No evidence that more physically attractive women have higher estradiol or progesterone. Benedict C. Jones et al. bioRxiv, doi https://doi.org/10.1101/136515
Abstract: Putative associations between sex hormones and attractive physical characteristics in women are central to many theories of human physical attractiveness and mate choice. Although such theories have become very influential, evidence that physically attractive and unattractive women have different hormonal profiles is equivocal. Consequently, we investigated hypothesized relationships between salivary estradiol and progesterone and two aspects of women's physical attractiveness that are commonly assumed to be correlated with levels of these hormones: facial attractiveness (N=249) and waist-to-hip ratio (N=247). Our analyses revealed no evidence that women with more attractive faces or lower (i.e., more attractive) waist-to-hip ratios had higher levels of estradiol or progesterone. These results do not support the influential hypothesis that between-woman differences in physical attractiveness are related to estradiol and/or progesterone.
Thursday, January 4, 2018
We find that virtually all core assumptions and hypothesized mechanisms of posttraumatic stress disorder lack compelling or consistent empirical support
Posttraumatic stress disorder: An empirical evaluation of core assumptions. Gerald M.Rosen, Scott O. Lilienfeld. Clinical Psychology Review, Volume 28, Issue 5, June 2008, Pages 837-868, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2007.12.002
Abstract: The diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rests on several core assumptions, particularly the premise that a distinct class of traumatic events is linked to a distinct clinical syndrome. This core assumption of specific etiology ostensibly distinguishes the PTSD diagnosis from virtually all other psychiatric disorders. Additional attempts to distinguish PTSD from extant conditions have included searches for distinctive markers (e.g., biological and laboratory findings) and hypothesized underlying mechanisms (e.g., fragmentation of traumatic memory). We review the literature on PTSD's core assumptions and various attempts to validate the construct within a nomological network of distinctive correlates. We find that virtually all core assumptions and hypothesized mechanisms lack compelling or consistent empirical support. We consider the implications of these findings for conceptualizing PTSD in the forthcoming edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual.
Keywords: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Validity; Construct validity; Discriminant validity; Traumatic events;Criterion A; Symptom criteria
Abstract: The diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rests on several core assumptions, particularly the premise that a distinct class of traumatic events is linked to a distinct clinical syndrome. This core assumption of specific etiology ostensibly distinguishes the PTSD diagnosis from virtually all other psychiatric disorders. Additional attempts to distinguish PTSD from extant conditions have included searches for distinctive markers (e.g., biological and laboratory findings) and hypothesized underlying mechanisms (e.g., fragmentation of traumatic memory). We review the literature on PTSD's core assumptions and various attempts to validate the construct within a nomological network of distinctive correlates. We find that virtually all core assumptions and hypothesized mechanisms lack compelling or consistent empirical support. We consider the implications of these findings for conceptualizing PTSD in the forthcoming edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual.
Keywords: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Validity; Construct validity; Discriminant validity; Traumatic events;Criterion A; Symptom criteria
Whereas humans already prefer helpers by 3 months of age, bonobos favor hinderers, maybe from attraction to dominant individuals
Bonobos Prefer Individuals that Hinder Others over Those that Help. Christopher Krupenye, Brian Hare. Current Biology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.11.061
Highlights
• Bonobos discriminate between agents that either help or hinder others
• Whereas humans already prefer helpers by 3 months of age, bonobos favor hinderers
• Bonobos’ preference may stem from attraction to dominant individuals
• This form of prosocial preference may be derived in humans
Summary: Humans closely monitor others’ cooperative relationships [1 ; 2]. Children and adults willingly incur costs to reward helpers and punish non-helpers—even as bystanders [3; 4 ; 5]. Already by 3 months, infants favor individuals that they observe helping others [6; 7 ; 8]. This early-emerging prosocial preference may be a derived motivation that accounts for many human forms of cooperation that occur beyond dyadic interactions and are not exhibited by other animals [9 ; 10]. As the most socially tolerant nonhuman ape [11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16 ; 17] (but see [18]), bonobos (Pan paniscus) provide a powerful phylogenetic test of whether this trait is derived in humans. Bonobos are more tolerant than chimpanzees, can flexibly obtain food through cooperation, and voluntarily share food in captivity and the wild, even with strangers [ 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16 ; 17] (but see [18]). Their neural architecture exhibits a suite of characteristics associated with greater sensitivity to others [ 19 ; 20], and their sociality is hypothesized to have evolved due to selection against male aggression [ 21; 22 ; 23]. Here we show in four experiments that bonobos discriminated agents based on third-party interactions. However, they did not exhibit the human preference for helpers. Instead, they reliably favored a hinderer that obstructed another agent’s goal (experiments 1–3). In a final study (experiment 4), bonobos also chose a dominant individual over a subordinate. Bonobos’ interest in hinderers may reflect attraction to dominant individuals [24]. A preference for helpers over hinderers may therefore be derived in humans, supporting the hypothesis that prosocial preferences played a central role in the evolution of human development and cooperation.
Keywords: prosocial preference; prosocial motivation; social evaluation; third-party knowledge; cooperation; human evolution; human development; bonobo; great ape; reputation attribution
Highlights
• Bonobos discriminate between agents that either help or hinder others
• Whereas humans already prefer helpers by 3 months of age, bonobos favor hinderers
• Bonobos’ preference may stem from attraction to dominant individuals
• This form of prosocial preference may be derived in humans
Summary: Humans closely monitor others’ cooperative relationships [1 ; 2]. Children and adults willingly incur costs to reward helpers and punish non-helpers—even as bystanders [3; 4 ; 5]. Already by 3 months, infants favor individuals that they observe helping others [6; 7 ; 8]. This early-emerging prosocial preference may be a derived motivation that accounts for many human forms of cooperation that occur beyond dyadic interactions and are not exhibited by other animals [9 ; 10]. As the most socially tolerant nonhuman ape [11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16 ; 17] (but see [18]), bonobos (Pan paniscus) provide a powerful phylogenetic test of whether this trait is derived in humans. Bonobos are more tolerant than chimpanzees, can flexibly obtain food through cooperation, and voluntarily share food in captivity and the wild, even with strangers [ 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16 ; 17] (but see [18]). Their neural architecture exhibits a suite of characteristics associated with greater sensitivity to others [ 19 ; 20], and their sociality is hypothesized to have evolved due to selection against male aggression [ 21; 22 ; 23]. Here we show in four experiments that bonobos discriminated agents based on third-party interactions. However, they did not exhibit the human preference for helpers. Instead, they reliably favored a hinderer that obstructed another agent’s goal (experiments 1–3). In a final study (experiment 4), bonobos also chose a dominant individual over a subordinate. Bonobos’ interest in hinderers may reflect attraction to dominant individuals [24]. A preference for helpers over hinderers may therefore be derived in humans, supporting the hypothesis that prosocial preferences played a central role in the evolution of human development and cooperation.
Keywords: prosocial preference; prosocial motivation; social evaluation; third-party knowledge; cooperation; human evolution; human development; bonobo; great ape; reputation attribution
Historians and students asked to check on-line information often fell victim to easily manipulated features of websites, such as official-looking logos and domain names
Wineburg S., Breakstone J., McGrew S., Ortega T. (2018) Why Google Can’t Save Us. In: Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia O., Wittum G., Dengel A. (eds) Positive Learning in the Age of Information, pp 221-228, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-19567-0_13
Abstract: The Stanford History Education Group has prototyped, field tested, and validated a bank of assessments that tap civic online reasoning—the ability to judge the credibility of the information that floods young people’s smartphones, tablets, and computers. We developed 56 tasks and administered them to students across 12 states. In total, we collected and analyzed 7,804 student responses. From pre-teens to seniors in college, students struggled mightily to evaluate online information. To investigate how people determine the credibility of digital information, we sampled 45 individuals: 10 PhD historians, 10 professional fact checkers, and 25 Stanford University undergraduates. We observed them as they evaluated websites and engaged in open web searches on social and political issues. Historians and students often fell victim to easily manipulated features of websites, such as official-looking logos and domain names.
Abstract: The Stanford History Education Group has prototyped, field tested, and validated a bank of assessments that tap civic online reasoning—the ability to judge the credibility of the information that floods young people’s smartphones, tablets, and computers. We developed 56 tasks and administered them to students across 12 states. In total, we collected and analyzed 7,804 student responses. From pre-teens to seniors in college, students struggled mightily to evaluate online information. To investigate how people determine the credibility of digital information, we sampled 45 individuals: 10 PhD historians, 10 professional fact checkers, and 25 Stanford University undergraduates. We observed them as they evaluated websites and engaged in open web searches on social and political issues. Historians and students often fell victim to easily manipulated features of websites, such as official-looking logos and domain names.
In 1994, 16 pct of Democrats had a “very unfavorable” view of the GOP, now are 38 pct. Then, 17 pct of Republicans had a “very unfavorable” view of Democrats, now it is 43 pct. Mutual opinion: closed-minded, dishonest, immoral, lazy, unintelligent
The Retreat to Tribalism. David Brooks
The New York Times, Jan 1, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/opinion/the-retreat-to-tribalism.html
photo removed
[...]
[...] N.Y.U.’s Jonathan Haidt [listed] in a lecture delivered to the Manhattan Institute in November [...] some of the reasons centrifugal forces may now exceed centripetal: the loss of the common enemies we had in World War II and the Cold War, an increasingly fragmented media, the radicalization of the Republican Party, and a new form of identity politics, especially on campus.
Haidt made the interesting point that identity politics per se is not the problem. Identity politics is just political mobilization around group characteristics. The problem is that identity politics has dropped its centripetal elements and become entirely centrifugal.
[...]
From an identity politics that emphasized our common humanity, we’ve gone to an identity politics that emphasizes having a common enemy. On campus these days, current events are often depicted as pure power struggles — oppressors acting to preserve their privilege over the virtuous oppressed.
“A funny thing happens,” Haidt said, “when you take young human beings, whose minds evolved for tribal warfare and us/them thinking, and you fill those minds full of binary dimensions. You tell them that one side in each binary is good and the other is bad. You turn on their ancient tribal circuits, preparing them for battle. Many students find it thrilling; it floods them with a sense of meaning and purpose.”
The problem is that tribal common-enemy thinking tears a diverse nation apart.
[...]
In 1994, only 16 percent of Democrats had a “very unfavorable” view of the G.O.P. Now, 38 percent do. Then, only 17 percent of Republicans had a “very unfavorable” view of Democrats. Now, 43 percent do. When the Pew Research Center asked Democrats and Republicans to talk about each other, they tended to use the same words: closed-minded, dishonest, immoral, lazy, unintelligent.
[...]
Over the past two generations, however, excessive individualism and bad schooling have corroded both of those sources of cohesion.
In 1995, the French intellectual Pascal Bruckner published “The Temptation of Innocence,” in which he argued that excessive individualism paradoxically leads to in-group/out-group tribalism. Modern individualism releases each person from social obligation, but “being guided only by the lantern of his own understanding, the individual loses all assurance of a place, an order, a definition. He may have gained freedom, but he has lost security.”
In societies like ours, individuals are responsible for their own identity, happiness and success. “Everyone must sell himself as a person in order to be accepted,” Bruckner wrote. We all are constantly comparing ourselves to others and, of course, coming up short. The biggest anxiety is moral. We each have to write our own gospel that defines our own virtue.
The easiest way to do that is to tell a tribal oppressor/oppressed story and build your own innocence on your status as victim. Just about everybody can find a personal victim story. Once you’ve identified your herd’s oppressor — the neoliberal order, the media elite, white males, whatever — your goodness is secure. You have virtue without obligation. Nothing is your fault.
“What is moral order today? Not so much the reign of right-thinking people as that of right-suffering, the cult of everyday despair,” Bruckner continued. “I suffer, therefore I am worthy. … Suffering is analogous to baptism, a dubbing that inducts us into the order of a higher humanity, hoisting us above our peers.”
[...]
A version of this op-ed appears in print on January 2, 2018, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: The Retreat To Tribalism.
The New York Times, Jan 1, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/opinion/the-retreat-to-tribalism.html
photo removed
[...]
[...] N.Y.U.’s Jonathan Haidt [listed] in a lecture delivered to the Manhattan Institute in November [...] some of the reasons centrifugal forces may now exceed centripetal: the loss of the common enemies we had in World War II and the Cold War, an increasingly fragmented media, the radicalization of the Republican Party, and a new form of identity politics, especially on campus.
Haidt made the interesting point that identity politics per se is not the problem. Identity politics is just political mobilization around group characteristics. The problem is that identity politics has dropped its centripetal elements and become entirely centrifugal.
[...]
From an identity politics that emphasized our common humanity, we’ve gone to an identity politics that emphasizes having a common enemy. On campus these days, current events are often depicted as pure power struggles — oppressors acting to preserve their privilege over the virtuous oppressed.
“A funny thing happens,” Haidt said, “when you take young human beings, whose minds evolved for tribal warfare and us/them thinking, and you fill those minds full of binary dimensions. You tell them that one side in each binary is good and the other is bad. You turn on their ancient tribal circuits, preparing them for battle. Many students find it thrilling; it floods them with a sense of meaning and purpose.”
The problem is that tribal common-enemy thinking tears a diverse nation apart.
[...]
In 1994, only 16 percent of Democrats had a “very unfavorable” view of the G.O.P. Now, 38 percent do. Then, only 17 percent of Republicans had a “very unfavorable” view of Democrats. Now, 43 percent do. When the Pew Research Center asked Democrats and Republicans to talk about each other, they tended to use the same words: closed-minded, dishonest, immoral, lazy, unintelligent.
[...]
Over the past two generations, however, excessive individualism and bad schooling have corroded both of those sources of cohesion.
In 1995, the French intellectual Pascal Bruckner published “The Temptation of Innocence,” in which he argued that excessive individualism paradoxically leads to in-group/out-group tribalism. Modern individualism releases each person from social obligation, but “being guided only by the lantern of his own understanding, the individual loses all assurance of a place, an order, a definition. He may have gained freedom, but he has lost security.”
In societies like ours, individuals are responsible for their own identity, happiness and success. “Everyone must sell himself as a person in order to be accepted,” Bruckner wrote. We all are constantly comparing ourselves to others and, of course, coming up short. The biggest anxiety is moral. We each have to write our own gospel that defines our own virtue.
The easiest way to do that is to tell a tribal oppressor/oppressed story and build your own innocence on your status as victim. Just about everybody can find a personal victim story. Once you’ve identified your herd’s oppressor — the neoliberal order, the media elite, white males, whatever — your goodness is secure. You have virtue without obligation. Nothing is your fault.
“What is moral order today? Not so much the reign of right-thinking people as that of right-suffering, the cult of everyday despair,” Bruckner continued. “I suffer, therefore I am worthy. … Suffering is analogous to baptism, a dubbing that inducts us into the order of a higher humanity, hoisting us above our peers.”
[...]
A version of this op-ed appears in print on January 2, 2018, on Page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: The Retreat To Tribalism.
Lower resting heart rate predicts the ability to detect deception: The rate indicates the level of autonomous arousal, the level of arousal influences information processing
Resting heart rate: A physiological predicator of lie detection ability. Geoffrey Duran, Isabelle Tapiero, George A. Michael. Physiology & Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.01.002
Highlights
• An investigation of the ability to detect deception is proposed.
• Resting heart rate predicts the ability to detect deception.
• Resting heart rate indicates the level of autonomous arousal.
• The level of arousal influences information processing.
• Resting heart rate helps to distinguish between poor and good deception detectors.
Abstract: This study explored a psychophysiological measure, Resting Heart Rate (RHR), as a predicator of the ability to detect lies. RHR was recorded for 1 min and followed by a deception detection task in which participants were required to judge 24 videos of people describing a real-life event (50% truthful, 50% deceptive). Multiple regression analyses showed that, among other individual characteristics, only RHR predicted the ability to distinguish truth from lies. Importantly, the prediction was negative. This result suggests that the higher the RHR, the worse the detection of lies. Since the RHR is considered to be a physiological trait indexing autonomous arousal, and since high-arousal states can lead to restricted attentional resources, we suggest that limited selection and utilization of cues due to restricted attention is the reason why higher RHR leads to poor deception detection.
Keywords: Detection of deception; Resting heart rate; Arousal; Cue utilization theory
Highlights
• An investigation of the ability to detect deception is proposed.
• Resting heart rate predicts the ability to detect deception.
• Resting heart rate indicates the level of autonomous arousal.
• The level of arousal influences information processing.
• Resting heart rate helps to distinguish between poor and good deception detectors.
Abstract: This study explored a psychophysiological measure, Resting Heart Rate (RHR), as a predicator of the ability to detect lies. RHR was recorded for 1 min and followed by a deception detection task in which participants were required to judge 24 videos of people describing a real-life event (50% truthful, 50% deceptive). Multiple regression analyses showed that, among other individual characteristics, only RHR predicted the ability to distinguish truth from lies. Importantly, the prediction was negative. This result suggests that the higher the RHR, the worse the detection of lies. Since the RHR is considered to be a physiological trait indexing autonomous arousal, and since high-arousal states can lead to restricted attentional resources, we suggest that limited selection and utilization of cues due to restricted attention is the reason why higher RHR leads to poor deception detection.
Keywords: Detection of deception; Resting heart rate; Arousal; Cue utilization theory
Drawing on an analysis of 1.2 million vehicle movements, we show that reduced road/street illuminance levels are associated with increased car speeding
Blind haste: As light decreases, speeding increases. Emanuel de Bellis et al. PLOS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188951
Abstract: Worldwide, more than one million people die on the roads each year. A third of these fatal accidents are attributed to speeding, with properties of the individual driver and the environment regarded as key contributing factors. We examine real-world speeding behavior and its interaction with illuminance, an environmental property defined as the luminous flux incident on a surface. Drawing on an analysis of 1.2 million vehicle movements, we show that reduced illuminance levels are associated with increased speeding. This relationship persists when we control for factors known to influence speeding (e.g., fluctuations in traffic volume) and consider proxies of illuminance (e.g., sight distance). Our findings add to a long-standing debate about how the quality of visual conditions affects drivers’ speed perception and driving speed. Policy makers can intervene by educating drivers about the inverse illuminance‒speeding relationship and by testing how improved vehicle headlights and smart road lighting can attenuate speeding.
