If I knew then what I know now: Advice to my younger self. Robin M. Kowalski & Annie McCord. The Journal of Social Psychology, May 5 2019. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224545.2019.1609401
ABSTRACT: If we could go back and give ourselves advice to keep from making a mistake, most of us would probably take that opportunity. Using self-discrepancy theory as a theoretical framework, US workers on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, who were at least 30 years of age, indicated in two studies what their advice to their younger selves would be, what pivotal event was influential for them, if they had regrets, and if following this advice would bring them closer to their ideal or ought self. Across both studies, most of the advice fell into the domains of relationships, education, and selfhood. Participants said following the advice would bring them more in line with their ideal than their ought self. Following the advice also led to more positive perceptions of the current self by the high school self. Ages at which pivotal events occurred provided strong support for the reminiscence bump.
KEYWORDS: Advice, regret, self-discrepancy, counterfactual thinking
Monday, May 6, 2019
Sunday, May 5, 2019
Children in daycare experience fewer one-to-one interactions with adults, which is negative for IQ in families where such interactions are of higher quality; reduction in IQ increases with family income
Ichino, A., Fort, M., & Zanella, G. (2019). Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Costs of Daycare 0-2 for Children in Advantaged Families. Journal of Political Economy, May 2019. doi:10.1086/704075
Abstract: Exploiting admission thresholds to the Bologna daycare system, we show using RDD that one additional daycare month at age 0–2 reduces IQ by 0.5% (4.7% of a s.d.) at age8–14 in a relatively affluent population. The magnitude of this negative effect increases with family income. Similar negative impacts are found for personality traits. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis from psychology that children in daycare experience fewer one-to-one interactions with adults, with negative effects in families where such interactions are of higher quality. We embed this hypothesis in a model that lends structure to our RDD.
JEL-Code: J13, I20, I28, H75
Keywords: daycare, childcare, child development, cognitive skills, personality
Abstract: Exploiting admission thresholds to the Bologna daycare system, we show using RDD that one additional daycare month at age 0–2 reduces IQ by 0.5% (4.7% of a s.d.) at age8–14 in a relatively affluent population. The magnitude of this negative effect increases with family income. Similar negative impacts are found for personality traits. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis from psychology that children in daycare experience fewer one-to-one interactions with adults, with negative effects in families where such interactions are of higher quality. We embed this hypothesis in a model that lends structure to our RDD.
JEL-Code: J13, I20, I28, H75
Keywords: daycare, childcare, child development, cognitive skills, personality
Big Business Isn’t Big Politics. Essay by Tyler Cowen // Fears of crony capitalism in the U.S. are misplaced
Big Business Isn’t Big Politics. Tyler Cowen. Foreign Policy, May 3 2019. https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/03/big-business-isnt-big-politics/
Fears of crony capitalism in the United States are misplaced
he basic view that big business is pulling the strings in Washington is one of the major myths of our time. Most American political decisions are not in fact shaped by big business, even though business does control numerous pieces of specialist legislation. Even in 2019, big business is hardly dominating the agenda. U.S. corporate leaders often promote ideas of fiscal responsibility, free trade, robust trade agreements, predictable government, multilateral foreign policy, higher immigration, and a certain degree of political correctness in government—all ideas that are ailing rather badly right now.
To be sure, there is plenty of crony capitalism in the United States today. For instance, the Export-Import Bank subsidizes U.S. exports with guaranteed loans or low-interest loans. The biggest American beneficiary is Boeing, by far, and the biggest foreign beneficiaries are large and sometimes state-owned companies, such as Pemex, the national fossil fuel company of the Mexican government. The Small Business Administration subsidizes small business start-ups, the procurement cycle for defense caters to corporate interests, and the sugar and dairy lobbies still pull in outrageous subsidies and price protection programs, mostly at the expense of ordinary American consumers, including low-income consumers.
...overall, lobbyists are not running the show. The average big company has only 3.4 lobbyists in Washington, and for medium-size companies that number is only 1.42. For major companies, the average is 13.9, and the vast majority of companies spend less than $250,000 a year on lobbying. Furthermore, a systematic study shows that business lobbying does not increase the chance of favorable legislation being passed for that business, nor do those businesses receive more government contracts; contributions to political action committees are ineffective too.
Full text at the link above
Fears of crony capitalism in the United States are misplaced
he basic view that big business is pulling the strings in Washington is one of the major myths of our time. Most American political decisions are not in fact shaped by big business, even though business does control numerous pieces of specialist legislation. Even in 2019, big business is hardly dominating the agenda. U.S. corporate leaders often promote ideas of fiscal responsibility, free trade, robust trade agreements, predictable government, multilateral foreign policy, higher immigration, and a certain degree of political correctness in government—all ideas that are ailing rather badly right now.
To be sure, there is plenty of crony capitalism in the United States today. For instance, the Export-Import Bank subsidizes U.S. exports with guaranteed loans or low-interest loans. The biggest American beneficiary is Boeing, by far, and the biggest foreign beneficiaries are large and sometimes state-owned companies, such as Pemex, the national fossil fuel company of the Mexican government. The Small Business Administration subsidizes small business start-ups, the procurement cycle for defense caters to corporate interests, and the sugar and dairy lobbies still pull in outrageous subsidies and price protection programs, mostly at the expense of ordinary American consumers, including low-income consumers.
...overall, lobbyists are not running the show. The average big company has only 3.4 lobbyists in Washington, and for medium-size companies that number is only 1.42. For major companies, the average is 13.9, and the vast majority of companies spend less than $250,000 a year on lobbying. Furthermore, a systematic study shows that business lobbying does not increase the chance of favorable legislation being passed for that business, nor do those businesses receive more government contracts; contributions to political action committees are ineffective too.
Full text at the link above
Support for hate crime grows when men fear that refugees' influx makes it difficult to mate, even when controlling for anti-refugee views, perceived job competition, general frustration & aggressiveness
Dancygier, Rafaela M. and Egami, Naoki and Jamal, Amaney and Rischke, Ramona, Hating and Mating: Fears over Mate Competition and Violent Hate Crime against Refugees (March 23, 2019). SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3358780
Abstract: As the number of refugees rises across the world, anti-refugee violence has become a pressing concern. What explains the incidence and support of such hate crime? We argue that fears among native men that refugees pose a threat in the competition for female partners is a critical but understudied factor driving hate crime. Employing a comprehensive dataset on the incidence of hate crime across Germany, we first demonstrate that hate crime rises where men face disadvantages in local mating markets. Next, we deploy an original four-wave panel survey to confirm that support for hate crime increases when men fear that the inflow of refugees makes it more difficult to find female partners. Mate competition concerns remain a robust predictor even when controlling for anti-refugee views, perceived job competition, general frustration, and aggressiveness. We conclude that a more complete understanding of hate crime must incorporate mating markets and mate competition.
Keywords: hate crime, refugees, immigration, ethnocentrism, inter-group conflict, sex ratios, marriage markets
JEL Classification: D74, J11, J12, J15, N34
Abstract: As the number of refugees rises across the world, anti-refugee violence has become a pressing concern. What explains the incidence and support of such hate crime? We argue that fears among native men that refugees pose a threat in the competition for female partners is a critical but understudied factor driving hate crime. Employing a comprehensive dataset on the incidence of hate crime across Germany, we first demonstrate that hate crime rises where men face disadvantages in local mating markets. Next, we deploy an original four-wave panel survey to confirm that support for hate crime increases when men fear that the inflow of refugees makes it more difficult to find female partners. Mate competition concerns remain a robust predictor even when controlling for anti-refugee views, perceived job competition, general frustration, and aggressiveness. We conclude that a more complete understanding of hate crime must incorporate mating markets and mate competition.
Keywords: hate crime, refugees, immigration, ethnocentrism, inter-group conflict, sex ratios, marriage markets
JEL Classification: D74, J11, J12, J15, N34
Saturday, May 4, 2019
We manipulated the gender & race composition of the persons depicted; 5 (plus or minus 1) people is the point at which we are perceived less like separate individuals & more like a single, unified group
Five (plus or minus one): The point at which an assemblage of individuals is perceived as a single, unified group. Eric L. Stocks, Belen Lopez-Perez, Luis V. Oceja & Travis Evans. The Journal of Social Psychology, May 3 2019. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224545.2019.1610349?journalCode=vsoc20
ABSTRACT: At what point is an assemblage of individuals perceived as a single, unified group? And how do demographic characteristics of these individuals influence perceptions of groupness? To answer these questions, we conducted four studies in which participants viewed sets of images that varied in the number of individuals depicted, and then identified the number of persons at which the assemblage was perceived to be a single, unified group. Across four studies, we manipulated the gender and race composition of the persons depicted. The results suggest that five (plus or minus one) people constitutes the point at which a collection of persons is perceived less like separate individuals and more like a single, unified group. However, the demographic complexity of the assemblage also influences perceived groupness. The number of individuals required to be perceived as a unified group is larger for diverse, compared to homogeneous, assemblages of individuals.
KEYWORDS: Group perception, entitativity, group processes, identity
ABSTRACT: At what point is an assemblage of individuals perceived as a single, unified group? And how do demographic characteristics of these individuals influence perceptions of groupness? To answer these questions, we conducted four studies in which participants viewed sets of images that varied in the number of individuals depicted, and then identified the number of persons at which the assemblage was perceived to be a single, unified group. Across four studies, we manipulated the gender and race composition of the persons depicted. The results suggest that five (plus or minus one) people constitutes the point at which a collection of persons is perceived less like separate individuals and more like a single, unified group. However, the demographic complexity of the assemblage also influences perceived groupness. The number of individuals required to be perceived as a unified group is larger for diverse, compared to homogeneous, assemblages of individuals.
KEYWORDS: Group perception, entitativity, group processes, identity
Marriage is not a determinant for sexual satisfaction; can even be a negative correlate when respondents are compared to certain unmarried groups; exception is the unmarried individual with no partner
Does Marriage Really Improve Sexual Satisfaction? Evidence From the Pairfam Data Set. Elyakim Kislev. The Journal of Sex Research, May 3 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2019.1608146
Abstract: In light of the growing unmarried demographic, this study analyzed the extent and determinants of sexual satisfaction among seven relationship-status groups: married, never married, and those who are divorced/separated, where the latter two groups are further divided into single, living apart together (LAT), and cohabiting. In addition, the study measured the levels of sexual self-esteem, sexual communication, and sex frequency for the different relationship-status groups as predictors of sexual satisfaction. Finally, this study also analyzed sexual satisfaction while accounting for overall life satisfaction. Using the ninth wave of the Pairfam data set and analyzing the responses of 3,207 respondents in total, this study suggests that marriage is not a determinant for sexual satisfaction. In fact, it can even be a negative correlate when married respondents are compared to certain unmarried groups. The only exception is that of unmarried individuals who currently have no partner. Even this situation is shown to be dependent only on less frequent intercourse, not on a lack of sexual self-esteem and sexual communication. These conclusions challenge previous research as well as the explanations of earlier scholars. Several directions for future research are discussed in light of these findings.
---
In the conclusions:
The findings show that married people reported lower rates of sexual self-esteem and sexual communication skills than most groups. In terms of sexual communication, only never-married cohabiting people were comparable to married people for both genders, while never-marriedsingle and LAT women and divorced/separated and single women were also comparable to married women. In terms of sexual self-esteem, divorced/separated LAT and never-married cohabiting men were comparable to married men, while only never-married cohabiting women showed lowerrates than married women. Moreover, the findings indicate that marriage per se isnot beneficial for sexual satisfaction. In fact, the base model in Table 3 shows that married couples score rela-tively low in this regard. Non partnered singles scored lower than the married group in terms of sexual satisfac-tion, but the main reason that they were less sexually satisfied than married couples was sex frequency, whichwas naturally lower for non partnered singles than for couples. Therefore, it seems that it is not marriage that isbeneficial to sexual satisfaction but rather having a partner. With the exception of divorced LATs, once one hasa partner, marriage is not a contributor.
It seems that previous studies arguing in favor of marriageshould be more nuanced in several ways. First, they unjustifiably blend the groups of unmarried people together. By combining singles with other unmarried groups, they inaccurately showthat marriage is advantageous for sexual satisfaction. Second,these studies should have isolated LAT singles. This group is more than just an exception. This group, which has rarely been studied, demonstrates that it is not necessarily the nuptial system that makes the difference in terms of sexual satisfaction, it is partnership. Third, several of the previous studies measured sexual satisfaction without some major mediators such as sex frequency and overall life satisfaction. The detailed and rich data of the Pairfam survey show that even singles who havenever been married are more likely to report higher levels ofsexual self-esteem and sexual communication and that it ismostly the availability of sex that makes them less satisfiedsexually. Again, this has implications for the nuptial system ingeneral. Marriage is not beneficial to sexual satisfaction in andof itself (e.g., the value of commitment, the willingness to adapt)but due to the fact that couples are more likely to have a sexpartner in reach.
Step 2 in the multiple hierarchical regression presented in Table 3 is important in this respect because it shows howt he relatively lower scores on sexual self-esteem and sexual communication are significant for married couples. Accounting for these variables, married couples attain similar levels to other groups. In fact, married couples even show higher levels than other groups after accounting for the relatively lower levels of sexual self-esteem and sexual communication, as presented inTable 2. However,this is partly due to the overall advantages that they have in life due to their married status, as step 3 in the multiple hierarchical regression presented in Table 3shows.
Indeed, it is important to account for life satisfaction,because satisfaction in different life realms is interrelated
Abstract: In light of the growing unmarried demographic, this study analyzed the extent and determinants of sexual satisfaction among seven relationship-status groups: married, never married, and those who are divorced/separated, where the latter two groups are further divided into single, living apart together (LAT), and cohabiting. In addition, the study measured the levels of sexual self-esteem, sexual communication, and sex frequency for the different relationship-status groups as predictors of sexual satisfaction. Finally, this study also analyzed sexual satisfaction while accounting for overall life satisfaction. Using the ninth wave of the Pairfam data set and analyzing the responses of 3,207 respondents in total, this study suggests that marriage is not a determinant for sexual satisfaction. In fact, it can even be a negative correlate when married respondents are compared to certain unmarried groups. The only exception is that of unmarried individuals who currently have no partner. Even this situation is shown to be dependent only on less frequent intercourse, not on a lack of sexual self-esteem and sexual communication. These conclusions challenge previous research as well as the explanations of earlier scholars. Several directions for future research are discussed in light of these findings.
---
In the conclusions:
The findings show that married people reported lower rates of sexual self-esteem and sexual communication skills than most groups. In terms of sexual communication, only never-married cohabiting people were comparable to married people for both genders, while never-marriedsingle and LAT women and divorced/separated and single women were also comparable to married women. In terms of sexual self-esteem, divorced/separated LAT and never-married cohabiting men were comparable to married men, while only never-married cohabiting women showed lowerrates than married women. Moreover, the findings indicate that marriage per se isnot beneficial for sexual satisfaction. In fact, the base model in Table 3 shows that married couples score rela-tively low in this regard. Non partnered singles scored lower than the married group in terms of sexual satisfac-tion, but the main reason that they were less sexually satisfied than married couples was sex frequency, whichwas naturally lower for non partnered singles than for couples. Therefore, it seems that it is not marriage that isbeneficial to sexual satisfaction but rather having a partner. With the exception of divorced LATs, once one hasa partner, marriage is not a contributor.
It seems that previous studies arguing in favor of marriageshould be more nuanced in several ways. First, they unjustifiably blend the groups of unmarried people together. By combining singles with other unmarried groups, they inaccurately showthat marriage is advantageous for sexual satisfaction. Second,these studies should have isolated LAT singles. This group is more than just an exception. This group, which has rarely been studied, demonstrates that it is not necessarily the nuptial system that makes the difference in terms of sexual satisfaction, it is partnership. Third, several of the previous studies measured sexual satisfaction without some major mediators such as sex frequency and overall life satisfaction. The detailed and rich data of the Pairfam survey show that even singles who havenever been married are more likely to report higher levels ofsexual self-esteem and sexual communication and that it ismostly the availability of sex that makes them less satisfiedsexually. Again, this has implications for the nuptial system ingeneral. Marriage is not beneficial to sexual satisfaction in andof itself (e.g., the value of commitment, the willingness to adapt)but due to the fact that couples are more likely to have a sexpartner in reach.
