Rivalry is usually positively related to performance; this effect is significant ; the relationship between rivalry and performance is more robust for individual rivalry compared to group rivalry

Rivalry and performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nir Milstein et al. Organizational Psychology Review, February 24, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866221082128

Abstract: Rivalry, a relational competition, is known to increase motivation and performance. However, a systematic review and meta-analysis that examines the effect sizes is lacking. Further, most research on this topic has not considered the type of rivalry (individual versus collective) and the research field as potential moderators. We conducted a wide-scale search, looking for rivalry and performance studies, which yielded 22 papers (k = 35) with 27,771 observations that were systematically reviewed. Eighteen papers (k = 28) were eligible for a further meta-analysis, including a total of 26,215 observations. The systematic review indicated that rivalry is usually positively related to performance. Results of the meta-analysis revealed that this effect is significant and that the relationship between rivalry and performance is more robust for individual rivalry compared to group rivalry. Further analyses indicated that for group rivalry, correlations are positive and significant only in the domains of sports and donation-raising.

Plain Text Abstract: Rivalry is a unique and common type of competition in which the competing parties have longstanding relationships. When rivalry is present, the competing actors have an increased desire to win and invest extra effort into the competition, leading to enhanced performance. However, an integration of studies that examine the effects of rivalry, as a relational competition, is lacking. Here, we scanned studies from diverse research fields that claimed to measure rivalry and actor's performance. We considered only research that specifically measured rivalry as a relational competition and its association with performance. We systematically reviewed eligible studies and found that, generally, rivalry is positively related to performance. We then performed a meta-analysis that confirmed that this relationship is statistically significant. We further found that this relationship is more robust for rivalries in the context of individuals compared to groups. The association between rivalry and performance is most prominent in certain domains, such as sports rivalry. These findings can guide scholars in designing research on rivalry. Specifically, considering the various effect sizes found here in different contexts of rivalry will allow researchers to plan for more appropriate sample sizes designed to reveal the relationship between rivalry and performance in a targeted domain. Further, these results can inform managers about the effects of rivalries in or between their organizations, distinguishing among the different contexts of rivalries and their specific outcomes.

Keywords: rivalry, relational competition, competition, performance

Rats showed bonding-like behavior to an affiliative human who repeatedly stroked the rats; also, these rats emitted distress calls, an index of negative emotion, when an affiliative human stroked another rat in front of them

Rats emit unique distress calls in social inequality conditions. Shota Okabe, Yuki Takayanagi, Masahide Yoshida, Tatsushi Onaka. bioRxiv, Feb 24 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.22.481162

Abstract: Humans show aversion toward inequality of social reward, and this aversion plays important roles for the establishment of social cooperation. However, it has remained unknown whether commonly used experimental animals show negative responses to social reward inequality. In this study, we found that rats showed bonding-like behavior to an affiliative human who repeatedly stroked the rats. In addition, these rats emitted distress calls, an index of negative emotion, when an affiliative human stroked another rat in front of them. These distress calls had acoustic characteristics different from those emitted in response to physical stress stimuli such as air-puff. Rats emitted calls with higher frequency (28 kHz) and shorter durations (0.05 sec) in an inequality condition than the frequency and durations of calls emitted when receiving air-puff. Our results suggested that rats exhibited negative emotion with unique distress calls in response to a social inequality condition.

Most organizations rely on managers to identify talented workers; but because managers are evaluated on team performance, they have an incentive to hoard talented workers, thus jeopardizing the efficient allocation of talent within firms

Talent Hoarding in Organizations. Ingrid Haegele. Feb 2022. https://www.dropbox.com/s/bnzs5h4h43i7ano/Haegele_Talenthoarding.pdf

Most organizations rely on managers to identify talented workers. However, because managers are evaluated on team performance, they have an incentive to hoard talented workers, thus jeopardizing the efficient allocation of talent within firms. This study provides the first empirical evidence of talent hoarding using a unique combination of personnel records and application data from a large manufacturing firm. When managers rotate to a new position and temporarily stop hoarding talent, workers’ applications for promotions increase by 123%. Marginal applicants,who would not have applied in the absence of manager rotations, are three times as likely as average applicants to land a promotion, and perform well in higher-level positions. By reducing the quality and performance of promoted workers, talent hoarding causes misallocation of talent. Because female workers react more to talent hoarding than males, talent hoarding perpetuates gender inequality in representation and pay at the firm.

