Mating and social exposure induces an opioid-dependent conditioned place preference in male but not in female prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). M. Ulloa et al. Hormones and Behavior, Volume 97, January 2018, Pages 47–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.10.015
Highlights
• In male prairie voles (M. ochrogaster), one ejaculation is rewarding.
• In males, social cohabitation with mating for 6 h that leads to pair bonding is rewarding.
• In females, neither condition induces conditioned place preference.
• The reward state induced by one ejaculation or 6 h of mating is opioid dependent.
Abstract: In rodents, sexual stimulation induces a positive affective state that is evaluated by the conditioned place preference (CPP) test. Opioids are released during sexual behavior and modulate the rewarding properties of this behavior. Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) are a socially monogamous species, in which copulation with cohabitation for 6 h induces a pair bond. However, the mating-induced reward state that could contribute to the establishment of the long-term pair bond has not been evaluated in this species. The present study aimed to determine whether one ejaculation or cohabitation with mating for 6 h is rewarding for voles. We also evaluated whether this state is opioid dependent. Our results demonstrate that mating with one ejaculation and social cohabitation with mating for 6 h induce a CPP in males, while exposure to a sexually receptive female without mating did not induce CPP. In the female vole, mating until one ejaculation, social cohabitation with mating, or exposure to a male without physical interaction for 6 h did not induce CPP. To evaluate whether the rewarding state in males is opioid dependent, the antagonist naloxone was injected i.p. The administration of naloxone blocked the rewarding state induced by one ejaculation and by social cohabitation with mating. Our results demonstrate that in the prairie vole, on the basis of the CPP in the testing conditions used here, the stimulation received with one ejaculation and the mating conditions that lead to pair bonding formation may be rewarding for males, and this reward state is opioid dependent.
Keywords: Sexual reward; Conditioned place preference; Social cohabitation with mating; Opioids and voles
Monday, November 13, 2017
Vanity of vanities: Consumers tell others about a positive experience if it signals expertise
Signaling Success: Word of Mouth as Self-Enhancement. Andrea C. Wojnicki, and David Godes. Customer Needs and Solutions, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40547-017-0077-8
Abstract: This paper highlights the significance and implications of self-enhancement as an important motivation for consumers’ word-of-mouth behaviors. The authors predict and demonstrate that following a given positive consumption experience, experts generate more WOM than if the experience was negative and more than novices. They do so because WOM regarding positive, successful experiences can serve as an indicator, or signal, of expertise. Four controlled experiments and one empirical study support the theory. This pattern is intensified when consumers’ expertise self-concepts are salient, and it diminishes when the context does not present the opportunity to self-enhance because the outcome of the experience is not attributable to the consumer’s expertise or because the distinction between good and bad products does not require expertise.
Abstract: This paper highlights the significance and implications of self-enhancement as an important motivation for consumers’ word-of-mouth behaviors. The authors predict and demonstrate that following a given positive consumption experience, experts generate more WOM than if the experience was negative and more than novices. They do so because WOM regarding positive, successful experiences can serve as an indicator, or signal, of expertise. Four controlled experiments and one empirical study support the theory. This pattern is intensified when consumers’ expertise self-concepts are salient, and it diminishes when the context does not present the opportunity to self-enhance because the outcome of the experience is not attributable to the consumer’s expertise or because the distinction between good and bad products does not require expertise.
The Effect Of Retouched Media Images On Body Dissatisfaction
The Effect Of Retouched Media Images On Body Dissatisfaction. Danielle M Lorch. A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty of The University of Alabama at Birmingham, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Birmingham, Alabama, 2017. https://search.proquest.com/openview/f2cc52b5b26dbf1c295d022a0f7d389a/1.pdf
Contemporary society, including social and main-stream media, perpetuate unrealistic body ideals through their promotion of slender, thin-ideal body shapes and sizes that are typically photo-shopped to appear even thinner. More specifically, portrayal of the thin-ideal can negatively influence body dissatisfaction. Viewing slender models is associated with increased body dissatisfaction, while viewing average or plus size models is associated with decreased body dissatisfaction. This difference in effect of model size (slender vs. average vs. plus-size) on body dissatisfaction varies based on whether individuals compare themselves to others they view as more or less attractive than themselves. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if displaying these media images in their original, untouched forms would reduce the effect of thin-ideal media exposure on body dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalization, and state appearance comparison (i.e., social comparison with the media images being viewed) among college females (M age = 19.4 years).
This study was divided into two phases. Phase one (n=27) was designed to validate images used in phase two (n=244), where the effect of photo-shopping media images on outcome variables was assessed. Body dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalization, and perceived media pressure were assessed pre- and post- exposure and state appearance comparison was assessed post-exposure. Body dissatisfaction (t (238) = -5.52, p < 0.001), thin-ideal internalization (t (237) = -2.32, p = 0.02), and perceived media pressure (t (238) = -3.58, p < 0.001) significantly increased from baseline to postexposure.
However, there were no significant group effects on body dissatisfaction (F (1, 232) = 0.02, p = 0.89), thin-ideal internalization (F (1, 231) = 3.46, p = 0.06), perceived media pressure (F (1, 232) = 1.34, p = 0.25), or state appearance comparison (F (1, 233) = 0.10, p =0.75) between the untouched and retouched conditions. These results suggest it is likely not photo-shopping of models, but rather the size and/or weight of the models being portrayed, that is associated with increased body dissatisfaction and thin-ideal internalization. Therefore, rather than focusing on policies to prohibit photo-shop use in professional media sources, it may be more beneficial to begin by implementing minimum BMI restrictions for models.
Keywords: body dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalization, appearance comparison, thin-ideal media, photo-shop, retouched images.
Why people dox others --- Doxing = malicious release of personal sensitive information
Fifteen Minutes of Unwanted Fame: Detecting and Characterizing Doxing. Peter Snyder, Periwinkle Doerfler, Chris Kanich, and Damon McCoy. In Proceedings of IMC ’17 (November 1–3, 2017, London, UK). ACM, New York, 13 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3131365.3131385
Abstract: Doxing is online abuse where a malicious party harms another by releasing identifying or sensitive information. Motivations for doxing include personal, competitive, and political reasons, and web users of all ages, genders and internet experience have been targeted. Existing research on doxing is primarily qualitative. This work improves our understanding of doxing by being the first to take a quantitative approach. We do so by designing and deploying a tool which can detect dox files and measure the frequency, content, targets, and effects of doxing on popular dox-posting sites. This work analyzes over 1.7 million text files posted to paste-bin.com, 4chan.org and 8ch.net, sites frequently used to share doxes online, over a combined period of approximately thirteen weeks. Notable findings in this work include that approximately 0.3% of shared files are doxes, that online social networking accounts mentioned in these dox files are more likely to close than typical accounts, that justice and revenge are the most often cited motivations for doxing, and that dox files target males more frequently than females. We also find that recent anti-abuse efforts by social networks have reduced how frequently these doxing victims closed or restricted their accounts after being attacked. We also propose mitigation steps, such a service that can inform people when their accounts have been shared in a dox file, or law enforcement notification tools to inform authorities when individuals are at heightened risk of abuse.
---
We identified four general motivations for doxing. Some doxers gave a competitive motivation for attacking their victim, such as wanting to demonstrate their “superior” abilities, or demonstrating that a target claiming to be “un-doxable” was vulnerable.
Another common motivation was revenge, or the doxer attacking because of something the target had done to the doxer. Examples of revenge motivations included the doxee “stealing” a significant other from the doxer, or the doxee being an “attention whore” in an online forum or chat.
A third recurring motivation was justice, or the doxer attacking the doxee because the doxee had previously done something immoral or unfair to a third party. This is different from a revenge motivation, where the harm being “avenged” is committed against the doxer. Examples of justice-motivated doxings include targets who were alleged to have scammed other people in an online forum, or who worked with law enforcement.
A fourth motivation we observed was political, or doxing in support of a larger goal than simply targeting individuals. Examples of political doxes included de-anonymizing KKK members, suspected child-pornography trading groups, or people working in industries that the doxers considered to be abusive to animals.
Abstract: Doxing is online abuse where a malicious party harms another by releasing identifying or sensitive information. Motivations for doxing include personal, competitive, and political reasons, and web users of all ages, genders and internet experience have been targeted. Existing research on doxing is primarily qualitative. This work improves our understanding of doxing by being the first to take a quantitative approach. We do so by designing and deploying a tool which can detect dox files and measure the frequency, content, targets, and effects of doxing on popular dox-posting sites. This work analyzes over 1.7 million text files posted to paste-bin.com, 4chan.org and 8ch.net, sites frequently used to share doxes online, over a combined period of approximately thirteen weeks. Notable findings in this work include that approximately 0.3% of shared files are doxes, that online social networking accounts mentioned in these dox files are more likely to close than typical accounts, that justice and revenge are the most often cited motivations for doxing, and that dox files target males more frequently than females. We also find that recent anti-abuse efforts by social networks have reduced how frequently these doxing victims closed or restricted their accounts after being attacked. We also propose mitigation steps, such a service that can inform people when their accounts have been shared in a dox file, or law enforcement notification tools to inform authorities when individuals are at heightened risk of abuse.
---
We identified four general motivations for doxing. Some doxers gave a competitive motivation for attacking their victim, such as wanting to demonstrate their “superior” abilities, or demonstrating that a target claiming to be “un-doxable” was vulnerable.
Another common motivation was revenge, or the doxer attacking because of something the target had done to the doxer. Examples of revenge motivations included the doxee “stealing” a significant other from the doxer, or the doxee being an “attention whore” in an online forum or chat.
A third recurring motivation was justice, or the doxer attacking the doxee because the doxee had previously done something immoral or unfair to a third party. This is different from a revenge motivation, where the harm being “avenged” is committed against the doxer. Examples of justice-motivated doxings include targets who were alleged to have scammed other people in an online forum, or who worked with law enforcement.
A fourth motivation we observed was political, or doxing in support of a larger goal than simply targeting individuals. Examples of political doxes included de-anonymizing KKK members, suspected child-pornography trading groups, or people working in industries that the doxers considered to be abusive to animals.
Physiological Arousal and Self-Reported Valence for Erotica Images Correlate with Sexual Policy Preferences
Amanda Friesen, Kevin B. Smith, John R. Hibbing; Physiological Arousal and Self-Reported Valence for Erotica Images Correlate with Sexual Policy Preferences, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Volume 29, Issue 3, September 01 2017, Pages 449–470, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edw008
Abstract: Individuals do not always accurately report the forces driving their policy preferences. Such inaccuracy may result from the fact that true justifications are socially undesirable or less persuasive than competing justifications or are unavailable in conscious awareness. Because of the delicate nature of these issues, people may be particularly likely to misstate the reasons for preferences on gay marriage, abortion, abstinence-only education, and premarital sex. Advocates on both sides typically justify their preferences in terms of preserving social order, maintaining moral values, or protecting civil liberties, not in terms of their own sexual preferences. Though these are the stated reasons, in empirical tests we find that psychophysiological response to sexual images also may be a significant driver of policy attitudes.
Abstract: Individuals do not always accurately report the forces driving their policy preferences. Such inaccuracy may result from the fact that true justifications are socially undesirable or less persuasive than competing justifications or are unavailable in conscious awareness. Because of the delicate nature of these issues, people may be particularly likely to misstate the reasons for preferences on gay marriage, abortion, abstinence-only education, and premarital sex. Advocates on both sides typically justify their preferences in terms of preserving social order, maintaining moral values, or protecting civil liberties, not in terms of their own sexual preferences. Though these are the stated reasons, in empirical tests we find that psychophysiological response to sexual images also may be a significant driver of policy attitudes.
Higher than usual Google searches for life-threatening illnesses predicted increases in searches for religious content (e.g., God, Jesus, prayer)
Searching for God: Illness-Related Mortality Threats and Religious Search Volume in Google in 16 Nations. Brett W. Pelham, Mitsuru Shimizu, Jamie Arndt, Mauricio Carvallo, Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217736047
Abstract: We tested predictions about religiosity and terror management processes in 16 nations. Specifically, we examined weekly variation in Google search volume in each nation for 12 years (all weeks for which data were available). In all 16 nations, higher than usual weekly Google search volume for life-threatening illnesses (cancer, diabetes, and hypertension) predicted increases in search volume for religious content (e.g., God, Jesus, prayer) in the following week. This effect held up after controlling for (a) recent past and annual variation in religious search volume, (b) increases in search volume associated with religious holidays, and (c) variation in searches for a non-life-threatening illness (“sore throat”). Terror management threat reduction processes appear to occur across the globe. Furthermore, they may occur over much longer periods than those studied in the laboratory. Managing fears of death via religious belief regulation appears to be culturally pervasive.
Abstract: We tested predictions about religiosity and terror management processes in 16 nations. Specifically, we examined weekly variation in Google search volume in each nation for 12 years (all weeks for which data were available). In all 16 nations, higher than usual weekly Google search volume for life-threatening illnesses (cancer, diabetes, and hypertension) predicted increases in search volume for religious content (e.g., God, Jesus, prayer) in the following week. This effect held up after controlling for (a) recent past and annual variation in religious search volume, (b) increases in search volume associated with religious holidays, and (c) variation in searches for a non-life-threatening illness (“sore throat”). Terror management threat reduction processes appear to occur across the globe. Furthermore, they may occur over much longer periods than those studied in the laboratory. Managing fears of death via religious belief regulation appears to be culturally pervasive.
The best estimate of the effects of campaign contact & advertising on Americans' candidates choices in general elections is zero
Kalla, Joshua and Broockman, David E., The Minimal Persuasive Effects of Campaign Contact in General Elections: Evidence from 49 Field Experiments (September 25, 2017). Forthcoming, American Political Science Review; Stanford University Graduate School of Business Research Paper No. 17-65. American Political Science Review, forthcoming, available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3042867
Abstract: Significant theories of democratic accountability hinge on how political campaigns affect Americans' candidate choices. We argue that the best estimate of the effects of campaign contact and advertising on Americans' candidates choices in general elections is zero. First, a systematic meta-analysis of 40 field experiments estimates an average effect of zero in general elections. Second, we present nine original field experiments that increase the statistical evidence in the literature about the persuasive effects of personal contact 10-fold. These experiments' average effect is also zero. In both existing and our original experiments, persuasive effects only appear to emerge in two rare circumstances. First, when candidates take unusually unpopular positions and campaigns invest unusually heavily in identifying persuadable voters. Second, when campaigns contact voters long before election day and measure effects immediately - although this early persuasion decays. These findings contribute to ongoing debates about how political elites influence citizens' judgments.
Abstract: Significant theories of democratic accountability hinge on how political campaigns affect Americans' candidate choices. We argue that the best estimate of the effects of campaign contact and advertising on Americans' candidates choices in general elections is zero. First, a systematic meta-analysis of 40 field experiments estimates an average effect of zero in general elections. Second, we present nine original field experiments that increase the statistical evidence in the literature about the persuasive effects of personal contact 10-fold. These experiments' average effect is also zero. In both existing and our original experiments, persuasive effects only appear to emerge in two rare circumstances. First, when candidates take unusually unpopular positions and campaigns invest unusually heavily in identifying persuadable voters. Second, when campaigns contact voters long before election day and measure effects immediately - although this early persuasion decays. These findings contribute to ongoing debates about how political elites influence citizens' judgments.
Blind woman cannot discriminate gender of target faces, but perceives happy, fearful or angry expressions
Affective blindsight in the absence of input from face processing regions in occipital-temporal cortex. Christopher L. Striemer, Robert L. Whitwell, Melvyn A. Goodale. Neuropsychologia, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.11.014
Highlights
• Patient MC has extensive bilateral lesions to occipital and ventral-temporal cortex
• MC is completely blind to static stimuli, but has spared motion perception
• Despite her extensive lesions MC can discriminate between different facial emotions
• MC cannot discriminate gender from faces, or localize targets
• Affective blindsight does not depend on V1, or ‘face’ regions in the ventral stream
Abstract: Previous research suggests that the implicit recognition of emotional expressions may be carried out by pathways that bypass primary visual cortex (V1) and project to the amygdala. Some of the strongest evidence supporting this claim comes from case studies of “affective blindsight” in which patients with V1 damage can correctly guess whether an unseen face was depicting a fearful or happy expression. In the current study, we report a new case of affective blindsight in patient MC who is cortically blind following extensive bilateral lesions to V1, as well as face and object processing regions in her ventral visual stream. Despite her large lesions, MC has preserved motion perception which is related to sparing of the motion sensitive region MT+ in both hemispheres.
