Dominance, phylogenetically ancient, and prestige, unique to humans, are ways to gain or maintain high rank

Dominance and Prestige: A Tale of Two Hierarchies. Jon K. Maner. Current Directions in Psychological Science.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417714323

Abstract: Dominance and prestige represent evolved strategies used to navigate social hierarchies. Dominance is a strategy through which people gain and maintain social rank by using coercion, intimidation, and power. Prestige is a strategy through which people gain and maintain social rank by displaying valued knowledge and skills and earning respect. The current article synthesizes recent lines of research documenting differences between dominance- versus prestige-oriented individuals, including personality traits and emotions, strategic behaviors deployed in social interactions, leadership strategies, and physiological correlates of both behaviors. The article also reviews effects that dominance versus prestige have on the functioning and well-being of social groups. The article also presents opportunities for future research and discusses links between dominance and prestige and the social psychological literature on power and status.

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Although both dominance and prestige serve as viable routes to high social rank, the propensity to use one strategy over the other varies across individuals. Some work indicates no correlation between people’s use of dominance and prestige (Cheng et al., 2013), suggesting that use of one strategy is not contingent on use of the other. Other work suggests a positive correlation, as both strategies share in common the motivation for high rank (Maner & Mead, 2010).

The two strategies have different implications for groups and the individuals who comprise them. For example, the two strategies are characterized by different personality traits. Whereas people who use dominance are relatively aggressive, disagreeable, manipulative, and high in dark-triad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy), people who use prestige instead are
high in self-esteem, agreeableness, need for affiliation, social monitoring, fear of negative evaluation, and conscientiousness (Case & Maner, 2017; Cheng, Tracy, & Henrich, 2010; Semenya & Honey, 2015).

Dominance and prestige are also marked by different types of emotion. Dominance is associated with feelings of arrogance, superiority, and conceit (hubristic pride; Cheng et al., 2010), whereas prestige is associated with feelings of achievement, but without a sense of superiority or arrogance (authentic pride; Cheng et al., 2010; see also Liu, Yuan, Chen, & Yu, 2016). Another emotion that distinguishes dominance from prestige is humility (Weidman, Cheng, & Tracy, 2016). Prestige, but not dominance, is associated with appreciative humility, which results from a sense of personal success and leads people to celebrate others. Given these distinct profiles of personality and emotion, it comes as no surprise that people adopting a prestige strategy tend to be more well-liked than people adopting a dominance strategy (Cheng et al., 2013).

Clear evidence for physiological correlates of dominance and prestige is limited. Many findings have linked dominance to high levels of testosterone (Mazur & Booth, 1998), yet studies in humans have tended not to differentiate between dominance and prestige. One study that did so found no correlation between dominance and testosterone; instead, the study documented a negative relation between testosterone and prestige (Johnson, Burk, & Kirkpatrick, 2007), consistent with the hypothesis that prestige is associated with an active downplaying of aggression and competitiveness. Another found that testosterone was linked with use of dominance but not with one’s actual rank in the hierarchy (van der Meij, Schaveling, & Van Vugt, 2016). Dominance (but not prestige) has been linked with wider facial width-to-height ratio (Mileva, Cowan, Cobey, Knowles, & Little, 2014)—a morphological cue associated with greater testosterone, aggressiveness, and unethical behavior (Carré, McCormick, & Mondloch, 2009; Lefevre, Lewis, Perrett, & Penke, 2013; but see Bird et al., 2016). The literature on physiological aspects of dominance and prestige would benefit from further development.

Assessments of twins’ general homophobia targeting gay men

Genetic Variance in Homophobia: Evidence from Self-and Peer Reports. Alexandra Zapko-Willmes and Christian Kandler. Behavior Genetics, accepted,  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320963054_Genetic_Variance_in_Homophobia_Evidence_from_Self-and_Peer_Reports

Abstract: The present twin study combined self- and peer assessments of twins’ general homophobia targeting gay men in order to replicate previous behavior genetic findings across different rater perspectives and to disentangle self-rater-specific variance from common variance in self- and peer-reported homophobia (i.e., rater-consistent variance). We hypothesized rater-consistent variance in homophobia to be attributable to genetic and nonshared environmental effects, and self-rater-specific variance to be partially accounted for by genetic influences. A sample of 869 twins and 1329 peer raters completed a seven item scale containing cognitive, affective, and discriminatory homophobic tendencies. After correction for age and sex differences, we found most of the genetic contributions (62%) and significant nonshared environmental contributions (16%) to individual differences in self-reports on homophobia to be also reflected in peer-reported homophobia. A significant genetic component, however, was self-report-specific (38%), suggesting that self-assessments alone produce inflated heritability estimates to some degree. Different explanations are discussed.

