Compassionate Love for a Romantic Partner Across the Adult Life Span: Believers experienced greater compassionate love than nonbelievers, and individuals in love presented greater compassionate love than those who were not in love

Compassionate Love for a Romantic Partner Across the Adult Life Span. Félix Neto, Daniela C. Wilks. European Journal of Psychology, Vol 13, No 4 (2017), https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v13i4.1373

Abstract: Compassionate love has received research attention over the last decade, but it is as yet unclear how it is experienced over a lifetime. The purpose of this study was to investigate compassionate love for a romantic partner throughout the adult life span, exploring individual differences in the propensity to experience compassionate love in regard to age, gender, religion, love status, love styles, and subjective well-being. The results showed that religion and love status display significant effects on compassionate love. Believers experienced greater compassionate love than nonbelievers, and individuals in love presented greater compassionate love than those who were not in love. Love styles and subjective well-being were found to be related to compassionate love. These findings corroborate studies that indicate that individuals who experience higher compassionate love for a romantic partner are more likely to report Eros, Agape, and subjective well-being.

Keywords: aging; compassionate love; love styles; subjective well-being

Scientific Uncertainty in the Press: How Newspapers Describe Initial Biomedical Findings — the public is increasingly poorly informed about the uncertainty inherent in initial biomedical findings

Scientific Uncertainty in the Press: How Newspapers Describe Initial Biomedical Findings. Estelle Dumas-Mallet et al. Science Communication, https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547017752166

Abstract: Newspapers preferentially cover initial biomedical findings although they are often disconfirmed by subsequent studies. We analyzed 426 newspaper articles covering 40 initial biomedical studies associating a risk factor with 12 pathologies and published between 1988 and 2009. Most articles presented the study as initial but only 21% mentioned that it must be confirmed by replication. Headlines of articles with a replication statement were hyped less often than those without. Replication statements have tended to disappear after 2000, whereas hyped headlines have become more frequent. Thus, the public is increasingly poorly informed about the uncertainty inherent in initial biomedical findings.

Keywords: uncertainty, initial biomedical studies, hype, health communication, newspapers

Divisive discussion topics are associated with both a greater level of self-reported threat and a greater tendency to perceive neutral faces as threatening

Divisive Topics as Social Threats. Joseph J. P. Simons, Melanie C. Green. Communication Research, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650216644025?journalCode=crxa

Abstract: The current work provides evidence for a psychological obstacle to the resolution of divisive social issues (e.g., affirmative action, drug legalization); specifically, people approach discussions of these issues with a threatened mind-set. Across three studies, it is shown that the prospect of discussing topics which divide social opinion is associated with threatened responding (the dissensus effect). Divisive discussion topics are associated with both a greater level of self-reported threat (Studies 1 and 3) and a greater tendency to perceive neutral faces as threatening (Study 2). Furthermore, the effect is shown to be robust across manipulations of social opinion (ratings of multiple social issues in Studies 1 and 2; fictional polling data in Study 3), and was not reducible to individual attitude extremity (Studies 1 and 3) or a valence effect (Study 2).

Keywords: social cognition, attitudes, threat, social opinion, inconsistency

Expected Sanctions for Expressing Minority Opinions in Offline and Online Communication

What Do We Fear? Expected Sanctions for Expressing Minority Opinions in Offline and Online Communication. German Neubaum, Nicole C. Krämer. Communication Research, Jan 2018, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650215623837

Abstract: This work proposes the expectation of sanctions as a promising construct to advance spiral of silence research in face-to-face and computer-mediated contexts. We argue that situational factors influence people’s expectations about how their social environment would punish them should they express their viewpoint in a hostile opinion climate. These expected sanctions are suggested to explain the variance in people’s willingness to express a minority opinion across different social situations. An experiment showed that the expectation of being personally attacked can explain why people are more willing to voice a deviant opinion in offline rather than online environments. Findings also revealed that in contemporary social networking websites, wherein users commonly face a personally relevant audience, people are prone to hold back their opinion as they expect losing control over the reactions of their audience. This research extends previous knowledge by presenting a more differentiated theoretical view of the fear of isolation and specifying its role in different situations of public deliberation.

