Gun owning women are more engaged & participatory in politics than non-owning women; often feel empowered by owning a gun; & are more supportive of death penalty & military use than non-owners

Female Firepower: Exploring the Politics of Gun Ownership and Gender. Alexandra Terese Middlewood. University of Arkansas, PhD Thesis, May 2019.
https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/29891/Middlewood_ku_0099D_16519_DATA_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Abstract: Pro-gun organizations have made great strides in mobilizing women and have been successful in inculcating women into gun culture. This raises questions about the intersection of gun ownership, an emerging political identity, and gender. Thus, this dissertation explores the cross pressures women face from their gun ownership status and the political consequences of such cleavages using an intersectional approach. First, I examine the effect of gun ownership on women’s political participation and engagement. I find gun owning women to be more engaged and participatory than non-owning women, and find them to be particularly motivated by gun issues. Second, I study the effect of gun ownership on women’s feelings of safety in public spaces where firearms are present. Women often feel empowered by owning a gun, and I find gun owning women to be much less averse to firearms than non-owning women. Furthermore, in some cases, women owners were even less averse than their male counterparts. Lastly, I examine the effect of gun ownership on women’s attitudes about use of force policies, namely the death penalty and the use military force. Here, gun owning women are more supportive of such policies than non-owners, and gun ownership is found to mitigate the expected gender gap in attitudes on these issues. I conclude by addressing the importance of these findings for the literature and for politics, the limitations of these studies, and avenues for future research.

People perform better on a cognitive task when they know its end; asymptotic performance level reflects ability as well as effort-allocation decision

Cognitive performance is enhanced if one knows when the task will end. Maayan Katzir Aviv, Emanuel Nira Liberman. Cognition, Volume 197, April 2020, 104189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104189

Highlights
• People perform better on a cognitive task when they know its end.
• Asymptotic performance level reflects ability as well as effort-allocation decision.
• We theorize that opportunity cost (OC) reduces near a salient end-point.
• By reducing OC, salient end-points reduce mental fatigue/experienced effort.

Abstract: In two studies, participants performed a switching task, and we provided to only half of them feedback on goal progress (how much of the task still remains). Importantly, this feedback did not inform participants on how well they performed. We found that participants in the feedback condition achieved a higher asymptotic level of performance, reported less fatigue and took shorter breaks between blocks compared to the control condition. These results suggest that asymptotic level of performance reflects not only ability (as is commonly assumed in the literature) but also motivation. We suggest that when people know when a focal task would end, they invest more effort in it because foregoing other activities becomes less costly (i.e., opportunity cost of engaging in the focal activity decreases) and because knowing when a task would end frees the actor from the need to conserve effort. These results suggest a simple, effective and costless way to improve cognitive performance that may be applied in educational and organizational settings.

Keywords: Effort allocationGoal gradientOpportunity costCognitive resources

The Architect Who Lost the Ability to Imagine: The Cerebral Basis of Visual Imagery After a Cerebral Artery Stoke

Thorudottir, S.; Sigurdardottir, H.M.; Rice, G.E.; Kerry, S.J.; Robotham, R.J.; Leff, A.P.; Starrfelt, R. The Architect Who Lost the Ability to Imagine: The Cerebral Basis of Visual Imagery. Brain Sci. 2020, 10, 59. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/10/2/59

Abstract: While the loss of mental imagery following brain lesions was first described more than a century ago, the key cerebral areas involved remain elusive. Here we report neuropsychological data from an architect (PL518) who lost his ability for visual imagery following a bilateral posterior cerebral artery (PCA) stroke. We compare his profile to three other patients with bilateral PCA stroke and another architect with a large PCA lesion confined to the right hemisphere. We also compare structural images of their lesions, aiming to delineate cerebral areas selectively lesioned in acquired aphantasia. When comparing the neuropsychological profile and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the aphantasic architect PL518 to patients with either a comparable background (an architect) or bilateral PCA lesions, we find: (1) there is a large overlap of cognitive deficits between patients, with the very notable exception of aphantasia which only occurs in PL518, and (2) there is large overlap of the patients’ lesions. The only areas of selective lesion in PL518 is a small patch in the left fusiform gyrus as well as part of the right lingual gyrus. We suggest that these areas, and perhaps in particular the region in the left fusiform gyrus, play an important role in the cerebral network involved in visual imagery.

Keywords: visual imagery; stroke; posterior cerebral artery; aphantasia; prosopagnosia; visual perception

Trajectories of Migrant Male Sex Workers in Paris: He are too often presented as street-based seller of sexual services whereas many of them actually perform intimacy and companionship

Selling Sex and Intimacy in Paris: Trajectories of Migrant Male Sex Workers. Kostia Lennes. 5th European Geographies of Sexualities Conference, Prague Sep 2019. Ed. Michal Pitoňák, Lukáš Pitoňák. https://www.academia.edu/40732506

ABSTRACT: Although further attention has been paid to male sex workers in the past two decades, most scholars who discussed this issue in relation to migration did so through the lens of sex tourism (Allen 2007; Mitchell 2015). In this perspective, male sex workers, who are mostly locals, are therefore excluded from the focus on mobilities. On the other hand, research on migrant sex workers in global cities have focused almost exclusively on women (Chin 2014), with a few notable exceptions (Mai 2018). This proposal aims to fill this gap by presenting the first insights of an ongoing doctoral research project on non-trafficked male sex workers who migrated to Paris in order to perform sexual labour. Coming from different regions of the world, these men have various backgrounds and are often on the move between several cities, in Europe and beyond. Drawing on anthropological accounts on globalisation and cosmopolitanism, the main objective of this research project is to grasp the trajectories of these men who have come to sell sex and intimacy in the French global city. Furthermore, particular attention will be paid to other ways of commodifying intimacy (Constable 2009) than sexual contacts strictly speaking, which is still an overlooked issue as Sanders (2008) and Weitzer (2009) noted. Indeed, the figure of the migrant sex worker is too often presented as a streetbased seller of sexual services whereas many of them actually perform intimacy and companionship, thus redefining contemporary forms of sex work among migrants.

