Time spent with friends is worth less for those who use the smartphone

Connecting Alone: Smartphone Use, Quality of Social Interactions and Well-being. Valentina Rotondi, Luca Stanca, and Miriam Tomasuolo. Journal of Economic Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2017.09.001

Highlights
•    We study the effect of the smartphone on the quality of social interactions.
•    We argue that the smartphone reduces the quality of face-to-face interactions.
•    We test this hypothesis in a large sample of Italian individuals.
•    We find that time spent with friends is worth less for those who use the smartphone.
•    This finding holds in terms of both life satisfaction and satisfaction with friends.

Abstract: This paper investigates the role played by the smartphone for the quality of social interactions and subjective well-being. We argue that, due to its intrusiveness, the smartphone reduces the quality of face-to-face interactions and, as a consequence, their positive impact on well-being. We test this hypothesis in a large and representative sample of Italian individuals. The results indicate that time spent with friends is worth less, in terms of life satisfaction, for individuals who use the smartphone. This finding is robust to the use of instrumental variables estimation to deal with possible endogeneity. We also show that, consistent with our hypothesis, the positive association between time spent with friends and satisfaction with friends is less strong for individuals who use the smartphone.

Keywords: Smartphone; Social interactions; Subjective well-being

JEL classification: A12; I31; O33

Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation

Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation. Nicholas T. van Dam et al. Perspectives on Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617709589

Abstract: During the past two decades, mindfulness meditation has gone from being a fringe topic of scientific investigation to being an occasional replacement for psychotherapy, tool of corporate well-being, widely implemented educational practice, and “key to building more resilient soldiers.” Yet the mindfulness movement and empirical evidence supporting it have not gone without criticism. Misinformation and poor methodology associated with past studies of mindfulness may lead public consumers to be harmed, misled, and disappointed. Addressing such concerns, the present article discusses the difficulties of defining mindfulness, delineates the proper scope of research into mindfulness practices, and explicates crucial methodological issues for interpreting results from investigations of mindfulness. For doing so, the authors draw on their diverse areas of expertise to review the present state of mindfulness research, comprehensively summarizing what we do and do not know, while providing a prescriptive agenda for contemplative science, with a particular focus on assessment, mindfulness training, possible adverse effects, and intersection with brain imaging. Our goals are to inform interested scientists, the news media, and the public, to minimize harm, curb poor research practices, and staunch the flow of misinformation about the benefits, costs, and future prospects of mindfulness meditation.

Keywords mindfulness, meditation, psychotherapy, neuroimaging, contemplative science, adverse effects, media hype, misinformation

Check also: A randomized controlled evaluation of a secondary school mindfulness program for early adolescents: Do we have the recipe right yet? Catherine Johnson et al. Behaviour Research and Therapy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2017.09.001

And: The Pervasive Problem With Placebos in Psychology - Why Active Control Groups Are Not Sufficient to Rule Out Placebo Effects. Walter R. Boot et al. Perspectives on Psychological Science, Volume: 8 issue: 4, page(s): 445-454, https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613491271

Genetic and Environmental Pathways Underlying Personality Traits and Perceived Stress: Twin Studies

Luo, J., Derringer, J., Briley, D. A., and Roberts, B. W. (2017) Genetic and Environmental Pathways Underlying Personality Traits and Perceived Stress: Concurrent and Longitudinal Twin Studies. Eur. J. Pers., doi: 10.1002/per.2127

Abstract: The present study examined the genetic and environmental etiology underlying the Big Five personality traits and perceived stress, concurrently and longitudinally. In study 1, we used the twin sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health IV) data. The results indicated that about 70% of the association between the Big Five personality traits and perceived stress was due to genetic influences. In study 2, we used the twin sample from the Midlife in the United States Survey (MIDUS I and II) to examine the genetic and environmental influences underlying the longitudinal relations between the Big Five personality traits and perceived stress. The results suggested that continuity in perceived stress was primarily accounted for by genetic influences, and changes in perceived stress were mainly due to nonshared environmental influences. The continuity in the association between the five personality traits and perceived stress was largely accounted for by genetic factors, and nonshared environmental factors made greater contributions to changes in the association between personality traits and perceived stress. Among the Big Five personality traits, the genetic components in conscientiousness and neuroticism made substantial contributions to the genetic link between personality traits and perceived stress across both studies.

