The widely held assumption in philosophy & psychology that one purpose of human morality is to regulate social behavior is confirmed: the presence of another person increased moral values' importance

Yudkin, Daniel A., Ana P. Gantman, Wilhelm Hofmann, and Jordi Quoidbach. 2019. “Moral Values Gain Importance in the Presence of Others.” PsyArXiv. April 12. doi:10.31234/osf.io/tcq65

Abstract: A widely held assumption in philosophy and psychology is that the purpose of human morality is to regulate social behavior. Yet this premise has never been tested directly. We used a custom smartphone application to repeatedly record participants’ (N = 1,166) social context and the importance they afforded different moral values. Results showed moral values were rated more important when people were in the presence of others versus alone. This effect was robust to a series of potential confounds (demographics, time of day, mood) and was moderated by relationship type such that closer social relationships exerted stronger impact on moral evaluation than more distant. Furthermore, the effect of social proximity on moral evaluation was stronger for “binding” values than “individualizing” ones, suggesting the effect of social context differs according to value type. A randomized laboratory experiment confirmed that the mere physical presence of another person in the immediate environment increased the importance of moral values. Overall, these results demonstrate the contextual sensitivity of moral values and corroborate the view that morals play a social-regulatory role in human behavior.

Moral Values Gain Importance in the Presence of Others

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When we think about moral values, it is tempting to picture the philosopher in the armchair, postulating moral principles. Yet there is near consensus this is the wrong way to describe morality. Instead, research suggests the more accurate picture is that of two or more people, figuring out how to live and work together (ⁱ, ⁱⁱ, ⁱⁱⁱ, ^iv, ^v).

The inherently social nature of morality suggests moral values may be more salient when people are in social contexts. Fitting this idea, classic research suggests the presence of others impacts behavior (^vi). Other work shows that social situations increase egalitarian behavior (^vii, ^viii), and the mere suggestion of an external observer can increase cooperation (^ix, ^x, ^xi). Remarkably, however, the possibility that moral values gain importance in the presence of others has never been directly tested empirically. Answering this question would thus provide empirical validation to a foundational assumption in moral theory.

We sought tested this question using an app-based experience-sampling method (^xii, ^xiii). By measuring the importance of moral values in people’s daily lives as well as their current social situations, this approach has the potential to obtain a more accurate picture of how context impacts moral evaluation. We also tested two additional hypotheses. First, past research suggests that people’s treatment of others varies according to their social distance to the self (^xiv, ^xv). Accordingly, we tested whether the effect is moderated by social distance. Second, research shows morality can be divided into two types of values: “individualizing” (concerned with rights and freedoms), and “binding” (concerned with group harmony and cohesion) (^xvi, ^xvii). Because the latter set is particularly important for social regulation (^xviii) it is possible the importance of these values is especially sensitive to the presence of others (^xix). Overall, our method presented an opportunity to put several influential theories of moral psychology to the test in a real-world setting.

The research was part of the “58 seconds” project (^xx) approved by The Ethics Committee of ESADE Business School, Spain. European adults (N = 1,166, M_age = 35.7, SD = 11.1, 861 female, 305 male) were asked a series of questions (pulled from a larger pool) at random intervals over several months. Moral importance was assessed by averaging across responses of how important it was for participants to behave in accordance with values of care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity (0 – not at all; 100 – very) (17). Participants also indicated how happy they felt (0 – not at all; 100 – very), and who, if anyone, they were with. The analytic approach consisted of a series of multilevel analyses using the lme4 and lmerTest packages in R controlling for participants’ age and gender, hour of day, and day of week, with participant-level random intercepts (all scripts and materials at https://osf.io/4q8jg/).

Smartphone zombies! Pedestrians’ distracted walking as a function of their fear of missing out

Smartphone zombies! Pedestrians’ distracted walking as a function of their fear of missing out. Markus Appel et al. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
April 12 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.04.003

Highlights
•    The motives for smartphone use while walking are not well understood.
•    We explore the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) as a potential reason for this behavior.
•    FoMO predicts distracted walking regardless of participants' age or gender.
•    It further predicts pedestrians' virtual social interactions and dangerous incidents.

Abstract: Smartphone use while walking (i.e., being a smartphone zombie) has become a prevalent phenomenon in many ciies worldwide. Previous research shows that many pedestrians choose to interact with their phones as they walk around in cities, despite being aware that their behavior might be dangerous. To investigate potential reasons for the prevalence of distracted walking, the current study explores the construct Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) as a potential antecedent of pedestrians' smartphone use while walking. Hierarchical OLS and logistic regression analyses show that FoMO predicts distracted walking, the tendency to engage in virtual social interactions while walking, and dangerous traffic incidents—irrespective of participants’ age and gender. Virtual communication might serve as a compensation for real-world company, thus sidelining the need to traverse safely.

Partnered women blindly rated their partner's body odor as smelling sexier and less strong than the body odor of unknown males; body odor preference ratings appear to be driven by familiarity ratings

Do women love their partner's smell? Exploring women's preferences for and identification of male partner and non-partner body odor. Mehmet K. Mahmut, Richard J. Stevenson, Ian Stephen. Physiology & Behavior, Apr 12 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.04.006

Highlights

•    Partnered women blindly rated their partner's body odor as smelling sexier than the body odor of unknown males.
•    Partnered women blindly rated their partner's body odor as smelling less strong than the body odor of unknown males.
•    Partnered women were unlikely to rank their partner's body odor as most preferred in a pool including six unknown males.
•    Partnered women could reliably recognise their partner's body odor.
•    Body odor preference ratings appear to be driven by familiarity ratings.

Abstract: Despite evidence indicating body odor (BO) preference is an important driver in mate selection, previous studies have only investigated females' preferences for the BO of strangers. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to determine if partnered females prefer their partner's BO compared to that of others males' BO. Forty partnered and 42 single, heterosexual women aged 18–35 years, brought to the laboratory a shirt their partner or male friend/relative (respectively) sweated in while wearing. The results indicated that both partnered and single women (blindly) rated their known donor's BO as smelling significantly more similar, familiar and sexy compared to six unknown male's BO, but rated their known donor's BO as less intense smelling than unknown males' BO. While participants indicated they liked their known donor's BO more than that of unknown males' BO, the difference was not statistically significant. Moreover, participants were unlikely to rank their known donor's BO as their most preferred of seven BOs. Finally, partnered and single participants could reliably recognise their known donor's BO and that of unknown males' which was driven by their ability to indicate a stranger's BO was not that of known donor's. Overall, these preliminary findings suggest that partnered females may prefer their partners' BO but this preference may not be due to mate selection but instead a consequence of repeated exposure to their partner's BO.

Self-harm in older adults: Loss of control, increased loneliness and perceived burdensome ageing were reported self-harm motivations

Self-harm in older adults: systematic review. M. Isabela Troya et al. The British Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 214, Issue 4, April 2019, pp. 186-200. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2019.11

Abstract
Background: Self-harm is a major public health concern. Increasing ageing populations and high risk of suicide in later life highlight the importance of identification of the particular characteristics of self-harm in older adults.

Aim: To systematically review characteristics of self-harm in older adults.

Methods: A comprehensive search for primary studies on self-harm in older adults was conducted in e-databases (AgeLine, CINAHL, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Web of Science) from their inception to February 2018. Using predefined criteria, articles were independently screened and assessed for methodological quality. Data were synthesised following a narrative approach. A patient advisory group advised on the design, conduct and interpretation of findings.

Results: A total of 40 articles (n = 62 755 older adults) were included. Yearly self-harm rates were 19 to 65 per 100 000 people. Self-poisoning was the most commonly reported method. Comorbid physical problems were common. Increased risk repetition was reported among older adults with self-harm history and previous and current psychiatric treatment. Loss of control, increased loneliness and perceived burdensome ageing were reported self-harm motivations.

Conclusions: Self-harm in older adults has distinct characteristics that should be explored to improve management and care. Although risk of further self-harm and suicide is high in all age cohorts, risk of suicide is higher in older adults. Given the frequent contact with health services, an opportunity exists for detection and prevention of self-harm and suicide in this population. These results are limited to research in hospital-based settings and community-based studies are needed to fully understand self-harm among older adults.

Overestimating the Valuations of Others: People Perceive Others as Experiencing Everything More Intensely

Jung, Minah and Moon, Alice and Nelson, Leif D., Overestimating the Valuations of Others: People Perceive Others as Experiencing Everything More Intensely (February 4, 2019). SSRN, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3352888

Abstract: People often make judgments about their own and others’ valuations and preferences. Across 12 studies (N=17,939), we find a robust bias in these judgments such that people tend to believe that others have more intense experiences than they do, leading to overestimation of others’ valuations and preferences. We argue that this overestimation arises because estimations of others’ preferences rely on people’s intuitive, core representations of the experience itself (i.e., whether the experience is positive or negative). We first demonstrate that the overestimation bias is pervasive for a wide range of positive (Studies 1-4) and negative experiences (Study 5), and is not merely an artifact of how preferences are measured (Study 6). This overestimation bias ultimately forms a paradox in how people think that others tradeoff between valuation and utility (Study 7). Specifically, people believe that an identically-paying other would enjoy the same experience more than they would, but also that an identically-enjoying other would pay more for the same experience. Such paradoxical judgments do not extend to domains unrelated to preference and valuation (Studies 8A-8B), but do extend to other preference measures, such as willingness-to-wait (Studies 9-10). Finally, consistent with a core representation explanation, explicitly prompting people to consider the entire distribution of others’ preferences significantly reduced or eliminated the bias (Study 11). These findings suggest that social judgments of others’ preferences are not only largely biased, but they also ignore how others make trade-offs between evaluative metrics.

