Savannah

Title:
Investigating the Roles and Applications of Moral Dimensions in Impression Formation

Abstract:
Current research on morality supports the idea that the moral landscape is comprised of several domains. However, the extent to which these domains may be thought of as equivalent when used as the basis for forming impressions or making social judgments is not yet understood. Past literature suggests that there may be notable differences in the evolutionary and social development of different moral behaviors, which raises questions about how actions based in different domains may be interpreted and judged by others. The current research explores possible differences in social judgment as a function of morality domain to inform the contemporary morality literature. This may set the stage for future studies to investigate the relationship between moral domains and social selection across contexts.

Tong

Title:
Is Seeking Social Support Stressful, Beneficial, or Both? The Moderating Role of Culture.

Abstract:
By seeking support from others, one may potentially impose troubles on them. Though seeking support could be stressful, as long as the support was sought, it could be received and thus beneficial. We hypothesized that this dynamic is more pronounced in interdependent cultures (e.g., Japan) than in independent cultures (e.g., the U.S.). To examine this possibility, we used matched surveys conducted in Japan (N = 301) and the U.S. (N = 931), with a focus on self-reported support seeking (assessed with the compensatory primary control) and biological health risk (BHR, assessed with measures of inflammation and cardiovascular malfunctioning). BHR may reflect a downstream effect of social support received. For an exploratory purpose, we also included self-reported perceived stress as a subjective and more up-stream correlate of support seeking. Among European Americans, support seeking was associated with greater BHR. In contrast, among Japanese, support seeking was associated with lower BHR. Curiously, support seeking was associated with lower perceived stress among European Americans, but not among Japanese. Our findings suggest that culture may modulate the meaning of support seeking. In interdependent (vs. independent) cultural contexts, support seeking may contribute to long-term biological health benefits even though it is relatively more stressful.