Do body‐related sensations make feel us better? Subjective well‐being is associated only with the subjective aspect of interoception. Eszter Ferentzi Áron Horváth Ferenc Köteles. Psychophysiology, 2019;e13319, January 10 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13319
Abstract: According to the proposition of several theoretical accounts, the perception of the bodily cues, interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility, has a significant positive impact on subjective well‐being. Others assume a negative association; however, empirical evidence is scarce. In this study, 142 young adults completed questionnaires assessing subjective well‐being, interoceptive sensibility, and subjective somatic symptoms and participated in measurements of proprioceptive accuracy (reproduction of the angle of the elbow joint), gastric sensitivity (water load test), and heartbeat tracking ability (Schandry task). Subjective well‐being showed weak to medium positive associations with interoceptive sensibility and weak negative associations with symptom reports. No associations with measures of interoceptive accuracy were found. Gastric sensitivity as opposed to heartbeat perception and proprioceptive accuracy moderated the association between interoceptive sensibility and well‐being. Thus, subjective well‐being is associated only with the self‐reported (perceived) aspect of interoception but not related to the sensory measures of interoceptive accuracy.
IAc =interoceptive accuracy
4 | DISCUSSION
In a cross‐sectional study with the participation of young
healthy adults, subjective well‐being showed weak‐ to medium‐level associations with interoceptive sensibility even
after controlling for gender and negative body‐related sensations (i.e., perceived symptoms). However, no associations
with interoceptive accuracy (as assessed by heartbeat tracking ability, gastric sensitivity, and the proprioceptive error
with respect to the elbow joint) were found. Moreover, an
interaction between interoceptive sensibility and gastric sensitivity was revealed.
The positive association between subjective well‐being
and interoceptive sensibility (i.e., the subjective or perceived
aspect of interoception) replicates the findings of previous
studies (Hanley et al., 2017; Tihanyi, Böőr, et al., 2016;
Tihanyi, Sági, Csala, Tolnai, & Köteles, 2016). One explanation is that better psychological functioning and lower levels
of perceived stress enable healthy individuals to allocate more
attentional resources to various stimuli, including information originating in the body (Köteles et al., 2013). The finding that body‐mind interventions have a positive impact on
interoceptive sensibility (Bornemann, Herbert, Mehling, &
Singer, 2015; Fissler et al., 2016; Mehling et al., 2013; Rani
& Rao, 1994) also supports this idea. It is also possible,
however, that a more positive cognitive‐emotional condition
simply biases self‐reports in a positive direction (Ferentzi, Drew, et al., 2018). Finally, in accordance with the tenets of
body‐mind theorists, paying more attention to the body (i.e.,
gut feelings, emotions) may also lead to better functioning
and improved well‐being (Bakal, 1999; Daubenmier, 2005;
Farb et al., 2015; Mehling et al., 2009, 2011). This association might be behaviorally mediated; for example, more
focus on body sensations might enable the individual to recognize symptoms of diseases and seek medical help earlier
or change potentially risky behaviors in their early phase
(Bakal, 1999; Fogel, 2013). However, interoception is a special perceptual process where raw sensory input plays a less
salient role in shaping the conscious content than in the case
of exteroception (Ádám, 1998). In other words, nonpathological interoceptive sensory information is usually ambiguous,
thus its perception of being heavily influenced by top‐down
factors such as expectations, previous experiences, environmental cues (Brown, 2004; Friston, 2005; Friston, Kilner, &
Harrison, 2006; Pennebaker, 1982). In conclusion, the aforementioned top‐down factors will play a substantial role in the
behaviors improving mental and physical health. The strength
of the association (interoceptive sensibility explained approximately only 6%–8% of the variance of well‐being) appears
realistic; as both constructs are influenced by a number of
various factors, a substantially stronger association would be
spurious.
Body‐focused attention does not necessarily improve
the accuracy of detection of body signals (Ceunen et al.,
2013; Silvia & Gendolla, 2001); in other words, there is a
considerable dissociation between perceived and actual
body‐related events (Ainley & Tsakiris, 2013; Ferentzi et al.,
2017; Pennebaker, 1982). For example, subjective somatic
symptoms were not related to either indicator of IAc in the
current study, which basically reflects the often‐reported independence of symptom reports and body events (van den
Bergh, Witthöft, Petersen, & Brown, 2017). Similarly, power
posing (i.e., voluntarily adopting powerful postures to improve performance) evoked self‐reported changes in mood
but did not influence hormone levels and behavior in risky
situations (Ranehill et al., 2015). Although interoceptive sensibility was weakly associated with the cardiac indicators of
IAc in our study, IAc did not contribute to subjective well‐
being after controlling for gender, BMI, and resting HR in the
regression analysis, and no interaction between interoceptive
sensibility and cardioception was revealed. Taking into consideration that the regression analyses were also controlled
for somatic symptoms (i.e., sensations from the body that are
negative by definition), it can be concluded that the accuracy
of detection of interoceptive changes does not have a direct
positive or negative impact on well‐being.
The only interaction we found (i.e., gastric sensitivity
moderates the association between interoceptive sensibility and well‐being) only partially supports the adaptivity
hypothesis, as the contribution of interoceptive sensibility
to well‐being is positive only for low and medium levels
of gastric sensitivity. According to our result, the interaction between gastric sensitivity and interoceptive sensibility contributes to a higher level of well‐being in the two
following cases: firstly, if low to medium gastric sensitivity is accompanied by high interoceptive sensibility, and,
secondly, if high gastric sensitivity is accompanied by low
interoceptive sensibility. We can only speculate about the
interpretation of this result as well as why it was found for gastric sensitivity only. First of all, gastric fullness above a
certain level is an unpleasant feeling, which leads to terminating the ongoing food and drink intake. This feeling occurs on a regular basis for everyone, whereas heart‐related
and conscious proprioceptive experiences are less frequent
under everyday circumstances. Concerning the interpretation of the interaction, high gastric sensitivity can turn
the positive association between well‐being and interoceptive sensibility into negative because increased body focus
might amplify the unpleasantness of the feeling of distension. This is in accordance with the view that bottom‐up
and top‐down processes occur and interact with each other
at almost every level of the interoceptive sensory system
(Smith & Lane, 2015). Thus, making bodily sensations
more conscious might not be beneficial in all cases; it is
also an open question, however, whether our finding represents clinical relevance. We would also like to emphasize
that this interpretation is speculation only, and the result
needs to be confirmed by the replication of the study.
One of the limitations of the current study is that its conclusions are valid for healthy individuals only; atypical interoception may lead to issues in psychological development
and represent a general susceptibility to psychopathology
(Murphy, Brewer, Catmur, & Bird, 2017). Extremely low and
high levels of interoceptive accuracy with respect to one single
modality might also have modality‐specific pathological consequences. However, interoceptive accuracy is not a unitary
construct (i.e., various interoceptive modalities are independent of each other with respect to IAc; Ferentzi, Bogdány, et
al., 2018). This also implies that differences in the accuracy
of detection of various bodily cues and modalities within the
normal domain can even compete with each other, providing
a complex body sensation (Smith & Lane, 2015). Thus, sensitivity with respect to a single channel does not necessarily
influence everyday psychological functioning. Interoceptive
sensibility, on the other hand, represents a more unitary (i.e.,
integrated) construct, therefore it may impact self‐reported
characteristics such as well‐being.
Issues related to the sensory measurements of interoception have to be mentioned among the limitations of the current study. As IAc is not generalizable across modalities, the
current study assessed three interoceptive channels. However,
other modalities might be more relevant concerning subjective mental well‐being, such as breathing, the change of heart
rate (rather than its actual state), sweating, or the sensation of
body temperature change. The context and the interpretation
of the bodily cues were also not investigated here, although
both might influence self‐rated well‐being. Moreover, the
Schandry task has received several criticisms recently and
is not considered a reliable indicator of cardioceptive accuracy by some authors (Brener & Ring, 2016; Ring & Brener,
2018). Finally, participants were not screened for mental disorders and chronic conditions that might impact their performance. These issues and the characteristics of the sample
(young adult with a relatively high subjective well‐being
score) limit the external validity of the findings.
In summary, subjective well‐being of healthy young
adults is associated with the subjective (perceived) aspect of
interoception but not related to interoceptive accuracy. Thus,
the level of well‐being depends more on our subjective bodily
report than on the actual accuracy of our bodily sensations.
Sunday, December 15, 2019
The climate crisis is not just about the environment, but about human rights, justice, & political will; colonial, racist, & patriarchal systems of oppression have created & fueled it; they must be dismantled
Why We Strike Again. Greta Thunberg, Luisa Neubauer, Angela Valenzuela. Project Syndicate, Nov 29, 2019. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/climate-strikes-un-conference-madrid-by-greta-thunberg-et-al-2019-11
Excerpts (emphasis not in the original piece):
After a year of strikes, our voices are being heard. We are being invited to speak in the corridors of power.
With public opinion shifting, world leaders, too, say that they have heard us. They say that they agree with our demand for urgent action to tackle the climate crisis. But they do nothing. As they head to Madrid for the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP25) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, we call out this hypocrisy.
That action must be powerful and wide-ranging. After all, the climate crisis is not just about the environment. It is a crisis of human rights, of justice, and of political will. Colonial, racist, and patriarchal systems of oppression have created and fueled it. We need to dismantle them all. Our political leaders can no longer shirk their responsibilities.
Check also: Greta Thunberg's zeal, as the press summarized her speech at the UN Climate Summit, Sep 23, 2019 https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/09/greta-thunberg-as-press-summarized-her.html
Excerpts (emphasis not in the original piece):
After a year of strikes, our voices are being heard. We are being invited to speak in the corridors of power.
With public opinion shifting, world leaders, too, say that they have heard us. They say that they agree with our demand for urgent action to tackle the climate crisis. But they do nothing. As they head to Madrid for the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP25) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, we call out this hypocrisy.
That action must be powerful and wide-ranging. After all, the climate crisis is not just about the environment. It is a crisis of human rights, of justice, and of political will. Colonial, racist, and patriarchal systems of oppression have created and fueled it. We need to dismantle them all. Our political leaders can no longer shirk their responsibilities.
Check also: Greta Thunberg's zeal, as the press summarized her speech at the UN Climate Summit, Sep 23, 2019 https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/09/greta-thunberg-as-press-summarized-her.html
Check also We cannot legislate and spend our way out of catastrophic global warming. Jasper Bernes. Commune, Spring 2019. https://communemag.com/between-the-devil-and-the-green-new-deal/
Disentangling physics from the norms of patriarchal white supremacy must begin with an honest accounting of the roots of the Western scientific project in the project of slavery
Making Black Women Scientists under White Empiricism: The Racialization of Epistemology in Physics. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. Signs, 2020, vol. 45, no. 2. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/704991
[...] White empiricism is the phenomenon through which only white people (particularly white men) are read has having a fundamental capacity for objectivity and Black people (particularly Black women) are produced as an ontological other. This phenomenon is stabilized through the production and retention of what Joseph Martin calls prestige asymmetry, which explains how social resources in physics are distributed based on prestige. In American society, Black women are on the losing end of an ontic prestige asymmetry whereby different scientists “garner unequal public approbation” in their everyday lives due to ascribed identities such as gender and race (Martin 2017, 475). White empiricism is one of the mechanisms by which this asymmetry follows Black women physicists into their professional lives. Because white empiricism contravenes core tenets of modern physics (e.g., covariance and relativity), it negatively impacts scientific outcomes and harms the people who are othered. [...]
Excerpts of section "Prestige asymmetry and the manufacture of white empiricism"
A scientist using white empiricism as an analytic framework might assume that there is no dynamic relationship between the underrepresentation of Black women and knowledge production in physics, choosing to ignore evidence that the culture of physics limits participation via racist and sexist gatekeeping. Yet Helen Longino (1990) has persuasively argued that, even in the physical sciences, science is social knowledge. Janice Moulton’s “The Adversary Method” (1983) represents one analysis that shows how culture and knowledge production can come into conflict with concrete epistemic implications. Moulton succinctly notes in a section title that in philosophy there is an “unhappy conflation of aggression with success,” and Traweek observes the same among American high energy physicists (Moulton 1983, 149; Traweek 1992, 130). Making aggressive behavior a requirement for academic success is especially harmful to Black women, since Black women are demonized for engaging in behaviors that even hint at aggression (HarrisPerry 2011, 89).
Disentangling physics from the norms of patriarchal white supremacy must begin with an honest accounting of the roots of the Western scientific project in the project of slavery. Slavery is rarely the starting point for discussions of what many of us would call the post–Enlightenment era development of science, which Jonathan Marks helpfully defines as “the production of convincing knowledge in modern society” (2009, 2), but in order to understand the epistemic dismissal of Black women, we must begin with slavery. Science, mathematics, and slavery were intimately connected: whether it was the early evolution of insurance and actuarial science to calculate the value of jettisoned cargo—brutally murdered people—or efforts to minimize the bow wave—the wake—of ships, to make them faster, to speed the movement of kidnapped Africans from the torturous Middle Passage to a tortured lifetime and usually death in the bondage of chattel slavery (Sharpe 2016, 35). Even a century and a half after the end of slavery and with Black intellectuals making inroads in white-dominant academia, they continue to face epistemic injustice, epistemic marginalization, presumed incompetence, and the cognitive dissonance of consciously recognizing the white supremacy that pervades the scientific culture of “no culture” (Traweek 1992, 162).
[...] White empiricism is the phenomenon through which only white people (particularly white men) are read has having a fundamental capacity for objectivity and Black people (particularly Black women) are produced as an ontological other. This phenomenon is stabilized through the production and retention of what Joseph Martin calls prestige asymmetry, which explains how social resources in physics are distributed based on prestige. In American society, Black women are on the losing end of an ontic prestige asymmetry whereby different scientists “garner unequal public approbation” in their everyday lives due to ascribed identities such as gender and race (Martin 2017, 475). White empiricism is one of the mechanisms by which this asymmetry follows Black women physicists into their professional lives. Because white empiricism contravenes core tenets of modern physics (e.g., covariance and relativity), it negatively impacts scientific outcomes and harms the people who are othered. [...]
