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In this paper, we introduce the concept of ‘societal emotional environment’: the emotional climate of a society (operationalized as the degree to which positive and negative emotions are expressed in a society). Using data collected from 12,888 participants across 49 countries, we show how societal emotional environments vary across countries and cultural clusters, and we consider the potential importance of these differences for well-being. Multilevel analyses supported a ‘double-edged sword’ model of negative emotion expression, where expression of negative emotions predicted higher life satisfaction for the expresser but lower life satisfaction for society. In contrast, partial support was found for higher societal life satisfaction in positive societal emotional environments. Our study highlights the potential utility and importance of distinguishing between positive and negative emotion expression, and adopting both individual and societal perspectives in well-being research. Individual pathways to happiness may not necessarily promote the happiness of others. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This chapter demonstrates an approach to the agent-based modelling of norm transmission using decision trees learned from questionnaire data. We explore the implications of adding norm dynamics implied in static questionnaire data and the influence social network topology has on the outcome. We find that parameters determining network topology influence the outcome in both hierarchical and coworker networks in a simulated workplace. As an exercise in empirical agent-based modelling, this work highlights the importance of gathering data on interactions in field studies.

Happiness research tradition is focused on an independent form of happiness (Satisfaction with life, SWL), which in part neglects the social context and group well-being. We considered interdependent happiness (IH) to evaluate a collectivist conceptualization of happiness, which is based on harmony with others. We also considered the role of the perceived urbanization level of the place of living in the independent and interdependent happiness of people since in the literature there is no consensus about the impact of rural vs urban characterization of the living context on happiness. We hypothesized that place of living – rural vs urban – differently impacts on factors influencing independent or interdependent personal or familiar happiness. 290 university students of the Lazio Region in Italy participated to an online survey aimed to investigate the relation among self-construal, familism, personal and familiar independent and interdependent happiness. Results show that for people living in urban places, self-oriented individual factors concerned with self-realization, predicted satisfaction with life and interdependent happiness. For people living in rural places, other-oriented factors, more anchored to the group and community dimension, affected happiness for self and the family. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

The environmental psychological literature suggested that three different value orientations (egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric) are relevant for understanding environmental beliefs and intentions. We surveyed 365 Italian adults of different ages (range 18–87) to examine whether the egoistic, altruistic, and biospheric value orientations can lead to personal and/or family related well-being. Additionally, it is examined whether the perception of presence and accessibility of two types of environmental resources (natural and urbanistic) related to ecosystem services can moderate the relation between value orientations and personal and family well-being. Results of moderation analyses showed that people with high biospheric values felt themselves as more satisfied if they perceived high and medium (but not low) presence or accessibility of natural resources in their environment, while people with high egoistic values perceived their family more satisfied if they perceived the high and medium (but not low) presence of good infrastructures in their environment of living. No significant moderation model emerged considering the participants’ altruistic values. The implications for environmental beliefs and well-being are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly become a global health crisis, leading people to change their interpersonal behaviours to contain the spread of the virus. Italy has rapidly become the country hit second hardest in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic and the first one in Western countries. To reduce the spread of the COVID-19, people are required to change their interpersonal behaviours, reducing their social interactions in close contacts. The lockdown impact on the economy as well as on social and psychological processes is relevant, we conducted an exploratory study to examine which social factors are associated with the psychological reactions of Italians during the COVID-19 lockdown. Participants (n = 690) self-reported their social identification on three levels (i.e., Italians, Europeans and humankind), their trust toward social and political actors, and their level of welbeing, interdependent-happiness, and distress. Results showed that the relation between trust and the level of wellbeing and distress was mediated by identification with Italians and humankind, only the identification with humankind mediated the relationship between trust and the level of interdependent-happiness. The identification with Europeans did not emerge as a mediator in such relationships. The implications for dealing with COVID-19 lockdown in Italy are discussed.

Abstract. Little is known about epistemic motivations affecting political ideology when people make environmental decisions. In two studies, we examined the key role that political ideology played in the relationship between need for cognitive closure (NCC) and self-reported eco-friendly behavior. Study 1: 279 participants completed the NCC, pro-environmental, and political ideology measures. Mediation analyses showed that NCC was related to less pro-environmental behavior through more right-wing political ideology. Study 2: We replicated these results with a nonstudent sample (n = 240) and both social and economic conservatism as mediators. The results of Study 2 showed that social conservatism mediated the relationship between NCC and pro-environmental behavior. Finally, NCC was associated with pro-environmental attitude through both social and economic conservatism.

This is an introductory paper to the special section “Multilingual learning and social inclusion of children: The development of educational programmes to connect school and family”.

