Evidence of a tendency to perceive bodies in static poses as more feminine and bodies in dynamic poses as more masculine; & male bodies were judged more dynamic than female bodies with the same pose

Motion and Gender-Typing Features Interact in the Perception of Human Bodies. Giulia D’Argenio, Alessandra Finisguerra and Cosimo Urgesi. Front. Neurosci., April 21 2020. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00277

Abstract: The human body conveys socially relevant information, including a person’s gender. Several studies have shown that both shape and motion inform gender judgments of bodies. However, while body shape seems to influence more the judgment of female bodies, body motion seems to play a major role in the judgments of male bodies. Yet, the interdependence of morphologic and dynamic cues in shaping gender judgment and attractiveness evaluation in body perception is still unclear. In two experiments, we investigated how variations of implied motion and shape interact in perceptual and affective judgments of female and male bodies. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to provide ratings for masculinity and femininity of virtual renderings of human bodies with variable gender-typing features and implied motion. We found evidence of a tendency to perceive bodies in static poses as more feminine and bodies in dynamic poses as more masculine. In Experiment 2, participants rated the same pictures for dynamism and pleasantness. We found that male bodies were judged more dynamic than female bodies with the same pose. Also, female bodies were liked more in static than in dynamic poses. A mediation analysis allowed us to further shed light on the relationship between gender-typing features and motion, suggesting that the less is the movement conveyed by a female body, the greater is an observer’s sensitivity to its femininity, and this leads to a more positive evaluation of its pleasantness. Our findings hint to an association between stillness and femininity in body perception, which can stem from either the evolutionary meaning of sexual selection and/or the influence of cultural norms.

General Discussion

The present study aimed to investigate how the manipulation of gender-specific morphological features and implied motion of a body interact in its judgments. To this end, we asked participants to rate the masculinity and femininity (Experiment 1) or the dynamism and pleasantness (Experiment 2) of a series of pictures depicting male and female bodies expressing different amounts of gender-typing features (60% vs. 90% typicality) and displayed in static or dynamic postures. As expected, participants assigned higher value of masculinity and femininity to more gender-typical male and female bodies, respectively. However, the most interesting finding was that also implied motion influenced the gender judgment of body figures, at least when they were displayed with less gender-typing features (i.e., 60% typicality). Indeed, participants tended to perceive low-typical female bodies as more feminine when displayed in static than dynamic poses and to perceive low-typical male bodies as more masculine in dynamic than static poses. Crucially, however, not only implied motion influenced the perception of the gender-typing features of a body figure, but also gender typicality influenced the perception of motion conveyed by a body posture. Indeed, we found that models with typical female-typing features were evaluated as less dynamic than models with typical male-typing features, even when they displayed the same pose. This pattern of results suggests that gender-typing morphological cues and implied motion interact in shaping the perception of body gender. When morphological cues are not clear, the perception of static or dynamic postures pushes gender perception toward a female or male body, respectively. In a similar vein, when the motion conveyed by a body is fuzzy (e.g., implied motion in body pictures), the perception of female- or male-typing features pushes motion perception toward stillness or dynamism, respectively.

Importantly, we also found, at both subject- and item-level analyses, that the association between stillness and femininity influenced the aesthetic appreciation of a body. Indeed, bodies with more gender-typing features (i.e., 90% typicality) were liked more than less-typical bodies (60% typicality). This is in line with the notion that the stereotypical representation of the body according to its gender has implications for its aesthetic appreciation (McCreary et al., 2005), reflecting a correlation between gender-typing features and the impression of a good-looking body (Johnstone, 1994; Grammer et al., 2003; Singh and Singh, 2011). However, we also found that, within female figures, the models in static poses were evaluated as more pleasant than those in dynamic poses. This may seem in contrast with studies showing that more dynamic dance poses are liked more (Calvo-Merino et al., 2008; Cross and Ticini, 2012; Kirsch et al., 2016) and that implied motion enhances the aesthetic appreciation of human bodies (Cazzato et al., 2012), in terms of either attribution of intrinsic perceptual properties to the stimulus (i.e., beauty) or observer’s attitude to it (i.e., liking or attractiveness). However, albeit gender-typical features were less salient in these previous studies as compared to our study, implied motion was found to be a better predictor of the aesthetic appreciation of male than female bodies (Cazzato et al., 2012). In addition, the different impact of static and dynamic stimuli in the judgment of female physical attractiveness has already been reported in adult actresses, showing that more feminine WHRs and larger breasts are considered desirable traits in static photographs whereas more androgynous body shapes are considered appropriate in stars that perform in movies (Voracek and Fisher, 2006). Here we found that static postures increased the aesthetic appreciation of female bodies. This effect could be due to a direct negative effect of implied motion on the appreciation of female attractiveness or be indirectly mediated by a masking of female-typical physical traits. However, the item mediation analysis allowed us to better delineate the relationship between femininity perception, stillness and aesthetic appreciation. In particular, we tested two models, based on the hypothesis that either stillness increased the perceived femininity of a female body and thus increased its pleasantness (Model A) or that femininity reduced the implied motion of a female body and thus reduced its pleasantness (Model B). The results provided evidence in favor of the first model, since perception of femininity was a key mediator of the negative relation between implied motion and liking. In other words, the effect of implied motion on the liking judgments of female bodies was better explained by an indirect effect mediated by femininity than by a direct effect of implied motion on liking. This supports the claim that stillness increased the aesthetic appreciation of a female body at least partially because it increased its gender typicality, likely facilitating the perception of feminine-typing features. In sum, our data suggest that femininity and stillness, on one hand, and masculinity and dynamism, on the other hand, are associated features in body representation, confirming clues from both sexual-selection and socio-cultural frameworks.

