I found consistently higher memory for unattractive over both attractive and medium-attractive faces

The influence of facial attractiveness on recognition memory: Behavioural findings and electrophysiological evidence. Carolin S. Altmann, Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil.), Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena.

This thesis is based on a series of experiments that aimed to better understand the influence attractiveness has on memory while always controlling for perceived distinctiveness. First, I created a large stimulus pool of 1100 faces and obtained ratings on a number of relevant dimensions (see sections 2.1 and 3). In the first study, I investigated if memory for faces increased linearly with increasing attractiveness or whether this relationship was more complex (see section 3). In the second study, I investigated the combined influence of attractiveness and gender on recognition memory to competitively test predictions of perceptual expertise, social cognition, and alternative accounts (see section 4). In the third study, l, I investigated encoding-related neural correlates of the attractiveness effect on memory at retrieval (see section 5) whereas the first two experiments focused on ERP memory effects during retrieval.

Taken together, I found consistently higher memory for unattractive over both attractive and medium-attractive faces. Further, medium-attractive faces were significantly less well remembered than attractive faces in studies 1 and 2, and numerically in study 3. This difference disappeared when emotional relevance, i.e. valence and arousal, was taken into account. Inspection of ERPs showed increased P2 amplitudes for medium-attractive faces at retrieval in studies 1 and 2, and a pronounced Dm effect in this component in study 3. Thus, the attractiveness effect on face recognition memory seems already rooted in evolved, i.e. more refined and higher-level, perceptual processing of faces reflected in the P2. Overarchingly, these findings argue in favour of perceptual accounts, i.e. representational clustering (see sections 1.6.1 and 6.2.4), as both attractive and medium-attractive faces are supposedly more densely clustered in participants’ mental storage. The current data further indicate some contribution of emotional relevance. As no significant influence of face or participant gender was observed, there was also no compelling evidence for accounts of social cognition.

Giving advice enhances the adviser’s sense of power because it gives the adviser perceived influence over others’ actions; people with a high tendency to seek power are more likely to give advice than those with a low tendency

Advice Giving: A Subtle Pathway to Power. Michael Schaerer et al. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217746341

Abstract: We propose that interpersonal behaviors can activate feelings of power, and we examine this idea in the context of advice giving. Specifically, we show (a) that advice giving is an interpersonal behavior that enhances individuals’ sense of power and (b) that those who seek power are motivated to engage in advice giving. Four studies, including two experiments (N = 290, N = 188), an organization-based field study (N = 94), and a negotiation simulation (N = 124), demonstrate that giving advice enhances the adviser’s sense of power because it gives the adviser perceived influence over others’ actions. Two of our studies further demonstrate that people with a high tendency to seek power are more likely to give advice than those with a low tendency. This research establishes advice giving as a subtle route to a sense of power, shows that the desire to feel powerful motivates advice giving, and highlights the dynamic interplay between power and advice.

Keywords: advice giving, social power, social influence, political motivation

The Effect of Germ Movement on the Construal of Mental States in Germs: The Moderating Role of Contamination Fear

The Effect of Germ Movement on the Construal of Mental States in Germs: The Moderating Role of Contamination Fear. John H. Riskind, Dylan K. Richards. Cognitive Therapy and Research, February 2018, Volume 42, Issue 1, pp 36–47. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10608-017-9877-2

Abstract: In two studies, we examined a novel relationship between movement and anthropomorphism—the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman agents—in relation to germs. Furthermore, we examined whether individual differences in contamination fear and disgust proneness moderated the effect of movement on the tendency to anthropomorphize germs. Following an initial study that demonstrated associations between imagined germ movement, contamination fear, and the attribution of malevolent intentions to germs, we conducted a second study that experimentally manipulated germ movement with a brief film clip of magnified germs. The results of the second study showed that the experimental manipulation of germ movement increased attributions of malevolent intentions to germs and enhanced the tendencies of individuals with higher levels of contamination fear to attribute some general human characteristics to germs (i.e., intentions, feelings). These findings suggest that the attribution of malevolent intentions to germs may be a cognitive distortion that contributes to the maintenance of contamination fear, which may afford a novel treatment target. Perceived movement may serve as an antecedent to the attribution of malevolent intentions to germs and thus exacerbate the tendency to make these attributions.

