Losing Elections' Effects on Political and Social Attitudes and Subjective Well-being: Most effects are bigger for those with strong partisan attachments, some are bigger for men

Toshkov, Dimiter, and Honorata Mazepus. 2020. “Winning and Losing Democratic Elections: Effects on Political and Social Attitudes and Subjective Well-being.” OSF Preprints. December 14. doi:10.31219/osf.io/j9dty

Abstract: In democracies, losing free and fair elections is a normal part of politics, and the consent of losers is needed for the survival of democratic government itself. But being on the losing side of the electoral contest can trigger important changes in the political and social attitudes, and even in the life outlook and subjective well-being of citizens. Based on individual-level survey data from 25 European countries and two time periods (2012 and 2018), we show that there is a significant gap between people who have voted for the parties in government and the losers of democratic elections when it comes to a wide set of political attitudes, including political trust, perceived efficacy and importance of government responsiveness and perceptions about how politics and government work. We also find that the gap between winners and losers extends to social trust, country attachment, feeling happy, healthy, safe, and optimistic, life satisfaction and perceived place in society. Most of these effects are greater in new democracies and for citizens with strong partisan attachments, some are bigger for men, and many are mediated by satisfaction with the government. Losing elections is hard for politics, but it could also be hard for the soul.

For people with an unrestricted sociosexual orientation (i.e., interested in a short-term, sexual relationship), however, self-control was related to lower selectivity...

The role of self-control and sociosexual orientation in partner selection: A speed-dating study. Tila M. Pronk et al. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, December 9, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407520977675

Abstract: Self-control is a crucial factor in maintaining an established romantic relationship, but its role in relationship formation is understudied. The current study tested whether trait self-control is related to a more selective approach toward romantic partners. Over 4 years, we organized 11 speed-date events at which a total of 342 single, heterosexual participants met potential partners. Our results indicated that there was no main effect of self-control on selectivity. However, there was an interaction between self-control and sociosexual orientation (SOI) in predicting selectivity. Specifically, self-control was positively related to selectivity for people with a restricted SOI (i.e., interested in a long-term, stable relationship). For people with an unrestricted SOI (i.e., interested in a short-term, sexual relationship), however, self-control was related to lower selectivity. Our findings point to the flexibility of self-control in facilitating goal progress, stimulating people to refrain from—or act on—their impulses, depending on their own personal mating goals.

Keywords: Human mate selection, interpersonal attraction, mating strategies, romantic relationships, self-control, sociosexual orientation, speed-dating

 

I thought this was already debunked, but these authors say that higher-class individuals made more errors than lower-class individuals in the Director Task (requires participants to assume the visual perspective of another person)

Social Class Predicts Emotion Perception and Perspective-Taking Performance in Adults. Pia Dietze, Eric D. Knowles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, April 27, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220914116

Abstract: “Theory of Mind” (ToM; people’s ability to infer and use information about others’ mental states) varies across cultures. In four studies (N = 881), including two preregistered replications, we show that social class predicts performance on ToM tasks. In Studies 1A and 1B, we provide new evidence for a relationship between social class and emotion perception: Higher-class individuals performed more poorly than their lower-class counterparts on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, which has participants infer the emotional states of targets from images of their eyes. In Studies 2A and 2B, we provide the first evidence that social class predicts visual perspective taking: Higher-class individuals made more errors than lower-class individuals in the Director Task, which requires participants to assume the visual perspective of another person. Potential mechanisms linking social class to performance in different ToM domains, as well as implications for deficiency-centered perspectives on low social class, are discussed.

Keywords: social class, culture, theory of mind, Director Task, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test

Is Touch in Romantic Relationships Universally Beneficial for Psychological Well-Being? The Role of Attachment Avoidance

Is Touch in Romantic Relationships Universally Beneficial for Psychological Well-Being? The Role of Attachment Avoidance. Anik Debrot et al. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, December 7, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220977709

Abstract: Affectionate touch is crucial for well-being. However, attachment avoidance is associated with negative attitudes toward touch. We tested two preregistered hypotheses about how attachment avoidance influences the association between touch in romantic couples and psychological well-being. We examined whether greater attachment avoidance is associated with a reduced link between touch and well-being, and/or whether reduced touch mediates the relationship between attachment avoidance and lower well-being. Across three studies, including two dyadic ones, we measured retrospective self-reports (Studies 1 and 2), laboratory observations (Study 2), and daily experiences (Study 3) of touch. Touch and well-being were positively associated, and attachment avoidance was associated with lower well-being and less frequent touch. Touch was associated with greater well-being regardless of level of attachment avoidance, and less frequent touch mediated the negative association between attachment avoidance and well-being in most analyses. This underscores the importance of touch, even for those valuing distance and autonomy.

