The more a society is dedicated to the value of equality and the more choices it offers for individual self-determination, the higher its rates of functional mental illness

The West’s Struggle for Mental Health: Rates of functional mental illness are high in open societies and low in authoritarian ones. Liah Greenfeld. Wall Street Journal, Jun 2 2022. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wests-struggle-for-mental-health-illness-uvalde-shooting-depression-anxiety-religion-meaning-authoritarian-11654034338

The more a society is dedicated to the value of equality and the more choices it offers for individual self-determination, the higher its rates of functional mental illness. These rates increase in parallel with the increase in the available occupational, geographical, religious, gender and lifestyle-related choices. This explains why, since the 1970s, the U.S. leads the world as the country most affected by functional mental illness, though other prosperous liberal democracies aren’t far behind. Before the 1970s, first place belonged to the U.K., which lost that ranking together with its empire and the dramatic contraction in the number of choices the nation offered its members as a result. In contrast, rates of functional mental illness in societies that are insecure, poor, inegalitarian or authoritarian are remarkably low. For decades, the World Psychiatric Association has pondered the “perennial puzzle” of the relative immunity to such illnesses in Southeast Asian countries.

Equality inevitably makes self-definition a matter of one’s own choice, and the formation of personal identity—necessary for mental health—becomes personal responsibility, a burden some people can’t shoulder. A relatively high rate of functional mental illness, expressing itself centrally in dissatisfaction with self and, therefore, social maladjustment, thus must be expected in democracies. But while high rates of mental illness are an old problem, the soaring rates of the recent decades aren’t explained by equality alone. They are related, in addition, to what happened to Western values, especially in the U.S., since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The disappearance of the West’s common opponent rendered individual identities in the West more confusing and dissatisfying. Having lost sight of what they, as a society, were against, millions of Westerners lost the sense of what they represented, rejecting common reference points, such as personal responsibility, which previously constituted the core of the self in the West. Virtues and vices, Soviet-style, came to be seen as characteristics of groups, significant social groupings were defined genetically, all personal discomfort was attributed to society, and the burden of responsibility was shifted off individual shoulders.

This change transformed the understanding of justice from one based on individual actions to one based on collective, biologically determined dispositions. It encouraged social maladjustment because people believing themselves decent were naturally uncomfortable in a society that wasn’t decent. And at the same time it trapped huge numbers within vicious, yet inescapable genetically determined identities. While solving the problem for some, this change in values accelerated the increase in rates of mental illness.

Does Wisdom Even Exist in the Real World? We typically do not find many highly wise participants in representative studies

The Wisdom Researchers and the Elephant: An Integrative Model of Wise Behavior. Judith Glück, Nic M. Weststrate. Personality and Social Psychology Review, June 2, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/10888683221094650

Abstract: This article proposes an integrative model of wise behavior in real life. While current research findings depend considerably on how wisdom is conceptualized and measured, there are strong conceptual commonalities across psychological wisdom models. The proposed model integrates the components of several existing models into a dynamic framework explaining wise behavior. The article first specifies which real-life situations require wisdom and discusses characteristics of wise behavior. The core proposition of the model is that in challenging real-life situations, noncognitive wisdom components (an exploratory orientation, concern for others, and emotion regulation) moderate the effect of cognitive components (knowledge, metacognitive capacities, and self-reflection) on wise behavior. The model can explain the situation specificity of wisdom and the commonalities and differences between personal and general wisdom. Empirically, it accounts for the considerable variation in correlations among wisdom measures and between wisdom measures and other variables. The model has implications for the design of wisdom-fostering interventions and new wisdom measures.

Keywords: wisdom, wise behavior, wisdom measurement, wisdom development, wisdom trait, wisdom state

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Does Wisdom Even Exist in the Real World?

Psychological accounts of wisdom have a tendency to sound lofty and unrealistic—it seems like ideally wise individuals never get angry or depressed, care deeply even about their enemies (if they have any enemies at all) and are able to find perfect solutions to problems of infinite complexity (see Ardelt et al., 2019; Baltes & Kunzmann, 2004). People’s beliefs about wisdom exemplars such as Solomon or Gandhi may have little to do with who those individuals actually were (Grossmann & Kross, 2014). Such ideals are unlikely to be attainable by any human being. The word “wise” may indeed be a label that people tend to reserve for extraordinary individuals. We believe that one of the functions of models like the current one is to explain how rare behavior can arise from a constellation of cognitive and noncognitive qualities that are each continuous and that can co-develop into a broader quality that is more than the sum of its parts. The rarity of high levels of wisdom is, of course, also a challenge to empirical research. We typically do not find many highly wise participants in representative studies [...]