Keywords: overestimation bias, comparative judgments, valuation, preferences, paradox

We document a positive relationship between the endorsement of good citizenship (voting, paying taxes, staying informed, etc.) and narcissism, and a negative relationship for psychopathy

Who makes a good citizen? The role of personality. Scott Pruysers, Julie Blais, Phillip G.Chen. Personality and Individual Differences. Volume 146, 1 August 2019, Pages 99-104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.04.007

Abstract: In this paper we explore the link between personality and attitudes towards good citizenship and civic duty. To do so we recruited 371 eligible Canadian voters from a national panel, asking a variety of questions regarding their level of political participation and attitudinal questions regarding the importance of a number of behaviors typically associated with good citizenship (i.e., voting, paying taxes, staying informed, etc.). Importantly, we included two batteries of personality items: the HEXACO, which covers general personality (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience), and the Dark Triad (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism). The analysis reveals a consistent and important explanatory role for personality, even after controlling for standard explanatory factors such as age, gender, income, education, political interest, knowledge, efficacy, and placement on the left-right scale. Among other findings, we document a positive relationship between the endorsement of good citizenship and narcissism, and a negative relationship for psychopathy.

Prejudiced and unaware of it: Evidence for the Dunning-Kruger model in the domains of racism and sexism

Prejudiced and unaware of it: Evidence for the Dunning-Kruger model in the domains of racism and sexism. Keon West, Asia A.Eaton. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 146, 1 August 2019, Pages 111-119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.03.047

Abstract: Prior research, and high-prolife contemporary examples, show that individuals tend to underestimate their own levels of bias. This underestimation is partially explained by motivational factors. However, (meta-) cognitive factors may also be involved. Conceptualising contemporary egalitarianism as type of skill or competence, this research proposed that egalitarianism should conform to the Dunning-Kruger model. That is, individuals should overestimate their own ability, and this overestimation should be strongest in the least competent individuals. Furthermore, training should improve metacognition and reduce this overestimation. Two studies on racism (N = 148), and sexism (N = 159) partially supported these hypotheses. In line with the Dunning-Kruger model, participants overestimated their levels of racial and gender-based egalitarianism, and this pattern was strongest among the most prejudiced participants. However, diversity training did not affect participants' overestimation of their egalitarianism. Implications for contemporary prejudice, and prejudice-reducing strategies are discussed.

Joint attention skills in wild Arabian babblers (Turdoides squamiceps): a consequence of cooperative breeding?

Yitzchak Ben Mocha et al. Joint attention skills in wild Arabian babblers (Turdoides squamiceps): a consequence of cooperative breeding?, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2019). Apr 3 2019. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0147

Abstract

Human cooperation strongly relies on the ability of interlocutors to coordinate each other's attentional state: joint attention. One predominant hypothesis postulates that this hallmark of the unique cognitive system of humans evolved due to the combination of an ape-like cognitive system and the prosocial motives that facilitate cooperative breeding. Here, we tested this hypothesis by investigating communicative interactions of a cooperatively breeding bird species, the Arabian babbler (Turdoides squamiceps). The behaviour of 12 wild social groups was observed focusing on two distinct communicative behaviours: object presentation and babbler walk. The results showed that both behaviours fulfilled the criteria for first-order intentional communication and involved co-orientation of recipients' attention. In turn, recipients responded with cooperative and communicative acts that resulted in coordinated joint travel between interlocutors. These findings provide the first evidence that another animal species shows several key criteria traditionally used to infer joint attention in prelinguistic human infants. Furthermore, they emphasize the influence of cooperative breeding on sophisticated socio-cognitive performances, while questioning the necessity of an ape-like cognitive system underlying joint attentional behaviour.

1. Introduction

The extraordinary degree of cooperation exhibited by humans seems unrivalled in the animal kingdom [1,2]. Theorists have implicated a specific cognitive capacity, joint attention, as one of the essential building blocks for the evolution of the cooperative abilities of humans [1,3]. Traditionally, joint attention has been defined as the ability to attract and coordinate the attention of a recipient towards a locus of mutual interest (e.g. an object/event in the environment [4]). Precursors of this cognitive capacity can already be found in human infants at the age of approximately six months, who respond to joint attention by following the direction of a caretaker's gesture [5]. At the age of 9–12 months, infants are capable of initiating joint attention with a social partner by gesturing towards a locus of mutual interest [4]. Consequently, the development of joint attention skills is seen as a fundamental milestone in the ontogeny of human cooperative communication [5,6]. Some scholars even see joint attention as the ‘small difference that made a big difference’ in the cognitive evolution of our species [3].

One predominant hypothesis about the evolution of human sophisticated social cognition, the ‘cooperative breeding’ hypothesis [2], postulates that cooperative breeding installed prosocial psychological functioning supporting systematic alloparental care. This, in turn, resulted in immediate consequences for socio-cognitive performance [7]: Caretakers of cooperative breeders evolved specific cognitive capacities for understanding the needs of others' offspring. In parallel, the offspring developed elaborate communicative signalling to attract attention and care from caretakers other than their mothers [8]. Concerning humans, it has been argued that the exceptional co-occurrence of an existing ape-like cognitive system together with humans’ systematic reliance on alloparental care [9,10] gave rise to unique socio-cognitive capacities such as joint attention (figure 1) [2,7].

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However, are joint attentional skills indeed uniquely human and is the combination of an ape-like cognitive system and cooperative breeding a crucial prerequisite?

To date, relatively little is known about joint attentional skills and the acting selection pressures in other animal species. Furthermore, whether specific behaviours of non-human animals towards human caretakers (e.g. gaze alternation in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes [11]; pointing in bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus [12]; and vocal learning in grey parrots, Psittacus erithacus [13]) qualify as joint attentional skills in the human sense is subject to a contentious debate [3,14,15].

Here, we revisited the claim that joint attentional skills are a uniquely human ability [3,15] and tested whether the combination of an ape-like cognitive system and cooperative breeding represents a necessary requirement for joint attention to unfold [2]. We predicted that if an ape-like cognitive system and cooperative breeding are both necessary for joint attention [2,7], bird species will not exhibit key hallmarks of this trait. However, if an ape-like cognitive system is not necessary, but cooperative breeding does facilitate the performance of joint attention skills [16], cooperatively breeding species will demonstrate hallmarks of joint attention. To test these predictions, we investigated communicative interactions in a cooperatively breeding bird species, the Arabian babbler (Turdoides squamiceps), in the wild.

Arabian babblers live in stable social groups [17], consisting of 2–20 kin and non-kin from both sexes [17]. All members provide substantial allopaternal care and use elaborate communicative signalling [17]. We focused on two distinct signals, ‘object presentation’ [18] and ‘babbler walk’, which are frequently used to solicit following behaviour from conspecifics. object presentation involves the discreet presentation of an object to attract the recipient's attention without being seen by other group members. The goal is to lead the recipient towards a hidden location for copulation [18] (see electronic supplementary material, video S1). babbler walk is a multi-modal signal that involves conspicuous wing waving and vocalizations, and is used to solicit a conspecific to follow the signaller (figure 2).

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We paid special attention to two distinct issues that have hampered comparative research on joint attention. First, disagreement on an applicable definition of joint attention has so far prevented valid quantitative comparisons between human and other animal species [19–21]. For example, some define joint attention as the ‘intentional co-orientation of two or more organisms to the same locus’ [21]. Others (e.g. [3]), by contrast, require complex mind reading and define it as ‘the mutual awareness of having attended to the same entity between two (or more) individuals. Mutual awareness is established through communication by at least one individual during mutual gaze’ [20]. To overcome this lack of consensus, we refrained from testing whether communicative episodes between Arabian babblers fit a specific definition. Instead, we investigated whether communicative interactions that were initiated by object presentation and babbler walk fulfilled distinct hallmarks that have traditionally been used to infer joint attention in prelinguistic human infants: (i) intentional communication (e.g. [21,22]), (ii) co-orientation of attention (e.g. [4,15]) and (iii) mutual awareness (e.g. [20,23]). By applying this approach, we aimed to instigate a constructive discussion on joint attentional skills that provides useful tools to pinpoint the different degrees of joint attention and cognitive capacities involved [19].

Second, research on joint attention in non-human species has been strongly biased towards interactions with objects (e.g. [12,20]). However, joint attention can revolve around any type of locus [15] such as, for instance, the interlocutors themselves, or the activity they are performing at the time [4,24]. Hence, we examined whether signallers acted to attract and co-orient recipients' attention to their joint travel.

We thus investigated whether communicative episodes initiated by object presentation and babbler walk fulfil the following three key hallmarks of joint attention (see table 1 and methods for detailed operational criteria).


Check also Yitzchak Ben Mocha et al. Intentional Presentation of Objects in Cooperatively Breeding Arabian Babblers (Turdoides squamiceps), Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (2019). DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00087

Popular: Attention skills in a nonhuman cooperative breeding species. Max Planck Society Press Article, Apr 11 2019. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-attention-skills-nonhuman-cooperative-species.html

Speaking like a Man: Women’s Pitch as a Cue for Gender Stereotyping --Women’s average voice pitch has decreased in recent years, reducing the gap between men on this vocal dimension

Speaking like a Man: Women’s Pitch as a Cue for Gender Stereotyping. Barbara Krahé, Lida Papakonstantinou. Sex Roles, April 11 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-019-01041-z

Abstract: Women’s average voice pitch has decreased in recent years, reducing the gap between men on this vocal dimension. The present study examined whether a woman speaking at a lower pitch would be perceived as less feminine and more masculine than a woman speaking at a higher pitch. Participants (n = 100, 67 female) listened to an audiotape of a woman in which her natural voice was manipulated to represent a pitch of either 220 Hz or 165 Hz. They then rated her on positive and negative facets of masculinity and femininity as well as competence and likeability. In addition, participants’ gendered self-concept was measured to examine potential moderator effects. As predicted, positive masculinity ratings were significantly higher, and positive and negative femininity ratings were significantly lower, in the 165 Hz than in the 220 Hz condition. The woman was also rated as more likeable in the 220 Hz than in the 165 Hz condition. No difference was found for negative masculinity and competence ratings, and no moderation effect of participants’ gendered self-concept emerged. The findings suggest that lower voice pitch is a masculinity cue that elicits stereotyped perceptions of female speakers and may have implications for impression formation in a variety of domains.