Step 2 in the multiple hierarchical regression presented in Table 3 is important in this respect because it shows howt he relatively lower scores on sexual self-esteem and sexual communication are significant for married couples. Accounting for these variables, married couples attain similar levels to other groups. In fact, married couples even show higher levels than other groups after accounting for the relatively lower levels of sexual self-esteem and sexual communication, as presented inTable 2. However,this is partly due to the overall advantages that they have in life due to their married status, as step 3 in the multiple hierarchical regression presented in Table 3shows.
Indeed, it is important to account for life satisfaction,because satisfaction in different life realms is interrelated
Worse economy, harsher health conditions predicts more mouth to mouth kissing, which becomes a better measure of partner investment than cuddling or sex
National income inequality predicts cultural variation in mouth to mouth kissing. Christopher D. Watkins, Juan David Leongómez, Jeanne Bovet, Agnieszka Żelaźniewicz, Max Korbmacher, Marco Antônio Corrêa Varella, Ana Maria Fernandez, Danielle Wagstaff & Samuela Bolgan. Scientific Reports, volume 9, Article number: 6698 (2019). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43267-7
Abstract: Romantic mouth-to-mouth kissing is culturally widespread, although not a human universal, and may play a functional role in assessing partner health and maintaining long-term pair bonds. Use and appreciation of kissing may therefore vary according to whether the environment places a premium on good health and partner investment. Here, we test for cultural variation (13 countries from six continents) in these behaviours/attitudes according to national health (historical pathogen prevalence) and both absolute (GDP) and relative wealth (GINI). Our data reveal that kissing is valued more in established relationships than it is valued during courtship. Also, consistent with the pair bonding hypothesis of the function of romantic kissing, relative poverty (income inequality) predicts frequency of kissing across romantic relationships. When aggregated, the predicted relationship between income inequality and kissing frequency (r = 0.67, BCa 95% CI[0.32,0.89]) was over five times the size of the null correlations between income inequality and frequency of hugging/cuddling and sex. As social complexity requires monitoring resource competition among large groups and predicts kissing prevalence in remote societies, this gesture may be important in the maintenance of long-term pair bonds in specific environments.
Introduction
Romantic love and passion are cultural universals1,2. Simultaneously, pair bonds within different cultures vary in their norms, rituals and forms of romantic expression3. In western samples, ‘ideal relationships’ are conceived on two dimensions of intimacy-loyalty and passion4, with intimacy related to relationship quality independent of couple sexuality5. Expressions of love and overt acts of affection enhance feelings of commitment6 and are related to stable marital bonds7. Moreover, sharing in novel and arousing activities enhances relationship quality8 and nonverbal expressions of love alter feeling states and facilitate the release of putative attachment hormones9. Collectively, many relationship behaviours and expressions of romantic attachment contribute to maintaining durable pair bonds, which are important to understand given that threats to pair bonds may affect health and wellbeing [...].
Although not a human universal, romantic kissing is observed in a wide variety of cultures11 and being perceived as a good kisser can enhance a person’s desirability as a partner (e.g., for short-term relationships12). Indeed, some naturalistic studies have documented kissing in courtship, where reciprocal affection is related to synchrony in body movements13. Cues obtained from close physical contact with a partner may facilitate mate assessment14, consistent with species that use gustatory and olfactory cues to regulate courtship rituals15 (see also16). As the prevalence of courtship rituals may point to their adaptive function, the mate assessment hypothesis14,17 proposes that kissing functions to assess putative cues to biological quality in a partner via close contact. In light of behavioural motivations to avoid pathogens (see18 for discussion), biases to over-perceive disease cues19, and given that the exchange of saliva may increase the likelihood of transmitting some infections (see20 for a recent review), romantic kissing may incur costs. As such, we do not engage in romantic kissing indiscriminately, unless the costs of kissing are traded off in favour of escalating courtship with a ‘high quality’ mate14. Consistent with the mate assessment hypothesis, kissing is more important, and is more likely to influence attraction, for the more ‘selective’ sex (women21,22), among more selective individuals (attractive individuals) and in contexts where the costs of choosing a less healthy mate are greater (i.e. in short-term sexual encounters14). [...]
Here, we extend Wlodarski & Dunbar’s14,17 two hypotheses, and test for cultural differences in the use and appreciation of kissing in romantic relationships. First, if kissing plays a role in assessments of ‘quality’, the benefits of assessing partner quality are likely to be greater in less-healthy environments (see, e.g.23, for a similar line of reasoning related to mate preferences). Here, we examine the mate assessment hypothesis and test whether people in less-healthy countries place greater importance on this form of courtship behaviour (i.e. to assess quality, as indexed via attitudes) but do so selectively (as indexed via frequency) in light of the greater potential risks of kissing within a high-pathogen environment. Thus, we predict that national health will be negatively related to the importance of kissing at the initial stages of a romantic relationship (Hypothesis #1) and, as a pathogen avoidance mechanism, will be negatively related to participant’s reported satisfaction with the amount of kissing in romantic relationships (i.e., a weaker desire for more frequent kissing in less-healthy countries, Hypothesis #2). Moreover, as the health costs of kissing in such environments will be lesser, we predict that national health will be positively related to the frequency of kissing within romantic relationships (Hypothesis #3). National income inequality predicts cultural variation in mouth to mouth kissing. Christopher D. Watkins, Juan David Leongómez, Jeanne Bovet, Agnieszka Żelaźniewicz, Max Korbmacher, Marco Antônio Corrêa Varella, Ana Maria Fernandez, Danielle Wagstaff & Samuela Bolgan. Scientific Reports, volume 9, Article number: 6698 (2019). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43267-7
Abstract: Romantic mouth-to-mouth kissing is culturally widespread, although not a human universal, and may play a functional role in assessing partner health and maintaining long-term pair bonds. Use and appreciation of kissing may therefore vary according to whether the environment places a premium on good health and partner investment. Here, we test for cultural variation (13 countries from six continents) in these behaviours/attitudes according to national health (historical pathogen prevalence) and both absolute (GDP) and relative wealth (GINI). Our data reveal that kissing is valued more in established relationships than it is valued during courtship. Also, consistent with the pair bonding hypothesis of the function of romantic kissing, relative poverty (income inequality) predicts frequency of kissing across romantic relationships. When aggregated, the predicted relationship between income inequality and kissing frequency (r = 0.67, BCa 95% CI[0.32,0.89]) was over five times the size of the null correlations between income inequality and frequency of hugging/cuddling and sex. As social complexity requires monitoring resource competition among large groups and predicts kissing prevalence in remote societies, this gesture may be important in the maintenance of long-term pair bonds in specific environments.
Introduction
Romantic love and passion are cultural universals1,2. Simultaneously, pair bonds within different cultures vary in their norms, rituals and forms of romantic expression3. In western samples, ‘ideal relationships’ are conceived on two dimensions of intimacy-loyalty and passion4, with intimacy related to relationship quality independent of couple sexuality5. Expressions of love and overt acts of affection enhance feelings of commitment6 and are related to stable marital bonds7. Moreover, sharing in novel and arousing activities enhances relationship quality8 and nonverbal expressions of love alter feeling states and facilitate the release of putative attachment hormones9. Collectively, many relationship behaviours and expressions of romantic attachment contribute to maintaining durable pair bonds, which are important to understand given that threats to pair bonds may affect health and wellbeing [...].
Although not a human universal, romantic kissing is observed in a wide variety of cultures11 and being perceived as a good kisser can enhance a person’s desirability as a partner (e.g., for short-term relationships12). Indeed, some naturalistic studies have documented kissing in courtship, where reciprocal affection is related to synchrony in body movements13. Cues obtained from close physical contact with a partner may facilitate mate assessment14, consistent with species that use gustatory and olfactory cues to regulate courtship rituals15 (see also16). As the prevalence of courtship rituals may point to their adaptive function, the mate assessment hypothesis14,17 proposes that kissing functions to assess putative cues to biological quality in a partner via close contact. In light of behavioural motivations to avoid pathogens (see18 for discussion), biases to over-perceive disease cues19, and given that the exchange of saliva may increase the likelihood of transmitting some infections (see20 for a recent review), romantic kissing may incur costs. As such, we do not engage in romantic kissing indiscriminately, unless the costs of kissing are traded off in favour of escalating courtship with a ‘high quality’ mate14. Consistent with the mate assessment hypothesis, kissing is more important, and is more likely to influence attraction, for the more ‘selective’ sex (women21,22), among more selective individuals (attractive individuals) and in contexts where the costs of choosing a less healthy mate are greater (i.e. in short-term sexual encounters14). [...]
Here, we extend Wlodarski & Dunbar’s14,17 two hypotheses, and test for cultural differences in the use and appreciation of kissing in romantic relationships. First, if kissing plays a role in assessments of ‘quality’, the benefits of assessing partner quality are likely to be greater in less-healthy environments (see, e.g.23, for a similar line of reasoning related to mate preferences). Here, we examine the mate assessment hypothesis and test whether people in less-healthy countries place greater importance on this form of courtship behaviour (i.e. to assess quality, as indexed via attitudes) but do so selectively (as indexed via frequency) in light of the greater potential risks of kissing within a high-pathogen environment. Thus, we predict that national health will be negatively related to the importance of kissing at the initial stages of a romantic relationship (Hypothesis #1) and, as a pathogen avoidance mechanism, will be negatively related to participant’s reported satisfaction with the amount of kissing in romantic relationships (i.e., a weaker desire for more frequent kissing in less-healthy countries, Hypothesis #2). Moreover, as the health costs of kissing in such environments will be lesser, we predict that national health will be positively related to the frequency of kissing within romantic relationships (Hypothesis #3). In other words, this would extend prior research by suggesting that the value attached to kissing as a mate assessment cue is greater in high pathogen ecologies (i.e., to accept or reject a partner) even if it is used sparingly in these environments.
Second, theoretical perspectives argue that monogamy and/or relationship investment are valued in harsh environments, such as those where resources are scarce in relative or absolute terms (see, e.g.24,25, for discussion), and the pair bonding hypothesis14 proposes that kissing plays an important role in how couples maintain and monitor the quality of a committed romantic relationship. Thus, we test the pair bonding hypothesis by examining whether individuals from countries of low absolute and relative wealth (i.e. high income inequality) place greater importance on kissing at the established (but not initial) phases of a romantic relationship (i.e. when investment is of greater concern; Hypothesis #4), report greater frequency of kissing in their relationships (to maintain a pair-bond in an economically harsh environment, Hypothesis #5) and lower satisfaction with the amount of kissing in their relationships (i.e., a stronger desire to signal investment through kissing in an economically harsh environment, Hypothesis #6).
When testing both hypotheses on the function of mouth-to-mouth kissing in relationships, we also test for national differences in two other forms of close/intimate contact (hugging and sexual intercourse) in order to examine whether our predictions are specific to, or are stronger or weaker for, mouth-to-mouth kissing than other forms of romantic expression. Evidence for specificity in our findings toward kissing would complement prior work, which demonstrates that kissing is a more substantial predictor of romantic relationship quality than other forms of closeness and/or intimacy such as sexual intercourse17, by suggesting that the ‘special’ role that kissing may play in the quality of long-term romantic relationships, and potentially relationship outcomes, varies according to the harshness of the environment. [...]
Finally, we aim to replicate prior work by testing for an identical factor structure to the perceived components of a good kiss (biological/sensory component, arousal/contact and technique/execution17) among a broader international sample. [...].
Second, theoretical perspectives argue that monogamy and/or relationship investment are valued in harsh environments, such as those where resources are scarce in relative or absolute terms (see, e.g.24,25, for discussion), and the pair bonding hypothesis14 proposes that kissing plays an important role in how couples maintain and monitor the quality of a committed romantic relationship. Thus, we test the pair bonding hypothesis by examining whether individuals from countries of low absolute and relative wealth (i.e. high income inequality) place greater importance on kissing at the established (but not initial) phases of a romantic relationship (i.e. when investment is of greater concern; Hypothesis #4), report greater frequency of kissing in their relationships (to maintain a pair-bond in an economically harsh environment, Hypothesis #5) and lower satisfaction with the amount of kissing in their relationships (i.e., a stronger desire to signal investment through kissing in an economically harsh environment, Hypothesis #6).
When testing both hypotheses on the function of mouth-to-mouth kissing in relationships, we also test for national differences in two other forms of close/intimate contact (hugging and sexual intercourse) in order to examine whether our predictions are specific to, or are stronger or weaker for, mouth-to-mouth kissing than other forms of romantic expression. Evidence for specificity in our findings toward kissing would complement prior work, which demonstrates that kissing is a more substantial predictor of romantic relationship quality than other forms of closeness and/or intimacy such as sexual intercourse17, by suggesting that the ‘special’ role that kissing may play in the quality of long-term romantic relationships, and potentially relationship outcomes, varies according to the harshness of the environment. [...]
Finally, we aim to replicate prior work by testing for an identical factor structure to the perceived components of a good kiss (biological/sensory component, arousal/contact and technique/execution17) among a broader international sample. [...]
Abstract: Romantic mouth-to-mouth kissing is culturally widespread, although not a human universal, and may play a functional role in assessing partner health and maintaining long-term pair bonds. Use and appreciation of kissing may therefore vary according to whether the environment places a premium on good health and partner investment. Here, we test for cultural variation (13 countries from six continents) in these behaviours/attitudes according to national health (historical pathogen prevalence) and both absolute (GDP) and relative wealth (GINI). Our data reveal that kissing is valued more in established relationships than it is valued during courtship. Also, consistent with the pair bonding hypothesis of the function of romantic kissing, relative poverty (income inequality) predicts frequency of kissing across romantic relationships. When aggregated, the predicted relationship between income inequality and kissing frequency (r = 0.67, BCa 95% CI[0.32,0.89]) was over five times the size of the null correlations between income inequality and frequency of hugging/cuddling and sex. As social complexity requires monitoring resource competition among large groups and predicts kissing prevalence in remote societies, this gesture may be important in the maintenance of long-term pair bonds in specific environments.
Introduction
Romantic love and passion are cultural universals1,2. Simultaneously, pair bonds within different cultures vary in their norms, rituals and forms of romantic expression3. In western samples, ‘ideal relationships’ are conceived on two dimensions of intimacy-loyalty and passion4, with intimacy related to relationship quality independent of couple sexuality5. Expressions of love and overt acts of affection enhance feelings of commitment6 and are related to stable marital bonds7. Moreover, sharing in novel and arousing activities enhances relationship quality8 and nonverbal expressions of love alter feeling states and facilitate the release of putative attachment hormones9. Collectively, many relationship behaviours and expressions of romantic attachment contribute to maintaining durable pair bonds, which are important to understand given that threats to pair bonds may affect health and wellbeing [...].
Although not a human universal, romantic kissing is observed in a wide variety of cultures11 and being perceived as a good kisser can enhance a person’s desirability as a partner (e.g., for short-term relationships12). Indeed, some naturalistic studies have documented kissing in courtship, where reciprocal affection is related to synchrony in body movements13. Cues obtained from close physical contact with a partner may facilitate mate assessment14, consistent with species that use gustatory and olfactory cues to regulate courtship rituals15 (see also16). As the prevalence of courtship rituals may point to their adaptive function, the mate assessment hypothesis14,17 proposes that kissing functions to assess putative cues to biological quality in a partner via close contact. In light of behavioural motivations to avoid pathogens (see18 for discussion), biases to over-perceive disease cues19, and given that the exchange of saliva may increase the likelihood of transmitting some infections (see20 for a recent review), romantic kissing may incur costs. As such, we do not engage in romantic kissing indiscriminately, unless the costs of kissing are traded off in favour of escalating courtship with a ‘high quality’ mate14. Consistent with the mate assessment hypothesis, kissing is more important, and is more likely to influence attraction, for the more ‘selective’ sex (women21,22), among more selective individuals (attractive individuals) and in contexts where the costs of choosing a less healthy mate are greater (i.e. in short-term sexual encounters14). [...]
