Are there dedicated female neurons for saying no to sex? In the sophisticated fly Drosophila, there are.

Neuroscience: The Female Art of Saying No. Anne C.von Philipsborn. Current Biology, Volume 30, Issue 19, October 5 2020, Pages R1080-R1083. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.023

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1313135084627783682

Refers to: Ovipositor Extrusion Promotes the Transition from Courtship to Copulation and Signals Female Acceptance in Drosophila melanogaster. Cecilia Mezzera, Margarida Brotas, Miguel Gaspar, Hania J. Pavlou, Stephen F. Goodwin, Maria Luísa Vasconcelos. Current Biology, Volume 30, Issue 19, October 5 2020, Pages 3736-3748.e5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982220311775

Summary: Females communicate sexual receptivity in various ways. Drosophila signal that they are mated and ovulating, and resistive to mating again, by extruding their egg-laying organ (ovipositor). Connectome-aided circuit analysis reveals how this break up message is computed and differs from an acceptance response in virgins.

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Are there dedicated female neurons for saying no to sex? In the sophisticated fly Drosophila, there are.

From the Mezzera paper:

Summary: Communication between male and female fruit flies during courtship is essential for successful mating, but, as with many other species, it is the female who decides whether to mate. Here, we show a novel role for ovipositor extrusion in promoting male copulation attempts in virgin and mated females and signaling acceptance in virgins. We first show that ovipositor extrusion is only displayed by sexually mature females, exclusively during courtship and in response to the male song. We identified a pair of descending neurons that controls ovipositor extrusion in mated females. Genetic silencing of the descending neurons shows that ovipositor extrusion stimulates the male to attempt copulation. A detailed behavioral analysis revealed that during courtship, the male repeatedly licks the female genitalia, independently of ovipositor extrusion, and that licking an extruded ovipositor prompts a copulation attempt. However, if the ovipositor is not subsequently retracted, copulation is prevented, as it happens with mated females. In this study, we reveal a dual function of the ovipositor: while its extrusion is necessary for initiating copulation by the male, its retraction signals female acceptance. We thus uncover the significance of the communication between male and female that initiates the transition from courtship to copulation.

Discussion

The transition from courtship to copulation is a critical moment for the reproductive success of animals. The exact steps leading to this transition in any species remain largely uncharacterized [41]. In our work, we showed that in fruit flies, male licking and female ovipositor extrusion are involved in this transition (schema in Figure 5G). An important feature of this interaction is that the female mating status determines whether this transition is complete. We observed that virgin females retract the ovipositor upon a male’s attempt, thus allowing copulation, whereas mated females do not, thus blocking copulation.

Virgin and mated females use a variation of the same behavior to stimulate and prevent copulation, respectively. This variation requires different descending neurons probably acting on common circuits. This could be a versatile and economic strategy to mediate opposite responses when the same individual uses one or the other variation depending on the circumstances.

Why would a mated female signal the male to attempt copulation while blocking intromission? In circumstances that we have not addressed in this study, mated females re-mate. For a few hours after mating, and given the appropriate context, mated females will eject the sperm and re-mate in an attempt to increase fecundity and offspring genetic diversity [25, 42]. In this case, prompting the male to attempt copulation makes sense, as it could lead to copulation. An additional role for full ovipositor extrusion in mated females, which we have not explored here, may be in announcing the female’s current pheromonal composition. Ovipositor extrusion would be an efficient way of exposing the anti-aphrodisiac pheromones 3-O-acetyl-1,3-dihydroxyoctacosa-11,19-diene [24] present in the tip of the ovipositor and cis-vaccenyl acetate, mostly in the reproductive system [25, 43], which, together with 7-tricosene [23] present in the cuticle, indicate to an approaching male that the female has mated, and, depending on the combination and intensity of the chemical cues, the male may or may not initiate courtship.

In this work, we identified a pair of descending neurons that control full ovipositor extrusion. Full ovipositor extrusion can be induced in the virgin female by DNp13 activation, but activity in these neurons is not necessary for ovipositor extrusion in virgins. Although full and partial ovipositor extrusions do not have a sharp distinction, ovipositor extrusion is commanded by different neurons and controlled differently in virgin and mated flies. It remains to be elucidated which are the descending neurons controlling virgin ovipositor extrusion and how they interact with DNp13 to control similar behavior in females in different mating states.

Our work shows that, during the interaction between the sexes, the female responds to the male courtship song with ovipositor extrusion. However, it is apparent in the videos that song does not always lead to ovipositor extrusion. This response pattern suggests that ovipositor extrusion is not a reflexive reaction to courtship song, but rather arises from a temporal or multimodal integration. Further experiments are required to elucidate the nature of this association. How does the male verify that the song was heard? Our results indicate that the male is sampling the female genitalia with the proboscis throughout courtship. Presumably, licking is intended to probe the chemical landscape of the female genitalia, which is likely to change when the ovipositor is extruded; in this way, the male could sense when the female is responding to the song. We show that licking of the ovipositor elicits a copulation attempt. In line with early suggestions that compounds are released during ovipositor extrusion to stimulate the male [11], we speculate that a chemical compound is presented with the ovipositor by the female and sensed by taste neurons on the male proboscis. A gustatory signal, yet unidentified and common to virgin and mated females, would stimulate the male to attempt copulation. Having established that licking an extruded ovipositor is the starting point for the male to attempt copulation allows us to use the same starting point to study how the transition from courtship to copulation is processed in the male brain.

In conclusion, our work highlights how both sexes contribute to continuous communication during courtship that culminates in copulation attempt gated by the female ovipositor extrusion. Moreover, our findings open new avenues of study of the neuronal regulation of behaviors that lead to the transition from courtship to copulation and how this transition regulates neuronal activity.

Contrary to the common impression, the U.S. public is largely uninformed rather than misinformed of a wide range of factual claims verified by journalists

The Value of Not Knowing: Partisan Cue-Taking and Belief Updating of the Uninformed, the Ambiguous, and the Misinformed. Jianing Li, Michael W Wagner. Journal of Communication, Volume 70, Issue 5, October 2020, Pages 646–669, https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaa022

Abstract: The problem of a misinformed citizenry is often used to motivate research on misinformation and its corrections. However, researchers know little about how differences in informedness affect how well corrective information helps individuals develop knowledge about current events. We introduce a Differential Informedness Model that distinguishes between three types of individuals, that is, the uninformed, the ambiguous, and the misinformed, and establish their differences with two experiments incorporating multiple partisan cues and issues. Contrary to the common impression, the U.S. public is largely uninformed rather than misinformed of a wide range of factual claims verified by journalists. Importantly, we find that the success of belief updating after exposure to corrective information (via a fact-checking article) is dependent on the presence, the certainty, and the accuracy of one’s prior belief. Uninformed individuals are more likely to update their beliefs than misinformed individuals after exposure to corrective information. Interestingly, the ambiguous individuals, regardless of whether their uncertain guesses were correct, do not differ from uninformed individuals with respect to belief updating.