Digital Goods Are Valued Less Than Physical Goods

Ozgun Atasoy, Carey K Morewedge; Digital Goods Are Valued Less Than Physical Goods, Journal of Consumer Research, , ucx102, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx102

Abstract: Digital goods are, in many cases, substantive innovations relative to their physical counterparts. Yet, in five experiments, people ascribed less value to digital than to physical versions of the same good. Research participants paid more for, were willing to pay more for, and were more likely to purchase physical goods than equivalent digital goods, including souvenir photographs, books (fiction and nonfiction), and films. Participants valued physical goods more than digital goods whether their value was elicited in an incentive compatible pay-what-you-want paradigm, with willingness to pay, or purchase intention. Greater capacity for physical than digital goods to garner an association with the self (i.e., psychological ownership), underlies the greater value ascribed to physical goods. Differences in psychological ownership for physical and digital goods mediated the difference in their value. Experimentally manipulating antecedents and consequents of psychological ownership (i.e., expected ownership, identity-relevance, perceived control) bounded this effect, and moderated the mediating role of psychological ownership. The findings show how features of objects influence their capacity to garner psychological ownership before they are acquired, and provide theoretical and practical insights for the marketing, psychology, and economics of digital and physical goods.

Keywords: digital goods, value, psychological ownership, perceived control

Self-handicapping during play fighting in capuchin monkeys

Self-handicapping during play fighting in capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Meredith C. Lutz and Peter G. Judge. Behaviour, DOI: 10.1163/1568539X-00003449

Abstract: Play may serve several potential functions, including learning to overcome unexpected circumstances. Self-handicapping, during which individuals do not utilize their full strength, is proposed to provide training for the unexpected. If self-handicapping occurs, then play fight intensity should decrease as partner age discrepancy increases. By playing with reduced intensity, the older partner self-handicaps, exposing itself to situations that it does not fully control. Self-handicapping was investigated in a captive group of brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) by recording the duration and sequence of play during focal samples. All instances of play fighting were scored from video for intensity. As the age difference between the partners increased, the intensity of play bouts decreased. Since partners with larger age disparities played less intensely, results provided quantitative evidence for self-handicapping, although additional factors may affect play intensity. We suggest that self-handicapping encourages play and provides support for the training for the unexpected hypothesis.

The challenge of starting and keeping a relationship: Prevalence rates and predictors of poor mating performance

The challenge of starting and keeping a relationship: Prevalence rates and predictors of poor mating performance. Menelaos Apostolou, Marios Shialos, Elli Kyrou, Artemis Demetriou, Anthi Papamichael. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 122, February 1 2018, Pages 19–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.10.004

Highlights
•    Estimates the prevalence rates of poor mating performance
•    Finds that about one in two adults face difficulties in intimate relationships
•    Explores the factors that predict poor mating performance
•    Identifies the evolutionary causes of poor mating performance

Abstract: There are reasons to believe that the mechanisms involved in mating, evolved in a context where marriages were arranged and male-male competition was strong. Thus, they may not work well in a post-industrial context, where mating is not regulated and where male-male competition is weak. As a consequence of the mismatch between ancestral and modern conditions, several individuals may face difficulties in the domain of mating. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence rates of poor mating performance and to identify some of its predictors. In particular, evidence from 1894 Greek and Greek-Cypriot participants from three independent studies, indicated that about one in five individuals found intimate relationships difficult, about one in two experienced difficulties in either starting or keeping a relationship, and about one in five experienced difficulties in both starting and keeping a relationship. Moreover, it was found that sexual functioning, self-esteem, self-perceived mate value, choosiness, personality, attention to looks, and mating effort were significant predictors of poor mating performance. It was also found that men and women closely overlapped in their mating performance, while age did not predict how well people do in the domain of mating.

Keywords: Mating performance; Mismatch problem; Mate choice; Parental choice; Mating

Parental Mate Choice Manipulation Tactics: Exploring Prevalence, Sex and Personality Effects. Menelaos Apostolou, Ioulia Papageorgi. Evolutionary Psychology, Jul 2014, https://doi.org/10.1177/147470491401200307

Abstract: Parents and children are genetically related but not genetically identical, which means that their genetic interests overlap but also diverge. In the area of mating, this translates into children making mate choices that are not in the best interest of their parents. Parents may then resort to manipulation in order to influence their children's mating decisions in a way that best promotes the former's interests. This paper attempts to identify the structure of manipulation tactics that parents employ on their daughters and sons, as well as on their daughters' and sons' mates, and also to estimate their prevalence. On the basis of the structure of the derived tactics, four hypotheses are tested: Mothers are more willing than fathers to use manipulation tactics; parents are willing to use more manipulation on their daughters than on their sons; the personality of parents predicts the use of tactics on their children and on their children's mates; and the personality of children and of children's mates predicts the use of tactics on them. Evidence from two independent studies provides support for the first three hypotheses, but mixed support for the fourth hypothesis. The implications of these findings are further discussed.

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Finally, the age of parents was negatively related to their willingness to apply manipulation on their children and their children’s mates.