Keywords: male sex workers; cosmopolitanism; commodification of intimacy; sexual labour

The overweight, those carrying a large bag and females avoided both stair climbing and descent more frequently than their comparison groups

Eves FF (2020) When weight is an encumbrance; avoidance of stairs by different demographic groups. PLoS ONE 15(1): e0228044, Jan 24 2020. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228044

Abstract
Background Locomotion is an energy costly behaviour, particularly when it entails raising weight against gravity. Minimization of locomotor costs appears a universal default. Avoidance of stair climbing helps humans minimise their energetic costs. In public access settings, demographic subgroups that raise more ‘dead’ weight than their comparison groups when climbing are more likely to avoid stairs by choosing the escalator. Individuals who minimise stair costs at work, however, can accumulate a deficit in energy expenditure in daily life with potential implications for weight gain. This paper tests the generality of avoidance of stairs in pedestrians encumbered by additional weight in three studies.

Methods Pedestrian choices for stairs or the alternative were audited by trained observers who coded weight status, presence of large bags and sex for each pedestrian. Sex-specific silhouettes for BMIs of 25 facilitated coding of weight status. Choices between stairs and a lift to ascend and descend were coded in seven buildings (n = 26,981) and at an outdoor city centre site with the same alternatives (n = 7,433). A further study audited choices to ascend when the alternative to stairs was a sloped ramp in two locations (n = 16,297). Analyses employed bootstrapped logistic regression (1000 samples).

Results At work and the city centre site, the overweight, those carrying a large bag and females avoided both stair climbing and descent more frequently than their comparison groups. The final study revealed greater avoidance of stairs in these demographic subgroups when the alternative means of ascent was a sloped ramp.

Discussion Minimization of the physiological costs of transport-related walking biases behaviour towards avoidance of stair usage when an alternative is available. Weight carried is an encumbrance that can deter stair usage during daily life. This minimization of physical activity costs runs counter to public health initiatives to increase activity to improve population health.

Discussion

As with lifts, avoidance of stairs by choosing a sloped ascent was frequent. The lower rates of avoidance in Chamberlain Square than the station may reflect the greater detour in the square to choose the slope. Avoidance in the square required 76m of walking versus 48.4m for the direct route across the square; at the station, the discrepancy was smaller, 46.1m versus 42.6m. Inevitably, any detour would increase journey times and, typically, pedestrians seek to minimise time and distance [14,15,23,24]. Less frequent avoidance in the square may reflect the greater temporal cost of the indirect route. Nonetheless, stairs are a more energy efficient means of raising weight against gravity than slopes of equivalent angle [29]. Avoiding stairs by choosing a slope will increase both temporal and energetic costs, unlike the reduced costs with mechanised alternatives. This result of avoidance, despite increased cost, may reflect the more gradual force production possible on the slope to achieve the ascent; the actual height of the climb was the same for both alternatives.

General discussion

The studies in this paper reveal consistent effects of demographic grouping on stair avoidance when an alternative is available. In workplaces, and at an outdoor site where the alternative was a lift, overweight pedestrians, those carrying large bags and females were more likely to avoid stairs than their comparison groups. In the final study, this pattern of avoidance occurred where the alternative method of ascent was a sloped ramp. Taken together with a previous summary of avoidance with escalators [9], these studies expand on the original question posed by Brownell and co-workers about the effects of weight status on avoidance of stair use [7,8]. Overweight pedestrians negotiating the built environment are more likely to avoid the physical activity of stair use as part of daily life than healthy weight pedestrians. So are females and those carrying large bags. A bias to minimise the costs of active transport provides a plausible explanation for this generality.

Minimizing energetic cost

During locomotion, humans naturally optimise energetic cost. They adopt a step width, step length and step frequency for walking and choose a step length and frequency for running, all of which minimise the total metabolic cost for completion of the behaviour (see [30]). Humans have an optimal speed for walking and running that minimises the energetic cost per unit distance [31,32], as do other animals [33,34]. Minimisation of transport costs may be a universal default. This minimization requires repeated iterations to optimise the behaviour. Minimisation of transport costs is learnt, linked to the changes in the visual consequences of forward motion [30,35–38]. All of the above studies were for locomotion on the level. Stair climbing, at two and half times the energetic cost of purposeful walking [2], is a metabolically costly barrier encountered during active transport. A consistent bias for pedestrians to minimise the cost incurred by climbing is evident; in shopping malls where journey time is less of an issue than in stations, 92.4% avoid stairs (n = 355,069 [9]). Raising body weight against gravity is energetically costly and appears to be minimised by other animals [39,40]. Energy expenditure serves three main functions, basal metabolic rate, diet-related expenditure on ingested food, and energy for physical activity [41]. Human basal metabolic rate requires 60% of the recommended daily intake and utilizing food a further 6–12% [41]. At least two thirds of recommended intake are required for these recurrent costs of maintaining function that must be met. The only modifiable part of the equation linking intake and expenditure is the remaining third of intake available for movements of the body; it has been estimated that 89% of these movements involve walking [41]. Transport-related walking has deep evolutionary roots. Minimising the proportion of total intake required for transport would be biologically advantageous [30–34].