To examine affective blindsight in MC we asked her to perform gender and emotion discrimination tasks in which she had to guess, using a two-alternative forced-choice procedure, whether the face presented was male or female, happy or fearful, or happy or angry. In addition, we also tested MC in a four-alternative forced-choice target localization task. Results indicated that MC was not able to determine the gender of the faces (53% accuracy), or localize targets in a forced-choice task. However, she was able to determine, at above chance levels, whether the face presented was depicting a happy or fearful (67%, p=.006), or a happy or angry (64%, p=.025) expression. Interestingly, although MC was better than chance at discriminating between emotions in faces when asked to make rapid judgments, her performance fell to chance when she was asked to provide subjective confidence ratings about her performance. These data lend further support to the idea that there is a non-conscious visual pathway that bypasses V1 which is capable of processing affective signals from facial expressions without input from higher-order face and object processing regions in the ventral visual stream.
Keywords: blindsight; emotion; amygdala; face processing
Highlights
• Patient MC has extensive bilateral lesions to occipital and ventral-temporal cortex
• MC is completely blind to static stimuli, but has spared motion perception
• Despite her extensive lesions MC can discriminate between different facial emotions
• MC cannot discriminate gender from faces, or localize targets
• Affective blindsight does not depend on V1, or ‘face’ regions in the ventral stream
Abstract: Previous research suggests that the implicit recognition of emotional expressions may be carried out by pathways that bypass primary visual cortex (V1) and project to the amygdala. Some of the strongest evidence supporting this claim comes from case studies of “affective blindsight” in which patients with V1 damage can correctly guess whether an unseen face was depicting a fearful or happy expression. In the current study, we report a new case of affective blindsight in patient MC who is cortically blind following extensive bilateral lesions to V1, as well as face and object processing regions in her ventral visual stream. Despite her large lesions, MC has preserved motion perception which is related to sparing of the motion sensitive region MT+ in both hemispheres.
To examine affective blindsight in MC we asked her to perform gender and emotion discrimination tasks in which she had to guess, using a two-alternative forced-choice procedure, whether the face presented was male or female, happy or fearful, or happy or angry. In addition, we also tested MC in a four-alternative forced-choice target localization task. Results indicated that MC was not able to determine the gender of the faces (53% accuracy), or localize targets in a forced-choice task. However, she was able to determine, at above chance levels, whether the face presented was depicting a happy or fearful (67%, p=.006), or a happy or angry (64%, p=.025) expression. Interestingly, although MC was better than chance at discriminating between emotions in faces when asked to make rapid judgments, her performance fell to chance when she was asked to provide subjective confidence ratings about her performance. These data lend further support to the idea that there is a non-conscious visual pathway that bypasses V1 which is capable of processing affective signals from facial expressions without input from higher-order face and object processing regions in the ventral visual stream.
Keywords: blindsight; emotion; amygdala; face processing
Choices of decreasing value should provoke decreasing anxiety, but it doesn't work that way -- aversive vs. unrewarding
Shenhav, Amitai, Carolyn K D Wolf, and Uma R Karmarkar. 2017. “The Evil of Banality: When Choosing Between the Mundane Feels Like Choosing Between the Worst”. PsyArXiv. August 3. psyarxiv.com/j3yxn
Abstract: Our most important decisions often provoke the greatest anxiety, whether we seek the better of two prizes or the lesser of two evils. Yet many of our choices are more mundane, such as selecting from a slate of mediocre but acceptable restaurants. Previous research suggests that choices of decreasing value should provoke decreasing anxiety. Here we show that this is not the case. Across three behavioral studies and one fMRI study, we find that anxiety and its neural correlates demonstrate a U-shaped function of choice set value, greatest when choosing between both the highest value and lowest value sets. We show that these counterintuitive findings can be accounted for by decision-makers perceiving low-value items as aversive rather than simply unrewarding. Decision-makers thus experience anxiety from competing avoidance motivations when forced to select among such options, comparable to the competing approach motivations they experience when choosing between high-value items.
Abstract: Our most important decisions often provoke the greatest anxiety, whether we seek the better of two prizes or the lesser of two evils. Yet many of our choices are more mundane, such as selecting from a slate of mediocre but acceptable restaurants. Previous research suggests that choices of decreasing value should provoke decreasing anxiety. Here we show that this is not the case. Across three behavioral studies and one fMRI study, we find that anxiety and its neural correlates demonstrate a U-shaped function of choice set value, greatest when choosing between both the highest value and lowest value sets. We show that these counterintuitive findings can be accounted for by decision-makers perceiving low-value items as aversive rather than simply unrewarding. Decision-makers thus experience anxiety from competing avoidance motivations when forced to select among such options, comparable to the competing approach motivations they experience when choosing between high-value items.
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Global Times shows appretiation of Donald Trump, known to his fans as Uncle Trump, Donald the Strong, etc.
Known for approx. six months, NYTimes readers get to know now that there is appreciation in China for his brashness and perceived authenticity.
It helps a lot a paradoxical effect of nationalism... a rival can be perceived favorably if it stops the sanctimonious speech.
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‘Uncle Trump’ Finds Fans in China. By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ and IRIS ZHAO
The New York Times, Nov 09 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/world/asia/trump-china-fans.html
[the international edition printed in France is titled < 'Emperor Trump' Finds Fands Abroad >]
[two photos, one with children with flags and soldiers, a second one is the cover of Esquire Chinese edition]
BEIJING — They call him “Donald the Strong.” They heap praise on his family. They fawn over his rapid-fire tweets. They have even created an online fan club.
In America, President Trump faces a feisty press corps, damaging investigations into associates and sagging approval ratings.
But in China, where Mr. Trump arrived Wednesday, he has acquired a legion of admirers who hail him as a straight-talking politician and business mogul with a knack for deal-making.
“He’s true to himself,” said Dai Xiang, a resident of the eastern province of Jiangsu who belongs to an online group of more than 23,000 people that exchanges news and commentary about Mr. Trump. “He’s real, unlike other politicians.”
As in the United States, Mr. Trump can be a polarizing figure in China. He has his share of critics, who mock him as egoistical and erratic, and for fanning the war flames with North Korea. But he also has many ardent supporters, which is perhaps a surprising development for the leader of China’s biggest geopolitical rival.
They refer to him as “Uncle Trump,” “Grand Commander” and “Donald the Strong.” After Mr. Trump’s visit to the Forbidden City on Wednesday with President Xi Jinping, one fan wrote on social media, “Long live Emperor Trump!”
Mr. Trump’s Chinese fans praise his irrepressible style, his skill as an entertainer and his willingness to say what he thinks. Many also like the fact that he seems less inhibited than previous American presidents about recognizing China as a superpower and as an equal on the global stage.
And after years of American presidents lecturing China on issues like political prisoners and democracy, many also say they are relieved to see a leader who seems to care more about making deals than idealism.
They say Mr. Trump has changed the tone of America’s conversation with China.
“People are sort of tired of listening to that criticism,” said Xu Qinduo, a political commentator for China Radio International in Beijing. “Now we can talk to each other.”
It helps that the government-run news media has encouraged a positive portrayal of Mr. Trump, focusing on his warm relationship with Mr. Xi and his praise for China. Even those who do know about Mr. Trump’s troubles at home, including the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia, say these don’t detract from his admirable qualities.
“I’m not interested in the Russian investigation or his North Korea strategy,” said Zhang Changjiang, 43, an instructor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. “His purpose is clear. He knows how to whet people’s appetite, how to make a scene and how to leverage his abilities.”
For many Chinese, Mr. Trump is a familiar type: the celebrity businessman. Successful, outspoken tycoons can win godlike status in China’s get-rich society, and Mr. Trump is no exception. His books, including “Trump Never Give Up,” received glowing reviews on Chinese websites. He is presented as a role model, a billionaire with his own empire of golf courses and gilded hotels.
Some believe his boardroom acumen will help him strike trade deals that will also benefit China’s economy.
“As a successful businessman, Trump definitely won’t ignore the huge size of China’s consumer base,” said Li Yang, 25, a designer.
Of course, not everyone is a fan. When asked, some Chinese said they worried that Mr. Trump is inflaming tensions with North Korea, a longtime ally. Others are concerned by his past attacks on China on trade and intellectual property rights. Some described him as mercurial, saying that while he seems to be friendly now, that could suddenly change.
“Trump is a person of ambiguity,” said Sun Caihong, 38, a resident of Beijing. “His policy is not clear. He’s just trying to muddle along.”
Others were more calculating.
“If he’s doing good for China, I like him,” said Liu Chunyu, 56, a deliveryman. “If not, I don’t like him.”
Even some of those who disagree with Mr. Trump’s policies see him as a refreshing iconoclast, willing to discard the tone of moral superiority that some previous American leaders had held toward China, especially on human rights.
Many Chinese “have a strong revulsion and hostility toward ‘political correctness’ in Western society,” Chen Jibing, a political commentator in Shanghai, wrote in a blog post this week. “They see themselves in Trump.”
The Communist Party’s tight grip on information in China might be playing into Mr. Trump’s popularity, experts say. Stanley Rosen, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, said that the Chinese respect unpredictable, confident personalities, which in their own history would include figures like modern China’s founding father, Mao Zedong.
Mr. Trump is showing that he is spontaneous and “beholden to no one,” Mr. Rosen said.
Mr. Trump’s celebrity status also adds to his mystique. Before his election, he was already known in China as the star of “The Apprentice,” which could be viewed online.
Even his physical appearance has drawn attention — although not always in a flattering way. In lighthearted social media posts, his head of flaxen hair is juxtaposed with photos of roosters and pheasants.
Mr. Trump’s most effective tool in winning over Chinese audiences may be his family. His daughter Ivanka, who started her own fashion brand, is regarded as a role model for young Chinese entrepreneurs. His 6-year-old granddaughter, Arabella, became a nationally known figure this year after a video appeared of her singing in Chinese.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump showed Mr. Xi another video of his granddaughter singing in Chinese, which was shared widely after it was posted online, attracting tens of millions of views in less than 24 hours.
Other Chinese take a more hard-nosed approach, embracing Mr. Trump because of the advantages that they see him offering to China. They regard an American retreat from global affairs as an opening for Beijing to extend its influence. They also say Mr. Trump has helped enhance China’s stature by treating Mr. Xi as an equal partner.
The Global Times, an ardently nationalist state-run tabloid, praised Mr. Trump for showing respect to Mr. Xi, such as when he called last month to congratulate Mr. Xi on winning a second five-year term as Communist Party leader.
“Trump is the first American president to do so,” said the editorial, which appeared on Thursday. This “reflects his respect for China’s system.”
A version of this article appears in print on November 10, 2017, on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Donald the Strong’ Finds Fans in China For His Brash Style.
It helps a lot a paradoxical effect of nationalism... a rival can be perceived favorably if it stops the sanctimonious speech.
---
‘Uncle Trump’ Finds Fans in China. By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ and IRIS ZHAO
The New York Times, Nov 09 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/world/asia/trump-china-fans.html
[the international edition printed in France is titled < 'Emperor Trump' Finds Fands Abroad >]
[two photos, one with children with flags and soldiers, a second one is the cover of Esquire Chinese edition]
BEIJING — They call him “Donald the Strong.” They heap praise on his family. They fawn over his rapid-fire tweets. They have even created an online fan club.
In America, President Trump faces a feisty press corps, damaging investigations into associates and sagging approval ratings.
But in China, where Mr. Trump arrived Wednesday, he has acquired a legion of admirers who hail him as a straight-talking politician and business mogul with a knack for deal-making.
“He’s true to himself,” said Dai Xiang, a resident of the eastern province of Jiangsu who belongs to an online group of more than 23,000 people that exchanges news and commentary about Mr. Trump. “He’s real, unlike other politicians.”
As in the United States, Mr. Trump can be a polarizing figure in China. He has his share of critics, who mock him as egoistical and erratic, and for fanning the war flames with North Korea. But he also has many ardent supporters, which is perhaps a surprising development for the leader of China’s biggest geopolitical rival.
They refer to him as “Uncle Trump,” “Grand Commander” and “Donald the Strong.” After Mr. Trump’s visit to the Forbidden City on Wednesday with President Xi Jinping, one fan wrote on social media, “Long live Emperor Trump!”
Mr. Trump’s Chinese fans praise his irrepressible style, his skill as an entertainer and his willingness to say what he thinks. Many also like the fact that he seems less inhibited than previous American presidents about recognizing China as a superpower and as an equal on the global stage.
And after years of American presidents lecturing China on issues like political prisoners and democracy, many also say they are relieved to see a leader who seems to care more about making deals than idealism.
They say Mr. Trump has changed the tone of America’s conversation with China.
“People are sort of tired of listening to that criticism,” said Xu Qinduo, a political commentator for China Radio International in Beijing. “Now we can talk to each other.”
It helps that the government-run news media has encouraged a positive portrayal of Mr. Trump, focusing on his warm relationship with Mr. Xi and his praise for China. Even those who do know about Mr. Trump’s troubles at home, including the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia, say these don’t detract from his admirable qualities.
“I’m not interested in the Russian investigation or his North Korea strategy,” said Zhang Changjiang, 43, an instructor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. “His purpose is clear. He knows how to whet people’s appetite, how to make a scene and how to leverage his abilities.”
For many Chinese, Mr. Trump is a familiar type: the celebrity businessman. Successful, outspoken tycoons can win godlike status in China’s get-rich society, and Mr. Trump is no exception. His books, including “Trump Never Give Up,” received glowing reviews on Chinese websites. He is presented as a role model, a billionaire with his own empire of golf courses and gilded hotels.
Some believe his boardroom acumen will help him strike trade deals that will also benefit China’s economy.
“As a successful businessman, Trump definitely won’t ignore the huge size of China’s consumer base,” said Li Yang, 25, a designer.
Of course, not everyone is a fan. When asked, some Chinese said they worried that Mr. Trump is inflaming tensions with North Korea, a longtime ally. Others are concerned by his past attacks on China on trade and intellectual property rights. Some described him as mercurial, saying that while he seems to be friendly now, that could suddenly change.
“Trump is a person of ambiguity,” said Sun Caihong, 38, a resident of Beijing. “His policy is not clear. He’s just trying to muddle along.”
Others were more calculating.
“If he’s doing good for China, I like him,” said Liu Chunyu, 56, a deliveryman. “If not, I don’t like him.”
Even some of those who disagree with Mr. Trump’s policies see him as a refreshing iconoclast, willing to discard the tone of moral superiority that some previous American leaders had held toward China, especially on human rights.
Many Chinese “have a strong revulsion and hostility toward ‘political correctness’ in Western society,” Chen Jibing, a political commentator in Shanghai, wrote in a blog post this week. “They see themselves in Trump.”
The Communist Party’s tight grip on information in China might be playing into Mr. Trump’s popularity, experts say. Stanley Rosen, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, said that the Chinese respect unpredictable, confident personalities, which in their own history would include figures like modern China’s founding father, Mao Zedong.
Mr. Trump is showing that he is spontaneous and “beholden to no one,” Mr. Rosen said.
Mr. Trump’s celebrity status also adds to his mystique. Before his election, he was already known in China as the star of “The Apprentice,” which could be viewed online.
Even his physical appearance has drawn attention — although not always in a flattering way. In lighthearted social media posts, his head of flaxen hair is juxtaposed with photos of roosters and pheasants.
Mr. Trump’s most effective tool in winning over Chinese audiences may be his family. His daughter Ivanka, who started her own fashion brand, is regarded as a role model for young Chinese entrepreneurs. His 6-year-old granddaughter, Arabella, became a nationally known figure this year after a video appeared of her singing in Chinese.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump showed Mr. Xi another video of his granddaughter singing in Chinese, which was shared widely after it was posted online, attracting tens of millions of views in less than 24 hours.
Other Chinese take a more hard-nosed approach, embracing Mr. Trump because of the advantages that they see him offering to China. They regard an American retreat from global affairs as an opening for Beijing to extend its influence. They also say Mr. Trump has helped enhance China’s stature by treating Mr. Xi as an equal partner.
The Global Times, an ardently nationalist state-run tabloid, praised Mr. Trump for showing respect to Mr. Xi, such as when he called last month to congratulate Mr. Xi on winning a second five-year term as Communist Party leader.
“Trump is the first American president to do so,” said the editorial, which appeared on Thursday. This “reflects his respect for China’s system.”
A version of this article appears in print on November 10, 2017, on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Donald the Strong’ Finds Fans in China For His Brash Style.
A longitudinal investigation of the impact of psychotherapist training: Does training improve client outcomes? Seems not.