Poor Prospects, Not Inequality, Motivate Political Violence

Poor Prospects, Not Inequality, Motivate Political Violence. Henrikas Bartusevicius, Florian van Leeuwen. Journal of Conflict Resolution, May 30, 2022.  https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027221074647

Abstract: Despite extensive scholarly interest in the association between economic inequality and political violence, the micro-level mechanisms through which the former influences the latter are not well understood. Drawing on pioneering theories of political violence, social psychological research on relative deprivation, and prospect theory from behavioral economics, we examine individual-level processes that underpin the relationship between inequality and political violence. We present two arguments: despite being a key explanatory variable in existing research, perceived lower economic status vis-vis other individuals (an indicator of relative deprivation) is unlikely to motivate people to participate in violence; by contrast, although virtually unexplored, a projected decrease in one's own economic status (prospective decremental deprivation) is likely to motivate violence. Multilevel analyses of probability samples from many African countries provide evidence to support these claims. Based on this, we posit that focusing on changes in living conditions, rather than the status quo, is key for understanding political violence.

Keywords: civil conflict, political violence, economic inequality, relative deprivation, decremental deprivation, social psychology, prospect theory, individual-level analysis

Women are at increased risk for social anxiety not because of their high femininity but because of their low masculinity

Cultural and gender differences in social anxiety: The mediating role of self-construals and gender role identification. Kristen E. Zentner, Hajin Lee, Bryce S. Dueck & Takahiko Masuda. Current Psychology, May 28 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-022-03116-9

Abstract: The current paper investigated underlying mechanisms that produce culture and gender differences in social anxiety. European-Canadian (n = 99; 47% female) and Asian-Canadian (n = 94; 54% female) undergraduate students completed questionnaires measuring levels of independence, interdependence, masculinity, femininity, and social anxiety. Asian Canadians reported a similar level of social anxiety to European Canadians, and females reported higher social anxiety than males. Mediational analyses revealed that levels of independence, interdependence, and masculinity mediated the association between culture and social anxiety, whereas levels of masculinity mediated the association between gender and social anxiety. Cultural differences in social anxiety are explained by the extent to which individuals define themselves as independent and interdependent, while gender differences in social anxiety are explained by the extent to which individuals identify themselves with a masculine gender role. Our findings suggest the orthogonal impact of culture and gender on individuals’ social anxiety. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.

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women are at increased risk for social anxiety not because of their high femininity but because of their low masculinity

Paternity Uncertainty and Parent–Offspring Conflict Explain Restrictions on Female Premarital Sex across Societies

Paternity Uncertainty and Parent–Offspring Conflict Explain Restrictions on Female Premarital Sex across Societies. Gabriel Šaffa, Pavel Duda & Jan Zrzavý. Human Nature, May 28 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-022-09426-y

Abstract: Although norms of premarital sex vary cross-culturally, the sexuality of adolescent girls has been consistently more restricted than that of adolescent boys. Three major theories that attempt to explain restrictions on female premarital sex (FPS) concern male, female, and parental control. These competing theories have not been tested against each other cross-culturally. In this study, we do this using a sample of 128 nonindustrial societies and socioecological predictors capturing extramarital sex, paternal care, female status, sex ratio, parental control over a daughter’s mate choice, residence, and marriage transactions, while also controlling for phylogenetic non-independence across societies. We found that multiple parties benefit from restrictions on FPS. Specifically, FPS is more restricted in societies intolerant of extramarital sex and where men transfer property to their children (male control), as well as where marriages are arranged by parents (parental control). Both paternity uncertainty (partitioned among marital fidelity and paternal investment) and parent–offspring conflict (prompting parents to control their daughter’s sexuality) were identified as possible mechanisms of FPS restrictions. The evidence for female control is ambiguous, mainly because it can be equally well interpreted as both male control and parental control, and because fathers, rather than mothers, are often the primary decision makers about a daughter’s mate choice. Our results also emphasize the importance of social roles, rather than stereotyped sex roles, as a more useful approach to understanding the evolution of FPS restrictions.

Why Deaths of Despair Are Increasing in the US and Not Other Industrial Nations—Insights From Neuroscience and Anthropology

Why Deaths of Despair Are Increasing in the US and Not Other Industrial Nations—Insights From Neuroscience and Anthropology. Peter Sterling, Michael L. Platt. JAMA Psychiatry. 2022;79(4):368-374. February 2, 2022, doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.4209

Abstract: The US National Academy of Sciences reports rising mortality for US adults, most steeply for White adults with a secondary education or less. The rise is largely attributable to deaths of despair (suicide and poisoning by alcohol and drugs) with strong contributions from the cardiovascular effects of rising obesity. Although the report does acknowledge a crisis, it proposes mild measures to manage it, such as strengthening programs to support recovery, prevent relapse, increase resilience, and perform more research toward clinically useful definitions of despair. The US National Academy of Sciences report notes that mortality is decreasing in a control group of 16 wealthy nations (including countries in Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan), but it does not ask what protects those nations from despair. It has been observed that human beings are constrained by evolutionary strategy (ie, huge brain, prolonged physical and emotional dependence, education beyond adolescence for professional skills, and extended adult learning) to require communal support at all stages of the life cycle. Without support, difficulties accumulate until there seems to be no way forward. The 16 wealthy nations provide communal assistance at every stage, thus facilitating diverse paths forward and protecting individuals and families from despair. The US could solve its health crisis by adopting the best practices of the 16-nation control group.