#social-psychology — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #social-psychology, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: May 28, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The psychology of paradoxical thinking: Extreme arguments in favor of a controversial topic can reduce overall support
A recent study published in The Journal of Social Psychology suggests that presenting people with exaggerated arguments in favor of a controversial topic might actually make them oppose it more strongly. By testing this persuasion technique on attitudes toward prostitution, researchers found that exposure to absurdly supportive messages tends to reduce favorable views on the issue and indirectly increases support for restrictive policies. These findings provide evidence that unconventional communication strategies can shift opinions on morally charged social issues.
Changing strongly held social beliefs remains a major challenge in psychology. People naturally process information defensively. When they encounter facts that contradict their existing views, they tend to evaluate that evidence in a way that protects their current opinions. Because of this defensive reaction, direct persuasion attempts using counter-arguments often fail to change minds.
In response, psychologists developed a technique called paradoxical thinking. This method involves presenting messages that agree with a person’s general stance but are exaggerated to an extreme or absurd degree. The goal is to prompt the listener to reject the extreme conclusion. By distancing themselves from the absurd argument, individuals might soften their original stance.
Psychologists sometimes call this process cognitive unfreezing, which refers to a temporary mental openness that allows people to reconsider their prior beliefs without feeling directly attacked. Most past experiments on paradoxical thinking have focused on political disagreements and intergroup conflicts. The authors of the new study wanted to test if this technique could influence views on a highly polarizing and morally loaded topic.
Uri Lifshin, a senior researcher at the Israel Center on Addiction and Mental Health and the psychology department at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, explained the study’s origins. “Daniella and Omer came up with the idea during the course ‘Psychology and Social Change’, in which students tried to apply various social psychological theories to promote social change,” Lifshin said, referring to co-authors Daniella Yaffe and Omer Kochav. “We were exploring the idea of using paradoxical thinking as an intervention in different social domains.”
Attitudes toward prostitution are widely varied and deeply tied to personal morals. Some people view prostitution as a consensual economic activity, while others see it as inherently harmful and exploitative. Because arguments against prostitution can sometimes feel like threats to individual freedom, people might resist standard negative messaging. To explore this dynamic, the scientists designed three experiments to see how readers would react to absurdly pro-prostitution messages.
In the first experiment, the researchers recruited an international sample of 231 adults through the social media platform Reddit. The group consisted of 114 men, 105 women, and 12 individuals who reported a different gender, with ages ranging from 18 to 66. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of four short articles about prostitution.
All the articles contained identical factual information about global prevalence, gender distribution, and reported psychological harms. The texts only differed in their concluding arguments. The moderate paradoxical article argued that prostitution should be allowed simply because it gives women a way to make easy money.
The extreme paradoxical article took a more drastic stance, arguing that prostitution should continue because men enjoy it and benefit from it psychologically. A negative message article concluded that prostitution must be stopped due to the severe harm it causes. Finally, a neutral article presented only the basic facts without any prescriptive conclusion.
After reading the assigned text, participants completed a survey measuring their attitudes toward prostitution, including their beliefs about the legality of the practice. They were also asked if they would be willing to sign a petition to make prostitution illegal, though the petition was fictitious. The results indicated that the moderate paradoxical message successfully reduced positive views on prostitution.
Participants who read the moderate pro-prostitution article reported less favorable attitudes toward the practice compared to those who read the neutral or negative articles. The extreme paradoxical text did not reliably differ from the comparison conditions in this first sample. While the messages did not directly cause massive shifts in petition signing, the researchers found an indirect effect.
The moderate paradoxical text shifted underlying attitudes. These adjusted viewpoints then predicted a higher willingness to sign the petition to ban prostitution. This suggests that the technique primarily operates by changing internal opinions before influencing outward behavior.
The scientists then conducted a second experiment to see if they could replicate these patterns in a different cultural setting. They recruited 103 Hebrew-speaking Israelis from Reddit, consisting of 88 men, 14 women, and one person of another gender, aged 18 to 47. This time, the researchers simplified the setup by removing the neutral article condition.
Participants were randomly assigned to read either the moderate paradoxical message, the extreme paradoxical message, or the standard negative message, all translated into Hebrew. Following the reading assignment, the sample answered the same questions regarding their views on prostitution and their willingness to sign the petition. In this Israeli sample, the extreme paradoxical condition proved to be the most effective.
Participants exposed to the extremely exaggerated message reported significantly less favorable attitudes toward prostitution than those in the moderate or negative groups. The success of the extreme message in this context caught the researchers off guard.
“We did not initially expect that the more extreme version of the absurd paradoxical statement about prostitution (that despite all the harm it can do, prostitution should be legal because men enjoy it) would be more effective than the moderate paradoxical message (that despite all the harm it can do, prostitution should be legal because it provides women with the opportunity to get relatively easy money),” Lifshin told PsyPost. “It was surprising to see that many people accepted the latter statement.”