Erekson, D. M., Janis, R., Bailey, R. J., Cattani, K., & Pedersen, T. R. (2017). A longitudinal investigation of the impact of psychotherapist training: Does training improve client outcomes? Journal of Counseling Psychology, 64(5), 514-524. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cou0000252
Abstract: This study is a longitudinal examination of the impact of therapist stage of training on client outcomes in psychotherapy. The study included 22 PhD-level psychologists who work in a university counseling center (8 female, 14 male) who had completed at least 2 training periods in the center where data were gathered. Therapists worked with 4,047 clients, and 40,271 sessions were included in our analyses. Clients were given the Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45) on a session-by-session basis, tracking treatment response. The effect of stage of training on both the magnitude and speed of OQ-45 change was examined through hierarchical linear modeling. Therapists were found to achieve the same amount of change or less change on average in their later stages of training. Therapists were also found, on average, to achieve the same rate of change or a slower rate of change in later stages of training. Findings suggest that as therapists progress through formal stages of training, they do not improve in their ability to effect change in their clients. Given these findings, a better understanding of expertise in psychotherapy practice and how to develop it may be an important area for future theory development, research, and training program development. We call for further work examining if and how an individual therapist can become more effective with time.
Excerpts:
In the field of psychology, as in many professional disciplines, there is a belief among both the professionals and individuals served that training and experience (on the part of the practitioner) improve the quality of the service provided. In other words, as practitioners, we would like to believe that we not only influence outcomes, but that the outcomes of our clients improve as we gain training and experience. In support of this belief, doctoral level psychotherapist have highly structured training programs that they are required to complete in order to independently practice therapy. While it has been established that therapists differ in their effectiveness (Baldwin & Imel, 2013; Crits-Christoph et al., 1991; Kim, Wampold, & Bolt, 2006; Kraus, Castonguay, Boswell, Nordberg, & Hayes, 2011; Lutz, Leon, Martinovich, Lyons, & Stiles, 2007; Saxon & Barkham, 2012; Wampold & Brown, 2005), it is unclear to what extent training contributes to these differences, or to within therapist improvements.
The psychotherapy literature provides mixed results when examining the effect of stage of training and the related concept of therapist experience on psychotherapy outcome. Early studies by Bergin (1971) showed a positive relationship between therapist experience and patient outcome in 20 of 22 studies examined; other reviews, however, found no relationship or a negative relationship (r .01 in Smith & Glass, 1977; r .14 in Shapiro & Shapiro, 1982). Christensen and Jacobson (1994) concluded that the early evidence for the value of gaining professional experience is weak and suggested that training doctoral level psychotherapists is not justified. In the time since this suggestion, therapist experience studies have done little to refute this argument. Studies examining general therapist effects (e.g., Okiishi et al., 2006; Wampold & Brown, 2005) have found that some therapists have better outcomes than others, but that outcomes were not affected by the amount of experience the therapist had. A number of meta-analytic reviews have also been conducted, and have indicated a range of findings, from no effect to a modest effect for the relationship between experience and outcome (e.g., Berman & Norton, 1985; Crits-Christoph et al., 1991; Lyons & Woods, 1991; Stein & Lambert, 1995).
Level of training is perhaps one of the most intuitive definitions for therapist experience, and professional psychology is built on the premise that it is meaningful. Professional practice requires a structured graduate training program, where it is hoped that (contrary to Christensen and Jacobson’s (1994) assertion) the training experience will contribute to improvements in the therapist’s skill. Hill and Knox (2013) reviewed the evidence for changes in trainees’ helping skills and found limited and mixed evidence. They weighed results from analogue studies and self-reports by graduate students, and noted that the evidence for training effectiveness with “real clients” was limited by data being collected over short time periods, lack of control conditions, and a small number of cases (see pp. 782–784). They tentatively concluded that graduate training is effective, though cautioned that they could not rule out “confounds with other experiences” (p. 784).
Other studies examining the effect of training have addressed changes in therapist skills as well as clinical outcomes. Hill et al. (2015) studied multiple dimensions of change in trainees over the course of a period of training, finding evidence that trainees formed better treatment relationships, increased in their ability to facilitate improvements in client interpersonal relationships, and self-rated increases in ability to implement specific clinical skills and “higher order” therapist functioning. However, they did not detect changes in client engagement nor, most notably, in clients’ reductions in distress.
Researchers have also previously examined differences between specific stages of training. In a clinical benchmarking study in a university counseling center, Minami et al. (2009) found that interns and other trainees had pre- to posttreatment effect sizes that were significantly larger than those of staff clinicians, beyond what could be explained by differences in the number of sessions administered. Budge et al. (2013) further examined the effect of stage of training on outcomes and found that interns/postdocs achieved more change in psychological symptoms than licensed psychologists. Further, they found that interns/postdocs also achieved more change in life functioning than both practicum students and psychologists. Owen, Wampold, Kopta, Rousmaniere, and Miller (2016) found that trainees demonstrated improvements in outcomes over a 12-month period. However, client severity moderated this trend such that outcomes improved over time for less distressed clients but did not change for more distressed clients. In addition, they found no difference in the rate of therapist improvement by stage of training (with stages represented by cross-sectional data); that is, practicum students, interns, and postdoctoral therapists all improved with experience at the same rate.
Expanding the timeline to study the effect of experience beyond the training period, as reported above, has resulted in mixed findings. The discrepant findings may reflect discrepancies in the operational definitions of experience between studies. The most common operationalization has been years of practice examined cross-sectionally. When using this definition, Huppert et al. (2001) reported some support for an experience effect when therapists used a standardized cognitive–behavioral treatment for panic disorder. Conversely, Franklin, Abramowitz, Furr, Kalsy, and Riggs (2003), using the same operationalization, found no significant effect of therapist experience in the treatment of obsessive– compulsive disorder. Wampold and Brown (2005) also found no effect of therapist years of experience on outcome in a naturalistic managed care setting.
Long-term longitudinal approaches in research on therapist training and experience have been rare. Recently, Goldberg et al. (2016), examined how increases in the amount of time a therapist has been doing therapy and in the number of sessions a therapist has completed may affect outcomes. They found that an increase in experience had a small, but statistically significant, negative effect on outcome; on average, as therapists gained experience, their clients’ prepost outcomes diminished slightly. This study, while informing the effect of time and cumulative cases on outcome, precludes an interpretation of the effect of therapist progression through stages of training on outcome. This is particularly true because the bulk of the data used by Goldberg et al. (2016) were generated by clinicians that contributed data during only a single stage of training, and the bulk of the cases analyzed were seen by licensed clinicians. The current study is designed to extend Goldberg et al.’s (2016) investigation to examine stage of training. The smaller time intervals represented by stage of training are of particular interest as a subset of the entire dataset, as one might be most likely to find an effect of experience in the training period, as a therapist progresses from novice to licensed therapist. The current study uses data from the same setting, but with a more specific subgroup of the therapists (those with data collected during at least two levels of training) in order to examine a more specific research question—the effect of stage of training on outcome.
Another important differentiation between the current study and Goldbergetal.(2016)is the definition of client outcome.Goldberg et al. (2016) examined outcome as an effect size for a client’s total amount of change in therapy. We agree that this is an important variable, and one that we plan to investigate by stage of training. Another important client outcome variable to examine, however, is rate of client change. Previous studies have found that there are significant differences in the rate of change for clients even if there are no significant differences in the amount of change experienced by clients (see Erekson, Lambert, & Eggett, 2015). When considering stage of training, it seems reasonable to believe that there may be differences between graduate students and licensed practitioners in how quickly they are able to effect change.
Of the studies that have examined stage of training directly (discussed above), the majority have been cross-sectional, allowing for therapist experience to become entangled with individual differences (e.g., personality or theoretical orientation). The aim of the current study was to improve upon the methodological limitations of past studies and better assess the question of whether therapist training is associated with improvements in client outcomes in psychotherapy. In order to do this, our main variable of interest was stage of training rather than cumulative cases or years practicing.
All therapists included in the study were trained in PhD programs in psychology; therefore experience levels could be compared more easily given that these individuals went through a similar training timeline. Perhaps most important, therapists and clients were tracked over time, providing a longitudinal/within-subjects design. In other words, the same therapists were examined at different points in their training, and their clients’ psychological distress was tracked at each session. We are also unaware of any other study examining client rate of change by therapist stage of training over longitudinal periods in a naturalistic setting. Given the naturalistic setting, several aspects of clinical practice could not be controlled (e.g., supervision or case assignment); the use of longitudinal data versus cross-sectional data, however, as well as the clinical utility of practice-based evidence, are considerable strengths of this study. Considering the literature reviewed above and our improvements on previous methods, we hypothesized that (a) stage of training would not be associated with clientchangeintherapy,but that(b)more advanced stages of training would be associated with faster rates of client change.
[Methods, etc.]
Discussion
The current study aimed to assess whether therapist training was associated with psychotherapy client outcomes. Our first hypothesis, that there would be no association between stage of training and total amount of change in therapy, showed mixed results. At best, and when stage of training and therapist experience (cumulative cases) were included in the same model, there were no significant differences associated with either. In other words, therapists effect about the same amount of change regardless of how experienced they are or their level of training. At worst, according to models that include only a single time variable (cumulative cases or stage of training), therapists effect less change in later stages of practice. This finding is consistent with the Goldberg et al. (2016) finding that therapist experience is associated with worse outcomes, and extends the finding to stages of training.
[...]
Abstract: This study is a longitudinal examination of the impact of therapist stage of training on client outcomes in psychotherapy. The study included 22 PhD-level psychologists who work in a university counseling center (8 female, 14 male) who had completed at least 2 training periods in the center where data were gathered. Therapists worked with 4,047 clients, and 40,271 sessions were included in our analyses. Clients were given the Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45) on a session-by-session basis, tracking treatment response. The effect of stage of training on both the magnitude and speed of OQ-45 change was examined through hierarchical linear modeling. Therapists were found to achieve the same amount of change or less change on average in their later stages of training. Therapists were also found, on average, to achieve the same rate of change or a slower rate of change in later stages of training. Findings suggest that as therapists progress through formal stages of training, they do not improve in their ability to effect change in their clients. Given these findings, a better understanding of expertise in psychotherapy practice and how to develop it may be an important area for future theory development, research, and training program development. We call for further work examining if and how an individual therapist can become more effective with time.
Excerpts:
In the field of psychology, as in many professional disciplines, there is a belief among both the professionals and individuals served that training and experience (on the part of the practitioner) improve the quality of the service provided. In other words, as practitioners, we would like to believe that we not only influence outcomes, but that the outcomes of our clients improve as we gain training and experience. In support of this belief, doctoral level psychotherapist have highly structured training programs that they are required to complete in order to independently practice therapy. While it has been established that therapists differ in their effectiveness (Baldwin & Imel, 2013; Crits-Christoph et al., 1991; Kim, Wampold, & Bolt, 2006; Kraus, Castonguay, Boswell, Nordberg, & Hayes, 2011; Lutz, Leon, Martinovich, Lyons, & Stiles, 2007; Saxon & Barkham, 2012; Wampold & Brown, 2005), it is unclear to what extent training contributes to these differences, or to within therapist improvements.
The psychotherapy literature provides mixed results when examining the effect of stage of training and the related concept of therapist experience on psychotherapy outcome. Early studies by Bergin (1971) showed a positive relationship between therapist experience and patient outcome in 20 of 22 studies examined; other reviews, however, found no relationship or a negative relationship (r .01 in Smith & Glass, 1977; r .14 in Shapiro & Shapiro, 1982). Christensen and Jacobson (1994) concluded that the early evidence for the value of gaining professional experience is weak and suggested that training doctoral level psychotherapists is not justified. In the time since this suggestion, therapist experience studies have done little to refute this argument. Studies examining general therapist effects (e.g., Okiishi et al., 2006; Wampold & Brown, 2005) have found that some therapists have better outcomes than others, but that outcomes were not affected by the amount of experience the therapist had. A number of meta-analytic reviews have also been conducted, and have indicated a range of findings, from no effect to a modest effect for the relationship between experience and outcome (e.g., Berman & Norton, 1985; Crits-Christoph et al., 1991; Lyons & Woods, 1991; Stein & Lambert, 1995).
Level of training is perhaps one of the most intuitive definitions for therapist experience, and professional psychology is built on the premise that it is meaningful. Professional practice requires a structured graduate training program, where it is hoped that (contrary to Christensen and Jacobson’s (1994) assertion) the training experience will contribute to improvements in the therapist’s skill. Hill and Knox (2013) reviewed the evidence for changes in trainees’ helping skills and found limited and mixed evidence. They weighed results from analogue studies and self-reports by graduate students, and noted that the evidence for training effectiveness with “real clients” was limited by data being collected over short time periods, lack of control conditions, and a small number of cases (see pp. 782–784). They tentatively concluded that graduate training is effective, though cautioned that they could not rule out “confounds with other experiences” (p. 784).
Other studies examining the effect of training have addressed changes in therapist skills as well as clinical outcomes. Hill et al. (2015) studied multiple dimensions of change in trainees over the course of a period of training, finding evidence that trainees formed better treatment relationships, increased in their ability to facilitate improvements in client interpersonal relationships, and self-rated increases in ability to implement specific clinical skills and “higher order” therapist functioning. However, they did not detect changes in client engagement nor, most notably, in clients’ reductions in distress.
Researchers have also previously examined differences between specific stages of training. In a clinical benchmarking study in a university counseling center, Minami et al. (2009) found that interns and other trainees had pre- to posttreatment effect sizes that were significantly larger than those of staff clinicians, beyond what could be explained by differences in the number of sessions administered. Budge et al. (2013) further examined the effect of stage of training on outcomes and found that interns/postdocs achieved more change in psychological symptoms than licensed psychologists. Further, they found that interns/postdocs also achieved more change in life functioning than both practicum students and psychologists. Owen, Wampold, Kopta, Rousmaniere, and Miller (2016) found that trainees demonstrated improvements in outcomes over a 12-month period. However, client severity moderated this trend such that outcomes improved over time for less distressed clients but did not change for more distressed clients. In addition, they found no difference in the rate of therapist improvement by stage of training (with stages represented by cross-sectional data); that is, practicum students, interns, and postdoctoral therapists all improved with experience at the same rate.
Expanding the timeline to study the effect of experience beyond the training period, as reported above, has resulted in mixed findings. The discrepant findings may reflect discrepancies in the operational definitions of experience between studies. The most common operationalization has been years of practice examined cross-sectionally. When using this definition, Huppert et al. (2001) reported some support for an experience effect when therapists used a standardized cognitive–behavioral treatment for panic disorder. Conversely, Franklin, Abramowitz, Furr, Kalsy, and Riggs (2003), using the same operationalization, found no significant effect of therapist experience in the treatment of obsessive– compulsive disorder. Wampold and Brown (2005) also found no effect of therapist years of experience on outcome in a naturalistic managed care setting.
Long-term longitudinal approaches in research on therapist training and experience have been rare. Recently, Goldberg et al. (2016), examined how increases in the amount of time a therapist has been doing therapy and in the number of sessions a therapist has completed may affect outcomes. They found that an increase in experience had a small, but statistically significant, negative effect on outcome; on average, as therapists gained experience, their clients’ prepost outcomes diminished slightly. This study, while informing the effect of time and cumulative cases on outcome, precludes an interpretation of the effect of therapist progression through stages of training on outcome. This is particularly true because the bulk of the data used by Goldberg et al. (2016) were generated by clinicians that contributed data during only a single stage of training, and the bulk of the cases analyzed were seen by licensed clinicians. The current study is designed to extend Goldberg et al.’s (2016) investigation to examine stage of training. The smaller time intervals represented by stage of training are of particular interest as a subset of the entire dataset, as one might be most likely to find an effect of experience in the training period, as a therapist progresses from novice to licensed therapist. The current study uses data from the same setting, but with a more specific subgroup of the therapists (those with data collected during at least two levels of training) in order to examine a more specific research question—the effect of stage of training on outcome.
Another important differentiation between the current study and Goldbergetal.(2016)is the definition of client outcome.Goldberg et al. (2016) examined outcome as an effect size for a client’s total amount of change in therapy. We agree that this is an important variable, and one that we plan to investigate by stage of training. Another important client outcome variable to examine, however, is rate of client change. Previous studies have found that there are significant differences in the rate of change for clients even if there are no significant differences in the amount of change experienced by clients (see Erekson, Lambert, & Eggett, 2015). When considering stage of training, it seems reasonable to believe that there may be differences between graduate students and licensed practitioners in how quickly they are able to effect change.
