Yu Kou

1. The development of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has significantly reshaped human–machine interaction, particularly in the context of emotional companionship (Pentina et al., 2023; St...

Incremental/entity beliefs refer to individuals' views on whether traits are malleable/static. Previous research, mostly from a target attribution perspective, identified a positive relationship between entity beliefs and harsh moral judgements towards moral transgressors. Little research has examined the relationships between entity beliefs and positive moral behaviours (e.g., prosocial behaviours) from a self‐attribution perspective. The current study filled this gap. Two correlational studies, Studies 1a ( N = 1229) and 1b ( N = 328), revealed positive correlations between entity beliefs, prosocial behaviours and the tendency to attribute behaviours to one's own traits. In Study 2 ( N = 167), beliefs were manipulated. Entity theorists exhibited higher levels of helping intentions and self‐trait attribution than incremental theorists. Studies 3a ( N = 1737) and 3b ( N = 183) further explored the moderating effects of prosocial cost and helping efficacy and found that by holding a strong connection between one's own traits and behaviour, entity theorists were less influenced by increased prosocial costs and reduced helping efficacy compared to incremental theorists. These findings establish a more grounded and dialectical understanding of entity and incremental beliefs.

A large number of studies have shown that economic inequality, as a macro social environmental factor, has a significant impact on individual's unethical behavior, but its psychological mechanisms have not been well understood. Based on the existing literature, this paper proposes a three-level model in which economic inequality affects unethical behavior through societal (e.g., immoral and competitive normative climates), interpersonal (e.g., relative deprivation, risk-seeking tendency), and intrapersonal (e.g., perceptions of unfairness, moral disengagement) psychological process. Visibility of inequality, socioeconomic status, power, attributions for inequality, system-justifying beliefs, descriptive framework of inequality may moderate the relationship between economic inequality and unethical behavior. The three-level model helps us understand the mechanisms by which economic inequality affects unethical behavior, and provides a framework for future research on the impact of economic inequality on people's psychology and behaviors. Future research should further explore the potential differences in the impact of subjective and objective economic inequality on unethical behavior, as well as the potential differences in the effects of economic inequality on various types of unethical behavior. It is also necessary to explore other potential explanatory mechanisms and moderating factors, and to conduct cross-cultural studies on the subsequent effects of economic inequality.

This four-wave longitudinal study examined the developmental trajectories of emotional and social loneliness in Chinese emerging adults ( N = 737, 65.1% women; M _{age t1} = 18.32, SD = 0.78), as well as their associations with worldview beliefs. Results revealed an increasing trend in emotional loneliness, with no significant change observed in social loneliness. After controlling for age and family socioeconomic status (SES), social loneliness was more strongly associated with belief in a just world (BJW), while emotional loneliness was associated with conspiracy worldview belief (CWB). Further gender difference analysis revealed stable loneliness levels in men but slight increases in women for both emotional and social loneliness. Additionally, social loneliness was associated with higher CWB in women. Findings highlight the distinct roles of emotional loneliness and social loneliness in shaping worldview beliefs during emerging adulthood, with women more vulnerable to the negative effects of social loneliness.

Social avoidance is a prevalent mental health problem. While most previous studies have predominantly focused on interpersonal interventions, these approaches often face challenges. An alternative may lie in considering environmental factors. Based on the internal working model, we propose that attachment to a personally significant place may help reduce social avoidance in general contexts. We conducted three studies employing different methodologies to examine this effect, while also exploring the mediating roles of social connectedness and nature connectedness. Study 1 ( N = 1,307) used two-wave questionnaire surveys to explore the relationships among the variables. Study 2a ( N = 224) and Study 2b ( N = 239) applied recalling and imagination paradigms to manipulate place attachment and measured social avoidance as the outcome variable. The results showed that attachment to a significant place can reduce social avoidance by fostering both social connectedness and nature connectedness. Notably, the indirect effect of social connectedness was stronger than that of nature connectedness. These findings suggest that activating place attachment can enhance individuals’ connections with both society and nature, thereby reducing social avoidance in general contexts. This research provides insights into the internal working model of place attachment and the development of intervention strategies aiming at social avoidance.

