Among singles, no significant differences in psychological distress by sexual identity; among partnered respondents, queer/pansexual women reported the highest distress & lesbian/gay women reported the lowest distress

Wilson, B. D. M., Krueger, E. A., Pollitt, A. M., & Bostwick, W. B. (2022). Partnership status and mental health in a nationally representative sample of sexual minorities. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 9(2), 190–200. Jun 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000475

Abstract: Research has consistently shown mental health differences between sexual minority subgroups with bisexual people often reporting higher levels of psychological distress than lesbians and gay men. Relationship status has been suggested, but not well studied, as a potential factor contributing to subgroup differences in mental health. Using a national probability sample of nontransgender sexual minority adults across three age cohorts (18–25, 34–41, 52–59 years), we assessed group differences in psychological distress (Kessler 6) between lesbian/gay (N = 505), bisexual (N = 272), and queer/pansexual (N = 75) respondents. We examined whether relationship status (single/partnered) moderated the relationship between sexual identity and psychological distress. Among those that were partnered, we tested whether key partner characteristics related to sexual identity—gender of partner (cisgender same-sex/transgender or cisgender different-sex) and partner sexual identity (same or mixed sexual orientation relationship)—were significantly associated with psychological distress. In bivariate analyses, bisexual and queer/pansexual respondents reported more psychological distress than gay/lesbian respondents, among both men and women. In multivariable analyses, there was not a significant main effect of sexual identity, but there was a significant interaction between sexual identity and partnership status on psychological distress among women. Specifically, while there were no significant differences in psychological distress between subgroups of single women, among partnered women, queer/pansexual women had more distress than lesbian/gay women. Further, partnership was associated with reduced distress among lesbian/gay women, but not among bisexual or queer/pansexual women. Among men, there were no significant interaction effects between sexual identity and partnership status on psychological distress. Being in a mixed orientation relationship, but not gender of partner, was a significant predictor of psychological distress among both women and men across sexual identities. Additional research should assess the partnership dynamics contributing to the association between partnership characteristics and mental health among sexual minority populations.

Masculine norms of emotional control predicted whether men followed CDC recommendations suggests that noncompliance with those recommendations may be a way of men demonstrating that they are not afraid

Mahalik, J. R., Di Bianca, M., & Harris, M. P. (2022). Conformity to masculine norms and men’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, Jun 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000401

Abstract: The study examined men’s conformity to masculine norms as related to adherence to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 as well as men’s attitudes toward mask wearing. Five hundred eighty nine participant men, predominantly White and heterosexual, completed the 10–15 min anonymous online survey through Prolific. After controlling for demographics, results indicated that the masculine norms of emotional control and power over women were related to less adherence to CDC recommendations; and that self-reliance, power over women, and heterosexual self-presentation were related to more negative attitudes toward mask wearing. Limitations and future research such as improving men’s participation in combatting COVID-19, and other public health crises, by addressing men’s specific salient masculine norms when developing and implementing public health outreach and prevention are discussed.

Impact Statement: The study examined men’s conformity to specific masculinity norms to predict their adherence to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations for combatting COVID-19 and their attitudes toward mask wearing. The findings can aid in public health efforts to improve men’s participation in combatting the pandemic and future public health crises.

The presence of feminine males in Samoa & Mexico, when masculine men are willing to engage in sexual activity with them, induces women to compete intersexually in comparable ways to intrasexual competition with rival women

Intra- and Intersexual Mate Competition in Two Cultures: A Comparison of Women’s Response to Mate Competition with Women and Gender-Nonbinary Males in Samoa and among the Istmo Zapotec. Scott W. Semenyna, Francisco R. Gómez Jiménez & Paul L. Vasey. Human Nature, Jun 3 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-022-09424-0

Abstract: The present study examined women’s mate competition tactics in response to female and feminine-male rivals in two cultures in which competition against both occurs. In Samoa and the Istmo Zapotec (Southern Mexico), women not only compete with other women (intrasexually) but also compete with rival feminine males (intersexually) in order to access/retain the same masculine men as sexual/romantic partners. Using a mixed-method paradigm, women were asked about their experiences of intra- and intersexual mate competition, and these narratives were recorded. The tactics reportedly employed by participants, and those attributed to mate competitors, were categorized according to established taxonomies of mate competition tactics, and their frequencies compared. Within-culture, the likelihood that participant women had ever experienced intra- and intersexual mate competition did not differ. Furthermore, participants reported a similar pattern of behavioral tactics whether their rival was another woman or a feminine male. These included benefit provisioning tactics during mate acquisition and cost-inflicting tactics during mate retention. Similarly, the mate competition tactics attributed to rival women and rival feminine males bore a striking resemblance, focused on enticing target men. Results highlight the mate competition tactics employed by women outside of a Euro-American context, and the way cultural factors impact mating landscapes presumed to be exclusively heterosexual. The presence of feminine males, alongside masculine men’s willingness to engage in sexual activity with them, induces women in such cultures to compete intersexually in comparable ways to intrasexual competition with rival women.

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Notes

Samoans in general, and often fa’afafine themselves, refer to fa’afafine using both masculine and feminine pronouns, even within the same narrative or sentence, as illustrated in this passage. This is not intended as a slur toward fa’afafine by participant women, nor is it taken as insulting by fa’afafine; it simply reflects the fact that fa’afafine are readily acknowledged as being natal males.

Semenyna et al. (2020) report data on intersexual mate competition (i.e., the second and fourth columns in the data tables). Data pertaining to intrasexual mate competition (i.e., the first and third columns in the data tables) have not previously been reported, analyzed, or compared with intersexual mate competition.

Much like Samoan women, Istmo Zapotec women would frequently vacillate between masculine and feminine pronouns when referring to a muxe.

