dios y cuide

                                                        de que antes de que llegue      la muerte nos reunamos!]

[Complaints for Yecutiel ben Isaac's forgetfulness/Queja del olvido de Yecutiel ben Isaac]

                                                       [—Trátame con cuidado;

                                                        concédele a mi alma      un tiempo de sosiego

                                                        ¿Acaso soy el mar?      ¿De rocas es mi fuerza?

                                                        Pues que me han golpeado los dolores,

                                                        las angustias me acosan y me cercan;

                                                        he aquí que consume      la dolencia mi carne

                                                        y contristó mi alma,      turbando mis ideas.

                                                        [...]

                                                        Exhausto me han dejado      mi cuita y mi gemido;

                                                        no puedo soportar      más duelos y tristezas.

                                                        Se ha alzado en contra mía      como cruel mi sino

                                                        y a las profundidades

                                                        del desaliento me he precipitado.

                                                        [...]

                                                        Un traidor es el hado,      que corteja traidores

                                                        y hace guiños a todos los inicuos;

                                                        ha secado el ramaje      de los más generosos,

                                                        pero de los perversos      sus frondas reverdece.

                                                        [...]

                                                        Aquel que fue tenido      por uno de mis íntimos,

                                                        en quien mi alma      tuviera confianza,

                                                        espinos a sus ojos      he sido y aguijones

                                                        para su corazón y su costado.]

[To whom who, being ill, didn't pay visit to him/A aquél que, estando enfermo el poeta, no le visitó]

                                                       [En ti está mi esperanza,      solo tú eres mi anhelo,

                                                        hacia ti va el deseo de mi entorno;

                                                        por ti gime mi entraña y encamino

                                                        mi sueño en tu recuerdo,

                                                        como si en ti estuviera,      amigo, solamente

                                                        la cura de mi alma si vinieras

                                                        a visitar mi mal. [...]

                                                        Con tal que tú pudieras

                                                        distinguir mis amores con tus ojos,

                                                        el corazón de vidrio ¡quién me diera!]

Always having You in mind, and with a great heaviness of heart after so much time without seeing You, Yours faithfully/Teniéndoos siempre en mente y con gran pesadumbre del alma tras tanto tiempo sin veros, Suyo fielmente

                 a. r. ante Su Señoría

--

Notes

*  Adapted from Selected Poems of Solomon ibn Gabirol, translated by Peter Cole (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 2001), & the Spanish version from Selomó ibn Gabirol—Poesía secular, by Elena Romero (Madrid: Alfaguara, 1978)

2003-2018: Psychiatrists had the highest suicide rate among health professionals

Li, T., Petrik, M. L., Freese, R. L., & Robiner, W. N. (2022). Suicides of psychologists and other health professionals: National Violent Death Reporting System data, 2003–2018. American Psychologist, Apr 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001000

Abstract: Suicide is a prevalent problem among health professionals, with suicide rates often described as exceeding that of the general population. The literature addressing suicide of psychologists is limited, including its epidemiological estimates. This study explored suicide rates in psychologists by examining the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s data set of U.S. violent deaths. Data were examined from participating states from 2003 to 2018. Trends in suicide deaths longitudinally were examined. Suicide decedents were characterized by examining demographics, region of residence, method of suicide, mental health, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behavior histories. Psychologists’ suicide rates are compared to those of other health professionals. Since its inception, the NVDRS identified 159 cases of psychologist suicide. Males comprised 64% of decedents. Average age was 56.3 years. Factors, circumstances, and trends related to psychologist suicides are presented. In 2018, psychologist suicide deaths were estimated to account for 4.9% of suicides among 10 selected health professions. As the NVDRS expands to include data from all 50 states, it will become increasingly valuable in delineating the epidemiology of suicide for psychologists and other health professionals and designing prevention strategies.

Contrary to previous research findings, our findings suggest that third-party observers cannot reliably detect attraction in others

Can third-party observers detect attraction in others based on subtle nonverbal cues? Iliana Samara, Tom S. Roth, Milica Nikolic, Eliska Prochazkova & Mariska E. Kret. Current Psychology, Apr 8 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-022-02927-0

Abstract: In a series of three studies, we examined whether third-party observers can detect attraction in others based on subtle nonverbal cues. We employed video segments of dates collected from a speed-dating experiment, in which daters went on a brief (approx. 4 min) blind-date and indicated whether they would like to go on another date with their brief interaction partner or not. We asked participants to view these stimuli and indicate whether or not each couple member is attracted to their partner. Our results show that participants could not reliably detect attraction, and this ability was not influenced by the age of the observer, video segment location (beginning or middle of the date), video duration, or general emotion recognition capacity. Contrary to previous research findings, our findings suggest that third-party observers cannot reliably detect attraction in others. However, there was one exception: Recognition rose above chance level when the daters were both interested in their partners compared to when they were not interested.