Keywords: spiral of silence, expected sanctions, minority opinion, computer-mediated communication

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We don't share political opinions with co-workers to avoid potential conflict, giving the impression of greater homogeneity and, paradoxically, more polarization. Check also “It could turn ugly”: Selective disclosure of attitudes in political discussion networks. Sarah K.Cowan and Delia Baldassarri. Social Networks, Volume 52, January 2018, Pages 1-17. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/11/we-dont-share-political-opinions-with.html

Humans show a significant rightward bias during embracing. Additionally, we showed that this general motor preference is strongly modulated by emotional contexts

Embracing your emotions: affective state impacts lateralisation of human embraces. Julian Packheiser et al. Psychological Research, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00426-018-0985-8

Abstract: Humans are highly social animals that show a wide variety of verbal and non-verbal behaviours to communicate social intent. One of the most frequently used non-verbal social behaviours is embracing, commonly used as an expression of love and affection. However, it can also occur in a large variety of social situations entailing negative (fear or sadness) or neutral emotionality (formal greetings). Embracing is also experienced from birth onwards in mother–infant interactions and is thus accompanying human social interaction across the whole lifespan. Despite the importance of embraces for human social interactions, their underlying neurophysiology is unknown. Here, we demonstrated in a well-powered sample of more than 2500 adults that humans show a significant rightward bias during embracing. Additionally, we showed that this general motor preference is strongly modulated by emotional contexts: the induction of positive or negative affect shifted the rightward bias significantly to the left, indicating a stronger involvement of right-hemispheric neural networks during emotional embraces. In a second laboratory study, we were able to replicate both of these findings and furthermore demonstrated that the motor preferences during embracing correlate with handedness. Our studies therefore not only show that embracing is controlled by an interaction of motor and affective networks, they also demonstrate that emotional factors seem to activate right-hemispheric systems in valence-invariant ways.

People who went on to develop Parkinson disease tended to have jobs with higher socioeconomic status, those with lower socioeconomic status had a lower PD incidence

Himmelberg, M. M., West, R. J.H., Wade, A. R. and Elliott, C. J.H. (2018), A perceptive plus in Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord.. doi:10.1002/mds.27240

Comment on Beard JD, Steege AL, Ju J, Lu J, Luckhaupt SE, Schubauer-Berigan MK. Mortality from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease among different occupation groups—United States, 1985–2011. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
2017;66(27):718-722.

The puzzle of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is particularly elusive, but the next part of the picture is appearing, and it is a curious one: a tale of men, mice, and flies. Recently, Beard and colleagues1 reported that people who went on to develop PD tended to have jobs with higher socioeconomic status.Their study of > 12 million Americans highlighted more than 110,000 deaths from PD, with excess numbers of workers incommunity services (48%), educational (46%), legal (40%) and the sciences (33%). Such jobs may be demanding of deeper thought, good discrimination, and quick judgments. In a second study of > 4.5 million people from the Swedish census, those with lower socioeconomic status had a lower PD incidence.2

Although  this  may  appear  (at  first  sight)  far-fetched, advantages in cognition in people at risk of PD are predicted from our studies of young PD-mimic flies. These have faster, stronger visual responses3,4 when the flies are young; however, in old age they show a loss of response and neurodegeneration. This model is noteworthy because ever since the time of Cajal, the homology of vertebrate and fly visual systems has been recognized, with many similarities at the neural circuit, computational, and developmental levels. Crucially, both flies and vertebrates use dopamine for retinal gain control. Furthermore, it is widely accepted that the extra demand for energy is a major cause of neurodegeneration in PD, so that the loss of visual gain control in young flies will lead to increased visual responses, requiring more Adenosine Triphosphate to pump ions and maintain synaptic transmission.

Increased visual processing, and possibly faster neural signaling, as a result of deficits in retinal dopamine signaling may provide people at risk of PD with advantages in younger life, which impact before the later neurodegeneration. They may be more suited to jobs with higher socioeconomic status, both at interview and in the daily routine. This would explain  the  new  observations.1,2

Furthermore,  PD-linked mutations have been around since prehistoric times5 and may therefore have had a selective advantage for young people encountering situations demanding rapid responses, for example, escape or hunting activities.


References in the full article, that you may request.

The personality disorder profile of professional actors

Davison, M., & Furnham, A. (2018). The personality disorder profile of professional actors. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 7(1), 33-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000101

Abstract: The personality disorder trait profiles of 214 professional actors were compared with a general population American sample. Both male and female actors scored significantly higher than nonactors on Antisocial, Narcissism, Histrionic, Borderline, and Obsessive–Compulsive personality disorder scales of the Coolidge Axis-II inventory (Coolidge, 2001). Male actors scored significantly higher than the male comparison group on Schizotypal, Avoidant, and Dependent personality disorder scales. Relationships between personality disorder traits in actors and their self-reported acting abilities, preferences, and success were examined. The results are discussed with reference to how heightened subclinical levels of personality disorders traits are potentially unhelpful to acting performance and managing the demands of the profession. Limitations of the study are noted.