Both those who perceived COVID-19 racial disparities to be greater & those who read more about those disparities (which reduced empathy) reported reduced fear of COVID-19 & less support for safety precautions

Highlighting COVID-19 racial disparities can reduce support for safety precautions among White U.S. residents. Allison L.Skinner-Dorkenoo et añ- Social Science & Medicine, Volume 301, May 2022, 114951. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114951

Highlights

• Tested relations with White US residents' awareness of COVID-19 racial disparities.

• Perceiving greater COVID-19 racial disparities predicted reduced fear of COVID-19.

• Exposure to information about COVID-19 racial disparities reduced empathy.

• Reduced empathy and fear of COVID-19 predict reduced support for safety precautions.

• Highlighting racial disparities may paradoxically perpetuate racial inequalities.

Abstract: U.S. media has extensively covered racial disparities in COVID-19 infections and deaths, which may ironically reduce public concern about COVID-19. In two preregistered studies (conducted in the fall of 2020), we examined whether perceptions of COVID-19 racial disparities predict White U.S. residents’ attitudes toward COVID-19. Utilizing a correlational design (N = 498), we found that those who perceived COVID-19 racial disparities to be greater reported reduced fear of COVID-19, which predicted reduced support for COVID-19 safety precautions. In Study 2, we manipulated exposure to information about COVID-19 racial disparities (N = 1,505). Reading about the persistent inequalities that produced COVID-19 racial disparities reduced fear of COVID-19, empathy for those vulnerable to COVID-19, and support for safety precautions. These findings suggest that publicizing racial health disparities has the potential to create a vicious cycle wherein raising awareness reduces support for the very policies that could protect public health and reduce disparities.

Keywords: Racial disparitiesCOVID-19Systemic racismPublic healthAttitudes

8. Discussion

In Study 2, we replicated the systemic knowledge findings from Study 1 and observed initial evidence that informing White U.S. residents of COVID-19 racial disparities can causally reduce fear of COVID-19 and support for safety precautions. Previous research had shown a similar pattern of results among White U.S. residents who reported relatively high racial biases (Harell and Lieberman, 2021; Stephens-Dougan, 2021), but our findings—which were largely unmoderated by political orientation—suggest a more general phenomenon. We had speculated that framing COVID-19 racial disparities as a product of persistent health inequalities might serve as a buffer against this tendency, consistent with individual differences in systemic knowledge. However, we observed even less concern about COVID-19 when racial disparities were framed as a result of systemic inequalities. In addition, our exploratory mediation analysis provided suggestive evidence that the reduced fear and empathy for those vulnerable to COVID-19 that resulted from framing COVID-19 racial disparities as a product of persistent health inequalities, may have reduced support for safety precautions. Taken together, these findings point to the potential drawbacks of highlighting COVID-19 racial disparities among White U.S. residents.

8.1. General discussion

Our studies examined the association between White U.S. residents’ perceptions of COVID-19 racial disparities and their attitudes toward COVID-19. We hypothesized that those who perceived racial disparities in COVID-19 to be greater would be less concerned about COVID-19—as indicated by reduced fear and support for safety precautions. Indeed, both studies provided some evidence of this tendency. In Study 1, we observed that those who perceived COVID-19 racial disparities in the U.S. to be greater were less fearful of COVID-19, and our exploratory mediation was consistent with the notion that this may lead to reduced support for safety precautions. Our experimental manipulation (Study 2) provided evidence that informing White U.S. residents of COVID-19 racial disparities can reduce fear, empathy, and support for COVID-19 safety precautions. We postulated that framing COVID-19 racial disparities as a product of persistent health inequalities could undermine the tendency to justify the status quo (Kay et al., 2009) and help increase concern about COVID-19. However, our findings indicate that this framing further reduced fear and support for safety precautions—perhaps because this information signaled that these disparities were not just transitory epidemiological trends which could potentially shift and disproportionately impact White people in the future. In fact, our exploratory mediation analysis provided suggestive evidence that both reduced fear of COVID-19 and empathy for those most vulnerable may contribute to the observed reduction in support for safety precautions. Emerging evidence is consistent with this interpretation: White U.S. residents who perceived COVID-19 racial disparities to be a result of genetic susceptibility reported lower adherence to CDC COVID-19 safety recommendations (Crist and Schlegel, 2021). Our findings are also in line with trends observed in public opinion polls indicating that White U.S. residents increased their support for reopening the economy—in spite of public health risks—between late March and early June of 2020 (Cox, 2020), which corresponds with the release of data indicating racial health disparities in COVID-19.

Overall, individual differences in systemic knowledge of the contributors to COVID-19 racial disparities predicted greater fear of COVID-19, support for safety precautions, and empathy for those most vulnerable. Given the parallels between the systemic knowledge measure and the persistent inequalities framing condition, it may be surprising that these factors had opposing effects on our outcomes. However, the persistent inequalities article merely framed racial disparities as a product of persistent inequalities and did not provide extensive education on the systemically biased policies and practices that gave rise to persistent inequalities. The systemic knowledge measure, in contrast, captures a deeper understanding of systemic racism, consistent with prior work on theories of racial ignorance (e.g., Bonam et al., 2019; Mueller, 2018; Nelson et al., 2012; Salter et al., 2018). Furthermore, supplementary analyses indicated that across both studies systemic knowledge was strongly correlated (rs > 0.70) with acknowledgement of systemic racism in the U.S. (Neville et al., 2000).

Examining the impact of efforts to address and educate people about population health disparities is critically important (Lewis et al., 2020), and our work is not the first to conclude that informing people of racial health disparities has the potential to backfire (Harell and Lieberman, 2021; Lee et al., 2017; Niederdeppe et al., 2008; Stephens-Dougan, 2022). Experimental investigation of reactions to systemic inequality in an entirely different domain—the criminal justice system—has shown a pattern similar to our study, such that alerting White U.S. citizens of racial disparities in the criminal justice system reduced support for criminal justice reform (Hetey and Eberhardt, 2014, 2018). Indeed, psychologists and communications scholars have argued that educating the public about systemic inequalities in a way that motivates (rather than depresses) health and social policy changes could be critical to addressing inequalities (Hetey and Eberhardt, 2018; Niederdeppe et al., 2008). Previous scholarship has recommended the use of narratives and visual images in public communication about population health disparities; thus, incorporating these factors in future research may lead to more optimal outcomes (Niederdeppe et al., 2008).