General discussion

In a series of three experiments, we found no strong evidence supporting the notion that people can reliably detect attraction or its absence in thin video slices of people on a date based on nonverbal subtle emotional cues. However, we found that accuracy was increased based on whether the person presented in the video was attracted to their partner. Specifically, we found that the third-party observers were more accurate in detecting attraction when the daters were attracted to their partners than detecting the absence of attraction when the daters indicated not being attracted to their partner. In addition, recognizing attraction was not influenced by age or length of the stimuli presented.

In accordance with previous findings (e.g., Place et al., 2009), we found that people cannot reliably detect attraction from initial interactions. Given that previous findings have emphasized the importance of subtle nonverbal cues in communicating attraction (e.g., Eibl-Eiblsfeldt, 1989; Keltner & Buswell, 1997), one might question whether the observed low accuracy in detecting attraction might be the result of a low frequency of occurrence of behaviours associated with attraction. In other words, was there sufficient information present in the stimuli themselves that the participants might have picked up? Indeed, we only found minor numerical differences in behaviours associated with attraction (e.g., coyness, genuine smiles) in the First Impression 3-s videos (see Supplemental Material). Thus, the observed low accuracy might result from the low frequency of behaviour occurrence. Nonetheless, our findings replicate previous research (e.g., Place et al., 2009) and further support the notion that people cannot reliably detect attraction when viewing others in the initial phases of their interaction.

Our findings do not provide support for the notion that third-party observers can detect attraction when viewing segments from later phases of a date, which contrasts with previous research (Place et al., 2009). In all experiments, participants performed near chance level independent of the length of the segment (3, 6, or 9 s) or the phase of the interaction (first impression or verbal interaction). Our analyses (see Supplementary Material) of the coded behaviours illustrate that daters that were attracted to their partner exhibited behaviours associated with attraction for a longer duration compared to daters that were not interested in their partner (in videos taken from the middle of the speed date). This finding suggests that the observed low accuracy is not due to the low frequency of behaviour occurrence. Instead, it might be more probable that people cannot detect attraction as third-party observers using thin video slices even when the signs of attraction are there.

It may be advantageous for humans to mask what they feel in certain situations, and they often use their cognitive resources to do so (Kret, 2015). This masking might render interpreting nonverbal cues more complex and thus, lead to confusion and awkward social encounters (Abbey, 1982; Abbey & Melby, 1986) when the expressions of the sender are misinterpreted (Burgoon et al., 2002; Grammer, 1990). These factors may be a source of error in people involved in a one-on-one interaction (i.e., a date), given that the high-intensity motivational environment might decrease accurate emotion detection (Maner et al., 2005; Prochazkova et al., 2021).

It has been speculated that the ability to detect attraction in others has an adaptive function, allowing people to collect more information to guide their mating choices (see Simao & Todd, 2002). However, a more parsimonious explanation would be that the ability to detect attraction as a third-party observer is merely a by-product of detecting attraction when faced with a potential mate, which would undoubtedly be a beneficial quality for anyone navigating their romantic environment. However, previous research consistently demonstrates that people cannot detect attraction in others and instead project their interest to a given partner (Lee et al., 2020; Samara, Roth, & Kret, 2020; see also Prochazkova et al., 2021). Thus, it remains possible that people cannot detect attraction above chance level.

Emotions can be efficiently detected from facial expressions (Ekman, 1992). Previous research has shown that basic emotions, such as disgust, fear, and happiness, can be recognized in scenes within 200 ms (Righart & de Gelder, 2008). This effect suggests that detection and recognition of emotional expressions likely rely on quick facial expression processing (see also Meeren, van Heijnsbergen, & de Gelder, 2005, for similar findings on the interaction between facial expressions and body language). Here, we examined whether attraction can be detected as efficiently as other emotions. Given our null findings, we cannot conclude whether indeed attraction can be detected as efficiently as other emotions based on three experiments. Future research should help elucidate how easily and accurately complex emotions like attraction are perceived and processed.