Of the studies that have examined stage of training directly (discussed above), the majority have been cross-sectional, allowing for therapist experience to become entangled with individual differences (e.g., personality or theoretical orientation). The aim of the current study was to improve upon the methodological limitations of past studies and better assess the question of whether therapist training is associated with improvements in client outcomes in psychotherapy. In order to do this, our main variable of interest was stage of training rather than cumulative cases or years practicing.
All therapists included in the study were trained in PhD programs in psychology; therefore experience levels could be compared more easily given that these individuals went through a similar training timeline. Perhaps most important, therapists and clients were tracked over time, providing a longitudinal/within-subjects design. In other words, the same therapists were examined at different points in their training, and their clients’ psychological distress was tracked at each session. We are also unaware of any other study examining client rate of change by therapist stage of training over longitudinal periods in a naturalistic setting. Given the naturalistic setting, several aspects of clinical practice could not be controlled (e.g., supervision or case assignment); the use of longitudinal data versus cross-sectional data, however, as well as the clinical utility of practice-based evidence, are considerable strengths of this study. Considering the literature reviewed above and our improvements on previous methods, we hypothesized that (a) stage of training would not be associated with clientchangeintherapy,but that(b)more advanced stages of training would be associated with faster rates of client change.
[Methods, etc.]
Discussion
The current study aimed to assess whether therapist training was associated with psychotherapy client outcomes. Our first hypothesis, that there would be no association between stage of training and total amount of change in therapy, showed mixed results. At best, and when stage of training and therapist experience (cumulative cases) were included in the same model, there were no significant differences associated with either. In other words, therapists effect about the same amount of change regardless of how experienced they are or their level of training. At worst, according to models that include only a single time variable (cumulative cases or stage of training), therapists effect less change in later stages of practice. This finding is consistent with the Goldberg et al. (2016) finding that therapist experience is associated with worse outcomes, and extends the finding to stages of training.
[...]
Forget in a Flash: A Further Investigation of the Photo-Taking-Impairment Effect
Forget in a Flash: A Further Investigation of the Photo-Taking-Impairment Effect. Julia S. Soares, Benjamin C. Storm. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2017.10.004
A photo-taking-impairment effect has been observed such that participants are less likely to remember objects they photograph than objects they only observe. According to the offloading hypothesis, taking photos allows people to offload organic memory onto the camera's prosthetic memory, which they can rely upon to “remember” for them. We tested this hypothesis by manipulating whether participants perceived photo-taking as capable of serving as a form of offloading. In Experiment 1, participants used the ephemeral photo application Snapchat. In Experiment 2, participants manually deleted photos after taking them. In both experiments, participants exhibited a significant photo-taking-impairment effect even though they did not expect to have access to the photos. In fact, the effect was just as large as when participants believed they would have access to the photos. These results suggest that offloading may not be the sole, or even primary, mechanism for the photo-taking-impairment effect.
Keywords: Photo-taking impairment; Offloading; Transactive memory; Snapchat
A photo-taking-impairment effect has been observed such that participants are less likely to remember objects they photograph than objects they only observe. According to the offloading hypothesis, taking photos allows people to offload organic memory onto the camera's prosthetic memory, which they can rely upon to “remember” for them. We tested this hypothesis by manipulating whether participants perceived photo-taking as capable of serving as a form of offloading. In Experiment 1, participants used the ephemeral photo application Snapchat. In Experiment 2, participants manually deleted photos after taking them. In both experiments, participants exhibited a significant photo-taking-impairment effect even though they did not expect to have access to the photos. In fact, the effect was just as large as when participants believed they would have access to the photos. These results suggest that offloading may not be the sole, or even primary, mechanism for the photo-taking-impairment effect.
Keywords: Photo-taking impairment; Offloading; Transactive memory; Snapchat
Surprise, star scientists study the taxes they will pay & act accordingly choosing work location to help reducing them
The Effect of State Taxes on the Geographical Location of Top Earners: Evidence from Star Scientists. Enrico Moretti and Daniel J. Wilson. American Economic Review, vol. 107, no. 7, July 2017, (pp. 1858-1903). https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20150508
Abstract: We quantify how sensitive is migration by star scientists to changes in personal and business tax differentials across states. We uncover large, stable, and precisely estimated effects of personal and corporate taxes on star scientists' migration patterns. The long-run elasticity of mobility relative to taxes is 1.8 for personal income taxes, 1.9 for state corporate income tax, and —1.7 for the investment tax credit. While there are many other factors that drive when innovative individuals and innovative companies decide to locate, there are enough firms and workers on the margin that state taxes matter.
Abstract: We quantify how sensitive is migration by star scientists to changes in personal and business tax differentials across states. We uncover large, stable, and precisely estimated effects of personal and corporate taxes on star scientists' migration patterns. The long-run elasticity of mobility relative to taxes is 1.8 for personal income taxes, 1.9 for state corporate income tax, and —1.7 for the investment tax credit. While there are many other factors that drive when innovative individuals and innovative companies decide to locate, there are enough firms and workers on the margin that state taxes matter.
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Decline in US states' capital tax rates is due to synchronous responses to common shocks rather than competitive responses to other state's tax policy
Tax competition among U.S. states: Racing to the bottom or riding on a seesaw? Robert Chirinko and Daniel Wilson. Journal of Public Economics, Volume 155, November 2017, Pages 147-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2017.10.001
Highlights
• The reaction in a given U.S. state to capital tax changes in other states is analyzed.
• The reaction function slope is negative, contrary to casual evidence and many prior studies.
• Allowing for delayed reactions and heterogeneous responses to aggregate shocks is crucial.
• Our empirical results suggest frequently-used static tax competition models are misspecified.
• Rather than “racing to the bottom,” our findings suggest states are “riding on a seesaw”.
Abstract: Dramatic declines in capital tax rates among U.S. states and European countries have been linked by many commentators to tax competition, an inevitable "race to the bottom," and underprovision of local public goods. This paper analyzes the reaction of capital tax policy in a given U.S. state to changes in capital tax policy by other states. Our study is undertaken with a novel panel data set covering the 48 contiguous U.S. states for the period 1965 to 2006 and is guided by the theory of strategic tax competition. The latter suggests that capital tax policy is a function of "foreign" (out-of-state) tax policy, preferences for government services, home state and foreign state economic and demographic conditions. The slope of the reaction function - the equilibrium response of home state to foreign state tax policy - is negative, contrary to casual evidence and many prior empirical studies of fiscal reaction functions. This result, which stands in contrast to most published findings, is due to two critical elements that allow for delayed responses to foreign tax changes and responses to aggregate shocks. Omitting either of these elements leads to a misspecified model and a positively sloped reaction function. Our results suggest that the secular decline in capital tax rates, at least among U.S. states, reflects synchronous responses among states to common shocks rather than competitive responses to foreign state tax policy. While striking given prior empirical findings, these results are fully consistent with the implications of the theoretical model developed in this paper and presented elsewhere in the literature. Rather than "racing to the bottom," our findings suggest that states are "riding on a seesaw." Consequently, tax competition may lead to an increase in the provision of local public goods, and policies aimed at restricting tax competition to stem the tide of declining capital taxation are likely to be ineffective.
Highlights
• The reaction in a given U.S. state to capital tax changes in other states is analyzed.
• The reaction function slope is negative, contrary to casual evidence and many prior studies.
• Allowing for delayed reactions and heterogeneous responses to aggregate shocks is crucial.
• Our empirical results suggest frequently-used static tax competition models are misspecified.
• Rather than “racing to the bottom,” our findings suggest states are “riding on a seesaw”.
Abstract: Dramatic declines in capital tax rates among U.S. states and European countries have been linked by many commentators to tax competition, an inevitable "race to the bottom," and underprovision of local public goods. This paper analyzes the reaction of capital tax policy in a given U.S. state to changes in capital tax policy by other states. Our study is undertaken with a novel panel data set covering the 48 contiguous U.S. states for the period 1965 to 2006 and is guided by the theory of strategic tax competition. The latter suggests that capital tax policy is a function of "foreign" (out-of-state) tax policy, preferences for government services, home state and foreign state economic and demographic conditions. The slope of the reaction function - the equilibrium response of home state to foreign state tax policy - is negative, contrary to casual evidence and many prior empirical studies of fiscal reaction functions. This result, which stands in contrast to most published findings, is due to two critical elements that allow for delayed responses to foreign tax changes and responses to aggregate shocks. Omitting either of these elements leads to a misspecified model and a positively sloped reaction function. Our results suggest that the secular decline in capital tax rates, at least among U.S. states, reflects synchronous responses among states to common shocks rather than competitive responses to foreign state tax policy. While striking given prior empirical findings, these results are fully consistent with the implications of the theoretical model developed in this paper and presented elsewhere in the literature. Rather than "racing to the bottom," our findings suggest that states are "riding on a seesaw." Consequently, tax competition may lead to an increase in the provision of local public goods, and policies aimed at restricting tax competition to stem the tide of declining capital taxation are likely to be ineffective.
Desirability of Narcissism: The Young Find It More Appealing, Less Undesirable
Age Differences in the Desirability of Narcissism. Kathy R. Berenson, William D. Ellison, and Rachel Clasing. Journal of Individual Differences (2017), 38, pp. 230-240. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000240
Abstract. Young adult narcissism has been the focus of much discussion in the personality literature and popular press. Yet no previous studies have addressed whether there are age differences in the relative desirability of narcissistic and non-narcissistic self-descriptions, such as those presented as answer choices on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Hall, 1979). In Study 1, younger age was associated with less negative evaluations of narcissistic (vs. non-narcissistic) statements in general, and more positive evaluations of narcissistic statements conveying leadership/authority. In Study 2, age was unrelated to perceiving a fictional target person as narcissistic, but younger age was associated with more positive connotations for targets described with narcissistic statements and less positive connotations for targets described with non-narcissistic statements, in terms of the inferences made about the target’s altruism, conscientiousness, social status, and self-esteem. In both studies, age differences in the relative desirability of narcissism remained statistically significant when adjusting for participants’ own narcissism, and the NPI showed measurement invariance across age. Despite perceiving narcissism similarly, adults of different ages view the desirability of NPI answer choices differently. These results are important when interpreting cross-generational differences in NPI scores, and can potentially facilitate cross-generational understanding.
Keywords: narcissism, modesty, age, measurement invariance, Narcissistic Personality Inventory
Abstract. Young adult narcissism has been the focus of much discussion in the personality literature and popular press. Yet no previous studies have addressed whether there are age differences in the relative desirability of narcissistic and non-narcissistic self-descriptions, such as those presented as answer choices on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Hall, 1979). In Study 1, younger age was associated with less negative evaluations of narcissistic (vs. non-narcissistic) statements in general, and more positive evaluations of narcissistic statements conveying leadership/authority. In Study 2, age was unrelated to perceiving a fictional target person as narcissistic, but younger age was associated with more positive connotations for targets described with narcissistic statements and less positive connotations for targets described with non-narcissistic statements, in terms of the inferences made about the target’s altruism, conscientiousness, social status, and self-esteem. In both studies, age differences in the relative desirability of narcissism remained statistically significant when adjusting for participants’ own narcissism, and the NPI showed measurement invariance across age. Despite perceiving narcissism similarly, adults of different ages view the desirability of NPI answer choices differently. These results are important when interpreting cross-generational differences in NPI scores, and can potentially facilitate cross-generational understanding.
Keywords: narcissism, modesty, age, measurement invariance, Narcissistic Personality Inventory
Smartphone-tracking data & precinct-level voting data show that politically-divided families shortened Thanksgiving dinners by 20-30 minutes following the 2016 election
M. Keith Chen and Ryne Rohla. “Politics Gets Personal: Effects of Political Partisanship and Advertising on Family Ties.” 2017 (Under Review). https://economics.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/sharable_fulldraft.pdf
Abstract: Research on growing American political polarization and antipathy primarily studies effects on public institutions and political processes, ignoring private effects such as damaged family ties. Using smartphone-tracking data and precinct-level voting, we show that politically-divided families shortened Thanksgiving dinners by 20-30 minutes following the divisive 2016 election. This decline survives comparisons with 2015 and extensive demographic and spatial controls, and more than doubles in media markets with heavy political advertising. These effects appear asymmetric: while Democratic voters traveled less in 2016, political differences shortened Thanksgiving dinners more among Republican voters, especially where political advertising was heaviest. Partisan polarization may degrade close family ties with large aggregate implications; we estimate 27 million person-hours of cross-partisan Thanksgiving discourse were lost in 2016 to ad-fueled partisan effects.
One Sentence Summary: Cell-tracking shows that mixed-party families had shorter 2016 Thanksgivings, an effect exacerbated by political advertising.
Abstract: Research on growing American political polarization and antipathy primarily studies effects on public institutions and political processes, ignoring private effects such as damaged family ties. Using smartphone-tracking data and precinct-level voting, we show that politically-divided families shortened Thanksgiving dinners by 20-30 minutes following the divisive 2016 election. This decline survives comparisons with 2015 and extensive demographic and spatial controls, and more than doubles in media markets with heavy political advertising. These effects appear asymmetric: while Democratic voters traveled less in 2016, political differences shortened Thanksgiving dinners more among Republican voters, especially where political advertising was heaviest. Partisan polarization may degrade close family ties with large aggregate implications; we estimate 27 million person-hours of cross-partisan Thanksgiving discourse were lost in 2016 to ad-fueled partisan effects.
One Sentence Summary: Cell-tracking shows that mixed-party families had shorter 2016 Thanksgivings, an effect exacerbated by political advertising.
The left part of the brain is crucial in the construction of novel representations by integrating memory content in new ways and supporting executively demanding mental simulations
To create or to recall original ideas: Brain processes associated with the imagination of novel object uses. Mathias Benedek et al. Cortex, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.024
Abstract: This fMRI study investigated what brain processes contribute to the generation of new ideas. Brain activation was measured while participants generated new original object uses, recalled original object uses, or recalled common object uses. Post-scan evaluations were used to confirm what ideas were newly generated on the spot or actually retrieved from memory. When compared to the recall of common ideas, the generation of new and old original ideas showed a similar activation pattern including activation of bilateral parahippocampal and mPFC regions, suggesting that the construction of new ideas builds on similar processes like the reconstruction of original ideas from episodic memory. As a difference, the generation of new object uses involved higher activation of a focused cluster in the left supramarginal gyrus compared to the recall of original ideas. This finding adds to the converging evidence that the left supramarginal gyrus is crucially involved in the construction of novel representations, potentially by integrating memory content in new ways and supporting executively demanding mental simulations. This study deepens our understanding of how creative thought builds on and goes beyond memory.
Keywords: fMRI; creativity; memory; SMG; inferior parietal cortex; medial temporal lobe
Abstract: This fMRI study investigated what brain processes contribute to the generation of new ideas. Brain activation was measured while participants generated new original object uses, recalled original object uses, or recalled common object uses. Post-scan evaluations were used to confirm what ideas were newly generated on the spot or actually retrieved from memory. When compared to the recall of common ideas, the generation of new and old original ideas showed a similar activation pattern including activation of bilateral parahippocampal and mPFC regions, suggesting that the construction of new ideas builds on similar processes like the reconstruction of original ideas from episodic memory. As a difference, the generation of new object uses involved higher activation of a focused cluster in the left supramarginal gyrus compared to the recall of original ideas. This finding adds to the converging evidence that the left supramarginal gyrus is crucially involved in the construction of novel representations, potentially by integrating memory content in new ways and supporting executively demanding mental simulations. This study deepens our understanding of how creative thought builds on and goes beyond memory.
Keywords: fMRI; creativity; memory; SMG; inferior parietal cortex; medial temporal lobe
The origins of social conservatism: an extended twin family study using self- and peer-reports
The origins of social conservatism: an extended twin family study using self- and peer-reports. Edward Bell et al. Behavior Genetics Association 47th Annual Meeting Abstracts (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-017-9879-6
Abstract: It has long been recognized that social conservatism forms an important part of people’s political orientations. This study examines key genetic and environmental sources of individual differences in this trait, using data taken from a German sample that included twins, their parents, and their spouses, and which incorporated both self- and peer-reports. The extended twin family design we used allowed for the examination of various aspects of social conservatism, such as: the effects of assortative mating and passive genotype-environment correlation; shared environmental influences originating from mothers only, fathers only, and both together; and non-parental environmental effects shared by twins. A comparison of self-report with peer-report findings indicated that although sex and age differences in social conservatism were comparable across the two rater perspectives, model analyses based on self-reports yielded substantially higher estimates of heritability, as well as higher levels of shared parental environmental influences, assortative mating, and genotype-environment correlation. These results, in particular the higher levels of heritability derived from self-report data, have important implications for how we understand social conservatism.
