Politically Motivated Causal Evaluations of Economic Performance: Despite being shown identical data, participants differed in their judgments of the graphs along party lines

Politically Motivated Causal Evaluations of Economic Performance. Zachary A. Caddick  Benjamin M. Rottman. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh. http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/rottman/pubs/38/2019CaddickRottmanCogSci.pdf

Abstract: The current study seeks to extend research on motivated reasoning by examining how prior beliefs influence the interpretation of objective graphs displaying quantitative information. The day before the 2018 midterm election, conservatives and liberals made judgments about four economic indicators displaying real-world data of the US economy. Half of the participants were placed in an 'alien cover story' condition where prior beliefs were reduced under the guise of evaluating a fictional society. The other half of participants in the 'authentic condition' were aware they were being shown real-world data. Despite being shown identical data, participants in the Authentic condition differed in their judgments of the graphs along party lines. The participants in the Alien condition interpreted the data similarly, regardless of politics. There was no evidence of a „backfire‟ effect, and there was some evidence of belief updating when shown objective data.

Keywords: motivated reasoning; politics; biases; reasoning; decision-making

Introduction

Previous research has shown that individuals often reason differently about information depending on whether it is congruent with their prior beliefs. Individuals tend to more easily accept information that is congruent with prior beliefs and desires and discount information that is incongruent with prior beliefs and desires. This process is known as motivated reasoning. In the current research, we studied the influence of political attitudes on how people interpret time series graphs of the economy. This research is at the intersection of two fields: causal reasoning about time series data, and motivated reasoning.

Motivated Reasoning and Causal Reasoning: Similarities and Differences

The fields of motivated reasoning and causal reasoning have long been intimately connected in certain ways, yet also distant in other ways. The current research aims to advance both of these fields, and to advance research on the intersection of the two.

In one aspect, these two fields have studied similar questions about the role of prior beliefs and desires on the acceptance or rejection of new information. On the causal reasoning side, there has been considerable research into how people incorporate new information with prior causal beliefs (e.g., Alloy & Tabachnik, 1984). Furthermore, many of the particular topics that have been studied in the field of motivated reasoning have had to do with causal or at least predictive relations. For example, in a seminal work on motivated reasoning, Kunda (1987) found that people tend to believe that other people who have attributes similar to themselves are less likely to get divorced than people with dissimilar attributes. Note how in this study, the attribute is as a potential cause or predictor of the effect (divorce). Other research on motivated reasoning that is less directly related to causation still often studies acceptance of causalscientific explanations, for example, about global warming (Campbell & Kay, 2014).

On the other hand, there are also important differences between these fields. First, causal learning has traditionally been focused on the rational (Bayesian) updating of beliefs given new information, whereas motivated reasoning has focused on affective reasons for failing to update beliefs. A second difference, more relevant to the current research, is that most research on causal reasoning has focused on the inferential process - how a learner infers a cause-effect relationship from a set of data. In contrast, research on motivated reasoning does not involve inference. Instead, participants are typically presented with a fact or a set of facts, and the question is whether participants accept or reject the facts (e.g., Ranney & Clark, 2016).

One recent study on motivated reasoning has investigated inference from data, similar to causal reasoning research. Kahan, Peters, Dawson, and Slovic (2017) presented participants with quantitative information in 2x2 contingency tables about the number of cities that did or did not ban handguns in public and whether there was an increase or decrease in crime, and participants were asked to infer the relation between gun bans and crime. Despite being presented with quantitative data, participants were more likely to make correct inferences when the data supported their prior attitudes about guns. The current research is in a similar vein–it investigates the role of political attitudes on inferences about economic trends.

Persuasive Effects of Presidential Campaign Advertising: Effects are sometimes distinguishable from zero, but are always quite modest

Persuasive Effects of Presidential Campaign Advertising: Results of 53 Real-time Experiments in 2016. Alexander Coppock, Seth J. Hill and Lynn Vavreck. Prepared for presentation at the 2019 meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., August 23, 2019. https://alexandercoppock.com/papers/CHV_ads.pdf

Abstract: In this letter, we report the results of 53randomizedadvertising experiments conducted over 29 weeks on 34,000 people during the US 2016 Presidential election. Our treatments were drawn in real time from advertisements on air each week. The ads vary on many dimensions: election type (primary or general), tone (attack or promotional), sponsor (candidates or Super PACS), context (timing), and content (topics). We manipulate which ads respondents see, when they see them, whether they see more than one ad, which ad they see first, and whether they see competing, reinforcing, or no additional information. Owing to the large size of our study, the meta-analytic estimates of the average treatment effects on favorability and vote choice are sometimes distinguishable from zero, but are always quite modest, even accounting for variation across advertisements and contexts.

Check also Le Pennec, Caroline, and Vincent Pons. "Vote Choice Formation and the Minimal Effects of TV Debates: Evidence from 61 Elections in 9 OECD Countries." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-031, September 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/10/tv-debates-small-effect-in-voters.html

And Testing popular news discourse on the “echo chamber” effect: Does political polarisation occur among those relying on social media as their primary politics news source? Nguyen, A. and Vu, H.T. First Monday, 24 (5), 6. Jun 4 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/10/testing-popular-news-discourse-on-echo.html

And Right-Wing Populism, Social Media and Echo Chambers in Western Democracies. Shelley Boulianne, Karolina Koc-Michalska, Bruce Bimber. New Media & Society, presented, in review. Sep 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/10/echo-chambers-usa-overall-we-find-no.html

And Kalla, Joshua and Broockman, David E., The Minimal Persuasive Effects of Campaign Contact in General Elections: Evidence from 49 Field Experiments (September 25, 2017). Forthcoming, American Political Science Review; Stanford University Graduate School of Business Research Paper No. 17-65. American Political Science Review. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/11/the-best-estimate-of-effects-of.html

TV debates small effect in voters, evidence from 61 elections in 9 OECD countries: Changes in individual vote choices mostly result from changes in beliefs on competing candidates

Le Pennec, Caroline, and Vincent Pons. "Vote Choice Formation and the Minimal Effects of TV Debates: Evidence from 61 Elections in 9 OECD Countries." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-031, September 2019. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/vote-choice-formation-and-the-minimal-effects-of-tv-debates-evidence-from-61-elections-in-9-oecd-countries

Abstract: We use 200,000 observations from repeated survey data in 61 elections and 9 OECD countries since 1952 to study the formation of vote choices and policy preferences in the electoral season and assess how TV debates contribute to this process. We find that the share of voters who state a pre-election vote intention corresponding to their final vote choice increases by 15 percentage points in the two months preceding the election. Changes in individual vote choices mostly result from changes in beliefs on competing candidates, and they generate aggregate shifts in predicted vote shares. Instead, policy preferences remain remarkably stable over time. We use an event study to estimate the impact of TV debates, campaigns’ most salient events, and find that they do not significantly affect either individual vote choice and preference formation nor aggregate vote shares. This suggests that information continuously received by voters exerts more influence on their behavior.

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These results suggest that even if voters sometimes seem relatively uninformed, their vote choices actually aggregate a lot of information, beyond just debates, and that other sources are more impactful. A possible interpretation is that voters discard candidates’ debate statements because they rationally expect them to be more biased than information coming from nonpartisan sources, or that they only pay attention to statements aligned with their existing beliefs. But existing evidence shows that some forms of partisan communication do persuade voters. An alternative interpretation is that the particular medium through which debates are broadcasted is the issue: it is difficult for candidates to change people’s minds, and this does not happen on TV or the radio. This interpretation is consistent with the fact that campaign advertisements diffused through these channels fail to affect individual vote choices (Spenkuch and Toniatti, 2018), differently from more personalized contacts such as phone calls, door-to-door visits, or townhall meetings (e.g., Arceneaux, 2007; Fujiwara and Wantchekon, 2013; Pons, 2018).

[...]

Our results also have implications for the regulation of campaigns. Since the first presidential TV debate in the U.S., in 1960, there has been a continuous and ongoing effort to diffuse this innovation to countries which have not adopted it yet (see for instance the work done by the Commission on Presidential Debates or the National Democratic Institute), and to improve debates’ format and the fairness with which they treat all competitors, including third-party candidates, where they have become a tradition(e.g., McKinney and Carlin, 2004). Our results suggest that some of this energy may be better spent in studying and reforming campaign regulations to ensure that all campaigns have equal direct access to voters; and in monitoring the most personal and tailored forms of partisan communication, on the field and in social media, toimprovethequality of information available to voters and increase the chance that their final choice corresponds to their actual preferences. This may require granting administrative bodies responsible for organizing and supervising elections more resources, while better controlling those available to candidates.


Check also Testing popular news discourse on the “echo chamber” effect: Does political polarisation occur among those relying on social media as their primary politics news source? Nguyen, A. and Vu, H.T. First Monday, 24 (5), 6. Jun 4 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/10/testing-popular-news-discourse-on-echo.html

And Right-Wing Populism, Social Media and Echo Chambers in Western Democracies. Shelley Boulianne, Karolina Koc-Michalska, Bruce Bimber. New Media & Society, presented, in review. Sep 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/10/echo-chambers-usa-overall-we-find-no.html

Defining pleasant touch stimuli: Using a soft material and stroking at a velocity of 3 cm/s with light force is generally considered as particularly pleasant

Defining pleasant touch stimuli: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Pankaj Taneja et al. Psychological Research, October 19 2019. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00426-019-01253-8

Abstract: Pleasantness is generally overlooked when investigating tactile functions. Addition of a pleasant stimulus could allow for a more complete characterisation of somatosensory function. The aims of this review were to systematically assess the methodologies used to elicit a pleasant sensation, measured via psychophysical techniques, and to perform a meta-analysis to measure the effect of brush stroking velocity on touch pleasantness. Eighteen studies were included in the systematic review, with five studies included in the meta-analysis. The review found that factors such as texture, velocity, force, and the duration of continuous stroking influence tactile evoked pleasantness. Specifically, using a soft material and stroking at a velocity of 3 cm/s with light force is generally considered as particularly pleasant. The meta-analysis showed that a brush stroking velocity of 30 cm/s was rated as less pleasant than 3 cm/s, on the forearm. The present study collates the factors that are most likely to provide a stimulus to elicit a pleasant sensation. The results should be important for studies requiring a well-defined pleasant stimulus including neurosensory assessment protocols, allowing for a more complete multimodality assessment of somatosensory function.

