New Frontiers in Irritability Research—From Cradle to Grave and Bench to Bedside

New Frontiers in Irritability Research—From Cradle to Grave and Bench to Bedside. Neir Eshel, Ellen Leibenluft. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020;77(3):227-228, December 4, 2019. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.3686

We all know what it’s like to be irritable. Our partners walk on eggshells around us. The slightest trigger sets us off. If there’s a punching bag nearby, it had better watch out. Irritability, defined as a low threshold for experiencing frustration or anger, is common. In the right context, irritability can be adaptive, motivating us to overcome barriers or dominate our environment. When prolonged or disproportionate, however, irritability can be counterproductive, causing us to waste our energy on maladaptive behavior.

In recent years, there has been an increase in research on irritability in childhood, with an emerging literature on its neurobiology, genetics, and epidemiology.1 There is even a new diagnosis focused on this symptom, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD). However, there is a dearth of irritability research in adults. This is regrettable, because irritability is an important clinical symptom in multiple mental illnesses throughout the life span. From depression to posttraumatic stress disorder, dementia to premenstrual dysphoric disorder, traumatic brain injury to borderline personality disorder, irritability is associated with extensive burdens on individuals, their families, and the general public.

In this Viewpoint we suggest that studying the brain basis for irritability across development and disorder could have substantial clinical benefits. Furthermore, we propose that irritability, like addiction or anxiety, is an evolutionarily conserved focus ready for translational neuroscience.

Diagnosis and Treatment Across the Life Span

Despite its clinical toll, there are few evidence-based treatments for irritability. The only US Food and Drug Administration–approved medications for irritability are risperidone and aripiprazole, which are approved only in the context of autism and are associated with adverse effects that limit their utility. Stimulants, serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and variants of cognitive behavioral therapy and parent management training show promise for different populations, but overall there is a shortage of options, leading many health care professionals to try off-label drug cocktails with unclear efficacy. This situation results in part from our primitive understanding of the phenomenology and brain mechanisms of irritability throughout the life span.

An emerging body of work focuses on measuring irritability in children and adolescents, determining comorbid disorders, and tracking related functional impairment.¹ Multiple studies, for example, report that chronically irritable youth are at elevated risk for suicidality, depression, and anxiety in adulthood.^2,3 But what are the clinical characteristics and longitudinal course of irritability in adults? Irritability diminishes from toddlerhood through school age, but does it continue to decrease monotonically with age into adulthood? What about the end of life? Irritability and aggression are common in patients with neurodegenerative disorders, but are these symptoms similar to those in a child with DMDD? There has been limited systematic study of irritability in adulthood, and studies that mention irritability in adulthood operationalize the construct in different ways. One study counted 21 definitions and 11 measures of irritability in the psychiatric literature, all of which overlapped with anger and aggression.⁴ This lack of clarity diminishes our ability to identify biomarkers or track treatment success. Even studies that use childhood irritability to predict adult impairment do not typically measure irritability in adults, thereby obscuring the natural history of irritability as a symptom.⁵ For the field to progress, it will be crucial to establish standard definitions and measurements spanning childhood through adulthood.

Beyond phenomenology, we need to identify brain signatures associated with the emergence, recurrence, and remission of irritability across the life span and during treatment. Irritability is a prototypical transdiagnostic symptom, but it remains unclear to what extent its brain mechanisms overlap across disorders. For example, in children, data suggest that the brain mechanisms mediating irritability in DMDD, anxiety disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are similar but differ from those mediating irritability in childhood bipolar disorder.^1,6 The frequency of irritable outbursts appears to diminish in step with the maturity of prefrontal regions during childhood.¹ Could degeneration in the same structures predict reemergence of irritable outbursts in patients with dementia? Could developmental differences in these regions increase the likelihood of irritability when individuals are sleep deprived or intoxicated later in adolescence or adulthood? Only through fine-grained neuroscientific studies can we disentangle what is unique to the symptom (ie, irritability) and to the disorder (eg, bipolar disorder vs DMDD vs dementia), and develop treatments tailored to an individual’s brain pathology.

 

Translational Neuroscience and Irritability

In addition to their clinical relevance, neuroscientific studies of irritability can address fundamental questions about brain dysfunction and recovery. Over the past 2 decades, studies have revealed the circuits underlying reward processing, and in particular prediction error, the mismatch between expected and actual reward.⁷ The neuroscience of aggression has also advanced through the discovery of cells in the amygdala and hypothalamus that form a final common pathway for aggressive behavior.⁸ Irritability and the concept of frustrative nonreward can tie these 2 fields together.

Frustrative nonreward is the behavioral and emotional state that occurs in response to a negative prediction error, ie, the failure to receive an expected reward. In the classic study by Azrin et al,⁹ pigeons were trained to peck a key for food reward. After pigeons learned the task, the experimenters removed the reward; then when the pigeons pecked, nothing happened. For the next several minutes, there were 2 changes in the pigeons’ behavior. First, they pecked the key at a higher rate. Second, they became unusually aggressive, damaging the cage and attacking another pigeon nearby. In other words, a negative prediction error led to a state of frustration, which then induced increased motor activity and aggression. Such responses to frustration have been replicated in many species, including chimpanzees, cockerels, salmon, and human children and adults.¹⁰ Frustrative nonreward therefore provides an evolutionarily conserved behavioral association between prediction error and aggression. Apart from studies in children,^1,6 however, little has been done to probe the neural circuits of frustrative nonreward or of irritability, which can be defined as a low threshold for experiencing frustrative nonreward.

We know, for example, that negative prediction errors cause phasic decreases in dopamine neuron firing, which help mediate learning by reducing the valuation of a stimulus. Does this dip in dopamine level also increase the likelihood of aggression and if so how? The same optogenetic techniques that have demonstrated a causal role for dopamine prediction errors in reward learning could be used to test their role in aggressive behavior. Likewise, multiple nodes in the reward circuit encode the value of environmental stimuli. Could these values modulate the propensity for aggression? Environments of plenty, for instance, may protect against aggressive outbursts, because if there is always more reward available, the missing out factor may not be salient. Conversely, scarcity could make individuals more likely to be aggressive, because if there are few rewards to be had, achieving dominance may be necessary for survival.

Exploring the bidirectional associations between the reward processing and aggression circuits would help us understand state changes in the brain and how environmental context determines our behavior. At the same time, understanding these circuits will lay the groundwork for mechanism-based treatments for irritability.

 

Conclusions

The neuroscience of irritability is in its infancy and research has focused almost exclusively on children. We now have an opportunity to expand this field to adults, across disorders, and to animal models for more precise mechanistic studies. Through better measurement, careful experimental design, input from theorists and computational psychiatrists, and coordinated efforts across experts in multiple disorders, we can guide the field to maturity.

Reduction of Facebook use longitudinally increased life satisfaction, enhanced the level of physical activity, & reduced depressive symptoms and smoking behavior

Less Facebook use – More well-being and a healthier lifestyle? An experimental intervention study. Julia Brailovskaia et al. Computers in Human Behavior, March 6 2020, 106332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106332

Highlights
• Experimental reduction of Facebook use longitudinally increased life satisfaction.
• Reduction of Facebook use longitudinally enhanced the level of physical activity.
• Reduction of Facebook use longitudinally reduced depressive symptoms and smoking behavior.
• Less time spent on Facebook leads to more well-being and a healthier lifestyle.

Abstract: Use of the social platform Facebook belongs to daily life, but may impair subjective well-being. The present experimental study investigated the potential beneficial impact of reduction of daily Facebook use. Participants were Facebook users from Germany. While the experimental group (N = 140; Mage(SDage) = 24.15 (5.06)) reduced its Facebook use for 20 min daily for two weeks, the control group (N = 146; Mage(SDage) = 25.39 (6.69)) used Facebook as usual. Variables of Facebook use, life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, physical activity and smoking behavior were assessed via online surveys at five measurement time points (pre-measurement, day 0 = T1; between-measurement, day 7 = T2; post-measurement, day 15 = T3; follow-up 1, one month after post-measurement = T4; follow-up 2, three months after post-measurement = T5). The intervention reduced active and passive Facebook use, Facebook use intensity, and the level of Facebook Addiction Disorder. Life satisfaction significantly increased, and depressive symptoms significantly decreased. Moreover, frequency of physical activity such as jogging or cycling significantly increased, and number of daily smoked cigarettes decreased. Effects remained stable during follow-up (three months). Thus, less time spent on Facebook leads to more well-being and a healthier lifestyle.

Both women and men, after learning the worker’s gender, upwardly distorted & inflated their quantitative feedback and expressed more positive comments to women, but not men

Zayas, Vivian, and Lily Jampol. 2020. “Gendered White Lies: Women Are Given Inflated Performance Feedback Compared to Men.” PsyArXiv. March 5. doi:10.31234/osf.io/yq24b

Abstract: Are underperforming women given less truthful, but kinder performance feedback (“white lies”) compared to equally underperforming men? We test this hypothesis by using a “benchmark” of truthful (objective) evaluation of performance and then either manipulate (Study 1) or measure (Study 2) the extent to which the feedback given to women is upwardly distorted. In Study 1, participants were asked to guess the gender of an underperforming employee who had been given more or less truthful feedback. Participants overwhelmingly assumed that employees who had been told “white lies” were women. In Study 2, in a naturalistic feedback paradigm, participants first provided a quantitative evaluation of work in the absence of any gender information. After learning the worker’s gender, participants upwardly distorted their quantitative feedback and expressed more positive comments to women, but not men. The findings suggest that women may not receive the same quality of feedback as men.

