A large majority of the population would respond positively to the discovery of microbial extraterrestrial life, independent of factors such as personality or political orientation

Kwon, Jung Yul, Hannah Bercovici, Katja Cunningham, and Michael E. W. Varnum, PhD. 2017. “How Will We React to the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life?.” OSF Preprints. November 9. doi:10.31219/osf.io/rb5mj

Abstract: How will humanity react to the discovery of extraterrestrial life? Speculation on this topic abounds, but empirical research is practically non-existent. We report the results of three empirical studies assessing psychological reactions to the discovery of extraterrestrial life using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) text analysis software. We examined language use in media coverage of past discovery announcements of this nature, with a focus on extraterrestrial microbial life (Pilot Study). A large online sample (N = 501) was asked to write about their own and humanity’s reaction to a hypothetical announcement of such a discovery (Study 1), and an independent, large online sample (N = 256) was asked to read and respond to a newspaper story about the claim that fossilized extraterrestrial microbial life had been found in a meteorite of Martian origin (Study 2). Across these studies, we found that reactions were significantly more positive than negative, and more reward vs. risk oriented. A mini- meta-analysis revealed large overall effect sizes (positive vs. negative affect language: g = .98; reward vs. risk language: g = .81). We also found that people’s forecasts of their own reactions showed a greater positivity bias than their forecasts of humanity’s reactions (Study 1), and that responses to reading an actual announcement of the discovery of extraterrestrial microbial life showed a greater positivity bias than responses to reading an actual announcement of the creation of man-made synthetic life (Study 2). Taken together, this work suggests that our reactions to a future confirmed discovery of microbial extraterrestrial life are likely to be fairly positive.

When advising others, participants favored deontological options more, recommending these options over the more utilitarian options that participants chose for themselves

Polman, E., & Ruttan, R. L. (2022). Making utilitarian choices but giving deontological advice. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Feb 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001194

Abstract: The traditional focus in the moral decision-making literature has been on understanding when and why people choose a utilitarian option versus a deontological option. However, we suggest that when deciding between these two options, people prefer a third option: to seek out others’ advice—which raises the question, what advice do people give others who are faced with a moral dilemma? In a meta-analysis of responses to 50 unique moral dilemmas, furnished by undergraduates, online panelists, and passers-by, we compared 8,696 self-choice responses (from participants who decided what option they choose) with 8,548 advisor responses (from participants who recommended what option others should choose). We found that when advising others, participants favored deontological options more, recommending these options over the more utilitarian options that participants chose for themselves (d = .112). Our research shows that when people seek advice from others, the two cents they receive are a deontological sense. 

Impact of a sudden and unexpected nation-wide alcohol sales ban in South Africa: This causally reduced injury-induced mortality in the country by at least 14% during the five weeks of the ban; also found a sharp drop in violent crimes

Alcohol, Violence and Injury-Induced Mortality: Evidence from a Modern-Day Prohibition. Barron, Kai / Parry, Charles D.H. / Bradshaw, Debbie / Dorrington, Rob / Groenewald, Pam / Laubscher, Ria / Matzopoulos, Richard. CESifo Working Paper No. 9595. https://www.cesifo.org/en/publikationen/2022/working-paper/alcohol-violence-and-injury-induced-mortality-evidence-modern-day

Abstract: This paper evaluates the impact of a sudden and unexpected nation-wide alcohol sales ban in South Africa. We find that this policy causally reduced injury-induced mortality in the country by at least 14% during the five weeks of the ban. We argue that this estimate constitutes a lower bound on the true impact of alcohol on injury-induced mortality. We also document a sharp drop in violent crimes, indicating a tight link between alcohol and aggressive behaviour in society. Our results underscore the severe harm that alcohol can cause and point towards a role for policy measures that target the heaviest drinkers in society. 

Keywords: alcohol, mortality, economics, health, crime, South Africa, Covid-19, violence

JEL: I180, I120, K420

In academic environments: Evidence that pay transparency causes significant increases in both the equity and equality of pay, & significant and sizeable reductions in the link between pay & individually measured performance

The influence of pay transparency on (gender) inequity, inequality and the performance basis of pay. Tomasz Obloj & Todd Zenger. Nature Human Behaviour, Feb 10 2022. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01288-9

Abstract: Recent decades have witnessed a growing focus on two distinct income patterns: persistent pay inequity, particularly a gender pay gap, and growing pay inequality. Pay transparency is widely advanced as a remedy for both. Yet we know little about the systemic influence of this policy on the evolution of pay practices within organizations. To address this void, we assemble a dataset combining detailed performance, demographic and salary data for approximately 100,000 US academics between 1997 and 2017. We then exploit staggered shocks to wage transparency to explore how this change reshapes pay practices. We find evidence that pay transparency causes significant increases in both the equity and equality of pay, and significant and sizeable reductions in the link between pay and individually measured performance.

Check also Equilibrium Effects of Pay Transparency. Zoe B. Cullen & Bobak Pakzad-Hurson. NBER Working Paper 28903, Jun 2021. Pay transparency leads to lower average wages when pay is not fixed in pay classes: Employers credibly refuse to pay high wages to any one worker to avoid costly renegotiations with others under transparency

Liberals perceive the stock market as a more dangerous and riskier place than conservatives, which explains liberals’ greater support for regulation of the stock market, and their greater opposition to privatization of Social Security

Fear and Loathing of Wall Street: Political Liberalism, Uncertainty, and Threat Management in a Dangerous Economic World. Michael Edem Fiagbenu,Thomas Kessler. Political Psychology, February 25 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12805

Abstract: Conservatives perceive the world as a more dangerous and threatening place than liberals, which explains conservatives’ more cautious social behaviors and their greater support for policies (e.g., anti-immigration and harsher punitive measures) that aim to manage and reduce perceived threats and uncertainties. However, past research operationalized the “world” as a place replete with social and physical threats (e.g., street crimes and terrorism). Less attention has been given to the economic world, which is equally characterized by threatening events (e.g., corporate crimes, stock-market crashes). In four studies, we examined whether differences in appraisal of the economic world explain ideological differences in stock-market participation and neoliberal economic policy preferences. The findings reveal that liberals perceive the stock market as a more dangerous and riskier place than conservatives. This asymmetry explains liberals’ cautious investment behaviors, their greater support for regulation of the stock market, and their greater opposition to privatization of Social Security. We argue that liberals’ greater support for these policies serves to protect investors and the general public from the perceived harms of the economic world. Our findings suggest that the psychological processes underlying threat management and uncertainty reduction are similar for conservatives and liberals, but these processes are context dependent.

