Geographic Variation in Personality is Associated With Fertility Across the United States

Geographic Variation in Personality is Associated With Fertility Across the United States. Eleanor J. Junkins et al. Personality Science, 2021, Vol. 2, Article e7275, Dec 16 2021. https://doi.org/10.5964/ps.7275

Abstract: Levels of fertility and the shape of the age-specific fertility schedule vary substantially across U.S. regions with some states having peak fertility relatively early and others relatively late. Structural institutions or economic factors partly explain these heterogeneous patterns, but regional differences in personality might also contribute to regional differences in fertility. Here, we evaluated whether variation in extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience measured at the U.S. state-level was associated with the level, timing, and context of fertility across states above and beyond sociodemographics, voting behavior, and religiosity. Generally, states with higher levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness had more traditional fertility patterns, and states with higher levels of neuroticism and openness had more nontraditional fertility patterns, even after controlling for established correlates of fertility (r ~ |.50|). Personality is an overlooked correlate that can be leveraged to understand the existence and persistence of fertility differentials.

Keywords: personality, fertility, demography, geographic variation, Big Five

Non-Technical Summary

What is the study’s background?

People living in different regions of the U.S. make different choices about having children. In some regions, people have babies early and often, whereas in other regions, people have babies late or not at all.

Why was this study done?

This study was done to test whether regional differences in personality were related to regional differences in fertility. Researchers in the field of demography, which studies how populations differ in birth and death rates, have typically not considered that people living in different regions may have different personalities—meaning different patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are stable across time and context.

What did the researchers do and find?

Researchers in this study used data on how each U.S. state differs in its average level of five basic personality traits, known as the “Big Five”. Residents of states like Wisconsin are higher on agreeableness (warmth and consideration of other people) and conscientiousness (dutifulness and planning ahead), and they show more traditional patterns of fertility. The regional differences in personality were predictive of fertility patterns even after considering differences in religiousness and politics.

What do these findings mean?

People’s fertility behaviors are related to where they live. Part of what makes areas of the U.S. different from one another is the personality traits of the people who live there. These results have the potential to expand theoretical models of population growth and change by linking demography with personality science.

The woman in high heels was perceived as being more sexually attractive, physically attractive, feminine, & of a higher status; were not rated as more or less warm, enthusiastic, trustworthy, socially competent, healthy, intelligent, affectionate, friendly, or successful

On a pedestal: High heels and the perceived attractiveness and evolutionary fitness of women. T. Joel Wade et al. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 188, April 2022, 111456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111456

Abstract: We analyzed the responses of 448 participants who completed questions on attractiveness and other evolutionary fitness related traits, and long- and short-term mating potential, of a woman in either high heeled or flat shoes. We hypothesized that the woman in high heels would be rated as more attractive and evolutionarily fit by both men and women, and preferred for short-term mating by men. The hypothesis was partially supported. The woman in high heels was perceived as being more sexually attractive, physically attractive, feminine, and of a higher status. Additionally, women rated women as having a higher status regardless of the shoe, than men, while men rated women as having higher short- and long-term mating potential, than women did, regardless of the shoe. We discuss the implications of these findings.

Keywords: High heelsAttractivenessSilhouetteShoesFeminineStatus

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positive effect maybe due to greater lumbar curve

Children have initially a good view of the rich but with age that preference decreases; also have an increasing view as unfair of the wealth gap between the wealthy and the poor; have a developing understanding of the link between wealth & power

Yang, Xin, and Yarrow Dunham. 2021. “Emerging Complexity in Children's Conceptualization of the Wealthy and the Poor.” OSF Preprints. December 22. doi:10.31219/osf.io/fp9xq

Abstract: Past work suggests that children have an overly rosy view of rich people that stays consistent across childhood. However, adults do not show explicit pro-rich biases and even hold negative stereotypes against the rich (e.g., thinking that rich people are cold and greedy). When does this developmental shift occur, and when do children develop more complex and differentiated understandings of the wealthy and the poor? The current work documents the developmental trajectory of 4- to 12-year-old primarily American middle-class children’s conceptualizations of the wealthy and the poor (total N = 164). We find: 1) age-related decreases in pro-rich preferences and stereotypes relative to the poor; 2) domain-sensitive stereotypes across prosociality, talent, and effort; 3) resource-specific behavioral expectations such that with age children increasingly expect the wealthy to contribute more material resources but not more time than the poor; 4) an increasing recognition of the unfairness of the wealth gap between the wealthy and the poor; and 5) a developing understanding of the link between wealth and power. In sum, this work illuminates the emergence of more complex understandings of wealth, poverty, and inequality.

