About 11pct of participants evaluated their conscientiousness as adequate, 75pct thought it was "too high" (?!)

Too little, just right or too much? Assessing how people evaluate their conscientiousness levels. Sofie Dupré et al. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 197, October 2022, 111789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111789

Abstract: Recent advances in personality theory and research have led to the introduction of the “Too-much-of-a-good-thing-effect” in the relationship between conscientiousness and desirable outcomes, challenging the “more is better” idea that has been dominating research on this trait for a long time. Thus, the question arises as to how people evaluate their conscientiousness levels themselves, more specifically, whether they regard their trait levels as “too little”, “the right amount”, or “too much”. The current study describes how an existing personality inventory can be adjusted to explore such evaluations of conscientiousness levels by incorporating a too little/too much response format. The structural characteristics of this new assessment approach are examined and compared against responses that are collected using a traditional Likert rating format asking people to describe themselves. Results show that – in this sample (N = 367) – about 11 % of participants evaluated their conscientiousness as adequate, whereas the majority (75 %) indicated it to be too high. Further, the “right amount” of conscientiousness was most frequently associated with a 7 on a 9-point Likert scale, while very high Likert-scale ratings of 9 were regarded as “too much” in over three-fourth of the ratings. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Introduction

High conscientiousness is a reliable correlate of multiple desirable outcomes in different areas of people's lives, such as physical and psychological well-being (Friedman, Kern, & Reynolds, 2010), academic success (Mammadov, 2021), and work performance (Wilmot & Ones, 2019). Although these conscientiousness-outcome relations have been deemed positive and linear in most research (i.e., “more is better”), contradictory evidence from recent lines of theoretical and empirical work indicates that there may be such a thing as being too conscientious (e.g., Carter et al., 2014; Carter, Guan, Maples, Williamson, & Miller, 2016; Denissen et al., 2018; Le et al., 2011). This phenomenon – also referred to as the “Too-much-of-a-good-thing-effect” (TMGT effect; Pierce & Aguinis, 2013) – raises the question how people feel about or evaluate their conscientiousness levels. While current personality assessment instruments provide valuable insights into people's positions on the underlying trait dimension, they cannot capture such evaluations (i.e., whether people regard their trait levels as “too little”, “the right amount”, or “too much”). The current study is a first effort to explore how people evaluate their conscientiousness levels by introducing the too little/too much rating scale (Kaiser & Kaplan, 2005) in personality assessment.

Although the TMGT-effect manifests in different life domains (Pierce & Aguinis, 2013), evidence for this effect regarding conscientiousness has mainly been reported in the work setting, where curvilinear relationships have been demonstrated with various indicators of job performance. That is, several studies demonstrate that employees with moderate conscientiousness levels tend to perform better than those with very high levels (Carter et al., 2014; Denissen et al., 2018; Le et al., 2011). Highly conscientious employees may be so perfectionist that they waste time on unimportant details. Importantly, Le et al. (2011) found that higher levels of conscientiousness only become detrimental to performance in low-complexity jobs, which demonstrates the importance of the work context in explaining the nature of the curvilinear relationship. Similarly, Denissen et al. (2018) showed that high conscientiousness in employees has a detrimental effect on performance when conscientiousness exceeds the level their job demands, which provides further evidence for the significance of a good match between personality and the job context.

While the issue of curvilinearity has been mainly addressed in research on the conscientiousness-performance relationship, it is not exclusive to the work context. For example, Carter et al. (2016) found a similar trend in the relation between conscientiousness and psychological well-being. Taken together, these findings raise the possibility that people who report higher conscientiousness levels potentially experience these trait levels as a hindrance in life, and may feel that lower levels are more desirable.

For decades, psychologists have been in pursuit of valid and reliable ways to assess people's personality, but despite the emergence of a multitude of instruments, none have aimed to capture the way people evaluate their reported trait levels. While Likert scales are designed to grasp the person's actual position on the underlying trait, they are not intended to reveal discrepancies between actual trait levels and desired trait levels. For example, people who rate themselves as highly conscientious on a Likert scale may regard these levels as either adequate or potentially “too high”. Similarly, people with lower Likert-scale rated levels are not necessarily dissatisfied with these levels. Previous efforts have been made toward better operationalizing potential adaptive and maladaptive functioning at both poles of a trait dimension, such as the Five Factor Form (FFF) and the Sliderbar Inventory (SI) (Rojas & Widiger, 2018). However, like the Likert scale, these scales are still aimed at – more accurately – describing people's trait levels.

Similar remarks were made previously by Kaiser and Kaplan (2005), who aimed to assess deficiency and/or excess in leadership behavior. In their study, they suggested a new rating scale format: the too little/too much rating scale, ranging from −4 (too little) to 0 (the right amount) and +4 (too much) (Kaiser & Kaplan, 2005). The usefulness of this scale lies in its ability to tap into perceived overdoing or underdoing, which are areas of functioning not captured by the Likert scale rating format. In the current study, our goal is to introduce this scale in personality assessment to explore employees' evaluations of their conscientiousness levels.

The current study presents the development and validation of a personality instrument that focuses on mapping people's evaluations of their conscientiousness levels (“too much”, “too little”, or “the right amount”) rather than the actual conscientiousness levels (1 = very low; 9 = very high). The characteristics of this instrument will be investigated in two ways. First, the factor structure of the TLTM-rated version will be compared to that of the traditional Likert-rated version of the instrument. Second, associations between ratings on TLTM- and Likert- versions of the instrument will be investigated to build an understanding of how people evaluate different conscientiousness trait levels.

There is no empirical justification for declaring believers in the paranormal to be crazy

Variations in Well-Being as a Function of Paranormal Belief and Psychopathological Symptoms: A Latent Profile Analysis. Neil Dagnall et al. Front. Psychol., June 24 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.886369

Abstract: This study examined variations in well-being as a function of the interaction between paranormal belief and psychopathology-related constructs. A United Kingdom-based, general sample of 4,402 respondents completed self-report measures assessing paranormal belief, psychopathology (schizotypy, depression, manic experience, and depressive experience), and well-being (perceived stress, somatic complaints, and life satisfaction). Latent profile analysis identified four distinct sub-groups: Profile 1, high Paranormal Belief and Psychopathology (n = 688); Profile 2, high Paranormal Belief and Unusual Experiences; moderate Psychopathology (n = 800); Profile 3, moderate Paranormal Belief and Psychopathology (n = 846); and Profile 4, low Paranormal Belief and Psychopathology (n = 2070). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) found that sub-groups with higher psychopathology scores (Profiles 1 and 3) reported lower well-being. Higher Paranormal Belief, however, was not necessarily associated with lower psychological adjustment and reduced well-being (Profile 2). These outcomes indicated that belief in the paranormal is not necessarily non-adaptive, and that further research is required to identify the conditions under which belief in the paranormal is maladaptive.

