Advantageous Selection in a Voluntary Army: Volunteers and drafted men showed no significant difference in fatalities, but volunteers earned distinguished awards at a higher rate than drafted men

“Gallantry in Action”: Evidence of Advantageous Selection in a Voluntary Army. Javier A. Birchenall, Thomas G. Koch. The Journal of Law and Economics, Volume 58, Number 1, February 1, 2015. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/682906

Abstract: A voluntary army’s quality exceeds or falls below a drafted army’s average quality depending on whether selection is advantageous or adverse. Using a collection of data sets that cover the majority of the US Army soldiers during World War II, we test for adverse selection into the army. Rather, we find advantageous selection: volunteers and drafted men showed no significant difference in fatalities, but volunteers earned distinguished awards at a higher rate than drafted men, particularly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Analyses at the level of units concur with our findings based on enlistment records.

Savoring, or one’s tendency to attend to and enjoy previous, current, and future positive events, is positively related to relationship satisfaction; especially so in the anticipative branch of savoring

Lenger, K. A., & Gordon, C. L. (2019). To have and to savor: Examining the associations between savoring and relationship satisfaction. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 8(1), 1-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cfp0000111

Abstract: Savoring, or one’s tendency to attend to and enjoy previous, current, and future positive events, is composed of 3 facets: savoring in anticipation, savoring the present moment, and savoring in reminiscence. Whereas research is now accumulating on potential benefits that savoring may have for a variety of individual indicators of well-being, it remains unclear whether savoring may also be relevant to relational well-being. The present investigation seeks to address this gap in the literature by establishing whether savoring is associated with relationship satisfaction, and if so, which facet(s) of savoring are the strongest predictors of relationship satisfaction. Data were collected from 122 undergraduates from a southeastern university currently participating in monogamous dating relationships. Analyses revealed that total savoring as well as each facet of savoring, namely, anticipation, present moment, and reminiscence, were positively related to relationship satisfaction. A subsequent simultaneous multiple regression analysis indicated that anticipation uniquely predicted relationship satisfaction, above and beyond reminiscence and present moment facets of savoring. Overall, it appears that attending to and enjoying positive events is associated with a happier relationship. Furthermore, these data suggest that anticipation may be a component of savoring that is particularly relevant to relationship satisfaction. Results are discussed in the context of optimizing relational well-being.

Visual perfection: Our data are best explained by a model that is based on the optimal decision strategy, but with imperfections in its execution (suboptimal inference)

Imperfect Bayesian inference in visual perception. Elina Stengård, Ronald van den Berg. PLOS, April 18, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006465

Abstract: Optimal Bayesian models have been highly successful in describing human performance on perceptual decision-making tasks, such as cue combination and visual search. However, recent studies have argued that these models are often overly flexible and therefore lack explanatory power. Moreover, there are indications that neural computation is inherently imprecise, which makes it implausible that humans would perform optimally on any non-trivial task. Here, we reconsider human performance on a visual-search task by using an approach that constrains model flexibility and tests for computational imperfections. Subjects performed a target detection task in which targets and distractors were tilted ellipses with orientations drawn from Gaussian distributions with different means. We varied the amount of overlap between these distributions to create multiple levels of external uncertainty. We also varied the level of sensory noise, by testing subjects under both short and unlimited display times. On average, empirical performance—measured as d’—fell 18.1% short of optimal performance. We found no evidence that the magnitude of this suboptimality was affected by the level of internal or external uncertainty. The data were well accounted for by a Bayesian model with imperfections in its computations. This “imperfect Bayesian” model convincingly outperformed the “flawless Bayesian” model as well as all ten heuristic models that we tested. These results suggest that perception is founded on Bayesian principles, but with suboptimalities in the implementation of these principles. The view of perception as imperfect Bayesian inference can provide a middle ground between traditional Bayesian and anti-Bayesian views.

Author summary: The main task of perceptual systems is to make truthful inferences about the environment. The sensory input to these systems is often astonishingly imprecise, which makes human perception prone to error. Nevertheless, numerous studies have reported that humans often perform as accurately as is possible given these sensory imprecisions. This suggests that the brain makes optimal use of the sensory input and computes without error. The validity of this claim has recently been questioned for two reasons. First, it has been argued that a lot of the evidence for optimality comes from studies that used overly flexible models. Second, optimality in human perception is implausible due to limitations inherent to neural systems. In this study, we reconsider optimality in a standard visual perception task by devising a research method that addresses both concerns. In contrast to previous studies, we find clear indications of suboptimalities. Our data are best explained by a model that is based on the optimal decision strategy, but with imperfections in its execution.

Popular summary: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-04-brain-imperfect-mathematically-optimal-perception.html

Sexual selection & the evolution of male & female cognition in seed beetles: polygamous males outperform cognitively monogamous males; polygamous females show no improvement

Sexual selection and the evolution of male and female cognition: a test using experimental evolution in seed beetles. Julian Baur, Jean d'Amour, David Berger. bioRxiv 514711, Jan 9 2019. https://doi.org/10.1101/514711

Abstract: The mating mind hypothesis, originally aimed at explaining human cognition, holds that the socio-sexual environment shapes cognitive abilities among animals. Similarly, general sexual selection theory predicts that mate competition should benefit individuals carrying "good genes" with beneficial pleiotropic effects on general cognitive ability. However, few experimental studies have evaluated these related hypotheses due to difficulties of performing direct tests in most taxa. Here we harnessed the empirical potential of the seed beetle study system to investigate the role of sexual selection and mating system in the evolution of cognition. We evolved replicate lines of beetle under enforced monogamy (eliminating sexual selection) or polygamy for 35 generations and then challenged them to locate and discriminate among mating partners (male assays) or host seeds (female assays). To assess learning, the same beetles performed the task in three consecutive rounds. All lines learned the task, improving both within and between trails. Moreover, polygamous males outperformed monogamous males. However, there were no differences in the rate of learning between males of the two regimes, and polygamous females showed no improvement in host search, and even signs of reduced learning. Hence, while sexual selection was a potent factor that increased cognitive performance in mate search, it did not lead to the general increase in cognitive abilities expected under the mating mind hypothesis or general good genes theory. Our results highlight sexually antagonistic (balancing) selection as a potential force maintaining genetic variation in cognitive traits.

From 2018: High consumption of pornography correlates with the more frequent practice of some sexual behaviors; there is a relationship between the intensity of certain sexual behaviors & affective temperament

Sexo, pornografia e temperamento. Laura Dick e Silva. Dissertation, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Escola de Medicina, Aug 2018, http://tede2.pucrs.br/tede2/handle/tede/8441

Abstract:
Introduction: A satisfactory and healthy sex life is one of four markers considered by the World Health Organization to measure quality of life. When we study sexual behaviors, we can create evidence that can be used in different ways in the health area.

Objectives: To analyze the relationship between the consumption of pornography and certain sexual practices, as well as the relationship between affective temperament and sexual behaviors. Methods: Participants between the ages of 21 and 50 were included, who answered standardized questions about the consumption of pornography and certain sexual practices (e.g. frequency of sexual intercourse, frequency of masturbation, number of sexual partners, casual sex), through the website www.temperamento.com.br. Through this validated questionnaire it was possible to categorize individuals by their affective temperaments. Statistical analyzes were performed using chi-square, Spearman’s correlation and multinomial logistic regression.

Results: The high consumption of pornography correlates with the more frequent practice of some sexual behaviors, which is different between men and women. In addition, there is a relationship between the intensity of the practice of certain sexual behaviors and the affective temperament of individuals. Individuals with externalizing temperaments are more strongly involved in the practice of sexual behaviors, whereas the opposite is observed among internalized individuals.

