A systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between economic inequality and prosocial behaviour.

How does economic inequality relate to prosocial behaviour? Existing theories and empirical studies from multiple disciplines have produced mixed results. Here we conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to systematically synthesize empirical studies. Results from 192 effect sizes and over 2.

Age and gender differences in narcissism: A comprehensive study across eight measures and over 250,000 participants.

Age and gender differences in narcissism have been studied often. However, considering the rich history of narcissism research accompanied by its diverging conceptualizations, little is known about age and gender differences across various narcissism measures. The present study investigated age and gender differences and their interactions across eight widely used narcissism instruments (i.

Development and Validation of the Single-Item Mindfulness Scale (SIMS).

Mindfulness is a focused attention to and acceptance of present experiences. Although several reliable and valid multi-item measures of trait mindfulness exist, researchers may sometimes want a short and quick measure of mindfulness. In this project, we developed and validated the Single-Item Mindfulness Scale (SIMS) to assess trait mindfulness.

How cognitive and emotional empathy relate to rational thinking: empirical evidence and meta-analysis.

Empathy is frequently described in opposition to rationality. Yet in two studies, we demonstrate that the relationship between rationality and empathy is nuanced and likely context dependent. Study 1 reports correlational data from two American samples and Study 2 presents a meta-analysis of existing literature ( = 22).

Multi-institutional intervention to improve patient perception of physician empathy in emergency care.

Background: Physician empathy has been linked to increased patient satisfaction, improved patient outcomes and reduced provider burnout. Our objective was to test the effectiveness of an educational intervention to improve physician empathy and trust in the ED setting.

Methods: Physician participants from six emergency medicine residencies in the US were studied from 2018 to 2019 using a pre-post, quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design with randomisation at the site level.

The closer you feel, the more you care: Positive associations between closeness, pain intensity rating, empathic concern and personal distress to someone in pain.

Previous research revealed inconsistent findings regarding affective responses when facing someone in pain (i.e., empathic concern and/or personal distress).

Public Attitudes Regarding Hospitals and Physicians Encouraging Donations From Grateful Patients.

Importance: Philanthropy is an increasingly important source of support for health care institutions. There is little empirical evidence to inform ethical guidelines.

Objective: To assess public attitudes regarding specific practices used by health care institutions to encourage philanthropic donations from grateful patients.

Effects of self-transcendence on neural responses to persuasive messages and health behavior change.

Self-transcendence refers to a shift in mindset from focusing on self-interests to the well-being of others. We offer an integrative neural model of self-transcendence in the context of persuasive messaging by examining the mechanisms of self-transcendence in promoting receptivity to health messages and behavior change. Specifically, we posited that focusing on values and activities that transcend the self can allow people to see that their self-worth is not tied to a specific behavior in question, and in turn become more receptive to subsequent, otherwise threatening health information.

Ethical Issues and Recommendations in Grateful Patient Fundraising and Philanthropy.

Grateful patients provide substantial philanthropic funding for health care institutions, resulting in important societal benefits. Although grateful patient fundraising (GPFR) is widespread, it raises an array of ethical issues for patients, physicians, development professionals, and institutions. These issues have not been described comprehensively, and there is insufficient guidance to inform the ethical practice of GPFR.

Development and validation of the Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES).

Empathy involves feeling compassion for others and imagining how they feel. In this article, we develop and validate the Single Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES), which contains only one item that takes seconds to complete. In seven studies (N=5,724), the SITES was found to be both reliable and valid.

Warm coffee, sunny days, and prosocial behavior.

This commentary discusses the research finding that warmer temperatures are associated with more prosocial outcomes. It calls for future research and theory on climate-related variables and social behavior to allow for both positive and negative emotional and behavioral responses to warmer temperatures.

Digital Life and Youth Well-being, Social Connectedness, Empathy, and Narcissism.

Youth well-being, social connectedness, and personality traits, such as empathy and narcissism, are at the crux of concerns often raised about the impacts of digital life. Understanding known impacts, and research gaps, in these areas is an important first step toward supporting media use that contributes positively to youth's happiness, life satisfaction, and prosocial attitudes and behaviors. By examining existing work addressing these issues across domains, we found that a complex interplay of individual factors, type of digital media engagement, and experiences in media contexts informs outcomes related to well-being, social connectedness, empathy, and narcissism.