Keywords: Gender stereotypes Voice pitch Masculinity Femininity Likeability

Hungry People Prefer Larger Bodies and Objects: The Importance of Testing Boundary Effects

Saxton, Tamsin, Kristofor McCarty, Jasmine Caizley, Dane McCarrick, and Thomas V. Pollet. 2019. “Hungry People Prefer Larger Bodies and Objects: The Importance of Testing Boundary Effects.” PsyArXiv. April 11. doi:10.31234/osf.io/s7ta8

Abstract: Several experimental studies have indicated that when people are hungry, they assess larger women’s bodies as more attractive, compared to when they are satiated. These satiety-dependent judgements are assumed to contribute to the noted cross-cultural differences in attitudes towards women’s adiposity. However, it is premature to make this assumption until satiety-dependent judgements of stimuli other than female bodies have also been tested. Accordingly, we collected attractiveness judgements of female and male bodies manipulated to vary in size by varying level of adiposity, and objects manipulated to vary in size, from 186 participants who also reported their current hunger level. We found that larger sizes of stimuli in general, and women’s bodies in particular, especially when judged by women, were judged as more attractive at higher levels under conditions of hunger. We discuss these patterns in the context of the Insurance Hypothesis, the Environmental Security Hypothesis, and the impact of hunger on acquisition.

From 2013... Do not end the filibuster: Because narrow Senate majorities often represent only a minority of Americans, many filibusters are not at odds with majority rule at all

The Majoritarian Filibuster. Benjamin Eidelson. Yale Law Journal (2013), Volume 122, Issue 4. https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5549&context=ylj

ABSTRACT:The debate over the Senate filibuster revolves around its apparent conflict with the principle of majority rule. Because narrow Senate majorities often represent only a minority of Americans, however, many filibusters are not at odds with majority rule at all. Bypaying attention to such "majoritarian filibusters," this Note aims to disrupt the terms of the traditional debate and open up a new space for potential compromise. This Note reports the first empirical study of the majoritarian or countermajoritarian character of recent filibusters. These data reveal that, in half of the Congresses over the past two decades, successful filibustering minorities usually represented more people than the majorities they defeated. The choicewhether to preserve the filibuster therefore cannot be reduced to a simple choice between majority rule and minority rights. After exploring the distribution of majoritarian and countermajoritarian filibusters along other dimensions of interest, this Note proposes that themajority-rule principle might be better served by simply reducing the sixty-vote cloture threshold-thereby shifting the balance toward majoritarian as opposed to countermajoritarian filibusters-than by abolishing the filibuster altogether.

Even in the rare cases where smartphones might alter cognition, this effect is likely transitory

An examination of the potential lingering effects of smartphone use on cognition. Peter Frost et al. Applied Cognitive Psychology, March 18 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3546

Summary

Smartphones might offer an extension of our own cognitive abilities, potentially preventing practice of certain forms of cognition. Our first study established that heavier usage of smartphones was negatively correlated with social problem solving and delayed gratification, as well as positively correlated with some aspects of critical thinking. Studies 2 and 3 involved experiments where participants were assigned to either a lower or higher smartphone usage group. In both experiments, higher usage of smartphones led only to a diminished ability to interpret and analyze the deeper meaning of information. However, Study 3 showed that, after a 4‐week interval, the difference in the ability to interpret and analyze meaning between lower and higher phone usage groups was no longer evident. The findings of this study suggest that, even in the rare cases where smartphones might alter cognition, this effect is likely transitory.

1 INTRODUCTION

In his book, “The Shallows,” Carr (2010) suggests the following when it comes to how technology might be changing our cognition:

    Over the past few years I've had the uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn't going—so far as I can tell—but it's changing. I'm not thinking the way I used to think. (Carr, 2010, p. 5)

Other popular media and books portray smartphones, social media, and other technology as diminishing cognitive capacities, like attention and concentration (Bauerlein, 2011).

Smartphone technology, in particular, is taking on an increasingly larger role in our daily mental activities. Pew Research data show that 77% of all U.S. adults had a smartphone in 2018, up from 35% in 2011 (Pew Research Center, 2018). The Pew Center also indicated that, in 2018, 94% of people from age 18 to 29 owned a smartphone. While access to smartphone technology has grown, so too has the body of literature investigating the concurrent and immediate residual inhibitory effects of these devices on certain forms of cognition, particularly attention (Strayer, Cooper, Turrill, Coleman, & Hopman, 2015; Strayer & Drews, 2007). Our study, however, focuses more on the potential for longer term effects these devices might exert on higher order cognition, including the ability to think critically, problem solve, reason, and engage in executive control. Some researchers acknowledge that consideration of the intersection between cognition and technology is an understudied area in psychology (Pennycook, Fugelsang, & Koehler, 2015; Wilmer, Sherman, & Chein, 2017).

If we consider the neuroplasticity of the brain—its ability to physically alter neural connectivity on the basis of changes in the environment and experience—could smartphone technology, which provides immediate and 24/7 access to the internet, be altering our cognitive abilities? Underlying this debate is the neuropsychological phenomenon of “use‐it‐or‐lose it,” demonstrated by neuroimaging and physiological studies that show new experiences strengthen synaptic connections in areas of the brain frequently used while weakening connections that are rarely used (Carr, 2010). Reliance on mobile phone technology as a form of “extended cognition” (Barr, Pennycook, Stolz, & Fugelsang, 2015; Clayton, Leshner, & Almond, 2015) or “ibrain” (Small & Vorgan, 2008) might be leading to changes occurring in the brain that alter our ability to engage in various cognitive processes. Might easy access to information take away from practice of more deliberative thoughts and critical thinking skills? Moreover, might the constant notifications and cues provided by mobile phones be interrupting our ability to engage in higher cognition and/or delay gratification for longer term goals?

Some studies, such as that by Barr et al. (2015), have examined whether there may be a correlation between analytical thinking and smartphone technology. Barr and colleagues found that people who relied more heavily on smartphones and information sources performed worse on analytic‐thinking tasks. In a separate review article, Pennycook et al. (2015) acknowledged that this preliminary research suggests that smartphones may serve as a “second brain” that allows people to offload thinking.

Some studies show that smartphones might influence other forms of higher order cognitive functions, such as executive function and ability to delay gratification. The ability to resist temptation in favor of long‐term goals has important implications for individual, societal, and economic success (Casey et al., 2011). Delay of gratification is also negatively correlated with the control abilities in children and adults (Casey et al., 2011; Metcalfe & Mischel, 1999).

Wilmer and Chein (2016) showed that higher scores on a self‐report measure of mobile technology engagement was correlated with a weaker tendency to delay gratification, as measured by a delay discounting task. Their self‐report questionnaire measured (a) daily usage of social media apps, (b) frequency of posting public status updates, and (c) phone‐checking behavior. Wilmer and Chein found a negative correlation between mobile device engagement and delay of gratification. They also found that this relationship might be specifically mediated by individual differences in impulse control and not reward sensitivity. The correlational nature of this study limited inferences about causation, but did show an interesting association between mobile device usage and habits associated with delay of gratification.

There is also evidence that the use of smartphones is correlated with some subjective reports associated with attention. Marty‐Dugas, Ralph, Oakman, and Smilek (2018) found that the results of a self‐report that assessed attention lapses, attention‐related errors, and mind wandering was positively related to results of a self‐report that assessed extent of smartphone use. These researchers found the correlation was particularly strong for participants who used smartphones without a specific purpose in mind (for what they referred to as “absent‐minded” usage). Even the mere presence of smartphones can interrupt attention and task performance (Thornton, Faires, Robbins, & Rollins, 2014). These studies show a relationship between concurrent smartphone use and attention. What about lingering effects on attention?

There is research showing that the multitasking aspect of smartphone technology habits, particularly for purposes of using social media, might relate to longer term effects on control of attention and concentration. Ophir, Clifford, and Wagner (2009) had participants engage in a number classification task (even or odd?) or letter classification task (vowel or consonant?). They then occasionally switched tasks. They calculated a “switch cost” as the difference in mean response time between trials preceded by a trial of the other type (switch trials) minus trials preceded by a trail of the same type (nonswitch trials). The switch cost for heavy social media multitaskers was 167 ms greater than that of low social media multitaskers. Heavy social media multimedia users performed worse on a test of task switching, perhaps—they speculated—because of reduced ability to filter out interference from irrelevant representations.

Relevant to smartphone usage for social networking purposes, studies show a positive association between heavier usage of social networking sites and diminished cognitive control or lack of judgment (Alloway & Alloway, 2012; Cao, Masood, Luqman, & Ali, 2018; Chen & Kim, 2013). Chen and Kim (2013) found that, if heavier users of social networking sites went to them for entertainment or pleasure, those desires overrode privacy concerns, such as unauthorized secondary use and improper access. Heavier usage was also associated with greater problematic social networking behaviors. Chen and Kim identified problematic social networking use based on Young's (1998) 20‐item version of problematic Internet use, and items were adjusted to be more relevant to the context of social networking. For example, respondents were asked if they found themselves staying on social networking sites longer than they intended, and if they feared that life without social networking sites would be empty and joyless. They suggest that problematic use might be a compulsivity control issue that cannot be overridden by recognition of potential long‐term exposure to harm. Again, though, a causal link was not established in this particular study. It is unclear whether heavy usage of social networking attracts people with less cognitive control or if social networking may be contributing to a lack of cognitive control. Some of these studies also emphasize the most extreme cases of heavy technology usage.