Excerpts of section "Prestige asymmetry and the manufacture of white empiricism"
A scientist using white empiricism as an analytic framework might assume that there is no dynamic relationship between the underrepresentation of Black women and knowledge production in physics, choosing to ignore evidence that the culture of physics limits participation via racist and sexist gatekeeping. Yet Helen Longino (1990) has persuasively argued that, even in the physical sciences, science is social knowledge. Janice Moulton’s “The Adversary Method” (1983) represents one analysis that shows how culture and knowledge production can come into conflict with concrete epistemic implications. Moulton succinctly notes in a section title that in philosophy there is an “unhappy conflation of aggression with success,” and Traweek observes the same among American high energy physicists (Moulton 1983, 149; Traweek 1992, 130). Making aggressive behavior a requirement for academic success is especially harmful to Black women, since Black women are demonized for engaging in behaviors that even hint at aggression (HarrisPerry 2011, 89).
Disentangling physics from the norms of patriarchal white supremacy must begin with an honest accounting of the roots of the Western scientific project in the project of slavery. Slavery is rarely the starting point for discussions of what many of us would call the post–Enlightenment era development of science, which Jonathan Marks helpfully defines as “the production of convincing knowledge in modern society” (2009, 2), but in order to understand the epistemic dismissal of Black women, we must begin with slavery. Science, mathematics, and slavery were intimately connected: whether it was the early evolution of insurance and actuarial science to calculate the value of jettisoned cargo—brutally murdered people—or efforts to minimize the bow wave—the wake—of ships, to make them faster, to speed the movement of kidnapped Africans from the torturous Middle Passage to a tortured lifetime and usually death in the bondage of chattel slavery (Sharpe 2016, 35). Even a century and a half after the end of slavery and with Black intellectuals making inroads in white-dominant academia, they continue to face epistemic injustice, epistemic marginalization, presumed incompetence, and the cognitive dissonance of consciously recognizing the white supremacy that pervades the scientific culture of “no culture” (Traweek 1992, 162).
From 2018... Those in the low opposite-sex exposure condition rated subsequent individual voices of the opposite sex as significantly more attractive than those who were in the high opposite-sex exposure condition
Hearing Sex at the Cocktail Party: Biased Sex Ratios Influence Vocal Attractiveness. John. G. Neuhoff ORCID Icon &Taylor N. Sikich. Auditory Perception & Cognition, Volume 1, 2018 - Issue 1-2, Sep 25 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/25742442.2018.1518949
ABSTRACT: Visual exposure to unbalanced sex ratios influences perceived facial attractiveness for opposite-sex faces. When opposite-sex faces are scarce they are rated as more attractive than when they are plentiful. The current work examines a vocal-auditory analog of this effect. Participants were assigned to either a high or low opposite-sex vocal exposure condition and reported summary statistics by estimating the percentage of male and female voices in an array of simultaneous talkers. Participants then rated the attractiveness of individual opposite-sex voices. Those in the low opposite-sex exposure condition rated subsequent individual voices of the opposite sex as significantly more attractive than those who were in the high opposite-sex exposure condition. The findings demonstrate that a core visuo-perceptual aspect of mate selection preference also occurs in the auditory domain. The results are consistent with the idea that the attractiveness of opposite-sex partners is an honest signal of fitness and involves multimodal processes that are quickly modulated by the perceived availability of opposite-sex partners in a local environment.
KEYWORDS: Sex ratio, ensemble coding, summary statistics, vocal attractiveness, mate selection
Discussion
Simultaneously sounding voices have historically been treated as “background” stimuli in auditory perception research (Brungart & Simpson, 2007; Brungart, Simpson, Ericson, & Scott, 2001; Cox, Alexander, & Rivera, 1991; Darwin, 2008). However, the current results confirm that when directed to attend to multiple simultaneous voices, listeners can use ensemble coding to extract summary statistics and scale the percentage of male and female voices in the array (Neuhoff, 2017). Moreover, when listeners hear a low percentage of opposite-sex voices, subsequent individual opposite sex voices are perceived as more attractive than when they hear a high percentage of opposite-sex voices.
Sex Ratios and Vocal Attractiveness
The effect of unbalanced sex ratios on perceived attractiveness is consistent with previous work that examines the relationship between sex ratios and mate selection behavior. Favorable sex ratios (a larger choice of potential opposite-sex mates and fewer same-sex rivals) are associated with choosier mate selection behaviors and raised standards of attractiveness in a potential mate (Hahn et al., 2014; Munro et al., 2014; Watkins et al., 2012). From a theoretical perspective, modulating mate selection preferences and behaviors based on the perception of unbalanced sex ratios makes evolutionary sense. Sociosexual behaviors in populations with biased sex ratios skew toward the preferences of the minority sex, which can be more selective because they face less competition from same-sex rivals (Moss & Maner, 2016; Pedersen, 1991; Pollet & Nettle, 2008; Schmitt, 2005). Lowering attractiveness standards in the face of unfavorable sex ratios is a behavior that expands the pool of potential mates (Watkins et al., 2012). The current findings for unbalanced vocal sex ratios are consistent with research on sex ratios and facial attractiveness and provide converging support for a reliable relationship between vocal and visual attractiveness (Abend et al. 2015; Puts et al., 2016).
This suggests that observers use multimodal sources of information when evaluating potential opposite-sex partners and that the process may involve a high degree of automaticity. For example, Mileva, Tompkinson, Watt, and Burton (2018) showed that impression formation involves a mandatory and immediate integration of both vocal and facial information. Future work might examine the degree to which the perception of summary statistics from voices and the effects of unbalanced sex ratios on attractiveness involve automatic processes. In the current work, listeners accurately scaled sex ratios after exposures of only 1500 ms and showed effects of unbalanced sex ratios on perceived attractiveness after cumulative exposure of only 1.2 min (48 trials × 1500 ms). We also found a main effect for the number of voices presented in the exposure phase. Listeners presented with 5 simultaneous voices perceived subsequent individual voices to be more attractive than those first presented with 10 simultaneous voices. Although we did not specifically ask our participants to report the number of voices in the exposure stimuli, the results are consistent with the overarching hypothesis that standards of attractiveness will be lowered (i.e., voices will be rated as more attractive) when the number of potential opposite-sex partners is diminished.
Finally, we found a main effect for participant sex that indicated men found female voices more attractive than women found male voices. This finding could simply be a function of the relative attractiveness between male and female voices in our study.
Ericson, & Scott, 2001; Cox, Alexander, & Rivera, 1991; Darwin, 2008). However, the current results confirm that when directed to attend to multiple simultaneous voices, listeners can use ensemble coding to extract summary statistics and scale the percentage of male and female voices in the array (Neuhoff, 2017). Moreover, when listeners hear a low percentage of opposite-sex voices, subsequent individual opposite sex voices are perceived as more attractive than when they hear a high percentage of opposite-sex voices. Sex Ratios and Vocal Attractiveness The effect of unbalanced sex ratios on perceived attractiveness is consistent with previous work that examines the relationship between sex ratios and mate selection behavior. Favorable sex ratios (a larger choice of potential opposite-sex mates and fewer same-sex rivals) are associated with choosier mate selection behaviors and raised standards of attractiveness in a potential mate (Hahn et al., 2014; Munro et al., 2014; Watkins et al., 2012). From a theoretical perspective, modulating mate selection preferences and behaviors based on the perception of unbalanced sex ratios makes evolutionary sense. Sociosexual behaviors in populations with biased sex ratios skew toward the preferences of the minority sex, which can be more selective because they face less competition from same-sex rivals (Moss & Maner, 2016; Pedersen, 1991; Pollet & Nettle, 2008; Schmitt, 2005). Lowering attractiveness standards in the face of unfavorable sex ratios is a behavior that expands the pool of potential mates (Watkins et al., 2012).
The current findings for unbalanced vocal sex ratios are consistent with research on sex ratios and facial attractiveness and provide converging support for a reliable relationship between vocal and visual attractiveness (Abend et al. 2015; Puts et al., 2016). This suggests that observers use multimodal sources of information when evaluating potential opposite-sex partners and that the process may involve a high degree of automaticity. For example, Mileva, Tompkinson, Watt, and Burton (2018) showed that impression formation involves a mandatory and immediate integration of both vocal and facial information. Future work might examine the degree to which the perception of summary statistics from voices and the effects of unbalanced sex ratios on attractiveness involve automatic processes. In the current work, listeners accurately scaled sex ratios after exposures of only 1500 ms and showed effects of unbalanced sex ratios on perceived attractiveness after cumulative exposure of only 1.2 min (48 trials × 1500 ms). We also found a main effect for the number of voices presented in the exposure phase. Listeners presented with 5 simultaneous voices perceived subsequent individual voices to be more attractive than those first presented with 10 simultaneous voices. Although we did not specifically ask our participants to report the number of voices in the exposure stimuli, the results are consistent with the overarching hypothesis that standards of attractiveness will be lowered (i.e., voices will be rated as more attractive) when the number of potential opposite-sex partners is diminished.
Finally, we found a main effect for participant sex that indicated men found female voices more attractive than women found male voices. This finding could simply be a function of the relative attractiveness between male and female voices in our study. However, it is also a finding that occurs consistently when men and women are asked to give opposite-sex attractiveness ratings (Gladue & Delaney, 1990; Hahn et al., 2014; Johnco et al., 2010) and is consistent with a higher priority in men than in women for physical attractiveness as an important criterion for mate selection (Boxer et al., 2015; Buss, 1989; Buss & Barnes, 1986).
Effect Sizes
We found very large effects sizes between conditions when listeners were asked to judge the percentage of males and females in our multiple voice exposure stimuli. The effect size for the linear trend for perceived sex ratio as a function of actual sex ratio was ηp 2 = .42 (equivalent to Cohen’s d = 1.7). Neuhoff (2017) also found large effect sizes when participants were asked to scale vocal sex ratios that ranged from 0% to 100%. The size of the effect speaks to the robust ability of listeners to scale sex ratios of multiple simultaneous voices.
However, even effect sizes this large likely underestimate the true effect size that might occur in more natural environments. Under natural listening conditions, multiple simultaneous talkers emanate from separate locations in space (rather than centrally from headphones or loudspeakers). Spatial separation of talkers reduces auditory cognitive load and affords a better assessment of target speech among multiple talkers (Andeol, Suied, Scannella, & Dehais, 2017; Bronkhorst, 2000; Shinn-Cunningham, Ihlefeld, Satyavarta, & Larson, 2005). Thus, spatial separation might also afford more accurate estimates of sex ratios. In a similar light, it may also be the case that durations of exposure to multiple voices longer than 1500 ms would provide a better assessment of vocal sex ratios.
In contrast to the large effect sizes for scaling sex ratios, the effect size for the difference in attractiveness ratings between high and low opposite sex exposure conditions was comparatively small (ηp 2 = .02, equivalent to Cohen’s d = .29). Our design had sufficient power to detect this effect size, and it may be that the factors of increased spatial separation and stimulus duration that would occur in a natural environment would also increase the effects of unbalanced sex ratios on attractiveness. The fact that exposure and attractiveness ratings occurred in temporally separate blocks may also contribute to the smaller observed effect size.
However, effect sizes need not be large to be important from an evolutionary perspective. On the contrary, small but reliable effect sizes can be instrumental in explaining how our evolutionary history shaped current perceptual and cognitive abilities (Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995; Weiss, Kemmler, Deisenhammer, Fleischhacker, & Delazer, 2003; Zilles et al., 2016). For example, in evolutionary psychology, finding sex differences can be critically important evidence that supports a behavioral adaptation. Yet, a meta-analysis of 286 studies on sex differences in spatial perception showed a mean effect size of only d = .37 (ηp 2 = .03; Voyer et al., 1995). Although such small effect sizes are not helpful in predicting the behavior of any particular individual based on sex, they are indicative of differential challenges faced by men and women over the course of evolutionary history. The effect size in our results is also similar to that found for the effect of biased sex ratios on facial attractiveness (ηp 2 = .02, Hahn et al., 2014).
Limitations and Future Research
Our sample included only heterosexual participants. Thus, it is an open question as to how exposure to unbalanced sex ratios might influence participants of other sexual orientations or how participant sexual orientation might interact with the orientation of the to-be-judged talker. Although our results do not speak to these questions, there is considerable evidence to suggest that sexual orientation is likely an important factor in these kinds of investigations and could be a fruitful avenue for further research (Hancock & Pool, 2017; Munson, 2007; Rule, 2017; Valentova, Roberts, & Havlicek, 2013).
The online nature of our data collection introduced variability that might not have been present under more controlled laboratory conditions. For example, participants listened to the stimuli as compressed mp3 files on their own devices at different levels with varying amounts of background noise in each unique listening environment. Nonetheless, all these factors introduce variability that makes it less likely to reject the null hypothesis. Finding significant results in the face of this increased variability speaks to the robust nature of the effects and increases the external validity of the findings.
Online data collection also resulted in a more diverse sample than what we would expect to obtain in typical undergraduate samples. While this is a desirable characteristic of samples, the mean age of our participants (39 years) was considerably older than that of the talkers whose voices were rated for attractiveness (20 years). Although this poses no threat to internal validity (all participants rated voices of the same age), it would be interesting to examine how participant and talker age interact in future studies of sex ratios and attractiveness.
ABSTRACT: Visual exposure to unbalanced sex ratios influences perceived facial attractiveness for opposite-sex faces. When opposite-sex faces are scarce they are rated as more attractive than when they are plentiful. The current work examines a vocal-auditory analog of this effect. Participants were assigned to either a high or low opposite-sex vocal exposure condition and reported summary statistics by estimating the percentage of male and female voices in an array of simultaneous talkers. Participants then rated the attractiveness of individual opposite-sex voices. Those in the low opposite-sex exposure condition rated subsequent individual voices of the opposite sex as significantly more attractive than those who were in the high opposite-sex exposure condition. The findings demonstrate that a core visuo-perceptual aspect of mate selection preference also occurs in the auditory domain. The results are consistent with the idea that the attractiveness of opposite-sex partners is an honest signal of fitness and involves multimodal processes that are quickly modulated by the perceived availability of opposite-sex partners in a local environment.
