Publications

• Shteynberg, G., Hirsh, J. B., Wolf, W., Bargh, J. A., Boothby, E. B., Colman, A. M., Echterhoff, G., & Rossignac-Milon, M. (2023). Theory of Collective Mind. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27, 1019-1031. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Theory of mind research has traditionally focused on the ascription of mental states to a single individual. Here, we introduce a theory of collective mind: the ascription of a unified mental state to a group of agents with convergent experiences. Rather than differentiation between one's personal perspective and that of another agent, a theory of collective mind requires perspectival unification across agents. We review recent scholarship across the cognitive sciences concerning the conceptual foundations of collective mind representations and their empirical induction through the synchronous arrival of shared information. Research suggests that representations of a collective mind cause psychological amplification of co-attended stimuli, create relational bonds, and increase cooperation, among co-attendees.
  
  
  
• Shteynberg, G., Hirsh, J. B., Garthoff, J., & Bentley, R. A. (2022). Agency and Identity in the Collective Self. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 26, 35-56. [PDF][Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Contemporary research on human sociality is heavily influenced by the social identity approach, positioning social categorization as the primary mechanism governing social life. Building on the distinction between agency and identity in the individual self (“I” versus “Me”), we emphasize the analogous importance of distinguishing collective agency from collective identity (“We” versus “Us”). While collective identity is anchored in the unique characteristics of group members, collective agency involves the adoption of a shared subjectivity that is directed toward some object of our attention, desire, emotion, belief, or action. These distinct components of the collective self are differentiated in terms of their mental representations, neuro-cognitive underpinnings, conditions of emergence, mechanisms of social convergence, and functional consequences. Overall, we show that collective agency provides a useful complement to the social categorization approach, with unique implications for multiple domains of human social life, including collective action, responsibility, dignity, violence, dominance, ritual, and morality.
  
  
  
• Shteynberg, G., Hirsh, J. B., Bentley, R. A., & Garthoff, J. (2020). Shared Worlds and Shared Minds: A Theory of Collective Learning and a Psychology of Common Knowledge. Psychological Review, 127, 918-931. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  The study of observational learning, or learning from others, is a cornerstone of the behavioral sciences, as it grounds the continuity, diversity, and innovation inherent to humanity’s cultural repertoire within the social learning capacities of individual humans. In contrast, collective learning, or learning with others, has been underappreciated in terms of its importance to human cognition, cohesion, and culture. We offer a theory of collective learning, wherein the cognitive capacity of collective attention indicates and represents common knowledge across group members, yielding mutually known representations, emotions, evaluations, and beliefs. By enhancing the comprehension of and cohesion with fellow group members, collective attention facilitates communication, remembering, and problem-solving in human groups. We also discuss the implications of collective learning theory for the development of collective identities, social norms, and strategic cooperation.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. , Shteynberg, G., & Gelfand, M. J. (2020). Conflicting Obligations in Human Social Life. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Commentary on Tomasello, M. (2020) The Moral Psychology of Obligation, 43. [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Tomasello describes how the sense of moral obligation emerges from a shared perspective with collaborative partners and in-group members. Our commentary expands this framework to accommodate multiple social identities, where the normative standards associated with diverse group memberships can often conflict with one another. Reconciling these conflicting obligations is argued to be a central part of human morality.
  
  
  
• Matz, S. & Hirsh, J. B. (2020). Personality and Marketing. In Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Marketing campaigns are most effective when they are tailored toward the personalities of the target audiences. In this entry, we review the central links between marketing and personality, including the ideas of brand personality, self-congruity, and message-person congruence. We end with an overview of personality-based marketing in digital environments.
  
  
  
• Kim, Y. J., McGruer, G., & Hirsh, J. B. (2020). Creativity in the Workplace. In Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Employee creativity is an important source of organizational success and competitive advantage. Researchers have identified many factors that increase employee creativity, including individual differences and contextual characteristics. We summarize the key factors that have emerged as predictors of creativity in the workplace.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., Lu, J. G., & Galinsky, A. D. (2018). Moral Utility Theory: Understanding the Motivation to Behave (Un)Ethically. Research in Organizational Behavior, 38, 43-59. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Moral Utility Theory provides an integrative framework for understanding the motivational basis of ethical decision making by modelling it as a process of subjective expected utility (SEU) maximization. The SEUs of ethical and unethical behavioral options are proposed to be assessed intuitively during goal pursuit, with unethical conduct emerging when the expected benefits of moral transgressions outweigh the expected costs. A key insight of the model is that any factors that increase the value of a goal—including incentives, framings, and mindsets—can motivate misbehavior by increasing the SEU of unethical conduct. Although Moral Utility Theory emphasizes the automatic and habitual nature of most SEU appraisals, it also describes a mechanism for initiating the deliberative moral reasoning process: the experience of moral uncertainty. Moral uncertainty is proposed to occur when the SEUs of ethical and unethical behaviors are similar in magnitude, thereby activating the behavioral inhibition system and motivating the allocation of attentional resources toward the decision process. This framework bridges the gap between affective and cognitive perspectives on ethical decision making by identifying automatic evaluations as a central driver of moral decisions while also specifying when and how moral reasoning processes are initiated. By combining dual-process models of morality with well-validated principles from the science of motivation, Moral Utility Theory provides theoretical parsimony and formal modeling potential to the study of ethical decision making. The framework also suggests practical strategies—from employee selection and training to goal setting and compensation systems—for encouraging ethical behavior in organizations.
  
