This research examined whether feeling awe weakens people's desire for money. Two experiments demonstrated that, as a self-transcendent emotion, awe decreased people's money desire. In Experiment 1, recalling a personal experience of awe makes people place less importance on money, compared with recalling an experience of happiness and recalling a neutral experience. In experiment 2, we examined different variants of awe, such as negative awe and non-nature awe. Viewing images that elicited awe, no matter what kind of awe, can induce people to put less effort into obtaining money. Process evidence suggested that awe's weakening of money desire was due to its power to make people transcend their mundane concerns. Our findings have implications for willingness to donate, price sensitivity, religious practices, and economic utilities.

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

Previous findings regarding the relationship between emotional valence and psychological distance were mixed. The current research examined whether emotional intensity moderates the influence of emotional valence on psychological distance. We manipulated intensity and valence by asking participants to describe a positive or negative event from either a high intensity or low intensity perspective. Studies 1 and 2 revealed that negative events were perceived to be more distant than positive events in the low‐intensity condition in two distinct cultural groups. Study 3 further proved that the obtained patterns were generalizable to different emotions. Finally, Study 4 found that a reduced alert level, but not perceived threats, mediated the interactive effects of valence and intensity on psychological distance. This research highlights the importance of considering the joint effect of different dimensions of emotion, thus advancing the understanding of complex processes of emotion.

Dialectical beliefs emphasize constant change, tolerance of contradiction, and holistic perception. This research examined the relationship between dialectical beliefs and proenvironmental behaviors. Study 1a showed that stronger dialectical beliefs were associated with fewer proenvironmental behaviors among Chinese participants; this result was replicated in Study 1b. To examine the negative relationship between dialectical beliefs and proenvironmental behaviors across cultures, Study 2 recruited both native Chinese and European Americans and replicated the results conceptually by measuring proenvironmental behaviors in a hypothetical shopping scenario. Study 3 provided further generally supportive evidence by considering the influence of both dialectical beliefs and interdependent self-construal on proenvironmental behaviors between native Chinese and European Canadians. Finally, a meta-analysis of the obtained results revealed a weak but significant negative association between dialectical beliefs and proenvironmental behaviors. Theoretical implications for cross-cultural environmental research and practical implications for proenvironmental campaigns were discussed.

Self‐esteem affects individuals in a variety of psychological processes substantially and extensively. While an increase in self‐esteem over time was observed in the USA, different patterns of temporal change in self‐esteem were observed in other societies. We analysed the responses (n = 305 229) collected between 1993 and 2016 from 609 articles to examine the patterns of temporal change in self‐esteem in China and its relations with socioecological conditions. Additionally, we explored the patterns in different groups, including secondary school students (158 samples; n = 97 751), college students (427 samples; n = 153 474), and community participants (232 samples; n = 54 004). Some major findings were noted: (i) overall, the level of self‐esteem increased over time. However, we also found a significant curvilinear trend in self‐esteem with a decline followed by a recent increase; (ii) some evidence for the relationship between socioecological factors and self‐esteem was obtained; and (iii) the patterns varied in different cohort groups. Specifically, secondary school students showed a different pattern, in which their self‐esteem level did not show a significant linear trend and was not correlated with the examined socioecological factors. The implications on the theories for the relationship between personality characteristics and socioecological conditions were discussed. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology

No abstract

Guided bone regeneration (GBR) technique is most commonly used to treat alveolar bone defect. Polylactic acid (PLA) attracts much attention to utilize as a GBR membrane because it has relatively high mechanical strength and biodegradability. However, randomized controlled trials of PLA as a GBR membrane in animals were rare. The aim of this work is to observe the efficacy of polylactic acid membrane in guiding bone regeneration in Beagle canine alveolar bone defect restoration and to compare efficacy with the collagen membrane, providing an experimental basis for further clinical use of the polylactic acid membrane. The tests of physical and chemical properties showed that the PLA membrane has well mechanical strength to maintenance the space for the new bone, and has proper aperture for the attachment of osteoblasts. Through X-ray and histopathological examination of the different time points, the bone grafting material covered with PLA membrane can form similar mature bone compared to collagen membrane ones. Meanwhile, biodegradable speed of the PLA membrane was slower. Thus, this study showed that polylactic acid membrane as synthetic biodegradable polymer was reliably effective in guiding bone regeneration of alveolar bone defects, showed the favorable osteogenic capability and forecasts well applications in bone augmentation.

As one of the commonly used folk psychological concepts, self‐deception has been intensively discussed yet is short of solid ground from cognitive neuroscience. Self‐deception is a biased cognitive process of information to obtain or maintain a false belief that could be both self‐enhancing or self‐diminishing. Study 1 ( N = 152) captured self‐deception by adopting a modified numerical discrimination task that provided cheating opportunities, quantifying errors in predicting future performance (via item‐response theory model), and measuring the belief of how good they are at solving the task (i.e., self‐efficacy belief). By examining whether self‐efficacy belief is based upon actual ability (true belief) or prediction errors (false belief), Study 1 showed that self‐deception occurred in the effortless (easier access to answer cues) rather than effortful (harder access to answer cues) cheating opportunity conditions, suggesting high ambiguity in attributions facilitates self‐deception. Studies 2 and 3 probed the neural source of self‐deception, linking self‐deception with the metacognitive process. Both studies replicated behavioral results from Study 1. Study 2 (ERP study; N = 55) found that the amplitude of frontal slow wave significantly differed between participants with positive/self‐enhancing and negative/self‐diminishing self‐deceiving tendencies in incorrect predictions while remaining similar in correct predictions. Study 3 (functional magnetic resonance imaging study; N = 33) identified self‐deceiving associated activity in the anterior medial prefrontal cortex and showed that effortless cheating context increased cheating behaviors that further facilitated self‐deception. Our findings suggest self‐deception is a false belief associated with a distorted metacognitive mental process that requires ambiguity in attributions of behaviors.