Masculinity & femininity affect disgust by gender; reframing disgust in terms of caregiving eliminates the gender gap in disgust; & the caregiving frame unexpectedly strengthens the relationship between disgust & political ideology

Slimy worms or sticky kids: How caregiving tasks and gender identity attenuate disgust response. Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz (a1) and Amanda Friesen. Politics and the Life Sciences, Volume 39, Special Issue 2, Fall 2020, pp. 167-186, November 3 2020. https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2020.21

Abstract: Disgust is derived from evolutionary processes to avoid pathogen contamination. Theories of gender differences in pathogen disgust utilize both evolutionary psychological and sociocultural perspectives. Drawing on research that suggests that masculine and feminine gender identities are somewhat orthogonal, we examine how gender identity intersects with pathogen disgust. In addition, building on evolutionary psychological and sociocultural accounts of how caregiving and parental investment affect pathogen disgust, we present a new measure of caregiving disgust and compare its properties across gender, parental status, and political ideology with those of a conventional pathogen disgust measure. This registered report finds that how masculinity and femininity affect disgust varies by gender, disgust domain, and their intersection; that parental status effects vary by disgust domain but not gender; that reframing disgust in terms of caregiving eliminates the gender gap in disgust; and that the caregiving frame unexpectedly strengthens the relationship between disgust and political ideology.

Age trends in malevolent personality conform to established patterns of normative change, indicating temporary disruption in adolescence and social maturation across adulthood

Age differences in Machiavellianism across the life span: Evidence from a large‐scale cross‐sectional study. Friedrich M. Götz  Wiebke Bleidorn  Peter J. Rentfrow. Journal of Personality, March 7 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12545

Abstract

Objective: Lifespan perspectives on personality development have gained much momentum in recent years, mostly focusing on benevolent and neutral traits such as the Big Five. Despite their strong associations with critical personal outcomes, surprisingly little research has investigated the development of malevolent traits. Addressing this gap, we examined age trends in Machiavellianism across the lifespan.

Methods: Using data from a large‐scale cross‐sectional sample (n = 1,118,643), we analyzed mean‐level changes from age 10 to 67.

Results: Age differences in Machiavellianism were most pronounced as a strong upward trend during the transition from late childhood to adolescence, when it peaked. Throughout adulthood it exhibited a steady downward trend, reaching an overall minimum at age 65. Across the lifespan, Machiavellianism tended to be higher in men and high‐income participants. Compared to Machiavellianism, the age trends in Agreeableness and—to a lesser extent—Conscientiousness showed almost perfectly polar opposite patterns.

Conclusions: Age trends in malevolent personality conform to established patterns of normative change, indicating temporary disruption in adolescence and social maturation across adulthood. The results advance theory and research on personality trait development across the lifespan and highlight crucial developmental windows that can inform targeted interventions to keep socially aversive traits in check.

Rolf Degen summarizing... Across the world, the number of people who were “very” or “extremely” concerned about fake news was far higher than the number of people who had actually seen any

Fletcher R. (2021) How News Audiences Think About Misinformation Across the World. In: Jayakumar S., Ang B., Anwar N.D. (eds) Disinformation and Fake News. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. Nov 1 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5876-4_4

Abstract: In this chapter, Richard Fletcher examines some of the key findings from the 2018 Reuters Institute Digital News Report. This report analysed online data dealing with news consumption from approximately 74,000 respondents internationally, with particular focus on their “level of concern over and exposure to specific types of misinformation and disinformation associated with the news”. One of its main findings was that just over half of the respondents were either “very” or “extremely” concerned about bias, poor journalism, and completely made-up news. However, Fletcher explains that the level and areas of concern varies from country to country. For example, in Eastern Europe, the questionnaire showed that “misleading advertising was more of a concern than in many other parts of the world”. Fletcher analyses each key finding of the report, including the public perception of “fake news” as a term, and who news audiences think should do more to fix problems associated with misinformation. He concludes by emphasising the importance of monitoring public concern over misinformation, in order to properly address the problems it poses.