Decreases in extraversion are attenuated for individuals categorized as light-to-moderate drinkers, while decreases in conscientiousness were accentuated by having experienced alcohol dependence symptoms

Luchetti, M., Terracciano, A., Stephan, Y. and Sutin, A. R. (), Alcohol use and personality change in middle and older adulthood: Findings from the Health and Retirement Study. Journal of Personality. Accepted Author Manuscript. doi:10.1111/jopy.12371

Abstract

Objective: Personality is known to predict alcohol consumption but how alcohol use is related to personality change is less clear, especially at older ages. The present study examined the effects of level of alcohol consumption and history of dependence on change in the five-factor model personality traits in a national cohort of Americans aged over 50.

Method: Over 10,000 adults who participated in 2006-08 waves of the Health and Retirement Study reported on personality and alcohol use and were followed over 4 years.

Results: Latent difference score models indicated decreases in extraversion to be attenuated for individuals categorized as light-to-moderate drinkers at baseline, while decreases in conscientiousness were accentuated by having experienced alcohol dependence symptoms. Moreover, personality difference scores correlated with changes in the amount of alcohol consumed at follow-up.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that patterns of alcohol consumption are associated with changes in personality across the second half of the lifespan.

Introduction of Uber ride-sharing service is associated with lower DUI and fatal accident rates. For some specifications, there are also less arrests for assault and disorderly conduct. There is an increase in vehicle thefts

Dills, A. K. and Mulholland, S. E. (2018), Ride-Sharing, Fatal Crashes, and Crime. Southern Economic Journal. doi:10.1002/soej.12255

Abstract: The advent of smart-phone based, ride-sharing applications has revolutionized the vehicle for hire market. Advocates point to the ease of use, lower prices, and shorter wait times compared to hailing a taxi or prearranging limousine service. Others argue that proper government oversight is necessary to protect ride-share passengers from driver error or vehicle parts failures and violence from unlicensed strangers. Using U.S. county-level data from 2007 through 2015, we investigate whether the introduction of the ride-sharing service Uber is associated with changes in fatal vehicle crashes and crime. We find that Uber's entry lowers the rate of DUIs and fatal accidents. For some specifications, we also find declines in arrests for assault and disorderly conduct. Conversely, we observe an increase in vehicle thefts.

We argue that anger likely plays a major role in motivating individuals to engage in the biased assimilation of political information—an evaluative bias in favor of information that bolsters one's views and against information that undercuts them

Suhay, E. and Erisen, C. (2018), The Role of Anger in the Biased Assimilation of Political Information. Political Psychology. doi:10.1111/pops.12463

Abstract: Political psychologists have established that politically motivated reasoning is a common phenomenon; however, the field knows comparatively less about the psychological mechanisms that drive it. Drawing on advances in the understanding of the relevance of emotion to political reasoning and behavior, we argue that anger likely plays a major role in motivating individuals to engage in the biased assimilation of political information—an evaluative bias in favor of information that bolsters one's views and against information that undercuts them. We test this proposition with two online studies, the second of which includes a quasi-representative sample of Americans. The studies support our expectations. Individuals felt more negative emotions toward arguments that undermined their attitudes and positive emotions toward arguments that confirmed them; however, anger was nearly alone in fueling biased reactions to issue arguments.

The younger a person feels, the more likely he or she will use the Internet

Young at heart and online? Subjective age and internet use in two Swiss survey studies
Alexander Seifert ORCID Icon & Hans-Werner Wahl. Educational Gerontology, https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2018.1427495

ABSTRACT: Subjective age (SA) indicates how old a person feels. SA has been found to be a marker of an individual’s physical and psychological functioning and openness for new aging experiences. Thus, it can be generally considered as beneficial in promoting healthy aging. We hypothesized that the younger a person feels, the more likely he or she will use the Internet. We evaluated two secondary analyses based on two cross-sectional and representative telephone surveys of 1790 participants (n = 1299, age ≥ 70 years; n = 491, age ≥ 65 years) in Switzerland. Univariate and multivariate analyses, controlled for a number of relevant confounders, confirmed the relationship between lowered SA and heightened Internet use. Given that we were able to analyze two relatively large and representative data sets, we regard our findings, although based on cross-sectional studies, as rather robust. Longitudinal research is required to examine the causal direction of this relationship.