From 2013... The Good-in-Bed Effect: College Students’ Tendency to See Themselves as Better Than Others as a Sex Partner

The Good-in-Bed Effect: College Students’ Tendency to See Themselves as Better Than Others as a Sex Partner. James K. Beggan, Jennifer A. Vencill & Sheila Garos. The Journal of Psychology, Interdisciplinary and Applied, Volume 147, 2013 - Issue 5, Pages 415-434, Jul 2013. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2012.707992

ABSTRACT: Self-enhancement refers to the finding that people tend to see themselves as better than others. The present research tested whether people display self-enhancement with regard to beliefs about their competency as sexual partners (the good-in-bed effect). Participants were asked to list good and bad sexually related behaviors more frequently performed by the self or by others. Study 1 demonstrated that people selectively associate themselves with good and others with bad sexual behaviors. In Study 2, independent raters judged bad behaviors associated with the self as less negative than bad behaviors associated with others. Study 3 replicated the good-in-bed effect and also found that when the salience of the comparison between good and bad traits is increased, men are more likely than women to demonstrate the effect. Implications of the results for relationship satisfaction are considered.

Keywords: gender, self-concept, self-enhancement, sex, sexual self, stereotypes

Childhood Maltreatment, Gender Nonconformity, and Adolescent Sexual Orientation: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study

Childhood Maltreatment, Gender Nonconformity, and Adolescent Sexual Orientation: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study. Yin Xu  Sam Norton  Qazi Rahman. Child Development, October 18 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13317

Abstract: This study tested whether associations between childhood maltreatment and adolescent sexual orientation were accounted for by childhood gender nonconforming behavior (GNCB) in a prospective birth cohort (N = 5,007). Childhood parental maltreatment (physical and emotional) and GNCB were assessed on multiple occasions up to age 6 years, and sexual orientation at 15.5 years. Boys with a history of maltreatment were significantly more likely to be nonheterosexual. Using propensity score weighting, maltreatment was associated with a 3.5% (p = .03) increase in the prevalence of nonheterosexuality accounting for confounders not including GNCB, and by 2.9% (p = .06) when also accounting for GNCB. These findings suggest that maltreatment is associated with an increased prevalence of nonheterosexuality in boys but may be explained by confounding factors including GNCB.

Lavender vote: Partnered lesbians and gay men are more likely than comparable heterosexuals to identify with the left, support leftist policy objectives, and vote for left‐of‐centre political parties

The European lavender vote: Sexuality, ideology and vote choice in Western Europe. Stuart J Turnbull. The European Journal of Political Research, October 18 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12366

Abstract: In many European democracies, political punditry has highlighted the attempts of political parties on the left to court the “lavender vote” of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. This article examines the presence of a gay vote in Western Europe with a focus on assessing the role of sexuality in shaping individuals’ political preferences and voting behaviour. Empirically, the effect of sexuality on both ideological identification as well as party vote choice is analysed. Using a cumulative dataset of eight rounds of the European Social Survey between 2002–2017, this article demonstrates that partnered lesbians and gay men are more likely than comparable heterosexuals to identify with the left, support leftist policy objectives, and vote for left‐of‐centre political parties. The analysis represents the first empirical cross‐national European study of the voting behaviour of homosexual individuals and sheds new light on the importance of sexuality as a predictor of political ideology and voting behaviour within the Western European context.

Testing popular news discourse on the “echo chamber” effect: Little evidence that political polarisation occurs among those relying on social media as their primary politics news source

Testing popular news discourse on the “echo chamber” effect: Does political polarisation occur among those relying on social media as their primary politics news source? Nguyen, A. and Vu, H.T. First Monday, 24 (5), 6. Jun 4 2019. http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/32048/

Abstract: Since 2016, online social networks (OSNs), especially their “big data” algorithm, have been intensively blamed in popular news discourse for acting as an echo chamber that entraps like-minded voters in closed ideological circles and engenders political polarisation, with serious damages to democratic processes. This study examines this “echo chamber” argument through the rather divisive case of EU politics among EU citizens. Based on an exploratory secondary analysis of the Eurobarometer 86.2 survey dataset, we investigate whether the reliance on OSNs as a primary EU politics news source can lead people to more polarisation in EU-related political beliefs and attitudes than such reliance on legacy media. We found little evidence of this polarisation, which lends credence to a rejection of the “echo chamber” argument.

Keywords: echo chamber; filter bubble; political polarisation; social news; news on social media; digital news consumption; EU politics; populism;

Check also Right-Wing Populism, Social Media and Echo Chambers in Western Democracies. Shelley Boulianne, Karolina Koc-Michalska, Bruce Bimber. New Media & Society, presented, in review. Sep 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/10/echo-chambers-usa-overall-we-find-no.html

Echo Chambers, USA: Overall, we find no evidence that online/social media explain support for right-wing populist candidates & parties; use of online media decreases support for right-wing populism

Right-Wing Populism, Social Media and Echo Chambers in Western Democracies. Shelley Boulianne, Karolina Koc-Michalska, Bruce Bimber. New Media & Society, presented, in review. Sep 2019. https://academic.macewan.ca/bouliannes/files/2019/09/NMS_FINAL_March2019all.pdf

Abstract: Many observers are concerned that echo chamber effects in digital media are contributing to the polarization of publics and in some places to the rise of right-wing populism. This study employs survey data collected in France, the United Kingdom, and United States (1500 respondents in each country) from April to May 2017. Overall, we do not find evidence that online/social media explain support for right-wing populist candidates and parties. Instead, in the USA, use of online media decreases support for right-wing populism. Looking specifically at echo chambers measures, we find offline discussion with those who are similar in race, ethnicity, and class positively correlates with support for populist candidates and parties in the UK and France. The findings challenge claims about the role of social media and the rise of populism.

Keywords: populism, social media, digital media, echo chambers, political discussion, selective exposure, cross-national

Older adults were less diverse in social interaction, but more diverse in activities in the afternoons, whereas younger adults reported less diverse activities partly due to working or studying more often

Weber, C., Quintus, M., Egloff, B., Luong, G., Riediger, M., & Wrzus, C. (2019). Same old, same old? Age differences in the diversity of daily life. Psychology and Aging, Oct 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pag0000407

Abstract: Some research suggests that compared with younger adults, older adults have more homogeneous, less diverse daily life experiences because everyday situations and activities become increasingly stable and routine. However, strong empirical tests of this assumption are scarce. In two complementary studies, we examined whether older age is associated with less diversity in daily life experiences (e.g., regarding social interaction partners, activities, and places across and within days) and, if so, to what extent health limitations account for these age differences. In Study 1, we used daily diaries to investigate diversity across days among younger (N = 246; Mage = 21.8 years, SD = 2.5) and older adults (N = 119; Mage = 67.7 years, SD = 5.3). In Study 2, we investigated diversity within days employing experience sampling methods over three weeks in an adult life span sample (N = 365; range = 14–88 years). Results showed that across and within days, the daily lives of older adults were less diverse regarding their social interaction partners. Yet, older adults reported more diversity in activities within days and across days in the afternoons, whereas younger adults reported less diverse activities partly due to working or studying more often. Age differences remained statistically significant when controlling for health limitations. We conclude that age differences in the diversity of daily life are nuanced, depending on the domain and the level of analysis.

Complexity in Assessing the Benefit vs Risk of Vaccines - Experience With Rotavirus and Dengue

Complexity in Assessing the Benefit vs Risk of Vaccines - Experience With Rotavirus and Dengue Virus Vaccines. H. Cody Meissner. JAMA. October 17, 2019. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.16206

The remarkable contribution of immunization programs to public health is recognized by most people, including those who express vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy often is predicated on the concern of an individual or family members regarding the risk of an adverse event following immunization. But for each licensed vaccine, the relative risk of an untoward event, such as contracting the disease, is greater among those who remain unvaccinated.1 Before US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensure, vaccine safety must be determined by demonstration that the benefit from disease prevention exceeds the risk of adverse reactions associated with the vaccine. However, this assessment is not always straightforward and the societal perspective of regulatory and advisory bodies may conflict with the individual perspective of the patient or parent. Experience with rotavirus vaccines and, more recently, the dengue virus vaccine provides insight into the complexity of this assessment.


Rotavirus Vaccine

Prior to licensure of the first oral rotavirus vaccine, rhesus-human rotavirus reassortant-tetravalent vaccine (RRV-TV), rotavirus gastroenteritis was associated with more than 50 000 hospitalizations annually and 20 to 60 deaths among children younger than 5 years in the United States. RRV-TV prevented 70% to 100% of severe infections and 48% to 68% of rotavirus diarrheal episodes.2 During prelicensure trials of RRV-TV, 5 cases of intussusception occurred among 10 054 vaccinated individuals and 1 case of intussusception occurred among 4633 unvaccinated control individuals, a difference that was not statistically significant.2 Considering the rate of intussusception among participants did not exceed the expected rate, the assessment was made by the FDA that an association between intussusception and vaccination was unlikely; nonetheless, intussusception was included as a potential adverse reaction in the package insert. RRV-TV was licensed and routine immunization was recommended by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in August 1998. Less than 1 year later, in July 1999, 15 cases of intussusception occurring after immunization had been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System.3 When these results became available, the ACIP and the AAP stopped the recommendation for vaccine use and the manufacturer of RRV-TV voluntarily withdrew the vaccine from the market, despite the large benefit in disease prevention from the vaccine.3
Today it is recognized that the rate of intussusception is approximately 35 cases per 100 000 children younger than 1 year, and the 2 currently available rotavirus vaccines are estimated to result in an additional 1 to 5 cases of intussusception per 100 000 children younger than 1 year (about one-tenth to one-half of the rate of 10 per 100 000 individuals following administration of RRV-TV).3 Current data suggest that approximately 40 to 120 infants in the United States develop intussusception annually after administration of currently available rotavirus vaccines.3 Because of this low association with intussusception and the ability to manage most intussusception cases with nonsurgical procedures, the overall benefit in reduction of disease burden from immunization is judged by the ACIP and the AAP to exceed the small risk.
Based on the intention to offer the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people, continued use of RRV-TV in 1999 would have been more appropriate than discontinuation of the recommendation for vaccine use. Removal of the vaccine from the market resulted in more rotavirus-related illness for a larger number of infants and their family members than would have occurred with continued use of the vaccine. The more than 5-year interval between discontinuation of RRV-TV in July 1999 and availability of a human-bovine reassortant rotavirus vaccine in February 2006 likely resulted in more than 250 000 hospitalizations and 100 deaths related to rotavirus that could have been avoided with continued use of RRV-TV (based on a calculation of 5 times the number of annual cases in the prevaccine era). The number of additional cases of intussusception following continued use of RRV-TV would have been small relative to the reduction in the disease.