Discussion

Emergent subgroups reflected subtle variations in paranormal belief and psychopathology, which were associated with differences on well-being measures. Specifically, Profile 1 (high Paranormal Belief and Psychopathology) indexed lower well-being in comparison with the other profiles (Profile 2–4). Contrastingly, Profile 4 (low Paranormal Belief and Psychopathology) evidenced greater well-being vs. the other profiles (Profiles 1–3). Profile 3 (moderate Paranormal Belief and Psychopathology) indexed lower well-being than Profile 2 (high Paranormal Belief and Unusual Experiences; moderate Psychopathology), suggesting that belief in the paranormal is not necessarily contributory to psychological adjustment. Additionally, results indicated that believers are a heterogenous rather than homogeneous population.

Zero-order correlations were consistent with preceding research. Paranormal Belief demonstrated a similar pattern of associations with O-LIFEshort subscales to those reported by Dagnall et al. (2016c). Particularly, Paranormal Belief was most strongly related to Unusual Experiences, correlated with Cognitive Disorganisation and Impulsive Non-conformity, but was not significantly associated with Introvertive Anhedonia. These outcomes correspond to general dimensional models of schizotypy (Kwapil et al., 2008). For instance, they are consistent with the distinction between positive (i.e., unusual experiences, perceptions, beliefs, and magical thinking) and negative (i.e., withdrawal and attenuated ability to experience pleasure) factors.

The positive association between Introvertive Anhedonia and Paranormal Belief is explained by the fact that negative features reflect the tendency to gain less satisfaction from engaging in effortful and deliberative thought (Broyd et al., 2019). Thus, in comparison to positive schizotypy, which is associated with the production of unusual experiences, perceptions, beliefs and magical thinking, negative schizotypy is less cognitive (Broyd et al., 2019). This, in part, explains why positive characteristics are conducive to the generation and maintenance of paranormal beliefs, whereas negative features are unlikely to directly influence supernatural credence. Future research is required to assess the extent to which differences in cognitive engagement influence belief in the paranormal.

Examination of profiles indicated that belief and psychopathological factors interacted in complex ways. Respondents high in Paranormal Belief were differentiated by elevated global (Profile 1) vs. specific (Unusual Experiences) (Profile 2) Psychopathology scores. The presence of a profile characterised by high Unusual Experiences aligns with Loughland and Williams (1997). The Unusual Experiences subscale reflects mainly positive schizotypal characteristics such as perceptual distortions and magical thinking, which align with the reality distortion syndrome of positive schizophrenic symptoms (Liddle, 1987; Loughland and Williams, 1997). Perceptual distortions represent an attenuated form of hallucination, and magical thinking signifies weaker type delusional thoughts.

In the present study, Profile 2 attributes were associated with higher levels of well-being than the global high (Profile 1) and moderate psychological adjustment (Profile 3) subgroups. This suggests that high Paranormal Belief is not necessarily concomitant with lower psychological adjustment and reduced well-being. Although, caution is required when drawing comparison with Loughland and Williams (1997), since they used agglomerative hierarchical clustering rather than LPA, and their analysis considered only schizotypy.

Despite this caveat, the presence of differing high belief profiles has important implications for subsequent research as they are differentially associated with well-being. The presence of a Paranormal sub-group with relatively low Psychopathology scores is consistent with the high levels of supernatural endorsement observed in general populations. It also aligned with the notion that paranormal beliefs in non-clinical samples represent non-psychotic delusions (Irwin et al., 2012a,b). In this context, beliefs often arise from reality testing deficits where individuals fail to adequately assess the validity of propositions and the evidence from which they derive (Dagnall et al., 2015; Drinkwater et al., 2020). Thus, beliefs alone reflect thinking style preferences rather than variations in psycholopathology.

Using LPA to study paranormal belief and psychopathology is conceptually significant because the method recognises that individuals because of life history vary on both constructs. This is important as paranormal belief and psychopathology may concurrently influence psychological adjustment and well-being. Hence, identifying differing profiles advances knowledge in terms of appreciating how specific combinations of paranormal belief and psychopathology relate to well-being. In this instance, demonstrating that although higher Paranormal Belief and psychopathology generally relate to lower well-being, high Paranormal Belief is not inevitably attendant with poorer psychological functioning and lower well-being.

This conclusion is consistent with related work postulating the existence of happy or benign schizotypes. That is, individuals who experience psychotic-like experiences as rewarding and enhancing. These are individuals, who (in relation to the population means) score extremely high on the positive characteristics, but below average on negative and cognitive/disorganised factors (see Claridge, 2018; Grant and Hennig, 2020).

Limitations

A limitation concerns the relative distributions of Paranormal Belief and psychopathology-related scores. Explicitly, Paranormal Belief exhibited greater variation compared with psychopathology measures such as schizotypy. Though schizotypy sum totals were analogous to established norms (Mason et al., 2005), range restriction existed because participants came from a non-clinical, general population. In addition, differences existed as a function of the number of items per measure (e.g., Paranormal Belief 26-items vs. Unusual Experiences 12-items). While scaled means were utilised to minimise this (which is advocated with LPA; Uckelstam et al., 2019), high scores on variables should be interpreted as relative rather than absolute.

Moreover, recoding continuous data to create meaningful profiles can lead to information loss (Lanza and Rhoades, 2013). The profiles in this study were statistically and conceptually meaningful, however, it is necessary to guard against reification. Particularly, LPA profiles relate to heterogeneity across a model’s variables, not subtypes of individuals in the population (Lanza and Rhoades, 2013). Too few or too many profiles can be identified through LPA, and it would be valuable for subsequent research to corroborate the current findings by replication and cross-validation (Collins et al., 1994).

Low fertility has persisted in Japan for decades; inactive sexual lives within intimate and committed relationships may be linked to sexual activity outside such relationships (casual sex)

Casual Sex and Sexlessness in Japan: A Cross-Sectional Study. Shoko Konishi et al. Sexes 2022, 3(2), 254-266; May 1 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/sexes3020020

Abstract: Low fertility has persisted in Japan for decades. Sexless marriages may indirectly contribute to low fertility. Inactive sexual lives within intimate and committed relationships may be linked to sexual activity outside such relationships, called “casual sex”. This study aimed to explore the correlates of casual sex and sexlessness. A web-based questionnaire survey was conducted among married and single men (n = 4000) aged 20–54 years in Japan. Sexlessness were reported by 56% of men, whereas 11% had had casual sex and 31% had had non-casual sex (with spouse, fiancé, or girlfriends/boyfriends) in the last month. Among married men, higher income and long working hours were positively associated with casual sex. Regarding never-married men: those with lower educational status and without full-time jobs were more likely to report casual sex, those in rural areas were more likely to be sexless than those in urban and suburban areas, and those with depression were more likely to be sexless than those without depression. Matching app use was strongly associated with casual sex among married and never-married men, suggesting that such tools may facilitate sexual activity outside committed and intimate relationships. Sexual behavior is closely linked to one’s social and economic environment and health status. View Full-Text

Keywords: Asia; geographic factors; health; Japan; male; marriage; sexual behavior; social networking; socioeconomic status

From 2020... All over the world, people overestimate how negatively their political opponents view their side

Ruggeri, Kai, Bojana Većkalov, Lana Bojanić, Thomas L. Andersen, Sarah Ashcroft-Jones, Nélida Ayacaxli, Paula Barea Arroyo, et al. 2020. “The General Fault in Our Fault Lines.” OSF Preprints. September 8. doi:10.31219/osf.io/xvksa