KEYWORDS: Sex ratio, ensemble coding, summary statistics, vocal attractiveness, mate selection
Discussion
Simultaneously sounding voices have historically been treated as “background” stimuli in auditory perception research (Brungart & Simpson, 2007; Brungart, Simpson, Ericson, & Scott, 2001; Cox, Alexander, & Rivera, 1991; Darwin, 2008). However, the current results confirm that when directed to attend to multiple simultaneous voices, listeners can use ensemble coding to extract summary statistics and scale the percentage of male and female voices in the array (Neuhoff, 2017). Moreover, when listeners hear a low percentage of opposite-sex voices, subsequent individual opposite sex voices are perceived as more attractive than when they hear a high percentage of opposite-sex voices.
Sex Ratios and Vocal Attractiveness
The effect of unbalanced sex ratios on perceived attractiveness is consistent with previous work that examines the relationship between sex ratios and mate selection behavior. Favorable sex ratios (a larger choice of potential opposite-sex mates and fewer same-sex rivals) are associated with choosier mate selection behaviors and raised standards of attractiveness in a potential mate (Hahn et al., 2014; Munro et al., 2014; Watkins et al., 2012). From a theoretical perspective, modulating mate selection preferences and behaviors based on the perception of unbalanced sex ratios makes evolutionary sense. Sociosexual behaviors in populations with biased sex ratios skew toward the preferences of the minority sex, which can be more selective because they face less competition from same-sex rivals (Moss & Maner, 2016; Pedersen, 1991; Pollet & Nettle, 2008; Schmitt, 2005). Lowering attractiveness standards in the face of unfavorable sex ratios is a behavior that expands the pool of potential mates (Watkins et al., 2012). The current findings for unbalanced vocal sex ratios are consistent with research on sex ratios and facial attractiveness and provide converging support for a reliable relationship between vocal and visual attractiveness (Abend et al. 2015; Puts et al., 2016).
This suggests that observers use multimodal sources of information when evaluating potential opposite-sex partners and that the process may involve a high degree of automaticity. For example, Mileva, Tompkinson, Watt, and Burton (2018) showed that impression formation involves a mandatory and immediate integration of both vocal and facial information. Future work might examine the degree to which the perception of summary statistics from voices and the effects of unbalanced sex ratios on attractiveness involve automatic processes. In the current work, listeners accurately scaled sex ratios after exposures of only 1500 ms and showed effects of unbalanced sex ratios on perceived attractiveness after cumulative exposure of only 1.2 min (48 trials × 1500 ms). We also found a main effect for the number of voices presented in the exposure phase. Listeners presented with 5 simultaneous voices perceived subsequent individual voices to be more attractive than those first presented with 10 simultaneous voices. Although we did not specifically ask our participants to report the number of voices in the exposure stimuli, the results are consistent with the overarching hypothesis that standards of attractiveness will be lowered (i.e., voices will be rated as more attractive) when the number of potential opposite-sex partners is diminished.
Finally, we found a main effect for participant sex that indicated men found female voices more attractive than women found male voices. This finding could simply be a function of the relative attractiveness between male and female voices in our study.
Ericson, & Scott, 2001; Cox, Alexander, & Rivera, 1991; Darwin, 2008). However, the current results confirm that when directed to attend to multiple simultaneous voices, listeners can use ensemble coding to extract summary statistics and scale the percentage of male and female voices in the array (Neuhoff, 2017). Moreover, when listeners hear a low percentage of opposite-sex voices, subsequent individual opposite sex voices are perceived as more attractive than when they hear a high percentage of opposite-sex voices. Sex Ratios and Vocal Attractiveness The effect of unbalanced sex ratios on perceived attractiveness is consistent with previous work that examines the relationship between sex ratios and mate selection behavior. Favorable sex ratios (a larger choice of potential opposite-sex mates and fewer same-sex rivals) are associated with choosier mate selection behaviors and raised standards of attractiveness in a potential mate (Hahn et al., 2014; Munro et al., 2014; Watkins et al., 2012). From a theoretical perspective, modulating mate selection preferences and behaviors based on the perception of unbalanced sex ratios makes evolutionary sense. Sociosexual behaviors in populations with biased sex ratios skew toward the preferences of the minority sex, which can be more selective because they face less competition from same-sex rivals (Moss & Maner, 2016; Pedersen, 1991; Pollet & Nettle, 2008; Schmitt, 2005). Lowering attractiveness standards in the face of unfavorable sex ratios is a behavior that expands the pool of potential mates (Watkins et al., 2012).
The current findings for unbalanced vocal sex ratios are consistent with research on sex ratios and facial attractiveness and provide converging support for a reliable relationship between vocal and visual attractiveness (Abend et al. 2015; Puts et al., 2016). This suggests that observers use multimodal sources of information when evaluating potential opposite-sex partners and that the process may involve a high degree of automaticity. For example, Mileva, Tompkinson, Watt, and Burton (2018) showed that impression formation involves a mandatory and immediate integration of both vocal and facial information. Future work might examine the degree to which the perception of summary statistics from voices and the effects of unbalanced sex ratios on attractiveness involve automatic processes. In the current work, listeners accurately scaled sex ratios after exposures of only 1500 ms and showed effects of unbalanced sex ratios on perceived attractiveness after cumulative exposure of only 1.2 min (48 trials × 1500 ms). We also found a main effect for the number of voices presented in the exposure phase. Listeners presented with 5 simultaneous voices perceived subsequent individual voices to be more attractive than those first presented with 10 simultaneous voices. Although we did not specifically ask our participants to report the number of voices in the exposure stimuli, the results are consistent with the overarching hypothesis that standards of attractiveness will be lowered (i.e., voices will be rated as more attractive) when the number of potential opposite-sex partners is diminished.
Finally, we found a main effect for participant sex that indicated men found female voices more attractive than women found male voices. This finding could simply be a function of the relative attractiveness between male and female voices in our study. However, it is also a finding that occurs consistently when men and women are asked to give opposite-sex attractiveness ratings (Gladue & Delaney, 1990; Hahn et al., 2014; Johnco et al., 2010) and is consistent with a higher priority in men than in women for physical attractiveness as an important criterion for mate selection (Boxer et al., 2015; Buss, 1989; Buss & Barnes, 1986).
Effect Sizes
We found very large effects sizes between conditions when listeners were asked to judge the percentage of males and females in our multiple voice exposure stimuli. The effect size for the linear trend for perceived sex ratio as a function of actual sex ratio was ηp 2 = .42 (equivalent to Cohen’s d = 1.7). Neuhoff (2017) also found large effect sizes when participants were asked to scale vocal sex ratios that ranged from 0% to 100%. The size of the effect speaks to the robust ability of listeners to scale sex ratios of multiple simultaneous voices.
However, even effect sizes this large likely underestimate the true effect size that might occur in more natural environments. Under natural listening conditions, multiple simultaneous talkers emanate from separate locations in space (rather than centrally from headphones or loudspeakers). Spatial separation of talkers reduces auditory cognitive load and affords a better assessment of target speech among multiple talkers (Andeol, Suied, Scannella, & Dehais, 2017; Bronkhorst, 2000; Shinn-Cunningham, Ihlefeld, Satyavarta, & Larson, 2005). Thus, spatial separation might also afford more accurate estimates of sex ratios. In a similar light, it may also be the case that durations of exposure to multiple voices longer than 1500 ms would provide a better assessment of vocal sex ratios.
In contrast to the large effect sizes for scaling sex ratios, the effect size for the difference in attractiveness ratings between high and low opposite sex exposure conditions was comparatively small (ηp 2 = .02, equivalent to Cohen’s d = .29). Our design had sufficient power to detect this effect size, and it may be that the factors of increased spatial separation and stimulus duration that would occur in a natural environment would also increase the effects of unbalanced sex ratios on attractiveness. The fact that exposure and attractiveness ratings occurred in temporally separate blocks may also contribute to the smaller observed effect size.
However, effect sizes need not be large to be important from an evolutionary perspective. On the contrary, small but reliable effect sizes can be instrumental in explaining how our evolutionary history shaped current perceptual and cognitive abilities (Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995; Weiss, Kemmler, Deisenhammer, Fleischhacker, & Delazer, 2003; Zilles et al., 2016). For example, in evolutionary psychology, finding sex differences can be critically important evidence that supports a behavioral adaptation. Yet, a meta-analysis of 286 studies on sex differences in spatial perception showed a mean effect size of only d = .37 (ηp 2 = .03; Voyer et al., 1995). Although such small effect sizes are not helpful in predicting the behavior of any particular individual based on sex, they are indicative of differential challenges faced by men and women over the course of evolutionary history. The effect size in our results is also similar to that found for the effect of biased sex ratios on facial attractiveness (ηp 2 = .02, Hahn et al., 2014).
Limitations and Future Research
Our sample included only heterosexual participants. Thus, it is an open question as to how exposure to unbalanced sex ratios might influence participants of other sexual orientations or how participant sexual orientation might interact with the orientation of the to-be-judged talker. Although our results do not speak to these questions, there is considerable evidence to suggest that sexual orientation is likely an important factor in these kinds of investigations and could be a fruitful avenue for further research (Hancock & Pool, 2017; Munson, 2007; Rule, 2017; Valentova, Roberts, & Havlicek, 2013).
The online nature of our data collection introduced variability that might not have been present under more controlled laboratory conditions. For example, participants listened to the stimuli as compressed mp3 files on their own devices at different levels with varying amounts of background noise in each unique listening environment. Nonetheless, all these factors introduce variability that makes it less likely to reject the null hypothesis. Finding significant results in the face of this increased variability speaks to the robust nature of the effects and increases the external validity of the findings.
Online data collection also resulted in a more diverse sample than what we would expect to obtain in typical undergraduate samples. While this is a desirable characteristic of samples, the mean age of our participants (39 years) was considerably older than that of the talkers whose voices were rated for attractiveness (20 years). Although this poses no threat to internal validity (all participants rated voices of the same age), it would be interesting to examine how participant and talker age interact in future studies of sex ratios and attractiveness.
Overconfident people should be surprised that they are so often wrong. Are they?
Overprecision Increases Subsequent Surprise. Derek Schatz, Don A. Moore. bioRxiv, December 13, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1101/2019.12.13.875203
Abstract: Overconfident people should be surprised that they are so often wrong. Are they? Three studies examined the relationship between confidence and surprise in order to shed light on the psychology of overprecision in judgment. Participants reported ex-ante confidence in their beliefs, and after receiving accuracy feedback, they then reported ex-post surprise. Results show that more ex-ante confidence produces less ex-post surprise for correct answers; this relationship reverses for incorrect answers. However, this sensible pattern only holds for some measures of confidence; it fails for confidence-interval measures. The results can help explain the robust durability of overprecision in judgment.
Abstract: Overconfident people should be surprised that they are so often wrong. Are they? Three studies examined the relationship between confidence and surprise in order to shed light on the psychology of overprecision in judgment. Participants reported ex-ante confidence in their beliefs, and after receiving accuracy feedback, they then reported ex-post surprise. Results show that more ex-ante confidence produces less ex-post surprise for correct answers; this relationship reverses for incorrect answers. However, this sensible pattern only holds for some measures of confidence; it fails for confidence-interval measures. The results can help explain the robust durability of overprecision in judgment.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Our results show that ex-ante confidence and ex-post surprise are inextricably
linked. Our primary finding is that when people are correct, greater ex-ante confidence
produces less ex-post surprise, whereas when they are incorrect, greater ex-ante confidence
produces more ex-post surprise. We examine the psychology underlying these relationships and identify moderators that can either suppress or enhance their strength. Studies 1 and 2
establish the link between confidence and surprise, highlighting that correctness is a
powerful moderator of the relationship. Studies 2 and 3 employ exogenous manipulations
of confidence; their results replicate the correlational results of Study 1. Study 2 finds more
powerful confidence-correctness interaction effects on surprise for epistemic questions than
for aleatory, consistent with the notion that feeling personally accountable for knowing or
not knowing the answer increases the intensity of emotional reactions to being right or
wrong. Study 3 finds that people are more surprised about being wrong than they expect to
be.
What of the utility of surprise? If surprise reflects prediction error, individuals
should seek to maximize accuracy and minimize surprise (Ely, Frankel, & Kamenica, 2015).
This implies that surprise should lead people to reduce their subsequent confidence. Our
results suggest that surprise does not always play this functional role, or that it is difficult to
measure consistently. Future research should examine the conditions under which surprise
has a corrective effect on subsequent confidence. How quickly does this effect decay and
what possible moderators could increase the calibrating power and longevity of feedback on
subsequent confidence? Could incorrect answers in epistemic domains more central to
one’s self-concept ‘stick’ for a longer period of time, forcing one’s re-evaluation of their
believed expertise? Or could the opposite be the case, where the incorrect answer is
considered anomalous and the sense of expertise persists?
We aspired to measure the effects of overprecision on surprise. In recording
participants’ ex-ante confidence, their correctness, and their ex-post surprise, we document
consistent evidence suggesting that people expect to be correct. If they go into a decision with confidence, they are more surprised to be incorrect, and less surprised when correct.
We believe these results do more than underscore precision in judgment. Rather, this
research approaches the topic with a new paradigm that serves to reveal another layer in the
scientific understanding of the psychology of confidence and precision in judgment.
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Negative relationship between managers' skill diversity & performance: Having common ground in the boardroom (directors sharing skills in order to be able to communicate effectively) seems important
Director skill sets. Renée B. Adams, Ali C. Akyol, Patrick Verwijmeren. Journal of Financial Economics, Volume 130, Issue 3, December 2018, Pages 641-662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.04.010
Abstract: Directors are not one-dimensional. We characterize their skill sets by exploiting Regulation S-K's 2009 requirement that U.S. firms must disclose the experience, qualifications, attributes, or skills that led the nominating committee to choose an individual as a director. We then examine how skills cluster on and across boards. Factor analysis indicates that the main dimension along which boards vary is in the diversity of skills of their directors. We find that firm performance increases when director skill sets exhibit more commonality.
