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The physical activity-mediated Demand-Control model (Hausser, J. A., & Mojzisch, A. (2017). The physical activity-mediated Demand–Control (pamDC) model: Linking work characteristics, leisure time p...

In integrative as opposed to distributive negotiations, the interests of the negotiation partners can be simultaneously realized to some degree, which results in higher individual as well as joint outcomes. Perspective taking is important to detect and tap into this integrative potential. In negotiations, priority-related information exchange can be seen as a behavioral consequence of perspective taking. Based on findings on the development of perspective taking across the life span, we tested the hypothesis that there are age differences in integrative negotiations. In 2 quasi-experimental studies (Study 1 and 2), participants worked in face-to-face interacting dyads on an apartment rental negotiation. In Study 3, participants read a negotiation transcript that contained all priority-related information. Our results consistently revealed that younger dyads (17-35 years) achieved significantly higher joint outcomes than older dyads (65-85 years; in Study 1 and 2) or age-heterogeneous dyads (in Study 1) and that younger participants proposed more integrative agreements (in Study 3). Differences between younger and older dyads were mediated via information exchange about the negotiation partners' different priorities (Study 2) and via the extraction of relevant information about underlying different priorities (Study 3). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

This research was supported by a grant from the German Research Foundation awarded to RvD, NMJ, and JAH (DI 848/15-1 and HA 6455/4-1). The data collection for this study was supported by a grant from the association of friends and supporters (Freunde & Förderer) at Goethe University. The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered health-related anxiety in ways that undermine peoples’ mental and physical health. Contextual factors such as living in a high-risk area might further increase the risk of health deterioration. Based on the Social Identity Approach, we argue that social identities can not only be local that are characterized by social interactions, but also be global that are characterized by a symbolic sense of togetherness and that both of these can be a basis for health. In line with these ideas, we tested how identification with one’s family and with humankind relates to stress and physical symptoms while experiencing health-related anxiety and being exposed to contextual risk factors. We tested our assumptions in a representative sample (N = 974) two-wave survey study with a 4-week time lag. The results show that anxiety at Time 1 was positively related to stress and physical symptoms at Time 2. Feeling exposed to risk factors related to lower physical health, but was unrelated to stress. Family identification and identification with humankind were both negatively associated with subsequent stress and family identification was negatively associated with subsequent physical symptoms. These findings suggest that for social identities to be beneficial for mental health, they can be embodied as well as symbolic. Publisher PDF

Background During the current pandemic, it is essential that individuals follow the COVID-19 guidelines (e.g., physical distancing) to slow down the spread of the new coronavirus. Organizations generally affect their employees' behavior in a wide range of areas, but can they also affect how strictly employees adhere to COVID-19 guidelines? To answer this question, the present study examined the impact of an organizational climate for preventing infectious diseases (OCID) on employees' adherence to COVID-19 guidelines both at work and in their private life. Method We used a two-wave longitudinal online survey with a final sample of N = 304 UK employees. Results Our results show that OCID during the first lockdown in the UK in April 2020 (T1) was positively linked to adherence to COVID-19 guidelines at work one month later (T2). We also found a relationship between OCID (T1) and adherence to guidelines in one's private life (T2) that was mediated through adherence to guidelines at work (T2). Conclusion These results highlight the pivotal role organizations play in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

We present two openly accessible databases related to the assessment of implicit motives using Picture Story Exercises (PSEs): (a) A database of 183,415 German sentences, nested in 26,389 stories provided by 4,570 participants, which have been coded by experts using Winter’s coding system for the implicit affiliation/intimacy, achievement, and power motives, and (b) a database of 54 classic and new pictures which have been used as PSE stimuli. Updated picture norms are provided which can be used to select appropriate pictures for PSE applications. Based on an analysis of the relations between raw motive scores, word count, and sentence count, we give recommendations on how to control motive scores for story length, and validate the recommendation with a meta-analysis on gender differences in the implicit affiliation motive that replicates existing findings. We discuss to what extent the guiding principles of the story length correction can be generalized to other content coding systems for narrative material. Several potential applications of the databases are discussed, including (un)supervised machine learning of text content, psychometrics, and better reproducibility of PSE research.

