The psychology of not wanting to know

Gigerenzer, G., & Garcia-Retamero, R. (2017). Cassandra’s regret: The psychology of not wanting to know. Psychological Review, 124(2), 179-196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000055

Abstract: Ignorance is generally pictured as an unwanted state of mind, and the act of willful ignorance may raise eyebrows. Yet people do not always want to know, demonstrating a lack of curiosity at odds with theories postulating a general need for certainty, ambiguity aversion, or the Bayesian principle of total evidence. We propose a regret theory of deliberate ignorance that covers both negative feelings that may arise from foreknowledge of negative events, such as death and divorce, and positive feelings of surprise and suspense that may arise from foreknowledge of positive events, such as knowing the sex of an unborn child. We conduct the first representative nationwide studies to estimate the prevalence and predictability of deliberate ignorance for a sample of 10 events. Its prevalence is high: Between 85% and 90% of people would not want to know about upcoming negative events, and 40% to 70% prefer to remain ignorant of positive events. Only 1% of participants consistently wanted to know. We also deduce and test several predictions from the regret theory: Individuals who prefer to remain ignorant are more risk averse and more frequently buy life and legal insurance. The theory also implies the time-to-event hypothesis, which states that for the regret-prone, deliberate ignorance is more likely the nearer the event approaches. We cross-validate these findings using 2 representative national quota samples in 2 European countries. In sum, we show that deliberate ignorance exists, is related to risk aversion, and can be explained as avoiding anticipatory regret.


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My commentary: Above 86pct don't want to know when our partner will die or the cause. Nor about our death's time and cause. Nor whether our marriage will end in divorce.

Acute Physical Exercise in Humans Enhances Reconsolidation of Emotional Memories

Acute Physical Exercise in Humans Enhances Reconsolidation of Emotional Memories. Dharani Keyan and Richard Bryant. Psychoneuroendocrinology, Volume 86, December 2017, Pages 144-151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.09.019

Highlights
•    Memory reconsolidation occurs during modification after activation of memory.
•    Acute bouts of exercise proximal to learning enhances subsequent memory.
•    Acute exercise after trauma memory reactivation strengthened trauma memory.
•    Exercise during trauma memory reactivation may prolong trauma memories.

Abstract: Increasing evidence suggests that when a memory is reactivated through retrieval, it becomes temporarily vulnerable to environmental or pharmacological manipulation, which can consequently update or strengthen the memory. Physical exercise has been shown to modulate the maintenance of fear memories in animals following memory reactivation. This study investigated the effect of intense exercise in modulating the reconsolidation of trauma memories. Fifty-four undergraduate students watched a trauma film depicting the aftermath of a highway car crash. Two days later, participants engaged in either (a) 20-25 minutes of incremental cycling following a memory reactivation induction (Reactivation/Exercise), (b) 20-25 minutes of mild cycling (Reactivation/No Exercise) following memory reactivation, or (c) 20-25 minutes of incremental cycling but no memory reactivation (No Reactivation/Exercise). Saliva samples were collected to index salivary amylase and cortisol at baseline and post activity. Participants completed memory questionnaires relating to declarative and intrusive memory recall two days after memory reactivation. Reactivation/Exercise participants recalled more central details of the trauma film relative to other participants. Increased cortisol predicted better total memory recall in the Reactivation/Exercise, but not in the other conditions. These findings suggest that intense exercise during the period of memory reactivation enhances subsequent trauma memory, and provides human evidence consistent with recent findings of exercise-induced fear reconsolidation in animals.

Metaphors can give life meaning

Metaphors can give life meaning. Matthew Baldwin, Mark Landau and Trevor Swanson. Self and Identity, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2017.1368696

Abstract: Conceptual metaphor theory offers a perspective on how and when people find meaning in life. Whereas life's meaning can be difficult to grasp, metaphor compares life to a relatively more concrete and structured concept. Supporting this account, American adults (Study 1) and German undergraduates (Study 2) who framed life as a journey reported more meaning in life. The journey metaphor was particularly beneficial for individuals with low levels of perceived coherence in life (Study 2). Study 3 further explored this pattern of moderation: An accessible metaphor, compared to other life framings, benefited participants who lack a strong meaning framework. Study 4 focused on the mechanism behind metaphor's influence. Participants who imagined events from their life journey perceived stronger interrelatedness among those events as measured with an analog spatial organization task. Perceived interrelatedness in turn predicted meaning in life, particularly for individuals with a strong preference for well-structured knowledge. Finally, participants who applied their own metaphor to life expressed greater meaning (Study 5), especially those high in personal need for structure (Study 6). An internal meta-analysis of these findings provides cumulative evidence for metaphor's influence on perceived meaning in life and reveals moderating features of the individual.

