The Behavior of Ethicists (ch 15 of A Companion to Experimental Philosophy)

Chapter 15. The Behavior of Ethicists. Eric Schwitzgebel and Joshua Rust. In A Companion to Experimental Philosophy, edited by Justin Sytsma and Wesley Buckwalter. DOI: 10.1002/9781118661666.ch15

Summary: We review and present a new meta-analysis of research suggesting that ethicists in the United States appear to behave no morally better overall than do non-ethicist professors. Measures include: returning library books, peer evaluation of overall moral behavior, voting participation, courteous and discourteous behavior at conferences, replying to student emails, paying conference registration fees and disciplinary society dues, staying in touch with one's mother, charitable giving, organ and blood donation, vegetarianism, and honesty in responding to survey questions. One multi-measure study found ethicists tending to embrace more stringent moral views, especially about meat eating and charitable donation. The same multi-measure study found ethicists and other professors to show similarly small-to-medium correlations between their expressed normative attitudes and their self-reported or directly measured behavior.

Keywords: ethics; attitude-behavior correlation; metaphilosophy; experimental philosophy; applied ethics

Value change in men and women entering parenthood: New mothers' value priorities shift towards Conservation values

Value change in men and women entering parenthood: New mothers' value priorities shift towards Conservation values. Jan-Erik Lönnqvist, Sointu Leikas, and Markku Verkasalo. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 120, 1 January 2018, Pages 47–51, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.08.019

Highlights
•    Becoming a parent changes the values of women, but not men.
•    New mothers' value priorities shift towards Conservation over Openness to Change.
•    Men's ratings of their spouse's values corroborate the change in women's self-ratings.
•    Women mistakenly believe new fathers' to have undergone a change similar to their own.
•    Value change may facilitate adaptation to major life-events.

Abstract: There is little research on how life transitions influence value priorities. Our purpose was to investigate, within the framework provided by Schwartz's Values Theory, the effects of entering parenthood on personal values. Study 1 (N = 12,850), employing cross-sectional European Social Survey data, showed that Finnish mothers, as compared to non-mothers, were closer to the Conservation pole of the value dimensions that opposes Conservation values with Openness to Change values. Study 2 longitudinally followed Finnish couples (N = 292) entering parenthood from the first weeks of pregnancy to three months after childbirth. Both self- and spouse-ratings of values showed that new mothers' value priorities shifted towards Conservation values. New mothers perceived a similar shift in new fathers' personal values, but no changes occurred in men's self-ratings. Neither study suggested change on the value dimension that opposes Self-Transcendence values with Self-Enhancement values. Across the cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, and across self- and spouse-ratings of values, our results consistently suggest that new mothers' shift their value priorities in the direction of increased Conservation over Openness to Change. These results are consistent with the notion that value change may facilitate adaptation to life events.

Keywords: Schwartz' values theory; Value change; Personal values; Parenthood; Sex differences

The Perniciousness of Perfectionism: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Perfectionism-Suicide Relationship

Smith, M. M., Sherry, S. B., Chen, S., Saklofske, D. H., Mushquash, C., Flett, G. L. and Hewitt, P. L., The Perniciousness of Perfectionism: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Perfectionism-Suicide Relationship. Journal of Personality. doi:10.1111/jopy.12333, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jopy.12333/abstract

Abstract: Over 50 years of research implicates perfectionism in suicide. Yet the role of perfectionism in suicide needs clarification due to notable between-study inconsistencies in findings, underpowered studies, and uncertainty whether perfectionism confers risk for suicide. Objective: We addressed this by meta-analyzing perfectionism's relationship with suicide ideation and attempts. We also tested whether self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism predicted increased suicide ideation, beyond baseline ideation. Method: Our literature search yielded 45 studies (N = 11,747) composed of undergraduates, medical students, community adults, and psychiatric patients. Results: Meta-analysis using random effects models revealed ***perfectionistic concerns (socially prescribed perfectionism, concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, discrepancy, perfectionistic attitudes), perfectionistic strivings (self-oriented perfectionism, personal standards), parental criticism, and parental expectations displayed small-to-moderate positive associations with suicide ideation. Socially prescribed perfectionism also predicted longitudinal increases in suicide ideation. And perfectionistic concerns, parental criticism, and parental expectations displayed small, positive associations with suicide attempts***. Conclusions: Results lend credence to theoretical accounts suggesting self-generated and socially based pressures to be perfect are part of the premorbid personality of people prone to suicide ideation and attempts. Perfectionistic strivings' association with suicide ideation also draws into question the notion that such strivings are healthy, adaptive, or advisable.