Dramatic depictions of torture increase public support for the practice; the majority of popular films—including films aimed toward children—have at least one torture scene

Wait, There’s Torture in Zootopia? Examining the Prevalence of Torture in Popular Movies. Casey Delehanty and Erin M. Kearns. Perspectives on Politics, March 3 2020. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592719005012

Abstract: Roughly half of the U.S. public thinks that torture can be acceptable in counterterrorism. According to recent research, dramatic depictions of torture increase public support for the practice. Yet we do not know how frequently—and in what context—torture is depicted across popular media. What messages about the acceptability and effectiveness of torture do Americans receive when they watch popular films? To address this question, we coded each incident of torture in the twenty top-grossing films each year from 2008 to 2017 to analyze how torture is portrayed in terms of its frequency, efficacy, and social acceptability. Results show that the majority of popular films—including films aimed toward children—have at least one torture scene. Across films, the messages sent about torture are fairly consistent. As expected, movies tend to depict torture as effective. Further, how movies portray torture is also a function of who is perpetrating it. Specifically, protagonists are more likely to torture for instrumental reasons or in response to threats and are more likely to do so effectively. In contrast, antagonists are more likely to use torture as punishment and to torture women. The frequency and nature of torture’s depiction in popular films may help explain why many in the public support torture in counterterrorism.

Independently of sex and familiarity, rats reduce their usage of the preferred lever when it causes harm to a conspecific, displaying an individually varying degree of harm aversion

Harm to Others Acts as a Negative Reinforcer in Rats. Julen Hernandez-Lallement et al. Current Biology, March 5 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.017

Highlights
• Independently of sex and familiarity, rats avoid actions harming a conspecific
• Prior experience with footshocks increases harm aversion
• Rats show large individual variability in harm aversion
• Anterior cingulate cortex deactivation abolishes harm aversion

Summary: Empathy, the ability to share another individual’s emotional state and/or experience, has been suggested to be a source of prosocial motivation by attributing negative value to actions that harm others. The neural underpinnings and evolution of such harm aversion remain poorly understood. Here, we characterize an animal model of harm aversion in which a rat can choose between two levers providing equal amounts of food but one additionally delivering a footshock to a neighboring rat. We find that independently of sex and familiarity, rats reduce their usage of the preferred lever when it causes harm to a conspecific, displaying an individually varying degree of harm aversion. Prior experience with pain increases this effect. In additional experiments, we show that rats reduce the usage of the harm-inducing lever when it delivers twice, but not thrice, the number of pellets than the no-harm lever, setting boundaries on the magnitude of harm aversion. Finally, we show that pharmacological deactivation of the anterior cingulate cortex, a region we have shown to be essential for emotional contagion, reduces harm aversion while leaving behavioral flexibility unaffected. This model of harm aversion might help shed light onto the neural basis of psychiatric disorders characterized by reduced harm aversion, including psychopathy and conduct disorders with reduced empathy, and provides an assay for the development of pharmacological treatments of such disorders.

Keywords: altruismcostly helpingantisocialrodentother-regardingsocialvicariousmirror neuronsex differencepersonal distress

Intellectual humility, the admission that one’s beliefs may be fallible, robustly curbed affective polarization, the resentment over one's political opponents being jerks

Bowes, Shauna, Madeline C. Blanchard, Thomas H. Costello, Alan I. Abramowitz, and scott lilienfeld. 2020. “Intellectual Humility and Between-party Animus: Implications for Affective Polarization in Two Community Samples.” PsyArXiv. March 5. doi:10.31234/osf.io/qn25s

Abstract: The extent to which individual differences in personality traits and cognitive styles diminish affective polarization (AP) is largely unknown. We address this gap by examining how one poorly understood but recently researched individual difference variable, namely, intellectual humility (IH), may buffer against AP. We examined the associations between domain-general and domain-specific measures of IH, on the one hand, and AP, on the other, in two community samples. Measures of IH were robustly negatively associated with AP and political polarization. Moreover, IH significantly incremented measures of allied constructs, including general humility, in the statistical prediction of AP. There was little evidence to suggest that IH buffers the relationships between strong political belief and AP. Future research is needed to clarify whether and if IH is sufficient to protect against AP in the presence of ideological extremity.

Measures of intellectual humility were robustly negatively associated with affective & political polarization

Birth Order and Sibling Sex Ratio in Androphilic Males and Gynephilic Females Diagnosed With Gender Dysphoria from Iran

Khorashad BS, Zucker KJ, Talaei A. Birth Order and Sibling Sex Ratio in Androphilic Males and Gynephilic Females Diagnosed With Gender Dysphoria from Iran. J Sex Med 2020;XX:XXX–XXX. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2020.02.004

Abstract
Background: This study investigated the effect of older brothers on sexual orientation in male adults diagnosed with gender dysphoria and the effect of older sisters on sexual orientation in female adults diagnosed with gender dysphoria from Iran.

Aim: To assess for the presence of a fraternal birth order effect in transgender androphilic males and a sororal birth order effect in transgender gynephilic females.

Methods: The subjects were 92 transgender males and 107 transgender females (all of whom met the DSM-5 criteria for gender dysphoria), together with 72 male and 78 female clinical controls. All the transgender males were androphilic, all the transgender females were gynephilic (preferentially attracted to members of their own biological sex), and all of the clinical controls were heterosexual (none were transgender or had a diagnosis of gender dysphoria).

Outcomes: In relation to the probands, we analyzed the sibship composition of our groups with regard to birth order and sibling sex ratio (brothers to sisters).

Results: The results for the transgender males confirmed the findings of 2 recent meta-analyses that older brothers increase the odds of androphilia in later-born males. The results for the transgender females did not clearly confirm one previous finding that older sisters increase the odds of gynephilia in later-born females—a finding obtained in a relatively large study that included gynephilic cisgender girls as well as girls diagnosed with gender dysphoria who will probably be predominantly gynephilic.

Clinical Implications: The fraternal (later-born) birth order effect that we found for the transgender androphilic males, similar to that found in gay men, suggests a common underlying causal mechanism.

Strengths and Limitations: Our study on Iranian patients diagnosed with gender dysphoria provides further generalizability for the study of birth order and sibling sex ratio that has, more often than not, been restricted to Western samples of adults diagnosed with gender dysphoria. It would be important to study these variables in Iranian gay men and lesbian women (without gender dysphoria) to further examine evidence for cross-cultural similarities when compared to Western samples.

Conclusions: In contrast to the well-established fraternal birth order effect for males, the possible sororal birth order effect for females needs to be examined with additional samples.

Key Words: Male AndrophiliaHomosexualityTransgenderBirth OrderSexual OrientationGender DysphoriaFemale Gynephilia

Evaluating photos of applicants for a position of software developer gave highest competence to smiling faces, then to faces with a neutral expression, the worst rating was associated with a thinking pose

How to pose for a professional photo: The effect of three facial expressions on perception of competence of a software developer. Petra Filkuková  Magne Jørgensen. Australian Journal of Psychology, March 3 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12285

Abstract
Objective: Prospective employers can nowadays easily access applicants' photos via Internet, for instance on for instance on professional and social networks or previous employers' websites. In our study, we investigated whether a facial expression in a picture affects evaluation of one's competence for a position where facial qualities are not crucial, namely a position of a software developer.

Method: In Study 1, both “models” and participants were employed in IT companies. The experiment followed a 3 x 3 x 2 design, with facial expression (smile, neutral, and thinking) and evaluator's experience in hiring as between‐subjects factors and gender of the model as a within‐subjects factor.

Study 2 was a survey among software specialists where we investigated their awareness of the impact of applicants' face on the evaluation of his/her competence.

Results: When the models smiled, they were perceived as more competent than when they had a neutral expression. When models adopted a thinking pose, they were evaluated as the least competent. Fifty‐five percent of the sample was previously involved in hiring employees; the amount of hiring experience had no impact on this effect. Women were perceived as less competent than men and an interaction analysis revealed that this effect was driven by participants without prior experience in hiring. In Study 2, software specialists assigned a significant role in hiring decisions to the applicant's competent physical appearance, only 10% of participants thought that employers were hardly ever affected by the applicant's face.

Conclusion: Facial expression in a photo affects perceived competence of applicants for a position of a software developer regardless of evaluators prior hiring experience for this type of job.

What is already known about this topic:
Prospective employers are frequently exposed to applicants' pictures, as the majority of companies use social media for recruiting and/or screening job applicants.
People can make judgments on the basis of a photo after only 0.1‐second exposure and these correlate highly with judgments made in the absence of time constraints
Smile is the most studied facial expression. Smiling has been associated with submission, warmth and happiness, findings on the relationship between smiling and perceived intelligence are mixed.