Here, we extend Wlodarski & Dunbar’s14,17 two hypotheses, and test for cultural differences in the use and appreciation of kissing in romantic relationships. First, if kissing plays a role in assessments of ‘quality’, the benefits of assessing partner quality are likely to be greater in less-healthy environments (see, e.g.23, for a similar line of reasoning related to mate preferences). Here, we examine the mate assessment hypothesis and test whether people in less-healthy countries place greater importance on this form of courtship behaviour (i.e. to assess quality, as indexed via attitudes) but do so selectively (as indexed via frequency) in light of the greater potential risks of kissing within a high-pathogen environment. Thus, we predict that national health will be negatively related to the importance of kissing at the initial stages of a romantic relationship (Hypothesis #1) and, as a pathogen avoidance mechanism, will be negatively related to participant’s reported satisfaction with the amount of kissing in romantic relationships (i.e., a weaker desire for more frequent kissing in less-healthy countries, Hypothesis #2). Moreover, as the health costs of kissing in such environments will be lesser, we predict that national health will be positively related to the frequency of kissing within romantic relationships (Hypothesis #3). National income inequality predicts cultural variation in mouth to mouth kissing. Christopher D. Watkins, Juan David Leongómez, Jeanne Bovet, Agnieszka Żelaźniewicz, Max Korbmacher, Marco Antônio Corrêa Varella, Ana Maria Fernandez, Danielle Wagstaff & Samuela Bolgan. Scientific Reports, volume 9, Article number: 6698 (2019). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43267-7
Abstract: Romantic mouth-to-mouth kissing is culturally widespread, although not a human universal, and may play a functional role in assessing partner health and maintaining long-term pair bonds. Use and appreciation of kissing may therefore vary according to whether the environment places a premium on good health and partner investment. Here, we test for cultural variation (13 countries from six continents) in these behaviours/attitudes according to national health (historical pathogen prevalence) and both absolute (GDP) and relative wealth (GINI). Our data reveal that kissing is valued more in established relationships than it is valued during courtship. Also, consistent with the pair bonding hypothesis of the function of romantic kissing, relative poverty (income inequality) predicts frequency of kissing across romantic relationships. When aggregated, the predicted relationship between income inequality and kissing frequency (r = 0.67, BCa 95% CI[0.32,0.89]) was over five times the size of the null correlations between income inequality and frequency of hugging/cuddling and sex. As social complexity requires monitoring resource competition among large groups and predicts kissing prevalence in remote societies, this gesture may be important in the maintenance of long-term pair bonds in specific environments.
Introduction
Romantic love and passion are cultural universals1,2. Simultaneously, pair bonds within different cultures vary in their norms, rituals and forms of romantic expression3. In western samples, ‘ideal relationships’ are conceived on two dimensions of intimacy-loyalty and passion4, with intimacy related to relationship quality independent of couple sexuality5. Expressions of love and overt acts of affection enhance feelings of commitment6 and are related to stable marital bonds7. Moreover, sharing in novel and arousing activities enhances relationship quality8 and nonverbal expressions of love alter feeling states and facilitate the release of putative attachment hormones9. Collectively, many relationship behaviours and expressions of romantic attachment contribute to maintaining durable pair bonds, which are important to understand given that threats to pair bonds may affect health and wellbeing [...].
Although not a human universal, romantic kissing is observed in a wide variety of cultures11 and being perceived as a good kisser can enhance a person’s desirability as a partner (e.g., for short-term relationships12). Indeed, some naturalistic studies have documented kissing in courtship, where reciprocal affection is related to synchrony in body movements13. Cues obtained from close physical contact with a partner may facilitate mate assessment14, consistent with species that use gustatory and olfactory cues to regulate courtship rituals15 (see also16). As the prevalence of courtship rituals may point to their adaptive function, the mate assessment hypothesis14,17 proposes that kissing functions to assess putative cues to biological quality in a partner via close contact. In light of behavioural motivations to avoid pathogens (see18 for discussion), biases to over-perceive disease cues19, and given that the exchange of saliva may increase the likelihood of transmitting some infections (see20 for a recent review), romantic kissing may incur costs. As such, we do not engage in romantic kissing indiscriminately, unless the costs of kissing are traded off in favour of escalating courtship with a ‘high quality’ mate14. Consistent with the mate assessment hypothesis, kissing is more important, and is more likely to influence attraction, for the more ‘selective’ sex (women21,22), among more selective individuals (attractive individuals) and in contexts where the costs of choosing a less healthy mate are greater (i.e. in short-term sexual encounters14). [...]
Here, we extend Wlodarski & Dunbar’s14,17 two hypotheses, and test for cultural differences in the use and appreciation of kissing in romantic relationships. First, if kissing plays a role in assessments of ‘quality’, the benefits of assessing partner quality are likely to be greater in less-healthy environments (see, e.g.23, for a similar line of reasoning related to mate preferences). Here, we examine the mate assessment hypothesis and test whether people in less-healthy countries place greater importance on this form of courtship behaviour (i.e. to assess quality, as indexed via attitudes) but do so selectively (as indexed via frequency) in light of the greater potential risks of kissing within a high-pathogen environment. Thus, we predict that national health will be negatively related to the importance of kissing at the initial stages of a romantic relationship (Hypothesis #1) and, as a pathogen avoidance mechanism, will be negatively related to participant’s reported satisfaction with the amount of kissing in romantic relationships (i.e., a weaker desire for more frequent kissing in less-healthy countries, Hypothesis #2). Moreover, as the health costs of kissing in such environments will be lesser, we predict that national health will be positively related to the frequency of kissing within romantic relationships (Hypothesis #3). In other words, this would extend prior research by suggesting that the value attached to kissing as a mate assessment cue is greater in high pathogen ecologies (i.e., to accept or reject a partner) even if it is used sparingly in these environments.
Second, theoretical perspectives argue that monogamy and/or relationship investment are valued in harsh environments, such as those where resources are scarce in relative or absolute terms (see, e.g.24,25, for discussion), and the pair bonding hypothesis14 proposes that kissing plays an important role in how couples maintain and monitor the quality of a committed romantic relationship. Thus, we test the pair bonding hypothesis by examining whether individuals from countries of low absolute and relative wealth (i.e. high income inequality) place greater importance on kissing at the established (but not initial) phases of a romantic relationship (i.e. when investment is of greater concern; Hypothesis #4), report greater frequency of kissing in their relationships (to maintain a pair-bond in an economically harsh environment, Hypothesis #5) and lower satisfaction with the amount of kissing in their relationships (i.e., a stronger desire to signal investment through kissing in an economically harsh environment, Hypothesis #6).
When testing both hypotheses on the function of mouth-to-mouth kissing in relationships, we also test for national differences in two other forms of close/intimate contact (hugging and sexual intercourse) in order to examine whether our predictions are specific to, or are stronger or weaker for, mouth-to-mouth kissing than other forms of romantic expression. Evidence for specificity in our findings toward kissing would complement prior work, which demonstrates that kissing is a more substantial predictor of romantic relationship quality than other forms of closeness and/or intimacy such as sexual intercourse17, by suggesting that the ‘special’ role that kissing may play in the quality of long-term romantic relationships, and potentially relationship outcomes, varies according to the harshness of the environment. [...]
Finally, we aim to replicate prior work by testing for an identical factor structure to the perceived components of a good kiss (biological/sensory component, arousal/contact and technique/execution17) among a broader international sample. [...].
Second, theoretical perspectives argue that monogamy and/or relationship investment are valued in harsh environments, such as those where resources are scarce in relative or absolute terms (see, e.g.24,25, for discussion), and the pair bonding hypothesis14 proposes that kissing plays an important role in how couples maintain and monitor the quality of a committed romantic relationship. Thus, we test the pair bonding hypothesis by examining whether individuals from countries of low absolute and relative wealth (i.e. high income inequality) place greater importance on kissing at the established (but not initial) phases of a romantic relationship (i.e. when investment is of greater concern; Hypothesis #4), report greater frequency of kissing in their relationships (to maintain a pair-bond in an economically harsh environment, Hypothesis #5) and lower satisfaction with the amount of kissing in their relationships (i.e., a stronger desire to signal investment through kissing in an economically harsh environment, Hypothesis #6).
When testing both hypotheses on the function of mouth-to-mouth kissing in relationships, we also test for national differences in two other forms of close/intimate contact (hugging and sexual intercourse) in order to examine whether our predictions are specific to, or are stronger or weaker for, mouth-to-mouth kissing than other forms of romantic expression. Evidence for specificity in our findings toward kissing would complement prior work, which demonstrates that kissing is a more substantial predictor of romantic relationship quality than other forms of closeness and/or intimacy such as sexual intercourse17, by suggesting that the ‘special’ role that kissing may play in the quality of long-term romantic relationships, and potentially relationship outcomes, varies according to the harshness of the environment. [...]
Finally, we aim to replicate prior work by testing for an identical factor structure to the perceived components of a good kiss (biological/sensory component, arousal/contact and technique/execution17) among a broader international sample. [...]
Drosophila simulans: Alcohol intake did not affect copulation duration, but did reduce female choosiness & weakened the strength of mate preference, as females mated more quickly & with more males
Archer, C. Ruth and Alper, Cleo and Mack, Laura and Weedon, Melanie and Sharma, Manmohan D. and Sutter, Andreas and Hosken, David J., Alcohol Alters Female Sexual Behaviour (April 25, 2019). SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3378006
Abstract: Consuming alcohol can influence sexual decision-making, but potential effects on female mating-behaviours like mate-choice are unclear. If alcohol alters female mate-choice then its consumption will affect sexual selection, a major mechanism of organic evolution. Here, we tested whether alcohol intake affected female mate preferences, choosiness and copulation duration using the fly Drosophila simulans as a model, while simultaneously testing for genetic variation in possible effects. We found that alcohol intake did not affect copulation duration, but did reduce female choosiness and weakened the strength of mate preference, as females mated more quickly and with more males after consuming alcohol. Although female genotype significantly affected choosiness, the effects of alcohol were broadly consistent across genotypes. Thus alcohol consumption reduced female choosiness and weakened mate-preference, potentially reducing the strength of sexual selection.
Abstract: Consuming alcohol can influence sexual decision-making, but potential effects on female mating-behaviours like mate-choice are unclear. If alcohol alters female mate-choice then its consumption will affect sexual selection, a major mechanism of organic evolution. Here, we tested whether alcohol intake affected female mate preferences, choosiness and copulation duration using the fly Drosophila simulans as a model, while simultaneously testing for genetic variation in possible effects. We found that alcohol intake did not affect copulation duration, but did reduce female choosiness and weakened the strength of mate preference, as females mated more quickly and with more males after consuming alcohol. Although female genotype significantly affected choosiness, the effects of alcohol were broadly consistent across genotypes. Thus alcohol consumption reduced female choosiness and weakened mate-preference, potentially reducing the strength of sexual selection.
One of the key sources of support for the view that challenging people’s beliefs about free will may undermine moral behavior is a classic study by Vohs and Schooler (2008); seems not replicable
Nadelhoffer, Thomas, Jason Shepard, Damien Crone, Jim A. C. Everett, Brian D. Earp, and Neil Levy. 2019. “Does Encouraging a Belief in Determinism Increase Cheating? Reconsidering the Value of Believing in Free Will.” OSF Preprints. May 3. doi:10.31219/osf.io/bhpe5
Abstract: One of the key sources of support for the view that challenging people’s beliefs about free will may undermine moral behavior is a classic study by Vohs and Schooler (2008). These authors reported that exposure to certain prompts suggesting that free will is an illusion increased cheating behavior among study participants. In the present paper, we report several attempts to replicate this influential and widely cited work. Over a series of four high-powered studies (three preregistered) we tested the relationship between (1) anti-free-will prompts and free will beliefs and (2) free will beliefs and immoral behavior. Our primary task was to closely replicate the findings from Vohs and Schooler (2008) using the same or similar manipulations and measurements as the ones used in their original studies. Our efforts were largely unsuccessful. We suggest that manipulating free will beliefs in a robust way is more difficult than has been implied by prior work, and that the proposed link with immoral behavior may be similarly tenuous.
Abstract: One of the key sources of support for the view that challenging people’s beliefs about free will may undermine moral behavior is a classic study by Vohs and Schooler (2008). These authors reported that exposure to certain prompts suggesting that free will is an illusion increased cheating behavior among study participants. In the present paper, we report several attempts to replicate this influential and widely cited work. Over a series of four high-powered studies (three preregistered) we tested the relationship between (1) anti-free-will prompts and free will beliefs and (2) free will beliefs and immoral behavior. Our primary task was to closely replicate the findings from Vohs and Schooler (2008) using the same or similar manipulations and measurements as the ones used in their original studies. Our efforts were largely unsuccessful. We suggest that manipulating free will beliefs in a robust way is more difficult than has been implied by prior work, and that the proposed link with immoral behavior may be similarly tenuous.
From 2016... Little totalitarian enforcers: 3-year-olds were taught the rules of a game, & when a puppet played the game a different way, they corrected him with normative language (“That’s not how it’s done!”)
Young Children See a Single Action and Infer a Social Norm: Promiscuous Normativity in 3-Year-Olds. Marco F. H. Schmidt, Lucas P. Butler, Julia Heinz, and Michael Tomasello. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616661182
Abstract: Human social life depends heavily on social norms that prescribe and proscribe specific actions. Typically, young children learn social norms from adult instruction. In the work reported here, we showed that this is not the whole story: Three-year-old children are promiscuous normativists. In other words, they spontaneously inferred the presence of social norms even when an adult had done nothing to indicate such a norm in either language or behavior. And children of this age even went so far as to enforce these self-inferred norms when third parties “broke” them. These results suggest that children do not just passively acquire social norms from adult behavior and instruction; rather, they have a natural and proactive tendency to go from “is” to “ought.” That is, children go from observed actions to prescribed actions and do not perceive them simply as guidelines for their own behavior but rather as objective normative rules applying to everyone equally.
Keywords: children, cognitive development, cooperation, social cognition, social norms, open materials
Individuals of virtually all social species attempt to influence and control others’ behavior, from threatening aggression to offering mating. But beginning with Homo sapiens sapiens some 200,000 years ago, human social groups—now, cultural groups—created a new form of social control in which the group as a whole communicated collective expectations for individual behavior in the form of social norms. Some social norms regulate, for instance, food distribution or mating and thus reduce interpersonal conflict and foster cooperative group functioning (Boyd & Richerson, 2009; Chudek & Henrich, 2011). But for other social norms, individuals are expected to conform merely to coordinate with other group members or to display their commitment to the group (Hogg & Reid, 2006; Lewis, 1969; Parsons, 1951; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). These conventional norms range from conventional ways of talking, dressing, using artifacts, and preparing food to cultural and religious rituals (Rossano, 2012; Schmidt & Tomasello, 2012; Turiel, 1983).
Young children are born into a world structured by social norms. For the first 3 years, however, they seem to perceive only the expectations that specific other individuals (e.g., their parents) have for their behavior. But from around age 3, children begin to say and do things that indicate a richer understanding of social norms as generic prescriptions and proscriptions coming from something larger than an individual and applying universally to anyone engaging in a certain activity (Nagel, 1986; Rakoczy & Schmidt, 2013; Schmidt & Tomasello, 2012; Smetana & Braeges, 1990). In several recent studies, 3-year-olds were taught the rules of a game, and then when a puppet played the game a different way, they corrected him or even taught him the right way to play it (Rakoczy, Brosche, Warneken, & Tomasello, 2009; Rakoczy, Warneken, & Tomasello, 2008; Schmidt, Rakoczy, & Tomasello, 2011, 2012). They often did this with so-called generic normative language (e.g., “That’s not how it’s done!”). At a very young age, children thus cross over from being targets to being enforcers, and they clearly recognize the generic, even objective, nature of the norms they are enforcing.
All previous studies of young children’s norm learning have exposed them to the norm in a context that suggests the presence of a right way to act. Typically, an adult explicitly teaches children the norm using generic normative language (“This is how it’s done”) and a conventional label (e.g., “This is daxing”; Rakoczy et al., 2008), and the objects are artifacts clearly designed to be used in a normatively prescribed way (Casler, Terziyan, & Greene, 2009; Schmidt et al., 2011). By contrast, in the current two experiments, we explored whether children who see adults performing actions might overinterpret those actions as instantiated generic social norms, even without any teaching, language, or artifacts. Young children have been shown to be promiscuous imitators who overimitate actions irrelevant to an instrumental goal (Lyons, Young, & Keil, 2007; McGuigan, Whiten, Flynn, & Horner, 2007; Nielsen & Tomaselli, 2010) and promiscuous teleologists who overattribute purposeful design to natural kinds (Kelemen, 1999, 2004). In the experiments reported here, we investigated the possibility that they are also promiscuous normativists who overattribute objective social norms when there actually are none.