Future work should also examine the generality of these findings across U.S. residents and messages about racial disparities. Although our data included White participants from all U.S. states and was fairly representative of the White U.S. adult population, our participants tended to be younger (residents 65+ were underrepresented) and had lower incomes than the median U.S. household (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019). It is also worth considering how discussions of disparities develop over the course of a public health crisis. For instance, the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines in early 2021—which were disproportionately received by White U.S. residents during the initial rollout (DiRago et al. in press; Sacarny and Daw, 2021)—may have further reduced fear of COVID-19 and support for safety precautions beyond what we observed in our samples. Future work will also be critical for determining the extent to which the findings observed here generalize to other public health issues and messages about disparities. Even if the effects observed here do not generalize to all messages about racial disparities, the fact that some such messages can reduce public concern about health crises and dampen support for precautions among White U.S. residents should raise serious concerns. Future research that examines a broader stimulus set (Yarkoni, 2020) and considers how to publicly address racial and ethnic disparities without spurring these unintended consequences will be essential.

What is beautiful is perceived as good, but this view is compensated by a perception of vanity (less moral and more immoral)

Han, D. E., & Laurent, S. M. (2022). Beautiful seems good, but perhaps not in every way: Linking attractiveness to moral evaluation through perceived vanity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Jun 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000317

Abstract: For almost 50 years, psychologists have understood that what is beautiful is perceived as good. This simple and intuitively appealing hypothesis has been confirmed in many ways, prompting a wide range of studies documenting the depth and breadth of its truth. Yet, for what is arguably one of the most important forms of “goodness” that there is—moral goodness—research has told a different story. Although greater attractiveness is associated with a host of positive attributes, it has been only inconsistently associated with greater perceived morality (or lesser immorality), and meta-analyses have suggested the total effect of beauty on moral judgment is near zero. The current research documents one plausible reason for this. Across nine experiments employing a variety of methodological and measurement strategies, we show how attractiveness can be perceived as both morally good and bad. We found that attractiveness causally influences beliefs about vanity, which translates into beliefs that more attractive targets are less moral and more immoral. Then, we document a positive association between attractiveness and sociability—the nonmoral component of warmth—and show how sociability exerts a countervailing positive effect on moral judgments. Likewise, we document findings suggesting that vanity and sociability mutually suppress the effects of attractiveness on each other and on moral judgments. Ultimately, this work provides a comprehensive process account of why beauty seems good but can also be perceived as less moral and more immoral, highlighting complex interrelations among different elements of person perception.

Although it is consistently found that men ascribe considerable importance to a partner's appearance, a woman of good looks has roughly the same changes of being in a relationship than a woman of poor looks

Apostolou, M., & Philippou, R. (2022). What predicts involuntary singlehood: Investigating the effects of self-esteem and having desirable traits in a Greek-speaking sample. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Jun 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000299

Abstract: Many people are involuntarily single; that is, they are not in an intimate relationship, although they want to be so. The current research attempted to examine whether having traits that people prefer in a partner, and one’s level of self-esteem, predicted singlehood status. Using an online sample of 986 Greek-speaking participants, we found that self-esteem had a significant and large effect on predicting marital status for men, with higher scores being associated with higher probability to be in a relationship or single by choice than involuntarily single. However, self-esteem had no effect on marital status for women. Furthermore, in most cases, participants’ self-ratings in desirable traits had no significant direct effects on predicting marital status neither for men nor for women. Still, for men, a number of these traits had significant indirect effects. Overall, having desirable traits was not associated directly with lower probability to be involuntarily single, but for men, some of these traits enhanced their self-esteem, with higher self-esteem being associated with a considerable decrease in the probability to be involuntarily single. The implications of these findings on evolutionary theorizing on mate choice are further discussed. 

This paper presents a novel framework to estimate the elasticity between nighttime lights and quarterly economic activity

Measuring Quarterly Economic Growth from Outer Space. Robert C. M. Beyer, Yingyao Hu, Jiaxiong Yao. IMF Working Paper No. 2022/109, June 3, 2022. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2022/06/03/Measuring-Quarterly-Economic-Growth-from-Outer-Space-518876

Summary: This paper presents a novel framework to estimate the elasticity between nighttime lights and quarterly economic activity. The relationship is identified by accounting for varying degrees of measurement errors in nighttime light data across countries. The estimated elasticity is 1.55 for emerging markets and developing economies, ranging from 1.36 to 1.81 across country groups and robust to different model specifications. The paper uses a light-adjusted measure of quarterly economic activity to show that higher levels of development, statistical capacity, and voice and accountability are associated with more precise national accounts data. The elasticity allows quantification of subnational economic impacts. During the COVID-19 pandemic, regions with higher levels of development and population density experienced larger declines in economic activity.

The Psychology of Lying and Deception Detection: People are more likely to believe information that is consistent with their own beliefs or consistent with the beliefs held by those in their social circle

Truth-Default Theory and the Psychology of Lying and Deception Detection. Timothy R. Levine. Current Opinion in Psychology, June 3 2022, 101380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101380

Highlights

• Truth-default theory posits that honesty is the starting place for human communication, and highlights people’s vulnerability to false and misleading information.

• Truth-default theory explains differences in deception detection outcomes across lab and everyday life situations.

• People are more likely to believe information that is consistent with their own beliefs, consistent with the beliefs held by those in their social circle, and that is ubiquitous in their communication environment.

