**Poster submissions are now closed**
Poster Locations and Abstracts
*Information for presenters: Please take note of your poster location number. When you arrive to set up your poster, find the board with the appropriate number. The poster session will be held on Thursday, February 5th, from 12:00 pm to 1:15 pm, in rooms 14 and 15. You should plan to set up your poster between 8:00 am and 8:30 am Thursday morning. Your poster must be taken down by 4:00 pm, immediately following the afternoon discussion. Posters should be no larger than 44” (h) x 90” (w).
Poster Location 1:
Are you the master of your intentional mind? - fMRI correlates of self-chosen vs. assigned goals
Markus Quirin1, Andre Kerber1, Rainer Duesing1, Manuela Schuetze1, Stefanie Schumacher1, Julius Kuhl1, Miguel Kazen1, Nicola Baumann2, & Ekkehard Kuestermann3 1University of Osnabrueck, 2University of Trier, 3University of Bremen
Individuals sometimes have a good memory for to-be-enacted tasks but sometimes they loose track of what they have to do. Previous research has demonstrated, for example, that self-chosen can be better remembered than assigned tasks. The present study was designed to investigate (a) how memory for intentions is represented in the brain and (b) whether neural correlates of memory for self-chosen differs from that for assigned goals. Twenty healthy students were asked to choose simple everyday tasks to remember from a standard list. Additionally, they were asked by the computer to remember from the same list a different set of tasks that were assigned by an authority person for later enactment. In the fMRI scanner, participants carried out an unexpected retrieval test on the source of the goals, that is, whether the to-be-carried out tasks were self-chosen, assigned, or left over (neither chosen nor assigned). Results showed significant activations in the ventromedial prefrontal and the right parietal cortex for correctly remembered self-chosen or assigned tasks as compared to remaining tasks. In addition, there were activations in the right hippocampus for self-chosen as compared to assigned tasks. The present findings are discussed with respect to the role of these brain regions in self-consciousness and personal goal commitment.
Poster Location 2:
The divergence of implicit and explicit emotion in consumer decision making
Amy Summerville, Miami University, Brendon Hsieh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, & Nick Harrington, Products Research, P&G, USA
Consumer products often promise an emotional benefit (e.g., relaxing or invigorating bath products), and packaging is often designed to not only highlight these claims but to induce the target emotional state in shoppers. The assumption underlying this practice--that congruent emotional states will promote purchases--has never been tested empirically. The present research investigated whether consumers' emotional responses to packaging predicted their intentions to purchase the products. After viewing images of packages with or without a communication of an emotional benefit of the product, consumers completed a lexical decision task assessing implicit activation of the target emotion concept (e.g., relaxation) and a self- report of whether they were currently experiencing that emotional state ("Do you currently feel relaxed?"). Faster lexical decision latencies for emotion-congruent words were associated with increased purchase intention ratings; however, explicit emotional state did not relate to purchase intentions. This work suggests that reliance on self-report measures of emotion may miss real and essential relationships between implicit emotional experience and behavioral outcomes.
Poster Location 3:
Vengeful avoidance: The mediating role of anger in the link between offense severity and avoidance motivations
Collin D. Barnes, Ryan P. Brown, & Lindsey Osterman, The University of Oklahoma
In the wake of an interpersonal offense, victims tend to develop motivations to avoid their perpetrators, and the more severe the offense, the more pronounced these motivations are. On the surface, such motivations appear to serve a self-protective function such that victims, compelled by a sense of fear or apprehension, withdraw from their wrongdoers to ward off additional harm and recover from the wounds they suffered. However, it is also possible that avoidance motivations serve a retaliatory purpose in which victims shun their offenders out of anger and hostility, using interpersonal distance as a means of payback. In the present study, we used Preacher and Hayes' (2008) multiple mediator model to simultaneously test the mediating roles of fear and anger in the relationship between offense severity and avoidance motivations with several potential confounding variables controlled (e.g., pre-offense intimacy, perceived intentionality, dispositional forgiveness). This analysis revealed that anger, not fear, was the emotion that partially mediated the relationship between severity and avoidance, suggesting that avoidance might sometimes be more about exacting revenge than promoting self-protection. A follow-up analysis showed that the link between anger and avoidance was partially mediated by revenge motivations, lending additional support to this possibility.
