Complicated relationship between Machiavellianism and social-cognitive skill: Machiavellianism encompasses features that blend deficiency, proficiency, and average levels of social-cognitive skills

Hart, W., Breeden, C. J., & Kinrade, C. (2021). Re-conceptualizing Machiavellianism and social-cognitive skills: Machiavellianism blends deficient, proficient, and average social-cognitive skills. Journal of Individual Differences, 42(3), 140–147, Jul 2021. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000340

Abstract: Machiavellianism is presumed to encompass advanced social-cognitive skill, but research has generally suggested that Machiavellian individuals are rather deficient in social-cognitive skill. However, previous research on the matter has been limited to measures of (a) Machiavellianism that are unidimensional and saturated with both antagonism and disinhibition and measures (b) only one type of social-cognitive skill. Using a large college sample (N = 461), we examined how various dimensions of Machiavellianism relate to two types of social-cognitive skill: person-perception skill and general social prediction skill. Consistent with some prior theorizing, the planful dimension of Machiavellianism was positively related to both person-perception and general social prediction skills; antagonistic dimensions of Machiavellianism were negatively related to both skills; either agentic or cynical dimensions of Machiavellianism were generally unrelated to both skills. Overall, the current evidence suggests a complicated relationship between Machiavellianism and social-cognitive skill because Machiavellianism encompasses features that blend deficiency, proficiency, and average levels of social-cognitive skills. 

What Makes a Champion? Early Multidisciplinary Practice, Not Early Specialization, Predicts World-Class Performance

What Makes a Champion? Early Multidisciplinary Practice, Not Early Specialization, Predicts World-Class Performance. Arne Güllich, Brooke N. Macnamara, David Z. Hambrick. Perspectives on Psychological Science, July 14, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620974772

Abstract: What explains the acquisition of exceptional human performance? Does a focus on intensive specialized practice facilitate excellence, or is a multidisciplinary practice background better? We investigated this question in sports. Our meta-analysis involved 51 international study reports with 477 effect sizes from 6,096 athletes, including 772 of the world’s top performers. Predictor variables included starting age, age of reaching defined performance milestones, and amounts of coach-led practice and youth-led play (e.g., pickup games) in the athlete’s respective main sport and in other sports. Analyses revealed that (a) adult world-class athletes engaged in more childhood/adolescent multisport practice, started their main sport later, accumulated less main-sport practice, and initially progressed more slowly than did national-class athletes; (b) higher performing youth athletes started playing their main sport earlier, engaged in more main-sport practice but less other-sports practice, and had faster initial progress than did lower performing youth athletes; and (c) youth-led play in any sport had negligible effects on both youth and adult performance. We illustrate parallels from science: Nobel laureates had multidisciplinary study/working experience and slower early progress than did national-level award winners. The findings suggest that variable, multidisciplinary practice experiences are associated with gradual initial discipline-specific progress but greater sustainability of long-term development of excellence.

Keywords: skill acquisition, performance, practice, early specialization, meta-analysis

From 2020... Art, Music, and Literature: Do the Humanities Make Our Lives Richer, Happier, and More Meaningful?

From 2020... Westgate, Erin C. 2020. “Art, Music, and Literature: Do the Humanities Make Our Lives Richer, Happier, and More Meaningful?” PsyArXiv. April 25. doi:10.31234/osf.io/gsnzm

Abstract: For many, there is little more rewarding than the feeling of curling up with a good book, wandering a famous art gallery, or listening to a favorite musician perform live in front of an audience. But do the arts, music, and literature actually make our lives happier, richer, and more meaningful? We suggest they do. In this chapter, we review empirical evidence for the psychological benefits of the humanities, including art, music, and literature, and find that across a wide variety of samples, exposure and engagement is consistently linked to greater well-being. In particular, we suggest that the humanities may increase well-being directly by providing people with enjoyable, rich, and meaningful experiences, as well as indirectly by fostering skills and abilities that contribute to psychological well-being in the long-term. These approaches map onto two mechanisms: 1) direct affective benefits that create enjoyable, rich, and interesting experiences, and 2) indirect cognitive benefits, including social abilities and motivations that promote subjective well-being via interpersonal connection and self- and emotion-regulation. Art, music, and literature may not only provide temporary nourishment for a good life, but teach people lasting skills they can capitalize on to increase long-term well-being.

Check also Lay Beliefs about Meaning in Life: Examinations Across Targets, Time, and Countries. Samantha J. Heintzelman et al. Journal of Research in Personality, August 1 2020, 104003. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/08/lay-beliefs-about-meaning-in-life.html

Meaning and Evolution: Why Nature Selected Human Minds to Use Meaning. Roy F. Baumeister and William von Hippel. Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture, Vol. 4, No. 1, Symposium on Meaning and Evolution (Spring 2020), pp. 1-18. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/05/the-scientific-worldview-suggested-that.html

Happiness, Meaning, and Psychological Richness. Shigehiro Oishi, Hyewon Choi, Minkyung Koo, Iolanda Galinha, Keiko Ishii, Asuka Komiya, Maike Luhmann, Christie Scollon, Ji-eun Shin, Hwaryung Lee, Eunkook M. Suh, Joar Vittersّ, Samantha J. Heintzelman, Kostadin Kushlev, Erin C. Westgate, Nicholas Buttrick, Jane Tucker, Charles R. Ebersole, Jordan Axt, Elizabeth Gilbert, Brandon W. Ng, Jaime Kurtz & Lorraine L. Besser . Affective Science volume 1, pages107–115, Jun 23 2020. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/06/investigating-whether-some-people.html