Check also Of deadly beans and risky stocks: Political ideology and attitude formation via exploration depend on the nature of the attitude stimuli. Michael Edem Fiagbenu, Jutta Proch, Thomas Kessler. British Journal of Psychology, November 14 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/11/conservatives-do-not-generally-form.html

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Sensitivity to Perceived Dangers in the Social and Economic World

The context- and content-dependent nature of the relationship between ideology and threat sensitivity can provide further insights into how conservatives perceive and react to different types of crimes. Here, we distinguish between two psychological contexts: the social world where social and interpersonal interactions occur and the economic world where interactions with corporations, financial markets, etc., transpire. Studies based on the Belief in a Dangerous World scale (Duckitt et al., 2002, p. 92)—a common measure used to assess beliefs about the uncertainties and dangers of social life—have consistently shown that conservatives perceive the social world to be a dangerous place where immoral people aim to rob, assault, and murder law-abiding citizens. This characterization suggests that the social world is a place replete with street crimes and terror (e.g., muggings, burglary, murder) and that conservative’s beliefs about the social world may be shaped by their greater sensitivity to physically harmful crimes (see Crawford, 2017; Eadeh & Chang, 2020). In contrast, white-collar and corporate crimes are widespread in the economic world (e.g., Ponzi schemes, bribery, embezzlements), and liberals are more concerned about these crimes and perceive them as more serious than conservatives (Kroska et al., 2019; Unnerver et al., 2008; Zimring & Hawkins, 1978). But it is unclear whether these differences shape liberals’ perception of the economic world as a more dangerous and threatening place.

Most street crimes including burglaries cause immediate bodily harm (Kopp, 2019). Even in cases when burglaries occur without physical harm, the resultant feeling of victimization triggers cognitive and emotional states similar to those experienced following physical assaults (Janoff-Bulman & Frieze, 1983). It is, indeed, true that street-crime victimization may sometimes create negative economic impacts such as replacement of stolen property, paying medical bills, or unemployment due to injury. However, one may argue that fears and concerns about street crime are probably determined by the perceived risks of physical victimization (proximal effects) rather than economic victimization (distal effects). By extension, ideological differences in perception of the social world as a dangerous place (Jöckel & Früh, 2016; van Leeuwen & Park, 2009) may reflect conservatives’ (vs. liberals’) greater sensitivity to physical threats (see also Napier et al., 2018).

In contrast, white-collar crimes commonly occur during interactions with the economic world. These crimes are sometimes perceived as more socially and economically harmful than street crimes (Cohen, 2016; Friedrichs, 2010; Lynch & Stretesky, 2001; Michel, 2015; Piquero, 2018). The socioeconomic harms created by white-collar crimes also differ qualitatively from street crimes. For example, unethical corporate practices sometimes lead to bankruptcies, market failures, and financial crises (Greenglass et al., 2014; Schoen, 2016; Shover & Grabosky, 2010). These negative events typically cause widespread economic harms (e.g., debt, unemployment, foreclosures, etc.), which endanger livelihoods (Rheinhart & Rogoff, 2009; Yilmazer et al., 2015). Corporate scandals and financial crises weaken trust in the economic world and increase fear and risk perception of financial markets, which in turn reduce participation in the stock market (Giannetti & Wang, 2016; Kuvvet, 2018; Lim & Kim, 2018; Nguyen et al., 2017; Zhou, 2020).

Although economic adversity may create secondary outcomes such as illness, injury, or even suicides (Chang et al., 2013; Lynch & Stretesky, 2001; Michel, 2015; Yilmazer et al., 2015), these distal physical outcomes are usually mediated by proximate economic victimization and moderated by socioeconomic status, preexisting physical or mental health, or even seasonal timing (Ballester et al., 2019; Haw et al., 2014; Margerison-Zilko et al., 2016). Consequently, it can be argued that people’s sensitivity to white-collar crimes is primarily driven by their perceived risks of economic rather than physical victimization. If correct, then liberals’ greater concerns about white-collar crimes suggests that they may be more sensitive to economic victimization than conservatives, which may likely cause liberals (vs. conservatives) to perceive the economic world as a dangerous and threatening place.

Threat Management and Uncertainty Reduction in the Social and Economic World

Since conservatives and liberals are sensitive to different types of perceived threats and dangers, one would expect that they would adopt unique behavioral coping strategies and embrace distinct public policies that are well-suited for threat management and uncertainty reduction. Relative to liberals, conservatives typically amend their lifestyles and restrict their social activities (e.g., reduce traveling, avoid crowds and unsafe places) to safe spaces to minimize their risk of physical victimization (Reinhart, 2017; Sloan et al., 2020). Conservatives also support harsher punitive policies (McCann, 2008), more government spending on street-crime prevention (Rebovich et al., 2000; Ren et al., 2008), and stringent anti-immigration procedures than liberals (Doosje et al., 2009; Stewart et al., 2019). The overarching aims of these policies are to resist perceived harmful social changes and regulate activities that are perceived to increase social disorder.

