Human reproductive behavior, life history, and the Challenge Hypothesis: A 30-year review, retrospective and future directions. Peter B. Gray et al. Hormones and Behavior, May 25 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.04.017
Highlights
• Reviews research on human life histories and the Challenge Hypothesis.
• We conducted a citation analysis of 400 Google Scholar citations in the human literature, identifying key patterns.
• We review findings within several domains: competition, courtship and sexual behavior, and partnerships and paternal care.
• We discuss extensions of the Challenge Hypothesis to juvenile and senescent life stages.
• We discuss how research on testosterone administration provides causal insight into effects of testosterone in humans.
Abstract: The Challenge Hypothesis (Wingfield et al., 1990) originally focused on adult male avian testosterone elevated in response to same-sex competition in reproductive contexts. The purpose of the present paper is to demonstrate how the Challenge Hypothesis has shaped ideas about human life histories. We conduct a citation analysis, drawing upon 400 Google Scholar citations in the human literature to identify patterns in this body of scholarship. We cover key factors, such as context and personality traits, that help explain variable testosterone responses such as winning/losing to adult competitive behavior. Findings from studies on courtship and sexual behavior indicate some variation in testosterone responses depending on factors such as motivation. A large body of research indicates that male testosterone levels are often lower in contexts of long-term committed partnerships and nurturant fathering and aligned with variation in male mating and parenting effort. As the Challenge Hypothesis is extended across the life course, DHEA and androstenedione (rather than testosterone) appear more responsive to juvenile male competitive behavior, and during reproductive senescence, baseline male testosterone levels decrease just as male life history allocations show decreased mating effort. We discuss how research on testosterone administration, particularly in older men, provides causal insight into effects of testosterone in humans, and how this “natural experiment” can be viewed in light of the Challenge Hypothesis. We synthesize central concepts and findings, such as an expanded array of costs of testosterone that inform life history tradeoffs between maintenance and reproductive effort, and we conclude with directions for future research.
Saturday, May 25, 2019
People are unable to self-project into deteriorated versions of themselves; this is not based on similarity in mind or body, as say philosophical & psychological theories
De Freitas, Julian, and George Alvarez. 2019. “Struggling to Imagine Ourselves.” PsyArXiv. May 11. doi:10.31234/osf.io/c4wqg
Abstract: The uniquely human ability to imagine alternate versions of ourselves draws on specialized neural networks and plays a critical role in planning and decision making. But is there any constraint on our ability to self-project into a remembered or anticipated version of ourselves? And if so, might this constraint also affect our ability to relate to others? Here we show that people are unable to self-project into deteriorated versions of themselves. This psychological roadblock is not based on similarity in mind or body, as current philosophical and psychological theories predict, but on an overlapping cognitive template— in order to feel that someone is you, you have to attribute to them a shared essence. Moreover, individual differences in how people identify with different versions of themselves predict their ethical opinions, including endorsement of abortion or assisted death, suggesting that the capacity for self-projection also constrains people’s moral judgments about others.
Abstract: The uniquely human ability to imagine alternate versions of ourselves draws on specialized neural networks and plays a critical role in planning and decision making. But is there any constraint on our ability to self-project into a remembered or anticipated version of ourselves? And if so, might this constraint also affect our ability to relate to others? Here we show that people are unable to self-project into deteriorated versions of themselves. This psychological roadblock is not based on similarity in mind or body, as current philosophical and psychological theories predict, but on an overlapping cognitive template— in order to feel that someone is you, you have to attribute to them a shared essence. Moreover, individual differences in how people identify with different versions of themselves predict their ethical opinions, including endorsement of abortion or assisted death, suggesting that the capacity for self-projection also constrains people’s moral judgments about others.
An association between women's physical attractiveness and the length of their reproductive career in a nationally representative sample
An association between women's physical attractiveness and the length of their reproductive career in a prospectively longitudinal nationally representative sample. Satoshi Kanazawa. American Journal of Human Biology, May 23 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23256
Abstract
Objectives: Why is physical attractiveness more important for women's mate value in long‐term mating than in short‐term mating? This article replicates Bovet et al.'s (Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 2018; 31:229–238) recent finding that physically attractive women have a later expected age of menopause.
Methods: I analyzed the prospectively longitudinal, nationally representative sample of women in the National Child Development Study, applying t‐test and multiple regression analyses.
Results: Analyses showed that girls rated physically attractive at age 7 underwent menarche 3.12 months earlier than other girls, and they had 32% smaller odds of having undergone menopause before age 51. The results suggest that more physically attractive women have longer reproductive careers, explaining why physical attractiveness may be a more important determinant of women's mate value in long‐term mating than in short‐term mating.
Conclusions: Women's physical attractiveness predicts the timing of menarche and menopause, thereby the length of their reproductive careers.
Abstract
Objectives: Why is physical attractiveness more important for women's mate value in long‐term mating than in short‐term mating? This article replicates Bovet et al.'s (Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 2018; 31:229–238) recent finding that physically attractive women have a later expected age of menopause.
Methods: I analyzed the prospectively longitudinal, nationally representative sample of women in the National Child Development Study, applying t‐test and multiple regression analyses.
Results: Analyses showed that girls rated physically attractive at age 7 underwent menarche 3.12 months earlier than other girls, and they had 32% smaller odds of having undergone menopause before age 51. The results suggest that more physically attractive women have longer reproductive careers, explaining why physical attractiveness may be a more important determinant of women's mate value in long‐term mating than in short‐term mating.
Conclusions: Women's physical attractiveness predicts the timing of menarche and menopause, thereby the length of their reproductive careers.
Friday, May 24, 2019
A Different Take on the Big Bang Theory: Examining the Influence of Asperger Traits on the Perception and Attributional Confidence of a Fictional TV Character Portraying Characteristics of Asperger Syndrome
A Different Take on the Big Bang Theory: Examining the Influence of Asperger Traits on the Perception and Attributional Confidence of a Fictional TV Character Portraying Characteristics of Asperger Syndrome. Brenda Rourke & Rory McGloin. Atlantic Journal of Communication, Volume 27, 2019 - Issue 2, Pages 127-138. Feb 26 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2019.1574797
ABSTRACT: Research shows that media figures can influence the construction of one’s personal and social identity. However, there are few studies that examine representations of stigmatized groups with developmental disorders, such as those with autism spectrum disorders. This research examines the effect of a viewer’s scores on the autism quotient (AQ) and their relationship with homophily and attributional confidence towards Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, who is suspected of having Asperger’s syndrome (AS). Guided by uncertainty reduction theory the results indicated a positive relationship between the dimensions of the AQ and homophily with Sheldon, and a positive relationship between higher scores on the AQ and attributional confidence towards Sheldon. The implications of identification with fictional television characters for individuals with AS, and the application of the AQ in future research are discussed relative to the current findings.
KEYWORDS: Asperger’s syndrome, uncertainty reduction, homophily, empathy, attributional confidence
ABSTRACT: Research shows that media figures can influence the construction of one’s personal and social identity. However, there are few studies that examine representations of stigmatized groups with developmental disorders, such as those with autism spectrum disorders. This research examines the effect of a viewer’s scores on the autism quotient (AQ) and their relationship with homophily and attributional confidence towards Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, who is suspected of having Asperger’s syndrome (AS). Guided by uncertainty reduction theory the results indicated a positive relationship between the dimensions of the AQ and homophily with Sheldon, and a positive relationship between higher scores on the AQ and attributional confidence towards Sheldon. The implications of identification with fictional television characters for individuals with AS, and the application of the AQ in future research are discussed relative to the current findings.
KEYWORDS: Asperger’s syndrome, uncertainty reduction, homophily, empathy, attributional confidence
Reasons people enjoy sexist humor and accept it as inoffensive
Reasons people enjoy sexist humor and accept it as inoffensive. Scott Parrott & Toby Hopp. Atlantic Journal of Communication, May 23 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2019.1616737
ABSTRACT: An experiment examined factors that inform participants’ enjoyment of anti-female humor and their acceptance of the humor as inoffensive. Participants (n = 101) were exposed to sexist humor that was communicated by either (a) a male disparager, (b) a female disparager, or (c) a disparager whose sex was not identified. A path model examined the contribution of four predictors – the experimental manipulation and audience members’ hostile sexism, sex, and perceptions of social acceptance of the humor – in their reported personal acceptance and enjoyment of the insulting humor. The results suggested that men both found anti-female sexist humor more acceptable and enjoyed it more than women; that sexist humor was found to be more personally acceptable when communicated by a woman; that hostile sexism was positively associated with personal acceptance of sexist humor as inoffensive; and that perceived social acceptance was positively associated with personal acceptance of disparaging humor as inoffensive.
ABSTRACT: An experiment examined factors that inform participants’ enjoyment of anti-female humor and their acceptance of the humor as inoffensive. Participants (n = 101) were exposed to sexist humor that was communicated by either (a) a male disparager, (b) a female disparager, or (c) a disparager whose sex was not identified. A path model examined the contribution of four predictors – the experimental manipulation and audience members’ hostile sexism, sex, and perceptions of social acceptance of the humor – in their reported personal acceptance and enjoyment of the insulting humor. The results suggested that men both found anti-female sexist humor more acceptable and enjoyed it more than women; that sexist humor was found to be more personally acceptable when communicated by a woman; that hostile sexism was positively associated with personal acceptance of sexist humor as inoffensive; and that perceived social acceptance was positively associated with personal acceptance of disparaging humor as inoffensive.
Sexual Identity & Behavior Among U.S. High School Students, 2005–2015: Prevalence of non-heterosexual identities increased over time, but only female youth reported significantly more same-sex behavior over time
Sexual Identity and Behavior Among U.S. High School Students, 2005–2015. Gregory Phillips II. Archives of Sexual Behavior, May 23 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-019-1404-y
Abstract: Sexual orientation is a multidimensional construct which is increasingly recognized as an important demographic characteristic in population health research. For this study, weighted Youth Risk Behavior Survey data were pooled across 47 jurisdictions biennially from 2005 to 2015, resulting in a national sample of 98 jurisdiction-years (344,815 students). Respondents were a median of 15.5 years, 49.9% male, and 48.8% White. Sexual identity and behavior trends from 2005 to 2015 were assessed with logistic regression analysis. Overall, 13.9% of females and 7.0% of males identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB), or not sure, while 9.1% of females and 4.2% of males indicated both same-and-different-sex behavior or same-sex behavior. In total, 17.0% of female and 8.5% of male youth reported non-heterosexual (LGB or not sure) sexual identity, same-sex sexual behavior, or both. LGB youth were approximately twice as likely as other youth to report lifetime sexual behavior. White and Asian youth were less likely to report non-heterosexual identity and/or have engaged in same-sex sexual behaviors than youth of other races/ethnicities. Prevalence of non-heterosexual identities increased over time for both sexes, but only female youth reported significantly more same-sex behavior over time. This is the first study to simultaneously assess adolescent sexual identity and behavior over time within a national dataset. These findings are critical for understanding the sexual health needs of adolescents and for informing sexual health policy and practice.
Keywords: Sexual minority Sexual behavior Sexual identity Youth Risk Behavior Survey Sexual orientation
Abstract: Sexual orientation is a multidimensional construct which is increasingly recognized as an important demographic characteristic in population health research. For this study, weighted Youth Risk Behavior Survey data were pooled across 47 jurisdictions biennially from 2005 to 2015, resulting in a national sample of 98 jurisdiction-years (344,815 students). Respondents were a median of 15.5 years, 49.9% male, and 48.8% White. Sexual identity and behavior trends from 2005 to 2015 were assessed with logistic regression analysis. Overall, 13.9% of females and 7.0% of males identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB), or not sure, while 9.1% of females and 4.2% of males indicated both same-and-different-sex behavior or same-sex behavior. In total, 17.0% of female and 8.5% of male youth reported non-heterosexual (LGB or not sure) sexual identity, same-sex sexual behavior, or both. LGB youth were approximately twice as likely as other youth to report lifetime sexual behavior. White and Asian youth were less likely to report non-heterosexual identity and/or have engaged in same-sex sexual behaviors than youth of other races/ethnicities. Prevalence of non-heterosexual identities increased over time for both sexes, but only female youth reported significantly more same-sex behavior over time. This is the first study to simultaneously assess adolescent sexual identity and behavior over time within a national dataset. These findings are critical for understanding the sexual health needs of adolescents and for informing sexual health policy and practice.
Keywords: Sexual minority Sexual behavior Sexual identity Youth Risk Behavior Survey Sexual orientation
After witnessing a conspecific in a negative state, ravens perform in a negatively biased manner; our findings suggest negative emotional contagion in ravens, & in turn advance our understanding of the evolution of empathy
Negative emotional contagion and cognitive bias in common ravens (Corvus corax). Jessie E. C. Adriaense, Jordan S. Martin, Martina Schiestl, Claus Lamm, and Thomas Bugnyar. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 20, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817066116
Significance: To successfully and efficiently live in social groups, we need information about each other’s emotions. Emotional contagion has been suggested to facilitate such information transmission, yet it remains difficult to measure this in animals. Previous research has often focused on overt behavior but lacked additional methods for investigating emotional valence. This study provides a solution by integrating data on behavior and responses to a cognitive bias test, which is designed to infer a subject’s underlying emotional state. We demonstrate that after witnessing a conspecific in a negative state, ravens perform in a negatively biased manner on a judgment task. Our findings thus suggest negative emotional contagion in ravens, and in turn advance our understanding of the evolution of empathy.
Abstract: Emotional contagion is described as an emotional state matching between subjects, and has been suggested to facilitate communication and coordination in complex social groups. Empirical studies typically focus on the measurement of behavioral contagion and emotional arousal, yet, while highly important, such an approach often disregards an additional evaluation of the underlying emotional valence. Here, we studied emotional contagion in ravens by applying a judgment bias paradigm to assess emotional valence. We experimentally manipulated positive and negative affective states in demonstrator ravens, to which they responded with increased attention and interest in the positive condition, as well as increased redirected behavior and a left-eye lateralization in the negative condition. During this emotion manipulation, another raven observed the demonstrator’s behavior, and we used a bias paradigm to assess the emotional valence of the observer to determine whether emotional contagion had occurred. Observers showed a pessimism bias toward the presented ambiguous stimuli after perceiving demonstrators in a negative state, indicating emotional state matching based on the demonstrators’ behavioral cues and confirming our prediction of negative emotional contagion. We did not find any judgment bias in the positive condition. This result critically expands upon observational studies of contagious play in ravens, providing experimental evidence that emotional contagion is present not only in mammalian but also in avian species. Importantly, this finding also acts as a stepping stone toward understanding the evolution of empathy, as this essential social skill may have emerged across these taxa in response to similar socioecological challenges.
Keywords: emotional contagionavian empathyanimal emotioncognitive bias paradigm
Significance: To successfully and efficiently live in social groups, we need information about each other’s emotions. Emotional contagion has been suggested to facilitate such information transmission, yet it remains difficult to measure this in animals. Previous research has often focused on overt behavior but lacked additional methods for investigating emotional valence. This study provides a solution by integrating data on behavior and responses to a cognitive bias test, which is designed to infer a subject’s underlying emotional state. We demonstrate that after witnessing a conspecific in a negative state, ravens perform in a negatively biased manner on a judgment task. Our findings thus suggest negative emotional contagion in ravens, and in turn advance our understanding of the evolution of empathy.
Abstract: Emotional contagion is described as an emotional state matching between subjects, and has been suggested to facilitate communication and coordination in complex social groups. Empirical studies typically focus on the measurement of behavioral contagion and emotional arousal, yet, while highly important, such an approach often disregards an additional evaluation of the underlying emotional valence. Here, we studied emotional contagion in ravens by applying a judgment bias paradigm to assess emotional valence. We experimentally manipulated positive and negative affective states in demonstrator ravens, to which they responded with increased attention and interest in the positive condition, as well as increased redirected behavior and a left-eye lateralization in the negative condition. During this emotion manipulation, another raven observed the demonstrator’s behavior, and we used a bias paradigm to assess the emotional valence of the observer to determine whether emotional contagion had occurred. Observers showed a pessimism bias toward the presented ambiguous stimuli after perceiving demonstrators in a negative state, indicating emotional state matching based on the demonstrators’ behavioral cues and confirming our prediction of negative emotional contagion. We did not find any judgment bias in the positive condition. This result critically expands upon observational studies of contagious play in ravens, providing experimental evidence that emotional contagion is present not only in mammalian but also in avian species. Importantly, this finding also acts as a stepping stone toward understanding the evolution of empathy, as this essential social skill may have emerged across these taxa in response to similar socioecological challenges.
Keywords: emotional contagionavian empathyanimal emotioncognitive bias paradigm
The general population believes that traumatic experiences can be unconsciously repressed for many years & then recovered; same for deliberate memory suppression; emotionally compelling movies seem a cause of these beliefs
Otgaar, Henry, and Jane Wang. 2019. "Belief in Unconscious Repressed Memory Is Widespread: A Comment on Brewin, Li, Ntarantana, Unsworth, and Mcneilis" (in Press). OSF Preprints. May 23. doi:10.31219/osf.io/a4n7h
Abstract: What does believing in repressed memory mean? In a recent paper in this journal, Brewin, Li, Ntarantana, Unsworth, and McNeilis (in press; Study 3) argued and provided data that when people are asked to indicate their belief in repressed memory, they actually think of deliberate memory suppression rather than unconscious repressed memory. Hence, the authors contended that belief in genuine (unconscious) repression is not in fact widespread in the general population. They further argued that in contrast to belief in unconscious repressed memory, belief in deliberate memory suppression is not scientifically controversial. In this commentary, we show that they are incorrect on both counts. Although Brewin and colleagues surveyed people to indicate their belief in deliberate memory suppression, they neglected to ask their participants whether they (also) believed in unconscious repressed memory. We asked people from the general population whether they believe that traumatic experiences can be unconsciously repressed for many years and then recovered. In two studies of the general population, we found high endorsement rates [Study 1: 59.2% (n = 45); Study 2: 67.1% (n = 53)] of the belief in unconscious repressed memory. These endorsement rates did not statistically differ from endorsement rates to statements on repressed memory and deliberate memory suppression. In contrast to what Brewin et al. argue, belief in unconscious repressed memory is alive and well. Finally, we contend that Brewin et al. overstated the scientific evidence bearing on deliberate repression (suppression).