Poster Location 4:
Simple geometric shapes hold affective value: Implicit associations between shapes and contextual emotional stimuli
Christine L. Larson, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Growing evidence suggests that the underlying geometry of a visual image may represent a shorthand for quickly conveying the affective meaning of the scene or object. Taken to an extreme level, recent data suggests that even very simple geometric shapes, devoid of contextual cues, convey emotion. Specifically, downward-pointing V's (compared to the same shape inverted) are rated as being threatening and curvilinear forms as being more pleasant. In two studies we extended this work by using an Implicit Association Test to examine associations between three geometric shapes (downward- and upward-pointing triangles, circles) and affective pictures. We found that participants are faster to categorize downward-pointing triangles (the downward "V") as unpleasant compared to neutral or pleasant. Circles were also more readily classified as pleasant than unpleasant. Consistent with the known negativity bias, reaction times were faster for unpleasant-downward triangle pairing compared to pleasant-circle trials. These data support previous self-report, attentional bias, and fMRI data indicating that simple geometric forms hold affective value and that common underlying geometry may faciliate quick recognition of the emotional nature of visual images.
Poster Location 5:
Cognitive dissonance in Schadenfreude
Leisha A. Colyn & Richard B. Anderson, Bowling Green State University
Friends provide many benefits, including social support and protection. However, previous research has shown that people admit to feeling schadenfreude toward their friends (Colyn & Gordon, 2008; Hareli & Weiner, 2002). Researchers have suggested that schadenfreude stems from competition within friendships (Colyn & Gordon, 2008). Moreover, envy has been shown to be an antecedent to schadenfreude when targets and observers are of the same sex (van Dijk, Ouwerkerk, Goslinga, Nieweg, & Gallucci, 2006). We examined the cognitive consequences of feeling schadenfreude toward friends under conditions of high envy in competition. We predicted that one consequence of experiencing schadenfreude, within friendship, is cognitive dissonance and that, as a result of attempting to reduce cognitive dissonance, people's attitudes toward their friends become less positive. Participants (181 women) read about either a real or hypothetical friend suffering from either a substantive or trivial misfortune. Results showed that as envy increased, schadenfreude increased. Additionally, for participants lower in envy, discomfort increased as schadenfreude increased, but for those higher in envy there was no apparent relationship between schadenfreude and discomfort. Additionally, for participants higher in envy, attitude change increased as schadenfreude increased. But for those lower in envy, attitude change decreased as schadenfreude increased.
Poster Location 6:
Musical valence and arousal in the regulation of stress
Gillian M. Sandstrom, Gabe Nespoli, & Frank A. Russo, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada
In survey studies, mood regulation is mentioned as a predominant reason why individuals listen to music, but little empirical research has examined the factors involved, or individual differences. We established baseline self-report and physiological (GSR) measurements and then induced stress using a speech task. After dismissing the stressor, we played sound clips and compared the extent of recovery. Music excerpts were chosen from each quadrant of Russell's circumplex model: happy, pleasant, sad, and agitated excerpts were compared to a white noise control. Individuals were classified as either high or low in trait absorption, the intensity of emotional response to aesthetic stimuli. We found significant differences between conditions for the self-reported recovery; individuals thought they recovered less after listening to agitated rather than relaxing music. Interestingly, there were no significant differences between conditions for the physiological recovery (though a linear contrast found that recovery was significantly better with music than with white noise). This discordance between the cognitive and physiological manifestations of emotion is predicted by Lang's tri-partite theory. High absorbers' physiological recovery was significantly better than low absorbers', but only for music, which conveys emotional meaning, and not in the white noise condition. Absorption did not impact the self-reported recovery.
Poster Location 7:
Wal-Mart's conscientious objectors: Moral reflections, emotions and supportive or retaliatory consumer behavior
Stephen Reysen, Tracey Cronin, Nyla R. Branscombe, & Kristopher J. Preacher, University of Kansas
Two studies examined the relationship between moral appraisals of the Wal-Mart Corporation, emotional response, and consumer behaviors (consumer support or boycott). In Study 1, undergraduates rated ethical concerns (i.e., perceived legitimacy of Wal-Mart's market dominance, and cost or harm to communities and people), their emotional response to these appraisals (e.g., anger), and their willingness to support Wal-Mart or their willingness to boycott/ protest Wal-Mart. Greater moral concerns predicted moral outrage and willingness to protest Wal-Mart. The relationship between moral concerns and both consumer support and willingness to engage in confrontational actions against Wal-Mart was mediated by moral outrage. In Study 2, community members and members of online Internet groups (e.g., anti-Wal-Mart groups) showed a similar pattern of responses as the undergraduate population in Study 1. In effect, participants who viewed Wal-Mart's position in the retail market as illegitimate and harmful to the community in the long run felt morally outraged and were more willing to protest Wal-Mart. These results support appraisal theories of emotions and the moral mandate effect (Mullen & Skitka, 2006), and highlight the importance of consumers' (1) perception of companies' (un)ethical actions, and (2) the implications that emotions have for consumer behavior.