Abstract: It has long been recognized that social conservatism forms an important part of people’s political orientations. This study examines key genetic and environmental sources of individual differences in this trait, using data taken from a German sample that included twins, their parents, and their spouses, and which incorporated both self- and peer-reports. The extended twin family design we used allowed for the examination of various aspects of social conservatism, such as: the effects of assortative mating and passive genotype-environment correlation; shared environmental influences originating from mothers only, fathers only, and both together; and non-parental environmental effects shared by twins. A comparison of self-report with peer-report findings indicated that although sex and age differences in social conservatism were comparable across the two rater perspectives, model analyses based on self-reports yielded substantially higher estimates of heritability, as well as higher levels of shared parental environmental influences, assortative mating, and genotype-environment correlation. These results, in particular the higher levels of heritability derived from self-report data, have important implications for how we understand social conservatism.
Sexual insults are linked to narcissistic, non-compliant and misanthropic character, & to socially repugnant behavior like bullying & intimate partner violence
Hyatt, Courtland, Jessica L Maples-Keller, Chelsea Sleep, Donald Lynam, and Josh Miller. 2017. “The Anatomy of an Insult: Popular Derogatory Terms Connote Important Individual Differences in Externalizing Behavior”. PsyArXiv. November 7. psyarxiv.com/8nybx
Abstract: A large body of academic literature on personality has roots in the lexical hypothesis, the idea that the language contains information about the important individual differences among people. In the current series of studies, we investigate the psychosocial connotations of common insults, or terms used to derogate others. In Studies 1 and 2, we investigated the most frequently used insults to denigrate men and women (asshole, dick, bitch), and generated trait profiles that can be considered prototypical of each insult. In Studies 3 and 4, we expanded the scope of our investigation by examining how these insults are relevant to other key indicators of interpersonal functioning, including aggression, social information processing, personality disorders, and substance use. We also gathered thin-slice and informant reports to compare to self-reported insult endorsement. Each of the insults was strongly associated with trait Antagonism, as well as other behaviors that comprise Antagonism’s nomological network (e.g., bullying, psychopathy, social discounting, etc.) Additionally, informants and strangers tended to converge in their insult ratings. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of everyday language to psychological research.
Abstract: A large body of academic literature on personality has roots in the lexical hypothesis, the idea that the language contains information about the important individual differences among people. In the current series of studies, we investigate the psychosocial connotations of common insults, or terms used to derogate others. In Studies 1 and 2, we investigated the most frequently used insults to denigrate men and women (asshole, dick, bitch), and generated trait profiles that can be considered prototypical of each insult. In Studies 3 and 4, we expanded the scope of our investigation by examining how these insults are relevant to other key indicators of interpersonal functioning, including aggression, social information processing, personality disorders, and substance use. We also gathered thin-slice and informant reports to compare to self-reported insult endorsement. Each of the insults was strongly associated with trait Antagonism, as well as other behaviors that comprise Antagonism’s nomological network (e.g., bullying, psychopathy, social discounting, etc.) Additionally, informants and strangers tended to converge in their insult ratings. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of everyday language to psychological research.
We don't share political opinions with co-workers to avoid potential conflict, giving the impression of greater homogeneity and, paradoxically, more polarization
“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. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2017.04.002
Highlights
• We study under which conditions people reveal their political views to their discussion partners.
• Americans are more likely to share their opinions with friends and family rather than co-workers.
• We document the mechanism of selective disclosure.
• Individuals, to avoid conflict, withhold their political views from those with whom they disagree.
• What consequences selective disclosure has on social influence and political polarization?
Abstract: This article documents individuals selectively disclosing their political attitudes and discusses the consequences of these communication patterns for social influence and the democratic process. Using a large, diverse sample of U.S. resident adults, we ask under which conditions do people reveal their political preferences versus keeping them close to the vest. We find Americans are more likely to share their opinions with friends and family rather than co-workers and they are more likely to share their opinions on more salient topics. More importantly, they withhold their political attitudes specifically from those with whom they disagree in an attempt to avoid conflict. This produces the experience of highly homogeneous social contexts, in which only liberal or conservative views are voiced, while dissent remains silent, and oftentimes goes unacknowledged. This experience is not the result of homogeneous social contexts but the appearance of them. Paradoxically, the mechanism of selective disclosure, whose goal is to prevent conflict at the micro-level, might lead to the perception of greater division in the larger society.
Check also Brandt, Mark J, Jarret Crawford, and Daryl Van Tongeren. 2017. “Worldview Conflict in Daily Life”. PsyArXiv. September 29. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/worldview-conflict-in-daily-life.html
Highlights
• We study under which conditions people reveal their political views to their discussion partners.
• Americans are more likely to share their opinions with friends and family rather than co-workers.
• We document the mechanism of selective disclosure.
• Individuals, to avoid conflict, withhold their political views from those with whom they disagree.
• What consequences selective disclosure has on social influence and political polarization?
Abstract: This article documents individuals selectively disclosing their political attitudes and discusses the consequences of these communication patterns for social influence and the democratic process. Using a large, diverse sample of U.S. resident adults, we ask under which conditions do people reveal their political preferences versus keeping them close to the vest. We find Americans are more likely to share their opinions with friends and family rather than co-workers and they are more likely to share their opinions on more salient topics. More importantly, they withhold their political attitudes specifically from those with whom they disagree in an attempt to avoid conflict. This produces the experience of highly homogeneous social contexts, in which only liberal or conservative views are voiced, while dissent remains silent, and oftentimes goes unacknowledged. This experience is not the result of homogeneous social contexts but the appearance of them. Paradoxically, the mechanism of selective disclosure, whose goal is to prevent conflict at the micro-level, might lead to the perception of greater division in the larger society.
Check also Brandt, Mark J, Jarret Crawford, and Daryl Van Tongeren. 2017. “Worldview Conflict in Daily Life”. PsyArXiv. September 29. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/09/worldview-conflict-in-daily-life.html
Criminal energetics: A theory of antisocial enhancement and criminal attenuation
Criminal energetics: A theory of antisocial enhancement and criminal attenuation. Michael G. Vaughn, Matt DeLisi. Aggression and Violent Behavior, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2017.11.002
Highlights
• The role of energy in shaping antisocial and criminal careers is examined.
• Energy is an enhancement and attenuator to an antisocial career.
• A set of future research pathways for studying energetics and criminality is presented.
Abstract: Although energy is the currency of all life forms and energy is an underlying factor for physical and mental performance, its role in antisocial behavior has yet to be articulated. In this paper, we consider the role of energy in shaping antisocial and criminal careers and suggest that much like other forms of performance/productivity some criminal offenders are more energetic and therefore more virulent than others over the life-course. Specifically, we argue that energy is an enhancement and attenuator to an antisocial career and draw upon a diverse literature merging basic research on aging and energy production in human physiology and merge these findings with principles from the career criminal paradigm in criminology. Finally, we lay forth a set of research pathways, especially ways in which energy can be assessed, that can forge stronger links between the science of energetics and criminality.
Keywords: Age-crime curve; Aging; Antisocial behavior; Career criminals; Chronic offending; Energy; Energetics
Highlights
• The role of energy in shaping antisocial and criminal careers is examined.
• Energy is an enhancement and attenuator to an antisocial career.
• A set of future research pathways for studying energetics and criminality is presented.
Abstract: Although energy is the currency of all life forms and energy is an underlying factor for physical and mental performance, its role in antisocial behavior has yet to be articulated. In this paper, we consider the role of energy in shaping antisocial and criminal careers and suggest that much like other forms of performance/productivity some criminal offenders are more energetic and therefore more virulent than others over the life-course. Specifically, we argue that energy is an enhancement and attenuator to an antisocial career and draw upon a diverse literature merging basic research on aging and energy production in human physiology and merge these findings with principles from the career criminal paradigm in criminology. Finally, we lay forth a set of research pathways, especially ways in which energy can be assessed, that can forge stronger links between the science of energetics and criminality.
Keywords: Age-crime curve; Aging; Antisocial behavior; Career criminals; Chronic offending; Energy; Energetics
Friday, November 10, 2017
Callousness and manipulativeness are central traits to a dark personality
A Network of Dark Personality Traits: What Lies at the Heart of Darkness? David K. Marcus, Jonathan Preszler, Virgil Zeigler-Hill. Journal of Research in Personality, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2017.11.003
Highlights
• Network analysis provides a novel approach to studying dark personality traits.
• Interpersonal manipulation is central to a network of dark personality traits.
• Callousness is central to a network of dark personality traits.
Abstract: The question of whether there is a common element at the core of the various dark personality traits (e.g., psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, spitefulness, aggressiveness) has been the subject of debate. Callousness, manipulativeness, and disagreeableness have all been nominated as possibly serving as the core of these dark traits. Network analysis, which graphically and quantitatively describes the centrality of various related traits, provides a novel technique for examining this issue. We estimated an association network and an Adaptive Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator network for two large samples, one college student sample (N = 2,831) and one mixed college student and Mechanical Turk sample (N = 844). Interpersonal manipulation and callousness were the traits that were central to the networks.
Keywords: Network Analysis; Psychopathy; Narcissism; Machiavellianism; Spitefulness; Dark Triad
Highlights
• Network analysis provides a novel approach to studying dark personality traits.
• Interpersonal manipulation is central to a network of dark personality traits.
• Callousness is central to a network of dark personality traits.
Abstract: The question of whether there is a common element at the core of the various dark personality traits (e.g., psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, spitefulness, aggressiveness) has been the subject of debate. Callousness, manipulativeness, and disagreeableness have all been nominated as possibly serving as the core of these dark traits. Network analysis, which graphically and quantitatively describes the centrality of various related traits, provides a novel technique for examining this issue. We estimated an association network and an Adaptive Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator network for two large samples, one college student sample (N = 2,831) and one mixed college student and Mechanical Turk sample (N = 844). Interpersonal manipulation and callousness were the traits that were central to the networks.
Keywords: Network Analysis; Psychopathy; Narcissism; Machiavellianism; Spitefulness; Dark Triad
The “bad guy” profile is closer to the normal profile of real humans than that of the “good guys,” which are stereotyped
What are the cephalometric features of “good” and “bad” guys in cartoons? Alexandre Weiss, Cyril Villat, Alban Poitel and Sarah Gebeile-Chauty. Orthod Fr, Volume 88, Issue 3, 263 - 274.
https://doi.org/10.1051/orthodfr/2017015
Abstract
Objective: The objective of the study was to search for links between specific facial features and the psychology of the “good” and “bad” guys in cartoons. Material and method: We made 60 cephalometric tracings and compared the characters’ profiles using statistical tests.
Results: The “bad guy” profile is closer to the normal profile of real humans than that of the “good guys”. Profiles perceived as “good” in cartoons appear to be stereotyped. Thus, any profile not matching the “norm” can be interpreted as being unpleasant and consequently associated with the features of the “bad guys”. The standard “bad guy” profile has a longer more prominent nose, a jutting chin (a bigger soft-tissue angle) and a higher upper third of the face than the lower third (the opposite of the standard profile of the “good guys”).
Discussion: These standardized portraits reflect and influence the (subconscious) prejudices of both young and less young movie-goers (not to mention the cartoonists) regarding their fellow humans.
Key words: Cephalometry / Profile / Soft tissue / Cartoon / Morphopsychology
https://doi.org/10.1051/orthodfr/2017015
Abstract
Objective: The objective of the study was to search for links between specific facial features and the psychology of the “good” and “bad” guys in cartoons. Material and method: We made 60 cephalometric tracings and compared the characters’ profiles using statistical tests.
Results: The “bad guy” profile is closer to the normal profile of real humans than that of the “good guys”. Profiles perceived as “good” in cartoons appear to be stereotyped. Thus, any profile not matching the “norm” can be interpreted as being unpleasant and consequently associated with the features of the “bad guys”. The standard “bad guy” profile has a longer more prominent nose, a jutting chin (a bigger soft-tissue angle) and a higher upper third of the face than the lower third (the opposite of the standard profile of the “good guys”).
Discussion: These standardized portraits reflect and influence the (subconscious) prejudices of both young and less young movie-goers (not to mention the cartoonists) regarding their fellow humans.
Key words: Cephalometry / Profile / Soft tissue / Cartoon / Morphopsychology
Violence Against Women Journal: The Meaning and Practice of Ejaculation on a Woman’s Face
Naked Aggression: The Meaning and Practice of Ejaculation on a Woman’s Face. Chyng Sun, Matthew B. Ezzell, Olivia Kendall. Violence Against Women, Vol 23, Issue 14, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801216666723
Abstract: Based on in-depth interviews with 16 heterosexual men, this study focuses on participants’ meaning-making surrounding a common and controversial sexual act in pornography: ejaculation on a woman’s face (EOWF). We analyze the ways that male consumers decoded EOWF and the ways that EOWF, as a sexual script, was included in the men’s accounts of their sexual desires and practices. The majority of the men decoded EOWF through the preferred (encoded) meaning as an act of male dominance and sexual aggression and that they wanted to engage in it despite their general belief that women would not be interested in it.
Keywords: pornography, sexual behaviors, sexual script, male aggression, audience research,
sexual aggression
---
Given that U.S. society is White supremacist, patriarchal, and capitalist (hooks, 1994), it is not surprising that pornographers would encode these values in sexual expression and gender dynamics that may also be familiar and even attractive to male consumers. Put simply, pornography reflects the hegemonic value of male dominance and further perpetuates it. Just as rape is both illegal and normalized within patriarchal cultures (see, for example, Buchwald, Fletcher, & Roth, 2004), male dominance and sexual aggression in pornography may be found simultaneously distasteful and enticing. Some of the men in our study were open and direct about the appeal of EOWF as an expression of male dominance, but others couched the appeal of the act in its role in “pushing boundaries” or in its status as “taboo,” even if they could articulate the preferred meaning upon reflection. The strategy of euphemizing male sexual aggression as “taboo” may allow respondents to eroticize it without feeling misogynistic—but this strategy has its contradictions.
Indeed, multiple contradictions were revealed in the respondents’ discourses around pornography and sex. Typically, male participants initially failed to articulate why they liked to watch EOWF in pornography or what meaning they saw, if any, in the act. But when they were allowed some time to reflect, they stated that it is about male dominance and female degradation. Most men acknowledged that female porn stars come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and would only perform EOWF for money, but they also maintained that some performers genuinely liked it—and they maintained that they could tell—while saying that they often engaged in a “suspension of disbelief” to convince themselves of the performers’ enjoyment. Respondents also stated that they did not think women around them would like to be the targets of EOWF; nonetheless, they desired or had performed the act. This group of men seemed to struggle with cognitive dissonance (Aronson, 1992; Festinger, 1957; Stalder & Baron, 1998) concerning pornography’s function of providing sexual pleasure (in private, while masturbating) and the misogynistic messages that they were made aware of through self-reflection (in public, with an interviewer). The respondents’ lack of critical reflection, or their holding multiple, contradictory perspectives without resolving them, may be a form of moral identity work that allows them to maintain their stated attitude of “respecting women” while finding pleasure in male dominance. It is particularly at this juncture—recognizing the misogyny of EOWF but finding excuses to keep watching or performing it—that we recognize the power of pornography both in its encoded messages and in the context in which it is used.
[...]
Given that the subjects in the study were highly educated and had access to discourses of feminism and gender equality, the finding is particularly sobering.
Abstract: Based on in-depth interviews with 16 heterosexual men, this study focuses on participants’ meaning-making surrounding a common and controversial sexual act in pornography: ejaculation on a woman’s face (EOWF). We analyze the ways that male consumers decoded EOWF and the ways that EOWF, as a sexual script, was included in the men’s accounts of their sexual desires and practices. The majority of the men decoded EOWF through the preferred (encoded) meaning as an act of male dominance and sexual aggression and that they wanted to engage in it despite their general belief that women would not be interested in it.
Keywords: pornography, sexual behaviors, sexual script, male aggression, audience research,
sexual aggression
---
Given that U.S. society is White supremacist, patriarchal, and capitalist (hooks, 1994), it is not surprising that pornographers would encode these values in sexual expression and gender dynamics that may also be familiar and even attractive to male consumers. Put simply, pornography reflects the hegemonic value of male dominance and further perpetuates it. Just as rape is both illegal and normalized within patriarchal cultures (see, for example, Buchwald, Fletcher, & Roth, 2004), male dominance and sexual aggression in pornography may be found simultaneously distasteful and enticing. Some of the men in our study were open and direct about the appeal of EOWF as an expression of male dominance, but others couched the appeal of the act in its role in “pushing boundaries” or in its status as “taboo,” even if they could articulate the preferred meaning upon reflection. The strategy of euphemizing male sexual aggression as “taboo” may allow respondents to eroticize it without feeling misogynistic—but this strategy has its contradictions.