People have a fair idea of how they are supposed to behave to slow down the spread of COVID-19. But what about people's perception of their own compared to others' adherence to the guidelines? Building on prior research on self-enhancement biases, we predicted that people perceive themselves to adhere more strictly to the COVID-19 guidelines than others. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a large-scale online experiment (N = 1,102), using a sample from four countries (UK, US, Germany, Sweden). As predicted, people perceived themselves to adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines more strictly than both the average citizen of their country and their close friends. These findings were robust across countries. Furthermore, findings were not moderated by whether people first thought about themselves or about others. In conclusion, our study provides a robust demonstration of how a long-standing psychological effect perseveres, even during a once-in-a-lifetime health crisis.

During the current pandemic, it is essential that people follow the COVID-19 guidelines (e.g., physical distancing). Organizations substantially affect their employees’ behavior in a wide range of areas, but can they also affect how strictly employees adhere to COVID-19 guidelines? To answer this question, the present study examined the impact of an organizational climate for preventing infectious diseases (OCID) on employees’ adherence to COVID-19 guidelines both at work and in their private life. Using a three-wave longitudinal online survey with N = 304 UK based workers, our results show that OCID during the lockdown in April 2020 (T2) was positively linked to adherence to COVID-19 guidelines at work one month later (T3). We also found a relationship between OCID (T2) and adherence in one’s private life (T3) that was fully mediated through adherence at work (T3). Furthermore, we found that a pre-pandemic health climate (T1) was positively linked to our novel measure of organizational climate (T2). Finally, our study revealed that OCID (T2) and a pre-pandemic health climate (T1) contribute to stronger organizational and team identification (T3). These results highlight the key role organizations play in mitigating the current pandemic.

Building on self-regulation research and self-determination theory, the present research investigates the causal effects of job demands and job control on physical activity after work. In 2 experiments (total N = 251), participants completed a work simulation that was followed by a physical activity task (cycling on a bicycle ergometer). We simulated a call center, consisting of customer interactions and calculation tasks. In both experiments, job demands (high vs. low) were manipulated between-subjects in terms of customer unfriendliness and task difficulty. In Experiment 2, we also manipulated job control (high vs. low) in terms of decision latitude. As predicted, both experiments showed negative effects of job demands on physical activity, reflecting that time on the bicycle ergometer was lower for individuals in the high demands condition compared to the low demands condition. However, this effect was not mediated by self-regulatory capacities. Regarding job control, we found preliminary evidence for the expected indirect effect on physical activity through increased self-determination. In summary, our results provide causal evidence for the influence of job characteristics on physical activity and, thereby, advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the spill-over of work into leisure time. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The relationship between exhaustion and work engagement has received considerable attention during the past decades. Although the theoretical proposition exists that work engagement may increase exhaustion over time, previous research has been mixed. Drawing on the transactional stress model and applying latent growth modeling, we aim to provide a more comprehensive picture of the work engagement–exhaustion relationship over time. In two longitudinal studies, with four measurement points each, we found consistent evidence that a higher initial work engagement related to increased exhaustion over time. Consistent with our hypotheses, a higher initial work engagement also related to less initial exhaustion, and increases in work engagement related to decreases in exhaustion over time. However, contrary to our expectations, a higher initial exhaustion related to elevated work engagement over time. In conclusion, our findings suggest that engaged employees are less exhausted but face a higher risk of exhaustion over time. At the same time, exhausted employees are less engaged, but they have the potential to become more so over time. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings will be discussed in this paper.

While people's willingness to work hard can be reduced in teams (i.e., effort losses in teams as compared with individual work), it is less recognized that teamwork can also stimulate additional efforts (i.e., effort gains). Building on and extending existing theory, we (a) suggest an integration of these two research streams, and (b) provide evidence for team-related effort gains in action teams. In a first study, we tested our predictions by reanalyzing a field data set of 302,576 swimming performances in individual and relay races (Neugart & Richiardi, 2013). Consistent with our hypotheses, we observed a linear increase in effort across the relay. The first relay swimmers showed effort losses in the relay as compared with the individual competition whereas the remaining relay swimmers showed effort gains. However, this was only evident (a) when team members could realistically expect meaningful team outcomes in return for their performance, and (b) when the valence of these outcomes was equivalent to individual competitions. If such favorable conditions were not given, we found effort losses in team as compared with individual competitions at all relay positions. Results of a second study (N = 228) showed that the linear increase in effort across the relay was indeed attributable to the team members' serial position and not to their relative strength. Together, the studies demonstrate the motivating potential of teamwork even in the high performance contexts of action teams, such as competitive sports relays, where athletes are already highly motivated in their individual competitions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Abstract. Research in the judge-advisor-paradigm suggests that advice is generally utilized less than it should be according to its quality. In a series of four experiments, we challenge this widely held assumption. We hypothesize that when advice quality is low, the opposite phenomenon, namely overutilization of advice, occurs. We further assume that this overutilization effect is the result of anchoring: advice serves as an anchor, thus causing an adjustment toward even useless advice. The data of our four experiments support these hypotheses. Judges systematically adjusted their estimates toward advice that we introduced to them as being useless, and this effect was stable after controlling for intentional utilization of this advice. Furthermore, we demonstrate that anchoring-based adjustment toward advice is independent of advice quality. Our findings enhance our understanding of the processes involved in advice taking and identify a potential threat to judgment accuracy arising from an inability to discount useless advice.