Abstract: Truth-default theory offers an account of human deceptive communication where people are honest unless they have a motive to deceive and people passively believe others unless suspicion and doubt are actively triggered. The theory is argued to account for wide swings in vulnerability to deception in different types of situations in and out of the lab. Three moderators are advanced to account for differential vulnerability to political misinformation and disinformation. Own belief congruity, social congruence, and message repetition are argued to combine to affect the probability that implausible and refutable false information is accepted as true.

Keywords: MisinformationDisinformationConfirmation BiasSocial ProofLies

The current state of the data could not support beliefs that sexualized game content influences either players' mental well-being or sexist attitudes and behaviors

Does sexualization in video games cause harm in players? A meta-analytic examination. Christopher J. Ferguson et al. Computers in Human Behavior, June 2 2022, 107341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107341

Highlights

• Whether sexualization in video games causes negative outcomes is a matter of concern.

• Meta-analysis examined sexualization effects on misogynistic and mental health outcomes.

• Exposure to sexualization in games was not found to be associated with negative outcomes.

• Better quality studies were less able to find evidence for effects.

Abstract: Whether video games with sexualized content do or do not relate to mental health and body image problems in players, and/or sexualization and hostility toward women, is an issue of broad public interest. However, evidence from empirical studies has generally been mixed. To examine this issue, we explored the degree to which sexualization in games was related to both well-being/body dissatisfaction and sexism/misogyny among players in two separate meta-analyses. Results revealed that sexualization in games was neither related to well-being/body dissatisfaction (r = 0.082, k = 10, n = 2,010, p = .066) nor sexism/misogyny (r = 0.040, k = 15, n = 15,938, p = .070). Better designed studies, and those that showed less evidence for researcher expectancy effects (for sexism/misogyny outcomes), tended to find less evidence for effects. As appears commonly in other realms of media effects, the evidence is weak that sexualized games influence player attitudes and behavior.

Keywords: Video gamesSexualizationMental healthSexism

Under some conditions fact checking can increase fake news

Bayesian Persuasion with Lie Detection. Florian Ederer, Weicheng Min. May 2022. https://florianederer.github.io/lies.pdf

Abstract: How does lie detection constrain the potential for one person to persuade another to change her action? We consider a model of Bayesian persuasion in which the Receiver can detect lies with positive probability. We show that the Sender lies more when the lie detection probability increases. As long as this probability is sufficiently small, the Sender’s and the Receiver’s equilibrium payoffs are unaffected by the presence of lie detection because the Sender simply compensates by lying more. However, when the lie detection probability is sufficiently high, the Sender’s equilibrium payoff decreases and the Receiver’s equilibrium payoff increases with the lie detection probability.

The more a society is dedicated to the value of equality and the more choices it offers for individual self-determination, the higher its rates of functional mental illness

The West’s Struggle for Mental Health: Rates of functional mental illness are high in open societies and low in authoritarian ones. Liah Greenfeld. Wall Street Journal, Jun 2 2022. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-wests-struggle-for-mental-health-illness-uvalde-shooting-depression-anxiety-religion-meaning-authoritarian-11654034338

The more a society is dedicated to the value of equality and the more choices it offers for individual self-determination, the higher its rates of functional mental illness. These rates increase in parallel with the increase in the available occupational, geographical, religious, gender and lifestyle-related choices. This explains why, since the 1970s, the U.S. leads the world as the country most affected by functional mental illness, though other prosperous liberal democracies aren’t far behind. Before the 1970s, first place belonged to the U.K., which lost that ranking together with its empire and the dramatic contraction in the number of choices the nation offered its members as a result. In contrast, rates of functional mental illness in societies that are insecure, poor, inegalitarian or authoritarian are remarkably low. For decades, the World Psychiatric Association has pondered the “perennial puzzle” of the relative immunity to such illnesses in Southeast Asian countries.

Equality inevitably makes self-definition a matter of one’s own choice, and the formation of personal identity—necessary for mental health—becomes personal responsibility, a burden some people can’t shoulder. A relatively high rate of functional mental illness, expressing itself centrally in dissatisfaction with self and, therefore, social maladjustment, thus must be expected in democracies. But while high rates of mental illness are an old problem, the soaring rates of the recent decades aren’t explained by equality alone. They are related, in addition, to what happened to Western values, especially in the U.S., since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The disappearance of the West’s common opponent rendered individual identities in the West more confusing and dissatisfying. Having lost sight of what they, as a society, were against, millions of Westerners lost the sense of what they represented, rejecting common reference points, such as personal responsibility, which previously constituted the core of the self in the West. Virtues and vices, Soviet-style, came to be seen as characteristics of groups, significant social groupings were defined genetically, all personal discomfort was attributed to society, and the burden of responsibility was shifted off individual shoulders.

This change transformed the understanding of justice from one based on individual actions to one based on collective, biologically determined dispositions. It encouraged social maladjustment because people believing themselves decent were naturally uncomfortable in a society that wasn’t decent. And at the same time it trapped huge numbers within vicious, yet inescapable genetically determined identities. While solving the problem for some, this change in values accelerated the increase in rates of mental illness.

Does Wisdom Even Exist in the Real World? We typically do not find many highly wise participants in representative studies

The Wisdom Researchers and the Elephant: An Integrative Model of Wise Behavior. Judith Glück, Nic M. Weststrate. Personality and Social Psychology Review, June 2, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/10888683221094650

Abstract: This article proposes an integrative model of wise behavior in real life. While current research findings depend considerably on how wisdom is conceptualized and measured, there are strong conceptual commonalities across psychological wisdom models. The proposed model integrates the components of several existing models into a dynamic framework explaining wise behavior. The article first specifies which real-life situations require wisdom and discusses characteristics of wise behavior. The core proposition of the model is that in challenging real-life situations, noncognitive wisdom components (an exploratory orientation, concern for others, and emotion regulation) moderate the effect of cognitive components (knowledge, metacognitive capacities, and self-reflection) on wise behavior. The model can explain the situation specificity of wisdom and the commonalities and differences between personal and general wisdom. Empirically, it accounts for the considerable variation in correlations among wisdom measures and between wisdom measures and other variables. The model has implications for the design of wisdom-fostering interventions and new wisdom measures.