Dengue Vaccine

Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a flavivirus that has spread to most tropical and many subtropical countries. The disease is caused by 4 serotypes transmitted mainly by the bite of a female Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquito. Although most dengue infections are asymptomatic, an estimated 100 million symptomatic infections occur annually resulting in 500 000 hospitalizations and 20 000 deaths worldwide, primarily in children.4 Dengue is endemic in certain territories of the United States including Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the US Virgin Islands. No specific therapy is available for management of dengue and disease prevention has been limited to vector control.
In May 2019 the FDA licensed the first dengue vaccine (chimeric yellow fever–dengue, tetravalent dengue vaccine [CYD-TDV]), offering an important advance in disease control. Prelicensure trials in the flavivirus-endemic Latin America, Puerto Rico, and Asia-Pacific region demonstrated a vaccine efficacy of approximately 76% against virologically confirmed symptomatic dengue cases and approximately 80% against hospitalization in vaccinated individuals aged 9 through 16 years who received 3 doses of the vaccine and were seropositive at the time of vaccination.4 Among participants seronegative for dengue, vaccine effectiveness was 38%.4 In contrast to these benefits, an increased rate of severe dengue beginning about 30 weeks after the first dose occurred among a small number of vaccinated persons who were seronegative at the time of vaccination. Immunization with CVD-TDV of an immunologically naïve person created a similar immune response to that of a seronegative person infected with a dengue virus. A second infection by a different strain is associated with a risk of immune enhancement, an incompletely understood immunopathologic response resulting in an increased risk of dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome.5 The rate of hospitalization due to dengue virus infection among children 9 through 16 years of age who were seronegative at time of vaccination was 1.09% among controls and 1.57% among vaccine recipients with a hazard ratio of 1.41 (95% CI 0.74-2.68.6 Based on these data, the Vaccines and Related Biologic Advisory Committee recommended licensing of CYD-TDV only for individuals in the well-studied age group (9-16 years) living in an endemic area with a laboratory documented history of dengue infection.
Prelicensure trials demonstrated that approximately 20% of participants aged 9 to 26 years living in dengue endemic areas were seronegative for dengue at baseline. Reliable identification of individuals seronegative for dengue is difficult in regions where multiple flaviviruses circulate because of cross-reacting antibodies and limited access to a reliable serologic assay. Therefore, a recommendation for routine use of CYD-TDY without screening will result in inadvertent vaccination of some seronegative people.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends prevaccination screening before vaccine administration. If prescreening is not feasible, WHO suggests consideration of routine use of CYD-TDV without prescreening in countries where seropositivity for dengue is greater than 80% by 9 years of age.5 One estimate of attributable risk for a cohort of 1 million people aged 9 through 16 years with greater than 80% rate of seropositivity for dengue over 5 years projected that 12 000 hospitalizations would be avoided but an additional 1000 hospitalizations would occur, primarily among individuals who were seronegative for dengue at the time of vaccination.6 Using this estimate, a recommendation for use of CVD-TDV in areas of high dengue seroprevalence where reliable serologic testing is not available could potentially benefit as many as 12 times more people than those who may experience dengue as a consequence of vaccination.
At what threshold does a large reduction in disease burden for society justify the small risk of an adverse reaction to an individual? Considerations by the FDA when licensing a candidate vaccine and by groups that issue vaccine recommendations include the prevalence and severity of the disease being prevented, the frequency and severity of an adverse reaction following immunization, and the effectiveness of the vaccine in disease prevention in the intended target population. But considerations may differ for individuals who are more concerned about an adverse reaction developing in themselves or their children and less concerned about societal benefits. They may be misinformed or unaware that remaining unvaccinated places their child at greater risk of disease than the risk of an adverse event following vaccination. Parents who choose not to immunize their children do not fulfill their parental obligation to protect children from disease. For instance, in California, because of increasing numbers of children who were incompletely vaccinated, legislation was enacted in 2016 to eliminate personal belief exemptions to vaccination. This legislation together with educational programs has been associated with a decline in the risk of a kindergarten student having contact with an inadequately vaccinated classmate from 10% in 2013 to 5% in 2017, enhancing the health of all students.7
Although risk of a rare vaccine reaction cannot be eliminated completely, well-established monitoring and compensation programs address this issue. Surveillance for safety of all licensed vaccines is monitored in a constant process. The United States uses several programs to monitor vaccine safety, including the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, the Vaccine Safety Datalink, the Post-licensure Rapid Immunization Safety Monitoring System, and the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment Project. Any untoward event reported after vaccination is assessed carefully for a causal relationship. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program ensures equitable and timely compensation to those who may be injured by a vaccine.8 Although these programs may not reassure all vaccine-hesitant individuals, greater awareness of these programs is important. Balancing the potential of current and future vaccines in regard to disease control (even disease elimination has been achieved globally for wild polio virus types 2 and 3) vs an untoward event is overwhelmingly favorable for individuals and society.

References and full text at the DOI above.

We investigated the possibility that “successful” psychopathic individuals exhibited greater development of neural structures that promote “successful” self-regulation; results support a compensatory model of psychopathy

An investigation of the relationship between psychopathy and greater gray matter density in lateral prefrontal cortex. Emily N. Lasko et al. Personality Neuroscience, Volume 2, 2019, e7, October 18 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/pen.2019.8, pre-print https://psyarxiv.com/j2pwy

Abstract: Psychopathic traits predispose individuals toward antisocial behavior. Such antagonistic acts often result in “unsuccessful” outcomes such as incarceration. What mechanisms allow some people with relatively high levels of psychopathic traits to live “successful”, unincarcerated lives, in spite of their antisocial tendencies? Using neuroimaging, we investigated the possibility that “successful” psychopathic individuals exhibited greater development of neural structures that promote “successful” self-regulation, focusing on the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). Across two structural magnetic resonance imaging studies of “successful” participants (Study 1: N = 80 individuals in long-term romantic relationships; Study 2: N = 64 undergraduates), we observed that gray matter density in the left and right VLPFC was positively associated with psychopathic traits. These preliminary results support a compensatory model of psychopathy, in which “successful” psychopathic individuals develop inhibitory mechanisms to compensate for their antisocial tendencies. Traditional models of psychopathy that emphasize deficits may be aided by such compensatory models that identify surfeits in neural and psychological processes.

It was widely believed that acute hunger would always undermine prosociality; these authors think it is not so

Acute hunger does not always undermine prosociality. Jan A. Häusser, Christina Stahlecker, Andreas Mojzisch, Johannes Leder, Paul A. M. Van Lange & Nadira S. Faber. Nature Communications volume 10, Article number: 4733 (2019), October 18 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12579-7

Abstract: It has been argued that, when they are acutely hungry, people act in self-protective ways by keeping resources to themselves rather than sharing them. In four studies, using experimental, quasi-experimental, and correlational designs (total N = 795), we examine the effects of acute hunger on prosociality in a wide variety of non-interdependent tasks (e.g. dictator game) and interdependent tasks (e.g. public goods games). While our procedures successfully increase subjective hunger and decrease blood glucose, we do not find significant effects of hunger on prosociality. This is true for both decisions incentivized with money and with food. Meta-analysis across all tasks reveals a very small effect of hunger on prosociality in non-interdependent tasks (d = 0.108), and a non-significant effect in interdependent tasks (d = −0.076). In study five (N = 197), we show that, in stark contrast to our empirical findings, people hold strong lay theories that hunger undermines prosociality.

Different conceptualizations of injustice/unfairness: Whereas Liberals are more likely to engage in protest when the equality and need rules are violated, Conservatives are more likely to protest when the merit rule is violated

What Is (Un)fair? Political Ideology and Collective Action. Gosia Mikołajczak, Julia C. Becker. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, Vol 7, No 2 (2019). https://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/1230

Abstract: The established models predicting collective action have been developed based on liberal ideas of injustice perceptions showing that progressive collective action occurs when people perceive that the equality or need rule of fairness are violated. We argue, however, that these perceptions of injustice cannot explain the occurrence of social protests among Conservatives. The present work addresses one shortcoming in collective action research by exploring the interactive role of political ideology and injustice appraisals in predicting social protest. Specifically, we focused on injustice appraisals as a key predictor of collective action and tested whether the same or different conceptualizations of injustice instigate protest among Liberals versus Conservatives using data from two studies conducted in Germany (Study 1, N = 130) and in the US (Study 2, N = 115). Our findings indicate that injustice appraisals play an equally important role in instigating social protest both among Liberals and Conservatives. As we show, however, predicting collective action among individuals across the political spectrum requires accounting for ideological preferences for different fairness rules. Whereas Liberals are more likely to engage in protest when the equality and need rules are violated, Conservatives are more likely to protest when the merit rule is violated. We recommend that studies on collective action consider not only the strength of injustice appraisals but also their content, to assess which fairness principles guide one’s perceptions of (in)justice.

Keywords: collective action; political ideology; protest behaviour; rules of fairness; social justice

Environmentalists were sought after as cooperation partners and elicited more cooperation from others, though they didn't behave more cooperatively

Pro-environmental behavior as a signal of cooperativeness: Evidence from a social dilemma experiment. Stepan Vesely, Christian A. Klöckner, Cameron Brick. Journal of Environmental Psychology, October 18 2019, 101362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101362

Highlights
•    One's environmental behavior influences how others see and behave towards the actor.
•    People who behave pro-environmentally are expected to be more cooperative.
•    People who behave pro-environmentally are preferred as interaction partners.
•    People who behave pro-environmentally elicit more cooperation from others.
•    Results were obtained in incentivized decision tasks.