Abstract: What does believing in repressed memory mean? In a recent paper in this journal, Brewin, Li, Ntarantana, Unsworth, and McNeilis (in press; Study 3) argued and provided data that when people are asked to indicate their belief in repressed memory, they actually think of deliberate memory suppression rather than unconscious repressed memory. Hence, the authors contended that belief in genuine (unconscious) repression is not in fact widespread in the general population. They further argued that in contrast to belief in unconscious repressed memory, belief in deliberate memory suppression is not scientifically controversial. In this commentary, we show that they are incorrect on both counts. Although Brewin and colleagues surveyed people to indicate their belief in deliberate memory suppression, they neglected to ask their participants whether they (also) believed in unconscious repressed memory. We asked people from the general population whether they believe that traumatic experiences can be unconsciously repressed for many years and then recovered. In two studies of the general population, we found high endorsement rates [Study 1: 59.2% (n = 45); Study 2: 67.1% (n = 53)] of the belief in unconscious repressed memory. These endorsement rates did not statistically differ from endorsement rates to statements on repressed memory and deliberate memory suppression. In contrast to what Brewin et al. argue, belief in unconscious repressed memory is alive and well. Finally, we contend that Brewin et al. overstated the scientific evidence bearing on deliberate repression (suppression).
The more attractive a man was judged to be, the more likely it was that participants were willing to have sex with him & the less likely women were to intend to use a condom during sex
Eleftheriou A, Bullock S, Graham CA, Skakoon-Sparling S, Ingham R (2019) Does attractiveness influence condom use intentions in women who have sex with men? PLoS ONE 14(5): e0217152. May 23, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217152
Abstract
Objectives: Attractiveness judgements have been shown to affect interpersonal relationships. The present study explored the relationships between perceived attractiveness, perceived sexual health status, condom use intentions and condom use resistance in women.
Setting: The study data were collected using an online questionnaire.
Participants: 480 English-speaking women who have sex with men, between 18–32 years old.
Outcome measures: Women were asked to rate the attractiveness of 20 men on the basis of facial photographs, to estimate the likelihood that each man had a sexually transmitted infection (STI), and to indicate their willingness to have sex with each man without a condom. Condom resistance tactics were also measured and their influence on condom use intentions was assessed.
Results: The more attractive a man was judged to be, the more likely it was that participants were willing to have sex with him (r (478) = 0.987, p < .001). Further, the more attractive a man was judged to be, the less likely women were to intend to use a condom during sex (r = -0.552, df = 478, p = .007). The average perceived STI likelihood for a man had no significant association with his average perceived attractiveness or with participants’ average willingness to have sex with him. The more attractive a participant judged herself to be, the more she believed that, overall, men are likely to have a STI (r = 0.103, df = 478, p < .05).
Conclusions: Women’s perceptions of men’s attractiveness influence their condom use intentions; such risk biases should be incorporated into sexual health education programmes and condom use interventions.
Abstract
Objectives: Attractiveness judgements have been shown to affect interpersonal relationships. The present study explored the relationships between perceived attractiveness, perceived sexual health status, condom use intentions and condom use resistance in women.
Setting: The study data were collected using an online questionnaire.
Participants: 480 English-speaking women who have sex with men, between 18–32 years old.
Outcome measures: Women were asked to rate the attractiveness of 20 men on the basis of facial photographs, to estimate the likelihood that each man had a sexually transmitted infection (STI), and to indicate their willingness to have sex with each man without a condom. Condom resistance tactics were also measured and their influence on condom use intentions was assessed.
Results: The more attractive a man was judged to be, the more likely it was that participants were willing to have sex with him (r (478) = 0.987, p < .001). Further, the more attractive a man was judged to be, the less likely women were to intend to use a condom during sex (r = -0.552, df = 478, p = .007). The average perceived STI likelihood for a man had no significant association with his average perceived attractiveness or with participants’ average willingness to have sex with him. The more attractive a participant judged herself to be, the more she believed that, overall, men are likely to have a STI (r = 0.103, df = 478, p < .05).
Conclusions: Women’s perceptions of men’s attractiveness influence their condom use intentions; such risk biases should be incorporated into sexual health education programmes and condom use interventions.
Partisans think their political rivals are selecting biased news sources that bolster extremity: The more undesirably biased voters considered a source, the more news they assumed their political rivals received from that source
Where the Other Side Gets News: Audience Perceptions of Selective Exposure in the 2016 Election. Mallory R Perryman. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, edz012, May 18 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edz012
Abstract: Building on research on selective exposure, hostile media perceptions, and presumed media influence, this study explores what citizens believe about their political rivals’ news habits and introduces the idea of perceived selective exposure: the extent to which citizens believe their political opponents curate media diets of like-minded political news. Results from a national survey of voters (N = 657) show that during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, voters disagreed about the extent to which prominent news sources favored Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. The more undesirably biased voters considered a source, the more news they assumed their political rivals received from that source. This perceived selectivity was consequential: A belief that others’ news habits were weighted toward like-minded media was linked to a belief that others’ election news choices had reinforced their attitudes. Partisans think their political rivals are selecting biased news sources that bolster extremity.
Abstract: Building on research on selective exposure, hostile media perceptions, and presumed media influence, this study explores what citizens believe about their political rivals’ news habits and introduces the idea of perceived selective exposure: the extent to which citizens believe their political opponents curate media diets of like-minded political news. Results from a national survey of voters (N = 657) show that during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, voters disagreed about the extent to which prominent news sources favored Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. The more undesirably biased voters considered a source, the more news they assumed their political rivals received from that source. This perceived selectivity was consequential: A belief that others’ news habits were weighted toward like-minded media was linked to a belief that others’ election news choices had reinforced their attitudes. Partisans think their political rivals are selecting biased news sources that bolster extremity.
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Solving mate shortages thru compensatory mating tactics: Lowering standards, travelling farther to find a satisfactory partner, and abstaining
Jonason, P. K., Betes, S. L., & Li, N. P. (2019). Solving mate shortages: Lowering standards, searching farther, and abstaining. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000174
Abstract: Although much work on mating psychology has focused on mate preferences and responses to desirable sexual and romantic offers, less is known about what happens when individuals face a lack of mating options. We present 2 studies on (hypothetical) compensatory mating tactics. In Study 1 (N = 299), participants were asked to imagine they were struggling to find long-term and short-term mates and we revealed sex differences and context-specific effects consistent with parental investment theory. In Study 2 (N = 282), participants were asked to imagine they had been incapable of finding a short-term and long-term mate for 6 months despite actively trying to find one and then report the likelihood of abstaining, lowering their standards, and traveling farther to find a satisfactory partner; results largely (and conceptually) replicated those from Study 1 but document the role of attachment and (self-reported) mate value in accounting for individual differences in adopting the 3 mating tactics. We frame our results in terms of how people might solve mate shortages.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000174
Abstract: Although much work on mating psychology has focused on mate preferences and responses to desirable sexual and romantic offers, less is known about what happens when individuals face a lack of mating options. We present 2 studies on (hypothetical) compensatory mating tactics. In Study 1 (N = 299), participants were asked to imagine they were struggling to find long-term and short-term mates and we revealed sex differences and context-specific effects consistent with parental investment theory. In Study 2 (N = 282), participants were asked to imagine they had been incapable of finding a short-term and long-term mate for 6 months despite actively trying to find one and then report the likelihood of abstaining, lowering their standards, and traveling farther to find a satisfactory partner; results largely (and conceptually) replicated those from Study 1 but document the role of attachment and (self-reported) mate value in accounting for individual differences in adopting the 3 mating tactics. We frame our results in terms of how people might solve mate shortages.
Humans can use an intuitive sense of statistics to make predictions about uncertain future events; some of these abilities can emerge in preverbal infants and non-human primates such as apes and capuchins
Rhesus macaques use probabilities to predict future events. Francesca De Petrillo, Alexandra G. Rosati. Evolution and Human Behavior, May 23 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.05.006
Abstract: Humans can use an intuitive sense of statistics to make predictions about uncertain future events, a cognitive skill that underpins logical and mathematical reasoning. Recent research shows that some of these abilities for statistical inferences can emerge in preverbal infants and non-human primates such as apes and capuchins. An important question is therefore whether animals share the full complement of intuitive reasoning abilities demonstrated by humans, as well as what evolutionary contexts promote the emergence of such skills. Here, we examined whether free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) can use probability information to infer the most likely outcome of a random lottery, in the first test of whether primates can make such inferences in the absence of direct prior experience. We developed a novel expectancy-violation looking time task, adapted from prior studies of infants, in order to assess the monkeys' expectations. In Study 1, we confirmed that monkeys (n = 20) looked similarly at different sampled items if they had no prior knowledge about the population they were drawn from. In Study 2, monkeys (n = 80) saw a dynamic ‘lottery’ machine containing a mix of two types of fruit outcomes, and then saw either the more common fruit (expected trial) or the relatively rare fruit (unexpected trial) fall from the machine. We found that monkeys looked longer when they witnessed the unexpected outcome. In Study 3, we confirmed that this effect depended on the causal relationship between the sample and the population, not visual mismatch: monkeys (n = 80) looked equally at both outcomes if the experimenter pulled the sampled item from her pocket. These results reveal that rhesus monkeys spontaneously use information about probability to reason about likely outcomes, and show how comparative studies of nonhumans can disentangle the evolutionary history of logical reasoning capacities.
Abstract: Humans can use an intuitive sense of statistics to make predictions about uncertain future events, a cognitive skill that underpins logical and mathematical reasoning. Recent research shows that some of these abilities for statistical inferences can emerge in preverbal infants and non-human primates such as apes and capuchins. An important question is therefore whether animals share the full complement of intuitive reasoning abilities demonstrated by humans, as well as what evolutionary contexts promote the emergence of such skills. Here, we examined whether free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) can use probability information to infer the most likely outcome of a random lottery, in the first test of whether primates can make such inferences in the absence of direct prior experience. We developed a novel expectancy-violation looking time task, adapted from prior studies of infants, in order to assess the monkeys' expectations. In Study 1, we confirmed that monkeys (n = 20) looked similarly at different sampled items if they had no prior knowledge about the population they were drawn from. In Study 2, monkeys (n = 80) saw a dynamic ‘lottery’ machine containing a mix of two types of fruit outcomes, and then saw either the more common fruit (expected trial) or the relatively rare fruit (unexpected trial) fall from the machine. We found that monkeys looked longer when they witnessed the unexpected outcome. In Study 3, we confirmed that this effect depended on the causal relationship between the sample and the population, not visual mismatch: monkeys (n = 80) looked equally at both outcomes if the experimenter pulled the sampled item from her pocket. These results reveal that rhesus monkeys spontaneously use information about probability to reason about likely outcomes, and show how comparative studies of nonhumans can disentangle the evolutionary history of logical reasoning capacities.
We assessed 10 individuals who reported abduction by space aliens and whose claims were linked to apparent episodes of sleep paralysis during which hypnopompic hallucinations were interpreted as alien beings
Sleep Paralysis, Sexual Abuse, and Space Alien Abduction. Richard J. McNally, Susan A. Clancy. Transcultural Psychiatry, March 1, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461505050715
Abstract: Sleep paralysis accompanied by hypnopompic (‘upon awakening’) hallucinations is an often-frightening manifestation of discordance between the cognitive/perceptual and motor aspects of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Awakening sleepers become aware of an inability to move, and sometimes experience intrusion of dream mentation into waking consciousness (e.g. seeing intruders in the bedroom). In this article, we summarize two studies. In the first study, we assessed 10 individuals who reported abduction by space aliens and whose claims were linked to apparent episodes of sleep paralysis during which hypnopompic hallucinations were interpreted as alien beings. In the second study, adults reporting repressed, recovered, or continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse more often reported sleep paralysis than did a control group. Among the 31 reporting sleep paralysis, only one person linked it to abuse memories. This person was among the six recovered memory participants who reported sleep paralysis (i.e. 17% rate of interpreting it as abuse-related). People rely on personally plausible cultural narratives to interpret these otherwise baffling sleep paralysis episodes.
Keywords: alien abduction, recovered memories, sexual abuse, sleep paralysis
Abstract: Sleep paralysis accompanied by hypnopompic (‘upon awakening’) hallucinations is an often-frightening manifestation of discordance between the cognitive/perceptual and motor aspects of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Awakening sleepers become aware of an inability to move, and sometimes experience intrusion of dream mentation into waking consciousness (e.g. seeing intruders in the bedroom). In this article, we summarize two studies. In the first study, we assessed 10 individuals who reported abduction by space aliens and whose claims were linked to apparent episodes of sleep paralysis during which hypnopompic hallucinations were interpreted as alien beings. In the second study, adults reporting repressed, recovered, or continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse more often reported sleep paralysis than did a control group. Among the 31 reporting sleep paralysis, only one person linked it to abuse memories. This person was among the six recovered memory participants who reported sleep paralysis (i.e. 17% rate of interpreting it as abuse-related). People rely on personally plausible cultural narratives to interpret these otherwise baffling sleep paralysis episodes.
Keywords: alien abduction, recovered memories, sexual abuse, sleep paralysis
Senegal: In urban areas, being a woman increases probability of a worker being informal by 8.5%; education is usually more relevant for women; having kids reduces men’s probability but increases women’s
Informality and Gender Gaps Going Hand in Hand. Vivian Malta; Lisa L Kolovich; Angelica Martinez; Marina Mendes Tavares. IMF Working Paper No. 19/112, May 23, 2019. https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/05/23/Informality-and-Gender-Gaps-Going-Hand-in-Hand-46888
Summary: In sub-Saharan Africa women work relatively more in the informal sector than men. Many factors could explain this difference, including women’s lower education levels, legal barriers, social norms and demographic characteristics. Cross-country comparisons indicate strong associations between gender gaps and higher female informality. This paper uses microdata from Senegal to assess the probability of a worker being informal, and our main findings are: (i) in urban areas, being a woman increases this probability by 8.5 percent; (ii) education is usually more relevant for women; (iii) having kids reduces men’s probability of being informal but increases women’s.
Summary: In sub-Saharan Africa women work relatively more in the informal sector than men. Many factors could explain this difference, including women’s lower education levels, legal barriers, social norms and demographic characteristics. Cross-country comparisons indicate strong associations between gender gaps and higher female informality. This paper uses microdata from Senegal to assess the probability of a worker being informal, and our main findings are: (i) in urban areas, being a woman increases this probability by 8.5 percent; (ii) education is usually more relevant for women; (iii) having kids reduces men’s probability of being informal but increases women’s.
Fruit bats, social mammals, form seasonal bonds through producer-scrounger interactions; females mate with males from which they scrounge food; each female scrounges from a unique set of preferred males, & no male prevailed
Food for Sex in Bats Revealed as Producer Males Reproduce with Scrounging Females. Lee Harten et al. Current Biology, May 23 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.066
Highlights
• Egyptian fruit bats form seasonal bonds through producer-scrounger interactions
• Genetic paternity tests of pups were used to examine the food-for-sex hypothesis
• Females mate with males from which they scrounge food
• Each female scrounges from a unique set of preferred males, and no male prevailed
Summary: Food sharing is often evolutionarily puzzling, because the provider’s benefits are not always clear. Sharing among kin may increase indirect fitness [1], but when non-kin are involved, different mechanisms were suggested to act. Occasionally, “tolerated theft” [2, 3] is observed, merely because defending a resource is not cost effective. Sharing may also be explained as “costly signaling” [4, 5], where individuals signal their high qualities by distributing acquired resources, as has been suggested to occur in certain human cultures [6]. Alternatively, a transferred food item might be compensated for in later interactions [7]. In vampire bats, blood sharing reflects reciprocity between non-kin colony members [8, 9, 10], and long-term social bonds affect food sharing in chimpanzees [11]. Food may also be exchanged for other goods or social benefits [12, 13, 14]. One reciprocity-based explanation for intersexual food sharing is the food-for-sex hypothesis [15, 16, 17]. This hypothesis proposes that males share food with females in exchange for mating opportunities. Studies on human hunter-gatherer societies suggest that males with increased foraging success have higher reproductive success [18, 19]. Male chimpanzees, which in contrast to humans do not maintain pair bonds, were suggested to share food with females to increase their mating opportunities [16] (but see [20]). Bats, which are long-lived social mammals [21, 22], provide an opportunity to study long-term social reciprocity mechanisms. We monitored producer-scrounger interactions of a captive Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) colony for more than a year and genetically determined the paternity of the pups that were born in the colony. We found that females carry the young of males from which they used to scrounge food, supporting the food-for-sex hypothesis in this species.
Food for Sex in Bats Revealed as Producer Males Reproduce with Scrounging Females
Highlights
• Egyptian fruit bats form seasonal bonds through producer-scrounger interactions
• Genetic paternity tests of pups were used to examine the food-for-sex hypothesis
• Females mate with males from which they scrounge food
• Each female scrounges from a unique set of preferred males, and no male prevailed
Summary: Food sharing is often evolutionarily puzzling, because the provider’s benefits are not always clear. Sharing among kin may increase indirect fitness [1], but when non-kin are involved, different mechanisms were suggested to act. Occasionally, “tolerated theft” [2, 3] is observed, merely because defending a resource is not cost effective. Sharing may also be explained as “costly signaling” [4, 5], where individuals signal their high qualities by distributing acquired resources, as has been suggested to occur in certain human cultures [6]. Alternatively, a transferred food item might be compensated for in later interactions [7]. In vampire bats, blood sharing reflects reciprocity between non-kin colony members [8, 9, 10], and long-term social bonds affect food sharing in chimpanzees [11]. Food may also be exchanged for other goods or social benefits [12, 13, 14]. One reciprocity-based explanation for intersexual food sharing is the food-for-sex hypothesis [15, 16, 17]. This hypothesis proposes that males share food with females in exchange for mating opportunities. Studies on human hunter-gatherer societies suggest that males with increased foraging success have higher reproductive success [18, 19]. Male chimpanzees, which in contrast to humans do not maintain pair bonds, were suggested to share food with females to increase their mating opportunities [16] (but see [20]). Bats, which are long-lived social mammals [21, 22], provide an opportunity to study long-term social reciprocity mechanisms. We monitored producer-scrounger interactions of a captive Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) colony for more than a year and genetically determined the paternity of the pups that were born in the colony. We found that females carry the young of males from which they used to scrounge food, supporting the food-for-sex hypothesis in this species.