Abstract: A pervading global narrative suggests that political polarisation is increasing in the US and around the world. Beliefs in increased polarisation impact individual and group behaviours regardless of whether they are accurate or not. One driver of polarisation are beliefs about how members of the out-group perceive us, known as group meta-perceptions. A 2020 study by Lees and Cikara in US samples suggests that not only are out-group meta-perceptions highly inaccurate, but informing people of this inaccuracy reduces negative beliefs about the out-group. Given the importance of these findings for understanding and mitigating polarisation, it is essential to test to what extent they generalise to other countries. We assess that generalisability by replicating two of the original experiments in 10,207 participants from 26 countries in the first experiment and 10 in the second. We do this by studying local group divisions, which we refer to as fault lines. In line with our hypotheses, results show that the pattern found in the US broadly generalises, with greater heterogeneity explained by specific policies rather than between-country differences. The replication of a simple disclosure intervention in the second experiment yielded a modest reduction in negative motive attributions to the out-group, similar to the original study. These findings indicate first that inaccurate and negative group meta-perceptions are exhibited in a large number of countries, not only the US, and that informing individuals of their misperceptions can yield positive benefits for intergroup relations. The generalisability of these findings highlights a robust phenomenon with major implications for political discourse worldwide.

Men tended to report more problematic pornography use than women; sexual minority men and women tend to report more PPU than heterosexual men and women

Understanding Differences in Problematic Pornography Use: Considerations for Gender and Sexual Orientation. Nicholas C.Borgogna et al. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, June 23 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2022.05.144

Abstract

Background: While preliminary research suggests non-heterosexual men and women view more pornography than their heterosexual counterparts, few studies have examined how problematic use differs across sexual and gender identity groups.

Aim: We sought to test measurement invariance across popular measures of problematic pornography use (PPU) and examine mean PPU differences across heterosexual men, non-heterosexual men, heterosexual women, and non-heterosexual women.

Methods: We used 3 large archival datasets to examine psychometrics/group differences on the Brief Pornography Screen (BPS; N = 1,439), Problematic Pornography Use Scale (PPUS; N = 5,859), and Cyber Pornography Use Inventory-4 (CPUI-4; N = 893).

Outcomes: Most PPU scales/subscales demonstrated acceptable fit, and non-heterosexual men and women tended to report more PPU than heterosexual men and women (though exceptions were evident).

Results: Confirmatory factor analyses revealed good fit across each group and instrument, with exception to sexual minority women on the CPUI-4. Each instrument demonstrated at least metric invariance between groups, with exception to one item between heterosexual and sexual minority men on the CPUI-4. Mean differences suggested that sexual minority men and women tend to report more PPU than heterosexual men and women, though several exceptions were evident depending on the PPU dimension. Men tended to report more PPU than women, though exceptions were also evident. Effect sizes ranged from large-to-non-significant depending on PPU dimension.

Clinical Implications: Researchers and clinicians should consider sexual orientation, gender, and PPU dimension when addressing PPU concerns.

Strengths & Limitations: A primary strength of this study is the use of multiple large samples, meaning our results are likely highly generalizable. However, this study is limited in that it only examined sexual orientation groups broadly and did not account for non-cisgender identities.

Conclusions: The BPS, PPUS, and CPUI-4 are all appropriate tools to measure PPU depending on researcher and clinician needs.

Key Words: Problematic Pornography UseSexual OrientationGenderMeasurementCompulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder

Check also Are Playboy (and girl) Norms Behind the Relationship Problems Associated with Pornography Viewing in Men and Women? Nicholas C. Borgogna, Tracey Smith, Ryon C. McDermott & Matthew Whatley. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, May 7 2020. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/05/are-playboy-and-girl-norms-behind.html

Overall, rates of mental disorders within clinical, counseling, and school-psychology faculty and trainees were similar to or greater than those observed in the general population

Only Human: Mental-Health Difficulties Among Clinical, Counseling, and School Psychology Faculty and Trainees. Sarah E. Victor et al. Perspectives on Psychological Science, June 22, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211071079

Abstract: How common are mental-health difficulties among applied psychologists? This question is paradoxically neglected, perhaps because disclosure and discussion of these experiences remain taboo within the field. This study documented high rates of mental-health difficulties (both diagnosed and undiagnosed) among faculty, graduate students, and others affiliated with accredited doctoral and internship programs in clinical, counseling, and school psychology. More than 80% of respondents (n = 1,395 of 1,692) reported a lifetime history mental-health difficulties, and nearly half (48%) reported a diagnosed mental disorder. Among those with diagnosed and undiagnosed mental-health difficulties, the most common reported concerns were depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and suicidal thoughts or behaviors. Participants who reported diagnosed mental disorders endorsed, on average, more specific mental-health difficulties and were more likely to report current difficulties than were undiagnosed participants. Graduate students were more likely to endorse both diagnosed and undiagnosed mental-health difficulties than were faculty, and they were more likely to report ongoing difficulties. Overall, rates of mental disorders within clinical, counseling, and school-psychology faculty and trainees were similar to or greater than those observed in the general population. We discuss the implications of these results and suggest specific directions for future research on this heretofore neglected topic.

Keywords: clinical psychology, mental health, psychopathology, mental illness, prevalence

Memories with a blind mind: Remembering the past and imagining the future with aphantasia

Memories with a blind mind: Remembering the past and imagining the future with aphantasia. Alexei J. Dawes et al. Cognition, Volume 227, October 2022, 105192, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105192

Abstract: Our capacity to re-experience the past and simulate the future is thought to depend heavily on visual imagery, which allows us to construct complex sensory representations in the absence of sensory stimulation. There are large individual differences in visual imagery ability, but their impact on autobiographical memory and future prospection remains poorly understood. Research in this field assumes the normative use of visual imagery as a cognitive tool to simulate the past and future, however some individuals lack the ability to visualise altogether (a condition termed “aphantasia”). Aphantasia represents a rare and naturally occurring knock-out model for examining the role of visual imagery in episodic memory recall. Here, we assessed individuals with aphantasia on an adapted form of the Autobiographical Interview, a behavioural measure of the specificity and richness of episodic details underpinning the memory of events. Aphantasic participants generated significantly fewer episodic details than controls for both past and future events. This effect was most pronounced for novel future events, driven by selective reductions in visual detail retrieval, accompanied by comparatively reduced ratings of the phenomenological richness of simulated events, and paralleled by quantitative linguistic markers of reduced perceptual language use in aphantasic participants compared to those with visual imagery. Our findings represent the first systematic evidence (using combined objective and subjective data streams) that aphantasia is associated with a diminished ability to re-experience the past and simulate the future, indicating that visual imagery is an important cognitive tool for the dynamic retrieval and recombination of episodic details during mental simulation.

