Affective Consequences Research Articles

Changes in Physical Activity and the Occurrence of Specific Symptoms of "Long-COVID Syndrome" in Men Aged 18-25.

The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of non-specific symptoms of “long-COVID syndrome” depending on the physical activity undertaken resulting from the imposed forms of study (distance learning–contact learning); 136 men aged 21.5 ± 1.58 from universities educating students of medical faculties were examined. The difference between the universities was mainly due to the nature of the classes undertaken (classes remotely-hybrid form) in the period from March 2020 to February 2021. Among the respondents, 17% in Group I and 16% in Group II were infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including 50% in Group I with moderate symptoms, and in Group II—most people 45% with mild symptoms. The conducted research clearly shows the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students. They show a number of important problems, such as reduced physical activity, as well as increased body weight and time spent in front of the monitor. They also make it clear that the health consequences of the pandemic affect both people who were infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and those who did not suffer from this infection.

A multidimensional approach to acting out of character: How deviating from one’s personality profile relates to resource depletion and affect

Research on the consequences of acting out of character yielded mixed findings. One reason might be that these studies have typically focused on one personality dimension a time, while personality is multidimensional. In the present paper, we study the affective consequences of acting out of character, accounting for personality’s multidimensional nature. Additionally, we study the mechanisms underlying this association by examining the mediating role of depletion. In three repeated measures datasets, we show that within-person fluctuations in the extent to which one acts out of character are associated with lower levels of positive affect and higher levels of negative affect. Moreover, in one of the three studies we demonstrate that this association might be explained by the higher levels of depletion associated with acting out of character. These findings are one of the first to show that deviating from one’s personality profile can be depleting, and that this is associated with affective costs.

Psychological consequences of tourism ideal affect

ABSTRACT Guided by the affect valuation theory, this study examined the relationships among tourism ideal affect (i.e. how people want to feel at tourism destinations), tourism actual affect (i.e. how people really feel at tourism destinations), and tourism satisfaction. Online surveys were conducted before and after travel, and 418 Japanese adults provided usable data. Our SEM results indicated that (a) tourism ideal affect, not global ideal affect, influenced tourism actual affect; (b) tourism ideal affect influenced tourism actual affect with matching arousal levels (high- vs. low-arousal); and (c) tourism ideal affect influenced tourism satisfaction via tourism actual affect, but only for high-arousal levels. Our research extends ideal affect to the tourism context, which has motivational force and better explains tourism experience and satisfaction than global ideal affect. Tourism federations and agencies need to know that tourism and global ideal affect is distinct, and the former predicts actual emotional experiences in tourism. Providing people with tourism experiences that match their tourism ideal affect is the key to tourism development and planning/managing tourism destinations.

Consumers' Situational Curiosity: A Review of Research on Antecedents and Consequences of Curiosity in Marketing-Relevant Situations

This review offers a framework of consumers’ situational curiosity by integrating research investigating the different stages of stimulating, experiencing, and resolving curiosity. Following this process perspective and focusing on marketing-relevant situations, it first provides an overview of triggers that have been used to stimulate curiosity and illustrates the implementation of these triggers in empirical studies. Subsequently, it synthesizes the key processes that are initiated when consumers sustain in the state of being curious and when they (presumably) have resolved their curiosity. These processes are assigned to affective consequences, cognitive consequences, or a third category, which includes the outcome variables of evaluation, decision making, and behavior. This article helps researchers and practitioners alike to gain a better overview of this fragmented research area and identifies research gaps and open questions for future research. Finally, recommendations for practitioners are given of how to effectively use curiosity-triggering stimuli in their marketing communication.

How Perceptions of Responsibility and Affective Consequences Influence Parents' Digital Media Engagement in Relation to Human Papillomavirus Vaccination.

Individuals are expected to be responsible for their own health and that of their families-and act accordingly. Yet, being in a position of responsibility might be undesirable for individuals either unable or reluctant to comply with the expectations this responsibility entails. In this article, I explore how parents experience the process of engaging responsibly with digital media in relation to the question of human papillomavirus vaccination. The study is based on interviews with eighteen Danish parents, and my findings show that these parents not only understand themselves but also other actors in terms of responsibility, and that being positioned in terms of responsibility can have negative affective consequences. I argue that meeting the expectations of biological citizenship should not necessarily be a goal in relation to complex health topics.

