The Churches' Bans on Consanguineous Marriages, Kin-Networks and Democracy

Schulz, Jonathan F., The Churches' Bans on Consanguineous Marriages, Kin-Networks and Democracy (January 19, 2017).  http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2877828

Abstract: This paper tests the hypothesis that extended kin-groups, as characterized by a high level of cousin marriages, impact the proper functioning of formal institutions. Consistent with this hypothesis I find that countries with high cousin marriage rates exhibit a weak rule of law and are more likely autocratic. Further evidence comes from a quasi-natural experiment. In the early medieval ages the Church started to prohibit kin-marriages. Using the variation in the duration and extent of the Eastern and Western Churches’ bans on consanguineous marriages as instrumental variables, reveals highly significant point estimates of the percentage of cousin marriage on an index of democracy. An additional novel instrument, cousin-terms, strengthens this point: the estimates are very similar and do not rest on the European experience alone. Exploiting within country variation support these results. These findings point to the importance of marriage patterns for the proper functioning of formal institutions and democracy.

Keywords: Democracy, Family, Kin-groups, Church, Cousin-Marriage, Institutions

See also The Church's crusade against cousin-marriage did not create the Western nuclear family - Policy Tensor (substack.com). May 8 2021.

Our results challenge current theories that focus on deficits in emotional responsiveness as leading to the development of psychopathy

Facial responsiveness of psychopaths to the emotional expressions of others. Janina Künecke, Andreas Mokros, Sally Olderbak, Oliver Wilhelm. PLoS One, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190714

Abstract: Psychopathic individuals show selfish, manipulative, and antisocial behavior in addition to emotional detachment and reduced empathy. Their empathic deficits are thought to be associated with a reduced responsiveness to emotional stimuli. Immediate facial muscle responses to the emotional expressions of others reflect the expressive part of emotional responsiveness and are positively related to trait empathy. Empirical evidence for reduced facial muscle responses in adult psychopathic individuals to the emotional expressions of others is rare. In the present study, 261 male criminal offenders and non-offenders categorized dynamically presented facial emotion expressions (angry, happy, sad, and neutral) during facial electromyography recording of their corrugator muscle activity. We replicated a measurement model of facial muscle activity, which controls for general facial responsiveness to face stimuli, and modeled three correlated emotion-specific factors (i.e., anger, happiness, and sadness) representing emotion specific activity. In a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, we compared the means of the anger, happiness, and sadness latent factors between three groups: 1) non-offenders, 2) low, and 3) high psychopathic offenders. There were no significant mean differences between groups. Our results challenge current theories that focus on deficits in emotional responsiveness as leading to the development of psychopathy and encourage further theoretical development on deviant emotional processes in psychopathic individuals.

The economics of corporate lobbying: Lobbying does not appear to bring significant tangible benefits in terms of award of government contracts or the success in getting bills passed by the US Congress

The economics of corporate lobbying. lZhiyan Cao et al. Journal of Corporate Finance, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.12.012

Highlights
•    Corporate lobbying is negatively associated with firm performance in an average firm.
•    Performance effects of corporate lobbying vary by firm characteristics
•    Firms with complex operations appear to lose when spend more on lobbying
•    Firms with high growth opportunities are likely to benefit from lobbying
•    Lobbying does not appear to bring significant tangible benefits in terms of award of government contracts or the success in getting bills passed by the US Congress.
•    Political alignment between a firm and the party in government appear to bring some benefits to the firm contributing to PACs associated with the party in power.
•    Primary results are robust to various econometric methods that are used to mitigate potential endogeneity concerns, sensitivity analyses and sample selection concerns.

Abstract: Prior literature examines motivations and impact of corporate lobbying and presents inconclusive evidence. We examine the association of corporate lobbying with firm performance by focusing on how this relationship varies by firm characteristics. Addressing various endogeneity concerns, our analysis shows that corporate lobbying has a negative association with firm performance. We find that the negative association of corporate lobbying on firm performance is largely driven by operationally complex firms. On the other hand, firms with high growth opportunities benefit more from lobbying than low-growth firms. Lobbying seems to provide limited tangible benefits in terms of government contracts obtained or the success of congressional bills passed. These results suggest that agency costs dominate the strategic benefits of lobbying activities. However, there is some evidence that firms benefit when there is political alignment between the firm and the party in power.

