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Background: Although the relationship between depression and "offline" social support is well established, numerous questions surround the relationship between "online" social support and depression. We explored this issue by examining the social support dynamics that characterize the way individuals with varying levels of depression (Study 1) and SCID-diagnosed clinically depressed and non-depressed individuals (Study 2) interact with Facebook, the world's largest online social network., Method: Using a novel methodology, we examined how disclosing positive or negative information on Facebook influences the amount of social support depressed individuals (a) actually receive (based on actual social support transactions recorded on Facebook walls) and (b) think they receive (based on subjective assessments) from their Facebook network., Results: Contrary to prior research indicating that depression correlates with less actual social support from "offline" networks, across both studies depression was positively correlated with social support from Facebook networks when participants disclosed negative information (p=.02 in Study 1 and p=.06 in Study 2). Yet, depression was negatively correlated with how much social support participants thought they received from their Facebook networks (p=.005 in Study 1 and p=.001 in Study 2)., Limitations: The sample size was relatively small in Study 2, reflecting difficulties of recruiting individuals with Major Depressive Disorder., Conclusions: These results demonstrate that an asymmetry characterizes the relationship between depression and different types of Facebook social support and further identify perceptions of Facebook social support as a potential intervention target. (243 words; 250 max)., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The research examined whether age-related cognitive declines affect performance when people form impressions of others. The results from Experiment 1 showed that young and old participants who held positive expectancies about an individual spent more time processing and had better memory for information that was inconsistent rather than consistent with their expectancies. But participants who held negative expectancies tended to focus on information that was consistent rather than inconsistent with their expectancies. In Experiment 2 the task was made more demanding by limiting the amount of time participants had to form their impressions. Under these conditions, older participants who had positive expectations showed deficits in memory for negative information compared with young participants. As expected, both groups performed similarly when they held negative expectancies for the target. The results suggest that although both older and younger adults process social information similarly under self-paced conditions, older adults may be at a disadvantage processing negative information about positively characterized individuals when the context in which impression formation occurs is cognitively demanding.

People bring to bear on their understanding of others' behaviors naive theories of the causes of valenced behaviors. Generally, positive behaviors are understood to be caused by social demands, whereas negative behaviors are understood to be caused by people's dispositions. Various research findings are reviewed in support of the idea that people possess such naive theories. The analysis is extended to establish how these sense-making tendencies affect the manner in which people approach and process information about others. A second set of studies is reviewed in support of these implications for person perception. Comparisons to other models of social inference are considered, implications of the frame-work are examined, and the framework is situated within a general model of the attribution process.

In the present study, we used a valence classification task to investigate the common and distinct neural basis of the two fundamental dimensions of social cognition (agency and communion) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results showed that several brain areas associated with mentalizing, along with the inferior parietal gyrus in the mirror system, showed overlap in response to both agentic and communal words. These findings suggest that both content categories are related to the neural basis of social cognition; further, several areas in the default mode network (DMN) showed similar deactivations between agency and communion, reflecting task-induced deactivation (TID). In terms of distinct activations, the findings indicated greater deactivations for communal than agentic content in the ventral anterior cingulate (vACC) and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC). Communion also showed greater activation in some visual areas compared to agentic content, including occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus, and fusiform gyrus. These activations may reflect greater allocation of attentional resources to visual areas when processing communal content, or inhibition of cognitive activity irrelevant to task performance. If so, this suggests greater attention and engagement with communion-related content. The present research thus suggests common and differential activations for agency- versus communion-related content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how people manage uncertain competitive social interactions. To achieve positive interaction outcomes, individuals may engage in a social perception process that leads them to believe they have obtained more information about others than these others gained about them. We investigate how asymmetric knowledge perceptions contribute to important aspects of negotiation, namely rapport building among strangers and egocentric beliefs about fairness of resource distribution. In Study 1, dyads completed measures of knowledge acquisition and partner evaluation after a rapport-building exercise. Results showed that individuals believed they gained more information about their partner than vice versa; notably, the magnitude of this knowledge bias was associated with more positive partner evaluations. Study 2 showed that the magnitude of the knowledge bias predicted lower egocentrism in a commons dilemma task. Together, these results suggest knowledge asymmetries facilitate rapport among strangers and may have important implications for cooperation in competitive negotiation settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Warmth and competence are fundamental dimensions used to characterize people, animals, and even corporations. Based on observations from a preliminary survey (Study 1) on the impact of scandals on several brands, we predicted that an organization that caused a disaster would be judged more harshly if its warmth rather than competence reputation was called into question. Study 1 surveyed a nationally representative sample of American adults and results showed that not all scandals had the same consequences on the perception of warmth, competence, and on consumer attitudes. Study 2 suggested that framing the cause of a local environmental disaster in terms of low warmth resulted in harsher judgments toward the responsible organization than framing the cause related to incompetence. Study 3 found that a warmth frame for post-disaster cleanup was ineffective compared to a competence frame. These results suggested that warmth and competence shape perceivers' blame attribution following a corporate or organizational disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People like having options when choosing, but having too many options can lead to negative decision-related consequences. The present study focused on how social-relational factors--common aspects of daily life--can maintain or attenuate the appeal of choice. Study 1 examined the effect of a supportive- or nonsupportive-relationship prime on the decision to pay for having more options in choosing a consumer product. People who thought of supportive relationships, compared with those who thought of nonsupportive ones (and control participants), were less willing to pay for a larger choice set. Study 2 showed that the activation of thoughts of security and calmness in participants recalling supportive relationships (compared with participants recalling nonsupportive relationships) mediated the appeal of choice. This finding offers one possible explanation for the reduced desire for options when people are reminded of supportive relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the effects of power, defined as having disproportionate control over others' outcomes, on the desire for morality and competence information. Task of forming impression facing power-primed and neutral perceivers; Target person's substantial evaluative inconsistencies, thwarting easy judgment; Desire for additional information.

Examines the effect of interaction goals of cooperation an competition on social information processing. Enhancement of the salience of intergroup distinctions; Association between social information processing strategies and interaction goals; Awareness of individuals to potential losses and dangers.

The certainty engendered by expectancies and the degree to which relevant information is subsequently processed should differ depending on the expectancy's favorability. Consistent with this proposal, the results of Experiment 1 indicated that favorable expectancies elicited more testing of the expectancy than did unfavorable expectancies and engendered greater memory performance overall. In Experiment 2 these findings were replicated, and results also showed that unfavorable expectancies led to attentional decrements in impression formation whereas favorable expectancies did not. In Experiment 3 comparable results were obtained using information (traits) that has been shown to induce confirmatory processing. Also, participants indicated that they were more cognitively engaged with the impression task when they held favorable rather than unfavorable expectancies. Finally, the findings of Experiment 4 showed that participants who held favorable expectancies did not show primacy effects in judgment, whereas participants who held unfavorable expectancies did. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]