The Role of Passion in Psychological and Cardiovascular Responses: Extending the Field of Passion and Positive Psychology in New Directions

The present study fills a void in research on passion by examining for the first time the role of passion in physiological responses. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of passion, and the mediating role of cognitive appraisals, in the psychological and physiological responses to a stressful situation related to one’s passion. Students (43 women, 12 men, M age = 27.21 years), who were passionate for their studies, completed the Passion Scale for their studies and the Cognitive Appraisal Scale (assessing perceptions of challenge/threat). Then, they engaged in an education task under stressful conditions, and a subsequent unrelated leisure task under no-stress. Physiological reactivity was measured throughout the entire session and their perceptions of situational vitality and positive and negative emotions were assessed directly after the education task. Results showed that harmonious passion (HP) positively predicted challenge appraisals that, in turn, were positively related to positive emotions, vitality, and positive cardiovascular adaptation while engaging in the stressful education task, but less so with the leisure task (unrelated to one’s passion for academia). On the other hand, obsessive passion (OP) positively predicted threat appraisals. In turn, threat appraisals were positively related to negative emotions, negatively associated with vitality, and not related to cardiovascular reactivity. The present findings suggest that HP creates the onset of an adaptive psychological and physiological response whereas the response is less adaptive with OP.

When the Body Knows: Interoceptive Accuracy Enhances Physiological But Not Explicit Differentiation Between Liars and Truth-Tellers

Recent research suggests that people experience distinct physiological reactions to lies versus truths. It is unclear, however, if this experience is incorporated into greater truth-lie judgment accuracy. We hypothesized individuals with high interoceptive accuracy—those with greater access to bodily experiences and stronger physiological responses to emotional stimuli—might be particularly likely to accurately discriminate high-stakes, emotional lies and truths. Participants (n = 71) completed two study sessions: the first assessed their interoceptive accuracy with heartbeat detection measures and the second assessed their deception detection ability while measuring their physiological reactivity. Interoceptive accuracy was associated with a greater difference in vasoconstriction to liars (vs. truth-tellers), suggesting that interoception was positively associated with physiological sensitivity to deception. Interoceptive accuracy, however, was unrelated to deception detection accuracy. While better interoception provides enhanced physiological signals that could better discriminate lies from truths, it does not improve deception detection accuracy.

Interoceptive ability moderates the effect of physiological reactivity on social judgment

Social judgments—that others are kind or cruel, well-intentioned or conniving—can ease or disrupt social interactions. And yet a person’s internal state can color these judgments—a phenomenon known as affective realism. We examined the factors that contribute to, and mitigate, affective realism during a stressful interview. We hypothesized and found that individuals’ (N=161) ability to accurately perceive their own internal sensations influenced whether they attributed their own heightened stress reactions (i.e., sympathetic nervous system reactivity) to the behavior of two impassive interviewers. Participants who were poor heartbeat detectors perceived the interviewers as less helpful, polite, or professional, and more apathetic, judgmental, and aggressive when experiencing high levels of sympathetic nervous system reactivity during their interview. Being aware of one’s internal state may be one pathway to more accurate, adaptive social interactions.

Examining the impact of social stressor stimuli in eliciting physiological reactivity in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

Background: Stress is not experienced the same by everyone. Some individuals, such as individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), are at risk of heightened sensitivity to stress responses. ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder commonly characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction. Among different stressor stimuli, social stressors particularly worth our attention due to the social and communication challenges inherent to ASD. This study aims to systematically evaluate different social stressor stimuli in eliciting physiological reactivity in ASD, focusing on the children and adolescent population. Methods: We designed a study protocol for this study and submitted it to PROSPERO for systematic review registration. Any studies with children and adolescents with ASD between the ages of 0-18 in clinical and community settings will be included. All types of social stressor interventions will be included. The intended outcomes will not be restrictive. The outcome of interest will include studies with physiological activity of the participants being measured, e.g., measures related to autonomic functioning, electrodermal functioning, and cortisol level. The primary literature sources will be across four electronic databases: Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, and CINAHL. The second source of literature will be across grey literature, including ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global and across clinical trial registries. Hand searching of references will be performed on the reference lists of all included studies. Two volunteers pursuing postgraduate-level studies will independently search and screen potential studies for eligibility. Finally, all references considered by hand-searching will be reviewed by two researchers. The methodological quality of the research will be assessed by adopting the quality assessment used by a previous study. The assessment consists of four primary categories: descriptive validity, internal validity, external validity, and statistical conclusion validity. Discussion: Considering the inconsistent methodologies and findings in previous studies, a systematic review in this area is required. We are not aware of another systematic review discussing this specific issue. The findings will have important implications for clinical practice and research studies. We anticipate that the results will be of interest to multiple audiences, including the individuals with ASD, their families and caregivers, healthcare professionals, educators, and researchers. Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO CRD42021244039

I am afraid, so I buy it! The effects of anxiety on consumer assimilation and differentiation needs amongst individuals primed with independent and interdependent self-construal

Individuals tend to satisfy their assimilation needs by purchasing products that bear a specific group identity. Such products might be preferred when an individual is threatened because anxiety increases affiliative needs. In contrast, individuals might be more attracted to unique-design products when they feel less anxious. We examined the impact of anxiety on assimilation and differentiation needs amongst consumers primed with independent and interdependent self-construal. We expected that anxiety would produce stronger assimilation needs and show a weaker preference for unique products. In Study 1 (N = 110), we found that individuals in the anxiety-inducing condition decreased their evaluation of unique products and exhibited stronger assimilation needs. Independents who felt anxiety reacted with a reduced preference for group-linked products. Study 2 (N = 102) found that introducing an anxiety-decreasing agent (vanilla scent) after a social identity threat reduced differentiation needs and preference for unique products. Physiological data showed that the social identity threat increased sympathetic arousal, but the vanilla scent did not have a soothing effect on physiological reactivity. Overall, this work showed that both anxiety and vanilla scent reduced consumer need for differentiation. Furthermore, for independents, anxiety reduced assimilation needs. We found novel determinants of assimilation/differentiation needs with implications for advertising and retailing products with a unique design.

Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms Are Associated With Heightened Avoidance of Low-Probability, High-Aversion Threats: A Preliminary Test of the Improbable-Catastrophe Hypothesis

Although symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) may vary markedly, they often involve a fear of consequences that are both catastrophic and highly improbable (e.g., contracting HIV from a doorknob). Accordingly, a heightened sensitivity to what we refer to as improbable catastrophes may represent an underlying feature of OCD, yet this possibility awaits experimental validation. To fill this gap, 78 undergraduates with wide-ranging levels of OCD symptom severity completed a fear-conditioning paradigm designed to elicit varying degrees of perceived threat probability/aversiveness to test whether OCD symptoms predict heightened reactivity to unlikely, high-aversion threats. Consistent with predictions, participants with higher OCD symptoms were more avoidant of low-probability, high-aversion threats and also exhibited greater threat expectancy and physiological reactivity to more improbable threats in general. These findings implicate excessive avoidance of improbable catastrophes and heightened reactivity to unlikely threats more generally as underlying features of OCD.