Keywords: AphantasiaVisual imageryMemoryImaginationEpisodic simulation

Rolf Degen summarizing... Around the age of 5 or 6, it dawns on children that others sometimes consider themselves better than they are, and it displeases them

The better to fool you with: Deception and self-deception. Jade Butterworth, Robert Trivers, William von Hippel. Current Opinion in Psychology, June 9 2022, 101385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101385

Abstract: Deception is used by plants, animals, and humans to increase their fitness by persuading others of false beliefs that benefit the self, thereby creating evolutionary pressure to detect deception and avoid providing such unearned benefits to others. Self-deception can disrupt detection efforts by eliminating cognitive load and idiosyncratic deceptive cues, raising the possibility that persuading others of a false belief might be more achievable after first persuading oneself. If people self-deceive in service of their persuasive goals, self-deception should emerge whenever persuasion is paramount and hence should be evident in information sharing, generalized beliefs about the self, and intergroup relations. The mechanism, costs, and benefits of self-deceptive biases are explored from this evolutionary perspective.

Identity fusion is traditionally conceptualized as innately parochial, with fused actors motivated to commit acts of violence on out-groups, largely conditional on threat perception

The Fusion-Secure Base Hypothesis. Jack W. Klein, Brock Bastian. Personality and Social Psychology Review, June 16, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/10888683221100883

Abstract: Identity fusion is traditionally conceptualized as innately parochial, with fused actors motivated to commit acts of violence on out-groups. However, fusion’s aggressive outcomes are largely conditional on threat perception, with its effect on benign intergroup relationships underexplored. The present article outlines the fusion-secure base hypothesis, which argues that fusion may engender cooperative relationships with out-groups in the absence of out-group threat. Fusion is characterized by four principles, each of which allows a fused group to function as a secure base in which in-group members feel safe, agentic, and supported. This elicits a secure base schema, which increases the likelihood of fused actors interacting with out-groups and forming cooperative, reciprocal relationships. Out-group threat remains an important moderator, with its presence “flipping the switch” in fused actors and promoting a willingness to violently protect the group even at significant personal cost. Suggestions for future research are explored, including pathways to intergroup fusion.

Keywords: social identity, identity fusion, intergroup relations, group attachment, secure base

In male–female pairs more men walk to the right of a female, possibly because men prefer to occupy the optimal “fight ready” side

Who goes where in couples and pairs? Effects of sex and handedness on side preferences in human dyads. Paul Rodway & Astrid Schepman. Laterality, Jun 21 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357650X.2022.2090573

Abstract: There is increasing evidence that inter-individual interaction among conspecifics can cause population-level lateralization. Male–female and mother–infant dyads of several non-human species show lateralised position preferences, but such preferences have rarely been examined in humans. We observed 430 male–female human pairs and found a significant bias for males to walk on the right side of the pair. A survey measured side preferences in 93 left-handed and 92 right-handed women, and 96 left-handed and 99 right-handed men. When walking, and when sitting on a bench, males showed a significant side preference determined by their handedness, with left-handed men preferring to be on their partner’s left side and right-handed men preferring to be on their partner’s right side. Women did not show significant side preferences. When men are with their partner they show a preference for the side that facilitates the use of their dominant hand. We discuss possible reasons for the side preference, including males prefering to occupy the optimal “fight ready” side, and the influence of sex and handedness on the strength and direction of emotion lateralization.

Keywords: Evolutionfighting hypothesisbehavioural asymmetryaggressionleftward gaze

Discussion

In the observational study it was found that in 57% of pairs, men walked on the right side of the pair, and women in 43%. The proportion of men walking on the right was robustly above the chance value of 50%, based on Bonferroni-corrected frequentist inferencing and on Bayesian credible intervals and the Bayes Factor. This shows that humans, like many other species (Regaiolli, Spiezio, Ottolini, Sandri, & Vallortigara, 2021; Zaynagutdinova et al., 2021), exhibit lateralized position preferences when in a pair. In addition, the finding adds to the examples of other human social behaviours, such as kissing, cradling and embracing, which show patterns of lateralization. The greater number of men on the right side is compatible with the readiness to fight hypothesis which predicted that men would want to walk with their dominant hand on the outside of the formation, and because right-handed men are more frequent in a population, there would be more men on the right side of a pair. We evaluate this interpretation in more depth shortly.

For the survey data, the prediction from the readiness to fight hypothesis that men, but not women, would show a preference to have their dominant hand on the outside of the formation, was supported for walking and sitting on a bench. In contrast, there was no evidence for an overall preference to be on the right of a pair, and thus the data were not compatible with a right-hemisphere hypothesis that applies universally to all. The dominant-hand hypothesis also did not receive clear support because the preference to be on the right, when walking and sitting, applied to men but not women. Despite this, the dominant-hand hypothesis could account for the observational and survey data if it is assumed that men get to be on their preferred side more often, perhaps by having a stronger side preference and / or being more assertive. For example, manipulating objects might be more important to men than women, and so men might have a stronger preference to have their dominant hand on the outside of a pair, so it is free to manipulate objects (we are grateful to Dr Tucker Gilman for this suggestion). The stronger effect of handedness for side preferences in bench sitting compared to walking could be related to this. Further research is required to examine these possibilities. Taken together, without including additional moderating influences, the observational data and survey data are more compatible with a readiness to fight hypothesis than with a universal right-hemisphere hypothesis, or the dominant-hand hypothesis.

In the side of the bed preferences, the survey data showed that participants largely avoided “both sides equally” responses. Individual preferences for the side of the bed were not associated with sex or handedness. The bed question is helpful in the interpretation of the data. First, it showed that participants were not responding in a mindless or heuristic way, simply selecting the same response for each question. This provides confidence in the walking and bench data, because it suggests that participants expressed genuine preferences. Second, it showed that the typically habitual, long-lasting, and daily arrangement of a couple in bed did not determine the preferred side when walking and sitting on a bench. Third, although this is debatable, lying in bed is not usually a situation in which a man is required to fight a foe, and therefore this question served as a useful control condition. The observed pattern is compatible with the predictions from a fighting readiness hypothesis, if fighting-related behaviours are context-specific and only instantiated in relevant settings where fighting may be required. However, the bed data may contain some noise, because people tend not to sleep on their backs, and rotating into other positions can reverse the left and right sides, so some caution is required in the interpretation of the bed data.

Some researchers have discussed whether a fighting drive is still relevant in modern Western societies. For example, Faurie and Raymond (2013) suggest that, rather than fighting leading to survival of the individual involved in the fight, in modern non-violent societies, fighting, along with sporting achievements, may instead serve as a ritualized display aimed at attracting mates and promoting procreation. However, evolutionary theorizing accommodates vestigial behaviours that may have conferred Darwinian fitness in the past but that are no longer adaptive (see e.g., Rognini, 2018). A drive to be prepared to fight, even if it is unlikely to be necessary, may still be present in men as a behavioural trait at an implicit level, even if, in most situations, it is not necessary to exhibit the fighting for which the man readies himself.