In two experiments, 3-year-old children saw an adult spontaneously perform a novel action with some materials, and then they saw a puppet perform a different action, with the same materials, that had the same result. This gave the children the opportunity to spontaneously intervene and protest if they perceived the action as normatively wrong (Rakoczy et al., 2008; Schmidt et al., 2011). The modeled action was arbitrary, without obvious purpose, and thus rather open to overinterpretation in terms of the way something is done (as in “This is how we do it!”; Schmidt & Tomasello, 2012; Searle, 1995). To investigate the key question, we manipulated both the manner of demonstration (between participants) and the type of materials (within participants) used in that demonstration. Prior research suggested that children readily learn generic and normative knowledge in both pedagogical and nonpedagogical contexts (Butler & Markman, 2012, 2014, 2016; Butler, Schmidt, Bürgel, & Tomasello, 2015; Butler & Tomasello, 2016; Csibra & Gergely, 2009, 2011; Schmidt et al., 2011; Vredenburgh, Kushnir, & Casasola, 2015); accordingly, children saw the identical action performed by an adult, either (a) pedagogically for their benefit or (b) intentionally or accidentally by a stranger in an incidental observation.
In Experiment 1, each child saw the adult spontaneously fishing objects out of her bag. The adult used a tool, either an artifact (e.g., a human-made object with a hook), from which the child could infer a conventional purpose, or a natural “tool” (e.g., a branch that happened to be usable as a hook) that suggested no conventional purpose. In Experiment 2, we went a step further, stripping away all of the cues—both in the objects themselves and in the social-pragmatic context—that might suggest a norm. We did so by using purposeless junk objects that the adult spontaneously took out of a trash bag (not out of her own bag). The trash bag was filled with junk objects that were incidentally found on the child’s chair in the beginning of the experiment. We predicted that in both experiments, regardless of whether the objects had a conventional purpose, children would infer a social norm from a single intentional action and would thus protest more when the action was pedagogical or intentional than when it was accidental.
Abstract: Human social life depends heavily on social norms that prescribe and proscribe specific actions. Typically, young children learn social norms from adult instruction. In the work reported here, we showed that this is not the whole story: Three-year-old children are promiscuous normativists. In other words, they spontaneously inferred the presence of social norms even when an adult had done nothing to indicate such a norm in either language or behavior. And children of this age even went so far as to enforce these self-inferred norms when third parties “broke” them. These results suggest that children do not just passively acquire social norms from adult behavior and instruction; rather, they have a natural and proactive tendency to go from “is” to “ought.” That is, children go from observed actions to prescribed actions and do not perceive them simply as guidelines for their own behavior but rather as objective normative rules applying to everyone equally.
Keywords: children, cognitive development, cooperation, social cognition, social norms, open materials
Individuals of virtually all social species attempt to influence and control others’ behavior, from threatening aggression to offering mating. But beginning with Homo sapiens sapiens some 200,000 years ago, human social groups—now, cultural groups—created a new form of social control in which the group as a whole communicated collective expectations for individual behavior in the form of social norms. Some social norms regulate, for instance, food distribution or mating and thus reduce interpersonal conflict and foster cooperative group functioning (Boyd & Richerson, 2009; Chudek & Henrich, 2011). But for other social norms, individuals are expected to conform merely to coordinate with other group members or to display their commitment to the group (Hogg & Reid, 2006; Lewis, 1969; Parsons, 1951; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). These conventional norms range from conventional ways of talking, dressing, using artifacts, and preparing food to cultural and religious rituals (Rossano, 2012; Schmidt & Tomasello, 2012; Turiel, 1983).
Young children are born into a world structured by social norms. For the first 3 years, however, they seem to perceive only the expectations that specific other individuals (e.g., their parents) have for their behavior. But from around age 3, children begin to say and do things that indicate a richer understanding of social norms as generic prescriptions and proscriptions coming from something larger than an individual and applying universally to anyone engaging in a certain activity (Nagel, 1986; Rakoczy & Schmidt, 2013; Schmidt & Tomasello, 2012; Smetana & Braeges, 1990). In several recent studies, 3-year-olds were taught the rules of a game, and then when a puppet played the game a different way, they corrected him or even taught him the right way to play it (Rakoczy, Brosche, Warneken, & Tomasello, 2009; Rakoczy, Warneken, & Tomasello, 2008; Schmidt, Rakoczy, & Tomasello, 2011, 2012). They often did this with so-called generic normative language (e.g., “That’s not how it’s done!”). At a very young age, children thus cross over from being targets to being enforcers, and they clearly recognize the generic, even objective, nature of the norms they are enforcing.
All previous studies of young children’s norm learning have exposed them to the norm in a context that suggests the presence of a right way to act. Typically, an adult explicitly teaches children the norm using generic normative language (“This is how it’s done”) and a conventional label (e.g., “This is daxing”; Rakoczy et al., 2008), and the objects are artifacts clearly designed to be used in a normatively prescribed way (Casler, Terziyan, & Greene, 2009; Schmidt et al., 2011). By contrast, in the current two experiments, we explored whether children who see adults performing actions might overinterpret those actions as instantiated generic social norms, even without any teaching, language, or artifacts. Young children have been shown to be promiscuous imitators who overimitate actions irrelevant to an instrumental goal (Lyons, Young, & Keil, 2007; McGuigan, Whiten, Flynn, & Horner, 2007; Nielsen & Tomaselli, 2010) and promiscuous teleologists who overattribute purposeful design to natural kinds (Kelemen, 1999, 2004). In the experiments reported here, we investigated the possibility that they are also promiscuous normativists who overattribute objective social norms when there actually are none.
In two experiments, 3-year-old children saw an adult spontaneously perform a novel action with some materials, and then they saw a puppet perform a different action, with the same materials, that had the same result. This gave the children the opportunity to spontaneously intervene and protest if they perceived the action as normatively wrong (Rakoczy et al., 2008; Schmidt et al., 2011). The modeled action was arbitrary, without obvious purpose, and thus rather open to overinterpretation in terms of the way something is done (as in “This is how we do it!”; Schmidt & Tomasello, 2012; Searle, 1995). To investigate the key question, we manipulated both the manner of demonstration (between participants) and the type of materials (within participants) used in that demonstration. Prior research suggested that children readily learn generic and normative knowledge in both pedagogical and nonpedagogical contexts (Butler & Markman, 2012, 2014, 2016; Butler, Schmidt, Bürgel, & Tomasello, 2015; Butler & Tomasello, 2016; Csibra & Gergely, 2009, 2011; Schmidt et al., 2011; Vredenburgh, Kushnir, & Casasola, 2015); accordingly, children saw the identical action performed by an adult, either (a) pedagogically for their benefit or (b) intentionally or accidentally by a stranger in an incidental observation.
In Experiment 1, each child saw the adult spontaneously fishing objects out of her bag. The adult used a tool, either an artifact (e.g., a human-made object with a hook), from which the child could infer a conventional purpose, or a natural “tool” (e.g., a branch that happened to be usable as a hook) that suggested no conventional purpose. In Experiment 2, we went a step further, stripping away all of the cues—both in the objects themselves and in the social-pragmatic context—that might suggest a norm. We did so by using purposeless junk objects that the adult spontaneously took out of a trash bag (not out of her own bag). The trash bag was filled with junk objects that were incidentally found on the child’s chair in the beginning of the experiment. We predicted that in both experiments, regardless of whether the objects had a conventional purpose, children would infer a social norm from a single intentional action and would thus protest more when the action was pedagogical or intentional than when it was accidental.
Friday, May 3, 2019
Cass Sunstein ask for firms, universities, and government agencies to regularly conduct Sludge Audits to catalogue the costs of sludge, instead of the reactive audits like GAO currently performs
Sunstein, Cass R., Sludge Audits (April 27, 2019). SSRN https://ssrn.com/abstract=3379367
Abstract: Consumers, employees, students, and others are often subjected to “sludge”: excessive or unjustified frictions, such as paperwork burdens, that cost time or money; that may make life difficult to navigate; that may be frustrating, stigmatizing, or humiliating; and that might end up depriving people of access to important goods, opportunities, and services. Because of behavioral biases and cognitive scarcity, sludge can have much more harmful effects than private and public institutions anticipate. To protect consumers, investors, employees, and others, firms, universities, and government agencies should regularly conduct Sludge Audits to catalogue the costs of sludge, and to decide when and how to reduce it. Much of human life is unnecessarily sludgy. Sludge often has costs far in excess of benefits, and it can have hurt the most vulnerable members of society.
Abstract: Consumers, employees, students, and others are often subjected to “sludge”: excessive or unjustified frictions, such as paperwork burdens, that cost time or money; that may make life difficult to navigate; that may be frustrating, stigmatizing, or humiliating; and that might end up depriving people of access to important goods, opportunities, and services. Because of behavioral biases and cognitive scarcity, sludge can have much more harmful effects than private and public institutions anticipate. To protect consumers, investors, employees, and others, firms, universities, and government agencies should regularly conduct Sludge Audits to catalogue the costs of sludge, and to decide when and how to reduce it. Much of human life is unnecessarily sludgy. Sludge often has costs far in excess of benefits, and it can have hurt the most vulnerable members of society.
The socially anxious are more likely to share partisanship with their social network ties; those with greater increase in heart rate when anticipating a discussion are more likely to be in homogeneous networks
Follow Your Heart: Could Psychophysiology Be Associated with Political Discussion Network Homogeneity? Taylor N. Carlson, Charles T. McClean, Jaime E. Settle. Political Psychology, May 3 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12594
Abstract: Most Americans are sorted into social networks that are largely politically homogeneous. A large body of political science research has explored the behavioral implications of being embedded in a politically homogeneous or heterogeneous network, but substantially less attention has been given to explaining why some people find themselves in politically homogeneous or heterogeneous social networks. In this article, we explore the psychological and physiological underpinnings of political network homogeneity. We use social network data from an original survey of 129 undergraduates paired with lab experimental evidence that measures individuals' physiological reactivity to an anticipated political discussion. Using our original survey and a separate nationally representative survey, we find suggestive evidence that individuals who are more socially anxious are more likely to share partisanship with their social network ties. Moreover, we find that individuals who experienced a greater increase in heart rate when anticipating a political discussion were more likely to be in homogeneous discussion networks, but we do not find a relationship between electrodermal activity and network homogeneity. Aversion to psychological and physiological discomfort induced by political discussions could contribute to social polarization in the American public.
Abstract: Most Americans are sorted into social networks that are largely politically homogeneous. A large body of political science research has explored the behavioral implications of being embedded in a politically homogeneous or heterogeneous network, but substantially less attention has been given to explaining why some people find themselves in politically homogeneous or heterogeneous social networks. In this article, we explore the psychological and physiological underpinnings of political network homogeneity. We use social network data from an original survey of 129 undergraduates paired with lab experimental evidence that measures individuals' physiological reactivity to an anticipated political discussion. Using our original survey and a separate nationally representative survey, we find suggestive evidence that individuals who are more socially anxious are more likely to share partisanship with their social network ties. Moreover, we find that individuals who experienced a greater increase in heart rate when anticipating a political discussion were more likely to be in homogeneous discussion networks, but we do not find a relationship between electrodermal activity and network homogeneity. Aversion to psychological and physiological discomfort induced by political discussions could contribute to social polarization in the American public.
Firm Size, Life Cycle Dynamics and Growth Constraints in Mexico: Reduce informality, combat the undue use of market power in concentrated industries and strengthen access to financial services
Firm Size, Life Cycle Dynamics and Growth Constraints: Evidence from Mexico. Christian Saborowski, Florian Misch. IMF Working Paper No. 19/87. May 2, 2019. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/05/02/Firm-Size-Life-Cycle-Dynamics-and-Growth-Constraints-Evidence-from-Mexico-46819
Summary: This paper examines the variation in life cycle growth across the universe of Mexican firms. We establish two stylized facts to motivate our analysis: first, we show that firm size matters for development by illustrating a close correlation with state-level per capita incomes. Second, we show that few firms grow as much as their U.S. peers while the majority stagnates at less than twice their initial size. To gain insights into the distinguishing characteristics of the two groups, we then econometrically decompose life cycle growth across firms. We find that firms that have financial access and multiple establishments and that are formal, part of diversified industries and located in population centers can grow at sizeable rates.
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I Introduction
Mexico’s low productivity growth in recent decades has puzzled many observers (Levy and Rodrik, 2017). Slow technology diffusion is unlikely to be the main explanation given that Mexico has benefited from large foreign investment inflows after opening up its economy as part of a series of sweeping structural reforms since the 1990s. A recent strand of work argues that Mexico’s productivity has been held back in part because the allocation of labor and capital is distorted (e.g. Levy, 2018; Misch and Saborowski, 2018).1
In this paper, we focus on within-firm growth as a complementary explanation for Mexico’s low productivity growth.2 We argue that individual firms do not invest enough, thus depressing firm growth and preventing firms from taking sufficient advantage of economies of scale. The paper calculates individual firm growth over the life cycle based on five waves of the Mexican Economic Census from 1993 to 2013, complemented by longitudinal firm identifiers constructed by Busso and others (2018) and expanded by INEGI staff. We then decompose our estimates of life cycle growth at the firm level to better understand the distinguishing features of firms that grow at sizeable rates compared to those that stagnate.
We establish two stylized facts to motivate our analysis. First, we show that firm size is positively correlated with state-level per capita incomes. The finding complements previous results at the cross-country level and highlights the close association between firm growth and economic development (Bento and Restuccia, 2018). Second, we show that there is a small minority of Mexican firms that does grow at rates similar to the average U.S. firm. While we confirm the finding of Hsieh and Klenow (2014) that the vast majority of Mexican firms stagnate at about 15-19 years of age, there are some firms that do grow continuously to several times their initial size by the age of 20-24.3 Given the close association between firm size and development, it is thus natural to ask what it is that allows this small minority of firms to perform well in an environment in which the majority does not.
We decompose firm life cycle growth into the contributions of individual firm characteristics using a simple regression framework in the second part of the analysis. Our findings suggest that Mexican firms that have financial access and multiple establishments and that are formal, part of diversified industries and located in population centers can grow at sizeable rates. The regressions predict that a firm that is both formal and has financial access would grow to some 2.4 times its initial size. Formal firms with financial access and multiple establishments, in turn, are predicted to grow to 3-4 times their initial size over their life cycles, an order of magnitude similar to that of the average U.S. firm (Hsieh and Klenow, 2014). We further illustrate that these ‘superstar’ firms tend to be very large firms in industries that form part of the North American supply chain.
We contribute to the existing literature in several ways. First, by using data that is perfectly comparable across Mexican states, our paper lends greater credibility to estimates in the literature that find evidence of a positive link between firm size and development. These include the findings by Bento and Restuccia (2017) and Bento and Restuccia (2018) who estimate an elasticity of establishment size with respect to GDP per capita of around 0.3.4 Second, we provide a more nuanced view on firm life cycle dynamics in Mexico than Hsieh and Klenow (2014). We document not only that the average Mexican firm grows less than the average U.S. firm, but also that firms that have managed to overcome a well identified set of distortions are able to grow at rates similar to the average U.S. firm. Third, our findings provide empirical evidence in support of the theoretical proposition that distortions that constrain productivity through misallocation of resources between more and less productive firms also depress investment by individual firms (Hsieh and Klenow, 2014, and Bento and Restuccia, 2017).5 We show that life cycle dynamics can indeed be decomposed into a very similar set of distortions to those identified in Misch and Saborowski (2018) as drivers of resource misallocation in Mexico.
From a policy perspective our findings highlight the importance of pushing ahead with structural reforms in priority areas. This includes efforts to reduce informality, combat the undue use of market power in concentrated industries and strengthen access to financial services. Furthermore, targeted infrastructure investments would help better connecting more remote regions to the major population centers in the country.
[...]
V CONCLUSION
This paper focuses on within-firm growth as an explanation for Mexico’s low productivity growth. A recent strand of work argues that Mexico’s productivity has been held back in part because the allocation of labor and capital is distorted (e.g. Levy, 2018; Misch and Saborowski, 2018). In this paper, we argue that individual firms do not invest enough, thus depressing firm growth and preventing firms from taking sufficient advantage of economies of scale.
We establish two stylized facts to motivate our analysis: First, we show that firm size is positively correlated with state-level per capita incomes. The finding mirrors previous results at the cross-country level and highlights the close association between firm growth and economic development (Bento and Restuccia, 2018). Second, we show that there is a small minority of Mexican firms that do not grow at rates similar to the average U.S. firm while most of their peers stagnate at less than two times their initial size.
The remainder of the paper analyzes the distinguishing factors of the small minority of firms that manage to grow in an environment in which the majority does not. We decompose life cycle growth into the contributions of individual distortions using a simple regressions framework. Our findings suggest that Mexican firms that are formal, have multiple establishments and financial access, are part of diversified industries as well as located in population centers can grow at sizable rates. The regressions predict that a firm that is both formal and has financial access would see a cumulative growth rate of some 140 percentage points more than an informal firm without financial access. Formal firms with financial access and multiple establishments, in turn, are predicted to grow to 3-4 times their initial size over their life cycles, and thus by an order of magnitude similar to that of the average U.S. firm.