  
  
• Winner of 2018 AMR Best Article Award: Anicich, E. M. & Hirsh, J. B. (2017). The Psychology of Middle Power: Vertical Code-Switching, Role Conflict, and Behavioral Inhibition. Academy of Management Review, 42, 659-682. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Decades of research have demonstrated that having or lacking power can influence how people think and behave in organizations. By contrasting the experiences associated with high and low-power states, however, this research has neglected the psychological and behavioral correlates of middle power, defined as the subjective sense that one's power is neither consistently higher nor lower than the power of one's interaction partners. In this paper, we propose that middle power positions and mindsets lead to frequent vertical code-switching, the act of alternating between behavioral patterns that are directed toward higher-power and lower-power interaction partners. We draw from identity and role transition theories to develop propositions specifying when frequent vertical code-switching will, in turn, result in heightened role conflict. We further situate our theoretical analysis by updating and extending the approach/inhibition theory of power on the basis of insights from revised reinforcement sensitivity theory to introduce an integrative framework called the Approach-Inhibition-Avoidance (AIA) theory of power. Overall, we highlight the promise of conceptualizing power in terms of the stability of one's vertical orientation, offering novel predictions about the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effects of power.
  
  
  
• Hu, J. & Hirsh, J. B. (2017). Accepting Lower Salaries for Meaningful Work. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1649. [Article] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  The current set of studies explore the hypothesis that people are willing to accept lower salaries for more meaningful work. In Study 1, participants reported lower minimum acceptable salaries when comparing jobs that they considered to be personally meaningful with those that they considered to be meaningless. In Study 2, an experimental enhancement of a job’s apparent meaningfulness lowered the minimum acceptable salary that participants required for the position. In two large-scale cross-national samples of full-time employees in 2005 and 2015, Study 3 found that participants who experienced more meaningful work lives were more likely to turn down higher-paying job offers elsewhere. The strength of this effect also increased significantly over this time period. Study 4 replicated these findings in an online sample, such that participants who reported having more meaningful work were less willing to leave their current jobs and organizations for higher paying opportunities. These patterns of results remained significant when controlling for demographic factors and differences in job characteristics.
  
  
  
• Anicich, E. M., & Hirsh, J. B. (2017). Why Being a Middle Manager is so Exhausting. Harvard Business Review. [Article]
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. & Kang, S. K. (2016). Mechanisms of Identity Conflict: Uncertainty, Anxiety, and the Behavioral Inhibition System. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 20, 223-244. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Social identities are associated with normative standards for thought and action, profoundly influencing the behavioral choices of individual group members. These social norms provide frameworks for identifying the most appropriate actions in any situation. Given the increasing complexity of the social world, however, individuals are more and more likely to identify strongly with multiple social groups simultaneously. When these groups provide divergent behavioral norms, individuals can experience social identity conflict. The current article examines the nature and consequences of this socially-conflicted state, drawing upon advances in our understanding of the neuropsychology of conflict and uncertainty. Identity conflicts are proposed to involve activity in the behavioral inhibition system, which in turn produces high levels of anxiety and stress. Building upon this framework, four strategies for resolving identity conflict are reviewed.
  
  
  
• Kaufman, S. B., Quilty, L. C., Grazioplene, R. G., Hirsh, J. B., Gray, J. R., Peterson, J. B., & DeYoung, C. G. (2016). Openness to Experience and Intellect differentially predict creative achievement in the arts and sciences. Journal of Personality, 84, 248-258. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Objective: The Big Five personality dimension Openness/Intellect is the trait most closely associated with creativity and creative achievement. Little is known, however, regarding the discriminant validity of its two aspects—Openness to Experience (reflecting cognitive engagement with sensory and perceptual information) and Intellect (reflecting cognitive engagement with abstract and semantic information, primarily through reasoning)—in relation to creativity. Method: In four demographically diverse samples totalling 1035 participants, we investigated the independent predictive validity of Openness and Intellect by assessing the relations among cognitive ability, divergent thinking, personality, and creative achievement across the arts and sciences. Results and Conclusions: We confirmed the hypothesis that whereas Openness predicts creative achievement in the arts, Intellect predicts creative achievement in the sciences. Inclusion of performance measures of general cognitive ability and divergent thinking indicated that the relation of Intellect to scientific creativity may be due at least in part to these abilities. Lastly, we found that Extraversion additionally predicted creative achievement in the arts, independently of Openness. Results are discussed in the context of dual process theory.
  