Other potential explanations of these findings cannot be discounted. One interpretation is that they were caused by sex and handedness differences in emotional lateralization, which caused a stronger side preference in right and left-handed males. There is evidence that males are more strongly lateralized than females (Hirnstein, Hugdahl, & Hausmann, 2019), and stronger leftward perceptual asymmetries in males have been reported with line bisection (Jewell & McCourt, 2000) and the chimeric faces task (Innes, Burt, Birch, & Hausmann, 2016). There is also evidence for sex differences in the lateralization of emotion perception (Bourne, 2005; Burton & Levy, 1989; Rodway et al., 2003; Van Strien & Van Beek, 2000; but see Borod et al., 2001), and in social behaviours involving emotional connections, such as cradling (Packheiser, Schmitz, et al., 2019). It is possible that stronger emotional asymmetries in men may predispose them to more strongly prefer to occupy one side of the pair, because it aids social interaction or the monitoring threats from other males. In relation to this, Marzoli, Prete, and Tommasi (2014) propose that the leftward gaze bias could facilitate the monitoring of the dominant hand of other people, either for aiding communication or for monitoring potentially aggressive acts. A stronger leftward gaze to the hands than to other body parts, when looking at angry bodily postures, is in accord with this suggestion (Calbi, Langiulli, Siri, Umiltà, & Gallese, 2021; see also Lucafò et al., 2021). In addition, men have been found to be more strongly lateralized than women when looking at facial emotions of threat in male faces (Rahman & Anchassi, 2012). However, for stronger emotional lateralization in males to account for the current findings, it would have to be assumed that left-handed males have opposite emotional asymmetries to right-handed males. Some research has found this reversal in left-handers (Willems et al., 2010) while other evidence indicates weaker right hemisphere emotional lateralization, but not a reversal (Elias et al., 1998). In sum, it is apparent that an explanation of the side preference in terms of differences in lateralized emotion processing, due to sex and handedness, is consistent with the current findings and other research.

More research is needed to determine which of these alternative explanations is supported by the evidence. The fighting readiness explanation predicts that men will show a stronger side preference in more threatening environments, such as when it is dark, or when walking through a crowd of unfamiliar people. In contrast, a sex and handedness difference in lateralized emotion processing would not predict a stronger side preference in men under more threatening circumstances, if the asymmetry was operating to facilitate social communication with a partner. However, if it was functioning to facilitate the monitoring of the environment for potential threats from aggressive conspecifics, then a stronger side preference could be expected. In this case, the men’s preference for the side that facilitates the use of their dominant hand, and the monitoring of threats in the environment, could be the manifestation of a general behaviour to be “fight ready”.

Small effect sizes for some of our data could be said to be a limitation of the findings. For example, in the observational study, we observed a Cohen’s h of .13 which is a very small effect size. However, the preference was statistically robust, and the proportion of men on the right (.57) was meaningfully higher than chance (.50). The small effect size is most probably a reason why this subtle bias had not yet been discovered, because it is not noticeable via everyday non-systematic observation. If the effect had been larger, it is likely that people would have noticed the bias routinely in their daily lives. The survey data showed a medium effect size for the key interaction between Sex and Handedness for the walking and bench data (OR = 6.388). This may be because in the survey, people could express their preferences, which were not diluted to the same extent as the observational data, where additional random effects and conflicting inter-individual preferences could interfere with individual preferences. In this respect, the observational data and survey data are most usefully considered together because they complement each other’s limitations.

There are other limitations with the present research. First, it is unclear whether the side preferences in the survey reflect actual preferences, or the side that a person typically occupies, reflecting a memory rather than a preference, or a mixture of these influences. Clarifying this will be relevant to understanding the cause of the side bias. Second, the observational study was conducted in a particular location in the UK. While we have no reason to believe that the findings do not generalize to other locations where male–female pairs are able to walk freely, this requires testing. However, it can be noted that the survey data were from participants from throughout the UK, and the side preferences complemented those obtained in the observational study. This provides confidence in the generalizability of the observational data. Finally, it would have been desirable for all survey images to be matched for the presence of stick figures, so that all conditions were matched along that dimension.

In sum, our observations show that in male–female pairs more men walk to the right of a female than to the left from the pair’s perspective. Unlike women, men report significant side preferences when walking or sitting with a female partner, and this preference is dependent on their handedness. The side that men prefer, when with a partner, facilitates the use of their dominant hand and this might be because men want to be in the best position to fight effectively. There are other plausible explanations of the side preference exhibited by men, including an effect of sex and handedness on the strength and direction of emotional lateralization, or a stronger desire in males to be able use their dominant hand. Further research is desirable to clarify the cause of the side preference in human dyads.

More intelligent people know better how the economy works, regardless of education level

Smart people know how the economy works: Cognitive ability, economic knowledge and financial literacy. Chien-An Lin, Timothy C.Bates. Intelligence, Volume 93, July–August 2022, 101667. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2022.101667

Highlights

• Tested if cognitive ability drives economic knowledge and financial literacy.

• Ability strongly predicted greater economic knowledge.

• Ability predicted greater financial literacy.

• Effects on financial literacy mediated by economic knowledge.

• Associations not influenced by education or economic training.

Abstract: Cognitive ability correlates positively with many financial outcomes but why? One important relationship to understand is the degree to which cognitive ability is associated with greater knowledge of economics, but this has not been tested extensively. Here in two large, pre-registered studies (N = 1356), we tested the relationship between cognitive ability and both economic knowledge and financial literacy. Three predictions were key: i) Cognitive ability would show a large positive association with economic knowledge; ii) Cognitive ability would be associated with better financial literacy and iii) Greater economic knowledge would be positively associated with financial literacy. All three predictions were supported and replicated. Cognitive ability predicted economic knowledge (r = 0.37 to 0.52) independent of and with much larger effects than either educational attainment or economics courses. The findings extend effects of general ability to include greater awareness of economic functions, and improved use of economic information which improves lifetime financial wellbeing.

Keywords: Economic knowledgeCognitive abilityFinancial literacyFinancial knowledge

9. General discussion

Study 2 successfully replicated all study 1 findings relating cognitive ability to economic knowledge and to financial literacy. Four major results emerged in this set of studies. First, controlling for multiple demographic variables, cognitive ability accounted for substantial variance in economic knowledge and in financial literacy. Second the association of cognitive ability with economic knowledge was largely unchanged when education level was controlled. Even controlling for economic training left the association largely undiminished. This suggests that the association of cognitive ability and economic knowledge is not an artifact of exposure to education or, perhaps even more surprisingly, even of specific training in economics. Though this is contrary to some intuitions regarding effects of teaching, it is in line with large studies testing intelligence, knowledge, and knowledge acquisition (Ree & Carretta, 2022). These show that intelligence is powerful predictor of knowledge and knowledge acquisition, but that knowledge itself is a poor predictor of knowledge acquisition. The findings, then, are in line with the idea that knowledge acquisition is strongly under the control of cognitive ability and with relatively weaker effects of teaching due to the strong influence of ability on knowledge acquisition (Ree & Carretta, 2022). Third, supporting importance of cognitive ability for financial wellbeing, we found that brighter people reported better management of investment, insurance, and careful spending. Finally, study 2 replicated the link between cognitive ability, economic knowledge, and financial literacy. These robust positive associations of cognitive ability with economic knowledge and financial literacy are compatible with the possibility that improvements in general ability may cascade into valued improvements not only in economic knowledge but also in lifetime financial outcomes.