High-fidelity consumption and the claustropolitan structure of feeling

This paper invokes Redhead’s concept of claustropolitanism to critically explore the affective reality for consumers in today’s digital age. In the context of surveillance capitalism, we argue that consumer subjectivity revolves around the experience of fidelity rather than agency. Instead of experiencing genuine autonomy in their digital lives, consumers are confronted with a sense of confinement that reflects their tacit conformity to the behavioural predictions of surveillant market actors. By exploring how that confinement is lived and felt, we theorise the collective affects that constitute a claustropolitan structure of feeling: incompletion, saturation and alienation. These affective contours trace an oppressive atmosphere that infuses consumers’ lives as they attempt to seek fulfilment through digital market-located behaviours that are largely anticipated and coordinated by surveillant actors. Rather than motivate resistance, these affects ironically work to perpetuate consumers’ commitment to the digital world and their ongoing participation in the surveillant marketplace. Our theorisation continues the critical project of re-assessing the consumer subject by showing how subjectivity is produced at the point of intersection between ideological imperatives and affective consequences.

Bursting balloons - comparison of risk taking between extreme sports, esports, and the general public

Arguably, extreme sports athletes exhibit a more significant risk appetite than the general public. Are standard behavioral risk measures able to capture this? To answer this question, we assessed self-reports of risk taking and measured the risk-taking behavior of samples of snowboarders and climbers. Two groups of non-athletes, university students and crowdworkers, and athletes of a sport that does not include the potential of grave injury or death, esports athletes, serve as control conditions and complement our study. Across these five different groups, 1313 participants performed an online version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and gave self-reports of general willingness to take risks and sports-specific risk taking. Extreme sports athletes exhibited greater risk taking in the BART than non-athletes and esports athletes. Furthermore, BART-performance predicted sports-specific risk taking and its affective consequences. Our results speak to the BART’s ecological validity and the unique role of physical consequences on risk-taking behavior.

Trauma survivors with disrupted sleep generate less specific and less emotional autobiographical memories

Autobiographical memory in trauma-exposed individuals tends to be overgeneral and negatively biased. Although healthy sleep helps consolidate memory traces, and memory for emotional stimuli is better when there is a period of sleep between stimulus exposure and retrieval, and trauma-exposed individuals tend to experience disrupted sleep, no previous study investigates whether specific characteristics of autobiographical memory in these individuals may be accounted for, at least partially, by sleep disruption. Participants were 20 female sexual assault survivors and 20 women with no history of trauma exposure. We collected data from 1 night of polysomnographically monitored sleep and from a next-morning administration of the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). In response to positive AMT stimuli, trauma-exposed participants with less REM sleep produced more overgeneral autobiographical memories. In response to both negative and neutral stimuli, trauma-exposed participants and participants with more disrupted sleep (e.g., lower sleep efficiency, more spontaneous arousals) produced less emotional autobiographical memories. In response to negative stimuli, trauma-exposed participants with more spontaneous arousals produced less emotional autobiographical memories. Our design did not include a separate group of non-traumatized depressed patients or a sleep adaptation night. Our text processing software did not allow investigation of whether the affective content of AMT responses was congruent with cue valence. Disrupted sleep, both independently and in interaction with trauma exposure, is associated with less specific and less emotional autobiographical recollections. Sleep-focused behavioral or pharmacological interventions might help alleviate cognitive and affective consequences associated with overgeneral and dispassionate autobiographical memory. • Trauma exposure plus disrupted sleep produces overgeneral autobiographical memory • Trauma exposure plus disrupted sleep produces dispassionate autobiographical memory • Disrupted sleep produces longer autobiographical recollections • Trauma exposure produces shorter autobiographical recollections

Increased burst coding in deep layers of the ventral anterior cingulate cortex during neuropathic pain