Nonetheless, the final pair of studies demonstrated that avoidance was not synonymous with minimisation of expenditure. Choosing a sloped ascent increased both temporal and energetic costs. Walking up a slope allows a more gradual force production during the ascent; peak forces at the knee are reduced compared to stairs [28,29]. Similarly, a modified climbing gait in older individuals reduces the forces at the knee and the ankle to a lower proportion of their maximal capacity [42]. Older climbers have reduced resources for climbing and adopt a reduced, and more gradual, increase in force over time for each step [42]. Choosing the slope in the final pair of studies would allow individuals with reduced resources for climbing to maintain output at a lower proportion of total resources, despite increases in energetic and temporal costs. Aggregated avoidance with ramped ascent, 50.1% (95% CI = 49.3, 50.9) exceeded that when the lift was the alternative, 33.5% (95% CI = 33.0, 34.0). Preference for more gradual resource expenditure could increase avoidance when a ramp was available whereas unwillingness to wait for a lift could decrease it.

Perception of stair slope

Recent research on the perception of the slope of stairs provides clues to the mechanisms that may underlie avoidance based on climbing resources. Perception of the angle of hills and stairs is exaggerated in explicit awareness; a 10˚ hill is reported to be about 30˚ and a 23˚ staircase reported to be 45˚ [43–45]. In experimental studies, fatigue from an exhausting run [45–47], carrying extra weight [46] and depleted glucose resources [48], all result in further exaggerations of reported angle. While effects of experimental demand have been proposed as an alternative explanation [49,50], quasi-experimental studies confirmed effects of depleted resources [51] and additional weight carried [43,52] where demand was absent. Travelers waiting for their trains were recruited to complete an interview about the environment [43,51,52]; there was no experiment. Proffitt argued that perception of slope was ‘embodied’ in that resources for climbing influenced explicit perception [44]. Embodied effects of resources facilitate physical activity choices without individuals having to specifically consider resource availability [44].

Echoing the behavioural differences documented here, overweight pedestrians, those wearing heavy bags and females all reported potential climbs as steeper than their comparison groups [43,45–47,51,52]. Estimates of stair steepness scaled by the deadweight of fat mass that would be carried [51]. As noted earlier, females have, on average, a greater percentage of their weight as body fat (25%) than males (12.5%) and hence are encumbered by more deadweight [10]. Consistently, females reported slopes as steeper than males did [43,45,47,49,50]. Further, stairs were reported as steeper by pedestrians who avoided them by choosing the escalator, even when potential effects of demographics were controlled by stratified sampling and statistical adjustment [43]. Perceived steepness appears to be an environmental cue linked to resources that can deter climbing when an alternative is available [43].

At work, the stairs may not be directly visible when a lift is chosen so perception of steepness cannot directly influence choice. Nonetheless, individuals learn about the potential cost of climbing from experience, biasing subsequent choices. As resources change, behaviour, and the associated perception, echo these changes. Body mass is composed of fat free mass and fat mass. Fat free mass that provides resources for climbing was unrelated to perceived steepness [52]. Rather, it was fat mass, i.e. deadweight that must be carried, that was linked to perception [52]. Further, only changes in fat mass, not fat free mass, were related to changes in perception of steepness over a year later [52]. Similar calibration of perception occurred for changes in body size during pregnancy [53] and loss of leg strength with ageing [54]; changes without experience were ineffective [53]. Obese individuals walk less than lean participants, with daily walking distance negatively correlated with body fat [55]. In the only truly experimental study of weight change, increases in body mass, 78% of which was fat, reduced the distance walked equally for healthy and overweight participants [55]; resources changed behaviour. In both longitudinal perception studies, body change over time influenced perception [52,53]. No study has altered perception to change behaviour. The simplest conclusion is that weight carried deters behaviour [55], consistent with the direction of effects in other research [56–58]. Avoidance of stairs seems likely to be a consequence of weight carried. The role of learning in this process, and the potential mediator of perception, is unknown.

Limitations

It is a curiosity that one strength of these data, direct auditing of behaviour, is accompanied by a limitation. Auditing provides matchless accuracy about the actual behaviour performed; accelerometers, for example, cannot identify behaviour. Observational studies of stair use allow a test of the biasing effects of extra weight carried because of the ability to clearly identify the behavioural choice made. Stair climbing is a vigorous member of the family of active transport behaviours. The energetic cost of stair climbing is clear. Work done to raise weight against gravity is relatively independent of the rate of climbing. Height of the climb, not speed, primarily determines cost. Climbing at 60 steps.min-1 required 8.7 METs (Eves & White, unpublished) whereas climbing at almost twice that speed, 110 steps.min-1, cost 9.6 METs [2]. Effects of weight on the lower intensity activity of stair descent here, and on ‘objectively’ measured walking [55], physical activity [57] and sitting time [56], indicate a generalised effect of weight carried on physical activity choices. Nonetheless, auditing will imperfectly measure demographic differences. Sex is generally straightforward but weight status, and the additional weight of a large bag, must be imprecise categories, even when silhouettes optimise coding for weight status [3,21]. The commonality of effects of weight carried on avoidance across different settings, however, does not suggest imprecision in measurement has impeded the research. The fact that demographic differences in avoidance behaviour are linked to perception of an environmental cue that promotes avoidance indicates some triangulation on the question.

Capacity of cognitive control's estimated heritability was 0.66, & shared & non-shared environmental influences were 0.18 and 0.16; CCC was significantly correlated to higher-level cognition

Accessing the development and heritability of the capacity of cognitive control. Yu Chen et al.
Neuropsychologia, January 24 2020, 107361, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107361

Highlights
• We examined the developmental course of the capacity of cognitive control (CCC) from early childhood to late adolescence and the heritability of the CCC.
• The CCC increases from the age of 6 years and reaches 95% capacity at 21 years with declined growth rate as a function of age.
• The CCC is highly heritable with an estimated heritability of 0.64.