Some studies also find a negative association between the use of mobile phone technology and working memory (Abramson et al., 2009). Abramson et al. (2009) administered a questionnaire about mobile phone usage. They administered cognitive tests and found that the more frequently calls were made per week, the poorer was working memory accuracy and reaction time for a simple learning task was shorter.

Some studies have also explored whether the frequent interruptions from smartphones influences social reasoning and learning. Reed, Hirsh‐Pasek, and Golinkoff (2017) conducted an experiment where they found that phone interruptions that occurred when a mother was attempting to teach their 2‐year‐old novel words lead to poorer language acquisition. Though these studies show a concurrent effect of smartphone interruptions on social reasoning and learning, few studies have explored lingering effects of smartphone use on social cognition. Other studies show evidence that reliance on smartphone use for social interactions might correlate with poorer social skills and reasoning (e.g., Jin & Park, 2012). Our series of studies, particularly Studies 2 and 3, included controlled experiments to explore causative aspects pertaining to lingering effects of smartphone use.

It should be noted that whereas some studies have explored potential associations between smartphone usage and cognition, some studies have also explored whether exposure to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by smartphone technology alters cognition and brain physiology. Recent research shows that exposure to electromagnetic fields from smartphones does not alter event‐related potentials, like N100, P200, N200, P300 latencies and N2‐P300 amplitudes (Mohan, Khaliq, Panwar, & Vaney, 2016), nor do these fields alter measures of attention and short‐term memory (Cinel, Boldini, Fox, & Russo, 2008). Therefore, it is not likely that electromagnetic fields will confound an examination of how smartphone activities (for social media, phone calls, internet browsing, etc.) might influence cognition.

Our first study explored whether smartphone usage correlated with various measures of higher order cognition, including the Delayed Gratification Inventory, Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level Z (for college‐age participants), and Modified Means End Problem Solving. The Modified Means End was used to assess social problem solving because we suspected that higher rates of mobile phone technology and social media might lead to a lack of practice with social problem solving. Although a study by Ekinci (2014) found that problematic internet use was positively correlated with the perception of avoidant and impulsive problem solving styles, no one to our knowledge has examined the relationship between use of smartphones and direct (rather than perceptions of) problem solving.

Once we identified relationships between mobile device usage and various forms of cognition, we then used an experimental manipulation in Study 2 to determine if there were any causal links. Only the cognitive tests and scales found to be related to cognition in Study 1 were investigated in Study 2. Study 3 was intended to replicate the findings in Study 2, as well as include a longer interval of time associated with manipulation of smartphone usage.

Given previous research (e.g., Wilmer & Chein, 2016) and our suspicion that more frequent smartphone usage would lead to less reliance on higher cognition, we hypothesized that in Study 1, the use of smartphones should be negatively correlated with particular executive control abilities, particularly delay gratification and critical thinking. Further, we hypothesized in Studies 2 and 3 that higher rates of smartphone usage might cause diminished abilities associated with certain forms of higher cognition.

Our study adds to the literature on mobile phone technology and cognition by (a) examining some cognitive variables not previously associated with research on mobile technology usage, such as social problem solving and more aspects of critical thinking, (b) using tracking apps rather than self‐reports to more accurately and objectively measure usage rates, and (c) introducing experimental control in Studies 2 and 3.

We chose to use tracking apps rather than rely exclusively on self‐reports since studies have shown that people generally misjudge time durations, especially rapid, yet pervasive, checking behaviors (Grondin, 2010; Rachman, 2002). Andrews, Ellis, Shaw, and Piwek (2015) were the first to use a tracking software they developed to find out how much time was actually spent using mobile phones. Comparing self‐reported usage of mobile phones versus tracking app reports over 2 weeks, they found that their participants did not always self‐report some aspects of their mobile phone usage accurately. For example, they found that young adults far underestimated the average daily number of phone uses.

The evolutionary context of personality development: Ontogenetic and Deferred Adaptations

The evolutionary context of personality development. Marco del Giudice. In Handbook of Personality Development, Chapter 2. New York: Guilford, 2019. January 2019. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316120672_The_evolutionary_context_of_personality_development

Ontogenetic and Deferred Adaptations
Looking at developmental stages through the lens of biological function suggests a useful distinction between two kinds of adaptations that are often observed in early life. Ontogenetic adaptations are designed to serve their fitnessenhancing function at a specific time in development, and often disappear as soon as they are no longer needed. Examples include the placenta (a fetal organ that provides nourishment and other vital functions during the fetal stage and is discarded immediately after birth) and infantile reflexes, such as the suckling reflex. Deferred adaptations are traits that appear in childhood but function—at least in part—to prepare children for adult behavior (Bjorklund & Ellis, 2014). Play is a paramount example of a deferred adaptation; in humans and other mammals, playing trains youngsters to deal with unexpected events and, at the same time, paves the way to the acquisition of specialized adult skills (e.g., foraging, fighting, parenting) (Geary, 2010; Spinka, Newberry, & Bekoff, 2001). The concept of an ontogenetic adaptation is particularly useful to understand the limits of early experiences in shaping adult personality. Some behavioral traits expressed in childhood serve important functions in the context of family life but may cease to be useful as the child turns into an independent adult. These traits may either disappear or get repurposed in a different form in the service of new developmental goals. For example, attachment styles in infancy are largely determined by the parents’ caregiving styles and show negligible genetic effects. In middle childhood, attachment styles start to become differentiated by sex, possibly under the influence of adrenal androgens; adults’ attachment styles to romantic partners are only weakly correlated with those of infancy, and reflect a sizable contribution of genetic factors (Barbaro, Boutwell, Barnes, & Shackelford, 2017; Del Giudice, 2009, 2015a). At an even deeper level, the existence of parent–offspring conflict implies that the parents’ behavior is not completely in the best interest of their children.

For this reason, children should not passively accept the influence of parents; instead, they should show a certain amount of developmental “resistance” to parental shaping. While it is difficult to directly test this hypothesis, parent– offspring conflict may well contribute to explain why family experiences have only small and inconsistent effects on the development of adult personality.

Rolf Degen summarizing: The emergence of the ability to build elevated sleeping nests allowed great apes to adopt a more comfortable & human-like sleep posture than the one monkeys take up

Nesting, sleeping, and nighttime behaviors in wild and captive great apes. James R. Anderson, Mabel Y. L. Ang, Louise C. Lock, Iris Weiche. Primates, Apr 10 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10329-019-00723-2

Abstract: The past few decades have seen a burgeoning of scientific studies on great apes’ use of nests for sleeping in the wild, as well as their nesting behavior and sleep in captivity. We review recent advances in knowledge of these topics, with the aim of promoting information exchange between people working in the field and with captive great apes. We trace developments in research into nest-building techniques in adults and immatures, factors that influence selection of general sleeping sites and specific locations, social aspects of sleep, postures, and nighttime activities. We argue that exchanges of information deriving from studies of captive and wild apes are valuable for obtaining a better understanding of sleep-related adaptations in our nearest evolutionary neighbors, and conclude by making some recommendations regarding sleeping arrangements in captivity from a welfare perspective.

Keywords: Chimpanzee Bonobo Gorilla Orangutan Nest building Sleep posture Sleep quality Environmental enrichment Welfare

Why is age so important in human mating? Evolved age preferences and their influences on multiple mating behaviors

Conroy-Beam, D., & Buss, D. M. (2019). Why is age so important in human mating? Evolved age preferences and their influences on multiple mating behaviors. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 13(2), 127-157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000127

Abstract: Evolutionary theorizing suggests that chronological age, because it is so strongly linked with key reproductive qualities like fertility, should be an exceptionally consequential variable in mate selection. We review voluminous evidence for mate preferences for age and the substantial and varied behavioral sequelae of those preferences. These include (a) in actual marriage decisions, men choose younger wives, and women choose older husbands, on average in all of the dozens of cultures studied; (b) in personal advertisements, men and women seek partners consistent with their expressed age preferences; (c) chronological age determines number of “hits” received in online dating services; (d) the age of potential bride influences the amount of money spent on premarriage customs; (e) men’s mate retention effort, including commitment manipulation, resource provisioning, and intrasexual threats, is significantly predicted by the wife’s age; and (f) chronological age is an important sex-linked cause of divorce. The far-reaching ramifications of age also extend to (g) tactics of intrasexual competition, (h) predictors of mate value discrepancies, (i) victims of sex crimes, and (j) prostitution patterns. Finally, chronological age predicts (k) probability of remarriage, and (l) the age gap between grooms and brides upon remarriage. We synthesize evidence from diverse methods, across different cultures, and over time spans of centuries. Massive converging evidence provides a powerful, yet complex, understanding of the evolutionary importance of age in multiple mating outcomes over the human life span.

Popular version: What We Know About Age Gaps in Dating, Love, and Marriage. Theresa E DiDonato. Psychology Today, Apr 10, 2019. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/meet-catch-and-keep/201904/what-we-know-about-age-gaps-in-dating-love-and-marriage

Those with posttraumatic stress disorder frequently experience unwanted memories of their traumas, even when making explicit efforts to avoid them, while healthy individuals can suppress those memories

Behavioral and neural correlates of memory suppression in PTSD. Danielle R. Sullivan et al. Journal of Psychiatric Research, Volume 112, May 2019, Pages 30-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2019.02.015

Highlights
•    Trauma exposure is associated with behavioral difficulties in memory suppression.
•    Right middle frontal gyrus activity is reduced during memory suppression after trauma exposure.
•    Trait suppression is negatively correlated with reduced right middle frontal gyrus activity.