In contrast, liberals also engage in behaviors which may help to minimize economic threats. Liberals are more cautious and intolerant of financial uncertainties in real and hypothetical stock-market games and also form more negative attitudes towards stocks than conservatives (Fiagbenu et al., 2021a; Kaustia & Torstila, 2011; Moore et al., 2010). Although there appears to the an ideological asymmery in stock ownership, the effect sizes are, however, small or insignificant, (r = .01–.20); and the relationship is moderated by financial self-efficacy (Han et al., 2019). However, these studies, taken together, imply that relative to conservatives, liberals may avoid the stock market presumably because they perceive it as a threatening place. But empirical evidence in support of this assertion remains to be established.

Furthermore, liberals also adopt policies that help them to cope with economic threats. First, experimental manipulations that increase the salience of corporate scandals increase support for regulation of financial institutions (Eadeh & Chang, 2020). In addition, liberals are more likely to support punishment of white-collar crimes and call for more government spending on their prevention than conservatives (Kroska et al., 2019; Michel et al., 2014; Rebovich et al., 2000). Further, liberals are more likely to support tighter regulation of the stock market and corporations than conservatives (Potrafke, 2009; Unnerver et al., 2008). Finally, to protect low-income workers and other vulnerable groups, liberals (vs. conservatives) oppose risky economic policy reforms such as partial privatization of Social Security (Devroye, 2003; Rudolph & Popp, 2009). Thus, relative to conservatives, liberals’ support for these policies can be interpreted as a motivation to reduce the perceived harms caused by unregulated practices in the economic world. If correct, then one would expect that liberals would perceive the economic world as a dangerous and threatening place than conservatives.

Strong men are more inclined to casual sex; contrary to our predictions, socioeconomic status did not affect short-term mating orientation

Long-Term Mating Orientation in Men: The Role of Socioeconomic Status, Protection Skills, and Parenthood Disposition. Gabriela Fajardo et al. Front. Psychol., February 25 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.815819

Abstract: From an evolutionary perspective, phenotypic, social, and environmental factors help to shape the different costs and benefits of pursuing different reproductive strategies (or a mixture of them) from one individual to another. Since men’s reproductive success is mainly constrained to women’s availability, their mating orientations should be partially calibrated by features that women prefer in a potential partner. For long-term relationships, women prefer traits that signal access to resources, protection skills, and the willingness to share them. Using generalized linear models with laboratory data taken from a Chilean population (N = 197), this study aimed to test whether real and potential resources (measured as self-reported socioeconomic status), protection skills (measured as handgrip strength), and the willingness to provide resources and protection (measured as their disposition toward parenthood) are related to mating orientation in men. Our predictions were: (1) socioeconomic status would be positively associated with long-term and short-term mating orientation but for long-term-oriented individuals, this would be enhanced by having a more favorable parenthood disposition and (2) strength would be positively related to long-term mating orientation in men with higher socioeconomic status and a favorable disposition toward parenthood and it would have a positive and direct association with short-term mating orientation. Our results partially supported the first hypothesis, since men with higher socioeconomic status were more long-term oriented, but parenting disposition did not moderate this effect. Contrary to our expectations, socioeconomic status was not related to short-term mating orientation. Strength appeared not to be significant for long-term mating orientation, even interacting with other traits. However, strength by itself was powerfully linked with a short-term mating orientation. Our results suggest that only some individuals that are attractive for long-term relationships are indeed long-term oriented and may reflect the overall conflict of interests between mating strategies among sexes.

Discussion

The SPH proposes that the relative allocation of time and energy between mating and parenting activities is facultatively calibrated by an individual’s particular traits and social context. In this regard, men showing traits preferred by women for long-term relationships should display higher sociosexual attitudes toward long-term mating (Gangestad and Simpson, 2000; Buss and Schmitt, 2019). Previous studies reporting associations between traits preferred by women for long-term relationships and men’s sociosexuality are scarce, do not specifically address the mentioned issue, and use a unidimensional approach to sociosexuality (Townsend, 1993; Sprecher et al., 2013; Szepsenwol et al., 2017). In this study, we tested whether economic resources, protection skills, and the willingness to allocate these resources in offspring—all traits preferred by women in long-term partners—are associated with men’s long-term mating orientation. Our results partially supported our predictions as we found that socioeconomic status was positively associated with a long-term mating orientation, but parenthood disposition did not moderate this effect. Instead, parenthood disposition seems to mediate this effect. Contrary to our predictions, socioeconomic status did not affect short-term mating orientation. Moreover, we failed to find the expected effects of strength on long-term mating orientation, but we found that strength was positively associated with short-term orientation.

Our first specific prediction was aimed at testing the effect of economic resources on long and short-term mating orientation and whether the willingness to allocate resources in offspring was moderating the effect for long-term oriented men. Regarding main effects, we found that resources, measured by socioeconomic status, were positively related to long-term mating orientation but did not affect short-term mating orientation. This result is aligned with previous studies that found the possession of resources attractive for women when choosing a long-term partner (Townsend, 1989; Buss et al., 1990; Sprecher et al., 1994; Buunk et al., 2002; Blossfeld and Timm, 2018) and support our prediction that resources are important in calibrating long-term mating orientation in men. In addition, our null result regarding short-term mating orientation is similar to the results of Sprecher et al. (2013), in which socioeconomic status was not related to short-term mating strategies but differs from the findings of Townsend (1993) that found a positive relationship. Our prediction regarding the positive relationship between economic resources and short-term mating orientation in men was based on previous evidence suggesting that economic resources may be a relevant trait for women when choosing a short-term mate (Greiling and Buss, 2000; Thomas and Stewart-Williams, 2018). But this preference for economic resources in short-term mating might be related to context-specific traits as when women meet a potential mate with higher socioeconomic status than their current partner (Greiling and Buss, 2000) or when the environment is high in resources (Thomas and Stewart-Williams, 2018). This circumstance may explain why, in a general context, economic resources seem to be related to long-term mating orientation in men but not to short-term mating orientation.