The strongest insights into the biological bases of social connection come from animal research, which shows that social bonds rely on the same neurochemicals that support general motivation, among them opioids

Opioids and Social Connection. Tristen K. Inagaki. Current Directions in Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417735531

Abstract: Social connection, the pleasurable, subjective experience of feeling close to and bonded with other people, is critical for well-being and continued social bonding. Despite the importance of social connection for many important outcomes, few researchers have experimentally examined how humans connect with those to whom they feel close. The strongest insights into the biological bases of social connection come from animal research, which shows that social bonds rely on the same neurochemicals that support general motivation. One class of neurochemicals, opioids, has received increased attention in recent years with the rise of pharmacological methods to manipulate opioids in humans. This article reviews emerging findings to show that opioids affect social feelings, behaviors, and perceptions in both positive and negative social experiences and concludes with the implications of such findings. Future work should consider the subjective feelings of social connection felt during interactions with close social contacts in order to further the understanding of social connection.

Keywords: social affiliation, social bonding, attachment, social reward, endogenous opioids

A compilation of heat flux recordings from Greenland show the existence of geothermal heat sources beneath GIS and could explain high glacial ice speed areas such as the Northeast Greenland ice stream

High geothermal heat flux in close proximity to the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream. Søren Rysgaard, Jørgen Bendtsen, John Mortensen & Mikael K. Sejr. Scientific Reports 8, Article number: 1344 (2018), doi 10.1038/s41598-018-19244-x

Abstract: The Greenland ice sheet (GIS) is losing mass at an increasing rate due to surface melt and flow acceleration in outlet glaciers. Currently, there is a large disagreement between observed and simulated ice flow, which may arise from inaccurate parameterization of basal motion, subglacial hydrology or geothermal heat sources. Recently it was suggested that there may be a hidden heat source beneath GIS caused by a higher than expected geothermal heat flux (GHF) from the Earth’s interior. Here we present the first direct measurements of GHF from beneath a deep fjord basin in Northeast Greenland. Temperature and salinity time series (2005–2015) in the deep stagnant basin water are used to quantify a GHF of 93 ± 21 mW m−2 which confirm previous indirect estimated values below GIS. A compilation of heat flux recordings from Greenland show the existence of geothermal heat sources beneath GIS and could explain high glacial ice speed areas such as the Northeast Greenland ice stream.

Monastic Tibetan Buddhists showed significantly greater fear of death than any other group. The monastics were also less generous than other groups about the prospect of giving up a slightly longer life in order to extend the life of another

Nichols, S., Strohminger, N., Rai, A. and Garfield, J. (2018), Death and the Self. Cogn Sci. doi:10.1111/cogs.12590

Abstract: It is an old philosophical idea that if the future self is literally different from the current self, one should be less concerned with the death of the future self (Parfit, 1984). This paper examines the relation between attitudes about death and the self among Hindus, Westerners, and three Buddhist populations (Lay Tibetan, Lay Bhutanese, and monastic Tibetans). Compared with other groups, monastic Tibetans gave particularly strong denials of the continuity of self, across several measures. We predicted that the denial of self would be associated with a lower fear of death and greater generosity toward others. To our surprise, we found the opposite. Monastic Tibetan Buddhists showed significantly greater fear of death than any other group. The monastics were also less generous than any other group about the prospect of giving up a slightly longer life in order to extend the life of another.

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3.2. Tradeoff
Many in the Buddhist tradition, following classical Indian Buddhist philosophers such as Kamalasıla and Santideva, argue that one of the important consequences of realizing the absence of self and impermanence is the reduction in egocentricity, reflected in the increase in generosity, care, love for others, and the self disappearing as an object of special concern (Garfield, 2015). So, one would expect, if this view is right, that those who see the self as insubstantial and impermanent would be less likely to value their own lives over those of others. Indeed, canonical descriptions of non-egocentricity, generosity, and care are replete with examples of individuals who willingly sacrifice their own good for that of others. The next study explores this with our populations.

3.2.1. Method
Participants were given a task developed from those used to assess the influence of intertemporal self-connectedness on future decision-making (e.g., Bartels & Urminsky, 2011). In this task, participants have to decide the extent to which they would trade off months of their own life for an increasing amount of time for another person. Participants were shown the following instructions:

Imagine that you have a terminal disease that will kill you in 6 months unless you take a medication. There is only one dose of the medication available. If you take the medication, it will prolong your life by 6 months. So if you take the medicine, you will live for 12 months instead of 6. If you don’t take the medication, it will go to someone else who has the same condition and will die in 6 months. This person is very much like you but a stranger whom you will never meet or be in contact with.
Participants then indicated whether they would choose to give the medicine to themselves or the stranger if the medicine had varying degrees of efficacy for the stranger. The shortest possible extension of the stranger’s life by the medicine was “1 month or less”; the longest was “more than 5 years,” with eight additional intervals (2 months, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc.) in between. The medicine was always said to prolong the participant’s life by 6 months. Each participant therefore rendered 10 responses (one for each self-other paired decision). Responses were scored by counting the number of times a person opted to give the medicine to themselves; scores ranged from 0 to 10. A score of zero would mean a subject would give up their medicine to the stranger regardless of how long it would prolong their life; a score of 10 would mean a subject would keep the medicine for themselves even if the medicine would prolong the stranger’s life by 5 or more years.