  
  
• Inzlicht, M., Bartholow, B. D., & Hirsh, J. B. (2015). Emotional foundations of cognitive control. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19, 126-132. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Often seen as the paragon of higher cognition, here we suggest that cognitive control is dependent upon emotion. Rather than asking whether control is nfluenced by emotion, we ask whether control itself can be understood as an emotional process. Reviewing converging evidence from cybernetics, animal research, cognitive neuroscience, and social and personality psychology, we suggest that cognitive control is initiated when goal-conflicts evoke phasic changes to emotional primitives that both focus attention on the presence of goal conflicts and energize conflict resolution to support goal-directed behavior. Critically, we propose that emotion is not an inert byproduct of conflict but is instrumental in recruiting control. Appreciating the emotional foundations of control, leads to testable predictions that can spur future research.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. (2015). Extraverted populations have lower savings rates. Personality and Individual Differences, 81, 162-168. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Savings rates in the U.S. have reached an historic low, posing challenges to long-term economic well-being. Among individuals, impulsive spending is associated with preferences for immediate gratification, driven by a heightened sensitivity to immediate rewards. Three studies examined whether population levels of trait Extraversion, reflecting dispositional sensitivity to rewards, are associated with aggregate savings rates. In Study 1, cross-cohort increases in U.S. Extraversion, assessed from 16,846 individuals over 28 years, were associated with declining personal savings rates. In Study 2, regional variation in Extraversion as assessed from a sample of 619,397 participants was negatively associated with state-level household saving, although only Openness remained a significant predictor when all traits were simultaneously entered into a regression model. In Study 3, higher nationally-aggregated Extraversion predicted lower gross national savings in a global sample of 17,837 individuals from 53 nations.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. (2015). Personality and creativity. In International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition. (Vol. 17, pp. 770-773). Oxford, England: Elsevier. [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Personality plays an important role in the creative process. The search for the ‘creative personality’ has a long history, and psychologists have converged on the personality dimension of Openness/Intellect as the most important trait predictor of creative achievement. High levels of Openness/Intellect are associated with an increased tendency toward cognitive exploration, supported by divergent thinking, implicit learning, working memory, and decreased latent inhibition. Collectively, variation in these cognitive processes helps to explain the link between personality and creativity.
  
  
  
• Yam, K. C., Reynolds, S., & Hirsh, J. B. (2014). The hungry thief: Physiological deprivation and its effects on unethical behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 125, 123-133. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  We conducted five studies to examine the effects of physiological deprivation on unethical behavior. Consistent with predictions from Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, we found that physiologically deprived participants engaged in unethical behavior related to obtaining physiological satiation. Contrary to models in which deprivation increases global unethical behavior, hungry and thirsty participants also engaged in less physiologically-unrelated unethical behavior compared to control participants (Studies 1-3). Studies 4 and 5 confirmed that the effects of physiological deprivation on both types of unethical behavior were mediated by a heightened engagement of the Behavioral Approach System (BAS). In addition, we found that the salience of an organizational ethical context acted as a boundary condition for the mediated effect. Participants reminded of the organizational ethical context were less likely to engage in need-related unethical behavior even when physiologically deprived. We conclude by considering the theoretical and practical implications of this research.
  
  
  
• Shteynberg, G., Hirsh, J. B., Apfelbaum, E. P., Larsen, J. T., Galinsky, A. D., & Roese, N. J. (2014). Feeling more together: Group attention intensifies emotion. Emotion, 14, 1102-1114. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  The idea that group contexts can intensify emotions is centuries old. Yet, evidence that speaks to how, or if, emotions become more intense in groups remains elusive. Here we examine the novel possibility that group attention—the experience of simultaneous co-attention with one’s group members—increases emotional intensity relative to attending alone, co-attending with strangers, or attending nonsimultaneously with one’s group members. In Study 1, scary advertisements felt scarier under group attention. In Study 2, group attention intensified feelings of sadness to negative images, and feelings of happiness to positive images. In Study 3, group attention during a video depicting homelessness led to greater sadness that prompted larger donations to charities benefiting the homeless. In Studies 4 and 5, group attention increased the amount of cognitive resources allocated towards sad and amusing videos (as indexed by the percentage of thoughts referencing video content), leading to more sadness and happiness, respectively. In all, these effects could not be explained by differences in physiological arousal, emotional contagion, or vicarious emotional experience. Greater fear, gloom, and glee can thus result from group attention to scary, sad, and happy events, respectively.
  
  
  