Keywords: Meaning in life, conceptual metaphor, epistemic needs, the self, existential psychology, humanistic psychology

The secret to happiness: Feeling good or feeling right?

Tamir, M., Schwartz, S. H., Oishi, S., & Kim, M. Y. (2017). The secret to happiness: Feeling good or feeling right? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(10), 1448-1459.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000303

Abstract: Which emotional experiences should people pursue to optimize happiness? According to traditional subjective well-being research, the more pleasant emotions we experience, the happier we are. According to Aristotle, the more we experience the emotions we want to experience, the happier we are. We tested both predictions in a cross-cultural sample of 2,324 participants from 8 countries around the world. We assessed experienced emotions, desired emotions, and indices of well-being and depressive symptoms. Across cultures, happier people were those who more often experienced emotions they wanted to experience, whether these were pleasant (e.g., love) or unpleasant (e.g., hatred). This pattern applied even to people who wanted to feel less pleasant or more unpleasant emotions than they actually felt. Controlling for differences in experienced and desired emotions left the pattern unchanged. These findings suggest that happiness involves experiencing emotions that feel right, whether they feel good or not.


My commentary: When people asked for death at the Roman circus, they felt very well doing something cruel. We do not need to wish well or be sweet to all others, we can perfectly well hate and at the same time we may feel something really close to happiness.

Individual-sport athletes were found to be more energetic and open than team-sport athletes

Associations between personality, sports participation and athletic success. A comparison of Big Five in sporting and non-sporting adults. Patrizia Steca, Dario Baretta, , Andrea Greco, Marco D'Addario, Dario Monzani. Personality and Individual Differences. Volume 121, 15 January 2018, Pages 176–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.09.040

Highlights
•    Big Five are associated with participation and success in sports.
•    Energy and agreeableness are related to sport participation.
•    Consciousness and emotional stability are associated with sport success.
•    Individual-sport athletes are more energetic and open than team-sport athletes.
•    ESEM has been used to test for factor invariance and mean differences.

Abstract: The present study investigates whether the Big Five personality traits are different among diverse sports populations. A sample of 881 male athletes and non-athletes completed a self-report questionnaire measuring their personality traits. The Exploratory Structure Equation Modeling (ESEM) approach is adopted to test measurement invariance and mean differences among groups. The results indicate that athletes who had experienced the most success in their sport scored higher than non-athletes in each personality dimension of the Big Five, with the exception of openness, while less successful athletes scored higher than non-athletes only in extraversion and agreeableness. The more successful athletes showed higher agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability than the less successful athletes. Individual-sport athletes were found to be more energetic and open than team-sport athletes. The current findings help clarify the relationships between personality traits, sports participation and athletic success.

Keywords: Big Five personality factors; Exploratory structural equation modeling; Sport participation; Sport success; Individual and team sport

How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills?

How Do Hunter-Gatherer Children Learn Subsistence Skills? A Meta-Ethnographic Review. Sheina Lew-Levy et al. Human Nature, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-017-9302-2

Abstract: Hunting and gathering is, evolutionarily, the defining subsistence strategy of our species. Studying how children learn foraging skills can, therefore, provide us with key data to test theories about the evolution of human life history, cognition, and social behavior. Modern foragers, with their vast cultural and environmental diversity, have mostly been studied individually. However, cross-cultural studies allow us to extrapolate forager-wide trends in how, when, and from whom hunter-gatherer children learn their subsistence skills. We perform a meta-ethnography, which allows us to systematically extract, summarize, and compare both quantitative and qualitative literature. We found 58 publications focusing on learning subsistence skills. Learning begins early in infancy, when parents take children on foraging expeditions and give them toy versions of tools. In early and middle childhood, children transition into the multi-age playgroup, where they learn skills through play, observation, and participation. By the end of middle childhood, most children are proficient food collectors. However, it is not until adolescence that adults (not necessarily parents) begin directly teaching children complex skills such as hunting and complex tool manufacture. Adolescents seek to learn innovations from adults, but they themselves do not innovate. These findings support predictive models that find social learning should occur before individual learning. Furthermore, these results show that teaching does indeed exist in hunter-gatherer societies. And, finally, though children are competent foragers by late childhood, learning to extract more complex resources, such as hunting large game, takes a lifetime.