Abstract: Pro-environmental behavior has social signaling value. Previous research suggests that enacting pro-environmental behaviors can signal certain personal characteristics, such as social status and trustworthiness, to others. Using an incentivized experiment, we show that people known to behave pro-environmentally are expected to be more cooperative, are preferred as cooperation partners, and elicit more cooperation from others. The presence of pro-environmental individuals may thus motivate others to exert more effort towards reaching cooperative goals, even in situations where individual and group goals are at odds (i.e., social dilemmas). However, people who behaved pro-environmentally were actually no more cooperative than those performing fewer pro-environmental behaviors.

Our findings suggest that the differences between conservatives and liberals in disgust sensitivity are context dependent rather than a stable personality difference

Is Disgust a “Conservative” Emotion? Julia Elad-Strenger*, Jutta Proch*, Thomas Kessler. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, October 16, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219880191

Abstract: Extant political–psychological research has identified stable, context-independent differences between conservatives and liberals in a wide range of preferences and psychological processes. One consistent finding is that conservatives show higher disgust sensitivity than liberals. This finding, however, is predominantly based on assessments of disgust to specific elicitors, which confound individuals’ sensitivity and propensity to the experience of disgust with the extent to which they find specific elicitors disgusting. Across five studies, we vary specific elicitors of disgust, showing that the relations between political orientation and disgust sensitivity depend on the specific set of elicitors used. We also show that disgust sensitivity is not associated with political orientation when measured with an elicitor-unspecific scale. Taken together, our findings suggest that the differences between conservatives and liberals in disgust sensitivity are context dependent rather than a stable personality difference. Broader theoretical implications are discussed.

Keywords disgust, conservatism, liberalism, social norms

European Social Survey (n = 235,339): Does Gender Equality Cause Gender Differences in Values? Inconclusive results

Does Gender Equality Cause Gender Differences in Values?: Reassessing the Gender-Equality-Personality Paradox. Fors Connolly, Filip; Goossen, Mikael; Hjerm, Mikael. Sex Roles, accepted. OCt 10 2019. http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1357927&dswid=9449

Abstract: The Gender-Equality-Personality Paradox (GEPP) is the finding that gender differences in personality are at their largest in the most gender equal countries. Previous known studies have not examined this relationship over time. Examining this linkage is crucial to our understanding of gender differences and personality development. In the present study, we contrast evolutionary perspectives predicting a gender divergence in personality due to progression in gender equality against biosocial perspectives predicting convergence. Using data from all eight rounds of the European Social Survey (n = 235,339) across 32 European countries, we report three findings. First, in accordance with the evolutionary perspective, country-level gender equality is positively associated with gender differences in basic human values. Second, in accordance with the biosocial perspective, we find evidence supporting gender convergence in basic human values. Third, contradicting both evolutionary and biosocial assumptions, we find no evidence that gender equality causes gender differences in values. We argue that there is a need to explore alternative explanations to the observed cross-sectional association between gender equality and personality differences, as well as gender convergence in personality over time.

Masturbation is associated with psychopathological and reproduction health conditions: an online survey among campus male students

Masturbation is associated with psychopathological and reproduction health conditions: an online survey among campus male students. Timei Jiao, Juelei Chen & Yubai Niu. Sexual and Relationship Therapy, Oct 16 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681994.2019.1677883

Abstract: In order to investigate the association between masturbation and psychopathological and reproduction relative conditions, an online survey was conducted among campus male students of Zhejiang University, which comprised of basic personal information, and questions for reproduction related health, masturbation frequency, and psychological well-being. Psychological status was evaluated with Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ). The psychological and reproduction health related parameters were compared among the groups divided according to masturbation frequency. Finally 143 students were included in analysis. Floating anxiety, somatic, and hysteric scores were significantly associated with masturbation, with higher scores in group with highest masturbation frequency; masturbation is significantly associated with fatigue, soreness and weakness of the lumbar region, memory decline, immunity decline, insomnia dreaminess and gradual increase of frequency of masturbation, and the rates of most of the reproduction related symptoms increased accompanying the increase of the masturbation frequency. MQH scores of obsession, phobic anxiety, and depression were not associated with masturbation. It was concluded that masturbation may adversely affect psychological health as well as reproductive well-being.

Keywords: Masturbation, psychological, reproductive health, depression, anxiety

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I find this doubful. Check from 2013... Macaques: Male masturbation may help maintain a high sexual arousal to decrease the length of the next mount & increase the probability of ejaculating through mating:

Effect of mating activity and dominance rank on male masturbation among free-ranging male rhesus macaques. Constance Dubuc, Sean P. Coyne, and Dario Maestripieri. Ethology. 2013 Nov 1; 119(11): 10.1111/eth.12146. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/10/from-2013-macaques-male-masturbation.html

From 2013... Macaques: Male masturbation may help maintain a high sexual arousal to decrease the length of the next mount & increase the probability of ejaculating through mating

From 2013... Effect of mating activity and dominance rank on male masturbation among free-ranging male rhesus macaques. Constance Dubuc, Sean P. Coyne, and Dario Maestripieri
Ethology. 2013 Nov 1; 119(11): 10.1111/eth.12146.

Abstract: The adaptive function of male masturbation is still poorly understood, despite its high prevalence in humans and other animals. In non-human primates, male masturbation is most frequent among anthropoid monkeys and apes living in multimale-multifemale groups with a promiscuous mating system. In these species, male masturbation may be a non-functional by-product of high sexual arousal or be adaptive by providing advantages in terms of sperm competition or by decreasing the risk of sexually transmitted infections. We investigated the possible functional significance of male masturbation using behavioral data collected on 21 free-ranging male rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) at the peak of the mating season. We found some evidence that masturbation is linked to low mating opportunities: regardless of rank, males were most likely to be observed masturbating on days in which they were not observed mating, and lower-ranking males mated less and tended to masturbate more frequently than higher-ranking males. These results echo the findings obtained for two other species of macaques, but contrast those obtained in red colobus monkeys (Procolobus badius) and Cape ground squirrels (Xerus inauris). Interestingly, however, male masturbation events ended with ejaculation in only 15% of the observed masturbation time, suggesting that new hypotheses are needed to explain masturbation in this species. More studies are needed to establish whether male masturbation is adaptive and whether it serves similar or different functions in different sexually promiscuous species.

Keywords: Masturbation, auto-erotism, male-male competition, sexually-transmitted disease, sexual arousal, mating success, dominance rank, rhesus macaques

INTRODUCTION

Masturbation, or self-manipulation of the genitalia, is part of the natural behavioral repertoire of many animal species (reviewed in Bagemihl 1999; Thomsen et al. 2003; Dixson 2012), including humans (Laqueur 2003; Dixson 2012), but whether this behavior has an adaptive function is still poorly understood. Although comparative behavioral data on masturbation could help us understand the adaptive function and evolution of this behavior, very few data are available to date.

Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the function of male masturbation (reviewed by Waterman 2010; see also Dixson 2012). The “sexual-outlet” hypothesis proposes that masturbation is a non-adaptive by-product of sexual arousal and serves as an alternative outlet to copulation (Kinsey et al. 1948; Dixson & Anderson 2004; Dixon 2012). This by-product hypothesis implies that males do not gain any fitness benefits, in terms of their health or survival, or increased mating or reproductive success, from masturbation. Second, the “ejaculate-quality-improvement” hypothesis posits that masturbation is an adaptive behavior that serves to eliminate degraded gametes or avoid polyzoospermy in order to increase the overall ejaculate quality, thus increasing the probability of impregnation when males copulate with a fertile female (Zimmerman et al. 1965; Baker & Bellis 1993, 1995; Thomsen et al. 2003; Thomsen & Soltis 2004). While suggesting very different functions of masturbation, these two hypotheses both predict that masturbation should be more frequent among males that have little or no opportunity to mate, and/or occur in periods of infrequent mating (Thomsen et al. 2003; Thomsen & Soltis 2004; Dixson & Anderson 2004; Waterman 2010; Dixon 2012). In addition, the ejaculate-quality-improvement hypothesis predicts that males who have infrequent access to females but masturbate frequently should have higher sperm quality and higher probability of impregnation when compared to males who masturbate less frequently, other things being equal. Finally, according to the “STI-reduction” hypothesis, masturbation serves to cleanse the male reproductive tract to decrease the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (Waterman 2010). This hypothesis has been developed more recently to explain the behavioral pattern observed in the highly promiscuous Cape ground squirrels (Xerus inauris; Waterman 2010). Contrary to the two other hypotheses, the STI-reduction hypothesis predicts that male masturbation should be more prevalent in periods of high sexual activity, performed by males who mate successfully, and occur shortly after copulation (Waterman 2010). Moreover, it predicts that males who masturbate frequently in these circumstances should be less likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases than males who do not masturbate or do so less frequently, and should thus be in overall better health. It should be noted that all three hypotheses are based on the assumption that male masturbation typically leads to ejaculation.

Among nonhuman primates, the occurrence of male masturbation has been documented at the qualitative level for 30 species of Old World monkeys and apes, whereas it is rare or even absent in New World monkeys and prosimians (reviewed in Thomsen et al. 2003; Dixson 2012). Male masturbation is most frequent in anthropoid primates that live in multimale-multifemale groups (Thomsen et al. 2003) and have large testis volume relative to their body size (Dixson & Anderson 2004). While this observation has been interpreted as being suggestive that male masturbation is functionally linked to sperm competition (ejaculate-quality-improvement hypothesis; Thomsen et al. 2003), this observation is also consistent with the sexual-outlet hypothesis because in sexually promiscuous species “males possess neuroendocrine specializations for greater sexual arousal and performance” (Dixson & Anderson 2004, p. 366; see also Dixon 2012, p. 192). Such pattern could also be explained by the STI-hypothesis because sexually transmitted infections are more likely to spread in species with promiscuous mating system (Waterman 2010).