Preferences for discussion partners &groups that are similar to (same party &same opinion) or different from us (different party &different opinion) or that represent a combination: Complete similarity is not always preferred &partisan similarity is preferred over opinion similarity

Political Talk Preferences: Selection of Similar and Different Discussion Partners and Groups. Alyssa C. Morey, Steven B. Kleinman, Mark Boukes. International Journal of Communication, http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/7381

Abstract: Focusing on two distinct dimensions of similarity and difference (political identity, political opinions), this study uses a within-subjects experimental design implemented in an online survey to examine preferences for discussion partners and groups that are similar to (same party and same opinion) or different from (different party and different opinion) or that represent a combination of similarity and difference (same party and different opinion, or different party and same opinion) relative to oneself. Participants comprising a diverse national sample (N = 820) completed eight political discussion selection tasks (four discussion partner tasks, four discussion group tasks) by ranking four political discussion options from most to least preferred. Results indicate that complete similarity is not always preferred (in analyses of all ranked discussion groups) and that partisan similarity is preferred over opinion similarity (in analyses of first-ranked discussion partners). More generally, findings reveal that preferences for political discussion depend on the context of the discussion, including whether the discussion involves a single discussion partner or a discussion group and whether preference focuses on individuals’ most preferred option only or relative rankings across a range of options.

Keywords: political discussion, similarity/difference, agreement/disagreement, selective exposure

Feast for the Eyes: Effects of Food Perceptions and Computer Vision Features on Food Photo Popularity

Feast for the Eyes: Effects of Food Perceptions and Computer Vision Features on Food Photo Popularity. Yilang Peng, John B. Jemmott III. International Journal of Communication, http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/6678

Abstract: The widely circulated food photos online have become an important part of our visual culture. Combining human ratings of food characteristics and computational analysis of visual aesthetics, we examined what contributed to the aesthetic appeal of a diversity of food photographs (N = 300) and likes and comments they received in an artificial newsfeed from participants (N = 399). The results revealed that people tended to like and share images containing tasty foods. Both healthy and unhealthy foods were able to gain likes. Aesthetic appeal and specific visual features, such as the use of arousing colors and different components of visual complexity, also influenced the popularity of food images. This work demonstrates the potential of applying computer vision methods in visual analysis, offers insights into image virality, and provides practical guidelines for communicating healthy eating.

Keywords: food, virality, computer vision, visual aesthetics, health communication

Investigating the Relationship Between Self-Perceived Moral Superiority and Moral Behavior Using Economic Games

Investigating the Relationship Between Self-Perceived Moral Superiority and Moral Behavior Using Economic Games. Ben M. Tappin, Ryan T. McKay. Social Psychological and Personality Science,  https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617750736

Abstract: Most people report that they are superior to the average person on various moral traits. The psychological causes and social consequences of this phenomenon have received considerable empirical attention. The behavioral correlates of self-perceived moral superiority (SPMS), however, remain unknown. We present the results of two preregistered studies (Study 1, N = 827; Study 2, N = 825), in which we indirectly assessed participants’ SPMS and used two incentivized economic games to measure their engagement in moral behavior. Across studies, SPMS was unrelated to trust in others and to trustworthiness, as measured by the trust game, and unrelated to fairness, as measured by the dictator game. This pattern of findings was robust to a range of analyses, and, in both studies, Bayesian analyses indicated moderate support for the null over the alternative hypotheses. We interpret and discuss these findings and highlight interesting avenues for future research on this topic.

Keywords: moral superiority, self-perception, traits, behavior, economic games

Men are presented with higher facial prominence than women in the media (this is called face-ism) -- In lab, as expected, men cropped their photos with higher facial prominence than women did

Self-presentation in Online Professional Networks: Men's Higher and Women's Lower Facial Prominence in Self-created Profile Images. Sabine Sczesny and Michèle C. Kaufmann. Front. Psychol., January 17 2018 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02295

Men are presented with higher facial prominence than women in the media, a phenomenon that is called face-ism. In naturalistic settings, face-ism effects could be driven by gender biases of photographers and/or by gender differences in self-presentation. The present research is the first to investigate whether women and men themselves create this different facial prominence. In a controlled laboratory study, 61 participants prepared a picture of themselves from a half-body photograph, allegedly to be uploaded to their profile for an online professional network. As expected, men cropped their photos with higher facial prominence than women did. However, women and men did not differ in the self-presentational motivations, goals, strategies, and personality variables under investigation, so that the observed face-ism effect could not be explained with these variables. Generally, the higher participants' physical appearance self-esteem, the higher was their self-created facial prominence.