Abstract: Worldwide, more than one million people die on the roads each year. A third of these fatal accidents are attributed to speeding, with properties of the individual driver and the environment regarded as key contributing factors. We examine real-world speeding behavior and its interaction with illuminance, an environmental property defined as the luminous flux incident on a surface. Drawing on an analysis of 1.2 million vehicle movements, we show that reduced illuminance levels are associated with increased speeding. This relationship persists when we control for factors known to influence speeding (e.g., fluctuations in traffic volume) and consider proxies of illuminance (e.g., sight distance). Our findings add to a long-standing debate about how the quality of visual conditions affects drivers’ speed perception and driving speed. Policy makers can intervene by educating drivers about the inverse illuminance‒speeding relationship and by testing how improved vehicle headlights and smart road lighting can attenuate speeding.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
The five-dimensional curiosity scale: Capturing the bandwidth of curiosity and identifying four unique subgroups of curious people
Kashdan, T.B., Stiksma, M.C.,Disabato, D., McKnight, P.E., Bekier, J., Kaji, J., & Lazarus, R. (in press). The five-dimensional curiosity scale: Capturing the bandwidth of curiosity and identifying four unique subgroups of curious people. Journal of Research in Personality, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321471978_The_Five-Dimensional_Curiosity_Scale_Capturing_the_bandwidth_of_curiosity_and_identifying_four_unique_subgroups_of_curious_people
Abstract: Since the origins of psychology, curiosity has occupied a pivotal position in the study of motivation, emotion, and cognition; and disciplines as far-ranging as biology, economics, robotics, and leadership. Theorists have disagreed about the basic tenets of curiosity; some researchers contend that the rewards arise when resolving ambiguity and uncertainty whereas others argue that being curious is an intrinsically pleasurable experience. Three studies were conducted to consolidate competing theories and isolated bodies of research. Using data from a community survey of 508 adults (Study 1), 403 adults on MTurk (Study 2), and a nationally representative household survey of 3,000 adults (Study 3), we found evidence for five distinct factors: Joyous Exploration, Deprivation Sensitivity, Stress Tolerance, Social Curiosity, and Thrill Seeking - forming The Five-Dimensional Curiosity Scale (5DC). Each factor had substantive relations with a battery of personality, emotion, and well-being measures. Taking advantage of this multidimensional model, we found evidence for four distinct types of curious people in Study 3 referred to as The Fascinated (28% of sample), Problem Solvers (28%), Empathizers (25%), and Avoiders (19%). Subgroups differed in their passionate interests, areas of expertise, consumer behavior, and social media use; challenging an assumption that there is a homogenous population to be discriminated on a single dimension from incurious to very curious. With greater bandwidth and predictive power, the 5DC offers new opportunities for research on origins, consequences, life outcomes, and intervention strategies to enhance curiosity.
---
What Are the Five Dimensions of Curiosity? Todd B. Kashdan
A comprehensive new model to understand and measure curiosity.
Jan 02, 2018
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/curious/201801/what-are-the-five-dimensions-curiosity
Extracts:
Upon collecting data from a nationally representative sample of 508 adults, and then 403 adults online, and then another nationally representative sample of 3,000 adults, we uncovered 5 dimensions of curiosity:
1. Joyous Exploration - this is the prototype of curiosity – the recognition and desire to seek out new knowledge and information, and the subsequent joy of learning and growing.
2. Deprivation Sensitivity - this dimension has a distinct emotional tone, with anxiety and tension being more prominent than joy – pondering abstract or complex ideas, trying to solve problems, and seeking to reduce gaps in knowledge.
3. Stress Tolerance - this dimension is about the willingness to embrace the doubt, confusion, anxiety, and other forms of distress that arise from exploring new, unexpected, complex, mysterious, or obscure events.
4. Social Curiosity - wanting to know what other people are thinking and doing by observing, talking, or listening in to conversations.
5. Thrill Seeking - the willingness to take physical, social, and financial risks to acquire varied, complex, and intense experiences.
[...]
And upon treating these dimensions as part of a single profile, we found evidence for 4 types of curious people:
1. The Fascinated - high on all dimensions of curiosity, particularly Joyous Exploration
2. Problem Solvers - high on Deprivation Sensitivity, medium on other dimensions
3. Empathizers - high on Social Curiosity, medium on other dimensions
4. Avoiders - low on all dimensions, particularly Stress Tolerance
Abstract: Since the origins of psychology, curiosity has occupied a pivotal position in the study of motivation, emotion, and cognition; and disciplines as far-ranging as biology, economics, robotics, and leadership. Theorists have disagreed about the basic tenets of curiosity; some researchers contend that the rewards arise when resolving ambiguity and uncertainty whereas others argue that being curious is an intrinsically pleasurable experience. Three studies were conducted to consolidate competing theories and isolated bodies of research. Using data from a community survey of 508 adults (Study 1), 403 adults on MTurk (Study 2), and a nationally representative household survey of 3,000 adults (Study 3), we found evidence for five distinct factors: Joyous Exploration, Deprivation Sensitivity, Stress Tolerance, Social Curiosity, and Thrill Seeking - forming The Five-Dimensional Curiosity Scale (5DC). Each factor had substantive relations with a battery of personality, emotion, and well-being measures. Taking advantage of this multidimensional model, we found evidence for four distinct types of curious people in Study 3 referred to as The Fascinated (28% of sample), Problem Solvers (28%), Empathizers (25%), and Avoiders (19%). Subgroups differed in their passionate interests, areas of expertise, consumer behavior, and social media use; challenging an assumption that there is a homogenous population to be discriminated on a single dimension from incurious to very curious. With greater bandwidth and predictive power, the 5DC offers new opportunities for research on origins, consequences, life outcomes, and intervention strategies to enhance curiosity.
---
What Are the Five Dimensions of Curiosity? Todd B. Kashdan
A comprehensive new model to understand and measure curiosity.
Jan 02, 2018
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/curious/201801/what-are-the-five-dimensions-curiosity
Extracts:
Upon collecting data from a nationally representative sample of 508 adults, and then 403 adults online, and then another nationally representative sample of 3,000 adults, we uncovered 5 dimensions of curiosity:
1. Joyous Exploration - this is the prototype of curiosity – the recognition and desire to seek out new knowledge and information, and the subsequent joy of learning and growing.
2. Deprivation Sensitivity - this dimension has a distinct emotional tone, with anxiety and tension being more prominent than joy – pondering abstract or complex ideas, trying to solve problems, and seeking to reduce gaps in knowledge.
3. Stress Tolerance - this dimension is about the willingness to embrace the doubt, confusion, anxiety, and other forms of distress that arise from exploring new, unexpected, complex, mysterious, or obscure events.
4. Social Curiosity - wanting to know what other people are thinking and doing by observing, talking, or listening in to conversations.
5. Thrill Seeking - the willingness to take physical, social, and financial risks to acquire varied, complex, and intense experiences.
[...]
And upon treating these dimensions as part of a single profile, we found evidence for 4 types of curious people:
1. The Fascinated - high on all dimensions of curiosity, particularly Joyous Exploration
2. Problem Solvers - high on Deprivation Sensitivity, medium on other dimensions
3. Empathizers - high on Social Curiosity, medium on other dimensions
4. Avoiders - low on all dimensions, particularly Stress Tolerance
Identification of acutely sick people and facial cues of sickness
Identification of acutely sick people and facial cues of sickness. John Axelsson, Tina Sundelin, Mats J. Olsson, Kimmo Sorjonen, Charlotte Axelsson, Julie Lasselin, Mats Lekander. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2430
Abstract: Detection and avoidance of sick individuals have been proposed as essential components in a behavioural defence against disease, limiting the risk of contamination. However, almost no knowledge exists on whether humans can detect sick individuals, and if so by what cues. Here, we demonstrate that untrained people can identify sick individuals above chance level by looking at facial photos taken 2 h after injection with a bacterial stimulus inducing an immune response (2.0 ng kg−1 lipopolysaccharide) or placebo, the global sensitivity index being d′ = 0.405. Signal detection analysis (receiver operating characteristic curve area) showed an area of 0.62 (95% confidence intervals 0.60–0.63). Acutely sick people were rated by naive observers as having paler lips and skin, a more swollen face, droopier corners of the mouth, more hanging eyelids, redder eyes, and less glossy and patchy skin, as well as appearing more tired. Our findings suggest that facial cues associated with the skin, mouth and eyes can aid in the detection of acutely sick and potentially contagious people.
Abstract: Detection and avoidance of sick individuals have been proposed as essential components in a behavioural defence against disease, limiting the risk of contamination. However, almost no knowledge exists on whether humans can detect sick individuals, and if so by what cues. Here, we demonstrate that untrained people can identify sick individuals above chance level by looking at facial photos taken 2 h after injection with a bacterial stimulus inducing an immune response (2.0 ng kg−1 lipopolysaccharide) or placebo, the global sensitivity index being d′ = 0.405. Signal detection analysis (receiver operating characteristic curve area) showed an area of 0.62 (95% confidence intervals 0.60–0.63). Acutely sick people were rated by naive observers as having paler lips and skin, a more swollen face, droopier corners of the mouth, more hanging eyelids, redder eyes, and less glossy and patchy skin, as well as appearing more tired. Our findings suggest that facial cues associated with the skin, mouth and eyes can aid in the detection of acutely sick and potentially contagious people.
Openness to experience, rather than intellectual curiosity, is the investment personality trait that broadly benefits learning and adult intelligence
Better Open Than Intellectual: The Benefits of Investment Personality Traits for Learning. Sophie von Stumm. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217744526
Abstract: The investment theory of adult intelligence posits that individual differences in knowledge attainment result from people’s differences in cognitive ability and their propensity to apply and invest that ability, which is referred to as investment personality traits. Here, we differentiated intellectual (i.e., intellectual curiosity) and nonintellectual investment (i.e., openness to experience), and we tested their respective predictive validity for knowledge attainment in four independent lab-based studies (overall N = 649). Openness to experience was positively associated with knowledge attainment across all four studies, and this effect was by and large independent of cognitive ability. By contrast, intellectual curiosity was not related to knowledge attainment. The findings suggest that openness to experience, rather than intellectual curiosity, is the investment personality trait that broadly benefits learning and adult intelligence.
Keywords: investment personality traits, openness, intellectual curiosity, intelligence, learning
Abstract: The investment theory of adult intelligence posits that individual differences in knowledge attainment result from people’s differences in cognitive ability and their propensity to apply and invest that ability, which is referred to as investment personality traits. Here, we differentiated intellectual (i.e., intellectual curiosity) and nonintellectual investment (i.e., openness to experience), and we tested their respective predictive validity for knowledge attainment in four independent lab-based studies (overall N = 649). Openness to experience was positively associated with knowledge attainment across all four studies, and this effect was by and large independent of cognitive ability. By contrast, intellectual curiosity was not related to knowledge attainment. The findings suggest that openness to experience, rather than intellectual curiosity, is the investment personality trait that broadly benefits learning and adult intelligence.
Keywords: investment personality traits, openness, intellectual curiosity, intelligence, learning
People are often uncomfortable dealing with financial decisions 'cause they perceive financial decisions – more so than decisions in many other equally complex and important domains – as compatible with a cold, analytical mode of thinking and as incompatible with feelings and emotions
Park, Jane Jeongin and Sela, Aner, Not My Type: Why Affective Decision-Makers Are Reluctant to Make Financial Decisions (May 10, 2017). Journal of Consumer Research, 2018. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2966299 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2966299
Abstract: Why are people often uncomfortable dealing with financial decisions? We propose that people perceive financial decisions – more so than decisions in many other equally complex and important domains – as compatible with a cold, analytical mode of thinking and as incompatible with feelings and emotions. Consequently, the more people perceive themselves as inclined to rely on affect in their decisions, the more they experience self-concept incongruity with financial decisions (i.e., feeling that financial decisions are “not them”), and consequently show an increased tendency to avoid such decisions. Five studies demonstrate this phenomenon using both consequential and hypothetical decisions, provide evidence for the proposed mechanism, and rule out alternative accounts, including perceived financial knowledge, expertise and self-efficacy perceptions, decision confidence, and preference for numerical information. The findings contribute to research on thinking styles and decision avoidance, and they underscore a characteristic of financial decisions that makes them stand out among many other decision types. In addition to their theoretical significance, the findings have practical implications for the communication of financial products and services.
Keywords: Financial decisions, thinking styles, decision avoidance, analytical thinking, emotions
Abstract: Why are people often uncomfortable dealing with financial decisions? We propose that people perceive financial decisions – more so than decisions in many other equally complex and important domains – as compatible with a cold, analytical mode of thinking and as incompatible with feelings and emotions. Consequently, the more people perceive themselves as inclined to rely on affect in their decisions, the more they experience self-concept incongruity with financial decisions (i.e., feeling that financial decisions are “not them”), and consequently show an increased tendency to avoid such decisions. Five studies demonstrate this phenomenon using both consequential and hypothetical decisions, provide evidence for the proposed mechanism, and rule out alternative accounts, including perceived financial knowledge, expertise and self-efficacy perceptions, decision confidence, and preference for numerical information. The findings contribute to research on thinking styles and decision avoidance, and they underscore a characteristic of financial decisions that makes them stand out among many other decision types. In addition to their theoretical significance, the findings have practical implications for the communication of financial products and services.
Keywords: Financial decisions, thinking styles, decision avoidance, analytical thinking, emotions
Sexual identity, attraction and behaviour in Britain: The implications of using different dimensions of sexual orientation to estimate the size of sexual minority populations
Sexual identity, attraction and behaviour in Britain: The implications of using different dimensions of sexual orientation to estimate the size of sexual minority populations and inform public health interventions. Rebecca S. Geary et al. PLoS One, 10.1371/journal.pone.0189607
Abstract
Background: Sexual orientation encompasses three dimensions: sexual identity, attraction and behaviour. There is increasing demand for data on sexual orientation to meet equality legislation, monitor potential inequalities and address public health needs. We present estimates of all three dimensions and their overlap in British men and women, and consider the implications for health services, research and the development and evaluation of public health interventions.
Methods: Analyses of data from Britain’s third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, a probability sample survey (15,162 people aged 16–74 years) undertaken in 2010–2012.
Findings: A lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) identity was reported by 2·5% of men and 2·4% of women, whilst 6·5% of men and 11·5% of women reported any same-sex attraction and 5·5% of men and 6·1% of women reported ever experience of same-sex sex. This equates to approximately 547,000 men and 546,000 women aged 16–74 in Britain self-identifying as LGB and 1,204,000 men and 1,389,000 women ever having experience of same-sex sex. Of those reporting same-sex sex in the past 5 years, 28% of men and 45% of women identified as heterosexual.
Interpretation: There is large variation in the size of sexual minority populations depending on the dimension applied, with implications for the design of epidemiological studies, targeting and monitoring of public health interventions and estimating population-based denominators. There is also substantial diversity on an individual level between identity, behaviour and attraction, adding to the complexity of delivering appropriate services and interventions.
Abstract
Background: Sexual orientation encompasses three dimensions: sexual identity, attraction and behaviour. There is increasing demand for data on sexual orientation to meet equality legislation, monitor potential inequalities and address public health needs. We present estimates of all three dimensions and their overlap in British men and women, and consider the implications for health services, research and the development and evaluation of public health interventions.
Methods: Analyses of data from Britain’s third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, a probability sample survey (15,162 people aged 16–74 years) undertaken in 2010–2012.
Findings: A lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) identity was reported by 2·5% of men and 2·4% of women, whilst 6·5% of men and 11·5% of women reported any same-sex attraction and 5·5% of men and 6·1% of women reported ever experience of same-sex sex. This equates to approximately 547,000 men and 546,000 women aged 16–74 in Britain self-identifying as LGB and 1,204,000 men and 1,389,000 women ever having experience of same-sex sex. Of those reporting same-sex sex in the past 5 years, 28% of men and 45% of women identified as heterosexual.
Interpretation: There is large variation in the size of sexual minority populations depending on the dimension applied, with implications for the design of epidemiological studies, targeting and monitoring of public health interventions and estimating population-based denominators. There is also substantial diversity on an individual level between identity, behaviour and attraction, adding to the complexity of delivering appropriate services and interventions.
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
The formation of creative clusters is not preceded by increases in city size. Instead, the emergence of city institutions protecting economic and political freedoms facilitates the attraction and production of creative talent
Serafinelli, Michel and Tabellini, Guido, Creativity Over Time and Space
(October 2017). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP12365. Available at SSRN:
https://ssrn.com/abstract=3053893
Abstract: Creativity is often highly concentrated in time and space, and across different domains. What explains the formation and decay of clusters of creativity? In this paper we match data on thousands of notable individuals born in Europe between the XIth and the XIXth century with historical data on city institutions and population. After documenting several stylized facts, we show that the formation of creative clusters is not preceded by increases in city size. Instead, the emergence of city institutions protecting economic and political freedoms facilitates the attraction and production of creative talent.
Keywords: agglomeration, Gravity, Immigration, Innovation, Political Institutions
Abstract: Creativity is often highly concentrated in time and space, and across different domains. What explains the formation and decay of clusters of creativity? In this paper we match data on thousands of notable individuals born in Europe between the XIth and the XIXth century with historical data on city institutions and population. After documenting several stylized facts, we show that the formation of creative clusters is not preceded by increases in city size. Instead, the emergence of city institutions protecting economic and political freedoms facilitates the attraction and production of creative talent.
Keywords: agglomeration, Gravity, Immigration, Innovation, Political Institutions
Perfectionism Is Increasing Over Time: A Meta-Analysis of Birth Cohort Differences From 1989 to 2016
Curran, T., & Hill, A. P. (2017, December 28). Perfectionism Is Increasing Over Time: A Meta-Analysis of Birth Cohort Differences From 1989 to 2016. Psychological Bulletin, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bul000013
From the 1980s onward, neoliberal governance in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom has emphasized competitive individualism and people have seemingly responded, in kind, by agitating to perfect themselves and their lifestyles. In this study, the authors examine whether cultural changes have coincided with an increase in multidimensional perfectionism in college students over the last 27 years. Their analyses are based on 164 samples and 41,641 American, Canadian, and British college students, who completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) between 1989 and 2016 (70.92% female, median age = 20.66). Cross-temporal meta-analysis revealed that levels of self-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, and other-oriented perfectionism have linearly increased. These trends remained when controlling for gender and between-country differences in perfectionism scores. Overall, in order of magnitude of the observed increase, the findings indicate that recent generations of young people perceive that others are more demanding of them, are more demanding of others, and are more demanding of themselves.