Our findings support the theoretical proposition that distortions that constrain productivity through misallocation also depress investment by individual firms (Hsieh and Klenow, 2014, and Bento and Restuccia, 2017). We show that life cycle dynamics can indeed be decomposed into a very similar set of distortions to those that have been identified as drivers of resource misallocation in Misch and Saborowski (2018).
From a policy perspective, our findings are consistent with continued emphasis on structural reforms. This includes efforts to reduce tax evasion, limit the use of market power in concentrated industries and strengthen access to financial services. Furthermore, targeted infrastructure investments that help to better connect the more remote regions to the major population centers in the country also matter for firm growth. We leave several issues to future work. These include a more detailed study of differences in the distribution of life cycle growth across cohorts and age groups. Another avenue could be to more explicitely examine the role of market power in driving life cycle growth.
Life expectancy after age 65 & parental education: Life expectancy increases with higher maternal education, no link with paternal education; maternal impact on children's health-related behaviours is a potential channel
Life expectancy and parental education. Mathias Huebener. Social Science & Medicine, May 2 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.04.034
Highlights
• We analyse the link between life expectancy after age 65 and parental education.
• Analysis based on German Socio-Economic Panel Study and Cox models.
• Life expectancy increases with higher maternal education, no link with paternal education.
• Link persists when we control for children's education and other parental characteristics.
• Maternal impact on children's health-related behaviours is a potential channel.
Abstract: This study analyses the relationship between life expectancy and parental education. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study and survival analysis models, we show that maternal education is related to children's life expectancy – even after controlling for children's own level of education. This applies equally to daughters and sons as well as to children's further life expectancies examined at age 35 to age 65. This pattern is more pronounced for younger cohorts. In most cases, the education of the father is not significantly related to children's life expectancy. Neither the vocational training nor the occupational position of the parents in childhood, which both correlate with household income, can explain the connection. The health behaviour of the children and the health accumulated over the life course appear as important channels. This study extends the previous literature that focused mostly on the relationship between individuals' own education and their life expectancy. It implies that the link between education and life expectancy is substantially stronger and that returns to education are higher if the intergenerational component is considered.
Life expectancy and parental education.
Highlights
• We analyse the link between life expectancy after age 65 and parental education.
• Analysis based on German Socio-Economic Panel Study and Cox models.
• Life expectancy increases with higher maternal education, no link with paternal education.
• Link persists when we control for children's education and other parental characteristics.
• Maternal impact on children's health-related behaviours is a potential channel.
Abstract: This study analyses the relationship between life expectancy and parental education. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study and survival analysis models, we show that maternal education is related to children's life expectancy – even after controlling for children's own level of education. This applies equally to daughters and sons as well as to children's further life expectancies examined at age 35 to age 65. This pattern is more pronounced for younger cohorts. In most cases, the education of the father is not significantly related to children's life expectancy. Neither the vocational training nor the occupational position of the parents in childhood, which both correlate with household income, can explain the connection. The health behaviour of the children and the health accumulated over the life course appear as important channels. This study extends the previous literature that focused mostly on the relationship between individuals' own education and their life expectancy. It implies that the link between education and life expectancy is substantially stronger and that returns to education are higher if the intergenerational component is considered.
Life expectancy and parental education.
Frequent gossipers tend to be more extraverted; women engage in more neutral gossip than men, & younger people tend to negatively gossip more than older people; gossip tends to be neutral, rather than positive or negative
Who Gossips and How in Everyday Life? Megan L. Robbins, Alexander Karan. Social Psychological and Personality Science, May 2, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619837000
Abstract: Although laypeople often view gossipers as immoral, uneducated, typically female, and of lower social class, no systematic observation has empirically revealed the characteristics of those who gossip more than others nor examined the characteristics of gossip across everyday contexts. We used data from five naturalistic observation studies (N = 467) to examine who gossips and how. All participants wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), which acoustically sampled 5–12% over 2–5 days, and completed demographics and personality questionnaires. Sound files were coded for gossip, valence (positive, negative, and neutral), subject (acquaintance and celebrity), and topic (social information, physical appearance, and achievement). Frequent gossipers tended to be more extraverted. Women engaged in more neutral gossip than men, and younger people tended to negatively gossip more than older people. Gossip tended to be neutral, rather than positive or negative, and about social information. These naturalistic observation findings dispel some stereotypes about this prevalent yet misunderstood behavior.
Keywords: Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), naturalistic observation, social interaction, personality
Check also A Small Town Takes a Stand: It Banned Gossip. James Hookway. Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/04/neighborhoods-in-philippines-pass-anti.html
Abstract: Although laypeople often view gossipers as immoral, uneducated, typically female, and of lower social class, no systematic observation has empirically revealed the characteristics of those who gossip more than others nor examined the characteristics of gossip across everyday contexts. We used data from five naturalistic observation studies (N = 467) to examine who gossips and how. All participants wore the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), which acoustically sampled 5–12% over 2–5 days, and completed demographics and personality questionnaires. Sound files were coded for gossip, valence (positive, negative, and neutral), subject (acquaintance and celebrity), and topic (social information, physical appearance, and achievement). Frequent gossipers tended to be more extraverted. Women engaged in more neutral gossip than men, and younger people tended to negatively gossip more than older people. Gossip tended to be neutral, rather than positive or negative, and about social information. These naturalistic observation findings dispel some stereotypes about this prevalent yet misunderstood behavior.
Keywords: Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), naturalistic observation, social interaction, personality
Check also A Small Town Takes a Stand: It Banned Gossip. James Hookway. Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/04/neighborhoods-in-philippines-pass-anti.html
Reassessing the “Meritocratic Power” of a College Degree in Intergenerational Income Mobility: Expanding the pool of college graduates per se is unlikely to boost intergenerational income mobility in the US
Equalization or Selection? Reassessing the “Meritocratic Power” of a College Degree in Intergenerational Income Mobility. Xiang Zhou. American Sociological Review, April 30, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122419844992
Abstract: Intergenerational mobility is higher among college graduates than among people with lower levels of education. In light of this finding, researchers have characterized a college degree as a great equalizer leveling the playing field, and proposed that expanding higher education would promote mobility. This line of reasoning rests on the implicit assumption that the relatively high mobility observed among college graduates reflects a causal effect of college completion on intergenerational mobility, an assumption that has rarely been rigorously evaluated. This article bridges this gap. Using a novel reweighting technique, I estimate the degree of intergenerational income mobility among college graduates purged of selection processes that may drive up observed mobility in this subpopulation. Analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, I find that once selection processes are adjusted for, intergenerational income mobility among college graduates is very close to that among non-graduates. This finding suggests that expanding the pool of college graduates per se is unlikely to boost intergenerational income mobility in the United States. To promote mobility, public investments in higher education (e.g., federal and state student aid programs) should be targeted at low-income youth.
Keywords: intergenerational mobility, inequality, education, selection bias
Abstract: Intergenerational mobility is higher among college graduates than among people with lower levels of education. In light of this finding, researchers have characterized a college degree as a great equalizer leveling the playing field, and proposed that expanding higher education would promote mobility. This line of reasoning rests on the implicit assumption that the relatively high mobility observed among college graduates reflects a causal effect of college completion on intergenerational mobility, an assumption that has rarely been rigorously evaluated. This article bridges this gap. Using a novel reweighting technique, I estimate the degree of intergenerational income mobility among college graduates purged of selection processes that may drive up observed mobility in this subpopulation. Analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, I find that once selection processes are adjusted for, intergenerational income mobility among college graduates is very close to that among non-graduates. This finding suggests that expanding the pool of college graduates per se is unlikely to boost intergenerational income mobility in the United States. To promote mobility, public investments in higher education (e.g., federal and state student aid programs) should be targeted at low-income youth.
Keywords: intergenerational mobility, inequality, education, selection bias
Thursday, May 2, 2019
Scientists explore the evolution of animal homosexuality... and its correlate in humans
Scientists explore the evolution of animal homosexuality... and its correlate in humans. Juanita Bawagan, Imperial College London, May 2, 2019. https://phys.org/news/2019-05-scientists-explore-evolution-animal-homosexuality.html
Imperial researchers are using a new approach to understand why same-sex behaviour is so common across the animal kingdom.
In 1910, a team of scientists set off on the Terra Nova Expedition to explore Antarctica. Among them was George Murray Levick, a zoologist and photographer who would be the first researcher to study the world's largest Adélie penguin colony. He chronicled the animals' daily activities in great detail.
In his notebooks, he described their sexual behaviour, including sex between male birds. However, none of these notes would appear in Levick's published papers. Concerned by the graphic content, he only printed 100 copies of Sexual Habits of the Adélie Penguin to circulate privately. The last remaining copy was recently unearthed providing valuable insights into animal homosexuality research.
But forays into animal homosexuality research long predate Levick, with observations published as far back as the 1700s and 1800s. More than 200 years later, research has moved past some of the taboos those early researchers faced and shown that homosexuality is much more common than previously thought.
Same-sex behaviour ranging from co-parenting to sex has been observed in over 1,000 species with likely many more as researchers begin to look for the behaviour explicitly. Homosexuality is widespread, with bisexuality even more prevalent across species.
Researchers are now going beyond just observing it though, with researchers at Imperial leading the way in unravelling how, and why, homosexuality is found across nature.
[Many more details at the link above]
Imperial researchers are using a new approach to understand why same-sex behaviour is so common across the animal kingdom.
In 1910, a team of scientists set off on the Terra Nova Expedition to explore Antarctica. Among them was George Murray Levick, a zoologist and photographer who would be the first researcher to study the world's largest Adélie penguin colony. He chronicled the animals' daily activities in great detail.
In his notebooks, he described their sexual behaviour, including sex between male birds. However, none of these notes would appear in Levick's published papers. Concerned by the graphic content, he only printed 100 copies of Sexual Habits of the Adélie Penguin to circulate privately. The last remaining copy was recently unearthed providing valuable insights into animal homosexuality research.
But forays into animal homosexuality research long predate Levick, with observations published as far back as the 1700s and 1800s. More than 200 years later, research has moved past some of the taboos those early researchers faced and shown that homosexuality is much more common than previously thought.
Same-sex behaviour ranging from co-parenting to sex has been observed in over 1,000 species with likely many more as researchers begin to look for the behaviour explicitly. Homosexuality is widespread, with bisexuality even more prevalent across species.
Researchers are now going beyond just observing it though, with researchers at Imperial leading the way in unravelling how, and why, homosexuality is found across nature.
[Many more details at the link above]
Did not find a significant association between changes in the frequency of adolescents’ pornography use over time and their sexual satisfaction; these patterns were similar across genders
Longitudinal Assessment of the Association Between Pornography Use and Sexual Satisfaction in Adolescence. Goran Milas, Paul Wright & Aleksandar Štulhofer. The Journal of Sex Research, May 1 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2019.1607817
Abstract: Pornography has been theorized to affect sexual satisfaction for decades, yet only two prospective studies, both conducted in the Netherlands, have explored this link among adolescents. Given the unprecedented availability of (online) sexually explicit content and the potential importance of its relationship to sexual satisfaction for young people, we have revisited the association between these variables in a less sexually permissive society. Using a panel sample of 775 female and 514 male Croatian high school students (Mage at baseline = 15.9 years, SD = 0.52) and latent growth curve modeling with six observation points, we did not find a significant association between changes in the frequency of adolescents’ pornography use over time and their sexual satisfaction at wave six. The association between the initial levels of pornography use and sexual satisfaction, which, if present, would have indicated a possible relationship during middle adolescence, was also null. These patterns were similar across genders. Possible explanations for the difference between our results and the results of the previous studies are discussed.
Abstract: Pornography has been theorized to affect sexual satisfaction for decades, yet only two prospective studies, both conducted in the Netherlands, have explored this link among adolescents. Given the unprecedented availability of (online) sexually explicit content and the potential importance of its relationship to sexual satisfaction for young people, we have revisited the association between these variables in a less sexually permissive society. Using a panel sample of 775 female and 514 male Croatian high school students (Mage at baseline = 15.9 years, SD = 0.52) and latent growth curve modeling with six observation points, we did not find a significant association between changes in the frequency of adolescents’ pornography use over time and their sexual satisfaction at wave six. The association between the initial levels of pornography use and sexual satisfaction, which, if present, would have indicated a possible relationship during middle adolescence, was also null. These patterns were similar across genders. Possible explanations for the difference between our results and the results of the previous studies are discussed.
Wolves acted prosocially to in-group partners; providing significantly more food to a pack-member compared to a control where the partner had no access to the food; dogs did not
Wolves, but not dogs, are prosocial in a touch screen task. Rachel Dale, Sylvain Palma-Jacinto, Sarah Marshall-Pescini, Friederike Range. PLOS, May 1, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215444
Abstract: Prosociality is important for initiating cooperation. Interestingly, while wolves rely heavily on cooperation, dogs’ do so substantially less thus leading to the prediction that wolves are more prosocial than dogs. However, domestication hypotheses suggest dogs have been selected for higher cooperation, leading to the opposing prediction- increased prosocial tendencies in dogs. To tease apart these hypotheses we adapted a paradigm previously used with pet dogs to directly compare dogs and wolves. In a prosocial choice task, wolves acted prosocially to in-group partners; providing significantly more food to a pack-member compared to a control where the partner had no access to the food. Dogs did not. Additionally, wolves did not show a prosocial response to non-pack members, in line with previous research that social relationships are important for prosociality. In sum, when kept in the same conditions, wolves are more prosocial than their domestic counterpart, further supporting suggestions that reliance on cooperation is a driving force for prosocial attitudes.
Abstract: Prosociality is important for initiating cooperation. Interestingly, while wolves rely heavily on cooperation, dogs’ do so substantially less thus leading to the prediction that wolves are more prosocial than dogs. However, domestication hypotheses suggest dogs have been selected for higher cooperation, leading to the opposing prediction- increased prosocial tendencies in dogs. To tease apart these hypotheses we adapted a paradigm previously used with pet dogs to directly compare dogs and wolves. In a prosocial choice task, wolves acted prosocially to in-group partners; providing significantly more food to a pack-member compared to a control where the partner had no access to the food. Dogs did not. Additionally, wolves did not show a prosocial response to non-pack members, in line with previous research that social relationships are important for prosociality. In sum, when kept in the same conditions, wolves are more prosocial than their domestic counterpart, further supporting suggestions that reliance on cooperation is a driving force for prosocial attitudes.
Anjelica Huston on Roman Polanski, older guys hitting on young girls, statutory rape, almost daily MeToo experiences, and girls and boys
In Conversation: Anjelica Huston On growing up in Hollywood, the cost of beating Oprah at the Oscars, and why Jack Nicholson doesn’t act anymore. Andrew Goldman. Vulture, May 1 2019. https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/anjelica-huston-in-conversation.html
You were actually arrested for cocaine possession at Jack’s house in 1977. What did your father say?
Not a thing. He was a prince. Never mentioned it. It was like, “You need my help, honey?” Princely.
Was the arrest embarrassing to you?
Oh, awful. So embarrassing, humiliating. I was really ashamed.
You were arrested because you happened to be in Jack’s house when Roman Polanski raped 13-year-old Samantha Geimer. How did you feel about that?
Well, see, it’s a story that could’ve happened ten years before in England or France or Italy or Spain or Portugal, and no one would’ve heard anything about it. And that’s how these guys enjoy their time. It was a whole playboy movement in France when I was a young girl, 15, 16 years old, doing my first collections. You would go to Régine or Castel in Paris, and the older guys would all hit on you. Any club you cared to mention in Europe. It was de rigueur for most of those guys like Roman who had grown up with the European sensibility.
Among a lot of Hollywood men, it was acceptable at that time to treat women as though they were disposable.
I think they’re still doing it. I was at the hairdresser’s yesterday, and I heard tales of such horror from women. There was one other client and two girls who were working in this rather small hairdressing shop. And one of the girls had been passed a Mickey Finn in a bar and had woken up on a couch with a guy ejaculating wildly all over her face. And as she was telling the story, another girl who worked in the salon came in and said, “The weirdest thing happened to my friend last night. She was found at four in the morning in the Wilshire district, coatless, shoeless, with scratches and bruises all over her body. She doesn’t know whether she was raped. So, I’m trying to stop her from having a bath because we need to get her to the police.”
So you don’t think anything has changed?