Making punishment palatable: Belief in free will alleviates punitive distress

Cory J. Clark, Roy F. Baumeister, Peter H. Ditto, Making punishment palatable: Belief in free will alleviates punitive distress. Consciousness and Cognition, Volume 51, 2017, Pages 193-211, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.03.010


Highlights
•    Motivated increases in free will belief help justify punishing others.
•    Due to this justification, free will beliefs reduce remorse over punitive harm.
•    Highly punitive free will skeptics experience heightened anxiety.
•    Punishers feel more anxious when punished partner had no choice but to be unfair.
•    Punitive desires increase anxiety only when free will beliefs are reduced.

Abstract

Punishing wrongdoers is beneficial for group functioning, but can harm individual well-being. Building on research demonstrating that punitive motives underlie free will beliefs, we propose that free will beliefs help justify punitive impulses, thus alleviating the associated distress. In Study 1, trait-level punitiveness predicted heightened levels of anxiety only for free will skeptics. Study 2 found that higher state-level incarceration rates predicted higher mental health issue rates, only in states with citizens relatively skeptical about free will. In Study 3, participants who punished an unfair partner experienced greater distress than non-punishers, only when their partner did not have free choice. Studies 4 and 5 confirmed experimentally that punitive desires led to greater anxiety only when free will beliefs were undermined by an anti-free will argument. These results suggest that believing in free will permits holding immoral actors morally responsible, thus justifying punishment with diminished negative psychological consequences for punishers.

Keywords: Free will; Punishment; Morality; Motivated reasoning; Anxiety

The “social” facilitation of eating without the presence of others: Self-reflection on eating makes food taste better and people eat more

The “social” facilitation of eating without the presence of others: Self-reflection on eating makes food taste better and people eat more. Ryuzaburo Nakata and Nobuyuki Kawai. Physiology & Behavior, Volume 179, 1 October 2017, Pages 23-29, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.05.022

Highlights
•    We investigated the social facilitation of eating in the absence of other individuals.
•    Participants rated food as tasting better in front of a mirror reflecting visual information of themselves.
•    Consumption of food was also increased by observing themselves eating.
•    A similar facilitation effect was observed even when eating in front of a static picture of themselves

Abstract: Food tastes better and people eat more of it when eaten with company than alone. Although several explanations have been proposed for this social facilitation of eating, they share the basic assumption that this phenomenon is achieved by the existence of co-eating others. Here, we demonstrate a similar “social” facilitation of eating in the absence of other individuals. Elderly participants tasted a piece of popcorn alone while in front of a mirror (which reflects the participant themselves eating popcorn) or in front of a wall-reflecting monitor, and were found to eat more popcorn and rate it better tasting in the self-reflecting condition than in the monitor condition. Similar results were found for younger adults. The results suggest that the social facilitation of eating does not necessarily require the presence of another individual. Furthermore, we observed a similar “social” facilitation of eating even when participants ate a piece of popcorn in front of a static picture of themselves eating, suggesting that static visual information of “someone” eating food is sufficient to produce the “social” facilitation of eating.

When sex doesn’t sell to men: mortality salience, disgust and the appeal of products and advertisements featuring sexualized women

When sex doesn’t sell to men: mortality salience, disgust and the appeal of products and advertisements featuring sexualized women. Seon Min Lee et al. Motivation and Emotion, August 2017, Volume 41, Issue 4, pp 478–491, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-017-9615-9

Abstract: Although men typically hold favorable views of advertisements featuring female sexuality, from a Terror Management Theory perspective, this should be less the case when thoughts of human mortality are salient. Two experiments conducted in South Korea supported this hypothesis across a variety of products (e.g., perfume and vodka). Men became more negative towards advertisements featuring female sexuality, and had reduced purchase intentions for those products, after thinking about their own mortality. Study 2 found that these effects were mediated by heightened disgust. Mortality thoughts did not impact women in either study. These findings uniquely demonstrate that thoughts of death interact with female sex-appeal to influence men’s consumer choices, and that disgust mediates these processes. Implications for the role of emotion, and cultural differences, in terror management, for attitudes toward female sexuality, and for marketing strategies are discussed.