Abstract: Directors are not one-dimensional. We characterize their skill sets by exploiting Regulation S-K's 2009 requirement that U.S. firms must disclose the experience, qualifications, attributes, or skills that led the nominating committee to choose an individual as a director. We then examine how skills cluster on and across boards. Factor analysis indicates that the main dimension along which boards vary is in the diversity of skills of their directors. We find that firm performance increases when director skill sets exhibit more commonality.
4. Skill diversity and firm performance
Our factor analysis indicates that the diversity of skills on a board is the primary
dimension among which boards of directors vary. Organizational research emphasizes that
diversity of skills might be beneficial in decision-making as it brings greater resources to
problem-solving and could lead to a more complete analysis of an issue (Milliken and
Martins, 1996; O’Reilly and Williams, 1998). However, different personal and professional
backgrounds may lead to different ways in which team members interpret information and to
multiple representations of a problem (Beers et al., 2006; Hambrick, 2007).
Misunderstandings and disagreement can then threaten effective decision-making processes
within multidisciplinary teams. For example, Garlappi, Giammarino, and Lazrak (2017) show
that when directors have heterogeneous priors, boards may underinvest in multi-stage
projects because they anticipate future disagreement. In their model, security issuance can help alleviate the underinvestment problem. Changing board composition may also work.
Murray (1989), Knight et al. (1999), Pelled, Eisenhardt, and Xin (1999), and Simons, Pelled,
and Smith (1999) argue that having common ground among group members can overcome
some of the problems of heterogeneous teams.
Since there may be advantages and disadvantages to having more diversity of skills
on a team, it is an empirical question how director skill diversity relates to performance on
average.
4.1. The relationship between the factors and firm performance
We examine the relation between firm performance and the first factor from both our
ML and IPF factor analysis in Table 5. We regress our proxy for Tobin’s Q on our factors
and a set of controls that are common to governance performance regressions (e.g., Yermack,
1996; Adams and Ferreira, 2009; Faleye, Hoitash, and Hoitash, 2018). As governance
controls we include variables that plausibly relate to both performance and skills. For
example, we expect the number of skills to be positively related to board size and board
independence. As the number of committees increases, firms might also add more directors
with relevant skills to their board. 6 As the diversity literature argues (e.g., Milliken and
Martins, 1996), skill diversity may affect communication, so we include the logarithm of the
number of board meetings.
As firm-level controls, we include the logarithm of assets as a proxy for firm size, the
number of segments as a proxy for diversification, capital expenditures, ROA, volatility, and
the natural logarithm of firm age. We provide the exact definitions of the control variables in
Appendix A. All models include two-digit SIC code industry effects and year fixed effects and the standard errors are corrected for potential heteroskedasticity and clustering at the firm
level.
[ please insert Table 5 here ]
Column 1 of Table 5 shows that the ML diversity of skills factor is negatively related
to the firm’s Tobin’s Q. This relation is robust to controlling for other firm characteristics, as
can be seen in Column 2, and to the use of the IPF factor method, as can be seen in Columns
3 and 4. The coefficients on the firm-level controls are generally consistent with previous
literature. The negative coefficient on board meetings is consistent with Vafeas (1999), for
example.
4.2. Measuring the diversity of skills
Factor analysis is sometimes unappealing because it is difficult to assess the economic
magnitudes of coefficients on factors. It is also difficult to make the arguments necessary for
instrument validity in an instrumental variable (IV) analysis when the endogenous variable is
a factor. Thus, we examine whether the factor has a more intuitive counterpart in the data. An
obvious choice is to simply count the number of skills that are represented on a board. The
typical firm has ten different skills on the board in a given year. In unreported results, we
show that the correlations between the number of skills and the ML and IPF factors are 0.921
and 0.967, respectively. Columns 5 and 6 of Table 5 confirm our finding from the factor
analysis that the number of skills and Tobin’s Q are negatively related. Thus, the number of
skills seems to capture the essential meaning of the factor.7 4.3. Potential reverse causality
While the results from Table 5 suggest that there is a negative correlation between
skill diversity and firm performance, we cannot immediately give this relationship a causal
interpretation because of potential endogeneity problems due to reverse causality. It is
plausible, for example, that underperforming firms look for more skill diversity on their
boards to get different advice. Another potential concern is that underperforming firms
engage in window dressing by making their directors appear more talented than they really
are. These arguments would predict a negative relationship between performance and skills.
On the other hand, it is also possible that poorly performing firms have other concerns and
pay less attention to the new regulation as a result. This argument would predict a positive
relationship between performance and skills. Without a better understanding of how directors
match to firms, it is difficult to sign the bias in the ordinary least squares (OLS) results. We
attempt to formally address this concern in our set-up using an instrumental variable analysis.
We use two instruments whose summary statistics are provided in Appendix D. Since
both instruments are time-invariant, we conduct our IV analysis for the 2010 cross-section
only.
For our first instrument, we exploit the fact that the amendments to Regulation S-K
include a requirement in Item 407(c)(vi) for firms to disclose how they consider diversity in
the director nomination process. Item 407(c) does not specify the type of diversity the
regulation pertains to.
8
Since it was bundled with Item 401(e) concerning disclosure of
director skills, it is plausible that firms interpreted 407(c) as pressure to increase skill diversity on the board. If so, we might expect firms with more time to incorporate Regulation
S-K’s requirements to attempt to increase diversity by appointing new directors to the board.
Fig. 3 provides some evidence consistent with our expectations: the proportion of firms
appointing new directors in a given proxy month is higher the later the month occurs relative
to the passage of Regulation S-K. Thus, we define our instrument to be the number of days
between the day the 2009 amendments to Regulation S-K were passed and the filing of the
firm’s proxy statement in 2010. Based on the evidence in Fig. 3, we expect this instrument to
be correlated with the number of skills on the board.
[ please insert Figure 3 here ]
On the other hand, we believe it is unlikely that the number of days between
Regulation S-K and the proxy filing is correlated with firm performance in 2010, as long as
the proxy filing date does not change in response to poor performance. We collect proxy
filing dates for 2009 and 2010 from the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and
Retrieval system (EDGAR) and examine whether there were any changes in the dates. Fig. 4
shows the distribution of changes between the two years. As is evident from the figure, most
changes occur in the -1, 0, +1, day range, which is reasonable if annual meetings are held
close to or on the weekend and firms send their proxy statements out a fixed number of days
before the meeting.9
[ please insert Figure 4 here]
The second instrument is a dummy if a firm is within 70 miles (roughly an hour’s
travel distance away) of an airport hub—an airport that handles over 1% of annual passenger
boardings according to the Federal Aviation Authority
(http://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/categories/). The
rationale for this instrument is that firms are less constrained in choosing directors when it is
easy for them to attend board meetings and this may lead to an increase in skills on the board.
Of course, distance to the airport may be directly correlated with firm performance because it
may affect firms’ transportation networks. But we believe that to a large extent this effect
should be controlled for by other variables in our regression, for example, firm size,
diversification (i.e., the number of segments), and industry.
Column 7 of Table 5 shows the results of the second stage of the IV regression of the
specification in Column 6. We report the coefficient on the instruments from the first-stage
regression at the bottom of the table. The first-stage coefficients on our instruments have the
expected signs and are statistically significant. However, the Kleibergen-Paap Wald statistic
(7.98) is mid-way between the Stock-Yogo cutoffs for 25% (7.25) and 20% (8.75) maximal
IV size, which suggests the magnitudes of our second-stage coefficients are still biased.10
To gain confidence that the bias does not affect the sign of the coefficient on the
number of skills, we substitute the instruments for the number of skills in the Tobin’s Q
regression in Column 6 of Table 5. Under the assumption that the instruments are exogenous,
the coefficients on the instruments in this reduced form are consistent estimates of the
population coefficient on the number of skills multiplied by the coefficients on the
instruments in the first-stage regression. The coefficients on both instruments in the reduced
form are negative. Since the coefficients on the instruments in the first stage are both positive, we infer that under our assumptions the ―true‖ coefficient on the number of skills is
indeed negative.
In the second-stage IV regression, the coefficient on the number of skills is negative.
The coefficient is also more negative than in the OLS regressions. This suggests that the bias
is positive [see the expression for the OLS bias in, e.g., Adams, Almeida, and Ferreira
(2009)], i.e., poorly performing firms appear to focus on skills rather than seek out greater
skill diversity for their directors. Because the coefficients on the number of skills are negative
in both OLS and IV specifications, we interpret our results as suggestive of a negative causal
effect of skill diversity on performance.
From Column 7, a one standard deviation increase in the number of skills (2.928) is
associated with a 32.26% reduction in Tobin’s Q at the mean. This is clearly too large and
confirms our suspicion that the IV results may be consistent but not unbiased. The economic
magnitude of skills in Column 6 is -2.44%. Since the IV results are more negative than the
OLS results, one way to interpret the economic magnitudes is to take -2.44% as an upper
bound for the effect of the number of skills on performance. Since this effect is arguably
already economically significant, our results suggest that skill diversity is economically
important.
5. Common ground in director skills
We document that diversity is the main dimension along which boards vary with
respect to skill. An important question is what drives the negative relationship between skill
diversity and performance. A potential explanation for this finding is the importance of
having common ground in the boardroom, i.e., the need for directors to share skills in order to
be able to communicate effectively. We examine this potential mechanism in two ways.
Detecting smugglers... Identifying strategies and behaviours in individuals in possession of illicit objects: Lie detection accuracy rate was poor (48% in Experiment 1 and 39.2% in Experiment 2)
Detecting smugglers: Identifying strategies and behaviours in individuals in possession of illicit objects. Samantha Mann Haneen Deeb Aldert Vrij Lorraine Hope Lavinia Pontigia. Applied Cognitive Psychology, December 13 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3622
Summary: Behaviour Detection Officers’ task is to spot potential criminals in public spaces, but scientific research concerning what to look for is scarce. In two experiments, 52 (Experiment 1A) and 60 (Experiment 2A) participants carried out a mission involving a ferry‐crossing. Half were asked to smuggle an object; the other half were non‐smugglers. In Experiment 2A, two confederates appeared to approach as if looking for someone on the ferry. Smugglers, more than non‐smugglers, reported afterwards to have felt nervous, self‐conscious and conspicuous and to attempt behavioural control during the ferry‐crossing. The secretly videotaped ferry‐crossings were shown to 104 (Experiment 1B) and 120 (Experiment 2B) observers, tasked to identify the smugglers. Although they reported paying attention mostly to signs of nervousness, lie detection accuracy rate was poor (48% in Experiment 1 and 39.2% in Experiment 2), because their perceptions of nervousness did not match the experiences of nervousness reported by the (non)smugglers.
Summary: Behaviour Detection Officers’ task is to spot potential criminals in public spaces, but scientific research concerning what to look for is scarce. In two experiments, 52 (Experiment 1A) and 60 (Experiment 2A) participants carried out a mission involving a ferry‐crossing. Half were asked to smuggle an object; the other half were non‐smugglers. In Experiment 2A, two confederates appeared to approach as if looking for someone on the ferry. Smugglers, more than non‐smugglers, reported afterwards to have felt nervous, self‐conscious and conspicuous and to attempt behavioural control during the ferry‐crossing. The secretly videotaped ferry‐crossings were shown to 104 (Experiment 1B) and 120 (Experiment 2B) observers, tasked to identify the smugglers. Although they reported paying attention mostly to signs of nervousness, lie detection accuracy rate was poor (48% in Experiment 1 and 39.2% in Experiment 2), because their perceptions of nervousness did not match the experiences of nervousness reported by the (non)smugglers.
Rolf Degen summarizing: Personality has a strong impact on happiness, with low neuroticism and high extraversion particularly advantageous, while modesty avails to nothing
Anglim, Jeromy, Sharon Horwood, Luke Smillie, Rosario J. Marrero, and Joshua K. Wood. 2019. “Predicting Psychological and Subjective Well-being from Personality: A Meta-analysis.” PsyArXiv. December 14. doi:10.1037/bul0000226
Abstract: This study reports the most comprehensive assessment to date of the relations that the domains and facets of Big Five and HEXACO personality have with self-reported subjective well- being (SWB: life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) and psychological well-being (PWB: positive relations, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, self-acceptance, and personal growth). It presents a meta-analysis (n = 334,567, k = 462) of the correlations of Big Five and HEXACO personality domains with the dimensions of SWB and PWB. It provides the first meta-analysis of personality and well-being to examine (a) HEXACO personality, (b) PWB dimensions, and (c) a broad range of established Big Five measures. It also provides the first robust synthesis of facet-level correlations and incremental prediction by facets over domains in relation to SWB and PWB using four large datasets comprising data from prominent, long-form hierarchical personality frameworks: NEO PI-R (n = 1,673), IPIP-NEO (n = 903), HEXACO PI- R (n = 465), and Big Five Aspect Scales (n = 706). Meta-analytic results highlighted the importance of Big Five neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness. The pattern of correlations between Big Five personality and SWB was similar across personality measures (e.g., BFI, NEO, IPIP, BFAS, Adjectives). In the HEXACO model, extraversion was the strongest well- being correlate. Facet-level analyses provided a richer description of the relationship between personality and well-being, and clarified differences between the two trait frameworks. Prediction by facets was typically around 20% better than domains, and this incremental prediction was larger for some well-being dimensions than others.
See https://osf.io/42rsy/ for Data and R scripts for the meta-analysis and facet-level data analyses of the above paper.