When making judgments and decisions, people suffering from depression are often faced with opinions and advice from others (e.g., from their therapists) but it is unclear how their psychopathology alters the utilization of such information. This study is the first to examine whether depressed people are more or less susceptible to informational social influence. To this end, we employed the Judge–Advisor-System, which allows for a pure test of how people utilize information from others. We found that depressed participants had significantly higher advice taking values than non-depressed participants, which was mediated by self-esteem. A fine-grained analysis of these group differences revealed that depressed participants were more likely to revise their initial estimates after receiving advice than non-depressed people. Yet, once having decided to revise their estimates, depressed people did not weight advice more heavily. Theoretical implications concerning two qualitatively independent effects of depression on advice taking are discussed.

Only recently has research begun to investigate the interplay between work characteristics, leisure time physical activity (LTPA), health, and well-being. So far, however, this research lacks a theoretical foundation. In this article, we introduce the physical activity-mediated Demand–Control (pamDC) model as a new theoretical framework. The two key ideas of the pamDC model are (1) that job demands and job control affect LTPA and (2) that LTPA partially mediates the effects of job demands and job control on health and well-being. We present eight propositions explaining how work characteristics affect LTPA, health, and well-being. For each of these propositions, we discuss empirical evidence and theoretical foundations. We then sketch a research agenda on how to adopt the pamDC model as a new theoretical framework for future research linking work characteristics, LTPA, and health. Finally, we discuss the practical implications of our new model.

The present study aimed to integrate the social identity approach to health and well-being with social network analysis. Previous research on the effects of social network centrality on stress has yielded mixed results. Building on the social identity approach, we argued that these mixed results can be explained, in part, by taking into account the degree to which individuals identify with the social network. We hence hypothesized that the effects of social network centrality on stress are moderated by social identification. Using a full roster method, we assessed the social network of first-year psychology students right after the start of their study programme and three months later. The effects of network centrality (betweenness, closeness, eigenvector centrality) and social identification on stress were examined using structural equation models. As predicted, our results revealed a significant interaction between network centrality and social identification on stress: For weakly or moderately identified students, network centrality was positively related to stress. By contrast, for strongly identified students, network centrality was unrelated to stress. In conclusion, our results point to the perils of being well-connected yet not feeling like one belongs to a group.

During discussions, people typically introduce more information supporting their preferences as compared to information conflicting with these preferences, and they also repeat the former information more often than the latter. Although this preference-consistent discussion bias has been shown across several studies, its consequences for subsequent decisions have largely escaped attention. In particular, it is unclear whether selectively repeating preference-consistent information increases the likelihood that the recipient decides in accordance with the speaker's preference. From a rational point of view, information repetitions constitute redundancy and, hence, should not affect the recipient's decision. By contrast, in two experiments we demonstrate that selectively repeating information in favor of a particular decision alternative changes preference ratings in favor of this alternative (Experiment 1) and makes a decision for this alternative more likely (Experiment 2). This result is shown for written discussion protocols (Experiment 1) and for face-to-face discussions with a confederate (Experiment 2).

While previous studies on post-decisional regret have exclusively focused on externally provided options, the present study is the first to examine post-decisional regret in situations with self-generated options. Applying a metacognitive perspective, we predicted that a large option set-size leads to less post-decisional regret than a small option set-size. This hypothesis is in contrast to the classic choice overload effect which has been reported for externally provided options. Furthermore, we hypothesized that explicitly generating options results in less post-decisional regret than not doing so. We used a field experimental design to test our two hypotheses. On a Sunday morning, participants were asked to generate either three or six options for what they could do during the afternoon and to select one of these options. In a control condition, participants were not instructed to generate options. On Sunday evening, participants indicated how much they regretted not having done something else. Our results provide support for both hypotheses.