As important as resources are for women who seek long-term relationships, there are personality features that signal a willingness to allocate them to one partner and their offspring over a significant period (Buss, 2018; Webb and Fisher, 2018). In this regard, parenthood dispositions denote the willingness to invest in offspring and it is considered a component of men’s mate value which is especially relevant to attract partners for long-term relationships (Fisher et al., 2008). Accordingly, we expected that parenthood dispositions would moderate the effect of resources in the expression of long-term mating orientation in men. However, our results did not support this prediction, suggesting that socioeconomic status influences long-term mating orientation independently of parenthood dispositions. Since socioeconomic status and parenthood disposition were correlated in this study, we explored the possibility that parenthood disposition was mediating the relationship between socioeconomic status and long-term mating orientation. We found that indeed this was the case, suggesting that socioeconomic status affects long-term mating orientation through an increase in parenthood disposition. Future studies are needed to confirm that result due to its exploratory nature in this study.

Our second specific prediction was focused on testing the effect of protection skills on long and short-term mating orientation. In this regard, previous literature did not find an association between protection skills (i.e., strength and muscularity) and long-term sociosexual orientation, but it did for short-term (Lukaszewski et al., 2014; Polo et al., 2019). We proposed that this feature might have a positive effect on long-term mating orientation when interacting with other variables relevant for this context, like socioeconomic status and parenthood dispositions, and a direct and positive effect on short-term mating orientation. In line with previous research (Lukaszewski et al., 2014), strength predicted short-term but not long-term sociosexual orientation in men. However, contrary to our prediction, we did not find an effect for the proposed interaction between strength, socioeconomic status, and parenthood disposition. Thus, our results suggest that protection skills, measured from handgrip strength, do not seem to be a relevant factor that calibrates men’s long-term sociosexual orientation despite being described as relevant for women when choosing a long-term partner (Buss and Schmitt, 2019). A possible explanation is that, since it has been documented that protection skills are attractive for women in both mating contexts, men who display these traits may be attracting a larger pool of women and may gain more by pursuing a short-term mating strategy, maximizing the number of sexual partners (Hughes and Gallup, 2003; Frederick and Haselton, 2007; Lukaszewski et al., 2014; Polo et al., 2019). That can be particularly true in the case of men around their reproductive peak, as is the case of our sample, which was composed of young men with an average age of 22 years old. Finally, it is interesting to emphasize that strength is positively related to short-term mating orientation and has a null, but not negative, effect in the expression of long-term mating orientation. Strength has been associated with the possession of good genes and the ability to win a conflict (Sell et al., 2009), traits that are beneficial when pursuing a short-term mating strategy (Gangestad and Simpson, 2000). Consequently, it seems to be an important factor in calibrating short-term mating orientation but, according to our results, it did not affect long-term mating orientation. That suggests that a long-term mating orientation is not necessarily an alternative strategy employed when individuals cannot maximize their reproductive success through investing in casual sexual encounters. In addition, our results suggest that pursuing a short-term mating orientation by stronger men does not affect their orientation toward long-term mating and stress the importance of considering sociosexual orientation as a multidimensional construct.

To sum up, our results suggest that long-term-oriented men only display some of the traits that women prefer in them for long-term mating contexts, since resources but not protective skills are important for men’s long-term sociosexual orientation. Previous results showed that most of the traits preferred by women for short-term relationships are important in calibrating the expression of short-term mating orientation in men (Lukaszewski et al., 2014; Valentine et al., 2014; Polo et al., 2019). However, our results are less clear about the link between traits preferred for long-term mating and the expression of long-term mating orientation in men. This may indicate that, at least some individuals who possess traits reported to be attractive for long-term relationships, may be pursuing a short-term mating strategy instead. Possibly, this reflects the overall conflict of interests between mating strategies among the sexes that arise from differences in parental investment and potential reproductive rates (Trivers, 1972; Parker, 2006). Complementary theoretical approaches to the study of reproductive trade-offs in humans such as the life history theory (Kruger, 2017) may be useful to understand this variability in sociosexuality in future studies. From this framework, one of the variables that has been reported to affect sociosexual orientation in adulthood is the developmental conditions and, especially, the predictability and harshness of the childhood environment (Ellis et al., 2009). Considering these developmental conditions jointly with current traits and conditions may help to have a wider understanding of the causes of the individual differences in mating strategies.

Our study has several limitations. First, our measure of parenthood dispositions which, although based on a subscale of a validated questionnaire (Fisher et al., 2008), might be too general as it was composed of only two items and precluded delving into different sources of investment and commitment to offspring. Future studies should include more specific measures of parenthood dispositions to determine whether different types of investment in offspring influence the relationships between socioeconomic status and long-term mating orientation in different ways. Second, our sample mainly consisted of young men and with low variability in age. This precludes analyzing whether the association of traits and mating strategies changes as individuals age and consolidate their social status. Future studies should include a wider age range to address this issue, either by pursuing a larger sample or by quota sampling by age groups. Our third limitation is that we did not have information about whether the participants currently had children or not. Despite that our sample was composed mainly of young men, their paternal status may be relevant as there is some evidence suggesting that unrestricted sociosexuality is reduced during parenthood in men, but only in those that reside with their children (Gettler et al., 2019).