In a sexual-selection evolutionist framework, perceiving a static female body vs. a dynamic male body may boost the salience of gender-typing physical traits, such as WHR for women and muscularity for men. Numerous studies, indeed, have shown that a female body is strongly defined by the WHR, since it appears to be related to objective gender-specific qualities such as the levels of sex hormones (e.g., estradiol; De Ridder et al., 1990; Mondragón-Ceballos et al., 2015), the accessibility to fat resources suitable for fetal neurodevelopment (Lassek and Gaulin, 2008), and the more general capacity to sustain pregnancy (Singh, 1993). Obviously, WHR might only serve as a proxy for covariating bodily traits that shape the entire body phenotype and co-determine the judgment of body attractiveness (Brooks et al., 2015). Certainly, being able to select these qualities on the basis of visual cues increases the reproductive success of the species and, in this respect, the body shape of a woman could be considered as the best way to rapidly infer her femininity, meant as a set of biologically determined attributes. Since WHR is based on the computation of the waist and hip proportions, it is plausible that movements may affect its estimation altering shape and size perception. A body in motion, indeed, can provide misleading information about shape, for instance by producing overlaps of body parts (i.e., arms that cover hips while running). As shown in a recent eye-tracking study (Pazhoohi et al., 2020), WHR is widely view-dependent and movement pattern can cause variation in WHR detection, even if body proportions remain constant. On this view, dynamism may hinder the expression of the femininity of a woman by obscuring her salient shapes as compared to when staying in canonical static poses.

Conversely, as in many animal species, humans show sex differences in body composition and the amount of muscle mass appears to be greater in men than in women (Wells, 2007). Performing actions may accentuate the perception of body muscularity, thus biasing gender perception toward masculinity. Furthermore, male individuals seem to tend to disclose their masculinity right through movements (Darwin, 1871), as demonstrated by males of some species which use dance as a signal of neuromuscular condition (Maynard Smith, 1956) or flight ability (Williams, 2001). In humans, for example, it has been shown that men’s bodily symmetry, a measure that reflects the developmental stability of an organism (Moller and Swaddle, 1997; Polak, 2003) and preservation from morbidity and mortality (Stevenson, 2000), strongly correlates with their dance ability (Brown et al., 2005) and running performance (Manning and Pickup, 1998). This suggests that movements, rather than shape, may be a better predictor of men’s functional effectiveness.

As a legacy of sexual selection, the stereotypical association between femininity/stillness and masculinity/dynamism is reflected in socio-cultural norms, grounded on how people think men and women should differ. A domain in which this distinction is quite tangible is represented by sports context. Indeed, studies have suggested that, in most of Western countries, girls and women are less encouraged to participate in sports than boys and men (Eccles and Harold, 1991; Hartmann-Tews and Pfister, 2003) and, even in physical activities where women are predominant, such as performing arts (i.e., ballet), performance seems to be judged more on the basis of aesthetic features than body capability (Klomsten et al., 2005). Nevertheless, media images in sports endorses the stereotyped view of men’s and women’s bodies, emphasizing strength and physical abilities in the case of male athletes but featuring female performers in terms of a sexualized body (Von Der Lippe, 2002). This is in line with the present finding that perception of femininity appears to be intensified by a static body pose. In this regard, studies about “woman objectification,” which refers to the tendency to perceive a woman worth in light of her body appearance and sexual function, have demonstrated that the identification of the female body as an object available for satisfying the needs of men may diminish her attribution of agency (Cikara et al., 2011) and, consequently, underline her passive condition. Interestingly, recent researches have shown that images of female bodies are processed as a recollection of body parts rather than a whole figure (Bernard et al., 2012, 2015), a fragmentary process that is generally observed in the recognition of objects; notably, this pattern of visual perception occurs independently from the gender of the observer, demonstrating that such objectification of the female body involves women themselves. Thus, the well-proved association between femininity and object-related features could easily explain why static postures make bodies to appear more feminine. At the same time, men are encouraged to display their sex-typing features in keeping with contemporary masculine norms, which consider increased muscle mass as more masculine (Mishkind et al., 1986; McCreary et al., 2005). This may explain why men tend to express their gendered body through exercising and practicing physical activity. Accordingly, a study aimed at exploring the association between levels of exercise and patterns of masculinity in men undergoing androgen deprivation therapy has recently revealed that men who are aerobically active have higher levels of self-reported masculinity than those who are inactive (Langelier et al., 2018), highlighting the intersection of masculinity and physical activity. Further, women also seem to judge masculinity through body movements, since they assess a man’s physical strength and attractiveness on the basis of his gait (Fink et al., 2016).

