Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Humans regularly face collective problems calling for cooperation. To solve such problems, people can establish public goods that require contributions from individual members and benefit the whole...Show moreHumans regularly face collective problems calling for cooperation. To solve such problems, people can establish public goods that require contributions from individual members and benefit the whole group, e.g. public health care and infrastructure. It has been suggested that in modern society people have become less dependent on the creation of public goods and more able to solve problems individually (Santos, Varnum, & Grossmann, 2017). Nevertheless, solving shared problems individually is tied to resources that are often unequally distributed between people. Inequality (Zelmer, 2003) and individualism (Gross & De Dreu, 2019) can complicate cooperation, however, their interplay is largely unknown. We confronted 50 groups (N = 200) with a public goods game with the additional option to solve a shared problem individually through a private solution. Across groups, group members had either an equal or an unequal resource distribution. The private solution allowed wealthier group members to leave the group and avoid contributing to the public good. This resulted in increased inequality. Specifically, the easier it was to opt for a private solution, the higher the inequality was. We further investigated voting preferences and fairness perceptions by having sixty-one impartial raters complete the task from a third-party perspective. The third-party players preferred a more equitable solution that would result in lower inequality. While group members dependent on the public solution voted for delegating allocation decisions to the third party, the wealthier, and thus, more independent members voted against it revealing self-serving motives. Our findings highlight unique problems emerging with self-reliance in the face of global issues, such as a pandemic and global warming, that require cooperation. Especially, when self-reliance is only affordable for some, collective action can fail and further increase wealth gaps.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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As the negative consequences of debts are substantial, it is important that indebted people seek and accept help. However, people in debt are often reluctant to contact the creditor and identify...Show moreAs the negative consequences of debts are substantial, it is important that indebted people seek and accept help. However, people in debt are often reluctant to contact the creditor and identify shame as a barrier. Moreover, they experience a lack of acknowledgement when communicating with creditors. Given the human need for acknowledgement and the suggestion that acknowledgement can reduce shame, the current study examined the effect of acknowledgement on indebted people’s willingness to contact the creditor and explored the role of financial shame. To this end, 206 native English-speaking people with current or past debts completed an online experiment in which they read either a standard creditor letter or a creditor letter in which the creditor acknowledged the situation of the person in debt. Willingness to contact the creditor and financial shame did not differ between participants who read a creditor letter in which their situations were acknowledged and those whose read a standard creditor letter. However, higher financial shame was associated with lower willingness to contact. We conclude that acknowledging indebted people’s situations is not enough to increase their willingness to contact the creditor. Future research could test other ways to address and reduce the financial shame.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Pregnancy leads to volumetric reductions in brain regions involved in Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks. These volumetric reductions appear to be an expression of the woman’s brain preparing itself for...Show morePregnancy leads to volumetric reductions in brain regions involved in Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks. These volumetric reductions appear to be an expression of the woman’s brain preparing itself for motherhood and caregiving. Yet, how pregnancy affects ToM abilities is still largely unknown. The present study investigated how pregnancy affects ToM in primiparous women (i.e., woman who is bearing a first offspring) and whether these changes are predictive of maternal sensitivity. ToM abilities, as assessed through total accuracy scores on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task (RMET), were not enhanced at post-pregnancy, compared to pre-pregnancy (H1). Neither did we observe a stronger enhancement in RMET child format performance compared to RMET-adult performance over the course of pregnancy (H2). Moreover, changes in ToM abilities across pregnancy was not a significant predictor of maternal sensitivity at one year postpartum (H3). In conclusion, ToM abilities, as assessed via RMET, did not change over de course of pregnancy. We speculated that the incongruence between our hypotheses and results could potentially be attributed to suboptimal operationalization of ToM abilities. For future studies it may be relevant to include ToM measures that focus more directly on the affective aspect of ToM.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Studies investigating motives for social networking site (SNS) use amongst people with eating disorder (ED) symptoms are scarce. There is some evidence that readiness to change may be a factor...Show moreStudies investigating motives for social networking site (SNS) use amongst people with eating disorder (ED) symptoms are scarce. There is some evidence that readiness to change may be a factor related to SNS use patterns in this population. The aim was to investigate the relationships between SNS use, motives behind SNS use, and readiness to change, as well as ED psychopathology. Participants were recruited from ED recovery websites; 103 provided complete data. As hypothesized, ED symptom severity was inversely associated with readiness to change. However, contrary to expectations, SNS use was not associated with ED symptom severity. The results of hierarchical regression analyses suggested that if an individual feels less capable of overcoming their dysfunctional cognitions/behaviors about their body/eating, they are more likely to be motivated to use SNSs for the purpose of impressing others and reputation management. The clinical implication is that high Studies investigating motives for social networking site (SNS) use amongst people with eating disorder (ED) symptoms are scarce. There is some evidence that readiness to change may be a factor related to SNS use patterns in this population. The aim was to investigate the relationships between SNS use, motives behind SNS use, and readiness to change, as well as ED psychopathology. Participants were recruited from ED recovery websites; 103 provided complete data. As hypothesized, ED symptom severity was inversely associated with readiness to change. However, contrary to expectations, SNS use was not associated with ED symptom severity. The results of hierarchical regression analyses suggested that if an individual feels less capable of overcoming their dysfunctional cognitions/behaviors about their body/eating, they are more likely to be motivated to use SNSs for the purpose of impressing others and reputation management. The clinical implication is that high amounts of SNS use may not necessarily be harmful for people with EDs or recovering from EDs, whereas using SNSs for the purposes of impression management could potentially be related to being less ready to recover.Show less
Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
closed access
Past studies have offered conflicting findings on how wealth affects the way people behave when self-interest and fairness considerations are in conflict. The present study aimed to investigate...Show morePast studies have offered conflicting findings on how wealth affects the way people behave when self-interest and fairness considerations are in conflict. The present study aimed to investigate this conflict further by using the household task to experimentally induce the feeling of financial scarcity, then having the participants play an ultimatum game as both the proposer and responder. It was expected that people who experienced scarcity would make lower offers in the ultimatum game than those who experienced abundance. Furthermore, I hypothesized that people who experienced scarcity would accept lower offers in the ultimatum game than those who experienced scarcity. The first hypothesis was supported by the data, however the second one was not. It appears that under financial scarcity people become more motivated to serve their self-interest and are less interested in fairness considerations.Show less