Rivalry is usually positively related to performance; this effect is significant ; the relationship between rivalry and performance is more robust for individual rivalry compared to group rivalry

Rivalry and performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Nir Milstein et al. Organizational Psychology Review, February 24, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866221082128

Abstract: Rivalry, a relational competition, is known to increase motivation and performance. However, a systematic review and meta-analysis that examines the effect sizes is lacking. Further, most research on this topic has not considered the type of rivalry (individual versus collective) and the research field as potential moderators. We conducted a wide-scale search, looking for rivalry and performance studies, which yielded 22 papers (k = 35) with 27,771 observations that were systematically reviewed. Eighteen papers (k = 28) were eligible for a further meta-analysis, including a total of 26,215 observations. The systematic review indicated that rivalry is usually positively related to performance. Results of the meta-analysis revealed that this effect is significant and that the relationship between rivalry and performance is more robust for individual rivalry compared to group rivalry. Further analyses indicated that for group rivalry, correlations are positive and significant only in the domains of sports and donation-raising.

Plain Text Abstract: Rivalry is a unique and common type of competition in which the competing parties have longstanding relationships. When rivalry is present, the competing actors have an increased desire to win and invest extra effort into the competition, leading to enhanced performance. However, an integration of studies that examine the effects of rivalry, as a relational competition, is lacking. Here, we scanned studies from diverse research fields that claimed to measure rivalry and actor's performance. We considered only research that specifically measured rivalry as a relational competition and its association with performance. We systematically reviewed eligible studies and found that, generally, rivalry is positively related to performance. We then performed a meta-analysis that confirmed that this relationship is statistically significant. We further found that this relationship is more robust for rivalries in the context of individuals compared to groups. The association between rivalry and performance is most prominent in certain domains, such as sports rivalry. These findings can guide scholars in designing research on rivalry. Specifically, considering the various effect sizes found here in different contexts of rivalry will allow researchers to plan for more appropriate sample sizes designed to reveal the relationship between rivalry and performance in a targeted domain. Further, these results can inform managers about the effects of rivalries in or between their organizations, distinguishing among the different contexts of rivalries and their specific outcomes.

Keywords: rivalry, relational competition, competition, performance

Rats showed bonding-like behavior to an affiliative human who repeatedly stroked the rats; also, these rats emitted distress calls, an index of negative emotion, when an affiliative human stroked another rat in front of them

Rats emit unique distress calls in social inequality conditions. Shota Okabe, Yuki Takayanagi, Masahide Yoshida, Tatsushi Onaka. bioRxiv, Feb 24 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.22.481162

Abstract: Humans show aversion toward inequality of social reward, and this aversion plays important roles for the establishment of social cooperation. However, it has remained unknown whether commonly used experimental animals show negative responses to social reward inequality. In this study, we found that rats showed bonding-like behavior to an affiliative human who repeatedly stroked the rats. In addition, these rats emitted distress calls, an index of negative emotion, when an affiliative human stroked another rat in front of them. These distress calls had acoustic characteristics different from those emitted in response to physical stress stimuli such as air-puff. Rats emitted calls with higher frequency (28 kHz) and shorter durations (0.05 sec) in an inequality condition than the frequency and durations of calls emitted when receiving air-puff. Our results suggested that rats exhibited negative emotion with unique distress calls in response to a social inequality condition.

Most organizations rely on managers to identify talented workers; but because managers are evaluated on team performance, they have an incentive to hoard talented workers, thus jeopardizing the efficient allocation of talent within firms

Talent Hoarding in Organizations. Ingrid Haegele. Feb 2022. https://www.dropbox.com/s/bnzs5h4h43i7ano/Haegele_Talenthoarding.pdf

Most organizations rely on managers to identify talented workers. However, because managers are evaluated on team performance, they have an incentive to hoard talented workers, thus jeopardizing the efficient allocation of talent within firms. This study provides the first empirical evidence of talent hoarding using a unique combination of personnel records and application data from a large manufacturing firm. When managers rotate to a new position and temporarily stop hoarding talent, workers’ applications for promotions increase by 123%. Marginal applicants,who would not have applied in the absence of manager rotations, are three times as likely as average applicants to land a promotion, and perform well in higher-level positions. By reducing the quality and performance of promoted workers, talent hoarding causes misallocation of talent. Because female workers react more to talent hoarding than males, talent hoarding perpetuates gender inequality in representation and pay at the firm.

Strength (measured as grip strength, a highly sexually dimorphic index of physical formidability) is negatively associated with depression and accounts for some of the sex difference

Strength is negatively associated with depression and accounts for some of the sex difference: a replication & extension. Caroline B Smith, Tom Rosenström, Edward H Hagen. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, eoac007, Feb 22 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoac007

Abstract

Background: Depression occurs about twice as often in women as in men, a disparity that remains poorly understood. Using an evolutionary model, Hagen and Rosenström [1] predicted and found that grip strength, a highly sexually dimorphic index of physical formidability, mediated much of the effect of sex on depression. Striking results like this are more likely to be published than null results, potentially biasing the scientific record. It is therefore critical to replicate and extend them.

Methodology: Using new data from the 2013-2014 cycle of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationally representative sample of US households (N = 3650), we replicated models of the effect of sex and grip strength on depression reported in Hagen and Rosenström [1], along with additional potential confounds and a new detailed symptom-level exploration.

Results: Overall, the effects from the original paper were reproduced although with smaller effect sizes. Grip strength mediated 38% of the effect of sex on depression, compared to 63% in Hagen and Rosenström [1]. These results were extended with findings that grip strength had a stronger association with some depression symptoms, like suicidality, low interest, and low mood than with other symptoms, like appetite changes.

Conclusions: Grip strength is negatively associated with depression, especially its cognitive-affective symptoms, controlling for numerous possible confounds. Although many factors influence depression, few of these reliably occur cross-culturally in a sex-stratified manner and so are unlikely to explain the well-established, cross-cultural sex difference in depression. The sex difference in upper body strength occurs in all populations and is therefore a candidate evolutionary explanation for some of the sex difference in depression.