Listeners can reliably determine a speaker's sincerity through prosodic cues, since sincere compliments are spoken faster and with a higher pitch

The sound of (in)sincerity. Karyn Fish, Kathrin Rothermich, Marc D.Pella. Journal of Pragmatics, Volume 121, November 2017, Pages 147-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.10.008

Highlights
•    Sincere compliments and prosocial lies occur frequently in communication.
•    Listeners can reliably determine a speaker's sincerity through prosodic cues.
•    Sincere compliments are spoken faster and with a higher pitch.
•    Social context biases impressions of sincerity in compliments.
•    Prosody and speaker attitude are both important for understanding speaker intentions.

Abstract: In social life, humans do not always communicate their sincere feelings, and speakers often tell ‘prosocial lies’ to prevent others from being hurt by negative truths. Data illuminating how a speaker's voice carries sincere or insincere attitudes in speech, and how social context shapes the expression and perception of (in)sincere utterances, are scarce. Here, we studied the communication of social, other-oriented lies occurring in short dialogues. We recorded paired questions (So, what do you think of my new hairdo?) and responses (I think it looks really amazing!) using a paradigm that elicited compliments which reflected the true positive opinion of the speaker (sincere) or were meant to hide their negative opinion (insincere/prosocial lie). These Question–Response pairs were then presented to 30 listeners, who rated the sincerity of the person uttering the compliment on a 5-point scale. Results showed that participants could successfully differentiate sincere compliments from prosocial lies based largely on vocal speech cues. Moreover, sincerity impressions were biased by how the preceding question was phrased (confident or uncertain). Acoustic analyses on a subset of utterances that promoted strong impressions of sincerity versus insincerity revealed that compliments perceived as being sincere were spoken faster and began with a higher pitch than those that sounded insincere, while compliments rated as insincere tended to get louder as the utterance unfolded. These data supply new evidence of the importance of vocal cues in evaluating sincerity, while emphasizing that motivations of both the speaker and hearer contribute to impressions of speaker sincerity.

Adjusting communication to take into account information available to one’s audience is routine in humans -- Now in chimpanzees

Vocalizing in chimpanzees is influenced by social-cognitive processes. Catherine Crockford, Roman M. Wittig and Klaus Zuberbühler. Science Advances  Nov 15 2017, Vol. 3, no. 11, e1701742. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701742

Abstract: Adjusting communication to take into account information available to one’s audience is routine in humans but is assumed absent in other animals, representing a recent development on the lineage leading to humans. This assumption may be premature. Recent studies show changes in primate alarm signaling to threats according to the receivers’ risk. However, a classic problem in these and other perspective-taking studies is discerning whether signalers understand the receivers’ mental states or simply are responding to their behavior. We designed experiments to exclude concurrent reading of the receivers’ behavior by simulating receivers using prerecorded calls of other group members. Specifically, we tested whether wild chimpanzees emitted differing signals in response to a snake model when simulated receivers previously emitted either snake-related calls (indicating knowledge) or acoustically similar non–snake-related calls (indicating ignorance). Signalers showed more vocal and nonvocal signaling and receiver-directed monitoring when simulated receivers had emitted non–snake-related calls. Results were not explained by signaler arousal nor by receiver identity. We conclude that chimpanzees are aware enough of another’s perspective to target information toward ignorant group members, suggesting that the integration of signaling and social cognition systems was already emerging in early hominoid lineages before the advent of more language-specific features, such as syntax.

Blocking nocturnal blue light for insomnia: A randomized controlled trial.