Keywords: personality, culture, neoliberalism, psychopathology
From the 1980s onward, neoliberal governance in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom has emphasized competitive individualism and people have seemingly responded, in kind, by agitating to perfect themselves and their lifestyles. In this study, the authors examine whether cultural changes have coincided with an increase in multidimensional perfectionism in college students over the last 27 years. Their analyses are based on 164 samples and 41,641 American, Canadian, and British college students, who completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) between 1989 and 2016 (70.92% female, median age = 20.66). Cross-temporal meta-analysis revealed that levels of self-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, and other-oriented perfectionism have linearly increased. These trends remained when controlling for gender and between-country differences in perfectionism scores. Overall, in order of magnitude of the observed increase, the findings indicate that recent generations of young people perceive that others are more demanding of them, are more demanding of others, and are more demanding of themselves.
Keywords: personality, culture, neoliberalism, psychopathology
Swearing generally resulted in poorer impressions being formed. Female timeline owners who did not swear were considered particularly attractive. Men perceived female timeline owners who swore as more physically attractive, but less task attractive
Westrop, Sophie, Emily Nordmann, Gillian Bruce, and Graham G Scott. 2018. “F*c*book: Swearing Impacts Impression Formation on Social Media”. PsyArXiv. January 2. psyarxiv.com/wvcs
Abstract: The language we use can influence the impressions others form of us. Swearing is a taboo linguistic category often used offline with striking and often gender-specific results. Swear words are employed in informal online contexts such as social networks but their impact in such domains is unclear. To investigate the effect of swearing in online impression formation we asked 276 participants to view Facebook timelines containing swearing or no swearing, and form impressions of the timeline owners on dimensions of attractiveness, professionalism, and credibility. All data and code is available at https://osf.io/acpgw/. Swearing generally resulted in poorer impressions being formed. Female timeline owners who did not swear were considered particularly attractive. Men perceived female timeline owners who swore as more physically attractive, but less task attractive. Results are discussed in relation to online impression formation and employability.
Abstract: The language we use can influence the impressions others form of us. Swearing is a taboo linguistic category often used offline with striking and often gender-specific results. Swear words are employed in informal online contexts such as social networks but their impact in such domains is unclear. To investigate the effect of swearing in online impression formation we asked 276 participants to view Facebook timelines containing swearing or no swearing, and form impressions of the timeline owners on dimensions of attractiveness, professionalism, and credibility. All data and code is available at https://osf.io/acpgw/. Swearing generally resulted in poorer impressions being formed. Female timeline owners who did not swear were considered particularly attractive. Men perceived female timeline owners who swore as more physically attractive, but less task attractive. Results are discussed in relation to online impression formation and employability.
Irrational choice behavior in human and nonhuman primates (macaques, capuchins)
Irrational choice behavior in human and nonhuman primates. Bonnie M. Perdue and Ella R. Brown. Animal Cognition, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-017-1156-9
Abstract: Choice behavior in humans has motivated a large body of research with a focus on whether decisions can be considered to be rational. In general, humans prefer having choice, as do a number of other species that have been tested, even though having increased choice does not necessarily yield a positive outcome. Humans have been found to choose an option more often only because the opportunity to select it was diminishing, an example of a deviation from economic rationality. Here we extend this paradigm to nonhuman primates in an effort to understand the mechanisms underlying this finding. In this study, we presented two groups of laboratory monkeys, capuchins (Cebus apella) and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), as well as human subjects, with a computerized task in which subjects were presented with two differently colored icons. When the subject selected an icon, differing numbers of food pellets were dispensed (or points were assigned), making each icon correspond to a certain level of risk (one icon yielded 1 or 4 pellets/points and the other yielded 2 or 3). Initially, both options remained constantly available and we established choice preference scores for each subject. Then, we assessed preference patterns once the options were not continuously available. Specifically, choosing one icon would cause the other to shrink in size on the screen and eventually disappear if never selected. Selecting it would restore it to its full size. As predicted, humans shifted their risk preferences in the diminishing options phase, choosing to click on both icons more equally in order to keep both options available. At the group level, capuchin monkeys showed this pattern as well, but there was a great deal of individual variability in both capuchins and macaques. The present work suggests that there is some degree of continuity between human and nonhuman primates in the desire to have choice simply for the sake of having choice.
Abstract: Choice behavior in humans has motivated a large body of research with a focus on whether decisions can be considered to be rational. In general, humans prefer having choice, as do a number of other species that have been tested, even though having increased choice does not necessarily yield a positive outcome. Humans have been found to choose an option more often only because the opportunity to select it was diminishing, an example of a deviation from economic rationality. Here we extend this paradigm to nonhuman primates in an effort to understand the mechanisms underlying this finding. In this study, we presented two groups of laboratory monkeys, capuchins (Cebus apella) and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), as well as human subjects, with a computerized task in which subjects were presented with two differently colored icons. When the subject selected an icon, differing numbers of food pellets were dispensed (or points were assigned), making each icon correspond to a certain level of risk (one icon yielded 1 or 4 pellets/points and the other yielded 2 or 3). Initially, both options remained constantly available and we established choice preference scores for each subject. Then, we assessed preference patterns once the options were not continuously available. Specifically, choosing one icon would cause the other to shrink in size on the screen and eventually disappear if never selected. Selecting it would restore it to its full size. As predicted, humans shifted their risk preferences in the diminishing options phase, choosing to click on both icons more equally in order to keep both options available. At the group level, capuchin monkeys showed this pattern as well, but there was a great deal of individual variability in both capuchins and macaques. The present work suggests that there is some degree of continuity between human and nonhuman primates in the desire to have choice simply for the sake of having choice.
The dead are intuited to survive death, whereas persistent vegetative state patients are intuited as more dead than the dead
Dead-Survivors, the Living Dead, and Concepts of Death. K. Mitch Hodge. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13164-017-0377-9
Abstract: The author introduces and critically analyzes two recent, curious findings and their accompanying explanations regarding how the folk intuits the capabilities of the dead and those in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). The dead are intuited to survive death, whereas PVS patients are intuited as more dead than the dead. Current explanations of these curious findings rely on how the folk is said to conceive of death and the dead: either as the annihilation of the person (via the secular conception of death), or that person’s continuation as a disembodied being (via folk dualism). The author argues that these two conceptions are incompatible and inconsistent with each other and the evidence. Contrariwise, the author argues that the folk intuition about dead-survivors and the living dead are more easily explained by appealing to cross-culturally established concepts: the folk biological concept of death the existential (metaphorical) concept of death, and the concept of social death.
Check also Using facial electromyography to detect preserved emotional processing in disorders of consciousness: A proof-of-principle study. Chris M.Fiacconi, Adrian M.Owen. Clinical Neurophysiology, Volume 127, Issue 9, September 2016, Pages 3000-3006. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/10/despite-being-in-vegetative-state-some.html
Abstract: The author introduces and critically analyzes two recent, curious findings and their accompanying explanations regarding how the folk intuits the capabilities of the dead and those in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). The dead are intuited to survive death, whereas PVS patients are intuited as more dead than the dead. Current explanations of these curious findings rely on how the folk is said to conceive of death and the dead: either as the annihilation of the person (via the secular conception of death), or that person’s continuation as a disembodied being (via folk dualism). The author argues that these two conceptions are incompatible and inconsistent with each other and the evidence. Contrariwise, the author argues that the folk intuition about dead-survivors and the living dead are more easily explained by appealing to cross-culturally established concepts: the folk biological concept of death the existential (metaphorical) concept of death, and the concept of social death.
Check also Using facial electromyography to detect preserved emotional processing in disorders of consciousness: A proof-of-principle study. Chris M.Fiacconi, Adrian M.Owen. Clinical Neurophysiology, Volume 127, Issue 9, September 2016, Pages 3000-3006. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/10/despite-being-in-vegetative-state-some.html
Twitter versus Facebook: Comparing incivility, impoliteness, and deliberative attributes
Twitter versus Facebook: Comparing incivility, impoliteness, and deliberative attributes. Mustafa Oz, Pei Zheng, Gina Masullo Chen. New Media & Society, December 31 2017, https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817749516
Abstract: Using two quantitative methods, this study sought to understand whether user-generated posts would vary in frequency of incivility, impoliteness, and deliberative attributes on Twitter versus Facebook. A quantitative content analysis (N = 1458) revealed that posts responding to the White House’s tweets were significantly more uncivil and impolite and less deliberative than responses to White House Facebook posts. Also, comments on posts that concerned sensitive topics (such as same-sex marriage) were more uncivil, impolite, and deliberative than comments regarding less sensitive topics (such as technology). An experiment (N = 198) showed that people were more deliberative when responding to White House Facebook posts, compared with White House tweets, but no differences were found for incivility and impoliteness. Results suggest that both the varying affordances of the two platforms and the fact that the two sites may attract different types of people might explain these results.
Keywords: Impoliteness, incivility, public deliberation, social media
Abstract: Using two quantitative methods, this study sought to understand whether user-generated posts would vary in frequency of incivility, impoliteness, and deliberative attributes on Twitter versus Facebook. A quantitative content analysis (N = 1458) revealed that posts responding to the White House’s tweets were significantly more uncivil and impolite and less deliberative than responses to White House Facebook posts. Also, comments on posts that concerned sensitive topics (such as same-sex marriage) were more uncivil, impolite, and deliberative than comments regarding less sensitive topics (such as technology). An experiment (N = 198) showed that people were more deliberative when responding to White House Facebook posts, compared with White House tweets, but no differences were found for incivility and impoliteness. Results suggest that both the varying affordances of the two platforms and the fact that the two sites may attract different types of people might explain these results.
Keywords: Impoliteness, incivility, public deliberation, social media
Gender Differences in Emotion Explain Women’s Lower Immoral Intentions and Harsher Moral Condemnation
Gender Differences in Emotion Explain Women’s Lower Immoral Intentions and Harsher Moral Condemnation. Sarah J. Ward, Laura A. King. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, January 1, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217744525
Abstract: Why do men view morally questionable behaviors as more permissible than women do? Five studies investigated emotional factors as explanations for gender differences in moral decision-making. In Study 1 (N = 324), gender differences in perceptions of moral wrongness were explained by guilt and shame proneness. Studies 2a and 2b (combined N = 562) demonstrated that instructions to adopt an unemotional perspective (vs. standard instructions) led women to have higher immoral intentions, no longer lower than men’s, as they were in the control group. Studies 3 and 4 (N = 834) showed that men expected immoral actions to result in higher positive and lower self-conscious moral emotions than women do. Study 4 (N = 424) showed that these emotional expectancies account for gender differences in immoral intentions. Study 5 (N = 450) showed that women—but not men—experience heightened self-conscious moral emotions and regret when recalling past transgressions done for personal gain.
Keywords: gender, morality, emotion, moral emotions
Abstract: Why do men view morally questionable behaviors as more permissible than women do? Five studies investigated emotional factors as explanations for gender differences in moral decision-making. In Study 1 (N = 324), gender differences in perceptions of moral wrongness were explained by guilt and shame proneness. Studies 2a and 2b (combined N = 562) demonstrated that instructions to adopt an unemotional perspective (vs. standard instructions) led women to have higher immoral intentions, no longer lower than men’s, as they were in the control group. Studies 3 and 4 (N = 834) showed that men expected immoral actions to result in higher positive and lower self-conscious moral emotions than women do. Study 4 (N = 424) showed that these emotional expectancies account for gender differences in immoral intentions. Study 5 (N = 450) showed that women—but not men—experience heightened self-conscious moral emotions and regret when recalling past transgressions done for personal gain.
Keywords: gender, morality, emotion, moral emotions
Monday, January 1, 2018
Despite the compelling subjective experience of executive self-control, we argue that “consciousness” contains no top-down control processes and that “consciousness” involves no executive, causal, or controlling relationship with any of the familiar psychological processes conventionally attributed to it. The experience of consciousness is a passive accompaniment to the non-conscious processes of internal broadcasting and the creation of the personal narrative. Though it is an end-product created by non-conscious executive systems, the personal narrative serves the powerful evolutionary function of enabling individuals to communicate (externally broadcast) the contents of internal broadcasting.
Chasing the Rainbow: The Non-conscious Nature of Being. David A. Oakley and Peter W. Halligan. Front. Psychol., November 14 2017. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01924
Abstract: Despite the compelling subjective experience of executive self-control, we argue that “consciousness” contains no top-down control processes and that “consciousness” involves no executive, causal, or controlling relationship with any of the familiar psychological processes conventionally attributed to it. In our view, psychological processing and psychological products are not under the control of consciousness. In particular, we argue that all “contents of consciousness” are generated by and within non-conscious brain systems in the form of a continuous self-referential personal narrative that is not directed or influenced in any way by the “experience of consciousness.” This continuously updated personal narrative arises from selective “internal broadcasting” of outputs from non-conscious executive systems that have access to all forms of cognitive processing, sensory information, and motor control. The personal narrative provides information for storage in autobiographical memory and is underpinned by constructs of self and agency, also created in non-conscious systems. The experience of consciousness is a passive accompaniment to the non-conscious processes of internal broadcasting and the creation of the personal narrative. In this sense, personal awareness is analogous to the rainbow which accompanies physical processes in the atmosphere but exerts no influence over them. Though it is an end-product created by non-conscious executive systems, the personal narrative serves the powerful evolutionary function of enabling individuals to communicate (externally broadcast) the contents of internal broadcasting. This in turn allows recipients to generate potentially adaptive strategies, such as predicting the behavior of others and underlies the development of social and cultural structures, that promote species survival. Consequently, it is the capacity to communicate to others the contents of the personal narrative that confers an evolutionary advantage—not the experience of consciousness (personal awareness) itself.
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What if consciousness is not what drives the human mind? David A Oakley & Peter Halligan
November 22, 2017 10.08am GMT
https://dailyaccord.com/consciousness-not-drives-human-mind/
[links removed, check the original link at the Daily Accord]
Everyone knows what it feels like to have consciousness: it’s that self-evident sense of personal awareness, which gives us a feeling of ownership and control over the thoughts, emotions and experiences that we have every day.
Most experts think that consciousness can be divided into two parts: the experience of consciousness (or personal awareness), and the contents of consciousness, which include things such as thoughts, beliefs, sensations, perceptions, intentions, memories and emotions.
It’s easy to assume that these contents of consciousness are somehow chosen, caused or controlled by our personal awareness – after all, thoughts don’t exist until until we think them. But in a new research paper in Frontiers of Psychology, we argue that this is a mistake.
We suggest that our personal awareness does not create, cause or choose our beliefs, feelings or perceptions. Instead, the contents of consciousness are generated “behind the scenes” by fast, efficient, non-conscious systems in our brains. All this happens without any interference from our personal awareness, which sits passively in the passenger seat while these processes occur.
Put simply, we don’t consciously choose our thoughts or our feelings – we become aware of them.
Not just a suggestion
If this sounds strange, consider how effortlessly we regain consciousness each morning after losing it the night before; how thoughts and emotions – welcome or otherwise – arrive already formed in our minds; how the colours and shapes we see are constructed into meaningful objects or memorable faces without any effort or input from our conscious mind.
Consider that all the neuropsychological processes responsible for moving your body or using words to form sentences take place without involving your personal awareness. We believe that the processes responsible for generating the contents of consciousness do the same.
Our thinking has been influenced by research into neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as more recent cognitive neuroscience studies using hypnosis. The studies using hypnosis show that a person’s mood, thoughts and perceptions can be profoundly altered by suggestion.
In such studies, participants go through a hypnosis induction procedure, to help them to enter a mentally focused and absorbed state. Then, suggestions are made to change their perceptions and experiences.
For example, in one study, researchers recorded the brain activity of participants when they raised their arm intentionally, when it was lifted by a pulley, and when it moved in response to a hypnotic suggestion that it was being lifted by a pulley.
Similar areas of the brain were active during the involuntary and the suggested “alien” movement, while brain activity for the intentional action was different. So, hypnotic suggestion can be seen as a means of communicating an idea or belief that, when accepted, has the power to alter a person’s perceptions or behaviour.
The personal narrative
All this may leave one wondering where our thoughts, emotions and perceptions actually come from. We argue that the contents of consciousness are a subset of the experiences, emotions, thoughts and beliefs that are generated by non-conscious processes within our brains.
This subset takes the form of a personal narrative, which is constantly being updated. The personal narrative exists in parallel with our personal awareness, but the latter has no influence over the former.
The personal narrative is important because it provides information to be stored in your autobiographical memory (the story you tell yourself, about yourself), and gives human beings a way of communicating the things we have perceived and experienced to others.
This, in turn, allows us to generate survival strategies; for example, by learning to predict other people’s behaviour. Interpersonal skills like this underpin the development of social and cultural structures, which have promoted the survival of human kind for millennia.
So, we argue that it is the ability to communicate the contents of one’s personal narrative –– and not personal awareness – that gives humans their unique evolutionary advantage.
What’s the point?
If the experience of consciousness does not confer any particular advantage, it’s not clear what its purpose is. But as a passive accompaniment to non-conscious processes, we don’t think that the phenomenon of personal awareness has a purpose, in much the same way that rainbows do not. Rainbows simply result from the reflection, refraction and dispersion of sunlight through water droplets – none of which serves any particular purpose.
Our conclusions also raise questions about the notions of free will and personal responsibility. If our personal awareness does not control the contents of the personal narrative which reflects our thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions and decisions, then perhaps we should not be held responsible for them.
In response to this, we argue that free will and personal responsibility are notions that have been constructed by society. As such, they are built into the way we see and understand ourselves as individuals, and as a species. Because of this, they are represented within the non-conscious processes that create our personal narratives, and in the way we communicate those narratives to others.
Just because consciousness has been placed in the passenger seat, does not mean we need to dispense with important everyday notions such as free will and personal responsibility. In fact, they are embedded in the workings of our non-conscious brain systems. They have a powerful purpose in society and have a deep impact on the way we understand ourselves.
