US, UK, Germany: Workers feel as secure as they ever have in the last thirty years, partly because job insecurity is very cyclical and (pre-COVID) unemployment rates very low, but there is also no clear underlying trend towards increased subjective measures of job insecurity

Subjective Job Insecurity and the Rise of the Precariat: Evidence from the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. Alan Manning, Graham Mazeine. The Review of Economics and Statistics 1–45. May 12 2022. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01196

Abstract: There is a widespread belief that work is less secure than in the past, that an increasing share of workers are part of the “pprecariat”. It is hard to find much evidence for this in objective measures of job security, but perhaps subjective measures show different trends. This paper shows that in the US, UK, and Germany workers feel as secure as they ever have in the last thirty years. This is partly because job insecurity is very cyclical and (pre-COVID) unemployment rates very low, but there is also no clear underlying trend towards increased subjective measures of job insecurity. This conclusion seems robust to controlling for the changing mix of the labor force, and is true for specific sub-sets of workers.

JEL: J28

Dark Triad traits accelerate psychological violence toward romantic partners

Do the Dark Triad and psychological intimate partner violence mutually reinforce each other? An examination from a four-wave longitudinal study. Yuji Kanemasa, Yuki Miyagawa, Takashi Arai. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 196, October 2022, 111714. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111714

Abstract: Although cross-sectional research showed a correlation between the Dark Triad and intimate partner violence (IPV), it was unclear whether the Dark Triad facilitated violence toward partners or whether violent acts fostered the dark personality traits. We aimed to statistically clarify the causal relationships between the Dark Triad traits and psychological IPV perpetration in romantic relationships. We conducted a longitudinal study every four months for one year across four waves in a sample of individuals who were currently in romantic relationships. A total of 1392 individuals (Mage = 29.73, SDage = 5.92) who dated the same partners throughout completed the four waves of surveys that measured the Dark Triad traits, psychological IPV, and demographic variables. Cross-lagged panel models revealed consistent patterns in the associations between each of the Dark Triad traits and psychological IPV perpetration throughout the four waves. Machiavellianism and psychological IPV perpetration increased each other. Psychological IPV perpetration reinforced the tendency for psychopathy, but not vice versa. Narcissism promoted future psychological IPV perpetration, but not vice versa. Our study illustrates how the Dark Triad traits accelerate psychological violence toward romantic partners and how such violence fosters the dark side of personality.

Keywords: Dark Triad traitsPsychological intimate partner violenceRomantic relationshipsCross-lagged panel modelsLongitudinal research

Women are less accepting than men of higher-ranked same-sex individuals; more generally however, women and men prefer male bosses

Human Females as a Dispersal-Egalitarian Species: A Hypothesis about Women and Status. Joyce F. Benenson. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, May 21 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-022-00191-x

Abstract

Objectives: A paradox exists in research on girls and women. On the one hand, they behave in a more egalitarian fashion than their male counterparts. On the other hand, status increases their own and their children’s survival.

Methods: Evidence from non-human primates can help reconcile these findings. In species that do not reside with female kin for life, females are relatively egalitarian and individualistic. They typically do not cooperate or engage in direct competition and exhibit little tolerance for status differentials.

Results and Conclusions: Women follow this pattern. While a husband’s status and her female relatives’ support enhance a woman’s status and reproductive success, her own actions too influence her access to resources and allies. Evidence on girls’ and women’s same-sex competition and quests for status supports the hypothesis that human females inhabit dispersal-egalitarian communities in which competition is avoided, an egalitarian ethos prevails, competitive behavior is disguised, and status differentials are not tolerated.