In recent years, mindfulness has been considered as a potential source of proenvironmental attitudes and behavior. Present research is aimed at consolidating and expanding previous knowledge by proposing that mindfulness is related to both proenvironmental behavior and belief in global climate change through social dominance orientation (SDO). A first study was conducted on undergraduate students ( n = 279) and found, as expected, that trait mindfulness was related to proenvironmental behavior through SDO. A second study using a known groups approach compared practitioners ( n = 44) and nonpractitioners ( n = 53) of Buddhist meditation, which is known to develop a mindful stance. Moreover, in Study 2, a measure of belief in global climate change was adopted as a further outcome. Again, trait mindfulness was related to both proenvironmental outcomes through SDO. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Encouraging pro-environmental behaviour at work can result in a significant reduction in environmental problems. Research revealed that general environmental considerations such as biospheric values and environmental self-identity are important antecedents of private pro-environmental behaviour. Yet, the question remains whether such general environmental considerations also predict pro-environmental behaviour at work. We propose a parsimonious theoretical model (the VIP-model) in which biospheric values affect personal norms to behave pro-environmentally at work and pro-environmental actions via the environmental self-identity. A study involving a diverse sample of employees from different European organizations supported the VIP-model, showing that biospheric values and environmental self-identity influence personal norms, and that stronger personal norms encouraged various self-reported pro-environmental behaviours at work to some extent. The VIP-model yields promising, cost-efficient strategies to encourage pro-environmental behaviour at work.

The present experiment examined how the interaction between senders’ communicative competence, veracity and the medium through which judgments were made affected observers’ accuracy. Stimuli were obtained from a previous study. Observers (N = 220) judged the truthfulness of statements provided by a good truth teller, a good liar, a bad truth teller, and a bad liar presented either via an audio-only, video-only, audio-video, or transcript format. Log-linear analyses showed that the data were best explained via the saturated model, therefore indicating that all the four variables interacted, G2(0) = 0, p = 1, Q2 = 1. Follow-up analyses showed that the good liar and bad liar were best evaluated via the transcript (z = 2.5) and the audio-only medium (z = 3.9), respectively. Both the good truth teller and the bad truth teller were best assessed through the audio-video medium (z = 2.1, good truth teller, z = 3.4, bad truth teller). Results indicated that all the factors interacted and played a joint role on observers’ accuracy. Difficulties and suggestions for choosing the right medium are presented.

The increasing flow of immigrants in many European countries and the growing presence of children from immigrant families in schools makes it relevant to study the development of prejudice in children. Parents play an important role in shaping children's values and their attitudes toward members of other ethnic groups; an intergenerational transmission of prejudice has been found in a number of studies targeting adolescents. The present study aims to investigate the intergenerational transmission of ethnic prejudice in 3- to 9- year-old children and its relations to parenting styles. Parents' blatant and subtle ethnic prejudice and parenting style are measured together with children's explicit and implicit ethnic prejudice in pupils and parents of preschool and primary schools in the region of Rome, Italy (N = 318). Results show that parents' subtle prejudice predicts children's implicit prejudice regardless of the parenting style. Findings indicate that children might acquire prejudice by means of the parents' implicit cognition and automatic behavior and educational actions. Implications for future studies and insights for possible applied interventions are discussed.

The increased and stable presence of immigrant children in preschools and in primary schools in Italy in the last twenty years, makes more and more important the study of the attitudes and behaviours in teachers, parents and children. As it is known, attitudes and behaviours can strongly influence school experience (relationships and achievements) of children from native as well as from immigrant families. Several international studies and surveys showed that children from immigrant families are more likely to drop out from school much before getting a diploma or a professional qualification (De Witte, Cabus, Thyssen, Groot, & Maassen van den Brink, 2013; Brunello & Rocco, 2012; Anisef, Brown, Phythian, Sweet, &Walters, 2010). The reason for it can be found in their socio-demographic conditions, their insufficient knowledge of the host country language and the inadequacy of educational policies for immigrants. Furthermore, the co-existence in the same school of immigrant children and autochthone children creating a constant intercultural and interethnic contact puts forward the need to handle prejudice development, in view of the social integration of the immigrant children. In this paper we present a study exploring the relationship between personality, educational style and prejudice of parents in native and in immigrant families regarding immigrant children's social integration. Results show important relations among these parents’ characteristics, together with differences between native and immigrant families. These findings could provide a contribution in implementing adequate intervention programmes supporting the school integration of immigrant children.

Here we report the results of an experiment aimed to investigate the effects of different hand gestures on emotional and attitudinal reactions of receivers through the measure of physiological indexes (facial muscles activity, heart rate, and eye blinking). A videotape was shown to 50 University students, in which an actress presented a speech with a disagreeable verbal content, namely the proposal of increasing University fees. The verbal message included the presentation of four arguments (two strong and two weak) in support of the proposal. During her speech, the actress manipulated “Gesture Type” in order to achieve five conditions (ideational gestures, discursive gestures, object- and self-adaptors, and no gesture as control). ANOVAs reveal that the different type of gestures differently modulate the negative impact of disagreeable verbal content on receivers in different moments of the speech and interact with strong or weak arguments in determining negative reactions to the disagreeable verbal message. In particular, it seems that discursive (conversational and ideational) gestures are more capable to counteract the negative effect of the arguments. These results give a further contribution to a better understanding of the crucial role of gestures in providing characteristics of speech perception, also in terms of persuasion.