Just as in the first experiment, the extreme paradoxical text did not directly alter petition signing. Instead, it indirectly increased willingness to sign by first shifting the participants’ attitudes.
For the third experiment, the researchers wanted to test the underlying psychological mechanism of paradoxical thinking. They hypothesized that the technique works precisely because people actively disagree with the absurd message. They recruited another group of Reddit users, resulting in a final sample of 97 adults aged 18 to 58. This group included 72 men, 23 women, and two non-binary individuals.
Participants were randomly divided into just two groups to read either the extreme paradoxical message or the standard negative message. Afterward, they rated how much they agreed or disagreed with the article they had just read, completed the attitude survey, and answered the petition question. The researchers found that participants agreed significantly less with the paradoxical message than with the negative message.
When analyzing the psychological pathways, the scientists noticed a distinct pattern in the paradoxical group. Strong disagreement with the absurd pro-prostitution article predicted less favorable attitudes toward the practice. These reduced favorable attitudes then predicted a higher likelihood of supporting restrictive policy actions.
In the negative message group, agreement operated in a standard persuasive manner, where agreeing with the text led to less favorable views on prostitution. This difference in pathways provides evidence that paradoxical thinking works specifically by triggering rejection of an exaggerated idea. When combining the data from all three experiments, representing 431 total participants, the overall trends became more pronounced. The combined analysis showed that the extreme paradoxical manipulation had a robust indirect effect on the behavioral intention to sign the petition to ban prostitution.
“The findings demonstrate that sometimes paradoxical thinking maneuvers can be more effective in affecting attitudes and behaviors than ordinary direct persuasion,” Lifshin said. “This highlights the potential use of the theory in different domains.”
However, the strategy is not without drawbacks. “There is both potential and risk in applying paradoxical thinking interventions as a persuasion technique,” Lifshin added. “The key is to consider the sensibility and variability within each context.”
The study has some limitations, including modest sample sizes and a high number of participants who had to be excluded because they failed attention checks. Additionally, the gender distribution in the second and third experiments was heavily skewed toward men. This imbalance makes it difficult to know how women might respond to similar messaging.
Lifshin pointed out that the findings require context. “First, that the effects of paradoxical interventions might be risky, as their effects may vary depending on factors like content and extremity,” he noted. “When poorly calibrated or delivered to the wrong audience, messages that are too moderate (or too exaggerated as found in previous studies) may reinforce rather than undermine the target attitude.”
“Accordingly, paradoxical thinking should be treated as a theoretically grounded approach that requires careful theoretical tailoring, ethical consideration, and testing before any practical application,” Lifshin said.
The authors also clarified their own stance on the study’s subject matter. “Second, the topic of legalization of prostitution itself is very sensitive and complex,” Lifshin added. “While there are many negative aspects of prostitution, we do not necessarily view it as entirely negative, nor do we believe that criminalizing sex work is the solution.”
Looking ahead, the researchers hope to test this technique in other areas. “We hope to be able to apply paradoxical thinking interventions to different domains,” Lifshin said. “It could for example be tested as a way to reduce prejudice, or to promote pro-environmental behaviors.”
“Currently we are thinking about testing paradoxical thinking interventions in the context of addictions (i.e., to reduce motivation for using substances or other addictive behaviors),” he noted.
“We hope that this work may inspire more work on applications of paradoxical thinking in important domains and highlight the need for theoretically grounded interventions for attitude change, what Tim Wilson and Greg Walton call ‘wise interventions’,” Lifshin said.
The study, “Paradoxical thinking and attitudes toward prostitution: preliminary experimental findings,” was authored by Daniella Yaffe, Omer Kochav, and Uri Lifshin.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ParadoxicalThinking #AttitudeChange #SocialPsychology #PersuasionTechniques #CognitiveUnfreezing #PoliticalCommunication #MoralityDebate #ProstitutionResearch #WiseInterventions #BehavioralInfluence
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⚠️ Trump's vows 2024. (and then Iran) ⚠️
To be honest, I also remember Biden about Ukraine (among other topics!)
⛔ Brief, when we go voting, are we so certain for who we are voting? (valid on both sides, Dem. or Rep. or Maga or ....)
🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽#democracy #us #usa #uspol #disinformation #politics #vote #maga #democrats #senat #democratiedies #Governor #VoteBlue #sociology #SocialPsychology #iran #iranWar
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DATE: May 12, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Does romantic rejection hurt more than platonic rejection? A new study says no
Most people assume that rejection by a potential romantic partner is far more painful than rejection by a prospective friend. However, new research published in the European Journal of Social Psychology suggests that, when rejection is actually experienced, the emotional impact is remarkably similar regardless of whether it comes from a romantic or a platonic source.