A large literature characterizes urbanisation as resulting from productivity growth attracting rural workers to cities; these authors think it is in reverse: when rural workers move to cities, the resulting urbanisation yields productivity growth

Urbanisation and the Onset of Modern Economic Growth. Liam Brunt, Cecilia García-Peñalosa. The Economic Journal, ueab050, June 30 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueab050

Abstract: A large literature characterizes urbanisation as resulting from productivity growth attracting rural workers to cities. Incorporating economic geography elements into a growth model, we suggest that causation runs the other way: when rural workers move to cities, the resulting urbanisation produces technological change and productivity growth. Urban density leads to knowledge exchange and innovation, thus creating a positive feedback loop between city size and productivity that initiates sustained economic growth. This model is consistent with the fact that urbanisation rates in Western Europe, most notably England, reached unprecedented levels by the mid-18th century, the eve of the Industrial Revolution.

Mate copying (the increased probability of preferring an individual as a mate, as a result of them having been chosen by same-sex peers previously), does not shows in having a lot of Facebook opposite-sex friends

Non-Independent Mate Choice in Humans: An Investigation of Online Mate Choice Copying and Sex Differences. Cagla Tekin & Ryan C. Anderson. Evolutionary Psychological Science, Jul 15 2021. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-021-00291-z

Abstract: Mate copying (MC) refers to the increased probability of preferring an individual as a mate, as a result of them having been chosen by same-sex peers previously. How changes in the world, such as the increased use of social networking sites, affect MC has not received much attention. Participants were shown photographs of opposite-sex target individuals, and told that the profiles had a high, moderate, or low number of opposite-sex Facebook friends. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that opposite-sex profiles were considered the most desirable when no information was given about thegender distribution of their Facebook friends. Both men and women found opposite-sex profiles to be least desirable when they had a high number of opposite-sex friends. The findings contribute to the literature by providing further information about the mate selection processes for both sexes, and how social networking sites have changed the way interpersonal relationships are formed. 

Wellcome skepticism... Neither prediction markets (nor surveys) performed well in predicting outcomes for DARPA's Next Generation Social Science programme

Using prediction markets to predict the outcomes in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's next-generation social science programme. Domenico Viganola, Grant Buckles, Yiling Chen, Pablo Diego-Rosell, Magnus Johannesson, Brian A. Nosek, Thomas Pfeiffer, Adam Siegel and Anna Dreber. Royal Society Open Science, July 14 2021. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181308

Abstract: There is evidence that prediction markets are useful tools to aggregate information on researchers' beliefs about scientific results including the outcome of replications. In this study, we use prediction markets to forecast the results of novel experimental designs that test established theories. We set up prediction markets for hypotheses tested in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Next Generation Social Science (NGS2) programme. Researchers were invited to bet on whether 22 hypotheses would be supported or not. We define support as a test result in the same direction as hypothesized, with a Bayes factor of at least 10 (i.e. a likelihood of the observed data being consistent with the tested hypothesis that is at least 10 times greater compared with the null hypothesis). In addition to betting on this binary outcome, we asked participants to bet on the expected effect size (in Cohen's d) for each hypothesis. Our goal was to recruit at least 50 participants that signed up to participate in these markets. While this was the case, only 39 participants ended up actually trading. Participants also completed a survey on both the binary result and the effect size. We find that neither prediction markets nor surveys performed well in predicting outcomes for NGS2.

4. Discussion

In this project, we find little evidence that researchers can predict outcomes of the hypotheses tested in NGS2. Whether this is due to the relatively small sample of hypotheses (N = 22), participants (N = 39) or the type of hypotheses tested is unclear. Here, unlike in most previous work, participants predicted tests from Bayesian analyses—whether this contributes to the poor performance of the markets and surveys is also unclear. An important difference compared with the previous prediction markets studies on direct replications is also that the original study p-value is an important predictor of replication outcomes, but such information is by definition not available for predicting the NGS2 outcomes, making it a more challenging prediction task for forecasters. Given the previously observed success in experts predicting novel outcomes with forecasting surveys (e.g. [20]), it may be the case that prediction markets function better for replication outcomes relative to forecasting surveys—more work on this topic would be needed for more definitive conclusions.

The current literature on satisfaction in interracial relationships as less satisfied than intraracial relationships may be a reflection of publication bias in which statistically significant differences are published

Differences in Satisfaction? A Meta-Analytic Review of Interracial and Intraracial Relationships. James E. Brooks. Marriage & Family Review, Jul 14 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/01494929.2021.1937443

Abstract: Empirical investigations on whether there is a difference in relationship satisfaction for partners in interracial compared to intraracial relationships offer contradictory conclusions. The current study reviewed investigations of differences in satisfaction using a meta-analysis to determine whether and under what circumstances there is a difference in relationship satisfaction. Individual, dyadic, environmental, and methodological variations in study participants and designs were explored as potential moderators. Using estimates of effect size d, no overall difference in relationship satisfaction was found between intraracial and interracial relationships. The examination of the moderators revealed that sample size and geographic location of the study impacted whether differences were detected, but most tests for moderation indicated no differences. These conclusions suggest that the current literature on satisfaction in interracial relationships as less satisfied than intraracial relationships may be a reflection of publication bias in which statistically significant differences are published.

Keywords: interracialmarriagemeta-analysisromantic relationshipssatisfaction