Social influence is an inevitable part of human social interaction. Although past research has demonstrated that testosterone has a key role in social interaction, no study has examined its role in social influence so far. Building on previous research showing that minority positions are perceived as risky options and that testosterone is positively associated with status seeking and risk-taking, we hypothesized that basal testosterone renders individuals more receptive to minority positions. In two studies, participants (total N = 250) read messages that were supported by either a numerical majority or minority. As hypothesized, individuals’ levels of basal testosterone were positively related to susceptibility to minority influence. In contrast, susceptibility to majority influence was unaffected by basal testosterone. Given the importance of minorities for innovation and change within societies, our results suggest that individuals with high levels of testosterone may play an important role as catalysts of social change.

There is strong and consistent evidence that identification with social groups is an important predictor of (ill-)health-related outcomes. However, the mediating mechanisms of the social identification-health link remain unclear. We present results from two studies, which aimed to test how perceived social support and collective self-efficacy mediate the effect of social identification on emotional exhaustion, chronic stress, and depressive symptoms. Study 1 (N = 180) employed a longitudinal two-wave design, whereas Study 2 (N = 100) used a field-experimental design with a manipulation of participants' social identity. Both studies consistently show that social identification was positively related to perceived social support, which, in turn, was positively associated with collective self-efficacy. Collective self-efficacy, finally, was negatively related to ill-health outcomes.

The ability to generate options for action is crucial for everyday life decision-making. In this article, we propose and test a model of the cognitive underpinnings of option generation in everyday life situations. We carried out a laboratory study using measures of a wide range of cognitive functions and asked participants (N = 157) to generate options for actions for different everyday life decision-making scenarios. The results of a latent variable analysis show that the cognitive underpinnings of option generation are consistent across different everyday life situations and, hence, option generation can be conceptualized as a general construct. Moreover, the results of a confirmatory factor analysis reveal that, when controlling for the shared variance among the cognitive processes assessed, verbal fluency, working memory capacity, ideation fluency, and processing speed predicted option generation. These findings suggest that option generation in everyday life situations can be distinguished from other cognitive constructs, such as divergent thinking (in terms of ideas' originality) and long-term memory.

Previous research identified time spent in physical activity, sleeping, and working as predictors of emotional exhaustion. However, this research did not take into account the interdependence of these time-use components. Since daily time is limited to 24 h, time spent in one specific activity (e.g., sleep) cannot be used for any other activity (e.g., physical activity). We conducted a one-week daily sampling study to assess the compositional effects of physical activity, sleep, and work on emotional exhaustion. Since the sample consisted of 104 undergraduate students, work was operationalized as study time. Participants wore accelerometers for one week continuously to assess sleep and physical activity. Also, they filled in questionnaires on study time and emotional exhaustion every morning. Multilevel and compositional data analyses were conducted. The multilevel analysis revealed significant between- (p = 0.012) and within-level (p &lt, 0.001) associations of study time with emotional exhaustion. The compositional approach showed that time spent in physical activity was negatively related to emotional exhaustion (p = 0.007), whereas time spent studying was positively related to emotional exhaustion (p = 0.003), relative to the remaining two time-use components. In conclusion, our results show that emotional exhaustion is not only associated with work-related factors, but also with off-job physical activity.

Several experimental and cross-sectional studies have established the stress-buffering effect of social identification, yet few longitudinal studies have been conducted within this area of research. This study is the first to make use of a multilevel approach to disaggregate between- and within-person effects of social identification on subjective and endocrinological stress reactions. Specifically, we conducted a study with 85 prospective students during their 1-day aptitude test for a university sports program. Ad hoc groups were formed, in which students completed several tests in various disciplines together. At four points in time, salivary cortisol, subjective strain, and identification with their group were measured. Results of multilevel analyses show a significant within-person effect of social identification: The more students identified with their group, the less stress they experienced and the lower their cortisol response was. Between-person effects were not significant. Advantages of using multilevel approaches within this field of research are discussed.