Discussion

Sociotechnical changes in the communication environment and the concomitant concerns over the quality and content of information people consume have urged scholars to carefully theorize how persuasion takes place (Holbert, Garrett, & Gleason, 2010). Knowledge, a foundational factor in persuasion theories, is important for considering how people elaborate on and react to new information (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). In this paper, we conceptualized differential types of informedness and tested how individuals with different states of informedness take up partisan cues and update beliefs about what is true.

First, and contrary to the impression that many citizens are misinformed, the majority of our respondents are uninformed of a wide range of claims important enough to be verified by journalists. Only a small group of respondents hold confident, inaccurate beliefs. This builds on work by Pasek et al. (2015) by distinguishing between the uninformed, who admit that they “don’t know,” the ambiguous, who take a guess with varying degrees of accuracy, and the misinformed, who hold steadfast false beliefs. In the current environment where concerns over misinformation often lead to heightened attention to belief accuracy, our findings highlight the necessity to bridge between work on political ignorance and misperception and the benefit of leveraging belief accuracy, belief presence and belief certainty to better assess public informedness.

Considering our Differential Informedness Model along with theories on information shortcuts (Popkin, 1991) and belief updating (Kunda, 1990) yields several important implications. Notably, the conceptual distinctions between types of political informedness are substantively meaningful in belief updating. Individuals engage in different levels of motivated reasoning depending on their prior informedness. In the immigration condition, the misinformed individuals held on to false beliefs even after reading the fact-checking article, while the uninformed and the ambiguous individuals were less likely to choose the incorrect answer. Interestingly, the ambiguous individuals, regardless of whether their uncertain guess was correct or not, did not differ from uninformed individuals with respect to belief updates. This gives hope that although the persuasive effects of fact-checks might be hindered by confident misperceptions, it is still useful to the much larger group of citizens who are uninformed or ambiguous of the facts. Of course, it is likely that these same citizens are less likely to participate in democratic politics, muting the persuasive effects of fact-checks on attitudes and behaviors.

Further, integrating the Differential Informedness Model with theories about the effects of information shortcuts on decision-making (Popkin, 1991), we find that what people believe is also influenced by who is doing the talking. Labeling the three U.S. political figures, Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Chuck Schumer, as the source of a claim of fact influenced people’s factual beliefs to different extents. Unsurprisingly, Trump was the strongest cue of the three, resulting in a decreased number of “Don’t know” answers, an increased number of certain answers, and more partisan-congruent truthfulness evaluation. The McConnell cue resulted in increased partisan-congruent evaluation, while the Schumer cue leads to increased number of certain answers. These findings confirm that the influence of partisan cues on factual beliefs is not particular to a single partisan politician, although prominence in political discourse, or indeed, the elite in question’s partisanship itself, may influence the size of the effect.

Our findings also lay plain the likelihood that context will play important roles in conclusions about persuasive effects. With the divisive yet ubiquitous immigration issue, fact-checking helps the uninformed more than the misinformed, highlighting its role in accurate belief formation beyond belief debiasing (Graves & Amazeen, 2019). For marijuana legalization, fact-checking generally helps everyone. Is this due to fundamental differences in the nature of the issues, or is it because the immigration claim is rated false while the marijuana claim is rated true? Our study implies that the misinformed may have a harder time believing something they thought was true is actually false than the other way around (Wintersieck, 2017).

Taken together, our work points to fruitful directions in theorizing a more generalized process (Figure 3) of how prior states of differential informedness, interacting with message features, can trigger distinct types of processing motivations and ultimately produce pro- or anti-democratic changes as well as persistence regarding various persuasion outcomes. Our proposed framework suggests directions to theorize about message features—including but not limited to information shortcuts and issue contexts—such as argument strength, message frames, etc., to consider the role of differential informedness when estimating persuasive effects. Further, building on work that highlights outcomes beyond message-congruent response changing (Miller, 2002), our work suggests that individuals may engage in accurate belief formation or hold on to persistent ones. Future research should explore if backfire, or reinforcement of responses, depends upon differential informedness (Nyhan & Reifler, 2010; Wood & Porter, 2019) and consider attitudinal and behavior outcomes beyond belief responses (Thorson, 2016).

Figure 3

A simple model of informedness, message features, motivation, and persuasive outcomes.

What can journalists learn from our analysis? Fact-checking stands as an attractive remedy for the public to navigate a complicated media ecosystem rife with misinformation and a focus on the horse race (Amazeen, 2015). However, we offered a nuanced account of the ability of fact-checking to help citizens learn about the truth. Of course, reporters do not control their audiences’ prior states of informedness; but taking caution with partisan cues when presenting facts can facilitate more accurate beliefs. Fact-checkers might consider focusing on the evidence regarding the veracity of the claims they check and give less attention to who made the claim. A downside of this approach is that the partisan source is usually a key element of what makes the factual claim newsworthy and perhaps the most crucial factor in the size of the audience the fact-check earns. Finally, given that the majority of the public is uninformed rather than misinformed, journalists might consider focusing on presenting verifiable facts rather than repeating a false claim, which may lead audience to erroneously remember it as true (Peter & Koch, 2016).

While we analyzed beliefs about claims of fact for 60 claims across two studies, we only provided fact-check reporting on two of the claims. More work on representative samples across countries is necessary before meaningful generalizations about belief updating based upon informedness is possible. Of course, we randomly assigned the politicians we used in our studies to the claims we selected for analysis. In the political information ecology, these claims are not random nor is the attention they receive from fact-checkers. The nature of the political environment will also likely impact our findings on partisan cues and belief updating. People tend to adopt partisan frames, regardless of quality, when the environment is polarized, while non-polarized environments tend to encourage individuals to seek the best argument before adopting a position on an issue (Druckman, Peterson, & Slothuus, 2013). Future research should replicate our findings with considerations of contextual or ecological variances.