What is new:
Software specialists evaluating photos of applicants for a position of a software developer ascribed highest competence to smiling faces, followed by faces with a neutral expression, the worst competence rating was associated with a thinking pose.
Female applicants were perceived as less competent than male applicants and this effect was driven by evaluators without prior experience in hiring.
Software specialists are aware that their hiring decisions are affected by applicants'facial attributes.

Mobile-based dating applications users were significantly different from non-users on rates of negative drinking behaviors, drug use, sexual compulsivity, sexual deception, stalking, consensual & non-consensual explicit photo /message sharing

Tinder Tales: An Exploratory Study of Online Dating Users and Their Most Interesting Stories
Ashley K. Fansher & Sara Eckinger. Deviant Behavior, Mar 4 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2020.1734170

ABSTRACT: The present study examines the differences between users and non-users of mobile-based dating applications, along with individual user experiences. To better understand the typical online dating application consumer, this research utilized quantitative analyses to compare traditional college-age users versus non-users on behavioral and attitudinal measures. Qualitative coding took place to analyze open-ended survey responses from participants regarding personal experiences. Those who use mobile-based dating applications were significantly different from non-users on all variables examined, including rates of negative drinking behaviors, drug use, sexual compulsivity, sexual deception, and negative sexual behaviors. The review of qualitative responses revealed users experiencing a wide range of negative behaviors including stalking, consensual and non-consensual explicit photo sharing, consensual and non-consensual message sharing, and deception. This article provides a framework for the identification of potential risks of using online dating applications and highlights prevention programming that will enhance the awareness of problematic online dating behaviors.

Quality parties: The marks of men's marginal class positions are written on their bodies, flagging an automatic reject at the door; intuitive calculations to get in include "How many beautiful girls can I get to offset how I look?"

Very Important People - Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit. Ashley Mears. Princeton University Press, May 2020. https://www.amazon.com/Very-Important-People-Status-Circuit-ebook/dp/B0824B49LS/

Comments by Tyler Cowen, Mar 2020. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/03/very-important-people.html:

Excerpts about "the Miami club where renting an ordinary table for the night costs 2k, with some spending up to 250k":

Any club, whether in a New York City basement or on a Saint-Tropez beach, is always shaped by a clear hierarchy. Fashion models signal the "A-list," but girls are only half of the business model. There are a few different categories of men that every club owner wants inside, and there is a much larger category of men they aim to keep out.

Bridge and tunnel, goons, and ghetto. These are men whose money can't compensate for their perceived status inadequacies. The marks of their marginal class positions are written on their bodies, flagging an automatic reject at the door.

A clever man can try to use models as leverage to gain entry and discounts at clubs. A man surrounded by models will not have to spend as much on bottles. I interviewed clients who talked explicitly about girls as bargaining chips they could use at the door.

The older, uglier men may have to pay 2k to rent a table for the evening, whereas "decent-looking guys with three or four models" will be let in for free with no required minimum. And:

Men familiar with the scene make these calculations even if they have money to spend: How many beautiful girls can I get to offset how I look? How many beautiful girls will it take to offset the men with me? How much money am I willing to spend for the night in the absence of quality girls?

Girls determine hierarchies of clubs, the quality of people inside, and how much money is spent.

I revisit a second critical insight of Veblen's on the role of women in communicating men's status.  In this world, girls function as a form of capital. Their beauty generates enormous symbolic and economic resources for the men in their presence, but that capital is worth far more to men than to the girls who embody it.

A Preindustrial Sea‐Level Rise Hotspot Along the Atlantic Coast of America: We found evidence in Nova Scotia, Maine, & Connecticut for rapid sea‐level rise in the 18th century, which was almost as rapid as the 20th century sea‐level rise

A Preindustrial Sea‐Level Rise Hotspot Along the Atlantic Coast of North America. W. R. Gehrels et al. Geophysical Research Letters, February 13 2020. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085814

Abstract: The Atlantic coast of North America north of Cape Hatteras has been proposed as a “hotspot” of late 20th century sea‐level rise. Here we test, using salt‐marsh proxy sea‐level records, if this coast experienced enhanced sea‐level rise over earlier multidecadal‐centennial periods. While we find in agreement with previous studies that 20th century rates of sea‐level change were higher compared to rates during preceding centuries, rates of 18th century sea‐level rise were only slightly lower, suggesting that the “hotspot” is a reoccurring feature for at least three centuries. Proxy sea‐level records from North America (Iceland) are negatively (positively) correlated with centennial changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation. They are consistent with sea‐level “fingerprints” of Arctic ice melt, and we therefore hypothesize that sea‐level fluctuations are related to changes in Arctic land‐ice mass. Predictions of future sea‐level rise should take into account these long‐term fluctuating rates of natural sea‐level change.

Plain Language Summary: Measurements of sea‐level change have shown that during the 20th century sea‐level rise along the Atlantic coast of North America between Cape Hatteras and Nova Scotia has been faster than the global average. We investigated whether this anomaly also occurred earlier by reconstructing historical sea‐level changes from salt‐marsh sediments and microscopic salt‐marsh fossils (foraminifera). We found evidence in three locations (Nova Scotia, Maine, and Connecticut) for rapid sea‐level rise in the 18th century, which was almost as rapid as the 20th century sea‐level rise. Using additional sea‐level reconstructions from across the North Atlantic, we propose an explanation for the periods of enhanced sea‐level rise. We hypothesize that they occur during distinct phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation and during periods of enhanced ice melt in the Arctic. The fluctuations are a reoccurring feature and should be considered in planning for future sea‐level rise and coastal hazards.

3 Historical Sea‐Level Changes

The resulting three sea‐level reconstructions, plus previously published records from New Jersey (Kemp et al., 2013) and North Carolina (Kemp et al., 2011), are shown in Figure 1. To place the records in a larger‐scale geographical context, a recent record from Viðarhólmi, Iceland, is also shown (Gehrels et al., 2006; Saher et al., 2015). The record from Nova Scotia (Chezzetcook) spans a full millennium and is arguably the best‐dated sea‐level reconstruction over this time interval from any coastline in the world (70 dated levels, Table S1). The Maine and Connecticut sea‐level records span the last ~300 and ~450 yr, respectively, and help to constrain the spatial and temporal extent of recent sea‐level signals observed in Nova Scotia. The most recent part of each record is compared to nearby tide‐gauge observations obtained from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) (Holgate et al., 2013) (Figures 1a and S7). In all cases, 20th century sea‐level trends from our proxy reconstructions agree with those from nearby tide‐gauge records in the common periods of overlap (Figure S8) demonstrating that the reconstructions accurately capture recent multidecadal‐to‐centennial sea‐level changes along these coastlines. We also compared the sea‐level reconstructions to sea‐level index points obtained from the base of the Holocene lithostratigraphic sections (Donnelly et al., 2004; Gehrels, 1999; Gehrels et al., 2005) to assess possible compaction in the sequences. If there were significant compaction in our records, we would expect the points from the basal sections, which are all located directly on a hard substrate, to plot higher than the reconstructions. However, they are in good agreement (Figure 1a), so we conclude that compaction has little impact on our sea‐level records. Partly due to spatially variable crustal motion rates controlled by GIA, the long‐term sea‐level trends differ between the sites (Piecuch et al., 2018). We adjusted the sea‐level records for GIA by removing the linear late Holocene trend for the common period between 4000 cal yr BP and 1900 CE (Engelhart & Horton, 2012), which in Nova Scotia is 1.7 mm/yr (Gehrels et al., 2005), in Maine is 0.7 mm/yr (Gehrels, 1999; Gehrels et al., 2002), and in Connecticut is 1.0 mm/yr (Donnelly et al., 2004). For the North Carolina sea‐level reconstruction, which is based on two nearby sites in Sand Point and Tump Point, we used GIA corrections of 1.0 and 0.9 mm/yr, respectively (Kemp et al., 2011). The New Jersey and Viðarhólmi records were corrected for a GIA contribution of 1.4 and 1 mm/yr, respectively (Gehrels et al., 2006; Kemp et al., 2013).
The rates of the GIA‐corrected sea‐level (GCSL) reconstructions from all sites are shown in Figure 2 and are marked by two distinct features. The first feature is the 19th to 20th century GCSL acceleration, which is visible in all five North American records as well as the record from Iceland, although their exact timing and amplitude may differ between sites. This feature is also present in other salt‐marsh‐based sea‐level reconstructions from the Atlantic coast of North America (Kopp et al., 2016). The second feature is a previously unreported, multidecadal‐centennial GCSL fluctuation along the North American Atlantic coast, with maximum rates of rise occurring in the middle‐to‐late 18th century, and lower or negative rates thereafter. The timing appears to differ slightly from record to record, most likely due to dating uncertainties. Based on the 1,000 Monte Carlo ensemble members at each site, we determine for five sites best estimates for the timing of maximum rates of change, over the period 1550 to 1850, as follows: 1735 (North Carolina), 1745 (New Jersey), 1752 (Maine), 1762 (Nova Scotia), and 1783 (Connecticut). Moreover, between 85% (Nova Scotia) and 98% (New Jersey) of ensemble members show greater‐than‐zero rates averaged over the 18th century. These numbers suggest significant, larger‐than‐usual (with respect to longer‐term GIA) rates of change peaking in the middle‐to‐late 18th century. The GCSL fluctuation is more pronounced in Maine and Connecticut, compared to Nova Scotia and North Carolina. In Connecticut, GCSL rates were close to zero before ~1700 and increased to values of ~2.4 ± 2.4 mm/yr (± indicates twice the standard error) towards the end of the 18th century. High preindustrial GCSL rates are similarly visible in the Maine record (~3.2 ± 3.2 mm/yr), although the record only starts in the mid‐18th century. The New Jersey record includes the late 18th century period of enhanced sea‐level rise but overall shows greater variability than all other records. In Nova Scotia and North Carolina, rates during this period were also enhanced compared to long‐term background rates of change, but they did not exceed values of ~0.5 ± 1.0 mm/yr. It is important to note that spatial variations in the amplitudes of multidecadal sea‐level variations along this coastline are also observed in tide‐gauge records over the 20th century (Sallenger et al., 2012). Interestingly, relatively high preindustrial GCSL rates are also seen in the Viðarhólmi data from Iceland. The records from North America and Iceland are out of phase: rates of change in Iceland are anomalously low around 1700 CE and high around 1800 CE, suggesting that peak rates of preindustrial GCSL rise occurred in North America ~60–80 yr earlier than in Iceland. Possible reasons for this are considered below.

