In contrast to psychophysiological reactions, self-reported emotional reactions to threatening stimuli are reliably associated with ideology

The Psychophysiology of Political Ideology: Replications, Reanalyses, and Recommendations. Mathias Osmundsen, David J. Hendry, Lasse Laustsen, Kevin B. Smith, and Michael Bang Petersen. The Journal of Politics, Nov 2021. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/714780

Abstract: This article presents a large-scale, empirical evaluation of the psychophysiological correlates of political ideology and, in particular, the claim that conservatives react with higher levels of electrodermal activity to threatening stimuli than liberals. We (1) conduct two large replications of this claim, using locally representative samples of Danes and Americans; (2) reanalyze all published studies and evaluate their reliability and validity; and (3) test several features to enhance the validity of psychophysiological measures and offer a number of recommendations. Overall, we find little empirical support for the claim. This is caused by significant reliability and validity problems related to measuring threat sensitivity using electrodermal activity. When assessed reliably, electrodermal activity in the replications and published studies captures individual differences in the physiological changes associated with attention shifts, which are unrelated to ideology. In contrast to psychophysiological reactions, self-reported emotional reactions to threatening stimuli are reliably associated with ideology.

Children’s gender accurately identified from their speech: Since young boys & girls overlap almost entirely in gross acoustic cues that drive gender perception for adults, results suggest accuracy based on transmission of more subtle gender information

Perception of gender in children's voices. Santiago Barreda and Peter F. Assmann. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 150, 3949 (2021), Nov 23 2021. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006785

Abstract: To investigate the perception of gender from children's voices, adult listeners were presented with /hVd/ syllables, in isolation and in sentence context, produced by children between 5 and 18 years. Half the listeners were informed of the age of the talker during trials, while the other half were not. Correct gender identifications increased with talker age; however, performance was above chance even for age groups where the cues most often associated with gender differentiation (i.e., average fundamental frequency and formant frequencies) were not consistently different between boys and girls. The results of acoustic models suggest that cues were used in an age-dependent manner, whether listeners were explicitly told the age of the talker or not. Overall, results are consistent with the hypothesis that talker age and gender are estimated jointly in the process of speech perception. Furthermore, results show that the gender of individual talkers can be identified accurately well before reliable anatomical differences arise in the vocal tracts of females and males. In general, results support the notion that the transmission of gender information from voice depends substantially on gender-dependent patterns of articulation, rather than following deterministically from anatomical differences between male and female talkers.

Narcissistic Individuals Exhibit Poor Recognition Memory; narcissistic individuals’ excessive self-focus predicted this memory deficit

Narcissistic Individuals Exhibit Poor Recognition Memory. Miranda Giacomin, Christopher Brinton, Nicholas O. Rule. Journal of Personality, November 19 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12690

Abstract: Here, we examine face memory among individuals who are self-focused and care little about others’ needs: grandiose narcissists. Given narcissistic individuals’ excessive self-focus and tendency to disregard the needs of others, they may struggle to recognize faces and their surrounding environment. Indeed, narcissistic individuals demonstrated worse recognition memory than non-narcissistic individuals in recognition memory tests for faces (Studies 1 [N = 332] and 2 [N = 261]). This difference also occurred for nonsocial stimuli (i.e., objects, houses, cars), suggesting a broad recognition deficit (Study 3A [N = 178], 3B [N = 203], 3C [N = 274]). Narcissistic individuals’ excessive self-focus predicted this memory deficit (Study 4 [N = 187]). Grandiose narcissism may therefore influence visual recognition memory, highlighting the potential for future research linking personality and cognitive performance.

Perceptions of early news coverage about COVID-19: Citizens had positive attitudes toward their own Covid-19 news sources, but were critical about the news sources others were using to get information about the virus

My pandemic news is better than yours: audience perceptions of early news coverage about Covid-19. Mallory R. Perryman. Communication Research Reports, Nov 23 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2021.2007070

Abstract: This study focuses on how American audiences perceived news coverage during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States. Through a survey-experiment of news consumers (N = 767) over a three-day period in mid-March 2020, this study shows that citizens had positive attitudes toward their own Covid-19 news sources, but were critical about the news sources others were using to get information about the virus. Data reveal evidence of presumed media influence, where audiences believed others’ health behaviors were being influenced by pandemic news.

Keywords: Presumed media influencemedia perceptionsperceived news habitsthird-person effectfirst-person effectpresumed behavior