While no primate studies to date have directly investigated the potential fitness benefits of male masturbation, a handful of studies have investigated the functional hypotheses indirectly, by testing their predictions concerning the frequency of masturbation and its potential association with rank and mating activity within species. In free-ranging red colobus monkeys (Procolobus badius), masturbation was performed very rarely (5 instances in 8,950h of observation collected over 5 years) mainly by alpha males and specifically during intergroup encounters (i.e. when rivals are present) taking place when some females were sexually active, with no copulations reported for either resident or extra-group males (Starin 2004). Male masturbation was much more frequent in two macaques species, in which hundreds of instances were observed over less than 1000 hours of observation collected over 1–2 years (Nieuwenhuijsen et al. 1987; Thomsen & Soltis 2004). In free-ranging Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), masturbation is more frequent in males of lower mating success and those of lower dominance rank (Thomsen & Soltis 2004; see also Inoue, 2012). No such relation between dominance rank and masturbation frequency was revealed in captive group-living stump-tail macaques (M. arctoides; Nieuwenhuijsen et al. 1987). A closer investigation of the latter study’s data, however, revealed an opposite pattern of distribution of mating and masturbation rate between the alpha male (409 copulations vs. 30 masturbation bouts) and the beta male (30 copulations vs. 543 masturbation bouts), which suggests a relation between rank, mating, and masturbation similar to that reported in Japanese macaques (cf. Table 3 in Nieuwenhuijsen et al. 1987). Overall, the results obtained for macaques seem more consistent with the ejaculate-quality-improvement and sexual-outlet hypotheses than with the STI-reduction one.

In the present study, we examined whether and how access to fertile females influences masturbation rate in free-ranging male rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. Rhesus macaques are seasonal breeders and on Cayo Santiago that they live in unusually large troops (50–300 individuals). In this rhesus population, male mating and reproductive success are linked to dominance rank, although not strongly (e.g. Berard et al. 1994; Dubuc et al. 2011). High-ranking males form extended consortships with estrous females characterized by frequent copulations and ejaculations, while lower-ranking males mate less frequently and mainly through sneak copulations and short-term associations (e.g. Carpenter 1942; Altmann 1962; Chapais 1983; Berard et al. 1994; Higham et al. 2011). However, middle- and low-ranking males can still enjoy a relatively high reproductive success (e.g. Berard et al. 1994; Dubuc et al. 2011) because high-ranking males are generally unsuccessful at mate-guarding females over the entire course of their fertile phase (Dubuc et al. 2012), thus making it possible for other males to fertilize females through sneaky copulations and sperm competition (see also Bercovitch 1992). While male masturbation has long been known for this species (e.g. Carpenter 1942; Phoenix & Jenson 1973), little is known about the relationship between masturbation and mating activity. Work on captive rhesus macaques has shown that male masturbation takes place even without any sensory contact with females (e.g. Phoenix & Jenson 1973), is eliminated by castration (Phoenix & Jenson 1973; Slimp et al. 1978; Loy et al., 1984), but not by brain lesions that eliminate sexual interactions with females (Slimp et al. 1978).

Here, we explored the possible functional significance of male masturbation by investigating the correlation between masturbation frequency and male dominance rank, and investigating how mating activity influences masturbation behavior in two different ways, by testing (i) whether there is a correlation between masturbation rate and overall mating frequency, and (ii) whether or not males were more likely to masturbate on days in which they were seen mating. Based on previous findings obtained in macaques, we predicted that the pattern of male masturbations will be more consistent with the sexual-outlet and ejaculate-quality-improvement hypotheses than with the STI hypothesis. Specifically, we predicted that (1) low-ranking males and/or least successful males of a social group should be more likely to be observed masturbating, and (2) males should be more likely to masturbate on days in which they do not mate. In addition, we expected (3) masturbation to lead to ejaculation.

DISCUSSION

[...]

In our study, masturbation that did not lead to ejaculation took place in two main contexts (25% of all masturbation bouts each): (1) males manipulated their in penis only once in a period of time in which they emitted a large amount of self-directed behaviors; and (2) males stopped masturbating and started interacting with females in a sexual context, a third of which led to mating (Fig. 3). In the remaining cases, the male changed activity or simply stopped with no obvious change of activity. Based on these observations, we propose two hypotheses to explain male masturbation in rhesus macaques. Firstly, we propose that it may be a form of self-directed behavior emitted in context of intense anxiety (Maestripieri et al. 1992), which could or could not be created by a sexual context itself (‘masturbation-as-SDB’ hypothesis). Masturbation could be more frequent among low-ranked males if their position creates more emotional stress. Alternatively, male masturbation could be aimed at maintaining high level of sexual arousal for males in order to decrease the length of the next mount series and increase the probability of ejaculating through mating (‘sexual-arousal’ hypothesis). In rhesus macaques, mount series can last from 1 to 56 minutes, and long series are more likely to be interrupted by higher-ranking males (Manson 1996). This would be more frequent among non-dominant males that have a low access to females and mate mainly during short-term associations and sneak copulations.

An unequivocal rejection of the null hypothesis that male masturbation is a non-functional by-product of frustrated sexual arousal would require evidence that inter-individual variation in masturbation behavior is associated with variation in male health, emotional stress, ejaculate quality, and/or in fertilization success. While Inoue (2012) showed no correlation between masturbation rate and reproductive success, the fact that mating rate or dominance rank was not taken into account provides little insights about whether males masturbating produced more offspring than predicted based on their mating rate. Some insights into the function of masturbation could also be provided by comparing closely-related primate species that live in multi-male multi-female groups that differ in the extent to which the alpha male effectively monopolizes access to fertile females (and in turn, the intensity of sperm competition) or in their mating pattern (i.e. multiple-mounters vs. single-mounters). Comparing prevalence of male masturbation, the frequency at which it leads to ejaculation, and context in which it takes place within these species could shed some light on whether maintaining a steady supply of high-quality sperm through frequent masturbation is needed to take full advantage of rare opportunities for copulation that become available to individuals who are otherwise consistently prevented from copulating.

In the nations with the most abject poverty, we observed substantial (~30–40%) genetic influence on cognitive abilities; shared environmental influences were similar to those found in adolescents growing in affluent countries

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Cognitive Abilities in Extreme Poverty. Yoon-Mi Hur and Timothy Bates. Twin Research and Human Genetics, October 17 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2019.92

Abstract: To improve global human capital, an understanding of the interplay of endowment across the full range of socioeconomic status (SES) is needed. Relevant data, however, are absent in the nations with the most abject poverty (Tucker-Drob & Bates, 2016), where the lowest heritability and strong effects of SES are predicted. Here we report the first study of biopsychosocial gene–environment interaction in extreme poverty. In a sub-Saharan sample of early teenage twins (N = 3192), we observed substantial (~30–40%) genetic influence on cognitive abilities. Surprisingly, shared environmental influences were similar to those found in adolescents growing in Western affluent countries (25–28%). G × SES moderation was estimated at aˋ = .06 (p = .355). Family chaos did not moderate genetic effects but did moderate shared environment influence. Heritability of cognitive abilities in extreme poverty appears comparable to Western data. Reduced family chaos may be a modifiable factor promoting cognitive development.

From 2016... Participants were reminded of death (vs. control) and evaluated new, 20‐, or 100‐year‐old objects; death reminders resulted in greater valuation of older objects

From 2016... When existence is not futile: The influence of mortality salience on the longer‐is‐better effect. Simon McCabe, Melissa R. Spina, Jamie Arndt. British Journal of Social Psychology, April 4 2016. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12143

Abstract: This research examines how death reminders impact the valuation of objects of various ages. Building from the existence bias, the longer‐is‐better effect posits that which exists is good and that which has existed for longer is better. Integrating terror management theory, it was reasoned that mortality reminders fostering a motivation to at least symbolically transcend death would lead participants to evaluate older object more positively as they signal robustness of existence. Participants were reminded of death (vs. control) and evaluated new, 20‐, or 100‐year‐old objects. Results indicated death reminders resulted in greater valuation of older objects. Findings are discussed with implications for terror management theory, the longer‐is‐better effect, ageism, materialism, and consumer behaviour.

People’s tendency to deem bearers of bad news as unlikeable stems in part from their desire to make sense of chance processes; dislike is mitigated when messenger’s motives are benevolent

John, L. K., Blunden, H., & Liu, H. (2019). Shooting the messenger. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(4), 644-666. OCt 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000586

Abstract: Eleven experiments provide evidence that people have a tendency to “shoot the messenger,” deeming innocent bearers of bad news unlikeable. In a preregistered lab experiment, participants rated messengers who delivered bad news from a random drawing as relatively unlikeable (Study 1). A second set of studies points to the specificity of the effect: Study 2A shows that it is unique to the (innocent) messenger, and not mere bystanders. Study 2B shows that it is distinct from merely receiving information with which one disagrees. We suggest that people’s tendency to deem bearers of bad news as unlikeable stems in part from their desire to make sense of chance processes. Consistent with this account, receiving bad news activates the desire to sense-make (Study 3A), and in turn, activating this desire enhances the tendency to dislike bearers of bad news (Study 3B). Next, stemming from the idea that unexpected outcomes heighten the desire to sense-make, Study 4 shows that when bad news is unexpected, messenger dislike is pronounced. Finally, consistent with the notion that people fulfill the desire to sense-make by attributing agency to entities adjacent to chance events, messenger dislike is correlated with the erroneous belief that the messenger had malevolent motives (Studies 5A, 5B, and 5C). Studies 6A and 6B go further, manipulating messenger motives independently from news valence to suggest their causal role in our process account: the tendency to dislike bearers of bad news is mitigated when recipients are made aware of the benevolence of the messenger’s motives.