Political orientation moderates worldview defense in response to Osama bin Laden's death.

The current study examines Americans' psychological responses to Osama bin Laden's death. We tracked changes in how different participants responded to dissimilar others from the night of bin Laden's death for five weeks. Liberal participants reported lower worldview defense (i.

Volunteering is prospectively associated with health care use among older adults.

Rationale: Although observational and experimental studies have shown that volunteering is linked with better mental health, physical health, and health behaviors, no studies have examined whether volunteering is associated with patterns of health care use.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to prospectively examine whether volunteering was associated with a greater use of preventive health care services, but fewer doctor visits and nights spent in the hospital.

Methods: Participants (n = 7168) were drawn from the 2006 wave of the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative panel study of American adults over the age of 51, and tracked for one wave (2 years).

Can Text Messages Increase Empathy and Prosocial Behavior? The Development and Initial Validation of Text to Connect.

To what extent can simple mental exercises cause shifts in empathic habits? Can we use mobile technology to make people more empathic? It may depend on how empathy is measured. Scholars have identified a number of different facets and correlates of empathy. This study is among the first to take a comprehensive, multidimensional approach to empathy to determine how empathy training could affect these different facets and correlates.

Development and validation of the Single Item Narcissism Scale (SINS).

Main Objectives: The narcissistic personality is characterized by grandiosity, entitlement, and low empathy. This paper describes the development and validation of the Single Item Narcissism Scale (SINS). Although the use of longer instruments is superior in most circumstances, we recommend the SINS in some circumstances (e.

Empathy and stress related neural responses in maternal decision making.

Mothers need to make caregiving decisions to meet the needs of children, which may or may not result in positive child feedback. Variations in caregivers' emotional reactivity to unpleasant child-feedback may be partially explained by their dispositional empathy levels. Furthermore, empathic response to the child's unpleasant feedback likely helps mothers to regulate their own stress.

Use of the Carolina HPV Immunization Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (CHIAS) in young adult women.

Background: Validated measures that can accurate describe young adults' HPV vaccination attitudes and how these relate to vaccination intention and receipt are needed for developing interventions to improve low HPV vaccination levels. The Carolina HPV Immunization Attitudes Scale (CHIAS) is a validated measure of these outcomes that was originally designed for parents.

Objective: To assess the performance of the CHIAS among young adult women using an exploratory factor analysis.

Narcissists' social pain seen only in the brain.

Narcissism is a complex phenomenon, involving a level of defensive self-enhancement. Narcissists have avoidant attachment styles, maintain distance in relationships and claim not to need others. However, they are especially sensitive to others' evaluations, needing positive reflected appraisals to maintain their inflated self-views, and showing extreme responses (e.

Changes in adult attachment styles in American college students over time: a meta-analysis.

The current article examines changes over time in a commonly used measure of adult attachment style. A cross-temporal meta-analysis was conducted on 94 samples of American college students (total N = 25,243, between 1988 and 2011) who chose the most representative description of four possible attachment styles (Secure, Dismissing, Preoccupied, and Fearful) on the Relationship Questionnaire. The percentage of students with Secure attachment styles has decreased in recent years (1988: 48.

Big data in the new media environment.

Bentley et al. argue for the social scientific contextualization of "big data" by proposing a four-quadrant model. We suggest extensions of the east-west (i.

Toward a neuroscience of interactive parent-infant dyad empathy.

In accord with social neuroscience's progression to include interactive experimental paradigms, parents' brains have been activated by emotionally charged infant stimuli - especially of their own infant - including baby cry and picture. More recent research includes the use of brief video clips and opportunities for maternal response. Among brain systems important to parenting are those involved in empathy.

The right to move: a multidisciplinary lifespan conceptual framework.

This paper addresses the health problems and opportunities that society will face in 2030. We propose a proactive model to combat the trend towards declining levels of physical activity and increasing obesity. The model emphasizes the need to increase physical activity among individuals of all ages.

The fuzzy reality of perceived harms.

We review two subjective (mis)perceptions that influence revenge and forgiveness systems. Individual differences predict more (e.g.

Parenting and Beyond: Common Neurocircuits Underlying Parental and Altruistic Caregiving.

Interpersonal relationships constitute the foundation on which human society is based. The infant-caregiver bond is the earliest and most influential of these relationships. Driven by evolutionary pressure for survival, parents feel compelled to provide care to their biological offspring.