Abstract
Cognitive control serves as a core construct, with limited capacity, to support executive functions and other higher-level mental processes such as intellectual activity. Although previous studies have investigated the development of executive functions during specific age periods, the development of the capacity of cognitive control (CCC) from early childhood to late adolescence and the heritability of the CCC have yet to be delineated. In this study, we estimated the CCC based on the performance of a perceptual decision-making task in monozygotic (n = 95) and dizygotic (n = 81) twin pairs with an age range from 6 to 18 years and in a reference young adult group (n = 41, mean age = 26.15 years). In addition, the intelligence quotient (IQ) of these participants was assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scales. We found an increase in the CCC from 1.55 bits per second (bps) at age 6 years to its 95% capacity of 3.87 bps at age 21 years, with a reduced growth rate as a function of age. The estimated heritability of the CCC was 0.66, and shared and non-shared environmental influences on the CCC were 0.18 and 0.16, respectively. In addition, the CCC was significantly correlated to IQ. These findings indicate that the CCC is developed throughout the school years, is highly heritable, and is associated with higher-level cognition.

Keywords: Cognitive controlDevelopmentHeritabilityIntellectual abilityThe capacity of cognitive control

Tests of mechanisms of behavior change intervention are not routinely conducted; intervention study quality is sub-optimal; limited data is available on the efficacy of many behavior change techniques

Hagger, Martin S., Susette Moyers, Kaylyn McAnally, and Lauren Mckinley. 2020. “Known Knowns and Known Unknowns on Behavior Change Interventions and Mechanisms of Action.” PsyArXiv. January 24. doi:10.1080/17437199.2020.1719184

Abstract: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of research play an important role in summarizing current knowledge on the efficacy of the behavior change techniques and mechanisms of action that comprise behavioral interventions. The current reviews in the science of behavior change (SOBC) special issue represent a ‘step change’ in evaluating current evidence on behavior change interventions and mechanisms. This concluding article outlines the key findings and emerging issues identified in the reviews (‘known knowns’), and summarizes the evidence gaps highlighted by the reviews that need to be addressed in future research (‘known unknowns’). Specifically, findings of the reviews indicate that: tests of mechanisms of behavior change intervention are not routinely conducted by primary studies and research syntheses; intervention study quality is sub-optimal and reviews do not sufficiently account for study quality when assessing intervention effects and mechanisms; substantive variability exists in descriptions of intervention content and putative mediators implicated in their mechanisms of action; limited data is available on the efficacy of many behavior change techniques; and moderators of intervention effects and mechanisms are seldom taken into account. In terms of potential solutions to these issues, we advocate: testing isolated effects of behavior change techniques and associated mechanisms of action; routine evaluation of study quality in behavioral intervention research; development of an evidence base of links between behavior change techniques and theory-based constructs involved in mechanisms of action; adoption of fit-for-purpose methods for synthesizing behavioral intervention mechanisms of action; and routine testing of moderators in intervention research.

We label others as straight more often than gay; one reason is a motivated reasoning process that avoids applying stigmatizing labels, because heavy consequences can befall in incorrect gay categorizations

Alt, N. P., Lick, D. J., & Johnson, K. L. (2020). The straight categorization bias: A motivated and altruistic reasoning account. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Jan 2020. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000232

Abstract: For 70 years, the field of social perception has concluded that perceivers can determine others’ social category memberships with remarkable accuracy. However, it has become increasingly clear that accuracy is only part of the story, as social category judgments are often systematically biased toward one category over another. For example, when categorizing sexual orientation, perceivers label others as straight more often than gay. This straight categorization bias is reliable, has an effect size larger than that for accuracy, and is not exclusively driven by the low base rate of sexual minorities in the population, yet we know little about its proximal causes. Here, we argue that one facet of this bias is a motivated reasoning process that avoids applying stigmatizing labels to unknown others. Specifically, we propose that perceivers ascribe heavy consequences to incorrect gay categorizations, compelling them to gather and integrate available information in a manner that favors straight categorizations. Studies 1 and 2 tested the dynamic nature of the bias, exploring decision ambivalence and the real-time accrual of visible evidence about a target throughout the perceptual process using mouse-tracking and diffusion modeling. Studies 3–5 tested motivational determinants for the bias, revealing that perceivers associate high costs with incorrect gay categorizations because those errors put other people in harm’s way. Studies 6–9 tested the cognitive mechanisms perceivers engage as they search for information that allows them to avoid costly decision errors. Collectively, these studies provide a new framework for understanding a well-documented but poorly understood response bias in social categorization.

Taiwan: We find that a 10% increase in real estate wealth increases probability of a man getting married in any particular year by 3.92%

Males’ housing wealth and their marriage market advantage. C. Y. Cyrus Chu, Jou-Chun Lin, Wen-Jen Tsay. Journal of Population Economics, January 15 2020. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-019-00763-4

Abstract: In theory, people who own real estate should have advantage finding a partner in the marriage market. Empirical analyses along this line, however, face three issues. First, it is difficult to identify any causality for whether housing facilitates marriage or expected marriage facilitates a housing purchase. Second, survey samples usually do not cover very wealthy people, and so the observations are top coding in the wealth dimension. Third, getting married is a dynamic life cycle decision, and rich life-history data are rarely available. This paper uses registry data from Taiwan to estimate the impact of males’ housing wealth on their first-marriage duration, taking into account all three issues mentioned above. We find that a 10% increase in real estate wealth increases probability of a man getting married in any particular year by 3.92%. Our finding suggests that housing or real estate is a status good in the marriage market.