The present study sought to examine the underpinnings of impaired strategic decision-making under stress. In contrast to previous laboratory-based research, we conducted a quasi-experiment in a real life stress situation. Specifically, we used the beauty contest game and compared the performance of a group of participants who were exposed to a real-life stressor (waiting to attend an exam at a university class) with a control group of participants who were not exposed to stress (waiting to attend a regular lecture at a university class). Furthermore, about half of the participants were instructed to write down what they believed another participant had assumed the average number in the beauty contest game to be and which target number she (or he) had chosen accordingly. The results showed that stress impaired strategic reasoning in the beauty contest game. Importantly, even when only including participants who understood the rules of the game in the analyses, stress still increased the numbers chosen in the beauty contest. Furthermore, we found that participants in the stress condition were significantly less likely to base their chosen number on their belief about other players’ choices. Hence, stress not only impairs understanding of the math behind the beauty contest game but also the degree of strategizing per se.

In recent years, an increasing number of studies has investigated majority influence in nonhuman animals. However, due to both terminological and methodological issues, evidence for conformity in nonhuman animals is scarce and controversial. Preliminary evidence suggests that wild birds, wild monkeys, and fish show conformity, that is, forgoing personal information in order to copy the majority. By contrast, chimpanzees seem to lack this tendency. The present study is the first to examine whether dogs (Canis familiaris) show conformity. Specifically, we tested whether dogs conform to a majority of conspecifics rather than stick to what they have previously learned. After dogs had acquired a behavioral preference via training (i.e., shaping), they were confronted with counter-preferential behavior of either no, one or three conspecifics. Traditional frequentist analyses show that the dogs’ behavior did not differ significantly between the three conditions. Complementary Bayesian analyses suggest that our data provide moderate evidence for the null hypothesis. In conclusion, our results suggest that dogs stick to what they have learned rather than conform to the counter-preferential behavior of others. We discuss the possible statistical and methodological limitations of this finding. Furthermore, we take a functional perspective on conformity and discuss under which circumstances dogs might show conformity after all.

Notwithstanding the appeal of the “one size fits all” approach that Baumeister et al. propose, we argue that there is no panacea for improving group performance. The concept of “differentiation of selves” constitutes an umbrella term for similar seeming but actually different constructs. Even the same type of “differentiation of selves” can be beneficial for some and harmful for other tasks.

Previous research has found mixed results regarding the stress buffering effects of social support. In an attempt to explain these findings, we build on the social identity approach. Specifically, we hypothesize that social support is more likely to buffer stress reactions if a shared social identity between the provider and recipient of support is evoked. Using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), participants were confronted with either a supportive or an unsupportive committee. Beforehand, the salience of either a shared social identity between the participant and the committee or a personal identity was manipulated. As predicted, a supportive TSST committee buffered the neuroendocrine stress reaction only if a shared social identity between participants and the committee was established. For self-reported strain, no such pattern was observed. This study provides the first experimental evidence for the idea that the effectiveness of social support depends on the match of underlying identities.

Objectives We studied whether effort gains in relay as compared to individual swimming competitions generalize to 4 × 400 m track and field relays. Design We employed a 4 (indispensability levels) × 2 (relation of team performance and team outcomes) design. Method German national squad runners (N = 23) were surveyed on their effort expenditure. In our main study, we tested within-person performance differences (N = 397) between individual and relay competitions relying on archival data from major track and field championships. We operationalized the indispensability of one’s own contribution via relay positions and the relation of team performance and outcomes via medal chance. Results Athletes reported effort gains in relay as compared to individual competitions. The archival study revealed effort gains for later positions if the relay had a high medal chance. These effort gains showed an unexpected quadratic pattern across the relay with smaller effort gains at the last position.