Food for Sex in Bats Revealed as Producer Males Reproduce with Scrounging Females
People who posted health messages on social media subsequently became more likely to act on those, not wanting to appear as hypocrites
When audiences become advocates: Self-induced behavior change through health message posting in social media. Robin L. Nabi et al. Computers in Human Behavior, May 23 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.05.030
Highlights
● Posting a health video to Facebook enhanced the poster’s own health behavior.
● Message sharing was best predicted by intensity of emotional response.
● Health behavior self-efficacy also boosted message sharing.
● Directives to share the message did not boost sharing behavior.
Abstract: Couched within the self-effects paradigm of social media influence, this research examines how posting a health promotion message to one’s social media influences one’s own, versus others’, later health behaviors, with emphasis on emotional intensity and message sharing directives. 382 participants viewed one of eight versions of a melanoma awareness video and were given the opportunity to post it to their Facebook page. Video sharers reported increased sun safety behavior one week later, even after accounting for a range of sun safety-related predictors. Emotional intensity and self-efficacy emerged as key message sharing predictors. These findings align with cognitive dissonance theory, offering unique evidence in a mediated context with relatively enduring effects, and expands the dialogue about the self-persuasive power of social media.
Highlights
● Posting a health video to Facebook enhanced the poster’s own health behavior.
● Message sharing was best predicted by intensity of emotional response.
● Health behavior self-efficacy also boosted message sharing.
● Directives to share the message did not boost sharing behavior.
Abstract: Couched within the self-effects paradigm of social media influence, this research examines how posting a health promotion message to one’s social media influences one’s own, versus others’, later health behaviors, with emphasis on emotional intensity and message sharing directives. 382 participants viewed one of eight versions of a melanoma awareness video and were given the opportunity to post it to their Facebook page. Video sharers reported increased sun safety behavior one week later, even after accounting for a range of sun safety-related predictors. Emotional intensity and self-efficacy emerged as key message sharing predictors. These findings align with cognitive dissonance theory, offering unique evidence in a mediated context with relatively enduring effects, and expands the dialogue about the self-persuasive power of social media.
Chimpanzees: A case of food storage shows some future-oriented cognition; we need for a more nuanced interpretation of their cognitive skills & an in-depth understanding of their unique socio-ecological niche
Wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) exploit tortoises (Kinixys erosa) via percussive technology. Simone Pika, Harmonie Klein, Sarah Bunel, Pauline Baas, Erwan Théleste & Tobias Deschner. Scientific Reports 9, Article number: 7661 (2019). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43301-8
Abstract: Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), one of humankinds’ closest living relatives, are known to hunt and consume the meat of various animal taxa. Although some researchers have presented indirect evidence that chimpanzees may also prey on tortoises, until now, direct observations of this behaviour did not exist. Here, we provide systematic descriptions of the first observations of chimpanzee predation on tortoises (Kinixys erosa). We made these unprecedented observations on newly habituated chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) of the Rekambo community, living in the Loango National Park, Gabon. The behaviour qualified as customary, that is occurring in most or all adult males, involved a distinct smashing technique, and resulted frequently in food sharing with other group members. Our observations shed new light on the hitherto little understood percussive technology of chimpanzees, and expand our current knowledge on chimpanzees’ dietary and predatory repertoires with respect to reptiles. We also report a case of food storage and discuss it in the context of future-oriented cognition. Our findings suggest the need for more nuanced interpretations of chimpanzees’ cognitive skills in combination with an in-depth understanding of their unique socio-ecological niches. They further emphasize the importance of nonhuman primate field observations to inform theories of hominin evolution.
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My comments: I intuitively didn't trust the assurances that these primates didn't think of the next day. Here, they store some of the food for the next day.
There are lots of reports of chimps not saving tools for the next day's labors. But this is probably so because most are too simple. Now, some have been seen thinking of their needs in the future.
Abstract: Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), one of humankinds’ closest living relatives, are known to hunt and consume the meat of various animal taxa. Although some researchers have presented indirect evidence that chimpanzees may also prey on tortoises, until now, direct observations of this behaviour did not exist. Here, we provide systematic descriptions of the first observations of chimpanzee predation on tortoises (Kinixys erosa). We made these unprecedented observations on newly habituated chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) of the Rekambo community, living in the Loango National Park, Gabon. The behaviour qualified as customary, that is occurring in most or all adult males, involved a distinct smashing technique, and resulted frequently in food sharing with other group members. Our observations shed new light on the hitherto little understood percussive technology of chimpanzees, and expand our current knowledge on chimpanzees’ dietary and predatory repertoires with respect to reptiles. We also report a case of food storage and discuss it in the context of future-oriented cognition. Our findings suggest the need for more nuanced interpretations of chimpanzees’ cognitive skills in combination with an in-depth understanding of their unique socio-ecological niches. They further emphasize the importance of nonhuman primate field observations to inform theories of hominin evolution.
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My comments: I intuitively didn't trust the assurances that these primates didn't think of the next day. Here, they store some of the food for the next day.
There are lots of reports of chimps not saving tools for the next day's labors. But this is probably so because most are too simple. Now, some have been seen thinking of their needs in the future.
Consumers select and prepare foods with higher amounts of sugar when experiencing sadness relative to when they feel guilt
The effects of guilt and sadness on sugar consumption. Sarah Lefebvre, Jonathan Hasford, Ze Wang. Journal of Business Research, Volume 100, July 2019, Pages 130-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.03.023
Abstract: This research examines how the discrete negative emotions of guilt and sadness impact individual preference for carbohydrates, specifically in the form of sugar. Using Cognitive Appraisal Theory and research in biological psychology, we identify how these two discrete emotions influence the release of cortisol, which impacts sugar preferences. The results of four studies indicate that consumers select and prepare foods with higher amounts of sugar when experiencing sadness relative to when they feel guilt. Implications for public policy as well as marketing practitioners are discussed.
Abstract: This research examines how the discrete negative emotions of guilt and sadness impact individual preference for carbohydrates, specifically in the form of sugar. Using Cognitive Appraisal Theory and research in biological psychology, we identify how these two discrete emotions influence the release of cortisol, which impacts sugar preferences. The results of four studies indicate that consumers select and prepare foods with higher amounts of sugar when experiencing sadness relative to when they feel guilt. Implications for public policy as well as marketing practitioners are discussed.
Shoplifted items, as advertised via ‘haul’ photographs on social media, would be those relevant for increasing mate value (cosmetic, skin and hair care products, perfumes, and products that signal luxury and financial status)
The Five Finger Discount: Shoplifting as a Reproductive Strategy for Increasing Mate Value. Catherine A. Bourgeois, Geneva Reid, Maryanne L. Fisher. Human Ethology, Volume 34, 83-92, published May 23, 2019
https://doi.org/10.22330/he/34/083-092
ABSTRACT: Shoplifting, the act of taking an item from a store without paying for it, is prevalent on social media platforms. Shoplifters post photographs featuring their stolen items, often including the retail value of each item, and tag the photograph as either a ‘lifting haul’ or ‘shoplifting haul’ so that it may be found by others. We argue that the items targeted for shoplifting relate to one’s desire to increase their mate value. In contemporary life, one has the ability to alter and manipulate their perceived mate value, via the aid of cosmetic, skin and hair care products, perfumes, and products that signal luxury and financial status. When viewed in this context, an evolutionary analysis of shoplifting via the specific items targeted for theft may shed light on intrasexual competition in terms of individuals competing to improve their relative mate value. Hence, we hypothesized that shoplifted items, as advertised via ‘haul’ photographs on social media, would be those relevant for increasing mate value (e.g., improve one’s appearance or markers of financial status). A researcher blind to the study hypothesis coded the stolen items within the photographs and the coded items were then categorized into themes for analysis. Our hypothesis was supported. We discuss the use of social media platforms for effectively conducting human ethological research.
Keywords:Social media, Mate value, Shoplifting, Luxury products, Intrasexual competition.
https://doi.org/10.22330/he/34/083-092
ABSTRACT: Shoplifting, the act of taking an item from a store without paying for it, is prevalent on social media platforms. Shoplifters post photographs featuring their stolen items, often including the retail value of each item, and tag the photograph as either a ‘lifting haul’ or ‘shoplifting haul’ so that it may be found by others. We argue that the items targeted for shoplifting relate to one’s desire to increase their mate value. In contemporary life, one has the ability to alter and manipulate their perceived mate value, via the aid of cosmetic, skin and hair care products, perfumes, and products that signal luxury and financial status. When viewed in this context, an evolutionary analysis of shoplifting via the specific items targeted for theft may shed light on intrasexual competition in terms of individuals competing to improve their relative mate value. Hence, we hypothesized that shoplifted items, as advertised via ‘haul’ photographs on social media, would be those relevant for increasing mate value (e.g., improve one’s appearance or markers of financial status). A researcher blind to the study hypothesis coded the stolen items within the photographs and the coded items were then categorized into themes for analysis. Our hypothesis was supported. We discuss the use of social media platforms for effectively conducting human ethological research.
Keywords:Social media, Mate value, Shoplifting, Luxury products, Intrasexual competition.
Tech heavy users are lower in well-being than less frequent users; tech nonusers are generally lower in well-being than light users of digital media, suggesting that limited use may be beneficial
More Time on Technology, Less Happiness? Associations Between Digital-Media Use and Psychological Well-Being. Jean M. Twenge. Current Directions in Psychological Science, May 22, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419838244
Abstract: Studies using large samples consistently find that more frequent users of digital media are lower in psychological well-being than less frequent users; even data sets used as evidence for weak effects show that twice as many heavy users (vs. light users) are low in well-being. Differences in perspective may stem from the statistics used; I argue that comparing well-being across levels of digital-media use is more useful than the percentage of variance explained, as most studies on digital-media use do not measure other influences on well-being (e.g., genetics, trauma), and these other influences, unlike frequency of digital-media use, are rarely controllable. Nonusers are generally lower in well-being than light users of digital media, however, suggesting that limited use may be beneficial. Longitudinal and experimental studies suggest that at least some of the causation moves from digital-media use to lower well-being. Mechanisms may include the displacement of activities more beneficial to well-being (sleep, face-to-face social interaction), upward social comparison, and cyberbullying.
Keywords: digital media, well-being, happiness, depression, social media, electronic devices
Check also The Sad State of Happiness in the United States and the Role of Digital Media. Jean M. Twenge. World Happiness Report 2019, Mar 20 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/03/the-sad-state-of-happiness-in-united.html
Abstract: Studies using large samples consistently find that more frequent users of digital media are lower in psychological well-being than less frequent users; even data sets used as evidence for weak effects show that twice as many heavy users (vs. light users) are low in well-being. Differences in perspective may stem from the statistics used; I argue that comparing well-being across levels of digital-media use is more useful than the percentage of variance explained, as most studies on digital-media use do not measure other influences on well-being (e.g., genetics, trauma), and these other influences, unlike frequency of digital-media use, are rarely controllable. Nonusers are generally lower in well-being than light users of digital media, however, suggesting that limited use may be beneficial. Longitudinal and experimental studies suggest that at least some of the causation moves from digital-media use to lower well-being. Mechanisms may include the displacement of activities more beneficial to well-being (sleep, face-to-face social interaction), upward social comparison, and cyberbullying.
Keywords: digital media, well-being, happiness, depression, social media, electronic devices
Check also The Sad State of Happiness in the United States and the Role of Digital Media. Jean M. Twenge. World Happiness Report 2019, Mar 20 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/03/the-sad-state-of-happiness-in-united.html
We say that olfaction is a very powerful thing, that we recognize some smells from our childhood when we find them again later in life, but we almost never dream smells.
Olfactory perception in dreams: Analysis of a long dream series. Michael Schredl. International Journal of Dream Research, Vol 12, No 1 (April 2019)
https://doi.org/10.11588/ijodr.2019.1.57845
Abstract: The present study analyzed the frequency of olfactory perceptions in a long dream series (N = 11,180 dreams) reported by a single participant. Overall, about 0.30% of the dreams included references to olfactory perceptions with unpleasant odors outweighing positive ones. Moreover, most of the olfactory perceptions are uncommon with regard to typical everyday life. To expand these findings, it would be very interesting to study larger samples using a diary paradigm including explicit questions about type, quality, and commonness of the dream odors.
4. Discussion
The present findings confirm previous results showing that spontaneously mentioned olfactory perceptions in dreams are rare since the frequency found in this male dreamer (0.30%) was close to the figure of 0.11% diary dreams re-ported by males that include references to olfactory percep-tions (Zadra et al., 1998). However, one has to keep in mind that the dreamer was not aware of the study’s rationale, i.e., analyzing olfactory perceptions, and, thus, the spontaneously reported olfactory perceptions might be an underestimation compared to a paradigm with explicit questions about sensory perceptions after recording the dreams (Carskadon et al., 1989).
From a methodological viewpoint it has to be considered that the codings were done by the dreamer himself alone; there was no second external judge so that interrater reliabilities could be ascertained. However, previous research indicated that for simple scales measuring the presence or absence of a specific topic have shown high interrater reli-ability (Schredl, Burchert, & Grabatin, 2004). As reported in previous studies (Arshamian, 2007; Carska-don et al., 1989; Monroe, 1899; Stevenson & Case, 2004-05; Weitz et al., 2010) the olfactory perception included a large variety of topics. However, a closer look showed that only one third of the contexts in which olfactory perceptions in the dreams were experienced also occurred in the dream-er’s everyday life, most of the olfactory perception contexts were unusual for the dreamer or even bizarre (ketchup with fish smell) – indicating the dreams are not simple replays of waking life experiences (Fosse, Fosse, Hobson, & Stick-gold, 2003; Malinowski & Horton, 2014). This contributes to the discussion whether dream content is continuous and/
discontinuous to waking life (Hobson & Schredl, 2011). In this context, it would be interesting to study odor experts (perfumers, chefs, oenologists etc.) who focus quite often on olfactory perceptions during the day.
Most of the spontaneously reported odors in this dream series were unpleasant. One might speculate that there might be a report bias similar to the underreporting of positive emotions compared to negative emotions (Röver & Schredl, 2017; Schredl & Doll, 1998; Sikka, Feilhauer, Valli, & Revon-suo, 2017). To test this hypothesis, it would be interesting to ask explicitly for olfactory perceptions in the dream and their emotional quality after the dream is recorded. Although the reported dream examples in the literature are mainly nega-tive (Wayne & Clinco, 1959; Weed & Hallam, 1896; Zadra et al., 1998), the preponderance of negative odors in dreams might be characteristic for this special dreamer, i.e., larger samples are necessary to corroborate this finding. It would also be interesting to test pleasantness/unpleasantness in the context of other sensory modalities like visual or audi-tory experiences. As the olfactory system is closely linked to the limbic system (Gottfried, 2006), one would not expect a strong relationship between perception per se and emo-tions.
To summarize, the analysis of this dream series indicate that olfactory perceptions in dreams are quite rare, mainly unpleasant und uncommon regarding the context compared to everyday life. Due to the design (single case study), the findings raise a lot of questions as to what olfactory per-ceptions look like in larger dream samples and/or in other subjects, for example, in odor experts. It would be very in-teresting to carry out an experimental dream study using ambulatory assessment techniques with one group regularly reminded to focus on olfaction during the day and answer-ing questions about type, pleasantness and commonness of the odor. According to the continuity hypothesis (Schredl, 2018), the percentage of olfactory dreams should increase and the pleasant/unpleasant ratio of waking olfactory per-ception should be reflected in the participants’ dreams. These studies might help to elucidate the interesting rela-tionship between olfaction, sleep, and dreams.
https://doi.org/10.11588/ijodr.2019.1.57845
Abstract: The present study analyzed the frequency of olfactory perceptions in a long dream series (N = 11,180 dreams) reported by a single participant. Overall, about 0.30% of the dreams included references to olfactory perceptions with unpleasant odors outweighing positive ones. Moreover, most of the olfactory perceptions are uncommon with regard to typical everyday life. To expand these findings, it would be very interesting to study larger samples using a diary paradigm including explicit questions about type, quality, and commonness of the dream odors.
4. Discussion
The present findings confirm previous results showing that spontaneously mentioned olfactory perceptions in dreams are rare since the frequency found in this male dreamer (0.30%) was close to the figure of 0.11% diary dreams re-ported by males that include references to olfactory percep-tions (Zadra et al., 1998). However, one has to keep in mind that the dreamer was not aware of the study’s rationale, i.e., analyzing olfactory perceptions, and, thus, the spontaneously reported olfactory perceptions might be an underestimation compared to a paradigm with explicit questions about sensory perceptions after recording the dreams (Carskadon et al., 1989).
From a methodological viewpoint it has to be considered that the codings were done by the dreamer himself alone; there was no second external judge so that interrater reliabilities could be ascertained. However, previous research indicated that for simple scales measuring the presence or absence of a specific topic have shown high interrater reli-ability (Schredl, Burchert, & Grabatin, 2004). As reported in previous studies (Arshamian, 2007; Carska-don et al., 1989; Monroe, 1899; Stevenson & Case, 2004-05; Weitz et al., 2010) the olfactory perception included a large variety of topics. However, a closer look showed that only one third of the contexts in which olfactory perceptions in the dreams were experienced also occurred in the dream-er’s everyday life, most of the olfactory perception contexts were unusual for the dreamer or even bizarre (ketchup with fish smell) – indicating the dreams are not simple replays of waking life experiences (Fosse, Fosse, Hobson, & Stick-gold, 2003; Malinowski & Horton, 2014). This contributes to the discussion whether dream content is continuous and/
discontinuous to waking life (Hobson & Schredl, 2011). In this context, it would be interesting to study odor experts (perfumers, chefs, oenologists etc.) who focus quite often on olfactory perceptions during the day.