One possible explanation for the latter finding is that the residual reproductive value of younger parents is higher than the residual reproductive value of older parents. In other words, parents have more reproductive years ahead of them when they are younger than when they are older. In a pre-industrial context, and most probably during ancestral times, parents would control their children’s mate choices so as to arrange beneficial marriage alliances, and they could divert this cost in their own reproductive effort (Apostolou, 2014). For instance, a father could use the bridewealth he received from the marriage of his daughter to get an additional wife for himself, while a mother could use the resources derived from a beneficial alliance to mother additional children. However, these reproductive benefits are exhausted with age, which means that older parents have less to gain from controlling their children. As a consequence, there will be less intense selection pressures exercised on older parents to control mating, which in turn may result in older parents being less interested in using manipulation to influence their children’s mate choice.

Stupid human rights activists look to the other side when you pay lip service to them

Join the Chorus, Avoid the Spotlight: The Effect of Neighborhood and Social Dynamics on Human Rights Organization Shaming. Sam Bell, Chad Clay and Amanda Murdie. Journal of Conflict Resolution, https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002717727829

Abstract: Which countries are likely to be ignored for their human rights abuses? This article focuses on one particular way that cases of human rights abuse might be overlooked by human rights organizations (HROs): the relative visibility of the state’s abusiveness vis-à-vis its geographic and social peers. HROs are more likely to target abusive states that are located in regions with more HRO resources and/or are surrounded by states that demonstrate higher respect for human rights, as these abuses will stand out much more clearly. Further, human rights treaties can be used by abusive states as a form of strategic “social camouflage,” with states trying to minimize the risk of HRO attention by ratifying human rights treaties to look more like their rights-respecting peers. Using a cross-national time-series research design, this article finds much support for the argument: abusive states that “join the chorus” avoid HRO attention.


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I could have said this to you with no need to study the data. Anyone working in NGOs and reading the newspapers knows this.

Wandering thoughts about consciousness, the brain, and the commentary system of Larry Weiskrantz

Wandering thoughts about consciousness, the brain, and the commentary system of Larry Weiskrantz. Giovanni Berlucchi. Neuropsychologia, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.10.011

Highlights
•    Importance of Weiskrantz's work for a neuroscientific understanding of consciousness
•    Subjective commentaries in parallel to behavior as markers of consciousness
•    Commentaries in animals as proofs of animal consciousness
•    Conscious human beings unable to provide verbal commentaries: the locked-in syndrome
•    The midpontine pretrigeminal cat as a possible animal model of the locked-in syndrome

Abstract: Larry Weiskrantz has always pursued a keen interest in consciousness in humans and other animals by performing clever experiments and proposing clever ideas. In this rather idiosyncratic essay I selectively review some old and new evidence on real and apparent losses of consciousness in humans, new means that allow the human brain to expose its conscious awareness directly, and experiments on animals that may bridge their consciousness with that of humans.

Keywords: human consciousness; animal consciousness; brainstem sections hippocampus; locked-in syndrome

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locked-in patients are not particularly distressed by their huge behavioral limitations [...] the emotional balance is shifted toward positive emotions

Does Performance Matter? Evaluating Political Selection Along the Chinese Administrative Ladder

Does Performance Matter? Evaluating Political Selection Along the Chinese Administrative Ladder. Pierre Landry, Xiaobo Lü and Haiyan Duan. Comparative Political Studies, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2452482

Abstract: Political selection is central to the survival of all regimes. This article evaluates the relative importance of performance and political connection for the advancement of local politicians under authoritarianism. We hypothesize that in a large-scale multilevel polity, economic performance plays a greater role in promotion at lower administrative levels of government than at higher ones, even after controlling for political connections. This dualist strategy allows the ruling elites to achieve economic performance while minimizing the advancement of potentially disloyal challengers. Thus, balancing between loyalty and competence among subordinates enhances regime survival. Our empirical evidence draws on a comprehensive panel dataset of provincial, prefectural, and county-level Communist party secretaries and government executives appointed between 1999 and 2007. We find consistent evidence for our argument under various model specifications. We also explore the heterogeneous effects of performance on promotion given the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) age ineligibility rule for cadre promotion and jurisdiction characteristics.

Loyalty Can't Be Bought: Explaining Military Defection during Civilian Uprisings against Autocracies

Plana, Sara, Loyalty Can't Be Bought: Explaining Military Defection during Civilian Uprisings against Autocracies (August 17, 2017). MIT Political Science Department Research Paper No. 2017-20. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3020775

Abstract: Why do soldiers disobey orders to defend the regime against civilian protestors? Using a mixed-method approach with a time-series cross-sectional large-N analysis and cross- and within-case process-tracing, I test two competing logics: one that claims obedience follows from incentivizing loyalty and another that points to immaterial shared bonds. Contrary to the dominant stream in the literature, I provide evidence that a regime’s efforts to materially incentivize loyalty are not good predictors of whether soldiers will defend the regime in its hour of need. I argue that material incentives tend to be moot when soldiers are faced with the proximate decision of firing on civilians. Instead, other motivations come to the fore — specifically, whether soldiers are more strongly bonded to the society or to the military and which action would be the more socially costly as a result.