The conclusions that can be drawn from this study need to be weighted in the light of important limitations. First of all, we investigated the effects of dynamic cues in body perception by using static pictures of bodies with implied motion. This allowed controlling for the amount of body views offered in videos of a moving or still person, but obviously limits the salience and naturalness of body movements. Nevertheless, there is evidence for common neurocognitive representation of actual and implied body movements (Urgesi et al., 2006; Cazzato et al., 2014, 2016). Furthermore, the limited sample size prevented us from examining differences between male and female observers and to generally explore the role of individual differences in body-related processes on the association between stillness, femininity, and aesthetic appreciation of bodies. However, in keeping with previous findings (Bernard et al., 2012, 2015), our analyses showed overlapping pattern of results in male and female participants, at least in Experiment 1 where the effects of implied motion on masculinity/femininity perception were explored. Further studies with larger sample are required to appropriately test for gender effects in body perception. Furthermore, we found overlapping results not only when data were treated at the subject level, thus aiming at generalizing at wider population of male and female observers, but also at the item level, thus aiming at generalizing the results at a wider population of male and female bodies. The use of only a limited number of variations in gender typicality (i.e., 60% vs. 90%) prevents us from describing the effect of implied motion on female and male bodies along the continuous nature of gender typicality. Future studies, thus, need to test a larger sample and use different types of stimuli (e.g., videos of real rather than computer-generated bodies in movements) with greater variations of gender typicality and greater ecological validity in order to shed light on whether the association between stillness and femininity concerns mostly perceptive mechanisms or the stereotypical meaning assigned to men and women.

The US has now an active force structure of just 39 maneuver brigades (Army and Marines); only about 13 are combat ready; to add more brigades would require cannibalization of about 25% of the remaining 26 active units

Israel Versus Anyone: A Military Net Assessment of the Middle East. Kenneth S. Brower. The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. Mideast Security and Policy Studies No. 178, Aug 2020. https://besacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/178web.pdf


Most Israelis and Americans view the US as the ultimate guarantor
of Israeli security. They assume that in a dire emergency, US
conventional military forces would be able to rescue Israel before it
faced total defeat. They also believe that US training and military
equipment is absolutely vital to Israeli military power.
These widely held assumptions are divorced from reality. The simple
and unarguable truth is that for decades the US military has lacked the
ability to quickly project conventional ground and air forces into the
Middle East that would be able to successfully defend Israel. This has
been true for about 50 years.5

The US Army and US Marine Corps combined now have an active
force structure of just 39 maneuver brigades, of which only about 13
are combat ready. It would require many weeks to bring a portion of
the remaining 26 active maneuver brigades to combat ready status.
Achieving this would require cannibalization of about 25% of the
remaining active units in order to bring the others to full strength.
US reserve National Guard maneuver brigades would each require
about five months for mobilization, retraining, and deployment.
These National Guard reserve units are thus irrelevant to any Israeli
rescue scenario.6

The ability of the US military to deploy forces over long distances has
declined in the last 30 years because of a lack of investment in large
specialized roll-on roll-off ships. Many of the existing US reserve
merchant marine ships dedicated to military use are overage and have
been poorly maintained. Based on the deployment times achieved
during Operation Desert Storm, it is estimated that within about three
weeks the US could project two light infantry paratroop brigades
into Israel by air, plus one Marine infantry brigade transferred by
forward deployed USN amphibious ships and pre-loaded forward-based maritime ships.