Most of the spontaneously reported odors in this dream series were unpleasant. One might speculate that there might be a report bias similar to the underreporting of positive emotions compared to negative emotions (Röver & Schredl, 2017; Schredl & Doll, 1998; Sikka, Feilhauer, Valli, & Revon-suo, 2017). To test this hypothesis, it would be interesting to ask explicitly for olfactory perceptions in the dream and their emotional quality after the dream is recorded. Although the reported dream examples in the literature are mainly nega-tive (Wayne & Clinco, 1959; Weed & Hallam, 1896; Zadra et al., 1998), the preponderance of negative odors in dreams might be characteristic for this special dreamer, i.e., larger samples are necessary to corroborate this finding. It would also be interesting to test pleasantness/unpleasantness in the context of other sensory modalities like visual or audi-tory experiences. As the olfactory system is closely linked to the limbic system (Gottfried, 2006), one would not expect a strong relationship between perception per se and emo-tions.
To summarize, the analysis of this dream series indicate that olfactory perceptions in dreams are quite rare, mainly unpleasant und uncommon regarding the context compared to everyday life. Due to the design (single case study), the findings raise a lot of questions as to what olfactory per-ceptions look like in larger dream samples and/or in other subjects, for example, in odor experts. It would be very in-teresting to carry out an experimental dream study using ambulatory assessment techniques with one group regularly reminded to focus on olfaction during the day and answer-ing questions about type, pleasantness and commonness of the odor. According to the continuity hypothesis (Schredl, 2018), the percentage of olfactory dreams should increase and the pleasant/unpleasant ratio of waking olfactory per-ception should be reflected in the participants’ dreams. These studies might help to elucidate the interesting rela-tionship between olfaction, sleep, and dreams.
In the pre-Christmas shopping season prosocial subjects almost donate 50% less compared to prosocials in summer; the higher prosocials’ self-reported stress level, the lower the donations; no "donation fatigue" effect
Müller Stephan, Rau HA (2019) Too cold for warm glow? Christmas-season effects in charitable giving. PLoS ONE 14(5): e0215844. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215844
Abstract: This paper analyzes seasonal effects and their potential drivers in charitable giving. We conduct two studies to analyze whether donations to the German Red Cross differ between the Christmas season and summer. In study 1 we find that in the pre-Christmas shopping season prosocial subjects almost donate 50% less compared to prosocials in summer. In study 2 we replicate the low donations in the Christmas season. In an extensive questionnaire we control for several causes of this effect. The data suggest that the higher prosocials’ self-reported stress level, the lower the donations. The higher their relative savings, the lower the giving. Our questionnaire rules out that “donation fatigue” matters. That is, donations do not depend on the number of charitable campaigns subjects are confronted with and their engagement in these activities during Christmas season outside the lab.
Abstract: This paper analyzes seasonal effects and their potential drivers in charitable giving. We conduct two studies to analyze whether donations to the German Red Cross differ between the Christmas season and summer. In study 1 we find that in the pre-Christmas shopping season prosocial subjects almost donate 50% less compared to prosocials in summer. In study 2 we replicate the low donations in the Christmas season. In an extensive questionnaire we control for several causes of this effect. The data suggest that the higher prosocials’ self-reported stress level, the lower the donations. The higher their relative savings, the lower the giving. Our questionnaire rules out that “donation fatigue” matters. That is, donations do not depend on the number of charitable campaigns subjects are confronted with and their engagement in these activities during Christmas season outside the lab.
Preoperative anxiety of hospitalized patients exposed to Spiritist “passe” showed greater reductions in anxiety & muscle tension & increases in well-being than those exposed Sham or standard medical care
Effect of Spiritist “Passe” on Preoperative Anxiety of Surgical Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Double-Blind. Élida Mara Carneiro et al. Journal of Religion and Health, May 22 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10943-019-00841-7
Abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the preoperative anxiety of hospitalized patients exposed to Spiritist “passe,” laying on of hand with the intention of healing (Sham) and without laying on of hand. Other variables as depression, pain, physiological parameters, muscle tension, and well-being were assessed. Patients in the Spiritist “passe” intervention group showed greater reductions in anxiety (p < 0.05) and muscle tension (p < 0.01) and increases in well-being (p < 0.01). More marked reductions in preoperative anxiety and muscle tension and improvement in well-being were observed in patients exposed to Spiritist “passe” compared to Sham or standard medical care.
Keywords: Spiritual healing Energy therapies Complementary therapies Anxiety Surgery
Abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the preoperative anxiety of hospitalized patients exposed to Spiritist “passe,” laying on of hand with the intention of healing (Sham) and without laying on of hand. Other variables as depression, pain, physiological parameters, muscle tension, and well-being were assessed. Patients in the Spiritist “passe” intervention group showed greater reductions in anxiety (p < 0.05) and muscle tension (p < 0.01) and increases in well-being (p < 0.01). More marked reductions in preoperative anxiety and muscle tension and improvement in well-being were observed in patients exposed to Spiritist “passe” compared to Sham or standard medical care.
Keywords: Spiritual healing Energy therapies Complementary therapies Anxiety Surgery
Does Fraternal Birth Order Predict Male Homosexuality, Bisexuality, and Heterosexual Orientation with Same-Sex Attraction? Evidence from a Greek-Speaking Sample from Greece
Does Fraternal Birth Order Predict Male Homosexuality, Bisexuality, and Heterosexual Orientation with Same-Sex Attraction? Evidence from a Greek-Speaking Sample from Greece. Menelaos Apostolou. Archives of Sexual Behavior, May 22 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-019-01466-3
Abstract: Studies have established that having older brothers is associated with an increased incidence of male homosexuality. This so-called fraternal birth order effect has been found in different times and cultural settings. The current study attempted to examine whether this effect was present in the Greek cultural context and whether it could also predict bisexuality or heterosexuality with occasional same-sex attractions. On the basis of an online sample of 1617 Greek-speaking participants, it was found that, for men, a higher number of older brothers were associated with an increased probability to be homosexual, but it had no effect on the probability to be bisexual or heterosexual with same-sex attractions. In women, the number of older brothers had not any effect on sexual orientation.
Keywords: Fraternal birth order effect Sexual orientation Homosexuality Same-sex attraction Bisexuality Older brothers
Abstract: Studies have established that having older brothers is associated with an increased incidence of male homosexuality. This so-called fraternal birth order effect has been found in different times and cultural settings. The current study attempted to examine whether this effect was present in the Greek cultural context and whether it could also predict bisexuality or heterosexuality with occasional same-sex attractions. On the basis of an online sample of 1617 Greek-speaking participants, it was found that, for men, a higher number of older brothers were associated with an increased probability to be homosexual, but it had no effect on the probability to be bisexual or heterosexual with same-sex attractions. In women, the number of older brothers had not any effect on sexual orientation.
Keywords: Fraternal birth order effect Sexual orientation Homosexuality Same-sex attraction Bisexuality Older brothers
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Coverture’s demise in the US: Women’s rights led to shifts in household portfolios; a positive shock to credit supply; & a reallocation of labor towards non-agriculture & capital intensive industries, aiding industrialization
Women’s Liberation as a Financial Innovation. Moshe Hazan and David Weiss. October 23, 2018. https://m.tau.ac.il/~davidweiss/WomenRights.pdf
ABSTRACT: In one of the greatest extensions of property rights in human history, common law countries began giving rights to married women in the 1850s. Before this “women’s liberation,” the doctrine of coverture strongly incentivized parents of daughters to hold real estate, rather than financial assets such as money, stocks, or bonds. We exploit the staggered nature of coverture’s demise across US states to show that women’s rights led to shifts in household portfolios; a positive shock to the supply of credit; and a reallocation of labor towards non-agriculture and capital intensive industries. Investor protection deepened financial markets aiding industrialization.
Keywords: Women’s liberation, financial innovation, investor protection, economic growth.
Property rights are at the heart of capitalism’s ability to efficiently allocate resources. Inone of the greatest extensions of property rights in human history, common law countriesbegan giving rights to married women in the second half of the19th century. Before this“women’s liberation,” married women were subject to the laws of coverture.1Coverturehad detailed regulations as to which spouse had ownership and control over various aspectsof property, both before and after marriage, and strongly incentivized women to hold realestate, rather than financial assets such as money, stocks, orbonds. This paper explores theeconomic ramifications of coverture’s demise, and the resultant expansion of investor pro-tection to women. We exploit the staggered nature of coverture’s demise across the United States to show that these rights had a large impact on household portfolios, credit markets, and labor allocations.
Under coverture, property was divided into two types. Moveable property (also referredto as “personal property”), including money, stocks, bonds, furniture, and livestock, became the husband’s property entirely upon marriage. He could sell or give the property away, oreven bequeath it to others. Real assets, such as land and structures, were placed under the husband’s partial control while remaining in the wife’s name. He could manage the assets as he saw fit, including any income generated by the assets, but he could not sell orbequeath the property without his wife’s consent.2 After analyzing the laws of coverture, Holcombe (1983) concludes that “[w]hatever the reasons forthe distinction between realand personal [moveable] property, the legal rules applyingto these categories of propertywere substantially different. The common law afforded married women considerable protection with respect to real property. It afforded no protection for their personal property.” (Holcombe 1983, p.20).
By differentially allocating property rights, coverture affected portfolio incentives notonly for women, but for parents wishing to bequeath or gift assets to their daughters. Con-sider a father who wants to bequeath his estate to his daughter upon his death. He wouldface an incentive to hold his wealth in real assets. Indeed, parents did bequeath to daughtersin the US as primogeniture was abandoned after the War of Independence. The default became to divide equally inheritances of both types of assets equally among children, including girls (Shammas, Salmon and Dahlin 1987, p.67). Therefore, our first prediction is that undoing coverture should cause portfolios to shift towards moveable assets, such as financial assets, because removing legal constraints allows households to purchase assets withhigher returns or diversify their portfolios.3This shift in portfolios towards moveable assets represents an increase in the supply of financial assets. Accordingly, our second predictionis that after rights are granted, we expect bank deposits–and loans–to increase, along with a reduction in interest rates. An increase in the supply of loanable funds should aid industrialization, as entrepreneurs find capital to be cheaper and thus invest more readily. Greater industrialization yields a sectoral reallocation of workers. Accordingly, our third predictionis that coverture’s demise leads to a shift in the labor forceaway from agriculture. More-over, even within the non-agricultural sector, cheaper capital causes greater investment inindustries that are more capital intensive. Thus, our fourth and final prediction is that rightslead to a relative increase in employment in capital intensive industries.
ABSTRACT: In one of the greatest extensions of property rights in human history, common law countries began giving rights to married women in the 1850s. Before this “women’s liberation,” the doctrine of coverture strongly incentivized parents of daughters to hold real estate, rather than financial assets such as money, stocks, or bonds. We exploit the staggered nature of coverture’s demise across US states to show that women’s rights led to shifts in household portfolios; a positive shock to the supply of credit; and a reallocation of labor towards non-agriculture and capital intensive industries. Investor protection deepened financial markets aiding industrialization.
Keywords: Women’s liberation, financial innovation, investor protection, economic growth.
Property rights are at the heart of capitalism’s ability to efficiently allocate resources. Inone of the greatest extensions of property rights in human history, common law countriesbegan giving rights to married women in the second half of the19th century. Before this“women’s liberation,” married women were subject to the laws of coverture.1Coverturehad detailed regulations as to which spouse had ownership and control over various aspectsof property, both before and after marriage, and strongly incentivized women to hold realestate, rather than financial assets such as money, stocks, orbonds. This paper explores theeconomic ramifications of coverture’s demise, and the resultant expansion of investor pro-tection to women. We exploit the staggered nature of coverture’s demise across the United States to show that these rights had a large impact on household portfolios, credit markets, and labor allocations.
Under coverture, property was divided into two types. Moveable property (also referredto as “personal property”), including money, stocks, bonds, furniture, and livestock, became the husband’s property entirely upon marriage. He could sell or give the property away, oreven bequeath it to others. Real assets, such as land and structures, were placed under the husband’s partial control while remaining in the wife’s name. He could manage the assets as he saw fit, including any income generated by the assets, but he could not sell orbequeath the property without his wife’s consent.2 After analyzing the laws of coverture, Holcombe (1983) concludes that “[w]hatever the reasons forthe distinction between realand personal [moveable] property, the legal rules applyingto these categories of propertywere substantially different. The common law afforded married women considerable protection with respect to real property. It afforded no protection for their personal property.” (Holcombe 1983, p.20).
By differentially allocating property rights, coverture affected portfolio incentives notonly for women, but for parents wishing to bequeath or gift assets to their daughters. Con-sider a father who wants to bequeath his estate to his daughter upon his death. He wouldface an incentive to hold his wealth in real assets. Indeed, parents did bequeath to daughtersin the US as primogeniture was abandoned after the War of Independence. The default became to divide equally inheritances of both types of assets equally among children, including girls (Shammas, Salmon and Dahlin 1987, p.67). Therefore, our first prediction is that undoing coverture should cause portfolios to shift towards moveable assets, such as financial assets, because removing legal constraints allows households to purchase assets withhigher returns or diversify their portfolios.3This shift in portfolios towards moveable assets represents an increase in the supply of financial assets. Accordingly, our second predictionis that after rights are granted, we expect bank deposits–and loans–to increase, along with a reduction in interest rates. An increase in the supply of loanable funds should aid industrialization, as entrepreneurs find capital to be cheaper and thus invest more readily. Greater industrialization yields a sectoral reallocation of workers. Accordingly, our third predictionis that coverture’s demise leads to a shift in the labor forceaway from agriculture. More-over, even within the non-agricultural sector, cheaper capital causes greater investment inindustries that are more capital intensive. Thus, our fourth and final prediction is that rightslead to a relative increase in employment in capital intensive industries.
Those assigned to the perspective taking intervention did not empathize more than subjects assigned to no intervention; instead, subjects assigned to the objective intervention down-regulated their emotions & empathized less
Wondra, Joshua D., and Sylvia Morelli. 2018. “Limitations of the Evidence That Perspective Taking Increases Empathy.” PsyArXiv. October 13. doi:10.31234/osf.io/95fnr
Abstract: Perspective taking is commonly believed to increase empathy. To support this idea, empirical research must show two pieces of evidence. First, perspective taking interventions should make people empathize more than they would by default. Second, the increase in empathy should be due to perspective taking, and not some other feature of the intervention. Much of the evidence that perspective taking increases empathy comes from studies that compare a perspective taking condition to a condition where subjects are asked to “remain objective”. However, if subjects are not objective to begin with, then asking them to “remain objective” might make them empathize less, which makes it unclear if perspective taking also makes them empathize more. In two new experiments and one replication of the well-known “Katie Banks” experiment, subjects were assigned to a perspective taking intervention, an objective intervention, or no intervention. Subjects assigned to the perspective taking intervention did not empathize more than subjects assigned to no intervention; instead, subjects assigned to the objective intervention down-regulated their emotions and empathized less. Further evidence about whether, when, and how perspective taking increases empathy is needed.
Abstract: Perspective taking is commonly believed to increase empathy. To support this idea, empirical research must show two pieces of evidence. First, perspective taking interventions should make people empathize more than they would by default. Second, the increase in empathy should be due to perspective taking, and not some other feature of the intervention. Much of the evidence that perspective taking increases empathy comes from studies that compare a perspective taking condition to a condition where subjects are asked to “remain objective”. However, if subjects are not objective to begin with, then asking them to “remain objective” might make them empathize less, which makes it unclear if perspective taking also makes them empathize more. In two new experiments and one replication of the well-known “Katie Banks” experiment, subjects were assigned to a perspective taking intervention, an objective intervention, or no intervention. Subjects assigned to the perspective taking intervention did not empathize more than subjects assigned to no intervention; instead, subjects assigned to the objective intervention down-regulated their emotions and empathized less. Further evidence about whether, when, and how perspective taking increases empathy is needed.
Memento mori, melancholy, and the resident ornamental hermit: A person paid to dress like a druid, serve wine and read poetry, living in your estate's grotto
Before the Garden Gnome, the Ornamental Hermit: A Real Person Paid to Dress like a Druid. Allison Meier. Atlas Obscura, March 18, 2014. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-history-of-hermits-in-gardens
While some gardeners might now throw in a gnome statue among their flowers and shrubberies, back in the 18th century wealthy estate owners were hiring real people to dress as druids, grow their hair long, and not wash for years. These hired hermits would lodge in shacks, caves, and other hermitages constructed in a rustic manner in rambling gardens. It was a practice mostly found in England, although it made it up to Scotland and over to Ireland as well.
Gordon Campbell, a Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leicester, recently published The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome with Oxford University Press. It’s the first book to delve into the history of the ornamental hermit in Georgian England. As Campbell explains in this video for the book:
As Campbell cites from an advertisement referenced in Sir William Gell’s A Tour in the Lakes Made in 1797, ”the hermit is never to leave the place, or hold conversation with anyone for seven years during which he is neither to wash himself or cleanse himself in any way whatever, but is to let his hair and nails both on hands and feet, grow as long as nature will permit them.”
Others asked that their hermits not wear shoes or even to entertain party guests with personalized poetry or the serving of wine. It might seem like a whimsical garden feature, but in fact it was all about that most celebrated of Georgian England emotions: melancholy. Introspection and a somberness of spirit were prized among the elite, and the roles they asked their hermits to play embodied this. A 1784 guide to the Hawkstone estate in Shropshire belonging to Sir Richard Hill describes its resident hermit:
While some gardeners might now throw in a gnome statue among their flowers and shrubberies, back in the 18th century wealthy estate owners were hiring real people to dress as druids, grow their hair long, and not wash for years. These hired hermits would lodge in shacks, caves, and other hermitages constructed in a rustic manner in rambling gardens. It was a practice mostly found in England, although it made it up to Scotland and over to Ireland as well.