No, I don’t. And frankly, I think there’s a whole element of guys who will get up to what they want to get up to. I didn’t think Brett Kavanaugh was all that believable. And yet this whole thing continues to be whitewashed and whitewashed and whitewashed. On the other hand, there is a thing called a male imperative, and it is maybe stronger than any #MeToo movement, because it happens at birth. I have a great 3-year-old nephew who made his way over to my umbrella rack the other day and pulled an Irish walking stick out and said, “I am the leader of the universe.” Girls don’t do that.
Did you have what would have qualified as #MeToo experiences?
Yeah, yeah.
What happened?
You’d have to ask me that on a daily basis, practically. That’s how often it happens, that you’re objectified, or misread, or put down. I think men do it a lot, and I don’t really think half the time they know what they’re doing. That’s how inured they are.
You were certainly objectified. Elia Kazan wasn’t great to you when he was casting The Last Tycoon.
He said, to a random woman waiting at a bus stop, “Do you think she’s beautiful?” She said, “I wouldn’t say ‘beautiful.’ Interesting, maybe.” I watched the part fly out the door. It was the “right girl” in The Last Tycoon,the part Ingrid Boulting got. I got the “wrong girl” part. But that was mild, compared to some shit that goes down.
You were in two Woody Allen films, Crimes and Misdemeanors, alongside Mia Farrow, and then Manhattan Murder Mystery. Woody Allen is basically unable to make films now because of the outcry about the molestation allegations.
I think that’s after two states investigated him, and neither of them prosecuted him.
Well, the industry seems to be treating him as though he’s guilty. Would you work with him again?
Yeah, in a second.
Jeffrey Tambor, whose girlfriend you played on seasons two and three of Transparent, was accused by his former assistant and an actress on the show of behaving inappropriately toward them. Did you know the two women?
I’ve met them both. At least insofar as I was concerned, nobody did or said anything inappropriate. I do think in this work we have to feel freedom. We have to feel as though we can say and do things that are not necessarily judged, particularly by the other people in the cast or crew.
So you think what happens on the set should stay on the set, and there are processes that make the rules of behavior a little different from what you might find at a corporate job?
That’s absolutely what I’m saying.
So would it be fair to say this is a defense of things that Jeffrey might have said that were possibly misinterpreted?
Yes, that is fair. He certainly never said or did anything inappropriate with me.
How did you come down on Polanski when people were signing petitions to have him readmitted to the U.S.?
My opinion is: He’s paid his price, and at the time that it happened, it was kind of unprecedented. This was not an unusual situation. You know that movie An Education with Carey Mulligan? That happened to me. It’s about a schoolgirl in England who falls in love with an older dude, Peter Sarsgaard. My first serious boyfriend I met when he was 42 and I was 18.
The photographer Bob Richardson. It wasn’t illegal though.
He was way older than me. I mean, old enough to know better. But these things happen, that’s what I’m saying. These things weren’t judged on the same basis that they’re judged on now. So you can’t compare them.
He was abusive, correct?
Yeah. In modern terms. We wouldn’t have known what to call it then. I don’t think he set out to be abusive, but he was manic-depressive. He was schizophrenic.Richardson, whose schizophrenia was diagnosed in the ’60s and exacerbated by drug and alcohol abuse, was periodically homeless, and often living on Southern California beaches. His son, the photographer Terry Richardson, got him off the streets in 1984. He died in Manhattan in 2005 at 77. So you can’t really say that schizophrenic is abusive, although to live with a schizophrenic is about as difficult.
You wrote that you once made him a steak and he threw it against the wall because it took too long.
At first I said, “What have I done?” And then at a certain point, I just had to get away. My mother had just died, so I think I was looking for someone to take care of me. And not take care of me at the same time. It was very dramatic. He also was extremely controlling, so he hated when I worked with other photographers.
You were actually arrested for cocaine possession at Jack’s house in 1977. What did your father say?
Not a thing. He was a prince. Never mentioned it. It was like, “You need my help, honey?” Princely.
Was the arrest embarrassing to you?
Oh, awful. So embarrassing, humiliating. I was really ashamed.
You were arrested because you happened to be in Jack’s house when Roman Polanski raped 13-year-old Samantha Geimer. How did you feel about that?
Well, see, it’s a story that could’ve happened ten years before in England or France or Italy or Spain or Portugal, and no one would’ve heard anything about it. And that’s how these guys enjoy their time. It was a whole playboy movement in France when I was a young girl, 15, 16 years old, doing my first collections. You would go to Régine or Castel in Paris, and the older guys would all hit on you. Any club you cared to mention in Europe. It was de rigueur for most of those guys like Roman who had grown up with the European sensibility.
Among a lot of Hollywood men, it was acceptable at that time to treat women as though they were disposable.
I think they’re still doing it. I was at the hairdresser’s yesterday, and I heard tales of such horror from women. There was one other client and two girls who were working in this rather small hairdressing shop. And one of the girls had been passed a Mickey Finn in a bar and had woken up on a couch with a guy ejaculating wildly all over her face. And as she was telling the story, another girl who worked in the salon came in and said, “The weirdest thing happened to my friend last night. She was found at four in the morning in the Wilshire district, coatless, shoeless, with scratches and bruises all over her body. She doesn’t know whether she was raped. So, I’m trying to stop her from having a bath because we need to get her to the police.”
So you don’t think anything has changed?
No, I don’t. And frankly, I think there’s a whole element of guys who will get up to what they want to get up to. I didn’t think Brett Kavanaugh was all that believable. And yet this whole thing continues to be whitewashed and whitewashed and whitewashed. On the other hand, there is a thing called a male imperative, and it is maybe stronger than any #MeToo movement, because it happens at birth. I have a great 3-year-old nephew who made his way over to my umbrella rack the other day and pulled an Irish walking stick out and said, “I am the leader of the universe.” Girls don’t do that.
Did you have what would have qualified as #MeToo experiences?
Yeah, yeah.
What happened?
You’d have to ask me that on a daily basis, practically. That’s how often it happens, that you’re objectified, or misread, or put down. I think men do it a lot, and I don’t really think half the time they know what they’re doing. That’s how inured they are.
You were certainly objectified. Elia Kazan wasn’t great to you when he was casting The Last Tycoon.
He said, to a random woman waiting at a bus stop, “Do you think she’s beautiful?” She said, “I wouldn’t say ‘beautiful.’ Interesting, maybe.” I watched the part fly out the door. It was the “right girl” in The Last Tycoon,the part Ingrid Boulting got. I got the “wrong girl” part. But that was mild, compared to some shit that goes down.
You were in two Woody Allen films, Crimes and Misdemeanors, alongside Mia Farrow, and then Manhattan Murder Mystery. Woody Allen is basically unable to make films now because of the outcry about the molestation allegations.
I think that’s after two states investigated him, and neither of them prosecuted him.
Well, the industry seems to be treating him as though he’s guilty. Would you work with him again?
Yeah, in a second.
Jeffrey Tambor, whose girlfriend you played on seasons two and three of Transparent, was accused by his former assistant and an actress on the show of behaving inappropriately toward them. Did you know the two women?
I’ve met them both. At least insofar as I was concerned, nobody did or said anything inappropriate. I do think in this work we have to feel freedom. We have to feel as though we can say and do things that are not necessarily judged, particularly by the other people in the cast or crew.
So you think what happens on the set should stay on the set, and there are processes that make the rules of behavior a little different from what you might find at a corporate job?
That’s absolutely what I’m saying.
So would it be fair to say this is a defense of things that Jeffrey might have said that were possibly misinterpreted?
Yes, that is fair. He certainly never said or did anything inappropriate with me.
How did you come down on Polanski when people were signing petitions to have him readmitted to the U.S.?
My opinion is: He’s paid his price, and at the time that it happened, it was kind of unprecedented. This was not an unusual situation. You know that movie An Education with Carey Mulligan? That happened to me. It’s about a schoolgirl in England who falls in love with an older dude, Peter Sarsgaard. My first serious boyfriend I met when he was 42 and I was 18.
The photographer Bob Richardson. It wasn’t illegal though.
He was way older than me. I mean, old enough to know better. But these things happen, that’s what I’m saying. These things weren’t judged on the same basis that they’re judged on now. So you can’t compare them.
He was abusive, correct?
Yeah. In modern terms. We wouldn’t have known what to call it then. I don’t think he set out to be abusive, but he was manic-depressive. He was schizophrenic.Richardson, whose schizophrenia was diagnosed in the ’60s and exacerbated by drug and alcohol abuse, was periodically homeless, and often living on Southern California beaches. His son, the photographer Terry Richardson, got him off the streets in 1984. He died in Manhattan in 2005 at 77. So you can’t really say that schizophrenic is abusive, although to live with a schizophrenic is about as difficult.
You wrote that you once made him a steak and he threw it against the wall because it took too long.
At first I said, “What have I done?” And then at a certain point, I just had to get away. My mother had just died, so I think I was looking for someone to take care of me. And not take care of me at the same time. It was very dramatic. He also was extremely controlling, so he hated when I worked with other photographers.
Visual Deep Neural Networks: Trained with impoverished data, lack adaptations to attentional mechanisms, visual working memory, & compressed mental representations that preserve relevant abstractions
Comparing the Visual Representations and Performance of Humans and Deep Neural Networks. Robert A. Jacobs, Christopher J. Bates. Current Directions in Psychological Science, November 27, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418801342
Abstract: Although deep neural networks (DNNs) are state-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems, it is unclear what insights, if any, they provide about human intelligence. We address this issue in the domain of visual perception. After briefly describing DNNs, we provide an overview of recent results comparing human visual representations and performance with those of DNNs. In many cases, DNNs acquire visual representations and processing strategies that are very different from those used by people. We conjecture that there are at least two factors preventing them from serving as better psychological models. First, DNNs are currently trained with impoverished data, such as data lacking important visual cues to three-dimensional structure, data lacking multisensory statistical regularities, and data in which stimuli are unconnected to an observer’s actions and goals. Second, DNNs typically lack adaptations to capacity limits, such as attentional mechanisms, visual working memory, and compressed mental representations biased toward preserving task-relevant abstractions.
Keywords: perception, vision, artificial intelligence, deep neural networks
Abstract: Although deep neural networks (DNNs) are state-of-the-art artificial intelligence systems, it is unclear what insights, if any, they provide about human intelligence. We address this issue in the domain of visual perception. After briefly describing DNNs, we provide an overview of recent results comparing human visual representations and performance with those of DNNs. In many cases, DNNs acquire visual representations and processing strategies that are very different from those used by people. We conjecture that there are at least two factors preventing them from serving as better psychological models. First, DNNs are currently trained with impoverished data, such as data lacking important visual cues to three-dimensional structure, data lacking multisensory statistical regularities, and data in which stimuli are unconnected to an observer’s actions and goals. Second, DNNs typically lack adaptations to capacity limits, such as attentional mechanisms, visual working memory, and compressed mental representations biased toward preserving task-relevant abstractions.
Keywords: perception, vision, artificial intelligence, deep neural networks
Hansen & Wänke 2010 (participants judge concretely worded trivia items as more likely to be true than abstractly worded ones) is non-replicable
Henderson, E. L., Vallée-Tourangeau, F., & Simons, D. J. (2019). The Effect of Concrete Wording on Truth Judgements: A Preregistered Replication and Extension of Hansen & Wänke (2010). Collabra: Psychology, 5(1), 19. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.192
Abstract: When you lack the facts, how do you decide what is true and what is not? In the absence of knowledge, we sometimes rely on non-probative information. For example, participants judge concretely worded trivia items as more likely to be true than abstractly worded ones (the linguistic truth effect; Hansen & Wänke, 2010). If minor language differences affect truth judgements, ultimately they could influence more consequential political, legal, health, and interpersonal choices. This Registered Report includes two high-powered replication attempts of Experiment 1 from Hansen and Wänke (2010). Experiment 1a was a dual-site, in-person replication of the linguistic concreteness effect in the original paper-and-pencil format (n = 253, n = 246 in analyses). Experiment 1b replicated the study with an online sample (n = 237, n = 220 in analyses). In Experiment 1a, the effect of concreteness on judgements of truth (Cohen’s dz = 0.08; 95% CI: [–0.03, 0.18]) was smaller than that of the original study. Similarly, in Experiment 1b the effect (Cohen’s dz = 0.11; 95% CI [–0.01, 0.22]) was smaller than that of the original study. Collectively, the pattern of results is inconsistent with that of the original study.
Keywords: replication , truth judgements , truth effect , concreteness , language , Registered Report
Abstract: When you lack the facts, how do you decide what is true and what is not? In the absence of knowledge, we sometimes rely on non-probative information. For example, participants judge concretely worded trivia items as more likely to be true than abstractly worded ones (the linguistic truth effect; Hansen & Wänke, 2010). If minor language differences affect truth judgements, ultimately they could influence more consequential political, legal, health, and interpersonal choices. This Registered Report includes two high-powered replication attempts of Experiment 1 from Hansen and Wänke (2010). Experiment 1a was a dual-site, in-person replication of the linguistic concreteness effect in the original paper-and-pencil format (n = 253, n = 246 in analyses). Experiment 1b replicated the study with an online sample (n = 237, n = 220 in analyses). In Experiment 1a, the effect of concreteness on judgements of truth (Cohen’s dz = 0.08; 95% CI: [–0.03, 0.18]) was smaller than that of the original study. Similarly, in Experiment 1b the effect (Cohen’s dz = 0.11; 95% CI [–0.01, 0.22]) was smaller than that of the original study. Collectively, the pattern of results is inconsistent with that of the original study.
Keywords: replication , truth judgements , truth effect , concreteness , language , Registered Report
Adolescent Sexting: Myths, Facts, and Advice
Adolescent Sexting: Myths, Facts, and Advice. Joris Van Ouytsel et al. NASN School Nurse, April 25, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602X19843113
Abstract: Adolescent sexting remains an important public health issue because of the potential for psychosocial and legal consequences. This article briefly reviews the current state of the science of adolescent sexting research. It serves as an up-to-date and data-driven resource to school nurses and school staff to help augment understanding and facilitate discussion regarding teen sexting. The review is structured along popular myths about sexting.
Keywords: sexting, sexual risk behavior, electronic media: public health, cyberbullying
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Myth 1: The Prevalence of Sexting Is Drastically on the Rise
Myth 2: Girls Are More Likely to Sext Than BoysAnother common
Myth 3: If Teenagers Are Engaging in Online Sexual Risk Behaviors, They Must Be Engaging in Offline Sexual Risk Behaviors
Myth 4: Sexts Are Meant as a Means to “Hook Up” (i.e., Engage in Casual Sexual Behavior)
Abstract: Adolescent sexting remains an important public health issue because of the potential for psychosocial and legal consequences. This article briefly reviews the current state of the science of adolescent sexting research. It serves as an up-to-date and data-driven resource to school nurses and school staff to help augment understanding and facilitate discussion regarding teen sexting. The review is structured along popular myths about sexting.
Keywords: sexting, sexual risk behavior, electronic media: public health, cyberbullying
---
Myth 1: The Prevalence of Sexting Is Drastically on the Rise
Myth 2: Girls Are More Likely to Sext Than BoysAnother common
Myth 3: If Teenagers Are Engaging in Online Sexual Risk Behaviors, They Must Be Engaging in Offline Sexual Risk Behaviors
Myth 4: Sexts Are Meant as a Means to “Hook Up” (i.e., Engage in Casual Sexual Behavior)
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Men are more optimistic than women; men are also more prone to be wrong in their beliefs about the future economic situation; & in sharp economic downturns, the gender differences in optimism disappear
Bjuggren, Carl Magnus & Elert, Niklas, 2019. "Gender Differences in Optimism," Working Paper Series 1275, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/iuiwop/1275.html
Abstract: This paper examines gender differences in optimism about the economy. We measure optimism using Swedish survey data in which respondents stated their beliefs about the country’s future economic situation. We argue that this measure of optimism is preferable to common measurements in the literature since it avoids confounding individuals’ economic situation with their perception of the future and it can be compared to economic indicators. In line with previous research, we find that men are more optimistic than women; however, men are also more prone to be wrong in their beliefs about the future economic situation. Furthermore, in sharp economic downturns, the gender differences in optimism disappear. This convergence in beliefs can be explained by the amount of available information on the economy.
Abstract: This paper examines gender differences in optimism about the economy. We measure optimism using Swedish survey data in which respondents stated their beliefs about the country’s future economic situation. We argue that this measure of optimism is preferable to common measurements in the literature since it avoids confounding individuals’ economic situation with their perception of the future and it can be compared to economic indicators. In line with previous research, we find that men are more optimistic than women; however, men are also more prone to be wrong in their beliefs about the future economic situation. Furthermore, in sharp economic downturns, the gender differences in optimism disappear. This convergence in beliefs can be explained by the amount of available information on the economy.