Summary People frequently have to work in high repetitive jobs. Previous research has focused exclusively on the effects of task repetitiveness on well-being, while neglecting effects on work performance. In the present study, we aimed to fill this void by conducting two workplace simulations with experimental manipulations of task repetitiveness. Participants worked for about 5hours at either a computer workstation, compiling computer hardware packages according to customer requests (Experiment 1, N=160), or at an assembly line, piecing together equipment sets for furniture (Experiment 2, N=213). Both experiments provide consistent evidence that high repetitiveness has a detrimental effect on well-being, whereas work performance increases under conditions of high repetitiveness. On a practical level, our study hence shows that high task repetitiveness is a double-edged sword for both employees and organizations. On a conceptual level, our findings emphasize the necessity to account for both mental strain and work performance when examining the effects of task repetitiveness. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A growing body of research shows that individual differences in working memory capacity play a pivotal role for a large number of higher order cognitive tasks. Surprisingly, however, the impact of individual differences in working memory capacity on group performance has received little attention. In this conceptual article, we focus on three typical group tasks (group idea generation, group decision making, group judgment) and, for each task, provide an analysis of how individual differences in working memory capacity might affect group performance. Our key idea is that group interaction is a cognitively demanding task as group members have to continuously monitor the ongoing conversation, hold their ideas in memory, integrate the information put forth by others, and update their mental representations accordingly. Therefore, individual differences in working memory capacity are presumed to have a profound impact on how people process information during group interaction.

Classic studies on social influence used simple perceptual decision-making tasks to examine how the opinions of others change individuals’ judgments. Since then, one of the most fundamental questions in social psychology has been whether social influence can alter basic perceptual processes. To address this issue, we used a diffusion model analysis. Diffusion models provide a stochastic approach for separating the cognitive processes underlying speeded binary decisions. Following this approach, our study is the first to disentangle whether social influence on decision making is due to altering the uptake of available sensory information or due to shifting the decision criteria. In two experiments, we found consistent evidence for the idea that social influence alters the uptake of available sensory evidence. By contrast, participants did not adjust their decision criteria.

Often, economic decisions do not only depend on one's own preferences, but also on the choices of others and therefore require strategizing (i.e., thinking about what others might think). In experimental economics, this has been modeled by the beauty contest game. Another typical feature of economic decisions is that they are often carried out under stress. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to examine the influence of stress on decision-making in the beauty contest game. Participants were randomly assigned to either the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G) or a placebo version of the TSST-G (control condition). Then, participants played four rounds of a standard beauty contest game. As a biomarker of stress, salivary cortisol was measured. As predicted, participants under stress chose higher numbers in the beauty contest game than non-stressed participants, indicating less strategizing. This effect was mediated by the stress-induced increase in cortisol.

Decision-making research has thoroughly investigated how people choose from a set of externally provided options. However, in ill-structured real-world environments, possible options for action are not defined by the situation but have to be generated by the agent. Here, we apply behavioral analysis (Study 1) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (Study 2) to investigate option generation and subsequent choice. For this purpose, we employ a new experimental task that requires participants to generate options for simple real-world scenarios and to subsequently decide among the generated options. Correlational analysis with a cognitive test battery suggests that retrieval of options from long-term memory is a relevant process during option generation. The results of the fMRI study demonstrate that option generation in simple real-world scenarios recruits the anterior prefrontal cortex. Furthermore, we show that choice behavior and its neural correlates differ between self-generated and externally provided options. Specifically, choice between self-generated options is associated with stronger recruitment of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. This impact of option generation on subsequent choice underlines the need for an expanded model of decision making to accommodate choice between self-generated options.

Strategic decisions are affected by beliefs about the expectations of others and their possible decisions. Thus, strategic decisions are influenced by the social context and by beliefs about other actors’ levels of sophistication. The present study investigated whether strategic decision-making, as measured by the beauty contest game, is associated with social skills, as measured by the Autism Quotient (AQ). In line with our hypothesis, we found that social skills were positively related to successful strategic decision-making. Furthermore, results showed a curvilinear relationship between steps of reasoning in the beauty contest game and social skills, indicating that very high as well as very low scoring individuals on the social skills subscale of the AQ engaged in high-levels of strategic thinking.

The individual preference effect supplements the predominant group-level explanations for the failure of groups to solve hidden profiles. Even in the absence of dysfunctional group-level processes, group members tend to stick to their suboptimal initial decision preferences due to preference-consistent evaluation of information. However, previous experiments demonstrating this effect retained two group-level processes, namely (a) social validation of information supporting the group members’ initial preferences and (b) presentation of the additional information in a discussion format. Therefore, it was unclear whether the individual preference effect depends on the co-occurrence of these group-level processes. Here, we report two experiments demonstrating that the individual preference effect is indeed an individual-level phenomenon. Moreover, by a comparison to real interacting groups, we can show that even when all relevant information is exchanged and when no coordination losses occur, almost half of all groups would fail to solve hidden profiles due to the individual preference effect.