• Nash, K., Prentice, M., Hirsh, J. B., McGregor, I., & Inzlicht, M. (2014). Muted neural response to distress among securely attached people. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9, 1239-1245. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Neural processes that support individual differences in attachment security and affect regulation are currently unclear (Coan, 2010). Using EEG, we examined whether securely attached individuals, compared to insecure individuals, would show a muted neural response to experimentally manipulated distress. Participants completed a reaction time task that elicits error commission and the error-related negativity (ERN)—a neural signal sensitive to error-related distress—both before and after a distressing insecurity threat. Despite similar pre-threat levels, secure participants showed a stable ERN whereas insecure participants showed a post-threat increase in ERN amplitude. These results suggest a neural mechanism that allows securely attached people to regulate distress.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. (2014). Environmental sustainability and national personality. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 38, 233-240. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Previous research has linked higher levels of the personality traits Agreeableness and Openness with greater concern about environmental issues. While these traits are important predictors of environmental attitudes among individuals, a growing literature has begun examining the broader consequences of population differences in personality characteristics. The present study examines whether nationally-aggregated personality traits can be significant predictors of a country’s environmental sustainability. National personality scores were derived from an existing database of 12,156 respondents across 51 countries and examined in relation to each country’s scores on the Environmental Performance Index, a benchmark of the sustainability of a country’s environmental policies. Just as Agreeableness and Openness predict environmental concern at the individual level, countries with higher population levels of Agreeableness and Openness had significantly better performance on the sustainability index. These results remained when controlling for national differences in wealth, education, and population size and were unique to these two traits.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. (2014). Mapping the goal space: Personality integration and higher-order goals. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37, 144-145. Commentary on Huang, J. Y., & Bargh, J. A. (2014). The selfish goal: Autonomously operating motivational structures as the proximate cause of human judgment and behavior. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  By situating goals at the heart of human cognitive function, Huang & Bargh provide a useful platform for understanding the process of personality integration as the gradual mapping of implicit motives into a coherently organized self-system. This integrative process is a critical feature of human development that must be accounted for by any complete goal theory.
  
  
  
• Shteynberg, G., Hirsh, J. B., Galinsky, A. D., & Knight, A. P. (2014). Shared attention increases mood infusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 123-130. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  The current research explores how awareness of shared attention influences attitude formation. We theorized that sharing the experience of an object with fellow group members would increase elaborative processing, which in turn would intensify the effects of participant mood on attitude formation. Four experiments found that observing the same object as similar others produced more positive ratings among those in a positive mood, but more negative ratings among those in a negative mood. Participant mood had a stronger influence on evaluations when an object had purportedly been viewed by similar others than when (a) that same object was being viewed by dissimilar others; (b) similar others were viewing a different object; (c) different others were viewing a different object; or (d) the object was viewed alone with no others present. Study 4 demonstrated that these effects were driven by heightened cognitive elaboration of the attended object in the shared attention condition. These findings support the theoretical conjecture that an object attended with one’s ingroup is subject to broader encoding in relation to existing knowledge structures.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. (2013). Meaning and the horizon of interpretation: How goals structure our experience of the world. In J. Hicks & C. Routledge (Eds.), The Experience of Meaning in Life: Classical Perspectives, Emerging Themes, and Controversies (pp. 129-139). New York, NY: Springer Press. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Many different interpretive frames can be brought to bear on the same experience. Heidegger described this space of possible meanings as the “horizon of interpretation”. This horizon can be understood as a probability distribution of possible meanings, instantiated as the relative activation of the brain’s interpretive networks in response to sensory input. From an evolutionary perspective, correctly identifying the significance of incoming sensory information is a critical adaptive challenge. Consistent with its adaptive importance, the horizon of interpretation is constrained by a set of core motivational systems that function as broad “categories of meaning”. These constraints fluctuate from moment to moment as different goal states are activated or deactivated, with concomitant shifts in the horizon of interpretation. The distribution of meanings that an individual can derive from an experience will thus be heavily influenced by his or her active goals.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., Mar, R. A., & Peterson, J. B. (2013). Personal narratives as the highest level of cognitive integration. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36, 216-217. Commentary on Clark, A. (2013). Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  We suggest that the hierarchical predictive processing account detailed by Clark can be usefully integrated with narrative psychology by situating personal narratives at the top of an individual's knowledge hierarchy. Narrative representations function as high-level generative models that direct our attention and structure our expectations about unfolding events. Implications for integrating scientific and humanistic views of human experience are discussed.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., Walberg, M. D., & Peterson, J. B. (2013). Spiritual liberals and religious conservatives. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4, 14-20. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  While church and state are officially separated in many Western nations, there is nonetheless a great deal of overlap between the religious beliefs and political orientations of individual citizens. Religious individuals tend to be more conservative, placing a greater emphasis on order, obedience, and tradition. While many religious movements emphasize conservative values, there also exists a tradition of religious thought associated with equality, universalism, and transcendence—values more in line with political liberalism. The current study examined whether these divergent political orientations relate to the distinction between religiousness and spirituality. Political orientation, spirituality, and religiousness were assessed in two large community samples (Study 1: N = 590; Study 2: N = 703). Although spirituality and religiousness were positively correlated, they displayed divergent associations with political orientation: conservatives tended to be more religious, while liberals tend to be more spiritual. Experimentally inducing spiritual experiences similarly resulted in more liberal political attitudes.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. (2012). Pragmatic perspectives on the psychology of meaning. Psychological Inquiry, 23, 354-360. [PDF]
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., Mar, R. A., & Peterson, J. B. (2012). Psychological entropy: A framework for understanding uncertainty-related anxiety. Psychological Review, 119, 304-320. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Entropy, a concept derived from thermodynamics and information theory, describes the amount of uncertainty and disorder within a system. Self-organizing systems engage in a continual dialogue with the environment and must adapt themselves to changing circumstances to keep internal entropy at a manageable level. We propose the entropy model of uncertainty (EMU), an integrative theoretical framework that applies the idea of entropy to the human information system to understand uncertainty-related anxiety. Four major tenets of EMU are proposed: (a) Uncertainty poses a critical adaptive challenge for any organism, so individuals are motivated to keep it at a manageable level; (b) uncertainty emerges as a function of the conflict between competing perceptual and behavioral affordances; (c) adopting clear goals and belief structures helps to constrain the experience of uncertainty by reducing the spread of competing affordances; and (d) uncertainty is experienced subjectively as anxiety and is associated with activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and with heightened noradrenaline release. By placing the discussion of uncertainty management, a fundamental biological necessity, within the framework of information theory and self-organizing systems, our model helps to situate key psychological processes within a broader physical, conceptual, and evolutionary context.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., Kang, S. K., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2012). Personalized persuasion: Tailoring persuasive appeals to recipient personality traits. Psychological Science, 23, 578-581. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Persuasive messages are more effective when they are custom-tailored to reflect the interests and concerns of the intended audience. Much of the message-framing literature has focused on the advantages of using either gain or loss frames, depending on the motivational orientation of the target group. In the current study, we extended this research to examine whether a persuasive appeal’s effectiveness can be increased by aligning the message framing with the recipient’s personality profile. For a single product, we constructed five advertisements, each designed to target one of the five major trait domains of human personality. In a sample of 324 survey respondents, advertisements were evaluated more positively the more they cohered with participants’ dispositional motives. These results suggest that adapting persuasive messages to the personality traits of the target audience can be an effective way of increasing the messages’ impact, and highlight the potential value of personality-based communication strategies.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., Quilty, L. C., Bagby, R. M., & McMain, S. F. (2012). The relationship between agreeableness and the development of the working alliance in patients with borderline personality disorder. Journal of Personality Disorders, 26, 616-627. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  The working alliance between therapist and patient is an important component of effective interventions for borderline personality disorder (BPD). The current study examines whether client personality affects the development of the working alliance during the treatment of BPD, and whether this influences treatment effectiveness. Data was based on 87 patients with BPD who were participants in a randomized controlled trial comparing Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and general psychiatric management. Higher levels of trait Agreeableness were associated with steeper increases in working alliance throughout treatment, but only in the DBT condition. Increases in working alliance were in turn associated with better clinical outcomes. Mediation models revealed a significant indirect path from Agreeableness to better clinical outcomes, mediated through larger improvements in working alliance over time. These results highlight the role that patient personality can play during the therapeutic process, with a specific focus on the importance of Agreeableness for alliance development.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., Galinsky, A. D., & Zhong, C. B. (2011). Drunk, powerful, and in the dark: How general processes of disinhibition produce both prosocial and antisocial behavior. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 415-427. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Social power, alcohol intoxication, and anonymity all have strong influences on human cognition and behavior. However, the social consequences of each of these conditions can be diverse, sometimes producing prosocial outcomes and other times enabling antisocial behavior. We present a general model of disinhibition to explain how these seemingly contradictory effects emerge from a single underlying mechanism: The decreased salience of competing response options prevents activation of the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS). As a result, the most salient response in any given situation is expressed, regardless of whether it has prosocial or antisocial consequences. We review three distinct routes through which power, alcohol intoxication, and anonymity reduce the salience of competing response options, namely, through Behavioral Approach System (BAS) activation, cognitive depletion, and reduced social desirability concerns. We further discuss how these states can both reveal and shape the person. Overall, our approach allows for multiple domain-specific models to be unified within a common conceptual framework that explains how both situational and dispositional factors can influence the expression of disinhibited behavior, producing both prosocial and antisocial outcomes.
  