In all experiments, we consistently found that people are likely to detect attraction when the person observed is indeed exhibiting such signals. Indeed, even though attraction cannot be expressed with a single behaviour (Moore, 1985), people likely have experience in decoding such cues and are thus more likely to detect them efficiently. This is further corroborated by our consistent replication of this effect in initial encounters as well as later in the interactions irrespective of video length (3, 6, and 9 s). Date members that were attracted to their partner likely illustrated affiliation more clearly (e.g., see Grammer et al., 1999). In contrast, disinterested partners might have opted to display rejection more subtly (or perhaps not at all), making it more challenging to interpret. However, it should be noted that we did not find robust differences in attraction cues between daters that were interested in their partner compared to daters that were not in the 3-s stimuli, even though a robust difference was found for coy smiles in the 9-s stimuli. An alternative explanation for the finding is that participants were more likely to detect attraction when indeed, participants had a general propensity to respond positively rather than negatively (see Supplemental Material). This could be due to expectancy effects, given that participants were informed that these video segments are from a blind date study. Future research should further investigate the role of expectancy effects in the ability of third-party observers to detect attraction.

This finding directly contrasts with previous research (Hall et al., 2015 Experiment 2). In their study, the authors asked participants to view 1-min segments of others on a date and indicate whether they thought the person on the video was flirting with their partner. Given that the people that report feeling attracted to their partner are also more likely to report flirting (Hall et al., 2015; Experiment 1), this is a reliable indicator of detecting attraction. Furthermore, their results suggest that participants were more accurate in detecting attraction when the person depicted was not flirting than when they were flirting. The authors suggest that these findings could be due to a) the implicit risk of openly displaying interest in another, which would have rendered any flirting difficult to decode, and b) that the probability of flirting in zero-acquaintance settings is relatively low (e.g., Abbey, 1982; Saal et al., 1989); therefore, people might not be familiar with flirting expressions in such settings. We disagree with both of these interpretations. Flirting, in general, is quite ambiguous, as flirting cues are also easily confused with friendliness (Farris et al., 2008; Moore, 2010). Furthermore, previous research has documented several flirting signals in first time-encounters, such as self-grooming (McCormick, Perper, & Jones, 1983), suggesting that these are signals typically exhibited in such situations. Crucially, in a previous study (Prochazkova et al., 2021), it was found that almost half (44%) of the participants reported that they would be interested in going on another date with their partner rendering the reduced-likelihood interpretation unlikely. In short, we consistently show that attraction is detected above the chance level when it is indeed there.

Based on the Perception–Action Model of Empathy (PAM; de Waal & Preston, 2017), we expected that participants with more experience with romantic interactions (i.e., adults) would be more accurate in detecting attraction than participants with less experience with romantic interactions (i.e., children). However, in Experiment 2, we found no substantial differences between adults and children, suggesting that children’s lower accuracy in detecting attraction in Experiment 1 was likely due to cognitive overload.

One limitation that should be discussed is the fact that our responses were coded in a binary way. This approach was necessary to calculate accuracy based on the responses of the study conducted by Prochazkova et al. (2021), where responses were also coded binary. It could be argued that this approach reduced the variation that would otherwise be shown if responses were coded in a continuous way. This is indeed possible, even though it should be noted that using a scale for attraction and a binary response for another date has been shown to correlate highly (Roth et al., 2021a, 2021b). Nonetheless, future studies using speed-dating paradigms could also employ a continuous response regarding attraction and willingness to go on another date, which can then be used in studies employing third-party observers. In this manner, a more nuanced accuracy scale can be calculated.

In conclusion, here we demonstrate that people might not reliably detect when others are attracted to their partner and when not. Furthermore, we showed that the overall accuracy in detecting attraction is not influenced by age, or the phase of the interaction observed. The only factor that reliably influenced accuracy is whether attraction is indeed present.

Even when all explicit gender-identifying language was stripped from the recommendation letters, a machine learning algorithm was able to predict applicant gender at a rate better than chance

Text Mining for Bias: A Recommendation Letter Experiment. Charlotte S. Alexander. American Business Law Journal, April 6 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/ablj.12198

Abstract: This article uses computational text analysis to study the form and content of more than 3000 recommendation letters submitted on behalf of applicants to a major U.S. anesthesiology residency program. The article finds small differences in form and larger differences in content. Women applicants' letters were more likely to contain references to acts of service, for example, whereas men were more likely to be described in terms of their professionalism and technical skills. Some differences persisted when controlling for standardized aptitude test scores, on which women and men scored equally on average, and other applicant and letter-writer characteristics. Even when all explicit gender-identifying language was stripped from the letters, a machine learning algorithm was able to predict applicant gender at a rate better than chance. Gender stereotyped language in recommendation letters may infect the entirety of an employer's hiring or selection process, implicating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Not all gendered language differences were large, however, suggesting that small changes may remedy the problem. The article closes by proposing a computationally driven system that may help employers identify and eradicate bias, while also prompting a rethinking of our gendered, racialized, ableist, ageist, and otherwise stereotyped occupational archetypes.

