Rolf Degen summarizing... Women who interpreted their significant other's pornography use more favorably reported higher sexual and relationship satisfaction

A Mixed-Method Analysis of Women’s Attributions about Their Partner’s Pornography Use. Uzma S. Rehman et al. The Journal of Sex Research, Dec 12 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2020.1856765

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1338075756774248448

Abstract: We used a mixed-method design to examine the attributions women in mixed-gender/sex relationships make for their partner’s perceived pornography use and whether such attributions covary with women’s relationship and sexual satisfaction. A final sample of 199 women completed measures of relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, and their perceptions of partner’s pornography use. Participants also completed three open-ended questions assessing their attributions of their partner’s perceived pornography use. Qualitative analyses revealed 11 themes in women’s attributions of their partner’s perceived pornography use; some of the themes reflected on women themselves (e.g., being open-minded and accepting), whereas other themes reflected on the partner (e.g., partner is sexually bored) or the relationship (e.g., strong and trusting relationship). Furthermore, the women made positive, negative, and neutral attributions. Quantitative analyses showed that positive attributions were significantly more frequent than neutral or negative attributions and the latter two categories did not differ significantly from each other. Also, greater frequency of positive and neutral attributions and lower frequency of negative attributions were associated with higher relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. Our results suggest that women make a range of attributions about their partner’s pornography use and that this variation relates meaningfully to indices of relationship functioning.

We find no evidence that female, minority and low in implicit-bias (thru an IB test) engineers exhibit lower bias or discrimination in their code; but there can be performance improvements through demographic mixing

Cowgill, Bo and Dell'Acqua, Fabrizio and Deng, Sam and Hsu, Daniel and Verma, Nakul and Chaintreau, Augustin, Biased Programmers? Or Biased Data? A Field Experiment in Operationalizing AI Ethics (June 1, 2020). In Proceedings of the 21st ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (pp. 679-681), Columbia Business School Research Paper Forthcoming, SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3615404

Abstract: Why do biased predictions arise about human capital? What interventions can prevent them? We evaluate 8.2 million algorithmic predictions of math skill from ~400 AI engineers, each of whom developed an algorithm under a randomly assigned experimental condition. Our treatment arms modified programmers' incentives, training data, awareness, and/or technical knowledge of AI ethics. We then assess out-of-sample predictions from their algorithms using randomized audit manipulations of algorithm inputs and ground-truth math performance for 20K subjects. We find that biased predictions are mostly caused by biased training data. However, one-third of the benefit of better training data comes through a novel economic mechanism: Engineers exert greater effort and are more responsive to incentives when given better training data. We also assess how performance varies with programmers' demographic characteristics, and their performance on a psychological test of implicit bias (IAT) concerning gender and careers. We find no evidence that female, minority and low-IAT engineers exhibit lower bias or discrimination in their code. However we do find that prediction errors are correlated within demographic groups, which creates performance improvements through cross-demographic averaging. Finally, we quantify the benefits and tradeoffs of practical managerial or policy interventions such as technical advice, simple reminders and improved incentives for decreasing algorithmic bias.

Nonbelievers endorse a variety of beliefs and rationalistic & humanistic worldviews, which may serve compensatory functions; report meaningful & healthy lives; can show limited prejudice toward ideological opponents

The psychology of nonbelievers. Filip Uzarevic, Thomas J. Coleman III. Current Opinion in Psychology, Volume 40, August 2021, Pages 131-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.08.026

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1338068369598242816

Highlights

• Nonbelief relates to open-minded and analytic thinking styles, which likely interacts with cultural influences.

• Nonbelievers endorse a variety of beliefs and worldviews, such as rationalistic and humanistic ideologies that may serve compensatory functions.

• Nonbelievers report meaningful and healthy lives, and the (non)religion-health curvilinear relationship is supported across various contexts.

• Nonbelievers can show prejudice toward ideological opponents, but its scope is contextual and limited.

Abstract: Contrary to some conceptualizations, nonbelievers are more than simply those scoring low on religiosity scales. They seem to be characterized by analytic, flexible, and open-minded social-cognitive attributes, although this may interact with sociocultural levels of religiosity. This paper demonstrates that nonbelief, at least in the West, tends to coincide with specific worldviews, namely valuing rationality and science, as well as humanistic and liberal values. Furthermore, nonbelievers seem to parallel believers in various indicators of health. Finally, as all ideologists, nonbelievers may hold prejudicial attitudes toward groups perceived as threatening their (secular) worldviews, although this has some limits. Global increases in secularity make the nascent psychological study of nonbelievers and nonreligious worldviews an important research programme.

Heterosexual women reported greater body image disturbance compared to lesbian women on global measures of body image disturbance; gay men reported greater body image disturbance compared to heterosexual men

Body image disturbance and sexual orientation: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Sophie C. Dahlenburg et al. Body Image, Volume 35, December 2020, Pages 126-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.08.009

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1337991556427624450

Highlights

• Body image disturbance affects groups of people regardless of sexual orientation or gender.

• Heterosexual women reported greater body image disturbance compared to lesbian women on global measures of body image disturbance.

• Gay men reported greater body image disturbance compared to heterosexual men.

• Moderation analyses indicated that the study quality was not a statistically significant moderator of the effect sizes.

• Publication bias did affect comparisons between lesbian and heterosexual women; thus, it is advised that the results be interpreted with caution.