We have made the case that it is important to differentiate among types of informedness to assess the quality of citizens’ knowledge and persuade them to believe what is verifiably true. Persuasive effects of corrective information can be strong for those who are aware of their own ignorance but may fail when individuals do not know the biases they carry that cause unearned certainty about their beliefs. We examined 60 factual claims, partisan cues regarding three political elites, and two-issue contexts for a granularity of data that has allowed us to advance knowledge on an important question in political communication. Our framework on differential informedness is applicable to other subject areas such as health and science where knowledge measurement is increasingly crucial and useful in theorizing a general process of the interplay of informedness, message features, and motivations on persuasive outcomes.

Adolescents with stronger religiosity earn better grades, are less truant in secondary school, and complete more years of higher education, [but] conservative Protestants are among the least educated religious groups

Religion and Academic Achievement: A Research Review Spanning Secondary School and Higher Education. Ilana M. Horwitz. Review of Religious Research, Oct 4 2020. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13644-020-00433-y

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1312982215496740865

Abstract: Profound socio-economic disparities that exist among American religious groups are largely driven by the quantity and quality of education they receive. Furthermore, given the U.S. schooling system is rooted in Protestant ideals, it is possible that students with Protestant commitments have an academic advantage. This article synthesizes literature on how adolescents’ religious commitment and background are associated with their short- and long-term academic outcomes. A literature search identified 42 relevant studies published in 1990-present. These studies were reviewed to identify: (1) the mechanisms through which religion affects educational outcomes—moral, social, and cultural; (2) the main operationalized measures of religion—religious tradition and individual religiosity; and (3) the most frequent academic outcomes studied—secondary school grades, truancy, test scores, educational aspirations, and educational attainment. Of the 42 studies, 95% were based exclusively on quantitative survey data, 95% examined only religiosity or religious tradition, and 66% focused on educational attainment. There were three major findings. First, research has advanced from correlational studies to methodologically rigorous designs suggesting religion can play a causal role in academic success. Second, research reveals a religiosity-religious tradition paradox: Adolescents with stronger religiosity earn better grades, are less truant in secondary school, and complete more years of higher education. A large proportion of highly religious adolescents are likely to be conservative Protestants, but the research on religious tradition suggests that conservative Protestants are among the least educated religious groups. Third, it is unclear if religious adolescents only fare better on academic outcomes that reward their personality, such as grades, or whether they also perform better on more objective measures, such as standardized tests. This systematic review reveals a paradoxical “effect” of academic achievement and religiosity versus-religious tradition. The overall results indicate the need to: (a) identify the interaction between religious tradition and religiosity, (b) distinguish between subjective versus objective academic outcomes; (c) examine heterogeneity among non-religious adolescents; (d) study the interplay between institutional schooling and institutional religion; (e) investigate the religion/cultural match between teachers and students; (f) pursue qualitative research to better understand mechanisms; and (g) expand research about non-Christians.

“And the Male Is Not like the Female”: Sunni Islam and Gender Nonconformity

“And the Male Is Not like the Female”: Sunni Islam and Gender Nonconformity (Part I). Mobeen Vaid. Muslim Matters, Jul 24. https://muslimmatters.org/2017/07/24/and-the-male-is-not-like-the-female-sunni-islam-and-gender-nonconformity/

VI. Conclusions Concerning Gender Nonconformity in Sunni Islam

On the basis of the above discussion, we can make a number of normative assertions concerning Sunni Islam’s position on gender nonconformity:

⦁ Gender is of two discrete types: male and female.

⦁ Gender is normatively presumed on the basis of unambiguous biological constitution.

⦁ In the event of physiological ambiguities, either on account of hermaphroditism or genital agenesis, the Sharīʿa provides methods by which gender can be established. Should these methods fail, a minority of scholars permit the ambiguous individual to make a non-revocable gender selection, after which he or she is treated in accord with the gender chosen, while the majority continue regarding the individual as “ambiguous” (mushkil) and consider marriage impermissible for such a person.

⦁ Mannish behavior (for women) and effeminate behavior (for men) are impermissible if taken on deliberately. If, however, effeminate behavior manifests in a male dispositionally (khilqatan)—hence lying outside of his conscious control—then those (unelected) mannerisms are not deemed sinful. The effeminate male (mukhannath) is required, by some jurists, to attenuate to the extent possible those traits—such as gait, voice, and other mannerisms—that may be liable to correction through conscious habituation.

⦁ If male effeminacy is paired with an absence of sexual desire for women, then the effeminate male is permitted to remain in the private company of marriageable non-maḥram women (ajnabiyyāt) according to the majority of scholars. This permission is contingent on the effeminate male upholding the confidentiality of the women in question, not divulging the specifics of their physique to unrelated men.

⦁ Aside from the specific permission to enter into the company of non-maḥram women, a constitutionally effeminate male (al-mukhannath al-khilqī) is regarded and treated as a man in all other respects, subject to the same Sharīʿa rulings that would apply to any other male. Accordingly, he may lead prayer, testify and bear witness as a man, and marry a woman if he so desires. Conversely, he is required to refrain from liwāṭ (sodomy) and other forbidden sexual acts, even if his lack of desire for women is accompanied by a persistent inclination towards men.

⦁ It is categorically impermissible for either a male or a female to dress in a manner that conclusively imitates the opposite sex. If men and women in a given culture dress in ways that are indistinguishable, then men must at least abstain from veiling and from covering in other ways that are specific to women.

In light of the normative Islamic categories, prescriptions, and proscriptions examined above, Part II of this study will consider contemporary discourses surrounding the issue of gender identity (in comparison to biological sex), gender roles, and transgenderism with a focus on the multifarious ways in which modern discourses surrounding these topics can or cannot be accommodated given the legal, ethical, and moral boundaries established by the Sharīʿa.

Latent genetic traits explain a nontrivial amount of variance in two news use motives (surveillance & entertainment), as well as frequency of consumption across news sources, mainly ideological ones (Fox News & CNN)

Exploring Genetic Contributions to News Use Motives and Frequency of News Consumption: A Study of Identical and Fraternal Twins. Chance York & Paul Haridakis. Mass Communication and Society, May 27 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2020.1759096

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1312702086736470022

Abstract: Prior research conducted within the Uses and Gratifications paradigm has considered the contribution of numerous background social and psychological characteristics to motives for media use and media consumption patterns. In this study, we explore the extent to which far more fundamental characteristics—genes—explain, in part, motives to use news media and frequency of news use. Utilizing original data collected on identical and fraternal twins (n = 334), we find that latent genetic traits explain a nontrivial amount of variance in two unique news use motives, surveillance and entertainment, as well as frequency of consumption across multiple news sources. Genetic traits were particularly influential in explaining the frequency of using sources commonly characterized as ideological, such as Fox News and CNN.