Indeed, multiple contradictions were revealed in the respondents’ discourses around pornography and sex. Typically, male participants initially failed to articulate why they liked to watch EOWF in pornography or what meaning they saw, if any, in the act. But when they were allowed some time to reflect, they stated that it is about male dominance and female degradation. Most men acknowledged that female porn stars come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and would only perform EOWF for money, but they also maintained that some performers genuinely liked it—and they maintained that they could tell—while saying that they often engaged in a “suspension of disbelief” to convince themselves of the performers’ enjoyment. Respondents also stated that they did not think women around them would like to be the targets of EOWF; nonetheless, they desired or had performed the act. This group of men seemed to struggle with cognitive dissonance (Aronson, 1992; Festinger, 1957; Stalder & Baron, 1998) concerning pornography’s function of providing sexual pleasure (in private, while masturbating) and the misogynistic messages that they were made aware of through self-reflection (in public, with an interviewer). The respondents’ lack of critical reflection, or their holding multiple, contradictory perspectives without resolving them, may be a form of moral identity work that allows them to maintain their stated attitude of “respecting women” while finding pleasure in male dominance. It is particularly at this juncture—recognizing the misogyny of EOWF but finding excuses to keep watching or performing it—that we recognize the power of pornography both in its encoded messages and in the context in which it is used.
[...]
Given that the subjects in the study were highly educated and had access to discourses of feminism and gender equality, the finding is particularly sobering.
Richard Feynman on Why Questions
[Transcript] Richard Feynman on Why Questions
I thought this video was a really good question dissolving by Richard Feynman. But it's in 240p! Nobody likes watching 240p videos. So I transcribed it. (Edit:
That was in jest. The real reasons are because I thought I could get
more exposure this way, and because a lot of people appreciate
transcripts. Also, Paul Graham speculates
that the written word is universally superior than the spoken word for
the purpose of ideas.) I was going to post it as a rationality quote,
but the transcript was sufficiently long that I think it warrants a
discussion post instead.
Here you go:
Here you go:
Interviewer: If you get hold of two magnets, and you push them, you can feel this pushing between them. Turn them around the other way, and they slam together. Now, what is it, the feeling between those two magnets?
Feynman: What do you mean, "What's the feeling between the two magnets?"
Interviewer: There's something there, isn't there? The sensation is that there's something there when you push these two magnets together.
Feynman: Listen to my question. What is the meaning when you say that there's a feeling? Of course you feel it. Now what do you want to know?
Interviewer: What I want to know is what's going on between these two bits of metal?
Feynman: They repel each other.
Interviewer: What does that mean, or why are they doing that, or how are they doing that? I think that's a perfectly reasonable question.
Feynman: Of course, it's an excellent question. But the problem, you see, when you ask why something happens, how does a person answer why something happens? For example, Aunt Minnie is in the hospital. Why? Because she went out, slipped on the ice, and broke her hip. That satisfies people. It satisfies, but it wouldn't satisfy someone who came from another planet and who knew nothing about why when you break your hip do you go to the hospital. How do you get to the hospital when the hip is broken? Well, because her husband, seeing that her hip was broken, called the hospital up and sent somebody to get her. All that is understood by people. And when you explain a why, you have to be in some framework that you allow something to be true. Otherwise, you're perpetually asking why. Why did the husband call up the hospital? Because the husband is interested in his wife's welfare. Not always, some husbands aren't interested in their wives' welfare when they're drunk, and they're angry.
And you begin to get a very interesting understanding of the world and all its complications. If you try to follow anything up, you go deeper and deeper in various directions. For example, if you go, "Why did she slip on the ice?" Well, ice is slippery. Everybody knows that, no problem. But you ask why is ice slippery? That's kinda curious. Ice is extremely slippery. It's very interesting. You say, how does it work? You could either say, "I'm satisfied that you've answered me. Ice is slippery; that explains it," or you could go on and say, "Why is ice slippery?" and then you're involved with something, because there aren't many things as slippery as ice. It's very hard to get greasy stuff, but that's sort of wet and slimy. But a solid that's so slippery? Because it is, in the case of ice, when you stand on it (they say) momentarily the pressure melts the ice a little bit so you get a sort of instantaneous water surface on which you're slipping. Why on ice and not on other things? Because water expands when it freezes, so the pressure tries to undo the expansion and melts it. It's capable of melting, but other substances get cracked when they're freezing, and when you push them they're satisfied to be solid.
Why does water expand when it freezes and other substances don't? I'm not answering your question, but I'm telling you how difficult the why question is. You have to know what it is that you're permitted to understand and allow to be understood and known, and what it is you're not. You'll notice, in this example, that the more I ask why, the deeper a thing is, the more interesting it gets. We could even go further and say, "Why did she fall down when she slipped?" It has to do with gravity, involves all the planets and everything else. Nevermind! It goes on and on. And when you're asked, for example, why two magnets repel, there are many different levels. It depends on whether you're a student of physics, or an ordinary person who doesn't know anything. If you're somebody who doesn't know anything at all about it, all I can say is the magnetic force makes them repel, and that you're feeling that force.
You say, "That's very strange, because I don't feel kind of force like that in other circumstances." When you turn them the other way, they attract. There's a very analogous force, electrical force, which is the same kind of a question, that's also very weird. But you're not at all disturbed by the fact that when you put your hand on a chair, it pushes you back. But we found out by looking at it that that's the same force, as a matter of fact (an electrical force, not magnetic exactly, in that case). But it's the same electric repulsions that are involved in keeping your finger away from the chair because it's electrical forces in minor and microscopic details. There's other forces involved, connected to electrical forces. It turns out that the magnetic and electrical force with which I wish to explain this repulsion in the first place is what ultimately is the deeper thing that we have to start with to explain many other things that everybody would just accept. You know you can't put your hand through the chair; that's taken for granted. But that you can't put your hand through the chair, when looked at more closely, why, involves the same repulsive forces that appear in magnets. The situation you then have to explain is why, in magnets, it goes over a bigger distance than ordinarily. There it has to do with the fact that in iron all the electrons are spinning in the same direction, they all get lined up, and they magnify the effect of the force 'til it's large enough, at a distance, that you can feel it. But it's a force which is present all the time and very common and is a basic force of almost - I mean, I could go a little further back if I went more technical - but on an early level I've just got to tell you that's going to be one of the things you'll just have to take as an element of the world: the existence of magnetic repulsion, or electrical attraction, magnetic attraction.
I can't explain that attraction in terms of anything else that's familiar to you. For example, if we said the magnets attract like if rubber bands, I would be cheating you. Because they're not connected by rubber bands. I'd soon be in trouble. And secondly, if you were curious enough, you'd ask me why rubber bands tend to pull back together again, and I would end up explaining that in terms of electrical forces, which are the very things that I'm trying to use the rubber bands to explain. So I have cheated very badly, you see. So I am not going to be able to give you an answer to why magnets attract each other except to tell you that they do. And to tell you that that's one of the elements in the world - there are electrical forces, magnetic forces, gravitational forces, and others, and those are some of the parts. If you were a student, I could go further. I could tell you that the magnetic forces are related to the electrical forces very intimately, that the relationship between the gravity forces and electrical forces remains unknown, and so on. But I really can't do a good job, any job, of explaining magnetic force in terms of something else you're more familiar with, because I don't understand it in terms of anything else that you're more familiar with.
Liking what others “Like”: using Facebook to identify determinants of conformity
Liking what others “Like”: using Facebook to identify determinants of conformity. Johan Egebark and Mathias Ekström. Experimental Economics, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10683-017-9552-1
Abstract: In this paper we explore the micro-level determinants of conformity. Members of the social networking service Facebook express positive support to content on the website by clicking a Like button. We set up a natural field experiment to test whether users are more prone to support content if someone else has done so before. To find out to what extent conformity depends on group size and social ties we use three different treatment conditions: (1) one stranger has Liked the content, (2) three strangers have Liked the content, and (3) a friend has Liked the content. The results show that one Like from a single stranger had no impact. However, increasing the size of the influencing group doubled the probability that subjects expressed positive support. Friendship ties were also decisive. People were, on average, four times more likely to press the Like button if a friend, rather than a stranger, had done so before them. The existence of threshold effects in our experiment clearly shows that both group size and social proximity matters when opinions are shaped.
Abstract: In this paper we explore the micro-level determinants of conformity. Members of the social networking service Facebook express positive support to content on the website by clicking a Like button. We set up a natural field experiment to test whether users are more prone to support content if someone else has done so before. To find out to what extent conformity depends on group size and social ties we use three different treatment conditions: (1) one stranger has Liked the content, (2) three strangers have Liked the content, and (3) a friend has Liked the content. The results show that one Like from a single stranger had no impact. However, increasing the size of the influencing group doubled the probability that subjects expressed positive support. Friendship ties were also decisive. People were, on average, four times more likely to press the Like button if a friend, rather than a stranger, had done so before them. The existence of threshold effects in our experiment clearly shows that both group size and social proximity matters when opinions are shaped.
Sexual Appeal Is In The Nose -- Patterns of Eye Movements When Observers Judge Female Facial Attractiveness
Patterns of Eye Movements When Observers Judge Female Facial Attractiveness. Yan Zhang et al. Front. Psychol., https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01909
Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to explore the fixed model for the explicit judgments of attractiveness and infer which features are important to judge the facial attractiveness. Behavioral studies on the perceptual cues for female facial attractiveness implied three potentially important features: averageness, symmetry, and sexual dimorphy. However, these studies did not explained which regions of facial images influence the judgments of attractiveness. Therefore, the present research recorded the eye movements of 24 male participants and 19 female participants as they rated a series of 30 photographs of female facial attractiveness. Results demonstrated the following: (1) Fixation is longer and more frequent on the noses of female faces than on their eyes and mouths (no difference exists between the eyes and the mouth); (2) The average pupil diameter at the nose region is bigger than that at the eyes and mouth (no difference exists between the eyes and the mouth); (3) the number of fixations of male participants was significantly more than female participants. (4) Observers first fixate on the eyes and mouth (no difference exists between the eyes and the mouth) before fixating on the nose area. In general, participants attend predominantly to the nose to form attractiveness judgments. The results of this study add a new dimension to the existing literature on judgment of facial attractiveness. The major contribution of the present study is the finding that the area of the nose is vital in the judgment of facial attractiveness. This finding establish a contribution of partial processing on female facial attractiveness judgments during eye-tracking.
Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to explore the fixed model for the explicit judgments of attractiveness and infer which features are important to judge the facial attractiveness. Behavioral studies on the perceptual cues for female facial attractiveness implied three potentially important features: averageness, symmetry, and sexual dimorphy. However, these studies did not explained which regions of facial images influence the judgments of attractiveness. Therefore, the present research recorded the eye movements of 24 male participants and 19 female participants as they rated a series of 30 photographs of female facial attractiveness. Results demonstrated the following: (1) Fixation is longer and more frequent on the noses of female faces than on their eyes and mouths (no difference exists between the eyes and the mouth); (2) The average pupil diameter at the nose region is bigger than that at the eyes and mouth (no difference exists between the eyes and the mouth); (3) the number of fixations of male participants was significantly more than female participants. (4) Observers first fixate on the eyes and mouth (no difference exists between the eyes and the mouth) before fixating on the nose area. In general, participants attend predominantly to the nose to form attractiveness judgments. The results of this study add a new dimension to the existing literature on judgment of facial attractiveness. The major contribution of the present study is the finding that the area of the nose is vital in the judgment of facial attractiveness. This finding establish a contribution of partial processing on female facial attractiveness judgments during eye-tracking.
Same Genes, Different Brains: Neuroanatomical Differences Between Monozygotic Twins Discordant for Musical Training
Same Genes, Different Brains: Neuroanatomical Differences Between Monozygotic Twins Discordant for Musical Training. Örjan de Manzano Fredrik Ullén. Cerebral Cortex, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx299
Abstract: Numerous cross-sectional and observational longitudinal studies show associations between expertise and regional brain anatomy. However, since these designs confound training with genetic predisposition, the causal role of training remains unclear. Here, we use a discordant monozygotic (identical) twin design to study expertise-dependent effects on neuroanatomy using musical training as model behavior, while essentially controlling for genetic factors and shared environment of upbringing. From a larger cohort of monozygotic twins, we were able to recruit 18 individuals (9 pairs) that were highly discordant for piano practice. We used structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging to analyze the auditory-motor network and within-pair differences in cortical thickness, cerebellar regional volumes and white-matter microstructure/fractional anisotropy. The analyses revealed that the musically active twins had greater cortical thickness in the auditory-motor network of the left hemisphere and more developed white matter microstructure in relevant tracts in both hemispheres and the corpus callosum. Furthermore, the volume of gray matter in the left cerebellar region of interest comprising lobules I–IV + V, was greater in the playing group. These findings provide the first clear support for that a significant portion of the differences in brain anatomy between experts and nonexperts depend on causal effects of training.
Keywords: expertise, MRI, music, neuroanatomy, twins
Abstract: Numerous cross-sectional and observational longitudinal studies show associations between expertise and regional brain anatomy. However, since these designs confound training with genetic predisposition, the causal role of training remains unclear. Here, we use a discordant monozygotic (identical) twin design to study expertise-dependent effects on neuroanatomy using musical training as model behavior, while essentially controlling for genetic factors and shared environment of upbringing. From a larger cohort of monozygotic twins, we were able to recruit 18 individuals (9 pairs) that were highly discordant for piano practice. We used structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging to analyze the auditory-motor network and within-pair differences in cortical thickness, cerebellar regional volumes and white-matter microstructure/fractional anisotropy. The analyses revealed that the musically active twins had greater cortical thickness in the auditory-motor network of the left hemisphere and more developed white matter microstructure in relevant tracts in both hemispheres and the corpus callosum. Furthermore, the volume of gray matter in the left cerebellar region of interest comprising lobules I–IV + V, was greater in the playing group. These findings provide the first clear support for that a significant portion of the differences in brain anatomy between experts and nonexperts depend on causal effects of training.
Keywords: expertise, MRI, music, neuroanatomy, twins
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Zero Likes – Symbolic interactions and need satisfaction online
Zero Likes – Symbolic interactions and need satisfaction online. Sabine Reich, Frank M.Schneider, and Leonie Heling. Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 80, March 2018, Pages 97-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.10.043
Highlights
• Likes are a form of symbolic interaction within social networking sites (SNS).
• Zero Likes on SNS threaten fundamental needs and affect.
• Likes from close friends (vs. acquaintances) best satisfy fundamental needs.
Abstract: The paper looks at the symbolic interactions on social networking sites, such as Likes on Facebook, and their role in users' sense of social in- or exclusion. In an online experiment, users of Facebook were asked to write a possible status update and then received note about the numbers of hypothetical Likes they received (zero, two, or thirty) and who (close friends or acquaintances) pressed the Like button. Multivariate analysis of variances showed that belongingness and self-esteem needs are threatened when people do not receive Likes. In contrast, more Likes seem to satisfy these needs better. The influence of who gives the Likes is minor compared to the sheer number of Likes.
Highlights
• Likes are a form of symbolic interaction within social networking sites (SNS).
• Zero Likes on SNS threaten fundamental needs and affect.
• Likes from close friends (vs. acquaintances) best satisfy fundamental needs.
Abstract: The paper looks at the symbolic interactions on social networking sites, such as Likes on Facebook, and their role in users' sense of social in- or exclusion. In an online experiment, users of Facebook were asked to write a possible status update and then received note about the numbers of hypothetical Likes they received (zero, two, or thirty) and who (close friends or acquaintances) pressed the Like button. Multivariate analysis of variances showed that belongingness and self-esteem needs are threatened when people do not receive Likes. In contrast, more Likes seem to satisfy these needs better. The influence of who gives the Likes is minor compared to the sheer number of Likes.
Paying Down Credit Card Debt for Hotels Not Sofas
Quispe-Torreblanca, Edika and Stewart, Neil and Gathergood, John and Loewenstein, George, The Red, the Black, and the Plastic: Paying Down Credit Card Debt for Hotels Not Sofas (September 15, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3037416
Abstract: Using transaction data from a sample of 1.8 million credit card accounts, we provide the first field test of a major prediction of Prelec and Loewenstein’s (1998) theory of mental accounting. The prediction is that consumers will pay off expenditure on transient forms of consumption more quickly than expenditure on durables. According to the theory, this is because the pain of paying can be offset by the future anticipated pleasure of consumption only when money is spent on consumption that endures over time. Consistent with the prediction, we found that repayment of debt incurred for non-durable goods is an absolute 9% more likely than repayment of debt incurred for durable goods. The size of this effect is comparable to an increment in 15 percentage points in the credit card APR.