Keywords: wisdom, wise behavior, wisdom measurement, wisdom development, wisdom trait, wisdom state

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Does Wisdom Even Exist in the Real World?

Psychological accounts of wisdom have a tendency to sound lofty and unrealistic—it seems like ideally wise individuals never get angry or depressed, care deeply even about their enemies (if they have any enemies at all) and are able to find perfect solutions to problems of infinite complexity (see Ardelt et al., 2019; Baltes & Kunzmann, 2004). People’s beliefs about wisdom exemplars such as Solomon or Gandhi may have little to do with who those individuals actually were (Grossmann & Kross, 2014). Such ideals are unlikely to be attainable by any human being. The word “wise” may indeed be a label that people tend to reserve for extraordinary individuals. We believe that one of the functions of models like the current one is to explain how rare behavior can arise from a constellation of cognitive and noncognitive qualities that are each continuous and that can co-develop into a broader quality that is more than the sum of its parts. The rarity of high levels of wisdom is, of course, also a challenge to empirical research. We typically do not find many highly wise participants in representative studies [...]

Poor Prospects, Not Inequality, Motivate Political Violence

Poor Prospects, Not Inequality, Motivate Political Violence. Henrikas Bartusevicius, Florian van Leeuwen. Journal of Conflict Resolution, May 30, 2022.  https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027221074647

Abstract: Despite extensive scholarly interest in the association between economic inequality and political violence, the micro-level mechanisms through which the former influences the latter are not well understood. Drawing on pioneering theories of political violence, social psychological research on relative deprivation, and prospect theory from behavioral economics, we examine individual-level processes that underpin the relationship between inequality and political violence. We present two arguments: despite being a key explanatory variable in existing research, perceived lower economic status vis-vis other individuals (an indicator of relative deprivation) is unlikely to motivate people to participate in violence; by contrast, although virtually unexplored, a projected decrease in one's own economic status (prospective decremental deprivation) is likely to motivate violence. Multilevel analyses of probability samples from many African countries provide evidence to support these claims. Based on this, we posit that focusing on changes in living conditions, rather than the status quo, is key for understanding political violence.

Keywords: civil conflict, political violence, economic inequality, relative deprivation, decremental deprivation, social psychology, prospect theory, individual-level analysis

Women are at increased risk for social anxiety not because of their high femininity but because of their low masculinity

Cultural and gender differences in social anxiety: The mediating role of self-construals and gender role identification. Kristen E. Zentner, Hajin Lee, Bryce S. Dueck & Takahiko Masuda. Current Psychology, May 28 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-022-03116-9

Abstract: The current paper investigated underlying mechanisms that produce culture and gender differences in social anxiety. European-Canadian (n = 99; 47% female) and Asian-Canadian (n = 94; 54% female) undergraduate students completed questionnaires measuring levels of independence, interdependence, masculinity, femininity, and social anxiety. Asian Canadians reported a similar level of social anxiety to European Canadians, and females reported higher social anxiety than males. Mediational analyses revealed that levels of independence, interdependence, and masculinity mediated the association between culture and social anxiety, whereas levels of masculinity mediated the association between gender and social anxiety. Cultural differences in social anxiety are explained by the extent to which individuals define themselves as independent and interdependent, while gender differences in social anxiety are explained by the extent to which individuals identify themselves with a masculine gender role. Our findings suggest the orthogonal impact of culture and gender on individuals’ social anxiety. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.

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women are at increased risk for social anxiety not because of their high femininity but because of their low masculinity

Paternity Uncertainty and Parent–Offspring Conflict Explain Restrictions on Female Premarital Sex across Societies

Paternity Uncertainty and Parent–Offspring Conflict Explain Restrictions on Female Premarital Sex across Societies. Gabriel Šaffa, Pavel Duda & Jan Zrzavý. Human Nature, May 28 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-022-09426-y

Abstract: Although norms of premarital sex vary cross-culturally, the sexuality of adolescent girls has been consistently more restricted than that of adolescent boys. Three major theories that attempt to explain restrictions on female premarital sex (FPS) concern male, female, and parental control. These competing theories have not been tested against each other cross-culturally. In this study, we do this using a sample of 128 nonindustrial societies and socioecological predictors capturing extramarital sex, paternal care, female status, sex ratio, parental control over a daughter’s mate choice, residence, and marriage transactions, while also controlling for phylogenetic non-independence across societies. We found that multiple parties benefit from restrictions on FPS. Specifically, FPS is more restricted in societies intolerant of extramarital sex and where men transfer property to their children (male control), as well as where marriages are arranged by parents (parental control). Both paternity uncertainty (partitioned among marital fidelity and paternal investment) and parent–offspring conflict (prompting parents to control their daughter’s sexuality) were identified as possible mechanisms of FPS restrictions. The evidence for female control is ambiguous, mainly because it can be equally well interpreted as both male control and parental control, and because fathers, rather than mothers, are often the primary decision makers about a daughter’s mate choice. Our results also emphasize the importance of social roles, rather than stereotyped sex roles, as a more useful approach to understanding the evolution of FPS restrictions.