Gordon Campbell, a Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leicester, recently published The Hermit in the Garden: From Imperial Rome to Ornamental Gnome with Oxford University Press. It’s the first book to delve into the history of the ornamental hermit in Georgian England. As Campbell explains in this video for the book:
“Recruiting a hermit wasn’t always easy. Sometimes they were agricultural workers, and they were dressed in a costume, often in a druid’s costume. There was no agreement on how druids dressed, but in some cases they wore what we would call a dunce’s cap. It’s a most peculiar phenomenon, and understanding it is one of the reasons why I have written this book.”How the live-in hermit came to be a fashionable touch to a splendid garden goes back to the Roman emperor Hadrian with his villa at Tivoli, which included a small lake with a structure in it built for one person to retreat. When the ruins of this early hermitage were unearthed in the 16th century, it was suggested that Pope Pius IV build one for himself, which he did at the Casina Pio IV. Yet from here it gradually verged away from religious devotees isolating themselves for spiritual reflection to hermitting being an 18th century profession for those willing to put up with the stipulations.
As Campbell cites from an advertisement referenced in Sir William Gell’s A Tour in the Lakes Made in 1797, ”the hermit is never to leave the place, or hold conversation with anyone for seven years during which he is neither to wash himself or cleanse himself in any way whatever, but is to let his hair and nails both on hands and feet, grow as long as nature will permit them.”
Others asked that their hermits not wear shoes or even to entertain party guests with personalized poetry or the serving of wine. It might seem like a whimsical garden feature, but in fact it was all about that most celebrated of Georgian England emotions: melancholy. Introspection and a somberness of spirit were prized among the elite, and the roles they asked their hermits to play embodied this. A 1784 guide to the Hawkstone estate in Shropshire belonging to Sir Richard Hill describes its resident hermit:
“You pull a bell, and gain admittance. The hermit is generally in a sitting posture, with a table before him, on which is a skull, the emblem of mortality, an hour-glass, a book and a pair of spectacles. The venerable bare-footed Father, whose name is Francis (if awake) always rises up at the approach of strangers. He seems about 90 years of age, yet has all his sense to admiration. He is tolerably conversant, and far from being unpolite.”
We care about the minds of others, attempting to understand others' thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, intentions, & emotions; but perspective taking or increasing attention to behavioral cues increase accuracy only in very specific circumstances
Through a looking glass, darkly: Using mechanisms of mind perception to identify accuracy, overconfidence, and underappreciated means for improvement. Nicholas Epley, Tal Eyal. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, May 22 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2019.04.002
Abstract: People care about the minds of others, attempting to understand others' thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, intentions, and emotions using a highly sophisticated process of social cognition. Others' minds are among the most complicated systems that any person will ever think about, meaning that inferences about them are also made imperfectly. Research on the processes that enable mental state inference has largely developed in isolation from research examining the accuracy of these inferences, leaving the former literature somewhat impractical and the latter somewhat atheoretical. We weave these literatures together by describing how basic mechanisms that govern the activation and application of mental state inferences help to explain systematic patterns of accuracy, error, and confidence in mind perception. Altering any of these basic processes, such as through perspective taking or increasing attention to behavioral cues, is likely to increase accuracy only in very specific circumstances. We suggest the most widely effective method for increasing accuracy is to avoid these inference processes altogether by getting another's perspective directly (what we refer to as perspective getting). Those in the midst of understanding the mind of another, however, seem largely unable to detect when they are using an effective versus ineffective strategy while engaging in mind reading, meaning that the most effective approaches for increasing interpersonal understanding are likely to be highly undervalued. Understanding how mind perception is activated and applied can explain accuracy and error, identifying effective strategies that mind readers may nevertheless fail to appreciate in their everyday lives.
Abstract: People care about the minds of others, attempting to understand others' thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, intentions, and emotions using a highly sophisticated process of social cognition. Others' minds are among the most complicated systems that any person will ever think about, meaning that inferences about them are also made imperfectly. Research on the processes that enable mental state inference has largely developed in isolation from research examining the accuracy of these inferences, leaving the former literature somewhat impractical and the latter somewhat atheoretical. We weave these literatures together by describing how basic mechanisms that govern the activation and application of mental state inferences help to explain systematic patterns of accuracy, error, and confidence in mind perception. Altering any of these basic processes, such as through perspective taking or increasing attention to behavioral cues, is likely to increase accuracy only in very specific circumstances. We suggest the most widely effective method for increasing accuracy is to avoid these inference processes altogether by getting another's perspective directly (what we refer to as perspective getting). Those in the midst of understanding the mind of another, however, seem largely unable to detect when they are using an effective versus ineffective strategy while engaging in mind reading, meaning that the most effective approaches for increasing interpersonal understanding are likely to be highly undervalued. Understanding how mind perception is activated and applied can explain accuracy and error, identifying effective strategies that mind readers may nevertheless fail to appreciate in their everyday lives.
Early-life family disruption (death or divorce of a parent) causes fund managers to be more risk averse when they manage their own funds
Betzer, André and Limbach, Peter and Rau, P. Raghavendra and Schürmann, Henrik, Till Death (Or Divorce) Do us Part: Early-Life Family Disruption and Fund Manager Behavior (March 16, 2019). SSRN http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3353686
Abstract: We show that early-life family disruption (death or divorce of a parent) causes fund managers to be more risk averse when they manage their own funds. Treated managers take lower idiosyncratic, systematic, and downside risk than untreated managers. This effect is most pronounced for managers who experienced family disruption during their formative years and in cases of parental deaths when the bereaved parent either had no new partner or had little social support. Treated managers also invest less in lottery-like stocks, make smaller tracking errors, and bet less on factors during recessions, but do not perform worse than their untreated cohorts. Our evidence indicates that familial background affects economic decisions later in life even for finance professionals.
Keywords: Family Disruption, Formative Experiences, Portfolio Activities, Risk-Taking
JEL Classification: G11, G23, G41
Popular version: Broken Homes Produce More Cautious Fund Managers, https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1fhb6b555gjlq/Broken-Homes-Produce-More-Cautious-Fund-Managers
Abstract: We show that early-life family disruption (death or divorce of a parent) causes fund managers to be more risk averse when they manage their own funds. Treated managers take lower idiosyncratic, systematic, and downside risk than untreated managers. This effect is most pronounced for managers who experienced family disruption during their formative years and in cases of parental deaths when the bereaved parent either had no new partner or had little social support. Treated managers also invest less in lottery-like stocks, make smaller tracking errors, and bet less on factors during recessions, but do not perform worse than their untreated cohorts. Our evidence indicates that familial background affects economic decisions later in life even for finance professionals.
Keywords: Family Disruption, Formative Experiences, Portfolio Activities, Risk-Taking
JEL Classification: G11, G23, G41
Popular version: Broken Homes Produce More Cautious Fund Managers, https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1fhb6b555gjlq/Broken-Homes-Produce-More-Cautious-Fund-Managers
Crews would routinely return with whales that had been left to rot, “which could not be used for food. This was not regarded as a problem by anybody.”
The Most Senseless Environmental Crime of the 20th Century. Charles Homans. Pacific Standard, Jun 14, 2017. https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-senseless-environment-crime-of-the-20th-century-russia-whaling-67774
Fifty years ago 180,000 whales disappeared from the oceans without a trace, and researchers are still trying to make sense of why. Inside the most irrational environmental crime of the century.
Excerpts:
* In fact, the country’s fleets had killed nearly 18 times that many, along with thousands of unreported whales of other species. It had been an elaborate and audacious deception: Soviet captains had disguised ships, tampered with scientific data, and misled international authorities for decades. In the estimation of the marine biologists Yulia Ivashchenko, Phillip Clapham, and Robert Brownell, it was “arguably one of the greatest environmental crimes of the 20th century.”
* Why did a country with so little use for whales kill so many of them?
* The Japanese, motivated as they were by domestic demand for whale meat, were “at least understandable” in their actions, he wrote. “I should not say that as a scientist, but it is possible to understand the difference between a motivated and unmotivated crime.” Japanese whalers made use of 90 percent of the whales they hauled up the spillway; the Soviets, according to Berzin, used barely 30 percent. Crews would routinely return with whales that had been left to rot, “which could not be used for food. This was not regarded as a problem by anybody.”
* The scientific report for the Sovetskaya Rossiya fleet’s 1970-71 season noted that the ship captains and harpooners who most frequently violated international whaling regulations also received the most Communist Party honors. “Lies became an inalienable part and perhaps even a foundation of Soviet whaling,” Berzin wrote.
* Clapham and Ivashchenko now think that Soviet whalers killed at least 180,000 more whales than they reported between 1948 and 1973. It’s a testament to the enormous scale of legal commercial whaling that this figure constitutes only a small percentage—in some oceans, about five percent—of the total killed by whalers in the 20th century. The Soviets, Dmitri Tormosov told me, were well aware of all that had come before them, and were driven by a kind of fatalistic nationalism. “The point,” he says, “was to catch up and get their portion of whale resources before they were all gone. It wasn’t intended to be a long industry.”
Fifty years ago 180,000 whales disappeared from the oceans without a trace, and researchers are still trying to make sense of why. Inside the most irrational environmental crime of the century.
Excerpts:
* In fact, the country’s fleets had killed nearly 18 times that many, along with thousands of unreported whales of other species. It had been an elaborate and audacious deception: Soviet captains had disguised ships, tampered with scientific data, and misled international authorities for decades. In the estimation of the marine biologists Yulia Ivashchenko, Phillip Clapham, and Robert Brownell, it was “arguably one of the greatest environmental crimes of the 20th century.”
* Why did a country with so little use for whales kill so many of them?
* The Japanese, motivated as they were by domestic demand for whale meat, were “at least understandable” in their actions, he wrote. “I should not say that as a scientist, but it is possible to understand the difference between a motivated and unmotivated crime.” Japanese whalers made use of 90 percent of the whales they hauled up the spillway; the Soviets, according to Berzin, used barely 30 percent. Crews would routinely return with whales that had been left to rot, “which could not be used for food. This was not regarded as a problem by anybody.”
* The scientific report for the Sovetskaya Rossiya fleet’s 1970-71 season noted that the ship captains and harpooners who most frequently violated international whaling regulations also received the most Communist Party honors. “Lies became an inalienable part and perhaps even a foundation of Soviet whaling,” Berzin wrote.
* Clapham and Ivashchenko now think that Soviet whalers killed at least 180,000 more whales than they reported between 1948 and 1973. It’s a testament to the enormous scale of legal commercial whaling that this figure constitutes only a small percentage—in some oceans, about five percent—of the total killed by whalers in the 20th century. The Soviets, Dmitri Tormosov told me, were well aware of all that had come before them, and were driven by a kind of fatalistic nationalism. “The point,” he says, “was to catch up and get their portion of whale resources before they were all gone. It wasn’t intended to be a long industry.”
Mate Choice in Visually Impaired and Blind People
Are You Seeing Him/Her? Mate Choice in Visually Impaired and Blind People. Or Fekler, Ya’Arit Bokek-Cohen & Yoram Braw. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, May 15 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/1034912X.2019.1617412
ABSTRACT: We examined whether individuals who are VI (visually impaired; people with low vision or totally blind) choose their romantic partners differently than those who are sighted. The theoretical framework that informed our inquiry is Social Exchange Theory. Fifty-five participants who are VI and fifty-one participants who are sighted were administered mate preference and marital satisfaction questionnaires. Participants who are VI also answered open-ended questions regarding difficulties in finding a suitable mate. Participants who are VI did not significantly differ from participants who are sighted in their rated importance of traits of an ideal romantic partner, as well as their relationship satisfaction. No tradeoff of resources among participants who are VI and their partners was found, i.e. they did not “pay” for their disability by coupling with a partner who has a lower socio-economic status than theirs. Participants who were VI told about their main difficulties in finding a mate and offered proposals to mitigate these difficulties. We conclude by proposing ways to help individuals who are VI to establish intimate relationships.
KEYWORDS: Blindness, visual impairment, mate choice, reading aloud questionnaire, romantic relationship, social exchange
ABSTRACT: We examined whether individuals who are VI (visually impaired; people with low vision or totally blind) choose their romantic partners differently than those who are sighted. The theoretical framework that informed our inquiry is Social Exchange Theory. Fifty-five participants who are VI and fifty-one participants who are sighted were administered mate preference and marital satisfaction questionnaires. Participants who are VI also answered open-ended questions regarding difficulties in finding a suitable mate. Participants who are VI did not significantly differ from participants who are sighted in their rated importance of traits of an ideal romantic partner, as well as their relationship satisfaction. No tradeoff of resources among participants who are VI and their partners was found, i.e. they did not “pay” for their disability by coupling with a partner who has a lower socio-economic status than theirs. Participants who were VI told about their main difficulties in finding a mate and offered proposals to mitigate these difficulties. We conclude by proposing ways to help individuals who are VI to establish intimate relationships.
KEYWORDS: Blindness, visual impairment, mate choice, reading aloud questionnaire, romantic relationship, social exchange
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
How Eroticism and Nurturance Differs in Polyamorous and Monogamous Relationships
Eroticism Versus Nurturance: How Eroticism and Nurturance Differs in Polyamorous and Monogamous Relationships. Rhonda N. Balzarini et al. Social Psychology, April 17, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000378
Abstract. Romantic partners provide both erotic and nurturing experiences, though these may emerge more strongly in different phases of a relationship. Unlike individuals in monogamous relationships, those in polyamorous relationships can pursue multiple romantic relationships simultaneously, potentially allowing them to experience higher levels of eroticism and nurturance. This research examined eroticism and nurturance among individuals in polyamorous and monogamous relationships. As expected, polyamorous participants experienced less eroticism but more nurturance in their relationships with their primary partner compared to secondary. Furthermore, people in polyamorous relationships reported more nurturance with primary partners and eroticism with secondary partners compared to people in monogamous relationships. These findings suggest that polyamory may provide a unique opportunity for individuals to experience both eroticism and nurturance simultaneously.
Keywords: polyamory, monogamy, nurturance, eroticism, relationship length
Romantic relationships are important to health and well-being (Coombs, 1991; Lillard & Waite, 1995; Putzke, Elliott, & Richards, 2001; Simon, 2002), in part because they often meet people’s needs for emotional support, care, and sexual gratification (Hazan & Shaver, 1994). However, fulfilling these needs simultaneously can be challenging, as the experience of eroticism (i.e., feeling of arousal, passion, lust, sexual pleasure) and nurturance (i.e., feelings of intimacy, warmth and love) often follow different time courses in a relationship (Hatfield, Traupmann, & Sprecher, 1984; Sprecher & Regan, 1998; Tennov, 1979; Winston, 2004). As a result, individuals in relationships are often stuck trying to balance their need for eroticism and their need for nurturance (Hazan & Shaver, 1994), as experiences of eroticism are more prominent in the early stages, and experiences of nurturance develop over time as erotic desires decline. People in polyamorous relationships – relationships that involve consensual intimate relationships with more than one partner – may seek out additional relationships in order to fulfill multiple needs by different partners. In the current research we sought to assess whether partners in polyamorous relationships differ with regard to their experienced eroticism and nurturance, and whether individuals in polyamorous relationships are able to maintain higher levels of eroticism and nurturance than individuals in monogamous relationships through having multiple relationships.
Theoretical Framework
Van Anders Sexual Configuration Theory (2015) advances that eroticism, or “aspects of sexuality tied to bodily pleasure, orgasm, arousal, tantalization, and related concepts,” and nurturance, or “warm loving feelings and closeness,” serve fundamental roles in relationships. Sexual Configuration Theory proposes that individuals may pursue some intimate relationships for eroticism, others for nurturance, and still others for both of these qualities. While van Anders (2015) provides a theoretical context for the role of eroticism and nurturance in relationships, and while research related to these concepts – such as passionate and companionate love – can help provide insight into how eroticism and nurturance may be experienced in relationships, to date it remains unclear if engaging in relationships with multiple partners results in different experiences with eroticism and nurturance. That is, do individuals who engage in polyamorous relationships and thus have multiple simultaneous partners experience higher levels of eroticism and nurturance than those who rely on one partner to meet their needs?
Passionate and Companionate Love
While the current paper seeks to assess eroticism and nurturance, the fulfillment of these needs has most often been studied in the context of love, which is frequently conceptualized as either passionate or companionate (Hatfield & Walster, 1978). Consequently, we rely on research on passionate and companionate love to serve as a proxy for what might be found when exploring eroticism and nurturance in relationships.
Passionate love is characterized as an intensely emotional state that involves longing for union with another person and strong sexual desire between partners. With companionate love, in contrast, strong sexual desire is replaced by increased intimacy (e.g., caring, understanding, attachment) that requires time to develop fully (Sprecher & Regan, 1998). Although passionate and companionate love are not mutually exclusive, they may be more prominent at different stages of a relationship. More specifically, passionate love is most closely associated with the early stages or the “honeymoon” period of a relationship (though passion can still be experienced in the later stages, it tends to decline on average), and companionate love with the later stages (Hatfield et al., 1984; Sprecher & Regan, 1998).
Outsourcing Needs in Relationships
The differing time courses of passionate and companionate love are also consistent with evolutionary perspectives about the formation of adult pair bonds. Since pair bonds require time and close physical proximity to form, the characteristics of the early stage of a relationship include an intense longing for closeness with a partner (Hazan & Diamond, 2000; Tennov, 1979). However, over time, an attachment bond is thought to form, reducing the intensity of the desire for physical proximity as the relationship becomes more predictable and familiar (Eagle, 2007). Therefore, from an evolutionary perspective, feelings of passionate love are the mechanism by which initial attraction becomes attachment, facilitating the initiation of longer term romantic relationships. Social and evolutionary psychologists even agree on a timeframe for this shift, such that passionate love is thought to last approximately 2 years, ±6 months (Tennov, 1979), while attachment bonds typically form 1.5–3 years after a relationship is initiated (Winston, 2004).