When a conspiracy theory goes mainstream, people feel more positive toward conspiracy theorists

When a conspiracy theory goes mainstream, people feel more positive toward conspiracy theorists. Curtis Bram. Research & Politics, December 21, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680211067640

Abstract: This paper uses an experiment and a follow-up survey immediately before and after the publicly revealed results of the Department of Defense’s 2021 report on unidentified flying object (UFO) origins to test how public opinion changes when government leaders across the political spectrum take an issue that had been on the margins of respectability seriously. In both studies, I find that when politicians acknowledge the possibility that UFOs are extraterrestrial visitors, people report more positive attitudes toward those who believe in conspiracies in general. Implications are that when government leaders publicly walk back a long-held consensus that a particular issue is not worth serious consideration, they may cause people to feel more favorable toward those perceived to hold other fringe views.

Keywords: Conspiracy theories, partisanship, American politics, unidentified flying objects

Discussion

This study demonstrates that when political elites take seriously a possibility that had been ridiculed, and associated with those who believe in conspiracies, people feel more positive toward conspiracy theorists. To be sure, conspiracy theorists do not make up a cohesive group, and many who hold such beliefs do not identify as such. Furthermore, many conspiracy theories outside the UFO case are pushed by partisan actors, potentially limiting the generalizability of these results. That said, a recent review argued that “there is surprisingly little research into how people who espouse conspiracy theories are viewed” (Douglas et al., 2019, 23) and this result motivates further work on the spillover effects of cases where something was previously seen as outside the mainstream, such that people who believed it were considered to be on the margins of respectability, and then this changed rapidly. Past work also finds that people hide some opinions because they fear social consequences (Lantian et al., 2018), suggesting that increasingly positive attitudes toward those who believe in conspiracies will increase the willingness of those who engage in conspiracy thinking to reveal those beliefs.

Future work will benefit from expanding this approach beyond the UFO case and evaluating how support for conspiracy theories themselves change as elite opinion changes. New information may also emerge, as former President Barack Obama said: “what is true – and I’m actually being serious here – is that there is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are.”

Recent work has shown that body distortions are common in healthy individuals; there is a general bias to overestimate body width compared to length/height; this distorsion appear to be linked to aspects of psychological well-being, including body satisfaction and self-esteem

Distortion of mental body representations. Matthew R. Longo. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, December 21 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.11.005

Highlights

*  Distortions in the representation of the body are a conspicuous feature of several clinical disorders, including eating disorders and chronic pain.

*  Recent work has shown that distortions are also common in healthy individuals, including in tasks assessing tactile spatial perception, proprioception, and the conscious body image.

*  Across a range of tasks, there is a general bias to overestimate body width compared to length/height.

*  Distorted body representations in conditions such as anorexia nervosa and chronic pain appear to be exaggerated forms of the distortions that occur in healthy individuals.

*  Distorted body representations appear to be linked to aspects of psychological well-being, including body satisfaction and self-esteem.

Abstract: Our body is central to our sense of self, and distorted body representations are found in several serious medical conditions. This paper reviews evidence that distortions of body representations are also common in healthy individuals, and occur in domains including tactile spatial perception, proprioception, and the conscious body image. Across domains, there is a general tendency for body width to be overestimated compared to body length. Intriguingly, distortions in both eating disorders and chronic pain appear to be exaggerations of this baseline pattern of distortions, suggesting that these conditions may relate to dysfunction of mechanisms for body perception. Distortions of body representations provide a revealing window into basic aspects of self-perception.

Keywords: selfbody imagetouchproprioceptionpaineating disorders