Conclusion: The consumption of pornography is associated with the practice and frequency of sexual behaviors and there are differences between men and women in relation to sexual behaviors and attitudes. The intensity of sexual behaviors is related to the type of affective temperament.

Sex-positive personal characteristics (attractiveness, sexual fantasy, pornography use) & positive relational ones (commitment, egalitarianism, & sexual frequency) are related to more sexual novelty

Encouraging erotic variety: Identifying correlates of, and strategies for promoting, sexual novelty in romantic relationships. Marissa N. Rosa et al. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 146, 1 August 2019, Pages 158-169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.04.009

Abstract: In the present investigation, we identified correlates of sexual novelty in existing relationships and also investigated whether experimentally manipulating persuasive information about sexual novelty could encourage sexual novelty within a relationship. Participants in committed relationships of 6 months or longer were recruited online through Amazon's Mechanical Turk to complete a two-part survey on sexual relationships. The initial survey (Time 1) was completed by 352 predominantly White US citizens (204 women, 146 men, 2 unreported), and a subset of 244 people (140 women, 101 men, 3 unreported) completed the follow-up survey two weeks later (Time 2). We found that several sex-positive personal characteristics (e.g., pornography use and sexual fantasy) and positive relational characteristics (e.g., commitment, egalitarianism, and sexual frequency) are related to engaging in sexual novelty, as well as desire for sexual novelty, willingness to initiate sexual novelty, and willingness to comply with partner-initiated sexual novelty. We also found that certain persuasive strategies (i.e., those incorporating fear appeals, narrative accounts, or examples of successful initiation strategies) may be effective at altering perceptions of sexual novelty and increasing novel intimate behavior between relationship partners.

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General discussion

In order to extend the literature on sexual novelty, the current study sought to identify correlates of sexual novelty and to investigate whether learning more about sexual novelty could result in changes in attitudes and behaviors toward sexual novelty within a relationship. Whereas previous research has shown that engaging in arousing, novel behaviors can increase sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction (Aron et al., 2000; Morton & Gorzalka, 2015), our correlational results identified both personal factors (i.e., age, religiosity, bodily attractiveness, body consciousness, sexual boredom, sexual fantasy, and pornography use) and relational factors (i.e., length of relationship, length of sexual relationship, commitment, egalitarianism, and sex frequency) associated with how much sexual novelty a person is likelyto engage in. Additionally, prior research has documented how detrimental sexual boredom can be to a relationship, potentially resulting in infidelity (e.g.,Allen et al., 2008), divorce (e.g., Counts & Reid, 1987),or relationship dissolution (e.g.,Hill et al., 1976). Therefore, an important contribution of our study is thefinding that levels of sexual novelty can be influenced—and levels of sexual boredom can potentially be decreased as a result—through the introduction of additionalinformation about sexual novelty using certain persuasive methods, further extending the literature on the use of fear appeals (e.g., Tannenbaum et al., 2015), narrative accounts (e.g., De Wit et al., 2008), strategies (e.g., Humphreys & Newby, 2007), and self-efficacy (e.g.,Azjen, 1991) in persuasion.

Another interesting result from the current study was the positiverelationship we found between sexual novelty and religiosity. Contrary to our predictions, the more religious people were, the more likely they were to report engaging in sexual novelty in their current relationships. However, Matthews et al. (2018) found both a positive and a negative relationship between religiosity and sexual novelty in two different samples; as such, it is possible that the conflicting finding of the current research may be an anomaly, and further replication is necessary to fully understand the relationship between religiosity and sexual novelty. One possible explanation is that more religious people may notactually be engaging in more sexual novelty but rather subjectively interpreting their sexual activities as more novel. Consistent with this notion, research shows a negative association between conventional religiosity and sensation seeking (Zuckerman & Neeb, 1980); thus, thethreshold for novel sexual activity may be lower for more religious people.

We also found an interesting correlation between sexual boredomand sexual novelty. As expected, the more sexual boredom people re-ported experiencing, the more likely they were to report lower levels ofsexual novelty within their current relationships and the less willingthey were to initiate and comply with sexual novelty initiated by apartner. However, people who reported experiencing more sexualboredom were also more likely to desire sexual novelty within theirrelationships. The idea that people who are bored sexually have a desire for sexual novelty but are unwilling or unmotivated to take action to fulfill this desire seems to be related to the view that sexual boredom is unavoidable in long-term relationships (Tunariu & Reavey, 2003). Similarly, given that sexual boredom predicts relationship and sexual dissatisfaction (e.g., Tunariu & Reavey, 2007), it is plausible that thelack of motivation to engage in sexual novelty with their relationshippartner could lead individuals to fulfill their desire for sexual novelty by seeking extra-dyadic relationships.

Visualization of male and female superheroes: Males were on average “obese” whereas females were uniformly thin and hyperfeminine; these bodies can be thought of as exaggerations of what is attractive

Burch, R. L., & Johnsen, L. (2019). Captain Dorito and the bombshell: Supernormal stimuli in comics and film. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Apr 18, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000164

Abstract: We examined the visualization of male and female superheroes, paying attention to physical dimensions and costuming that accentuated hyper-masculine or hyper-feminine features such as shoulder-to-waist ratio, jawlines, upper body muscularity, waist-to-hip ratio, and breast morphology. Body mass index (BMI) data were collected for 3,752 Marvel comic characters. Males were on average “obese” whereas females averaged at the low end of normal weight. The male higher body mass was caused by extreme upper body muscularity, with male shoulder-to-waist ratios far above human limits. This is in stark contrast to low weight female superhero bodies with far lower waist-to-hip ratios than average humans. The endocrine markers that are exaggerated in these depictions create supernormal sexual stimuli for each sex.

Public Significance Statement—An examination of over 3,000 comic book characters and hundreds of drawings found that male characters were huge and well beyond the normal range for shoulder-to-waist ratio, resembling and exaggerating the Captain Dorito meme (the concept that Captain America, as played by Chris Evans, has the shoulder-to-waist ratio of a triangular Dorito corn chip). Female bodies were uniformly thin and hyperfeminine, with waist-to-hip ratios smaller than the most sought-after porn actresses. These bodies can be thought of as supernormal stimuli; exaggerations of what humans have long found attractive.

A majority of people believe that, as pedestrians, they make eye contact with the driver of an approaching vehicle when making their crossing decisions; this widely held belief is false

Eye Contact Between Pedestrians and Drivers. Dina AlAdawy, Michael Glazer, Jack Terwilliger, Henri Schmidt, Josh Domeyer, Bruce Mehler, Bryan Reimer, Lex Fridman. To appear in Proceedings of 2019 Driving Assessment Conference, submitted Apr 8 2019. https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.04188

Abstract: When asked, a majority of people believe that, as pedestrians, they make eye contact with the driver of an approaching vehicle when making their crossing decisions. This work presents evidence that this widely held belief is false. We do so by showing that, in majority of cases where conflict is possible, pedestrians begin crossing long before they are able to see the driver through the windshield. In other words, we are able to circumvent the very difficult question of whether pedestrians choose to make eye contact with drivers, by showing that whether they think they do or not, they can't. Specifically, we show that over 90\% of people in representative lighting conditions cannot determine the gaze of the driver at 15m and see the driver at all at 30m. This means that, for example, that given the common city speed limit of 25mph, more than 99% of pedestrians would have begun crossing before being able to see either the driver or the driver's gaze. In other words, from the perspective of the pedestrian, in most situations involving an approaching vehicle, the crossing decision is made by the pedestrian solely based on the kinematics of the vehicle without needing to determine that eye contact was made by explicitly detecting the eyes of the driver.