Keywords: Marriage formation Housing wealth Status good Duration model

We found that individuals with higher levels of general intelligence exhibited greater openness to using condoms

No glove, no love: General intelligence predicts increased likelihood of condom use in response to HIV threat. Sean T.H.Lee et al. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 157, 15 April 2020, 109813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.109813

Abstract: Heterosexual intercourse serves the evolutionarily adaptive function of reproduction and gene propagation. However, engaging in sexual intercourse also entails risks in contracting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) that bring about pain and health complications. While STIs typically do not pose a direct threat to one's life, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), a relatively recent emergent STI, does. Also, unlike other existing STIs such as Gonorrhea, people infected with HIV typically do not display obvious symptoms that would prompt preventive actions from their sexual partners. Accordingly, consistent condom usage (or lack thereof) has become one of the top concerns of HIV prevention efforts. In this paper, we examine general intelligence, which enables one to cope effectively with evolutionarily novel situations and issues, as a predictor of condom usage in response to the threat of HIV. In Study 1, we found that individuals with higher levels of general intelligence exhibited greater openness to using condoms. In Study 2, we found that individuals with higher levels of general intelligence exhibited greater likelihood of using condoms in a sexual offer scenario—but only when primed with the threat of the evolutionarily novel STI HIV. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Keywords: General intelligenceCondom useHIVEvolutionary psychologyEvolutionary mismatchSavanna-iq interaction hypothesis

Results In a sample of 7,049 men & 7,005 women, being overweight was associated with higher odds of frequent sexual activity among men, but lower odds among women

Grabovac I, Cao C, Haider S, et al. Associations Between Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior and Weight Status With Sexuality Outcomes: Analyses from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. J Sex Med 2020;17:60–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2019.10.015

Abstract
Introduction Physical activity is likely to be associated with sexual activity. However, to date, there is no literature on the relationship between overweight/obesity and sexual activity outcomes.

Aim Thus, the present study assessed the associations among physical activity, sedentary behavior, and weight status with sexual activity and number of previous sexual partners in a representative sample of U.S. adults.

Methods Data on leisure time physical activity, total sitting time, weight status, sexual behavior outcomes, and other characteristics were extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Study cycle 2007 to 2016. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate associations among body mass index, leisure time physical activity, and total sitting time with past-year sexual activity and number of sexual partners.

Main Outcome Measure Self reported frequency of past-year sexual activity and number of sex partners in the past year.

Results In a sample of 7,049 men (mean age: 38.3 ± 0.3 years) and 7,005 women (mean age: 38.7 ± 0.2 years) being overweight was associated with higher odds of frequent sexual activity (OR = 1.5; 95% CI = 1.2−1.7) among men, but lower odds among women (OR = 0.8; 95% CI = 0.6−0.9). Sufficient physical activity was associated with higher odds of frequent sexual activity among both men (OR = 1.3; 95% CI = 1.1−1.5) and women (OR = 1.2; 95% CI = 1.0−1.4). In those living alone, being obese was associated with lower odds of having at least 1 sexual partner for men (OR = 0.7; 95% CI = 0.5−0.9) and women (OR = 0.6; 95% CI = 0.4−0.8). Being sufficiently physically active was associated with higher odds of having at least 1 sexual partner only in men (OR = 1.6; 95% CI = 1.2−2.2).

Clinical Implications Healthcare professionals need to be made aware of these results, as they could be used to plan tailored interventions.

Strengths & Limitations Strengths include the large, representative sample of U.S. adults and objective measures of anthropometry. Limitations include the cross-sectional design of the study and that all variables on sexual history were self-reported.

Conclusion The present study identifies novel modifiable behavioral and biological antecedents of sexuality outcomes.

Key Words: Weight StatusSexual ActivityPhysical ActivitySedentary Behavior

Leaders with business experience make smaller contributions to collective defense because they are egoistic and more comfortable relying on a powerful ally for their defense

When Do Leaders Free‐Ride? Business Experience and Contributions to Collective Defense. Matthew Fuhrmann. American Journal of Political Science, January 17 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12502

Abstract: The logic of free‐riding expects that individuals will underinvest in public goods, but people often behave in ways that are inconsistent with this prediction. Why do we observe variation in free‐riding behavior? This study addresses this question by examining contributions to an important international public good—collective defense in military alliances. It develops a behavioral theory of free‐riding in which the beliefs of world leaders are important for explaining investments in public goods. The argument holds that leaders with business experience make smaller contributions to collective defense because they are egoistic and more comfortable relying on a powerful ally for their defense. An analysis of defense expenditures in 17 non‐U.S. members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from 1952 to 2014 provides evidence consistent with the theory. The findings suggest that leaders with business experience are more likely than other heads of government to act as self‐interested utility maximizers.

Sex Differences in Misperceptions of Sexual Interest Can Be Explained by Sociosexual Orientation and Men Projecting Their Own Interest Onto Women

Sex Differences in Misperceptions of Sexual Interest Can Be Explained by Sociosexual Orientation and Men Projecting Their Own Interest Onto Women. Anthony J. Lee et al. Psychological Science, January 23, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619900315

Abstract: Sex differences in misperceptions of sexual interest have been well documented; however, it is unclear whether this cognitive bias could be explained by other factors. In the current study, 1,226 participants (586 men, 640 women) participated in a speed-dating task in which they rated their sexual interest in each other as well as the sexual interest they perceived from their partners. Consistent with previous findings, results showed that men tended to overperceive sexual interest from their partners, whereas women tended to underperceive sexual interest. However, this sex difference became negligible when we considered potential mediators, such as the raters’ sociosexual orientation and raters’ tendency to project their own levels of sexual interest onto their partners. These findings challenge the popular notion that sex differences in misperceptions of sexual interest have evolved as a specialized adaptation to different selection pressures in men and women.