Abstract: Previous work has shown that healthy individuals can actively suppress emotional memories through recruitment of the lateral prefrontal cortex. By contrast, individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently experience unwanted memories of their traumatic experiences, even when making explicit efforts to avoid them. However, little is known regarding the behavioral and neural effects of memory suppression among individuals with PTSD. We examined memory suppression associated with PTSD using the Think-No-Think paradigm in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. We studied three groups: PTSD (n = 16), trauma exposure without PTSD (n = 19), and controls (i.e., no trauma exposure or PTSD; n = 13). There was a main effect of memory suppression such that participants remembered fewer face-picture pairs during the suppress condition than the remember condition. However, trauma-exposed participants (regardless of PTSD status) were less likely to successfully suppress memory than non-trauma-exposed controls. Neuroimaging data revealed that trauma-exposed individuals showed reduced activation in the right middle frontal gyrus during memory suppression. These results suggest that trauma exposure is associated with neural and behavioral disruptions in memory suppression and point to the possibility that difficulty in active suppression of memories may be just one of several likely factors contributing to the development of PTSD.

We see evidence of an evolutionary design supportive of attachment as well as reproductive exigencies of procreative well-being; there is an ethological case to be made for considering pornography use as a public health risk

Procreative well-being and pornography – analyzing the script. Public health implications revealed through an ethological lens. Mark H. Butler.Marriage & Family Review, Apr 9 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/01494929.2019.1588187

Abstract: An ethological model of human procreative well-being is proposed and the goodness-of-fit of pornography’s script to that model is considered. Deducing an evolutionary template for procreative well-being from an ethological analysis links attachment dynamics to procreative success. Alongside parent–child attachment, pair-bond attachment in the procreative couple looms large as an element of optimal procreative relationship structure and quality. Key elements of pair-bond attachment are documented. Turning next to an empirical examination of the sexual behavioral system in humans, we see evidence of an evolutionary design supportive of attachment as well as reproductive exigencies of procreative well-being. Sexual system mechanisms promoting both reproduction and attachment are evident in the evolutionary design. We next employ script theory to identify key elements of the sexual script promulgated by pornography. Joining these two analyses, we compare the evolutionary, attachment-based template for procreative success in juxtaposition to pornography’s sexual script to evaluate the goodness-of-fit of pornography use to attachment success and, by extension, procreative well-being. We conclude that there is an ethological case to be made for considering pornography use as a public health risk. Implications of the model of procreative well-being for the practice of couple therapy are given mention.

Keywords: attachment, ethology, family, marriage, pornography, procreative well-being, sexual behavioral system, sociobiology

Long-term benefit of Microbiota Transfer Therapy on autism symptoms and gut/fecal microbiota

Long-term benefit of Microbiota Transfer Therapy on autism symptoms and gut microbiota. Dae-Wook Kang, James B. Adams, Devon M. Coleman, Elena L. Pollard, Juan Maldonado, Sharon McDonough-Means, J. Gregory Caporaso & Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown. Scientific Reports, volume 9, Article number: 5821 (2019). Apr 9. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-42183-0

Abstract: Many studies have reported abnormal gut microbiota in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), suggesting a link between gut microbiome and autism-like behaviors. Modifying the gut microbiome is a potential route to improve gastrointestinal (GI) and behavioral symptoms in children with ASD, and fecal microbiota transplant could transform the dysbiotic gut microbiome toward a healthy one by delivering a large number of commensal microbes from a healthy donor. We previously performed an open-label trial of Microbiota Transfer Therapy (MTT) that combined antibiotics, a bowel cleanse, a stomach-acid suppressant, and fecal microbiota transplant, and observed significant improvements in GI symptoms, autism-related symptoms, and gut microbiota. Here, we report on a follow-up with the same 18 participants two years after treatment was completed. Notably, most improvements in GI symptoms were maintained, and autism-related symptoms improved even more after the end of treatment. Important changes in gut microbiota at the end of treatment remained at follow-up, including significant increases in bacterial diversity and relative abundances of Bifidobacteria and Prevotella. Our observations demonstrate the long-term safety and efficacy of MTT as a potential therapy to treat children with ASD who have GI problems, and warrant a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in the future.

From 2018: Concern for Group Reputation Increases Prosociality in Young Children

From 2018: Concern for Group Reputation Increases Prosociality in Young Children. Jan M. Engelmann, Esther Herrmann, Michael Tomasello. Psychol Sci. 2018 Feb;29(2):181-190. doi: 10.1177/0956797617733830

Abstract: The motivation to build and maintain a positive personal reputation promotes prosocial behavior. But individuals also identify with their groups, and so it is possible that the desire to maintain or enhance group reputation may have similar effects. Here, we show that 5-year-old children actively invest in the reputation of their group by acting more generously when their group’s reputation is at stake. Children shared significantly more resources with fictitious other children not only when their individual donations were public rather than private but also when their group’s donations (effacing individual donations) were public rather than private. These results provide the first experimental evidence that concern for group reputation can lead to higher levels of prosociality.

Keywords: cooperation, reputation, group reputation, open data

Check also Botto, Sara Valencia, & Rochat, Philippe. (2018). Sensitivity to the evaluation of others emerges by 24 months. Developmental Psychology, 54(9), 1723-1734. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/08/children-reproduced-outcomes-that-were.html

Angry people are more likely to engage in debates with those of similar & opposing views, & seek out information confirming their views more frequently; anxious individuals tend to seek out information contradicting their opinions

Anger, Fear, and Echo Chambers: The Emotional Basis for Online Behavior. Dag Wollebæk et al. Social Media + Society, April 9, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119829859

Abstract: Emotions, such as anger and fear, have been shown to influence people’s political behavior. However, few studies link emotions specifically to how people debate political issues and seek political information online. In this article, we examine how anger and fear are related to politics-oriented digital behavior, attempting to bridge the gap between the thus far disconnected literature on political psychology and the digital media. Based on survey data, we show that anger and fear are connected to distinct behaviors online. Angry people are more likely to engage in debates with people having both similar and opposing views. They also seek out information confirming their views more frequently. Anxious individuals, by contrast, tend to seek out information contradicting their opinions. These findings reiterate predictions made in the extant literature concerning the role of emotions in politics. Thus, we argue that anger reinforces echo chamber dynamics and trench warfare dynamics in the digital public sphere, while fear counteracts these dynamics.

Keywords: emotions, echo chambers, trench warfare dynamics, anger, anxiety, online political behavior

Genetic selection/concentration is not an explanation for neighbourhood gradients in obesity & mental health problems; a modest genetic selection/concentration was evident for teen pregnancy and poor educational outcomes

Genetics and the geography of health, behaviour and attainment. Daniel W. Belsky, Avshalom Caspi, Louise Arseneault, David L. Corcoran, Benjamin W. Domingue, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Renate M. Houts, Jonathan S. Mill, Terrie E. Moffitt, Joseph Prinz, Karen Sugden, Jasmin Wertz, Benjamin Williams & Candice L. Odgers. Nature Human Behaviour (2019), April 8 2019, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0562-1

Abstract: Young people’s life chances can be predicted by characteristics of their neighbourhood1. Children growing up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods exhibit worse physical and mental health and suffer poorer educational and economic outcomes than children growing up in advantaged neighbourhoods. Increasing recognition that aspects of social inequalities tend, in fact, to be geographical inequalities2,3,4,5 is stimulating research and focusing policy interest on the role of place in shaping health, behaviour and social outcomes. Where neighbourhood effects are causal, neighbourhood-level interventions can be effective. Where neighbourhood effects reflect selection of families with different characteristics into different neighbourhoods, interventions should instead target families or individuals directly. To test how selection may affect different neighbourhood-linked problems, we linked neighbourhood data with genetic, health and social outcome data for >7,000 European-descent UK and US young people in the E-Risk and Add Health studies. We tested selection/concentration of genetic risks for obesity, schizophrenia, teen pregnancy and poor educational outcomes in high-risk neighbourhoods, including genetic analysis of neighbourhood mobility. Findings argue against genetic selection/concentration as an explanation for neighbourhood gradients in obesity and mental health problems. By contrast, modest genetic selection/concentration was evident for teen pregnancy and poor educational outcomes, suggesting that neighbourhood effects for these outcomes should be interpreted with care.

We construct more precise and robust measures of GDP per capita using nighttime lights; we find that GDP per capita measures are less precise for middle and low income countries

Illuminating Economic Growth. Yingyao Hu, Jiaxiong Yao. IMF Working Paper No. 19/77. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/04/09/Illuminating-Economic-Growth-46670

Summary: This paper seeks to illuminate the uncertainty in official GDP per capita measures using auxiliary data. Using satellite-recorded nighttime lights as an additional measurement of true GDP per capita, we provide a statistical framework, in which the error in official GDP per capita may depend on the country’s statistical capacity and the relationship between nighttime lights and true GDP per capita can be nonlinear and vary with geographic location. This paper uses recently developed results for measurement error models to identify and estimate the nonlinear relationship between nighttime lights and true GDP per capita and the nonparametric distribution of errors in official GDP per capita data. We then construct more precise and robust measures of GDP per capita using nighttime lights, official national accounts data, statistical capacity, and geographic locations. We find that GDP per capita measures are less precise for middle and low income countries and nighttime lights can play a bigger role in improving such measures.

Space ‘colonization’ will take place and will likely be fully automated; space mining will be the primary goal of space colonies; automation may lead to a technological singularity

Why space colonization will be fully automated. Riccardo Campa, Konrad Szocik, Martin Braddock. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, April 8 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.03.021

Highlights
•    Humans cannot survive for long periods of time in outer space.
•    Space ‘colonization’ will take place and will likely be fully automated.
•    Space mining will be the primary goal of space colonies.
•    Automation may lead to a technological singularity.
•    Space automation could limit the negative effects of an hostile Superintelligence.