Abstract: Negative body image, or body image disturbance (BID) has been associated with depression, low self-esteem, and the development of eating disorders. Furthermore, BID may affect an individual regardless of gender or sexual orientation. To synthesise the current literature, we conducted a meta-analysis of 48 studies to determine if BID differed between lesbian versus heterosexual women, lesbian women versus gay men, and gay versus heterosexual men. Body image measures were grouped according to similarities in constructs measured, resulting in five different categories (global satisfaction, figural-rating scales, cognitive measures, affect measures, and male body image). The results indicated that lesbian women reported experiencing less BID compared to heterosexual women on measures of global satisfaction, but more compared to gay men, and gay men reported experiencing greater BID compared to heterosexual men on three out of five analyses. Moderation analyses indicated that the study quality was not a statistically significant moderator of the effect sizes. Results from this updated meta-analysis indicate that, to some degree, BIDs affect individuals regardless of gender and sexual orientation; however, there is some variability associated with sexual orientation.

Keywords: Meta-analysisBody imageGenderSexual orientationBody image disturbance

People find it justified to condemn those who do not keep a distance to others in public & blame ordinary citizens for the severity of the pandemic; predictors are age, behavioral change, social trust, & trust in the government

Bor, Alexander, Marie F. Lindholt, Frederik J. Jørgensen, and Michael Bang Petersen. 2020. “Moralizing Physical Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic -- Personal Motivations Predict Moral Condemnation.” PsyArXiv. December 12. doi:10.31234/osf.io/3rczg

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1337699934783594498

Abstract: Physical distancing is a crucial aspect of most countries’ strategies to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. However, keeping distance to others in public requires significant changes in conduct and behavior relative to ordinary circumstances. Throughout history, an effective strategy to make people engage in such behavioral change has been to morally condemn those who do not behave in an appropriate way. Accordingly, here, we investigate whether physical distancing has emerged as a moralized issue during the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially explaining the massive changes in behavior that have occurred across societies to halter the spread of the pandemic. Specifically, we utilize time-sensitive, representative survey evidence from eight Western democracies to examine the extent to which people (1) find it justified to condemn those who do not keep a distance to others in public and (2) blame ordinary citizens for the severity of the pandemic. The results demonstrate that physical distancing has indeed become a moral issue in most countries in the early phases of the pandemic. Furthermore, we identify the most important predictors of moralization to be age, behavioral change, social trust, and trust in the government. Except for minor differences, this pattern is observed within all countries in the sample. While moralization was high during the first wave of the pandemic, temporal analyses also indicate that moralization is lower in the second wave of the pandemic, potentially making it more difficult to engage in sufficient behavioral changes.

Check also Participants evaluated the same costs (public shaming, deaths & illnesses, & police abuse of power) as more acceptable when they resulted from efforts to minimize C19's health impacts, than when they resulted from prioritizing economic costs:

Moralization of Covid-19 health response: Asymmetry in tolerance for human costs. Maja Graso, Fan Xuan Chen, Tania Reynolds. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, December 4 2020, 104084. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/12/participants-evaluated-same-costs.html

We present workers with misleading advice perceived to be the results of AI calculations and measure their conformity to the erroneous recommendations; such algorithmic recommendations hold strong persuasive power

What If an AI Told You That 2 + 2 Is 5? Conformity to Algorithmic Recommendations. Yotam Liel, Lior Zalmanson. Conference: International Conference on Information Systems, December 2020. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346641548

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1337646774660587522

Abstract: Organizations are increasingly integrating human-AI decision-making processes. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure humans possess the ability to call out algorithms' biases and errors. Biased algorithms were shown to negatively affect access to loans, hiring processes, judicial decisions, and more. Thus, studying workers' ability to balance reliance on algorithmic recommendations and critical judgment towards them, holds immense importance and potential social gain. In this study, we focused on gig-economy platform workers (MTurk) and simple perceptual judgment tasks, in which algorithmic mistakes are relatively visible. In a series of experiments, we present workers with misleading advice perceived to be the results of AI calculations and measure their conformity to the erroneous recommendations. Our initial results indicate that such algorithmic recommendations hold strong persuasive power, even compared to recommendations that are presented as crowd-based. Our study also explores the effectiveness of mechanisms for reducing workers' conformity in these situations.

They reported an average of about 9 opportunities to empathize per day, mostly with very close others; and they empathize with positive emotions three times as frequently as with negative emotions

Depow, Gregory J., Zoë L. Francis, and Michael Inzlicht. 2020. “The Experience of Empathy in Everyday Life.” PsyArXiv. December 11. doi:10.31234/osf.io/hjuab

Abstract: We used experience-sampling to examine perceptions of empathy in the everyday lives of a group of 246 U.S. adults, quota-sampled to represent the population on key demographics. Participants reported an average of about 9 opportunities to empathize per day, with these experiences being positively associated with prosocial behaviour; a relationship not found with trait measures. While much of the literature focuses on the distress of strangers, in everyday life, people mostly empathize with very close others; and they empathize with positive emotions three times as frequently as with negative emotions. Though trait empathy was only negatively associated with well-being, empathy in daily life was generally associated with increased well-being. Theoretically distinct components of empathy—emotion sharing, perspective taking, and compassion—typically co-occur in everyday empathy experiences. Finally, empathy in everyday life was higher for women and the religious, but not significantly lower for conservatives or the wealthy.