Keywords: Defection, Military, Uprising, Autocracies, Autocracy, Loyalty

Male aggressiveness as intrasexual contest competition in 78 societies

Carter T, Kushnick G. (2017) Male aggressiveness as intrasexual contest competition in 78 societies. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3331v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3331v1

Abstract: Sexual selection favors traits that increase mating and, thus, reproductive success. Some scholars have suggested that intrasexual selection driven by contest competition has shaped human male aggression. If this is the case, one testable hypothesis is that beliefs and behavior related to male aggression should be more prevalent in societies where the intensity and strength of sexual selection is higher, as measured by factors such as: (a) the presence and scope of polygyny; (b) the number of same-sex competitors relative to potential mates; and, (c) the amount of effort males have available to allocate to mating. Using mixed-effect linear regression models with data from 78 societies from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, we found mixed support for the hypothesis using individual variables related to male aggression, but strong support when using a composite measure of male ‘aggressiveness’. We ruled out some potential alternative explanations by controlling for spatial autocorrelation, and confounding variables such as political complexity and warfare.

Childhood Amnesia in Children -- Emotion and contextual coherence predicted memory retention

Peterson, C., Hallett, D. and Compton-Gillingham, C. (2017), Childhood Amnesia in Children: A Prospective Study Across Eight Years. Child Dev. doi:10.1111/cdev.12972

Abstract: This was a prospective study of earliest memories across 8 years for 37 children who were of age 4–9 years initially. In three interviews (initial and after 2 and 8 years) children provided their three earliest memories; those from earlier interviews that were not spontaneously provided later were cued. There was little consistency in the earliest memory or overlap across interviews in spontaneous memories. The youngest group also forgot over half their initial memories although few were forgotten by older children. For consistency of content, 25%–32% of information by former 6- to 9-year-olds was the same after 8 years, but < 10% provided by the youngest children was the same and 22% was contradictory. Emotion and contextual coherence predicted memory retention.

Female exogamy and gene pool diversification at the transition from the Final Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in central Europe

Female exogamy and gene pool diversification at the transition from the Final Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in central Europe. Corina Knipper et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 19, 2017, vol. 114 no. 38, pp 10083-10088. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1706355114

Significance: Paleogenetic and isotope data from human remains shed new light on residential rules revealing patrilocality and high female mobility in European prehistory. We show the crucial role of this institution and its impact on the transformation of population compositions over several hundred years. Evidence for an epoch-transgressing maternal relationship between two individuals demonstrates long-debated population continuity from the central European Neolithic to the Bronze Age. We demonstrate that a simple notion of “migration” cannot explain the complex human mobility of third millennium BCE societies in Eurasia. On the contrary, it appears that part of what archaeologists understand as migration is the result of large-scale institutionalized and possibly sex- and age-related individual mobility.

Abstract: Human mobility has been vigorously debated as a key factor for the spread of bronze technology and profound changes in burial practices as well as material culture in central Europe at the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. However, the relevance of individual residential changes and their importance among specific age and sex groups are still poorly understood. Here, we present ancient DNA analysis, stable isotope data of oxygen, and radiogenic isotope ratios of strontium for 84 radiocarbon-dated skeletons from seven archaeological sites of the Late Neolithic Bell Beaker Complex and the Early Bronze Age from the Lech River valley in southern Bavaria, Germany. Complete mitochondrial genomes documented a diversification of maternal lineages over time. The isotope ratios disclosed the majority of the females to be nonlocal, while this is the case for only a few males and subadults. Most nonlocal females arrived in the study area as adults, but we do not detect their offspring among the sampled individuals. The striking patterns of patrilocality and female exogamy prevailed over at least 800 y between about 2500 and 1700 BC. The persisting residential rules and even a direct kinship relation across the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age add to the archaeological evidence of continuing traditions from the Bell Beaker Complex to the Early Bronze Age. The results also attest to female mobility as a driving force for regional and supraregional communication and exchange at the dawn of the European metal ages.

Keywords: mtDNA, strontium, oxygen, kinship, human mobility

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My commentary: The authors say: "Systematic individual movements are an important factor in third millennium BCE societies in Eurasia and force us to reexamine evidence of “migration” that may actually be the result of large-scale institutionalized and possibly sex- and age-related individual mobility."

I see at least two ways to have institutionalized women mobility: 1  buying the women from other tribes; or 2  the kidnapping of women from other human groups and their becoming forced wives or slaves (this is more difficult because the women are buried like the men, which is not likely that it will be done as frequently with slaves as with the male warriors/kidnappers).