Neuropathic pain induces changes in neuronal excitability and synaptic connectivity in deep layers of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that play a central role in the sensory, emotional and affective consequences of the disease. However, how this impacts ACC in vivo activity is not completely understood. Using a mouse model, we found that neuropathic pain caused an increase in ACC in vivo activity, as measured by the indirect activity marker c-Fos and juxtacellular electrophysiological recordings. The enhanced firing rate of ACC neurons in lesioned animals was based on a change in the firing pattern towards bursting activity. Despite the proportion of ACC neurons recruited by noxious stimuli was unchanged during neuropathic pain, responses to noxious stimuli were characterized by increased bursting. Thus, this change in coding pattern may have important implications for the processing of nociceptive information in the ACC and could be of great interest to guide the search for new treatment strategies for chronic pain.

Mental Health Inequalities During COVID-19 Outbreak: The Role of Financial Insecurity and Attentional Control.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns negatively impacted the mental health of populations. This impact is not equally distributed and increases existing mental health inequalities. Indeed, government restrictions and the economic consequences of the pandemic affect more the less educated and less wealthy people. However, psychological processes implicated in this increase of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic remain unexplored. The present study (N=591) tested the role of financial insecurity and attentional control in the relation between socioeconomic status and mental health, along with the influence of trait anxiety. Based on Structural Equation Modelling, findings showed a mediation effect of financial insecurity, but not of attentional control, in the relationship between socioeconomic status and mental health. In addition, exploratory analyses suggested that financial insecurity also mediated the effect of attentional control on mental health. Results of the present research point at the importance of understanding psychological processes implicated in the effect of economic crises on mental health inequalities.

Revisiting the Impact of Goals on Affect and Effort*

AbstractPerformance goals are one of the most prevalent management controls used in practice to address motivational concerns. Goals influence employees' affective state by enabling them to evaluate their performance against a standard and determine if their performance is satisfactory. The objective of this paper is to understand and extend the current management accounting literature on goals and their effect on employee effort via affect. I address this objective in three ways. First, I conduct a systematic review of the management accounting literature to determine what we know about goals and determine if the literature acknowledges the important effects that goals have on affect. From the literature review, I note the paucity of research that examines the affective consequences of using performance goals. Second, I discuss some of the prominent theories from psychology that explain the relationship between goals and affect and provide suggestions for research questions. Third, I develop an experimental manipulation using online participants to demonstrate that goal attainment and goal failure lead to significant positive and negative affective reactions, respectively. By sharing my research method, I provide a starting point that accounting researchers can employ to examine how affect can influence effort, which has an important causal linkage with performance outcomes.

Curiosity did not kill the cat: It made it stronger and happy, but only if the cat was not “dark”

ObjectiveThe present research explores the path between work-related curiosity and positive affect. To justify this relationship, we rely on the conservation of resources theory (COR) and include performance as a mediator of the curiosity-positive affect path, such that curiosity was expected to stimulate performance, resulting in higher positive affect. We also aimed to explore whether the Dark Triad personality would moderate this mediating path. MethodologyThree studies were conducted. Study 1 analyzed the indirect path of curiosity on positive affect through performance (n = 241). Study 2 resorted to two samples, one with participants in telework (n = 406), and the other one with participants in face-to-face work (n = 240), to explore the mediated link. Study 3 (n = 653) explored the moderating role of the Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism) on the mediated relationship. FindingsStudy 1 demonstrated that curiosity boosted positive affect through performance. Study 2 showed that, when workers were in telework, the mediated relationship occurred, however the same did not happen in face-to-face work. Study 3 showed that Machiavellianism and psychopathy moderated the indirect effect of curiosity on positive affect through performance, in a way that it was present for individuals low on these traits, but not for individuals high on such traits. Narcissism did not moderate the mediated relationship. ImplicationsWe discuss the impact that curiosity may have on behavioral and affective consequences (performance and affect), and the role that personality may have on this relationship.