Given about nine weeks, the US would likely
be able to field nine maneuver brigades in the Middle East consisting
of three paratroop, three Marine, and three heavy armored brigades.
Consequently, it would require about nine weeks for the US military to
generate roughly 15% of the IDF’s ground force mobilizable order of
battle. These US forces would only deploy about 10% of the number
of armored fighting vehicles the IDF can field.7

The USAF has a very limited number of combat aircraft currently
deployed in Europe. With air-to-air refueling, it is estimated that
these aircraft might be able to sustain the generation of about 90
sorties a day in support of Israel. But these few sorties, which only
represent 5% of Israeli wartime capability, could only be generated
if the host country where these aircraft are based were to allow them
to be operated in support of Israel. In the past, this approval has not
always been provided. Neither the USN nor USMC currently have
any operational combat aircraft based on aircraft carriers or large
amphibious ships that are normally deployed in the Mediterranean
within range of Israel.8

If numerous European airfields were to be made available for use
by the USAF, with appropriate host nation approval, it is estimated
that within 30 days the US could likely shift about 15 additional
fast jet squadrons into Europe. This would potentially raise the
number of daily USAF fast jet sorties generatable to about 450 per
day. However, projecting aircraft over great distances onto existing
airfields sounds far simpler than it is. Maintaining these aircraft
requires extensive specialized ground support equipment. Generating
sorties also requires vast quantities of fuel, munitions and spare parts.
The personnel that command, fly, maintain, and support these aircraft
all require housing and security. Unless European military airfields
are almost totally pre-prepared and fully stocked with ground support
equipment and consumables, which they generally are not, it requires
substantial sealift to transfer everything but the aircraft and personnel
overseas—and sealift takes time.

It should be noted that the generation of 450 daily long-range combat
sorties would also require the forward basing of at least 72 to 96
additional USAF aerial tankers in Europe. Without the provision of
additional forward-based air-to-air refueling tankers, European-based
USAF aircraft would be largely useless in support of Israel.
The USN could likely deploy two carrier battle groups in the
Mediterranean within 30 days. Each USN carrier currently carries
only 44 F-18 combat aircraft. Many of these have to be dedicated to
the generation of defensive combat air patrols and/or buddy air-toair tanking.
Depending on the selected stand off distance from shore,
each carrier can only generate 25 to 50 offensive fast jet sorties per
day. The USMC would likely be able to shift one air wing forward,
including up to 30 F-35B or AV-8B VSTOL aircraft operating from
two or three LHDs/LHAs. These vulnerable unarmored ships would
have to operate far offshore. The sea-based Marine VSTOL aircraft,
which have very limited range, would, therefore, likely generate a
very low daily sortie rate. Conventional Marine F-18 combat aircraft
would, like all USAF aircraft, have to be based at European airfields.
Marine fast jet aircraft would likely generate a daily sortie rate similar
to European-based USAF aircraft and would require additional aerial
tanker support.

To summarize: Given 30 days to mobilize and deploy, and being
provided with access to about 12 large European military air bases,
all with the host nations’ approval for use in support of Israel, and the
deployment of a large number of USN aircraft carriers and amphibious
ships, the three combined US military air forces could only sustain the
generation of about one-third the number of daily combat sorties that
can be generated by the IAF on day one.

Why is welfare provision unpopular in China?

Why is welfare provision unpopular in China? Alex C. H. Chang. Democratization, Jul 22 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2020.1789966

ABSTRACT: This article analyses from a cultural perspective why, despite exacerbating income inequality, Chinese people are not in favour of income equality. I argue that the patriotic education campaign initiated in the 1990s encouraged citizens to sacrifice for the greater good of China and caused the Chinese to accept and adapt to a decrease in governmental welfare as well as lessening the demand for it, thus reducing the government’s financial burden of welfare provision. I then test the hypothesis against the Asian Barometer Survey data. The statistical results support my assertion, suggesting that strong patriotic beliefs reduce the preference for social equality, and that private income and economic perspectives do not significantly stimulate the public demand for redistributive policies in China.

KEYWORDS: inequality, preference for redistribution, China, self-sacrifice for national interest, patriotic indoctrination


In the literature on redistributive policies, Meltzer and Richard have famously argued
that people with lower incomes prefer higher income taxes because they have more
to gain and less to lose from government spending on social welfare than persons
with higher incomes.1 Accordingly, their model suggests that redistributive policies
“lean against the wind”2 – that is the more people’s wages fall below the mean
income, the greater their support for government redistributive policies will be.