Abstract: This study reports the most comprehensive assessment to date of the relations that the domains and facets of Big Five and HEXACO personality have with self-reported subjective well- being (SWB: life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) and psychological well-being (PWB: positive relations, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, self-acceptance, and personal growth). It presents a meta-analysis (n = 334,567, k = 462) of the correlations of Big Five and HEXACO personality domains with the dimensions of SWB and PWB. It provides the first meta-analysis of personality and well-being to examine (a) HEXACO personality, (b) PWB dimensions, and (c) a broad range of established Big Five measures. It also provides the first robust synthesis of facet-level correlations and incremental prediction by facets over domains in relation to SWB and PWB using four large datasets comprising data from prominent, long-form hierarchical personality frameworks: NEO PI-R (n = 1,673), IPIP-NEO (n = 903), HEXACO PI- R (n = 465), and Big Five Aspect Scales (n = 706). Meta-analytic results highlighted the importance of Big Five neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness. The pattern of correlations between Big Five personality and SWB was similar across personality measures (e.g., BFI, NEO, IPIP, BFAS, Adjectives). In the HEXACO model, extraversion was the strongest well- being correlate. Facet-level analyses provided a richer description of the relationship between personality and well-being, and clarified differences between the two trait frameworks. Prediction by facets was typically around 20% better than domains, and this incremental prediction was larger for some well-being dimensions than others.
See https://osf.io/42rsy/ for Data and R scripts for the meta-analysis and facet-level data analyses of the above paper.
Laypeople appear to believe that part of what brings happiness is living a moral life; but adherence to deontological vs. utilitarian ethical principles does not seem to relate to one’s overall happiness
Crowdsourcing hypothesis tests: Making transparent how design choices shape research results. Justin F. Landy et al. http://www.socialjudgments.com/docs/Crowdsourcing_Hypothesis_Tests_Manuscript_Oct_31_2019.pdf
Abstract: To what extent are research results influenced by subjective decisions that scientists make as they design studies? Fifteen research teams independently designed studies to answer five original research questions related to moral judgments, negotiations, and implicit cognition. Participants from two separate large samples (total N > 15,000) were then randomly assigned to complete one version of each study. Effect sizes varied dramatically across different sets of materials designed to test the same hypothesis: materials from different teams rendered statistically significant effects in opposite directions for four out of five hypotheses, with the narrowest range in estimates being d = -0.37 to +0.26. Meta-analysis and a Bayesian perspective on the results revealed overall support for two hypotheses, and a lack of support for three hypotheses. Overall, practically none of the variability in effect sizes was attributable to the skill of the research team in designing materials, while considerable variability was attributable to the hypothesis being tested. In a forecasting survey, predictions of other scientists were significantly correlated with study results, both across and within hypotheses. Crowdsourced testing of research hypotheses helps reveal the true consistency of empirical support for a scientific claim.
Keywords: Crowdsourcing, scientific transparency, stimulus sampling, forecasting, conceptual replications, research robustness
Hypothesis 5: The tendency to make deontological judgments is positively correlated with
happiness.
In order to bridge the normative-descriptive divide between the fields of
philosophical ethics (how should people morally behave) and moral psychology (how and why
do people morally behave) cognitive science must map out how variation in moral cognitions are
systematically related to variances in outcomes related to human flourishing. The goal of this
original research was to contribute to this endeavor by examining how the tendency to make
utilitarian versus deontological moral judgments (Bentham 1970/1823; Kahane, 2015; Kant,
1993/1785; Mill, 1861) relates to personal happiness and well-being (Kahneman, Diener, &
Schwarz, 1999; Ryff, 1989; Waterman, 1993). The idea that happiness and morality are tightly
intertwined has a long history in philosophy (see, e.g., Annas, 1993; Aristotle, 340 BCE/2002;
Foot, 2001; Kraut, 1979), and recent empirical work suggests that people consider moral
goodness to be an element of what “happiness” consists of (Phillips, Freitas, Mott, Gruber, &
Knobe, 2017; Phillips, Nyholm, & Liao, 2014). However, prior work has not examined the
relationship (if any) between specific moral orientations and happiness.
Hypothesis 5 posits that people who are more inclined to base their moral judgments on
the violation of rules, duties, and obligations (deontological judgments) versus material
outcomes (utilitarian judgments) are also more likely to experience happiness in their lives. This
prediction is based on philosophical and scientific evidence that has demonstrated shared
psychological and neurological mechanisms between these dimensions (e.g., Everett, Pizarro, &
Crockett, 2016; Greene, 2013; Lieberman, 2013; Phillips et al., 2017; Singer, 2005). To test this
hypothesis, Sowden and Hall (2015) asked participants to judge several morally questionable
behaviors that pitted utilitarian and deontological considerations against one another (Greene et
al. 2001) and compared an index of those judgments to how they responded to measures of
subjective well-being (Diener et al., 1985; Watson et al., 1988) and eudaimonic happiness
(Waterman et al., 2010). The crowdsourced project posed the research question to independent
researchers, who separately designed studies relating moral judgments to individual happiness.
Results from Hyp 5
Hypothesis 5: Deontological judgments predict happiness. Although the original pattern of results once again directly replicated using the original materials, the hypothesis that individuals who tend to make deontological (vs. utilitarian) judgments report different levels of personal happiness was not supported overall by the crowdsourced conceptual replications. Although a statistically significant directional effect in support of H5 was reported in the Main Studies, the aggregated estimate was close to zero, and the effect did not reach statistical significance in the Replication Studies. Overall, the Bayesian analysis found strong evidence against this original prediction. There has not previously been a systematic review or metaanalysis of the relationship between moral stance and happiness, though prior research has linked both processes to emotional and intuitive responding (e.g., Everett et al., 2016; Greene, 2013; Lieberman, 2013; Phillips et al., 2017; Singer, 2005). These results fail to find support for an association between deontological moral judgments and hedonic happiness that has been suggested – although not empirically confirmed – by this prior work. Although laypeople appear to believe that part of what brings happiness is living a moral life (Phillips et al., 2017; Phillips et al., 2014), adherence to deontological vs. utilitarian ethical principles does not seem to relate to one’s overall happiness.
Abstract: To what extent are research results influenced by subjective decisions that scientists make as they design studies? Fifteen research teams independently designed studies to answer five original research questions related to moral judgments, negotiations, and implicit cognition. Participants from two separate large samples (total N > 15,000) were then randomly assigned to complete one version of each study. Effect sizes varied dramatically across different sets of materials designed to test the same hypothesis: materials from different teams rendered statistically significant effects in opposite directions for four out of five hypotheses, with the narrowest range in estimates being d = -0.37 to +0.26. Meta-analysis and a Bayesian perspective on the results revealed overall support for two hypotheses, and a lack of support for three hypotheses. Overall, practically none of the variability in effect sizes was attributable to the skill of the research team in designing materials, while considerable variability was attributable to the hypothesis being tested. In a forecasting survey, predictions of other scientists were significantly correlated with study results, both across and within hypotheses. Crowdsourced testing of research hypotheses helps reveal the true consistency of empirical support for a scientific claim.
Keywords: Crowdsourcing, scientific transparency, stimulus sampling, forecasting, conceptual replications, research robustness
Hypothesis 5: The tendency to make deontological judgments is positively correlated with
happiness.
In order to bridge the normative-descriptive divide between the fields of
philosophical ethics (how should people morally behave) and moral psychology (how and why
do people morally behave) cognitive science must map out how variation in moral cognitions are
systematically related to variances in outcomes related to human flourishing. The goal of this
original research was to contribute to this endeavor by examining how the tendency to make
utilitarian versus deontological moral judgments (Bentham 1970/1823; Kahane, 2015; Kant,
1993/1785; Mill, 1861) relates to personal happiness and well-being (Kahneman, Diener, &
Schwarz, 1999; Ryff, 1989; Waterman, 1993). The idea that happiness and morality are tightly
intertwined has a long history in philosophy (see, e.g., Annas, 1993; Aristotle, 340 BCE/2002;
Foot, 2001; Kraut, 1979), and recent empirical work suggests that people consider moral
goodness to be an element of what “happiness” consists of (Phillips, Freitas, Mott, Gruber, &
Knobe, 2017; Phillips, Nyholm, & Liao, 2014). However, prior work has not examined the
relationship (if any) between specific moral orientations and happiness.
Hypothesis 5 posits that people who are more inclined to base their moral judgments on
the violation of rules, duties, and obligations (deontological judgments) versus material
outcomes (utilitarian judgments) are also more likely to experience happiness in their lives. This
prediction is based on philosophical and scientific evidence that has demonstrated shared
psychological and neurological mechanisms between these dimensions (e.g., Everett, Pizarro, &
Crockett, 2016; Greene, 2013; Lieberman, 2013; Phillips et al., 2017; Singer, 2005). To test this
hypothesis, Sowden and Hall (2015) asked participants to judge several morally questionable
behaviors that pitted utilitarian and deontological considerations against one another (Greene et
al. 2001) and compared an index of those judgments to how they responded to measures of
subjective well-being (Diener et al., 1985; Watson et al., 1988) and eudaimonic happiness
(Waterman et al., 2010). The crowdsourced project posed the research question to independent
researchers, who separately designed studies relating moral judgments to individual happiness.
Results from Hyp 5
Hypothesis 5: Deontological judgments predict happiness. Although the original pattern of results once again directly replicated using the original materials, the hypothesis that individuals who tend to make deontological (vs. utilitarian) judgments report different levels of personal happiness was not supported overall by the crowdsourced conceptual replications. Although a statistically significant directional effect in support of H5 was reported in the Main Studies, the aggregated estimate was close to zero, and the effect did not reach statistical significance in the Replication Studies. Overall, the Bayesian analysis found strong evidence against this original prediction. There has not previously been a systematic review or metaanalysis of the relationship between moral stance and happiness, though prior research has linked both processes to emotional and intuitive responding (e.g., Everett et al., 2016; Greene, 2013; Lieberman, 2013; Phillips et al., 2017; Singer, 2005). These results fail to find support for an association between deontological moral judgments and hedonic happiness that has been suggested – although not empirically confirmed – by this prior work. Although laypeople appear to believe that part of what brings happiness is living a moral life (Phillips et al., 2017; Phillips et al., 2014), adherence to deontological vs. utilitarian ethical principles does not seem to relate to one’s overall happiness.
Conservative candidates that were male benefitted more from an attractive partner than their liberal counterparts but female candidates were penalized regardless of political ideology
Does an attractive partner make you a better leader? Only if you are a male! Ipek Kocoglu, Murad A. Mithanib. The Leadership Quarterly, December 9 2019, 101339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2019.101339
Abstract: We integrate the research on evolutionary leadership with the evolutionary psychology of mate choice to argue that a facially attractive partner signals unobservable leadership qualities of their mate, and thus, partner's attractiveness spills over to their mate's perceived leadership. Study 1 found that while partner's attractiveness enhanced the perceived leadership of male CEOs, female CEOs' leadership was downgraded in the presence of an attractive partner. Study 2 validated that the leadership penalty for female CEOs increased when they were seen with more attractive males than with less attractive males. Study 3 found that conservative candidates that were male benefitted more from an attractive partner than their liberal counterparts but female candidates were penalized regardless of political ideology. Our findings suggest that indirect cues that emanate from the partner are critical for leadership assessment. They invoke attributions that enhance the perceived leadership of males but disapprove of females as leaders.
Keywords: Facial attractivenessSpilloverEvolutionary leadershipEvolutionary psychologyMate-choice copying
Abstract: We integrate the research on evolutionary leadership with the evolutionary psychology of mate choice to argue that a facially attractive partner signals unobservable leadership qualities of their mate, and thus, partner's attractiveness spills over to their mate's perceived leadership. Study 1 found that while partner's attractiveness enhanced the perceived leadership of male CEOs, female CEOs' leadership was downgraded in the presence of an attractive partner. Study 2 validated that the leadership penalty for female CEOs increased when they were seen with more attractive males than with less attractive males. Study 3 found that conservative candidates that were male benefitted more from an attractive partner than their liberal counterparts but female candidates were penalized regardless of political ideology. Our findings suggest that indirect cues that emanate from the partner are critical for leadership assessment. They invoke attributions that enhance the perceived leadership of males but disapprove of females as leaders.
Keywords: Facial attractivenessSpilloverEvolutionary leadershipEvolutionary psychologyMate-choice copying
‘Aesthetic fidelity’ effect: The more intensive use of highly aesthetic products may lead to the acquisition of product-specific usage skills that form the basis for a cognitive lock-in
The aesthetic fidelity effect. Annika Wiecek, Daniel Wentzel, Jan R. Landwehr. International Journal of Research in Marketing, Volume 36, Issue 4, December 2019, Pages 542-557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2019.03.002
Abstract: Product aesthetics is a powerful means for achieving competitive advantage. Yet most studies to date have focused on the role of aesthetics in shaping pre-purchase preferences and have failed to consider how product aesthetics affects post-purchase processes and consumers' usage behavior. This research focuses on the relationship between aesthetics and usage behavior in the context of durable products. Studies 1A to 1C provide evidence of a positive effect of product aesthetics on usage intensity using market data from the car and the fashion industries. Study 2 corroborates these findings and shows that the more intensive use of highly aesthetic products may lead to the acquisition of product-specific usage skills that form the basis for a cognitive lock-in. Hence, consumers are less likely to switch away from products with appealing designs, an effect that is labeled as the ‘aesthetic fidelity’ effect. Study 3 addresses an alternative explanation for the ‘aesthetic fidelity effect’ based on mood and motivation but finds that the ‘aesthetic fidelity’ effect is indeed determined by usage intensity. Finally, Study 4 identifies a boundary condition of the positive effect of product aesthetics on product usage, showing that it is limited to durable products. In sum, this research demonstrates that the effects of product aesthetics extend beyond the pre-consumption stage and have an enduring impact on people's consumption experiences.