High neuroticism is associated with reduced negative affect following sleep deprivation

The aim was to investigate how neuroticism moderates the affective consequences of personalized mild-moderate partial sleep deprivation. A total of 52 healthy subjects aged 18–35 years completed the NEO PI-3 at baseline, before they completed an 11-day study protocol. After maintaining habitual sleep for seven days, the participants were asked to sleep 2 h less than their average sleep duration, the last three nights of the study protocol. Sleep patterns were observed using actigraphs and sleep diaries. The participants completed the PANAS questionnaire measuring positive and negative affect at 9 am (±90 min) at day 1, 4, 8 (habitual sleep), 9 and 11 (partial sleep deprived). We found that participants with higher scores on neuroticism experienced a decrease in negative affect following sleep deprivation. Participants with lower scores on neuroticism experienced an increase in negative affect after sleep deprivation. Positive affect was reduced following sleep deprivation, regardless of scores on neuroticism.

Exploring the consistency of the affective consequences of cognitive-control for visual stimuli across tasks and individuals.

Exploring the consistency of the affective consequences of cognitive-control for visual stimuli across tasks and individuals.

Can "Googling" correct misbelief? Cognitive and affective consequences of online search.

With increasing concern over online misinformation in perspective, this study experimentally examined the cognitive as well as the affective consequences of online search. Results of the two experiments using widely shared, prejudiced misinformation about an ethnic minority in Japan indicated that (a) online search reduces on average the likelihood of believing the misinformation, (b) the magnitude of the effect is larger among those who are predisposed to believe the misinformation, (c) cognitive correction is observed whether searchers are motivated to achieve a directional goal or an accuracy goal, and (d) online search deteriorates affective feeling toward the target groups of the misinformation. Theoretical implications are discussed in relation to the robustness of confirmation bias in online search and the “belief echo” in which exposure to negative misinformation continues to shape attitudes even after the misinformation has been effectively discredited.

A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Outcome Expectancy Construct in Physical Activity Research.

Cognition-based theories dominate physical activity (PA) research, and many include a construct broadly defined as "beliefs about the consequences of behavior" (e.g., outcome expectancies, perceived benefits) hereafter referred to as perceived consequences. With the quantity of available research on this topic, it is important to examine whether the literature supports perceived consequences as a predictor of PA. A meta-analysis examining longitudinal associations between perceived consequences and PA in adults was conducted. Studies were eligible if (a) perceived consequences were measured at a time point prior to PA, and (b) the target behavior was a form of PA. An omnibus meta-analysis estimating the mean effect of all included studies, and separate meta-analyses for perceived consequences content categories were conducted. This search yielded 6,979 articles, of these, 110 studies met inclusion criteria. Studies were published between 1989 and 2020, with sample sizes ranging from 16 to 2,824. All studies were evaluated as moderate to high quality. A small positive bivariate association was identified (r = 0.11; 95% CI [0.09, 0.13]) between perceived consequences and PA. Significant associations were identified for time, health, self-evaluative, psychological, and affective consequences. There was no association between perceived weight-related consequences and PA. The findings emphasize the variability with which existing studies have examined perceived consequences in the PA literature. Future research might examine whether these are important distinctions for understanding PA. Overall, the results suggest utility in examining perceived consequences as a predictor of PA, but constructs with more robust associations may require priority.

Wish-making during the COVID-19 pandemic enhances positive appraisals and job satisfaction

Guided by cognitive appraisal theory, we argue that wish-making is a conceptually distinct type of coping strategy and that wish-making during the COVID-19 pandemic has functional cognitive–affective consequences. Specifically, it facilitates positive appraisals of the pandemic, which then facilitate job satisfaction. Enhanced job satisfaction in turn reduces counterproductive work behavior during the pandemic. These arguments were tested via two empirical studies involving 546 Hong Kong employees surveyed on two consecutive working days during the pandemic. The individuals who made wishes during the pandemic reported more positive appraisals of the pandemic, which in turn promoted their job satisfaction and lowered their counterproductive work behavior. Crucially, wish-making had significant effects on positive appraisals above and beyond other coping strategies. Thus, we contribute to the employee coping literature by highlighting one relatively easy way for employees to combat the psychological effects of the pandemic (and other challenges in life) and regulate their affective well-being and behaviors at work. Namely, making wishes that envision a better future can enhance employees' job satisfaction, which in turn lowers counterproductive work behavior.