Blocking nocturnal blue light for insomnia: A randomized controlled trial. Ari Shechter et al. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 2017 Oct 21;96:196-202. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.10.015

Abstract: The use of light-emitting electronic devices before bedtime may contribute to or exacerbate sleep problems. Exposure to blue-wavelength light in particular from these devices may affect sleep by suppressing melatonin and causing neurophysiologic arousal. We aimed to determine if wearing amber-tinted blue light-blocking lenses before bedtime improves sleep in individuals with insomnia. Fourteen individuals (n = 8 females; age ± SD 46.6 ± 11.5 y) with insomnia symptoms wore blue light-blocking amber lenses or clear placebo lenses in lightweight wraparound frames for 2 h immediately preceding bedtime for 7 consecutive nights in a randomized crossover trial (4-wk washout). Ambulatory sleep measures included the Pittsburgh Insomnia Rating Scale (PIRS) completed at the end of each intervention period, and daily post-sleep questionnaire and wrist-actigraphy. PIRS total scores, and Quality of Life, Distress, and Sleep Parameter subscales, were improved in amber vs. clear lenses condition (p-values less than 0.05). Reported wake-time was significantly delayed, and mean subjective total sleep time (TST), overall quality, and soundness of sleep were significantly higher (p-values less than 0.05) in amber vs. clear lenses condition over the 7-d intervention period. Actigraphic measures of TST only were significantly higher in amber vs. clear lenses condition (p = 0.035). Wearing amber vs. clear lenses for 2-h preceding bedtime for 1 week improved sleep in individuals with insomnia symptoms. These findings have health relevance given the broad use of light-emitting devices before bedtime and prevalence of insomnia. Amber lenses represent a safe, affordable, and easily implemented therapeutic intervention for insomnia symptoms.

KEYWORDS: Actigraphy; Behavioral intervention; Blue blocker; Insomnia; Randomized controlled trial; Sleep

Focusing on the present predicts improvements in life satisfaction but not happiness

Being present: Focusing on the present predicts improvements in life satisfaction but not happiness. Peter Felsman et al. Emotion. 2017 Oct;17(7):1047-1051. doi: 10.1037/emo0000333

Abstract: Mindfulness theorists suggest that people spend most of their time focusing on the past or future rather than the present. Despite the prevalence of this assumption, no research that we are aware of has evaluated whether it is true or what the implications of focusing on the present are for subjective well-being. We addressed this issue by using experience sampling to examine how frequently people focus on the present throughout the day over the course of a week and whether focusing on the present predicts improvements in the 2 components of subjective well-being over time — how people feel and how satisfied they are with their lives. Results indicated that participants were present-focused the majority of the time (66%). Moreover, focusing on the present predicted improvements in life satisfaction (but not happiness) over time by reducing negative rumination. These findings advance our understanding of how temporal orientation and well-being relate.

Women’s relationship satisfaction was related to similarity in left-right and liberal-conservative political attitudes

Leikas, Sointu, Ville J Ilmarinen, Markku Verkasalo, Hanna-Leena Vartiainen, and Jan-Erik Lönnqvist. 2017. “Relationship Satisfaction and Similarity of Personality Traits, Personal Values, and Attitudes”. PsyArXiv. November 15. psyarxiv.com/cs62j

Abstract: Spousal similarity and its consequences are widely studied, but methodologically challenging topics. We employed Response Surface Analysis to examine similarity along political attitudes, personal values, and personality traits. Opposite-sex couples (624 individuals) expecting a child were recruited. Spouses were highly similar regarding their political attitudes and moderately similar regarding trait Openness and the personal values Universalism and Tradition. Similarity for other traits and values was weak (e.g. Conscientiousness, Power values) or non-existent (e.g. Neuroticism, Benevolence values). Similarity in conservative vs. liberal attitudes was non-linear: a conservative-conservative union was most common. Women’s relationship satisfaction was related to similarity in left-right and liberal-conservative political attitudes, and both partners’ satisfaction was related to similarity in Self-Direction values. Similarity in personality traits was unrelated to relationship satisfaction.

Examining Overlap in Behavioral and Neural Representations of Morals, Facts, and Preferences

Theriault, Jordan E, Adam Waytz, Larisa Heiphetz, and Liane Young. 2017. “Examining Overlap in Behavioral and Neural Representations of Morals, Facts, and Preferences.”. PsyArXiv. November 14. doi:10.1037/xge0000350