Abstract: In this article we explore a possible scenario of space colonization and its consequences for planet Earth. We argue that in the short term space colonization will take place, but not in the form often presented in scientific and science fiction literature. Space colonies will be fully automated. There are three main reasons to believe that this is the most plausible scenario: 1) space mining is very profitable; 2) humans cannot survive for long periods of time in outer space limiting the prospects for human space colonization (HSC), and 3) automation is already a leading trend on Earth. Crewed missions will have an ancillary function, while machines or human/machine avatars will ‘inhabit’ other celestial bodies, in order to pursue economic enterprises and progress scientific discovery. We also propose some considerations on the speculative hypothesis, elaborated by a few leading futurists, that the development of machine-based learning Artificial Intelligence would lead to the so-called Singularity. In relation to this scenario, we argue that fully automated space colonization (FASC) could be a solution to prevent unwanted side effects of the Singularity, such as competition for resources between humankind and a hostile Artificial Intelligence.

Male‐mediated prenatal loss can provide greater reproductive benefits to males than infanticide; compared to infanticide, male‐mediated prenatal loss may be more prevalent and of greater role in mammalian species than thought

Male‐mediated prenatal loss: Functions and mechanisms. Matthew N. Zipple et al. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, April 6 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21776

ABSTRACT: Sexually selected infanticide has been the subject of intense empirical and theoretical study for decades; a related phenomenon, male‐mediated prenatal loss, has received much less attention in evolutionary studies. Male‐mediated prenatal loss occurs when inseminated or pregnant females terminate reproductive effort following exposure to a nonsire male, either through implantation failure or pregnancy termination. Male‐mediated prenatal loss encompasses two sub‐phenomena: sexually selected feticide and the Bruce effect. In this review, we provide a framework that explains the relationship between feticide and the Bruce effect and describes what is known about the proximate and ultimate mechanisms involved in each. Using a simple model, we demonstrate that male‐mediated prenatal loss can provide greater reproductive benefits to males than infanticide. We therefore suggest that, compared to infanticide, male‐mediated prenatal loss may be more prevalent in mammalian species and may have played a greater role in their social evolution than has previously been documented.

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Bruce Effect in Wikipedia:

Evolutionary benefits

Males

When given the opportunity, male mice tend to direct their urine in the female’s direction.^[23] This allows males to improve their fitness success by “sabotaging” the pregnancy of a male competitor,^[3] and more quickly returning the female to estrus.^[24] The Bruce effect can also aid in maintaining social status, with dominant males leaving more urinal scent markings,^[25] and so blocking the pregnancies initiated by subordinate males.

Females

Females can control their likelihood of terminating pregnancy by pursuing or avoiding novel male contact during their most susceptible periods.^[26] In this way, females can exert a post-copulatory mate choice, reserving their reproductive resources for the highest-quality male. Certainly, females are more likely to seek proximity to dominant males.^[26] In many rodent species, males kill unrelated young; pregnancy block may avoid the wasted investment of gestating offspring likely to be killed at birth.^[5][27] The Bruce effect is most common in polygynous rodent species, for which the risk of infanticide is highest.^[28]

The mu-opioid system can influence higher-level cognitive function via modulation of valuation & motivation, influencing decision making & cognitive control by increasing the subjective value of reward & reducing aversive arousal

The role of the opioid system in decision making and cognitive control: A review. Henk van Steenbergen, Marie Eikemo, Siri Leknes. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, April 8 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13415-019-00710-6

Abstract: The opioid system regulates affective processing, including pain, pleasure, and reward. Restricting the role of this system to hedonic modulation may be an underestimation, however. Opioid receptors are distributed widely in the human brain, including the more “cognitive” regions in the frontal and parietal lobes. Nonhuman animal research points to opioid modulation of cognitive and decision-making processes. We review emerging evidence on whether acute opioid drug modulation in healthy humans can influence cognitive function, such as how we choose between actions of different values and how we control our behavior in the face of distracting information. Specifically, we review studies employing opioid agonists or antagonists together with experimental paradigms of reward-based decision making, impulsivity, executive functioning, attention, inhibition, and effort. Although this field is still in its infancy, the emerging picture suggests that the mu-opioid system can influence higher-level cognitive function via modulation of valuation, motivation, and control circuits dense in mu-opioid receptors, including orbitofrontal cortex, basal ganglia, amygdalae, anterior cingulate cortex, and prefrontal cortex. The framework that we put forward proposes that opioids influence decision making and cognitive control by increasing the subjective value of reward and reducing aversive arousal. We highlight potential mechanisms that might underlie the effects of mu-opioid signaling on decision making and cognitive control and provide directions for future research.

Keywords: Opioid system Cognitive control Decision making Executive function Value-based choice Reward Drugs Mu-opioid receptors Affect Mood Morphine Hedonic states

We see our past good deeds as more revealing of our present self than our past bad deeds, & we make inferences about our present personality from positive past behaviors, but not from negative ones; it is different with the others

Andreas Steimer, André Mata, and Cláudia Simão (2019). Ascribing Meaning to the Past: Self–Other Differences in Weighing Good and Bad Deeds. Social Cognition: Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 174-196. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2019.37.2.174

Abstract: In three studies, this research found evidence for self-serving tendencies and a self–other asymmetry in the way people ascribe meaning to past behavior: Participants saw their past good deeds as more revealing of their present self than their past bad deeds (Studies 1–2), and they made inferences about their present personality from positive past behaviors, but not from negative ones (Study 3). In contrast, participants perceived the past behavior of others as diagnostic of their present personality (Study 2), and they made inferences about others' present traits from that behavior (Study 3), regardless of whether it was positive or negative. In support of a motivational account, we also found evidence for moderated mediation of our effect (Study 2), such that the valence effect on ascribing meaning to the past was mediated by desirability only when self-relevance was high (i.e., for the self), not when it was low (i.e., for others). Implications of this self–other asymmetry are discussed.

KEYWORDS: meaning, autobiographic memory, person memory, motivated reasoning, self–other differences, belief updating, true self

Testing the potential of 50 kHz rat calls as a species-specific rat attractant for pest control

Testing the potential of 50 kHz rat calls as a species-specific rat attractant. Nicola B. Davidson, Jane L. Hurst. PLOS, April 8, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211601

Abstract: The control of mammalian pests relies heavily on the use of pesticides that are often avoided and are not species-specific. These problems are particularly acute for pesticides used to control rats (Rattus spp.). The efficacy and targeting of control could be improved by attracting animals to control measures using species-specific cues. One cue that has the potential to attract rats is the 50 kHz calls they emit in positive social situations. Here we test the potential of these rat calls as a species-specific attractant by examining the response of laboratory rats (Rattus norvegicus; n = 48) and non-target bank voles (Myodes glareolus; n = 16) to 50 kHz calls from either sex in a compartmentalised laboratory arena. Sounds of rat movement and white noise acted as control treatments, with each sound tested against a silent control in the opposite side of the arena. When sound cues were played above an empty bait box, rats were attracted to spend time close to 50 kHz rat calls, climbing on top of boxes, regardless of the sex of subject or caller. When either 50 kHz rat calls or rat movement sounds were played inside an empty bait box, rats of both sexes spent 3–4 fold more time inside boxes and visited more frequently. Rats were not attracted by intermittent white noise. Bank voles were neither attracted to, nor avoided, 50 kHz rat calls played inside empty bait boxes. Our findings show that 50 kHz rat calls are an effective attractant for rats of both sexes under laboratory conditions, while not attracting non-target bank voles. These calls are strong candidates for providing a species-specific lure that may be attractive even in the absence of food bait, but further trials will be needed to assess their efficacy under field conditions.

Partisans who blatantly dehumanize members of the opposing party prefer greater social distance from opponents (reduced interpersonal tolerance); also associated with perceptions of greater moral distance

Partisan Dehumanization in American Politics. Erin C. Cassese. Political Behavior, Apr 8 2019, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-019-09545-w

Abstract: Despite evidence that dehumanizing language and metaphors are found in political discourse, extant research has largely overlooked whether voters dehumanize their political opponents. Research on dehumanization has tended to focus on racial and ethnic divisions in societies, rather than political divisions. Understanding dehumanization in political contexts is important because the social psychology literature links dehumanization to a variety of negative outcomes, including moral disengagement, aggression, and even violence. In this manuscript, I discuss evidence of partisan dehumanization during the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign and demonstrate how a focus on dehumanization can expose new relationships between moral psychology and partisan identity. Using data from two surveys conducted in October of 2016, I show that partisans dehumanize their political opponents in both subtle and blatant ways. When I investigate the correlates of dehumanization, I find that partisans who blatantly dehumanize members of the opposing party prefer greater social distance from their political opponents, which is indicative of reduced interpersonal tolerance. I also find that blatant dehumanization is associated with perceptions of greater moral distance between the parties, which is indicative of moral disengagement. These results suggest that dehumanization can improve our understanding of negative partisanship and political polarization.

Keywords: Dehumanization Partisanship Social identity Political polarization Moral disengagement

The genetic variants associated with income are related to better mental health than those linked to educational attainment; & team was able to predict 2.5% of income differences using genetic data alone

Genetic analysis identifies molecular systems and biological pathways associated with household income. W. David Hill, Neil M. Davies, Stuart J. Ritchie, Nathan G. Skene, Julien Bryois, Steven Bell, Emanuele Di Angelantonio, David J. Roberts, Shen Xueyi, Gail Davies, David C.M. Liewald, David J. Porteous, Caroline Hayward, Adam S. Butterworth, Andrew M. McIntosh, Catharine R. Gale, Ian J. Deary. bioRxiv, Mar 2012. https://doi.org/10.1101/573691

Abstract: Socio-economic position (SEP) is a multi-dimensional construct reflecting (and influencing) multiple socio-cultural, physical, and environmental factors. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using household income as a marker of SEP have shown that common genetic variants account for 11% of its variation. Here, in a sample of 286,301 participants from UK Biobank, we identified 30 independent genome-wide significant loci, 29 novel, that are associated with household income. Using a recently-developed method to meta-analyze data that leverages power from genetically-correlated traits, we identified an additional 120 income-associated loci. These loci showed clear evidence of functional enrichment, with transcriptional differences identified across multiple cortical tissues, in addition to links with GABAergic and serotonergic neurotransmission. We identified neurogenesis and the components of the synapse as candidate biological systems that are linked with income. By combining our GWAS on income with data from eQTL studies and chromatin interactions, 24 genes were prioritized for follow up, 18 of which were previously associated with cognitive ability. Using Mendelian Randomization, we identified cognitive ability as one of the causal, partly-heritable phenotypes that bridges the gap between molecular genetic inheritance and phenotypic consequence in terms of income differences. Significant differences between genetic correlations indicated that, the genetic variants associated with income are related to better mental health than those linked to educational attainment (another commonly-used marker of SEP). Finally, we were able to predict 2.5% of income differences using genetic data alone in an independent sample. These results are important for understanding the observed socioeconomic inequalities in Great Britain today.