Do we want to regulate ideas conflict, or compete and promote our own ideas, or avoid conflict and yield to others' ideas?
Sociocognitive Conflict Regulation: How to Make Sense of Diverging Ideas. Fabrizio Butera, Nicolas Sommet, Céline Darnon. Current Directions in Psychological Science, February 4, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418813986
Abstract: Sociocognitive conflict arises when people hold different views or ideas about the same object, and it has the potential to promote learning, cognitive development, and positive social relations. The promotion of these outcomes, however, depends on how the conflict is regulated and with what goals: Mastery goals predict epistemic conflict regulation and the elaboration of multiple ideas, performance-approach goals predict competitive conflict regulation and the promotion of one’s own ideas, and performance-avoidance goals predict protective conflict regulation and yielding to other people’s ideas. Conflict regulation thus determines the conditions under which confronting diverging ideas results in positive cognitive and relational outcomes.
Keywords: sociocognitive conflict, conflict regulation, achievement goals, learning, cognitive development
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The concept of conflict has a lengthy history in psy-chological science, albeit with different interpretations. From early studies on intergroup conflict (Sherif, 1966) to more recent work on oppression (Sidanius & Pratto, 2001), social psychology has traditionally focused on destructive conflicts (Sommet, Quiamzade, & Butera, 2017) based on competition between individuals and between groups. On the contrary, from Piaget’s studies on the equilibration of cognitive structures (1975/1985) to work on conceptual change (Chi, 2008), cognitive psychology and the learning sciences have focused on constructive conflicts based on individual exposure to contradictory information (Limón, 2001). The present article presents the integrative framework of sociocog-nitive conflict stemming from research on sociocogni-tive development (Doise & Mugny, 1984) and social influence (Pérez & Mugny, 1996). This line of research has demonstrated that conflict can be either construc-tive or destructive depending on the way it is regulated (Butera, Darnon, & Mugny, 2011).
The Concept of Sociocognitive Conflict
The concept of sociocognitive conflict was introduced by Mugny and Doise (1978) and Doise and Mugny (1984) to account for the finding that children interact-ing with others are more likely to progress on a task than children working alone. This work was based on Piaget’s concept of cognitive conflict (Piaget, 1975/1985), which arises when a child’s cognitive structures are disrupted by new and inconsistent information. The disequilibrium that ensues requires some adjustment in the child’s cognitive structures, which leads to more elaborate knowledge and cognitive gains. Very often, however, direct information from the object is not available or is misleading, cognitive conflict does not take place, and people may carry on with false or suboptimal knowledge.
Doise and Mugny (1984) reasoned that children reach a higher level of cognitive development when interacting with others than when working alone because the disequilibrium may come from the diver-gent point of view of their partner. The disruption of previous knowledge by a dissenting partner is called sociocognitive conflict. This conflict requires some adjustment and may thereby result in more elaborate knowledge. The constructive effects of such conflictual interactions have been documented in dozens of experiments with children (Doise & Mugny, 1984) and adults (Darnon, Buchs, & Butera, 2002), replicated by other laboratories (Ames & Murray, 1982), and extended to the realm of professional and political decision making (see Johnson’s, 2015, work on “constructive controversy”) and interactions in computer-supported collaborative learning groups (see Kapur’s, 2008, work on “productive failure”).
Importantly, the observed progress is accounted for by conflict and not merely by interaction: Mugny and Doise (1978) showed that interaction led to progress even when a child interacted with a partner who had a lower level of cognitive development, which is incon-sistent with an explanation in terms of the mere transfer of competences. Later, Doise and Mugny (1979) showed that interindividual conflict (between two children with opposing viewpoints) led to greater cognitive progress than intraindividual conflict (each child experiencing two viewpoints).
Table 1. Items Used to Assess Self-Reported Sociocognitive Conflict Regulation (From Darnon, Muller, Schrager, Pannuzzo, & Butera, 2006; Sommet et al., 2014)
Conflict-regulation strategy: Epistemic
When disagreements occurred, to what extent did you . . .
•Try to think about the text again in order to understand better?
•Try to examine the conditions under which each point of view could help you understand?
•Try to think of a solution that could integrate both points of view?
Conflict-regulation strategy: Competitive relational
When disagreements occurred, to what extent did you . . .
•Try to resist by maintaining your initial position?
•Try to show your partner was wrong?
•Try to show you were right?
Conflict-regulation strategy: Protective relational
When disagreements occurred, to what extent did you . . .
•Think your partner was certainly more correct than you?
•Comply with his/her proposition?
•Agree with his/her own way of viewing things?
Table 2. Instructions Used to Manipulate Achievement Goals (From Darnon, Harackiewicz, Butera, Mugny, & Quiamzade, 2007; Darnon, Muller, Schrager, Pannuzzo, & Butera, 2006)
Achievement goal: Mastery
“It is very important for you to accurately understand the aims of this experiment. You are here to acquire new knowledge that could be useful to you, to understand correctly the experiments and the ideas developed in the text, and to discover new concepts. In other words, you are here to learn.”
Achievement goal: Performance-approach
“The experimenters will evaluate your performance. It is important for you to perform well and obtain a good grade on the different tasks presented here. You should know that a lot of students will do this task. You are asked to keep in mind that you should try to distinguish yourself positively, that is, to perform better than the majority of students. In other words, what we ask you here is to show your competencies, your abilities.”
Achievement goal: Performance-avoidance
“The experimenters will evaluate your performance. It is important for you to avoid performing poorly and not obtain a bad grade on the different tasks presented here. You should know that a lot of students will do this task. You are asked to keep in mind that you should try not to distinguish yourself negatively, that is, try not to perform more poorly than the majority of students. In other words, what we ask you here is to avoid performing poorly.”
Abstract: Sociocognitive conflict arises when people hold different views or ideas about the same object, and it has the potential to promote learning, cognitive development, and positive social relations. The promotion of these outcomes, however, depends on how the conflict is regulated and with what goals: Mastery goals predict epistemic conflict regulation and the elaboration of multiple ideas, performance-approach goals predict competitive conflict regulation and the promotion of one’s own ideas, and performance-avoidance goals predict protective conflict regulation and yielding to other people’s ideas. Conflict regulation thus determines the conditions under which confronting diverging ideas results in positive cognitive and relational outcomes.
Keywords: sociocognitive conflict, conflict regulation, achievement goals, learning, cognitive development
---
The concept of conflict has a lengthy history in psy-chological science, albeit with different interpretations. From early studies on intergroup conflict (Sherif, 1966) to more recent work on oppression (Sidanius & Pratto, 2001), social psychology has traditionally focused on destructive conflicts (Sommet, Quiamzade, & Butera, 2017) based on competition between individuals and between groups. On the contrary, from Piaget’s studies on the equilibration of cognitive structures (1975/1985) to work on conceptual change (Chi, 2008), cognitive psychology and the learning sciences have focused on constructive conflicts based on individual exposure to contradictory information (Limón, 2001). The present article presents the integrative framework of sociocog-nitive conflict stemming from research on sociocogni-tive development (Doise & Mugny, 1984) and social influence (Pérez & Mugny, 1996). This line of research has demonstrated that conflict can be either construc-tive or destructive depending on the way it is regulated (Butera, Darnon, & Mugny, 2011).
The Concept of Sociocognitive Conflict
The concept of sociocognitive conflict was introduced by Mugny and Doise (1978) and Doise and Mugny (1984) to account for the finding that children interact-ing with others are more likely to progress on a task than children working alone. This work was based on Piaget’s concept of cognitive conflict (Piaget, 1975/1985), which arises when a child’s cognitive structures are disrupted by new and inconsistent information. The disequilibrium that ensues requires some adjustment in the child’s cognitive structures, which leads to more elaborate knowledge and cognitive gains. Very often, however, direct information from the object is not available or is misleading, cognitive conflict does not take place, and people may carry on with false or suboptimal knowledge.
Doise and Mugny (1984) reasoned that children reach a higher level of cognitive development when interacting with others than when working alone because the disequilibrium may come from the diver-gent point of view of their partner. The disruption of previous knowledge by a dissenting partner is called sociocognitive conflict. This conflict requires some adjustment and may thereby result in more elaborate knowledge. The constructive effects of such conflictual interactions have been documented in dozens of experiments with children (Doise & Mugny, 1984) and adults (Darnon, Buchs, & Butera, 2002), replicated by other laboratories (Ames & Murray, 1982), and extended to the realm of professional and political decision making (see Johnson’s, 2015, work on “constructive controversy”) and interactions in computer-supported collaborative learning groups (see Kapur’s, 2008, work on “productive failure”).
Importantly, the observed progress is accounted for by conflict and not merely by interaction: Mugny and Doise (1978) showed that interaction led to progress even when a child interacted with a partner who had a lower level of cognitive development, which is incon-sistent with an explanation in terms of the mere transfer of competences. Later, Doise and Mugny (1979) showed that interindividual conflict (between two children with opposing viewpoints) led to greater cognitive progress than intraindividual conflict (each child experiencing two viewpoints).
Table 1. Items Used to Assess Self-Reported Sociocognitive Conflict Regulation (From Darnon, Muller, Schrager, Pannuzzo, & Butera, 2006; Sommet et al., 2014)
Conflict-regulation strategy: Epistemic
When disagreements occurred, to what extent did you . . .
•Try to think about the text again in order to understand better?
•Try to examine the conditions under which each point of view could help you understand?
•Try to think of a solution that could integrate both points of view?
Conflict-regulation strategy: Competitive relational
When disagreements occurred, to what extent did you . . .
•Try to resist by maintaining your initial position?
•Try to show your partner was wrong?
•Try to show you were right?
Conflict-regulation strategy: Protective relational
When disagreements occurred, to what extent did you . . .
•Think your partner was certainly more correct than you?
•Comply with his/her proposition?
•Agree with his/her own way of viewing things?
Table 2. Instructions Used to Manipulate Achievement Goals (From Darnon, Harackiewicz, Butera, Mugny, & Quiamzade, 2007; Darnon, Muller, Schrager, Pannuzzo, & Butera, 2006)
Achievement goal: Mastery
“It is very important for you to accurately understand the aims of this experiment. You are here to acquire new knowledge that could be useful to you, to understand correctly the experiments and the ideas developed in the text, and to discover new concepts. In other words, you are here to learn.”
Achievement goal: Performance-approach
“The experimenters will evaluate your performance. It is important for you to perform well and obtain a good grade on the different tasks presented here. You should know that a lot of students will do this task. You are asked to keep in mind that you should try to distinguish yourself positively, that is, to perform better than the majority of students. In other words, what we ask you here is to show your competencies, your abilities.”
Achievement goal: Performance-avoidance
“The experimenters will evaluate your performance. It is important for you to avoid performing poorly and not obtain a bad grade on the different tasks presented here. You should know that a lot of students will do this task. You are asked to keep in mind that you should try not to distinguish yourself negatively, that is, try not to perform more poorly than the majority of students. In other words, what we ask you here is to avoid performing poorly.”
Captive apes failed to respect others' claim on food resources & frequently monopolized the resources when had opportunity; children respected & made spontaneous verbal references to ownership
Children, but not great apes, respect ownership. Patricia Kanngiesser et al. Developmental Science, April 30 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12842
Abstract: Access to and control of resources is a major source of costly conflicts. Animals, under some conditions, respect what others control and use (i.e., possession). Humans not only respect possession of resources, they also respect ownership. Ownership can be viewed as a cooperative arrangement, where individuals inhibit their tendency to take others’ property on the condition that those others will do the same. We investigated to what degree great apes follow this principle, as compared to human children. We conducted two experiments, in which dyads of individuals could access the same food resources. The main test of respect for ownership was whether individuals would refrain from taking their partner's resources even when the partner could not immediately access and control them. Captive apes (N = 14 dyads) failed to respect their partner's claim on food resources and frequently monopolized the resources when given the opportunity. Human children (N = 14 dyads), tested with a similar apparatus and procedure, respected their partner's claim and made spontaneous verbal references to ownership. Such respect for the property of others highlights the uniquely cooperative nature of human ownership arrangements.
Abstract: Access to and control of resources is a major source of costly conflicts. Animals, under some conditions, respect what others control and use (i.e., possession). Humans not only respect possession of resources, they also respect ownership. Ownership can be viewed as a cooperative arrangement, where individuals inhibit their tendency to take others’ property on the condition that those others will do the same. We investigated to what degree great apes follow this principle, as compared to human children. We conducted two experiments, in which dyads of individuals could access the same food resources. The main test of respect for ownership was whether individuals would refrain from taking their partner's resources even when the partner could not immediately access and control them. Captive apes (N = 14 dyads) failed to respect their partner's claim on food resources and frequently monopolized the resources when given the opportunity. Human children (N = 14 dyads), tested with a similar apparatus and procedure, respected their partner's claim and made spontaneous verbal references to ownership. Such respect for the property of others highlights the uniquely cooperative nature of human ownership arrangements.
It was claimed that the ability to recall personal past events is uniquely human; but great apes can remember specific events for long periods of time (months to years); the forgetting curve is similar to ours
Long-Term Memory of Past Events in Great Apes. Amy Lewis, Dorthe Berntsen, Josep Call. Current Directions in Psychological Science, January 2, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418812781
Abstract: It has been claimed that the ability to recall personal past events is uniquely human. We review recent evidence that great apes can remember specific events for long periods of time, spanning months and even years, and that such memories can be enhanced by distinctiveness (irrespective of reinforcement) and follow a forgetting curve similar to that in humans. Moreover, recall is enhanced when apes are presented with features that are diagnostic of the event, consistent with notions of encoding specificity and cue overload in human memory. These findings are also consistent with the involuntary retrieval of past events in humans, a mode of remembering that is thought to be less cognitively demanding than voluntary retrieval. Taken together, these findings reveal further similarities between the way humans and animals remember past events and open new avenues of research on long-term memory in nonhuman animals.
Keywords: great apes, long-term memory, spontaneous retrieval, episodic memory, event memory
Abstract: It has been claimed that the ability to recall personal past events is uniquely human. We review recent evidence that great apes can remember specific events for long periods of time, spanning months and even years, and that such memories can be enhanced by distinctiveness (irrespective of reinforcement) and follow a forgetting curve similar to that in humans. Moreover, recall is enhanced when apes are presented with features that are diagnostic of the event, consistent with notions of encoding specificity and cue overload in human memory. These findings are also consistent with the involuntary retrieval of past events in humans, a mode of remembering that is thought to be less cognitively demanding than voluntary retrieval. Taken together, these findings reveal further similarities between the way humans and animals remember past events and open new avenues of research on long-term memory in nonhuman animals.
Keywords: great apes, long-term memory, spontaneous retrieval, episodic memory, event memory
Why so many people trust others, even complete strangers, given their social cynicism & aversion to taking risks? People trust at unexpectedly high rates because they feel a social obligation to do so
Why People Trust: Solved Puzzles and Open Mysteries. David Dunning, Detlef Fetchenhauer, Thomas Schlösser. Current Directions in Psychological Science, April 30, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419838255
Abstract: Interpersonal trust is essential for a productive and rewarding social life, yet it presents many theoretical puzzles, particularly among strangers, because its existence violates the rational-actor model. Here, we focus on two mysteries. One is cognitive, focusing on why people cynically underestimate how trustworthy their peers are. The second is behavioral, focusing on why so many people trust others, including complete strangers, given their social cynicism and aversion to taking risks. Regarding the behavioral mystery, we adopt a normative approach, proposing that people trust at unexpectedly high rates because they feel a social obligation to do so. This approach implies that trust may be more about the behavior itself than about downstream consequences, that people are not “giving” so much as “giving in” to social pressures, and that their choices may have more to do with emotion than calculation.
Keywords: trust, economic games, prosocial behavior, norms, social exchange
Abstract: Interpersonal trust is essential for a productive and rewarding social life, yet it presents many theoretical puzzles, particularly among strangers, because its existence violates the rational-actor model. Here, we focus on two mysteries. One is cognitive, focusing on why people cynically underestimate how trustworthy their peers are. The second is behavioral, focusing on why so many people trust others, including complete strangers, given their social cynicism and aversion to taking risks. Regarding the behavioral mystery, we adopt a normative approach, proposing that people trust at unexpectedly high rates because they feel a social obligation to do so. This approach implies that trust may be more about the behavior itself than about downstream consequences, that people are not “giving” so much as “giving in” to social pressures, and that their choices may have more to do with emotion than calculation.