The road to dietary sins is paved with the whisper of justifying self-talk

Examining dietary self-talk content and context for discretionary snacking behaviour: a qualitative interview study. Jordan Rose, Rebecca Pedrazzi & Stephan U. Dombrowski. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, Volume 10, 2022 - Issue 1, Pages 399-414, Apr 7 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2022.2053686

Abstract

Background: Consuming discretionary snack foods high in calories, salt, sugar or fat in between regular meals can have a negative impact on weight management and health. Despite the intention to refrain from discretionary snacking, individuals often report feeling tempted by snack foods. A cognitive process to resolve food choice related tension may be dietary self-talk which is one’s inner speech around dietary choice. This study aimed to understand the content and context of dietary self-talk before consuming discretionary snack foods.

Methods: Qualitative semi-structured interviews based on Think-Aloud methods were conducted remotely. Participants answered open-ended questions and were presented with a list of 37 dietary self-talk items. Interview transcripts were analyzed thematically.

Results: Interviews (n = 18, age: 19–54 years, 9 men, 9 women) confirmed the frequent use of dietary self-talk with all 37 content items endorsed. Reported use was highest for the self-talk items: ‘It is a special occasion’; ‘I did physical activity/exercise today’; and ‘I am hungry’. Three new items were developed, eight items were refined. Identified key contextual themes were: ‘reward’, ‘social’, ‘convenience’, ‘automaticity’, and ‘hunger’.

Conclusions: This study lists 40 reasons people use to allow themselves to consume discretionary snack foods and identifies contextual factors of dietary-self talk. All participants reported using dietary self-talk, with variation in content, frequency and degree of automaticity. Recognising and changing dietary self-talk may be a promising intervention target for changing discretionary snacking behaviour.

Keywords: Dietary self-talkdiscretionary snackeating behavioursnackingthink-aloud methods

4. Discussion

4.1. Principal findings

Dietary self-talk in the context of discretionary snacking behaviour was a commonly reported phenomenon. Individuals seem to regularly use self-talk to resolve conflicts between intentions to eat healthily and to consume a snack high in fat, sugar or salt. This study verified and extended a list of 40 self-talk content items, which highlight the universal thoughts which were recognised as being used to justify discretionary snacking. When participants reflected on dietary self-talk, recurrent contextual themes were the justification of snacks as rewards, social influences of snacking, convenience-based considerations, thoughts on and the evidence of automaticity in relation to dietary self-talk and snacking behaviour and hunger. Although most participants reported intentions to avoid discretionary snacking, dietary self-talk could change these priorities suggesting that self-talk prior to snack choice situations might be a potential target for eating behaviour change interventions.

4.2. Strengths and weaknesses of the study

Little research to date has specifically explored the uses and content of dietary self-talk before eating snacks that are high in calories, salt, sugar or fat. This study revised and extended a previously developed list of dietary self-talk items, systematically capturing self-reported thought content (see Table 2). The self-talk items were formulated at a general level, rather than a specific level (e.g. ‘I did physical activity/exercise’ rather than ‘I went for a run’), allowing participants to project their own personal situations onto the item. The high level of recognition of all self-talk items suggests that the level of formulation might have been appropriate.

Several weaknesses should be kept in mind when interpreting the results of this research. Although the self-talk items were developed with input from the Italian, UK and Canadian participants, their content relevance in different cultural contexts is unknown. Moreover, the current list is the first attempt to catalogue a general dietary self-talk content around snacking and will require further refinement and extension. Individuals may also use idiosyncratic self-talk items which are specific to them and do not generalise to others; these will not have been included in the list. The groupings of the self-talk items were undertaken by the authors and different categorisations might exist (De Witt Huberts, Evers, & De Ridder, 2014; Verhoeven, Adriaanse, de Vet, Fennis, & de Ridder, 2015). Finally, the self-reported recognition of the self-talk content was high in participants, but it is not clear whether the self-talk content are thoughts that are experienced in the moment of the snacking choice context, or whether these are used as post-hoc justifications for behaviour that has already occurred.