[Figure 2 Sea‐level changes from proxy records along the North American Atlantic (blue) and Icelandic (red) coast. Shown are the nonlinear trends calculated by a Gaussian Process Regression including their 1 and 2 sigma uncertainties (dark and light blue/red bands, respectively) for the six salt‐marsh reconstructions corrected for site‐specific GIA effects. The black dotted line marks a rate of 0 mm/yr in each panel.]

While the high 18th century rates of sea‐level rise are a consistent feature in our records across sites, patterns become more complex in earlier periods. For example, the New Jersey and North Carolina records are very similar, but in North Carolina sea‐level variability was more muted prior to the 18th century (a finding that is robust against different choices of the Gaussian process priors). These differences between records might be explained by different driving mechanisms or could reflect issues with the salt‐marsh reconstructions (e.g., dating resolution or quality of transfer functions). These remain open questions.
The multidecadal to centennial sea‐level fluctuations found in our records are not seen in previously published reconstructions. There are several possible explanations for this. First, some of the recently published sea‐level records from the Atlantic coast of North America (Kemp et al., 2011, 2014) are from south of Cape Hatteras and outside of the main hotspot region of the MAB identified by Sallenger et al. (2012) from tide‐gauge records over the period 1950–2009. Second, the proxy records that are from that region, i.e. New York City (Kemp et al., 2017) and eastern Connecticut (Kemp et al., 2015), lack high‐resolution data in the 18th and 19th centuries; we suggest that more detailed investigations here could reveal the same sea‐level fluctuations.

5 Conclusions

We provide evidence, based on proxy sea‐level reconstructions derived from salt‐marsh sediments from the Atlantic coast of North America, for a preindustrial sea‐level rise “hotspot” during the 18th century. The rate of sea‐level rise during this period was only slightly smaller than during the latter half of the 20th‐century. Indeed, the region where the most pronounced sea‐level rise during this preindustrial period is recorded (Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras) is similar to the area where, during the last half century or so, tide‐gauge observations suggest a recent “hotspot” of accelerated sea level rise. We propose that the magnitude (~±5–10 cm) and duration (~50–100 yr) of this preindustrial sea‐level rise event along eastern North America, along with its out‐of‐phase relationship to sea‐level fluctuations in Iceland and coincidence with centennial variations in the NAO, favor an explanation in terms of mass changes of Arctic land ice, although we acknowledge that uncertainties are large and other processes (e.g., involving an ocean contribution) cannot be entirely excluded. Examination of sea‐level output from coupled climate‐model experiments, geometries (“fingerprints”) of sea‐level change resulting from land‐ice melt, and paleoclimate proxy records of Arctic temperature all support the hypothesis that centennial variations in the retreat and advance of Arctic glaciers render important contributions to the sea‐level long‐term variability seen in the salt‐marsh records. Our findings suggest that enhanced rates of sea‐level rise along eastern North America are not necessarily symptomatic of anthropogenic forcing, as was argued in past work (Sallenger et al., 2012), but might arise from other forcing mechanisms in the coupled climate system. Our results also suggest that these multidecadal‐centennial periods of low or high sea level might dampen or amplify any future sea‐level signal that is generated by greenhouse‐gas forcing, and should be taken into account in projections of future coastal vulnerability and risk.

Abstinence from Masturbation and Hypersexuality: Despite the lack of evidence for negative health effects of masturbation, abstinence is frequently recommended as a strategy to improve one’s sexual self-regulation

Abstinence from Masturbation and Hypersexuality. Felix Zimmer & Roland Imhoff. Archives of Sexual Behavior, Mar 4 2020. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-019-01623-8

Abstract: Despite the lack of evidence for negative health effects of masturbation, abstinence from masturbation is frequently recommended as a strategy to improve one’s sexual self-regulation. We adopted a framework of perceived problems with pornography to collect first hints about whether abstinence from masturbation stems from a psychological and behavioral “addiction” or conflicting attitudes. In an online questionnaire survey recruited via a non-thematic Reddit thread (n = 1063), most participants reported that they had tried to be abstinent from masturbation. As visible from zero-order correlations and multiple linear regression, motivation for abstinence was mostly associated with attitudinal correlates, specifically the perception of masturbation as unhealthy. While there were associations with hypersexuality, no significant correlation with behavioral markers such as maximum number of orgasms was found. Higher abstinence motivation was related to a higher perceived impact of masturbation, conservatism, and religiosity and to lower trust in science. We argue that research on abstinence from masturbation can enrich the understanding of whether and how average frequencies of healthy behavior are pathologized.

Discussion

This explorative study aimed to evaluate the associations of motivation for abstinence from masturbation. On the level of zero-order correlations and multiple linear regression, support for both hypothesized pathways, physiological and psychological dysregulation, and conflicting attitudes, was found. Yet, evidence for a pathway of conflicting attitudes was richer in quantity and quality.
For the pathway of physiological and psychological dysregulation, which can be conceptualized as a “masturbation addiction,” only the subscales of the HBI were associated with abstinence motivation. The HBI subscale Consequence as well as Dyscontrol showed positive associations to abstinence motivation, yet only Dyscontrol showed variance explanation within the regression model. Since abstinence from masturbation is an endeavor of controlling sexual behavior, the connection to feelings of dyscontrol regarding sexual activity is unsurprising. For the HBI subscale Coping, there was no zero-order correlation, but a significant negative relationship with the regression criterion was found. This implies that higher ratings on items such as “I use sex to forget about the worries of daily life” have been accompanied by less motivation to abstain. A possible explanation is that a functional role of masturbation, e.g., as a coping mechanism, for relaxation, etc., is a motivational counterpart to efforts to abstain. Other variables assigned to this pathway, the mean masturbation frequency before reduction, maximum number of orgasms, and onsets of masturbation and pornography consumption, showed no significant zero-order correlation or variance explanation in the regression. Descriptively, the all-time maximum number of orgasms was even lower in men with high abstinence motivation and vice versa, r(845) = − 0.11, p = .001 (without Bonferroni correction). Although it cannot be taken as a proof of the null, it speaks toward a low relevance of behavioral variables in the phenomenon of abstinence motivation.
The other pathway explains abstinence motivation by conflicting attitudes, specifically higher perceived impact, lower trust in science, higher conservatism, religiosity, and belief in a negative health impact. In zero-order correlations, all of these associations except for one subscale of perceived impact could be confirmed in the hypothesized direction. In the regression model, only social impact and perception of masturbation as unhealthy achieved significant variance explanation while exhibiting the largest predictor weights. Interestingly, the associations with the two facets of the perceived impact, health and social, pointed in different directions. Contrary to expectation, perceived impact of masturbation on health-related variables (e.g., cancer or acne) showed no zero-order correlation and even tended toward a negative predictor weight in the regression (β = − .07, p = .066). These results suggest that seeing a possibility to improve social life, rather than to avoid illnesses, might promote abstinence motivation. Summarizing the evidence from both pathways, abstinence motivation was mostly associated with attitudinal correlates, specifically the perception of masturbation as unhealthy.
Due to ongoing debates about pornography-induced sexual dysfunctions, we considered them as potential correlates of abstinence motivation. Of the five candidates, only men suffering from decreased genital sensitivity showed a higher abstinence motivation. Rather than viewing masturbation as problematic, one suggested line of interpretation is a reduced incentive to masturbate.