Importantly, Eagle (2007) argues the features of attachment work against erotic desire. According to Eagle, for a romantic partner to serve as an attachment figure they need to be available, familiar, and predictable. These characteristics, however, thwart feelings of sexual desire, which she argues is conversely ignited by novelty and unpredictability. If, in fact, familiarity and predictability are key features of an attachment figure and if sexual desire for a partner is diminished by these characteristics, then once an attachment bond is formed in a relationship, it is likely that sexual desire will decrease. Similar ideas are echoed by Mitchell (2002) and Perel (2007) who have independently argued that initial erotic desire – and related feelings of passion – wanes as partners impose boundaries on one-another to reduce relational insecurity, and that sexual desire can be negatively impacted by increasing closeness and familiarity. Clinical reports (Levine, 2003), along with qualitative (Sims & Meana, 2010) and quantitative research (Levy, 1994) provide additional support for these arguments, such that familiarity, monotony, preoccupation with non-sexual matters, and predictability are shown to undermine erotic desire.
To the extent that passionate and companionate love are related to eroticism and nurturance, this research and theorizing may suggest differing trajectories for the experience of erotic desire and nurturance. If this is the case, like different forms of love, it may be challenging to experience high levels of eroticism and nurturance with one romantic partner at a single point in time. In fact, this problem is likely compounded by the burden of contemporary expectations about the functions of romantic relationships. Today, it is commonly assumed that committed relationships should meet many higher order needs like happiness and personal fulfillment, while at the same time, many couples find it challenging to invest the time and energy needed to fulfill all these needs (see Finkel, Hui, Carswell, & Larson, 2014). One solution to this problem is to alter expectations about romantic relationships and outsource needs. Indeed, it has been proposed that couples could alter their expectations about relationships; that is, rather than relying on one partner to meet both erotic and nurturant needs, individuals could outsource their needs to other relationships, diversifying their need fulfillment across multiple romantic or sexual partners (Conley, Matsick, Moors, & Ziegler, 2017; Conley & Moors, 2014).
In consensually non-monogamous relationships, all partners agree it is acceptable to have additional romantic or sexual partners (Conley, Ziegler, Moors, Matsick, & Valentine, 2013). Given that consensual non-monogamy provides the opportunity to simultaneously pursue relationships, it may be possible for individuals in consensually non-monogamous relationships to concurrently experience high levels of eroticism along with nurturance through relationships with various partners. Thus, if relationships tend to decline in eroticism and increase in nurturance over time, it is possible that individuals in consensually non-monogamous relationships seek out secondary relationships to experience both eroticism and nurturance.
Relationship Orientation
In the current research we focus on polyamory, the practice and acceptance of having multiple emotionally close relationships with the consent of all partners involved (Barker & Langdridge, 2010). Polyamorous relationships are particularly useful to study in this context because unlike other popular forms of consensually non-monogamous relationships (e.g., open and swinging), partners are permitted to seek both eroticism and nurturance outside of a dyad. The most common polyamorous relationship configuration is characterized by a distinction between primary and secondary relationship partners (Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018; Veaux, 2011; Veaux, Hardy, & Gill, 2014). In this configuration, a primary relationship is between two partners who have been together for a longer duration, typically share a household and finances, who are married, and who have or are raising children together (if children are desired) (Balzarini et al., 2017; Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018; Sheff, 2013; Veaux, 2011). In such arrangements, partners beyond the primary relationship are often referred to as “secondary” partners and consist of less ongoing commitments and a shorter relationship duration (Balzarini et al., 2017; Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018).
Previous research has shown that meaningful differences also emerge among partners in polyamorous and monogamous relationships. For example, Mogilski and colleagues (2017) found that individuals engage in more mate retention behaviors (i.e., public signals of possession, direct guarding) and report greater satisfaction with monogamous and primary partners compared to secondary partners. Furthermore, Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al. (2018) found that participants reported greater acceptance from friends and family, as well as higher investment, satisfaction, and commitment in relationships with monogamous or primary partners compared to secondary partners. In contrast, participants reported greater quality of alternatives, higher romantic secrecy (e.g., they hid more aspects of their relationship from others) and a greater proportion of time spent on sexual activity in their relationship with secondary partners compared to their relationships with primary partners and to reports for monogamous partners (Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018). This research suggests that primary partners resemble monogamous partners in many ways, though secondary partners seem to diverge with proportion of time spent on sex being one of the unique features that is higher among secondary partners. In contrast to Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al. (2018) findings, Mitchell and colleagues (2014) found that polyamorous individuals actually reported more sexual contact with primary partners (which could be because people tend to spend more time with primary compared to secondary partners) but greater fulfillment of sexual needs with their secondary partners compared to primary. While this research did not assess comparisons to monogamous relationships, it still provides initial evidence in support of the idea that individuals may seek out consensual extradyadic relationships in order to have diverse needs fulfilled.
Although primary-secondary relationships are the most common polyamorous arrangement (Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018), not all people in such relationships identify with this labeling, instead, some consider multiple partners to be primary (co-primary) or no partners to be primary (non-primary; Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018; Labriola, 2003). The only study to date to assess relationship quality among such configurations has found that even in co-primary and non-primary relationships, there is often a partner who can be characterized as more primary, or “pseudo-primary,” and another as more secondary, or “pseudo-secondary.” Despite the designated primary status, individuals in polyamorous relationships who reject primary-secondary status are often more inclined to live with one partner over another, and this partner is typically the individual with whom they are married to and have kids with. In such cases, participants report greater acceptance from friends and family, higher commitment, investment and communication for this partner (pseudo-primary), and romantic secrecy and proportion of time spent on sex for the pseudo-secondary partner. Balzarini and colleagues (2018) have argued that such differences may reflect the practical allocation of relationship investments imposed by a society that is not particularly tolerant of consensually non-monogamous relationships that may occur despite motivated striving for equality across partners. As such, in co-primary and non-primary relationships, the pseudo- primary partner resembles primary partners in primary-secondary configurations and we would therefore expect to find similar patterns of eroticism and nurturance across these alternative forms of polyamorous relationships.
Cross Partner Effects
If individuals in consensually non-monogamous relationships are able to experience higher levels of eroticism and nurturance through having their needs met across partners, it is possible that the diversification of needs could influence concurrent relationships. Indeed, recent research by Muise and colleagues (2018) suggests that greater sexual need fulfillment with a primary partner was associated with greater sexual satisfaction with their secondary partner, though greater sexual need fulfillment with a secondary partner was associated with less satisfaction with a primary partner. Furthermore, while research by Mitchell and colleagues (2014) found that greater need fulfillment (in some domains) with one partner was associated with less satisfaction with the other, when need fulfillment was low with one partner, having another partner meet those needs was associated with higher satisfaction with both partners. Though when need fulfillment was lower in one relationship, need fulfillment in another relationship detracted from satisfaction, resulting in lower satisfaction with the first partner. This research suggests that diversifying needs across partners can have both detrimental and beneficial effects.
Current Study
Building on previous research (Balzarini et al., 2017; Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018; Mogilski et al., 2017) assessing differences among polyamorous and monogamous partners, and drawing on Sexual Configuration Theory (van Anders, 2015), we sought to assess the extent to which eroticism and nurturance differ among polyamorous and monogamous partners. Given that primary relationships in polyamory resemble monogamous relationships and both of these relationships are characterized by greater commitment, investments, and efforts to retain a mate (Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Holmes, et al., 2018; Mogilski et al., 2017), we would expect these relationships to be characterized by greater nurturance. Conversely, most evidence suggests a greater proportion of time is spent on sexual activity with secondary partners (Balzarini et al., 2017; Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018; Balzarini, Dobson, Kohut, & Lehmiller, 2018; see Mitchell et al., 2014 for an exception) and that secondary partners provide greater sexual need fulfillment than primary partners (Mitchell et al., 2014) – which provides preliminary evidence that these relationships may be characterized as more erotically fulfilling. If this is the case, it would suggest that individuals in polyamorous relationships are experiencing higher levels of eroticism and nurturance than individuals in monogamous relationships through diversifying their needs. Additionally, we also sought to explore whether there are unique benefits diversifying needs across partners, thus we wanted to assess whether experiencing more eroticism or nurturance with one partner in a polyamorous relationship influenced a concurrent relationship. Lastly, given that previous research has shown that monogamous and polyamorous participants present important demographics differences (see Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Holmes, et al., 2018 for a review) and because sociodemographic factors may influence eroticism and nurturance (van Anders, 2015), we further sought to assess how relationship orientation (e.g., monogamous vs. polyamorous), primary status (e.g., identifying partners as primary-secondary, co-primary, and non-primary), relationship length, gender, sexual orientation, and age impacted reports of eroticism and nurturance.
Abstract. Romantic partners provide both erotic and nurturing experiences, though these may emerge more strongly in different phases of a relationship. Unlike individuals in monogamous relationships, those in polyamorous relationships can pursue multiple romantic relationships simultaneously, potentially allowing them to experience higher levels of eroticism and nurturance. This research examined eroticism and nurturance among individuals in polyamorous and monogamous relationships. As expected, polyamorous participants experienced less eroticism but more nurturance in their relationships with their primary partner compared to secondary. Furthermore, people in polyamorous relationships reported more nurturance with primary partners and eroticism with secondary partners compared to people in monogamous relationships. These findings suggest that polyamory may provide a unique opportunity for individuals to experience both eroticism and nurturance simultaneously.
Keywords: polyamory, monogamy, nurturance, eroticism, relationship length
Romantic relationships are important to health and well-being (Coombs, 1991; Lillard & Waite, 1995; Putzke, Elliott, & Richards, 2001; Simon, 2002), in part because they often meet people’s needs for emotional support, care, and sexual gratification (Hazan & Shaver, 1994). However, fulfilling these needs simultaneously can be challenging, as the experience of eroticism (i.e., feeling of arousal, passion, lust, sexual pleasure) and nurturance (i.e., feelings of intimacy, warmth and love) often follow different time courses in a relationship (Hatfield, Traupmann, & Sprecher, 1984; Sprecher & Regan, 1998; Tennov, 1979; Winston, 2004). As a result, individuals in relationships are often stuck trying to balance their need for eroticism and their need for nurturance (Hazan & Shaver, 1994), as experiences of eroticism are more prominent in the early stages, and experiences of nurturance develop over time as erotic desires decline. People in polyamorous relationships – relationships that involve consensual intimate relationships with more than one partner – may seek out additional relationships in order to fulfill multiple needs by different partners. In the current research we sought to assess whether partners in polyamorous relationships differ with regard to their experienced eroticism and nurturance, and whether individuals in polyamorous relationships are able to maintain higher levels of eroticism and nurturance than individuals in monogamous relationships through having multiple relationships.
Theoretical Framework
Van Anders Sexual Configuration Theory (2015) advances that eroticism, or “aspects of sexuality tied to bodily pleasure, orgasm, arousal, tantalization, and related concepts,” and nurturance, or “warm loving feelings and closeness,” serve fundamental roles in relationships. Sexual Configuration Theory proposes that individuals may pursue some intimate relationships for eroticism, others for nurturance, and still others for both of these qualities. While van Anders (2015) provides a theoretical context for the role of eroticism and nurturance in relationships, and while research related to these concepts – such as passionate and companionate love – can help provide insight into how eroticism and nurturance may be experienced in relationships, to date it remains unclear if engaging in relationships with multiple partners results in different experiences with eroticism and nurturance. That is, do individuals who engage in polyamorous relationships and thus have multiple simultaneous partners experience higher levels of eroticism and nurturance than those who rely on one partner to meet their needs?
Passionate and Companionate Love
While the current paper seeks to assess eroticism and nurturance, the fulfillment of these needs has most often been studied in the context of love, which is frequently conceptualized as either passionate or companionate (Hatfield & Walster, 1978). Consequently, we rely on research on passionate and companionate love to serve as a proxy for what might be found when exploring eroticism and nurturance in relationships.
Passionate love is characterized as an intensely emotional state that involves longing for union with another person and strong sexual desire between partners. With companionate love, in contrast, strong sexual desire is replaced by increased intimacy (e.g., caring, understanding, attachment) that requires time to develop fully (Sprecher & Regan, 1998). Although passionate and companionate love are not mutually exclusive, they may be more prominent at different stages of a relationship. More specifically, passionate love is most closely associated with the early stages or the “honeymoon” period of a relationship (though passion can still be experienced in the later stages, it tends to decline on average), and companionate love with the later stages (Hatfield et al., 1984; Sprecher & Regan, 1998).
Outsourcing Needs in Relationships
The differing time courses of passionate and companionate love are also consistent with evolutionary perspectives about the formation of adult pair bonds. Since pair bonds require time and close physical proximity to form, the characteristics of the early stage of a relationship include an intense longing for closeness with a partner (Hazan & Diamond, 2000; Tennov, 1979). However, over time, an attachment bond is thought to form, reducing the intensity of the desire for physical proximity as the relationship becomes more predictable and familiar (Eagle, 2007). Therefore, from an evolutionary perspective, feelings of passionate love are the mechanism by which initial attraction becomes attachment, facilitating the initiation of longer term romantic relationships. Social and evolutionary psychologists even agree on a timeframe for this shift, such that passionate love is thought to last approximately 2 years, ±6 months (Tennov, 1979), while attachment bonds typically form 1.5–3 years after a relationship is initiated (Winston, 2004).
Importantly, Eagle (2007) argues the features of attachment work against erotic desire. According to Eagle, for a romantic partner to serve as an attachment figure they need to be available, familiar, and predictable. These characteristics, however, thwart feelings of sexual desire, which she argues is conversely ignited by novelty and unpredictability. If, in fact, familiarity and predictability are key features of an attachment figure and if sexual desire for a partner is diminished by these characteristics, then once an attachment bond is formed in a relationship, it is likely that sexual desire will decrease. Similar ideas are echoed by Mitchell (2002) and Perel (2007) who have independently argued that initial erotic desire – and related feelings of passion – wanes as partners impose boundaries on one-another to reduce relational insecurity, and that sexual desire can be negatively impacted by increasing closeness and familiarity. Clinical reports (Levine, 2003), along with qualitative (Sims & Meana, 2010) and quantitative research (Levy, 1994) provide additional support for these arguments, such that familiarity, monotony, preoccupation with non-sexual matters, and predictability are shown to undermine erotic desire.
To the extent that passionate and companionate love are related to eroticism and nurturance, this research and theorizing may suggest differing trajectories for the experience of erotic desire and nurturance. If this is the case, like different forms of love, it may be challenging to experience high levels of eroticism and nurturance with one romantic partner at a single point in time. In fact, this problem is likely compounded by the burden of contemporary expectations about the functions of romantic relationships. Today, it is commonly assumed that committed relationships should meet many higher order needs like happiness and personal fulfillment, while at the same time, many couples find it challenging to invest the time and energy needed to fulfill all these needs (see Finkel, Hui, Carswell, & Larson, 2014). One solution to this problem is to alter expectations about romantic relationships and outsource needs. Indeed, it has been proposed that couples could alter their expectations about relationships; that is, rather than relying on one partner to meet both erotic and nurturant needs, individuals could outsource their needs to other relationships, diversifying their need fulfillment across multiple romantic or sexual partners (Conley, Matsick, Moors, & Ziegler, 2017; Conley & Moors, 2014).
In consensually non-monogamous relationships, all partners agree it is acceptable to have additional romantic or sexual partners (Conley, Ziegler, Moors, Matsick, & Valentine, 2013). Given that consensual non-monogamy provides the opportunity to simultaneously pursue relationships, it may be possible for individuals in consensually non-monogamous relationships to concurrently experience high levels of eroticism along with nurturance through relationships with various partners. Thus, if relationships tend to decline in eroticism and increase in nurturance over time, it is possible that individuals in consensually non-monogamous relationships seek out secondary relationships to experience both eroticism and nurturance.
Relationship Orientation
In the current research we focus on polyamory, the practice and acceptance of having multiple emotionally close relationships with the consent of all partners involved (Barker & Langdridge, 2010). Polyamorous relationships are particularly useful to study in this context because unlike other popular forms of consensually non-monogamous relationships (e.g., open and swinging), partners are permitted to seek both eroticism and nurturance outside of a dyad. The most common polyamorous relationship configuration is characterized by a distinction between primary and secondary relationship partners (Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018; Veaux, 2011; Veaux, Hardy, & Gill, 2014). In this configuration, a primary relationship is between two partners who have been together for a longer duration, typically share a household and finances, who are married, and who have or are raising children together (if children are desired) (Balzarini et al., 2017; Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018; Sheff, 2013; Veaux, 2011). In such arrangements, partners beyond the primary relationship are often referred to as “secondary” partners and consist of less ongoing commitments and a shorter relationship duration (Balzarini et al., 2017; Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018).
Previous research has shown that meaningful differences also emerge among partners in polyamorous and monogamous relationships. For example, Mogilski and colleagues (2017) found that individuals engage in more mate retention behaviors (i.e., public signals of possession, direct guarding) and report greater satisfaction with monogamous and primary partners compared to secondary partners. Furthermore, Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al. (2018) found that participants reported greater acceptance from friends and family, as well as higher investment, satisfaction, and commitment in relationships with monogamous or primary partners compared to secondary partners. In contrast, participants reported greater quality of alternatives, higher romantic secrecy (e.g., they hid more aspects of their relationship from others) and a greater proportion of time spent on sexual activity in their relationship with secondary partners compared to their relationships with primary partners and to reports for monogamous partners (Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018). This research suggests that primary partners resemble monogamous partners in many ways, though secondary partners seem to diverge with proportion of time spent on sex being one of the unique features that is higher among secondary partners. In contrast to Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al. (2018) findings, Mitchell and colleagues (2014) found that polyamorous individuals actually reported more sexual contact with primary partners (which could be because people tend to spend more time with primary compared to secondary partners) but greater fulfillment of sexual needs with their secondary partners compared to primary. While this research did not assess comparisons to monogamous relationships, it still provides initial evidence in support of the idea that individuals may seek out consensual extradyadic relationships in order to have diverse needs fulfilled.