The long-lasting effects of family and childhood on adult wellbeing: Evidence from British cohort data

The long-lasting effects of family and childhood on adult wellbeing: Evidence from British cohort data. SarahFlèche, Warn N. Lekfuangfu, Andrew E. Clark. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, April 18 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2018.09.018

Abstract: To what extent do childhood experiences continue to affect adult wellbeing over the life course? Previous work on this link has been carried out either at one particular adult age or for some average over adulthood. We here use two British birth-cohort datasets (the 1958 NCDS and the 1970 BCS) to map out the time profile of the effect of childhood experiences on adult outcomes, including life satisfaction. We find that the effects of many aspects of childhood do not fade away over time but are rather remarkably stable. In both birth-cohorts, child non-cognitive skills are the strongest predictors of adult life satisfaction at all ages. Of these, emotional health is the strongest. Childhood cognitive performance is more important than good conduct in explaining adult life satisfaction in the earlier NCDS cohort, whereas this ranking is inverted in the more recent BCS.

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6. Conclusions

There is now increasing interest in not only the contemporaneous correlates of subjective well-being but also the distal correlates. We here use two UK birth cohorts, the 1958 NCDS and the 1970 BCS, to show how family background and childhood variables are related to life satisfaction measured at a variety of adult ages.

There are first a number of similar findings across the two cohorts. Perhaps the most important one is that there is little evidence that the distal determinants of adult well-being change over time: the childhood factors that predict life satisfaction in the 20s predict it just as well in the 40s and beyond. The effect of childhood and family does not then fade away over time. In both cohort datasets, it is childhood emotional health that is the strongest predictor of adult life satisfaction.

The predictors of adult life satisfaction are not entirely the same in the BCS and NCDS, however. In particular, the role of childhood intellectual performance is weaker in the later cohort, while the effect of childhood behaviour is stronger (childhood behaviour is not significantly correlated with adult life satisfaction in the NCDS).

When we add adult outcomes, we find that adult emotional health has the largest correlation with adult life satisfaction at all ages in both datasets, but there is little independent role for education. There are again some notable differences: family is more important in the NCDS than in the BCS (although the family effect is notably larger in the latter for respondents in their 30s). Physical health is less important in general in the NCDS, but its coefficient does increase sharply for the respondents at age 50.

The adult outcomes mediate the effect of childhood. Almost all of the effect of childhood intellectual performance works via these adult outcomes, and over half that of childhood emotional health. The figure for childhood behaviour is smaller.

Our results underline the importance of emotional health, both in adulthood and childhood, in determining adult life satisfaction. More broadly, they show that interventions that affect adult outcomes, given childhood and family background, can improve adult well-being, and so can interventions that target the childhood outcomes themselves. There is thus a role for policy all through the lifetime.

The correlations that we find here are similar for our two UK cohorts. But we still only know how to predict the life satisfaction of middle-aged British respondents. That the correlations are similar over adult ages is a useful finding, but one that we would like to extend to older ages. Equally, these results refer to only one country, and their replication elsewhere is part of a current broad international effort to use cohort datasets to inform policy about the causes of well-being throughout life.

More likely to engage in prosocial behavior when they want to improve success in unrelated future situations (“karmic bargaining”), & more frequently when in a situation they wanted to turn out well

Belief in karma: How cultural evolution, cognition, and motivations shape belief in supernatural justice. Cindel J.M.White, Ara Norenzayan. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, April 17 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2019.03.001

Abstract: Karma is believed to be a source of supernatural justice through which actions lead to morally congruent outcomes, within and across lifetimes. It is a central tenet of many world religions and appears in the social evaluations expressed by religious and non-religious individuals across diverse cultural contexts. Despite its prevalence, research directly investigating belief in karma is currently underrepresented in psychological studies of religion, morality, and justice. In this chapter, we situate karma within existing theories of religious cognition and justice beliefs, while highlighting how it is related to, but distinct from, belief in moralizing gods, beliefs about justice that lack religious or supernatural connotations, and magical thinking. We first describe two prominent explanations for the cross-cultural prevalence of supernatural justice beliefs: These beliefs arise as the by-products of other, more general cognitive mechanisms, and these beliefs are supported by core motivations for sense-making, meaning maintenance, and psychological control. We then consider how questions left unresolved by these cognitive and motivational perspectives, regarding the cross-cultural variability in explicit supernatural justice beliefs, can be explained through a cultural evolutionary perspective on religious cognition. Finally, we describe how these supernatural justice beliefs affect causal judgments and elicit norm-adherence and prosociality among believers.

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2.2 Karma, justice, and fairness
[...] Additionally, North American participants are often willing to make immanent justice attributions, such as admitting that an uncontrollable misfortune is caused by a salient past moral transgressions, while strongly rejecting that misfortune is caused by morallyirrelevant past actions (Callan, Ellard, & Nicol, 2006; Callan, Sutton, & Dovale, 2010; Young et al., 2011). Even people who explicitly deny immanent justice attributions show evidence of intuitive reactions consistent with fairness principles. Reaction time studies indicate that French participants, who explicitly rejected causal attributions for misfortune, still showed evidence of immanent justice intuitions that required effortful suppressions: Participants were slower to reject causal attributions when misfortune followed proportionate bad deeds, and quicker to reject causal attributions when misfortune followed good actions and when misfortune was disproportionate to misdeeds [...].

Similar expectations appear among North Americans when making predictions about the future: People who engage in immoral behavior are expected to have a greater likelihood of bad experiences in the future, at the hands of other people (e.g., being betrayed by a friend, being treated rudely by other people) and forces of nature (e.g., getting a serious illness, having their home damaged by a natural disaster, White, Schaller, & Norenzayan, 2019). Even when not explicitly endorsed, this expectation has been found in North American children and adults who are more likely to engage in prosocial behavior when they want to improve success in unrelated future situations, a strategy known as “karmic bargaining” (Banerjee & Bloom, 2017; Converse, Risen, & Carter, 2012).




In Western samples, karmic bargaining is especially prevalent when belief in a just world is combined with uncertainty about the future. Converse et al. (2012) found greater prosocial behavior among American students and adult online samples after they wrote about a personally relevant ongoing situation that they wanted to turn out well (e.g., important test, job interview, or medical procedure), compared to participants who wrote about their daily routine. This effect was replicated in the context of a job fair, where job-seekers donated more money to charity when they were reminded about the uncertainty of their employment opportunities, compared to when they felt secure in their prospects. Subsequently, those who donated money felt more optimistic about their future.

8. Conclusion
In this chapter, we have described how belief in karmic causality can be studied as a psychological construct that is rooted in core cognitive, motivational, and cultural processes that are central to social psychology. We discussed karma alongside beliefs about morally-concerned gods and expectations about non-supernatural justice, to highlight how common cognitive tendencies and motivations can give rise to a variety of different beliefs. Individual differences (e.g., reliance on intuitive thinking, being “spiritual but not religious”) and situational factors (e.g., uncertainty, a need for structure, and salient past misdeeds followed by misfortune) could similarly encourage belief in karmic causality, morally-concerned gods, and secular justice. Similarly, different concepts can have comparable effects on behavior, such as when Christians reminded of God, or Hindus, Buddhists, and non-religious Americans reminded of karma, become more likely to engage in normative behavior. Karmic beliefs in non-Western, non-Christian cultural contexts provide an important testing ground of theories of religion, morality, and justice across different cultural contexts, extending prevailing research largely tested in Western samples.