9.1. Future directions and limitations

We found that cognitive ability is associated with improved economic knowledge, even controlling for education and specific exposure to economics education. Economic knowledge thus joins the growing set of “mental toolkits” such as knowledge of scientific reasoning and analytic thinking (Čavojová, Šrol, & Jurkovič, 2020; Ståhl & Van Prooijen, 2018) positively associated with cognitive ability. Identifying additional mental toolkits linked to cognitive ability is a valuable direction for future study. By contrast, the lack of association of formal education with knowledge and literacy suggests that intelligent people may actively seek out, learn, and abstract this economic knowledge as an aid to understanding the world and achieving their goals, even when, and independent of exposure to formal education. Capitalising on whatever these self-guided opportunities are would be of value. The finding that, despite economics being one of the most popular subjects in higher education (Brückner et al., 2015), economic training had only a tiny influence on economic knowledge, suggests that future research might focus on improving the efficacy of economic education. Also, since financial literacy was reliably associated with education and economic training, effective education investments leading to improved student outcomes could influence wellbeing via improved financial behaviours.

This research has limitations that should also be mentioned. The financial knowledge subscale of financial literacy proved less reliable than desirable. Other studies have found modest reliabilities for some of these scale, e.g. in the National Financial Capability Study Omega was under 0.7 (NFCS, 2018). More robust measure of financial knowledge may be possible: For instance including options which include additional choices, such as “not having life insurance but I have no dependants”. Testing could also usefully be expanded to include novel financial products, for instance cryptocurrency (Steinmetz, von Meduna, Ante, & Fiedler, 2021) and non-fungible tokens (Trautman, 2021). Given the trillions of dollars involved, volatility, legal frameworks, etc. association of these assets may differ in their association with ability. Another limitation is that we recruited only UK participants. Replicating these findings in different cultures with distinct norms, for instance, surrounding private ownership or lending money for interest, for example, the concept of Riba (Siddiqi, 2004), our findings would be more robust. Future research could also use these findings to help unpack links of cognitive ability to cognate topics, such as economic attitudes.

To conclude, the present studies corroborated the associations between cognitive ability and multiple financial outcomes. The data provided evidence for substantial positive effects of cognitive ability on economic knowledge in addition to financial literacy. In addition, the studies highlighted surprising weak effects of (current) education and economics training on economic knowledge independent of ability. Economic knowledge and financial literacy are central topics in areas of socioeconomics, political policy, and economics, but the present results suggest a role for cognitive ability which is too seldom discussed. This research begins to fill this gap.

Prevalence (about 10pct) and Correlates of Sexual Aversion: A Canadian Community-Based Study

Prevalence and Correlates of Sexual Aversion: A Canadian Community-Based Study. David Lafortune et al. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, June 22 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2022.05.142

Abstract

Background: Sexual aversion (SA) is a chronic difficulty impacting sexual, relational and psychological wellbeing. Yet, there is a dearth of studies exploring its prevalence and associated factors.

Aim: To estimate the prevalence of SA and examine its correlates among a community sample of Canadian adults.

Methods: A large web-based sample of the Quebec (Canada) adult population (n = 1,935) completed an online survey on sexual wellbeing. Prevalence rates were estimated for SA and other sexual difficulties. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify correlates of SA.

Outcomes: Demographics (eg, gender, employment status), self-reported experiences of sexual difficulties (low sexual desire and arousal, vaginal dryness, pain during sexual intercourse, erectile difficulties, premature or delayed ejaculation, and orgasm difficulties), and markers of psychosexual wellbeing (eg, psychological distress, performance anxiety) according to the presence or absence of SA were assessed.

Results: The prevalence of SA was 9.7% (95% CI: 8.5–11.2) in the present sample (6.9% [95% CI: 5.1–8.9] in men, 11.3% [95% CI: 9.4–13.4] in women and 17.1% [95% CI: 9.4–27.4] in nonbinary and/or trans individuals). The multivariate logistic regression model explained 31% of the likelihood of experiencing SA. SA was related to psychological distress (aOR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.33–2.38), sexual satisfaction (aOR: .59, 95% CI:.49–0.70), sexual performance anxiety (aOR: 2.08, 95% CI: 1.45–2.98), and discomfort with sex-related information (aOR: 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01–1.04)

Clinical implications: Several psychosexual correlates of SA were documented and could be targeted by practitioners during the assessment and treatment of individuals living with SA.

Strengths and limitations: The study's strengths include its large, gender diverse sample and use of comprehensive diagnostic criteria for SA. Probability-based sampling methods and longitudinal studies should be conducted to address the current study's limitations.

Conclusion: SA research is critical to document its prevalence in different sociodemographic groups, explore additional intrapersonal and interpersonal mechanisms involved in SA etiology, and ensure that the needs of people living with SA are met with tailored interventions.

Key Words: Sexual AversionPrevalenceSexual DysfunctionsPsychosexual Wellbeing

No definite conclusions may currently be drawn about the effects of music listening on the short-term stress recovery process of healthy individuals

Music listening and stress recovery in healthy individuals: A systematic review with meta-analysis of experimental studies. Krisna Adiasto et al. PLoS One, June 17, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270031

Abstract: Effective stress recovery is crucial to prevent the long-term consequences of stress exposure. Studies have suggested that listening to music may be beneficial for stress reduction. Thus, music listening stands to be a promising method to promote effective recovery from exposure to daily stressors. Despite this, empirical support for this opinion has been largely equivocal. As such, to clarify the current literature, we conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis of randomized, controlled experimental studies investigating the effects of music listening on stress recovery in healthy individuals. In fourteen experimental studies, participants (N = 706) were first exposed to an acute laboratory stressor, following which they were either exposed to music or a control condition. A random-effects meta-regression with robust variance estimation demonstrated a non-significant cumulative effect of music listening on stress recovery g = 0.15, 95% CI [-0.21, 0.52], t(13) = 0.92, p = 0.374. In healthy individuals, the effects of music listening on stress recovery seemed to vary depending on musical genre, who selects the music, musical tempo, and type of stress recovery outcome. However, considering the significant heterogeneity between the modest number of included studies, no definite conclusions may currently be drawn about the effects of music listening on the short-term stress recovery process of healthy individuals. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

Discussion

Music listening has the potential to fulfill the promise of effective stress recovery in healthy individuals. However, cumulative evidence from 17 experimental studies suggests that support for the beneficial effect of music listening on stress recovery is currently lacking: for healthy individuals, the effect of music listening on stress recovery may be equivalent to that of other auditory stimuli, or even merely sitting in silence. Furthermore, the effect of music listening on stress recovery is heterogeneous, and moderator analyses suggest the effect may differ in magnitude according to musical genre, whether music is self-selected, musical tempo, and type of stress recovery outcome. Despite this, the limited number of available studies makes it difficult to draw further conclusions from these analyses.