Sexual orientation change therapies: Not efficacious in altering sexual orientation, & are associated with more depression, relationship dysfunction, and increased homonegativity

A systematic review of the efficacy, harmful effects, and ethical issues related to sexual orientation change efforts. Amy Przeworski  Emily Peterson  Alexandra Piedra. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, October 1 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/cpsp.12377

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1312446997442379777

Abstract: Sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) are practices intended to eliminate same‐sex attraction. We systematically review the literature on the efficacy of SOCE and discuss ways in which SOCE violate ethical guidelines for working with LGBQ clients. Existing literature indicates that SOCE are not efficacious in altering sexual orientation. Studies concluding otherwise often contain methodological limitations, such as biased recruitment or a retrospective design, that weaken the validity or prevent the generalizability of results. Many studies report negative outcomes associated with SOCE, such as depression, relationship dysfunction, and increased homonegativity. SOCE‐oriented therapies also violate the American Psychological Association's (APA) ethical guidelines for working with LGBQ populations. In contrast, affirming therapies are efficacious, consistent with APA guidelines, and are associated with positive outcomes for LGBQ clients.

Sadness is a common symptom in the general population; it is an intermediate state on a continuum from well-being to major depressive disorder

Sadness and the continuum from well-being to depressive disorder: a replication study in a representative US population sample. Sarah Tebeka et al. Journal of Psychiatric Research, October 3 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.10.004

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1312441652489809920

Abstract

Objective: Sadness is a common symptom in the general population. We tested the hypothesis that sadness is an intermediate state on a continuum from well-being to major depressive disorder (MDD).

Methods: Using data from The National Epidemiologic Study of Alcohol and Related Conditions III (NESARC-III), a large and representative US population sample, we assessed the prevalence of sadness, its sociodemographic and clinical correlates, using three non-overlapping groups: (i) non-depressed sad participants, (ii) non-sad non-depressed participants and (iii) depressed participants. We estimated sensitivity and specificity of sadness.

Results: Sadness was frequent in the general population 34.3%), and present in almost all participants with MDD (99.6%). Sad (N=4,593) and MDD participants (N=4,593) and 7,889 respectively) shared common sociodemographic characteristics. Compared to controls, sad and MDD participants presented more psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, substance use, psychotic, eating and personality disorders. Sadness was an intermediate state, sad individuals reporting more psychiatric disorders than controls, but less than participants with MDD. Sadness demonstrated a very high sensitivity (99.6 %), with a good specificity (83.8%) for MDD.

Limitations: The NESARC assessed sadness over lifetime, which may involve memorization bias.

Conclusion: Our study confirms the existence of a depressive continuum. Sadness is frequent in general population, and shares correlates with MDD. We have also shown a continuum where sadness is an intermediate state between well-being and psychiatric disorders. With high sensitivity and specificity, sadness appears as a clear MDD prodrome and at-risk state, and may be a symptom of a transdiagnostic distress process.

Key words: Anxiety/Anxiety disordersBipolar disorderDepressionEating disordersEpidemiologySubstance Use Disorders

Rats & mice show comparable levels of emotional contagion, & an equivalent contagion response to familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics

Towards a unified theory of emotional contagion in rodents—A meta-analysis. Julen Hernandez-Lallement, Paula Gómez-Sotres, Maria Carrillo. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, October 3 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.09.010

Highlights

• Rats and mice show comparable levels of emotional contagion, however, only mice strain-specific differences in emotional contagion response.

• Rats and mice show an equivalent contagion response to familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics.

• Prior experience with an emotional inducing stimulus significantly increases fear contagion response in rats but not in mice.

• Social testing condition influences the level of contagion: animals tested alone show reduced contagion compared to animals tested in a group.

Abstract: Here we leverage 80 years of emotional contagion research in rodents and perform the first meta-analysis on this topic. Using 457 effect sizes, we show that, while both rats and mice are capable of emotional contagion, there are differences in how various factors modulate empathy in these species: 1) only mice show strain-specific differences in emotional contagion response; 2) although rats and mice have equivalent contagion response to familiar and unfamiliar individuals, our results show that familiarity length is negatively correlated with level of contagion in rats only; 3) prior experience with emotional stimuli almost doubles fear contagion response in rats while no changes are detected in pre-exposed mice; 4) both mice and rats tested alone show comparable reduced contagion compared to animals tested in a group; 5) emotional contagion is reduced in animals from both species missing one sensory modality compared to situations where all sensory modalities are recruited during emotional contagion. Lastly, we report similar patterns of brain activation during emotional contagion in rats and mice.

Keywords: Emotional contagionMeta-analysisRodentsEmpathy

4. Conclusion and limitations

4.1. Updating current models of emotional contagion

While a high number of reviews attempting to summarize the literature on emotional contagion in rodents were published in recent years (Keysers and Gazzola, 2016; Meyza et al., 2016; Keum and Shin, 2016; Sivaselvachandran et al., 2016; Mogil, 2012; Lukas and de Jong, 2016; Keum and Shin, 2019), one article in particular went one step further and proposed a classification of experimental approaches used in the field (Panksepp and Panksepp, 2013a). This classification distinguished a variety of phenomenon such as contagion, social analgesia, social buffering, social priming, behavioral matching and social transfer. In the current meta-analysis, we updated and simplified this classification based on our revised inclusion criteria for studies measuring emotional contagion: ‘a study measuring a behavioral response associated with (indirectly -in absence of- and directly -in presence of others-) the emotional cues of other individuals’. This means that all the phenomena mentioned above, per our definition, fall under the emotional contagion umbrella. One illustrative example is the case of social buffering, where a distressed animal shows reduced fear when paired with a neutral non-distressed conspecific. In these cases, we considered the observed phenomenon as emotional contagion from an animal in a neutral emotional state to one in a fearful state. This approach allowed us to unify different paradigms, and seemingly diverse approaches on rodent empathy into a single model. Our classification had additional key differences with the classification proposed by Panskepp & Panksepp (Panksepp and Panksepp, 2013a): 1) contagion can occur without the direct presence of an individual (e.g., through a cotton boll soaked with urine of a fearful animal); 2) emotional contagion paradigms consist of three phases: pre-exposure, emotional transfer and measure of emotional contagion; 3) the term emotional transfer refers to the point in time in which the emotional state from one individual is contaged to another (measurement time could happen during or after emotional transfer); 4) measurements of emotional contagion had to recruit an emotional observable response; if they failed to do so (such as memory effects), they were not considered direct measurements of emotional contagion but rather secondary processes related to emotional contagion. All the studies included in the current meta-analysis fall under this classification.