David A Oakley, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, UCL and Peter Halligan, Hon Professor of Neuropsychology, Cardiff University
Abstract: Despite the compelling subjective experience of executive self-control, we argue that “consciousness” contains no top-down control processes and that “consciousness” involves no executive, causal, or controlling relationship with any of the familiar psychological processes conventionally attributed to it. In our view, psychological processing and psychological products are not under the control of consciousness. In particular, we argue that all “contents of consciousness” are generated by and within non-conscious brain systems in the form of a continuous self-referential personal narrative that is not directed or influenced in any way by the “experience of consciousness.” This continuously updated personal narrative arises from selective “internal broadcasting” of outputs from non-conscious executive systems that have access to all forms of cognitive processing, sensory information, and motor control. The personal narrative provides information for storage in autobiographical memory and is underpinned by constructs of self and agency, also created in non-conscious systems. The experience of consciousness is a passive accompaniment to the non-conscious processes of internal broadcasting and the creation of the personal narrative. In this sense, personal awareness is analogous to the rainbow which accompanies physical processes in the atmosphere but exerts no influence over them. Though it is an end-product created by non-conscious executive systems, the personal narrative serves the powerful evolutionary function of enabling individuals to communicate (externally broadcast) the contents of internal broadcasting. This in turn allows recipients to generate potentially adaptive strategies, such as predicting the behavior of others and underlies the development of social and cultural structures, that promote species survival. Consequently, it is the capacity to communicate to others the contents of the personal narrative that confers an evolutionary advantage—not the experience of consciousness (personal awareness) itself.
---
What if consciousness is not what drives the human mind? David A Oakley & Peter Halligan
November 22, 2017 10.08am GMT
https://dailyaccord.com/consciousness-not-drives-human-mind/
[links removed, check the original link at the Daily Accord]
Everyone knows what it feels like to have consciousness: it’s that self-evident sense of personal awareness, which gives us a feeling of ownership and control over the thoughts, emotions and experiences that we have every day.
Most experts think that consciousness can be divided into two parts: the experience of consciousness (or personal awareness), and the contents of consciousness, which include things such as thoughts, beliefs, sensations, perceptions, intentions, memories and emotions.
It’s easy to assume that these contents of consciousness are somehow chosen, caused or controlled by our personal awareness – after all, thoughts don’t exist until until we think them. But in a new research paper in Frontiers of Psychology, we argue that this is a mistake.
We suggest that our personal awareness does not create, cause or choose our beliefs, feelings or perceptions. Instead, the contents of consciousness are generated “behind the scenes” by fast, efficient, non-conscious systems in our brains. All this happens without any interference from our personal awareness, which sits passively in the passenger seat while these processes occur.
Put simply, we don’t consciously choose our thoughts or our feelings – we become aware of them.
Not just a suggestion
If this sounds strange, consider how effortlessly we regain consciousness each morning after losing it the night before; how thoughts and emotions – welcome or otherwise – arrive already formed in our minds; how the colours and shapes we see are constructed into meaningful objects or memorable faces without any effort or input from our conscious mind.
Consider that all the neuropsychological processes responsible for moving your body or using words to form sentences take place without involving your personal awareness. We believe that the processes responsible for generating the contents of consciousness do the same.
Our thinking has been influenced by research into neuropsychological and neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as more recent cognitive neuroscience studies using hypnosis. The studies using hypnosis show that a person’s mood, thoughts and perceptions can be profoundly altered by suggestion.
In such studies, participants go through a hypnosis induction procedure, to help them to enter a mentally focused and absorbed state. Then, suggestions are made to change their perceptions and experiences.
For example, in one study, researchers recorded the brain activity of participants when they raised their arm intentionally, when it was lifted by a pulley, and when it moved in response to a hypnotic suggestion that it was being lifted by a pulley.
Similar areas of the brain were active during the involuntary and the suggested “alien” movement, while brain activity for the intentional action was different. So, hypnotic suggestion can be seen as a means of communicating an idea or belief that, when accepted, has the power to alter a person’s perceptions or behaviour.
The personal narrative
All this may leave one wondering where our thoughts, emotions and perceptions actually come from. We argue that the contents of consciousness are a subset of the experiences, emotions, thoughts and beliefs that are generated by non-conscious processes within our brains.
This subset takes the form of a personal narrative, which is constantly being updated. The personal narrative exists in parallel with our personal awareness, but the latter has no influence over the former.
The personal narrative is important because it provides information to be stored in your autobiographical memory (the story you tell yourself, about yourself), and gives human beings a way of communicating the things we have perceived and experienced to others.
This, in turn, allows us to generate survival strategies; for example, by learning to predict other people’s behaviour. Interpersonal skills like this underpin the development of social and cultural structures, which have promoted the survival of human kind for millennia.
So, we argue that it is the ability to communicate the contents of one’s personal narrative –– and not personal awareness – that gives humans their unique evolutionary advantage.
What’s the point?
If the experience of consciousness does not confer any particular advantage, it’s not clear what its purpose is. But as a passive accompaniment to non-conscious processes, we don’t think that the phenomenon of personal awareness has a purpose, in much the same way that rainbows do not. Rainbows simply result from the reflection, refraction and dispersion of sunlight through water droplets – none of which serves any particular purpose.
Our conclusions also raise questions about the notions of free will and personal responsibility. If our personal awareness does not control the contents of the personal narrative which reflects our thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions and decisions, then perhaps we should not be held responsible for them.
In response to this, we argue that free will and personal responsibility are notions that have been constructed by society. As such, they are built into the way we see and understand ourselves as individuals, and as a species. Because of this, they are represented within the non-conscious processes that create our personal narratives, and in the way we communicate those narratives to others.
Just because consciousness has been placed in the passenger seat, does not mean we need to dispense with important everyday notions such as free will and personal responsibility. In fact, they are embedded in the workings of our non-conscious brain systems. They have a powerful purpose in society and have a deep impact on the way we understand ourselves.
David A Oakley, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, UCL and Peter Halligan, Hon Professor of Neuropsychology, Cardiff University
Bayesian Occam's razor: People's judgments penalize hypotheses as a function not only of their numbers of free parameters but also as a function of the size of the parameter space, and they penalize those hypotheses even when their parameters can be “tuned” to fit the data better than comparatively simpler hypotheses
Blanchard, T., Lombrozo, T. and Nichols, S. (2017), Bayesian Occam's Razor Is a Razor of the People. Cogn Sci. doi:10.1111/cogs.12573
Abstract: Occam's razor—the idea that all else being equal, we should pick the simpler hypothesis—plays a prominent role in ordinary and scientific inference. But why are simpler hypotheses better? One attractive hypothesis known as Bayesian Occam's razor (BOR) is that more complex hypotheses tend to be more flexible—they can accommodate a wider range of possible data—and that flexibility is automatically penalized by Bayesian inference. In two experiments, we provide evidence that people's intuitive probabilistic and explanatory judgments follow the prescriptions of BOR. In particular, people's judgments are consistent with the two most distinctive characteristics of BOR: They penalize hypotheses as a function not only of their numbers of free parameters but also as a function of the size of the parameter space, and they penalize those hypotheses even when their parameters can be “tuned” to fit the data better than comparatively simpler hypotheses.
Abstract: Occam's razor—the idea that all else being equal, we should pick the simpler hypothesis—plays a prominent role in ordinary and scientific inference. But why are simpler hypotheses better? One attractive hypothesis known as Bayesian Occam's razor (BOR) is that more complex hypotheses tend to be more flexible—they can accommodate a wider range of possible data—and that flexibility is automatically penalized by Bayesian inference. In two experiments, we provide evidence that people's intuitive probabilistic and explanatory judgments follow the prescriptions of BOR. In particular, people's judgments are consistent with the two most distinctive characteristics of BOR: They penalize hypotheses as a function not only of their numbers of free parameters but also as a function of the size of the parameter space, and they penalize those hypotheses even when their parameters can be “tuned” to fit the data better than comparatively simpler hypotheses.
Through employing more than 3000 workers, usage of Corporate Social Responsibility increases employee misbehavior — 20% more employees act detrimentally toward our firm by shirking on their primary job duty
When Corporate Social Responsibility Backfires: Theory and Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment. John A. List, Fatemeh Momeni. NBER Working Paper No. 24169. www.nber.org/papers/w24169
Abstract: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a cornerstone of modern business practice, developing from a “why” in the 1960s to a “must” today. Early empirical evidence on both the demand and supply sides has largely confirmed CSR's efficacy. This paper combines theory with a large-scale natural field experiment to connect CSR to an important but often neglected behavior: employee misconduct and shirking. Through employing more than 3000 workers, we find that our usage of CSR increases employee misbehavior — 20% more employees act detrimentally toward our firm by shirking on their primary job duty when we introduce CSR. Complementary treatments suggest that “moral licensing” is at work, in that the “doing good” nature of CSR induces workers to misbehave on another dimension that hurts the firm. In this way, our data highlight a potential dark cloud of CSR, and serve to forewarn that such business practices should not be blindly applied.
Abstract: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a cornerstone of modern business practice, developing from a “why” in the 1960s to a “must” today. Early empirical evidence on both the demand and supply sides has largely confirmed CSR's efficacy. This paper combines theory with a large-scale natural field experiment to connect CSR to an important but often neglected behavior: employee misconduct and shirking. Through employing more than 3000 workers, we find that our usage of CSR increases employee misbehavior — 20% more employees act detrimentally toward our firm by shirking on their primary job duty when we introduce CSR. Complementary treatments suggest that “moral licensing” is at work, in that the “doing good” nature of CSR induces workers to misbehave on another dimension that hurts the firm. In this way, our data highlight a potential dark cloud of CSR, and serve to forewarn that such business practices should not be blindly applied.
Updated: Income Inequality in the United States: Using Tax Data to Measure Long-term Trends
Income Inequality in the United States: Using Tax Data to Measure Long-term Trends. Gerald Auten, David Splinter. November 12, 2017. http://davidsplinter.com/AutenSplinter-Tax_Data_and_Inequality.pdf
Abstract: Previous studies using U.S. tax return data, such as Piketty and Saez (2003), concluded that top one percent income shares increased substantially since 1960. But tax return based measures are biased by tax base changes and missing income sources. Accounting for these limitations reduces the increase in top one percent income shares by two-thirds. Further, accounting for government transfers reduces the increase over 80 percent. After-tax income results are similar. This shows that unadjusted tax return based measures present a distorted view of inequality because incomes reported on tax returns are sensitive to tax law changes and omit significant income sources.
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Update to Using Tax Data to Measure Long-Term Trends in U.S. Income Inequality. Gerald Auten and David Splinter. Draft Paper, Annual Conference, ASSA Annual Meeting, 2017. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/using-tax-data-to-measure-long-term.html
Abstract: Previous studies using U.S. tax return data, such as Piketty and Saez (2003), concluded that top one percent income shares increased substantially since 1960. But tax return based measures are biased by tax base changes and missing income sources. Accounting for these limitations reduces the increase in top one percent income shares by two-thirds. Further, accounting for government transfers reduces the increase over 80 percent. After-tax income results are similar. This shows that unadjusted tax return based measures present a distorted view of inequality because incomes reported on tax returns are sensitive to tax law changes and omit significant income sources.
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Update to Using Tax Data to Measure Long-Term Trends in U.S. Income Inequality. Gerald Auten and David Splinter. Draft Paper, Annual Conference, ASSA Annual Meeting, 2017. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/using-tax-data-to-measure-long-term.html
Using deep learning and Google Street View to estimate the demographic makeup of neighborhoods across the United States
Using deep learning and Google Street View to estimate the demographic makeup of neighborhoods across the United States. Timnit Gebru et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 114 no. 50. http://www.pnas.org/content/114/50/13108.abstract
Significance: We show that socioeconomic attributes such as income, race, education, and voting patterns can be inferred from cars detected in Google Street View images using deep learning. Our model works by discovering associations between cars and people. For example, if the number of sedans in a city is higher than the number of pickup trucks, that city is likely to vote for a Democrat in the next presidential election (88% chance); if not, then the city is likely to vote for a Republican (82% chance).
Abstract: The United States spends more than $250 million each year on the American Community Survey (ACS), a labor-intensive door-to-door study that measures statistics relating to race, gender, education, occupation, unemployment, and other demographic factors. Although a comprehensive source of data, the lag between demographic changes and their appearance in the ACS can exceed several years. As digital imagery becomes ubiquitous and machine vision techniques improve, automated data analysis may become an increasingly practical supplement to the ACS. Here, we present a method that estimates socioeconomic characteristics of regions spanning 200 US cities by using 50 million images of street scenes gathered with Google Street View cars. Using deep learning-based computer vision techniques, we determined the make, model, and year of all motor vehicles encountered in particular neighborhoods. Data from this census of motor vehicles, which enumerated 22 million automobiles in total (8% of all automobiles in the United States), were used to accurately estimate income, race, education, and voting patterns at the zip code and precinct level. (The average US precinct contains ∼1,000 people.) The resulting associations are surprisingly simple and powerful. For instance, if the number of sedans encountered during a drive through a city is higher than the number of pickup trucks, the city is likely to vote for a Democrat during the next presidential election (88% chance); otherwise, it is likely to vote Republican (82%). Our results suggest that automated systems for monitoring demographics may effectively complement labor-intensive approaches, with the potential to measure demographics with fine spatial resolution, in close to real time.
Significance: We show that socioeconomic attributes such as income, race, education, and voting patterns can be inferred from cars detected in Google Street View images using deep learning. Our model works by discovering associations between cars and people. For example, if the number of sedans in a city is higher than the number of pickup trucks, that city is likely to vote for a Democrat in the next presidential election (88% chance); if not, then the city is likely to vote for a Republican (82% chance).
Abstract: The United States spends more than $250 million each year on the American Community Survey (ACS), a labor-intensive door-to-door study that measures statistics relating to race, gender, education, occupation, unemployment, and other demographic factors. Although a comprehensive source of data, the lag between demographic changes and their appearance in the ACS can exceed several years. As digital imagery becomes ubiquitous and machine vision techniques improve, automated data analysis may become an increasingly practical supplement to the ACS. Here, we present a method that estimates socioeconomic characteristics of regions spanning 200 US cities by using 50 million images of street scenes gathered with Google Street View cars. Using deep learning-based computer vision techniques, we determined the make, model, and year of all motor vehicles encountered in particular neighborhoods. Data from this census of motor vehicles, which enumerated 22 million automobiles in total (8% of all automobiles in the United States), were used to accurately estimate income, race, education, and voting patterns at the zip code and precinct level. (The average US precinct contains ∼1,000 people.) The resulting associations are surprisingly simple and powerful. For instance, if the number of sedans encountered during a drive through a city is higher than the number of pickup trucks, the city is likely to vote for a Democrat during the next presidential election (88% chance); otherwise, it is likely to vote Republican (82%). Our results suggest that automated systems for monitoring demographics may effectively complement labor-intensive approaches, with the potential to measure demographics with fine spatial resolution, in close to real time.
Closing Your Eyes to Follow Your Heart: Avoiding Information to Protect a Strong Intuitive Preference
Closing Your Eyes to Follow Your Heart: Avoiding Information to Protect a Strong Intuitive Preference. Woolley, Kaitlin, and Risen, Jane L. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dec 18 , 2017, http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpspa0000100
Abstract: Rationally, people should want to receive information that is costless and relevant for a decision. But people sometimes choose to remain ignorant. The current paper identifies intuitive-deliberative conflict as a driver of information avoidance. Moreover, we examine whether people avoid information not only to protect their feelings or experiences, but also to protect the decision itself. We predict that people avoid information that could encourage a more thoughtful, deliberative decision to make it easier to enact their intuitive preference. In Studies 1 and 2, people avoid learning the calories in a tempting dessert and compensation for a boring task to protect their preferences to eat the dessert and work on a more enjoyable task. The same people who want to avoid the information, however, use it when it is provided. In Studies 3–5, people decide whether to learn how much money they could earn by accepting an intuitively unappealing bet (that a sympathetic student performs poorly or that a hurricane hits a third-world country). Although intuitively unappealing, the bets are financially rational because they only have financial upside. If people avoid information in part to protect their intuitive preference, then avoidance should be greater when an intuitive preference is especially strong and when information could influence the decision. As predicted, avoidance is driven by the strength of the intuitive preference (Study 3) and, ironically, information avoidance is greater before a decision is made, when the information is decision relevant, than after, when the information is irrelevant for the decision (Studies 4 and 5).
Abstract: Rationally, people should want to receive information that is costless and relevant for a decision. But people sometimes choose to remain ignorant. The current paper identifies intuitive-deliberative conflict as a driver of information avoidance. Moreover, we examine whether people avoid information not only to protect their feelings or experiences, but also to protect the decision itself. We predict that people avoid information that could encourage a more thoughtful, deliberative decision to make it easier to enact their intuitive preference. In Studies 1 and 2, people avoid learning the calories in a tempting dessert and compensation for a boring task to protect their preferences to eat the dessert and work on a more enjoyable task. The same people who want to avoid the information, however, use it when it is provided. In Studies 3–5, people decide whether to learn how much money they could earn by accepting an intuitively unappealing bet (that a sympathetic student performs poorly or that a hurricane hits a third-world country). Although intuitively unappealing, the bets are financially rational because they only have financial upside. If people avoid information in part to protect their intuitive preference, then avoidance should be greater when an intuitive preference is especially strong and when information could influence the decision. As predicted, avoidance is driven by the strength of the intuitive preference (Study 3) and, ironically, information avoidance is greater before a decision is made, when the information is decision relevant, than after, when the information is irrelevant for the decision (Studies 4 and 5).
Personality, IQ, and Lifetime Earnings: The payoffs to personality traits display a concave life-cycle pattern, with the largest effects between the ages of 40 and 60
Personality, IQ, and Lifetime Earnings. Miriam Gensowski. Labour Economics, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2017.12.004
Highlights
• This paper estimates the effects of personality traits and IQ on lifetime earnings, both as a sum and individually by age.
• The payoffs to personality traits display a concave life-cycle pattern, with the largest effects between the ages of 40 and 60.
• The largest effects on earnings are found for Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness (negative).
• An interaction of traits with education reveals that personality matters most for highly educated men.
• The overall effect of Conscientiousness operates partly through education, which also has significant returns.