The psychology of not wanting to know

Gigerenzer, G., & Garcia-Retamero, R. (2017). Cassandra’s regret: The psychology of not wanting to know. Psychological Review, 124(2), 179-196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000055

Abstract: Ignorance is generally pictured as an unwanted state of mind, and the act of willful ignorance may raise eyebrows. Yet people do not always want to know, demonstrating a lack of curiosity at odds with theories postulating a general need for certainty, ambiguity aversion, or the Bayesian principle of total evidence. We propose a regret theory of deliberate ignorance that covers both negative feelings that may arise from foreknowledge of negative events, such as death and divorce, and positive feelings of surprise and suspense that may arise from foreknowledge of positive events, such as knowing the sex of an unborn child. We conduct the first representative nationwide studies to estimate the prevalence and predictability of deliberate ignorance for a sample of 10 events. Its prevalence is high: Between 85% and 90% of people would not want to know about upcoming negative events, and 40% to 70% prefer to remain ignorant of positive events. Only 1% of participants consistently wanted to know. We also deduce and test several predictions from the regret theory: Individuals who prefer to remain ignorant are more risk averse and more frequently buy life and legal insurance. The theory also implies the time-to-event hypothesis, which states that for the regret-prone, deliberate ignorance is more likely the nearer the event approaches. We cross-validate these findings using 2 representative national quota samples in 2 European countries. In sum, we show that deliberate ignorance exists, is related to risk aversion, and can be explained as avoiding anticipatory regret.


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My commentary: Above 86pct don't want to know when our partner will die or the cause. Nor about our death's time and cause. Nor whether our marriage will end in divorce.

Acute Physical Exercise in Humans Enhances Reconsolidation of Emotional Memories

Acute Physical Exercise in Humans Enhances Reconsolidation of Emotional Memories. Dharani Keyan and Richard Bryant. Psychoneuroendocrinology, Volume 86, December 2017, Pages 144-151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.09.019

Highlights
•    Memory reconsolidation occurs during modification after activation of memory.
•    Acute bouts of exercise proximal to learning enhances subsequent memory.
•    Acute exercise after trauma memory reactivation strengthened trauma memory.
•    Exercise during trauma memory reactivation may prolong trauma memories.

Abstract: Increasing evidence suggests that when a memory is reactivated through retrieval, it becomes temporarily vulnerable to environmental or pharmacological manipulation, which can consequently update or strengthen the memory. Physical exercise has been shown to modulate the maintenance of fear memories in animals following memory reactivation. This study investigated the effect of intense exercise in modulating the reconsolidation of trauma memories. Fifty-four undergraduate students watched a trauma film depicting the aftermath of a highway car crash. Two days later, participants engaged in either (a) 20-25 minutes of incremental cycling following a memory reactivation induction (Reactivation/Exercise), (b) 20-25 minutes of mild cycling (Reactivation/No Exercise) following memory reactivation, or (c) 20-25 minutes of incremental cycling but no memory reactivation (No Reactivation/Exercise). Saliva samples were collected to index salivary amylase and cortisol at baseline and post activity. Participants completed memory questionnaires relating to declarative and intrusive memory recall two days after memory reactivation. Reactivation/Exercise participants recalled more central details of the trauma film relative to other participants. Increased cortisol predicted better total memory recall in the Reactivation/Exercise, but not in the other conditions. These findings suggest that intense exercise during the period of memory reactivation enhances subsequent trauma memory, and provides human evidence consistent with recent findings of exercise-induced fear reconsolidation in animals.

Metaphors can give life meaning

Metaphors can give life meaning. Matthew Baldwin, Mark Landau and Trevor Swanson. Self and Identity, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2017.1368696

Abstract: Conceptual metaphor theory offers a perspective on how and when people find meaning in life. Whereas life's meaning can be difficult to grasp, metaphor compares life to a relatively more concrete and structured concept. Supporting this account, American adults (Study 1) and German undergraduates (Study 2) who framed life as a journey reported more meaning in life. The journey metaphor was particularly beneficial for individuals with low levels of perceived coherence in life (Study 2). Study 3 further explored this pattern of moderation: An accessible metaphor, compared to other life framings, benefited participants who lack a strong meaning framework. Study 4 focused on the mechanism behind metaphor's influence. Participants who imagined events from their life journey perceived stronger interrelatedness among those events as measured with an analog spatial organization task. Perceived interrelatedness in turn predicted meaning in life, particularly for individuals with a strong preference for well-structured knowledge. Finally, participants who applied their own metaphor to life expressed greater meaning (Study 5), especially those high in personal need for structure (Study 6). An internal meta-analysis of these findings provides cumulative evidence for metaphor's influence on perceived meaning in life and reveals moderating features of the individual.

Keywords: Meaning in life, conceptual metaphor, epistemic needs, the self, existential psychology, humanistic psychology

The secret to happiness: Feeling good or feeling right?