One thousand one hundred and eighty-one participants (701 Americans, 240 Indians, 240 Tibetan monastics; 42.2% female) took the tradeoff task. Of the American participants, 311 identified as Christian and 276 identified as nonreligious. The 41 American participants who indicated other religions were excluded from this analysis, as were 73 Americans who gave incoherent answers (i.e., choosing to keep the medicine that would keep the stranger alive for more time when they had already chosen to give away the medicine when the stranger lived for less time). One Indian subject was excluded for having missing data. We did not collect data from Tibetan or Bhutanese lay Buddhists.

[...]

3.2.3. Discussion
There are several ways to interpret this study, some more optimistic than others. One is that Buddhists are more honest about what they would do with medicine if they were sick. While this possibility cannot be ruled out, it would mean that all three comparison groups (Indians, Christian Americans, and nonreligious Americans) are more dishonest than the Tibetans, and we have no good reason to suspect this. Furthermore, the social desirability of answers on the Tradeoff task is far from obvious. Another possibility is that the Tibetan monastics consider their lives more valuable than that of a stranger, because they are more likely to contribute to the world than a person selected at random.
To rule out these possibilities, future studies should measure actual egocentric behavior, see if performance changes when members of the in-group are used (e.g., trading months off your life vs. a Buddhist you have never met), and collect self-report data. Perhaps such work will reveal a principled reason for why the monastic Tibetans gave such egocentric responses.
On the other hand, future work should also explore what the upper bound is for the egocentric responses among the monastics. Because the majority of Tibetan responses were at ceiling for egocentricity, this study may fail to capture just how dramatic these differences are.

3.3. Discussion
Contrary to our central prediction, we did not find that Buddhist monastics showed less fear of self-annihilation than Abrahamics and Hindus. Indeed, to our astonishment, we found that the monastics showed greater fear of self-annihilation than any other group, including lay Tibetans and Western nonbelievers. Furthermore, the Buddhist monastics were less generous with months of their own lives than the Hindus, the Abrahamics, and the Western nonbelievers.
In light of how surprising our results are, it is worth reviewing some of the limitations and alternative explanations of the research. One possibility is that the results on the increased fear of self-annihilation among monastics is a fluke of the sample. We think this is unlikely partly since we sampled from two geographically distinct monasteries, but more importantly because the results on the self-annihilation measure cohered with the results on tradeoff task. In both studies, the monastic Tibetans exhibited significantly higher concern for self-preservation.
Another explanation for our findings might be that the monastic Tibetans did not really believe the no-self view. We think there might be something right about this, but caution is required. Almost all Tibetan monastics in our sample report that they rely on the no-self doctrine as reassurance that death should not be feared. Furthermore, across several measures, we found the monastics to maintain that there is no self. And this is an absolutely central part of their religious tradition. It is as central to Buddhism as the belief that Jesus is the son of God is to Christianity. So, if the monastics were told, “You don’t believe in the no self view,” this would likely inspire strenuous rebuttals. Nonetheless, there might be another sense in which the monastics have not internalized the no-self view deeply enough to deflect fear of death. Indeed, we suspect that something like this is the case, as we will discuss in the final section.
Another limitation of our study is that we focused on a single Buddhist tradition, and it will be important to see whether the findings hold for other traditions as well. Buddhist traditions differ from one another in doctrinal detail, with respect to practice, with respect to relations between lay and monastic communities, and in degree of piety. We have examined only one of these traditions—the Tibetan tradition as it is represented in the Indian exile community and in Bhutan. It will be important in future studies to examine other Buddhist traditions to determine whether the phenomena we have found are general, or whether they are driven in part by properties of the Tibetan community or Buddhist doctrine, per se. If the latter, further study will be required to determine which features of Buddhist doctrine are responsible for these results.