Economic inequality was found to be positively related to unethical behaviours, but the underlying psychological mechanisms have not been well studied. Through five studies, this research explored the psychological mechanisms and boundary conditions between economic inequality and unethical behaviour. Study 1 ( N = 165,622) provided primary evidence for the relationship between inequality and unethical behaviour based on large‐scale publicly available databases. Using well‐established questionnaires, Study 2 ( N = 394) indicated that economic inequality positively predicted immoral and competitive normative climates, which positively predicted unethical behaviour. Study 3 ( N = 160) and Study 4 ( N = 188) provided causal evidence for the effect of economic inequality and repeatedly verified the mediating roles of immoral and competitive normative climates. Study 5 ( N = 300) indicated that income level moderated the effect of economic inequality on unethical behaviour by moderating the mediating effect of immoral and competitive normative climates. In societies with high inequality, participants in low‐income groups perceived stronger immoral and competitive normative climates, thereby engaging in more unethical behaviours. This research offers explanations for the prevalence of unethical behaviours in unequal societies, contributing to extend the emerging literature in social‐ecological psychology that explores how macro‐social‐ecological factors impact micro‐behaviours.

Previous research has demonstrated that attributing wealth and poverty to controllable factors reduces redistribution preferences, but often conflated controllability with internal attributions. This study addresses this limitation by explicitly distinguishing between controllability and internal attributions, clarifying that attributing economic outcomes specifically to controllable rather than internal factors decreases redistribution preferences. It further reveals that perceptions of distributive fairness mediate this effect, with subjective social class moderating the relationship. Study 1 ( N = 227) revealed that attributing wealth and poverty to internal and controllable (vs. internal and uncontrollable) factors significantly reduced redistributive preferences by increasing the perceptions of distributive justice. Subjective socio‐economic status (SES) moderated the positive effect of attributing wealth and poverty to controllable factors on perceptions of distributive justice. The magnitude of this predictive effect decreased with an increase in an individual's subjective SES. In Study 2 ( N = 129), attributions of wealth and poverty were manipulated by changing the allocation principle of rewards (effort vs. extraversion), and the findings of Study 1 were replicated. The findings of our research enhance the understanding of the effects of controllability attributions on redistribution preferences. These findings also offer valuable insights and recommendations for the future development of interventions aimed at promoting individual preferences for redistribution.

While the adverse effects of economic inequality on prosocial behavior have been well-documented, the dynamic processes and underlying mechanisms during emerging adulthood remain equivocal. Whether this relation is consistent across different socioeconomic status groups also awaits to be unveiled. To address these gaps, this three-year longitudinal study shed light on the developmental nature of subjective economic inequality, trust, as well as prosocial behavior, and the nuance within such associations across low- and high-socioeconomic status groups. This study collected data from 1065 Chinese emerging adults (649 females; M_age = 18.34 years, SD = 0.77) at Time 1, with 981 (attrition rate = 7.88%), 874 (attrition rate = 10.91%), and 830 (attrition rate = 5.03%) participating in Time 2, Time 3, and Time 4, respectively. Results of latent growth modeling found that subjective economic inequality increased, whereas trust and prosocial behavior declined over time. Initial levels of subjective economic inequality were indirectly through initial trust linked to the initial levels of and changes in prosocial behavior. Multi-group results revealed that in the high-socioeconomic status group, initial subjective economic inequality affected subsequent growth in prosocial behavior via changes in trust, whereas in the low-socioeconomic status group, the effect occurred through initial trust. These findings highlight that declining trust is the central mechanism by which subjective economic inequality reduces prosocial behavior, with different influencing pathways across socioeconomic status groups in the Chinese cultural context.