Tamir, M., Schwartz, S. H., Oishi, S., & Kim, M. Y. (2017). The secret to happiness: Feeling good or feeling right? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(10), 1448-1459.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000303

Abstract: Which emotional experiences should people pursue to optimize happiness? According to traditional subjective well-being research, the more pleasant emotions we experience, the happier we are. According to Aristotle, the more we experience the emotions we want to experience, the happier we are. We tested both predictions in a cross-cultural sample of 2,324 participants from 8 countries around the world. We assessed experienced emotions, desired emotions, and indices of well-being and depressive symptoms. Across cultures, happier people were those who more often experienced emotions they wanted to experience, whether these were pleasant (e.g., love) or unpleasant (e.g., hatred). This pattern applied even to people who wanted to feel less pleasant or more unpleasant emotions than they actually felt. Controlling for differences in experienced and desired emotions left the pattern unchanged. These findings suggest that happiness involves experiencing emotions that feel right, whether they feel good or not.


My commentary: When people asked for death at the Roman circus, they felt very well doing something cruel. We do not need to wish well or be sweet to all others, we can perfectly well hate and at the same time we may feel something really close to happiness.

Individual-sport athletes were found to be more energetic and open than team-sport athletes

Associations between personality, sports participation and athletic success. A comparison of Big Five in sporting and non-sporting adults. Patrizia Steca, Dario Baretta, , Andrea Greco, Marco D'Addario, Dario Monzani. Personality and Individual Differences. Volume 121, 15 January 2018, Pages 176–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.09.040

Highlights
•    Big Five are associated with participation and success in sports.
•    Energy and agreeableness are related to sport participation.
•    Consciousness and emotional stability are associated with sport success.
•    Individual-sport athletes are more energetic and open than team-sport athletes.
•    ESEM has been used to test for factor invariance and mean differences.

Abstract: The present study investigates whether the Big Five personality traits are different among diverse sports populations. A sample of 881 male athletes and non-athletes completed a self-report questionnaire measuring their personality traits. The Exploratory Structure Equation Modeling (ESEM) approach is adopted to test measurement invariance and mean differences among groups. The results indicate that athletes who had experienced the most success in their sport scored higher than non-athletes in each personality dimension of the Big Five, with the exception of openness, while less successful athletes scored higher than non-athletes only in extraversion and agreeableness. The more successful athletes showed higher agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability than the less successful athletes. Individual-sport athletes were found to be more energetic and open than team-sport athletes. The current findings help clarify the relationships between personality traits, sports participation and athletic success.

Keywords: Big Five personality factors; Exploratory structural equation modeling; Sport participation; Sport success; Individual and team sport

How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills?

How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills? A Meta-Ethnographic Review. Sheina Lew-Levy et al. Human Nature, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-017-9302-2

Abstract: Hunting and gathering is, evolutionarily, the defining subsistence strategy of our species. Studying how children learn foraging skills can, therefore, provide us with key data to test theories about the evolution of human life history, cognition, and social behavior. Modern foragers, with their vast cultural and environmental diversity, have mostly been studied individually. However, cross-cultural studies allow us to extrapolate forager-wide trends in how, when, and from whom hunter-gatherer children learn their subsistence skills. We perform a meta-ethnography, which allows us to systematically extract, summarize, and compare both quantitative and qualitative literature. We found 58 publications focusing on learning subsistence skills. Learning begins early in infancy, when parents take children on foraging expeditions and give them toy versions of tools. In early and middle childhood, children transition into the multi-age playgroup, where they learn skills through play, observation, and participation. By the end of middle childhood, most children are proficient food collectors. However, it is not until adolescence that adults (not necessarily parents) begin directly teaching children complex skills such as hunting and complex tool manufacture. Adolescents seek to learn innovations from adults, but they themselves do not innovate. These findings support predictive models that find social learning should occur before individual learning. Furthermore, these results show that teaching does indeed exist in hunter-gatherer societies. And, finally, though children are competent foragers by late childhood, learning to extract more complex resources, such as hunting large game, takes a lifetime.

Those that spent walking more than one h/day had a significantly lower risk of dementia than those than walked less than 0.5 h/d

Changes in time spent walking and the risk of incident dementia in older Japanese people: the Ohsaki Cohort 2006 Study. Yasutake Tomata Shu Zhang Kemmyo Sugiyama Yu Kaiho Yumi Sugawara Ichiro Tsuji. Age and Ageing, Volume 46, Issue 5, September 1 2017, Pages 857–860, https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afx078

The impact of long-term changes in physical activity during adulthood in the context of primary prevention of dementia has not been addressed previously.

Objective: To study the relationship between changes in time spent walking after middle age and incident dementia in older Japanese individuals.

[Methodology and results in the comments section.]

Conclusions: These results suggest that maintaining a higher level of physical activity after middle age may be a key strategy for prevention of dementia in older age.

Keywords: walking, physical activity, dementia, older people, cohort study

ABB robot hatches 30 per cent more eggs for Singapore egg farm

ABB robot hatches 30 per cent more eggs for Singapore egg farm. By Mai Tao.
Robotics and Automation News, Oct 8 2017
Growing demand for locally-farmed eggs prompted Seng Choon Farm, to turn to automation in an effort to increase its production capacity
http://roboticsandautomationnews.com/2017/10/08/abb-robot-hatches-30-per-cent-more-eggs-for-singapore-egg-farm/14412

In April this year, ABB installed and commissioned a robotic palletizing system at Seng Choon Farm’s 36 acre site in north-west Singapore, to support increased production output as well as the company’s future expansion plans.