Keywords: AestheticsProduct designProduct usageConsumption intensitySkill acquisitionCognitive lock-in
1. Introduction
In many product categories, the aesthetics of a product's design is a crucial determinant of consumer choice. Consumer responses to products such as Apple's iPhone, Porsche's 911, and Vitra's Lounge Chair may not only be determined by the superior quality of these products but also by their iconic and highly aesthetic designs. Against this background, examining when and why consumers are affected by aesthetic designs has emerged as a fertile area of research. Simply put, consumers show a greater preference for products that are aesthetically appealing (Bloch, 1995; Cox & Cox, 2002; Hoegg, Alba, & Dahl, 2010; Landwehr, Wentzel, & Herrmann, 2012; Reimann, Zaichkowsky, Neuhaus, Bender, & Weber, 2010) and the appeal of a product's design is also predictive of a product's success in the marketplace (Landwehr, Labroo, & Herrmann, 2011; Landwehr, Wentzel, & Herrmann, 2013; Liu, Li, Chen, & Balachander, 2017).
However, while the effects of product aesthetics on pre-purchase preferences and consumer choice are well-documented in the literature, existing research has largely failed to consider how product aesthetics affects actual usage behavior1 (for a recent exception, see Wu, Samper, Morales, & Fitzsimons, 2017). For instance, assuming that a consumer buys an iPhone because of its appealing design, will she also use the phone on a more frequent basis to experience the aesthetic pleasure provided by the design? And how will this increased usage affect her preferences and her willingness to switch to a competitive smartphone?
In this research, we focus on durable products (i.e., products that can be used multiple times and are not destroyed during consumption) and argue that the aesthetic appeal of a product's design may be related to usage behavior and product preferences. Specifically, we postulate that consumers will use products with aesthetically appealing designs more intensively compared to products with less appealing designs. This increased usage intensity, in turn, may lead to the acquisition of product-specific usage skills (Anderson, 1983) that form the basis for a cognitive lock-in where consumers are less likely to switch away from a product they can already operate efficiently (Johnson, Bellman, & Lohse, 2003; Murray & Häubl, 2007). In sum, we argue that product designs may not only serve as a source of aesthetic pleasure but may also bond a consumer to a product by triggering greater usage intensity and efficiency, an effect we label as the ‘aesthetic fidelity’ effect.
In identifying the effect of product aesthetics on usage intensity, skill acquisition, and subsequent choice behavior, this research makes several important contributions to the literature. First, we show that product aesthetics affects consumers beyond the pre-consumption phase and may cause consumers to use products for longer periods of time and to become more efficient at using them. Importantly, these findings are not only supported by three controlled experiments but also by the analysis of three datasets from the car and fashion industries that provide insights into real usage behavior. Hence, this research extends the literature by showing that the link between product aesthetics and usage behavior is not only of theoretical interest but is also relevant for understanding and predicting how products are used in real life.
Second, our findings extend current theorizing on the relationship between aesthetics and usage behavior. As such, a recent study by Wu et al. (2017) found that product aesthetics may lead to reduced consumption enjoyment and may inhibit actual consumption, a finding which seems to contradict our key proposition that product aesthetics may intensify consumption. Of note, however, is the fact that Wu et al. (2017) focused on non-durable products that are typically destroyed during consumption (e.g., napkins, toilet paper). As consumers appreciate the effort that is necessary for creating beautiful products, they may lament seeing them getting destroyed during the consumption process and may thus tend to use them to a lesser extent. In our research, we build on these findings and examine the effects of product aesthetics on the usage of both durable and non-durable products. Specifically, we demonstrate that a product's durability (i.e., the extent to which a product is affected or destroyed during consumption) moderates the effect of aesthetics on usage intensity. That is, our findings show that product aesthetics intensify product usage when the product is durable in nature but inhibit product usage when the product is non-durable. Hence, our findings contribute to the literature by providing a more fine-grained analysis of the link between product aesthetics and usage behavior.
Third, we extend current theorizing on skill acquisition and the lock-in phenomenon. While existing studies have mainly focused on the process and the consequences of skill acquisition (Billeter, Kalra, & Loewenstein, 2010; Lakshmanan & Krishnan, 2011; Lakshmanan, Lindsey, & Krishnan, 2010; Murray & Häubl, 2007), there has been relatively little research on the determinants of this learning process. In this respect, our research shows that the aesthetic appeal of a product may motivate consumers to engage with a product more intensively and to develop product-specific usage skills, thus broadening our understanding of how consumers acquire skills in the marketplace.
The remainder of this article is structured as follows. In the theoretical section, we review literature streams on product aesthetics, hedonic consumption, and skill acquisition and develop our hypotheses. In the empirical section, we report the results of six studies. Studies 1A to 1C rely on the analysis of real market data from the car and fashion industries and find that products with more aesthetic designs are used for longer periods of time. Building on these findings, Studies 2 to 4 are designed as laboratory experiments. Study 2 provides further evidence for an ‘aesthetic fidelity’ effect and also reveals the underlying cognitive process. Study 3 addresses a potential alternative explanation for the aesthetic fidelity effect. Finally, Study 4 identifies an important boundary condition to the positive effect of product aesthetics on product use, namely a product's durability. Last, we provide theoretical and managerial implications in the general discussion.
Abstract: Product aesthetics is a powerful means for achieving competitive advantage. Yet most studies to date have focused on the role of aesthetics in shaping pre-purchase preferences and have failed to consider how product aesthetics affects post-purchase processes and consumers' usage behavior. This research focuses on the relationship between aesthetics and usage behavior in the context of durable products. Studies 1A to 1C provide evidence of a positive effect of product aesthetics on usage intensity using market data from the car and the fashion industries. Study 2 corroborates these findings and shows that the more intensive use of highly aesthetic products may lead to the acquisition of product-specific usage skills that form the basis for a cognitive lock-in. Hence, consumers are less likely to switch away from products with appealing designs, an effect that is labeled as the ‘aesthetic fidelity’ effect. Study 3 addresses an alternative explanation for the ‘aesthetic fidelity effect’ based on mood and motivation but finds that the ‘aesthetic fidelity’ effect is indeed determined by usage intensity. Finally, Study 4 identifies a boundary condition of the positive effect of product aesthetics on product usage, showing that it is limited to durable products. In sum, this research demonstrates that the effects of product aesthetics extend beyond the pre-consumption stage and have an enduring impact on people's consumption experiences.
Keywords: AestheticsProduct designProduct usageConsumption intensitySkill acquisitionCognitive lock-in
1. Introduction
In many product categories, the aesthetics of a product's design is a crucial determinant of consumer choice. Consumer responses to products such as Apple's iPhone, Porsche's 911, and Vitra's Lounge Chair may not only be determined by the superior quality of these products but also by their iconic and highly aesthetic designs. Against this background, examining when and why consumers are affected by aesthetic designs has emerged as a fertile area of research. Simply put, consumers show a greater preference for products that are aesthetically appealing (Bloch, 1995; Cox & Cox, 2002; Hoegg, Alba, & Dahl, 2010; Landwehr, Wentzel, & Herrmann, 2012; Reimann, Zaichkowsky, Neuhaus, Bender, & Weber, 2010) and the appeal of a product's design is also predictive of a product's success in the marketplace (Landwehr, Labroo, & Herrmann, 2011; Landwehr, Wentzel, & Herrmann, 2013; Liu, Li, Chen, & Balachander, 2017).
However, while the effects of product aesthetics on pre-purchase preferences and consumer choice are well-documented in the literature, existing research has largely failed to consider how product aesthetics affects actual usage behavior1 (for a recent exception, see Wu, Samper, Morales, & Fitzsimons, 2017). For instance, assuming that a consumer buys an iPhone because of its appealing design, will she also use the phone on a more frequent basis to experience the aesthetic pleasure provided by the design? And how will this increased usage affect her preferences and her willingness to switch to a competitive smartphone?
In this research, we focus on durable products (i.e., products that can be used multiple times and are not destroyed during consumption) and argue that the aesthetic appeal of a product's design may be related to usage behavior and product preferences. Specifically, we postulate that consumers will use products with aesthetically appealing designs more intensively compared to products with less appealing designs. This increased usage intensity, in turn, may lead to the acquisition of product-specific usage skills (Anderson, 1983) that form the basis for a cognitive lock-in where consumers are less likely to switch away from a product they can already operate efficiently (Johnson, Bellman, & Lohse, 2003; Murray & Häubl, 2007). In sum, we argue that product designs may not only serve as a source of aesthetic pleasure but may also bond a consumer to a product by triggering greater usage intensity and efficiency, an effect we label as the ‘aesthetic fidelity’ effect.
In identifying the effect of product aesthetics on usage intensity, skill acquisition, and subsequent choice behavior, this research makes several important contributions to the literature. First, we show that product aesthetics affects consumers beyond the pre-consumption phase and may cause consumers to use products for longer periods of time and to become more efficient at using them. Importantly, these findings are not only supported by three controlled experiments but also by the analysis of three datasets from the car and fashion industries that provide insights into real usage behavior. Hence, this research extends the literature by showing that the link between product aesthetics and usage behavior is not only of theoretical interest but is also relevant for understanding and predicting how products are used in real life.
Second, our findings extend current theorizing on the relationship between aesthetics and usage behavior. As such, a recent study by Wu et al. (2017) found that product aesthetics may lead to reduced consumption enjoyment and may inhibit actual consumption, a finding which seems to contradict our key proposition that product aesthetics may intensify consumption. Of note, however, is the fact that Wu et al. (2017) focused on non-durable products that are typically destroyed during consumption (e.g., napkins, toilet paper). As consumers appreciate the effort that is necessary for creating beautiful products, they may lament seeing them getting destroyed during the consumption process and may thus tend to use them to a lesser extent. In our research, we build on these findings and examine the effects of product aesthetics on the usage of both durable and non-durable products. Specifically, we demonstrate that a product's durability (i.e., the extent to which a product is affected or destroyed during consumption) moderates the effect of aesthetics on usage intensity. That is, our findings show that product aesthetics intensify product usage when the product is durable in nature but inhibit product usage when the product is non-durable. Hence, our findings contribute to the literature by providing a more fine-grained analysis of the link between product aesthetics and usage behavior.
Third, we extend current theorizing on skill acquisition and the lock-in phenomenon. While existing studies have mainly focused on the process and the consequences of skill acquisition (Billeter, Kalra, & Loewenstein, 2010; Lakshmanan & Krishnan, 2011; Lakshmanan, Lindsey, & Krishnan, 2010; Murray & Häubl, 2007), there has been relatively little research on the determinants of this learning process. In this respect, our research shows that the aesthetic appeal of a product may motivate consumers to engage with a product more intensively and to develop product-specific usage skills, thus broadening our understanding of how consumers acquire skills in the marketplace.
The remainder of this article is structured as follows. In the theoretical section, we review literature streams on product aesthetics, hedonic consumption, and skill acquisition and develop our hypotheses. In the empirical section, we report the results of six studies. Studies 1A to 1C rely on the analysis of real market data from the car and fashion industries and find that products with more aesthetic designs are used for longer periods of time. Building on these findings, Studies 2 to 4 are designed as laboratory experiments. Study 2 provides further evidence for an ‘aesthetic fidelity’ effect and also reveals the underlying cognitive process. Study 3 addresses a potential alternative explanation for the aesthetic fidelity effect. Finally, Study 4 identifies an important boundary condition to the positive effect of product aesthetics on product use, namely a product's durability. Last, we provide theoretical and managerial implications in the general discussion.
Friday, December 13, 2019
More religious individuals reported higher emotional empathy & were perceived as more empathic by others; the effect was observed specifically for other-oriented feelings of compassion & sympathy
Łowicki, P., & Zajenkowski, M. (2019). Religiousness is associated with higher empathic concern—Evidence from self- and other-ratings. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Dec 2019. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000299
Abstract: Several empirical investigations have demonstrated a positive association between religiosity and emotional empathy. However, most of these studies relied on self-report measures, and therefore were criticized for reflecting a self-delusion of believers rather than the actual relationship between the two constructs. The current research addressed this methodological limitation by conducting a simultaneous examination of both self- and other-reports on empathy and religiousness. We recruited 236 adult participants and 223 of their close acquaintances (e.g., partners, close friends, or parents). It was found that more religious individuals reported higher emotional empathy and were also perceived as more empathic by others. This effect was observed specifically for other-oriented feelings of compassion and sympathy and remained significant controlling for gender, age, and social desirability. The study contributes to the knowledge on social correlates of religiousness by demonstrating that its relationship with empathy is not spurious but possibly reflects a true phenomenon that can be observed by both participants themselves and by other people
Abstract: Several empirical investigations have demonstrated a positive association between religiosity and emotional empathy. However, most of these studies relied on self-report measures, and therefore were criticized for reflecting a self-delusion of believers rather than the actual relationship between the two constructs. The current research addressed this methodological limitation by conducting a simultaneous examination of both self- and other-reports on empathy and religiousness. We recruited 236 adult participants and 223 of their close acquaintances (e.g., partners, close friends, or parents). It was found that more religious individuals reported higher emotional empathy and were also perceived as more empathic by others. This effect was observed specifically for other-oriented feelings of compassion and sympathy and remained significant controlling for gender, age, and social desirability. The study contributes to the knowledge on social correlates of religiousness by demonstrating that its relationship with empathy is not spurious but possibly reflects a true phenomenon that can be observed by both participants themselves and by other people
Check also The Interplay Between Cognitive Intelligence, Ability Emotional Intelligence, and Religiosity. Paweł Łowicki, Marcin Zajenkowski, Dimitri Van der Linden. Journal of Religion and Health, November 2019. DOI: 10.1007/s10943-019-00953-0
Abstract: The negative association between cognitive intelligence (CI) and religiosity has been widely studied and is now well documented. In contrast, the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in this context has been poorly investigated thus far. Some available data indicate that EI, unlike CI, correlates positively with religiosity. To date, however, no study has explored the relationship between religiosity and both intelligences simultaneously. In current studies (Ns = 301 and 200), we examined the interplay between all three constructs. The results showed that CI was positively correlated with ability EI and negatively with some measures of religiosity. EI, on the other hand, revealed no direct, significant relationship with religiosity. However, when combined into a single regression model with CI, EI became a significant positive predictor of religiosity. Moreover, Study 2 revealed that the link between EI and religiosity was mediated by empathy. Interestingly, we also found a reciprocal suppression between CI and EI, since both predictors increased their influence on religiosity when analyzed together. Although the suppression was present in both studies, it was observed for different religiosity measures in each case, indicating that this effect is probably dependent on various factors, such as sample structure or type of religiosity.