Abstract: Moral objectivists generally believe that moral claims are akin to facts, whereas moral subjectivists generally believe that moral claims are more akin to preferences. Evidence from developmental and social psychology has generally favored an objectivist view; however, this work has typically relied on few examples, and analyses have disallowed statistical generalizations beyond these few stimuli. The present work addresses whether morals are represented as fact-like or preference-like, using behavioral and neuroimaging methods, in combination with statistical techniques that can a) generalize beyond our sample stimuli, and b) test whether particular item features are associated with neural activity. Behaviorally, and contrary to prior work, morals were perceived as more preference-like than fact-like. Neurally, morals and preferences elicited common magnitudes and spatial patterns of activity, particularly within dorsal-medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), a critical region for social cognition. This common DMPFC activity for morals and preferences was present across whole-brain conjunctions, and in individually localized functional regions of interest (targeting the Theory of Mind network). By contrast, morals and facts did not elicit any neural activity in common. Follow-up item analyses suggested that the activity elicited in common by morals and preferences was explained by their shared tendency to evoke representations of mental states. We conclude that morals are represented as far more subjective than prior work has suggested. This conclusion is consistent with recent theoretical research, which has argued that morality is fundamentally about regulating social relationships.

College-educated escorts have better outside options to prostitution, attracting fewer unpleasant clients and combining sexual services with non-sexual services such as companionship

Prostitution, hours, job amenities and education. Scott Cunningham, Todd D. Kendall. Review of Economics of the Household, December 2017, Volume 15, Issue 4, pp 1055–1080. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11150-017-9360-6

Abstract: We analyze the relationship between education and criminal behavior based on a survey of nearly 700 North American female escorts who provide (typically illegal) prostitution services. Nearly 40% of the women in our sample report college completion. College-educated women are less likely to see clients in any given week and do not earn higher average hourly wages. However, conditional on seeing any clients, college-educated prostitutes see more clients and provide longer client sessions. We demonstrate that these results are consistent with a model in which college-educated prostitutes have better outside options to prostitution, but are also able to reduce the marginal disutility of prostitution work by attracting fewer unpleasant clients and by combining sexual services with non-sexual services such as companionship, where college education may be productive.

The ability to block a moving ball affected the ball’s perceived speed

Is There a Chastity Belt on Perception? Jessica Witt, Nathan Tenhundfeld and Michael Tymoski. Psychological Science,  https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617730892

Abstract: Can one’s ability to perform an action, such as hitting a softball, influence one’s perception? According to the action-specific account, perception of spatial layout is influenced by the perceiver’s abilities to perform an intended action. Alternative accounts posit that purported effects are instead due to nonperceptual processes, such as response bias. Despite much confirmatory research on both sides of the debate, researchers who promote a response-bias account have never used the Pong task, which has yielded one of the most robust action-specific effects. Conversely, researchers who promote a perceptual account have rarely used the opposition’s preferred test for response bias, namely, the postexperiment survey. The current experiments rectified this. We found that even for people naive to the experiment’s hypothesis, the ability to block a moving ball affected the ball’s perceived speed. Moreover, when participants were explicitly told the hypothesis and instructed to resist the influence of their ability to block the ball, their ability still affected their perception of the ball’s speed.

Consumers who experience the sensation of going against the flow pick alternatives that are normatively not preferred

Going against the Flow: The Effects of Dynamic Sensorimotor Experiences on Consumer Choice. Mina Kwon and Rashmi Adaval. Journal of Consumer Research, ucx107, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx107

Abstract: Sensorimotor experiences of going against the flow can affect the choices consumers make. Eight experiments show that consumers who experience the sensation of going against the flow pick alternatives that are normatively not preferred (experiments 1a and 1b). These effects are evident only when the sensations are dynamic and self-experienced (experiments 2a and 2b), subjective feelings are elicited (experiments 4a and 4b) and no other objective, external norm information is supplied (experiment 5). Experiences of going against the flow typically involve both movement and direction and are represented in memory schematically. Re-experiencing these sensations leads to the activation of this schematic representation and elicits a feeling-based behavioral disposition to do something different, or to go against one’s initial inclination (experiment 3), leading participants to pick an option that is normatively not preferred

Keywords: sensory motor experiences, embodied cognition, choice, affect, norms

Indoor Prostitution Lowers Sex Crime: Evidence from New York City

The Effect of Indoor Prostitution on Sex Crime: Evidence from New York City. Riccardo Ciacci & María Micaela Sviatschi. Columbia University Working Paper, November 25 2016. http://www.micaelasviatschi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/sex_crimeNYC.pdf

Abstract: We use a unique data set to study the effect of indoor prostitution establishments on sex crimes. We built a daily panel from January 1, 2004 to June 30, 2012 with the exact location of police stops for sex crimes and the day of opening and location of indoor prostitution establishments. We find that indoor prostitution decreases sex crime with no effect on other types of crime. We argue that the reduction is mostly driven by potential sex offenders that become customers of indoor prostitution establishments. We also rule out other mechanisms such as an increase in the number of police officers and a reduction of potential victims in areas where these businesses opened. In addition, results are robust to different data sources and measures of sex crimes apart from police stops.