Although primary-secondary relationships are the most common polyamorous arrangement (Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018), not all people in such relationships identify with this labeling, instead, some consider multiple partners to be primary (co-primary) or no partners to be primary (non-primary; Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018; Labriola, 2003). The only study to date to assess relationship quality among such configurations has found that even in co-primary and non-primary relationships, there is often a partner who can be characterized as more primary, or “pseudo-primary,” and another as more secondary, or “pseudo-secondary.” Despite the designated primary status, individuals in polyamorous relationships who reject primary-secondary status are often more inclined to live with one partner over another, and this partner is typically the individual with whom they are married to and have kids with. In such cases, participants report greater acceptance from friends and family, higher commitment, investment and communication for this partner (pseudo-primary), and romantic secrecy and proportion of time spent on sex for the pseudo-secondary partner. Balzarini and colleagues (2018) have argued that such differences may reflect the practical allocation of relationship investments imposed by a society that is not particularly tolerant of consensually non-monogamous relationships that may occur despite motivated striving for equality across partners. As such, in co-primary and non-primary relationships, the pseudo- primary partner resembles primary partners in primary-secondary configurations and we would therefore expect to find similar patterns of eroticism and nurturance across these alternative forms of polyamorous relationships.
Cross Partner Effects
If individuals in consensually non-monogamous relationships are able to experience higher levels of eroticism and nurturance through having their needs met across partners, it is possible that the diversification of needs could influence concurrent relationships. Indeed, recent research by Muise and colleagues (2018) suggests that greater sexual need fulfillment with a primary partner was associated with greater sexual satisfaction with their secondary partner, though greater sexual need fulfillment with a secondary partner was associated with less satisfaction with a primary partner. Furthermore, while research by Mitchell and colleagues (2014) found that greater need fulfillment (in some domains) with one partner was associated with less satisfaction with the other, when need fulfillment was low with one partner, having another partner meet those needs was associated with higher satisfaction with both partners. Though when need fulfillment was lower in one relationship, need fulfillment in another relationship detracted from satisfaction, resulting in lower satisfaction with the first partner. This research suggests that diversifying needs across partners can have both detrimental and beneficial effects.
Current Study
Building on previous research (Balzarini et al., 2017; Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018; Mogilski et al., 2017) assessing differences among polyamorous and monogamous partners, and drawing on Sexual Configuration Theory (van Anders, 2015), we sought to assess the extent to which eroticism and nurturance differ among polyamorous and monogamous partners. Given that primary relationships in polyamory resemble monogamous relationships and both of these relationships are characterized by greater commitment, investments, and efforts to retain a mate (Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Holmes, et al., 2018; Mogilski et al., 2017), we would expect these relationships to be characterized by greater nurturance. Conversely, most evidence suggests a greater proportion of time is spent on sexual activity with secondary partners (Balzarini et al., 2017; Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Lehmiller, et al., 2018; Balzarini, Dobson, Kohut, & Lehmiller, 2018; see Mitchell et al., 2014 for an exception) and that secondary partners provide greater sexual need fulfillment than primary partners (Mitchell et al., 2014) – which provides preliminary evidence that these relationships may be characterized as more erotically fulfilling. If this is the case, it would suggest that individuals in polyamorous relationships are experiencing higher levels of eroticism and nurturance than individuals in monogamous relationships through diversifying their needs. Additionally, we also sought to explore whether there are unique benefits diversifying needs across partners, thus we wanted to assess whether experiencing more eroticism or nurturance with one partner in a polyamorous relationship influenced a concurrent relationship. Lastly, given that previous research has shown that monogamous and polyamorous participants present important demographics differences (see Balzarini, Dharma, Kohut, Campbell, Holmes, et al., 2018 for a review) and because sociodemographic factors may influence eroticism and nurturance (van Anders, 2015), we further sought to assess how relationship orientation (e.g., monogamous vs. polyamorous), primary status (e.g., identifying partners as primary-secondary, co-primary, and non-primary), relationship length, gender, sexual orientation, and age impacted reports of eroticism and nurturance.
Better natural: Perceived attractiveness from the natural condition was 1.5 points higher than perceived attractiveness from the simulated upper lip filler injection, & 2.6 points higher than the simulated upper lip lift
Perception of upper lip augmentation utilizing simulated photography. Gary Linkov, Elizabeth Wick, Dorina Kallogjeri, Collin L. Chen, Gregory H. Branham. May 15, 2019. Archives of Plastic Surgery 2019;46(3):248-254. https://doi.org/10.5999/aps.2018.01319
Abstract
Background: No head to head comparison is available between surgical lip lifting and upper lip filler injections to decide which technique yields the best results in patients. Despite the growing popularity of upper lip augmentation, its effect on societal perceptions of attractiveness, successfulness and overall health in woman is unknown.
Methods: Blinded casual observers viewed three versions of independent images of 15 unique patient lower faces for a total of 45 images. Observers rated the attractiveness, perceived success, and perceived overall health for each patient image. Facial perception questions were answered on a visual analog scale from 0 to 100, where higher scores corresponded to more positive responses.
Results: Two hundred and seventeen random observers with an average age of 47 years (standard deviation, 15.9) rated the images. The majority of observers were females (n=183, 84%) of white race (n=174, 80%) and had at least some college education (n=202, 93%). The marginal mean score for perceived attractiveness from the natural condition was 1.5 points (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.9–2.18) higher than perceived attractiveness from the simulated upper lip filler injection condition, and 2.6 points higher (95% CI, 1.95–3.24) than the simulated upper lip lift condition. There was a moderate to strong correlation between the scores of the same observer.
Conclusions: Simulated upper lip augmentation is amenable to social perception analysis. Scores of the same observer for attractiveness, successfulness, and overall health are strongly correlated. Overall, the natural condition had the highest scores in all categories, followed by simulated upper lip filler, and lastly simulated upper lip lift.
Keywords: Lip / Surgery, plastic / Injections / Perception
Abstract
Background: No head to head comparison is available between surgical lip lifting and upper lip filler injections to decide which technique yields the best results in patients. Despite the growing popularity of upper lip augmentation, its effect on societal perceptions of attractiveness, successfulness and overall health in woman is unknown.
Methods: Blinded casual observers viewed three versions of independent images of 15 unique patient lower faces for a total of 45 images. Observers rated the attractiveness, perceived success, and perceived overall health for each patient image. Facial perception questions were answered on a visual analog scale from 0 to 100, where higher scores corresponded to more positive responses.
Results: Two hundred and seventeen random observers with an average age of 47 years (standard deviation, 15.9) rated the images. The majority of observers were females (n=183, 84%) of white race (n=174, 80%) and had at least some college education (n=202, 93%). The marginal mean score for perceived attractiveness from the natural condition was 1.5 points (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.9–2.18) higher than perceived attractiveness from the simulated upper lip filler injection condition, and 2.6 points higher (95% CI, 1.95–3.24) than the simulated upper lip lift condition. There was a moderate to strong correlation between the scores of the same observer.
Conclusions: Simulated upper lip augmentation is amenable to social perception analysis. Scores of the same observer for attractiveness, successfulness, and overall health are strongly correlated. Overall, the natural condition had the highest scores in all categories, followed by simulated upper lip filler, and lastly simulated upper lip lift.
Keywords: Lip / Surgery, plastic / Injections / Perception
Ideological migration: Observational Data on 150 Erstwhile Democrats
Klein, Daniel B. and Fleming, Cy, WalkAway: Observational Data on 150 Erstwhile Democrats (May 17, 2019). Forthcoming, SOCIETY; George Mason University Department of Economics Research Paper Series. SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3389650
Abstract: #WalkAway signifies walking away from the Democratic Party. The movement was launched in June 2018 by Brandon Straka, when he uploaded what became the prototypical video of an individual telling his or her story about walking away. During 130 days, 150 erstwhile Democrats provided video testimonials at Straka’s official YouTube channel. Of the 150 erstwhile Democrats, 23% report catching a lot of grief, plus another 16% report catching some grief, for questioning or deviating from leftist opinions. Most importantly, 70% suggest a civility gap between the left and non-left. These are lower bounds, since the testimonials are spontaneous monologues, not replies to questions. Many other observed features are reported, to deepen our thinking about ideological migration. However, filters involved in the sample must be borne in mind. A linked Excel file contains complete data.
Keywords: ideology, ideological migration, party politics, nationalism
JEL Classification: A13, H0, P0, Z1
Abstract: #WalkAway signifies walking away from the Democratic Party. The movement was launched in June 2018 by Brandon Straka, when he uploaded what became the prototypical video of an individual telling his or her story about walking away. During 130 days, 150 erstwhile Democrats provided video testimonials at Straka’s official YouTube channel. Of the 150 erstwhile Democrats, 23% report catching a lot of grief, plus another 16% report catching some grief, for questioning or deviating from leftist opinions. Most importantly, 70% suggest a civility gap between the left and non-left. These are lower bounds, since the testimonials are spontaneous monologues, not replies to questions. Many other observed features are reported, to deepen our thinking about ideological migration. However, filters involved in the sample must be borne in mind. A linked Excel file contains complete data.
Keywords: ideology, ideological migration, party politics, nationalism
JEL Classification: A13, H0, P0, Z1
I find no effect of political ideology or religiosity on women’s likelihood of faking orgasm, or men and women’s levels of sexual desire; neither political ideology nor religiosity comes close to reaching significance
Ideological Correlates of Sexual Behavior: Linking political ideology, religiosity, and gender ideology with orgasm and desire. Emily Ann Harris. PhD thesis, Univ of Queensland, 2018. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_4d2929a/s4200251_phd_thesis.pdf?Expires=1558512862&Signature=g4Q4~8x0OJtaiOc-zT7dRI1~hSoOyA1D0qrhcUj66N5N5U3UbbrEUc7AgeSlKinGfFphnCxQL0F6jICUjqycbVodBH7QW~9MrxyU1vD-6Rvqvasdb1kKvP-nULCuQkLcE5DyL2xEnLcmKSP7TPmUeNiQ9K-XnT2I-UZZhZAdtdaG1MfVkxcK4FwzOQXIPZbu0y4h~ABiJ1cQnhDB~qXmdv-m-4s3jtcORF-OPLlFfUJmVoZ4Tpsd~~FFYfddJUSt2iEFn2P3yAdq8L99RHFcBUKiIyursfz833C1mTiWQOciMOr9Zr3WgmcOYJcNi2AYGXaz9T1CNkLdrH7Z8WrJmQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ
Abstract
Ideologies provide a set of norms and values that guide our attitudes and behavior in times of uncertainty. Given theprivate nature of sex, we may be particularly reliant on our pre-existing ideas about the world to guide our actions in the bedroom. Previous research on the influence of social values on sexual behavior has typically focused on group-level processes, forexample, research on the cultural suppression of female sexuality (Baumeister & Twenge, 2002). Scholars in the social sciences have discussed the ways in which we internalize social norms and values, and how these might influence our experience of sex, for example through sexual scripts (Gagnon & Simon, 1973). There is, however, limited empirical work testing the association between worldviews, or ideologies, and sexual behavior at the individual level. The aim of the present thesis is to investigate whether ideologies are predictive of sexual behavior. I focus on three ideologies, namely, political ideology, religiosity, and gender ideology, and three aspects of sexuality: orgasm (Chapter 3), faking orgasm (Chapter 4), and sexual desire (Chapter 5).
In Chapter 3, I present findings from two surveys of women (N = 662) showing that traditional gender ideology is indirectly linked with frequency of orgasm. I find that women who endorse a benevolently sexist worldview (i.e., a traditional gender ideology) are more likely to believe that men are sexually selfish. This belief then predicts decreased willingness to ask for sexual pleasure, which in turn predicts less frequent orgasms. This study provides the first evidence that traditional gender ideology constrains sexual pleasure (though indirectly). In Chapter 4, I show that hostile and benevolent sexism are predictive of lifetime frequency of faking orgasm in women. Women high in benevolent sexism faked their orgasm less frequently, whereas women high in hostile sexism faked their orgasm more frequently. The studies presented in Chapters 3 and 4 show that women who endorse a traditional gender ideology may not actively pursue sexual pleasure, or feel the need to exaggerate their sexual pleasure. Where previouswork has shown that benevolent sexism has negative consequences for women in social and relationship contexts, the findings presented in Chapters 3 and 4 show that benevolent sexism also has implications for women’s lives.
These studies contribute to an existing literature that has sought to identify and challenge the ways in which patriarchal values shape women’s sexuality. In general, feminist scholars and social scientists have emphasized the ways in which women’s sexuality is socially determined. Far less work has been done on the social influences on men’s sexuality. Relatedly, academic and lay theories of sexuality propose that women’s sexuality is more sensitive to the social environment relative to men’s sexuality (Baumeister, 2000; Regan & Berscheid, 1995). We tested this assumption in Chapter 5 by measuring men and women’s sexual desire over time in order to assess variation in desire, and the degree to which desire is associated with social and psychological factors. We found that the patterns of sexual desire between men and women are remarkably similar. We found no gender differences in sexual desire variability, nor did gender moderate any of the effects of social and psychological factors on desire.
In Chapters 4 and 5, I find no effect of political ideology or religiosity on women’s likelihood of faking orgasm, or men and women’s levels of sexual desire. In both studies, neither political ideology nor religiosity comes close to reaching significance. Thus, these two ideologies may be too psychologically distal to have a meaningful impact on sexual outcomes. Further, the relevance of political ideology and religion with regards to sexuality may have faded over time, or at least narrowed to specific domains of sexuality, such as sexual orientation and gender identity (Aosved & Long, 2006). Gender and gender ideology, on the other hand, emergeas consistent themes across my three studies. As such, when it comes to ideology, it is our ideas about men and women in society that are most likely to guide our sexual behavior. I discuss the implications and future directions of these findings in Chapter 6.
Abstract
Ideologies provide a set of norms and values that guide our attitudes and behavior in times of uncertainty. Given theprivate nature of sex, we may be particularly reliant on our pre-existing ideas about the world to guide our actions in the bedroom. Previous research on the influence of social values on sexual behavior has typically focused on group-level processes, forexample, research on the cultural suppression of female sexuality (Baumeister & Twenge, 2002). Scholars in the social sciences have discussed the ways in which we internalize social norms and values, and how these might influence our experience of sex, for example through sexual scripts (Gagnon & Simon, 1973). There is, however, limited empirical work testing the association between worldviews, or ideologies, and sexual behavior at the individual level. The aim of the present thesis is to investigate whether ideologies are predictive of sexual behavior. I focus on three ideologies, namely, political ideology, religiosity, and gender ideology, and three aspects of sexuality: orgasm (Chapter 3), faking orgasm (Chapter 4), and sexual desire (Chapter 5).
In Chapter 3, I present findings from two surveys of women (N = 662) showing that traditional gender ideology is indirectly linked with frequency of orgasm. I find that women who endorse a benevolently sexist worldview (i.e., a traditional gender ideology) are more likely to believe that men are sexually selfish. This belief then predicts decreased willingness to ask for sexual pleasure, which in turn predicts less frequent orgasms. This study provides the first evidence that traditional gender ideology constrains sexual pleasure (though indirectly). In Chapter 4, I show that hostile and benevolent sexism are predictive of lifetime frequency of faking orgasm in women. Women high in benevolent sexism faked their orgasm less frequently, whereas women high in hostile sexism faked their orgasm more frequently. The studies presented in Chapters 3 and 4 show that women who endorse a traditional gender ideology may not actively pursue sexual pleasure, or feel the need to exaggerate their sexual pleasure. Where previouswork has shown that benevolent sexism has negative consequences for women in social and relationship contexts, the findings presented in Chapters 3 and 4 show that benevolent sexism also has implications for women’s lives.
These studies contribute to an existing literature that has sought to identify and challenge the ways in which patriarchal values shape women’s sexuality. In general, feminist scholars and social scientists have emphasized the ways in which women’s sexuality is socially determined. Far less work has been done on the social influences on men’s sexuality. Relatedly, academic and lay theories of sexuality propose that women’s sexuality is more sensitive to the social environment relative to men’s sexuality (Baumeister, 2000; Regan & Berscheid, 1995). We tested this assumption in Chapter 5 by measuring men and women’s sexual desire over time in order to assess variation in desire, and the degree to which desire is associated with social and psychological factors. We found that the patterns of sexual desire between men and women are remarkably similar. We found no gender differences in sexual desire variability, nor did gender moderate any of the effects of social and psychological factors on desire.
In Chapters 4 and 5, I find no effect of political ideology or religiosity on women’s likelihood of faking orgasm, or men and women’s levels of sexual desire. In both studies, neither political ideology nor religiosity comes close to reaching significance. Thus, these two ideologies may be too psychologically distal to have a meaningful impact on sexual outcomes. Further, the relevance of political ideology and religion with regards to sexuality may have faded over time, or at least narrowed to specific domains of sexuality, such as sexual orientation and gender identity (Aosved & Long, 2006). Gender and gender ideology, on the other hand, emergeas consistent themes across my three studies. As such, when it comes to ideology, it is our ideas about men and women in society that are most likely to guide our sexual behavior. I discuss the implications and future directions of these findings in Chapter 6.
The neural and genetic correlates of satisfying sexual activity in heterosexual pair‐bonds
The neural and genetic correlates of satisfying sexual activity in heterosexual pair‐bonds. Bianca P. Acevedo et al. Brain and Behavior. 2019;e01289. March 14 2019 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1289
Abstract
Introduction: In humans, satisfying sexual activity within a pair‐bond plays a significant role in relationship quality and maintenance, beyond reproduction. However, the neural and genetic correlates for this basic species‐supporting function, in response to a pair‐bonded partner, are unknown.
Methods: We examined the neural correlates of oxytocin‐ (Oxtr rs53576) and vaso‐pressin‐ (Avpr1a rs3) receptor genotypes with sexual satisfaction and frequency, among a group of individuals in pair‐bonds (M relationship length = 4.1 years). Participants were scanned twice (with functional MRI), about 1‐year apart, while viewing face images of their spouse and a familiar, neutral acquaintance.
Results: Sex satisfaction scores showed significant interactions with Oxtr and Avprvariants associated with social behaviors in a broad network of regions involved in reward and motivation (ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra [SN], and caudate), social bonding (ventral pallidum), emotion and memory (amygdala/hippocampus), hormone control (hypothalamus); and somatosensory and self‐other processing (SII, frontal, and temporal lobe). Sexual frequency interactions also showed activations in the SN and paraventricular hypothalamus for Avpr, and the prefrontal cortex for Oxtr.