Why Deaths of Despair Are Increasing in the US and Not Other Industrial Nations—Insights From Neuroscience and Anthropology

Why Deaths of Despair Are Increasing in the US and Not Other Industrial Nations—Insights From Neuroscience and Anthropology. Peter Sterling, Michael L. Platt. JAMA Psychiatry. 2022;79(4):368-374. February 2, 2022, doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.4209

Abstract: The US National Academy of Sciences reports rising mortality for US adults, most steeply for White adults with a secondary education or less. The rise is largely attributable to deaths of despair (suicide and poisoning by alcohol and drugs) with strong contributions from the cardiovascular effects of rising obesity. Although the report does acknowledge a crisis, it proposes mild measures to manage it, such as strengthening programs to support recovery, prevent relapse, increase resilience, and perform more research toward clinically useful definitions of despair. The US National Academy of Sciences report notes that mortality is decreasing in a control group of 16 wealthy nations (including countries in Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and Japan), but it does not ask what protects those nations from despair. It has been observed that human beings are constrained by evolutionary strategy (ie, huge brain, prolonged physical and emotional dependence, education beyond adolescence for professional skills, and extended adult learning) to require communal support at all stages of the life cycle. Without support, difficulties accumulate until there seems to be no way forward. The 16 wealthy nations provide communal assistance at every stage, thus facilitating diverse paths forward and protecting individuals and families from despair. The US could solve its health crisis by adopting the best practices of the 16-nation control group.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which forbids US firms from paying bribes to foreign public officials, increases the size of illegal markets

Bribe-Switching. Bologna Pavlik, Jamie and Desierto, Desiree, Bribe-Switching. May 2022. SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4074383

Abstract: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) prohibits US firms from paying bribes to foreign public officials. We show that FCPA enforcement has no positive effect on the GDP per capita of the countries of these officials but, rather, increases their countries shadow economy. When public officials take bribes both from legal and illegal markets, corruption enforcement in legal markets induces them to make up for lost rents by taking more bribes from illegal markets. In equilibrium, they enforce less against illegal producers, thereby increasing the size of illegal markets.  We find that one case of FCPA enforcement alone increases the shadow economy by as much as 0.25 percentage points (pp), homicide rates by 0.02 pp, and trade misinvoicing by 0.5 pp.

Keywords: corruption, bribery, shadow economy, illegal markets

The empirical evidence contradicted the idea that attraction occurs when people’s personalities match

Humberg, Sarah, Tanja M. Gerlach, Theresa Franke-Prasse, Katharina Geukes, and Mitja Back. 2022. “Is (actual or Perceptual) Personality Similarity Associated with Attraction in Initial Romantic Encounters? A Dyadic Response Surface Analysis.” PsyArXiv. May 30. doi:10.31234/osf.io/vcp85

Abstract: A central assumption in lay and psychological theories is that people are attracted to potential mates who are similar to themselves in personality traits. However, the empirical findings on this idea have been inconclusive. Only a few studies have considered real-life dating contexts, and the statistical approaches they applied have sometimes spuriously identified similarity effects. In our study, 397 heterosexual singles (aged 18-28) participated in real speed-dates (Ndates = 940). Using dyadic response surface analysis, we investigated effects of actual similarity (similarity between self-reported personality trait levels) and perceptual similarity (similarity between an actor’s personality and his/her perception of the partner’s personality) concerning the Big Five traits. Neither type of similarity was related to initial romantic attraction. That is, the empirical evidence contradicted the idea that attraction occurs when people’s personalities match. We conclude that understanding initial attraction requires a deeper understanding of interpersonal dynamics in first encounters.

Find little evidence that American Twitter is as politicized as it is made out to be, with politics & hard news outlets constituting a small subset of these opinion leaders; ordinary Americans are significantly more likely to follow nonpolitical opinion leaders

The Political Landscape of the U.S. Twitterverse. Subhayan Mukerjee, Kokil Jaidka & Yphtach Lelkes. Political Communication, May 31 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2022.2075061

Prior research suggests that Twitter users in the United States are more politically engaged and more partisan than the American citizenry, who are generally characterized by low levels of political knowledge and disinterest in political affairs. This study seeks to understand this disconnect by conducting an observational analysis of the most popular accounts on American Twitter. We identify opinion leaders by drawing random samples of ordinary American Twitter users and observing whom they follow. We estimate the ideological leaning and political relevance of these opinion leaders and crowdsource estimates of perceived ideology. We find little evidence that American Twitter is as politicized as it is made out to be, with politics and hard news outlets constituting a small subset of these opinion leaders. Ordinary Americans are significantly more likely to follow nonpolitical opinion leaders on Twitter than political opinion leaders. We find no evidence of polarization among these opinion leaders either. While a few political professional categories are more polarized than others, the overall polarization dissipates when we factor in the rate at which the opinion leaders tweet: a large number of vocal nonpartisan opinion leaders drowns out the partisan voices on the platform. Our results suggest that the degree to which Twitter is political has likely been overstated in the past. Our findings have implications about how we use Twitter and social media, in general, to represent public opinion in the United States.

Keywords: Twittersocial mediapoliticizationpolarizationecho-chambers

Check also other literature with references: Politically partisan left-right online news echo chambers are real, but only a minority of approximately 5% of internet news users inhabit them; the continued popularity of mainstream outlets often preclude the formation of large partisan echo chambers

Effects of adversity on wisdom: Little evidence of positive change in wise-reasoning over the course of a year

From 2021... None the wiser: Year-long longitudinal study on effects of adversity on wisdom. Anna Dorfman et al. European Journal of Personality, May 17, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070211014057

Abstract: Research on consequences of adversity appears inconclusive. Adversity can be detriment to mental health, promoting maladaptive patterns of thoughts. At the same time, posttraumatic growth studies suggest that overcoming major adversity facilitates growth in wisdom-related patterns of thoughts. We address this puzzle by examining how distinct types of adversity impact wisdom over time and how individual differences in self-distanced (rather than self-immersed) reflection on adversity relate to different wisdom trajectories. In a four-wave prospective year-long study, participants (N = 499) recalled and reflected every three months on the most significant recent adverse event in their life. They reported how much they engaged in wise reasoning—intellectual humility, open-mindedness to diverse perspectives and change, search for compromises and resolution—as well as self-distancing during reflections. Independent raters identified seven distinct adversity types (e.g. social conflict, economic hardship, major trauma) in open-ended descriptions. Growth curve analyses revealed little evidence of positive change in wise-reasoning over the course of a year, and some evidence of negative change for health-related adversity. Although self-distancing was associated with stability in wisdom, self-immersing was associated with negative change in wisdom in reflections on social conflicts over time. We discuss implications these results have for adversity, change vs. resilience in character strengths, and self-distancing.