4.3. Relation to other studies

The current study complements other research which has examined cognitions around food-based temptations. These cognitions are often referred to by different labels, such as justifications (De Witt Huberts et al., 2014; Verhoeven et al., 2015), reasons (De Witt Huberts et al., 2014; Verhoeven et al., 2015) or compensatory health beliefs (Knäuper, Rabiau, Cohen, & Patriciu, 2004).

The current study suggests dietary self-talk as one potential explanation for eating behaviour that conflicts with previous intentions. Dietary self-talk might be added to existing mechanisms of giving into temptations such as ‘attentional bias’ and ‘temporal discounting’ (Appelhans et al., 2016). In line with the goal conflict model of eating (Stroebe et al., 2013), most participants reported intentions to make healthy decisions; however, at the opportunity of eating a discretionary snack food, they reported often justifying snacking with the use of dietary self-talk. Figure 2 applies the goal conflict model of eating behaviour to a snacking context and integrates dietary self-talk as a possible mechanism, which leads to the consumption of discretionary snacks.

Figure 2. Dietary self-talk integrated into the goal conflict model of eating (Stroebe et al., 2013) applied to the discretionary snacking context.

In this model, the presence of discretionary snacks leads to the activation of the discretionary snacking goal. Dietary self-talk facilitates the activation of the discretionary snacking goal, while simultaneously inhibiting the healthy eating goal, leading to the increased likelihood of snack consumption.

Some of the content of the 40 dietary self-talk items has been captured previously in the concept of compensatory health beliefs (Knäuper et al., 2004). Compensatory health beliefs are a cognitive mechanism used in the presence of failing to resist temptations and have been defined ‘as beliefs that certain unhealthy (but pleasurable) behaviours can be compensated for by engaging in healthy behaviours’, p. 608 (Knäuper et al., 2004). Evidence suggests that compensation-based beliefs are formed during the moments of dietary conflict, and can lead to the consumption of discretionary snack foods (Kronick & Knäuper, 2010). There is some overlap between compensatory health beliefs such as ‘Breaking a diet today may be compensated for by starting a new diet tomorrow’ and the dietary self-talk items such as ‘I will start being healthier later’. However, the current list of dietary self-talk items differs from compensatory health beliefs in at least three ways. First, the dietary self-talk items go beyond compensation-based cognitions, covering additional cognitions, such as momentary based justifications including social occasions (‘It would be rude to refuse the snack’), emotions (‘I don’t care anymore/Whatever’) or rationalisations (‘This snack is cheap/on offer’). Second, the current list of dietary self-talk items is specific to the behaviour of consuming snack foods that are tempting, compared to the application of general compensatory health beliefs across several different health behaviour contexts. Third, the dietary self-talk items are thought content specific. Even when compensatory health beliefs are assessed as behaviour specific items (e.g. ‘To what extent did you think that you would compensate your snack, for example, by a subsequent sport session or with eating less the next time?’) (Amrein, Scholz, & Inauen, 2021), this differs from compensatory-related items in the dietary self-talk list, which attempt to provide a closer capture of the precise thought content (e.g. ‘Just this snack. I won’t have a snack later’).

The findings of the current study are similar to Verhoeven et al.’s (2015) study examining reasons for unhealthy snacking, which developed the 35 item reasons to snack inventory. (Verhoeven et al., 2015) The inventory asks individuals to rate the frequency of various reasons for consuming an unhealthy snack (e.g. ‘because it is a party or a birthday’, or ‘because you are watching a movie’). These reasons were grouped into six categories using factor analysis: opportunity induced eating, coping with negative emotions, enjoying a special occasion, rewarding oneself, social pressure, and gaining energy. There are several similarities between the reasons to snack inventory and thedietary self-talk list including both individual items and broad categories. Several individual items are similar in content (e.g. ‘Because you deserve it’ vs. ‘I accomplished something. I deserve it’). Moreover, several categories are similar in nature (e.g. ‘Social pressure’ vs. ‘Social Occasions/Social Rituals’) further validating the potentially broad nature of many of the cognitions and identified categories. However, there are some differences in some of the content, categories and focus. For example, the ‘functional/rationalisations’ category (e.g. ‘You only live once’, or ‘This snack is just small’) did not feature in the reasons to snack inventory (Verhoeven et al., 2015). Moreover, dietary self-talk items are phrased as ‘in the moment’ statements which are intended to represent individual thoughts in snack temptation contexts, whereas the reasons to snack inventory list general snack motives that are not specifically tied to a temptation context.