Abstract: This paper estimates the effects of personality traits and IQ on lifetime earnings of the men and women of the Terman study, a high-IQ U.S. sample. Age-by-age earnings profiles allow a study of when personality traits affect earnings most, and for whom the effects are strongest. I document a concave life-cycle pattern in the payoffs to personality traits, with the largest effects between the ages of 40 and 60. An interaction of traits with education reveals that personality matters most for highly educated men. The largest effects are found for Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness (negative), where Conscientiousness operates partly through education, which also has significant returns.
Keywords: Personality traits; Socio-emotional skills; Cognitive skills; Returns to education; Lifetime earnings; Big Five; Human capital; Factor analysis
Highlights
• This paper estimates the effects of personality traits and IQ on lifetime earnings, both as a sum and individually by age.
• The payoffs to personality traits display a concave life-cycle pattern, with the largest effects between the ages of 40 and 60.
• The largest effects on earnings are found for Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness (negative).
• An interaction of traits with education reveals that personality matters most for highly educated men.
• The overall effect of Conscientiousness operates partly through education, which also has significant returns.
Abstract: This paper estimates the effects of personality traits and IQ on lifetime earnings of the men and women of the Terman study, a high-IQ U.S. sample. Age-by-age earnings profiles allow a study of when personality traits affect earnings most, and for whom the effects are strongest. I document a concave life-cycle pattern in the payoffs to personality traits, with the largest effects between the ages of 40 and 60. An interaction of traits with education reveals that personality matters most for highly educated men. The largest effects are found for Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness (negative), where Conscientiousness operates partly through education, which also has significant returns.
Keywords: Personality traits; Socio-emotional skills; Cognitive skills; Returns to education; Lifetime earnings; Big Five; Human capital; Factor analysis
Liars failed to simulate the truthtellers' pattern of forgetting & reported similar amounts of detail when interviewed without or after a delay, demonstrating a stability bias in reporting
A stability bias effect among deceivers. Harvey, Adam Charles, Vrij, Aldert, Hope, Lorraine, Leal, Sharon, and Mann, Samantha. Law and Human Behavior, Vol 41(6), Dec 2017, 519-529. http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Flhb0000258
Abstract: Research examining how truth tellers’ and liars’ verbal behavior is attenuated as a function of delay is largely absent from the literature, despite its important applied value. We examined this factor across 2 studies in which we examined the effects of a hypothetical delay (Experiment 1) or actual delay (Experiment 2) on liars’ accounts. In Experiment 1—an insurance claim interview setting—claimants either genuinely experienced a (staged) loss of a tablet device (n = 40) or pretended to have experienced the same loss (n = 40). Truth tellers were interviewed either immediately after the loss (n = 20) or 3 weeks after the loss (n = 20), whereas liars had to either pretend the loss occurred either immediately before (n = 20) or 3 weeks before (n = 20) the interview (i.e., hypothetical delay for liars). In Experiment 2—a Human Intelligence gathering setting—sources had to either lie (n = 50) or tell the truth (n = 50) about a secret video they had seen concerning the placing of a spy device. Half of the truth tellers and liars where interviewed immediately after watching the video (n = 50), and half where interviewed 3-weeks later (n = 50; i.e., real delay for liars). Across both experiments, truth tellers interviewed after a delay reported fewer details than truth tellers interviewed immediately after the to-be-remembered event. In both studies, liars failed to simulate this pattern of forgetting and reported similar amounts of detail when interviewed without or after a delay, demonstrating a stability bias in reporting.
Abstract: Research examining how truth tellers’ and liars’ verbal behavior is attenuated as a function of delay is largely absent from the literature, despite its important applied value. We examined this factor across 2 studies in which we examined the effects of a hypothetical delay (Experiment 1) or actual delay (Experiment 2) on liars’ accounts. In Experiment 1—an insurance claim interview setting—claimants either genuinely experienced a (staged) loss of a tablet device (n = 40) or pretended to have experienced the same loss (n = 40). Truth tellers were interviewed either immediately after the loss (n = 20) or 3 weeks after the loss (n = 20), whereas liars had to either pretend the loss occurred either immediately before (n = 20) or 3 weeks before (n = 20) the interview (i.e., hypothetical delay for liars). In Experiment 2—a Human Intelligence gathering setting—sources had to either lie (n = 50) or tell the truth (n = 50) about a secret video they had seen concerning the placing of a spy device. Half of the truth tellers and liars where interviewed immediately after watching the video (n = 50), and half where interviewed 3-weeks later (n = 50; i.e., real delay for liars). Across both experiments, truth tellers interviewed after a delay reported fewer details than truth tellers interviewed immediately after the to-be-remembered event. In both studies, liars failed to simulate this pattern of forgetting and reported similar amounts of detail when interviewed without or after a delay, demonstrating a stability bias in reporting.
Public Response to a Near-Miss Nuclear Accident Scenario Varying in Causal Attributions and Outcome Uncertainty
Cui, J., Rosoff, H. and John, R. S. (2017), Public Response to a Near-Miss Nuclear Accident Scenario Varying in Causal Attributions and Outcome Uncertainty. Risk Analysis. doi:10.1111/risa.12920
Abstract: Many studies have investigated public reactions to nuclear accidents. However, few studies focused on more common events when a serious accident could have happened but did not. This study evaluated public response (emotional, cognitive, and behavioral) over three phases of a near-miss nuclear accident. Simulating a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) scenario, we manipulated (1) attribution for the initial cause of the incident (software failure vs. cyber terrorist attack vs. earthquake), (2) attribution for halting the incident (fail-safe system design vs. an intervention by an individual expert vs. a chance coincidence), and (3) level of uncertainty (certain vs. uncertain) about risk of a future radiation leak after the LOCA is halted. A total of 773 respondents were sampled using a 3 × 3 × 2 between-subjects design. Results from both MANCOVA and structural equation modeling (SEM) indicate that respondents experienced more negative affect, perceived more risk, and expressed more avoidance behavioral intention when the near-miss event was initiated by an external attributed source (e.g., earthquake) compared to an internally attributed source (e.g., software failure). Similarly, respondents also indicated greater negative affect, perceived risk, and avoidance behavioral intentions when the future impact of the near-miss incident on people and the environment remained uncertain. Results from SEM analyses also suggested that negative affect predicted risk perception, and both predicted avoidance behavior. Affect, risk perception, and avoidance behavior demonstrated high stability (i.e., reliability) from one phase to the next.
KEYWORDS: Causal attribution; near-miss; nuclear power; risk perception; structural equation modeling
Abstract: Many studies have investigated public reactions to nuclear accidents. However, few studies focused on more common events when a serious accident could have happened but did not. This study evaluated public response (emotional, cognitive, and behavioral) over three phases of a near-miss nuclear accident. Simulating a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) scenario, we manipulated (1) attribution for the initial cause of the incident (software failure vs. cyber terrorist attack vs. earthquake), (2) attribution for halting the incident (fail-safe system design vs. an intervention by an individual expert vs. a chance coincidence), and (3) level of uncertainty (certain vs. uncertain) about risk of a future radiation leak after the LOCA is halted. A total of 773 respondents were sampled using a 3 × 3 × 2 between-subjects design. Results from both MANCOVA and structural equation modeling (SEM) indicate that respondents experienced more negative affect, perceived more risk, and expressed more avoidance behavioral intention when the near-miss event was initiated by an external attributed source (e.g., earthquake) compared to an internally attributed source (e.g., software failure). Similarly, respondents also indicated greater negative affect, perceived risk, and avoidance behavioral intentions when the future impact of the near-miss incident on people and the environment remained uncertain. Results from SEM analyses also suggested that negative affect predicted risk perception, and both predicted avoidance behavior. Affect, risk perception, and avoidance behavior demonstrated high stability (i.e., reliability) from one phase to the next.
KEYWORDS: Causal attribution; near-miss; nuclear power; risk perception; structural equation modeling
Overconfidence Among Beginners: Is a Little Learning a Dangerous Thing?
Overconfidence Among Beginners: Is a Little Learning a Dangerous Thing? Sanchez, Carmen, and Dunning, David. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Nov 02 , 2017, http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpspa0000102
Abstract: Across 6 studies we investigated the development of overconfidence among beginners. In 4 of the studies, participants completed multicue probabilistic learning tasks (e.g., learning to diagnose “zombie diseases” from physical symptoms). Although beginners did not start out overconfident in their judgments, they rapidly surged to a “beginner’s bubble” of overconfidence. This bubble was traced to exuberant and error-filled theorizing about how to approach the task formed after just a few learning experiences. Later trials challenged and refined those theories, leading to a temporary leveling off of confidence while performance incrementally improved, although confidence began to rise again after this pause. In 2 additional studies we found a real-world echo of this pattern of overconfidence across the life course. Self-ratings of financial literacy surged among young adults, then leveled off among older respondents until late adulthood, where it begins to rise again, with actual financial knowledge all the while rising more slowly, consistently, and incrementally throughout adulthood. Hence, when it comes to overconfident judgment, a little learning does appear to be a dangerous thing. Although beginners start with humble self-perceptions, with just a little experience their confidence races ahead of their actual performance.
Abstract: Across 6 studies we investigated the development of overconfidence among beginners. In 4 of the studies, participants completed multicue probabilistic learning tasks (e.g., learning to diagnose “zombie diseases” from physical symptoms). Although beginners did not start out overconfident in their judgments, they rapidly surged to a “beginner’s bubble” of overconfidence. This bubble was traced to exuberant and error-filled theorizing about how to approach the task formed after just a few learning experiences. Later trials challenged and refined those theories, leading to a temporary leveling off of confidence while performance incrementally improved, although confidence began to rise again after this pause. In 2 additional studies we found a real-world echo of this pattern of overconfidence across the life course. Self-ratings of financial literacy surged among young adults, then leveled off among older respondents until late adulthood, where it begins to rise again, with actual financial knowledge all the while rising more slowly, consistently, and incrementally throughout adulthood. Hence, when it comes to overconfident judgment, a little learning does appear to be a dangerous thing. Although beginners start with humble self-perceptions, with just a little experience their confidence races ahead of their actual performance.
Sunday, December 31, 2017
The “hostile media effect” occurs when opposing partisans perceive identical news coverage of a controversial issue as biased against their own side
The Hostile Media Effect. Lauren Feldman. Chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication, edited by Kate Kenski and Kathleen Hall Jamieson. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199793471.013.011
Abstract: The “hostile media effect” occurs when opposing partisans perceive identical news coverage of a controversial issue as biased against their own side. This is a robust phenomenon, which has been empirically demonstrated in numerous experimental and observational studies across a variety of issue contexts and has been shown to have important consequences for democratic society. This chapter reviews the literature on the hostile media effect with an eye toward the theoretical explanations for it, its relationship to other psychological processes, and its broader implications for perceived public opinion, news consumption patterns, attitudes toward democratic institutions, and political discourse and participation. Particular attention is paid to how the hostile media phenomenon can help explain the public’s eroding trust in the news media and the recent polarization among news audiences. The chapter concludes with several suggestions for future research.
Keywords: active audience, biased assimilation, hostile media phenomenon, hostile media perception, media bias, perceived bias, persuasive press inference, polarization, partisan involvement, selective exposure, selective perception
Abstract: The “hostile media effect” occurs when opposing partisans perceive identical news coverage of a controversial issue as biased against their own side. This is a robust phenomenon, which has been empirically demonstrated in numerous experimental and observational studies across a variety of issue contexts and has been shown to have important consequences for democratic society. This chapter reviews the literature on the hostile media effect with an eye toward the theoretical explanations for it, its relationship to other psychological processes, and its broader implications for perceived public opinion, news consumption patterns, attitudes toward democratic institutions, and political discourse and participation. Particular attention is paid to how the hostile media phenomenon can help explain the public’s eroding trust in the news media and the recent polarization among news audiences. The chapter concludes with several suggestions for future research.
Keywords: active audience, biased assimilation, hostile media phenomenon, hostile media perception, media bias, perceived bias, persuasive press inference, polarization, partisan involvement, selective exposure, selective perception
Can political cookies leave a bad taste in one’s mouth?: Political ideology influences taste
Aner Tal, Yaniv Gvili, Moty Amar, Brian Wansink, (2017) "Can political cookies leave a bad taste in one’s mouth?: Political ideology influences taste", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 51 Issue: 11/12, pp.2175-2191, https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-04-2015-0237
Abstract
Purpose: This study aims to examine whether companies’ donations to political parties can impact product experience, specifically taste.
Design/methodology/approach: Research design consists of four studies; three online, one in person. Participants were shown a cookie (Studies 1-3) or cereal (Study 4) and told that the producing company donated to either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party (Studies 1-3) or an unspecified party (Study 4).
Findings: Participants rated food products as less tasty if told they came from a company that donated to a party they object to. These effects were shown to be mediated by moral disgust (Study 3). Effects were restricted to taste and willingness to buy (Study 4), with no effects on other positive product dimensions.
Research limitations/implications: The studies provide a first piece of evidence that political donations by companies can negatively impact product experience. This can translate to purchase decisions through an emotional, rather than calculated, route.
Practical implications: Companies should be careful about making donations some of their consumers may find objectionable. This might impact both purchase and consumption decisions, as well as post-consumption word-of-mouth.
Originality/value: Companies’ political involvement can negatively impact subjective product experience, even though such information has no bearing on product quality. The current findings demonstrate that alterations in subjective product quality may underlie alterations in consumer decision-making because of ideologically tinged information, and reveals moral disgust as the mechanism underlying these effects. In this, it provides a first demonstration that even mild ideological information that is not globally bad or inherently immoral can generate moral disgust, and that such effects depend on consumers’ own attitudes.
Keywords: Evaluation, Food, Politics, Taste, Moral, Disgust
Abstract
Purpose: This study aims to examine whether companies’ donations to political parties can impact product experience, specifically taste.
Design/methodology/approach: Research design consists of four studies; three online, one in person. Participants were shown a cookie (Studies 1-3) or cereal (Study 4) and told that the producing company donated to either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party (Studies 1-3) or an unspecified party (Study 4).
Findings: Participants rated food products as less tasty if told they came from a company that donated to a party they object to. These effects were shown to be mediated by moral disgust (Study 3). Effects were restricted to taste and willingness to buy (Study 4), with no effects on other positive product dimensions.
Research limitations/implications: The studies provide a first piece of evidence that political donations by companies can negatively impact product experience. This can translate to purchase decisions through an emotional, rather than calculated, route.
Practical implications: Companies should be careful about making donations some of their consumers may find objectionable. This might impact both purchase and consumption decisions, as well as post-consumption word-of-mouth.
Originality/value: Companies’ political involvement can negatively impact subjective product experience, even though such information has no bearing on product quality. The current findings demonstrate that alterations in subjective product quality may underlie alterations in consumer decision-making because of ideologically tinged information, and reveals moral disgust as the mechanism underlying these effects. In this, it provides a first demonstration that even mild ideological information that is not globally bad or inherently immoral can generate moral disgust, and that such effects depend on consumers’ own attitudes.
Keywords: Evaluation, Food, Politics, Taste, Moral, Disgust
Frequency of sexual intercourse tends to be lower among Japanese couples compared to couples overseas, or are having more extramarital sex
Proximate Determinants of Fertility in Japan. Shoko Konishi, Emi Tamaki.. Biodemography of Fertility in Japan pp 13-42, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-0176-5_2
Abstract: Proximate determinants link both social and biological factors to fertility. In this section, we will summarize available data related to proximate determinants of fertility in Japan while referring to some of the related literature targeting populations overseas. In addition to data from published studies, we present our original data collected in the biodemography project, an Internet-based cross-sectional survey on reproductive history conducted in 2014 targeting Japanese women between 20 and 44 years of age. Following Wood’s conceptualization, the specific components of the proximate determinants of fertility referred to in this chapter are lactational infecundability, fecund waiting time to conception, and fetal loss (both spontaneous and induced). Additionally, papers on factors that are expected to significantly affect fecund waiting time to conception, i.e., frequency of sexual intercourse, length and regularity of menstrual cycle, and use of contraception and infertility treatment, will be reviewed.
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Recent research suggests that frequency of sexual intercourse tends to be lower among Japanese couples compared to couples overseas (e.g., [1,21]).
The biodemography project revealed an overall low frequency of intercourse (Table 2.4). Additionally, when the participants were further categorized by their pregnancy intention, only 24% of married women who wanted to become pregnant and were not pregnant at the time of the survey were having intercourse 1+ day per week [1]. The proportion of women having intercourse 1+ day per week was even smaller for those who wanted to become pregnant in the future (14%) or who did not want to become pregnant (12%) [1]. The National Survey of Work and Family in Japan conducted in 2007 [21] also reported low coital frequency (Table 2.5); only 23% of women desiring a child had sexual intercourse at least once a week. The same survey showed that 21% of women aged between 20 and 29 years and 37% of women aged between 30 and 39 years were in sexless marriages, which refers to married or cohabitating couples who have not had any sexual intercourse for more than 1 month (Table 2.5, sum of “once in 2 months”, “once in 6 months”, and “not at all”) [21]. In a series of studies conducted by Arakawa and colleagues [16] to examine a possible association between chemical exposure and TTP, more than 70% of the respondents answered that the frequency of intercourse before their latest pregnancy was equal to or less than once a week (Table 2.6). These data suggest that the frequency of intercourse tends to be low among couples in Japan today, even when the sample is limited to couples who eventually achieved pregnancy or were actively trying to conceive.
[...] Although recent studies report relatively low frequency of sexual intercourse among Japanese couples compared to those in Western countries, studies conducted in the past report a higher frequency of intercourse among Japanese couples. For example, in 1955, Tsukamoto [25] reported that more than 80% of married women had sexual intercourse once a week or more (Table 2.7). Infrequent sexual intercourse among Japanese couples in recent years may be the result of sociocultural factors, including prevalent premarital sex [26], higher unemployment rates, and long working hours among those who are employed [27]. It is also possible that a lower frequency of marital sexual intercourse is often accompanied by active sexual activity outside the marital relationship, although we do not have sufficient data to support or reject this supposition.
Abstract: Proximate determinants link both social and biological factors to fertility. In this section, we will summarize available data related to proximate determinants of fertility in Japan while referring to some of the related literature targeting populations overseas. In addition to data from published studies, we present our original data collected in the biodemography project, an Internet-based cross-sectional survey on reproductive history conducted in 2014 targeting Japanese women between 20 and 44 years of age. Following Wood’s conceptualization, the specific components of the proximate determinants of fertility referred to in this chapter are lactational infecundability, fecund waiting time to conception, and fetal loss (both spontaneous and induced). Additionally, papers on factors that are expected to significantly affect fecund waiting time to conception, i.e., frequency of sexual intercourse, length and regularity of menstrual cycle, and use of contraception and infertility treatment, will be reviewed.