There is no indication for potential devastating effects of social media on school achievement; social media use and school grades are unrelated for adolescents

Are Social Media Ruining Our Lives? A Review of Meta-Analytic Evidence. Markus Appel, Caroline Marker, Timo Gnambs. Review of General Psychology, October 16, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1089268019880891

Abstract: A growing number of studies have examined the psychological corollaries of using social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter (often called social media). The interdisciplinary research area and conflicting evidence from primary studies complicate the assessment of current scholarly knowledge in this field of high public attention. We review meta-analytic evidence on three hotly debated topics regarding the effects of SNSs: well-being, academic achievement, and narcissism. Meta-analyses from different laboratories draw a rather equivocal picture. They show small associations in the r = .10 range between the intensity of SNS use and loneliness, self-esteem, life satisfaction, or self-reported depression, and somewhat stronger links to a thin body ideal and higher social capital. There is no indication for potential devastating effects of social media on school achievement; social media use and school grades are unrelated for adolescents. The meta-analyses revealed small to moderate associations between narcissism and SNS use. In sum, meta-analytic evidence is not in support of dramatic claims relating social media use to mischief.

Keywords social media, meta-analysis, narcissism, achievement, well-being

Enriched Environment Exposure Accelerates Rodent Driving Skills

Enriched Environment Exposure Accelerates Rodent Driving Skills. L.E.Crawford et al. Behavioural Brain Research, October 16 2019, 112309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2019.112309

Highlights

• Rats can learn the complex task of navigating a car to a desired goal area.
• Enriched environments enhance competency in a rodent driving task.
• Driving rats maintained an interest in the car through extinction.
• Tasks incorporating complex skill mastery are important for translational research.

ABSTRACT: Although rarely used, long-term behavioral training protocols provide opportunities to shape complex skills in rodent laboratory investigations that incorporate cognitive, motor, visuospatial and temporal functions to achieve desired goals. In the current study, following preliminary research establishing that rats could be taught to drive a rodent operated vehicle (ROV) in a forward direction, as well as steer in more complex navigational patterns, male rats housed in an enriched environment were exposed to the rodent driving regime. Compared to standard-housed rats, enriched-housed rats demonstrated more robust learning in driving performance and their interest in the ROV persisted through extinction trials. Dehydroepiandrosterone/corticosterone (DHEA/CORT) metabolite ratios in fecal samples increased in accordance with training in all animals, suggesting that driving training, regardless of housing group, enhanced markers of emotional resilience. These results confirm the importance of enriched environments in preparing animals to engage in complex behavioral tasks. Further, behavioral models that include trained motor skills enable researchers to assess subtle alterations in motivation and behavioral response patterns that are relevant for translational research related to neurodegenerative disease and psychiatric illness.

Public discourse is often caustic and conflict-filled; the present work sought to examine a potentially novel explanatory mechanism defined in philosophical literature: Moral Grandstanding

Grubbs JB, Warmke B, Tosi J, James AS, Campbell WK (2019) Moral grandstanding in public discourse: Status-seeking motives as a potential explanatory mechanism in predicting conflict. PLoS ONE 14(10): e0223749, October 16, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223749

Abstract: Public discourse is often caustic and conflict-filled. This trend seems to be particularly evident when the content of such discourse is around moral issues (broadly defined) and when the discourse occurs on social media. Several explanatory mechanisms for such conflict have been explored in recent psychological and social-science literatures. The present work sought to examine a potentially novel explanatory mechanism defined in philosophical literature: Moral Grandstanding. According to philosophical accounts, Moral Grandstanding is the use of moral talk to seek social status. For the present work, we conducted six studies, using two undergraduate samples (Study 1, N = 361; Study 2, N = 356); a sample matched to U.S. norms for age, gender, race, income, Census region (Study 3, N = 1,063); a YouGov sample matched to U.S. demographic norms (Study 4, N = 2,000); and a brief, one-month longitudinal study of Mechanical Turk workers in the U.S. (Study 5, Baseline N = 499, follow-up n = 296), and a large, one-week YouGov sample matched to U.S. demographic norms (Baseline N = 2,519, follow-up n = 1,776). Across studies, we found initial support for the validity of Moral Grandstanding as a construct. Specifically, moral grandstanding motivation was associated with status-seeking personality traits, as well as greater political and moral conflict in daily life.

Amateurs pay trainers $1000 to $10,000 to enter marathons with them; ‘like a little concierge service’

Want to Win That Race? Hire a Coach to Stay Alongside You and Carry Your Phone. Hilary Potkewitz. The Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2019. https://www.wsj.com/articles/these-coaches-do-everything-but-carry-clients-over-the-finish-line-11571148264

Amateurs pay trainers to enter marathons with them; ‘like a little concierge service’



Diane Reynolds had been racing for a few months when she won her first amateur cycling event, the Farm to Fork Fondo near upstate New York’s Finger Lakes in August. She left more than 500 riders in the dust, including all the men.
A little help

The win earned the 49-year-old novice a jersey decorated with polka-dot chickens, but it didn’t come cheap: She paid about $1,000 for former pro cyclist Hunter Allen to ride all 84 miles with her as a private coach.

Mr. Allen, 50, gave her real-time pointers on pacing, technical skills and race strategy. He also ran interference for her. “Early on, there were about 10 guys riding hard taking turns up front—I was one of them—and I knew we were going to break away from the peloton,” or main group of riders, he says. “I made sure Diane stayed with us, sheltered in the middle and conserved her energy as we widened the gap.”

Dr. Reynolds, an anesthesiologist in Knoxville, Tenn., ended up setting a record as the only female overall winner in 27 Farm to Fork Fondo events, according to organizers. “It wasn’t like I qualified for the Olympics, but I hit my personal goal and that was a great feeling,” she says.

While coaches have long attended amateur races to support their clients from the sidelines, more are joining them on the starting line as pacers-for-hire. Instead of competing outright, they agree to race alongside their client as an ally. That means registering, putting on a bib and finishing with an official time—often torpedoing their own race to help a client achieve a goal.

“I haven’t run a marathon for myself since 2010,” says New York-based running coach John Honerkamp, who is training for November’s New York City Marathon.

This will be his ninth year of shepherding celebrity clients through the finish line. Not that he’s complaining: In 2017, he helped supermodel Karlie Kloss cross the tape in 4 hours, 41 minutes and 49 seconds. In 2014 he paced tennis pro Caroline Wozniacki to a sterling time of 3:26.33. The last time he marathoned alone he finished in 2:44.22.

When he’s working a race, he’ll carry his client’s energy gels and cellphone, zip ahead to grab water or Gatorade, and block the wind to let them run in his draft. “I’m like a little concierge service,” Mr. Honerkamp says.

His fee starts at $5,000 and increases on a sliding scale based on time and effort involved. For a sub-three-hour finish, he charges about $10,000.

“I have to put a lot of work in to break three hours. I can’t just wing it,” the 44-year-old says. As a rule of thumb, he says he needs to train at a pace about 20 minutes faster than his client’s target. “The key is to be as relaxed as possible during the race so the person I’m pacing is comforted,” he says. “If I’m gasping for air, I can’t do that as well.”

Not all endurance sports take the same view of this bespoke training. Some see it as an unfair advantage to a few highly competitive amateurs who can afford it. Others are more blunt. “It’s cheating,” says Melissa Mantak, a triathlon coach in Denver. She was at a recent Ironman event in Boulder, Colo., coaching one of her athletes—from the sidelines, she says, where a coach belongs—when a nearby runner started to flag. The young woman’s pacer kept her in the race. “I could see him physically pushing her forward,” Ms. Mantak says. “I wish I’d taken a picture.”

The young woman finished second in her age group, nabbing a coveted entry to the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. Ms. Mantak’s client finished third and missed the cut. “It was very upsetting,” Ms. Mantak says.

Ironman and internationally sanctioned triathlons forbid racing as a team, among other rules. “The race is meant to be as much of an individual effort as possible,” says Jimmy Riccitello, Ironman head referee.

The rules don’t address coach-client racing specifically, he says, and violations are hard to prove. If a racer competing for herself sees a client struggling midrace and gives encouragement or helps with a flat bike tire, that’s probably OK, he says. But if someone’s sole purpose for racing is to help a client qualify for Kona? “That goes against the spirit of triathlon,” Mr. Riccitello says.

Cycling is often a team sport, and a coach-client pairing is just another team, says Farm to Fork Fondo director Tyler Wren. He says the rides often draw cycling clubs and people with coaches training for other events.

This year’s Finger Lakes course had several flat sections ideal for race training, says Mr. Allen, the coach. When crosswinds picked up, he organized their group of 10 riders into a diagonal line called an echelon, a strategy to conserve energy more common in elite cycling.

“Hunter was doing his coaching thing, telling everyone how to ride in the wind and showing how an echelon worked,” Ms. Reynolds says. “They were all pretty psyched.”

Most marathons, including New York, have official pacers who run designated finish times for racers wondering about their own pace. Hiring a private pacer is just an iteration of that, says Rich Harshbarger, CEO of Running USA.

Mr. Honerkamp is training harder than usual for this year’s New York Marathon because he’s pacing chef Daniel Humm, a longtime client on a mission to break three hours. The pair teamed up for the 2018 race, running most of the way with retired competitive marathon star and mutual friend Meb Keflezighi and finishing with a time of about 3:10. That disappointed Mr. Humm.

“I think we could have broken three hours last year, but we were having fun with Meb and joking around a bit,” says Mr. Humm, 43. “I told John, ‘That won’t happen this year.’ ”

Long-married couples recall their wedding day: the influence of collaboration and gender on autobiographical memory recall

Long-married couples recall their wedding day: the influence of collaboration and gender on autobiographical memory recall. Azriel Grysman et al. Memory, Oct 15 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2019.1673428

ABSTRACT: The current study examined the influence of collaboration, expertise, and communication on autobiographical memory, by considering gender differences in recall and how they may influence the products and processes of remembering when male-female couples recall events together. Thirty-nine long-married, male-female couples recalled their memories of their wedding day. In Session 1, they recalled it individually for an experimenter. One week later, in Session 2, they recalled the same event jointly as a collaborative pair. Women reported more details, especially episodic details, than men across both sessions. Notably, collaborative recall included many new details that neither spouse had recalled individually. Exploratory analyses suggest that women were less influenced by collaboration than were men: women’s communication behaviours influenced men’s recall, but the reverse was not found for men’s communication. Additionally, when couples’ individual recall was more similar in content, men were more likely to decrease their contribution to the collaborative session. We consider these findings in light of transactive memory theory, in which joint meta-memory and the distribution of expertise influence the processes and products of recall in the interdependent system of a couple who extensively share their autobiographical memories.