Keywords: touch, attachment, well-being, attachment avoidance

No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity 24-hours After Clinical Declaration of Death among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in apparent tukdam, a putative postmortem meditation state

No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity 24-hours After Clinical Declaration of Death among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in apparent tukdam, a putative postmortem meditation state. Dylan T. Lott1 et al. Front. Psychol., Dec 2020. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.599190

Abstract: Recent EEG studies on the early postmortem interval that suggest the persistence of electrophysiological coherence and connectivity in the brain of animals and humans reinforce the need for further investigation of the relationship between the brain’s activity and the dying process. Neuroscience is now in a position to empirically evaluate the extended process of dying and more specifically, to investigate the possibility of brain activity following the cessation of cardiac and respiratory function. Under the direction of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, research was conducted in India on a postmortem meditative state cultivated by some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in which decomposition is putatively delayed. For all healthy baseline (HB) and post-mortem (PM) subjects presented here, we collected resting state electroencephalographic data, Mismatch Negativity (MMN), and Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR). In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility that a sparse electrode EEG configuration is capable of capturing well-defined ERP waveforms from living subjects under very challenging field conditions. While living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of these tukdam cases.

Keywords: Meditation, Tibetan Buddhism, auditory brainstem response, mismatch negativity, EEG, postmortem, Brain Death

Genetic predispositions may make some children more likely to start musical training early; they may be encouraged by other people who recognize their talent

Why Is an Early Start of Training Related to Musical Skills in Adulthood? A Genetically Informative Study. Laura W. Wesseldijk, Miriam A. Mosing, Fredrik Ullén. Psychological Science, December 14, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620959014

Abstract: Experts in domains such as music or sports often start training early. It has been suggested that this may reflect a sensitive period in childhood for skill acquisition. However, it could be that familial factors (e.g., genetics) contribute to the association. Here, we examined the effect of age of onset of musical training on musical aptitude and achievement in professional musicians (n = 310) and twins (n = 7,786). In line with previous literature, results showed that an earlier age of onset was associated with higher aptitude and achievement in both samples. After we adjusted for lifetime practice hours, age of onset was associated only with aptitude (p < .001; achievement: p > .14). Twin analyses showed that the association with aptitude was fully explained by familial factors. Thus, these findings provide little support for a sensitive period for music but highlight that familiar factors play an important role for associations between age of onset of training and skills in adulthood.

Keywords: sensitive period, musical training, musical expertise, twins, professional musicians

Discussion

Here, we examined whether musical training at a younger age leads to higher levels of musical expertise when controlling for the effects of total practice and familial factors, as would be predicted from the hypothesis that there is a sensitive period for musical training in childhood. In both professional musicians and twins, an earlier age of onset of musical training was associated with higher aptitude and achievement. However, when we controlled for lifetime practice, associations between age of onset and achievement became insignificant, whereas age of onset still predicted aptitude. The latter association disappeared, in turn, when we controlled for familial liability in a cotwin control design. Further twin analyses showed that the associations between age of onset of musical training and musical aptitude and between age of onset and musical achievement were fully explained by familial factors (i.e., shared genetic and shared environmental factors), in line with our cotwin control findings.