Check also Street Prostitution Zones and Crime. Paul Bisschop, Stephen Kastoryano, and Bas van der Klaauw. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 2017, 9(4): 28–63. http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/10/opening-prostritution-zone-decreases.html

Psychopathy and Heroism in First Responders: Traits Cut From the Same Cloth?

Patton, C. L., Smith, S. F., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2017). Psychopathy and Heroism in First Responders: Traits Cut From the Same Cloth? Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/per0000261

Abstract: Some scholars have posited that certain traits associated with psychopathy—namely, fearlessness, boldness, and willingness to take risks—are associated with greater engagement in heroic and altruistic acts; nevertheless, this conjecture has received little empirical attention. We examined the relations among psychopathic traits, heroism, altruism, workplace deviance, and leadership in first-responder (n = 138) and civilian (n = 104) samples recruited by means of an online platform. Across samples, fearless dominance, boldness, sensation seeking, and several other psychopathy-related variables were positively and significantly associated with everyday heroism and altruism. First responders scored significantly higher than did civilians on measures of psychopathy, fearlessness, boldness, heroism, and altruism, and reported significantly greater workplace deviance and participation in leadership activities. Our results support previous suggestions of ties between psychopathic traits, especially fearlessness and heroism, although they leave unresolved the question of why certain antisocial and prosocial behaviors appear to covary.

Have passive rentiers replaced the working rich at the top of the U.S. income distribution? They haven't.

Capitalists in the Twenty-First Century. Matthew Smith, Danny Yagan, Owen Zidar, and Eric Zwick. http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/owen.zidar/research/papers/capitalists.pdf

Abstract: Have passive rentiers replaced the working rich at the top of the U.S. income distribution? Using administrative data linking 10 million firms to their owners, this paper shows that private business owners who actively manage their firms are key for top income inequality. Private business income accounts for most of the rise of top incomes since 2000 and the majority of top earners receive private business income--most of which accrues to active owner-managers of mid-market firms in relatively skill-intensive and unconcentrated industries. Profit falls substantially after premature owner deaths. Top-owned firms are twice as profitable per worker as other firms despite similar risk, and rising profitability without rising scale explains most of their profit growth. Together, these facts indicate that the working rich remain central to rising top incomes in the twenty-first century.

The view that political attitudes are detached from any physical properties is unsustainable -- social justice attitude linked to genetics

A Genetic Basis of Economic Egalitarianism. Nemanja Batrićević, and Levente Littvay. Social Justice Research, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11211-017-0297-y

Abstract: Studies of political attitudes and ideologies have sought to explain their origin. They have been assumed to be a result of political values ingrained during the process of socialization until early adulthood, as well as personal political experience, party affiliation, social strata, etc. As a consequence of these environment-dominated explanations, most biology-based accounts of political preference have never been considered. However, in the light of evidence accumulated in recent years, the view that political attitudes are detached from any physical properties became unsustainable. In this paper, we investigate the origins of social justice attitudes, with special focus on economic egalitarianism and its potential genetic basis. We use Minnesota Twin Study data from 2008, collected from samples of monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs (n = 573) in order to estimate the additive genetic, shared environmental, and unique environmental components of social justice attitudes. Our results show that the large portion of the variance in a four-item economic egalitarianism scale can be attributed to genetic factor. At the same time, shared environment, as a socializing factor, has no significant effect. The effect of environment seems to be fully reserved for unique personal experience. Our findings further problematize a long-standing view that social justice attitudes are dominantly determined by socialization.

Check also Sabatini, Fabio and Ventura, Marco and Yamamura, Eiji and Zamparelli, Luca (2017): Fairness and the unselfish demand for redistribution by taxpayers and welfare recipients. Ludwig-Maximilians Universitaet Muenchen, http://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/10/higher-support-for-redistribution-by.html

Male prairie voles enjoy forcing sex on the females, the females do not enjoy not being able to escape

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

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.


---
‘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.

[...]

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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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.