Limitations and Future Research

The main limitation of this study is the exploratory nature and the loose attachment to a theoretical framework. Specifically, the usage of the pathway model on another level of analysis, namely motivation for abstinence instead of the originally applied problem awareness, and post hoc assignment of the variables to the two paths, shall be discussed. To seamlessly transfer the model, one needs to assume an obvious theoretical step from problem awareness to abstinence motivation. Yet, there are other plausible pathways leading to abstinence motivation. For example, it can also be part of an effort to change sexual outlet toward more penile–vaginal intercourse. The interpretation of the association with decreased genital sensitivity also applied the possibility of abstinence motivation without the view of masturbation behavior as problematic. Therefore, it remains debatable whether the pathway model is suitable for abstinence motivation. Secondly, the assignment of the studied variables to the pathways of dysregulation and conflicting attitudes is not unambiguous for all variables. Take the HBI item “I do things sexually that are against my values and beliefs” for example. In this study, it was assigned to the pathway of dysregulation for its function as a marker of hypersexuality. However, it fits in perfectly with the pathway of attitudinal correlates, since an arbitrary amount of sexual activity, determined solely by moral standards, can justify a high score for the item.
The majority of participants of this study presumably were visitors or subscribers of the subreddit “r/everymanshouldknow.” Although limiting analyses to this subsample were performed in an attempt to reduce sampling bias (see Methods section), it remains questionable whether conclusions can be extrapolated to an intended population of male adults. On a theoretical note, sampling bias might be introduced by correlates of the apparent affinity toward a manliness theme such as more conservative sexual attitudes and behavior. Empirically, the average HBI sum score of 41.91 (SD = 15.16) showed a significant deviation from a previous “healthy” sample (M = 34.2, SD = 14.5, n = 147, Reid et al., 2011, t(1187) = 5.80, p < .001) indicating a relatively increased prevalence of hypersexuality within this sample. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that associations with masturbation abstinence differ in the general population. Another important limitation is the cross-sectional nature of the study and the associated limitations regarding causal inferences. For example, since the HBI is a self-administered tool and open to subjective interpretation (e.g., “My sexual behavior controls my life”), the causal direction of an association between an HBI score and abstinence motivation remains unclear. According to the pathway of conflicting attitudes, pathologization of average frequencies of behavior might also lead to notions of excessive behavior and high HBI scores.
The scope for study design improvements is particularly evident in the variables covered. Asking about current abstinence from masturbation and the view of one’s own masturbation as problematic should be included in future research. This would also facilitate comparison to existing research on Internet pornography. Furthermore, abstinence motivation might not be a criterion of preference. Within this study, 36.3% of the participants reported no motivation on a scale from 0 to 100, which due to the need for transformation can be considered a high limitation of variance. Assuming a normal distribution of the underlying construct, an item with higher difficulty, e.g., Do you consider reducing your frequency of masturbation?” may resolve this issue. 64.2% of participants in this study indicated that they have tried to be abstinent from masturbation at least once. Although we could not find a comparative figure, we regard it as unexpectedly high and possibly subject to scrutiny. Regarding sexual dysfunction, our questionnaire design prevented us from differentiating the indication of no sexual dysfunctions and otherwise missing values, e.g., lacking willingness of specification.
Although these limitations represent notable reservations, we would like to emphasize that the focus of this study is to encourage further efforts to design and eventually test hypotheses. It has already been demonstrated that inclusion of masturbation can be fruitful for understanding correlates of pornography consumption. For example, solo masturbation might actually explain the negative association of pornography viewing and relationship quality (Perry, 2019). Understanding the constituents of both abstinence from pornography and abstinence from masturbation might eventually be a basis for reducing pathologization of average and healthy frequencies of sexual behavior.

Gender and the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior: The largest associations were between mothers' and daughters' antisocial behavior

Gender and the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior. Stacy Tzoumakis et al. Journal of Criminal Justice, March 4 2020, 101670. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2020.101670

Highlights
•    We determined the extent of gender-specific intergenerational antisocial behavior.
•    Gender-specific associations were not larger than associations across-gender.
•    The largest associations were between mothers' and daughters' antisocial behavior.

1. Introduction

The link between parental and offspring offending has been well
established from some of the earliest longitudinal criminological studies
(Glueck & Glueck, 1950). The relationship has been particularly demonstrated
for fathers and their offspring (Hjalmarsson & Lindquist,
2012; Rowe & Farrington, 1997; Thornberry, 2009), in part because
many of the major cohort studies included only males. Moreover, because
the base rate of offending is lower for females, even fewer studies
have been able to reliably examine offending and antisocial behavior
between mothers and daughters. It is important to determine the nature
of the association for females, considering that there are gender differences
in the development of antisocial behavior and its associated
risk factors (Broidy et al., 2015; Herrera & Stuewig, 2017; Moffitt,
Caspi, Rutter, & Silva, 2001). There is also evidence that the needs and
profiles of females involved in delinquency and offending are different
to that of males and as a result, prevention and rehabilitation programs
should be gender-responsive (i.e., developed based on the unique needs
of girls) to be effective (Lanctôt, 2018; Matthews & Hubbard, 2008;
Wright, Van Voorhis, Salisbury, & Bauman, 2012). Most of the work on
the role of gender in prevention programs has focused on adolescence
or adulthood, ignoring the earlier developmental periods. One recent
study has shown that a childhood (under age 12 years) gender-specific
risk assessment tool is effective at predicting offending up to age
21 years (Koegl, Farrington, & Augimeri, 2019). In addition, a review of
50 systematic reviews on developmental prevention programs for individuals,
families, and schools concluded that these programs were
effective with varying effect sizes (Farrington, Gaffney, Lösel, & Ttofi,
2017). Considering that those individuals who have conduct problems
and difficulty regulating their behavior in childhood are more likely to
continue offending over the life course (DeLisi & Vaughn, 2014; Moffitt
et al., 2001), it would be important from a policy perspective to invest
in these early intervention programs. Little research has examined
whether females have different needs compared to males in childhood
and how this might influence the development of these early intervention
programs. This study will investigate the gender differences in
the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior across three
different developmental periods (i.e., early childhood, middle childhood,
and early adolescence), which could potentially be targeted for
the development of family preventative intervention programs.
Adopting a developmental criminology approach means that we
need to look at a wider range of antisocial behavior from the earliest
developmental periods to better understand the etiology of offending
(Loeber & Le Blanc, 1990; Moffitt, 1993). There is increasing research
suggesting that the risk of intergenerational transmission can be detected
as early as infancy and early childhood (Hay et al., 2011;
Laurens, Tzoumakis, Kariuki et al., 2017; Tremblay, 2010; Tzoumakis,
Lussier, & Corrado, 2014). In addition, there is some evidence that the
mechanisms underpinning the intergenerational transmission of externalizing
behavior might differ by gender during toddlerhood (Kim,
Capaldi, Pears, Kerr, & Owen, 2009). Understanding whether and how
the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior operates at
key developmental periods, and whether there are gender-specific
pathways in this transmission, can help to tailor prevention and intervention
efforts.
Little research has included a sufficient number of mothers and
daughters to examine the extent and magnitude of the transmission to
antisocial behavior across the life course. Importantly, much of the
research that has investigated the gender specificity of the intergenerational
transmission of offending has focused on convictions between
generations either in adulthood or on lifetime convictions.
Several studies have shown similar links between mothers' and
daughters' antisocial behavior. For instance, Giordano (2010) completed
a twenty-five-year follow-up of the high-risk girls who participated
in the Ohio Life-Course Study and found that many of the women
continued to be involved in antisocial behavior and their children often

Clear associations between lower-order personality facets & conspiracy beliefs emerged; humility was also a significant negative correlate; those beliefs were also associated with a range of personality disorder features & internalizing symptoms

Bowes, Shauna, Thomas H. Costello, Winkie Ma, and scott lilienfeld. 2020. “Looking Under the Tinfoil Hat: Clarifying the Personological and Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs.” PsyArXiv. March 4. doi:10.31234/osf.io/9pv38

Abstract
Objective: We sought to replicate and extend research on the personological correlates of conspiracy beliefs by examining their associations with abnormal- and normal-range personality domain-level traits and, for the first time, lower-order personality facets; we also examined internalizing symptoms.

Method: The study comprised four samples of community and student participants (Ntotal=1,927), and examined the cross-sectional relations between self-reported conspiratorial ideation and measures of (a) the six-factor model of general personality, (b) intellectual humility, (c) personality disorder traits (narcissism, psychopathy, disinhibition), and (d) internalizing symptoms (depression, anxiety, anger).

Results: Agreeableness and conscientiousness were significant negative correlates of conspiracy beliefs, although other general personality dimensions tended to manifest negligible associations. Significant associations between lower-order personality facets and conspiracy beliefs, not evident at the domain level, emerged. Indices of humility were also significant negative correlates. Conspiracy beliefs were also associated with a range of personality disorder features and internalizing symptoms.

Conclusions: Our results provisionally suggest that the nonclinical individual prone to conspiratorial ideation is likely to display distress, immodesty, impulsivity, and negative affect. Future research should investigate potential multiplicative relations among personological variables in predicting conspiracy beliefs.

True statistical inference is found outside of the great apes: Kea can integrate knowledge across different cognitive domains to flexibly adjust their predictions of sampling events

Kea show three signatures of domain-general statistical inference. Amalia P. M. Bastos & Alex H. Taylor. Nature Communications volume 11, March 3 2020, Article number: 828 (2020). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14695-1

Abstract: One key aspect of domain-general thought is the ability to integrate information across different cognitive domains. Here, we tested whether kea (Nestor notabilis) can use relative quantities when predicting sampling outcomes, and then integrate both physical information about the presence of a barrier, and social information about the biased sampling of an experimenter, into their predictions. Our results show that kea exhibit three signatures of statistical inference, and therefore can integrate knowledge across different cognitive domains to flexibly adjust their predictions of sampling events. This result provides evidence that true statistical inference is found outside of the great apes, and that aspects of domain-general thinking can convergently evolve in brains with a highly different structure from primates. This has important implications not only for our understanding of how intelligence evolves, but also for research focused on how to create artificial domain-general thought processes.