Furthermore, many people believe only in a subset of all possible supernatural justice concepts. Cognitive biases and motivational factors are insufficient to explain this variability. The cultural transmission of commitment to particular beliefs is necessary to explain the intertwining of supernatural causality and morality, the presence of agentic vs. nonagentic supernatural entities, and whether causation is believed to happen within interpersonal relationships, within one lifetime, or across lifetimes. In this chapter, we have provided preliminary evidence that belief in karma reflects a unique constellation of these elements and that variability in supernatural justice beliefs can shape causal attributions and behavior in particular belief-consistent ways. Many open questions remain about how cognitive, motivational, and cultural factors interact to shape supernatural justice beliefs, and how the particular beliefs that people hold exert unique effects on cognition and behavior. Throughout this chapter, we have raised several novel hypotheses worthy of future research and described how existing theories of religion and justice can fruitfully be extended to explain a variety of worldviews that are prevalent in diverse cultures around the world.

Gendered perceptions of fairness in housework and shared expenses: Fairness evaluations over shared expenses are a stronger predictor of relationship quality than perceived equity in housework

Gendered perceptions of fairness in housework and shared expenses: Implications for relationship satisfaction and sex frequency. Brian Joseph Gillespie, Gretchen Peterson, Janet Lever. PLOS, March 20, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214204

Abstract: There is a demonstrated relationship between couples’ division of household chores—and, to a lesser extent, the division of shared expenses—and their relationship quality. Less is known, however, about whether and how individuals’ perceived fairness of these arrangements is associated with couples’ relationships in different ways. Using a gendered equity framework, and drawing on 10,236 responses collected via an online national news website, this study examines how equity evaluations of housework and shared expenses are related to relationship satisfaction and sex frequency among different-gender household partners. Consistent with previous findings, the results indicate that evaluations of unfairness to oneself are a stronger predictor of relationship quality than perceived unfairness to one’s partner. Additionally, fairness evaluations over shared expenses are a stronger predictor of relationship quality than perceived equity in housework. Incorporating notions about traditional gender norms and expectations into the justice framework, the results point to some variation in relationship outcomes based on men’s and women’s differential equity evaluations.

Check also Sex and housework: Does perceived fairness of the distribution of housework actually matter? Kristin Hajek. Zeitschrift für Familienforschung, 31. Jahrg., 2019, Heft 1 ‒ Journal of Family Research https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/04/how-changes-in-distribution-of.html

How changes in the distribution of housework and the perception of fairness affect sexual satisfaction and sexual frequency: Distribution of household tasks does not improve sexual satisfaction or sexual frequency

Sex and housework: Does perceived fairness of the distribution of housework actually matter? Kristin Hajek. Zeitschrift für Familienforschung, 31. Jahrg., 2019, Heft 1 ‒ Journal of Family Research https://doi.org/10.3224/zff.v31i1.05

Abstract: Recent findings suggest that couples who perceive their housework distribution to be fair have more frequent sexual encounters and are more satisfied with their sex life. However, past research has relied on between-person comparisons and might therefore be biased due to unobserved confounders. By applying fixed effects panel models, this study seeks to eliminate all time-constant, group-specific heterogeneity. Using data from 1,315 cohabiting and married couples from the German Family Panel (pairfam), I have examined how changes in the distribution of housework and the perception of fairness affect sexual satisfaction and sexual frequency. Moreover, I distinguish between core (traditionally female) and non-core (traditionally male) household tasks to verify the hypothesis that a gender-stereotypic distribution of household tasks fosters sexual activity. No effect of the division of labor or the perception of fairness thereof on sexual satisfaction and sexual frequency could be found.

Key words: housework distribution, fixed effects, pairfam, perceived fairness, sexual frequency, sexual satisfaction

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1. Introduction
More often than not, housework is distributed traditionally between men and women in cohabiting relationships (Bianchi et al. 2012). Over the past few decades, men’s share of housework has increased, but women still tend to carry most of the workload in the home (Bianchi et al. 2000; Bianchi et al. 2012; Blair/Lichter 1991; Klünder/Meier-Gräwe 2018). Moreover, studies show that partnership characteristics are influenced by the dis-tribution of unpaid family work. For example, if the man’s share of housework increases, the woman’s partnership satisfaction seems to rise and conflicts occur less often (Amato et al. 2003; Coltrane 2000). The likelihood for second births is also higher if the father participates to a greater degree in housework and child care (Cooke 2004). Therefore, an equal distribution of housework could be beneficial to a partnership. On the other hand, some researchers suggest that it is actually the perceived fairness of the division of labor that influences partnership satisfaction, rather than the actual distribution of household tasks (Coltrane 2000). If individuals perceive their share of housework to be justified, they appear to be happier with their relationship (Coltrane 2000). However, relatively few studies to date have addressed how exactly housework distribution and the perceived fair-ness thereof influence a couple’s sexual relationship.

Sexual frequency and satisfaction are both important factors in an intimate relation-ship. Sexuality has been found to be related to marital satisfaction (Smith et al. 2011) as well as union stability (Yabiku/Gager 2009). Therefore, it is important to examine possible influences of housework on a couple’s sex life. Since the Kinsey reports (Kinsey et al. 1948), the frequency of sexual intercourse and sexual satisfaction in relationships have received considerable attention in the social sciences. However, due to the lack of longitudinal data, the majority of studies has relied on cross-sectional analyses. Kornrich and colleagues (2013) examined married couples in the United States and found a positive correlation between a gender-stereotypic division of housework and sexual frequency. However, they analyzed decades-old, cross-sectional data and did not take into account the perceived fairness of a couple’s housework distribution. 

Using data from the German Family Panel (pairfam), a randomly sampled panel sur-vey with focus on partnership and family dynamics, I have examined how changes in the distribution of housework and the perception of fairness affect sexual frequency and sex-ual satisfaction for cohabiting and married couples from a longitudinal perspective. Johnson and colleagues (2016) also analyzed pairfam data in this regard with autoregressive cross-lagged (ARCL) models. They found an association between men’s perceived fair-ness of housework distribution and a couple’s sex life, but no association to the actual distribution of housework. However, Johnson and colleagues did not distinguish between core (traditionally female) and non-core (traditionally male) tasks as suggested by Kornrich et al. (2013), and thus cannot fully refute the findings of Kornrich and colleagues (2013). By categorizing household tasks into traditionally male and female, the following analyses aim to verify the hypothesis that a gender-stereotypic distribution of household tasks stimulates sexual scripts and leads to an increase in sexual intercourse. Further, both studies mentioned above may be biased due to unobserved heterogeneity, with one rely-ing on between-person comparisons and the other not differentiating between and within variation. By applying fixed effects regression models, I can eliminate all couple-specific time-constant heterogeneity and examine whether a change in the division of household labor and/or the perception of fairness thereof actually influences sexual satisfaction and frequency in intimate relationships.

Language Origins Viewed in Spontaneous and Interactive Vocal Rates of Bonobo Infants: While bonobo mothers were physically responsive to their infants, we didn't see a bonobo mother's vocalization directed to her infant

Language Origins Viewed in Spontaneous and Interactive Vocal Rates of Human and Bonobo Infants. D. Kimbrough Oller, Ulrike Griebel, Suneeti Nathani Iyer, Yuna Jhang, Anne S. Warlaumont, Rick Dale and Josep Call. Front. Psychol., April 2 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00729

Abstract: From the first months of life, human infants produce “protophones,” speech-like, non-cry sounds, presumed absent, or only minimally present in other apes. But there have been no direct quantitative comparisons to support this presumption. In addition, by 2 months, human infants show sustained face-to-face interaction using protophones, a pattern thought also absent or very limited in other apes, but again, without quantitative comparison. Such comparison should provide evidence relevant to determining foundations of language, since substantially flexible vocalization, the inclination to explore vocalization, and the ability to interact socially by means of vocalization are foundations for language. Here we quantitatively compare data on vocalization rates in three captive bonobo (Pan paniscus) mother–infant pairs with various sources of data from our laboratories on human infant vocalization. Both humans and bonobos produced distress sounds (cries/screams) and laughter. The bonobo infants also produced sounds that were neither screams nor laughs and that showed acoustic similarities to the human protophones. These protophone-like sounds confirm that bonobo infants share with humans the capacity to produce vocalizations that appear foundational for language. Still, there were dramatic differences between the species in both quantity and function of the protophone and protophone-like sounds. The bonobo protophone-like sounds were far less frequent than the human protophones, and the human protophones were far less likely to be interpreted as complaints and more likely as vocal play. Moreover, we found extensive vocal interaction between human infants and mothers, but no vocal interaction in the bonobo mother–infant pairs—while bonobo mothers were physically responsive to their infants, we observed no case of a bonobo mother vocalization directed to her infant. Our cross-species comparison focuses on low- and moderate-arousal circumstances because we reason the roots of language entail vocalization not triggered by excitement, for example, during fighting or intense play. Language appears to be founded in flexible vocalization, used to regulate comfortable social interaction, to share variable affective states at various levels of arousal, and to explore vocalization itself.