Poster Location 8:
Distinguishing positive affective states via conceptual and experiential descriptions of emotion
Kimberly M. Angelo, University of Oregon, & Patricia Bruininks, Whitworth University
Previous research suggests that positive emotions are fewer in number and more diffuse than negative emotions. The purpose of the present studies was to identify the dimensions along which positive emotions are discriminated in everyday language. Two studies examined the conceptual and experiential differences between the basic positive emotion of happiness and eight other positive- or mixed-valence mental states (contentment, gratitude, joy, love, nostalgia, pride, relief, and surprise). Participants (N=177) were prompted to either define each state or write a story about a time when they experienced each state. Trained coders rated each response for several psychological features (e.g., cognition, affect, intensity, valence), which were used to determine how these other positive states differed from happiness. Responses were also subjected to text analysis using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software (Pennebaker, Francis & Booth, 2001). Compared to happiness, surprise and nostalgia were conceptualized as more cognitive and less positive. Joy was described as more positive and intense, but less cognitive. Happiness was rated the most "emotional" of the states. Participants' definitions demonstrated finer discrimination among states than did their stories, suggesting that conceptions of positive emotions may be more distinct than their experience, as is suggested by emotion theory.
Poster Location 9:
The reward of giving social support: Neural correlates of family assistance
Eva H. Telzer, Carrie L. Masten, Matthew D. Lieberman, & Andrew J. Fuligni, University of California, Los Angeles
Although helping the family can be difficult at times, providing such assistance also can be a meaningful activity as it provides a sense of purpose, role fulfillment, and happiness, particularly for youth from Latin American backgrounds who place a strong value on family assistance. In the current project, we wished to explore this dynamic activity by using fMRI to examine whether the act of providing assistance to the family engaged well-known reward systems in the brain. Twenty-six participants (12 White, 14 Latino) completed a task modified from Moll and colleagues (2006) in which they allocated money to themselves and their family. Results indicate that Latino participants show greater activation in the striatum as compared to White participants while contributing money to their family compared to gaining money, even when it costs them money in order to contribute (costly donation). In contrast, White participants show greater activation in the striatum when gaining money compared to giving money. These findings highlight the reward of providing support to the family, especially for Latinos who more strongly endorse such values.
Poster Location 10:
Think versus feel: Language that appeals to emotions or cognitions
Nicole D. Mayer & Zakary L. Tormala, Stanford University
In everyday discourse, the words "think" and "feel" are used interchangeably. When people express opinions or share ideas, they often do so by referencing their thoughts or feelings. When discussing a movie, for instance, a person might couch the same substantive argument in terms of thoughts (e.g., "I think movie X will be too scary for kids") or feelings (e.g., "I feel that movie X will be too scary for kids"). But does this message, regardless of its framing, always have the same effect on the recipient? We propose that a message using "feel" will be more persuasive to someone with an affective attitude and a message using "think" will be more persuasive to someone who holds a cognitive attitude. Three studies explored the effect of think ("I think...") versus feel ("I feel...") message framing on persuasion. Study 1 presented high and low need for cognition individuals with a think- or feel-framed message. Study 2 manipulated initial cognitive or affective attitudes and then presented a think- or feel-framed message. Study 3 presented male and female participants with a movie advertisement containing think- or feel-framed arguments. Across studies, feel (think) framing was more persuasive when the target attitude or message recipient was affectively (cognitively) oriented. Moreover, this matching effect was mediated by processing fluency.
Poster Location 11:
Egoism and altruism: The social tuning of empathy
Piercarlo Valdesolo, Amherst College, & David DeSteno, Northeastern University
The study of empathy has been characterized by long-standing debate concerning whether empathic helping results from solely egoistic or altruistic systems. In opposition to these unitary views, we suggest that empathy is more profitably understood as a joint function of both systems, motivating selfless behavior in the short-term while shaping such behavior to accrue benefits over time. Specifically, we predicted that low-level appraisals of similarity to victims would enhance a basic empathic response focused on their wellbeing, and thereby increase subsequent costly helping behavior in ways that maximize odds for reciprocal altruism. Using two subtle and emergent manipulations of similarity, we present evidence that empathy and, thereby, helping behavior are not only evoked in response to general human distress but also preferentially directed toward similar victims. These findings hold potential to integrate purely selfless views of empathy with those emphasizing the need for egoistic responses.
Poster Location 12:
Neurofunctional anatomy of affective prosody regulation: A PET-study on the vocal expression of anxiety in patients with social phobia
Petri Laukka, Fredrik Ahs, Tomas Furmark, & Mats Fredrikson, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
We explored the neural correlates of affective prosody regulation using data collected in a study of social phobia treatment. Patients with social phobia performed an anxiogenic public speaking task while regional blood flow (rCBF) was assessed using oxygen-15 positron emission tomography. The patients' speech was content-masked by low-pass filtering (which obscures the linguistic content but preserves nonverbal affective cues) and evaluated by listeners with regard to vocally expressed nervousness. Based on self-ratings of state anxiety and the listeners' nervousness ratings, patients were divided into (a) low regulators (patients who reported high anxiety and expressed much nervousness; N=21), and (b) high regulators (patients who reported high anxiety but expressed little nervousness; N=15). We hypothesized that emotion regulating prefrontal brain territories would regulate affective prosody, and results accordingly showed that high as compared to low regulators had higher rCBF in lateral prefrontal cortex; left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). High regulators also showed a significant correlation between rCBF in the IFG and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which indicates increased functional connectivity between areas implicated in emotion regulation. The results suggest that these areas (OFC, IFG, and ACC) are involved in the regulation of affective prosody.
Poster Location 13:
Affective responses to risky decisions
Tabitha Kirkland, B.A., Adam E. Hasinski, B.A., & William A. Cunningham, The Ohio State University
When deciding whether or not to take a risky gamble, people evaluate information about the gamble in various ways. Using duplex gambles, it has been shown that the approach system is more sensitive to information about the probability of winning, while the avoidance system is mainly concerned with the degree of loss (Lichtenstein & Slovic, 2006). However, less is known about the affective states that motivate this behavior. The present research examined the affective responses involved in these types of decision-making processes. We presented gambles with differing amounts of potential win or loss along with the probability of winning. After deciding whether or not to take the gamble, participants used an evaluative grid (Larsen et al., in press) to rate simultaneous levels of positive and negative feelings about both the gambles and their decisions (take or pass). Mirroring the research on choice behavior, positive feelings were influenced by both magnitude and probability, while negative feelings were influenced by magnitude only. Additionally, ratings of one's decisions were more closely calibrated to positive feelings than negative. The results suggest that the positive and negative affect systems are differentially sensitive to information about probability and magnitude in gambling.
Poster Location 14:
Anger versus sadness in the planning of goals
Sam J. Maglio, Peter Gollwitzer, & Gabriele Oettingen, New York University
In the process of pursuing a goal, the formation of specific plans to be implemented can provide invaluable assistance. Though a large body of empirical work has documented how forming plans leads to goal attainment, relatively less attention has been paid to the naturalistic conditions under which individuals form such plans. Whereas the discrete emotion anger is associated with approach motivation and energizes behavior toward acquiring a reward, sadness is characterized by withdrawal and reconsideration. As such, the experience of anger may facilitate planning more than sadness. The current project explored this possibility. Undergraduate participants were asked to first name their most important academic goal. They then read and took the perspective of the protagonist in a vignette designed to elicit either anger or sadness. A subsequent planning measure asked participants to complete four (of eight possible) sentence stems, some of which suggested the formation of plans and others that did not. Participants in the anger condition generated significantly more plans than those in the sadness condition; this pattern held in adjusting for initial ratings of the goal's desirability and feasibility. The findings suggest that different emotional experiences yield differential planning for goal-directed behavior.
Poster Location 15:
The effects of perspective-taking on perceptions of fairness
Morelli, S., Geula, E., & Lieberman, M.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Our study explores the behavioral and neural consequences of perspective-taking, examining whether taking someone's perspective biases later perceptions of the fairness of the person's actions. Participants began the experiment with a perspective-taking induction in which they viewed a photo of an individual (PT player) and read two first-person passages that described the person's thoughts and emotions during everyday situations. Next, participants watched the PT player play a series of Ultimatum Games against two other unknown players. Each Ultimatum Game showed two players, the sum of money they had to split, and then the offer one player made the other. Participants saw players make offers that ranged from 20% to 50% of the total stake, then judged how fair the offer was for each game. Initial behavioral results from 22 participants showed that perspective-taking does bias participants to view an offer as more fair when the PT player proposes the offer when compared to when a neutral player proposes the same offer. In addition, when the PT player receives an offer, the offer is viewed as less fair when compared to when a neutral player receives the same offer. Ongoing fMRI research is now examining neural activation during the above tasks.
Poster Location 16:
Empathy and social identity: Evidence for two types of vicarious shame.
Stephanie C. M. Welten, Marcel Zeelenberg, & Seger M. Breugelmans, Tilburg University
Vicarious shame is typically explained in terms of a shared social identity. People feel ashamed because the shameful behavior of someone with whom they share an identity reflects badly upon them (so-called group-based shame). We argue and reveal that a shared social identity is not the only route to vicarious shame. Empathy can also elicit vicarious shame. In this empathic shame, people imagine how another shamefully behaving person feels or should feel. Two studies using autobiographic recall procedures revealed that both types clearly share the phenomenological characteristics of shame, but that they differ on important emotion components. In addition, we found that that both types were spontaneously reported when people were asked about "vicarious shame". The differences in experiential content are important indicators of potentially distinct motivational effects of these emotions, explaining why experiences of vicarious shame can lead to markedly different behaviors. Implications for (vicarious) shame research are discussed.
Poster Location 17:
The prospective effect of acceptance of negative experiences on depression in the face of stress
Amanda J. Shallcross & Iris B. Mauss, University of Denver
Research suggests that acceptance of negative experiences predicts positive mental health outcomes. However, it is not well understood under what circumstances acceptance is adaptive. While several studies have supported the positive implications of acceptance, few studies have examined the longer-term effects of acceptance under circumstances when it might matter most, namely under high stress. Importantly, even fewer studies have examined the prospective role of acceptance in the face of stress. Thus, studies are needed that examine the impact of acceptance on response to stress in which acceptance is measured before stress is encountered and before outcomes are measured. The present study fills this gap by examining in a sample of 93 women whether acceptance (measured at T1) moderates the effects of stress that occurred between T1 and T2 (measured three months after T1) on depressive symptoms at T2. Results supported the hypothesis by indicating that participants low in acceptance exhibited increased depressive symptoms at higher levels of stress. However participants high in acceptance did not show increased levels of depression at higher levels of stress. This suggests that people who tend to accept negative experiences may be protected from developing depression in the face of high stress.
Poster Location 18:
Conscientiousness and self-conscious emotions: Distinctions between experience of and capacity for guilt and shame
Jennifer V. Fayard & Brent W. Roberts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Personality traits are often defined as relatively enduring patterns of thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. Meta-analysis has indicated that conscientiousness, or the tendency to be planful, goal-oriented, self-controlled, organized, and responsible, is strongly correlated with both positive and negative affect, as well as life satisfaction (DeNeve & Cooper, 1998). Further, the association between conscientiousness and self-conscious emotions, particularly guilt and shame, fully accounts for the relationship between conscientiousness and negative affect (Fayard & Roberts, in preparation). We conducted an in-depth investigation of the nature of the relationship between conscientiousness and guilt and shame (N = 147) and found opposite associations between conscientiousness and the frequency of experiencing guilt and shame and the capacity to experience guilt and shame. Specifically, conscientious individuals tend to experience guilt and shame less often on average, but have a tendency to experience stronger feelings of guilt and shame when faced with guilt- or shame-eliciting situations. Our results also indicate that the relationship between conscientiousness and emotion is not simply due to an overlap with extraversion or neuroticism. These findings may have implications for understanding the relationship between conscientiousness and important life outcomes such as physical health and longevity.
Poster Location 19:
Affective predictors of relearning expected value
Adam E. Hasinski, B.A., Tabitha Kirkland, B.A., & William A. Cunningham, The Ohio State University
Depression affects the expectations people have for the world. Relative to non-depressed individuals, people suffering from depression show an impaired ability to learn stimuli that predict positive outcomes. Therefore, depressed individuals may fail to detect when the world presents more opportunities than expected. To test this prediction, we presented gambles, with positive and negative potential outcomes of varying magnitudes, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Subjects either accepted the gambles, risking potential losses for potential gains, or rejected them. Half the participants started with a high probability of winning (.75: safe-world) and half began with a low probability of winning (.25: unsafe-world), though probabilities were never explicitly provided. Halfway through the task, the probability of winning switched for half the subjects in each group. As expected, when switching from an unsafe to a safe world, BDI scores predicted ability to detect changes in the probability of winning, such that participants with higher depression scores were behaviorally less sensitive to the changes, behaving as if the probability of winning remained low. All participants were equally likely to detect the safe-unsafe change. This suggests a relationship between ability to re-evaluate the world as positive and depression level, which may reinforce negative expectations.
Poster Location 20:
Better voluntary memory suppression in repressive coping - evidence from the emotional think/no-think task
Caitlin Dubiel & Esther Fujiwara, University of Alberta
Individuals with a so-called repressive coping style, characterised by high defensiveness combined with low self-reported anxiety, are better able to forget negative memories. While negative explicit memories seem reduced in repressors, implicit memory is spared. Therefore we asked whether repressors are more effective than non-repressors using deliberate, voluntary memory suppression to forget negative information. Using Depue et al.'s (2006; Psychological Science) emotional think/no-think paradigm, we compared voluntary emotional memory suppression in repressors and non-repressors (high anxious, low anxious, defensive high anxious). After successful learning of neutral face-emotional scene pairs, individuals were repeatedly shown the face cue and were either asked to rehearse or suppress their memory for the previously associated scene. In a subsequent test phase, participants were again shown each face and asked to recall the previous scene. Compared to non-repressors, repressors were superior in forgetting negative materials and needed few suppression attempts. Only repressors showed forgetting below baseline after suppression training. Furthermore, a post-test suppression strategy survey indicated that briefly reminding oneself of the to-be-suppressed materials promoted forgetting in repressors while promoting recall in non-repressors. Repressors are highly efficient in voluntary emotional memory suppression and they use different strategies than non-repressors.
Poster Location 21:
Preferences for sadness when eliciting help
Joy Hackenbracht & Maya Tamir, Boston College
Research indicates individuals are sometimes motivated to feel bad if the experience carries long term value (e.g., Tamir, Mitchell, & Gross, 2008). Given that sad people are more likely to receive help than happy people (Clark et al., 1987), we examined the extent to which individuals would prefer to feel sad when eliciting help. Our results revealed that preferences for sadness vary by context. These findings further demonstrate that individuals may prefer to feel an unpleasant emotion, such as sadness, in the short term to the extent that it promotes their goals.
Poster Location 22:
Guilt is good: Guilt-proneness as a source of effort, performance, and commitment
Francis J. Flynn & Rebecca Schaumberg, Stanford University
We advance the theory that guilt motivates employees to work hard on their tasks, perform well in their jobs, and remain committed to their employers. Although often described as a dysfunctional emotional experience, guilt can be highly energizing, particularly for those individuals who are inordinately prone to experience guilt. To test this idea, we collected data from two samples of working professionals. The first sample of participants, which consisted of employees at a local bank, completed the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) (Tangney, Wagner & Gramzow, 1989) and a series of work-related outcome measures. The findings from this study suggest that employees, who were apt to experience guilt, worked harder and showed higher levels of commitment to their organization than their less guilt-prone counterparts. We replicated these findings with employees at a software development firm, and showed further that guilt-prone employees not only worked harder and were more committed to their employer, but also performed better (as indicated by end-of-the-year performance reviews) than those employees who were less susceptible to feelings of guilt.
Poster Location 23:
Comparing emotional responses to physical and social threat in children and their parents
Elena Wright, Philippe Goldin, & James Gross, Stanford University
Emotion processes have been implicated in the development and maintenance of many adult and child psychopathologies, and middle childhood has been implicated as a potential period at which dysregulations in emotion are stabilized. Little basic research has done to date to determine how emotional reactions to physical and social threat and perceived emotion regulation self-efficacy after the threat may differ in children and parents. The present study compares the emotion reactivity and emotion regulation self-efficacy of children aged 8-12 and their parents using the Emotion Regulation Scenario Task (ERST), a computer task developed by Philippe Goldin, Ph.D. in which participants are instructed to imagine themselves in specific anxiety-eliciting situations of social or physical threat. A 2 Group (children, adults) x 2 Threat (social, physical) repeated-measures ANOVA for identified negative emotion ratings resulted in a significant interaction of group by threat (F(1, 128)=8.57, p<.005, partial eta2=.06). Follow-up t-tests showed that, compared to adults, children reported greater identified negative emotion for physical threat (t(128)=2.15, p<.05), but not for social threat (p>.76). Children also reported themselves less able to implement a self-generated emotion regulation strategy when compared with their parents (F(1,128)=4.02, p<.05, partial eta2=.03). Across parents and children, however, participants rated themselves as better able to regulate their emotional response to physical threat than to social threat (F(1,128)=7.46, p<.01, partial eta2=.06). This research provides a basis for further studies of how emotional reactions to physical and social stimuli differ in adulthood and childhood, and how they may develop beyond childhood.