  
  
• Weisberg, Y. J., DeYoung, C. D., & Hirsh, J. B. (2011). Gender differences in personality across the ten aspects of the Big Five. Frontiers in Personality Science and Individual Differences, 2:178. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  This paper investigates gender differences in personality traits, both at the level of the Big Five and at the sublevel of two aspects within each Big Five domain. Replicating previous findings, women reported higher Big Five Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism scores than men. However, more extensive gender differences were found at the level of the aspects, with significant gender differences appearing in both aspects of every Big Five trait. For Extraversion, Openness, and Conscientiousness, the gender differences were found to diverge at the aspect level, rendering them either small or undetectable at the Big Five level. These findings clarify the nature of gender differences in personality and highlight the utility of measuring personality at the aspect level.
  
  
  
• DeYoung, C. G., Hirsh, J. B., Shane, M. S., Papademetris, X., Rajeevan, N., & Gray, J. R. (2010). Testing Predictions from Personality Neuroscience: Brain Structure and the Big Five. Psychological Science, 21, 820-828. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  We used a new theory of the biological basis of the Big Five personality traits to generate hypotheses about the association of each trait with the volume of different brain regions. Controlling for age, sex, and whole-brain volume, results from structural magnetic resonance imaging of 116 healthy adults supported our hypotheses for four of the five traits: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Extraversion covaried with volume of medial orbitofrontal cortex, a brain region involved in processing reward information. Neuroticism covaried with volume of brain regions associated with threat, punishment, and negative affect. Agreeableness covaried with volume in regions that process information about the intentions and mental states of other individuals. Conscientiousness covaried with volume in lateral prefrontal cortex, a region involved in planning and the voluntary control of behavior. These findings support our biologically based, explanatory model of the Big Five and demonstrate the potential of personality neuroscience (i.e., the systematic study of individual differences in personality using neuroscience methods) as a discipline.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., Guindon, A., Morisano, D., & Peterson, J. B. (2010). Positive mood effects on delay discounting. Emotion, 5, 717-721. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Delay discounting is the process by which the value of an expected reward decreases as the delay to obtaining that reward increases. Individuals with higher discounting rates tend to prefer smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Previous research has indicated that personality can influence an individual's discounting rates, with higher levels of Extraversion predicting a preference for immediate gratification. The current study examined how this relationship would be influenced by situational mood inductions. While main effects were observed for both Extraversion and cognitive ability in the prediction of discounting rates, a significant interaction was also observed between Extraversion and positive affect. Extraverted individuals were more likely to prefer an immediate reward when first put in a positive mood. Extraverts thus appear particularly sensitive to impulsive, incentive-reward-driven behavior by temperament and by situational factors heightening positive affect.
  
  
  
• Kang, S. K., Hirsh, J. B., & Chasteen, A. L. (2010). Your mistakes are mine: Self-other overlap predicts neural response to observed errors. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 229-232. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  This study examined whether the degree to which one perceives overlap between the self and another person predicts the magnitude of the neural response of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) following the observation of that person’s errors. Specifically, we measured the magnitude of the observational feedback-related negativity (oFRN), an event-related potential associated with observing someone else make an error, while participants watched strangers or friends complete a Stroop task. Results show stronger activation of the ACC, as indexed by the oFRN, for those who observed friends compared to those who observed strangers. This effect was mediated by the degree to which participants included the other in their conception of the self. This study contributes a unique examination of real-life close pairs to a growing body of research showing that social factors can greatly impact neural processing.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., DeYoung, C. G, Xu, X., & Peterson, J. B. (2010). Compassionate liberals and polite conservatives: Associations of agreeableness with political ideology and moral values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 655-664. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Political conservatism has been characterized by resistance to change and acceptance of inequality, with liberalism characterized by the polar opposite of these values. Political attitudes are heritable and may be influenced by basic personality traits. In previous research, conservatism (vs. liberalism) has been associated positively with Conscientiousness and negatively with Openness-Intellect, consistent with the association of conservatism with resistance to change. Less clear, however, are the personality traits relating to egalitarianism. In two studies, using a personality model that divides each of the Big Five into two aspects, the present research found that one aspect of Agreeableness (Compassion) was associated with liberalism and egalitarianism, whereas the other (Politeness) was associated with conservatism and traditionalism. In addition, conservatism and moral traditionalism were positively associated with the Orderliness aspect of Conscientiousness and negatively with Openness-Intellect. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of personality’s relation to political attitudes and values.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. (2010). Personality and environmental concern. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 245-248. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  People vary considerably in their attitudes toward environmental issues. Although some individuals view the environment from a purely utilitarian perspective, others are concerned about environmental sustainability and maintaining an ecological balance. The current study examines the relationship between personality characteristics and environmental concern in a community sample of 2690 German adults. Structural equation modeling revealed that greater environmental concern was related to higher levels of Agreeableness and Openness, with smaller positive relationships emerging with Neuroticism and Conscientiousness.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. (2010). The weight of being: Psychological perspectives on the existential moment. New Ideas in Psychology, 28, 28-36. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  As the prefrontal cortex expanded in human evolution, so too did the capacity for nesting basic biological goals within more complex systems of behavioral organization. This increased ability for abstraction brought with it the challenge of deciding how to interpret the personal significance of any given experience. The human brain appears to manage this increased complexity by defining meaning in relation to one's currently adopted goals. When encountering goal-related information, arousal and exploratory systems become engaged, such that information is processed more thoroughly. As a consequence of this enhanced attention and arousal, neural plasticity is facilitated, allowing motivationally relevant experiences to have a stronger influence on an individual's neural organization. To borrow a gravitational metaphor, the existential weight, or significance, of a particular moment will determine the strength of that moment's influence on an individual's life. Human experience thus appears to be curved around fluctuations in the existential weight of being.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., & Inzlicht, M. (2010). Error-related negativity predicts academic performance. Psychophysiology, 47, 192-196. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been linked to the processes of error detection and conflict monitoring, along with the subsequent engagement of cognitive-control mechanisms. The error-related negativity (ERN) is an electrophysiological signal associated with this ACC monitoring process, occurring approximately 100 ms after an error is made. The current study examined the possibility that individual differences in ERN magnitude would predict performance outcomes related to cognitive control. Undergraduate students completed a color-naming Stroop task while their neural activity was recorded via electroencephalogram. Results indicated that a larger ERN following errors was significantly correlated with better academic performance as measured by official student transcripts. A greater ability to monitor performance and engage cognitive-control mechanisms when needed thus appears associated with improved real-world performance.
  