Changes in life satisfaction are associated with changes in consumption, not in income; increased conspicuous consumption seems strongly associated with improved well-being than is increased nonconspicuous consumption

Consumption Changes, Not Income Changes, Predict Changes in Subjective Well-Being. Gordon D. A. Brown, John Gathergood. Social Psychological and Personality Science, April 8, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619835215

Abstract: Does happiness depend on what one earns or what one spends? Income is typically found to have small beneficial effects on well-being. However, economic theory suggests that well-being is conferred not by income but by consumption (i.e., spending on goods and services), and a person’s level of consumption may differ greatly from their level of income due to saving behavior and taxation. Moreover, research within consumer psychology has established relationships between people’s spending in specific categories and their well-being. Here we show for the first time using panel data that changes in life satisfaction are associated with changes in consumption, not changes in income. We also find some evidence that increased conspicuous consumption is more strongly associated with improved well-being than is increased nonconspicuous consumption.

Keywords: income, consumption, conspicuous consumption, well-being, life satisfaction

From 2018: Wisdom, Foolishness, and Toxicity in Human Development

Wisdom, Foolishness, and Toxicity in Human Development. Robert J. Sternberg. Research in Human Development, Volume 15, 2018 - Issue 3-4, Aug 29 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427609.2018.1491216

Abstract: Socialization of young people today especially emphasizes cognitive and academic-skills development. Although these skills are important, society is making a serious mistake in underestimating the importance of wisdom-based skills. As a result, we are raising a generation of individuals who may be smart but may also be foolish, or even worse, toxic to themselves and others. This article newly contributes a discussion of toxicity. The author discusses what schools can do to place more emphasis on education for wisdom.

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Civilization as we have known it is facing challenges that few people would have expected it to face as the world enters the middle of the 21st century. [...] The world has gotten better in many ways over the years (Pinker, 2012), but in other ways it has gotten much worse. The potential for destruction is unequaled in the history of our civilization because of the presence of nuclear weapons sufficient to destroy the world and leaders who just might use them. Here is the irony behind what is going on in the world: The average IQ around the world increased by 30 points during the 20th century—two full Standard Deviations (Flynn, 1987, 2016)—the difference between borderline intellectual challenge average performance, and between average performance and IQ-derived estimates of intellectual giftedness. That is an absolutely incredible rise in IQ. Moreover, the rise has continued in the United States of the 21st century, so this difference underestimates the growth of traditional cognitive abilities in the United States. The increase in IQs has manifested itself in important and in some cases, obvious ways—staggering advances in advanced technologies and the ability to use those technologies, highly sophisticated scientific and engineering research, and some among the upper intellectual “class” figuring out how to exploit their high IQs to make gobs of money, whether on Wall Street, Silicon Valley, or elsewhere, in a way that never before was possible in the history of civilization. The rise the world has experienced in IQs cannot be due solely or even largely to genetic changes: The period of time was simply too short for such a high level of mutation to have occurred. And the increase in IQs cannot be caused merely by selective mating, because selective mating (better choosing intellectual matches) would increase the Standard Deviation (or variation) of IQs in the next generation, but probably not the Mean (because people with low IQs, like people with high IQs, also would choose matches to their IQs). If the increases in IQs result from students being better socialized in their homes and better educated in schools, then something perhaps is missing from that socialization and education. What might be missing?

WISDOM

One thing that is missing is the transmission of wisdom, or the utilization of one’s cognitive skills and knowledge toward the achievement of a common good; by balancing one’s own, others’, and larger (such as communal) interests, over the long- as well as the short–terms, through the infusion of positive ethical values (Sternberg, 1998; Sternberg & Jordan, 1995). Positive ethical values to some extent may be culturally defined; but certain ethical values, such as honesty, integrity, justice, compassion, and sincerity, seem to be cross-cultural and even to transcend cultures (Sternberg, 1998). Of course, the definition given here is only one definition of wisdom. Another related but distinct definition is that of wisdom as addressing difficult problems regarding the meaning and conduct of life. On this view, wisdom is the perfect integration of knowledge with character and mind with virtue. Wisdom thus represents truly outstanding knowledge and judgment as well as advice (see Kunzmann & Baltes, 2005). Other definitions exist as well (see Grossmann, in press; Sternberg & Glueck, in press; Sternberg & Jordan, 2005). I would argue, however, that the most distinguishing characteristic of wise people is that they bring out the best in other people. On this view, wisdom is judged not only on the basis of a person’s performance, but also on the positive effect of one’s performance on others in jointly helping to achieve a common good. Various and diverse measures have been proposed to assess wisdom (see Kunzmann, in press; Webster, in press). These measures give some reading on a person’s wisdom in a variety of different kinds of tasks and situations. According to a “balance” theory I have proposed of wisdom and its relation to intelligence (Sternberg, 2003), intelligence is a necessary but not sufficient component of wisdom. One cannot truly be wise if one is not fairly intelligent, because intelligence, even in the narrow sense of IQ, involves the analytical skills needed for various kinds of convergent problem solving. One simply cannot be wise without being analytically skilled: One needs to be able to distinguish good ideas from bad ideas, and useful ideas from useless or even destructive ideas. As a result, one would expect that wisdom and intelligence would be positively related. And indeed, people’s implicit theories of intelligence and wisdom suggest that the two characteristics do indeed positively covary (Sternberg, 1985b). But might it be possible that, as the analytical aspect of intelligence (IQ) increased, wisdom actually simultaneously could decrease? The answer, I believe, is yes. I suggest that wisdom has decreased, on average, largely as a result of a perverse reward system in schooling and society (Sternberg, in press). To the extent that wisdom and intelligence would positively covary, it would be because when society develops analytical intellectual skills, it simultaneously develops as well wisdomrelated skills. But what if it doesn’t? What if it does the opposite, developing IQ-based intellectual skills at the expense of wisdom-related ones? In past times, character education was built into schooling, if not explicitly, then implicitly. The early McGuffey readers (McGuffey, reprinted 1982) emphasized character education and the development of virtues as much as they emphasized development of reading and other verbal skills. Although character education has not typically been an explicit part of the school experience, it generally has been an implicit part, at least in the past. But character education and wisdom development are disappearing, if they are not already gone, in an age of standardized testing (Kamenetz, 2015; Kohn, 2000; Nichols & Berliner, 2007). If standardized tests do not measure character, what difference does character or wisdom make to school administrators who are seeking high test scores almost any way they can get them? Schools, administrators, teachers, and students are evaluated for things other than wisdom, and those other things take precedence (Nichols & Berliner, 2007). These other things take the form primarily of performances of students on a variety of standardized tests of achievement. These other things may be important to IQ and intelligence more generally (Sternberg, 1985a), but they may effectively kick wisdom-related skills out of the curriculum. We may be left with students who, even if smart, are foolish.

FOOLISHNESS

The absence of wisdom may be labeled “foolishness” (Sternberg, 2002). What happens when smart people become foolish, even notably foolish (Sternberg, 2002, 2004, in press)? Such people would show certain characteristics, ones that seem to be increasingly prevalent among the more influential and powerful people in our societies:

1. Unrealistic optimism with respect to their ideas: They believe that if an idea is theirs, certainly, because they are so smart, it must be good.

2. Egocentrism: They come to believe that it’s all about them. In the extreme, they become narcissistic, concerned primarily or only with themselves and their own enhancement.

3. False omniscience: They believe they know everything, or everything they need to know. They fail to know what they do not know or to understand what is not knowable, at least at a given time in a given place.

4. False omnipotence: They believe they are all powerful—that they can do whatever they want.

5. False invulnerability: They believe that because they are so clever and so powerful they can get away with anything.

6. Ethical disengagement: They come to believe that ethics are important for other people but that they are above ethical consideration.

When so many religious and national political leaders, up to the top, show these characteristics, what kind of hope can we realistically hold out for young people? We need to hope that parents and teachers will hold up foolish leaders as negative role models, but do they? For a variety of reasons, they may not hold up foolish leaders as negative role models. Instead, the parents and teachers may actually admire the foolish leaders. Why? Because the fundamental principle of interpersonal attraction is that we are attracted to people similar to ourselves (Sternberg, 1998), and there are very few wise people out there. People may elect fools, but those fools are “their fools.” Another way to look at this phenomenon is in terms of Haidt’s (2013) of the “righteous mind.” We divide ourselves into tribes, and even if someone is a fool, he is “our fool” versus “their fool.” Foolishness is not the worst possible outcome of failing to develop wisdom. The worst possible outcome is not the absence of wisdom (foolishness), but rather its opposite, toxicity.