Keywords: Mortality salience, Sex-appeal, Disgust, Advertisements, Terror management


Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of using female sexuality with the intention to sell across a wide range of products, entertainment types (e.g., sports) and media. While men typically enjoy advertisements that utilize sex appeal, and female sexuality, the current research suggests that, in conjunction with thoughts of death (which are primed in many media contexts, such as television programs, movies, internet articles, and also in the physical environment, such as cemeteries, hospitals, war memorials, funeral homes), these advertisements would not be effective as a means to sell products. On a broader level, they suggest that, in the context of existential concerns, sexuality, and in particular female sexuality, continues to be paradoxical, serving as a key component to the origin of human life and as a source of immense pleasure, but remaining a lens through which we are disgusted with our own animal nature.

The Causes and Consequences of Women’s Competitive Beautification

The Causes and Consequences of Women’s Competitive Beautification. Danielle J. DelPriore, Marjorie L. Prokosch, and Sarah E. Hill. The Oxford Handbook of Women and Competition, edited by Maryanne L. Fisher. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199376377.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199376377-e-34

Abstract: Much empirical evidence suggests that “what is beautiful is good,” particularly for women. Whether in the courtroom or the classroom, attractive women enjoy a variety of benefits not available to their less attractive peers. It is therefore often in a woman’s best interest to engage in efforts to enhance her appearance. Women utilize a number of strategies to increase their physical attractiveness (e.g., wearing cosmetics, dieting), particularly when competing for romantic partners. Due to the competitive advantage it provides, however, a woman’s beauty can also evoke aversive psychological responses from same-sex competitors. These negative responses—such as decreased self-esteem and increased envy—can have costly consequences for the attractive women who elicit them. In this chapter, we review research and suggest that women strategically enhance their beauty in order to facilitate competitive success. We also address several important questions about the causes and consequences of women’s competitive beautification.

Keywords: physical attractiveness, intrasexual competition, human mating, envy, anti-attractiveness bias, appearance enhancement, beautification penalty

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Research also supports the idea that women who use artificial means to deceptively augment their attractiveness via the use of cosmetics are sometimes penalized in organizational settings [...]. Specifically, female undergraduates were presented with a series of same-sex targets (half wearing cosmetics and half not) and were asked to imagine they worked with these individuals. Results revealed that women evaluated female targets wearing cosmetics as more likely to use their looks to get ahead in the workplace and less likely to achieve success via hard work alone relative to female targets not wearing cosmetics. Although this beautification penalty was found across target attractiveness, the negative response was most pronounced for attractive female targets wearing cosmetics. These effects extended to affect individuals' desire to interact with the female targets wearing (vs. not wearing) cosmetics, women indicated a _decreased_ likelihood they would affiliate with these targets in the workplace (an effect that was mediated by decreased perceptions of the targets' trustworthiness in response to their appearance enhancement effort).

The evolution of female same-sex attraction: The male choice hypothesis

The evolution of female same-sex attraction: The male choice hypothesis. Menelaos Apostolou et al. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 116, 1 October 2017, Pages 372-378, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.05.020

Highlights
•    Provides a new theory for the evolution of female same-sex attraction
•    Finds that men desire opposite sex partners who experience same-sex attractions
•    Finds that men desires their opposite sex partners to have sex with same-sex individuals

Abstract: Prevalence studies indicate that about one in five women experience some degree of same-sex attraction. The evolutionary origins of such attraction are not well understood. Accordingly, this paper proposed a theoretical framework where, during the period of human evolution, same-sex attractions in women were under positive selection. The source of positive selection has been male preferences for opposite-sex sex partners who experienced same-sex attractions. This theoretical framework was used to generate four predictions that were tested in two online studies which employed a total of 1509 heterosexual participants. It was found that heterosexual women did not desire partners who experienced same-sex attractions, but a considerable proportion of heterosexual men desired partners who experienced same-sex attractions. In addition, it was found that men were more sexually excited than women by the same-sex infidelity of their partners, and they desired more than women, their opposite-sex partners to have sex with same-sex individuals. Finally, participants' preferences were contingent on the seriousness of the relationships, with same-sex attraction to be preferred more in short-term than in a long-term partner. These findings were employed in understanding the evolutionary origins of same-sex attraction in women.

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Possible reasons for men to select bisexual wives:

Men with multiple wives, as opposed to men with one wife, face an elevated probability to be cuckolded, because they have to divide their sexual effort toward several wives so, inevitably, some of their wives will remain unsatisfied. They also have to divide their mate-guarding effort between multiple wives, which makes such effort less effective. If their wives experience same-sex attraction, they can satisfy their urges with other co-wives, who are readily available, reducing, in effect, the risk of cuckoldry (see also Kanazawa, 2016).