Keywords: mental accounting, credit cards, debt repayment
JEL Classification: D14, D91
Abstract: Using transaction data from a sample of 1.8 million credit card accounts, we provide the first field test of a major prediction of Prelec and Loewenstein’s (1998) theory of mental accounting. The prediction is that consumers will pay off expenditure on transient forms of consumption more quickly than expenditure on durables. According to the theory, this is because the pain of paying can be offset by the future anticipated pleasure of consumption only when money is spent on consumption that endures over time. Consistent with the prediction, we found that repayment of debt incurred for non-durable goods is an absolute 9% more likely than repayment of debt incurred for durable goods. The size of this effect is comparable to an increment in 15 percentage points in the credit card APR.
Keywords: mental accounting, credit cards, debt repayment
JEL Classification: D14, D91
Common sense in the New York Times: Many of our most demonized foods are actually fine for us. Like salt.
You Don’t Need to ‘Eat Clean’. By Aaron E. Carroll. The New York Times, November 5, 2017, Page SR10, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/opinion/sunday/relax-you-dont-need-to-eat-clean.html
We talk about food in the negative: What we shouldn’t eat, what we’ll regret later, what’s evil, dangerously tempting, unhealthy.
The effects are more insidious than any overindulgent amount of “bad food” can ever be. By fretting about food, we turn occasions for comfort and joy into sources of fear and anxiety. And when we avoid certain foods, we usually compensate by consuming too much of others.
All of this happens under the guise of science. But a closer look at the research behind our food fears shows that many of our most demonized foods are actually fine for us. Taken to extremes, of course, dietary choices can be harmful — but that logic cuts both ways.
Consider salt. It’s true that, if people with high blood pressure consume a lot of salt, it can lead to cardiovascular events like heart attacks. It’s also true that salt is overused in processed foods. But the average American consumes just over three grams of sodium per day, which is actually in the sweet spot for health.
Eating too little salt may be just as dangerous as eating too much. This is especially true for the majority of people who don’t have high blood pressure. Regardless, experts continue to push for lower recommendations.
Many of the doctors and nutritionists who recommend avoiding certain foods fail to properly explain the magnitude of their risks. In some studies, processed red meat in large amounts is associated with an increased relative risk of developing cancer. The absolute risk, however, is often quite small. If I ate an extra serving of bacon a day, every day, my lifetime risk of colon cancer would go up less than one-half of 1 percent. Even then, it’s debatable.
Nevertheless, we’ve become more and more susceptible to arguments that we must avoid certain foods completely. When one panic-du-jour wanes, we find another focus for our fears. We demonized fats. Then cholesterol. Then meat.
For some people in recent years, gluten has become the enemy, even though wheat accounts for about 20 percent of the calories consumed worldwide, more than pretty much any other food. Fewer than 1 percent of people in the United States have a wheat allergy, and fewer than 1 percent have celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that requires sufferers to abstain from gluten. Gluten sensitivity (the catchall disorder that leads many Americans to abstain from gluten) is not well defined, and most people who self-diagnose don’t meet the criteria.
Nonetheless, at least one in five Americans regularly chooses gluten-free foods, according to a 2015 poll. Sales of products with gluten-free labels rose to $23 billion worldwide in 2014, up from $11.5 billion worldwide in 2010.
Gluten-free diets can lead to deficiencies in nutrients such as vitamin B, folate and iron. Compared with regular bagels, gluten-free ones can have a quarter more calories, two and a half times the fat, half the fiber and twice the sugar. They also cost more.
The hullabaloo over gluten echoes the panic over MSG that began roughly half a century ago, and which has yet to fully subside. MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is nothing more than a single sodium atom added to glutamic acid — an amino acid that is a key part of the mechanism by which our cells create energy. Without it, all oxygen-dependent life as we know it would die.
A 1968 letter in The New England Journal of Medicine started the frenzy; the writer reported feeling numbness, weakness and palpitations after eating at a Chinese restaurant. A few limited studies followed, along with a spate of news articles. Before long, nutrition experts and consumer advocates such as Ralph Nader were calling for MSG to be banned. The Food and Drug Administration never had to step in; food companies saw the writing on the wall, and dropped MSG voluntarily.
Many people still wrongly believe that MSG is poison. We certainly don’t need MSG in our diet, but we also don’t need to waste effort avoiding it. Our aversion to it shows how susceptible we are to misinterpreting scientific research and how slow we are to update our thinking when better research becomes available. There’s no evidence that people suffer disproportionately from the afflictions — now ranging from headaches to asthma — that MSG-averse cultures commonly associate with this ingredient. In studies all over the world, the case against MSG just doesn’t hold up.
Too often, we fail to think critically about scientific evidence. Genetically modified organisms are perhaps the best example of this.
G.M.O.s are, in theory, one of our best bets for feeding the planet’s growing population. When a 2015 Pew poll asked Americans whether they thought it was generally safe or unsafe to eat modified foods, almost 60 percent said it was unsafe. The same poll asked scientists from the American Association for the Advancement of Science the same question. Only 11 percent of them thought G.M.O.s were unsafe.
Most Americans, at least according to this poll, don’t seem to care what scientists think. In fact, Americans disagree with scientists on this issue more than just about any other, including a host of contentious topics such as vaccines, evolution and even global warming.
If people want to avoid foods, even if there’s no reason to, is that really a problem?
The answer is: yes. Because it makes food scary. And being afraid of food with no real reason is unscientific — part of the dangerous trend of anti-intellectualism that we confront in many places today.
Food should be a cause for pleasure, not panic. For most people, it’s entirely possible to eat more healthfully without living in terror or struggling to avoid certain foods altogether. If there’s one thing you should cut from your diet, it’s fear.
Aaron E. Carroll (@aaronecarroll) is a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, and a regular contributor to The Upshot. He is the author of “The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully,” from which this essay was adapted.
We talk about food in the negative: What we shouldn’t eat, what we’ll regret later, what’s evil, dangerously tempting, unhealthy.
The effects are more insidious than any overindulgent amount of “bad food” can ever be. By fretting about food, we turn occasions for comfort and joy into sources of fear and anxiety. And when we avoid certain foods, we usually compensate by consuming too much of others.
All of this happens under the guise of science. But a closer look at the research behind our food fears shows that many of our most demonized foods are actually fine for us. Taken to extremes, of course, dietary choices can be harmful — but that logic cuts both ways.
Consider salt. It’s true that, if people with high blood pressure consume a lot of salt, it can lead to cardiovascular events like heart attacks. It’s also true that salt is overused in processed foods. But the average American consumes just over three grams of sodium per day, which is actually in the sweet spot for health.
Eating too little salt may be just as dangerous as eating too much. This is especially true for the majority of people who don’t have high blood pressure. Regardless, experts continue to push for lower recommendations.
Many of the doctors and nutritionists who recommend avoiding certain foods fail to properly explain the magnitude of their risks. In some studies, processed red meat in large amounts is associated with an increased relative risk of developing cancer. The absolute risk, however, is often quite small. If I ate an extra serving of bacon a day, every day, my lifetime risk of colon cancer would go up less than one-half of 1 percent. Even then, it’s debatable.
Nevertheless, we’ve become more and more susceptible to arguments that we must avoid certain foods completely. When one panic-du-jour wanes, we find another focus for our fears. We demonized fats. Then cholesterol. Then meat.
For some people in recent years, gluten has become the enemy, even though wheat accounts for about 20 percent of the calories consumed worldwide, more than pretty much any other food. Fewer than 1 percent of people in the United States have a wheat allergy, and fewer than 1 percent have celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that requires sufferers to abstain from gluten. Gluten sensitivity (the catchall disorder that leads many Americans to abstain from gluten) is not well defined, and most people who self-diagnose don’t meet the criteria.
Nonetheless, at least one in five Americans regularly chooses gluten-free foods, according to a 2015 poll. Sales of products with gluten-free labels rose to $23 billion worldwide in 2014, up from $11.5 billion worldwide in 2010.
Gluten-free diets can lead to deficiencies in nutrients such as vitamin B, folate and iron. Compared with regular bagels, gluten-free ones can have a quarter more calories, two and a half times the fat, half the fiber and twice the sugar. They also cost more.
The hullabaloo over gluten echoes the panic over MSG that began roughly half a century ago, and which has yet to fully subside. MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is nothing more than a single sodium atom added to glutamic acid — an amino acid that is a key part of the mechanism by which our cells create energy. Without it, all oxygen-dependent life as we know it would die.
A 1968 letter in The New England Journal of Medicine started the frenzy; the writer reported feeling numbness, weakness and palpitations after eating at a Chinese restaurant. A few limited studies followed, along with a spate of news articles. Before long, nutrition experts and consumer advocates such as Ralph Nader were calling for MSG to be banned. The Food and Drug Administration never had to step in; food companies saw the writing on the wall, and dropped MSG voluntarily.
Many people still wrongly believe that MSG is poison. We certainly don’t need MSG in our diet, but we also don’t need to waste effort avoiding it. Our aversion to it shows how susceptible we are to misinterpreting scientific research and how slow we are to update our thinking when better research becomes available. There’s no evidence that people suffer disproportionately from the afflictions — now ranging from headaches to asthma — that MSG-averse cultures commonly associate with this ingredient. In studies all over the world, the case against MSG just doesn’t hold up.
Too often, we fail to think critically about scientific evidence. Genetically modified organisms are perhaps the best example of this.
G.M.O.s are, in theory, one of our best bets for feeding the planet’s growing population. When a 2015 Pew poll asked Americans whether they thought it was generally safe or unsafe to eat modified foods, almost 60 percent said it was unsafe. The same poll asked scientists from the American Association for the Advancement of Science the same question. Only 11 percent of them thought G.M.O.s were unsafe.
Most Americans, at least according to this poll, don’t seem to care what scientists think. In fact, Americans disagree with scientists on this issue more than just about any other, including a host of contentious topics such as vaccines, evolution and even global warming.
If people want to avoid foods, even if there’s no reason to, is that really a problem?
The answer is: yes. Because it makes food scary. And being afraid of food with no real reason is unscientific — part of the dangerous trend of anti-intellectualism that we confront in many places today.
Food should be a cause for pleasure, not panic. For most people, it’s entirely possible to eat more healthfully without living in terror or struggling to avoid certain foods altogether. If there’s one thing you should cut from your diet, it’s fear.
Aaron E. Carroll (@aaronecarroll) is a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, and a regular contributor to The Upshot. He is the author of “The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully,” from which this essay was adapted.
The differential impact of knowledge depth and knowledge breadth on creativity over individual careers
The differential impact of knowledge depth and knowledge breadth on creativity over individual careers. Pier Vittorio Mannucci and Kevyn Yong. Academy of Management Journal, http://amj.aom.org/content/early/2017/10/23/amj.2016.0529
Abstract: While usually argued to be fostering creativity, the effect of knowledge depth and breadth on creativity is actually mixed. We take a dynamic approach to the knowledge-creativity relationship and argue that the effect of knowledge depth and knowledge breadth is likely to be contingent on career age. We propose that individuals' knowledge structures become increasingly rigid as career age grows and that because of this, knowledge depth and breadth have different effects on creativity at different points of the career. More specifically, we hypothesize that knowledge depth is more beneficial for creativity in earlier stages of one's career, when creators need to increase the complexity of knowledge structures, while knowledge breadth is more beneficial in later stages, when flexibility is most needed. We test and find support for our hypotheses in a longitudinal study set in the context of the Hollywood animation industry, a setting characterized by the presence of a variety of creators involved in knowledge-intensive activities. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.
Abstract: While usually argued to be fostering creativity, the effect of knowledge depth and breadth on creativity is actually mixed. We take a dynamic approach to the knowledge-creativity relationship and argue that the effect of knowledge depth and knowledge breadth is likely to be contingent on career age. We propose that individuals' knowledge structures become increasingly rigid as career age grows and that because of this, knowledge depth and breadth have different effects on creativity at different points of the career. More specifically, we hypothesize that knowledge depth is more beneficial for creativity in earlier stages of one's career, when creators need to increase the complexity of knowledge structures, while knowledge breadth is more beneficial in later stages, when flexibility is most needed. We test and find support for our hypotheses in a longitudinal study set in the context of the Hollywood animation industry, a setting characterized by the presence of a variety of creators involved in knowledge-intensive activities. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.
An Evolutionary Perspective on Orgasm
Gallup, G. G., Jr., Towne, J. P., & Stolz, J. A. (2017). An Evolutionary Perspective on Orgasm. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000104
Abstract: The capacity to experience an orgasm evolved to promote high-frequency sex in species with low reproductive rates. Growing evidence shows that orgasms also have a variety of other reproductive consequences. Based on a distinction between orgasm frequency and orgasm intensity, there is emerging evidence in humans that orgasms function to promote and fine tune what are often very different, sex-specific reproductive outcomes. We provide an overview of the effect of hormonal contraceptives on orgasm, mate choice, and sexual satisfaction. The effects of sex during pregnancy, along with orgasm induced vocalizations, facial expressions during orgasm, and the putative effects of semen exposure on orgasm and sexual functioning in females are also discussed. Recent research suggests that female orgasms evolved to promote good mate choices, and we propose that instances of orgasmic dysfunction in many women may be a byproduct of an inability to find and/or retain high-quality male partners.
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Factor into this matrix evidence showing that women who engage in extrapair copulations are more likely to be in the fertile phase of their cycle, less likely to use contraception, and more likely to experience orgasm (Baker & Bellis, 1993), and it becomes apparent that females may have been shaped by their evolutionary history to use extrapair copulations to bare children sired by genetically superior males and/or to increase the range of genetic variation among their existing children (Gallup & Burch, 2006). By the time a woman has had three children sired by the same man, she will have sampled roughly 87.5% of his genes, and therefore, any additional children sired by the same man will be increasingly redundant genetic samples (Gallup & Ampel, 2017). By targeting high-quality males for extrapair copulations women, can have children sired by genetically superior males and as an added bonus, children sired by different males represents a hedge against an uncertain future. Consistent with this analysis women are not only more likely to experience orgasm, they also report more intense orgasms as a result of extrapair copulations (Gallup, Burch, & Mitchell, 2006). Therefore, if you are a woman whether you experience an orgasm and who you experience an orgasm with may make an important difference. Moreover, it seems reasonable to suppose that variation in orgasm intensity ought to be proportional to the magnitude of the vaginal and intrauterine contractions that occur during orgasm, which puts a reproductive premium on orgasm intensity. Suffice it to say that for all of these reasons, Lloyd’s (2005) claimed that orgasm in women was not subject to natural selection is untenable.
In contrast to females, it has been suggested that variation in ratings of orgasm intensity among males is an index or proxy for sperm recruitment (Gallup et al., 2012). Gallup et al. predicted that the ejaculate which accompanies more intense orgasms will contain more sperm and higher concentrations of other seminal chemicals tailored to make conception more likely. For example, recent research by Pham et al. (2016) shows that estimates of ejaculate volume as a measure of ejaculate quality, correlate with the duration of cunnilingus as a prelude to sexual intercourse. Because of a history of competition for paternity, coupled with the high costs of being cuckolded, we predict that indications of partner infidelity ought to also be conducive to the occurrence of more intense orgasms in men. In other words, while more intense female orgasms may function as a mate choice mechanism, more intense orgasms in men may be a reflection of sperm recruitment mechanisms that function to compete with the possibility of rival male semen in their partner’s reproductive tract. A seemingly counterintuitive but nonetheless testable prediction that follows from this analysis would be that males who fantasize about partner infidelity during sex or masturbation would be expected to experience more intense orgasms. The growing prevalence of websites on the Internet that cater to such male fantasies provides suggestive evidence for such an effect. Research by Joyal, Cossette, and Lapierre (2015), showing that a significant proportion of men fantasize about having sex with couples that they and their partner know as well as couples they do not, is also consistent with this hypothesis.
A corollary prediction would be that variation in the reproductive value of different female partners ought to be proportional to corresponding variation in male orgasm intensity. This could be tested by partitioning variation in the appearance of females depicted in pornographic videos to see if the composition of semen samples taken from males who masturbate while watching such videos varies as a function of how they rate their orgasms and as a function of objective variation in different fitness indicators among female pornography stars such as waist to hip ratios, facial attractiveness, breast size, and so forth. Variations in most physical dimensions of interpersonal attraction and sex appeal are well-documented proxies for underlying differences in health and fertility (Gallup & Frederick, 2010).