4. Conclusion

Our results suggest a paradoxical effect of Buddhist teaching. Buddhism encourages the belief that there is no persistent self, and this is taken to be a reason not to fear death. We find that monastic Buddhists explicitly deny the existence of a persistent self, in line with Buddhist thought. But contrary to the Buddhist promise of reduced fear of death, the monastic Buddhists showed dramatically increased fear of self-annihilation and valued their own lives over others to a much greater degree.
On every measure we used, the monastics deny the existence of the self. So why do they fail to show the expected reduction in fear of death? We think that it is because, despite their training and explicit claims, they retain a powerful sense of personal identity across the biological lifespan. In particular, like everyone else, Tibetan monastics engage in episodic retrospection and prospection, and this generates a robust sense of personal identity with the past experiencer (see, e.g., Nichols, 2014). Even if you have changed enormously since your first kiss, it will still seem like you had that experience. We propose that even for the monks and nuns, there remains a persistent and powerful sense of identity yielded by episodic memory and prospection within biological life.
The claim that episodic memory generates a sense of personal identity even among monastics is reinforced by looking at work within Tibetan Buddhism. Autobiographies are a primary genre in Tibetan literature. The autobiographies are by people who are held to be of high spiritual attainment (e.g., Gyatso, 1998, 103). It might seem incoherent for an enlightened Buddhist to write an autobiography—how can one affirm an autobiography while denying the self?5 It is certainly clear that these texts make liberal use of the first person singular. The official rejoinder to this alleged incoherence is that these works treat the author as merely a “conventional” person, not an enduring ultimate self. It is possible to speak of persons in this merely conventional fashion, but Tibetan autobiographies suggest that this is not always consistently upheld. Often in these works, the author is reporting a past experience, and the recollections certainly do not seem to present the distanced perspective afforded by thinking that there really is no persisting self.
Rather, they suggest a clear identification with the past experiencer. Consider, for instance, the most famous work in this tradition, The Life of Milarepa. We find the author describing a scene from years earlier in which he had returned to his ancestral home and found human bones among a heap of rags. He writes,

When I realized they were the bones of my mother, I was so overcome with grief that I could hardly stand it. I could not think, I could not speak, and an overwhelming sense of longing and sadness swept over me. (Quintman, 2010, p. 118; see also Shabkar, 1994, p. 32; Kongtrul, 2003; 172–3)

This passage is hardly a dispassionate report that a conventional person consisting of fleeting traits included a set of perceptions. Instead, it seems to be a recollection of a devastating personal experience. It is most plausible that Milarepa, in reflecting on this terrible event, could not suppress the sense that he had the experience of discovering his mother’s bones, even if, in a different register, he would deny that there is any self in which he consists, or that he is now the same person who endured that experience.
The sense of continuity over time within a biological life may be resistant to the ideological conviction that that sense is delusional. Nonetheless, the common view that there is self-persistence between lives may well succumb to the no-self doctrine. If this is the case, it may be that the prospect of death is the prospect of the end of the only kind of self in which one has any conviction. This would be a more dramatic denouement than that anticipated in death by Christians and Hindus, each of whom retains a conviction in the survival of an immortal soul. If monastics do indeed fail to extirpate the sense of continuity, this would help explain both their heightened fear of self-annihilation and their increased egocentricity in tradeoff tasks.
Indeed, this explanation actually fits with a traditional Buddhist distinction between innate self-grasping and philosophical self-grasping. The latter is the conviction in the reality of the self as a result of philosophical or religious doctrine, and it is regarded among Buddhist philosophers as eliminable simply through philosophical reflection. The former, however, is regarded as immune to mere philosophical reflection, and it is argued that only prolonged meditation can dislodge it. None of the participants we studied were long-term meditators (Tsongkhapa, 1991), and one important question for future research will be whether highly experienced practitioners of meditation would in fact show reduced fear of self-annihilation.
The Buddhist may be correct in thinking there is no persisting self and hence that it is irrational to fear death. Nonetheless, as Buddhists themselves recognize, our sense of identity across the biological lifespan is resilient, and perhaps the thought of self-annihilation triggers fears too primitive to be easily tamed by the philosophical belief that there is no persistent self.