4.2. Limitations

While we strived to reduce the number of arbitrary decisions that needed to be made (by devising a clear methodology and procedures in the decision process), inevitably, we did encounter difficult choices at different stages of the process. In particular, for each study, we were confronted with interpreting whether the reported data was a direct measure of emotional contagion, or rather a secondary process triggered by emotional contagion. The lack of clear definitions and unity in the field made it challenging in deciding which data was indeed relevant for this meta-analysis. In order to guide our decisions, we elaborated a framework through which each study was pipelined to take a decision on whether the effect size reflected emotional contagion-related data. For instance, research performed on social transmission of taste aversion can be arguably included in the emotional contagion field, since, typically in these paradigms, one animal undergoes an aversive emotion (taste), which is thereafter transmitted to a naïve conspecific through interactions. However, these publications were not included in this meta-analysis due to the fact that the aversive emotion experienced by the demonstrator was often not measured and quantified, nor was the actual transfer of emotion. Similar issues were encountered in studies where emotional contagion was used as a tool, rather than a measure, to study how observing the distress of others affected cognitive abilities later in time, such as memory and learning (Nowak et al., 2013; Ito et al., 2015a). Albeit these are important effects of emotional contagion in other neural processes and behaviors, they are not a direct measurement of emotional contagion, and as such were excluded from the main analysis.

However, we find it important to emphasize the caveats of our approach by pointing out other missing aspects of the emotional contagion literature. For instance, the filters used in this study failed to capture articles on mother-pup interaction and the emotional transfer inherent to such social systems (Moriceau and Sullivan, 2006; Barr et al., 2009). Future meta-analytic work on this topic could increase their search filter range to include such studies and encompass even more variability in rodent emotional contagion.

It should also be noted that our filters might have failed to include articles where similar processes were studied but other wording was used. It is notable that rodent emotional contagion is a controversial topic (Balter, 2011) and several studies have framed their results in terms of stress-related processes instead of emotional contagion (Breitfeld et al., 2015; Zalaquett and Thiessen, 1991; Mackay-Sim and Laing, 1981). While we believe that the high number of effect sizes and studies included in this meta-analysis already allow for careful conclusions to be drawn, future endeavors should carefully increase the granularity of their filters to encompass studies that investigated similar processes under a different framework.

Another limitation of our work is the low number of effect sizes present in some distributions. For instance, the low number of effect sizes reported in females makes it difficult to conclude on the results reported here, that is, that sex does not modulate emotional contagion. Similar parsimony should be used when interpreting effect sizes reported in different strains. For instance, the differences reported between CD-1 and CF-1 mice, two very close strains, are quite surprising. One likely explanation for this (and other) differences might lie in the experimental paradigm used, which differed between strains. These discrepant results suggest that additional, more granular variables should be added to future meta-analysis. For instance, an attempt at classifying experimental paradigms to identify contexts and situations where emotional contagion might be more salient would allow to associate differences in effect sizes to experimental manipulations rather than to species, strains or other parameters.

This meta-analysis revealed that, although, emotional contagion can occur in response to both positive and negative emotions, as already noted by (Panksepp and Panksepp, 2013c), to date nearly all studies investigating emotional contagion in rodents use negative stimuli to trigger emotional transfer, which could be due to the fact that in rodent empathy research negative reinforcers are traditionally used. This observation stresses the need to use positive reinforcers to study the other side of rodent empathy, as already performed in some studies (Willuhn et al., 2014b; Kashtelyan et al., 2014b; Lichtenberg et al., 2018), and more generally in the field of prosocial behavior (Lichtenberg et al., 2018; Márquez et al., 2015; Hernandez-Lallement et al., 2016b, 2020). A promising avenue would lie in studies that directly compare the effects of positive and negative reinforcers, although we acknowledge that developing comparable positive and negative stimulus is a challenge given the higher saliency and reinforcing power of negative stimuli. On the other hand, it is important to consider the possibility, that the under reporting of studies using positive stimuli could be due to lack of effect of this type of stimuli and bias to report null effects.

A final limitation that we encountered was the incomplete reporting of information, namely, the methods section. We noticed that some variables more likely to not be properly reported such as age and number of days that observers and demonstrators were related to each other, with 13 % and 21 % of overall missing values per category respectively. In addition, our quantitative analysis suggested that randomization, blinding and sample size calculations are seldom reported (and/or done) in studies in the field, which overall reduces the results quality.

4.3. Conclusion

Overall, this is the first meta-analysis and systematic review conducted to date on the field of rodent emotional contagion. In this meta-analysis we develop an umbrella definition of emotional contagion that covers a large rage of studies investigating this response. We also developed a classification model that allowed us to unify a range of existing paradigms used to investigate emotional contagion. Within this model we identified key parameters that have a modulatory effect on emotional contagion and that can be used for optimizing the design of future studies in the field. However, we underscore that many differences reported here should be taken cautiously since the lack of effect sizes and major differences in experimental paradigms could still account for effects we report in this meta-analysis. We also identify a range of brain regions that can be used as targets for further to further our understanding of the neural mechanisms of emotional contagion. Lastly, this meta-analysis also identifies gaps in knowledge and potential research areas of interest.

Italy: War, Socialism and the Rise of Fascism

War, Socialism and the Rise of Fascism: An Empirical Exploration. Daron Acemoglu, Giuseppe De Feo, Giacomo De Luca, Gianluca Russo. NBER Working Paper No. 27854, September 2020. https://www.nber.org/papers/w27854

Abstract: The recent ascent of right-wing populist movements in many countries has rekindled interest in understanding the causes of the rise of Fascism in inter-war years. In this paper, we argue that there was a strong link between the surge of support for the Socialist Party after World War I (WWI) and the subsequent emergence of Fascism in Italy. We first develop a source of variation in Socialist support across Italian municipalities in the 1919 election based on war casualties from the area. We show that these casualties are unrelated to a battery of political, economic and social variables before the war and had a major impact on Socialist support (partly because the Socialists were the main anti-war political movement). Our main result is that this boost to Socialist support (that is “exogenous” to the prior political leaning of the municipality) led to greater local Fascist activity as measured by local party branches and Fascist political violence (squadrismo), and to significantly larger vote share of the Fascist Party in the 1924 election. We document that the increase in the vote share of the Fascist Party was not at the expense of the Socialist Party and instead came from right-wing parties, thus supporting our interpretation that center-right and right-wing voters coalesced around the Fascist Party because of the “red scare”. We also show that the veterans did not consistently support the Fascist Party and there is no evidence for greater nationalist sentiment in areas with more casualties. We provide evidence that landowner associations and greater presence of local elites played an important role in the rise of Fascism. Finally, we find greater likelihood of Jewish deportations in 1943-45 and lower vote share for Christian Democrats after World War II in areas with greater early Fascist activity.