Strength (measured as grip strength, a highly sexually dimorphic index of physical formidability) is negatively associated with depression and accounts for some of the sex difference

Strength is negatively associated with depression and accounts for some of the sex difference: a replication & extension. Caroline B Smith, Tom Rosenström, Edward H Hagen. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, eoac007, Feb 22 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoac007

Abstract

Background: Depression occurs about twice as often in women as in men, a disparity that remains poorly understood. Using an evolutionary model, Hagen and Rosenström [1] predicted and found that grip strength, a highly sexually dimorphic index of physical formidability, mediated much of the effect of sex on depression. Striking results like this are more likely to be published than null results, potentially biasing the scientific record. It is therefore critical to replicate and extend them.

Methodology: Using new data from the 2013-2014 cycle of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationally representative sample of US households (N = 3650), we replicated models of the effect of sex and grip strength on depression reported in Hagen and Rosenström [1], along with additional potential confounds and a new detailed symptom-level exploration.

Results: Overall, the effects from the original paper were reproduced although with smaller effect sizes. Grip strength mediated 38% of the effect of sex on depression, compared to 63% in Hagen and Rosenström [1]. These results were extended with findings that grip strength had a stronger association with some depression symptoms, like suicidality, low interest, and low mood than with other symptoms, like appetite changes.

Conclusions: Grip strength is negatively associated with depression, especially its cognitive-affective symptoms, controlling for numerous possible confounds. Although many factors influence depression, few of these reliably occur cross-culturally in a sex-stratified manner and so are unlikely to explain the well-established, cross-cultural sex difference in depression. The sex difference in upper body strength occurs in all populations and is therefore a candidate evolutionary explanation for some of the sex difference in depression.

Keywords: mood disorders, major depressive disorder, bargaining, honest signaling, gender, replication

If gorgonzola cheese tastes like soap to you... you have an inconvenient genetic variation

Genetic variations associated with the soapy flavor perception in Gorgonzola PDO cheese. Maria Pina Concas et al. Food Quality and Preference, Feb 23 2022, 104569. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2022.104569

Highlights

• Genetic analyses on soapy flavor perception in Gorgonzola cheese were performed.

• Subjects were grouped in soapy-tasters (66%) and non-soapy tasters (34%)

• Genes involved in olfactory or taste processes were found: SYT9, PDE4B, AVL9, HTR1B.

• A single nucleotide polymorphism near HTR1B gene affected also the liking for cheese.

• Soapy flavor perception was associated with rs72921001 (as found for cilantro)

Abstract

Food preferences are influenced by several factors including individual differences in the physiological perception of the sensory properties and genetic factors. This study was aimed to investigate the genetic bases underlying the perception of the soapy flavor, a sensory attribute identified as a driver of disliking for blue-veined cheese. Responses on soapy flavor perception (SFP) in six Gorgonzola Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese samples were collected from 219 genotyped Italians (age 18-77 y) applying a Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) test combined with a liking test.

Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) were performed on three phenotypic traits: the SFP in at least one cheese (SFP_1), the number of cheese samples in which each individual perceived the soapy flavor (SFP_N) and the SFP in the cheese in which the highest number of individuals perceived the soapy flavor (SFP_P95).

Results showed that 144 individuals (65.8%) perceived the soapy flavor in at least one cheese. Our analysis allowed identifying four loci that resulted shared in all the three GWAS and have been confirmed by the SFP in at least other two Gorgonzola cheese samples. Particularly, we highlighted four genes (SYT9, PDE4B, AVL9 and HTR1B) that are involved in olfactory or taste processes, suggesting that they could play a relevant role in determining the individual differences in the SFP. In addition, a SNP near the HTR1B gene affected also the liking for Gorgonzola PDO cheese.

Overall, our work suggests possible candidate genes associated with the perception of soapy flavor, providing a starting point to better understand the individual differences in blue-veined cheese perception and expanding the current scientific knowledge in the emerging research area linking genetic individual differences to food perception and preferences.

Keywords: blue-veined cheesesoapy flavorlikingconsumersrate-all-that-apply testgenome-wide association studies