Recently, Joseph, Sharma, Agarwal, and Sirot (2015) found that ejaculate quality (as indexed by parameters such as ejaculate volume and number of motile sperm) goes up when men are exposed to novel/unfamiliar women, and men ejaculate faster when shown a new woman following a series of repeated exposures to the same woman. Thus, not surprisingly, the Coolidge effect (for a review, see Dewsbury, 1981) appears to be accompanied by testicular adjustments that make for a higher quality ejaculate, and we predict that under such conditions, males will report corresponding increases in orgasm intensity as well.
It is interesting that there may even be an assortative mating/social comparison component to such testicular adjustments. Leivers, Rhodes, and Simmons (2014a) found an interaction between male mate value and female attractiveness for measures of ejaculate quality. Men with high mate value (based on attractiveness, dominance and self-perceived mate value) only produced high-quality ejaculates when given the opportunity to view images of attractive females. Just the opposite was true for men of low mate value, who produced lower quality ejaculates when viewing attractive females. Thus, there appears to be a context dependent effect on ejaculate quality that interacts with the mate value of the male and the attractiveness of the female. High-value males only allocate high-quality ejaculates to attractive females. Also implicating the existence of specialized ejaculate allocation mechanisms based on tradeoff effects, Leivers, Rhodes, and Simmons (2014b) found that men who engage in fewer mate guarding behaviors produce higher quality ejaculates.
In the context of the social psychological properties of orgasm and intersexual reproductive competition, evidence shows that some women fake orgasms in an effort to promote partner retention (Kaighobadi, Shackelford, & Weekes-Shackelford, 2012). Consistent with these results implicating attempts by women to feign orgasms to manipulate their mates, Brewer and Hendrie (2011) found that rather than being triggered by orgasm, copulatory vocalizations by some women were more likely to occur during male ejaculation. Indeed, Ellsworth and Bailey (2013) found that faked orgasms were correlated with the likelihood that women had engaged in sexual infidelity. Ellsworth and Bailey also found that males were more sexually satisfied with females who experienced more intense and frequent orgasms, and therefore, they speculate that variation in female orgasms may convey information about the probability of paternity.
Abstract: The capacity to experience an orgasm evolved to promote high-frequency sex in species with low reproductive rates. Growing evidence shows that orgasms also have a variety of other reproductive consequences. Based on a distinction between orgasm frequency and orgasm intensity, there is emerging evidence in humans that orgasms function to promote and fine tune what are often very different, sex-specific reproductive outcomes. We provide an overview of the effect of hormonal contraceptives on orgasm, mate choice, and sexual satisfaction. The effects of sex during pregnancy, along with orgasm induced vocalizations, facial expressions during orgasm, and the putative effects of semen exposure on orgasm and sexual functioning in females are also discussed. Recent research suggests that female orgasms evolved to promote good mate choices, and we propose that instances of orgasmic dysfunction in many women may be a byproduct of an inability to find and/or retain high-quality male partners.
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Factor into this matrix evidence showing that women who engage in extrapair copulations are more likely to be in the fertile phase of their cycle, less likely to use contraception, and more likely to experience orgasm (Baker & Bellis, 1993), and it becomes apparent that females may have been shaped by their evolutionary history to use extrapair copulations to bare children sired by genetically superior males and/or to increase the range of genetic variation among their existing children (Gallup & Burch, 2006). By the time a woman has had three children sired by the same man, she will have sampled roughly 87.5% of his genes, and therefore, any additional children sired by the same man will be increasingly redundant genetic samples (Gallup & Ampel, 2017). By targeting high-quality males for extrapair copulations women, can have children sired by genetically superior males and as an added bonus, children sired by different males represents a hedge against an uncertain future. Consistent with this analysis women are not only more likely to experience orgasm, they also report more intense orgasms as a result of extrapair copulations (Gallup, Burch, & Mitchell, 2006). Therefore, if you are a woman whether you experience an orgasm and who you experience an orgasm with may make an important difference. Moreover, it seems reasonable to suppose that variation in orgasm intensity ought to be proportional to the magnitude of the vaginal and intrauterine contractions that occur during orgasm, which puts a reproductive premium on orgasm intensity. Suffice it to say that for all of these reasons, Lloyd’s (2005) claimed that orgasm in women was not subject to natural selection is untenable.
In contrast to females, it has been suggested that variation in ratings of orgasm intensity among males is an index or proxy for sperm recruitment (Gallup et al., 2012). Gallup et al. predicted that the ejaculate which accompanies more intense orgasms will contain more sperm and higher concentrations of other seminal chemicals tailored to make conception more likely. For example, recent research by Pham et al. (2016) shows that estimates of ejaculate volume as a measure of ejaculate quality, correlate with the duration of cunnilingus as a prelude to sexual intercourse. Because of a history of competition for paternity, coupled with the high costs of being cuckolded, we predict that indications of partner infidelity ought to also be conducive to the occurrence of more intense orgasms in men. In other words, while more intense female orgasms may function as a mate choice mechanism, more intense orgasms in men may be a reflection of sperm recruitment mechanisms that function to compete with the possibility of rival male semen in their partner’s reproductive tract. A seemingly counterintuitive but nonetheless testable prediction that follows from this analysis would be that males who fantasize about partner infidelity during sex or masturbation would be expected to experience more intense orgasms. The growing prevalence of websites on the Internet that cater to such male fantasies provides suggestive evidence for such an effect. Research by Joyal, Cossette, and Lapierre (2015), showing that a significant proportion of men fantasize about having sex with couples that they and their partner know as well as couples they do not, is also consistent with this hypothesis.
A corollary prediction would be that variation in the reproductive value of different female partners ought to be proportional to corresponding variation in male orgasm intensity. This could be tested by partitioning variation in the appearance of females depicted in pornographic videos to see if the composition of semen samples taken from males who masturbate while watching such videos varies as a function of how they rate their orgasms and as a function of objective variation in different fitness indicators among female pornography stars such as waist to hip ratios, facial attractiveness, breast size, and so forth. Variations in most physical dimensions of interpersonal attraction and sex appeal are well-documented proxies for underlying differences in health and fertility (Gallup & Frederick, 2010).
Recently, Joseph, Sharma, Agarwal, and Sirot (2015) found that ejaculate quality (as indexed by parameters such as ejaculate volume and number of motile sperm) goes up when men are exposed to novel/unfamiliar women, and men ejaculate faster when shown a new woman following a series of repeated exposures to the same woman. Thus, not surprisingly, the Coolidge effect (for a review, see Dewsbury, 1981) appears to be accompanied by testicular adjustments that make for a higher quality ejaculate, and we predict that under such conditions, males will report corresponding increases in orgasm intensity as well.
It is interesting that there may even be an assortative mating/social comparison component to such testicular adjustments. Leivers, Rhodes, and Simmons (2014a) found an interaction between male mate value and female attractiveness for measures of ejaculate quality. Men with high mate value (based on attractiveness, dominance and self-perceived mate value) only produced high-quality ejaculates when given the opportunity to view images of attractive females. Just the opposite was true for men of low mate value, who produced lower quality ejaculates when viewing attractive females. Thus, there appears to be a context dependent effect on ejaculate quality that interacts with the mate value of the male and the attractiveness of the female. High-value males only allocate high-quality ejaculates to attractive females. Also implicating the existence of specialized ejaculate allocation mechanisms based on tradeoff effects, Leivers, Rhodes, and Simmons (2014b) found that men who engage in fewer mate guarding behaviors produce higher quality ejaculates.
In the context of the social psychological properties of orgasm and intersexual reproductive competition, evidence shows that some women fake orgasms in an effort to promote partner retention (Kaighobadi, Shackelford, & Weekes-Shackelford, 2012). Consistent with these results implicating attempts by women to feign orgasms to manipulate their mates, Brewer and Hendrie (2011) found that rather than being triggered by orgasm, copulatory vocalizations by some women were more likely to occur during male ejaculation. Indeed, Ellsworth and Bailey (2013) found that faked orgasms were correlated with the likelihood that women had engaged in sexual infidelity. Ellsworth and Bailey also found that males were more sexually satisfied with females who experienced more intense and frequent orgasms, and therefore, they speculate that variation in female orgasms may convey information about the probability of paternity.
Do Orgasms Give Women Feedback About Mate Choice? Gordon G. Gallup et al. Evolutionary Psychology, 2014. 12(5): 957-977. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308086891
Abstract: The current study represents a preliminary investigation of the extent to which
female orgasm functions to promote good mate choices. Based on a survey of heterosexual female college students in committed relationships, how often women experienced orgasm as a result of sexual intercourse was related to their partner’s family income, his selfconfidence, and how attractive he was. Orgasm intensity was also related to how attracted they were to their partners, how many times they had sex per week, and ratings of sexual satisfaction. Those with partners who their friends rated as more attractive also tended to have more intense orgasms. Orgasm frequency was highly correlated (r = .82) with orgasm intensity, and orgasm intensity was a marginally better predictor of sexual satisfaction than orgasm frequency. Sexual satisfaction was related to how physically attracted women were to their partner and the breadth of his shoulders. Women who began having sexual intercourse at earlier ages had more sex partners, experienced more orgasms, and were more sexually satisfied with their partners. We also identified an ensemble of partner psychological traits (motivation, intelligence, focus, and determination) that predicted how often women initiated sexual intercourse. Their partner’s sense of humor not only predicted his self-confidence and family income, but it also predicted women’s propensity to initiate sex, how often they had sex, and it enhanced their orgasm frequency in comparison with other partners.
Keywords: orgasm frequency, orgasm intensity, sexual satisfaction, female initiated
intercourse, precocial sexual experience, partner sense of humor
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Bystanders intervene to impede grooming in Western chimpanzees and sooty mangabeys
Bystanders intervene to impede grooming in Western chimpanzees and sooty mangabeys. Alexander Mielke, Liran Samuni, Anna Preis, Jan F. Gogarten, Catherine Crockford, Roman M. Wittig. Royal Society Open Science, DOI: 10.1098/rsos.171296
Abstract: Grooming interactions benefit groomers, but may have negative consequences for bystanders. Grooming limits bystanders' grooming access and ensuing alliances could threaten the bystander's hierarchy rank or their previous investment in the groomers. To gain a competitive advantage, bystanders could intervene into a grooming bout to increase their own grooming access or to prevent the negative impact of others' grooming. We tested the impact of dominance rank and social relationships on grooming intervention likelihood and outcome in two sympatric primate species, Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) and sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys atys). In both species, rather than increasing their own access to preferred partners, bystanders intervened mainly when an alliance between groomers could have a negative impact on them: when the lower-ranking groomer was close to the bystander in rank, when either groomer was an affiliation partner whose services they could lose, or the groomers were not yet strongly affiliated with each other. Thus, bystanders in both species appear to monitor grooming interactions and intervene based on their own dominance rank and social relationships, as well as triadic awareness of the relationship between groomers. While the motivation to intervene did not differ between species, mangabeys appeared to be more constrained by dominance rank than chimpanzees.
Abstract: Grooming interactions benefit groomers, but may have negative consequences for bystanders. Grooming limits bystanders' grooming access and ensuing alliances could threaten the bystander's hierarchy rank or their previous investment in the groomers. To gain a competitive advantage, bystanders could intervene into a grooming bout to increase their own grooming access or to prevent the negative impact of others' grooming. We tested the impact of dominance rank and social relationships on grooming intervention likelihood and outcome in two sympatric primate species, Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) and sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys atys). In both species, rather than increasing their own access to preferred partners, bystanders intervened mainly when an alliance between groomers could have a negative impact on them: when the lower-ranking groomer was close to the bystander in rank, when either groomer was an affiliation partner whose services they could lose, or the groomers were not yet strongly affiliated with each other. Thus, bystanders in both species appear to monitor grooming interactions and intervene based on their own dominance rank and social relationships, as well as triadic awareness of the relationship between groomers. While the motivation to intervene did not differ between species, mangabeys appeared to be more constrained by dominance rank than chimpanzees.
The Humanizing Voice: Speech Reveals, and Text Conceals, a More Thoughtful Mind in the Midst of Disagreement
The Humanizing Voice: Speech Reveals, and Text Conceals, a More Thoughtful Mind in the Midst of Disagreement. Juliana Schroeder, Michael Kardas, Nicholas Epley. Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617713798
Abstract: A person’s speech communicates his or her thoughts and feelings. We predicted that beyond conveying the contents of a person’s mind, a person’s speech also conveys mental capacity, such that hearing a person explain his or her beliefs makes the person seem more mentally capable—and therefore seem to possess more uniquely human mental traits—than reading the same content. We expected this effect to emerge when people are perceived as relatively mindless, such as when they disagree with the evaluator’s own beliefs. Three experiments involving polarizing attitudinal issues and political opinions supported these hypotheses. A fourth experiment identified paralinguistic cues in the human voice that convey basic mental capacities. These results suggest that the medium through which people communicate may systematically influence the impressions they form of each other. The tendency to denigrate the minds of the opposition may be tempered by giving them, quite literally, a voice.
Check also Your attention makes me smile: Direct gaze elicits affiliative facial expressions. Jari K. Hietanen et al. Biological Psychology, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/11/your-attention-makes-me-smile-direct.html
Abstract: A person’s speech communicates his or her thoughts and feelings. We predicted that beyond conveying the contents of a person’s mind, a person’s speech also conveys mental capacity, such that hearing a person explain his or her beliefs makes the person seem more mentally capable—and therefore seem to possess more uniquely human mental traits—than reading the same content. We expected this effect to emerge when people are perceived as relatively mindless, such as when they disagree with the evaluator’s own beliefs. Three experiments involving polarizing attitudinal issues and political opinions supported these hypotheses. A fourth experiment identified paralinguistic cues in the human voice that convey basic mental capacities. These results suggest that the medium through which people communicate may systematically influence the impressions they form of each other. The tendency to denigrate the minds of the opposition may be tempered by giving them, quite literally, a voice.
Check also Your attention makes me smile: Direct gaze elicits affiliative facial expressions. Jari K. Hietanen et al. Biological Psychology, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/11/your-attention-makes-me-smile-direct.html
Speaking From Ignorance: Not Agreeing With Others We Believe Are Correct
Speaking From Ignorance: Not Agreeing With Others We Believe Are Correct. Bert Hodges et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2014, Vol. 106, No. 2, 218–234. DOI: 10.1037/a0034662
Abstract: Values-pragmatics theory (Hodges & Geyer, 2006) predicts that people will sometimes disagree with others they believe are correct, for reasons similar to those explaining agreement with incorrect answers in an Asch (1956) situation. In 3 experiments, we found evidence that people in a position of ignorance sometimes do not agree with the correct answers of others in positions of knowledge. Experiments 1a and 1b found this speaking-from-ignorance (SFI) effect occurred 27% of the time. Experiment 2 introduced experimental controls and self-report data indicating that the SFI effect (30%) was generated by realizing values (e.g., truth, social solidarity) and pragmatic constraints to act cooperatively, rather than by a wide array of alternatives (e.g., normative pressure, reactance). Experiment 3 experimentally manipulated concern for truthfulness, yielding 49% nonagreeing answers, even though there were monetary incentives to give correct, agreeing answers. The overall pattern suggests that people are not so much conformists or independents as they are cooperative truth tellers under social and moral constraints. Results, while surprising for social influence theories, illustrate the dynamics of divergence and convergence that appear across studies in cultural anthropology and developmental psychology, as well as in social psychology.
Keywords: conformity, divergence, pragmatics, truth, values
Abstract: Values-pragmatics theory (Hodges & Geyer, 2006) predicts that people will sometimes disagree with others they believe are correct, for reasons similar to those explaining agreement with incorrect answers in an Asch (1956) situation. In 3 experiments, we found evidence that people in a position of ignorance sometimes do not agree with the correct answers of others in positions of knowledge. Experiments 1a and 1b found this speaking-from-ignorance (SFI) effect occurred 27% of the time. Experiment 2 introduced experimental controls and self-report data indicating that the SFI effect (30%) was generated by realizing values (e.g., truth, social solidarity) and pragmatic constraints to act cooperatively, rather than by a wide array of alternatives (e.g., normative pressure, reactance). Experiment 3 experimentally manipulated concern for truthfulness, yielding 49% nonagreeing answers, even though there were monetary incentives to give correct, agreeing answers. The overall pattern suggests that people are not so much conformists or independents as they are cooperative truth tellers under social and moral constraints. Results, while surprising for social influence theories, illustrate the dynamics of divergence and convergence that appear across studies in cultural anthropology and developmental psychology, as well as in social psychology.
Keywords: conformity, divergence, pragmatics, truth, values
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