The robot is designed to induce lengthening of tubular organs (esophagus, intestines) by traction forces. Testing in swine shows cell proliferation and lengthening of the organ without a reduction in diameter, while the animal is awake, mobile, and able to eat normally

In vivo tissue regeneration with robotic implants. Dana D. Damian et al. Science Robotics, Vol. 3, Issue 14, eaaq0018. DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aaq0018

Abstract: Robots that reside inside the body to restore or enhance biological function have long been a staple of science fiction. Creating such robotic implants poses challenges both in signaling between the implant and the biological host, as well as in implant design. To investigate these challenges, we created a robotic implant to perform in vivo tissue regeneration via mechanostimulation. The robot is designed to induce lengthening of tubular organs, such as the esophagus and intestines, by computer-controlled application of traction forces. Esophageal testing in swine demonstrates that the applied forces can induce cell proliferation and lengthening of the organ without a reduction in diameter, while the animal is awake, mobile, and able to eat normally. Such robots can serve as research tools for studying mechanotransduction-based signaling and can also be used clinically for conditions such as long-gap esophageal atresia and short bowel syndrome.

No Evidence That Women’s Facial Attractiveness, Femininity, or Averageness Are Valid Health Cues

Cai, Ziyi, Amanda Hahn, Weiqing Zhang, Iris J Holzleitner, Anthony J Lee, Lisa M DeBruine, and Benedict C Jones. 2018. “No Evidence That Women’s Facial Attractiveness, Femininity, or Averageness Are Valid Health Cues.” Open Science Framework. January 11. https://osf.io/f9tu2/

Description: Previous reports that women with attractive faces are healthier have been widely cited as evidence that sexual selection has shaped human mate preferences. However, evidence for correlations between women’s physical health and facial attractiveness is equivocal. Moreover, positive results on this issue have generally come from studies of self-reported health in small samples. The current study took standardized face photographs of women who completed three different health questionnaires (Ns=582, 583, 572). Of these women, 221 also provided a saliva sample that was assayed for immunoglobulin A (a marker of immune function). Analyses showed no significant correlations between rated facial attractiveness and either scores on any of the health questionnaires or salivary immunoglobulin A. Furthermore, there was no compelling evidence that objective measures of sexual dimorphism or averageness of face shape were correlated with health. These null results do not support the prominent and influential assumption that women’s facial attractiveness is a health cue.

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Ronald Fisher's Sexy Son Hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexy_son_hypothesis

Respondents who are given an antinuclear climate of opinion are more likely to support the reduction of nuclear power plants when their answer is known to interviewers and respondents are prone to project “socially desirable” answers

The Spiral of Silence and the Crescendo of Voices -- Opinion Expression after Fukushima Nuclear Crisis. Ryosuke Imai, Airo Hino and Masahisa Endo. http://rubenson.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/hino.pdf

Abstract: This paper examines the seminal spiral of silence hypothesis through a survey experiment  conducted in Japan. While the existing studies either rely on hypothetical questions in surveys or  experiments with selected samples, we tested the hypothesis with a real ongoing issue in Japan regarding the future of nuclear power plants after the Fukushima crisis based on nationwide random samples. In our experiment, different stimuli of climates of opinion and survey modes were randomly assigned to respondents based on a computer assisted survey program. We hypothesized that respondents who are given an antinuclear climate of opinion are more likely to support the reduction of nuclear power plants and that this only holds in the CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview) mode where their answer is known to interviewers and respondents are prone to project “socially desirable” answers. We expected that this also applies to respondents who are not given a climate of opinion and have to rely on their “quasi-statistical sense” in the midst of anti-nuclear atmosphere. Our results demonstrate the spiral of silence (and the crescendo of voicing a majority view) phenomenon for above groups of respondents and this was only confirmed in the CAPI mode while not in the CASI (Computer Assisted Self-administered Interview) mode where respondents complete the questionnaire in privacy by themselves.