Input-dependent synaptic suppression by pregabalin in the central amygdala in male mice with inflammatory pain

Pregabalin (PGB) is a synthetic amino acid compound most widely prescribed for chronic peripheral and central neuropathic pain. PGB is a ligand for the α2δ1 subunit of voltage-dependent calcium channels, and its binding reduces neurotransmitter release and thus inhibits synaptic transmission. The central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) is a kernel site for the enhanced nociception-emotion link in chronic pain. The nociceptive information is conveyed to the CeA via the following two pathways: 1) the pathway arising from the basolateral amygdala (BLA), which carries nociceptive information mediated by the thalamocortical system, and 2) that arising from the external part of the pontine lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPB), that forms the final route of the spino-parabrachio-amygdaloid pathway that conveys nociceptive information directly from the superficial layer of the spinal dorsal horn. We compared the effects of PGB on the excitatory postsynaptic currents of neurons in the right CeA in response to electrical stimulation of BLA and LPB pathways using the whole-cell patch-clamp technique. Inflammatory pain was induced by intraplantar injection of formalin solution at the left hind paw.At eight hours post-formalin, PGB reduced EPSCs amplitude of the BLA-to-CeA synaptic transmission, accompanied by a significant increase in the PPR, suggesting a decreased release probability from the presynaptic terminals. In addition, these effects of PGB were only seen in inflammatory conditions. PGB did not affect the synaptic transmission at the LPB-to-CeA pathway, even in formalin-treated mice. These results suggest PGB improves not simply the aberrantly enhanced nociception but also various pain-associated cognitive and affective consequences in patients with chronic nociplastic pain.

Attack of the Robots: The Threat of Automation on Workplace Attitudes.

Workers are increasingly confronted with the prospect that millions of jobs will be lost to automation in the near future. This leads to a question: How do automation threats affect workplace attitudes? The current research examines this question, through the use of archival and experimental samples. In our archival study (N = 4,199), analyses indicated that individuals working in sectors with high automation potential reported lower levels of job satisfaction, and these effects were mediated by higher levels of job insecurity. We then used a highly powered experimental study (N = 547) to examine which affective components of job insecurity may be responsible for these findings. Given the past literature on sadness and situational control, we hypothesized that this emotion may play a role in reducing job attitudes. Analyses supported our hypothesis; threat-evoked (vs. control) sadness led to reduced levels of job satisfaction. In contrast, fear tended to increase support for job satisfaction and affective commitment. These findings provide a key insight to a particular type of emerging job insecurity (automation), with emphasis on further understanding the link between workplace threat, job insecurity, and the affective consequences of such feeling states.

The affective consequences of threats to masculinity

Three experiments (N = 1083) explored whether masculinity threats (vs. assurances) led to emotions that have been linked to well-being, social connection, and the expression of aggression, including (a) increases in feelings of shame and guilt (Experiment 1) and (b) decreases in perspective-taking and empathy (Experiment 2). In addition, we explored whether masculinity assurances (vs. threats) had a positive effect on men's feelings of pride. To determine whether the affective responses to masculinity threats were unique to gender identity, we replicated the findings in comparison to a second social identity threat (Experiment 3). Consistent with predictions, and replicating prior work, men but not women expressed more public discomfort and anger following a gender threat (vs. assurance), as well as more shame and guilt when their masculinity was threatened than when their masculinity was assured (Experiment 2). Importantly, these affective responses were unique to men experiencing gender threats (Experiment 3). Interestingly, consistent with empathy avoidance predictions, when threatened, men reported lower dispositional levels of other focused empathy (Experiment 2), but these effects were not specific to gender threats (Experiment 3). Findings revealed empathy reductions, but not diminished reports of perspective taking, in threat conditions. No consistent evidence of effects of gender feedback on men's pride (authentic or hubristic) emerged. The implications of findings are discussed.