How the Affective Quality of Social Connections May Contribute to Public Health: Prosocial Tendencies Account for the Links Between Positivity Resonance and Behaviors that Reduce the Spread of COVID-19.

Taylor N West, Khoa Le Nguyen, Jieni Zhou, Michael M Prinzing, Jenna L Wells, Barbara L Fredrickson

Open access · bronzeAbstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Affective science, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

10citing papers in PubMed

6.1field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.

Designing Positive Psychology Interventions for Social Media: Cross-Sectional Web-Based Experiment With Young Adults With Cancer.JMIR cancer · 2024
Trial
The relationship between positive resonance and meaning in life among college freshmen: a random intercept cross-lagged panel analysis.BMC psychology · 2026
Article
A hybrid type II effectiveness-implementation trial of a positive emotion regulation intervention among people living with HIV engaged in Ryan White Medical Case Management: protocol and design for the ORCHID study.Trials · 2024
Article
Does shared positivity make life more meaningful? Perceived positivity resonance is uniquely associated with perceived meaning in life.Journal of personality and social psychology · 2023
Article
Predictors of changing patterns of adherence to containment measures during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic: an international longitudinal study.Globalization and health · 2023
Article
Engaging in the good with technology: a framework for examining positive technology use.Frontiers in psychology · 2023
Review
Publicity governance in contingency management during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: A "Government-Society" perspective.PloS one · 2023
Article
Positivity resonance in long-term married couples: Multimodal characteristics and consequences for health and longevity.Journal of personality and social psychology · 2022
Article
Association of compassion and empathy with prosocial health behaviors and attitudes in a pandemic.PloS one · 2022
Article
Risky business: A mixed methods study of decision-making regarding COVID-19 risk at a public university in the United States.Frontiers in psychology · 2022
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Taylor N WestDepartment of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 309 Davie Hall, Campus Box 3270, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3720 USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6324-4588

Khoa Le NguyenDepartment of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 309 Davie Hall, Campus Box 3270, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3720 USA.

Jieni ZhouDepartment of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 309 Davie Hall, Campus Box 3270, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3720 USA.

Michael M PrinzingDepartment of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC USA.

Jenna L WellsDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA USA.

Barbara L FredricksonDepartment of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 309 Davie Hall, Campus Box 3270, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3720 USA.ORCID 0000-0002-3890-2646

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · USUniversity of California, Berkeley · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Although behaviors such as handwashing, mask wearing, and social distancing are known to limit viral spread, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals in the United States did not adopt them. The positivity resonance theory of co-experienced positive affect (Fredrickson, 2016) holds that shared pleasant states that include the key features of mutual care and a sense of oneness through behavioral synchrony function to build prosocial tendencies (e.g., self-transcendent and other-oriented dispositions of felt unity, empathy, altruism, and general positivity toward humanity). We tested the theory-driven hypothesis that prosocial tendencies are associated with high-quality social connections characterized by the affective state of SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00035-z.

Indexed as

Broaden-and-build theoryEmotionHealth behaviorPositive psychology

Identifiers

PMID33870213

DOI10.1007/s42761-021-00035-z

PMCPMC8041949

OpenAlexW3154741349

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.