Conclusions: Satisfying sexual activity in pair‐bonds is associated with activation of subcortical structures that support basic motivational and physiological processes; as well as cortical regions that mediate complex thinking, empathy, and self‐other processes highlighting the multifaceted role of sex in pair‐bonds. Oxtr and Avpr gene variants may further amplify both basic and complex neural processes for pair‐bond conservation and well‐being.
KEYWORDS: fMRI, oxytocin, pair‐bonding, prefrontal cortex, sexual frequency, sexual satisfaction,vasopressin
Abstract
Introduction: In humans, satisfying sexual activity within a pair‐bond plays a significant role in relationship quality and maintenance, beyond reproduction. However, the neural and genetic correlates for this basic species‐supporting function, in response to a pair‐bonded partner, are unknown.
Methods: We examined the neural correlates of oxytocin‐ (Oxtr rs53576) and vaso‐pressin‐ (Avpr1a rs3) receptor genotypes with sexual satisfaction and frequency, among a group of individuals in pair‐bonds (M relationship length = 4.1 years). Participants were scanned twice (with functional MRI), about 1‐year apart, while viewing face images of their spouse and a familiar, neutral acquaintance.
Results: Sex satisfaction scores showed significant interactions with Oxtr and Avprvariants associated with social behaviors in a broad network of regions involved in reward and motivation (ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra [SN], and caudate), social bonding (ventral pallidum), emotion and memory (amygdala/hippocampus), hormone control (hypothalamus); and somatosensory and self‐other processing (SII, frontal, and temporal lobe). Sexual frequency interactions also showed activations in the SN and paraventricular hypothalamus for Avpr, and the prefrontal cortex for Oxtr.
Conclusions: Satisfying sexual activity in pair‐bonds is associated with activation of subcortical structures that support basic motivational and physiological processes; as well as cortical regions that mediate complex thinking, empathy, and self‐other processes highlighting the multifaceted role of sex in pair‐bonds. Oxtr and Avpr gene variants may further amplify both basic and complex neural processes for pair‐bond conservation and well‐being.
KEYWORDS: fMRI, oxytocin, pair‐bonding, prefrontal cortex, sexual frequency, sexual satisfaction,vasopressin
Personality traits predict daily spatial behavior; extraversion positively related to daily spatial behavior, especially to the number of different places visited, the total distance traveled, and the entropy of movement
Big Five personality traits predict daily spatial behavior: Evidence from smartphone data. Peilin Ai, Yuanyuan Liu, Xi Zhao. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 147, 1 September 2019, Pages 285-291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.04.027
Abstract: The field of psychology is increasingly interested in daily spatial behavior, regarded as the diversity and regularity of people visiting various places. By combining survey data on the personality traits of 243 college students with their mobility patterns extracted from smartphone records, the current study examined the relationships between the Big Five personality traits and daily spatial behavior. Results showed that extraversion positively related to daily spatial behavior, especially to the number of different places visited, the total distance traveled, and the entropy of movement. Agreeableness positively related to the range of movement. Conscientiousness negatively related to the number of different places visited. There was no evidence that neuroticism and openness relate to daily spatial behavior.
Abstract: The field of psychology is increasingly interested in daily spatial behavior, regarded as the diversity and regularity of people visiting various places. By combining survey data on the personality traits of 243 college students with their mobility patterns extracted from smartphone records, the current study examined the relationships between the Big Five personality traits and daily spatial behavior. Results showed that extraversion positively related to daily spatial behavior, especially to the number of different places visited, the total distance traveled, and the entropy of movement. Agreeableness positively related to the range of movement. Conscientiousness negatively related to the number of different places visited. There was no evidence that neuroticism and openness relate to daily spatial behavior.
Psychology and morality of political extremists: They show a lower positive emotion & a higher negative emotion than partisan users, but their differences in certainty is not significant; we found no evidence for elevated moral foundations
Psychology and morality of political extremists: evidence from Twitter language analysis of alt-right and Antifa. Meysam Alizadeh et al. EPJ Data Science20198:17. May 14 2019. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-019-0193-9
Abstract: The recent rise of the political extremism in Western countries has spurred renewed interest in the psychological and moral appeal of political extremism. Empirical support for the psychological explanation using surveys has been limited by lack of access to extremist groups, while field studies have missed psychological measures and failed to compare extremists with contrast groups. We revisit the debate over the psychological and moral appeal of extremism in the U.S. context by analyzing Twitter data of 10,000 political extremists and comparing their text-based psychological constructs with those of 5000 liberal and 5000 conservative users. The results reveal that extremists show a lower positive emotion and a higher negative emotion than partisan users, but their differences in certainty is not significant. In addition, while left-wing extremists express more language indicative of anxiety than liberals, right-wing extremists express lower anxiety than conservatives. Moreover, our results mostly lend support to Moral Foundations Theory for partisan users and extend it to the political extremists. With the exception of ingroup loyalty, we found evidences supporting the Moral Foundations Theory among left- and right-wing extremists. However, we found no evidence for elevated moral foundations among political extremists.
Abstract: The recent rise of the political extremism in Western countries has spurred renewed interest in the psychological and moral appeal of political extremism. Empirical support for the psychological explanation using surveys has been limited by lack of access to extremist groups, while field studies have missed psychological measures and failed to compare extremists with contrast groups. We revisit the debate over the psychological and moral appeal of extremism in the U.S. context by analyzing Twitter data of 10,000 political extremists and comparing their text-based psychological constructs with those of 5000 liberal and 5000 conservative users. The results reveal that extremists show a lower positive emotion and a higher negative emotion than partisan users, but their differences in certainty is not significant. In addition, while left-wing extremists express more language indicative of anxiety than liberals, right-wing extremists express lower anxiety than conservatives. Moreover, our results mostly lend support to Moral Foundations Theory for partisan users and extend it to the political extremists. With the exception of ingroup loyalty, we found evidences supporting the Moral Foundations Theory among left- and right-wing extremists. However, we found no evidence for elevated moral foundations among political extremists.
They found that empathy increased across the life span, particularly after age 40, and more recent cohorts were higher in empathy
Longitudinal Changes in Empathy Across the Life Span in Six Samples of Human Development. Jeewon Oh et al. Social Psychological and Personality Science, May 20, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619849429
Abstract: The development of empathy is a hotly debated topic. Some studies find declines and others an inverse U-shaped pattern in empathy across the life span. Yet other studies find no age-related changes. Most of this research is cross sectional, and the few longitudinal studies have their limitations. The current study addresses these limitations by examining changes in empathy in six longitudinal samples (total N = 740, age 13–72). In a preliminary study (N = 784), we created and validated a measure of empathy out of the California Adult Q-Sort. The samples were combined for multilevel analyses in a variant of an accelerated longitudinal design. We found that empathy increased across the life span, particularly after age 40, and more recent cohorts were higher in empathy.
Keywords: empathy, life span development, Q-Sorts, personality
Abstract: The development of empathy is a hotly debated topic. Some studies find declines and others an inverse U-shaped pattern in empathy across the life span. Yet other studies find no age-related changes. Most of this research is cross sectional, and the few longitudinal studies have their limitations. The current study addresses these limitations by examining changes in empathy in six longitudinal samples (total N = 740, age 13–72). In a preliminary study (N = 784), we created and validated a measure of empathy out of the California Adult Q-Sort. The samples were combined for multilevel analyses in a variant of an accelerated longitudinal design. We found that empathy increased across the life span, particularly after age 40, and more recent cohorts were higher in empathy.
Keywords: empathy, life span development, Q-Sorts, personality
Monday, May 20, 2019
Males with a mother living in their group have higher paternity success in bonobos (but not chimpanzees)
Males with a mother living in their group have higher paternity success in bonobos but not chimpanzees. Martin Surbeck et al. Current Biology, Volume 29, Issue 10, 20 May 2019, Pages R354-R355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.040
Summary: In many group-living mammals, mothers may increase the reproductive success of their daughters even after they are nutritionally independent and fully grown [1]. However, whether such maternal effects exist for adult sons is largely unknown. Here we show that males have higher paternity success when their mother is living in the group at the time of the offspring’s conception in bonobos (N = 39 paternities from 4 groups) but not in chimpanzees (N = 263 paternities from 7 groups). These results are consistent with previous research showing a stronger role of mothers (and females more generally) in bonobo than chimpanzee societies.
Summary: In many group-living mammals, mothers may increase the reproductive success of their daughters even after they are nutritionally independent and fully grown [1]. However, whether such maternal effects exist for adult sons is largely unknown. Here we show that males have higher paternity success when their mother is living in the group at the time of the offspring’s conception in bonobos (N = 39 paternities from 4 groups) but not in chimpanzees (N = 263 paternities from 7 groups). These results are consistent with previous research showing a stronger role of mothers (and females more generally) in bonobo than chimpanzee societies.
The Illusion of Stable Preferences over Major Life Decisions: Desired fertility is very unstable, but that most people perceive their desires to be stable
The Illusion of Stable Preferences over Major Life Decisions. Maximilian W. Mueller, Joan Hamory Hicks, Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, Edward Miguel. NBER Working Paper No. 25844, May 2019. https://www.nber.org/papers/w25844
Abstract: We examine the stability of preferences over time using panel data from Kenya on fertility intentions, realizations, and recall of intentions. We find that desired fertility is very unstable, but that most people perceive their desires to be stable. Under hypothetical scenarios, few expect their desired fertility to increase over time. Moreover, when asked to recall past intentions, most respondents report previously wanting exactly as many children as they desire today. Biased recall of preferences over a major life decision could have important implications for measuring excess fertility, the evolution of norms, and the perceived need for family planning programs.
Abstract: We examine the stability of preferences over time using panel data from Kenya on fertility intentions, realizations, and recall of intentions. We find that desired fertility is very unstable, but that most people perceive their desires to be stable. Under hypothetical scenarios, few expect their desired fertility to increase over time. Moreover, when asked to recall past intentions, most respondents report previously wanting exactly as many children as they desire today. Biased recall of preferences over a major life decision could have important implications for measuring excess fertility, the evolution of norms, and the perceived need for family planning programs.
We forecast experiencing a greater amount of regret (both affective & cognitive) than we actually experience; predicting more affective regret coincides with lower well-being
Predicting with your head, not your heart: Forecasting errors and the impact of anticipated versus experienced elements of regret on well-being. Tonya M. Buchanan, Joshua Buchanan, Kylie R. Kadey. Motivation and Emotion, May 20 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-019-09772-y
Abstract: Research suggests that when predicting our future emotions, affective forecasting errors are frequent (Wilson and Gilbert in Adv Exp Soc Psychol 35:345–411, 2003), influence motivation (Wilson and Gilbert in Curr Dir Psychol Sci 14:131–134, 2005), and drive decisions and behaviors (Dunn and Laham Affective forecasting: a user’s guide to emotional time travel, Psychology Press, London, 2006). Regret can fall prey to these same errors (Gilbert et al., in Psychol Sci 15:346–350, 2004). Recent research characterizes two distinct components of regret: an affective element and cognitive element associated with maladaptive and functional outcomes, respectively (Buchanan et al., in Judgment and Decision Making 11:275–286, 2006). We explored forecasting of these elements across two studies. In Study 1, we investigated how accurately individuals forecast each component of regret, and how this relates to well-being. Participants forecasted experiencing a greater amount of regret (including affective and cognitive components) than they actually experienced. Additionally, forecasted (compared to experienced) components of regret uniquely predicted well-being outcomes, suggesting that predicting more affective regret coincides with lower well-being. In Study 2, forecasting errors in overall regret were eliminated by asking participants to focus on cognitive elements of regret prior to forecasting.
Keywords: Regret Affective forecasting Emotion Well-being Motivation
Abstract: Research suggests that when predicting our future emotions, affective forecasting errors are frequent (Wilson and Gilbert in Adv Exp Soc Psychol 35:345–411, 2003), influence motivation (Wilson and Gilbert in Curr Dir Psychol Sci 14:131–134, 2005), and drive decisions and behaviors (Dunn and Laham Affective forecasting: a user’s guide to emotional time travel, Psychology Press, London, 2006). Regret can fall prey to these same errors (Gilbert et al., in Psychol Sci 15:346–350, 2004). Recent research characterizes two distinct components of regret: an affective element and cognitive element associated with maladaptive and functional outcomes, respectively (Buchanan et al., in Judgment and Decision Making 11:275–286, 2006). We explored forecasting of these elements across two studies. In Study 1, we investigated how accurately individuals forecast each component of regret, and how this relates to well-being. Participants forecasted experiencing a greater amount of regret (including affective and cognitive components) than they actually experienced. Additionally, forecasted (compared to experienced) components of regret uniquely predicted well-being outcomes, suggesting that predicting more affective regret coincides with lower well-being. In Study 2, forecasting errors in overall regret were eliminated by asking participants to focus on cognitive elements of regret prior to forecasting.
Keywords: Regret Affective forecasting Emotion Well-being Motivation
Romantic initiation strategies: Men to a greater degree than women would use direct approaches & women would use indirect ones (having a friend introduce them, waiting for the other to do something)
Men and women’s plans for romantic initiation strategies across four settings. Susan Sprecher, Stanislav Treger, Nicole Landa. Current Psychology, May 20 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-019-00298-7
Abstract: This study, with a sample (N = 735) of both university students and non-student adults, examined the various strategies that men and women believe they would use to initiate romantic contact with an attractive other in four different settings: social gathering, bar/nightclub, class/workplace, and Facebook. We found that men to a greater degree than women reported they would use direct approaches (e.g., initiate a conversation) and women to a greater degree than men reported they would use the indirect strategy of having a friend introduce them and the passive strategy of waiting for the other to do something. Men’s greater expectation of being direct in relationship initiation (relative to women) was found across the settings. Shyness was associated with the lower likelihood of expecting to be direct in initiation strategies, although the strength of the association was stronger for men than for women and depended on both the particular initiation strategy and the setting. The findings offer insights into the dynamics of relationship development and how plans for initiation strategies may differ for men and women, including the differential influence of shyness on romantic initiation for men and women.
Keywords: Relationship initiation strategies Relationship initiation Gender differences Shyness
Abstract: This study, with a sample (N = 735) of both university students and non-student adults, examined the various strategies that men and women believe they would use to initiate romantic contact with an attractive other in four different settings: social gathering, bar/nightclub, class/workplace, and Facebook. We found that men to a greater degree than women reported they would use direct approaches (e.g., initiate a conversation) and women to a greater degree than men reported they would use the indirect strategy of having a friend introduce them and the passive strategy of waiting for the other to do something. Men’s greater expectation of being direct in relationship initiation (relative to women) was found across the settings. Shyness was associated with the lower likelihood of expecting to be direct in initiation strategies, although the strength of the association was stronger for men than for women and depended on both the particular initiation strategy and the setting. The findings offer insights into the dynamics of relationship development and how plans for initiation strategies may differ for men and women, including the differential influence of shyness on romantic initiation for men and women.
Keywords: Relationship initiation strategies Relationship initiation Gender differences Shyness
Compared with their lower-class counterparts, higher-class individuals were more overconfident, which made them appear more competent & more likely to attain social rank
The social advantage of miscalibrated individuals: The relationship between social class and overconfidence and its implications for class-based inequality. Belmi, Peter,Neale, Margaret A.,Reiff, David,Ulfe, Rosemary. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, May 20, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000187
Understanding how socioeconomic inequalities perpetuate is a central concern among social and organizational psychologists. Drawing on a collection of findings suggesting that different social class contexts have powerful effects on people’s sense of self, we propose that social class shapes the beliefs that people hold about their abilities, and that this, in turn, has important implications for how status hierarchies perpetuate. We first hypothesize that compared with individuals with relatively low social class, individuals with relatively high social class are more overconfident. Then, drawing on research suggesting that overconfidence can confer social advantages, we further hypothesize that the overconfidence of higher class individuals can help perpetuate the existing class hierarchy: It can provide them a path to social advantage by making them appear more competent in the eyes of others. We test these ideas in four large studies with a combined sample of 152,661 individuals. Study 1, a large field study featuring small-business owners from Mexico, found evidence that individuals with relatively high social class are more overconfident compared with their lower-class counterparts. Study 2, a multiwave study in the United States, replicated this result and further shed light on the underlying mechanism: Individuals with relatively high (vs. low) social class tend to be more overconfident because they have a stronger desire to achieve high social rank. Study 3 replicated these findings in a high-powered, preregistered study and found that individuals with relatively high social class were more overconfident, even in a task in which they had no performance advantages. Study 4, a multiphase study that featured a mock job interview in the laboratory, found that compared with their lower-class counterparts, higher-class individuals were more overconfident; overconfidence, in turn, made them appear more competent and more likely to attain social rank.
Understanding how socioeconomic inequalities perpetuate is a central concern among social and organizational psychologists. Drawing on a collection of findings suggesting that different social class contexts have powerful effects on people’s sense of self, we propose that social class shapes the beliefs that people hold about their abilities, and that this, in turn, has important implications for how status hierarchies perpetuate. We first hypothesize that compared with individuals with relatively low social class, individuals with relatively high social class are more overconfident. Then, drawing on research suggesting that overconfidence can confer social advantages, we further hypothesize that the overconfidence of higher class individuals can help perpetuate the existing class hierarchy: It can provide them a path to social advantage by making them appear more competent in the eyes of others. We test these ideas in four large studies with a combined sample of 152,661 individuals. Study 1, a large field study featuring small-business owners from Mexico, found evidence that individuals with relatively high social class are more overconfident compared with their lower-class counterparts. Study 2, a multiwave study in the United States, replicated this result and further shed light on the underlying mechanism: Individuals with relatively high (vs. low) social class tend to be more overconfident because they have a stronger desire to achieve high social rank. Study 3 replicated these findings in a high-powered, preregistered study and found that individuals with relatively high social class were more overconfident, even in a task in which they had no performance advantages. Study 4, a multiphase study that featured a mock job interview in the laboratory, found that compared with their lower-class counterparts, higher-class individuals were more overconfident; overconfidence, in turn, made them appear more competent and more likely to attain social rank.
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