Interaction, self-presentation, and entertainment on social network sites were associated with better well-being, whereas consuming their content was associated with poorer well-being
Digital Communication Media Use and Psychological Well-Being: A Meta-Analysis. Dong Liu, Roy F Baumeister, Chia-chen Yang, Baijing Hu. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 24, Issue 5, September 2019, Pages 259–273, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmz013 > expression of concern Oct 2021 https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jcmc/zmab018/6408679
Abstract: The puzzle of whether digital media are improving or harming psychological well-being has been plaguing researchers and the public for decades. Derived from media richness theory, this study proposed that phone calls and texting improve well-being, while use of social network sites (SNSs), instant messaging (IM), and online gaming may displace other social contacts and, thereby, impair well-being. To test this hypothesis, a meta-analysis of 124 studies was conducted. The results showed that phone calls and texting were positively correlated with well-being, whereas online gaming was negatively associated with well-being. Furthermore, the relationship between digital media use and well-being was also contingent upon the way the technology was used. A series of meta-analyses of different types of SNS use and well-being was used to elucidate this point: interaction, self-presentation, and entertainment on SNSs were associated with better well-being, whereas consuming SNSs’ content was associated with poorer well-being.
As one would assume for such a complex variable as well-being, the effects of digital communication were rather small. Three of the effects were nearly identical in size (phoning, texting, and online gaming). SNS usage had a smaller effect size, which was about the same as that of IM, but given the vastly greater number of published studies, the SNS usage effect was significant, unlike the IM effect.
Given the larger amount of data available on SNS usage, as well as the multifunctional complexity of the medium, we performed a second set of analyses that broke SNS usage down into multiple categories. The global weak effect is a bit misleading, because different SNS activities have quite different relationships to well-being (and all but one was larger than the combined overall effect). Interactions and online entertainment had significant, positive links to well-being. Self-presentation also correlated positively with well-being, but the effect was very small. The largest effect we found in our entire meta-analysis was the negative correlation between well-being and SNS content consumption.
Further analyses suggested that the global effects of SNS use (already small) may have been artificially inflated by publication biases. Meanwhile, the effects of telephone calls may have been understated by publication biases. The other effects were apparently not affected by a publication bias, nor did we find any evidence of p-hacking.
Positive links to well-being were found for the media designed for direct communication, which can include not just verbal content, but also affective communication. Phone calls allow people to talk one-to-one, and phoning is often used to connect with close relationship partners. Callers know not only what the other party says, but can also glean emotional information from the tone of voice and other cues. Although texting lacks the voice tone channel for communicating emotion, a deficit that has, to some extent, been rectified by the proliferation and widespread use of emotion symbols (emojis) and some acronyms (e.g., “lol” for “laughing out loud”), most people still use it to communicate with close relationship partners because of its privacy feature. People who use these media frequently may tend to have closer relationships than those who do not, and so their well-being is better. These results fit the stimulation hypothesis proposed by Kraut et al. (1998), which says that digital communication can strengthen social connections to important people in one’s life. As the first and most obvious example, telephone calls enable people to stay in regular contact with loved ones while traveling far from them.
IM resembles texting but typically uses a computer keyboard, so longer messages are practical. It too may be used for communicating with close others, but it may also be useful for discussions in business and research. Again, people who use it more may have more and better social bonds than other people. The size of the effect was consistent with this analysis, but it was not significant. More research is needed.
Online gaming is not something done primarily with intimate partners. It can be done as a solitary activity or in interaction with a great many people, mostly including strangers and mere acquaintances. We found a significant, negative relationship between online gaming and well-being, consistent with the displacement hypothesis. Spending considerable time playing online games may replace interacting with significant others, thereby being either a result or cause of deficiencies in close relationships.
As we noted, there were far more studies examining the effects of SNSs than any of the other digital media, in terms of well-being. Although there was an overall weak, positive effect, which indeed may have been inflated by a publication bias (so that the overall true effect may be zero), further analyses suggest the overall effect or lack thereof may be misleading. Breaking down SNS usage into different activities revealed multiple effects in different directions. Interacting with others via SNSs was positively associated with well-being, consistent with the view that digital communication can link to happiness by virtue of connecting with other people. Likewise, online entertainment was positively related to well-being. This might also reflect social bonds, insofar as people may watch entertainment with others or, at least, share favorite videos with them. To be sure, it may also be that entertainment directly enhances well-being, because entertainment is designed to be fun. If the entertainment value were the main reason for the positive correlation, however, then presumably playing games would also raise well-being but, as we saw, online gaming was negatively related to well-being.
We found a weak but still significant relationship between SNS self-presentation and well-being, such that posting more information about oneself was associated with greater happiness and self-esteem. Self-presentation is designed for social interaction, but posting content is not itself directly interactive. Still, the positive link to well-being is unsurprising. People probably post more positive than negative information about themselves, so posting more information may boost positive feelings about oneself, and people who already have positive views of themself may be more likely than others to present such information online.
In contrast to these positive effects, SNS content consumption had a negative relationship to well-being; indeed, this was the largest single effect we found. Content consumption, also known as browsing, refers to reading what other people post (but not interacting with them). It is, therefore, highly relevant to what Kraut et al. (1998) identified as displacement. The browsing individual spends time reading about other people online, and this may replace time spent actually interacting with significant other people. Moreover, as we noted, browsing may cause negative feelings because the content posted by others is positively skewed, so that social comparison will make readers feel relatively negative about their own lives (Yang, 2016).
Besides, the classifications of media types in the literature reviewed were quite coarse; even breaking SNSs into types of behavior may be insufficiently granular. The media which form the basis of the classifications could be explicitly treated as multidimensional or as composites of behavioral features. In the future, for any medium, research could ask how much interpersonal communication was occurring, how interactive the communication was, how much information about the parties was revealed, how positive the experience was, and so forth.
Last, we note that digital media usage is highly complex, and so generalizations should be tempered with the recognition of many exceptions. To conclude that “phone calls make people happy,” even if broadly correct, would mislead if it failed to acknowledge that undoubtedly many people occasionally make or receive deeply upsetting phone calls. Our effects were generally small, but the effect sizes probably reflect the mixed natures of the effects, rather than the weaknesses of the medium. That is, a weak net impact of phoning on happiness is probably a result of some calls bringing joy while a few others caused anger or sorrow. Presumably there are far more pleasant than unpleasant phone calls, but the bad ones may have stronger effects, consistent with the general pattern that negative events have more psychological impacts than positive ones (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohs, 2001).
Abstract: The puzzle of whether digital media are improving or harming psychological well-being has been plaguing researchers and the public for decades. Derived from media richness theory, this study proposed that phone calls and texting improve well-being, while use of social network sites (SNSs), instant messaging (IM), and online gaming may displace other social contacts and, thereby, impair well-being. To test this hypothesis, a meta-analysis of 124 studies was conducted. The results showed that phone calls and texting were positively correlated with well-being, whereas online gaming was negatively associated with well-being. Furthermore, the relationship between digital media use and well-being was also contingent upon the way the technology was used. A series of meta-analyses of different types of SNS use and well-being was used to elucidate this point: interaction, self-presentation, and entertainment on SNSs were associated with better well-being, whereas consuming SNSs’ content was associated with poorer well-being.
Discussion
Our results provided some support for all three theoretical positions. Both the stimulation and displacement patterns were found, consistent with the original proposals by Kraut et al. (1998). Moreover, the patterns differed according to the digital medium, consistent with Daft and Lengel’s (1986) media richness theory. Not all results were as predicted. We begin with a summary of the findings, and then elaborate upon their theoretical implications.Main findings: Digital media and well-being
Across multiple studies, the more often people made and received telephone calls, the better their overall well-being. Texting was also positively correlated with well-being. In contrast, SNS usage and online gaming were negatively related to well-being. IM showed a weak positive correlation with well-being, but it fell short of significance, so no conclusions can be drawn. Recent literature has suggested that mobile IM is a convenient tool for people to instantly address close ties (Cui, 2016). But the literature we analyzed involved studies with traditional IM, rather than mobile messaging.As one would assume for such a complex variable as well-being, the effects of digital communication were rather small. Three of the effects were nearly identical in size (phoning, texting, and online gaming). SNS usage had a smaller effect size, which was about the same as that of IM, but given the vastly greater number of published studies, the SNS usage effect was significant, unlike the IM effect.
Given the larger amount of data available on SNS usage, as well as the multifunctional complexity of the medium, we performed a second set of analyses that broke SNS usage down into multiple categories. The global weak effect is a bit misleading, because different SNS activities have quite different relationships to well-being (and all but one was larger than the combined overall effect). Interactions and online entertainment had significant, positive links to well-being. Self-presentation also correlated positively with well-being, but the effect was very small. The largest effect we found in our entire meta-analysis was the negative correlation between well-being and SNS content consumption.
Further analyses suggested that the global effects of SNS use (already small) may have been artificially inflated by publication biases. Meanwhile, the effects of telephone calls may have been understated by publication biases. The other effects were apparently not affected by a publication bias, nor did we find any evidence of p-hacking.
Implications
Rather than drawing a sweeping conclusion that digital media are generally good or bad for well-being, our results suggest a more nuanced view. They seem most consistent with the reasoning that digital media enhance well-being when they facilitate social interactions with important relationship partners, but detract from well-being when they displace such interactions.Positive links to well-being were found for the media designed for direct communication, which can include not just verbal content, but also affective communication. Phone calls allow people to talk one-to-one, and phoning is often used to connect with close relationship partners. Callers know not only what the other party says, but can also glean emotional information from the tone of voice and other cues. Although texting lacks the voice tone channel for communicating emotion, a deficit that has, to some extent, been rectified by the proliferation and widespread use of emotion symbols (emojis) and some acronyms (e.g., “lol” for “laughing out loud”), most people still use it to communicate with close relationship partners because of its privacy feature. People who use these media frequently may tend to have closer relationships than those who do not, and so their well-being is better. These results fit the stimulation hypothesis proposed by Kraut et al. (1998), which says that digital communication can strengthen social connections to important people in one’s life. As the first and most obvious example, telephone calls enable people to stay in regular contact with loved ones while traveling far from them.
IM resembles texting but typically uses a computer keyboard, so longer messages are practical. It too may be used for communicating with close others, but it may also be useful for discussions in business and research. Again, people who use it more may have more and better social bonds than other people. The size of the effect was consistent with this analysis, but it was not significant. More research is needed.
Online gaming is not something done primarily with intimate partners. It can be done as a solitary activity or in interaction with a great many people, mostly including strangers and mere acquaintances. We found a significant, negative relationship between online gaming and well-being, consistent with the displacement hypothesis. Spending considerable time playing online games may replace interacting with significant others, thereby being either a result or cause of deficiencies in close relationships.
As we noted, there were far more studies examining the effects of SNSs than any of the other digital media, in terms of well-being. Although there was an overall weak, positive effect, which indeed may have been inflated by a publication bias (so that the overall true effect may be zero), further analyses suggest the overall effect or lack thereof may be misleading. Breaking down SNS usage into different activities revealed multiple effects in different directions. Interacting with others via SNSs was positively associated with well-being, consistent with the view that digital communication can link to happiness by virtue of connecting with other people. Likewise, online entertainment was positively related to well-being. This might also reflect social bonds, insofar as people may watch entertainment with others or, at least, share favorite videos with them. To be sure, it may also be that entertainment directly enhances well-being, because entertainment is designed to be fun. If the entertainment value were the main reason for the positive correlation, however, then presumably playing games would also raise well-being but, as we saw, online gaming was negatively related to well-being.
We found a weak but still significant relationship between SNS self-presentation and well-being, such that posting more information about oneself was associated with greater happiness and self-esteem. Self-presentation is designed for social interaction, but posting content is not itself directly interactive. Still, the positive link to well-being is unsurprising. People probably post more positive than negative information about themselves, so posting more information may boost positive feelings about oneself, and people who already have positive views of themself may be more likely than others to present such information online.
In contrast to these positive effects, SNS content consumption had a negative relationship to well-being; indeed, this was the largest single effect we found. Content consumption, also known as browsing, refers to reading what other people post (but not interacting with them). It is, therefore, highly relevant to what Kraut et al. (1998) identified as displacement. The browsing individual spends time reading about other people online, and this may replace time spent actually interacting with significant other people. Moreover, as we noted, browsing may cause negative feelings because the content posted by others is positively skewed, so that social comparison will make readers feel relatively negative about their own lives (Yang, 2016).
Limitations and future directions
As with any literature review, our conclusions were constrained by the nature of the available evidence. Most obviously, our conclusions are correlational and preclude causal inferences. Digital communication may cause changes in well-being, or different levels of well-being may cause people to change their use of digital media. It may be, as Kraut et al. (1998) hypothesized, that spending time on digital media (especially gaming and browsing) replaces meaningful interactions with significant others, thereby causing a drop in well-being. Alternatively, unhappy people may be more likely than happy ones to spend time browsing and gaming. What limited evidence is available regarding longitudinal patterns suggests bidirectional causality (e.g., Kross et al., 2013), which we think should probably be the default assumption for now. Dienlin, Masur, and Trepte (2017) suggested that the effects of digital media use may not manifest immediately, and may emerge several weeks or months later. The extreme imbalance in the literature in terms of study designs calls for more longitudinal or experimental studies in the future.Besides, the classifications of media types in the literature reviewed were quite coarse; even breaking SNSs into types of behavior may be insufficiently granular. The media which form the basis of the classifications could be explicitly treated as multidimensional or as composites of behavioral features. In the future, for any medium, research could ask how much interpersonal communication was occurring, how interactive the communication was, how much information about the parties was revealed, how positive the experience was, and so forth.