Keywords: mood disorders, major depressive disorder, bargaining, honest signaling, gender, replication

If gorgonzola cheese tastes like soap to you... you have an inconvenient genetic variation

Genetic variations associated with the soapy flavor perception in Gorgonzola PDO cheese. Maria Pina Concas et al. Food Quality and Preference, Feb 23 2022, 104569. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2022.104569

Highlights

• Genetic analyses on soapy flavor perception in Gorgonzola cheese were performed.

• Subjects were grouped in soapy-tasters (66%) and non-soapy tasters (34%)

• Genes involved in olfactory or taste processes were found: SYT9, PDE4B, AVL9, HTR1B.

• A single nucleotide polymorphism near HTR1B gene affected also the liking for cheese.

• Soapy flavor perception was associated with rs72921001 (as found for cilantro)

Abstract

Food preferences are influenced by several factors including individual differences in the physiological perception of the sensory properties and genetic factors. This study was aimed to investigate the genetic bases underlying the perception of the soapy flavor, a sensory attribute identified as a driver of disliking for blue-veined cheese. Responses on soapy flavor perception (SFP) in six Gorgonzola Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese samples were collected from 219 genotyped Italians (age 18-77 y) applying a Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) test combined with a liking test.

Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) were performed on three phenotypic traits: the SFP in at least one cheese (SFP_1), the number of cheese samples in which each individual perceived the soapy flavor (SFP_N) and the SFP in the cheese in which the highest number of individuals perceived the soapy flavor (SFP_P95).

Results showed that 144 individuals (65.8%) perceived the soapy flavor in at least one cheese. Our analysis allowed identifying four loci that resulted shared in all the three GWAS and have been confirmed by the SFP in at least other two Gorgonzola cheese samples. Particularly, we highlighted four genes (SYT9, PDE4B, AVL9 and HTR1B) that are involved in olfactory or taste processes, suggesting that they could play a relevant role in determining the individual differences in the SFP. In addition, a SNP near the HTR1B gene affected also the liking for Gorgonzola PDO cheese.

Overall, our work suggests possible candidate genes associated with the perception of soapy flavor, providing a starting point to better understand the individual differences in blue-veined cheese perception and expanding the current scientific knowledge in the emerging research area linking genetic individual differences to food perception and preferences.

Keywords: blue-veined cheesesoapy flavorlikingconsumersrate-all-that-apply testgenome-wide association studies

Altruistic behavior and moderate problem solving in birds

Australian Magpies Gymnorhina tibicen cooperate to remove tracking devices. Joel Crampton, Celine H. Frère, Dominique A. Potvin. Feb 2022, Vol 39, https://www.birdlife.org.au/afo/index.php/afo/article/view/2247

Abstract: Recent advances in tracking technology have enabled devices such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) loggers to be used on a wide variety of birds. Although there are established ethical considerations to these processes, different species may react differently to particular devices and attachments. Thus, pilot studies are still of utmost importance in this field. Here, we describe one such study trialling a novel harness design for GPS tracking devices on Australian Magpies Gymnorhina tibicen. Despite previous testing demonstrating the strength and durability of the harness, devices were removed within minutes to hours of initial fitting. Notably, removal was observed to involve one bird snapping another bird’s harness at the only weak point, such that the tracker was released. This behaviour demonstrates both cooperation and a moderate level of problem solving, providing potential further evidence of the cognitive abilities of this species. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the conspecific removal of GPS trackers, and should be considered when planning future tracking studies especially on highly social species.

Gender differences in experience of first intercourse are among the largest in sexuality research (women recalling less pleasure & satisfaction than men); this “enjoyment gap” has not been considered in explanations of gender differences in sexual desire

A Learning Experience? Enjoyment at Sexual Debut and the Gender Gap in Sexual Desire among Emerging Adults. Diana E. Peragine et al. The Journal of Sex Research, Jan 26 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2027855

Abstract: Gender differences in experience of first intercourse are among the largest in sexuality research, with women recalling less pleasure and satisfaction than men. This “enjoyment gap” has not been considered in explanations of gender differences in sexual desire. Yet, reinforcement and incentive learning feature prominently in recent models of women’s sexual desire, and nonhuman animal models demonstrate their impact at sexual debut. We examined whether women’s lower sexual desire is explained by their gender or by gendered experience of enjoyment at sexual debut. Emerging adults (N = 838) provided retrospective accounts of physical (orgasm) and affective (satisfaction) enjoyment at (hetero)sexual debut. We replicated gender differences across behavioral, general, and multidimensional measures of trait sexual desire; however, they were contingent on experience and measurement method. When its cognitive multidimensional properties were appreciated, women’s sexual desire varied with experience of orgasm at sexual debut and diverged from men’s only when orgasm did not occur. Such effects were not observed for satisfaction, nor for men. Nor did effects of a control event – masturbatory debut – extend beyond solitary sexual desire. Findings underscore the importance of orgasm equality, and suggest its absence at sexual debut may play an unacknowledged role in differentiating sexual desire.