Practices, however, call into question the validity of Meltzer and Rickard’s theoretical
assumptions. Lindert’s so-called “Robin Hood Paradox”3 shows that increasing income
inequality is actually associated with less rather than more welfare spending.4 Moreover,
individual-level studies have also pointed out that the poor do not necessarily support
high levels of redistribution, nor that the rich consistently disapprove of them.5 The
most straightforward evidence comes from the United States, where inequality is significantly
increasing but welfare policies remain unpopular.6


Conclusion

Conventional wisdom suggests that the less wealthy should favour welfare policies.
However, empirical findings show that the reasons behind individual preferences for
redistributive policies are more complicated than are commonly thought. By reviewing
competing explanations based on neoclassic economic and culturalist approaches, this
article sets out to investigate why welfare provision is not popular among the Chinese in
spite of a growing income gap. In addition to considering individual demographic and
socioeconomic attributes, as well as their subjective perceptions of social status, I have
shown that attitudes towards welfare policies are not influenced by respondents’ selfinterest,
but by their willingness to self-sacrifice for the greater good of China.
Ceteris paribus, the more Chinese agree to set aside their own interests for the sake
of the national interest, the more they are averse to government welfare. Moreover,
the statistics further show that such a patriotic effect on the preferences for welfare provision
is not applicable to young adults born after the institution of the one-child policy.

The findings above have at least three applications. First of all, they shed some light
on issues that are likely to be crucial for the political acceptability of welfare reform programs
and the redistributive theory inspired by the Meltzer-Richard model. Second,
these findings help us with re-examining the developmental trajectory of China as
well as providing suggestions for the increasing attempts at adopting the China
model as a developmental strategy. The prevalence of Chinese collectivist traditions
enables the CCP to simultaneously manipulate both public policies and the society.
From the perspective of government, the patriotic education campaign not only
evoked public support for marketization reforms and self-sacrifice for the modernization
of China from the supply side, but from the demand side it also inspired
Chinese citizens to restrain their demands for redistribution and thus justified the
low government provision of welfare service. In other words, through the manipulation
of traditional Confucian and Maoist ideals, the CCP government successfully inspired
the alleviation of social discontent attributed to increasing economic inequality and
kept the train towards China’s modernization on track without expanding its government
spending on welfare provision.

While the rise of China has gained global attention and the China Model is increasingly
adopted in developing countries, highlighting China’s liberal economic policy and
one-party political system,63 this article reminds us of the importance of cultural and
patriotic forces mediating between government policy and society. The patriotic tradition
in China, as suggested above, provides a cushion for civil grievances against
central planning, avoids potential conflicts between society and government, and
reduces the extent to which the central government utilizes authority to enforce its policies.
This leads me to conclude that without taking cultural differences into account,
the China model might not be successfully replicated in other developing countries.

Last, but not the least, the analysis of Chinese unexpected low support for welfare provision
in spite of the high income inequality reminds us to review the literature of distributive
politics in authoritarian regimes. According to the redistributive theory of
democratization, inequality-induced redistributive conflicts inevitably lead to either
democratization or repression, the two unfavourable outcomes of the CCP. If an autocratic
government can soothe public discontent towards inequality without rendering
welfare service, apparently there is no need to risk its legitimacy to democratize or to
repress. The findings above demonstrate that China has skilfully managed patriotic
campaign and promoted people’s national identity to curtail their demands for welfare
services. This thus avoids China from inequality-induced redistributive conflicts and
subsequent top-down democratization or bottom-up public turmoil. Having said that,
I do not mean to deny the possibility of democratization or even regime change in
China. As shown in the previous discussion, young Chinese have become more pragmatic
and self-interested than the older adults. While they comply with the patriotic indoctrination
and demonstrate their willingness to sacrifice their own interests to the greater
national interests, they have ensured that nationalist beliefs would not conflict with
their demands for government welfare services. In other words, as income inequality
increases along with internationalization and globalization in China, we would expect
growing demands for welfare services to knock the door of democratization in China.

Contrafreeloading is the willingness of animals to work for food when equivalent food is freely available; seen in laboratory animals (pigeons, rats) & captive wild (bears) & domestic animals (cows, pigs); no sign of contrafreeloading among domestic cats

Contrafreeloading behavior of cats and its relation to activity. Brandon Han, Mikel Delgado, Melissa Bain. 2020 Animal Behavior Society's Virtual Conference, Jul 2020. https://www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/virtual/?page=presentation&session_id=4&presentation_id=47&displayday=&pagefrom=program

Abstract: Contrafreeloading is the willingness of animals to work for food when equivalent food is freely available. This behavior is observed in laboratory animals (pigeons, rats) and captive wild (bears) and domestic animals (cows, pigs). However, a previous study of six laboratory cats did not find evidence of contrafreeloading. We hypothesized that cats in a home environment may contrafreeload and that more active cats would be more likely to contrafreeload. We tested 18 house cats for contrafreeloading by comparing feeding choices in the presence of both a food puzzle and a tray of the same size and shape across 10 trials. All enrolled cats wore an activity tracker. Cats consumed more food from the tray than the puzzle (p< 0.05). A binominal test indicated most cats preferred to eat from the tray first and spent more time eating from the tray compared to the puzzle. Our results indicate there is no sign of contrafreeloading among domestic cats.  There was no relationship between activity as recorded by the tracker and tendencies to interact with the puzzle. Further research is required to understand why among tested animals, only cats seem to not express contrafreeloading behavior.