Overall effects of music listening on stress recovery

The results of our review contrast those of previous meta-analyses, which underscore the relevance of music-based interventions for stress-reduction [10, 11]. While previous reviews suggest that music-based interventions may be moderately beneficial for stress-related outcomes, particularly in medical and therapeutic settings, our results suggest that the magnitude of this effect outside of these settings, particularly for healthy individuals under acute, experimentally induced stress, may be more modest. We presume that one of the principal reasons for this difference was our decision to exclude studies conducted in medical and therapeutic settings. In previous reviews, randomized controlled trials of the effects of music-based interventions within medical and therapeutic settings constituted a large portion of included studies: 67 of 79 (85%) studies in de Witte et al. [10], and 15 of 22 (68%) studies in Pelletier [11], making it more likely that overall effect sizes were derived from studies conducted within these settings. Tentatively, the effects of music listening may be more prominent for the stress recovery of individuals in medical or therapeutic contexts, compared to that of individuals under acute stress in an experimental context. Whereas the time course of stress responses and stress recovery in experimental settings can be considered relatively brief [24, 26, 40, 83], the time course of stress responses and stress recovery within medical and therapeutic settings may be significantly more protracted [12, 13]. Thus, within medical and therapeutic settings, music may be exerting its influence on neuroendocrine, physiological, and psychological processes that have been subjected to longer periods of strain [27, 99].

Furthermore, the difference in overall estimated effect sizes may be attributed to differences in the breadth of music activities encompassed by our review and that of de Witte et al. [10]: whereas we included studies in which participants merely listened to music following a stressor, de Witte et al. [10] also included music therapy, along with other unspecified music activities. We speculate that the effect of music on stress recovery may differ depending on whether music is merely listened to, performed, or used within a music therapy setting. However, studies comparing the stress recovery effects of these various music activities are rare [15, 58]. Thus, future investigations into the differential effect of these music activities may therefore provide a more comprehensive picture of the effects of music on stress recovery.

Potential moderating effects

Our review highlights the considerable methodological variety between studies investigating the effects of music listening on stress recovery. This is particularly concerning given the modest number of experimental studies on music listening and stress recovery in current literature. Although we investigated the impact of these methodological differences through moderator analyses, many of the estimated effects at each level of each moderator were either non-significant or originated from single studies. Taken together, meaningful interpretations for these moderating effects are difficult to make. Therefore, for each significant moderator, we instead provide several recommendations for future research, which we believe may help delineate the effects of these potential moderators.

Musical genre.

Although comparisons between musical genres seem relatively straightforward, investigating the differential effects of musical genres may be particularly challenging: the conceptualization of musical genres, along with the songs they encompass, tends to be somewhat arbitrary [69, 75, 100, 101]. Indeed, studies display considerable variation in musical stimuli, even within the same genre (Table 4). A notable example of this is the study by Sandstrom and Russo [53], which utilized four ‘classical’ songs, each at different extremes of valence and arousal. It should also be considered that new music is continuously being released which may not completely fit with the definition of any existing genre [9].

As such, an alternative approach to the investigation of musical genre involves describing these genres according to their musical features, such as tempo, timbre, and loudness, and subsequently investigating the effects of these individual musical features on stress recovery [9, 101]. For example, classical music may be described as rhythmically complex, with mellow timbre and fluctuating loudness. Comparatively, though equally rhythmically complex, heavy metal possesses sharper timbre and more pronounced loudness. Investigating the differential effects of these musical features on stress recovery may provide relevant insight into the differential effects of listening to various musical genres on stress recovery.

Self- versus experimenter selection.

In investigating the effects of self- versus experimenter selected music on stress recovery in healthy individuals, studies typically request participants to select music they consider ‘relaxing’ prior to an experiment [3, 17, 18]. Although this approach is viable, it precludes the potential role of perceived control in the relationship between music listening and stress recovery, since allowing participants to self-select their own music may already be helpful for stress recovery due to a restoration of perceived control [15]. Our results were not able to provide a significant contribution to this discussion, as hardly any experimental studies in our review have attempted to account for the potential effects of perceived control. As such, when contrasting the effects of self- and experimenter selected music on stress recovery, future studies may benefit from the inclusion of perceived control as an additional variable in their theoretical models.

It should also be noted that allowing participants to self-select their own music will result in a considerable variety of musical stimuli. Given that each of these musical stimuli may possess a different combination of musical features, the use of self-selected music may generate confounding effects that should preferably be accounted for. Arguably, self-selected music may produce consistent effects on stress-recovery regardless of underlying musical features, given that individuals tend to select music in service of personal self-regulatory goals [64, 75, 76]. However, given that variations in specific musical features, such as tempo, pitch, and loudness have been related to various physiological (e.g., heart rate) [73] and psychological stress recovery outcomes (e.g., positive and negative affect) [100–102], future studies may benefit from ensuring that musical features are consistent between self- and experimenter selected musical stimuli. This may be done, for instance, by comparing expert ratings of musical features [18]. Alternatively, there may be value in allowing participants to self-select music from a list provided by experimenters [21], as this would allow experimenters to standardize musical features a-priori, which may further help disentangle the effects of music listening from that of perceived control.

The comparison of musical features between self-selected and experimenter selected music may also offer a more nuanced perspective on the role of preference and familiarity. Specifically, preferences and familiarity towards certain songs could be described in terms of specific (combinations of) musical features. For example, an individual may prefer music with slow tempo, mellow timbre, and moderate loudness. This approach is often leveraged by music recommender systems, such as those implemented by music streaming platforms (e.g., Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, etc.), with the goal of recommending songs that listeners are likely to engage with. Future studies could investigate the extent to which preference and familiarity might differ between self-selected and experimenter selected music with similar combinations of musical features, to further clarify the role of selection in the relationship between music listening and stress recovery.

Musical tempo.

The systematic review portion of our results demonstrates that no studies have directly compared the effect of different musical tempi on stress recovery in healthy individuals. As such, the most straightforward approach to delineate the effects of musical tempo on stress recovery would be to adopt procedures in which participants listen to the same musical stimulus post-stressor, which is then varied in tempo across experimental conditions. Furthermore, even when the goal of a particular study on music listening and stress recovery is not to clarify the effects of musical tempo, we suggest that tempo values for each musical stimulus should be noted down and reported, as this would facilitate the comparison of the differential effects of musical tempo on stress recovery in future meta-synthesis of the literature.

Alternatively, the notion that music with slow tempo is more beneficial for stress recovery compared to music with fast tempo is supported by the assumption that physiological parameters will entrain to musical rhythms [63, 68]. As such, a more accurate approach to investigate the effects of musical tempo on stress recovery would be to leverage the dynamic, temporal nature of both music and physiological parameters through use of non-linear analyses of continuous data [52, 103]. For example, cross-recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA) [104, 105] may enable future studies to quantify the magnitude and duration of rhythmic entrainment for each participant. These indexes of magnitude and duration could then be compared between different musical tempi. Studies have utilized CRQA to investigate cardiac entrainment between participants of collective rituals [106] and the entrainment of an audience’s heart rate to a live musical performance [107]. This analytical approach may therefore yield a more nuanced understanding of the effect of musical tempo on the recovery of autonomic parameters.

Stress recovery outcomes.

During short-term stress responses, catecholamine- and cortisol-mediated stress responses follow temporally specific patterns: catecholamines rapidly exert their influence on ANS activity, and these changes tend to normalize within 30–60 minutes [26]. Meanwhile, decreases in cortisol that may be attributed to stress recovery will only become noticeable after recovery-related changes in autonomic activity have begun to occur [24]. As such, to further clarify the effect of music listening on various stress recovery outcomes, we recommend future studies to be more sensitive towards the innate, intricate, and temporally specific changes of each stress recovery outcome.