KEYWORDS: Autobiographical memory, memory collaboration, gender, transactive memory

In a cohort study of 82 232 participants, personality traits in adolescence—a time when dementia pathology is unlikely to be present—were a factor associated with incident dementia almost 5 decades later

Association Between High School Personality Phenotype and Dementia 54 Years Later in Results From a National US Sample. Benjamin P. Chapman et al. JAMA Psychiatry, October 16, 2019. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.3120.

Key Points
Question  Are maladaptive personality traits true risk factors for dementia or merely early expressions of underlying neuropathologic changes?

Findings  In a cohort study of 82 232 participants, personality traits in adolescence—a time when dementia pathology is unlikely to be present—were a factor associated with incident dementia almost 5 decades later in a national US cohort. Calm and mature adolescents were less likely to develop dementia, and this risk reduction was significantly more pronounced with higher socioeconomic status.

Meaning  This study’s findings suggest that maladaptive personality traits decades earlier may be independent risk factors for dementia by age 70 years.

Abstract
Importance  Personality phenotype has been associated with subsequent dementia in studies of older adults. However, neuropathologic changes often precede cognitive symptoms by many years and may affect personality itself. Therefore, it is unclear whether supposed dementia-prone personality profiles (high neuroticism and low conscientiousness) are true risk factors or merely reflections of preexisting disease.

Objectives  To examine whether personality during adolescence—a time when preclinical dementia pathology is unlikely to be present—confers risk of dementia in later life and to test whether associations could be accounted for by health factors in adolescence or differed across socioeconomic status (SES).

Design, Setting, and Participants  Cohort study in the United States. Participants were members of Project Talent, a national sample of high school students in 1960. Individuals were identified who received a dementia-associated International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) diagnosis code during any year between 2011 and 2013. The dates of our analysis were March 2018 to May 2019.

Exposures  Ten personality traits were measured by the 150-item Project Talent Personality Inventory. Socioeconomic status was measured by a composite based on parental educational level, income, occupation, and property ownership. Participants were also surveyed on demographic factors and height and weight.

Main Outcomes and Measures  Medicare records were collected, with dementia diagnoses in the period of 2011 to 2013 classified according to the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ICD-9–based algorithm. Cox proportional hazards regression models estimated the relative risk of dementia based on the 10 personality traits, testing interactions with SES and adjusting for demographic confounders.

Results  The sample of 82 232 participants was 50.1% female, with a mean (SD) age of 15.8 (1.7) years at baseline and 69.5 (1.2) years at follow-up. Lower risk of dementia was associated with higher levels of vigor (hazard ratio for 1 SD, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.90-0.97; P < .001). Calm and maturity showed protective associations with later dementia that increased with SES. At 1 SD of SES, calm showed a hazard ratio of 0.89 (95% CI, 0.84-0.95; P < .001 for the interaction) and maturity showed a hazard ratio of 0.90 (95% CI, 0.85-0.96; P = .001 for the interaction).

Conclusions and Relevance  This study’s findings suggest that the adolescent personality traits associated with later-life dementia are similar to those observed in studies of older persons. Moreover, the reduction in dementia risk associated with a calm and mature adolescent phenotype may be greater at higher levels of SES. Personality phenotype may be a true independent risk factor for dementia by age 70 years, preceding it by almost 5 decades and interacting with adolescent socioeconomic conditions.

Wild bonobos consume meat at higher rates than previously thought; the individual controlling the carcass frequently resisted sharing, and aggressive attempts to take the carcass were observed

New Observations of Meat Eating and Sharing in Wild Bonobos (Pan paniscus) at Iyema, Lomako Forest Reserve, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wakefield M.L. · Hickmott A.J. · Brand C.M. · Takaoka I.Y. · Meador L.M. · Waller M.T. · White F. Folia Primatol 2019;90:179–189. https://doi.org/10.1159/000496026

Abstract: Bonobos (Pan paniscus) consume a variety of vertebrates, although direct observations remain relatively rare compared to chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). We report the first direct observations of meat eating and sharing among bonobos at Iyema, Lomako Forest, Democratic Republic of Congo. We collected meat consumption data ad libitum from June to November 2017 over 176.5 observation hours and conducted monthly censuses to measure the abundance of potential prey species. We observed 3 occasions of duiker consumption and found indirect evidence of meat consumption twice (n = 5). We identified the prey species as Weyn’s duiker (Cephalophus weynsi) in all 4 cases that we saw the carcass. This species was the most abundant duiker species at Iyema, but other potential prey species were also available. Meat sharing was observed or inferred during all 3 observations. However, the individual controlling the carcass frequently resisted sharing, and aggressive attempts to take the carcass were observed. This report contributes to a growing body of data suggesting that wild bonobos consume meat at higher rates than previously thought, female control of carcasses is frequent but not exclusive, and meat sharing in bonobos is primarily passive but not without aggression.

Keywords: Behavioral diversityFaunivoryFood sharingPrey preferenceFemale control

Check also Faux-nobo: “Naked Bonobo” demolishes myth of sexy, egalitarian bonobos. Edward Clint. Oct 9, 2017. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/10/naked-bonobo-demolishes-myth-of-sexy.html

And Bonobos Prefer Individuals that Hinder Others over Those that Help. Christopher Krupenye, Brian Hare. Current Biology, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/01/whereas-humans-already-prefer-helpers.html

Studies in Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: The somewhat high frequency of “positive” results seems spurious and may reflect bias; caution is warranted in accepting rTMS as an established treatment

Amad A, Jardri R, Rousseau C, Larochelle Y, Ioannidis J, P, A, Naudet F: Excess Significance Bias in Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Literature for Neuropsychiatric Disorders. Psychother Psychosom 2019. https://doi.org/10.1159/000502805

Abstract
Introduction: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been widely tested and promoted for use in multiple neuropsychiatric conditions, but as for many other medical devices, some gaps may exist in the literature and the evidence base for the clinical efficacy of rTMS remains under debate.
Objective: We aimed to test for an excess number of statistically significant results in the literature on the therapeutic efficacy of rTMS across a wide range of meta-analyses and to characterize the power of studies included in these meta-analyses.
Methods: Based on power calculations, we computed the expected number of “positive” datasets for a medium effect size (standardized mean difference, SMD = 0.30) and compared it with the number of observed “positive” datasets. Sensitivity analyses considered small (SMD = 0.20), modest (SMD = 0.50), and large (SMD = 0.80) effect sizes.
Results: A total of 14 meta-analyses with 228 datasets (110 for neurological disorders and 118 for psychiatric disorders) were assessed. For SMD = 0.3, the number of observed “positive” studies (n = 94) was larger than expected (n = 35). We found evidence for an excess of significant findings overall (p < 0.0001) and in 8/14 meta-analyses. Evidence for an excess of significant findings was also observed for SMD = 0.5 for neurological disorders. Of the 228 datasets, 0 (0%), 0 (0%), 3 (1%), and 53 (23%) had a power >0.80, respectively, for SMDs of 0.30, 0.20, 0.50, and 0.80.
Conclusion: Most studies in the rTMS literature are underpowered. This results in fragmentation and waste of research efforts. The somewhat high frequency of “positive” results seems spurious and may reflect bias. Caution is warranted in accepting rTMS as an established treatment for neuropsychiatric conditions.

Keywords: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulationRandomized controlled trialMeta-analysisExcess significance

The intensity of polarization on Twitter varies greatly from one country to another

Context matters: political polarization on Twitter from a comparative perspective. Aleksandra Urman. Media, Culture & Society, October 15, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443719876541

Abstract: This article explores the issue of political polarization on social media. It shows that the intensity of polarization on Twitter varies greatly from one country to another. The analysis is performed using network-analytic audience duplication approach and is based on the data about the followers of the political parties’ Twitter accounts in 16 democratic countries. Based on the topology of the audience duplication graphs, the political Twitterspheres of the countries are classified as perfectly integrated, integrated, mixed, polarized and perfectly polarized. Explorative analysis shows that polarization is the highest in two-party systems with plurality electoral rules and the lowest in multi-party systems with proportional voting. The findings help explain the discrepancies in the results of previous studies into polarization on social media. The results of the study indicate that extrapolation of the findings from single-case studies on the topic is impossible in most cases, suggesting that more comparative studies on the matter are necessary to better understand the subject and get generalizable results.

Keywords audience duplication, comparative analysis, network analysis, political polarization, social media, Twitter

Beliefs About Human Intelligence in a Sample of Teachers and Non-teachers: There are conflicts between currently accepted intelligence theory and the subjects' beliefs

Warne, Russell T., and Jared Z. Burton. 2019. “Beliefs About Human Intelligence in a Sample of Teachers and Non-teachers.” PsyArXiv. July 17. doi:10.31234/osf.io/uctxp

Abstract: Research in educational psychology consistently finds a relationship between intelligence and academic performance. However, in recent decades, educational fields, including gifted education, have resisted intelligence research, and there are some experts who argue that intelligence tests should not be used in identifying giftedness. Hoping to better understand this resistance to intelligence research, we created a survey of beliefs about intelligence and administered it online to a sample of the general public and a sample of teachers. We found that there are conflicts between currently accepted intelligence theory and beliefs from the American public and teachers, which has important consequences on gifted education, educational policy and the effectiveness of interventions.

Empathic contagious pain and consolation in laboratory rodents: Rodents also have the ability to feel, recognize, understand and share the other’s distressing states, and allolick injuries and allogroom bodies

Empathic contagious pain and consolation in laboratory rodents: species and sex comparisons. Rui Du et al. bioRxiv, October 15, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1101/745299

Abstract: Laboratory rodents are gregarious in nature and have a feeling of empathy when witnessing a familiar conspecific in pain. The rodent observers express two levels of empathic responses: observational contagious pain (OCP) and consolation. Here we examined the sex and species difference of OCP and consolation in male and female mice and rats. We observed no species difference in both OCP and consolation, but significant species difference in general social (allo-mouth and/or allo-tail sniffing) and non-social (self-grooming) behaviors. For sex difference, male mouse observers showed more allolicking and allogrooming behaviors toward a familiar conspecific in pain during and longer time increase in pain sensitivity after the PDSI than female mouse observers. However, no sex difference was observed in rats. Our results highlighted an evolutionary view of empathy that social animals including rodents also have the ability to feel, recognize, understand and share the other’s distressing states.