Facts and Myths about Misperceptions

Facts and Myths about Misperceptions. Brendan Nyhan. Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 34, Number 3—Summer 2020—Pages 220–236. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.34.3.220

In politics, the sources of—and belief in—dubious claims that meet this standard often divide along partisan lines. On the issue of health care, for instance, Politifact selected Palin’s “death panel” claim as the “Lie of the Year” in 2009 and Barack Obama’s oft-repeated claim that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” under the Affordable Care Act as the “Lie of the Year” in 2013...

Conclusion
Many responses to the problem of misinformation unfortunately threaten to
undermine or limit free speech in democratic societies. For example, critics have
called on Facebook to ban ads from political candidates that are deemed false, which
would introduce a centralized constraint on a core form of political speech that is
absent in other media like television. Since 2016, a number of countries around the
world have gone even further in using fines or even criminal penalties to try to limit
misinformation. For example, Kenya enacted legislation making the publication of
false information a crime, a step that the Committee to Project Journalists said will
criminalize free speech (Malalo and Mohammed 2018).

Calls for such draconian interventions are commonly fueled by a moral panic
over claims that “fake news” has created a supposedly “post-truth” era. These claims
falsely suggest an earlier fictitious golden age in which political debate was based on
facts and truth. In reality, false information, misperceptions, and conspiracy theories
are general features of human society. For instance, belief that John F. Kennedy was
killed in a conspiracy were already widespread by the late 1960s and 1970s (Bowman
and Rugg 2013). Hofstadter (1964) goes further, showing that a “paranoid style” of
conspiratorial thinking recurs in American political culture going back to the country’s founding. Moreover, exposure to the sorts of untrustworthy websites that are
often called “fake news” was actually quite limited for most Americans during the
2016 campaign—far less than media accounts suggest (Guess, Nyhan, and Reifler
2020). In general, no systematic evidence exists to demonstrate that the prevalence
of misperceptions today (while worrisome) is worse than in the past.

Even exposure to the ill-defined term “fake news” and claims about its
prevalence can be harmful. In an experimental study among respondents from
Mechanical Turk, Van Duyn, and Collier (2019) find that when people are exposed
to tweets containing the term “fake news,” they become less able to discern real
from fraudulent news stories. Similarly, Clayton et al. (2019) find that participants
from Mechanical Turk who are exposed to a general warning about the prevalence
of misleading information on social media then tend to rate headlines from both
legitimate and untrustworthy news sources as less accurate, suggesting that the
warning causes an indiscriminate form of skepticism.
Any evidence-based response to the problem of misperceptions must thus
begin with an effort to counter misinformation about the problem itself. Only then
can we design interventions that are proportional to the severity of the problem and
consistent with the values of a democratic society.

Country‐level optimism was negatively related to GDP per capita, population density, and democratic norms and positively related to income inequality and perceived corruption

International Optimism: Correlates and Consequences of Dispositional Optimism across 61 Countries. Erica Baranski  Kate Sweeny  Gwendolyn Gardiner  David C. Funder  Members of the International Situations Project. Journal of Personality, August 7 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12582

Abstract
Objective: The current exploratory study sought to examine dispositional optimism, or the general expectation for positive outcomes, around the world.

Method: Dispositional optimism and possible correlates were assessed across 61 countries (N = 15,185; mean age = 21.92; 77% female). Mean‐level differences in optimism were computed along with their relationships with individual and country‐level variables.

Results: Worldwide, mean optimism levels were above the midpoint of the scale. Perhaps surprisingly, country‐level optimism was negatively related to GDP per capita, population density, and democratic norms and positively related to income inequality and perceived corruption. However, country‐level optimism was positively related to projected economic improvement. Individual‐level optimism was positively related to individual well‐being within every country, although this relationship was less strong in countries with challenging economic and social circumstances.

Conclusions: While individuals around the world are generally optimistic, societal characteristics appear to affect the degree to which their optimism is associated with psychological well‐being, sometimes in seemingly anomalous ways.