Another benefit that a man can accrue from an opposite-sex mate who is experiences same-sex attraction can be to gain access to other women. In particular, if a man's partner has sex with another woman, there is an elevated probability that he gains also sexual access to this other woman. In this respect, the same-sex attraction of his partner constitutes a window of opportunity for a man to have sex with other women without much mating effort, as this effort is made by his partner.

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the odds ratio (OR = 13.8) indicating participants to be more likely to respond that they preferred their short-term than their long-term partners to have same-sex contacts.

[...]

the odds ratio indicated that men were 25.6 times more likely than women to prefer their partners to have sexwith same-sex individuals occasionally or frequently than never, a huge sex difference.

[...]

The findings of the current research enable us to better understand the evolutionary origins of same-sex attraction in women. The presence in a high frequency of amalemorph that desires women who experience same-sex attraction as mates, would drive this trait to be in high frequency in the population. Alleles that predisposed for same-sex attraction in women, would be selected because women with such attraction would be valued more as partners by men than women who did not share such attraction. The presence of a male morph that does not desire such attraction explains why same-sex attraction has not been fixated in women. It would not pay for all women to experience same-sex attraction because most men do not find such attraction desirable in a female partner. In this respect, polymorphism in men's desires results in polymorphism in women's desires.

The findings of this study may also explain why heterosexual orientation with same-sex attraction is the most prevalent type of female same-sex attraction (Calzo et al., 2017). Men predominantly exhibited a desire for women who were heterosexual with same-sex attraction. This makes evolutionary sense, sincewomenwho are bisexual or homosexual may be less committed to the relationship with their opposite sex partners than heterosexual women with same-sex attraction
(Apostolou, 2016b). Thus, a woman who is homosexual for instance, would not be favored bymen, and, as a result,would face adverse fitness consequences. On this basis, female homosexuality is predicted to be in very low frequency, which is consistent with the findings of prevalence studies (Calzo et al., 2017; LeVay, 2010).


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Classical theory is: women search for bonds with other women to resist male coercion and violence (rape, infanticide, etc.).

Free to Be Happy: Economic Freedom and Happiness in US States

Free to Be Happy: Economic Freedom and Happiness in US States. Jeremy Jackson. Journal of Happiness Studies, August 2017, Volume 18, Issue 4, pp 1207–1229, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-016-9770-9

Abstract: While the measurement of subjective well-being and its usefulness as a policy objective is a matter of contention, a burgeoning field of happiness economics is emerging. This paper examines the relationship between the institutions of economic freedom and happiness as reported by respondents to the Generalized Social Survey (GSS) in the United States. GSS responses are matched via geocode to state of residence. This allows individual responses in the GSS to be matched to institutional characteristics of the state of residence. A novel contribution of this study is that analysis of the effect of economic freedom on reported happiness is conducted both at the individual level and using state averages. It is found that the level of economic freedom in US states has a positive effect on both individual reported happiness and state average happiness. Dynamic panel analysis is also conducted both as a robustness check and in an effort to control for endogeneity. This confirms the relationship as positive and is suggestive of a causal positive impact of economic freedom on average state happiness.

People find behavioural interventions more ethical when in accord with their politics, and more unethical when not in accord

On the misplaced politics of behavioural policy interventions. David Tannenbaum, Craig Fox and Todd Rogers. Nature Human Behaviour, July 2017, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0130

Abstract: Government agencies around the world have begun to embrace the use of behavioural policy interventions (such as the strategic use of default options), which has inspired vigorous public discussion about the ethics of their use. Since any feasible policy requires some measure of public support, understanding when people find behavioural policy interventions acceptable is critical. We present experimental evidence for a ‘partisan nudge bias’ in both US adults and practising policymakers. Across a range of policy settings, ***people find the general use of behavioural interventions more ethical when illustrated by examples that accord with their politics, but view those same interventions as more unethical when illustrated by examples at odds with their politics***. Importantly, these differences disappear when behavioural interventions are stripped of partisan cues, suggesting that acceptance of such policy tools is not an inherently partisan issue. ***Our results suggest that opposition to (or support for) behavioural policy interventions should not always be taken at face value, as people appear to conflate their attitudes about general purpose policy methods with their attitudes about specific policy objectives or policy sponsors.***