Politically incorrect paper: Given that sex egalitarian countries tend to have the greatest sex differences in personality & occupational choices, sex specific policies (increasing vacancies for the sex with lower hire proportion) may not be effective

Sex and Care: The Evolutionary Psychological Explanations for Sex Differences in Formal Care Occupations. Peter Kay Chai Tay, Yi Yuan Ting and Kok Yang Tan. Front. Psychol., April 17 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00867

Abstract: Men and women exhibit clear differences in occupational choices. The present article elucidates sex differences in terms of formal care occupational choices and care styles based on evolutionary psychological perspectives. Broadly (1) the motivation to attain social status drives male preference for occupations that signals prestige and the desire to form interpersonal affiliation underlies female preference for occupations that involve psychosocial care for people in need; (2) ancestral sex roles leading to sexually differentiated cognitive and behavioral phenotypic profiles underlie present day sex differences in care styles where men are things-oriented, focusing on disease management while women are people-oriented, focusing on psychosocial management. The implications for healthcare and social care are discussed and recommendations for future studies are presented.

Definitions of Care
[...]

There are clear sex preferences in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) domains (Lippa, 2010), and we expect the same sex preferences to underlie the formal care domains. Although sex ratio in STEM occupations has become less unbalanced in recent years, the sex differences remain in social disciplines such as Health and Welfare which has a greater proportion of female Ph.D. graduates (59%), contrasting with engineering, manufacturing, and construction (28%) (European Commission, 2016). Sex differences are also notable within formal care occupations. Globally, females outnumber males overwhelmingly and this sex difference is consistent across all ages, where the bulk of the female workers occupy people oriented professions such as nurses and social workers (Gupta et al., 2003; Rocheleau, 2017; Ministry of Manpower, 2018). The Luxemburg Income Study conducted with eighteen participating countries in Europe, America, Asia, and Oceania showed that across countries, at least 62–85% of health workers are females (Gupta et al., 2003). Specifically, a greater proportion of females worked in the nursing and midwifery specializations compared to physicians. In the following sections, we use EP theoretical frameworks to explicate the evolutionary roots that underlie these patterns.


Human Resource
Given that sex egalitarian countries tend to have the greatest sex differences in personality and occupational choices (Charles and Bradley, 2009; Lippa, 2010), sex specific policies such as increasing vacancies for the sex with lower hire proportion may not be effective. For instance, although demand for male-dominated blue-collar professions (e.g., manufacturing, mechanics) is shrinking while demand for female-dominated healthcare industry is growing, the resultant excess in male population in the work force did not lead to a corresponding increase in male employment in “pink-collar” formal care professions such as nursing or healthcare aides (Dill, 2017). Similarly, an overemphasis on sex-ratio reversal policies undermines the stronger effect of innate preferences. In particular, policies skewed toward promoting atypical sex employment may not ultimately lead to balanced sex employment and may be counterproductive. For instance, medical enrolment in favor of female applicants may place some eligible male applicants at a disadvantage (McKinstry, 2008). Furthermore, even though female students have a slight advantage in many STEM subjects compared to male students, female students nevertheless tend to pursue non-STEM education (Stoet and Geary, 2018).

Sex-role theorists argue that female physicians encounter greater occupational barriers because of the expectation that females are homemakers (Buddeberg-Fischer et al., 2010). Our present analysis suggests that instead, females have a natural inclination to provide care to their families. This understanding will change how we encourage females to remain as physicians. Particularly, females tend to trade-off their career development particularly when they have children so that they can devote more time for the family and more broadly, females also divert more resources toward the community, friends, and less on their careers (Ferriman et al., 2009). Thus, understanding innate preferences for sex differences underlying the effect of family demands and parenthood on career choices for medicine can provide potential solutions to facilitate the enrolment and maintenance of female physicians (Buddeberg-Fischer et al., 2010; Riska, 2011). On the other hand, males tend to undertake jobs that emphasize strong leadership and offer high extrinsic rewards such as higher income and prestige as indicative of one’s social status (Ku, 2011). Policies aimed to increase hiring of males in occupations such as nursing and social work will be more effective if is it coupled with changing societal perceptions of such professions. Awareness about the barriers toward females is nonetheless important, yet ignoring potential EP driven factors that would attract females and males into professions conventionally occupied by the opposite sex would be ineffective.

Conclusion
Today, psychologists understand that pure social constructivist views are insufficient in explaining sex differences and in some instances lead to incorrect conclusions. Furthermore, evidence is clear that innate tendencies exert considerable cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Thus, giving equal weighs to EP and sociocultural theories clarifies the issues related to sex differences in formal care by enabling the understanding of sex differences as emergent phenomena of the interaction between evolved tendencies and sociocultural pressures. Ultimately, this method of examination will generate more holistic views of sex differences in formal care occupations (see Table 1 for other examples and predictions using the EP analytic approach). We propose that key decision makers within the healthcare and social care sectors work with instead of against sex differences elucidated herein and researchers to be sensitive to innate sex preferences in developing research programs. Ultimately, understanding and accepting sex differences elucidated by EP theories not only enhances our knowledge, it sheds light on how problems and research can be fine-tuned based on more precise and nuanced insights additionally informed by sociocultural theories.

In accordance with the evidence that time is overestimated in patients with a history of impulsivity & drug addiction, we tested the hypothesis that duration is overestimated in obesity; it seems it happens so.

Time is overestimated in obesity: A cohort study. Carmelo M Vicario et al. Journal of Health Psychology, April 16, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105319842937

Abstract: Food addiction and high impulsivity are common traits in obesity. In accordance with the evidence that time is overestimated in patients with a history of impulsivity and/or drug addiction, we tested the hypothesis that duration is overestimated in obesity. A total of 92 obese participants and 182 healthy controls completed a timing task of visual stimuli. In line with our prediction, obese participants overestimated the duration of the displayed visual stimuli than controls. Our result has potential clinical implications in the field of obesity, as it suggests a potential contribution of this cognitive dysfunction in the emergence and maintenance of obesity-related behaviour.

Keywords: motivation, obesity, time overestimation, time processing, unhealthy lifestyle

As we skeptics said all along about workplace wellness programs: No effect in clinical markers of health; care spending/utilization; or absenteeism & job performance after 1.5 years

Effect of a Workplace Wellness Program on Employee Health and Economic OutcomesA Randomized Clinical Trial. Zirui Song, Katherine Baicker, JAMA. 2019;321(15):1491-1501. April 16, 2019, doi:10.1001/jama.2019.3307

Key Points

Question  What is the effect of a multicomponent workplace wellness program on health and economic outcomes?