Several studies have systematically developed lists of behaviour change concepts, including theoretical domains (Michie et al., 2005), behaviour change techniques, methods and strategies (Hartmann-Boyce, Aveyard, Koshiaris, & Jebb, 2016; Knittle et al., 2020; Kok et al., 2016; Michie et al., 2013) environment changing targets (Hollands et al., 2017), modes and forms of intervention delivery (Dombrowski, O’Carroll, & Williams, 2016; Marques et al., 2020) and decision making processes such as heuristics and biases (Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier, 2011; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). These lists inform research to systematically understand and change behaviour relevant processes. The current dietary self-talk list adds to this literature providing a more specialised list, by focusing on one particular phenomenon (i.e. self-talk) for one specific behaviour (i.e. discretionary snacking), in a specific situation (i.e. temptation resulting from conflicting intentions). Moreover, the themes identified around – accounts of and reflects on – dietary self-talk provide additional contextual information surrounding the phenomenon, enriching the ability to interpret individual items and groupings.

4.4. Implications and future research

There are several areas of future research. The current 40 items dietary self-talk list requires confirmation, extension and quantification. Future research might examine dietary self-talk when it occurs ‘in the moment’ during snacking temptation contexts. Moreover, understanding the quantity and variability of dietary self-talk and its relation to behaviour and behaviour-related outcomes would be useful.

It is likely that the self-talk items are used in combination and future research might examine the clustering of some of the self-talk content items. This might be specifically relevant in certain contexts. For example, the feeling of hunger was a key theme identified in reflections on self-talk and seemed to give rise to the use of a variety of self-talk. The themes identified in this study might present a starting point for examining contextual factors triggering the combinations of self-talk items.

Given the seemingly general nature of some of the self-talk content, research focusing on the origin and function of general self-talk items might reveal how individuals come to embrace and use certain cognitions to overcome situations of temptation in favour of the health impairing behaviour.

Self-talk is an everyday occurrence and other behavioural domains where intention conflicts occur might be a target for future study. Potential areas for identifying the content of temptation related behavioural self-talk might, for example, be physical activity, alcohol consumption or sleep.

There are some areas of potential application of the current list of dietary self-talk items. The list could be used to inform the use of behaviour change interventions, such as coping planning based techniques like the volitional help sheet (Armitage, 2015), which aims to help to overcome situations of temptations by linking these to goal-directed responses in line with health-relevant intention.

In addition, interventions might focus on changing the style of the self-talk items that people typically use. An experiential study, for example, found that when participants are asked to engage in ‘distance self-talk’ (i.e. referring to themselves in the third person and by name) enhanced the pursuit of eating healthier compared to ‘immersed self-talk’ (i.e. referring to themselves in the first person).

Finally, participants’ contextual accounts and reflections largely suggested a lack of an ongoing internal dialogue when using dietary self-talk, with self-talk leading to a swift enactment of the snacking behaviour. Interventions might promote both the recognition of dietary self-talk when it occurs and the introduction of self-talk using counter arguments which could bolster health enhancing intentions.

Cultural Variation in Communication Directness in Romantic Relationships: Chinese preferred indirect (vs. direct) communication more than European Americans; effect was more strongly pronounced in positively valenced situations

How You Talk About It Matters: Cultural Variation in Communication Directness in Romantic Relationships. Fiona Ge, Jiyoung Park, Paula R. Pietromonaco. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, April 3, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221221088934

Abstract: Communication plays an integral role in shaping romantic relationship quality. Yet, little is known about whether people from different cultural backgrounds communicate differently in their romantic relationships. Here, we addressed this issue by examining (a) whether the extent to which individuals communicate directly or indirectly in their romantic relationships varies by culture, (b) what mechanism underlies these cultural differences, and (c) how the fit between culture and communication style contributes to expected relationship satisfaction. Three key findings emerged across three studies (total N = 1,193). First, Chinese preferred indirect (vs. direct) communication more than European Americans, and this effect was more strongly pronounced in positively (vs. negatively) valenced situations (Studies 1–3). Second, interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal mediated the cultural difference in indirect communication both in positive and negative situations (Study 3). Finally, both cultural groups anticipated greater relationship satisfaction when they imagined their partner using the culturally preferred mode of communication—that is, indirect communication for Chinese and direct communication for European Americans (Study 3). These findings advance theory on culture and romantic relationship processes by demonstrating cultural differences in preferred communication styles across different situational contexts, identifying self-construal differences underlying these preferred communication styles, and highlighting the importance of congruence between culture and communication style for the quality of relationships.