  
  
• Morisano, D., Hirsh, J. B., Peterson, J. B., Shore, B., & Pihl, R. O. (2010). Setting, elaborating, and reflecting on personal goals improves academic performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95, 255-264. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Of students who enroll in 4-year universities, 25% never finish. Precipitating causes of early departure include poor academic progress and lack of clear goals and motivation. In the present study, we investigated whether an intensive, online, written, goal-setting program for struggling students would have positive effects on academic achievement. Students (N = 85) experiencing academic difficulty were recruited to participate in a randomized, controlled intervention. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 intervention groups: Half completed the goal-setting program, and half completed a control task with intervention-quality face validity. After a 4-month period, students who completed the goal-setting intervention displayed significant improvements in academic performance compared with the control group. The goal-setting program thus appears to be a quick, effective, and inexpensive intervention for struggling undergraduate students.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., & Mehta, M. (2010). Psychological diversity and economic health. In J. Horvath (Ed.) Valuing a business in volatile markets. Toronto, Canada: Carswell. [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  The overall health of a natural or human economy is directly linked to the diversity of roles within it. What has not been appreciated historically is the importance of psychological diversity in ensuring economic health. Incomplete solutions result from applying a single psychological framework to a complex challenge, yet psychological diversity among top managers has become increasingly narrow over the past 30 years. This loss of diversity has constrained our thinking about business and damaged the health of the economy.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., DeYoung, C. G., & Peterson, J. B. (2009). Metatraits of the Big Five differentially predict engagement and restraint of behavior. Journal of Personality, 77, 1085-1102. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Although initially believed to contain orthogonal dimensions, the Big Five personality taxonomy appears to have a replicable higher-order structure, with the metatrait of Plasticity reflecting the shared variance between Extraversion and Openness/Intellect, and the metatrait of Stability reflecting the shared variance among Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. These higher order traits have been theorized to relate to individual differences in the functioning of the dopamine and serotonin systems, respectively. As dopamine is associated with exploration and incentive-related action, and serotonin with satiety and constraint, this neuropharmacological trait theory has behavioral implications, which we tested in 307 adults by examining the association of a large number of behavioral acts with multi-informant reports of the metatraits. The frequencies of acts were consistently positively correlated with Plasticity and negatively correlated with Stability. At the broadest level of description, variation in human personality appears to reflect engagement and restraint of behavior.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., & Peterson, J. B. (2009). Extraversion, neuroticism, and the prisoner's dilemma. Personality and Individual Differences, 46, 254-256. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  The prisoner’s dilemma has been used to study self-interest and cooperation in a variety of contexts. Applying an individual differences approach to this paradigm allows for the examination of dispositional factors that predict the likelihood of betraying one’s game partner. An iterative prisoner’s dilemma was administered to undergraduate students, along with measures of demographics, personality, and cognitive ability. Results demonstrate that higher scores on the withdrawal aspect of neuroticism and the enthusiasm aspect of extraversion independently predicted a greater likelihood of cooperation.
  
  
  