The parrots that understand probabilities, Nature Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj718A7_s4A

Perceptions of President Donald Trump’s Personality Disorder Traits: The relative strength of the traits associated with the disorders (sadistic, narcissistic, antisocial, & passive-aggressive) was highly similar between conservatives & liberals

Voter Perceptions of President Donald Trump’s Personality Disorder Traits: Implications of Political Affiliation. Jacob A. Fiala et al. Clinical Psychological Science, March 3, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702619885399

Abstract: The short form of the Coolidge Axis II Inventory (SCATI) was used to measure traits associated with 14 personality disorders (according to essential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria) in Donald Trump shortly after the fall 2016 election. Liberal or conservative participants (N = 219, mean age = 38.20 years, range = 18–79 years) were randomly assigned to view a positive or negative compilation of official campaign videos depicting Trump and then completed the SCATI. The general hypothesis was supported: Respondents’ political affiliation related with personality perceptions (although campaign video compilations did not). Despite differences in magnitude, the relative strength of the traits associated with the disorders was highly similar between conservatives and liberals (intraclass correlation coefficient = .76, p < .001). On the basis of overall rankings (independent of respondent’s party affiliation), Trump’s personality was collectively perceived to be at or above the 99th normative percentile for traits associated with four personality disorders (sadistic, narcissistic, antisocial, and passive-aggressive).

Keywords: personality, Trump, political psychology, narcissistic, sadistic

Beliefs about religious evil remain a strong and consistent predictor of attitudes about issues involving sexuality, including abortion, homosexuality, premarital sex, extramarital sex, and pornography use

The Flesh and The Devil: Belief in Religious Evil and Views of Sexual Morality. Joseph O. Baker, Andrea Molle & Christopher D. Bader. Review of Religious Research, March 3 2020. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13644-020-00403-4

Abstract: We examine an understudied connection between religion and sexuality: beliefs about the reality of supernatural evil (Satan, hell, and demons). After controlling for multiple other aspects of religiosity, beliefs about religious evil remain a strong and consistent predictor of attitudes about issues involving sexuality, including abortion, homosexuality, premarital sex, extramarital sex, and pornography use. Further, the effects of religious service attendance on attitudes about sexuality are contingent upon beliefs about religious evil. Moral condemnation of non-traditional sexuality is significantly higher among regular religious participants who believe strongly in religious evil compared to actively religious people who disbelieve in religious evil, as well as compared to people who do not attend religious services. Beliefs about religious evil are therefore central to understanding the empirical connections between religion and support for conservative, traditional views of sexual morality.

Female threespine sticklebacks: Consistent individual differences in neuroendocrine correlates of personality traints, and in activity, sociability and risk taking after an opportunity to mate

Personality traits change after an opportunity to mate. Chloe Monestier, Alison Bell. bioRxiv, March 03, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.02.973693

Abstract: There is growing evidence that personality traits can change throughout the life course in humans and nonhuman animals. However, the proximate and ultimate causes of personality trait change are largely unknown, especially in adults. In a controlled, longitudinal experiment, we tested whether a key life event for adults - mating - can cause personality traits to change in female threespine sticklebacks. We confirmed that there are consistent individual differences in activity, sociability and risk taking, and then compared these personality traits among three groups of females: 1) control females; 2) females that physically mated; 3) females that socially experienced courtship but did not mate. Both the physical experience of mating and the social experience of courtship caused females to become less willing to take risks and less social. To understand the proximate mechanisms underlying these changes, we measured levels of excreted steroids. Both the physical experience of mating and the social experience of courtship caused levels of dihydroxyprogesterone (17α,20β-P) to increase, and females with higher 17α,20β-P were less willing to take risks and less social. These results provide experimental evidence that personality traits and their underlying neuroendocrine correlates are influenced by formative social and life-history experiences well into adulthood.

Men reported higher levels of extradyadic behaviors and sexual desire, gave more importance to physical attractiveness, and perceived their current relationship as having less quality than women

Extradyadic Behaviors and Gender: How Do They Relate With Sexual Desire, Relationship Quality, and Attractiveness. Joana Arantes, Fátima Barros and Helena M. Oliveira. Front. Psychol., March 3 2020. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02554

Abstract: Recent years have seen an increasing number of studies on relationship extradyadic behaviors (Pinto and Arantes, 2016; Pazhoohi et al., 2017; Silva et al., 2017; Fisher, 2018). However, much is still to learn about the impact of these extradyadic behaviors on subsequent relationships that an individual may have. Our main goal was to study the association between past extradyadic behaviors – inflicted and suffered – and current relationship quality, sexual desire and attractiveness. Specifically, we aimed to: (i) Understand if past extradyadic behaviors are related to current relationship quality, sexual desire, and self-perceived and partner’s attractiveness; (ii) Identify possible gender differences in these variables. For that, 364 participants (251 females and 113 males) were recruited through personal and institutional e-mails, online social networks (e.g., Facebook), and the website of the Evolutionary Psychology Group from the University of Minho. All participants completed a demographic and relationship questionnaire, followed by questions related to extradyadic behaviors and self-perceived attractiveness, the Perceived Relationship Quality Components (PRQC) Inventory, the Sex Drive Scale (SDQ), and the Importance of Partner’s Physical Attractiveness Scale (IPPAS). For those currently involved in a relationship, results suggested that extradyadic behaviors (both suffered or inflicted) are linked with current low relationship quality and high sexual desire in the present. In addition, individuals who perceived themselves as being more attractive tended to have a higher sexual desire and higher relationship quality. Overall, men reported higher levels of extradyadic behaviors and sexual desire, gave more importance to physical attractiveness, and perceived their current relationship as having less quality than women. These results add to the literature by focusing on different variables that play an important role in romantic relationships, and have important implications.

Discussion

The primary goal of the present study was to examine the association between past extradyadic behaviors – both inflicted and suffered – on current romantic relationships. Results from our data showed that men have higher levels of extradyadic behaviors, higher levels of sexual desire, gave more importance to physical attractiveness and perceived their current relationship as having less quality compared to women. These results confirmed our first hypothesis. Findings are consistent with the existent literature (Ostovich and Sabini, 2004; Galperin and Haselton, 2010; Pinto and Arantes, 2016). For example, previous studies have showed that females tend to have fewer extradyadic behaviors (Pinto and Arantes, 2016). One possible explanation is that there are stereotypes and gender roles that have been internalized about women being good wifes (Bittman et al., 2003; Ellemers, 2018). Another possible explanation – based on an evolutionary perspective – is the greater maternal investment required for pregnancy and subsequent child care (Hill and Hill, 1990; Bjorklund and Shackelford, 1999). However, Wiederman and Hurd (1999) suggested that the differences in extradyadic behaviors obtained may be due to underreporting of extradyadic behaviors by women rather than real sex differences – due to the existent double sexual standard.

Those participants that have betrayed in the past are significantly more likely to perceive the quality of their current relationship as being lower and to have a higher sexual desire in the present. These results are consistent with our second hypothesis. Interestingly, Owen et al. (2013) found that both men and women who reported more thoughtful decision-making processes regarding their romantic relationship tended to report higher satisfaction with the relationship and fewer extradyadic behaviors.

Previous research has shown that individuals that have stronger sexual interest levels tended to have more extradyadic behaviors (Treas and Giesen, 2000). In addition, individuals who have betrayed in the past tend to report more unrestricted sociosexuality (Rodrigues et al., 2017). When we analyzed the association between having betrayed and the PRQC and SDR we found similar results. More specifically, individuals that had been betrayed by a partner tend to have higher sexual desire, and to perceive their romantic relationship has having lower quality. These results are consistent with our third hypothesis. These results may be explained due to the fact that those individuals that tend to betrayal also tend to be betrayed. These findings are consistent with Shaw et al. (2013) prospective study, that showed that partner’s extradyadic behaviors is a predictor of extradyadic relationships. More specifically, they found in a large, nationally representative sample of unmarried couples that factors such as lower relationship satisfaction, negative communication, and partner’s extradyadic behaviors (actual or suspected) were predictors of extradyadic sexual interaction. Research has shown that when men believe their partners are more likely to betray them, they feel more attracted to other women possibly to increase the likelihood of genetic transmission (Shaw et al., 2013).

Our data showed that there was no significant difference between those who had betrayed and had not betrayed regarding their self-perceived attractiveness. The same was true when we compared those who had been betrayed and had not been betrayed. These results are inconsistent with our second and third hypothesis. One possible explanation for these results is that because participants that have been betrayed are also more likely to have betrayed (Shaw et al., 2013), any possible differences were minimized.

