Previous research has shown that positive thinking, in the form of fantasies about an idealized future, predicts low effort and poor performance. In the studies reported here, we used computerized content analysis of historical documents to investigate the relation between positive thinking about the future and economic development. During the financial crisis from 2007 to 2009, the more weekly newspaper articles in the economy page of USA Today contained positive thinking about the future, the more the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined in the subsequent week and 1 month later. In addition, between the New Deal era and the present time, the more presidential inaugural addresses contained positive thinking about the future, the more the gross domestic product and the employment rate declined in the presidents' subsequent tenures. These counterintuitive findings may help reveal the psychological processes that contribute to an economic crisis.

Prolonged and risky gambling can have negative consequences financially and in health (e.g., developing an addiction). As gambling frequently occurs together with alcohol intake, we investigated whether we could reduce persistent and risky gambling under the influence of alcohol. Specifically, following alcohol myopia theory (Steele & Josephs, 1990), stating that intoxicated people's behavior is disproportionally guided by salient cues, we propose that making low chances of winning salient in a gambling situation should reduce persistent and risky gambling in alcohol intoxicated participants. In 3 laboratory studies, participants either consumed alcohol or a placebo. We made low chances of winning salient (vs. not) by explicitly displaying the low chances in large letters. Making low chances salient led intoxicated participants to gamble less persistently on a computerized slot machine (Study 1 and 2) and with less risk in a lottery game (Study 3) compared with sober participants and compared with sober and intoxicated participants in a control condition in which low chances were not salient. Moreover, using eye-tracking in Study 3, we found that the effect of alcohol on less risky gambling was mediated by intoxicated participants' greater attention to the salient low chances. Finally, we replicated the findings from our laboratory studies in the field: When low chances were made salient, the more alcohol bar patrons had consumed, the less persistently they gambled on a slot machine (Study 4). The findings have applied implications for reducing excessive gambling under the influence of alcohol by making low chances salient on games of chance.

ZusammenfassungFreiwillige, die sich im ländlichen Raum in der Unterstützung für Geflüchtete engagieren, verfolgen damit häufig kein politisches transformatives Ziel, sondern wollen vor allem helfen. Aber welche Reziprozitätserwartungen verbinden sich mit dem Helfen? In einer gabentheoretischen Perspektive und auf der Basis qualitativer Daten werden hier Dimensionen von Reziprozität aus den Erzählungen der Freiwilligen rekonstruiert. Hierbei zeigt sich, dass direkte Reziprozität zwischen Freiwilligen und Geflüchteten vor allem auf der symbolischen Ebene stattfindet und mit dem Helfen auch das Bestreben verbunden ist, auf die Überzeugungen der Geflüchteten einzuwirken. Insbesondere die Verbindung von als wohltätig verstandenem Helfen mit Versuchen normativer Beeinflussung birgt die Gefahr einer Missachtung von deren Selbstbestimmung. Möglichkeiten die symbolische Ungleichheit zwischen Freiwilligen und Geflüchteten zu reduzieren, liegen in Formen generalisierter Reziprozität.

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