TOXICITY

Around the world, including in the Americas, governments are increasingly led by toxic leaders who bring out the worst in people. These leaders typically are elected on the basis of their charisma and populistic false claims to benefit people who perceive themselves as having been victimized by whatever the current system is. They sometimes are referred to as “pseudotransformational” leaders (Bass, 1998). Lipman-Blumen (2006) has written of the allure of toxic leaders—leaders who bring down their organizations or countries and bring down their followers with them (see also Kellerman, 2004). These leaders are the opposite of being wise. Their values are different from those of wise people. Although wise people have prosocial and constructive values (Staudinger, Doerner, & Mickler, 2005), toxic people have antisocial and destructive values. I would suggest that toxic people, and especially toxic leaders, tend to be arrogant—they look down on others; ill tempered—they are constantly autocratic in their relations with others—they want their way and are not much interested in other people’s views; self-absorbed or narcissistic—what they do is for their own benefit and/or glorification; dividers—they tend to seek control by pitting individuals or groups against each other; angry— they constantly seem to be highly critical of other people but rarely or never are they critical of themselves; unethical—they violate ethical precepts with abandon because they do not care about them. Often they are people who exhibit the dark triad of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Toxicity may be related in some respects to populism (Mudde & Kaltwasser, 2017), which often involves pitting the supposed “real” or “pure” people against a supposedly corrupted elite. We can see the outlines of such thinking not only among many political leaders today, but also among many of their followers.

[...]

Table 3. Six Procedures for Teaching for Wisdom (After Sternberg, 2001).
1 Encourage students to read classic works of literature, history, and philosophy to learn and reflect on the wisdom of past generations.
2 Engage students in class discussions, projects, and essays that encourage them to discuss the lessons they have learned from classic works and to think about how they can be applied to their own lives and the lives of others. Especially emphasize dialogical and dialectical thinking.
3 Encourage students to study not only knowledge and received “truth,” but also ethical values, as developed during their reflective thinking.
4 Place increased emphasis on critical, creative, practical, and wise thinking in the service of good ends.
5 Encourage students to think about how almost any topic they study might be used for better or for worse ends, and about how important those ends are.
6 Remember that a teacher is always a role model! To role-model wisdom, adopt a Socratic approach to teaching, inviting students to play a more active role in constructing learning—from their own point of view and from that of others.
7 Remind students to seek a common good rather than a good only for people whom they perceive to be like themselves or to be members of their own “tribe.”

Having something to look forward to is a keystone of well-being; anticipation of a future reward can be more gratifying than the experience of reward itself; hippocampal-midbrain circuit enhances the pleasure of anticipation

Hippocampal-midbrain circuit enhances the pleasure of anticipation in the prefrontal cortex. Kiyohito Iigaya, Tobias U. Hauser, Zeb Kurth-Nelson, John P. O’Doherty, Peter Dayan, Raymond J. Dolan. Mar 26 2019. https://doi.org/10.1101/588699

Abstract: Having something to look forward to is a keystone of well-being. Anticipation of a future reward, like an upcoming vacation, can be more gratifying than the experience of reward itself. Theories of anticipation have described how it causes behaviors ranging from beneficial information-seeking to harmful addiction. Here, we investigated how the brain generates and enhances anticipatory pleasure, by analyzing brain activity of human participants who received information predictive of future pleasant outcomes in a decision-making task. Using a computational model of anticipation, we show that three regions orchestrate anticipatory pleasure. We show ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) tracks the value of anticipation; dopaminergic midbrain responds to information that enhances anticipation, while the sustained activity in hippocampus provides for functional coupling between these regions. This coordinating role for hippocampus is consistent with its known role in the vivid imagination of future outcomes. Our findings throw new light on the neural underpinnings of how anticipation influences decision-making, while also unifying a range of phenomena associated with risk and time-delay preference.

The Downsides of Minimum Wage Increases

The Downsides of Minimum Wage Increases. Jonathan Meer. The Library of Economics and Liberty, Apr 6 2019. https://www.econlib.org/hidden-costs-of-the-minimum-wage/

Excerpts (full text and links in the post above):

The House of Representatives recently took up the Raise the Wage Act, which would more than double the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next five years. [...]

When debate focuses on the total number of jobs lost or gained, it hides this potentially nasty distribution of the benefits: a recent college graduate with a barista job may get a few more dollars an hour, but the high school dropout finds it harder to get and keep a job. Those who have the least to offer employers, might need more training, or are the biggest risks to hire will face the toughest challenges.

Some opponents of higher minimum wages skip over the fact that some people absolutely would benefit. Those who get and keep these higher-paying jobs might be winners, seeing an increase in their take-home pay.

But those gains have offsetting losses that could either reduce that gain or even reverse it.

My research (http://people.tamu.edu/%7Ejmeer/CKM_Minimum_Wage_Fringe_Benefits_180517.pdf) shows that when the minimum wage is raised, employers offset increased labor costs by reducing benefits like the generosity of health insurance. Other benefits, like free parking or flexibility in scheduling, are more difficult to measure but are also likely to be cut back. Employers will likely expect more work effort when they are forced to pay more, changing the nature of jobs. And in the longer run, economists have found that employers shift towards automation [...] and expecting customers to do more things themselves[...]– reducing job growth in ways that aren’t always obvious. This damage takes time to be seen, which is one reason minimum wage hikes, like rent control, often seem appealing.

And then there are those who would definitely lose because they can’t find work, and they aren’t likely to be picked at random. The minimum wage is a blunt instrument. It doesn’t distinguish between types of workers and the households they come from. The teenage children of well-off families, earning money to buy video games, are treated the same as single moms struggling to get by. When wages are set at an artificially high rate, why should an employer take a risk on the single mother who needs the occasional shift off to take her kids to the doctor? The kid from a disadvantaged background who needs some direction on how to treat customers appropriately? Or the recently released felon trying to work his way back into the community? Why should employers bother with them when there are plenty of lower-risk people who are willing to work at those artificially high wages?

Recent evidence (https://www.nber.org/papers/w25182) from Seattle’s minimum wage increases show that it’s precisely the most inexperienced workers who struggle the most in the face of high minimum wages. And another line of my own research (http://people.tamu.edu/~jmeer/Clemens_Kahn_Meer_Dropouts_181106.pdf) finds that minimum wage increases cause employers shift towards workers with more credentials.

It will get much worse in the next recession. The economic expansion over the last decade has allowed employers to absorb much of the cost of increased labor market regulations, but a downturn will quickly force them to cut jobs that are marginally productive only in good times. Those at the margins of the workforce will be left further behind. Low-wage jobs aren’t easy, don’t pay well, and are rarely fun. But not being able to find work at all is far worse.

Despite the lowest unemployment rates in decades, only 39% of adults without a high school degree had a full-time job in 2018 – and among young African-Americans dropouts, it’s a shocking 26%. It’s hard to believe that the best way to help them find work and start climbing the job ladder is to put the first rung out of reach [...].

A national minimum wage of $15 per hour ignores the wide variation in labor markets and the cost of living. Even in high-wage New York and California, half of hourly workers outside of metropolitan areas earn less than $15 an hour. Nineteen states, including Texas, have median hourly wages below $15; outside of large cities in Texas, 60 percent of hourly workers earn less than $15. A uniform minimum wage at such an unprecedented level, far beyond historical norms, would cause real damage to inexperienced and low-skill workers – especially in areas in desperate need of more opportunities.

Advocates are absolutely correct that we have to do something to help low-income families. Other policies, like the Earned Income Tax Credit, are better targeted and much more effective. [...]

[...]

Jonathan Meer is a professor of economics at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on charitable giving, the economics of low-wage labor markets, and the economics of education.

The Industry Anatomy of the Transatlantic Productivity Growth Slowdown

The Industry Anatomy of the Transatlantic Productivity Growth Slowdown. Robert J. Gordon, Hassan Sayed. NBER Working Paper No. 25703. March 2019. https://www.nber.org/papers/w25703

By merging KLEMS data sets and aggregating over the ten largest Western European nations (EU-10), we are able to compare and contrast productivity growth up through 2015 starting from 1950 in the U.S. and from 1972 in the EU-10. Data are provided at the aggregate level, as well as for 16 industry groups within the total economy and 11 manufacturing sub-industries. The analysis focuses on outcomes over four time intervals: 1950-72, 1972-95, 1995-2005, and 2005-15. We interpret the EU-10 performance as catching up to the U.S. in stages, with its rapid growth of 1950-72 representing a delayed adoption of the inventions that propelled U.S. productivity growth in the first half of the 20th century, and the next EU-10 stage for 1972-95 as imitating the U.S. outcome for 1950-72. We show that both the pace of aggregate productivity growth during 1972-95 for the EU-10 as well as its industrial composition matched very closely the growth record of the U.S. in the previous 1950-72 time interval.

A striking finding is that for the total economy the “early-to-late” productivity growth slowdown from 1972-95 to 2005-15 in the EU-10 (-1.68 percentage points) was almost identical to the U.S. slowdown from 1950-72 to 2005-15 (-1.67 percentage points). There is a very high EU-U.S. correlation in the magnitude of the early-to-late slowdown across industries. This supports our overall theme that the productivity growth slowdown from the early postwar years to the most recent decade was due to a retardation in technical change that affected the same industries by roughly the same magnitudes on both sides of the Atlantic.

Empirical evidence that prospectively negative events exhibit a significant amount of shifted (i.e., positive) emotions in the corresponding social network messages, serving as antidote in negative events

Kušen E., Strembeck M., Conti M. (2019) Emotional Valence Shifts and User Behavior on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. In: Kaya M., Alhajj R. (eds) Influence and Behavior Analysis in Social Networks and Social Media. ASONAM 2018. Lecture Notes in Social Networks. Springer, Cham. December 12 2018, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02592-2_4

Abstract: In this paper, we present a study on 5.6 million messages that have been sent via Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The messages in our data set are related to 24 systematically chosen real-world events. For each of the 5.6 million messages, we first extracted emotion scores based on the eight basic emotions according to Plutchik’s wheel of emotions. Subsequently, we investigated the effects of shifts in the emotional valence on the messaging behavior of social media users. In particular, we found empirical evidence that prospectively negative real-world events exhibit a significant amount of shifted (i.e., positive) emotions in the corresponding messages. To explain this finding, we use the theory of social connection and emotional contagion. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that provides empirical evidence for the undoing hypothesis in online social networks (OSNs). The undoing hypothesis assumes that positive emotions serve as an antidote during negative events.