Findings  In this cluster randomized trial involving 32 974 employees at a large US warehouse retail company, worksites with the wellness program had an 8.3-percentage point higher rate of employees who reported engaging in regular exercise and a 13.6-percentage point higher rate of employees who reported actively managing their weight, but there were no significant differences in other self-reported health and behaviors; clinical markers of health; health care spending or utilization; or absenteeism, tenure, or job performance after 18 months.

Meaning  Employees exposed to a workplace wellness program reported significantly greater rates of some positive health behaviors compared with those who were not exposed, but there were no significant effects on clinical measures of health, health care spending and utilization, or employment outcomes after 18 months.

Abstract

Importance  Employers have increasingly invested in workplace wellness programs to improve employee health and decrease health care costs. However, there is little experimental evidence on the effects of these programs.

Objective  To evaluate a multicomponent workplace wellness program resembling programs offered by US employers.

Design, Setting, and Participants  This clustered randomized trial was implemented at 160 worksites from January 2015 through June 2016. Administrative claims and employment data were gathered continuously through June 30, 2016; data from surveys and biometrics were collected from July 1, 2016, through August 31, 2016.

Interventions  There were 20 randomly selected treatment worksites (4037 employees) and 140 randomly selected control worksites (28 937 employees, including 20 primary control worksites [4106 employees]). Control worksites received no wellness programming. The program comprised 8 modules focused on nutrition, physical activity, stress reduction, and related topics implemented by registered dietitians at the treatment worksites.

Main Outcomes and Measures  Four outcome domains were assessed. Self-reported health and behaviors via surveys (29 outcomes) and clinical measures of health via screenings (10 outcomes) were compared among 20 intervention and 20 primary control sites; health care spending and utilization (38 outcomes) and employment outcomes (3 outcomes) from administrative data were compared among 20 intervention and 140 control sites.

Results  Among 32 974 employees (mean [SD] age, 38.6 [15.2] years; 15 272 [45.9%] women), the mean participation rate in surveys and screenings at intervention sites was 36.2% to 44.6% (n = 4037 employees) and at primary control sites was 34.4% to 43.0% (n = 4106 employees) (mean of 1.3 program modules completed). After 18 months, the rates for 2 self-reported outcomes were higher in the intervention group than in the control group: for engaging in regular exercise (69.8% vs 61.9%; adjusted difference, 8.3 percentage points [95% CI, 3.9-12.8]; adjusted P = .03) and for actively managing weight (69.2% vs 54.7%; adjusted difference, 13.6 percentage points [95% CI, 7.1-20.2]; adjusted P = .02). The program had no significant effects on other prespecified outcomes: 27 self-reported health outcomes and behaviors (including self-reported health, sleep quality, and food choices), 10 clinical markers of health (including cholesterol, blood pressure, and body mass index), 38 medical and pharmaceutical spending and utilization measures, and 3 employment outcomes (absenteeism, job tenure, and job performance).

Conclusions and Relevance  Among employees of a large US warehouse retail company, a workplace wellness program resulted in significantly greater rates of some positive self-reported health behaviors among those exposed compared with employees who were not exposed, but there were no significant differences in clinical measures of health, health care spending and utilization, and employment outcomes after 18 months. Although limited by incomplete data on some outcomes, these findings may temper expectations about the financial return on investment that wellness programs can deliver in the short term.

Introduction

Workplace wellness programs have become increasingly popular as employers have aimed to lower health care costs and improve employee health and productivity. In 2018, 82% of large firms and 53% of small employers in the United States offered a wellness program, amounting to an $8 billion industry.1,2 This growth has been aided by public investments such as the Affordable Care Act, which included funds to promote the development of workplace wellness programs.

Workplace wellness programs tend to focus on modifiable risk factors of disease, such as nutrition, physical activity, and smoking cessation. Despite widespread adoption, causal evidence of such programs’ effects on health and economic outcomes has been limited. Meta-analyses have produced varying estimates of benefits relative to costs.3-5 Observational studies have often been limited by a lack of valid control groups, selection bias, and small samples.6-8 Experimental studies of comprehensive wellness programs have been scarce and have produced mixed results, with most of the more rigorous studies now dated.9,10 Other experimental studies have focused on certain components of wellness, such as smoking cessation and weight loss, using an intervention of limited duration.11-14 A recent rigorous randomized study used individual-level rather than workplace-wide randomization, making it difficult to assess the effects of the tools used by many programs aiming to improve workplace culture or harness peer effects.15

Using a design that randomized the implementation of wellness programming at the worksite level, this study evaluated the effect of a multiyear workplace wellness program on health and economic outcomes over 18 months in a middle- and lower-income employee population at locations across the eastern United States.

Discussion

This randomized clinical trial of a multiyear, multicomponent workplace wellness program implemented in a middle- and lower-income population found that individuals in workplaces where the program was offered reported better health behaviors, including regular exercise and active weight management, but the program did not generate differences in clinical measures of health, health care spending or utilization, or employment outcomes after 18 months.

That the program affected self-reported health behaviors, but not health or economic outcomes, may be interpreted in several ways. Given that workplace wellness programs focus on changing behavior and that behavior change may precede improvements in other outcomes, these findings could be consistent with future improvements in health or reductions in spending. On the other hand, behavior change is likely easier to achieve than improvements in clinical or employment outcomes. Thus, there may remain no detectable effects on those outcomes, which would have implications for the return on investment in wellness programs.

The finding of no significant effects on clinical measures of health, health care spending, or employment outcomes is consistent with a recent trial of a wellness program implemented at the University of Illinois, which evaluated similar outcomes after 1 year.¹⁵ However, our study found a sizeable and robust improvement in some self-reported health behaviors. Moreover, we found that participants did not have lower preintervention spending than nonparticipants, although there was selection on other dimensions. Unlike the Illinois study, this intervention was implemented at the worksite level (rather than varying across individuals within the same worksite), perhaps better facilitating changes in workplace culture and providing greater social supports for behavior change. This intervention was also fielded in a different population, set of geographies, and employment setting, making it difficult to isolate the causes of any differences in findings.

These findings stand in contrast with much of the prior literature on workplace wellness programs, which tended to find positive and often large returns on investment through, for example, reductions in absenteeism and health care spending.^3-9,23,24 Given that most prior studies were based on observational designs with methodological shortcomings such as potential selection bias, results based on random assignment of the intervention are likely more reliable.

In Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience: Emotional Theory of Rationality

Emotional Theory of Rationality. Mario Garcés and Lucila Finkel. Front. in Integrative Neuroscience, April 5 2019. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2019.00011

Abstract: In recent decades, the existence of a close relationship between emotional phenomena and rational processes has certainly been established, yet there is still no unified definition or effective model to describe them. To advance our understanding of the mechanisms governing the behavior of living beings, we must integrate multiple theories, experiments, and models from both fields. In this article we propose a new theoretical framework that allows integrating and understanding the emotion–cognition duality, from a functional point of view. Based on evolutionary principles, our reasoning adds to the definition and understanding of emotion, justifying its origin, explaining its mission and dynamics, and linking it to higher cognitive processes, mainly with attention, cognition, decision-making, and consciousness. According to our theory, emotions are the mechanism for brain function optimization, aside from the contingency and stimuli prioritization system. As a result of this approach, we have developed a dynamic systems-level model capable of providing plausible explanations for certain psychological and behavioral phenomena and establishing a new framework for the scientific definition of some fundamental psychological terms.

Introduction

What is the relationship between emotion and cognition? If emotions have been historically considered as a “noisy interference” for cognitive processes (Simon, 1967), why does then emotions even exist?