Keywords: adversity, wisdom, character strengths, self-distancing, resilience

Discussion

In the present research, we used a year-long longitudinal study to examine how different ways people reflect on their adversity—self-distancing vs. self-immersing—prospectively inform changes in wisdom. In addition, we explored the relationship between different forms of adversity and prospective changes in wisdom.

Self-distanced vs. self-immersed reflection on adversity

To address the first question, we examined how inter- and intra-individual differences in self-distancing are associated with wisdom trajectories following adversity. We suggested that greater self-distancing in reflection an adverse experience may facilitate resilience and possibly even growth in wisdom over time. Overall, we found that inter-individual differences in self-distancing did not significantly qualify the trajectory of wisdom. In other words, people who on average self-distance more than others do not show different wisdom for adversities involving social conflicts trajectories. In contrast, intra-individual differences in self-distancing did qualify the trajectory of wisdom. Specifically, participants who reported self-distancing less from social conflicts than their general level subsequently showed a negative trajectory of wisdom. Participants who reported self-distancing more from adversity than their general level sustained wisdom over the same period. Together, these findings suggest that maintaining or developing a self-distanced perspective on social conflicts is associated with sustaining wisdom over time. Self-distancing may be related to mechanisms such as meaning-making and deliberative rumination. This idea is in line with recent research on memory updating during clinical interventions. A recent study found that shifting perspectives from self-immersion to self-distancing when working through stressful past experiences helped to create new meaning for these experiences (Romano et al., 2020).

Our results extend recent evidence from a pre–post experimental field study that examined effects of self-distanced reflection training for wisdom (Grossmann, Dorfman, Oakes, et al., 2021). When examining responses on the same scale as used in the present longitudinal study (Grossmann, Dorfman, Oakes, et al., 2021, Study 1 supplement), participants who trained in self-distancing sustained a comparable degree of self-reported wisdom from before-to-after the self-distancing intervention. In contrast, control participants who did not train in self-distanced reflection showed a decline in wisdom. These findings further qualify a set of theoretical models about wisdom development, which suggest that individual differences competences similar to self-distancing can promote growth in wisdom over time (e.g. Glück et al., 2019). Although these models so far have chiefly focused on inter-individual competences, it is possible that intra-individual change in competences is the driving force behind wisdom maintenance and development.

It is noteworthy that the effects of self-distancing on wisdom trajectory were particularly pronounced for social conflicts. Social conflicts often involve disagreements of parties pursuing different interests. Consequently, it is possible that social conflicts are both more likely to call for wisdom (Grossmann, 2017; Grossmann, Dorfman, et al., 2020). They are also more frequent compared to more singular events such as a major health scare. Thus, social conflicts may produce enough variance in responses to detect growth/decline trajectories. At the same time, the current operationalization of wisdom builds on measures designed specifically for the context of social disagreements and conflicts (Brienza et al., 2018). Consequently, future work may benefit from metrics specifically designed for contexts capturing nuances of medical or economic adversities.

These longitudinal findings also extend the existing literature of self-distancing (Kross & Ayduk, 2017), highlighting the distinction between inter-individual, “trait-like” differences in self-distancing and intra-individual variability from this trait-like level. Further understanding of self-distancing effects will benefit from additional longitudinal studies over longer time frames and across a broader range of psychological processes such as emotion regulation and relational maintenance strategies.

Another insight regarding self-distancing relates to the trajectory of self-distancing for different types of adversity. We found a similar self-distancing trajectory across many different types of adversity, suggesting that the way people engage in self-distancing was largely robust across adversity type (but see minor exceptions in the supplement).

Are all types of adversities alike?

In our exploratory analyses, we classified different types of adversity participants reported experiencing during the year. While some participants reported experiencing the same type of events several times, we observed considerable inter- and intra-individual variability in the types of adversity participants reported. Ratings of subjective event characteristics (i.e. construal of the event) shed further light on differences between adversity types. In particular, social conflicts, economic hardships, and health issues were perceived as more challenging than daily hassles, academic/work setbacks, and even traumas. Also, social conflicts, others’ health problems, and major traumas elicited more negative affect than other types of adversity. Finally, others’ health problems were perceived as less predictable than all other adversity types reported in the study.

Though construal of an event as less predictable may signal uncertainty and low locus of control (Affleck, Tennen, Pfeiffer, et al., 1987), it may also signal greater recognition flexibility that is needed in the situation, which is central to the wisdom construct (Grossmann, 2017). Indeed, participants reported greater wisdom in reflection on adversity involving others’ health problems as compared to other types of adversity. More wisdom in reflections about other-focused adversity than self-focused adversities also corresponded with existing experimental evidence in the wisdom literature, which suggests that people exhibit greater wisdom when reflecting on others’ (vs. their own) problems (Grossmann & Kross, 2014). The insight that different types of adverse events may be associated with different outcomes depending on people’s subjective appraisals of the event (Beck, 2002; Folkman & Lazarus, 1985; Yih et al., 2019) may be especially critical for posttraumatic growth research. We note this because the posttraumatic growth research so far has either chiefly focused on one type of adversity (major trauma) or has not differentiated between adversity types in the first place (e.g. Engels et al., 2019; cf. Infurna & Luthar, 2016; Jayawickreme et al., 2021; Luhmann & Eid, 2009).