Studies found that condom-use discounting is elevated in high-risk substance use populations & is sensitive to context (e.g., partner desirability); administering cocaine & alcohol increased condom-use discounting

Johnson, M. W., Strickland, J. C., Herrmann, E. S., Dolan, S. B., Cox, D. J., & Berry, M. S. (2020). Sexual discounting: A systematic review of discounting processes and sexual behavior. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, Oct 2020. https://doi.org/10.1037/pha0000402

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1312038923296804865

Abstract: Behavioral processes underlying sexual behavior are important for understanding normal human functioning and risk behavior leading to sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This systematic review examines delay and probability discounting in human sexual behavior through synthesis of 50 peer-reviewed, original research articles. Sixteen studies focusing exclusively on monetary delay discounting found small effect size positive correlations with sexual risk behaviors. Eleven studies examined delay or probability discounting of sexual behavior itself using tasks that varied duration, frequency, or quality of sex to determine value. Results show delay and uncertainty of sex causes systematic decreases in value. These studies also show consistent medium effect size relationships between sexual discounting measures and sexual health and substance use, supporting utility above and beyond monetary discounting. Twenty-three studies have modeled clinically relevant decision-making, examining effects of delay until condom availability and STI contraction probability on condom use. Observational and experimental designs found condom-use discounting is elevated in high-risk substance use populations, is sensitive to context (e.g., partner desirability), and is more robustly related to sexual risk compared with monetary discounting or condom use decisions when no delay/uncertainty was involved. Administering cocaine, alcohol, and, for some participants, methamphetamine increased condom-use discounting with minimal effect on monetary discounting or condom use when no delay/uncertainty was involved. Reviewed studies robustly support that sexual behavior is highly dependent on delay and probability discounting, and that these processes strongly contribute to sexual risk. Future research should exploit these systematic relationships to design behavioral and pharmacological approaches to decrease sexual risk behavior.

Social media use seems to hinder rather than enhance an individual’s learning about politics, because it fosters the perception that one no longer needs to actively seek news in order to stay informed (i.e., news-finds-me perception)

Probing the Mechanisms Through Which Social Media Erodes Political Knowledge: The Role of the News-Finds-Me Perception. Sangwon Lee. Mass Communication and Society, Oct 1 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2020.1821381

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1311978431819722753

ABSTRACT: This study examines the causal effects of social media use on political knowledge as well as the underlying mechanisms through which such an effect occurs. The findings suggest that social media use hinders rather than enhances an individual’s learning about politics, because social media use fosters the perception that one no longer needs to actively seek news in order to stay informed (i.e., news-finds-me perception), and this in turn may have an adverse effect on an individual’s learning about politics. However, those who use traditional forms of media to a substantial degree to complement their news consumption via social media are less negatively affected than those who do not.

Spiritual training intends to reduce self‐enhancement, but the self‐enhancement motive is so powerful & deeply ingrained that it hijacks methods intended to transcend the ego, boosting superiority feelings

An Exploration of Spiritual Superiority: The Paradox of Self‐Enhancement. Roos Vonk  Anouk Visser. European Journal of Social Psychology, October 1 2020. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2721

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1311888149015126017

Abstract: Spiritual training is assumed to reduce self‐enhancement, but may have the paradoxical effect of boosting superiority feelings. It can, thus, operate like other self‐enhancement tools and contribute to a contingent self‐worth that depends on one’s spiritual accomplishments. In three studies (N=533, N=2223, N=965), a brief measure of spiritual superiority showed good internal consistency and discriminant validity. As predicted, it was distinctly related to spiritual contingency of self‐worth, illustrating that the self‐enhancement function of spirituality is similar to other contingency domains. It was correlated with self‐esteem and, more strongly, with communal narcissism, corroborating the notion of spiritual narcissism. Spiritual Superiority scores were consistently higher among energetically trained participants than mindfulness trainees and were associated with supernatural overconfidence and self‐ascribed spiritual guidance. Our results illustrate that the self‐enhancement motive is powerful and deeply ingrained so that it can hijack methods intended to transcend the ego and, instead, adopt them to its own service.

Check also Petersen, Michael Bang, and Panagiotis Mitkidis. 2019. “A Sober Second Thought? A Pre-registered Experiment on the Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Political Tolerance.” PsyArXiv. October 20. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/10/analyses-of-data-from-pilot-experiment.html

‘I Do Not Exist’: Pathologies of Self Among Western Buddhists. Judith Pickering. Journal of Religion and Health, June 2019, Volume 58, Issue 3, pp 748–769. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/07/i-do-not-exist-pathologies-of-self.html

Mindfulness not related to behavioral & speech markers of emotional positivity (or less negativity), interpersonally better connected (quality or quantity), or prosocial orientation (more affectionate, less gossipy or complaining):

Dispositional mindfulness in daily life. Deanna M. Kaplan, L. Raison, Anne Milek, Allison M. Tackman, Thaddeus W. W. Pace, Matthias R. Mehl. PLOS, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/11/mindfulness-not-related-to-behavioral.html

Those who fear being single generally do not have difficulty attracting prospective partners; is this so because daters cannot detect fear of being single, or because detected fear of being single does not hinder desirability?

Detectability and Desirability of Fear of Being Single in Online Dating Profiles. Stephanie S. Spielmann  Kevin P. Gahman. Journal of Personality, September 30 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12597

Abstract

Objective: Those who fear being single generally do not have difficulty attracting prospective partners. The present research explores whether this is because daters cannot detect fear of being single, or because detected fear of being single does not hinder desirability.

Method: In Study 1 (N=235, 60% women, Mage=36.9), participants created dating profiles then rated the desirability of profiles depicting high vs. low fear of being single (high narcissism control). In Study 2 (N=176, 69% women, Mage=21.4), participants evaluated fear of being single and desirability of actual profiles.

