Emily Impett in December issue of Personal Relationships

Emily Impett, in collaboration with Juliana Breines from University of California, Berkeley and Amy Strachman from eHarmony Labs, published an article in the December 2010 issue of Personal Relationships titled, "Keeping it Real: Young Adult Women's Authenticity in Relationships and Daily Condom Use." In this study, 47 sexually-active women in dating relationships completed a measure of relationship authenticity and then reported on their daily condom use and relationship events for 14 consecutive days. Inauthentic women were less likely than more authentic women to use condoms, particularly on days with more frequent negative events such as major disagreements, suggesting that these women may find it especially difficult to negotiate condom use when they feel that their relationship is on shaky ground. These critical person-by-situation interactions remained significant after controlling for use of another form of birth control, sexual frequency, perceived knowledge of a partner's sexual history, and relationship satisfaction. Implications for sexual risk-taking in adolescence and future research using daily experience methods to study sexuality in dating relationships are discussed.

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Emily Impett in December issue of Psychological Science

Emily Impett published an article in December's issue of Psychological Science titled, "When Giving Feels Good: The Intrinsic Benefits of Sacrifice in Romantic Relationships for the Communally Motivated." This research provides one answer to the question of when giving feels good by the investigating the intrinsic benefits of sacrifice for people who are highly motivated to respond to a romantic partner's needs noncontingently, a phenomenon termed communal strength. In a 14-day daily experience study of 69 romantic couples, people who were high in communal strength experienced more intrinsic joy and delight when making costly sacrifices for a romantic partner, and they did so because they saw their sacrifices as an authentic reflection of their "true" selves. Several alternative hypotheses were ruled out: The effects were not due to individuals higher in communal strength making qualitatively different kinds of sacrifices, being more positive in general, or being involved in happier relationships. In short, giving felt good for people high in communal strength, suggesting that for some individuals, sacrifice may be an enlightened form of self-interest.

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Emily Impett in December issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Emily Impett published an article in December's issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology titled, "Moving Toward More Public Unions: Daily and Long-Term Consequences of Approach and Avoidance Goals in Romantic Relationships." This research provides the first truly dyadic perspective on approach-avoidance relationship goals and uses behavioral observation to go beyond the use of self-report measures. The results of two daily experience studies and a laboratory study showed that approach goals were associated with increased relationship satisfaction on a daily basis and over time, particularly when both partners were high in approach goals. Avoidance goals were associated with decreases in relationship satisfaction over time, and people were particularly dissatisfied when they were involved with a partner with high avoidance goals. Results replicated across outside observer ratings of satisfaction and behavioral responsiveness to the partner's needs.

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Nicholas Rule in October issue of Social Psychological and Personality Science

Nicholas Rule was published in October's issue of Social Psychological and Personality Science with the paper, "Judgments of Power From College Yearbook Photos and Later Career Success". The research indicates that law firms are more profitable when they are led by managing partners who have faces that look powerful.

The study involved having people judge photos of 73 managing partners from the top 100 US law firms for dominance, maturity, attractiveness, likeability and trustworthiness. Ratings of dominance and facial maturity together formed a measure of power, and this facial power measure was a strong predictor of law firm profitability. Power in the managing partners' faces predicted profit margin and overall profitability of the law firms.

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Alexa Tullett and Michael Inzlicht in October issue of Acta Psychologica

Alexa Tullett and Michael Inzlicht have published a paper entitled "The voice of self-control: Blocking the inner voice increases impulsive responding" in the October issue of Acta Psychologica. The article provides evidence for the long-debated possibility that the inner voice might aide people in exerting self-control. Participants completed a Go/No-Go task - a classic measure of self-control - while performing either a verbal or spatial secondary task. When the inner voice was muffled by the verbal secondary task, participants displayed more impulsive responding as indicated by more frequent "Go" responses. These findings suggest that the inner voice plays a role in curbing impulses and exerting self-control.

Various media outlets, including the Toronto Star and Time magazine, have reported on this research.

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