Stability of women's facial shape throughout the menstrual cycle. U. M. Marcinkowska and I. J. Holzleitner. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, April 8 2020. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2910
Abstract: Facial characteristics can serve as a cue for judgements of multiple human traits, from maternal tendencies, overall fertility to sexual openness. In this study, we tested previously found fluctuations in facial shape throughout the menstrual cycle. With methods more robust than those formerly used (larger sample size and detailed hormonal assessments determining the timing of the ovulation), we did not find significant changes in either of the three facial measurements conducted: symmetry, averageness and sexual dimorphism (all F ≤ 0.78, all partial η2 ≤ 0.01, all p ≥ 0.542). After narrowing the sample to cycles that had a higher probability of being ovulatory (based on daily measurements of luteinizing hormone and oestradiol), the results remained non-significant (all F ≤ 1.20, all partial η2 ≤ 0.03, all p ≥ 0.315). Our results (i) suggest that the previously found increased facial attractiveness of women in the most fertile phase of the menstrual cycle is not driven by changes in facial shape, but might instead stem from other changes in facial appearance, such as a more attractive skin tone; and (ii) underline the importance of replication of studies with new methods.
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Women with smaller waists & lower waist-to-hip ratios were found most attractive; men with broader shoulders and higher shoulder-to-waist (or hips) ratios were more attractive; taller individuals were preferred by both
Preferences for Sexually Dimorphic Body Characteristics Revealed in a Large Sample of Speed Daters. Morgan J. Sidari et al. Social Psychological and Personality Science, April 7, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619882925
Abstract: While hundreds of studies have investigated the indices that make up attractive body shapes, these studies were based on preferences measured in the laboratory using pictorial stimuli. Whether these preferences translate into real-time, face-to-face evaluations of potential partners is unclear. Here, 539 (275 female) participants in 75 laboratory-based sessions had their body dimensions measured before engaging in round-robin speed dates. After each date, they rated each other’s body, face, personality, and overall attractiveness and noted whether they would go on a date with the partner. Women with smaller waists and lower waist-to-hip ratios were found most attractive, and men with broader shoulders and higher shoulder-to-waist (or hips) ratios were found most attractive. Taller individuals were preferred by both sexes. Our results show that body dimensions associated with greater health, reproductive value (in women), and formidability (in men) influence face-to-face evaluations of attractiveness, consistent with a role of intersexual selection in shaping human bodies.
Keywords: body shape, intersexual selection, mate preferences, speed-dating, physical attractiveness
Abstract: While hundreds of studies have investigated the indices that make up attractive body shapes, these studies were based on preferences measured in the laboratory using pictorial stimuli. Whether these preferences translate into real-time, face-to-face evaluations of potential partners is unclear. Here, 539 (275 female) participants in 75 laboratory-based sessions had their body dimensions measured before engaging in round-robin speed dates. After each date, they rated each other’s body, face, personality, and overall attractiveness and noted whether they would go on a date with the partner. Women with smaller waists and lower waist-to-hip ratios were found most attractive, and men with broader shoulders and higher shoulder-to-waist (or hips) ratios were found most attractive. Taller individuals were preferred by both sexes. Our results show that body dimensions associated with greater health, reproductive value (in women), and formidability (in men) influence face-to-face evaluations of attractiveness, consistent with a role of intersexual selection in shaping human bodies.
Keywords: body shape, intersexual selection, mate preferences, speed-dating, physical attractiveness
People systematically judged slower responses as less sincere for a range of scenarios; response delays are perceived to be the result of the responder suppressing automatic, truthful thoughts
Ziano, Ignazio, and Deming Wang. 2019. “Slow Lies: Response Delays Promote Perceptions of Insincerity.” PsyArXiv. May 22. doi:10.31234/osf.io/t56av
Abstract: Evaluating other people’s sincerity is a ubiquitous and important part of social interactions. Ten experiments (total N = 6381) show that response speed is an important cue on which people base their sincerity inferences. Specifically, people systematically judged slower (vs. faster) responses as less sincere for a range of scenarios from trivial daily conversations to high stakes situations such as police interrogation. Our findings suggest that this is because response delays are perceived to be the result of the responder suppressing automatic, truthful thoughts. People seem to have a rich lay theory of response speed, which takes into account a variety of situational factors. For instance, the effect of response speed on perceived sincerity is smaller if the response is socially undesirable, or if it can be attributed to memory effort. Finally, we showed that people are only partially able to disregard response speed in making sincerity inferences.