Smiling individuals are usually perceived more favorably than non-smiling ones—they are judged as happier, more attractive, competent, and friendly. These seemingly clear and obvious consequences of smiling are assumed to be culturally universal, however most of the psychological research is carried out in WEIRD societies (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) and the influence of culture on social perception of nonverbal behavior is still understudied. Here we show that a smiling individual may be judged as less intelligent than the same non-smiling individual in cultures low on the GLOBE’s uncertainty avoidance dimension. Furthermore, we show that corruption at the societal level may undermine the prosocial perception of smiling—in societies with high corruption indicators, trust toward smiling individuals is reduced. This research fosters understanding of the cultural framework surrounding nonverbal communication processes and reveals that in some cultures smiling may lead to negative attributions., La lista completa de autores que integran el documento puede consultarse en el archivo, Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación

Can a preference for design objects also be achieved automatically? The aim of this study is to examine whether different levels of expertise in industrial design (laypeople versus design experts) can orient the preference towards different styles of design objects (classic chairs versus modern chairs), at both implicit and explicit levels. Implicit and explicit preferences are often mediated by assessor features. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to measure the automaticity of the evaluation. The participants (44 laypeople and 40 experts) performed a categorization task with reference to pictures (five classic and five modern chairs) and words (five positive and five negative aesthetic words). Reaction times were registered. The explicit evaluation of the stimuli was assessed using a seven-point Likert scale referring to the adjectives beautiful, typical, familiar, understandable, complex and interesting in order to appraise overall preferences for both classic and modern design objects. In both measurements, implicit and explicit preferences for classic and modern objects were moderated by expertise: experts were aesthetically more oriented towards modern objects while laypeople did not show a specific preference for one style. This study is one of the first attempts to demonstrate the differences in aesthetic preferences between experts and non-experts at an implicit level.

Measures of the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) often conflate reward-reactivity (the core of the BAS) and impulsivity-related variance. The Appetitive Motivation Scale (AMS), a recently-developed BAS measure, has been proposed as a one-dimensional scale which deals exclusively with core reward-reactivity. However, we show here how a two-dimensional interpretation of the scale reveals components which are linked with both the core of the BAS and impulsivity. A clear pattern of associations and dissociations with other BAS- and impulsivity-related measures provides support for such a two-dimensional interpretation. The results are discussed, highlighting the parallels between the AMS structure and other BAS-related measures, and emphasizing the theoretical challenges which are inherent in developing reliable BAS-related personality measures. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.

A laboratory study was carried out to establish the relative importance of verbal and gestural behavior, as well as their interaction, for perceived social influence in more or less competitive small groups. Forty women (psychology students) participated in leaderless small group discussions of different sizes (fourmember and eight-member): at the end, each member rated the perceived influence in decision-making of every other member. Verbal dominance coding is based on traditional quantitative conversational dominance (number of talk turns). Gestural coding (conversational, ideational, object-adaptor, self-adaptor gestures) is based on classical gesture classifications. Beside a substantial effect of verbal dominance, the main result is that frequency of object-adaptors and conversational (only in large groups) and ideational (in both small and large groups) gestures increases perceived influence scores particularly when the verbal dominance of the speaker is low.

Hand gestures have a close link with speech and with social perception and persuasion processes, however to date no one has experimentally investigated the role of hand gestures alone in persuasive speech. An experiment with undergraduates was conducted using 5 video-messages in which only hand gestures of the speaker were manipulated along five types. ANOVAs reveal effect of gesture type on receivers’ evaluation of message persuasiveness, speaker communication style effectiveness, and speaker's composure and competence. A control study (Experiment 2) confirms that these effects are due to visible gestures. Speech accompanying gestures appear to play a causal role in social perception.

The present experiment examined the relationship between different types of discourse linked hand movements and deception. Hand gestures were experimentally studied during truth telling and deception, and in situations with either weak or strong suspicion. Participants (128 Italian psychology students) were interviewed twice about the possession of an object. In one interview they were asked to lie and in the other asked to tell the truth (veracity factor). In both conditions, suspicion was raised after the interview: Participants were accused of lying by the interviewer and asked to repeat their account a second time (suspicion factor). Results indicate that lying was associated with a decrease in deictic gestures, and an increase in metaphoric gestures (main effect of veracity). Also a decrease in self-adaptor gestures was found. Strong suspicion was associated with an increase in metaphoric, rhythmic, and deictic gestures and a decrease in self-adaptor, emblematic, and cohesive gestures (main effect of suspicion). No interaction effect was found.