The Political Right Is Not More Credulous: Experimental Evidence Against Asymmetric Motivations to Believe False Political Information

Is the Political Right More Credulous?: Experimental Evidence Against Asymmetric Motivations to Believe False Political Information. Timothy Ryan and Amanda Aziz. The Journal of Politics, Aug 2020. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/711133

Abstract: Recent political events have galvanized interest in the promulgation of misinformation—particularly false rumors about political opponents. An array of studies provide reasons to think that harboring false political beliefs is a disproportionately conservative phenomenon, since citizens with affinity for the political right endorse more false information than people with affinity for the left. However, as we discuss below, past research is limited in its ability to distinguish supply-sideexplanations for this result (false information is spread more effectively by elites on the right) from demand-side explanations (citizens who sympathize with the right are more likely to believe false information upon receipt). We conduct an experiment on a representative sample of Americans designed specifically to reveal asymmetries in citizens’proclivity to endorse false damaging information about political opponents. In a contrast with previous results, we find no evidence that citizens on the political right are especially likely to endorse false political information.

Keywords: Rigidity of the Right; Ideology; Motivated reasoning; Conspiracy beliefs

The unexpected small decline in Neuroticism suggests that, during the acute phase of COVID-19, feelings of anxiety and distress may be attributed more to the pandemic than to one’s personality

Change in five-factor model personality traits during the acute phase of the coronavirus pandemic. Angelina R. Sutin et al. PLoS, August 6 2020. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237056

Abstract: The rapid spread of the coronavirus and the strategies to slow it have disrupted just about every aspect of our lives. Such disruption may be reflected in changes in psychological function. The present study used a pre-posttest design to test whether Five Factor Model personality traits changed with the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Participants (N = 2,137) were tested in early February 2020 and again during the President’s 15 Days to Slow the Spread guidelines. In contrast to the preregistered hypotheses, Neuroticism decreased across these six weeks, particularly the facets of Anxiety and Depression, and Conscientiousness did not change. Interestingly, there was some evidence that the rapid changes in the social context had changed the meaning of an item. Specifically, an item about going to work despite being sick was a good indicator of conscientiousness before COVID-19, but the interpretation of it changed with the pandemic. In sum, the unexpected small decline in Neuroticism suggests that, during the acute phase of the coronavirus outbreak, feelings of anxiety and distress may be attributed more to the pandemic than to one’s personality.

Discussion

The present research suggests modest acute personality change during the initial stages of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was a small decline in Neuroticism rather than the expected increase. This change in Neuroticism was only apparent among individuals who were not in quarantine/isolation. We likewise did not find the expected increase in Conscientiousness, and there was some evidence that the current social environment may have changed the meaning of an item. In exploratory analyses, there was modest evidence that isolation status moderated trait changes in Conscientiousness, Openness, and Agreeableness, as well as for Neuroticism.

Personality traits tend to be stable over time and resistant to normative life events that are stressful [8]. Of the five traits, there is the most evidence that Neuroticism may be the most reactive to stress. When individuals experience a great amount of distress, either through an extremely aversive event [17–19] or a depressive episode [9], Neuroticism tends to increase. A similar but weaker trend is found for long-term psychological responses to natural disasters, such as after the Christchurch Earthquake [20]. Likewise, interventions to improve mental health decrease Neuroticism [10]. Given the stress and anxiety over the coronavirus, we had expected Neuroticism to increase. Instead, the opposite pattern emerged. This decrease may be due to contrast effects. That is, reminders of the collective stress and anxiety that the world was under were everywhere: During the 10 days of the posttest data collection, there was significant volatility and losses in the stock market [21] (marker of economic anxiety), essential household products such as toilet paper were sold out across the country [22] (marker of consumer anxiety), and national polls indicated that 70% of American adults were concerned or very concerned about the virus in their community [23] (marker of individual anxiety). Feelings of personal stress and anxiety may be attributed less to the self when there is a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety experienced through the whole of society. In such a context, there might be an attenuated tendency to perceive and rate oneself as emotionally distressed as compared to other people. The stress and anxiety participants felt may have been ascribed to the external situation rather than their own personality. It is important to note that participants with pretest data but no posttest data scored higher in Neuroticism. This difference in attrition may have had an effect on the pattern of results. For example, as individuals higher in neuroticism were lost to follow-up, it is possible that this more emotionally vulnerable group responded differently to the pandemic. It is also of note, however, that the overall pattern that we found is consistent with anecdotal reports of decreases in anxiety among individuals who typically suffer from anxiety [24].

We did not find evidence for change in Conscientiousness. We hypothesized that the ubiquitous public health messaging to be more attentive to personal behavior would translate into an overall increase in a trait tendency to be conscientious, particularly the facet of Responsibility. Rather than Responsibility, however, we found only modest evidence for an increase in the facet of Productiveness, which indicated that individuals saw themselves as more efficient and persistent in this crisis. There was, however, a fascinating pattern for Dutifulness. Dutifulness measures the tendency to adhere strictly to ethical principles [15]. This trait tendency decreased between pre- and post-test, a change that primarily occurred in participants younger than 65 (i.e., working-aged adults). This decrease was due entirely to declines on one item about going to work/school when not feeling well. In pre-pandemic times, this item was a fairly good marker of an individual’s willingness to follow through on their commitments. The swift changes in the social landscape, however, may have changed the meaning of this item. Now, rather than a marker of conscientiousness, going to work/school while sick may be a marker of recklessness or antagonism, whereas staying at home and protecting one’s community is conscientious. It is an example of how social context can (rapidly) change the meaning of an item and how it defines the trait it measures.