• Inzlicht, M., McGregor, I., Hirsh, J. B., & Nash, K. (2009). Neural markers of religious conviction. Psychological Science, 20, 385-392. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Many people derive peace of mind and purpose in life from their belief in God. For others, however, religion provides unsatisfying answers. Are there brain differences between believers and nonbelievers? Here we show that religious conviction is marked by reduced reactivity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a cortical system that is involved in the experience of anxiety and is important for self-regulation. In two studies, we recorded electroencephalographic neural reactivity in the ACC as participants completed a Stroop task. Results showed that stronger religious zeal and greater belief in God were associated with less firing of the ACC in response to error and with commission of fewer errors. These correlations remained strong even after we controlled for personality and cognitive ability. These results suggest that religious conviction provides a framework for understanding and acting within one's environment, thereby acting as a buffer against anxiety and minimizing the experience of error.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., & Peterson, J. B. (2009). Personality and language use in self-narratives. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 524-527. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Social and personality psychologists have recently begun examining patterns of natural language use in relation to psychological phenomena. One domain of interest has been the relationships between individual differences in personality and the types of words that people use. The current study extends this research by examining the association between personality traits and language use in the production of self-narratives. Ninety-four undergraduate students were led through an automated writing program that facilitated the telling of the past and the planning of the future. Word usage was categorized using James Pennebaker’s Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) text-analysis software. Individual differences in the frequency of word use within these categories were correlated with measures of the Big Five personality traits. Every one of the Big Five was strongly and significantly associated with word use patterns theoretically appropriate to the trait, indicating strong connections between language use and personality.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B. (2009). Choosing the right tools to find the right people. The Psychologist, 22, 730-735. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Good help is hard to find—at least when you're using the wrong tools. Although the science of performance prediction has advanced over the past 100 years, many organisations continue to use outdated personnel selection techniques. A large body of research nonetheless indicates that tests of personality and cognitive ability are among the most effective predictors of workplace performance outcomes. This article outlines the importance of using valid selection practices to choose the right people.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., & Peterson, J. B. (2008). Predicting creativity and academic success with a "fake-proof" measure of the Big Five. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1323-1333. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Self-report measures of personality appear susceptible to biased responding, especially when administered in competitive environments. Respondents can selectively enhance their positive traits while downplaying negative ones. Consequently, it can be difficult to achieve an accurate representation of personality when there is motivation for favourable self-presentation. In the current study, we developed a relative-scored Big Five measure in which respondents had to make repeated choices between equally desirable personality descriptors. This measure was contrasted with a traditional Big Five measure for its ability to predict GPA and creative achievement under both normal and “fake good” response conditions. While the relative-scored measure significantly predicted these outcomes in both conditions, the Likert questionnaire lost its predictive ability when faking was present. The relative-scored measure thus proved more robust against biased responding than the Likert measure of the Big Five.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., & Inzlicht, M. (2008). The devil you know: Neuroticism predicts neural response to uncertainty. Psychological Science, 19, 962-967. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Individuals differ in the extent to which they respond negatively to uncertainty. Although some individuals feel little discomfort when facing the unknown, those high in neuroticism find it aversive. We examined neurophysiological responses to uncertainty using an event-related potential framework. Participants completed a time-estimation task while their neural activity was recorded via electroencephalography. The feedbackrelated negativity (FRN), an evoked potential that peaks approximately 250 ms after the receipt of feedback information, was examined under conditions of positive, negative, and uncertain feedback. The magnitude of these responses was then analyzed in relation to individual differences in neuroticism. As expected, a larger FRN was observed after negative feedback than after positive feedback for all participants. For individuals who scored highly on trait neuroticism, however, uncertain feedback produced a larger neural response than did negative feedback. These results are discussed in terms of affective responses to uncertainty among neurotic individuals.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., Morisano, D., & Peterson, J. B. (2008). Delay discounting: Interactions between personality and cognitive ability. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1646-1650. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Delay discounting describes the extent to which the value of a reward decreases as the delay to obtaining that reward increases. Lower discounting rates predict better outcomes in social, academic, and health domains. The current study investigates how personality and cognitive ability interact to predict individual differences in delay discounting. Extraversion was found to predict higher discounting rates at the low end of the cognitive distribution, while emotional stability was found to predict lower discounting rates at the high end of the cognitive distribution. These findings support recent models of discounting behavior and suggest that personality and cognitive ability interact in shaping decision making.
  
  
  
• Rowe, G., Hirsh, J. B., & Anderson, A. K. (2007). Positive affect increases the "breadth" of cognitive selection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104, 383-388. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  The present study examined the thesis that positive affect may serve to broaden the scope of attentional filters, reducing their selectivity. The effect of positive mood states was measured in two different cognitive domains: semantic search (remote associates task) and visual selective attention (Eriksen flanker task). In the conceptual domain, positive affect enhanced access to remote associates, suggesting an increase in the scope of semantic access. In the visuospatial domain, positive affect impaired visual selective attention by increasing processing of spatially adjacent flanking distractors, suggesting an increase in the scope of visuospatial attention. During positive states, individual differences in enhanced semantic access were correlated with the degree of impaired visual selective attention. These findings demonstrate that positive states, by loosening the reins on inhibitory control, result in a fundamental change in the breadth of attentional allocation to both external visual and internal conceptual space.
  
  
  
• Hirsh, J. B., & Dolderman, D. (2007). Personality predictors of consumerism and environmentalism: A preliminary study. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 1583-1593. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  Consumerism and Environmentalism are often viewed as mutually opposing constructs. While the former emphasizes the accumulation and consumption of material resources, the latter advocates resource conservation and long-term sustainability. Highly materialistic individuals are known to be selfish, possessive, and to place a greater value on the accumulation of material possessions. Conversely, environmentally concerned individuals are more often motivated by compassion, social concern, and a broader self-concept. In this study, we show that Consumerism and Environmentalism can both be predicted by the personality trait of Agreeableness. We assessed the personality, consumer goals, and environmental attitudes of undergraduate students at the University of Toronto. While Consumerism was negatively associated with Agreeableness, Environmentalism was positively associated with both Agreeableness and Openness. These findings are discussed in terms of the broader relationship between values and personality traits.
  
  
  
• Mar, R. A., Oatley, K., Hirsh, J., dela Paz, J., & Peterson, J. B. (2006). Bookworms versus nerds: Exposure to fiction versus non-fiction, divergent associations with social ability, and the simulation of fictional social worlds. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 694-712. [PDF] [Show/Hide Abstract]
  
  While frequent readers are often stereotyped as socially awkward, this may only be true of non-fiction readers and not readers of fiction. Comprehending characters in a narrative fiction appears to parallel the comprehension of peers in the actual world, while the comprehension of expository non-fiction shares no such parallels. Frequent fiction readers may thus bolster or maintain their social abilities unlike frequent readers of non-fiction. Lifetime exposure to fiction and non-fiction texts was examined along with performance on empathy/social-acumen measures. In general, fiction print-exposure positively predicted measures of social ability, while non-fiction print-exposure was a negative predictor. The tendency to become absorbed in a story also predicted empathy scores. Participant age, experience with English, and intelligence (g) were statistically controlled.