Results: Differences in fear of being single were detectable. Furthermore, detecting higher fear of being single predicted lower romantic desirability. Desirability ratings were due, in part, to estimating lower physical attractiveness (Study 2). Perceivers’ own fear of being single moderated effects, such that those higher in fear of being single were not deterred by higher fear of being single.

Conclusions: Fear of being single may be detectable when online dating, but desirability of detected fear of being single varies depending on perceiver traits and may be driven in part by misperceptions of physical attractiveness. This research sheds light on challenges for those who fear being single as they attempt to attract mates.

This paper identifies the degree to which scientists are willing to change the direction of their work in exchange for resources

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Oct 2020, Vol. 12, No. 4: Pages 103-134. The Elasticity of Science. Kyle Myers. https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/app.20180518

Abstract: This paper identifies the degree to which scientists are willing to change the direction of their work in exchange for resources. Data from the National Institutes of Health are used to estimate how scientists respond to targeted funding opportunities. Inducing a scientist to change their direction by a small amount—to work on marginally different topics—requires a substantial amount of funding in expectation. The switching costs of science are large. The productivity of grants is also estimated, and it appears the additional costs of targeted research may be more than offset by more productive scientists pursuing these grants. (JEL H51, I10, I23, O31, O33)

Multiple genome-wide significant loci and genes were identified and polygenic score prediction of suicide death case-control status was demonstrated

Genome-Wide Association Study of Suicide Death and Polygenic Prediction of Clinical Antecedents. Anna R. Docherty et al. The American Journal of Psychiatry, Oct 1 2020. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.19101025

Abstract

Objective: Death by suicide is a highly preventable yet growing worldwide health crisis. To date, there has been a lack of adequately powered genomic studies of suicide, with no sizable suicide death cohorts available for analysis. To address this limitation, the authors conducted the first comprehensive genomic analysis of suicide death using previously unpublished genotype data from a large population-ascertained cohort.

Methods: The analysis sample comprised 3,413 population-ascertained case subjects of European ancestry and 14,810 ancestrally matched control subjects. Analytical methods included principal component analysis for ancestral matching and adjusting for population stratification, linear mixed model genome-wide association testing (conditional on genetic-relatedness matrix), gene and gene set-enrichment testing, and polygenic score analyses, as well as single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) heritability and genetic correlation estimation using linkage disequilibrium score regression.

Results: Genome-wide association analysis identified two genome-wide significant loci (involving six SNPs: rs34399104, rs35518298, rs34053895, rs66828456, rs35502061, and rs35256367). Gene-based analyses implicated 22 genes on chromosomes 13, 15, 16, 17, and 19 (q<0.05). Suicide death heritability was estimated at an h2SNP value of 0.25 (SE=0.04) and a value of 0.16 (SE=0.02) when converted to a liability scale. Notably, suicide polygenic scores were significantly predictive across training and test sets. Polygenic scores for several other psychiatric disorders and psychological traits were also predictive, particularly scores for behavioral disinhibition and major depressive disorder.

Conclusions: Multiple genome-wide significant loci and genes were identified and polygenic score prediction of suicide death case-control status was demonstrated, adjusting for ancestry, in independent training and test sets. Additionally, the suicide death sample was found to have increased genetic risk for behavioral disinhibition, major depressive disorder, depressive symptoms, autism spectrum disorder, psychosis, and alcohol use disorder compared with the control sample.

Mates high in physical attractiveness are in short supply, which means that not all people are able to find mates who are sufficiently attractive

Mating Decisions in the Absence of Physical Attraction. Kaitlyn P. White, Peter K. Jonason & Laith Al-Shawaf. Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology, Sep 30 2020. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-020-00152-2

Abstract

Objective: Mates high in physical attractiveness are in short supply, which means that not all people are able to find mates who are sufficiently attractive. Threshold models of mate preferences suggest that when physical attractiveness minimums are not reached, other traits possessed by a potential partner may play a lesser role in mate choice. However, few studies have sought to understand mating decisions when those minimums are not met.

Methods: In this experiment (N = 186), participants rated images of (pre-rated) unattractive opposite-sex others for long-term and short-term relationships after learning dealbreaker or dealmaker information.

Results: While participants did not find targets highly desirable or physically attractive (as a stimulus check), men were more willing than women to have casual sex, and that men and women reported similar desirability ratings towards long-term partners. Learning dealbreakers was associated with less desire for the targets than dealmakers, but women’s lack of interest was insensitive to mating context, whereas men found the target especially undesirable in the long-term context. Additionally, men were willing to consider a long-term relationship with a physically unattractive partner who possessed dealmakers, but not one who possessed dealbreakers.

Conclusions: Our discussion focuses on men and women’s mating decisions when potential partners fail to meet minimum thresholds for physical attractiveness. Future research is needed to explore the magnitude of the effect of meeting or failing to meet one’s minimum thresholds for physical attractiveness.

Discussion

Most research on mate selection has concentrated on what people view as appealing in a potential mate (Buss 1989; Confer et al. 2010; Li et al. 2002; Li and Kenrick 2006) rather than unappealing (Jonason et al. 2015, 2020a, b; Stewart-Williams et al. 2017). Parental investment theory suggests that the costs of making mating mistakes is higher for females, the sex with the greater minimum obligatory parental investment (Trivers 1972). Given this imbalance between the sexes, selection pressures may have fashioned different mating psychologies for men and women (Buss and Schmitt 1993). Research on attractiveness thresholds suggests that men consider physical attractiveness to be an essential characteristic in a prospective mate. This suggests that men will be less open to dating someone who is below average in physical attractiveness (Gangestad et al. 2006; Li et al. 2002). However, error management theory (Haselton and Buss 2000; Perilloux 2014) suggests that, whenever mating options are sub-par, men may be willing to overlook their preferences for physical attractiveness to not miss out on a reproductive opportunity, especially if the mating context is short-term and the prospective mate possesses dealmakers (Webster et al. 2020). In this study, we examined men and women’s ratings of prospective mates in both long-term and short-term contexts when these mates were physically unattractive and possessed either favorable (i.e., dealmakers) or unfavorable (i.e., dealbreakers) characteristics.