Furthermore, multiple studies included in our review have opted to analyze continuous data by means of multivariate analyses of variance, after averaging participants’ observed stress recovery outcomes at multiple time points (e.g., pre-stress, post-stress, post-recovery). Although this approach is practical, doing so may over-simplify the complex changes that may occur during the stress response and subsequent stress recovery, such as the temporal dynamics of different physiological responses [52] and emotion regulation strategies [108]. As such, we again suggest future studies to utilize non-linear analyses of data when appropriate, particularly when investigating the effects of music listening on the recovery of autonomic activity post-stressor. The idea of using non-linear analyses, such as time-series analysis, to investigate the stress recovery process is not new [5]. However, few studies on music listening and stress recovery have utilized this analytical approach.

Additional recommendations

Two studies with unreported stress induction procedures were still included in the review [17, 84], as reported means for certain recovery outcomes still suggested an increase from baseline that participants could recover from. For example, with the information reported in Gan et al. [84], assuming a correlation of 0.5 between baseline and post-stressor measures of state anxiety, we estimated that their stress induction procedure elicited a significant increase in state anxiety in their sedative music (t(34) = 5.87, p < .001, mdiff = 8.17, SDdiff = 8.24), stimulative music (t(34) = 8.21, p < .001, mdiff = 12.42, SDdiff = 8.95), and control (t(34) = 13.15, p < .001, mdiff = 15.83, SDdiff = 7.12) conditions. As the overall estimated effect of music listening on the recovery process of healthy individuals following laboratory stressors may be relatively modest, it becomes particularly important to ensure that a sufficient stress response is elicited, to provide a larger window of opportunity in which the effect of music listening may be exerted on participants’ recovery processes. We thus encourage future studies to adopt validated, (variations of) well-known stress tasks, such as the TSST [109], SECPT [110], or CO2 stress task [111], which have been demonstrated to consistently elicit marked physiological and psychological stress-related responses in laboratory settings. Furthermore, we remind future studies to candidly report the results of their stress induction procedures to facilitate subsequent meta-syntheses of the effects of music listening on stress recovery.

As the current review focused on the effects of music listening after a stressor, studies where music was played before or during a stressor were omitted from our analyses. However, several studies suggest that the timing at which music is played (i.e., before, during, or after a stressor) may influence its effects on stress recovery. For example, in Burns et al. [48], participants who listened to classical music while anticipating a stressful task exhibited lower post-music heart rate compared to participants who anticipated the stressor in silence. Similarly, concentrations of salivary cortisol were lower for participants who watched a stressful visual stimulus while listening to music compared to those who watched the same stimulus without music [112]. Together, these findings hint that, when listened during a stressor, music may attenuate cortisol responses [9, 113], thus reducing the subsequent need for recovery. On the other hand, Thoma et al. [9] reported that participants who listened to music prior to a stressor exhibited higher post-stressor cortisol compared to participants who listened to an audio control. Interestingly, despite the stronger stress response, Thoma et al. [9] noted a trend for quicker ANS recovery among participants who listened to music, particularly with regards to salivary alpha-amylase activity. This pattern of findings is consistent with the notion forwarded by Koelsch et al. [61], in that music listening may promote a more adaptive stress response, thus facilitating subsequent stress recovery processes. To date, research on timing differences in the context of music listening and stress recovery is scarce. Thus, future studies could further examine the influence of such timing differences to better understand their role in the relationship between music listening and stress recovery.

Given the pervasiveness of stress, Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) studies may provide a more intimate outlook on the dynamics of daily music listening behaviour, particularly for the purpose of stress recovery. For example, through an ambulatory assessment study, Linnemann et al. [38] revealed that music produced the most notable reductions in physiological and psychological stress outcomes when it was listened to for the purpose of ‘relaxation’, compared to other reasons such as ‘distraction’, ‘activation’, and ‘reducing boredom’. Indeed, given their high ecological validity, EMA studies may provide further insight into important contextual variables in the relationship between music listening and stress recovery. For example, in an EMA study, listening to music in the presence of others was related to decreased subjective stress, attenuated cortisol secretion, and higher activity of salivary alpha-amylase [55]. Furthermore, physiological responses to music may co-vary between members of a dyad when music is listened to by couples [114]. Thus, given the benefits of EMA studies, we invite future studies to continue exploring the dynamics and contextual factors of music listening behaviour for stress recovery in daily life.

Lastly, we encourage studies to support open science research practices, and to clearly report statistical information that may be relevant for meta-syntheses (e.g., means and standard deviations per time point, per experimental condition, etc.). Additionally, based on our assessment of study quality using the RoB 2, pre-registration of analysis plans can be helpful to ensure that the conducted study is of overall high quality. Next, we encourage studies to note down which specific musical stimuli were used, particularly those self-selected by participants [69, 99], as this enables future exploratory analyses of structural commonalities between different musical stimuli. Musical features from individual songs may be extracted by means of audio information extraction packages, such as MIRtoolbox [115]. Alternatively, individual song titles may be used to query related meta-data from online databases of various music streaming platforms. This meta-data can subsequently be used to obtain additional insight into the effects of music listening on stress recovery.

Limitations of the current review

To our knowledge, our review is the first to comprehensively investigate the effect of music listening on stress recovery within healthy individuals. Given the explicit focus of our review, our meta-analytic data set excluded the more prominent effects of music listening in both medical and therapeutic settings [12, 13], allowing us to obtain results that are tentatively more representative of daily stress recovery processes. Despite this, the present review is not without its limitations:

First, although the specific focus of our review has allowed us to obtain a portrait of the effects of music listening on stress recovery in well-controlled experimental settings, the results of our review may be difficult to generalize to situations in which individuals experience prolonged stress responses. Stress induction procedures in experimental studies are designed to elicit acute stress responses that are meant to subside upon conclusion of an experiment [83]. Although we believe these procedures provide a suitable approximation of typical stressors in daily life, certain stressors in daily life may also persist for a longer time. The manner and magnitude in which music listening influences prolonged stress responses may potentially differ from the way music influences acute, laboratory-induced stress responses [18, 45]. However, studies investigating the effect of music listening on stress recovery in the long-term are particularly rare.

Next, despite our best efforts to obtain relevant meta-analytic information from all studies selected for our review, our meta-analytic data set was ultimately constructed from a subset of fourteen studies. Although the subset allowed us to extract sufficient information to estimate an overall effect of music listening on stress recovery, several estimated effects at moderator level were derived from merely one or two studies (see Table 3). This precluded us from drawing further, meaningful conclusions about the results of our moderator analyses.

Finally, despite our clear focus on the effects of music listening on stress recovery within healthy individuals, there was substantial heterogeneity in our meta-analytic data set that could not be fully explained by the inclusion of moderators. Although the systematic review portion of our results highlighted potential additional sources of between-study heterogeneity, these additional sources could not be evaluated in our meta-analytic data set. We note, for example, that all studies utilized different musical stimuli to investigate the effect of music listening on stress recovery (see Table 4). The differential effects of these musical stimuli were difficult to account for in our meta-analysis, given the limited number of included studies. Overall, the significant heterogeneity in our meta-analytic data set suggests that our moderator analyses should be interpreted with caution.