Romantic rejection is often seen as uniquely devastating, in part because modern societies place heavy emotional expectations on romantic relationships. However, researchers have long noted that humans are broadly motivated by a fundamental need for belonging. Social rejection tends to hurt across all contexts because it threatens shared psychological needs, such as feeling valued, in control, and meaningful.
What has been less clear is whether rejection by a potential romantic partner is more painful than rejection in a friendship context. Given the intense expectations placed on romantic relationships—which are often expected to fulfill a wide range of emotional and personal needs—it has seemed plausible that being denied such a relationship would be especially distressing.
To examine these assumptions, researchers conducted three related studies. In the first, 1,500 American adults were asked which type of rejection they believed would be more painful: being turned down by a potential romantic partner or by a potential friend. The responses largely reflected common intuitions: approximately half expected romantic rejection to be worse, compared with roughly a quarter who anticipated greater pain from platonic rejection, while the remaining participants believed both would be equally distressing.
Led by Natasha R. Wood of Leiden University in the Netherlands, the team then tested real‑time responses to rejection in a controlled experimental setting. In Study 2, 934 single adults aged 18 to 29 (57.9% women; average age 23.4) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: accepted or rejected by either a potential romantic partner or a potential platonic friend.
Participants engaged with a simulated app environment, designed to resemble dating or social networking platforms, and received either positive or negative feedback from profiles purportedly representing other users. Afterward, they reported how they felt across a range of measures capturing their sense of belonging, self-worth, and emotional wellbeing.
The researchers found that rejection reliably reduced wellbeing, and acceptance reliably enhanced it, but the type of relationship framing—romantic versus platonic—had no effect on emotional outcomes. The team also tested whether feelings of romantic instrumentality (seeing a partner as someone who would help you achieve more of your goals in life) or self-blame might explain any romantic-versus-platonic difference in pain. Neither emerged as a meaningful driver.
In a third study involving 477 participants (73.6% women; average age 20.3), predicted emotional reactions were compared with actual emotional experiences. The researchers also added a “stranger control” group, in which participants were told there was no expectation of forming a relationship of any kind.
Participants were asked to forecast how they would feel before receiving feedback, then report how they felt afterward. Once again, relationship type did not meaningfully influence emotional responses; rejection by a stranger hurt just as much as rejection by a potential date. Furthermore, participants consistently overestimated the intensity of both outcomes, particularly the pain of rejection.
Wood and colleagues put it simply: “It seems the experience of being accepted is so positive and the experience of being rejected is so negative that it does not matter who is doing so.”
There are, however, important caveats to keep in mind. For example, the study was conducted exclusively with American participants, which limits how far the findings can be generalised across different cultures where romantic and platonic relationships may be valued differently. Furthermore, the simulated app environment may not perfectly capture the intense emotions of an in-person rejection.
The study, “What Could Have Been: Predicted and Actual Exclusion by Potential Romantic Partners and Platonic Friends,” was authored by Natasha R. Wood, Sydney G. Wicks, Adam J. Beam, Elijah P. Mudryk, Ellie Bray, and Andrew H. Hales.
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DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
EMAIL DAILY DIGEST OF RSS FEEDS -- SUBSCRIBE: http://subscribe-article-digests.clinicians-exchange.org
READ ONLINE: http://read-the-rss-mega-archive.clinicians-exchange.org
It's primitive... but it works... mostly...
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #romanticrejection #platonicrejection #socialpsychology #belongingness #emotionalwellbeing #rejectionresearch #datingapps #selfworth #humanneeds #relationshipsstudy
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“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, 1984#manipulation #persuasion #validation #influence #conversation #memory #neuroscience #campaigning #narratives #storyTelling #Psychology #socialPsych #socialPsychology #facilitation #Cialdini #book
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Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know "You believe someone not because you have no doubts about them" Sale: $22 to $1.99 by Malcolm Gladwell Rating: 4.4/5 (24,236 Reviews) #Psychology #Communication #SocialPsychology #Books #Nonfiction #Relationships #BookSky
Talking to Strangers: What We ... -
Individuals often harbor positive personal attitudes toward #sexual and #gender minorities but underestimate the broader public's level of acceptance. This misperception acts as a psychological barrier, causing potential allies to withhold active support for #LGBTQ+ individuals wishing to come out.
#Psychology #BehavioralScience #SocialPsychology # LGBTQ #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/03/psy03312601.html -
Audio tapes reveal mass rule-breaking in Milgram's obedience experiments
#HackerNews #MilgramExperiments #ObediencePsychology #RuleBreaking #EthicsInResearch #SocialPsychology
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After completing this research, a definitive solution still remains unclear to me. We face a difficult paradox: combating extremism with equal measures risks becoming a form of radicalism itself, only perpetuating the cycle. The true challenge moving forward is finding ways to dismantle these rigid systems of thought without abandoning our own objectivity in the process.