Making decisions is an integral part of everyday life. Social psychologists have demonstrated in many studies that humans' decisions are frequently and strongly influenced by the opinions of others--even in simple perceptual decisions, where, for example, participants have to judge what an image looks like. However, because the effect of other people's opinions on decision making has remained largely unaddressed by the neuroimaging and neurophysiology literature, we are only beginning to understand how social influence is integrated into the decision-making process. We put forward the thesis that by probing the neurophysiology of social influence with perceptual decision-making tasks similar to those used in the seminal work of Asch (1952, 1956), this gap could be remedied. Perceptual paradigms are already widely used to probe neuronal mechanisms of decision making in nonhuman primates. There is also increasing evidence about how nonhuman primates' behavior is influenced by observing conspecifics. The high spatial and temporal resolution of neurophysiological recordings in awake monkeys could provide insight into where and how social influence modulates decision making, and thus should enable us to develop detailed functional models of the neural mechanisms that support the integration of social influence into the decision-making process.

In two experiments, we provide evidence for a fundamental discussion asymmetry, namely, preference-consistent information sharing. Despite being in a dyadic situation requiring open information exchange and being given no incentive to do so, participants communicated more information that supported their individually preferred decision alternative than information that contradicted it. Preference-consistent information sharing was not caused by biased recall and occurred in written as well as in face-to-face communication. Moreover, we tested whether preference-consistent information sharing was influenced by statements by bogus discussion partners indicating that they held a congruent versus incongruent preference to the participants’ preference and that they understood versus did not understand the participants’ preference. We found that when partners stated that they understood the participants’ preference, subsequent preference-consistent information sharing was considerably reduced. This indicates that a motivation to be understood by others might be an important driving force underlying preference-consistent information sharing.

The presence of others in threatening situations can be a mixed blessing since it is not always perceived as supportive but can also impair well-being. Building on the social identity approach, we tested the idea that the presence of others has a buffering effect on neuroendocrine stress reactions only if a sense of shared social identity is evoked. Therefore, the salience of social versus personal identity was manipulated. To induce social-evaluative stress, the Trier Social Stress Test for groups (TSST-G) was employed, while in the control conditions the Placebo-TSST-G was used. As predicted, social identity salience attenuated the stress-induced cortisol reaction in the TSST-G condition. By contrast, there was no effect of identity salience in the Placebo-TSST-G conditions. These findings provide the first experimental evidence for the idea that being part of a group buffers neuroendocrine stress only if group members develop a sense of shared social identity.

One prominent finding in research on group judgment is that groups often outperform the average of their members’ individual judgments. Previous research attributed this finding to groups weighting their more competent members more strongly (differential weighting explanation). We postulate an alternative explanation, namely that groups outperform individuals due to group-to-individual (G–I) transfer, which denotes group members becoming more accurate individually during group interaction. In Experiment 1, we demonstrate that individual accuracy in an estimation task strongly increases due to interaction, leading to high accuracy at the group level. Experiment 2 replicates this finding and shows that G–I transfer can be enhanced by expertise feedback. In both experiments, when controlling for G–I transfer during group interaction, group judgments were not better than the average model. The findings imply that previously observed superior performance by groups compared to individuals may have been due to G–I transfer and not necessarily due to differential weighting.

Based on over 25 years of research on hidden profiles and information sharing in groups, and particularly our own work in this area, we outline a general model of how groups can achieve better decisions in a hidden profile situation than their individual members would have been capable of (i.e., synergy). At its core the model defines intensity and bias as the two key parameters that have to be optimised with regard to both the discussion of information and the processing of information in order to ensure synergy in group decision making. We review the empirical literature on information sharing and group decision making in the hidden profile paradigm (with a particular focus on our own studies) to illustrate how group decision quality can be enhanced by increasing intensity and decreasing bias in the discussion and processing of information. Finally we also outline why we think that the lessons learned from research using the hidden profile paradigm can be generalised to group decision-making research in...

Groups often fail to solve hidden profiles even when all information is exchanged. This is partly due to biased evaluation of information. We examined the effects of consensus information and task demonstrability on preference-consistent information evaluation and decision quality. The results showed that the evaluation of unshared but not shared information was moderated by consensus information and task demonstrability. For unshared information, majority members exhibited a higher evaluation bias favoring preference-consistent information than minority members. Task demonstrability reduced the evaluation bias only when group members received no information about the other members' preferences. Finally, majority members were less likely to solve the hidden profile than minority members, and this was partially mediated by the evaluation bias favoring preference-consistent unshared information.