The Amount and Source of Millionaires’ Wealth (Moderately) Predict Their Happiness

The Amount and Source of Millionaires’ Wealth (Moderately) Predict Their Happiness. Grant E. Donnell et al. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217744766

Abstract: Two samples of more than 4,000 millionaires reveal two primary findings: First, only at high levels of wealth—in excess of US$8 million (Study 1) and US$10 million (Study 2)—are wealthier millionaires happier than millionaires with lower levels of wealth, though these differences are modest in magnitude. Second, controlling for total wealth, millionaires who have earned their wealth are moderately happier than those who inherited it. Taken together, these results suggest that, among millionaires, wealth may be likely to pay off in greater happiness only at very high levels of wealth, and when that wealth was earned rather than inherited.

Keywords: happiness, income, money, wealth, well-being

Are Free Will Believers Nicer People? (four Studies Suggest Not)

Crone, Damien, and Neil L Levy. 2018. “Are Free Will Believers Nicer People? (four Studies Suggest Not)”. PsyArXiv. January 10. psyarxiv.com/zpj5x

Abstract: Free will is widely considered a foundational component of Western moral and legal codes, and yet current conceptions of free will are widely thought to fit uncomfortably with much research in psychology and neuroscience. Recent research investigating the consequences of laypeople’s free will beliefs (FWBs) for everyday moral behavior suggest that stronger FWBs are associated with various desirable moral characteristics (e.g., greater helpfulness, less dishonesty). These findings have sparked concern regarding the potential for moral degeneration throughout society as science promotes a view of human behavior that is widely perceived to undermine the notion of free will. We report four studies (combined N = 921) originally concerned with possible mediators and/or moderators of the abovementioned associations. Unexpectedly, we found no association between FWBs and moral behavior. Our findings suggest that the FWB – moral behavior association (and accompanying concerns regarding decreases in FWBs causing moral degeneration) may be overstated.

Face perception sources of constraint: the evolved structure of the brain; the need to optimise responses to different everyday tasks; and the statistical structure of faces in the perceiver’s environment

Faces, people and the brain: The 45th Sir Frederic Bartlett Lecture. Andrew W Young.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021817740275

Abstract: The fact that the face is a source of diverse social signals allows us to use face and person perception as a model system for asking important psychological questions about how our brains are organised. A key issue concerns whether we rely primarily on some form of generic representation of the common physical source of these social signals (the face) to interpret them, or instead create multiple representations by assigning different aspects of the task to different specialist components. Variants of the specialist components hypothesis have formed the dominant theoretical perspective on face perception for more than three decades, but despite this dominance of formally and informally expressed theories, the underlying principles and extent of any division of labour remain uncertain. Here, I discuss three important sources of constraint: first, the evolved structure of the brain; second, the need to optimise responses to different everyday tasks; and third, the statistical structure of faces in the perceiver’s environment. I show how these constraints interact to determine the underlying functional organisation of face and person perception.

Keywords: Face perception, person perception, face recognition, facial expressions, first impressions

Bayesian analysis of multimethod ego-depletion studies favours the null hypothesis

Etherton, J. L., Osborne, R., Stephenson, K., Grace, M., Jones, C. and De Nadai, A. (2018), Bayesian analysis of multimethod ego-depletion studies favours the null hypothesis. Br. J. Soc. Psychol.. doi:10.1111/bjso.12236

Abstract: Ego-depletion refers to the purported decrease in performance on a task requiring self-control after engaging in a previous task involving self-control, with self-control proposed to be a limited resource. Despite many published studies consistent with this hypothesis, recurrent null findings within our laboratory and indications of publication bias have called into question the validity of the depletion effect. This project used three depletion protocols involved three different depleting initial tasks followed by three different self-control tasks as dependent measures (total n = 840). For each method, effect sizes were not significantly different from zero When data were aggregated across the three different methods and examined meta-analytically, the pooled effect size was not significantly different from zero (for all priors evaluated, Hedges’ g = 0.10 with 95% credibility interval of [−0.05, 0.24]) and Bayes factors reflected strong support for the null hypothesis (Bayes factor > 25 for all priors evaluated).