Keywords: attraction, sociosexual orientation, speed dating, mean-level bias, tracking accuracy, error-management theory, open data

Sexual Orientation and Cognitive Ability: A Multivariate Meta-Analytic Follow-Up

Sexual Orientation and Cognitive Ability: A Multivariate Meta-Analytic Follow-Up. Yin Xu, Sam Norton, Qazi Rahman. Archives of Sexual Behavior, January 23 2020. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-020-01632-y

Abstract: A cross-sex shift model of human sexual orientation differences predicts that homosexual men should perform or score in the direction of heterosexual women, and homosexual women in the direction of heterosexual men, in behavioral domains such as cognition and personality. In order to test whether homosexual men and women’s cognitive performance was closer to that of heterosexual men or that of heterosexual women (i.e., sex-atypical for their sex and closer to that of the opposite-sex), we conducted a multivariate meta-analysis based on data from our previous meta-analysis (Xu, Norton, & Rahman, 2017). A subset of this data was used and comprised 30 articles (and 2 unpublished datasets) and 244,434 participants. The multivariate meta-analysis revealed that homosexual men were sex-atypical in mental rotation (Hedges’ g = −0.36) and the water level test (Hedges’ g = −0.55). In mental rotation, homosexual men were in-between heterosexual men and women. There was no significant group difference on spatial location memory. Homosexual men were also sex-atypical on male-favoring spatial-related tasks (Hedges’ g = −0.54), and female-favoring spatial-related tasks (Hedges’ g = 0.38). Homosexual women tended to be sex-typical (similar to heterosexual women). There were no significant group differences on male-favoring “other” tasks or female-favoring verbal-related tasks. Heterosexual men and women differed significantly on female-favoring “other” tasks. These results support the cross-sex shift hypothesis which predicts that homosexual men perform in the direction of heterosexual women in sex differentiated cognitive domains. However, the type of task and cognitive domain tested is critical.

Keywords: Sexual orientation Meta-analysis Sex differences Cognition Spatial Verbal

Discussion

This analysis produced three main findings. First, homosexual men were sex-atypical in studies measuring mental rotations, the water level test, male-favoring spatial-related tasks, and female-favoring spatial-related tasks. That is, homosexual men’s cognitive performance was closer to that of heterosexual women than heterosexual men. Second, homosexual women were no different to heterosexual women, despite some tendency to be sex-atypical in certain domains (e.g., female-favoring verbal-related tasks). Third, there was considerable heterogeneity in the data as we found in our original meta-analysis.

The magnitude of the effect sizes revealed in the current multivariate meta-analysis was similar to that of our prior univariate meta-analysis. Once again, we found that homosexual men showed a cross-sex shift in male- and female-favoring spatial tasks, which is consistent with our prior demonstration that effect size was the highest for spatial tasks in men (Xu et al., 2017). The results for women were also consistent with previous work, suggesting that homosexual women are by and large sex-typical in most cognitive domains. However, given that the studies included in the current multivariate meta-analysis are a subsample of those from our prior study, the reduced number of studies may have contributed to the non-significant results found in women.

Our results should not be interpreted as indicating that homosexual men performed exactly the same as heterosexual women. In other words, we find little evidence of a complete sex inversion in this behavioral domain among homosexual men. Task type and cognitive domain are clearly critical. Traditionally, male-favoring spatial tasks (particularly mental rotation and spatial relations) appear to be most sensitive to sexual orientation differences. This is most likely due to the fact that they show robust general sex differences (Voyer et al., 1995) and that this domain provided the greatest number of studies. The cross-sex shifted pattern displayed by homosexual men is consistent with that found in several other behavioral domains such as sex-typed behavior and personality (Bailey et al., 2016). However, the effect sizes found here are much smaller than for other traits associated with sexual orientation, such as childhood gender nonconformity (Bailey et al., 2016).

In general, the body of work supports the prenatal androgen theory which predicts that homosexual men should show cross-sex shifts in sex differentiated behavioral domains in line with the atypical shift in their sexual partner orientation (Ellis & Ames, 1987). As the present study did not directly measure prenatal androgen levels, caution must be exercised in interpretation. However, some remarks regarding the patterns reported here and their relationship to the prenatal androgen model are worthwhile. The evidence for a cross-sex shift in cognition is inconsistent with research using putative markers of prenatal androgen exposure. For example, digit ratio (2D:4D) is a marker ascribed to the actions of prenatal androgen levels. However, nonheterosexual women have more masculine digit ratios (indicating greater exposure to prenatal androgens) than heterosexual women, but there is no significant difference in digit ratios between heterosexual and nonheterosexual men (Grimbos, Dawood, Burriss, Zucker, & Puts, 2010). Similarly, differences in handedness are a feature sometimes ascribed to the actions of prenatal testosterone acting on developing brain asymmetries. However, both nonheterosexual men and women are significantly more likely to be non-right-handed than heterosexual men and women rather than cross-sex shifted (Lalumière, Blanchard, & Zucker, 2000). As mentioned earlier, sexual orientation-related differences in sex-typed behavior (e.g., play and peer preferences), personality, and sexual orientation target preference itself (the preference for males or females as sexual and romantic partners) are much larger than cognitive differences (Bailey et al., 2016). Some of these traits (sex-typed behaviors) may show substantially larger sex and sexual orientation-related differences during childhood than other traits (cognition). Thus, it is possible that these discrepant findings where some traits show cross-sex shifts (cognition, sex-typed behavior) while others do not (somatic traits), or where cross-sex shifts are found in some traits in females (digit ratio) but not in males, point to a possible patterning of causal pathways by trait, sex, and developmental stage.