The Elusive Backfire Effect: Mass Attitudes’ Steadfast Factual Adherence

The Elusive Backfire Effect: Mass Attitudes’ Steadfast Factual Adherence. Thomas Wood,  Ethan Porter. Political Behavior, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-018-9443-y

Abstract: Can citizens heed factual information, even when such information challenges their partisan and ideological attachments? The “backfire effect,” described by Nyhan and Reifler (Polit Behav 32(2):303–330.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-010-9112-2, 2010), says no: rather than simply ignoring factual information, presenting respondents with facts can compound their ignorance. In their study, conservatives presented with factual information about the absence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq became more convinced that such weapons had been found. The present paper presents results from five experiments in which we enrolled more than 10,100 subjects and tested 52 issues of potential backfire. Across all experiments, we found no corrections capable of triggering backfire, despite testing precisely the kinds of polarized issues where backfire should be expected. Evidence of factual backfire is far more tenuous than prior research suggests. By and large, citizens heed factual information, even when such information challenges their ideological commitments.

Artificial Intelligence And the Challenges of Detecting Rude Conversational Behaviour

On the Challenges of Detecting Rude Conversational Behaviour. Karan Grewal, Khai N. Truong. arXiv.org Computer Science > Human-Computer Interaction, arXiv:1712.09929 [cs.HC], https://arxiv.org/abs/1712.09929

Abstract: In this study, we aim to identify moments of rudeness between two individuals. In particular, we segment all occurrences of rudeness in conversations into three broad, distinct categories and try to identify each. We show how machine learning algorithms can be used to identify rudeness based on acoustic and semantic signals extracted from conversations. Furthermore, we make note of our shortcomings in identifying rudeness in conversations.

Introduction

One-on-one interactions are important in everyday social settings. For instance, in order to attract a potential partner, it is imperative that an individual behave in an appropriate manner. Unfortunately, one-on-one interactions can often result in one party exhibiting rude or inappropriate conversational behaviour. In many cases, the offending party is not aware of the severity of their actions and does not intend to offend the other party. For example, certain individuals may be socially unaware of how others perceive their behaviour. Individuals with learning disabilities, such as autism, may follow this trend. Likewise, young children often lack awareness of their behaviour { a possible explanation for the presence of bullying in elementary schools and why children are generally regarded as immature. In both cases, monitoring a user's conversational behaviour and making them aware of it via active feedback while they are engaged in a one-on-one interaction would be helpful towards correcting their behaviour in such scenarios.

In the last century, there has been a lot of work in the linguistics and psychology domains which attempt to define politeness and acceptable behaviour pertaining to two-person interactions. The most popular of these is Penelope Brown and Steven Levinson's Politeness theory [2]. This theory states that all individuals have two faces: a positive self-image which is the desire to be approved by others, and a negative self-image which is the desire of actions to be unimpeded by others. According to Politeness theory, any external actions which threaten one or more of an individual's faces, such disrespectful gestures, constitute impoliteness. Also, Geoffrey Leech's principle of politeness states that if two individuals are interacting, then there will be some form of disagreement or tension if both individuals are pursuing mutually-incompatible goals -- likening the chance of rude behaviour [8]. Here, goals refers to a psychological state of being. In contrast, Bruce Fraser argues against the theories formulated by Leech, Brown, and Levinson by pointing out that each culture has its own set of social norms which define acceptable behaviour [6]. Therefore, as Fraser argues, the question of whether an individual is behaving in an inappropriate manner is entirely dependent on the context of his/her actions. This view aligns with Robin Lako's notable example of the speaking style in New York [7].  As she states, New Yorkers often use profanity in a casual sense without any intent to offend or be impolite.  However, their conversational behaviour is likely to be interpreted as rude in other cultures.

Is there a grounded definition of rudeness with respect to speech which can be derived from classical theories of politeness? In this study, we define define the notion of rude conversational behaviour and explore methods to identify this type of behaviour in two-person interactions. We do this by extracting acoustic and semantic information from an individual's speech and develop methods which attempt to pinpoint exact instances of rude conversational behaviour. Also, we highlight some existing problems which make the task at hand dicult through our findings. Note that we only focus on signals extracted speech data.