Those that spent walking more than one h/day had a significantly lower risk of dementia than those than walked less than 0.5 h/d

Changes in time spent walking and the risk of incident dementia in older Japanese people: the Ohsaki Cohort 2006 Study. Yasutake Tomata Shu Zhang Kemmyo Sugiyama Yu Kaiho Yumi Sugawara Ichiro Tsuji. Age and Ageing, Volume 46, Issue 5, September 1 2017, Pages 857–860, https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afx078

The impact of long-term changes in physical activity during adulthood in the context of primary prevention of dementia has not been addressed previously.

Objective: To study the relationship between changes in time spent walking after middle age and incident dementia in older Japanese individuals.

[Methodology and results in the comments section.]

Conclusions: These results suggest that maintaining a higher level of physical activity after middle age may be a key strategy for prevention of dementia in older age.

Keywords: walking, physical activity, dementia, older people, cohort study

ABB robot hatches 30 per cent more eggs for Singapore egg farm

ABB robot hatches 30 per cent more eggs for Singapore egg farm. By Mai Tao.
Robotics and Automation News, Oct 8 2017
Growing demand for locally-farmed eggs prompted Seng Choon Farm, to turn to automation in an effort to increase its production capacity
http://roboticsandautomationnews.com/2017/10/08/abb-robot-hatches-30-per-cent-more-eggs-for-singapore-egg-farm/14412

In April this year, ABB installed and commissioned a robotic palletizing system at Seng Choon Farm’s 36 acre site in north-west Singapore, to support increased production output as well as the company’s future expansion plans.

Since then, the robotic palletizing system, that stacks heavy boxes and baskets of eggs onto pallets, has raised the farm’s productivity by 30 per cent.

Before the robotic system was installed, workers would manually stack the cartons and baskets of eggs onto the pallets, with a single worker lifting about 15 tons of eggs a day.

This role was rotated among seven workers throughout the week to minimize safety risks that could arise due to the high intensity of the job.

The automated palletizing system now relieves these workers from lifting the heavy loads during their shift and has enabled the farm to re-deploy them in less strenuous roles.

 Ang Boon Hua, head of robotics, ABB Singapore, says: “While the nation expands its agriculture industry, it is highly essential that automation is adopted in all new developments to ensure sustainability.

“Robotic automation is an example of a dependable solution to reduce footprint on the factory floor and ensure continuation and optimization of production.

“We are pleased to contribute to the productivity of a trusted, home-grown brand such as Seng Choon Farm and will continue to support agricultural development in Singapore through our advanced technologies.”

With the robotic palletizing system now allowing the farm to lift 20 tonnes of eggs a day, raising productivity by 30 per cent, the farm foresees a further boost in output over the next few years.

Koh Yeow Koon, managing director of Seng Choon Farm, says: “The farm’s production volume has already risen from 150 million eggs per annum previously to exceed 200 million eggs per annum.

“I am convinced that the full productivity gains derived from ABB’s robotic technology will be further realized as we increase our production volume in the near future.”

While Seng Choon Farm aims to increase production volume through expanding its farmland and rearing more hens, its production capacity is very much dependent on capacity down the production line.

Koh says: “Running a farm involves feeding chickens, clearing manure, collecting, inspecting and sorting thousands of eggs a day, and packing them into trays, boxes, and finally pallets before they can be sent out.

“Automation at every stage of production is essential in order to handle the high production volume.”

Seng Choon Farm’s implementation of the palletizing system is supported under Capability Development Grant managed by Spring Singapore – an agency of the Ministry of Trade and Industry – that helps Singapore enterprises grow.

The local statutory agriculture and food authority announced earlier this year that 36 plots of new agricultural land for farming are being made available from August 2017 onwards, in an effort to ensure the nation’s food supply resilience.

Learning the Ropes: General Experience, Task-Specific Experience, and the Output of Police Officers

Learning the Ropes: General Experience, Task-Specific Experience, and the Output of Police Officers. Gregory DeAngelo and Emily Owens. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 142, October 2017, Pages 368-377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.08.008

Highlights
•    Disentangle general from task-specific performance for law enforcement.
•    Use quasi-exogenous shocks in the form of law changes to identify impact of experience on productivity.
•    Productivity shocks in the form of a reduction in enforcement are largest for newer law enforcement.
•    We identify a systematic disparity in the likelihood a citation is issued based on experience and legal changes.

Abstract: We estimate the role that law enforcement officer experience has on the probability of punishment, using a unique data set of tickets issued by the Idaho State Police linked to human resource records. All else equal, officers issue fewer tickets earlier in their career than later in their career. Quasi-exogenous shocks to an officer’s task-specific experience, generated by law changes, cause a temporary reduction in the frequency with which a subset of troopers “use” those laws, creating disparities in the likelihood that individual citizens are cited for law violations. The reduction in ticketing in response to a law change is largest for newer troopers, and law changes later in a trooper’s career have a smaller effect on his use of that law.