The cryptic reaction shot has grown dramatically in movies. The shots are designed to enhance viewers’ emotional involvement with characters. They depict a facial gesture that reflects a slightly negative and slightly aroused emotional state

Cutting, J. E. and Armstrong, K. L. (2018), Cryptic Emotions and the Emergence of a Metatheory of Mind in Popular Filmmaking. Cogn Sci. doi:10.1111/cogs.12586

Abstract: Hollywood movies can be deeply engaging and easy to understand. To succeed in this manner, feature-length movies employ many editing techniques with strong psychological underpinnings. We explore the origins and development of one of these, the reaction shot. This shot typically shows a single, unspeaking character with modest facial expression in response to an event or to the behavior or speech of another character. In a sample of movies from 1940 to 2010, we show that the prevalence of one type of these shots—which we call the cryptic reaction shot—has grown dramatically. These shots are designed to enhance viewers’ emotional involvement with characters. They depict a facial gesture that reflects a slightly negative and slightly aroused emotional state. Their use at the end of conversations, and typically at the end of scenes, helps to leave viewers in a state of speculation about what the character is thinking and what her thoughts may mean for the ongoing narrative.

Is Accurate, Positive, or Inflated Self-perception Most Advantageous for Psychological Adjustment? A Competitive Test of Key Hypotheses

Humberg, Sarah, Michael Dufner, Felix D Schönbrodt, Katharina Geukes, Roos Hutteman, Albrecht Kuefner, Maarten van Zalk, Jaap J A Denissen, Steffen Nestler, and Mitja Back. 2018. “Preprint of "is Accurate, Positive, or Inflated Self-perception Most Advantageous for Psychological Adjustment? A Competitive Test of Key Hypotheses"”. Open Science Framework. January 21. osf.io/9w3bh

Abstract: Empirical research on the (mal-)adaptiveness of favorable self-perceptions, self-enhancement, and self-knowledge has typically applied a classical null-hypothesis testing approach and provided mixed and even contradictory findings. Using data from five studies (laboratory and field, total N = 2,823), we employed an information-theoretic approach combined with Response Surface Analysis to provide the first competitive test of six popular hypotheses: that more favorable self-perceptions are adaptive versus maladaptive (Hypotheses 1 and 2: Positivity of self-view hypotheses), that higher levels of self-enhancement (i.e., a higher discrepancy of self-viewed and objectively assessed ability) are adaptive versus maladaptive (Hypotheses 3 and 4: Self-enhancement hypotheses), that accurate self-perceptions are adaptive (Hypothesis 5: Self-knowledge hypothesis), and that a slight degree of self-enhancement is adaptive (Hypothesis 6: Optimal margin hypothesis). We considered self-perceptions and objective ability measures in two content domains (reasoning ability, vocabulary knowledge) and investigated six indicators of intra- and interpersonal psychological adjustment. Results showed that most adjustment indicators were best predicted by the positivity of self-perceptions, there were some specific self-enhancement effects, and evidence generally spoke against the self-knowledge and optimal margin hypotheses. Our results highlight the need for comprehensive simultaneous tests of competing hypotheses. Implications for the understanding of underlying processes are discussed.

Exploring the Great Schism in the Social Sciences: Confirmation Bias and the Interpretation of Results Relating to Biological Influences on Human Behavior and Psychology

Exploring the Great Schism in the Social Sciences: Confirmation Bias and the Interpretation of Results Relating to Biological Influences on Human Behavior and Psychology. Jeffrey Winking. Evolutionary Psychology,  https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704917752691

Abstract: The nature–nurture debate is one that biologists often dismiss as a false dichotomy, as all phenotypic traits are the results of complex processes of gene and environment interactions. However, such dismissiveness belies the ongoing debate that is unmistakable throughout the biological and social sciences concerning the role of biological influences in the development of psychological and behavioral traits in humans. Many have proposed that this debate is due to ideologically driven biases in the interpretation of results. Those favoring biological approaches have been accused of a greater willingness to accept biological explanations so as to rationalize or justify the status quo of inequality. Those rejecting biological approaches have been accused of an unwillingness to accept biological explanations so as to attribute inequalities solely to social and institutional factors, ultimately allowing for the possibility of social equality. While it is important to continue to investigate this topic through further research and debate, another approach is to examine the degree to which the allegations of bias are indeed valid. To accomplish this, a convenience sample of individuals with relevant postgraduate degrees was recruited from Mechanical Turk and social media. Participants were asked to rate the inferential power of different research designs and of mock results that varied in the degree to which they supported different ideologies. Results were suggestive that researchers harbor sincere differences of opinion concerning the inferential value of relevant research. There was no suggestion that ideological confirmation biases drive these differences. However, challenges associated with recruiting a large enough sample of experts as well as identifying believable mock scenarios limit the study’s inferential scope.

Keywords: confirmation bias, academia, evolutionary studies, cognitive bias, MTurk