First evidence that humans accurately forecast men’s agonistic behavior from variation in facial morphology, suggesting perceptual systems have evolved to perceive physical formidability among contemporaries and competitors

Caton, Neil R., Amy Zhao, David M. G. Lewis, and Barnaby Dixson. 2022. “Facial Masculinity Predicts Men’s Actual and Perceived Aggressiveness.” PsyArXiv. February 18. doi:10.31234/osf.io/qejga

Abstract: Status obtained via dominance is a phylogenetically ancient feature of human social systems. Yet empirical evidence that men’s secondary sexual traits reliably predict success in intra-sexual contests has been hard to demonstrate. The present work provides the first test of whether masculine craniofacial structures in men predicts aggressiveness in contest competition and whether people accurately assess such aggressiveness from masculine facial cues. After placing 32,447 facial landmarks on the facial stimuli of 457 male fighters, multivariate geometric morphometric analyses extracted 142 distinct facial metrics and revealed that men with better developed masculine facial traits (e.g., large jaw, large browridge, deep-set eyes) attempted more strikes and successfully struck their opponents, including targeting the face. When rating the facial stimuli of these male fighters, participants (N = 500) used men’s masculine facial traits to accurately predict these same components of aggressiveness, including targeting the face. These findings remained robust after accounting for the fighter’s age, total fights, weight division, height, fight duration, and their opponent’s striking frequency. Our findings provide the first evidence that humans accurately forecast men’s agonistic behavior from variation in facial morphology, suggesting perceptual systems have evolved to perceive physical formidability among contemporaries and competitors.

The causal impact of engaging in sports on happiness is about four times higher than the effect of happiness on engaging in sports; correlation between sports participation and reported life satisfaction is greater in the young & the old

Does Sports Make People Happier, or Do Happy People More Sports? Bruno S. Frey, Anthony Gullo. Journal of Sports Economics, January 7, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527002520985667

Abstract: We contribute to the happiness literature by analyzing the causal relationship between sports and happiness. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), we find a positive correlation between sports participation and reported life satisfaction. This relationship is stronger at younger and older ages than in middle age, and for people in bad health compared to those in average health. We further provide evidence for both causal directions. It turns out that the causal impact of engaging in sports on happiness is about four times higher than the effect of happiness on engaging in sports.

Keywords: happiness, life satisfaction, well-being, sports, causality

Darkness always represented danger to our ancestors and may still decrease our happiness today; exposure to sunlight was associated with happiness (but the effect was significantly weaker among more intelligent individuals)

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy. . . especially if I’m less intelligent: how sunlight and intelligence affect happiness in modern society. Satoshi Kanazawa, Norman P. Li & Jose C. Yong. Cognition and Emotion, Feb 21 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2022.2029358 

Abstract: The savanna theory of happiness proposes that, due to evolutionary constraints on the human brain, situations and circumstances that would have increased our ancestors’ happiness may still increase our happiness today, and those that would have decreased their happiness then may still decrease ours today. It further proposes that, because general intelligence evolved to solve evolutionarily novel problems, this tendency may be stronger among less intelligent individuals. Because humans are a diurnal species that cannot see in the dark, darkness always represented danger to our ancestors and may still decrease our happiness today. Consistent with this prediction, the analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) data shows that exposure to sunlight was associated with happiness but the association was significantly weaker among more intelligent individuals.

Keyword: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)subjective well-beinglife satisfaction

Self-attractive men tend to overestimate women’s sexual interest based on their high mating success; self-unattractive men tend to underestimate women’s sexual

Mechanism of the association between men’s self-perceived attractiveness and sexual interest perception: the mediating paths of positive and negative mating efficacies. Zhenlan Yang & Lijun Zheng. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, Feb 21 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681994.2022.2033968

Abstract: At the core of sexual assault is a misunderstanding of sexual consent, and incorrect sexual interest perception is a misunderstanding of other people’s sexual consent. Therefore, it is important to examine the mechanism of sexual interest perception to prevent instances of sexual assault. In order to explore the relationship and mechanism between self-perceived attractiveness and sexual interest perception, this study explored the relationship between self-perceived attractiveness and sexual interest perception from the perspectives of positive mating efficacy (mating confidence and self-esteem) and negative mating efficacy (perceived rejection experiences from the opposite sex, rejection sensitivity, and social anxiety). Four hundred and three heterosexual male subjects participated in this study (age in years: M = 26.4, SD = 6.1). The results showed that mating confidence and negative mating efficacy, but not self-esteem, mediated the relationship between self-perceived attractiveness and the sexual interest perception. The findings indicated that those with high self-perceived attractiveness overestimated sexual interest and those with low self-perceived attractiveness underestimated sexual interest.

Lay Summary: In general, men tend to overestimate the sexual interest from opposite-sex under the ambiguous condition. Especially, self-attractive men tend to overestimate women’s sexual interest based on their high mating success. However, self-unattractive men tend to underestimate women’s sexual interest based on their being rejected experiences or fear of being rejected in mating condition.

Keywords: self-perceived attractivenesssexual interest perceptionmating confidenceself-esteemrejection sensitivitysocial anxiety

Impact of a two-decade-long Islamization policy carried out by a pro-Islamist party in Turkey: Reduction in belief in God, attendance to mosques, and trust in clergy

Can the State Make you More Religious? Evidence from Turkish Experience. Murat Çokgezen. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, February 20 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12785

Abstract: This paper first evaluates the impact of a two-decade-long Islamization policy carried out by a pro-Islamist party, which came to power in 2002 in Turkey, on the attitudes of Turkish people toward religious values, religious practices, and clergy. In this regard, how the importance of religion, frequency of going to mosques, and trust in the clergy have changed among Turkish Muslims between 2002 and 2018 were examined by using World Values Survey data and employing logistic regression analysis. Estimation results indicated a reduction in belief in God, attendance to mosques, and trust in clergy, which imply the failure of the Islamization policy. Second, we explored what caused the failure by using the same data set and methodology. Our estimations suggested that the symbiotic relationship between the pro-Islamist government and religious clergy and institutions may explain the failure. As the government is identified with religion in the eye of the public, dissatisfaction with the government turned to dissatisfaction with religious values.