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Recent research suggests that frequency of sexual intercourse tends to be lower among Japanese couples compared to couples overseas (e.g., [1,21]).
The biodemography project revealed an overall low frequency of intercourse (Table 2.4). Additionally, when the participants were further categorized by their pregnancy intention, only 24% of married women who wanted to become pregnant and were not pregnant at the time of the survey were having intercourse 1+ day per week [1]. The proportion of women having intercourse 1+ day per week was even smaller for those who wanted to become pregnant in the future (14%) or who did not want to become pregnant (12%) [1]. The National Survey of Work and Family in Japan conducted in 2007 [21] also reported low coital frequency (Table 2.5); only 23% of women desiring a child had sexual intercourse at least once a week. The same survey showed that 21% of women aged between 20 and 29 years and 37% of women aged between 30 and 39 years were in sexless marriages, which refers to married or cohabitating couples who have not had any sexual intercourse for more than 1 month (Table 2.5, sum of “once in 2 months”, “once in 6 months”, and “not at all”) [21]. In a series of studies conducted by Arakawa and colleagues [16] to examine a possible association between chemical exposure and TTP, more than 70% of the respondents answered that the frequency of intercourse before their latest pregnancy was equal to or less than once a week (Table 2.6). These data suggest that the frequency of intercourse tends to be low among couples in Japan today, even when the sample is limited to couples who eventually achieved pregnancy or were actively trying to conceive.
[...] Although recent studies report relatively low frequency of sexual intercourse among Japanese couples compared to those in Western countries, studies conducted in the past report a higher frequency of intercourse among Japanese couples. For example, in 1955, Tsukamoto [25] reported that more than 80% of married women had sexual intercourse once a week or more (Table 2.7). Infrequent sexual intercourse among Japanese couples in recent years may be the result of sociocultural factors, including prevalent premarital sex [26], higher unemployment rates, and long working hours among those who are employed [27]. It is also possible that a lower frequency of marital sexual intercourse is often accompanied by active sexual activity outside the marital relationship, although we do not have sufficient data to support or reject this supposition.
Saturday, December 30, 2017
People in last place were more than 4 times more likely to renege from queues, altogether giving up on the service for which they were queuing; this behavior is partially explained by the inability to make a downward social comparison
Last Place Aversion in Queues. Ryan W. Buell. Harvard Business School, https://ideas.repec.org/p/hbs/wpaper/18-053.html
Abstract: This paper investigates whether people exhibit last place aversion in queues and its implications for their experiences and behaviors in service environments. An observational analysis of customers queuing at a grocery store, and three online field experiments in which participants waited in virtual queues, revealed that waiting in last place diminishes wait satisfaction while increasing the probabilities of switching and abandoning queues. After controlling for other factors, people in last place were more than twice as likely to switch queues, which increased the duration of their wait and diminished their overall satisfaction. Moreover, people in last place were more than four times more likely to renege from queues, altogether giving up on the service for which they were queuing. The results indicate that this behavior is partially explained by the inability to make a downward social comparison; namely, when no one is behind a queuing individual, that person is less certain that continuing to wait is worthwhile. Furthermore, this paper provides evidence that queue transparency is an effective service design lever that managers can use to reduce the deleterious effects of last place aversion in queues. When people can't see that they're in last place, the behavioral effects of last place aversion are nullified, and when they can see that they're not in last place, the tendency to renege is greatly diminished.
Abstract: This paper investigates whether people exhibit last place aversion in queues and its implications for their experiences and behaviors in service environments. An observational analysis of customers queuing at a grocery store, and three online field experiments in which participants waited in virtual queues, revealed that waiting in last place diminishes wait satisfaction while increasing the probabilities of switching and abandoning queues. After controlling for other factors, people in last place were more than twice as likely to switch queues, which increased the duration of their wait and diminished their overall satisfaction. Moreover, people in last place were more than four times more likely to renege from queues, altogether giving up on the service for which they were queuing. The results indicate that this behavior is partially explained by the inability to make a downward social comparison; namely, when no one is behind a queuing individual, that person is less certain that continuing to wait is worthwhile. Furthermore, this paper provides evidence that queue transparency is an effective service design lever that managers can use to reduce the deleterious effects of last place aversion in queues. When people can't see that they're in last place, the behavioral effects of last place aversion are nullified, and when they can see that they're not in last place, the tendency to renege is greatly diminished.
Lack of erotic thoughts, fear & desire to have a baby are the main predictors of the level of sexual desire. Energy-fatigue, depression, premature ejaculation severity, sexual distress, compatibility, subjective sexual response, & sexual conservatism had a weaker effect on sexual desire
Nimbi FM, Tripodi F, Rossi R, Simonelli C. Expanding the Analysis of Psychosocial Factors of Sexual Desire in Men. J Sex Med 2017;XX:XXX–XXX. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2017.11.227
Abstract
Background: The literature lacks studies of the male sex drive. Most existing studies have focused on hypoactive sexual desire disorder in coupled heterosexual men, highlighting some of the main related biological, psychological, and social factors.
Aim: To evaluate the role of selected psychological and social variables affecting male sexual desire such as quality of life, sexual function, distress, satisfaction, psychological symptoms, emotions, alexithymia, couple adjustment, sexism, cognitive schemas activated in a sexual context, sexual dysfunctional beliefs, and different classes of cognitions triggered during sexual activity about failure anticipation, erection concerns, age- and body-related thoughts, erotic fantasies, and negative attitudes toward sexuality.
Methods: A wide self-administered survey used snowball sampling to reach 298 heterosexual Italian men (age = 32.66 ± 11.52 years) from the general population.
Outcomes: 13 questionnaires exploring psychological and social elements involved in sexual response were administrated: International Index of Erectile Function, Short Form 36 for Quality of Life, Beck Depression Inventory–II, Symptom Check List–90–Revised, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Premature Ejaculation Severity Index, Sexual Distress Scale, Sexual Satisfaction Scale, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, Sexual Modes Questionnaire, Sexual Dysfunctional Belief Questionnaire, and Questionnaire of Cognitive Schema Activation in Sexual Context.
Results: Results showed lack of erotic thoughts (β = −0.328), fear (β = −0.259) and desire to have a baby (β = −0.259) as the main predictors of the level of sexual desire in this group. Energy-fatigue, depression, premature ejaculation severity, sexual distress, compatibility, subjective sexual response, and sexual conservatism had a weaker effect on sexual desire. Sexual functioning (13.80%), emotional response (12.70%), dysfunctional sexual beliefs (12.10%), and negative automatic thoughts (12.00%) had more variable effects on sexual drive.
Clinical Translation: Analyzed variables could represent important factors that should be considered in the assessment of desire concerns and discussed in therapy.
Strengths and Limitations: The strength of this study is the analysis of novel psychological and social factors on male sexual desire. Recruitment and sample size do not allow generalization of the results, but some crucial points for future research and clinical practice are discussed.
Conclusion: Our findings showed that male sexual desire could be affected by many psychological and social elements. Other factors remain to be explored, in their direct and interactive effects, aiming to better explain male sexual desire functioning.
Key Words: Desire, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Response, Sexuality, Sex Drive, Biopsychosocial Approach
Abstract
Background: The literature lacks studies of the male sex drive. Most existing studies have focused on hypoactive sexual desire disorder in coupled heterosexual men, highlighting some of the main related biological, psychological, and social factors.
Aim: To evaluate the role of selected psychological and social variables affecting male sexual desire such as quality of life, sexual function, distress, satisfaction, psychological symptoms, emotions, alexithymia, couple adjustment, sexism, cognitive schemas activated in a sexual context, sexual dysfunctional beliefs, and different classes of cognitions triggered during sexual activity about failure anticipation, erection concerns, age- and body-related thoughts, erotic fantasies, and negative attitudes toward sexuality.
Methods: A wide self-administered survey used snowball sampling to reach 298 heterosexual Italian men (age = 32.66 ± 11.52 years) from the general population.
Outcomes: 13 questionnaires exploring psychological and social elements involved in sexual response were administrated: International Index of Erectile Function, Short Form 36 for Quality of Life, Beck Depression Inventory–II, Symptom Check List–90–Revised, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Premature Ejaculation Severity Index, Sexual Distress Scale, Sexual Satisfaction Scale, Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Ambivalent Sexism Inventory, Sexual Modes Questionnaire, Sexual Dysfunctional Belief Questionnaire, and Questionnaire of Cognitive Schema Activation in Sexual Context.
Results: Results showed lack of erotic thoughts (β = −0.328), fear (β = −0.259) and desire to have a baby (β = −0.259) as the main predictors of the level of sexual desire in this group. Energy-fatigue, depression, premature ejaculation severity, sexual distress, compatibility, subjective sexual response, and sexual conservatism had a weaker effect on sexual desire. Sexual functioning (13.80%), emotional response (12.70%), dysfunctional sexual beliefs (12.10%), and negative automatic thoughts (12.00%) had more variable effects on sexual drive.
Clinical Translation: Analyzed variables could represent important factors that should be considered in the assessment of desire concerns and discussed in therapy.
Strengths and Limitations: The strength of this study is the analysis of novel psychological and social factors on male sexual desire. Recruitment and sample size do not allow generalization of the results, but some crucial points for future research and clinical practice are discussed.
Conclusion: Our findings showed that male sexual desire could be affected by many psychological and social elements. Other factors remain to be explored, in their direct and interactive effects, aiming to better explain male sexual desire functioning.
Key Words: Desire, Sexual Behavior, Sexual Response, Sexuality, Sex Drive, Biopsychosocial Approach
As in previous findings, the blind have lower REMs density. However the ability of dream recall in congenitally blind and sighted controls is identical. In both groups visual dream recall is associated with an increase in REM bursts and density
Rapid Eye Movements (REMs) and visual dream recall in both congenitally blind and sighted subjects. Helder Bértolo et al. Proceedings of SPIE, 2017 https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie on 10/9/2017 (http://eprints.ucm.es/45054/1/Antona_Proceedings%20of%20SPIE-2017.pdf)
ABSTRACT: Our objective was to evaluate rapid eye movements (REMs) associated with visual dream recall in sighted subjects and congenital blind.
During two consecutive nights polysomnographic recordings were performed at subjects home. REMs were detected by visual inspection on both EOG channels (EOG-H, EOG-V) and further classified as occurring isolated or in bursts. Dream recall was defined by the existence of a dream report. The two groups were compared using t-test and also the two-way ANOVA and a post-hoc Fisher test (for the features diagnosis (blind vs. sighted) and dream recall (yes or no) as a function of time).
The average of REM awakenings per subject and the recall ability were identical in both groups. CB had a lower REM density than CS; the same applied to REM bursts and isolated eye movements. In the two-way ANOVA, REM bursts and REM density were significantly different for positive dream recall, mainly for the CB group and for diagnosis; furthermore for both features significant results were obtained for the interaction of time, recall and diagnosis; the interaction of recall and time was however, stronger.
In line with previous findings the data show that blind have lower REMs density. However the ability of dream recall in congenitally blind and sighted controls is identical. In both groups visual dream recall is associated with an increase in REM bursts and density. REM bursts also show differences in the temporal profile. REM visual dream recall is associated with increased REMs activity.
Keywords: Visual imagery, Visual Perception, Blindness, Dreams, Dream Recall, REMs, EEG
ABSTRACT: Our objective was to evaluate rapid eye movements (REMs) associated with visual dream recall in sighted subjects and congenital blind.
During two consecutive nights polysomnographic recordings were performed at subjects home. REMs were detected by visual inspection on both EOG channels (EOG-H, EOG-V) and further classified as occurring isolated or in bursts. Dream recall was defined by the existence of a dream report. The two groups were compared using t-test and also the two-way ANOVA and a post-hoc Fisher test (for the features diagnosis (blind vs. sighted) and dream recall (yes or no) as a function of time).
The average of REM awakenings per subject and the recall ability were identical in both groups. CB had a lower REM density than CS; the same applied to REM bursts and isolated eye movements. In the two-way ANOVA, REM bursts and REM density were significantly different for positive dream recall, mainly for the CB group and for diagnosis; furthermore for both features significant results were obtained for the interaction of time, recall and diagnosis; the interaction of recall and time was however, stronger.
In line with previous findings the data show that blind have lower REMs density. However the ability of dream recall in congenitally blind and sighted controls is identical. In both groups visual dream recall is associated with an increase in REM bursts and density. REM bursts also show differences in the temporal profile. REM visual dream recall is associated with increased REMs activity.
Keywords: Visual imagery, Visual Perception, Blindness, Dreams, Dream Recall, REMs, EEG
Friday, December 29, 2017
Impact of resources on ratings of physical attractiveness by males and females: Higher economic status can offset lower physical attractiveness in men much more easily than in women
Different impacts of resources on opposite sex ratings of physical attractiveness by males and females. Guanlin Wang et al. Evolution and Human Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.12.008
Abstract: Parental investment hypotheses regarding mate selection suggest that human males should seek partners featured by youth and high fertility. However, females should be more sensitive to resources that can be invested on themselves and their offspring. Previous studies indicate that economic status is indeed important in male attractiveness. However, no previous study has quantified and compared the impact of equivalent resources on male and female attractiveness. Annual salary is a direct way to evaluate economic status. Here, we combined images of male and female body shape with information on annual salary to elucidate the influence of economic status on the attractiveness ratings by opposite sex raters in American, Chinese and European populations. We found that ratings of attractiveness were around 4 times more sensitive to salary for females rating males, compared to males rating females. These results indicate that higher economic status can offset lower physical attractiveness in men much more easily than in women. Neither raters' BMI nor age influenced this effect for females rating male attractiveness. This difference explains many features of human mating behavior and may pose a barrier for male engagement in low-consumption lifestyles.
Keywords:Physical attractiveness; Economic status; Parental investment theory
Abstract: Parental investment hypotheses regarding mate selection suggest that human males should seek partners featured by youth and high fertility. However, females should be more sensitive to resources that can be invested on themselves and their offspring. Previous studies indicate that economic status is indeed important in male attractiveness. However, no previous study has quantified and compared the impact of equivalent resources on male and female attractiveness. Annual salary is a direct way to evaluate economic status. Here, we combined images of male and female body shape with information on annual salary to elucidate the influence of economic status on the attractiveness ratings by opposite sex raters in American, Chinese and European populations. We found that ratings of attractiveness were around 4 times more sensitive to salary for females rating males, compared to males rating females. These results indicate that higher economic status can offset lower physical attractiveness in men much more easily than in women. Neither raters' BMI nor age influenced this effect for females rating male attractiveness. This difference explains many features of human mating behavior and may pose a barrier for male engagement in low-consumption lifestyles.
Keywords:Physical attractiveness; Economic status; Parental investment theory
Children's feelings about spending and saving can be measured from an early age and relate to their behavior with money when adults
Smith, C. E., Echelbarger, M., Gelman, S. A., and Rick, S. I. (2017) Spendthrifts and Tightwads in Childhood: Feelings about Spending Predict Children's Financial Decision Making. J. Behav. Dec. Making, doi: 10.1002/bdm.2071
Abstract: Adults differ in the extent to which they find spending money to be distressing; “tightwads” find spending money painful, and “spendthrifts” do not find spending painful enough. This affective dimension has been reliably measured in adults and predicts a variety of important financial behaviors and outcomes (e.g., saving behavior and credit scores). Although children's financial behavior has also received attention, feelings about spending have not been studied in children, as they have in adults. We measured the spendthrift–tightwad (ST–TW) construct in children for the first time, with a sample of 5- to 10-year-old children (N = 225). Children across the entire age range were able to reliably report on their affective responses to spending and saving, and children's ST–TW scores were related to parent reports of children's temperament and financial behavior. Further, children's ST–TW scores were predictive of whether they chose to save or spend money in the lab, even after controlling for age and how much they liked the offered items. Our novel findings—that children's feelings about spending and saving can be measured from an early age and relate to their behavior with money—are discussed with regard to theoretical and practical implications.
Abstract: Adults differ in the extent to which they find spending money to be distressing; “tightwads” find spending money painful, and “spendthrifts” do not find spending painful enough. This affective dimension has been reliably measured in adults and predicts a variety of important financial behaviors and outcomes (e.g., saving behavior and credit scores). Although children's financial behavior has also received attention, feelings about spending have not been studied in children, as they have in adults. We measured the spendthrift–tightwad (ST–TW) construct in children for the first time, with a sample of 5- to 10-year-old children (N = 225). Children across the entire age range were able to reliably report on their affective responses to spending and saving, and children's ST–TW scores were related to parent reports of children's temperament and financial behavior. Further, children's ST–TW scores were predictive of whether they chose to save or spend money in the lab, even after controlling for age and how much they liked the offered items. Our novel findings—that children's feelings about spending and saving can be measured from an early age and relate to their behavior with money—are discussed with regard to theoretical and practical implications.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Women perceived a deontological man as more interested in long-term bonds, of more long-term mating quality, and less prone to infidelity, relative to a utilitarian man
Is pulling the lever sexy? Deontology as a downstream cue to long-term mate quality. Mitch Brown, Donald F. Sacco. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407517749331
Abstract: Deontological and utilitarian moral decisions have unique communicative functions within the context of group living. Deontology more strongly communicates prosocial intentions, fostering greater perceptions of trust and desirability in general affiliative contexts. This general trustworthiness may extend to perceptions of fidelity in romantic relationships, leading to perceptions of deontological persons as better long-term mates, relative to utilitarians. In two studies, participants indicated desirability of both deontologists and utilitarians in long-term mating (LTM) and short-term mating contexts. In Study 1 (n = 102), women perceived a deontological man as more interested in long-term bonds, more desirable for LTM, and less prone to infidelity, relative to a utilitarian man. However, utilitarian men were undesirable as short-term mates. Study 2 (n = 112) had both men and women rate opposite-sex targets’ desirability after learning of their moral decisions in a trolley problem. We replicated women’s preference for deontological men as long-term mates. Interestingly, both men and women reporting personal deontological motives were particularly sensitive to deontology communicating long-term desirability and fidelity, which could be a product of the general affiliative signal from deontology. Thus, one’s moral basis for decision-making, particularly deontologically motivated moral decisions, may communicate traits valuable in LTM contexts.