Keywords: culture, communication directness, interdependence versus independence, romantic relationships, relationship quality

Illusory improvement: Participants remembered their romantic relationship one year ago more negatively they had reported it originally, creating a sense of improvement over time

Projecting current feelings into the past and future: Better current relationship quality reduces negative retrospective bias and increases positive forecasting bias. Johanna Peetz, Justin P. K. Shimizu, Courtney Royle. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, April 7, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075221084280

Abstract: We examine bias in how people perceive their romantic relationship over time. Participants appraised their relationship 6 months and 1 year ago on average more negatively than they had done at the time (retrospective bias) but showed no significant mean-level forecasting bias. Higher relationship quality at the time of appraisal was linked to less negative retrospective bias but to more positive forecasting bias (Study 1). Similarly, participants who were experimentally manipulated to focus on the high relationship quality aspects in their relationship (vs. considering challenging aspects of their relationship) showed more forecasting bias and less retrospective bias (Study 2). This pattern occurred due to participants’ projecting positive current feelings onto predicted relationship quality in the future and remembered relationship quality in the past. This projection reduced the overall negative bias in recalled relationship quality for those currently perceiving higher relationship quality but increased positive bias in forecasted relationship quality.

Keywords: Temporal appraisal, illusory improvement, relationship change, relationship bias

Illusory improvement

People like to see improvement over time and prefer to remember the past in a way that implies such improvement—even if this means remembering the past self as worse than it actually was. For example, students rating themselves 4 months apart showed similar ratings at each point in time. However, when reflecting on what they were like 4 months ago, students rated their past self more negatively than they had at that time, creating a sense of improvement over time (Wilson & Ross, 2001). In the realm of relationships, people similarly distort their memory of their relationship over time, creating a sense of relationship improvement (Frye & Karney, 2004; Karney & Coombs, 2000; Karney & Frye, 2002; Ogolsky & Surra, 2014; Sprecher, 1999; Zygar-Hoffman & Schönbrodt, 2020).

Retrospective bias

People can be motivated to see improvement in their relationships even where none exists. Such illusory improvement might be expressed in direct judgments of change (e.g., “My relationship has improved”) or might be expressed in how the relationship is judged at different points in time (e.g., “Last April my relationship was good, now my relationship is great”). Thus, in retrospective judgments, people might judge the relationship more negatively in the past than it really was, creating a sense of improvement.

Several studies have shown a memory bias when recalling how one’s relationship has changed over time (Frye & Karney, 2004; Ogolsky & Surra, 2014; Sprecher, 1999). For example, newly dating people reported retrospectively that their commitment had increased in the past 7 months, whereas concurrent rating actually stayed the same (Ogolsky & Surra, 2014), and newlyweds reported remembering an increase in relationship satisfaction in the past 6 months at each point of assessment over 2.5 years, even though actual ratings declined across time points (Frye & Karney, 2004). Thus, it appears that people want to believe that their relationship has been improving, despite actually stable or declining relationship appraisals over time.

While these studies looked at perceived retrospective trajectories rather than a comparison of how the relationship was rated at a given time and how it is rated retrospectively for that same time, there exists also evidence of such retrospective memory bias. In a study assessing marital satisfaction of the wives of university staff over two decades, retrospective reports of marital satisfaction 10 years ago were negatively biased, such that they reported remembering their relationship to have been worse 10 years ago than they had reported at the time (Karney & Coombs, 2000). This negative retrospective bias also extends to evaluating specific emotions rather than global relationship judgments: Two experience sampling studies comparing relationship partner’s online reports of annoyance at their partner over 2 weeks with their remembered annoyance at the partner at the end of the 2 weeks showed exaggerated annoyance in retrospect (Zygar-Hoffman & Schönbrodt, 2020). To sum up, people tend to perceive illusory improvement in their relationships by recalling their relationship as having been worse in the past than they actually thought at the time.