Online Vigilance and Affective Well-being in Everyday Life: Thinking about smartphone-mediated social interactions (i.e., the salience dimension of online vigilance) was negatively related to affective well-being

Johannes, Niklas, Adrian Meier, Leonard Reinecke, Saara Ehlert, Dinda N. Setiawan, Nicole Walasek, Tobias Dienlin, et al. 2019. “The Relationship Between Online Vigilance and Affective Well-being in Everyday Life: Combining Smartphone Logging with Experience Sampling.” PsyArXiv. October 15. doi:10.31234/osf.io/t3wc2

Abstract: Through communication technology, users find themselves constantly connected to others to such an extent that they routinely develop a mindset of connectedness. This mindset has been defined as online vigilance. Although there is a large body of research on media use and well-being, the question of how online vigilance impacts well-being remains unanswered. In this preregistered study, we combine experience sampling and smartphone logging to address the relation of online vigilance and affective well-being in everyday life. Seventy-five Android users answered eight daily surveys over five days (N = 1615) whilst having their smartphone use logged. Thinking about smartphone-mediated social interactions (i.e., the salience dimension of online vigilance) was negatively related to affective well-being. However, it was far more important whether those thoughts were positive or negative. No other dimension of online vigilance was robustly related to affective well-being. Taken together, our results suggest that online vigilance does not pose a serious threat to affective well-being in everyday life.

The pay premium for high‐potential women: They don't report higher levels of pay satisfaction, suggesting that high‐potential women did not perceive their pay premium to be an inequitable advantage

The pay premium for high‐potential women: A constructive replication and refinement. George F. Dreher, Nancy M. Carter, Terry Dworkin. Personnel Psychology, September 10 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12357

Abstract> In this constructive replication, we revisit a provocative study by Leslie, Manchester, and Dahm (2017). They found that gender and being designated a high‐potential employee interacted in accounting for pay and that this resulted in a reversal in the commonly observed gender pay gap favoring men. Our primary aim was to examine important boundary conditions associated with their work by (a) conducting a study using a sample that would better generalize across industries and to individuals who aspire to reach senior management, (b) adding critical control variables to the statistical models used in the pay equation, and (c) by introducing a different conceptualization of the high‐potential construct. Also, to better understand the consequences of their study, we considered an additional dependent variable that addressed pay satisfaction. Even after making these model additions, the gender by high‐potential interaction term was significant—ruling out four plausible third‐variable explanations for the Leslie et al. finding. Moreover, these confirming results were observed using a sample that represented individuals employed in a wide range of industries, who had the educational backgrounds, career histories, and motivational states typically required of candidates competing for senior executive roles. Furthermore, high‐potential women did not report higher levels of pay satisfaction, suggesting that high‐potential women did not perceive their pay premium to be an inequitable advantage and that there may be limited positive return associated with using a pay premium to retain high‐potential talent.

Guppies: Brain size affects responsiveness in mating behavior to variation in predation pressure and sex‐ratio

Brain size affects responsiveness in mating behavior to variation in predation pressure and sex‐ratio. Alberto Corral‐López  Maksym Romensky  Alexander Kotrschal  Severine D. Buechel  Niclas Kolm. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, October 14 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13556

Abstract: Despite ongoing advances in sexual selection theory, the evolution of mating decisions remains enigmatic. Cognitive processes often require simultaneous processing of multiple sources of information from environmental and social cues. However, little experimental data exist on how cognitive ability affects such fitness‐associated aspects of behavior. Using advanced tracking techniques, we studied mating behaviors of guppies artificially selected for divergence in relative brain size, with known differences in cognitive ability, when predation threat and sex‐ratio was varied. In females, we found a general increase in copulation behavior in when the sex‐ratio was female biased, but only large‐brained females responded with greater willingness to copulate under a low predation threat. In males, we found that small‐brained individuals courted more intensively and displayed more aggressive behaviors than large‐brained individuals. However, there were no differences in female response to males with different brain size. These results provide further evidence of a role for female brain size in optimal decision‐making in a mating context. In addition, our results indicate that brain size may affect mating display skill in male guppies. We suggest that it is important to consider the association between brain size, cognitive ability and sexual behavior when studying how morphological and behavioral traits evolve in wild populations.

7 types of sugaring: Sugar prostitution, compensated dating, compensated companionship, sugar dating, sugar friendships, sugar friendships with benefits, & pragmatic love

“It’s Its Own Thing”: A Typology of Interpersonal Sugar Relationship Scripts. Maren T. Scull. Sociological Perspectives, September 16, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121419875115

Abstract: Although academics have focused on sugaring in various parts of the globe, sugar relationships in the United States have largely been ignored. The few studies that address these arrangements in the United States often frame them as a form of prostitution. Drawing from 48 in-depth interviews with women in the United States who have been in sugar relationships, I adopt a connected lives approach to explore the structure of these arrangements and to assess the extent to which they are a form of prostitution. Overall, I found that, although there is a dominant, subcultural relationship script that serves as a blueprint for sugar arrangements, they comprise their own unique relational package and take a variety of forms when enacted on an interpersonal level. Specifically, I identified seven types of sugar relationships, only one of which can be considered prostitution. These included sugar prostitution, compensated dating, compensated companionship, sugar dating, sugar friendships, sugar friendships with benefits, and pragmatic love.

Keywords script theory, prostitution, transactional sex, qualitative methods

Popular version: The 7 types of sugar daddy relationships. Sarah Erickson. Univ of Colorado at Denver, Oct 15 2019. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-10/uocd-t7t101219.php

Red-colored male sticklebacks carry more oxidative DNA damage in muscle, testis & sperm in the peak breeding season, but the females find them more attractive

Attractive male sticklebacks carry more oxidative DNA damage in the soma and germline. Sin‐Yeon Kim  Alberto Velando. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, October 14 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.13552

Abstract: Trade‐offs between the expression of sexual signals and the maintenance of somatic and germline tissues are expected when these depend upon the same resources. Despite the importance of sperm DNA integrity, its trade‐off with sexual signalling has rarely been explored. We experimentally tested the trade‐off between carotenoid‐based sexual colouration and oxidative DNA damage in skeletal muscle, testis and sperm by manipulating reproductive schedule (early vs. late onset of breeding) in male three‐spined sticklebacks. Oxidative DNA damage was measured as the amount of 8‐hydroxy‐2‐deoxy‐Guanosine in genomic DNA. Irrespective of the experimentally manipulated reproductive schedule, individuals investing more in red colouration showed higher levels of oxidative DNA damage in muscle, testis and sperm during the peak breeding season. Our results show that the expression of red colouration traded off against the level of oxidative DNA damage possibly due to the competing functions of carotenoids as colorants and antioxidants. Thus, female sticklebacks may risk fertility and viability of offspring by choosing redder, more deteriorated partners with decreased sperm DNA integrity. The evolution of sexual signal may be constrained by oxidative DNA damage in the soma and germline.

The Negative Intelligence–Religiosity Relation: New and Confirming Evidence

The Negative Intelligence–Religiosity Relation: New and Confirming Evidence. Miron Zuckerman at al. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, October 15, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219879122

Abstract: Zuckerman et al. (2013) conducted a meta-analysis of 63 studies that showed a negative intelligence–religiosity relation (IRR). As more studies have become available and because some of Zuckerman et al.’s (2013) conclusions have been challenged, we conducted a new meta-analysis with an updated data set of 83 studies. Confirming previous conclusions, the new analysis showed that the correlation between intelligence and religious beliefs in college and noncollege samples ranged from −.20 to −.23. There was no support for mediation of the IRR by education but there was support for partial mediation by analytic cognitive style. Thus, one possible interpretation for the IRR is that intelligent people are more likely to use analytic style (i.e., approach problems more rationally). An alternative (and less interesting) reason for the mediation is that tests of both intelligence and analytic style assess cognitive ability. Additional empirical and theoretical work is needed to resolve this issue.

Keywords intelligence, religiosity, meta-analysis, analytic thinking


Check also The Myth of the Stupid Believer: The Negative Religiousness–IQ Nexus is Not on General Intelligence (g) and is Likely a Product of the Relations Between IQ and Autism Spectrum. Edward Dutton et al. Journal of Religion and Health, Oct 5 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/10/the-myth-of-stupid-believer-negative.html

The size of the stereotype threat effect that can be experienced on tests of cognitive ability in operational (real-world) scenarios such as college admissions tests and employment testing may range from negligible to small

Shewach, O. R., Sackett, P. R., & Quint, S. (2019). Stereotype threat effects in settings with features likely versus unlikely in operational test settings: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, OCt 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000420

Abstract: The stereotype threat literature primarily comprises lab studies, many of which involve features that would not be present in high-stakes testing settings. We meta-analyze the effect of stereotype threat on cognitive ability tests, focusing on both laboratory and operational studies with features likely to be present in high stakes settings. First, we examine the features of cognitive ability test metric, stereotype threat cue activation strength, and type of nonthreat control group, and conduct a focal analysis removing conditions that would not be present in high stakes settings. We also take into account a previously unrecognized methodological error in how data are analyzed in studies that control for scores on a prior cognitive ability test, which resulted in a biased estimate of stereotype threat. The focal sample, restricting the database to samples utilizing operational testing-relevant conditions, displayed a threat effect of d = −.14 (k = 45, N = 3,532, SDδ = .31). Second, we present a comprehensive meta-analysis of stereotype threat. Third, we examine a small subset of studies in operational test settings and studies utilizing motivational incentives, which yielded d-values ranging from .00 to −.14. Fourth, the meta-analytic database is subjected to tests of publication bias, finding nontrivial evidence for publication bias. Overall, results indicate that the size of the stereotype threat effect that can be experienced on tests of cognitive ability in operational scenarios such as college admissions tests and employment testing may range from negligible to small.