Keywords: Evolutionary psychology, infidelity, mating, morality
Abstract: Deontological and utilitarian moral decisions have unique communicative functions within the context of group living. Deontology more strongly communicates prosocial intentions, fostering greater perceptions of trust and desirability in general affiliative contexts. This general trustworthiness may extend to perceptions of fidelity in romantic relationships, leading to perceptions of deontological persons as better long-term mates, relative to utilitarians. In two studies, participants indicated desirability of both deontologists and utilitarians in long-term mating (LTM) and short-term mating contexts. In Study 1 (n = 102), women perceived a deontological man as more interested in long-term bonds, more desirable for LTM, and less prone to infidelity, relative to a utilitarian man. However, utilitarian men were undesirable as short-term mates. Study 2 (n = 112) had both men and women rate opposite-sex targets’ desirability after learning of their moral decisions in a trolley problem. We replicated women’s preference for deontological men as long-term mates. Interestingly, both men and women reporting personal deontological motives were particularly sensitive to deontology communicating long-term desirability and fidelity, which could be a product of the general affiliative signal from deontology. Thus, one’s moral basis for decision-making, particularly deontologically motivated moral decisions, may communicate traits valuable in LTM contexts.
Keywords: Evolutionary psychology, infidelity, mating, morality
Chimpanzees greet emphatically but show no leave-taking behaviour — Do they see a future? Seems not...
“Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow”, But Only For Humans? William C. McGrew & Lucy Baehren. Human Ethology Bulletin, Volume 31, No 4, 5-14, published December 30, 2016. https://doi.org/10.22330/heb/314/005-014
ABSTRACT: Homo sapiens show greeting rituals when they meet and leave-taking rituals when they part. Presumably this reflects the species’ fission-fusion social organisation, and such displays show notably symmetrical form and content. But what about non-humans? Here we seek in our nearest living relations (Pan troglodytes) these behavioural complexes in two ways: We report frequencies of meeting and parting in daily life and solicit data on greeting and leave-taking from field sites of long-term study of these apes. Chimpanzees greet emphatically but show no leave-taking behaviour. This lack of symmetry in our nearest living relations (as well as in other animals) suggests that human greeting and leave-taking may be unique.
Keywords: Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes, greeting, parting, fission-fusion social system, human uniqueness
ABSTRACT: Homo sapiens show greeting rituals when they meet and leave-taking rituals when they part. Presumably this reflects the species’ fission-fusion social organisation, and such displays show notably symmetrical form and content. But what about non-humans? Here we seek in our nearest living relations (Pan troglodytes) these behavioural complexes in two ways: We report frequencies of meeting and parting in daily life and solicit data on greeting and leave-taking from field sites of long-term study of these apes. Chimpanzees greet emphatically but show no leave-taking behaviour. This lack of symmetry in our nearest living relations (as well as in other animals) suggests that human greeting and leave-taking may be unique.
Keywords: Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes, greeting, parting, fission-fusion social system, human uniqueness
Self-enhancement, righteous anger, and moral grandiosity — The findings illustrate tactical self-enhancement: the instrumental use of one’s negative emotions for self-enhancement purposes.
Self-enhancement, righteous anger, and moral grandiosity. Jeffrey D. Green, Constantine Sedikides, Daryl R. Van Tongeren, Anna M. C. Behler & Jessica M. Barber. Self and Identity, https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2017.1419504
Abstract: Do people self-enhance by dwelling in righteous anger in an effort to preserve their self-views as pillars of morality? We addressed this question in two experiments. Participants read a story about an injustice (experiencing righteous anger) or grocery shopping (experiencing neutral emotion), indicated their interest in reading injustice-relevant or happiness-relevant newspaper articles, and rated themselves on moral and agentic traits. Participants who experienced righteous anger (vs. neutral emotion) maintained their anger (i.e., exhibited stronger interest in reading injustice- than happiness-relevant articles) and rated themselves more positively on moral, but not on agentic, traits. Furthermore, anger maintenance mediated the effect of righteous anger on moral grandiosity. The findings illustrate tactical self-enhancement: the instrumental use of one’s negative emotions for self-enhancement purposes.
Keywords: Self-enhancement, anger, moral grandiosity, self-views, emotion regulation
Abstract: Do people self-enhance by dwelling in righteous anger in an effort to preserve their self-views as pillars of morality? We addressed this question in two experiments. Participants read a story about an injustice (experiencing righteous anger) or grocery shopping (experiencing neutral emotion), indicated their interest in reading injustice-relevant or happiness-relevant newspaper articles, and rated themselves on moral and agentic traits. Participants who experienced righteous anger (vs. neutral emotion) maintained their anger (i.e., exhibited stronger interest in reading injustice- than happiness-relevant articles) and rated themselves more positively on moral, but not on agentic, traits. Furthermore, anger maintenance mediated the effect of righteous anger on moral grandiosity. The findings illustrate tactical self-enhancement: the instrumental use of one’s negative emotions for self-enhancement purposes.
Keywords: Self-enhancement, anger, moral grandiosity, self-views, emotion regulation
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Cumulative culture in nonhumans: overlooked findings from Japanese monkeys? Food-washing behaviors (e.g., of sweet potato tubers and wheat grains) seem to have increased in complexity and efficiency over time
Cumulative culture in nonhumans: overlooked findings from Japanese monkeys? Daniel P. Schofield et al. Primates, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10329-017-0642-7
Abstract: Cumulative culture, generally known as the increasing complexity or efficiency of cultural behaviors additively transmitted over successive generations, has been emphasized as a hallmark of human evolution. Recently, reviews of candidates for cumulative culture in nonhuman species have claimed that only humans have cumulative culture. Here, we aim to scrutinize this claim, using current criteria for cumulative culture to re-evaluate overlooked qualitative but longitudinal data from a nonhuman primate, the Japanese monkey (Macaca fuscata). We review over 60 years of Japanese ethnography of Koshima monkeys, which indicate that food-washing behaviors (e.g., of sweet potato tubers and wheat grains) seem to have increased in complexity and efficiency over time. Our reassessment of the Koshima ethnography is preliminary and nonquantitative, but it raises the possibility that cumulative culture, at least in a simple form, occurs spontaneously and adaptively in other primates and nonhumans in nature.
Abstract: Cumulative culture, generally known as the increasing complexity or efficiency of cultural behaviors additively transmitted over successive generations, has been emphasized as a hallmark of human evolution. Recently, reviews of candidates for cumulative culture in nonhuman species have claimed that only humans have cumulative culture. Here, we aim to scrutinize this claim, using current criteria for cumulative culture to re-evaluate overlooked qualitative but longitudinal data from a nonhuman primate, the Japanese monkey (Macaca fuscata). We review over 60 years of Japanese ethnography of Koshima monkeys, which indicate that food-washing behaviors (e.g., of sweet potato tubers and wheat grains) seem to have increased in complexity and efficiency over time. Our reassessment of the Koshima ethnography is preliminary and nonquantitative, but it raises the possibility that cumulative culture, at least in a simple form, occurs spontaneously and adaptively in other primates and nonhumans in nature.
Anti-vaccination movement on Facebook: Present-day discourses centre around moral outrage and structural oppression by institutional government & the media, suggesting a strong logic of ‘conspiracy-style’ beliefs and thinking. Furthermore, the vast majority of participants are women
Mapping the anti-vaccination movement on Facebook. Naomi Smith & Tim Graham. Information, Communication & Society, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1418406
ABSTRACT: Over the past decade, anti-vaccination rhetoric has become part of the mainstream discourse regarding the public health practice of childhood vaccination. These utilise social media to foster online spaces that strengthen and popularise anti-vaccination discourses. In this paper, we examine the characteristics of and the discourses present within six popular anti-vaccination Facebook pages. We examine these large-scale datasets using a range of methods, including social network analysis, gender prediction using historical census data, and generative statistical models for topic analysis (Latent Dirichlet allocation). We find that present-day discourses centre around moral outrage and structural oppression by institutional government and the media, suggesting a strong logic of ‘conspiracy-style’ beliefs and thinking. Furthermore, anti-vaccination pages on Facebook reflect a highly ‘feminised’ movement ‒ the vast majority of participants are women. Although anti-vaccination networks on Facebook are large and global in scope, the comment activity sub-networks appear to be ‘small world’. This suggests that social media may have a role in spreading anti-vaccination ideas and making the movement durable on a global scale.
KEYWORDS: Anti-vaccination, social network analysis, topic modelling, social network sites, social media
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My comment: could this be related? Sex Differences in Disgust: Why Are Women More Easily Disgusted Than Men? Laith Al-Shawaf, David M.G. Lewis, David M. Buss. Emotion Review, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/11/why-are-women-more-easily-disgusted.html
ABSTRACT: Over the past decade, anti-vaccination rhetoric has become part of the mainstream discourse regarding the public health practice of childhood vaccination. These utilise social media to foster online spaces that strengthen and popularise anti-vaccination discourses. In this paper, we examine the characteristics of and the discourses present within six popular anti-vaccination Facebook pages. We examine these large-scale datasets using a range of methods, including social network analysis, gender prediction using historical census data, and generative statistical models for topic analysis (Latent Dirichlet allocation). We find that present-day discourses centre around moral outrage and structural oppression by institutional government and the media, suggesting a strong logic of ‘conspiracy-style’ beliefs and thinking. Furthermore, anti-vaccination pages on Facebook reflect a highly ‘feminised’ movement ‒ the vast majority of participants are women. Although anti-vaccination networks on Facebook are large and global in scope, the comment activity sub-networks appear to be ‘small world’. This suggests that social media may have a role in spreading anti-vaccination ideas and making the movement durable on a global scale.
KEYWORDS: Anti-vaccination, social network analysis, topic modelling, social network sites, social media
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My comment: could this be related? Sex Differences in Disgust: Why Are Women More Easily Disgusted Than Men? Laith Al-Shawaf, David M.G. Lewis, David M. Buss. Emotion Review, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/11/why-are-women-more-easily-disgusted.html
Using a foreign language reduces mental imagery; this partially explains why using foreign languages changes moral choices
Using a foreign language reduces mental imagery. Sayuri Hayakawa, Boaz Keysar. Cognition, Volume 173, April 2018, Pages 8–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.12.010
Highlights
• Using a foreign language reduces vividness of mental imagery.
• This reduction in vividness affects both subjective experience and objective performance on mental imagery tasks.
• The effect of language may vary across different modalities.
• The reduction in mental imagery partially explains why using foreign languages changes moral choices.
Abstract: Mental imagery plays a significant role in guiding how we feel, think, and even behave. These mental simulations are often guided by language, making it important to understand what aspects of language contribute to imagery vividness and consequently to the way we think. Here, we focus on the native-ness of language and present evidence that using a foreign language leads to less vivid mental imagery than using a native tongue. In Experiment 1, participants using a foreign language reported less vivid imagery of sensory experiences such as sight and touch than those using their native tongue. Experiment 2 provided an objective behavioral measure, showing that muted imagery reduced accuracy when judging the similarity of shapes of imagined objects. Lastly, Experiment 3 demonstrated that this reduction in mental imagery partly accounted for the previously observed foreign language effects in moral choice. Together, the findings suggest that our mental images change when using a foreign tongue, leading to downstream consequences for how we make decisions.
Keywords: Bilingualism; Mental imagery; Foreign language; Morality; Decision making
Check also Are jokes funnier in one’s native language? AyÅŸe AyçiçeÄŸi-Dinn, Simge ÅžiÅŸman-Bal, Catherine L Caldwell-Harris. International Journal of Humor Research, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/12/when-proficiency-levels-are-only.html
Also: Thinking More or Feeling Less? Explaining the Foreign-Language Effect on Moral Judgment. Sayuri Hayakawa et al. Psychological Science, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/08/thinking-more-or-feeling-less.html
Highlights
• Using a foreign language reduces vividness of mental imagery.
• This reduction in vividness affects both subjective experience and objective performance on mental imagery tasks.
• The effect of language may vary across different modalities.
• The reduction in mental imagery partially explains why using foreign languages changes moral choices.
Abstract: Mental imagery plays a significant role in guiding how we feel, think, and even behave. These mental simulations are often guided by language, making it important to understand what aspects of language contribute to imagery vividness and consequently to the way we think. Here, we focus on the native-ness of language and present evidence that using a foreign language leads to less vivid mental imagery than using a native tongue. In Experiment 1, participants using a foreign language reported less vivid imagery of sensory experiences such as sight and touch than those using their native tongue. Experiment 2 provided an objective behavioral measure, showing that muted imagery reduced accuracy when judging the similarity of shapes of imagined objects. Lastly, Experiment 3 demonstrated that this reduction in mental imagery partly accounted for the previously observed foreign language effects in moral choice. Together, the findings suggest that our mental images change when using a foreign tongue, leading to downstream consequences for how we make decisions.
Keywords: Bilingualism; Mental imagery; Foreign language; Morality; Decision making
Check also Are jokes funnier in one’s native language? AyÅŸe AyçiçeÄŸi-Dinn, Simge ÅžiÅŸman-Bal, Catherine L Caldwell-Harris. International Journal of Humor Research, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/12/when-proficiency-levels-are-only.html
Also: Thinking More or Feeling Less? Explaining the Foreign-Language Effect on Moral Judgment. Sayuri Hayakawa et al. Psychological Science, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/08/thinking-more-or-feeling-less.html
The neuroendocrinology of sexual attraction: Olfactory stimuli are necessary but not sufficient for sexual attraction in rodents; visual stimuli, like the sexual skin, are crucial in primates; and the responsiveness to sexual attractants depends on gonadal hormones
The neuroendocrinology of sexual attraction. Olivia Le Moëne, Anders Ågmo. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yfrne.2017.12.006
Highlights
• Sexual attraction is expressed as approach behaviors.
• Olfactory stimuli are necessary but not sufficient for sexual attraction in rodents.
• Visual stimuli, like the sexual skin, are crucial in primates.
• The responsiveness to sexual attractants depends on gonadal hormones.
• Several brain sites and neurotransmitters are involved in the response to sexual attractants.
Abstract: Sexual attraction has two components: Emission of sexually attractive stimuli and responsiveness to these stimuli. In rodents, olfactory stimuli are necessary but not sufficient for attraction. We argue that body odors are far superior to odors from excreta (urine, feces) as sexual attractants. Body odors are produced by sebaceous glands all over the body surface and in specialized glands. In primates, visual stimuli, for example the sexual skin, are more important than olfactory. The role of gonadal hormones for the production of and responsiveness to odorants is well established. Both the androgen and the estrogen receptor α are important in male as well as in female rodents. Also in primates, gonadal hormones are necessary for the responsiveness to sexual attractants. In males, the androgen receptor is sufficient for sustaining responsiveness. In female non-human primates, estrogens are needed, whereas androgens seem to contribute to responsiveness in women.
Keywords: androgens; estrogens; estrogen receptors; olfaction; audition; vision; preputial glands; urine; feces
Highlights
• Sexual attraction is expressed as approach behaviors.
• Olfactory stimuli are necessary but not sufficient for sexual attraction in rodents.
• Visual stimuli, like the sexual skin, are crucial in primates.
• The responsiveness to sexual attractants depends on gonadal hormones.
• Several brain sites and neurotransmitters are involved in the response to sexual attractants.
Abstract: Sexual attraction has two components: Emission of sexually attractive stimuli and responsiveness to these stimuli. In rodents, olfactory stimuli are necessary but not sufficient for attraction. We argue that body odors are far superior to odors from excreta (urine, feces) as sexual attractants. Body odors are produced by sebaceous glands all over the body surface and in specialized glands. In primates, visual stimuli, for example the sexual skin, are more important than olfactory. The role of gonadal hormones for the production of and responsiveness to odorants is well established. Both the androgen and the estrogen receptor α are important in male as well as in female rodents. Also in primates, gonadal hormones are necessary for the responsiveness to sexual attractants. In males, the androgen receptor is sufficient for sustaining responsiveness. In female non-human primates, estrogens are needed, whereas androgens seem to contribute to responsiveness in women.
Keywords: androgens; estrogens; estrogen receptors; olfaction; audition; vision; preputial glands; urine; feces
Is envy harmful to a Society's psychological health and wellbeing? A longitudinal study of 18,000 adults
Is envy harmful to a Society's psychological health and wellbeing? A longitudinal study of 18,000 adults. Redzo Mujcic, Andrew J. Oswald. Social Science & Medicine, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.12.030
Highlights
• The institutions of modern society may act to foster widespread envy.
• This paper reports the first analysis of longitudinal links between envy and mental health.
• Our findings are consistent with the idea that envy may be psychologically dangerous for society.
Abstract: Nearly 100 years ago, the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell warned of the social dangers of widespread envy. One view of modern society is that it is systematically developing a set of institutions -- such as social media and new forms of advertising -- that make people feel inadequate and envious of others. If so, how might that be influencing the psychological health of our citizens? This paper reports the first large-scale longitudinal research into envy and its possible repercussions. The paper studies 18,000 randomly selected individuals over the years 2005, 2009, and 2013. Using measures of SF-36 mental health and psychological well-being, four main conclusions emerge. First, the young are especially susceptible. Levels of envy fall as people grow older. This longitudinal finding is consistent with a cross-sectional pattern noted recently by Nicole E. Henniger and Christine R. Harris, and with the theory of socioemotional regulation suggested by scholars such as Laura L. Carstensen. Second, using fixed-effects equations and prospective analysis, the analysis reveals that envy today is a powerful predictor of worse SF-36 mental health and well-being in the future. A change from the lowest to the highest level of envy, for example, is associated with a worsening of SF-36 mental health by approximately half a standard deviation (p < .001). Third, no evidence is found for the idea that envy acts as a useful motivator. Greater envy is associated with slower -- not higher -- growth of psychological well-being in the future. Nor is envy a predictor of later economic success. Fourth, the longitudinal decline of envy leaves unaltered a U-shaped age pattern of well-being from age 20 to age 70. These results are consistent with the idea that society should be concerned about institutions that stimulate large-scale envy.
Keywords: Envy; Age; SF-36; Mental health; Well-being; Longitudinal data
Highlights
• The institutions of modern society may act to foster widespread envy.
• This paper reports the first analysis of longitudinal links between envy and mental health.