Since then, the robotic palletizing system, that stacks heavy boxes and baskets of eggs onto pallets, has raised the farm’s productivity by 30 per cent.

Before the robotic system was installed, workers would manually stack the cartons and baskets of eggs onto the pallets, with a single worker lifting about 15 tons of eggs a day.

This role was rotated among seven workers throughout the week to minimize safety risks that could arise due to the high intensity of the job.

The automated palletizing system now relieves these workers from lifting the heavy loads during their shift and has enabled the farm to re-deploy them in less strenuous roles.

 Ang Boon Hua, head of robotics, ABB Singapore, says: “While the nation expands its agriculture industry, it is highly essential that automation is adopted in all new developments to ensure sustainability.

“Robotic automation is an example of a dependable solution to reduce footprint on the factory floor and ensure continuation and optimization of production.

“We are pleased to contribute to the productivity of a trusted, home-grown brand such as Seng Choon Farm and will continue to support agricultural development in Singapore through our advanced technologies.”

With the robotic palletizing system now allowing the farm to lift 20 tonnes of eggs a day, raising productivity by 30 per cent, the farm foresees a further boost in output over the next few years.

Koh Yeow Koon, managing director of Seng Choon Farm, says: “The farm’s production volume has already risen from 150 million eggs per annum previously to exceed 200 million eggs per annum.

“I am convinced that the full productivity gains derived from ABB’s robotic technology will be further realized as we increase our production volume in the near future.”

While Seng Choon Farm aims to increase production volume through expanding its farmland and rearing more hens, its production capacity is very much dependent on capacity down the production line.

Koh says: “Running a farm involves feeding chickens, clearing manure, collecting, inspecting and sorting thousands of eggs a day, and packing them into trays, boxes, and finally pallets before they can be sent out.

“Automation at every stage of production is essential in order to handle the high production volume.”

Seng Choon Farm’s implementation of the palletizing system is supported under Capability Development Grant managed by Spring Singapore – an agency of the Ministry of Trade and Industry – that helps Singapore enterprises grow.

The local statutory agriculture and food authority announced earlier this year that 36 plots of new agricultural land for farming are being made available from August 2017 onwards, in an effort to ensure the nation’s food supply resilience.

Learning the Ropes: General Experience, Task-Specific Experience, and the Output of Police Officers

Learning the Ropes: General Experience, Task-Specific Experience, and the Output of Police Officers. Gregory DeAngelo and Emily Owens. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 142, October 2017, Pages 368-377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.08.008

Highlights
•    Disentangle general from task-specific performance for law enforcement.
•    Use quasi-exogenous shocks in the form of law changes to identify impact of experience on productivity.
•    Productivity shocks in the form of a reduction in enforcement are largest for newer law enforcement.
•    We identify a systematic disparity in the likelihood a citation is issued based on experience and legal changes.

Abstract: We estimate the role that law enforcement officer experience has on the probability of punishment, using a unique data set of tickets issued by the Idaho State Police linked to human resource records. All else equal, officers issue fewer tickets earlier in their career than later in their career. Quasi-exogenous shocks to an officer’s task-specific experience, generated by law changes, cause a temporary reduction in the frequency with which a subset of troopers “use” those laws, creating disparities in the likelihood that individual citizens are cited for law violations. The reduction in ticketing in response to a law change is largest for newer troopers, and law changes later in a trooper’s career have a smaller effect on his use of that law.

Impacts of nature imagery on people in severely nature-deprived environments

Impacts of nature imagery on people in severely nature-deprived environments. Nalini Nadkarni et al. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, September 2017, Pages 395–403. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.1518/abstract

Abstract: An estimated 5.3 million Americans live or work in nature-deprived venues such as prisons, homeless shelters, and mental hospitals. Such removal from nature can result in an “extinction of experience” that can further lead to disinterest or disaffection toward natural settings, or even biophobia (fear of the natural environment). People who infrequently – or never – spend time in nature will be deprived of the numerous physical and emotional benefits that contact with nature affords. We report on the effects of vicarious nature experiences (nature videos) provided to maximum-security prison inmates for one year, and compared their emotions and behaviors to inmates who were not offered such videos. Inmates who watched nature videos reported feeling significantly calmer, less irritable, and more empathetic, and committed 26% fewer violent infractions as compared to those who did not watch the videos. Prison staff corroborated these findings. This research reinforces the value of nature exposure as a powerful tool not only for corrections administrators, but also for urban planners and policy makers, to promote socially desirable behaviors.