Our results showed that, overall, those who perceive themselves as being more attractive tend to have a higher sexual desire and higher relationship quality. These confirm our fourth hypothesis. There are however, further gender differences. Specifically, women who perceived themselves as being relatively more attractive had a tendency to report a higher sexual desire than those who perceived themselves as being relatively less attractive. This result was not obtained for men. Previous research has shown that women who consider themselves physically attractive show a greater preference for masculinity and symmetry, suggesting that these women may attempt to maximize phenotypic quality in potential partners, whereas women of low mate value may maximize reproductive success by searching males most likely to invest (Little et al., 2001). Also, women (and not men) who perceived their relationship as high quality tended to give less importance to the partner’s physical attractiveness compared with those women who rated their relationship quality as low. This finding is consistent with an evolutionary perspective, suggesting that those women who are in a secure and committed relationship which provides good resources for themselves and the children are more likely to disregard physical attractiveness (Penton-Voak et al., 2003). Finally, men that perceived their relationship has having high quality were more likely to perceive themselves as more attractive.

Limitations

First, even though we propose that past extradyadic behaviors history has an impact on the experience of current romantic relationships, our data were correlational and consequently we cannot make strong inferences. It is possible that someone with an overall high sexual desire and that tends to perceive the quality of intimate relationships to be low, will have a higher tendency to betray their partners during the course of their lives. Therefore, it would be very interesting to test which path is the most likely to occur by doing a prospective, longitudinal study. Second, we did not have an equal number of males and females’ participants that have betrayed/been betrayed. This unequal sample sizes may have affected the results (Keppel, 1993). Third, we did not ask participants about their perception of extradyadic behaviors, nor to specify the extradyadic behaviors them have suffered and/or inflicted. This may have affected the results. Fourth, we did not ask participants if they were in sexually non-monogamous relationships (SNMR), defined as those relationships in which “individuals are each other’s primary partners and have consensually agreed upon extradyadic sex” (Rodrigues et al., 2016). Research has shown that individuals in SNMR do not perceive extradyadic sex as a transgressive behavior or extradyadic behaviors (Mogilski et al., 2017). Therefore, having extradyadic sex does not seem to affect, for example, the quality of the relationships in SNMR (Mogilski et al., 2017), which may have affected our results. Fifth, research has shown that self-perceived attractiveness seems to be related with both face and body features, and that with ratings of attractiveness given by independent evaluators (Muñoz-Reyes et al., 2015). Nevertheless, it is possible that some participants may have confounded between face and body attractiveness. Sixth, all obtained correlation coefficients were low, and therefore strong inferences should not be done. Seventh, the age of the majority of our participants ranged from 18 to 40. It would be interesting to investigate if the same pattern of results would be obtained with an older sample. Finally, to evaluate some of our variables (e.g., extradyadic behaviors) we developed specific questions that have not been used in previous studies, which may have also affected our results.

Rolf Degen summarizing: Less than half of all parents manage to transmit their partisan identities to their children

The Role of Child Perception and Motivation in Political Socialization. Peter K. Hatemi, Christopher Ojeda. British Journal of Political Science, February 28 2020. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123419000516

Abstract: Most of what is known regarding political socialization treats parent–child concordance as evidence of transmission. This direct-transmission approach remains agnostic regarding how socialization occurs, whether traits have a role in a child's ability to identify and understand their parent's values or their motivation to adopt their parents’ values. This article advances a perception-adoption approach to unpack these microprocesses of socialization. The authors test their model using three independent studies in the United States that together comprise 4,852 parent–child dyads. They find that the transmission of partisan orientations from parent to child occurs less than half the time, which is qualitatively different from the generally held view. More importantly, the findings provide a greater understanding of how key predictors facilitate the political socialization process. Specifically, politicization improves child perception, but has no role in the child's motivation to adopt parental values. Closeness and parental value strength influence children to want to be like their parents, but do nothing to improve children's ability to recognize their parents' values. And education, previously thought to have little role in transmission, does not influence a child's ability to understand their parent's affiliation, but appears to make children more likely to reject whatever they believe it to be.

Aversiveness to both the tendency of male infants to produce more expiratory phonations when crying, as well as their visual appearance when crying, may contribute to their increased vulnerability to abuse

Perception of male and female infant cry aversiveness by adult men. Lynnet Richey, Ting Li & James K. Rilling. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, Mar 2 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2020.1732896

ABSTRACT
Objective: The study aimed to determine why male infants are abused more frequently than female infants.

Background: Infant crying is a well-known trigger for Shaken Baby Syndrome or Abusive Head Trauma (SBS/AHT). For unknown reasons, male infants are more often victims of SBS/AHT than female infants. We hypothesised that this sex difference in victimisation was attributable to either acoustic or movement differences between male and female infants when crying, or to gender stereotypes about infant crying (e.g. ‘boys don’t cry’).

Methods: Adult male participants rated auditory and video cry stimuli from male and female infants for aversiveness. Each infant was rated while wearing both blue and pink clothing to denote male or female gender.

Results: In two experiments, male infants spent more time producing expiratory phonations than did female infants, and this variable was positively correlated with aversiveness ratings. Including visual stimuli increased male but not female infant cry aversiveness compared with audio stimuli alone. Finally, dressing infants in blue did not increase cry aversiveness.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that both the tendency of male infants to produce more expiratory phonations when crying, as well as their visual appearance when crying, may contribute to their increased vulnerability to abuse.

KEYWORDS: Cry, infant, abuse, sex, gender

Severity and the number of common cold symptoms: Women were expected to report more symptoms & a higher severity; no differences found between men and women in their reports

From 2019... Sex differences in the severity and number of common cold symptoms. Eva Lutgerink. Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences Theses, Utrecth Univ. Jun 2019. https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/392930

Abstract: It is commonly believed that men tend to exaggerate the severity of their illness when infected with a respiratory virus. On the contrary, on literature in health, it seems that women are generally the ones who are “sicker”. In the literature there is still a debate on whether men or women tend over-report minor health problems. Therefore, this study examines the effect of sex on the severity and number of common cold symptoms. Hypotheses were derived from literature building on a social constructionist perspective of gender and health. Women were expected to report more symptoms and a higher severity of their symptoms. Also, the effects were expected to be mediated by stress. The results show that there are no differences between men and women in their reports on the severity and the number of common cold symptoms.

Author keywords: sex differences; gender; health; common cold; symptoms

Rosy memories: Mainly in autobiographical memory & particularly for self-relevant information, positive memory biases emerge from the operation of powerful mechanisms aimed at maintaining the individual’s well-being

Chapter 7 - A “rosy view” of the past: Positive memory biases. Orly Adler, Ainat Pansky. In Cognitive Biases in Health and Psychiatric Disorders - Neurophysiological Foundations. 2020, Pages 139-171. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816660-4.00007-6

Abstract: The positivity bias in memory is a prevalent phenomenon. People tend to remember more pleasant than unpleasant events, to remember events more favorably than they actually were, and to view their past through rosy glasses overall. Apparent mainly in autobiographical memory and particularly for self-relevant information, positive memory biases emerge from the operation of powerful mechanisms aimed at maintaining the individual’s well-being. In the current chapter, we review these mechanisms and the various techniques by which they operate. Manifestation of the bias in clinical populations and the manner in which it is reflected in neural activations are described, alongside methodological limitations and directions for future research.

Check also The Many Faces of Forgetting: Toward a Constructive View of Forgetting in Everyday Life. Jonathan M.Fawcett, Justin C. Hulbert. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, January 21 2020. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/01/forgetfulness-contributes-to.html

Middle- and old-aged individuals: Moderate lifetime alcohol intake was associated with lower cerebral beta amyloid deposition compared to a lifetime history of not drinking

Association of moderate alcohol intake with in vivo amyloid-beta deposition in human brain: A cross-sectional study. Jee Wook Kim et al. PLOS, February 25, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003022

Abstract
Background: An emerging body of literature has indicated that moderate alcohol intake may be protective against Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia. However, little information is available regarding whether moderate alcohol intake is related to reductions in amyloid-beta (Aβ) deposition, or is protective via amyloid-independent mechanisms in the living human brain. Here we examined the associations of moderate alcohol intake with in vivo AD pathologies, including cerebral Aβ deposition, neurodegeneration of AD-signature regions, and cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) in the living human brain.

Methods and findings: The present study was part of the Korean Brain Aging Study for Early Diagnosis and Prediction of Alzheimer’s Disease (KBASE), an ongoing prospective cohort study that started in 2014. As of November 2016, 414 community-dwelling individuals with neither dementia nor alcohol-related disorders (280 cognitively normal [CN] individuals and 134 individuals with mild cognitive impairment [MCI]) between 56 and 90 years of age (mean age 70.9 years ± standard deviation 7.8; male, n [%] = 180 [43.5]) were recruited from 4 sites (i.e., 2 university hospitals and 2 public centers for dementia prevention and management) around Seoul, South Korea. All the participants underwent comprehensive clinical assessments comprising lifetime and current histories of alcohol intake and multimodal brain imaging, including [11C] Pittsburgh compound B positron emission tomography (PET), [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Lifetime and current alcohol intake were categorized as follows: no drinking, <1 standard drink (SD)/week, 1–13 SDs/week, and 14+ SDs/week. A moderate lifetime alcohol intake (1–13 SDs/week) was significantly associated with a lower Aβ positivity rate compared to the no drinking group, even after controlling for potential confounders (odds ratio 0.341, 95% confidence interval 0.163–0.714, p = 0.004). In contrast, current alcohol intake was not associated with amyloid deposition. Additionally, alcohol intake was not related to neurodegeneration of AD-signature regions or cerebral WMH volume. The present study had some limitations in that it had a cross-sectional design and depended on retrospective recall for alcohol drinking history.