• Our findings are consistent with the idea that envy may be psychologically dangerous for society.
Abstract: Nearly 100 years ago, the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell warned of the social dangers of widespread envy. One view of modern society is that it is systematically developing a set of institutions -- such as social media and new forms of advertising -- that make people feel inadequate and envious of others. If so, how might that be influencing the psychological health of our citizens? This paper reports the first large-scale longitudinal research into envy and its possible repercussions. The paper studies 18,000 randomly selected individuals over the years 2005, 2009, and 2013. Using measures of SF-36 mental health and psychological well-being, four main conclusions emerge. First, the young are especially susceptible. Levels of envy fall as people grow older. This longitudinal finding is consistent with a cross-sectional pattern noted recently by Nicole E. Henniger and Christine R. Harris, and with the theory of socioemotional regulation suggested by scholars such as Laura L. Carstensen. Second, using fixed-effects equations and prospective analysis, the analysis reveals that envy today is a powerful predictor of worse SF-36 mental health and well-being in the future. A change from the lowest to the highest level of envy, for example, is associated with a worsening of SF-36 mental health by approximately half a standard deviation (p < .001). Third, no evidence is found for the idea that envy acts as a useful motivator. Greater envy is associated with slower -- not higher -- growth of psychological well-being in the future. Nor is envy a predictor of later economic success. Fourth, the longitudinal decline of envy leaves unaltered a U-shaped age pattern of well-being from age 20 to age 70. These results are consistent with the idea that society should be concerned about institutions that stimulate large-scale envy.
Keywords: Envy; Age; SF-36; Mental health; Well-being; Longitudinal data
Pathogen Avoidance: We drink significantly less water when we believe it came from pathogen-prevalent environments (e.g., restrooms) and rated the water from pathogen-prevalent environments as lower in cleanliness, crispness, quality, and other characteristics when compared
Belief Influences Gustation: Evidence of a Psychophysical Pathogen Avoidance Mechanism. Carey J. Fitzgerald etal. Evolutionary Psychological Science, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40806-017-0132-6
Abstract: Individuals often avoid pathogens by refraining from ingesting things that are associated with pathogen-prevalent stimuli. The present study examined whether individuals would be less likely to ingest water that is associated with pathogen-prevalent environments and whether individuals’ perceptions of water quality would decrease when they believed the water originated from a pathogen-prevalent environment, (even though the water actually did not originate from the indicated source). Across two experiments, undergraduates were asked to taste-test water they believed came from a variety of sources on their college campus. For each cup of water presented to participants, an image of its supposed water source (e.g., kitchen sink, drinking fountain, or bathroom sink) was also presented. Participants drank significantly less water when they believed it came from pathogen-prevalent environments (e.g., restrooms) and rated the water from pathogen-prevalent environments as lower in cleanliness, crispness, quality, and other characteristics when compared to water from environments not associated with pathogens (study 1). Similar results were also found after controlling for perceived cleanliness of the images of water sources (study 2). Ultimately, the results from both studies provide evidence that individuals’ beliefs can influence perception and behavior in a manner consistent with pathogen avoidance.
Abstract: Individuals often avoid pathogens by refraining from ingesting things that are associated with pathogen-prevalent stimuli. The present study examined whether individuals would be less likely to ingest water that is associated with pathogen-prevalent environments and whether individuals’ perceptions of water quality would decrease when they believed the water originated from a pathogen-prevalent environment, (even though the water actually did not originate from the indicated source). Across two experiments, undergraduates were asked to taste-test water they believed came from a variety of sources on their college campus. For each cup of water presented to participants, an image of its supposed water source (e.g., kitchen sink, drinking fountain, or bathroom sink) was also presented. Participants drank significantly less water when they believed it came from pathogen-prevalent environments (e.g., restrooms) and rated the water from pathogen-prevalent environments as lower in cleanliness, crispness, quality, and other characteristics when compared to water from environments not associated with pathogens (study 1). Similar results were also found after controlling for perceived cleanliness of the images of water sources (study 2). Ultimately, the results from both studies provide evidence that individuals’ beliefs can influence perception and behavior in a manner consistent with pathogen avoidance.
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
While a great deal is known about how people respond to influence tactics that are used on them, almost nothing is known about whether people understand these tactics and strategically use them to influence others
Default neglect in attempts at social influence. Julian J. Zlatev et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 114 no. 52, pp 13643–13648, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1712757114
Significance: While a great deal is known about how people respond to influence tactics that are used on them, almost nothing is known about whether people understand these tactics and strategically use them to influence others. We examine whether people are successful at using the default effect, a widely studied bias with special policy relevance, to influence others’ choices. Overall, we find that managers, law/business/medical students, and US adults often fail to understand and/or use defaults, with some interesting exceptions. These findings suggest that the scope for improving social welfare via behavioral policy interventions is vast.
Abstract: Current theories suggest that people understand how to exploit common biases to influence others. However, these predictions have received little empirical attention. We consider a widely studied bias with special policy relevance: the default effect, which is the tendency to choose whichever option is the status quo. We asked participants (including managers, law/business/medical students, and US adults) to nudge others toward selecting a target option by choosing whether to present that target option as the default. In contrast to theoretical predictions, we find that people often fail to understand and/or use defaults to influence others, i.e., they show “default neglect.” First, in one-shot default-setting games, we find that only 50.8% of participants set the target option as the default across 11 samples (n = 2,844), consistent with people not systematically using defaults at all. Second, when participants have multiple opportunities for experience and feedback, they still do not systematically use defaults. Third, we investigate beliefs related to the default effect. People seem to anticipate some mechanisms that drive default effects, yet most people do not believe in the default effect on average, even in cases where they do use defaults. We discuss implications of default neglect for decision making, social influence, and evidence-based policy.
Check also Szaszi, B., Palinkas, A., Palfi, B., Szollosi, A., and Aczel, B. (2017) A Systematic Scoping Review of the Choice Architecture Movement: Toward Understanding When and Why Nudges Work. J. Behav. Dec. Making, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/12/selling-snake-oil-of-nudging-only-7-of.html
Significance: While a great deal is known about how people respond to influence tactics that are used on them, almost nothing is known about whether people understand these tactics and strategically use them to influence others. We examine whether people are successful at using the default effect, a widely studied bias with special policy relevance, to influence others’ choices. Overall, we find that managers, law/business/medical students, and US adults often fail to understand and/or use defaults, with some interesting exceptions. These findings suggest that the scope for improving social welfare via behavioral policy interventions is vast.
Abstract: Current theories suggest that people understand how to exploit common biases to influence others. However, these predictions have received little empirical attention. We consider a widely studied bias with special policy relevance: the default effect, which is the tendency to choose whichever option is the status quo. We asked participants (including managers, law/business/medical students, and US adults) to nudge others toward selecting a target option by choosing whether to present that target option as the default. In contrast to theoretical predictions, we find that people often fail to understand and/or use defaults to influence others, i.e., they show “default neglect.” First, in one-shot default-setting games, we find that only 50.8% of participants set the target option as the default across 11 samples (n = 2,844), consistent with people not systematically using defaults at all. Second, when participants have multiple opportunities for experience and feedback, they still do not systematically use defaults. Third, we investigate beliefs related to the default effect. People seem to anticipate some mechanisms that drive default effects, yet most people do not believe in the default effect on average, even in cases where they do use defaults. We discuss implications of default neglect for decision making, social influence, and evidence-based policy.
Check also Szaszi, B., Palinkas, A., Palfi, B., Szollosi, A., and Aczel, B. (2017) A Systematic Scoping Review of the Choice Architecture Movement: Toward Understanding When and Why Nudges Work. J. Behav. Dec. Making, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/12/selling-snake-oil-of-nudging-only-7-of.html
Seven myths of memory
Seven myths of memory. Nicola S. Clayton, , Clive Wilkins. Behavioural Processes, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2017.12.018
Highlights
• Episodic memories are not accurate objective reflections of what happened, nor are they a permanent record of the past.
• We don’t remember the scenes we actually saw, nor do we make a series of one-off snap shots of what happened.
• Although we travel backwards in the mind’s eye to relive the past we do not reverse time mentally. We jump back to a specific point in time and then play the memory forwards again.
• Memory is only used to recall the past for it evolved to anticipate and imagine future scenarios. In thinking about the future, however, we make a fundamental mistake, namely that we think the future will be more like the past and the present than it will ever really be. This is because we overvalue the self in the here and now.
Abstract: In this paper we highlight seven myths about memory, which centre around the fact that memories, as we experience them, are not only about the past, they are also prospective. Although episodic memory provides the template for future scenarios, it can be reassessed each time it is recalled, and in part is dependent on the sequence in which events unfold. We explore seven myths about memory, and the relationship between memory and experience. We refer to ‘The Moustachio Quartet’, a series of novels, which highlight themes and ideas relevant to our argument, and ‘The Creatures in the Night’, a picture book of paintings that explore the passage of time. We integrate evidence from science and the arts to explore the subjective nature of memory and mental time travel, arguing that our capacity to juggle multiple perspectives evolved for the act of prospection, as an aid to move time forward to the advantage of our species by imagining future scenarios.
Keywords: Episodic memory; Mental time travel; Future planning; ‘The Captured Thought’; ‘The Moustachio Quartet’
Highlights
• Episodic memories are not accurate objective reflections of what happened, nor are they a permanent record of the past.
• We don’t remember the scenes we actually saw, nor do we make a series of one-off snap shots of what happened.
• Although we travel backwards in the mind’s eye to relive the past we do not reverse time mentally. We jump back to a specific point in time and then play the memory forwards again.
• Memory is only used to recall the past for it evolved to anticipate and imagine future scenarios. In thinking about the future, however, we make a fundamental mistake, namely that we think the future will be more like the past and the present than it will ever really be. This is because we overvalue the self in the here and now.
Abstract: In this paper we highlight seven myths about memory, which centre around the fact that memories, as we experience them, are not only about the past, they are also prospective. Although episodic memory provides the template for future scenarios, it can be reassessed each time it is recalled, and in part is dependent on the sequence in which events unfold. We explore seven myths about memory, and the relationship between memory and experience. We refer to ‘The Moustachio Quartet’, a series of novels, which highlight themes and ideas relevant to our argument, and ‘The Creatures in the Night’, a picture book of paintings that explore the passage of time. We integrate evidence from science and the arts to explore the subjective nature of memory and mental time travel, arguing that our capacity to juggle multiple perspectives evolved for the act of prospection, as an aid to move time forward to the advantage of our species by imagining future scenarios.
Keywords: Episodic memory; Mental time travel; Future planning; ‘The Captured Thought’; ‘The Moustachio Quartet’
Monday, December 25, 2017
Disadvantageous inequity-aversion (“envy”) is stronger under time pressure
Exploring the Role of Deliberation Time in Non-Selfish Behavior: the Double Response Method. Michał Krawczyk, , Marta Sylwestrzak. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2017.12.004
Highlights
• We develop and apply a novel method for eliciting laboratory subjects’ preference
• The method incentivizes providing a quick, intuitive response and a more thought-out response
• We apply the method to the Charness & Rabin's choices measuring social preference
• We find that disadvantageous inequity-aversion (“envy”) is stronger under time pressure
Abstract: In this paper, we explore the Double Response research method, in which, in each decision task, subjects supply one quick choice and one additional choice after a longer deliberation time. Assuming a simple dual-process framework, with the two modes of judgment running parallel to each other providing the decision-maker with their final estimates of the utility difference between the options, this method incentivizes the decision-maker to indicate which option they prefer in System 1 and which option is preferred in System 2. We apply the method to a series of simple decision tasks aimed at eliciting subjects’ social preferences (as in Charness and Rabin, 2002). We observe that time pressure leads to a negative attitude towards the earnings of other participants when they are higher than those of the decision-maker. In other words, deliberation decisions are typically updated towards those corresponding with lower aversion to disadvantageous inequality (“envy”).
Keywords: Response time; Design of laboratory experiments; Other-regarding preference; Inequality aversion
---
The second contribution of the present study lies in the novel findings in the specific area of other-regarding behavior. As far as we know, the observation that a disadvantageous inequality aversion (as opposed to other motives to lower the payoff of another subject) is strengthened under time pressure is novel. Generally speaking, it contradicts the Social Heuristics Hypothesis of Rand and colleagues. One plausible explanation for this phenomenon is that the subject's own payoff initially appears to be low when compared to the high payoff the other subject is enjoying. With more deliberation time, subjects tend to find that, in fact, there is no reason not to let the other person earn a bit more money. This effect provides an alternative explanation to the findings of higher rejection rates in the Ultimatum Game played under time pressure, often understood in terms of emotion-driven revenge. Additionally, intuitive disadvantageous inequality aversion allows explaining ―hot-headed‖ behavior in situations in which no evil intentions can be attributed to the other party. For example, many drivers seem to change lanes much too often in heavy traffic. By doing so, they generally diminish their average driving speed and increase the risk of causing a collision without receiving any substantial benefit in terms of time saved. This is particularly puzzling in view of laboratory findings, such as a reluctance to exchange lottery tickets (Bar-Hillel et al., 1996), suggesting a strong status-quo bias. It could be that such drivers‘ behavior may be explained in view of its timing – typically one has to decide very quickly whether or not to change to another lane that temporarily seems to allow a quicker ride. If this time pressure puts drivers in a mode in which they find it hard to accept that somebody else is making more progress, it is likely to result in excessive lane switching.
Highlights
• We develop and apply a novel method for eliciting laboratory subjects’ preference
• The method incentivizes providing a quick, intuitive response and a more thought-out response
• We apply the method to the Charness & Rabin's choices measuring social preference
• We find that disadvantageous inequity-aversion (“envy”) is stronger under time pressure
Abstract: In this paper, we explore the Double Response research method, in which, in each decision task, subjects supply one quick choice and one additional choice after a longer deliberation time. Assuming a simple dual-process framework, with the two modes of judgment running parallel to each other providing the decision-maker with their final estimates of the utility difference between the options, this method incentivizes the decision-maker to indicate which option they prefer in System 1 and which option is preferred in System 2. We apply the method to a series of simple decision tasks aimed at eliciting subjects’ social preferences (as in Charness and Rabin, 2002). We observe that time pressure leads to a negative attitude towards the earnings of other participants when they are higher than those of the decision-maker. In other words, deliberation decisions are typically updated towards those corresponding with lower aversion to disadvantageous inequality (“envy”).
Keywords: Response time; Design of laboratory experiments; Other-regarding preference; Inequality aversion
---
The second contribution of the present study lies in the novel findings in the specific area of other-regarding behavior. As far as we know, the observation that a disadvantageous inequality aversion (as opposed to other motives to lower the payoff of another subject) is strengthened under time pressure is novel. Generally speaking, it contradicts the Social Heuristics Hypothesis of Rand and colleagues. One plausible explanation for this phenomenon is that the subject's own payoff initially appears to be low when compared to the high payoff the other subject is enjoying. With more deliberation time, subjects tend to find that, in fact, there is no reason not to let the other person earn a bit more money. This effect provides an alternative explanation to the findings of higher rejection rates in the Ultimatum Game played under time pressure, often understood in terms of emotion-driven revenge. Additionally, intuitive disadvantageous inequality aversion allows explaining ―hot-headed‖ behavior in situations in which no evil intentions can be attributed to the other party. For example, many drivers seem to change lanes much too often in heavy traffic. By doing so, they generally diminish their average driving speed and increase the risk of causing a collision without receiving any substantial benefit in terms of time saved. This is particularly puzzling in view of laboratory findings, such as a reluctance to exchange lottery tickets (Bar-Hillel et al., 1996), suggesting a strong status-quo bias. It could be that such drivers‘ behavior may be explained in view of its timing – typically one has to decide very quickly whether or not to change to another lane that temporarily seems to allow a quicker ride. If this time pressure puts drivers in a mode in which they find it hard to accept that somebody else is making more progress, it is likely to result in excessive lane switching.
The cyclic sexual & reproductive behavior of human populations is mostly driven by culture & this interest in sex is associated with specific emotions, characteristic of major cultural & religious celebrations
Human Sexual Cycles are Driven by Culture and Match Collective Moods. Ian B. Wood, Pedro L. Varela, Johan Bollen, Luis M. Rocha & Joana Gonçalves-Sá. Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 17973 (2017). doi:10.1038/s41598-017-18262-5
Abstract: Human reproduction does not happen uniformly throughout the year and what drives human sexual cycles is a long-standing question. The literature is mixed with respect to whether biological or cultural factors best explain these cycles. The biological hypothesis proposes that human reproductive cycles are an adaptation to the seasonal (hemisphere-dependent) cycles, while the cultural hypothesis proposes that conception dates vary mostly due to cultural factors, such as holidays. However, for many countries, common records used to investigate these hypotheses are incomplete or unavailable, biasing existing analysis towards Northern Hemisphere Christian countries. Here we show that interest in sex peaks sharply online during major cultural and religious celebrations, regardless of hemisphere location. This online interest, when shifted by nine months, corresponds to documented human births, even after adjusting for numerous factors such as language and amount of free time due to holidays. We further show that mood, measured independently on Twitter, contains distinct collective emotions associated with those cultural celebrations. Our results provide converging evidence that the cyclic sexual and reproductive behavior of human populations is mostly driven by culture and that this interest in sex is associated with specific emotions, characteristic of major cultural and religious celebrations.
Abstract: Human reproduction does not happen uniformly throughout the year and what drives human sexual cycles is a long-standing question. The literature is mixed with respect to whether biological or cultural factors best explain these cycles. The biological hypothesis proposes that human reproductive cycles are an adaptation to the seasonal (hemisphere-dependent) cycles, while the cultural hypothesis proposes that conception dates vary mostly due to cultural factors, such as holidays. However, for many countries, common records used to investigate these hypotheses are incomplete or unavailable, biasing existing analysis towards Northern Hemisphere Christian countries. Here we show that interest in sex peaks sharply online during major cultural and religious celebrations, regardless of hemisphere location. This online interest, when shifted by nine months, corresponds to documented human births, even after adjusting for numerous factors such as language and amount of free time due to holidays. We further show that mood, measured independently on Twitter, contains distinct collective emotions associated with those cultural celebrations. Our results provide converging evidence that the cyclic sexual and reproductive behavior of human populations is mostly driven by culture and that this interest in sex is associated with specific emotions, characteristic of major cultural and religious celebrations.
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