Last, we note that digital media usage is highly complex, and so generalizations should be tempered with the recognition of many exceptions. To conclude that “phone calls make people happy,” even if broadly correct, would mislead if it failed to acknowledge that undoubtedly many people occasionally make or receive deeply upsetting phone calls. Our effects were generally small, but the effect sizes probably reflect the mixed natures of the effects, rather than the weaknesses of the medium. That is, a weak net impact of phoning on happiness is probably a result of some calls bringing joy while a few others caused anger or sorrow. Presumably there are far more pleasant than unpleasant phone calls, but the bad ones may have stronger effects, consistent with the general pattern that negative events have more psychological impacts than positive ones (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Finkenauer, & Vohs, 2001).
From 2018... Emotion processing across and within species: A comparison between humans (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
From 2018... Emotion processing across and within species: A comparison between humans (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Kret, Mariska E.,Muramatsu, Akiho,Matsuzawa, Tetsuro. Journal of Comparative Psychology, Vol 132(4), Nov 2018, 395-409. Dec 2019. https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2018-34826-001
Abstract: For social species, recognizing and adequately yet quickly responding to the emotions of others is crucial for their survival. The current study investigates attentional biases toward emotions in two closely related species, humans and chimpanzees. Prior research has demonstrated that humans typically show an attentional bias toward emotions. We here build on that literature by studying the underlying unconscious mechanisms within and across humans and chimpanzees and aim to gain insight into the evolutionary continuity of expressions. Experiment 1 tested whether chimpanzees show an attentional bias toward the expressions of conspecifics and whether this putative bias is modulated by the stimulus presentation duration, being 33 ms or 300 ms. The stimuli were followed by a visual mask in the form of a neutral body image. This backward-masking procedure eliminated the visibility of the stimuli that were presented for 33 ms, rendering their presentation subliminal. In contrast to our prediction, no attentional bias toward emotions was observed in chimpanzees. The goal of Experiment 2 was to verify this finding and to investigate chimpanzees’ reaction to human stimuli. Replicating Experiment 1, no evidence of an attentional bias toward emotions was observed in chimpanzees. In Experiment 3 we used the same chimpanzee and human expressions in 711 museum visitors and confirmed that humans do have an attentional bias toward emotions. Interestingly, this bias was independent of the stimulus presentation duration and most strikingly, independent of the species that was observed. Implications for theorizing about species differences in attentional mechanisms in processing emotions are discussed, as well as directions for future research, to investigate our preliminary findings and this potential species difference further.
Abstract: For social species, recognizing and adequately yet quickly responding to the emotions of others is crucial for their survival. The current study investigates attentional biases toward emotions in two closely related species, humans and chimpanzees. Prior research has demonstrated that humans typically show an attentional bias toward emotions. We here build on that literature by studying the underlying unconscious mechanisms within and across humans and chimpanzees and aim to gain insight into the evolutionary continuity of expressions. Experiment 1 tested whether chimpanzees show an attentional bias toward the expressions of conspecifics and whether this putative bias is modulated by the stimulus presentation duration, being 33 ms or 300 ms. The stimuli were followed by a visual mask in the form of a neutral body image. This backward-masking procedure eliminated the visibility of the stimuli that were presented for 33 ms, rendering their presentation subliminal. In contrast to our prediction, no attentional bias toward emotions was observed in chimpanzees. The goal of Experiment 2 was to verify this finding and to investigate chimpanzees’ reaction to human stimuli. Replicating Experiment 1, no evidence of an attentional bias toward emotions was observed in chimpanzees. In Experiment 3 we used the same chimpanzee and human expressions in 711 museum visitors and confirmed that humans do have an attentional bias toward emotions. Interestingly, this bias was independent of the stimulus presentation duration and most strikingly, independent of the species that was observed. Implications for theorizing about species differences in attentional mechanisms in processing emotions are discussed, as well as directions for future research, to investigate our preliminary findings and this potential species difference further.
At least 48 mattresses have disappeared from guest rooms in the more than 1,100 4- & 5-star European hotels surveyed by Wellness Heaven; cost worldwide, yearly, is roughly $60 million
People are stealing mattresses from luxury hotels. Megan Cerullo. CBS News' MoneyWatch, December 12, 2019. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/luxury-hotel-guests-steal-mattresses-and-other-large-items-according-to-survey/
Some hotel guests wake so rested at luxury properties that they purchase the same kind of mattress they slept on. Then there are those patrons who steal them.
At least 48 mattresses have disappeared from guest rooms in the more than 1,100 four- and five-star European hotels surveyed by German review site Wellness Heaven. Guests at five-star hotels were 8% more likely to take mattresses, perhaps because they were more comfy, according to the survey.
That's far less than the nearly 900 towels or 753 bathrobes that hotels say went missing. Hangers, pens, cutlery, cosmetics and blankets were among the other most commonly lifted items. Personal electronics and small appliances, including tablet computers, hair dryers, coffee makers and TV sets were also reported missing from hotel rooms across the properties.
How to steal a mattress
Upscale hotels often make their mattresses or pillows available for purchase to guests who've slept soundly during their stays. What's less clear is how thieves escape without paying for the not-so-compact pieces of hotel property. Some hoteliers told the survey company that guests snuck away with mattresses in the dark of night using elevators that led directly to underground parking.
Another guest threw a mattress out of the room's window, according to the site's hotel reviewer, Tassilo Keilmann.
[...]
Wellness Heaven pegs the value of a single stolen mattress at a couple thousand dollars. He estimates that roughly $60 million worth of mattresses are lifted from hotels worldwide each year.
Other weird things that go missing
Some hotels say they charge guests for missing property, while others turn a blind eye.
"Especially in the case of towels and bathrobes, they don't do anything, because they don't want to confront the guest and lose repeat visitors," he said. "They also want to avoid calling the police and making a scene."
Others simply factor the anticipated losses into their room rates, or make clear that desirable items are available to purchase through the hotel's shop.
Other unusual — and valuable — items that have gone missing from hotels include a grand piano from a hotel lobby in Italy, bathroom fixtures in Germany, a taxidermied head and guest room numbers from a hotel in England, according to Wellness Heaven.
[...]
Some hotel guests wake so rested at luxury properties that they purchase the same kind of mattress they slept on. Then there are those patrons who steal them.
At least 48 mattresses have disappeared from guest rooms in the more than 1,100 four- and five-star European hotels surveyed by German review site Wellness Heaven. Guests at five-star hotels were 8% more likely to take mattresses, perhaps because they were more comfy, according to the survey.
That's far less than the nearly 900 towels or 753 bathrobes that hotels say went missing. Hangers, pens, cutlery, cosmetics and blankets were among the other most commonly lifted items. Personal electronics and small appliances, including tablet computers, hair dryers, coffee makers and TV sets were also reported missing from hotel rooms across the properties.
How to steal a mattress
Upscale hotels often make their mattresses or pillows available for purchase to guests who've slept soundly during their stays. What's less clear is how thieves escape without paying for the not-so-compact pieces of hotel property. Some hoteliers told the survey company that guests snuck away with mattresses in the dark of night using elevators that led directly to underground parking.
Another guest threw a mattress out of the room's window, according to the site's hotel reviewer, Tassilo Keilmann.
[...]
Wellness Heaven pegs the value of a single stolen mattress at a couple thousand dollars. He estimates that roughly $60 million worth of mattresses are lifted from hotels worldwide each year.
Other weird things that go missing
Some hotels say they charge guests for missing property, while others turn a blind eye.
"Especially in the case of towels and bathrobes, they don't do anything, because they don't want to confront the guest and lose repeat visitors," he said. "They also want to avoid calling the police and making a scene."
Others simply factor the anticipated losses into their room rates, or make clear that desirable items are available to purchase through the hotel's shop.
Other unusual — and valuable — items that have gone missing from hotels include a grand piano from a hotel lobby in Italy, bathroom fixtures in Germany, a taxidermied head and guest room numbers from a hotel in England, according to Wellness Heaven.
[...]
Tipping points of change: Everyday fluctuations in oneself and the social world create ambiguities about when people will diagnose lasting, qualitative change (and therefore act)
When Small Signs of Change Add Up: The Psychology of Tipping Points. Ed O’Brien. Current Directions in Psychological Science, December 12, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419884313
Abstract: Things change, but the exact point at which they do is often unknown. After how many loveless nights is a relationship “officially” in trouble? After how many happy days has one’s depression “officially” passed? When do recurring patterns in the climate or economy “officially” warrant a response? When is a person’s identity “officially” accepted? Everyday fluctuations in oneself and the social world create ambiguities about when people will diagnose lasting, qualitative change (and therefore act). Recent research documents these tipping points of change as a psychological process, shaped by individual and situational forces. People judge tipping points asymmetrically across valence and asymmetrically across time. Here, I review discoveries and outline future directions in tipping-points research.
Keywords: tipping points, change perception, self/others over time, evaluative judgment, qualitative and categorical shifts
Tipping
points imply points when people become more likely to intervene or
surrender. Future research should scale to higher-stakes contexts (e.g.,
changes in health, climate change action, decisions to change jobs or
partners). The valence asymmetry suggests uphill battles for
appreciating improvement. The temporal asymmetry suggests conflict
between parties who experience evidence from different perspectives
(e.g., policymakers may predetermine thresholds for reward or punishment
that notoriously prove too high for constituents, who demand action at
the first salient strike). Indeed, naive realism in change perceptions
may stir conflict over identical evidence (Campbell, O’Brien, Van Boven, Schwarz, & Ubel, 2014).
Other research should assess intrapersonal costs (e.g., consumers may
overpay for lengthy product trials, assuming they will evaluate more
than they actually will before drawing conclusions).
If
the basic process underlying tipping points is responding to evidence
salience, there must be motivated sources of salience that interact with
tipping points. Alcoholics may view themselves as more “cured” after
their first week of sobriety than friends view them, CEOs may quickly
view increases in revenue as signals whereas investors view them as
noise, voters may dismiss a few days of poor stock returns or rising
unemployment if they support the incumbent administration, and a person
who goes on one date with an attractive partner may conclude that he or
she is “the one.” More research should unpack potential self/other
differences, as agents of change likely want to diagnose change.
However, this may also reflect nonmotivated differences in accessibility
(Klein & O’Brien, 2017; O’Brien, 2013).
Only the alcoholic actor knows how effortful that first week felt; he
or she actually has a more diagnostic signal. Differences across
explicit and implicit change perceptions (Ferguson et al., 2019) may be more informative.
Beyond
self/other differences, testing still other factors that reverse the
asymmetries is critical. When do people tip more quickly in response to
improvement? Future research should assess additional domain differences
(e.g., changes in identity-central features; Strohminger & Nichols, 2014)
and individual differences (e.g., trait optimists may flip the valence
asymmetry, assuming they reject entropy beliefs). When do people tip
more slowly than they think? Extremely emotional events are often
rationalized in ways hidden to intuition (Wilson & Gilbert, 2005),
and thus may flip the temporal asymmetry; people may assume one
horrible fight will forever render a friend a foe, but in reality,
friends work to stay friends. For complex stimuli, reacting quickly to
initial evidence may itself be mistaken; one may assume that a single
reading of a book was enough to form a conclusion, but in reality,
rereads may continually reveal new interpretations (Kardas & O’Brien, 2018; O’Brien, 2019).
Regardless, the phenomenon appears not easily intuited; future research
should assess other ways in which expectations diverge from
experiences.
Future
research should introduce more variance into observations. Variance
likely will not affect asymmetries across conditions if it is similarly
distributed (e.g., random draws of grades that slowly transition to C+s
vs. A+s at equal rates), but extreme draws likely matter; one big shock
may disrupt small compounding change. Future research should also
integrate the full time course of tipping points. As retrospection and
prospection rely on shared lay beliefs (O’Brien, Ellsworth, & Schwarz, 2012; Schwarz, 2012),
the temporal asymmetry may stubbornly persist when looking back; people
may predict being patient, then quickly make up their minds, yet then
later recall being just as patient as imagined. However, other
stereotypes about past and future selves (such as past selves seeming
emotional and future selves seeming rational: O’Brien, 2015) may interact with tipping-point perceptions over time.
Some changes are truly instantiated, which can be misperceived because of other attentional demands (Simons & Ambinder, 2005), miscalibrated beliefs (Davidai & Gilovich, 2015; Ross, 1989), and shifting reference points (Levari et al., 2018).
An open question is whether tipping-point thresholds can be objectively
quantified. Misperceiving genuine tipping points would bear on many
real-world outcomes, from doctors who must anticipate when illnesses
will manifest to investors who must anticipate when bear markets will
return. One could gain traction on this question by comparing
perceptions to other benchmarks, such as normative thresholds (e.g.,
feverish people may think their temperature has crossed 100.4° F before
it does) and mathematical probabilities (e.g., testing how quickly
people believe drawn outcomes have shifted from pool A to pool B against
Bayesian standards; Massey & Wu, 2005). More research is needed, from all approaches, on categorical change perception in the self and others.
A broad study of tipping points is promising. The point when things change may be fiction, but hopefully this article encourages initial change toward these exciting directions.
Abstract: Things change, but the exact point at which they do is often unknown. After how many loveless nights is a relationship “officially” in trouble? After how many happy days has one’s depression “officially” passed? When do recurring patterns in the climate or economy “officially” warrant a response? When is a person’s identity “officially” accepted? Everyday fluctuations in oneself and the social world create ambiguities about when people will diagnose lasting, qualitative change (and therefore act). Recent research documents these tipping points of change as a psychological process, shaped by individual and situational forces. People judge tipping points asymmetrically across valence and asymmetrically across time. Here, I review discoveries and outline future directions in tipping-points research.
Keywords: tipping points, change perception, self/others over time, evaluative judgment, qualitative and categorical shifts
Road Map for Future Research
Downstream behavior
Motivated and nonmotivated mechanisms
Other boundaries
Evidence presentation
External benchmarks
A broad study of tipping points is promising. The point when things change may be fiction, but hopefully this article encourages initial change toward these exciting directions.
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