As mentioned before, the number and extent of critical periods for prenatal sex hormone actions might be important. There is a growing theoretical suggestion that males may have more than one critical period (e.g., prenatal, early postnatal, and pubertal), while females may have several but longer sustaining “sensitive periods” in which sex hormones and other developmental processes may act over a longer time period to influence behavioral outcomes (McCarthy et al., 2018). It is important to note that there are no longitudinal studies linking direct measures of prenatal androgens, such as amniotic levels of fetal testosterone, with later sexual orientation and cognition in humans. Such prospective studies would provide the critical test of the prenatal androgen model. Such studies will also need to control for important confounders or third factors such as genetics (e.g., genetic correlations between the traits in question over time). Such third factors might also be more important in the causal association between male sexual orientation and associated behavioral traits. One such factor is the well-known fraternal birth order effect (FBO; Blanchard, 2018). This refers to the robust finding that homosexual men have more older brothers than heterosexual men, an effect ascribed to maternal immune responses triggered by carrying successive male fetuses which affects sexual differentiation of the brain of later born males (Bogaert et al., 2018). One study has reported no significant association between FBO and spatial cognition in heterosexual and homosexual males (Rahman, 2005b; cf. Bogaert, 2003a, 2003b).

The current meta-analysis had several important limitations. Many of these are similar to those in our original meta-analysis so will not be repeated here. However, specific to the present analysis, we note that the heterogeneity between studies was high given the broad 95% confidence intervals. We have suggested that methodological variation (e.g., cognitive domain differences) is a significant contributor to this heterogeneity. Second, the number of studies for some cognitive domains included in the multivariate meta-analysis was small, which generally resulted in broad 95% confidence intervals (e.g., spatial location memory, female-favoring tasks, and male-favoring other tasks). Broad 95% confidence intervals indicate considerable uncertainty in effect sizes. Thus, more research with appropriate sample sizes is needed and this may change the conclusions. Finally, we were unable to find sufficient numbers of studies which reported within-group correlations between multiple cognitive tasks (only four studies reported the correlations). This latter point is of note for future research because having within-group correlations between tasks would permit the calculation of multivariate effect sizes (such as Mahalanobis D or other indices of multivariate distances). Such metrics would allow tests of the overall magnitude of sexual orientation differences where the groups differ along many variables of interest or where the construct is multidimensional (Del Giudice, 2013).

From 2019: Synaptic and brain-expressed gene sets relate to the shared genetic risk across five psychiatric disorders

Synaptic and brain-expressed gene sets relate to the shared genetic risk across five psychiatric disorders. Anke R. Hammerschlag, Christiaan A. de Leeuw, Christel M. Middeldorp and Tinca J. C. Polderman. Psychological Medicine, July 22 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291719001776

Abstract
Background Mounting evidence shows genetic overlap between multiple psychiatric disorders. However, the biological underpinnings of shared risk for psychiatric disorders are not yet fully uncovered. The identification of underlying biological mechanisms is crucial for the progress in the treatment of these disorders.

Methods We applied gene-set analysis including 7372 gene sets, and 53 tissue-type specific gene-expression profiles to identify sets of genes that are involved in the etiology of multiple psychiatric disorders. We included genome-wide meta-association data of the five psychiatric disorders schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The total dataset contained 159 219 cases and 262 481 controls.

Results We identified 19 gene sets that were significantly associated with the five psychiatric disorders combined, of which we excluded five sets because their associations were likely driven by schizophrenia only. Conditional analyses showed independent effects of several gene sets that in particular relate to the synapse. In addition, we found independent effects of gene expression levels in the cerebellum and frontal cortex.

Conclusions We obtained novel evidence for shared biological mechanisms that act across psychiatric disorders and we showed that several gene sets that have been related to individual disorders play a role in a broader range of psychiatric disorders.

Discussion

The current gene-set analyses revealed various new sets of genes – in particular related to the synapse and neuronal functions – and gene-expression profiles of multiple brain tissues that play a role in shared genetic risk across five psychiatric disorders. The most strongly associated gene set was the highly-brain-expressed genes, which has previously been related to ASD (Pinto et al., 2014). However, as this gene set contains over 5000 genes with many different functions, this observation particularly confirms the polygenic nature of psychiatric disorders and its association with brain processes. This finding is in concordance with our tissue-type analysis, which showed the importance of gene expression of brain tissues for psychiatric disorders. Gene expression profiles of the cerebellum showed the strongest association, which confirms studies reporting cerebellar dysfunction in various psychiatric disorders (Phillips et al., 2015). Our finding of an additional effect of expression profiles of the frontal cortex is supported by observations that dysfunction of this region and related networks underlie cognitive and behavioral disturbances in psychiatric disorders (Fornito et al., 2015).