Focusing on wisdom, we observed no evidence for posttraumatic growth for any type of adversity participants reported. For major trauma, economic and work-related challenges, and daily hassles, participants reported a high degree of rank-order stability in wisdom, with no change in trajectories over a period of a year. In contrast, for adversity involving health issues, we observed a negative linear trajectory in wisdom over time. It is possible that people who are dealing with personal health problems are more self-focused. As a result, they may report wisdom-related meta-cognitions such as perspectivism less than people who reflect on other types of adversity. Together, these longitudinal observations of the ways people work through different types of adversity suggest potentially distinct trajectories of wisdom over time, casting doubt on the idea of general growth in wisdom after experiencing adversity.

The overall trajectory of wisdom in the face of adversity may be best characterized as reflecting resilience—i.e. the maintenance of stable levels of psychological (and physical) functioning in the face of adversity (Luthar et al., 2000). The assumption that wisdom stability is a sign of resilience dovetails with other emerging longitudinal studies on trajectories of character strengths following adversity. Like the present results, these studies document resilience rather than positive changes (e.g. Chopik et al., 2020; Davis et al., 2019).

Change in character over time: Nuances matter

This research contributes to the emerging study of change and resilience in specific character strengths and virtues (Lamade et al., 2020), responding to calls to integrate prospective research on specific character strengths into the resilience and growth research (Infurna & Jayawickreme, 2019; Letzring et al., 2005). Enriching previous research on resilience and growth, which has primarily examined general changes in well-being (Jayawickreme & Blackie, 2016), the current investigation provides a detailed and nuanced picture of wisdom trajectories. Specifically, sustained wisdom-related resilience in response to adversity may depend on type of adversity and how individuals reflect on this adversity. Such fine-grained studies have been largely missing from the literature (Denissen et al., 2019; Infurna & Jayawickreme, 2019; Jayawickreme & Blackie, 2014). The resilience in wisdom observed in the current study is also noteworthy given that resilience may not be as commonplace as previously believed (Bonanno et al., 2002; Infurna & Luthar, 2018; Infurna et al., 2017). Recent studies show that for a significant number of people, adverse life events bring negative change in character strengths and self-esteem (Bleidorn et al., 2021; Chopik et al., 2020). For example, examining U.S. soldiers pre- and post-deployment, Chopik et al. (2020) found that 40% of soldiers experienced negative changes in character strengths post-deployment. The rest of the sample remained stable post-deployment. If resilience in general is not commonplace, and change is often negative, maintaining wisdom—a unique strength—in the face of adversity may be at least as important as experiencing “growth” in wisdom, because a likely alternative is a decrease in this character strength.

Why did we fail to observe positive changes in wisdom over time in response to adverse events? First, one year may not be enough time to observe meaningful changes in character, especially changes in wisdom, as most changes may happen more gradually over longer periods (e.g. McAdams & Olson, 2010). Second, significant changes in wisdom may be driven by non-normative life events (Chopik et al., 2019). In our sample, participants considered the events they reported as relatively common and not particularly likely to transform their worldview (the event characteristics of different adversity types are presented in supplemental analysis 2.d. and Figure S1 in the Supplemental Materials). Future longitudinal research that tracks people for more than one year can help answer some of these questions. Such studies can help to determine whether wisdom trajectories and the effects of self-distancing differ for lower base-rate adverse events (e.g. a life-threatening assault) or unexpected circumstances (e.g. prolonged social isolation during a pandemic).

Focusing on wisdom expands the discussion of posttraumatic growth and character change beyond personality traits. The narrative identity approach to posttraumatic change examines changes in how people construe and “narrate” their lives following traumatic life events (McAdams, 1996; Pals & McAdams, 2004). Likewise, wisdom can be understood through the ways people approach and reflect on adverse experiences (Weststrate & Glück, 2017; Weststrate et al., 2018; also see Staudinger & Glück, 2011, for a review). In contrast to the changes that people report when describing their “life stories” after a major adverse event (Pals, 2006), our findings suggest that growth in wisdom—reflected in specific meta-cognitions and moral aspirations of the CWM—does not typically change much at all. These findings challenge the folk belief that people can grow stronger and become “wiser” following adverse events they experience in their lives. Rather, the findings emphasize the importance of self-distanced reflection on adverse events in helping to prevent stagnation and decline in wisdom.

While our study focused on wisdom-related responses to concrete events using items concerning moral aspirations and meta-cognition, other conceptualizations and measures may show different trajectories following adversity. In particular, it is possible that more abstract characterizations of wisdom, using context-free metrics, or self-reports of one’s narrative identity may produce results more in line with common lay theories about growth from adversity (e.g. Glück et al., 2019). It is also possible that more nuanced measures, which build on common ways people of different socio-economic and sub-cultural groups express their intellectual humility, open-mindedness, or perspective-taking, could show greater variability in wisdom-related meta-cognitions over time. Future research could examine prospective changes in wisdom as an autobiographical narrative (e.g. Glück et al., 2005), personality characteristic (Staudinger et al., 2005), and personality resource (Glück et al., 2019), as well as consider employing a multi-method approach relying on simultaneous assessment of wisdom across different operationalizations (e.g. Baltes & Staudinger, 2000; Jeste et al., 2010; Webster, 2003).

Despite the substantial diversity of our study sample in age and socio-economic background, most participants were White, with less than a quarter of participants from other ethnic groups, limiting the generalizability of the insights to other populations. Moreover, the study was solely based on participants from English-speaking North America, raising questions about whether these effects would generalize to other cultures. Future research must focus on exploring and understanding the types and appraisals of adverse events that are experienced by culturally diverse groups. Indeed, wisdom trajectories could be different for different cultural and ethnic groups, who may also differ in their propensity to engage in self-distanced reflections (Grossmann & Kross, 2010).