Much scientific research has addressed the different areas and capabilities of the nervous system. Most of those research lines have been focused on developing models able to explain the brain’s cognitive capacities, together with its structure and dynamics at different levels (for a review see Kriegeskorte and Douglas, 2018). On the other side, emotions long stayed out of the neuroscience focus, like a collateral effect that had no easy fit within those cognitive models.

However, since the last decades of the past century, an intense debate has been active about the function and the primacy of emotion or cognition in the mental processes (Lazarus, 1984; Zajonc, 1984). These two highly polarized positions made impossible to state which of them was correct, or what was the relationship among emotion and cognition, as many necessary reasoning elements to integrate them were left apart. Wider approaches have tried to integrate both into a complete scheme (Leventhal and Scherer, 1987; de Houwer and Hermans, 2010; Gross and Barrett, 2011; Damasio and Carvalho, 2013; Li et al., 2014; Scherer and Moors, 2019), some of which have become widely spread (Moors et al., 2013), and some have been even formalized (Hudlicka, 2017; Cominelli et al., 2018). Others have also tried to derive the emotion-cognition structure from a more physiological approach (Pessoa and Adolphs, 2010; Yang et al., 2014) But until now, the exact matching between emotion and cognition has not actually been completely solved.

The main problem for the proposed models to achieve that goal is that they must clearly explain not only the dynamics of emotion-cognition interaction for the most standard behaviors but also for the most extreme ones, such as reality distortion that occurs in many pathologies like in anorexia nervosa (e.g., Body Dysmorphic Disorders). Trying to explain those extreme psychological phenomena forces the models to their limits, highlighting their structural and functional lacks and inconsistencies. Until date, none of those functional models have been able to clearly explain such phenomena from an emotion-cognition paradigm.

Finding new routes to move forward sometimes entails taking a step back and following another perspective hitherto unexplored. The numerous structures, networks, and functional levels involved in the study of the human brain require us to take that step, seek more general principles to facilitate the integration of all those elements, and deduce important implications that would otherwise go unnoticed.

In this article, we reason a new architectural framework that, while making use of simple and commonsensical elements already explored, we combine them in a different structural design, thus introducing emotions and attention as a segmentation mechanism in the information processing structure, to add to the understanding of how brain operations are optimized. This framework gives support to a new functional model which can clearly explain the existence and persistence of those extreme non-adaptive or even anti-adaptive behaviors, together with the more standard ones.

The article is divided into two complementary sections that describe the full reasoning behind the proposed model, its functional structure, and dynamics.

In the first section, we use evolutionary reasoning to find general hierarchical principles that allow us to justify the features of the nervous system and the key variables that determine the quality of its operation. We analyze the interdependence between these variables, justifying the automaticity process, and the existence of three different levels of response. We then reason the existence of intrinsic resource limitations in the system and how these limitations give rise to the attentional mechanism. From this perspective, we define the concept and role of emotions and how they control and optimize the activation and operation of advanced cognitive mechanisms.

In the second section, we analyze the structure and dynamics of the model and the interactions that occur between its different functional elements. Later, we analyze the spectrum of possible cognitive responses and how they can operate over different functional elements of the model, thus leading to different behaviors and psychological phenomena.

In this article, we explore the set of possible cognitive responses, rather than cognitive mechanisms because it is beyond the scope and length of this work and will be addressed specifically in a future article.

Why is Productivity Correlated with Competition? Potential channels include specialization and managerial inputs

Why is Productivity Correlated with Competition? Matthew Backus. NBER Working Paper No. 25748, April 2019. https://www.nber.org/papers/w25748

Abstract: The correlation between productivity and competition is an oft–observed but ill–understood result. Some suggest that there is a treatment effect of competition on measured productivity, e.g. through a reduction of managerial slack. Others argue that greater competition makes unproductive establishments exit by reallocating demand to their productive rivals, raising observed average productivity via selection. I study the ready-mix concrete industry and offer three perspectives on this ambivalence. First, using a standard decomposition approach, I find no evidence of greater reallocation of demand to productive plants in more competitive markets. Second, I model the establishment exit decision and construct a semi-parametric selection correction to quantify the empirical significance of treatment and selection. Finally, I use a grouped IV quantile regression to test the distributional predictions of the selection hypothesis. I find no evidence for greater selection or reallocation in more competitive markets; instead, all three results suggest that measured productivity responds directly to competition. Potential channels include specialization and managerial inputs.

There is evidence for a neuroticism‐related positivity bias in interpersonal perceptions (i.e., perceivers high in neuroticism tended to make more positive judgments of others’ sociability and warmth)

Neuroticism and Interpersonal Perception: Evidence for Positive, But Not Negative, Biases. Marianne Hannuschke, Mario Gollwitzer, Katharina Geukes, Mitja Back, Steffen Nestler. Journal of Personality, April 15 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12480

Abstract
Objective: Personality dispositions predict how individuals perceive, interpret, and react to social interactions with others. A still unresolved question is (1) whether these personality‐congruent interpersonal perceptions reflect perception biases, which occur when perceivers’ dispositions systematically predict deviations between perceivers’ and other people's perceptions of the same interaction, and/or selection effects, which occur when perceivers’ dispositions predict their selection of interaction partners, and (2) whether these effects feed back into perceivers’ personality.

Method: Data from 110 psychology freshmen involving repeated assessments of neuroticism and repeated interpersonal perceptions of social interactions with fellow students were analyzed to address these questions, focusing on neuroticism.

Results: There is evidence for a neuroticism‐related positivity bias in interpersonal perceptions (i.e., perceivers high in neuroticism tended to make more positive judgments of others’ sociability and warmth), but little evidence for personality‐congruent selection effects (i.e. neuroticism‐related preferences for interaction partners). The positivity bias did not predict intrapersonal changes in neuroticism over time, but the selection of specific interaction partners did.

Conclusions: These findings help to shed light on the interpersonal perception dynamics of neuroticism in a real‐life context and add to our understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying the interplay of personality and interpersonal perceptions.

Inverse relationship between celebrity admiration and life satisfaction

Are measures of life satisfaction linked to admiration for celebrities? Mara S. Aruguete et al. Mind & Society, April 16 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11299-019-00208-1

Abstract: A pattern of research findings indicates that excessive devotion to a favorite celebrity is linked to attitudes and behaviors that are psychologically unhealthy and may predict low life satisfaction. This study examines whether four common measures of life satisfaction (i.e., curiosity, meaning in life, gratitude, and flexibility) predict admiration for celebrities in two university samples and one community sample of young adults. Our results showed significant correlations between celebrity admiration and two measures of life satisfaction (curiosity and gratitude). We also found that the predictors of life satisfaction correlate with each other in ways that are consistent with previous research in positive psychology. Our research suggests an inverse relationship between celebrity admiration and life satisfaction. In addition, the results contribute to establishing the validity of four contemporary life satisfaction measures.

Keywords: Celebrity admiration Life satisfaction Meaning in life Curiosity Gratitude Flexibility

Is Apostasy Heritable? A Behavior Genetics Study — Skepticism, intolerance of contradictions?

Is Apostasy Heritable? A Behavior Genetics Study. Jason A. Freeman. Twin Research and Human Genetics, Apr 16 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2019.4

Abstract: The present study explores whether genetic factors explain variation in the levels of apostasy — defined as a disengagement from religious belief, identity and/or practice — in a US-based sample during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. I posit that genetic factors at least partially explain the variance of three measures of apostasy: disengagement from religious institutions, cessation of prayer and religious disaffiliation. I argue that genetic factors associated with risk-taking behaviors, externalizing behaviors and/or correlates of apostasy may all influence the likelihood of becoming an apostate during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood in the USA. Results reveal that genetic factors explain approximately 34% of the variance in cessation of prayer and 75% of the variance in religious disaffiliation. However, genetic factors do not influence disengagement from religious institutions. This study advances our knowledge of the etiology of apostasy and highlights the need to incorporate genetic data into social scientific research.