In addition, we identified multiple gene sets related to the synapse, which aligns with synaptic functions of several identified genes for multiple individual psychiatric disorders (Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, 2014; Wray et al., 2018; Demontis et al., 2019; Grove et al., 2019; Stahl et al., 2019). Three of these gene sets point to a specific role of calcium channels, a well-established mechanism related to SCZ (Ripke et al., 2013; Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, 2014; Pardinas et al., 2018) and suggested for BP and MDD as well (Cross-Disorder Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, 2013b; Wray et al., 2018). A common role across additional disorders is further supported by a cross-disorder genome-wide meta-analysis reporting genes related to the functioning of these channels (Schork et al., 2019). We also replicated a cross-disorder role for the postsynapse, although our findings do not support the previously reported role of histone and immune pathways (The Network and Pathway Analysis Subgroup of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, 2015). The target genes of MIR137, a microRNA that is one of the best replicated genetic risk factors for SCZ (Cross-Disorder Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, 2013b; Ripke et al., 2013; Pardinas et al., 2018), have not been implicated yet in other disorders and we now show that alterations in this network of genes are likely also involved in other psychiatric disorders. Multiple studies have reported the involvement of MIR137 in synaptic function, by regulating synaptogenesis, synapse maturation and synaptic transmission (Strazisar et al., 2014; Verma et al., 2015; He et al., 2018). Furthermore, our results suggest a shared role for FMRP targets which have previously been related to SCZ and ASD based on CNVs (Pinto et al., 2014; Szatkiewicz et al., 2014), de novo mutations (Iossifov et al., 2012; Fromer et al., 2014), rare variants (Purcell et al., 2014), and common variants (Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, 2014; Jansen et al., 2017; Pardinas et al., 2018). FMRP is an RNA-binding protein involved in the regulation of translation. The binding transcripts code mainly for postsynaptic proteins (Darnell et al., 2011), and loss of FMRP results in widespread deficits in synaptic plasticity (Darnell and Klann, 2013). Taken together, all identified gene sets converge to an important contribution of communication between neurons, which is supported by the implication of a more common role of altered cortical connectivity in psychiatric disorders (Fornito et al., 2015).

Of note, the biological annotations of gene sets comprise a complex and challenging process, e.g., due to the multiple functions of many genes and incomplete knowledge. The construction of gene sets is in general based on different approaches such as shared cellular mechanism, co-expression patterns, protein-protein interaction, or co-localization. Hence, sets of genes may be based upon different inclusion criteria, creating an overlap between gene sets, as also illustrated by the current study. Clearly, it is important to recognize the impact of particular annotations on gene-set analysis results and their biological interpretation.

To address this issue of confounding and redundancy in gene sets, we applied conditional analyses. This provided insight in how different gene-set associations relate to each other, and whether identified functions may not be biologically relevant to the disorders but rather induced by confounding factors (de Leeuw et al., 2018). Brain-specific gene expression could be such a general confounder for our identified synaptic and neuronal gene sets, but the conditional analyses demonstrated that most of their associated signals were independent of brain expression levels. The conditional analyses between the identified gene sets revealed that part of these gene-set associations is not independent, which might be induced by a more extensive underlying function. Nevertheless, several independent associations suggest that multiple synaptic mechanisms are contributing risk factors for psychiatric disorders. These mechanisms may serve as starting points for future functional studies to disentangle their relation to psychiatric disorders, and potentially provide a first resource for the identification of drug targets and for drug repositioning (Breen et al., 2016).

Our cross-disorder gene-set and gene-property analyses are built on a meta-analysis of the gene-based associations with the individual disorders, therefore possible opposite effects of genetic variants are not taken into account. To explore if genetic variants are related to multiple disorders but with opposite effects, we performed an SNP-based meta-analysis of the five disorders and conducted a gene-set and gene-property analysis based on those results. In this analysis, genetic variants with opposite effects across disorders are cancelled out. Although these results showed strong correlations with the original analysis, we detected differences in association strength that point to partial differences in direction of SNP effects between the disorders for most identified gene sets. Interestingly, the effects on calcium channel activity are unidirectional across disorders. The outcome of different effects across disorders is supported by the recent finding that the highly correlated disorders SCZ and BD are differentiated by several genetic loci with opposite directions of effects (Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, 2018). It has indeed been shown that in addition to genetic variants with effects on a general dimension of cross-disorder liability, specific variants uniquely differentiate between psychiatric disorders (Grotzinger et al., 2019). Furthermore, the general cross-disorder liability could reflect biological mechanisms that are related to specific overlapping symptoms, e.g. sleep disturbances, depressive symptoms and cognitive problems. This hypothesis is supported by the finding that polygenic components underlie multiple symptom dimensions of SCZ and BD (Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, 2018). Exploring the biological mechanisms that may drive specific symptoms across disorders is therefore required to further advance our understanding of the complexity of the genetic overlap. Moreover, the identification of these mechanisms may help to develop individual-centered therapy driven by symptoms instead of general disorders. Moving the focus from dichotomies to the level of the individual is required to advance precision medicine (Senn, 2018).

We note that the associations of our identified gene sets were to a large extent driven by SCZ. This is in line with previous studies that reported multiple gene sets associated with SCZ (Ripke et al., 2013; Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, 2014; Pardinas et al., 2018). Yet, hardly any gene sets have been detected for other psychiatric disorders despite the recent successes in identifying many genetic loci for multiple disorders that resulted from the fast increase in sample sizes that approach, or even exceed, the sample sizes of SCZ studies. This suggests that less successful findings for disorders such as MDD are unlikely a result of less statistical power. One possible explanation is that the identified gene sets of the current study have a true stronger effect on SCZ. One could also speculate that that SCZ has a different genetic architecture, or is less genetically heterogeneous compared to other disorders, but future studies are needed to address these issues.

In conclusion, the current study provides novel evidence for shared biological mechanisms that act across psychiatric disorders based on gene-set and gene-property analyses. We showed that several gene sets that previously only had been associated with individual disorders also play a role in a broader range of psychiatric disorders, supporting the view of a common pathogenesis across disorders. This indicates that the genetic overlap between disorders is not randomly distributed, but can be explained by specific biological mechanisms. The strongest evidence in our results was for the involvement of synaptic functions, and gene expression profiles of the cerebellum and frontal cortex. The genetic data collection of additional psychiatric disorders is rapidly increasing and will make it possible to extend our analyses to other disorders in the near future. Understanding the shared biological mechanisms between psychiatric disorders may provide a hint towards a general vulnerability for multiple psychiatric disorders, and could result in potential treatment for a broad spectrum of psychiatric disorders.