#Psychology #EvolutionaryBiology #SocialPsychology #Politics #Religion #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/03/wi03282601.html -
Human readiness for intergroup violence is not a unified mindset, but is rather driven by two fundamentally distinct psychological motivations: defensive extremism and offensive extremism.
#Psychology #SocialPsychology #SocialScience #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/03/psy03262601.html -
The "private solution trap" is a socio-economic phenomenon where the availability and adoption of private, self-serving protections actively undermine the collective funding and provision of public solutions, leaving less wealthy populations vulnerable to systemic risks.
#BehavioralScience #SocialPsychology #SocialScience #Environmental #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/03/bs03232601.html -
Collective delusion occurs when a cohesive group of individuals simultaneously adopts irrational beliefs, behaviors, or acute physiological symptoms that are entirely decoupled from verifiable reality, environmental toxins, or biological pathogens. Far from a simple cognitive failure, it is a complex phenomenon driven by the brain's evolutionary imperative to prioritize social cohesion
#Epidemiology #EvolutionaryBiology #Neuroscience #Psychology #SocialPsychology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/03/wi03222601.html -
Hey fellow artists, here's an interesting publication about the motives of artist and how they influence audience appreciation. And no, I didn't pick it because of the title 😋 It can help you think further about your own motives. #art #science #socialpsychology #qual psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2027-... -
Research reveals the trick to being more likable after screwing up in public
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Individuals with high scores in the Dark Factor of Personality display a significantly lower interest in and a reduced likelihood of entering social and artistic professions.
#Psychology #SocialPsychology #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/03/psy03102601.html -
New #openaccess book!
'Displaced Families, Dispersed Memories' explores the #memory work and #mnemonic practices of families dispersed by political upheaval. It bridges historical and contemporary perspectives, combining #history, #sociology, #socialpsychology, #literarystudies, #culturalstudies, and cultural #anthropology. The book, edited by Johanna Leinonen et al., is available in PDF, accessible EPUB and print on demand at: https://hup.fi/books/e/10.33134/HUP-35
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"Current strategies against fake news appear ineffective because they are based on a flawed ontological model that assumes the user is rational and not predictive (on the myth of the rational individual, see also: Disinformation as a social phenomenon and the emergence of "herd" logic ). It's clear that fake news proliferates regardless, and it's not just a technology problem. A comprehensive analysis, in fact, highlights that fake news is conveyed by all media and spreads even in non-digital environments. This leads to the conclusion that the strategy is inadequate.
To develop a useful strategy, we need to understand not only how technology works, but also the cognitive environment in which it operates (be it TV, social media, etc.), and how the human brain works. Therefore, we need to understand that we don't need to fight content, but rather work on models .
In short, it's not about focusing on facts but on predictions; it's about focusing on identity rather than content; it's about minimizing errors rather than logic. Aggressive denials and direct fact-checking are not helpful; derision or attempts to reason with people are useless. All of this leads to prediction errors that reinforce beliefs (the backfire effect, although the backfire effect is not universal but emerges strongly in contexts with high identity salience).
Instead, we need to create predictive bridges compatible with the existing model, act on micro-contradictions, change contexts before beliefs, and modify the way information is anticipated.
People don't defend fake news , they defend the model of themselves and the world that the news confirms . If you attack the news, you attack the model, and the brain becomes rigid in its defense. To change your mind, you have to change the model, not the fact."
https://www.valigiablu.it/cervello-predittivo-fake-news-polarizzazione/
#FakeNews #Misinformation #Disinformation #SocialMedia #SocialPsychology
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Eco-anxiety is a significant stress response to #environmental threats that measurably impairs the daily functioning and #mental well-being of young people, particularly those in high school.
#Psychology #SocialPsychology #AdolescentHealth #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/01/psy01302601.html -
🦻 Good listeners connect more easily with strangers, study finds
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Please find here a current paper of our director @[email protected] and @[email protected] a replication of a 2016 study on the impact of conflicting demands on cognitive flexibility in #SocialPsychology: econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/full/10....
The Impact of Co-Opetition on ... -
🎉 Social identification with a team boosts fans' social well-being
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-social-identification-team-boosts-fans.html
#sports #psychology #fandom #socialpsychology #socialscience #wellbeing
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Jesus said he came to give us a sword and then also described our role as setting a table.
What a gentle way to use a sword.
#datascience #neuroscience #socialpsychology #successiscentralized #singularity
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One thing I really enjoy here is what I think of as the fedi-follow-dance.
I see post I love. Boost the post. Go to the person's profile, find other posts I love, favorite those posts.
Follow the person.
Then I see in my feed:
:blobpeek:
⭐ Person favorited:
⭐ Person favorited:
⭐ Person favorited:➕ Person followed you
:blobaww:
