Libertarianism is linked with indicators of positive adjustment, whereas Moral Traditionalism and Ethnic Separateness were linked with indices of negativity bias

Three Dimensions of American Conservative Political Orientation Differentially Predict Negativity Bias and Satisfaction With Life. Xiaowen Xu, Caitlin M. Burton, Jason E. Plaks. Social Psychological and Personality Science, January 6, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211057976

Abstract: Numerous studies have linked political conservatism with negativity bias, whereas others have linked conservatism with indicators of positive adjustment. This research sought to reconcile this seeming contradiction by examining whether distinct dimensions of conservatism differentially predicted measures of negativity bias and positive adjustment. In two studies, we used an empirically derived and validated Attitude-Based Political Conservatism (ABPC) Scale that captures three correlated but distinct factors of American conservatism: Libertarian Independence, Moral Traditionalism, and Ethnic Separateness. In both studies (N = 1,756), Libertarian Independence was linked with indicators of positive adjustment, whereas Moral Traditionalism and Ethnic Separateness were linked with indices of negativity bias. By identifying which dimensions of conservatism predict negativity bias and positive adjustment, this work illuminates the unique psychological foundations of distinct strands of conservatism in America.

Keywords: conservatism, political orientation, political ideology, individual differences

Given that most of the news consumed by the public comes from reliable sources, small increases in acceptance of reliable information improve the global information score more than bringing acceptance of misinformation to 0%

Research note: Fighting misinformation or fighting for information? Alberto Acerbi, Sacha Altay, Hugo Mercier. Jan 12 2022. https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/research-note-fighting-misinformation-or-fighting-for-information/

Abstract: A wealth of interventions have been devised to reduce belief in fake news or the tendency to share such news. By contrast, interventions aimed at increasing trust in reliable news sources have received less attention. In this article, we show that, given the very limited prevalence of misinformation (including fake news), interventions aimed at reducing acceptance or spread of such news are bound to have very small effects on the overall quality of the information environment, especially compared to interventions aimed at increasing trust in reliable news sources. To make this argument, we simulate the effect that such interventions have on a global information score, which increases when people accept reliable information and decreases when people accept misinformation.

Research Question: Given limited resources, should we focus our efforts on fighting the spread of misinformation or on supporting the acceptance of reliable information?

Summary: To test the efficacy of various interventions aimed at improving the informational environment, we developed a model computing a global information score, which is the share of accepted pieces of reliable information minus the share of accepted pieces of misinformation.

Simulations show that, given that most of the news consumed by the public comes from reliable sources, small increases in acceptance of reliable information (e.g., 1%) improve the global information score more than bringing acceptance of misinformation to 0%. This outcome is robust for a wide range of parameters and is also observed if acceptance of misinformation decreases trust in reliable information or increases the supply of misinformation (within plausible limits).

Our results suggest that more efforts should be devoted to improving acceptance of reliable information, relative to fighting misinformation.

More elaborate simulations will allow for finer-grained comparisons of interventions targeting misinformation vs. interventions targeting reliable information, by considering their broad impact on the informational environment.

In the US, both Democrats and Republicans substantially overestimate the number of political outgroup members who approve of blatant wrongs

Puryear, Curtis, Emily Kubin, Chelsea Schein, Yochanan Bigman, and Kurt Gray. 2022. “Bridging Political Divides by Correcting the Basic Morality Bias.” PsyArXiv. January 11. doi:10.31234/osf.io/fk8g6

Abstract: Efforts to bridge political divides often focus on navigating complex and divisive issues. However, nine studies suggest that we should also focus on a more basic moral divide: the erroneous belief that political opponents lack a fundamental sense of right and wrong. This “basic morality bias” is tied to political dehumanization and is revealed by multiple methods, including natural language analyses from a large Twitter corpus, and a representative survey of Americans with incentives for accuracy. In the US, both Democrats and Republicans substantially overestimate the number of political outgroup members who approve of blatant wrongs (e.g., child pornography, embezzlement). Importantly, the basic morality bias can be corrected with a brief, scalable intervention. Providing information that just one political opponent condemns blatant wrongs increases willingness to work with political opponents and substantially decreases political dehumanization.

3 years of breastfeeding were compelled by the leading causes of infant mortality in ancestral settings—infection and malnutrition-related disease; lactation-based caregiving gave lactation-based cohesion, with fitness payoffs for infants

Attachment and Caregiving in the Mother–Infant Dyad: Evolutionary Developmental Psychology Models of their Origins in the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness. Sybil L. Hart. Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy pp 135-160, January 1 2022. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-76000-7_7

Abstract: This chapter offers evolutionary developmental psychology models of caregiving and attachment as species-wide features of infant–maternal relationships. We explain that 3 years of breastfeeding were compelled by the leading causes of infant mortality in ancestral settings—infection and malnutrition-related disease—and discuss how it underpinned lactation-based caregiving and a biobehavioral bond, lactation-based cohesion, with fitness payoffs for infants: (1) protection against malnutrition and morbidity; (2) preservation of the inter-birth interval (IBI) as a haven against competition with a newborn sibling; and (3) psychological benefits of steady and enduring exposure to a profoundly satisfying manner of proximal contact with a caregiver. We theorize that lactation-based caregiving and cohesion satisfied infants’ physical and psychological needs, and in doing so laid the foundation of a psychological adaptation, child-to-mother attachment, an affectional bond able to withstand being untethered to lactation by infants’ third year. The timing of the transition from lactation-based cohesion to attachment coincided with attenuated dependence on breast milk due to maturation of infants’ digestive and immune systems, and with the eruption of infants’ molar teeth, which prompted mothers to bring breastfeeding to conclusion. At this juncture, mothers transitioned to caring for weanlings (rather than nurslings), which meant an end to maternal caregiving being upheld by biobehavioral features of lactation. We argue that absent such support, the costliness of caregiving of weanlings compelled an adapted psychological mechanism, mother-to-child attachment, defined as an affectional bond between ancestral mothers and their former nurslings that was anchored in 3 years of lactation-based caregiving and cohesion.

Keywords: Lactation-based cohesion Lactation-based caregiving Child-to-mother attachment Mother-to-child attachment Breastfeeding Lactation Breast milk Kwashiorkor 

Executive teams are becoming increasingly partisan, partly because of increased sorting by partisan executives into firms with like-minded individuals; executives of minority political views have a higher probability of leaving

The Political Polarization of United States Firms. Vyacheslav Fos, Elisabeth Kempf, Margarita Tsoutsoura. American Economic Ass'n Conference 'CEOs and Politics,' Jan 7 2022. https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2022/preliminary/2052

Abstract: Executive teams in U.S. firms are becoming increasingly partisan, leading to a political polarization of corporate America. We establish this new fact using political affiliations from voter registration records for top executives of S&P 1500 firms between 2008 and 2018. The rise in partisanship is explained by both an increasing share of Republican executives and increased sorting by partisan executives into firms with like-minded individuals. Further, we find that within a given firm-year, executives whose political views do not match those of the team's majority have a higher probability of leaving the firm. The increase in partisanship is taking place despite executive teams becoming more diverse in terms of gender and race.

Despite a more authoritarian personality, Republican CEOs, known to favor the avoidance of threats and ambiguity, tend to prefer a less asymmetric information environment; hence they make more frequent, timelier, and more accurate disclosures

CEO Political Ideology and Voluntary Forward-Looking Disclosure. Md Noman Hossain et al. American Economic Ass'n Conference 'CEOs and Politics,' Jan 7 2022. https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2022/preliminary/2052

Abstract: This study investigates the information disclosure preferences of Republican versus Democrat CEOs using management earnings forecasts. Republican CEOs are known to favor the avoidance of threats and ambiguity, and this seems to outweigh the tendency to seize on information, associated with their authoritarian personalities. We find that Republican CEOs tend to prefer a less asymmetric information environment; hence they make more frequent, timelier, and more accurate disclosures than Democrat CEOs. We address endogeneity concerns using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences estimation and show that our results are unlikely to be driven by potential endogeneity. Our results are robust to controlling for CEO characteristics, incentives, overconfidence, and managerial ability, and are stronger for firms with higher levels of institutional ownership and litigation risk.

Luxembourg: Sexual problems increased during the COVID-19 measures while sexual satisfaction decreased compared to prior the COVID-19 measures (assessed retrospectively)

Sexual Satisfaction and Sexual Behaviors During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Results From the International Sexual Health and Reproductive (I-SHARE) Health Survey in Luxembourg. Fischer VJ, Gómez-Bravo R, Brunnet AE, Michielsen K, Tucker JD, Campbell L, Vögele C. Preprint from Research Square, Jan 7 2022. DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-1178513/v1 PPR: PPR440376 

Abstract 

Aim: To identify the impact of COVID-19 measures on sexual behaviors and sexual satisfaction in Luxembourg residents.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey of adults (> 18 years of age) residing in Luxembourg, while COVID-19 restrictions were in place. The survey was available in four languages (French, German, English and Portuguese). Survey questions focused on masturbation, cuddling, condom use, sex frequency, sexting, cybersex, watching porn, and sexual satisfaction.

Results: 557 volunteers completed the survey (35.5% men, 64.3% women). Sexual problems increased during the COVID-19 measures while sexual satisfaction decreased compared to prior the COVID-19 measures (assessed retrospectively). Factors associated with increased odds of sexual satisfaction were: having a steady relationship before COVID-19 restrictions, engaging in sexting, reporting good mental health and not altering alcohol intake.

Conclusions: The context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures implemented in Luxembourg affected sexual behaviors and sexual satisfaction. Sexual and reproductive health care centers and health professionals in general should take these results into consideration when providing care. Recommendations on the importance of sexual health for general wellbeing and behaviors associated with sexual satisfaction should be offered and possibilities to experience sexuality while reducing contamination risks be discussed.

Discussion

The present study examined the impact of measures imposed by the Luxembourgish government to fight the COVID-19 pandemic on self-reported sexual behaviors, substance use and mental health.

We found a decrease in sex frequency during COVID-19 compared to the period before the introduction of the COVID-19 measures. The proportion of respondents reporting a decrease in sexual activities was higher in those with steady partners (35.8 %) compared to those with casual partners (14.3%). This decrease was larger than the one found in a study comparing individuals from the English and Spanish populations (7), but smaller than the decrease found in a multi-country study with 30 different countries (18). The reasons for these differences between studies are unclear. Nevertheless, any decrease in sexual activity could have overall health implications, as a decrease in sexual intercourse has been reported to be associated with an overall decline in well-being (11).

A large proportion of the present sample (46.5%) reported low sexual satisfaction. Similar findings were also found in other I-SHARE countries where, overall, 39.6% reported low sexual satisfaction (18). This demonstrates the need for health professionals to address sexual and reproductive health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of sexual health for general health and wellbeing.  

Our data indicate that being in a relationship before the implementation of the COVID-19 measures increased the chances of sexual satisfaction during COVID-19. This is in line with the literature, which found that people in steady relationships during the COVID-19 measures were more sexually active and also more satisfied (18). This corroborates the evidence on the association between sexual satisfaction and more frequent sexual activity (19, 20). In addition, this is in accordance with the finding that an increase in self-masturbation was associated with higher odds of increased sexual dissatisfaction. In this context, it is plausible that self-masturbation might have been used as a coping strategy for some. In the present sample, we found a 18% increase in the frequency of masturbation, which is almost twice the percentage reported by Ibarra et al. (7), but a very similar prevalence of no change in autoerotism when compared to an Italian study (61.2% in Italy, 59.9% in Luxembourg) (11).

Findings on the relationship between masturbatory behavior and sexual activity and satisfaction are inconsistent. Masturbation offers the possibility of sexual pleasure independent of a partner’s availability and sexual health. For women, masturbation seems to be related to more consistent orgasms compared with partnered sex (21, 22, 23). Nonetheless, weak or negative associations between solitary and partnered sexual activity or satisfaction have been found (24, 25).

With regards to sexual problems, our findings show an increase in sexual problems in those in partnership (either oneself or of the partner) during the pandemic. This result is in line with other studies that have addressed this question. Since the beginning of the pandemic, an increase in sexual problems has been found in a range of populations in different countries, for instance in COVID-19 positive women (26) and in uninfected pregnant women in Turkey (27), in women in the U.S. (28) and in men and women in Egypt (29).

Our data suggest that people who increased sexting (exchange of sex-content messages such as naked/semi-naked pictures, audios or videos with a partner) had higher odds of reporting sexual satisfaction. Sexting and cybersex might have acted as a tool for different sexual activities in a person or couple’s sexual repertoire (30). Our results are in line both with other studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic that found the use of digital means for sexual communication a way to maintain oneself sexually active (7) and with the literature on sexting and relationship satisfaction that found higher relationship satisfaction in people who engaged in sexting (31, 32, 33).

With respect to mental health, the ability to adapt to the new pandemic context benefitted levels of sexual satisfaction. This becomes clear when observing that respondents who reported good general mental health presented higher scores of sexual satisfaction. This is in line with the literature, that found a higher risk of developing anxiety and depression among those who were not sexually active during the lockdown (13). Similarly to the adaptation findings regarding mental health, participants who reported no change in alcohol consumption had higher odds of reporting sexual satisfaction. This can possibly be explained by better personal resources to adapt to the pandemic context, and not using alcohol as a coping strategy to deal with the COVID-19 measures.  Alcohol consumption as a coping strategy has been identified in previous pandemic outbreaks, e.g. severe acute respiratory syndrome (34). So far, during the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in alcohol consumption has been reported both in the general population (35, 36) and among university students (37).

Strengths and Limitations 

This study has several limitations. First, our study was conducted online which can lead to selection bias (e.g., only people with internet access could take part). Second, our sample was recruited using a convenience approach, predominantly via social media platforms and invitations to key sexual health organizations of the country, which limits the generalizability of the study findings. To overcome such conditions, we employed a broad recruitment strategy (38), using different social media, traditional media, press release, partnering with key governmental and non-governmental institutions as well as invitations to participants of previous COVID19 studies who agreed to be contacted for further studies.  

Despite these limitations, this study contributes to the literature on sexual behavior during COVID-19, and the results indicate the importance of continuing research to support policy and help care provision. From a research and policy perspective, longitudinal assessments of the population are needed to properly identify their health needs. On a care provision level, sexual and mental health professionals should be trained and updated to face the population’s new demands with reference to sexual behaviors and satisfaction during times of crises such as infectious disease outbreaks.