Both men and women reported low levels of interest in both short-term and long-term relationships with physically unattractive people. This supports past research suggesting that both men and women value physical attractiveness in potential mates (Buss 1989; Li and Kenrick 2006) and that men consider at least average physical attractiveness to be a crucial characteristic of a partner (Buss and Schmitt 1993; Li et al. 2002; Li and Kenrick 2006; Regan 1998a, b). Consistent with sexual strategies theory, men were more willing than women were to engage in a short-term sexual relationship (Buss and Schmitt 1993), a finding that extended even to prospective mates of low physical attractiveness (H1). This is also consistent with error management theory (Haselton and Buss 2000; Perilloux 2014) in that, even though men tend to place greater value on physical attractiveness (Buss and Schmitt 1993; Confer et al. 2010; Jonason et al. 2012b; Li et al. 2002; Regan 1998a, b), in a low risk, short-term context, men were willing to form a relationship with a physically unattractive mate to avoid missing out on a mating opportunity (Jonason et al. 2020a, b; Regan 1998a, b; Webster et al. 2020). In addition, both sexes reported lower levels of interest in prospective mates after learning that the potential mate possessed dealbreakers rather than dealmakers (H4). This was true in both the long-term and short-term mating contexts. Further, in the short-term context, men reported greater attraction than women to physically unattractive potential mates with either dealmakers or dealbreakers. However, men were only more willing than women to consider a long-term relationship with a physically unattractive person if that person possessed dealmakers.

If men are more willing to lower their standards to avoid lost mating opportunities and women maintain higher standards in mating regardless of context, men may be sensitive to contextual differences, but women should find unattractive partners undesirable regardless of context. As predicted, women were less willing than men to date physically unattractive prospective mates (H3). Women also showed low levels of interest in a physically unattractive partner no matter the mating context or information learned (H2). This may appear to contradict existing research showing that men place more of a premium on physical attractiveness than women do (Li et al. 2002), but this is likely attributable to the fact that we examined mating decisions when confronted with a physically unattractive potential partner, rather than examining differences between the sexes in the emphasis they place of various characteristics. Indeed, these findings are consistent with existing theory and research highlighting how selective women are in their mating decisions (Buss 2016). This aligns with sexual strategies theory, and perhaps also with error management theory (Haselton and Buss 2000; Perilloux 2014) in that mating mistakes for women are costly enough that the safer error for women may be to avoid any kind of relationship with an undesirable partner. Women’s selectivity across a broad range of traits and mating contexts may aid in carefully screening prospective mates and avoiding entanglements with partners of low mate value (Jonason et al. 2015).

Limitations and Conclusions

The present study is the first to evaluate dealbreakers in relationships with a standardized method for assessing interest in short-term and long-term relationships in the absence of physical attractiveness. Even so, several limitations apply. The first limitations pertain to the W.E.I.R.D. (Henrich et al. 2010) nature of the sample and the disparity between men and women in the sample. As is typical in this type of research, more women than men were willing to participate. Although we found an interaction between mating context and sex, further analysis revealed no difference between long-term and short-term ratings in men or women. This may have resulted from the small percentage of men in the sample. However, because our primary aim in this study was to evaluate dealbreakers and dealmakers in relationships, our a priori power analysis focused on dealbreaker/dealmaker effect sizes. Although our results are consistent with our hypotheses, without replication in an independent, larger sample we cannot be certain of the generalizability or robustness of our findings. However, the fact that our results are consistent with established theories enhances the trustworthiness of our results and undercuts concerns about sample size imbalance or the small—by modern standards—sample size.

Second, physical attractiveness acts as a threshold trait (Kenrick et al. 1990; Li et al. 2002) meaning that the absence of physical attraction often operates as a dealbreaker in both sexes (Jonason et al. 2015). By holding attractiveness low and constant, we (1) isolated effects for nonphysical characteristics when physical attractiveness of the potential mate is low and (2) standardized our materials (Jonason and Antoon 2019). In fact, the generally low desirability ratings may reveal just how little nonphysical qualities—no matter their valence—in a potential short-term or long-term mate influence mate choice when attractiveness falls below threshold. Future research might manipulate the attractiveness of the targets to estimate the magnitude of the effect of meeting (or not) minimum thresholds for physical attractiveness (Jonason et al. 2019).

Third, we assessed romantic interest in short-term and long-term mating contexts in relation to 10 dealbreakers and 10 dealmakers when randomly paired with one of eight photos of physically unattractive people. Each of the items may have its own, distinct effects worthy of independent investigation. We used the composite approach rather than item analyses to avoid Type 1 error inflation and so that we could say something more general about decision-making in romantic relationships (Jonason et al. 2020a, b). Therefore, further research is needed at the item-level to examine how each individual dealmaker and dealbreaker affects interest in physically unattractive partners. Moreover, other lists of dealbreakers and dealmakers might be worth considering to evaluate the generalizability of these effects.

Finally, although our picture selection process was reasonably systematic, some limitations were present. We exclusively used pictures of people who appeared to be of Caucasian ethnicity, which limits the generalizability of our findings to other ethnicities. In addition, although the pictures used were pre-rated for attractiveness by numerous independent raters from the source, the attractiveness ratings used were still subjective, as opposed to more objective indices such as fluctuating asymmetry (Little et al. 2011). However, the participants’ mean ratings of attractiveness suggest that, as we had intended, our participants considered the people in the pictures to be of below average physical attractiveness. Despite these limitations, we have provided a novel test of sex differences in mate choice as a function of relationship context and the type of information people learn as they get to know new, potential partners.

One of the most contentious areas in mate choice research is about the role and origin of physical attractiveness preferences (Li and Metzler 2015; Zentner and Eagly 2015). Arguments rage over the function, origin, and consequences of being physically attractive in and outside of mate choice contexts. Evolutionary psychologists point to the adaptive utility of a preference for physical attractiveness, whereas sociocultural models sometimes treat preferences for physical attraction as arbitrary. We decided to strip away physical attraction and learn about the mate selection process in men and women across contexts in the absence of physical attraction. In doing so, we replicated prior findings demonstrating that men are more interested in short-term relationships than women are, and the sexes reported similar desirability ratings towards long-term partners (Buss and Schmitt 1993). We also found that even when prospective mates are low in physical attractiveness, learning dealbreakers was associated with less desirability than dealmakers. Furthermore, men were more interested in pursuing casual sex with people of limited physical attractiveness, no matter what other qualities the prospective partner possessed. Compared to women, men were also more willing to form a serious relationship with prospective partners of low physical attractiveness, but only if the prospective partner possessed other desirable qualities (e.g., “This person is kind to strangers.”; “This person dresses well.”). Importantly, women’s lack of interest in physically unattractive people appeared to be insensitive to mating context. This supports past findings that women also value physical attractiveness in their mates (Li and Kenrick 2006) but, unlike men, women’s selectivity led to a lack of interest in forming a relationship with a person of low physical attractiveness, no matter what type of relationship they were seeking.