Winning hearts & minds (!): The dilemma of foreign aid in anti-Americanism

Winning hearts & minds (!): The dilemma of foreign aid in anti-Americanism. Efe Tokdemir. Journal of Peace Research, https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343317708831

Abstract: Foreign aid is a policy tool implemented with the purpose of fostering both hard and soft power abroad. Yet, previous research has not probed the effects of US foreign aid on public attitudes toward the US in the recipient countries. In this article, I argue that US foreign aid may actually feed anti-Americanism: aid indirectly creates winners and losers in the recipient countries, such that politically discontented people may blame the US for the survival of the prevailing regime. Drawing on Pew Research for Global Attitudes and on USAID Greenbook datasets, I focus on determining both the conditions under which foreign aid exacerbates anti-Americanism and the type of aid most likely to do this. The findings reveal that political losers of the recipient countries are more likely to express negative attitudes toward the USA as the amount of US aid increases, whereas political winners enjoy the results of US aid and view the USA positively accordingly. Moreover, the effect of US aid on attitudes toward the USA is also conditional on the regime type. While US aid increases the likelihood of anti-American attitudes among the losers in non-democratic countries, it decreases the likelihood of anti-Americanism among the losers in democratic ones. This article has important implications for policy in terms of determining how and to whom to provide aid in the context of the possible ramifications of providing aid at the individual level.

Beware of statistics -- Intrinsic Motivation and Performance: Jewish-American Soldiers in World War II

Intrinsic Motivation and Performance: Jewish-American Soldiers in World War II. Caio Waisman. Stanford Working Paper, June 2017, https://web.stanford.edu/~cwaisman/

Abstract: This paper assesses the potential influence of intrinsic motivation on individuals’ performance in the context of Jewish-American soldiers in World War II. In particular, it analyzes whether these soldiers performed differently when combating Germans as opposed to Japanese. Using medals, length of service, and medals per length of service as measures of performance and exploring a difference-in-differences empirical strategy, it finds that Jewish soldiers on average would have received fewer medals had they fought in Europe instead of the Pacific. This effect is driven by the length of service, as Jewish soldiers in Europe on average would have perished three months sooner than the ones in the Pacific. As a consequence, there is no differential effect on the number of medals received by month of service. These findings suggest that Jewish-American soldiers could have been excessively incentivized, which led them to more reckless behavior in combat and an earlier death.

Persuasion and Predation: The Effects of U.S. Military Aid and International Development Aid on Civilian Killings

Persuasion and Predation: The Effects of U.S. Military Aid and International Development Aid on Civilian Killings. Amira Jadoon. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2017.1353355

Abstract: Powerful states frequently employ foreign aid to pursue international security objectives. Yet aid's effectiveness will be undermined if it exacerbates the effects of conflict on civilians within recipient states. This article investigates how international development aid and U.S. military aid influence recipient governments' incentives and ability to target civilians. U.S. military aid has a persuasion effect on state actors, which decreases a recipient state's incentives and necessity to target civilians. Development aid flows, however, trigger a predation effect in some environments, exacerbating civilian targeting. An analysis of aid flows in 135 countries on civilian killings between 1989–2011 provides support for both the persuasion and predation effects associated with aid.

My commentary: We have no idea of what the incentives to target civilians are, and how to diminish those incentives. Any idea is welcome.

High intelligence: A risk factor for psychological and physiological overexcitabilities

High intelligence: A risk factor for psychological and physiological overexcitabilities. Ruth I. Karpinski et al. Intelligence, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2017.09.001

Highlights
•    A potential association between a hyperbrain (high IQ) and a hyperbody was examined.
•    Those with high IQ had higher risk for psychological disorders (RR 1.20 - 223.08).
•    High IQ was associated with higher risk for physiological diseases (RR 1.84 - 4.33).
•    Findings lend substantial support to a hyper brain/hyper body theory.

Abstract: High intelligence is touted as being predictive of positive outcomes including educational success and income level. However, little is known about the difficulties experienced among this population. Specifically, those with a high intellectual capacity (hyper brain) possess overexcitabilities in various domains that may predispose them to certain psychological disorders as well as physiological conditions involving elevated sensory, and altered immune and inflammatory responses (hyper body). The present study surveyed members of American Mensa, Ltd. (n = 3715) in order to explore psychoneuroimmunological (PNI) processes among those at or above the 98th percentile of intelligence. Participants were asked to self-report prevalence of both diagnosed and/or suspected mood and anxiety disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and physiological diseases that include environmental and food allergies, asthma, and autoimmune disease. High statistical significance and a remarkably high relative risk ratio of diagnoses for all examined conditions were confirmed among the Mensa group 2015 data when compared to the national average statistics. This implicates high IQ as being a potential risk factor for affective disorders, ADHD, ASD, and for increased incidence of disease related to immune dysregulation. Preliminary findings strongly support a hyper brain/hyper body association which may have substantial individual and societal implications and warrants further investigation to best identify and serve this at-risk population.