Conclusions: In this study, we observed in middle- and old-aged individuals with neither dementia nor alcohol-related disorders that moderate lifetime alcohol intake was associated with lower cerebral Aβ deposition compared to a lifetime history of not drinking. Moderate lifetime alcohol intake may have a beneficial influence on AD by reducing pathological amyloid deposition rather than amyloid-independent neurodegeneration or cerebrovascular injury.

Discussion

In this study, we observed that lifetime alcohol intake of 1–13 SDs/week (moderate drinking) was associated with lower cerebral Aβ deposition compared to the no drinking group in these middle- and old-aged individuals with neither dementia nor alcohol-related disorders.
The present finding of an association between moderate alcohol intake and lower Aβ deposition is in line with results from previous studies using animal or cultured cell models, which indicated that moderate alcohol intake exerts a protective effect via attenuating Aβ accumulation [17,20]. Many clinical and epidemiological studies have reported an inverse association between moderate alcohol intake and the risk of AD dementia [3,9–13], and the present findings regarding the association between moderate alcohol intake and decreased cerebral Aβ positivity may explain this inverse association.
While moderate lifetime alcohol intake had a significant association with Aβ deposition, moderate current intake did not. This difference indicates that the protective effects of moderate alcohol intake against Aβ pathology involve the chronic effects associated with long-term exposure rather than an acute effect. The significant finding for lifetime intake only also suggests that the protective association for moderate alcohol intake is not due to the inclusion of forced abstainers, i.e., those who stopped using alcohol owing to other health concerns related to problem drinking, among the reference group (i.e., non-drinkers). Forced abstainers were classified as drinkers for lifetime alcohol intake status, whereas they were classified as non-drinkers for current alcohol intake status.
Unlike for Aβ deposition, there were no associations between moderate alcohol intake and neurodegeneration or WMHs. Similarly, previous human MRI studies did not observe an association between moderate alcohol intake and cerebral gray matter volume [29] or total brain volume [30]. However, several preclinical and human studies reported that moderate alcohol intake has protective effects against vascular changes and atrophy in the brain. Studies using cultured cell or animal models showed that moderate alcohol intake is protective against ischemic brain injury [24,27], and human MRI studies have suggested that moderate alcohol intake is protective against damage to cerebral gray [23] and white [21,22] matter. These discrepancies may be related to methodological differences between studies. However, as suggested in a systematic review of the chronic effects of moderate alcohol intake on the structural and functional properties of the brain [53], the present findings based on both structural MRI (cortical thickness and WMHs) and FDG PET (cerebral glucose metabolism) measures support that moderate alcohol intake did not exert its protective effects directly through neurodegenerative or vascular mechanisms.
Although excessive alcohol intake has been related with an increased risk of cognitive decline [1–4], and U- or J-shaped association has been implied together with the decreased risk of cognitive impairment with moderate alcohol intake [3,5–16], we did not find any association between higher alcohol intake and increased AD pathologies. Alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) [54] was suggested as an umbrella term for conditions including Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome, alcohol-related dementia, and other forms of persistent alcohol-related cognitive impairment. ARBD encompasses a range of clinical presentations that manifest as impairments in memory, executive functioning, and judgement, which are related to frontal brain function. Several brain imaging studies also reported damage of the frontal lobe in individuals with alcoholism [55], while AD-CT and AD-CM measures mainly include temporo-parietal degeneration. Therefore, we additionally analyzed the association between alcohol intake and frontal lobe state (i.e., glucose metabolism, cortical thickness, and WMH volume of the frontal region) in order to find out if there was any ARBD-like damage with alcohol intake. As shown in S9 Table, however, we did not find any significant results from those analyses. These null findings may be because individuals with alcohol-related disorders were excluded and, as a result, heavy drinkers (14+ SDs/week) in the present study consisted of individuals without alcoholism or other severe alcohol problems.
The investigation of the influence of age on the association between moderate alcohol intake and Aβ positivity revealed that the protective effect of moderate alcohol intake on Aβ positivity was more prominent in older individuals (≥75 years) than younger ones. This finding may be due in part to age-associated increases in the Aβ positivity rate in individuals without dementia [56]. In the present study, the Aβ positivity rate was 24.5% (n = 62) in the younger age group and 37.3% (n = 57) in the older group. The relatively small proportion of Aβ+ individuals in the younger group might decrease the likelihood of detecting a significant difference. It is also possible, as mentioned above, that these age-related differences are related to the chronic effects associated with long-term alcohol exposure. In contrast, sex, APOE4, and clinical diagnosis did not have any moderating effect on the association between moderate alcohol intake and Aβ positivity.
The present study had a couple of strengths. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to show the association of moderate alcohol intake with Aβ accumulation in the living human brain. The study included a relatively large number of participants who were well-characterized through comprehensive clinical assessments including systematic interview for detailed alcohol drinking history and multimodal brain imaging for in vivo AD pathologies and WMHs. In addition, various potential confounders were systematically evaluated and controlled in the statistical models in order to reveal the association between alcohol intake and brain pathologies as clearly as possible. Even after controlling for all potential confounders, the findings did not change. The results were also confirmed by sensitivity analyses conducted after excluding binge or former drinkers.
Nevertheless, the present study also had several limitations that should be considered. First, because this was a cross-sectional study, causal relationships cannot be inferred from the findings. Second, in terms of lifetime alcohol intake, underestimation of drinking or retrospective recall bias may have affected the results in older individuals. However, it is unlikely that underestimation of alcohol intake was significant because harmful drinkers and individuals with a history of alcohol use disorder were excluded from the analyses, and moderate drinkers have no reason to underestimate their alcohol intake. Moreover, to reduce recall bias, information was obtained from reliable informants as well as the study participants. Additionally, a review of self-report bias in the assessment of alcohol intake suggested that this recall bias is not greater in older individuals than in the general population [57]. Third, about one-third of the study participants were diagnosed with MCI, which may also raise some concern about the accuracy of self-report for alcohol intake. However, although individuals with MCI have some problems with their recent memory, their remote memory is very well preserved [58]: It is not likely that individuals with MCI reported their history for alcohol intake more erroneously, because the self-report for lifetime alcohol intake mainly depends on remote memory rather than recent memory. In addition, even when we controlled for clinical diagnosis (CN versus MCI) as an additional covariate in Model 3 (Tables 2, 3, and S2–S7), the results were still very similar. Fourth, there are quite different alcohol intake patterns regarding the frequency and regularity of intake, and the amount of alcohol consumed in a single session, within the moderate drinking category. Although we obtained similar findings after excluding binge drinkers in sensitivity analyses, a more detailed understanding of the influence of drinking patterns is needed. Finally, although we did not find any significant association between alcohol intake and neurodegeneration or WMHs, the lack of association may reflect a lack of statistical power given the sample size.
Although further long-term follow-up investigations in larger populations with heterogeneous alcohol intake patterns are still needed, the association of moderate alcohol intake with reduced risk of pathological Aβ deposition (about one-third of the risk for no drinking) observed in the present study may suggest that moderate lifetime alcohol intake may be beneficial in preventing AD dementia or related cognitive decline.
In conclusion, the present findings from middle- and old-aged individuals with neither dementia nor alcohol-related disorders suggest that moderate lifetime alcohol intake may have some beneficial influence on AD by reducing pathological amyloid deposition rather than amyloid-independent neurodegeneration or cerebrovascular injury.

It seems people selectively attend to moral stimuli; moral content might be prioritized in conscious awareness after an initial perceptual encoding but before subsequent memory processing or action preparation

From 2019... Gantman, Ana P., Sayeed Devraj-Kizuk, Peter Mende-Siedlecki, Jay J. Van Bavel, and Kyle E. Mathewson. 2019. “The Time-course of Moral Perception: An Electroencephalography Investigation.” PsyArXiv. August 26. doi:10.31234/osf.io/72dxa

Abstract: Humans are highly attuned to perceptual cues about their values. A growing body of evidence suggests that people selectively attend to moral stimuli. However, it is unknown whether morality is prioritized early in perception or much later in cognitive processing. We use a combination of behavioral methods and electroencephalography to investigate how early in perception moral words are prioritized relative to non-moral words. The behavioral data replicate previous research indicating that people are more likely to correctly identify moral than non-moral words in a modified lexical decision task. The electroencephalography data reveal that words are distinguished from non-words as early as 200 milliseconds after onset over frontal brain areas, and moral words are distinguished from non-moral words 100 milliseconds later over left-posterior cortex. Further analyses reveal that differences in brain activity to moral vs. non-moral words cannot be explained by differences in arousal associated with the words. These results suggest that moral content might be prioritized in conscious awareness after an initial perceptual encoding but before subsequent memory processing or action preparation. This work offers a more precise theoretical framework for understanding how morality impacts vision and behavior.

Keywords: morality, EEG, social neuroscience, conscious awareness, vision