Past research suggests that use of psychedelic substances such as LSD or psilocybin may have positive effects on mood and feelings social connectedness. These psychological are thought to be highly sensitive context, but robust direct evidence for them in a naturalistic setting is scarce. In series field studies involving over 1,200 participants across six multiday mass gatherings the United States Kingdom, we investigated substance transformative experience, connectedness, mood. This...

Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape

Humans show a rare tendency to punish norm-violators who have not harmed them directly-a behavior known as third-party punishment. Research has found that punishment is subject intergroup bias, whereby people members of the out-group more severely than in-group. Although prevalence this well-documented, psychological processes underlying it remain largely unexplored. Some work suggests stems from people's inherent predisposition form alliances with in-group and aggress against members. This...

Humans' evolutionary success has depended in part on their willingness to punish, at personal cost, bad actors who have not harmed them directly-a behavior known as costly third-party punishment. The present studies examined the psychological processes underlying this from a developmental perspective, using novel, naturalistic method. In these (ages 3-6, total N = 225), participants of all ages enacted punishment, and rates punishment increased with age. addition, younger children 3-4), when...

This report shows the various ways Americans misperceive views of their political opponents.

Abstract A key function of morality is to regulate social behavior. Research suggests moral values may be divided into two types: binding values, which govern behavior in groups, and individualizing promote personal rights freedoms. Because people tend mentally activate concepts situations they prove useful, the importance afford vary according whom are with moment. In particular, because help communal behavior, these more when presence close (versus distant) others. Five studies test...

The present research examines how psychological distance influences the weight given to individuating information about targets of justice judgments. Drawing on construal level theory, which links levels construal, we hypothesize that increasing from judgments reduces people’s sensitivity specific features targets, thereby minimizing extent applications are influenced by target-specific information. Psychological proximity, contrast, enhances salience targets’ idiosyncratic characteristics,...

Abstract Humans have long sought experiences that transcend or change their sense of self. By weakening boundaries between the self and others, such transformative may lead to enduring changes in moral orientation. Here we investigated psychological nature prosocial correlates by studying participants before ( n = 600), during 1217), 0–4 weeks after 1866), 6 months 710) they attended a variety secular, multi-day mass gatherings US UK. Observations at field studies 22 online followup spanning...

From an early age, children are willing to pay a personal cost punish others for violations that do not affect them directly. Various motivations underlie such “costly punishment”: People may enforce cooperative norms (amplifying punishment of in-groups) or express anger at perpetrators out-groups). Thus, group-related values and attitudes (e.g., how much one fairness feels out-group hostility) likely shape the development punishment. The present experiments ( N = 269, ages 3−8 from across...

Agents must sometimes decide whether to exploit a known resource or search for potentially more profitable options. Here, we investigate the role of psychological distancing in promoting exploratory behavior. We argue that exploration dilemmas pit value reward (“desirability”) against difficulty uncertainty obtaining it (“feasibility”). Based on construal level theory, which suggests distance increases importance rewards’ desirability (vs. feasibility), expect will increase exploration. Four...

Recently proposed models of moral cognition suggest that people’s judgments harmful acts are influenced by their consideration both those acts’ consequences (“outcome value”), and the feeling associated with enactment (“action value”). Here we apply this framework to prosocial behavior, suggesting praiseworthiness good deeds determined benefit confer others how they would feel perform. Three experiments confirm prediction. After developing a new measure assess extent which is action outcome...

Questions of right and wrong are central to daily life, yet scientific understanding everyday moral dilemmas remains limited. We conducted a data-driven analysis these phenomena by combining state-of-the-art tools in machine learning with survey-based methods. extracted analyzed 369,161 descriptions (“posts”) 11M evaluations (“comments”) from the largest known online repository dilemmas: Reddit’s “Am I Asshole?” Users described wide variety underexplored on topics ranging broken promises...

Humans’ evolutionary success has depended in part on their willingness to punish, at personal cost, bad actors who have not harmed them directly—a behavior known as costly third party punishment. Though this been widely observed adults, important questions remain its underlying psychology. We approached these from a developmental perspective, using novel, naturalistic experiment study punishment young children (age 3-6). Results showed that even the youngest our sample 3-4) enacted In...

Americans tend to overestimate the ideological extremity of Democrats' and Republicans' attitudes, exacerbating cross-partisan antipathy undermining democratic norms. Combating such "false polarization" requires an understanding inferential processes underlying partisan perceptions. To this end, present work leverages four nationally-representative datasets illuminate sources error in cross-party judgment. We first examine role partisanship itself distorting perceptions political outgroups,...

People’s evaluations of their achievements and outcomes are strongly influenced by standing relative to targets comparison. Research suggests that, on the whole, people tend compare themselves interpersonally similar others. We qualify this finding exploring circumstances under which dissimilar others — a behavior that entails expanding breadth what we term “comparative scope,” or range deemed informative for Drawing construal level theory (Trope & Liberman, 2014), contends use mental...

This report shows that Republicans and Democrats share common ground about how to teach our national story but hold inaccurate ideas what the other side believes teaching U.S. history. These ‘perception gaps’ fuel distrust are exacerbated by ‘conflict entrepreneurs’ — political media actors who benefit from actively stoke polarization. also suggests ways leaders institutions can disrupt these cycles of misunderstanding engage in constructive dialogue, reducing

Agents must sometimes decide whether to exploit a known resource or search for potentially more profitable options. Here, we investigate the role of psychological distancing in promoting exploratory behavior. We argue that exploration dilemmas pit value reward (“desirability”) against difficulty uncertainty obtaining it (“feasibility”). Based on construal level theory, which suggests distance increases importance rewards’ desirability (versus feasibility), expect will increase exploration....

A key function of morality is to regulate social behavior. Research suggests moral values may be divided into two types: binding values, which govern behavior in groups, and individualizing promote personal rights freedoms. Because people tend mentally activate concepts situations they prove useful, the importance afford vary according whom are with moment. In particular, because help communal behavior, these more when presence close (versus distant) others. Five studies test support this...

Research shows that people’s satisfaction with outcomes they receive (e.g., a prize) is influenced by their standing relative to targets of comparison. Here we asked whether the similarity comparison target impacts which features people pay attention to. This particularly important in situations more than one outcome feature may drive sense deprivation. Drawing on Construal Level Theory, contends use high level construals transcend psychological distance, show comparing dissimilar increases...

Ethical decisions are often influenced by perceptions of social norms—beliefs about what others doing. When norms not communicated explicitly, people may infer them observing the behavior (“exemplars”). We investigate whether order in which exemplars encountered. In our studies, participants observed either a selfish exemplar followed generous or exemplar, then made an ethical decision themselves. Studies 1 and 2, who first responded more prosocially when asked to imagine donating museum...

From an early age, children are willing to pay a personal cost punish others for violations that do not affect them directly. Various motivations underlie such “costly punishment”: people may enforce cooperative norms (amplifying punishment of in-groups) or express anger at perpetrators out-groups). Thus, group-related values and attitudes (e.g., how much one fairness feels out-group hostility) likely shape the development punishment. The present experiments (N=269, ages 3-8, from across...