The buffer hypothesis of the Job Demand-Control Model predicts that high levels of job control compensate for the negative effects of high job demands on well-being and health. Several studies have tested this hypothesis, but the results are far from consistent. The objective of this study was to test the buffer hypothesis with respect to psychological (subjective well-being) and physiological (salivary cortisol) indicators of job strain, using an experimental study design. Seventy-seven men and women worked at a simulated computer workplace for more than two hours. Job demands and job control were manipulated in a 2 (job demands: high vs. low)×2 (job control: high vs. low)×7 (time of measurement) study design. Demands were operationalized in terms of workload, and pacing control (self-paced vs. machine-paced) was used as a job control manipulation. As dependent variables, subjective well-being and salivary cortisol were measured at seven time points during the experiment (T1-T7). In line with the buffer hypothesis, high control eliminated the impact of high demands on salivary cortisol responses. The hypothesis was supported by a predicted significant three-way interaction of demands, control and time of measurement (p.001), qualified by the absence of significant effects of the independent variables at T1 and T2 due to lagged cortisol reactions, and significant two-way interactions of demands and control, as predicted by the model, at the five remaining times of measurement (T3-T7): high demands led to increased cortisol reactions only in the low control condition. In contrast, no main or interaction effects of the independent variables were found for subjective well-being. This discrepancy between physiological and psychological stress reactions might be due to the lack of specificity inherent in measures of subjective well-being, due to lagged psychological reactions, or due to self-report biases in the subjective measures. In sum, this study provides the first clear-cut experimental evidence for the idea that the negative impact of high job demands on endocrinological responses can be buffered by high levels of job control.

In 1999, van der Doef and Maes published a systematic review focusing on the Job-Demand–Control (JDC) model (Karasek, 1979) and the Job Demand–Control (-Support) (JDCS) model (Johnson & Hall, 1988) in relation to psychological well-being. Their review covered the period from 1979 to 1997. The present paper updates and extends this review. Covering research from 83 studies published between 1998 and 2007, our review revealed three major results: First, support for additive effects of demands, control, and social support on general psychological well-being is almost always found if the sample size is sufficient. Second, although there was consistent evidence for additive effects in relation to job-related well-being in cross-sectional studies, support rates were lower in longitudinal data. Thus, reciprocal or reversed causation might account for part of the association between JDC/JDCS dimensions and job-related well-being. Finally, evidence for interactive effects as predicted by the buffer hypoth...

Group members tend to be biased in their evaluation of the information discussed. The present study aimed to disentangle the effects of preference consistency, social validation, and ownership on information evaluation in a single experimental design. Participants first received information about a personnel selection task. After having made a decision, they read a transcript of a fictitious discussion. In the transcript, preference consistency, social validation, and ownership of information were orthogonally manipulated as within-subjects factors. As hypothesized, preference consistency, social validation, and ownership all increased the perceived quality of information. Furthermore, participants intended to discuss a larger proportion of their preference-consistent information than of their preference-inconsistent information. This discussion bias was significantly associated with the evaluation bias favoring preference-consistent information. These results provide the first empirical demonstration that the evaluation of information in groups is characterized by three distinct biases and that biased evaluation of information may contribute to biased discussion of information. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Previous investigations have shown that the perception of socially relevant facial expressions, indicating someone else's intention to communicate (e.g., smiling), correlate with increased activity in zygomaticus major muscle regardless of whether the facial expressions seen are directed towards the human observer or toward someone else (Mojzisch et al., 2006). These spontaneous, involuntary reactions have been described as facial mimicry and seem to be of considerable importance for successful interpersonal communication. We investigated whether specific neural substrates underlie these responses by performing a finite impulse response (FIR) analysis of an experiment using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the perception of socially relevant facial expressions (Schilbach et al., 2006). This analysis demonstrates that differential neural activity can be detected relative to the FIR time window in which facial mimicry occurs. The neural network found includes but extends beyond classical motor regions (face motor area) recruiting brain regions known to be involved in social cognition. This network is proposed to subserve the integration of emotional and action-related processes as part of a pre-reflective, embodied reaction to the perception of socially relevant facial expressions as well as a reflective representation of self and other.