Abstract: Evaluating other people’s sincerity is a ubiquitous and important part of social interactions. Ten experiments (total N = 6381) show that response speed is an important cue on which people base their sincerity inferences. Specifically, people systematically judged slower (vs. faster) responses as less sincere for a range of scenarios from trivial daily conversations to high stakes situations such as police interrogation. Our findings suggest that this is because response delays are perceived to be the result of the responder suppressing automatic, truthful thoughts. People seem to have a rich lay theory of response speed, which takes into account a variety of situational factors. For instance, the effect of response speed on perceived sincerity is smaller if the response is socially undesirable, or if it can be attributed to memory effort. Finally, we showed that people are only partially able to disregard response speed in making sincerity inferences.
The morbidly curious reported increased interest in pandemic/virus/horror/thriller genres; it may reflect an adaptive predisposition toward learning about the dangerous & disgusting aspects of a threat
Scrivner, Coltan. 2020. “An Infectious Curiosity.” PsyArXiv. April 8. doi:10.31234/osf.io/7sfty
Abstract: In this study conducted during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, I explored how trait morbid curiosity was related to interest in 1) factual information about Coronavirus that was specifically morbid, 2) general factual information about Coronavirus, 3) pandemic and virus genres of films and TV shows, and 4) genres of film and TV shows that center around threat more broadly. Participants (n = 125) who scored high in morbid curiosity reported increased interest, compared to usual, in pandemic/virus genres as well as horror and thriller genres. Morbidly curious participants were also more interested specifically in morbid information about Coronavirus. Furthermore, disgust sensitivity was unrelated to these preferences. These results provide initial evidence that trait morbid curiosity can predict particular media preferences in the face of a real threat, and that morbid curiosity may reflect an adaptive predisposition in some individuals toward learning about the dangerous and disgusting aspects of a threat.
Abstract: In this study conducted during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, I explored how trait morbid curiosity was related to interest in 1) factual information about Coronavirus that was specifically morbid, 2) general factual information about Coronavirus, 3) pandemic and virus genres of films and TV shows, and 4) genres of film and TV shows that center around threat more broadly. Participants (n = 125) who scored high in morbid curiosity reported increased interest, compared to usual, in pandemic/virus genres as well as horror and thriller genres. Morbidly curious participants were also more interested specifically in morbid information about Coronavirus. Furthermore, disgust sensitivity was unrelated to these preferences. These results provide initial evidence that trait morbid curiosity can predict particular media preferences in the face of a real threat, and that morbid curiosity may reflect an adaptive predisposition in some individuals toward learning about the dangerous and disgusting aspects of a threat.
Consumers: Being observed prior to reaching the decision threatens consumers’ sense of autonomy in making the decision, resulting in an aversion to being observed
On My Own: The Aversion to Being Observed During the Preference-Construction Stage. Yonat Zwebner, Rom Y Schrift. Journal of Consumer Research, ucaa016, Apr 3 2020, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucaa016
Abstract: Previous research in consumer behavior and decision making has explored many important aspects of social observation. However, the effect of social observation during the specific time wherein consumers construct their preferences remains relatively understudied. The present work seeks to fill this knowledge gap and add to this literature by studying how consumers react to being observed during the preference-construction stage (i.e., prior to reaching their decision). While existing research on social observation focuses on accountability and self-presentation concerns, the current paper uncovers an additional unique concern. Specifically, eight studies (three additional studies reported in the Web Appendix) find that being observed prior to reaching the decision threatens consumers’ sense of autonomy in making the decision, resulting in an aversion to being observed. Further, we find that such threats lead consumers to terminate their decision by avoiding purchase or by choosing default options. Given the extent to which consumers are observed in the marketplace by other individuals and by online platforms, and given the rise in consumers’ privacy concerns associated with such practices, understanding consumer reactions to being observed in the pre-decisional stage is an important topic with practical implications.
Keywords: constructed preferences, privacy concerns, sense of autonomy, social influence, online tracking
Abstract: Previous research in consumer behavior and decision making has explored many important aspects of social observation. However, the effect of social observation during the specific time wherein consumers construct their preferences remains relatively understudied. The present work seeks to fill this knowledge gap and add to this literature by studying how consumers react to being observed during the preference-construction stage (i.e., prior to reaching their decision). While existing research on social observation focuses on accountability and self-presentation concerns, the current paper uncovers an additional unique concern. Specifically, eight studies (three additional studies reported in the Web Appendix) find that being observed prior to reaching the decision threatens consumers’ sense of autonomy in making the decision, resulting in an aversion to being observed. Further, we find that such threats lead consumers to terminate their decision by avoiding purchase or by choosing default options. Given the extent to which consumers are observed in the marketplace by other individuals and by online platforms, and given the rise in consumers’ privacy concerns associated with such practices, understanding consumer reactions to being observed in the pre-decisional stage is an important topic with practical implications.