Impacts of nature imagery on people in severely nature-deprived environments

Impacts of nature imagery on people in severely nature-deprived environments. Nalini Nadkarni et al. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, September 2017, Pages 395–403. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fee.1518/abstract

Abstract: An estimated 5.3 million Americans live or work in nature-deprived venues such as prisons, homeless shelters, and mental hospitals. Such removal from nature can result in an “extinction of experience” that can further lead to disinterest or disaffection toward natural settings, or even biophobia (fear of the natural environment). People who infrequently – or never – spend time in nature will be deprived of the numerous physical and emotional benefits that contact with nature affords. We report on the effects of vicarious nature experiences (nature videos) provided to maximum-security prison inmates for one year, and compared their emotions and behaviors to inmates who were not offered such videos. Inmates who watched nature videos reported feeling significantly calmer, less irritable, and more empathetic, and committed 26% fewer violent infractions as compared to those who did not watch the videos. Prison staff corroborated these findings. This research reinforces the value of nature exposure as a powerful tool not only for corrections administrators, but also for urban planners and policy makers, to promote socially desirable behaviors.

Winning hearts & minds (!): The dilemma of foreign aid in anti-Americanism

Winning hearts & minds (!): The dilemma of foreign aid in anti-Americanism. Efe Tokdemir. Journal of Peace Research, https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343317708831

Abstract: Foreign aid is a policy tool implemented with the purpose of fostering both hard and soft power abroad. Yet, previous research has not probed the effects of US foreign aid on public attitudes toward the US in the recipient countries. In this article, I argue that US foreign aid may actually feed anti-Americanism: aid indirectly creates winners and losers in the recipient countries, such that politically discontented people may blame the US for the survival of the prevailing regime. Drawing on Pew Research for Global Attitudes and on USAID Greenbook datasets, I focus on determining both the conditions under which foreign aid exacerbates anti-Americanism and the type of aid most likely to do this. The findings reveal that political losers of the recipient countries are more likely to express negative attitudes toward the USA as the amount of US aid increases, whereas political winners enjoy the results of US aid and view the USA positively accordingly. Moreover, the effect of US aid on attitudes toward the USA is also conditional on the regime type. While US aid increases the likelihood of anti-American attitudes among the losers in non-democratic countries, it decreases the likelihood of anti-Americanism among the losers in democratic ones. This article has important implications for policy in terms of determining how and to whom to provide aid in the context of the possible ramifications of providing aid at the individual level.

Beware of statistics -- Intrinsic Motivation and Performance: Jewish-American Soldiers in World War II

Intrinsic Motivation and Performance: Jewish-American Soldiers in World War II. Caio Waisman. Stanford Working Paper, June 2017, https://web.stanford.edu/~cwaisman/

Abstract: This paper assesses the potential influence of intrinsic motivation on individuals’ performance in the context of Jewish-American soldiers in World War II. In particular, it analyzes whether these soldiers performed differently when combating Germans as opposed to Japanese. Using medals, length of service, and medals per length of service as measures of performance and exploring a difference-in-differences empirical strategy, it finds that Jewish soldiers on average would have received fewer medals had they fought in Europe instead of the Pacific. This effect is driven by the length of service, as Jewish soldiers in Europe on average would have perished three months sooner than the ones in the Pacific. As a consequence, there is no differential effect on the number of medals received by month of service. These findings suggest that Jewish-American soldiers could have been excessively incentivized, which led them to more reckless behavior in combat and an earlier death.

Persuasion and Predation: The Effects of U.S. Military Aid and International Development Aid on Civilian Killings

Persuasion and Predation: The Effects of U.S. Military Aid and International Development Aid on Civilian Killings. Amira Jadoon. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2017.1353355

Abstract: Powerful states frequently employ foreign aid to pursue international security objectives. Yet aid's effectiveness will be undermined if it exacerbates the effects of conflict on civilians within recipient states. This article investigates how international development aid and U.S. military aid influence recipient governments' incentives and ability to target civilians. U.S. military aid has a persuasion effect on state actors, which decreases a recipient state's incentives and necessity to target civilians. Development aid flows, however, trigger a predation effect in some environments, exacerbating civilian targeting. An analysis of aid flows in 135 countries on civilian killings between 1989–2011 provides support for both the persuasion and predation effects associated with aid.

My commentary: We have no idea of what the incentives to target civilians are, and how to diminish those incentives. Any idea is welcome.