Messages about brilliance undermine women's interest in educational and professional opportunities

Messages about brilliance undermine women's interest in educational and professional opportunities. Lin Bian. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.11.006

Abstract: Pervasive cultural stereotypes associate brilliance with men, not women. Given these stereotypes, messages suggesting that a career requires brilliance may undermine women's interest. Consistent with this hypothesis, linking success to brilliance lowered women's (but not men's) interest in a range of educational and professional opportunities introduced via hypothetical scenarios (Experiments 1–4). It also led women more than men to expect that they would feel anxious and would not belong (Experiments 2–5). These gender differences were explained in part by women's perception that they are different from the typical person in these contexts (Experiments 5 and 6). In sum, the present research reveals that certain messages—in particular, those suggesting that brilliance is essential to success—may contribute to the gender gaps that are present in many fields.

Keywords: Gender stereotypes; Anxiety; Belonging; Prototype matching; Stereotype threat; Self-efficacy

A comparison of self-reported sexual effects of alcohol, marijuana, and ecstasy in a sample of young adult nightlife attendees

A comparison of self-reported sexual effects of alcohol, marijuana, and ecstasy in a sample of young adult nightlife attendees. Joseph J. Palamar, Marybec Griffin-Tomas, Patricia Acosta, Danielle C. Ompad & Charles M. Cleland.  Psychology & Sexuality, https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2018.1425220

ABSTRACT: Alcohol, marijuana, and ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine [MDMA], ‘Molly’) are among the most prevalent substances used by young adults; however, few studies have focused on the specific sexual effects associated with use. Examining subjective sexual effects (e.g. increased libido) associated with use can inform prevention efforts. Data were analysed from 679 nightclub and dance festival attendees in New York City (ages 18–25) to examine and compare self-reported sexual effects associated with use of alcohol, marijuana, and ecstasy. Results suggest that compared to marijuana, alcohol and ecstasy were more strongly associated with heightened perceived sexual effects (i.e. perceived sexual attractiveness of self and others, sexual desire, length of intercourse, and sexual outgoingness). Increased body and sex organ sensitivity and increased sexual intensity were most commonly associated with ecstasy use. Sexual dysfunction was most common while using alcohol or ecstasy, especially among males, and females were more likely to report sexual dysfunction after using marijuana. Post-sex regret was most common with alcohol use. Alcohol, marijuana, and ecstasy each have different sexual effects; therefore, each is associated with different risks and benefits for users. Findings can inform prevention and harm reduction as young adults are prone to use these substances.

KEYWORDS: Sexual behaviour, alcohol, marijuana, MDMA

How Burying Beetles Spread their Seed: The Coolidge Effect in Real Life

How Burying Beetles Spread their Seed: The Coolidge Effect in Real Life. Petra Schedwill, Anne-Katrin Eggert, Josef K. Müller. Zoologischer Anzeiger, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2018.01.002

Abstract: The Coolidge effect is a well-known phenomenon in the behavioral sciences. It was first observed in several different mammals and refers to the decline in the sexual interest of males over the course of repeated encounters with the same female, coupled with renewed interest in a novel female introduced when the male no longer shows any desire to mate with the original female. Among a handful of other invertebrates, this effect has also been described for burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides Herbst) based on lab observations of males and females in small containers without access to carrion. In the field, the only repeat encounters between males and females occur on carcasses, which can be utilized as food or buried for reproduction. In the present study, we placed dead mice in the field to investigate how often natural breeding groups include males and several females. We found that many breeding groups in the field satisfy this condition necessary for a Coolidge effect. In addition, we used direct observations of undisturbed breeding assemblages in the lab to assess whether males really exhibit the Coolidge effect in a more natural context, when they are engaged in burying and preparing a carcass. Since males encounter dominant and subordinate females at different rates, we compared how often successive encounters and matings occurred with the same female, which revealed that males in these undisturbed breeding groups actively avoid mating with the same female twice in succession. This shows that the Coolidge effect is not a laboratory artefact, but is part of the natural repertoire of behaviors in male burying beetles.

Keywords: Nicrophorus; burying beetle; mating; Coolidge effect; novelty; sexual interest; sperm allocation; strategic reproduction; individual recognition

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Check also: When sex goes stale through repetition: On the futile revolt against the Coolidge effect. By Rolf Degen. Oct 12, 2014. https://plus.google.com/101046916407340625977/posts/YqmDFX693No