Keywords: Misinformation Disinformation Bias Fake news Social media 

Parenting Styles in Gay Families: The homosexual parents reported a warmer parenting style, more cooperation, and less irritation with the temperament of the firstborn child

Parenting Styles in Gay Families. Christine Neresheimer. PhD Thesis, Zurich Univ, 2020.  https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-191334

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1324959453326831616

Abstract: There is less research on parenting styles in Europe currently than, for example, in the 1970s, when many researchers were working on the subject, developing instruments, and designing models for parenting styles. Parenting styles are influenced by many factors, such as the temperament of the child, the personality of the parents, or the cooperation between parents. Since the 1970s, ever more homosexual parents in Western cultures are open to their sexual orientation, live it, and use the opportunity to raise children, whether through surrogacy, adoption, or living with a second homosexual couple of another gender. Thus, in recent decades, in addition to a number of forms that replace the traditional family (e.g. patchwork families), ‘new’ or ‘modern’ family forms have correspondingly been discussed in literature (e.g. rainbow families, queer families). Most research in this area has focused on the immediate development of children in these family forms, such as the perennial question of whether children whose parents are homosexual more likely to display this sexual orientation in adulthood. In this work, the focus was on the parents. In this thesis project, we investigated the extent to which the parents’ parenting style is related to or independent of their sexual orientation. From this starting point, two studies were derived that investigated the parenting styles and related factors of homosexual and heterosexual couples. Study 1 showed correlations between parenting style, sexual orientation, and the temperament of the firstborn child. The homosexual parents reported a warmer parenting style, more cooperation, and less irritation with the temperament of the firstborn child. Study 2 investigated personality and the cooperation between the two parents. Here, both family forms showed many similarities, but they still differed slightly in personality and cooperation. In summary, the results of this doctoral thesis show that there are slight differences in parenting styles between homosexual and heterosexual parents and that these differences are partly significant but should also be considered with caution due to the parents' self-assessment.

Rising Ethnic Diversity in the United States Accompanies Shifts Toward an Individualistic Culture

Rising Ethnic Diversity in the United States Accompanies Shifts Toward an Individualistic Culture. Alex C. Huynh, Igor Grossmann. Social Psychological and Personality Science, October 29, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620967230

Abstract: We investigate the relationship between ethnic diversity and the rise of individualism in the United States during the 20th and 21st centuries. Tests of the historical rates of ethnic diversity alongside individualistic relational structures (e.g., adults living alone, single-/multi-child families) from the years 1950 to 2018 reveal that societal and regional rates of ethnic diversity accompanied individualistic relational structures. These effects hold above and beyond time-series trends in each variable. Further evidence from experimental studies (N = 707) suggests that the presence of, and contact with, ethnically diverse others contributes to greater individualistic values (e.g., the importance of uniqueness and personal achievement). Converging evidence across societal-, regional-, and individual-level analyses suggests a systematic link between ethnic diversity and individualism. We discuss the implications of these findings for sociocultural livelihood in light of the rising rates of ethnic diversity across the globe.

Keywords: ethnic diversity, cultural change, cultural cognition, individualism

Moral foundations and political orientation: The basic differences about conservatives and liberals are supported; results may be less generalizable across samples and political cultures than previously thought

Kivikangas, J. M., Fernández-Castilla, B., Järvelä, S., Ravaja, N., & Lönnqvist, J.-E. (2020). Moral foundations and political orientation: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, Nov 2020. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000308

Abstract: We investigate the relationship of morality and political orientation by focusing on the influential results showing that liberals and conservatives rely on different moral foundations. We conducted a comprehensive literature search from major databases and other sources for primary studies that used the Moral Foundations Questionnaire and a typical measure of political orientation, a political self-placement item. We used a predefined process for independent extraction of effect sizes by two authors and ran both study-level and individual-level analyses. With 89 samples, 605 effect sizes, and 33,804 independent participants, in addition to 192,870 participants from the widely used YourMorals.org website, the basic differences about conservatives and liberals are supported. Yet, heterogeneity is moderate, and the results may be less generalizable across samples and political cultures than previously thought. The effect sizes obtained from the YourMorals.org data appear inflated compared with independent samples, which is partly related to political interest and may be because of self-selection. The association of moral foundations to political orientation varies culturally (between regions and countries) and subculturally (between White and Black respondents and in response to political interest). The associations also differ depending on the choice of the social or economic dimension and its labeling, supporting both the bidimensional model of political orientation and the findings that the dimensions are often strongly correlated. Our findings have implications for interpreting published studies, as well as designing new ones where the political aspect of morality is relevant. The results are primarily limited by the validity of the measures and the homogeneity of the included studies in terms of sample origins.