Forecasting bias

Do people also expect improvement for their relationship in the future? When asked to predict the future of their relationship, the tendency is to be optimistic (MacDonald & Ross, 1999; Murray & Holmes, 1997). Does this optimism extend to predicting how the relationship quality will develop in the future? Evidence on whether people expect their relationship to get better over time is mixed. In a large sample of newlywed spouses, the vast majority predicted their marriage would become better (82%) and less than 1% predicted that their relationship would get worse in the next years (Lavner et al., 2013). However, when actually tracking their marital satisfaction over the following 4 years, participants showed, on average, a decline in marital satisfaction (Lavner et al., 2013). This represents illusory improvement in forecasted trajectories, at least in newlyweds. However, in another study, married relationship partners rating their relationship problems expected these problems to be about as severe in 6 months as they were currently, suggesting no overall forecasting bias (Frye & Karney, 2002). Similarly, an experience sampling study tracking couple’s forecasts of their partners’ prorelational (responsive) behaviors for the next day found both positive and negative forecasting errors (Lemay et al., 2015). Instead of a general tendency toward forecasting positive change, Lemay and colleagues found that relationship partners exhibited a temporal projection bias, where forecasts were biased by current feelings. Participants who experienced more positive affect today or perceived more positive behaviors from their partner today predicted more positive affect and more responsive partner behaviors tomorrow, independent of actual feelings and behaviors the next day (Lemay et al., 2015).

The role of relationship quality

Positive illusions about relationships can be beneficial: for example, people who idealized their partner more reported more increases in relationship satisfaction after 1 year (Murray & Holmes, 1997). In a meta-analysis across 14 studies that assessed relationship quality and bias about various relationship-relevant outcomes, Fletcher and Kerr (2010) found that greater relationship quality was on average linked with perceiving the partner or the relationship overly positively. Furthermore, expectations about the future quality of a relationship tend to be a better predictor of relationship commitment than current relationship quality (Baker et al., 2017; Lemay, 2016), suggesting that perceiving illusory improvement may function as a relationship maintenance strategy (also see Rusbult et al., 2001). If illusory improvement serves a relationship maintenance function, higher current relationship quality should not only be linked to more positive forecasting bias (i.e., more improvement into the future), but it should also be linked to more negative retrospective bias (i.e., more improvement from the past).

On the other hand, it is possible that current relationship quality simply biases appraisals of past and future relationship quality to be more similar to current relationship quality—a temporal projection bias. The temporal projection bias has been shown to influence future affect and future behavior predictions in close relationships (Lemay et al., 2015). Outside of close relationships, similar projection biases have been shown to distort both memories about past loneliness and expectations about future loneliness (Teneva & Lemay, 2020) and past and future emotions more generally (Chang et al., 2018). Such a temporal projection bias would predict that higher current relationship quality should be linked to more positive forecasting bias in relationship quality—but linked to less negative retrospective bias. When projecting current feelings on past relationship appraisals, the more positive participants feel about their relationship in the present, the more positively they would see the relationship in the past (rather than seeing the relationship in the past more negatively to support illusory improvement perceptions).

Forecasting bias

Both illusory improvement and temporal projection patterns would predict that relationship quality at the time of forecast should increase the tendency to predict more change to the better in global relationship judgments for the future. Indeed, this has been borne out in past research (Baker et al., 2017; Frye, 2006; Lemay, 2016; Rusbult et al., 2001). In a study on temporal comparison, Frye (2006) found that the more satisfied participants reported being in their relationship, the more positive change in relationship problems they expected (although the extent to which this expected change might be illusory could not be determined in this particular study, since actual change was not assessed). In the present studies we examine the link of perceived relationship quality with the extent of bias in predicted future relationship quality (Study 1) and examine whether experimental manipulation of relationship quality at the time of forecast increases the extent of positive forecasting bias (Study 2).

Retrospective bias

On the other hand, when it comes to the link between relationship quality and retrospective bias about the relationship in the past, the conception of illusory improvement biases as relationship maintaining is at odds with temporal projection biases. How is relationship quality linked with retrospective biases about the relationship? When examining participants’ recollections of their marriage 10 years ago, those who were most satisfied with their marriage at the time of recall were least likely to bias their recollections of the relationship whereas those least satisfied with their relationship were most biased (Karney & Coombs, 2000). Similarly, those with better global relationship satisfaction at the time of recall showed less retrospective bias about their annoyed feelings toward their partner in the past 2 weeks (Zygar-Hoffmann & Schönbrodt, 2020). Thus, higher relationship quality at the time of recall appears to be associated with less, rather than more, retrospective bias about the relationship in the past. In the present studies we examine the link of perceived relationship quality on the extent of bias in recalled past relationship quality (Study 1) and examine whether experimental manipulation of relationship quality at the time of recall affect the extent of negative retrospective bias (Study 2).