Keywords: trust, economic games, prosocial behavior, norms, social exchange
Drinking alcohol (compared with placebo or control) increased the positive image held by observers
Self-Expression While Drinking Alcohol: Alcohol Influences Personality Expression During First Impressions. Edward Orehek et al. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, April 30, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219843933
Abstract: People are motivated to be perceived both positively and accurately and, therefore, approach social settings and adopt means that allow them to reach these goals. We investigated whether alcohol consumption helps or hinders the positivity and accuracy of social impressions using a thin-slicing paradigm to better understand the effects of alcohol in social settings and the influence of alcohol on self-expression. These possibilities were tested in a sample of 720 participants randomly assigned to consume an alcohol, placebo, or control beverage while engaged in conversation in three-person groups. We found support for the hypothesis that alcohol (compared with placebo or control) increased the positivity of observers’ personality expression, but did not find support for the hypothesis that alcohol increased the accuracy of personality expression. These findings contribute to our understanding of the social consequences of alcohol consumption, shedding new light on the interpersonal benefits that alcohol can foster.
Abstract: People are motivated to be perceived both positively and accurately and, therefore, approach social settings and adopt means that allow them to reach these goals. We investigated whether alcohol consumption helps or hinders the positivity and accuracy of social impressions using a thin-slicing paradigm to better understand the effects of alcohol in social settings and the influence of alcohol on self-expression. These possibilities were tested in a sample of 720 participants randomly assigned to consume an alcohol, placebo, or control beverage while engaged in conversation in three-person groups. We found support for the hypothesis that alcohol (compared with placebo or control) increased the positivity of observers’ personality expression, but did not find support for the hypothesis that alcohol increased the accuracy of personality expression. These findings contribute to our understanding of the social consequences of alcohol consumption, shedding new light on the interpersonal benefits that alcohol can foster.
The “Inclusivity Analysis” feature allows filmmakers “to quickly assign and measure the ethnicity, gender, age, disability or any other definable trait of the characters,” or determine if they pass the Bechdel Test
Screenplay Software Adds Tool to Assess a Script’s Inclusiveness. Melena Ryzik. TNYT Apr 26 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/movies/final-draft-software.html
One of the most widely used screenplay programs in Hollywood has a new tool to help with gender equality and inclusion. In an update announced Thursday, Final Draft (https://www.finaldraft.com) — software that writers use to format scripts — said it will now include a proprietary “Inclusivity Analysis” feature, allowing filmmakers “to quickly assign and measure the ethnicity, gender, age, disability or any other definable trait of the characters,” including race, the company said in a statement.
It also will enable users to determine if a project passes the Bechdel Test, measuring whether two female characters speak to each other about anything other than a man. The Final Draft tool, a free add-on, was developed in collaboration with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media at Mount Saint Mary’s University, which has been at the forefront of studying the under-representation of women on screen.
One of the most widely used screenplay programs in Hollywood has a new tool to help with gender equality and inclusion. In an update announced Thursday, Final Draft (https://www.finaldraft.com) — software that writers use to format scripts — said it will now include a proprietary “Inclusivity Analysis” feature, allowing filmmakers “to quickly assign and measure the ethnicity, gender, age, disability or any other definable trait of the characters,” including race, the company said in a statement.
It also will enable users to determine if a project passes the Bechdel Test, measuring whether two female characters speak to each other about anything other than a man. The Final Draft tool, a free add-on, was developed in collaboration with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media at Mount Saint Mary’s University, which has been at the forefront of studying the under-representation of women on screen.
From 2018: These results support the existence of characteristic neural traits in artists, who display reduced reactions to monetary reward acceptance and increased reactions to monetary reward rejection
From 2018... Reactivity of the Reward System in Artists During Acceptance and Rejection of Monetary Rewards. Roberto Goya-Maldonado, Maria Keil, Katja Brodmann & Oliver Gruber. Creativity Research Journal, Volume 30, 2018 - Issue 2, Pages 172-178. Apr 20 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2018.1414994
Abstract: Humans possess an invaluable ability of self-expression that extends into visual, literary, musical, and many other fields of creation. More than any other profession, artists are in close contact with this subdomain of creativity. Probably one of the most intriguing aspects of creativity is its negative correlation with the availability of monetary reward. The aim of this study was to investigate the reactivity of the dopaminergic reward system in artists and nonartist controls using the desire-reason-dilemma (DRD) paradigm, which allows separate evaluation of reactivity to the acceptance and rejection of rewards. Using fMRI, blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses were measured in key regions of the reward system, namely the ventral striatum (VS), the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and the anterior ventral prefrontal cortex (AVPFC). In contrast to controls, artists presented significantly weaker VS activation in reward acceptance. Additionally, they showed stronger suppression of the VS by the AVPFC in reward rejection. No other differences in demographic or behavioral data were evidenced. These results support the existence of characteristic neural traits in artists, who display reduced reactions to monetary reward acceptance and increased reactions to monetary reward rejection.
Abstract: Humans possess an invaluable ability of self-expression that extends into visual, literary, musical, and many other fields of creation. More than any other profession, artists are in close contact with this subdomain of creativity. Probably one of the most intriguing aspects of creativity is its negative correlation with the availability of monetary reward. The aim of this study was to investigate the reactivity of the dopaminergic reward system in artists and nonartist controls using the desire-reason-dilemma (DRD) paradigm, which allows separate evaluation of reactivity to the acceptance and rejection of rewards. Using fMRI, blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses were measured in key regions of the reward system, namely the ventral striatum (VS), the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and the anterior ventral prefrontal cortex (AVPFC). In contrast to controls, artists presented significantly weaker VS activation in reward acceptance. Additionally, they showed stronger suppression of the VS by the AVPFC in reward rejection. No other differences in demographic or behavioral data were evidenced. These results support the existence of characteristic neural traits in artists, who display reduced reactions to monetary reward acceptance and increased reactions to monetary reward rejection.
Chronotype (morningness/eveningness) is associated with preference for the timing of many types of behavior, most notably sleep; also associated with aspects of personality, like prosocial behavior
The impact of chronotype on prosocial behavior. Natalie L. Solomon, Jamie M. Zeitzer. PLOS, April 30, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216309
Abstract
Introduction: Chronotype (morningness/eveningness) is associated with preference for the timing of many types of behavior, most notably sleep. Chronotype is also associated with differences in the timing of various physiologic events as well as aspects of personality. One aspect linked to personality, prosocial behavior, has not been studied before in the context of chronotype. There are many variables contributing to who, when, and why one human might help another and some of these factors appear fixed, while some change over time or with the environment. It was our intent to examine prosocial behavior in the context of chronotype and environment.
Methods: Randomly selected adults (N = 100, ages 18–72) were approached in a public space and asked to participate in a study. If the participants consented (n = 81), they completed the reduced Morning-Eveningness Questionnaire and the Stanford Sleepiness Scale, then prosocial behavior was assessed.
Results/Conclusions: We found that people exhibited greater prosocial behavior when they were studied further from their preferred time of day. This did not appear to be associated with subjective sleepiness or other environmental variables, such as ambient illumination. This suggests the importance of appreciating the differentiation between the same individual’s prosocial behavior at different times of day. Future studies should aim at replicating this result in larger samples and across other measures of prosocial behavior.
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Another variable linked to both agreeableness and conscientiousness, prosocial behavior, has received little attention in terms of its potential modulation by chronotype. Prosocial behavior, or an action that is done for the benefit of another human or society as a whole, is regulated by both situational and dispositional variables [13]. The study of situational determinants of prosocial behavior was the focus of most early investigation. Among the situational variables that could influence prosocial behavior are setting (rural settings eliciting more prosocial behavior than urban settings) [14,15], other behaviors (e.g., cell phone use) [16], amount of sunlight [17], and weather [18]. Noise has also been found to be negatively correlated with prosocial behavior, with high noise levels interfering more with verbal help than with physical help [19]. Opportunities in which the situation is viewed as uncontrollable, such as a medical emergency, are likely to evoke more prosocial behavior [20], while the presence of bystanders reduces prosocial behavior [21]. More recently, however, there has been increasing interest in examining how dispositional (trait) variables relate to prosocial behavior. Agreeableness and conscientiousness are the personality traits most correlated with prosocial behavior [22–24]. Other variables associated with prosocial behavior include sex [25] and age [26,27].
As both chronotype and prosocial behavior are linked to agreeableness, conscientiousness, and other aspects of personality, we wanted to explore whether chronotype is linked to prosocial behavior. One previous study examining adolescents found morningness to be correlated positively with prosocial behavior, and negatively with behavioral problems [28]. We specifically hypothesized that individuals would be more likely to engage in prosocial behavior if asked to do so when closer to their preferred time of day. We secondarily hypothesized that sleepiness, a common occurrence in many adults that can be associated with chronotype [29] and impacts many aspects personality [30], would be negatively associated with prosocial behavior.
To control for the effects of socializing and peer influence, only individuals standing alone were sampled. Individuals with others standing nearby were approached while individuals clearly traveling with another were not. Children (individuals who appeared to be less than 17 years old), people on crutches, people with heavy packages or others who might not be fully capable of filling out the questionnaires were excluded.
[...]
When the participant finished the survey, the researcher thanked them and employed a sidewalk interview method [14,18,31,32] by saying the following script, which was adapted from the sociology department of the University of Minnesota [18]: “We are also conducting a second study related to sleep. Although the survey is 80 questions long, you do not have to answer all of the questions. How many questions would you be willing to answer to help me?” [...]
Abstract
Introduction: Chronotype (morningness/eveningness) is associated with preference for the timing of many types of behavior, most notably sleep. Chronotype is also associated with differences in the timing of various physiologic events as well as aspects of personality. One aspect linked to personality, prosocial behavior, has not been studied before in the context of chronotype. There are many variables contributing to who, when, and why one human might help another and some of these factors appear fixed, while some change over time or with the environment. It was our intent to examine prosocial behavior in the context of chronotype and environment.
Methods: Randomly selected adults (N = 100, ages 18–72) were approached in a public space and asked to participate in a study. If the participants consented (n = 81), they completed the reduced Morning-Eveningness Questionnaire and the Stanford Sleepiness Scale, then prosocial behavior was assessed.
Results/Conclusions: We found that people exhibited greater prosocial behavior when they were studied further from their preferred time of day. This did not appear to be associated with subjective sleepiness or other environmental variables, such as ambient illumination. This suggests the importance of appreciating the differentiation between the same individual’s prosocial behavior at different times of day. Future studies should aim at replicating this result in larger samples and across other measures of prosocial behavior.
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Introduction
Individual differences in the time at which people prefer to do particular behaviors, most notably sleep, are referred to as chronotype. In essence, chronotype describes whether someone is a “morning” person or an “evening” person. While many (50%) individuals identify somewhere between the extremes of chronotype, around 30% of individuals identify as morning type and 20% identify as evening type [1,2]. An individual’s chronotype is likely created by an interaction between the endogenous circadian pacemaker and its responses to light [3,4] and can be modulated by factors such as age [2,5,6] and life circumstance (e.g., needing to get to work early over years may shift preference towards earlier hours). There are a variety of physiologic events that vary by chronotype (e.g., timing of melatonin [7], core temperature [8], and cortisol [9]), as well behaviors that vary by chronotype (e.g., cognition, mood, susceptibility to stress and personality traits) [10,11]. A meta-analysis examining the association between chronotype and personality, as described by the Big Five Personality Model [12], found that conscientiousness is the personality dimension that relates most to morningness. Agreeableness is also related to morningness, although to a lesser degree, and openness to experience, extraversion and neuroticism, contribute a very small degree [12].Another variable linked to both agreeableness and conscientiousness, prosocial behavior, has received little attention in terms of its potential modulation by chronotype. Prosocial behavior, or an action that is done for the benefit of another human or society as a whole, is regulated by both situational and dispositional variables [13]. The study of situational determinants of prosocial behavior was the focus of most early investigation. Among the situational variables that could influence prosocial behavior are setting (rural settings eliciting more prosocial behavior than urban settings) [14,15], other behaviors (e.g., cell phone use) [16], amount of sunlight [17], and weather [18]. Noise has also been found to be negatively correlated with prosocial behavior, with high noise levels interfering more with verbal help than with physical help [19]. Opportunities in which the situation is viewed as uncontrollable, such as a medical emergency, are likely to evoke more prosocial behavior [20], while the presence of bystanders reduces prosocial behavior [21]. More recently, however, there has been increasing interest in examining how dispositional (trait) variables relate to prosocial behavior. Agreeableness and conscientiousness are the personality traits most correlated with prosocial behavior [22–24]. Other variables associated with prosocial behavior include sex [25] and age [26,27].
As both chronotype and prosocial behavior are linked to agreeableness, conscientiousness, and other aspects of personality, we wanted to explore whether chronotype is linked to prosocial behavior. One previous study examining adolescents found morningness to be correlated positively with prosocial behavior, and negatively with behavioral problems [28]. We specifically hypothesized that individuals would be more likely to engage in prosocial behavior if asked to do so when closer to their preferred time of day. We secondarily hypothesized that sleepiness, a common occurrence in many adults that can be associated with chronotype [29] and impacts many aspects personality [30], would be negatively associated with prosocial behavior.
Materials and methods
Participants (N = 100) were approached at the Mountain View Caltrain Station in Mountain View, California. This location was chosen because many people waiting at the station may have some extra time and may not be immediately headed somewhere. Participants were approached when a train was not scheduled to depart from the platform within the next eight minutes. The same researcher (NS) approached all individuals. The researcher approached every third person on the platform to reduce the likelihood that the researcher was biasing their choice of participant. If the next participant was within earshot of the last participant, the researcher would move on to the next person on the platform who was out of earshot of the last participant.To control for the effects of socializing and peer influence, only individuals standing alone were sampled. Individuals with others standing nearby were approached while individuals clearly traveling with another were not. Children (individuals who appeared to be less than 17 years old), people on crutches, people with heavy packages or others who might not be fully capable of filling out the questionnaires were excluded.
[...]
When the participant finished the survey, the researcher thanked them and employed a sidewalk interview method [14,18,31,32] by saying the following script, which was adapted from the sociology department of the University of Minnesota [18]: “We are also conducting a second study related to sleep. Although the survey is 80 questions long, you do not have to answer all of the questions. How many questions would you be willing to answer to help me?” [...]
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Distrust of nonreligious individuals is almost completely erased by knowledge that they are following a restricted monogamous lifestyle; thus, reproductive strategies often underlie apparently sacred concerns
Is Nothing Sacred? Religion, Sex, and Reproductive Strategies. Jordan W. Moon et al. Current Directions in Psychological Science, April 29, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419838242
Abstract: Religion has often been conceptualized as a collection of beliefs, practices, and proscriptions that lift people’s thoughts and behaviors out of the metaphorical gutter of sex and selfishness toward lives full of meaning, contemplation, and community service. But religious beliefs and behaviors may serve selfish, sexual motivations in ways that are not always obvious or consciously intended. We review two lines of research illustrating nonobvious links between the mundane and the religious. First, contrary to long-held assumptions that religious upbringing causes sexually restrictive attitudes and behaviors, several large data sets now suggest a reverse causal arrow—people’s preferred mating strategies determining their attraction toward, or repulsion from, religion. Second, other recent findings suggest that distrust of nonreligious individuals is almost completely erased by knowledge that they are following a restricted monogamous lifestyle. Thus, reproductive strategies often underlie apparently sacred concerns. We close with a consideration of ways in which reproductive interests might underlie a broad range of benefits associated with religious affiliation.
Keywords: religion, evolutionary psychology, mating
Abstract: Religion has often been conceptualized as a collection of beliefs, practices, and proscriptions that lift people’s thoughts and behaviors out of the metaphorical gutter of sex and selfishness toward lives full of meaning, contemplation, and community service. But religious beliefs and behaviors may serve selfish, sexual motivations in ways that are not always obvious or consciously intended. We review two lines of research illustrating nonobvious links between the mundane and the religious. First, contrary to long-held assumptions that religious upbringing causes sexually restrictive attitudes and behaviors, several large data sets now suggest a reverse causal arrow—people’s preferred mating strategies determining their attraction toward, or repulsion from, religion. Second, other recent findings suggest that distrust of nonreligious individuals is almost completely erased by knowledge that they are following a restricted monogamous lifestyle. Thus, reproductive strategies often underlie apparently sacred concerns. We close with a consideration of ways in which reproductive interests might underlie a broad range of benefits associated with religious affiliation.
Keywords: religion, evolutionary psychology, mating
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