Responses of two species of dolphins to novel video footage: No differences observed for the percentage of time spent watching; males displayed a higher rate of aggressive behaviors than females

Behavioral responses of two species of dolphins to novel video footage: An exploration of sex differences. Kelley A. Winship, Holli C. Eskelinen. Zoo Biology, Vol 37, Issue 6, Nov/Dec 2018, Pages 399-407. https://doi.org/10.1002/zoo.21444

Abstract: This study assessed the interest toward novel video clips as enrichment stimuli in two species of captive dolphins (Tursiops: n = 11; Steno: n = 5). Videos were played at underwater viewing windows while the animals were housed with conspecifics, and responses were subsequently analyzed based on general content of each novel video. Interest levels (i.e., percentage of time watching and behavioral rate) were compared between species and within species across video categories. While the varied video contexts did not produce significant differences among the time spent watching or behaviors observed, species differences and sex differences were noted. Rough‐toothed dolphins displayed significantly more behaviors, particularly interest and bubble behaviors, than bottlenose dolphins, with no differences observed between the species for the percentage of time spent watching. Among bottlenose dolphins, males watched the television longer, and responded behaviorally significantly more, displaying a higher rate of bubble and aggressive behaviors than females. Male rough‐toothed dolphins displayed significantly more aggressive behaviors than females, with no other sex differences noted. Overall, these data suggest that television may serve as a useful enrichment device for certain individuals and species of cetaceans, as well as a cognitive experimental tool, as long as sex, species, and individual differences are taken into consideration when interpreting results.

From 2018: Single men feel competitive and hungry for high-calorie food after exposure to sexualized female models

Single men feel competitive and hungry for high-calorie food after exposure to sexualized female models. Sylvie Borau, Jean-François Bonnefon. Human Behavior and Evolution Society, 30th Annual Meeting, July 2018. http://www.hbes.com/conference/hbes2018/

Abstract: Many fast food companies use sex to target males, and they do so to sell high-energy foods, products that are not directly related to sex. The purpose of this research is to better understand why and how sex can sell high-energy foods to male consumers. We conducted four online experimental studies among heterosexual men in the US. In Study 1 (N=311), exposure to sexualized stimuli (vs. landscapes) increases single men’s hunger (but not partnered men’s hunger). Study 2 (N=330) replicates and extends the findings of Study 1 in an advertising context: exposure to an ad featuring a sexy female model (vs. the same ad without the model) increases single men’s hunger and their intention to eat a high-calorie food item (a burger). In Study 3 (N=218), these results do not replicate for a low-calorie item (an apple). Studies 1 to 3 also investigate the underlying mechanism of this effect: sexual stimuli trigger hunger by eliciting male competitiveness. Study 4 (N=242) confirms this mechanism: by manipulating the operational sex ratio in an advert, we show that male intrasexual competitiveness increases hunger for a high-calorie food item. This research suggests that sexualized advertising triggers men to prepare for competition against other men, by pursuing opportunities for somatic investment, and hence high-calorie foods. This behavioral response can have dramatic consequences in a modern environment, where sexualized female models are just as ubiquitous as fatty and sugary foods.

The Impact of Chinese Trade on U.S. Employment: The Good, The Bad, and The Apocryphal

The Impact of Chinese Trade on U.S. Employment: The Good, The Bad, and The Apocryphal. Nicholas Bloom, Kyle Handley, André Kurmann, and Philip Luck. March 19, 2019. https://d101vc9winf8ln.cloudfront.net/documents/30626/original/BHKL_3-20-19_v2.pdf?1554902707

Abstract: Using Census micro data we find that the impact of Chinese import competition on US manufacturing had a striking regional variation. In high-human capital areas (for example, much ofthe West Coast or New England) most manufacturing job losses came from establishments industry switching to services. The establishment remained open but changed to research, design, management or wholesale. In the low human-capital areas (for example, much of the South and mid-West) manufacturing job-losses came from plant closure without much offsetting gain in service employment. Offshoring appears to drive these manufacturing job losses - the Chinese trade impact arose primarily in large importing firms that were simultaneously expanding service sector employment. Hence, our data suggest Chinese trade redistributed jobs from manufacturing in lower income areas to services in higher income areas. Finally, the impact of Chinese imports appear to have disappeared after 2007 – we find strong employment impacts from 2000 to 2007, but nothing since from2008 to 2015.

Performing crimes in line with masculine norms are rewarded with higher social standing, whereas crimes counter to those norms leads to lower social standing, independent of personal subscription to those norms

Stern, Pär, and Timothy J. Luke. 2019. “The Crimes That Pay: Criminality as a Claim to Masculine Social Capital.” PsyArXiv. April 15. doi:10.31234/osf.io/4bwuq

Abstract: Can men use criminality as a means to assert their masculinity and thereby elevate their social standing? We report five studies that provide insight into that question. The first two studies focused on measuring how performing masculine or non-masculine behavior affected the social standing of the actor (i.e. their amount of social capital). The following two studies assessed the respondents’ estimation of how masculine committing 40 different crimes were perceived to be. In the final study, we built on the encouraging results of the first four and thus used the crime masculinity measures in context of how committing such a crime would affect the imagined criminal's amount of social capital. The respondents were asked to assess how the crime affected the change in social standing in three ways: to them personally, the actor's peers, and to society at large. The results suggest that performing crimes in line with masculine norms are rewarded with higher social standing, whereas crimes counter to those norms leads to lower social standing, independent of personal subscription to those norms. Additionally, subscription to masculine norms moderated the extent to which respondents themselves would reward the criminal behavior, such that those who subscribed to masculine norms more tended to ascribe more social capital to more masculine crimes.

Table 7: Means and standard deviations of the MCI-40 masculinity assessments

	Crime	M	SD
1	Fist fighting	6.97	2.12
2	Vigilantism	6.97	2.06
3	Street racing	6.95	1.75
4	Mob enforcer	6.87	2.15
5	Street fighting	6.67	2.44
6	Carrying a knife	6.21	2.04
7	Robbery	6.18	2.36
8	Assault	6.15	2.59
9	Armed robbery	5.97	2.51
10	Being a pimp	5.97	2.41
11	Carrying a gun without a permit	5.95	1.97
12	Car theft	5.92	2.21
13	Gun crime	5.90	2.11
14	Trespassing	5.82	1.80
15	Running an illegal gambling den	5.74	2.34
16	Fraud/Using a fake ID	5.59	2.05
17	Helmet law	5.47	2.36
18	Speeding	5.46	1.79
19	Reckless road rage	5.44	2.28
20	Incitement to riot	5.26	2.19
21	Burglary	5.13	2.47
22	Driving with suspended license	5.13	1.99
23	Public drinking	5.08	1.87
24	Drug dealing	5.00	2.21
25	Graffiti/Vandalism	5.00	2.36
26	Terrorist	4.82	2.43
27	Throwing rocks at cars	4.46	2.53
28	Insider trading	4.41	2.01
29	Drunk driving	4.38	3.16
30	Refusing to cooperate	4.21	2.34
31	Handling stolen goods	4.38	1.90
32	Embezzlement	4.31	2.17
33	Jewel thief	4.10	2.14
34	Shoplifting	4.05	2.14
35	Credit card fraud	4.03	2.01
36	Prank calling 911	3.95	2.31
37	Domestic abuse	3.85	2.67
38	Desertion *	2.95	2.49
39	Inability to pay child support *	2.92	2.07
40	Prostitution *	2.72	1.99

* = Crimes expected to be rated especially low

 
MCI = Masculine Crimes Inventory