People tend to find more "symmetrical" faces more "beautiful" and "attractive," but those with visual arts or dance expertise don't find symmetrical faces especially beautiful (but do still find them more attractive); it seems you can be trained to find beauty in asymmetry

The Role of Art Expertise and Symmetry on Facial Aesthetic Preferences. Luis Carlos Pereira Monteiro et al. Symmetry 2022, 14(2), 423; February 20 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14020423

Abstract: Humans, like other species, have a preference for symmetrical visual stimuli, a preference that is influenced by factors such as age, sex, and artistic training. In particular, artistic training seems to decrease the rejection of asymmetry in abstract stimuli. However, it is not known whether the same trend would be observed in relation to concrete stimuli such as human faces. In this article, we investigated the role of expertise in visual arts, music, and dance, in the perceived beauty and attractiveness of human faces with different asymmetries. With this objective, the beauty and attractiveness of 100 photographs of faces with different degrees of asymmetry were evaluated by 116 participants with different levels of art expertise. Expertise in visual arts and dance was associated with the extent to which facial asymmetry influenced the beauty ratings assigned to the faces. The greater the art expertise in visual arts and dance, the more indifferent to facial asymmetry the participant was to evaluate beauty. The same effect was not found for music and neither for attractiveness ratings. These findings are important to help understand how face aesthetic evaluation is modified by artistic training and the difference between beauty and attractiveness evaluations.

Keywords: symmetry; aesthetics; preference; art experts; human faces

4. Discussion

We investigated for the first time the role of expertise in visual arts, music, and dance, in assessing the beauty and attractiveness of human faces with different asymmetries. Following theoretical models about aesthetic processing, it is expected that art experts and laypersons will differ on their aesthetic evaluation of different sensory features [53,54,55,56,57], including visual symmetry or asymmetry [49,50,51]. Exploring individual differences, we found that people with higher visual arts and dance expertise tend to disregard facial asymmetry in beauty evaluation of human faces, but not in attractiveness evaluation. The same trend was not found for music experts.

In this work, we use a continuous measure for art expertise as proposed by several authors [70,83,99]. Many studies have used art expertise as a quasi-categorical variable, artificially dividing participants into artists and non-artists—a dichotomy that does not capture the variability within groups concerning this variable [70]. As an alternative, we use a questionnaire that takes into account not only formal education but professional experiences, skills, and other artistic experiences. Art experts scored highest in their specific areas (e.g., dancers scored higher than other groups in the dance expertise section of our questionnaire). Moreover, art expertise significantly correlated with art interest and with creativity in their specific domains (e.g., visual art expertise scores correlated significantly with creativity scores in visual arts). Such results provide evidence of the instrument’s validity to measure expertise.

Most research investigating human preference for faces uses the terms “beauty” and “attractiveness” as synonyms, or simply does not differentiate between them [24,100,101,102]. In this study, however, we consider beauty and attractiveness as two different variables, as has been done by some authors [103,104,105]. We observed that although there is a moderate correlation between these two variables, the mean scores for beauty and attractiveness were significantly different. As discussed below, different patterns of individual differences in the assessment of beauty and attractiveness were found, suggesting that they are, in fact, two different variables. In our protocol, after the presentation of the image of the face to be evaluated, the participant first indicated the respective beauty rating, and only afterward the attractiveness rating, so we cannot completely exclude the possibility that the sequence of events may have interfered with the response.

In general, we found that the degree to which facial asymmetry affects beauty evaluation (i.e., aesthetic sensitivity to facial asymmetry) was influenced by participant’s visual arts and dance expertise, but not music expertise. Previous research has found an effect of visual arts expertise in the aesthetic evaluation of symmetry/asymmetry in abstract figures [49,50,51]. The results of Weichselbaum et al. [50] and Gartus et al. [51] indicated that art experts, in general, tended to evaluate stimuli independently from their asymmetry when compared to laypersons. Our results demonstrate that the same trend found for abstract figures can be expected for human faces aesthetic evaluation, not only for visual arts experts but also for dance experts.

While we found a positive effect of the expertise in visual arts and dance on the aesthetic sensitivity to facial asymmetry based on individual differences in the perceived beauty of human faces, we didn’t find the same result for music. Visual and auditory stimuli are evaluated differently, and while the appreciation of visual arts and dance relies on vision, the appreciation of music relies on sound. Thus, the differences in the visual assessment of beauty may be related to the peculiarities of each artistic category. These results are consistent with Clemente et al. [82], who found stimuli modality-specific (visual/auditory) effects on evaluative judgments. Moreover, musicians often have a high affinity to symmetrical features, as these are essential to organize the tempo of a melody [5,106].

No evidence for the effect of any of the three areas of art expertise on aesthetic sensitivity to facial asymmetry based on attractiveness ratings was found. This difference between beauty and attractiveness can be explained by the mate choice importance in our species. The mate choice criteria tend to be more stable during human development [107], and therefore should be less influenced by art training. However, it is necessary to take into account the participant’s sexual orientation and the gender of the person in the photo evaluated to discuss mate choice accurately. Since our experimental design is not suitable for this type of analysis, we also suggest that further studies take into account these variables.

We also found no effect of facial asymmetry on general beauty or attractiveness ratings. Despite several studies showed that facial asymmetry is an important predictor of facial preference, the magnitude of this effect is relatively small based on meta-analytic estimates [29]. It is also possible that this effect was not found in our study since our sample includes art experts, whose beauty assessment tended to disregard facial asymmetry as commented above.

A possible limitation of this study is the under-representation of highly specialized artists in the areas of interest. This happened in our study because we mostly sought out participants in a general university population, and not in art courses and artistic spaces. Therefore, we suggest that new studies should include more participants with higher art expertise.

The present study concludes that people with different art expertise use asymmetry information differently to evaluate facial beauty. This result can be important in understanding how the facial aesthetic evaluation is modified by this type of training and to give us clues about the way symmetry perception can be affected during human development.