Keywords: constructed preferences, privacy concerns, sense of autonomy, social influence, online tracking
Cross-national data: Consistent, substantial, and replicable connection between deep-seated pathogen avoidance motivations and socially conservative party preferences
The behavioral immune system shapes partisan preferences in modern democracies: Disgust sensitivity predicts voting for socially conservative parties. Lene Aarøe, Michael Bang Petersen, Kevin Arceneaux. Accepted for publication in Political Psychology, Mar 2020. https://pure.au.dk/portal/files/183368519/Aar_e_Petersen_Arceneaux_accepted_manuscript_merged.pdf
Abstract: While there is growing interest in the relationship between pathogen avoidance motivations and partisanship, the extant findings remain contradictory and suffer from a number of methodological limitations related to measurement and internal and external validity. We address these limitations and marshal the most complete test to date of the relationship between the behavioral immune system and partisanship, as indexed by which party people identify with and vote for. Using a unique research design, including multiple well-powered, nationally representative samples from the United States and Denmark collected in election and nonelection contexts, our study is the first to establish in cross-national data a consistent, substantial, and replicable connection between deep-seated pathogen avoidance motivations and socially conservative party preferences across multiple validated measures of individual differences in disgust sensitivity, and using large representative samples. We explore the relative contribution of the pathogen avoidance model and sexual strategies for accounting for this relationship.
Abstract: While there is growing interest in the relationship between pathogen avoidance motivations and partisanship, the extant findings remain contradictory and suffer from a number of methodological limitations related to measurement and internal and external validity. We address these limitations and marshal the most complete test to date of the relationship between the behavioral immune system and partisanship, as indexed by which party people identify with and vote for. Using a unique research design, including multiple well-powered, nationally representative samples from the United States and Denmark collected in election and nonelection contexts, our study is the first to establish in cross-national data a consistent, substantial, and replicable connection between deep-seated pathogen avoidance motivations and socially conservative party preferences across multiple validated measures of individual differences in disgust sensitivity, and using large representative samples. We explore the relative contribution of the pathogen avoidance model and sexual strategies for accounting for this relationship.
The Great Depression: Over the long run, firms in more affected areas compensate for the decline in entrepreneurial innovation and produce patents with greater impact
Babina, Tania and Bernstein, Asaf and Mezzanotti, Filippo, Crisis Innovation (April 2, 2020). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3567425
Abstract: The effect of financial crises on innovative activity is an unsettled and important question for economic growth, but one difficult to answer with modern data. Using a differences-in-differences design surrounding the Great Depression, we are able to obtain plausible variation in local shocks to innovative ecosystems and examine the long-run impact of their inventions. We document a sudden and persistent decline in patenting by the largest organizational form of innovation at this time—independent inventors. Parallel trends prior to the shock, evidence of a drop within every major technology class, and consistent results using distress driven by commodity shocks all suggest a causal effect of local distress. Despite this negative effect, our evidence shows that innovation during crises can be more resilient than it may appear at a first glance. First, the average quality of surviving patents rises so much that there is no observable change in the aggregate future citations of these patents, in spite of the decline in the quantity of patents. Second, the shock is in part absorbed through a reallocation of inventors into established firms, which overall were less affected by the shock. Over the long run, firms in more affected areas compensate for the decline in entrepreneurial innovation and produce patents with greater impact. Third, the results reveal no significant brain drain of inventors from the affected areas. Overall, our findings suggest that financial crises are both destructive and creative forces for innovation, and we provide the first systematic evidence of the role that distress from the Great Depression played in the long-run innovative activity and the organization of innovation in the U.S. economy.
Abstract: The effect of financial crises on innovative activity is an unsettled and important question for economic growth, but one difficult to answer with modern data. Using a differences-in-differences design surrounding the Great Depression, we are able to obtain plausible variation in local shocks to innovative ecosystems and examine the long-run impact of their inventions. We document a sudden and persistent decline in patenting by the largest organizational form of innovation at this time—independent inventors. Parallel trends prior to the shock, evidence of a drop within every major technology class, and consistent results using distress driven by commodity shocks all suggest a causal effect of local distress. Despite this negative effect, our evidence shows that innovation during crises can be more resilient than it may appear at a first glance. First, the average quality of surviving patents rises so much that there is no observable change in the aggregate future citations of these patents, in spite of the decline in the quantity of patents. Second, the shock is in part absorbed through a reallocation of inventors into established firms, which overall were less affected by the shock. Over the long run, firms in more affected areas compensate for the decline in entrepreneurial innovation and produce patents with greater impact. Third, the results reveal no significant brain drain of inventors from the affected areas. Overall, our findings suggest that financial crises are both destructive and creative forces for innovation, and we provide the first systematic evidence of the role that distress from the Great Depression played in the long-run innovative activity and the organization of innovation in the U.S. economy.
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