Poster Location 24:
Emotion hurts intentional association learning with a concurrent advantage for item learning
Christopher R. Madan, Christine S. M. Lau, Jeremy B. Caplan, & Esther Fujiwara, University of Alberta
While peripheral memory may be lowered for information presented in the context of an emotional event, most previous studies tested only item memory. A recent exception is Touryan et al. (2007, Memory), finding impaired association learning between peripheral neutral objects and central emotional scenes, despite enhanced item memory for emotional scenes. We asked whether these findings would generalize to deliberate association-learning and low-arousing materials. Participants intentionally learned word pairs with neutral/low-arousing or negative/high-arousing probes and targets. We found impaired memory for associations involving emotional words despite enhanced emotional item memory. Our results demonstrate reductions in associative emotional memory even with mildly arousing materials. Reductions emerged although all information was central to the task and despite intentional efforts to learn the associations. Results of a control group, who studied categorized instead of emotional words, suggested that although emotional item memory enhancement could be due to semantic cohesiveness, the emotion-detriment to association memory could not. Our findings suggest that a simultaneous boost in item memory and reduction in association memory could apply to everyday, subtle modulations in emotionality of experiences.
Poster Location 25:
Attention differentially modulates emotional experience during emotion regulation
Genna M. Bebko, Northwestern University, Steven L. Franconeri, Northwestern University, Kevin N. Ochsner, Columbia University, & Joan Y. Chiao, Northwestern University
Emotion regulation (ER) is important for maintaining mental, physical, and social well-being. Although the emotional consequences of specific regulatory strategies have been well-studied, less is known about the underlying cognitive processes. Recent research suggests that attentional processes underlie the success of some ER strategies. For example, during free-viewing of negative IAPS, older adults change eye-gaze patterns when reappraising (van Reekum, et al, 2007), and when eye-gaze is controlled, reappraisal does not decrease negative emotional intensity (Opitz, et al, 2008) or arousal (Urry et al, 2008). To examine whether attention differentially affects the effectiveness of ER strategies of reappraisal and suppression, we measured eye-movements and negative valence ratings while young adult participants regulated emotions during free-viewing (Reappraise group: n=39; Suppress group: n=44) or gaze directed (Reappraise group: n=13; Suppress group: n=10) viewing of negative IAPS images. Consistent with prior results, reappraisers rated feeling significantly less negative than suppressers. There was also a significant interaction between ER group and attention, where directed attention led to enhanced reappraisal but attenuated suppression. Specifically, suppressers rated feeling significantly more negative than reappraisers under gaze direction conditions. These results suggest that attention differentially moderates emotional experience during emotion regulation.
Poster Location 26:
Sex differences in facial expression recognition
Hyun-jung Kim, Dal-nim Cho, Jin-young Kim, Hack-jin Kim, & Young-gun Ko, Korea University
A substantial literature has accumulated indicating that females are more accurate in facial expression recognition compared to men. In the previous research, however, the assessment of individual differences in facial expression recognition failed to control differential difficulty levels across emotions. In an effort to deal with this problem, Suzuki, Hoshino and Shigemasu (2006) proposed an alternative assessment method using morphing techniques and item response theory (IRT). The purpose of the present study was to investigate sex differences in facial expression recognition by using morphing to create mixed facial expression stimuli with various levels of recognition difficulty. Two hundred and forty-seven Korean college students (90 males, 157 females) participated in the present study for an psychology course credit. During stimulus presentation, participants were asked to rate the emotional intensity of thirty-six facial expression images. Among the images, six were prototypical expression photographs of the six basic emotions from Korea University Facial Expression collection (Choi, 2007). The other thirty images were mixed expressions created by morphing two different prototypical expressions. The results revealed that, compared to men, females responded more rapidly and accurately only in the recognition of surprise facial expressions. The present finding was discussed in relation to an evolutionary account.
Poster Location 27:
Enhancing self-efficacy for coping with depression among female undergraduates: Mood regulation based on cognitive behavior techniques
Megumi Oikawa, Kyoto University, & Shinji Sakamoto, Nihon University
Many of undergraduates have experienced a lot of stressful events, and some of them cannot control negative moods effectively, which might cause depression. Depression is one of the most serious and common maladjustments among Japanese undergraduates. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a psycho-educational program for improving self-efficacy for coping with depression among Japanese female undergraduates. The experimental group participated in a 9-week psycho-educational program. Each session's theme was related to cognitive distortion, rumination, distraction, assertion, relaxation, etc.?The program consisted of some lectures about the effects of the cognitive and behavior techniques on negative mood, group sharing, role-playing, and homework. The participants completed some questionnaires measuring self-efficacy for coping with depression and mental health before and after participating in the program. The experimental group rated the degree of comprehension about contents of the program in each session. Based on their responses, how they rated each method was also examined. The results suggested that the experimental group understood the contents of the program well and that participating in the program has a positive effect on promoting self-efficacy for coping with depression. The role of improving self-efficacy in effective mood regulation was discussed.
Poster Location 28:
The role of anger in intergroup perceptions: Anger emphasizes outgroup and ingroup derogation
Michaela Huber, Bernadette Park, Leaf Van Boven, & William Pizzi, University of Colorado, Bouulder
Anger is recognized as a central intergroup emotion, in part because of its functional significance indicating intergroup conflict. Consistent with this perspective, we argue that depending on situational circumstances and a group member's behavior, anger can increase intergroup bias (measured here as judgments that protect ingroup members), and conversely, exacerbate the tendency to derogate a deviant ingroup member (i.e., the "black sheep" effect). We tested these hypotheses in the context of events that took place during Hurricane Katrina. In the first experiment, Black and White participants saw either a victim of their racial ingroup or outgroup whom police didn't help during Hurricane Katrina. As predicted, we found that angry participants judged police as more culpable when the victim was an ingroup member and less culpable when the victim was an outgroup member, reflecting intergroup bias. In the second experiment, White participants saw either a racial ingroup or outgroup member engaging in negative behavior which could be interpreted as looting. As predicted, we found that for participants who perceived the behavior as looting, angry, relative to sad participants were more likely to say the person should face criminal prosecution when he was an ingroup member, consistent with the black sheep effect.
Poster Location 29:
Male and female role models as moderating emotional responses to stereotype threat about women's leadership abilities
Leslie R. Brody, Gwendolyn W. Kelso, Jeong Hye Kim, Steven Hirsch, Tyler Ferguson, Jacqueline Bullis, Sabrina Copes, & Danielle Rosenblatt, Boston University
The current study examines the effects of stereotype threat about leadership abilities on the behaviors and emotions of women primed with powerful male and female role models. One hundred twenty-eight females were randomly primed with either powerful male or female figures (e.g. Bill or Hillary Clinton) and within each of these two groups, were randomly assigned to one of three leadership stereotype threat conditions: implicit, explicit, and no threat. They then completed a lottery allocation task; the PANAS-X, a self-report measure of affect; and a narrative task, analyzed for frequencies of selected emotion words. Two (gender of prime) x 3 (threat condition) ANOVAs showed that regardless of gender prime, participants in the implicit stereotype threat condition (compared to other conditions) allocated significantly fewer tickets to self than to others, F(2,122)=7.02, p=.001, expressed more anxiety, F(2,122)= 4.57, p=.01, and less optimism (F(2,122)=3.954, p=.02) in their narratives. Regardless of threat condition, participants exposed to the female power prime (versus male) expressed more guilt in their narratives F(1,122)=10.017, p=.002. Finally, a prime x condition interaction, F(2, 122)=3.354, p=.038, indicated that in the implicit threat condition, female primes were associated with higher levels of self-reported fear than male primes.
Poster Location 30:
To risk or not to risk: An fMRI investigation of affective influences on financial risk taking
Julie L. Hall, Richard Gonzalez, & Oliver C. Schultheiss, University of Michigan
Traditional economic models assume that individuals are always rational when they make financial decisions. However, the current study suggests that emotions play an important role in financial decisions. Our goal was to investigate whether affective primes could influence risk taking and anticipatory neural activation during financial decisions. Using fMRI, 24 participants viewed happy, angry, and neutral affective primes presented under subliminal and supraliminal conditions followed by an investment task where they had to decide between risky, high-payoff stocks and safe, low-payoff bonds. Our results indicate that both subliminal and supraliminal presentations of affective primes influence financial investment decisions and anticipatory neural activation in the NAcc and anterior insula. As predicted, participants showed greater NAcc activation and were more likely to make risky investment decisions after happy versus neutral face primes in both the subliminal and supraliminal presentation conditions. In addition, participants also showed greater anterior insula activation and made slightly less risky investment decisions after angry versus neutral face primes during supraliminal presentation conditions. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that facial expressions of emotion, even when they are not consciously perceived, can influence investment decisions and suggest that the inclusion of affect may lead to more accurate models of economic decision making, which better explain irrational financial behavior. They also suggest that affective states during pre-choice stages of the decision making process may alter the perception of benefits relative to costs, leading to changes in financial risk taking depending on whether the affective state is positive or negative.