In both samples, an earlier age of onset of musical training was associated with higher musical aptitude and musical achievement, but when analyses controlled for lifetime practice, age of onset significantly predicted only higher levels of musical aptitude. Whereas this highlights the importance of adjusting for lifetime practice when exploring the above associations, it also lends further support to the findings of associations between age of onset of musical training and performance on some musical tasks reported in earlier studies (Bailey & Penhune, 2010, 2012, 2013; Bailey et al., 2014; Ireland et al., 2019; Skoe & Kraus, 2013; Steele et al., 2013; Vaquero et al., 2016; Watanabe et al., 2007). The consistency across our two samples, a professional-musician and population-based twin sample, strengthens these findings and suggests a similar effect of age of onset of musical training in a wide range of musical expertise. More importantly, our findings suggest a mediating effect of total practice on the relationship between age of onset of musical training and musical achievement but not on musical aptitude. Importantly, cumulative lifetime practice has been shown to be influenced by genetic factors (Mosing et al., 2014) and therefore does not reflect only unique environmental influences. Further, in both samples, age of onset of musical training significantly predicted higher levels of pitch discrimination but not rhythm discrimination. Only in the population-based sample did an earlier age of onset predict higher levels of melody discrimination. This is in line with the finding by Ireland and colleagues (2019) that children who received musical training before the age of 7 years outperformed children who started later on simple melody discrimination but not complex rhythm synchronization. Last, when we treated age of onset as a binary variable to test for an age window of below and at or above 8 years old, our findings remained the same.

The twin sample allowed us to extend our analyses to control for familial confounding, thereby further investigating causality, as well as to estimate the influence of genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental factors on age of onset of musical training and its relationship with expertise. The twin analyses provided no evidence for a causal effect of early training in such associations. First, we found the association between age of onset of musical training (continuous or binary) and musical aptitude or achievement to diminish (close to zero) when controlling for familial liability. Further, the associations were fully explained by familial factors (i.e., common genetic and shared environmental). Because unique environmental factors did not play a role in the association between age of onset of musical training and musical expertise, the data provide little support for a causal association. We wish to emphasize that these findings do not necessarily rule out the existence of a sensitive period. Importantly, however, our findings provide clear evidence for the importance of shared familiar factors in associations between age of onset and adult performance.

As mentioned before, genetic predispositions may make some children more likely to start musical training early. They may be encouraged by other people who recognize their talent and may to a higher degree seek out, show interest in, and have access to a musical environment. More musical parents may not only pass their genetic predisposition to their children but also provide both access to early musical training and a musically enriched childhood environment that enhances musical expertise. This is an example of gene–environment correlation, in which genetics and shared environmental factors may influence the association between age of onset of musical training and later expertise. For future research, children-of-twins and adoption studies are genetically informative designs that offer possibilities to further explore gene–environment correlation.

There are some limitations of this study. First, age of onset of musical training was self-reported, which may introduce a rater or recall bias. Another possibility is that parents who are aware that their children are monozygotic twins treat them more similarly compared with parents of dizygotic twins with regard to early musical training. This would mean a violation of the equal-environment assumption (i.e., that, on average, both monozygotic and dizygotic twins are treated equally similarly), also causing an upward bias in the heritability estimates. Although we were not able to control for this in our study, multiple earlier studies have shown that the assumption generally holds (Derks, Dolan, & Boomsma, 2006). The absence of an effect of age of onset of musical training on rhythm discrimination in professional musicians should be interpreted with caution because strong ceiling effects were found in the musician sample on this subtest. Last, we note that the mean age of onset is significantly higher in male than in female participants. However, additional regression analyses separately for sex did not change the findings. One major strength of this study is the availability of both a professional musician sample and a large population-based twin sample. This allowed us to fully explore the association between age of onset of musical training and musical expertise while controlling for confounds between genetic and shared environmental factors.

The present study is, to our knowledge, the largest and only genetically informative study to focus on whether starting musical training at a younger age leads to higher levels of musical expertise. When controlling for lifetime practice, we found that an earlier age of onset of musical training predicted higher levels of musical aptitude in adulthood in professional musicians and in the general population. However, the association diminished when analyses controlled for familial liability in a cotwin control design. This, together with the finding that the association between age of onset of musical training and musical aptitude was fully explained by familial factors, suggests that a genetic predisposition for music may make children start musical training at a younger age. Thus, our findings provide little direct support that early training has a specific, causal effect on later performance and achievement; rather, they highlight the importance of taking into account cumulative measures of practice as well as genetic and shared environmental factors when studying sensitive periods and effects of an early age of onset of musical training on expertise in later life.