Approximately one-quarter of our sample reported being in isolation/quarantine within the last month. Our exploratory analysis suggested modest change in personality by isolation status. Of most note, isolation status moderated change in Neuroticism such that the decline in Neuroticism only occurred for those not in quarantine. Further, there was a cross-over interaction for the Depression facet: Individuals not in quarantine declined, whereas those in quarantine increased in a trait tendency toward depressed affect. Increases in depressed affect and other aspects of negative emotionality are common while in quarantine, and the effects may or may not be long lasting [25]. More generally, quarantine might provoke anxiety that is not assuaged by the stress and anxiety felt by the rest of the population. In addition to Neuroticism, isolation also moderated change in Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. In all cases, these traits declined among individuals in isolation, specifically the facets of Curiosity, Trust, and Organization, respectively. The circumstances around isolation may lead to boredom and erode trust. There may also be less pressure to be organized because there is less that needs to get done in a timely manner. It is also of note that there were baseline differences in personality prior to quarantine. That is, individuals who go into quarantine had higher baseline levels of Neuroticism and lower Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Individuals with these traits may be at greater risk of exposure through either who they interact with and/or they work jobs that put them at higher risk of exposure. Individuals higher in Neuroticism may also perceive more threat and go into quarantine to feel safer. There may also be bias associated with these traits in how quarantine/isolation is interpreted (e.g., safer at home may be interpreted as quarantine). We could not tease apart these different possibilities.

FFM personality traits are known to be stable [26] with normative changes across the lifespan [27] and are also known to be relatively resistant to change after normative life events [8]. As such, there would be no expectation that personality traits would change over just six weeks in normal circumstances. The coronavirus pandemic, however, is unprecedented in its disruption of daily life for most of the population. It was thus possible that it would also have an unprecedented effect on personality. As described above, extremely aversive and stressful events are associated with change in personality [17, 19], and the global scale of the current stressful event may have had a widely felt impact. And yet, even with the widespread fears over health consequences of complications of COVID-19, the economic uncertainty, and restrictions on daily life, personality traits have been mostly resistant to change. These findings support theoretical accounts of personality traits that argue for their stability [28], even in the face of acute environmental stressors. It may be the case that other aspects of psychological functioning, including state affect or mental health [29], may be more vulnerable to the impact of COVID-19 (but see [30]).

The present study had several strengths, including a pre-post design that captured trait psychological function just prior and during the acute phase of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. The findings, however, need to be put in context. Although there was evidence of change, for example, the magnitude of change was small; in most cases, the change was less than one-tenth of a standard deviation. As such, overall there is more evidence of stability than substantial change. Still, personality would not be expected to change at all over such a short period of time in normal circumstances. The findings also need to be put in context of some limitations. First, the attrition analysis indicated that there were significant selection effects for who remained in the sample at Time 2 that may have had an effect on the results, particularly for Neuroticism (as discussed above). It is important to note that this study was not originally designed to be longitudinal, so participants in the pretest survey did not know that they would be asked to complete a second survey. With the pandemic, the study was reconceptualized to take advantage of the data collected on psychological functioning just prior to the pandemic. Fortunately, many participants were willing to fill out a second survey, but given that the original study was not meant to be longitudinal, there was no expectation that participants would continue to participate. Second, we tested for trait change in the acute phase of the pandemic. Although the purpose of this measurement was to address whether trait psychological functioning was responsive to an acute health-threatening crisis, it is also possible that the effects of the crisis could take longer to consolidate into substantial changes in personality. Future work will need to address whether there are long-term changes in personality in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Future work also needs to address personality change during the pandemic in other cultural contexts. Third, our measure of quarantine/isolation was broad and did not differentiate between quarantine or isolation and the situation for the participant during quarantine/isolation (e.g., whether the person was alone or with another person). As such, we could not disentangle the exact circumstance of the quarantine/isolation and whether such differences are important for personality change. Finally, as with all non-experimental research, there may be other explanations for the current set of results that we cannot rule out.

Overall, the results suggest more trait psychological resilience than harm during the acute phase of the coronavirus spread and response in the United States. Consistent with the notion that traits are stable and resistant to change, there were few changes in response to the spread of the coronavirus and the measures to control the spread in the United States. The results further suggest that the broader social environment may be modifying both how individuals see themselves (e.g., attributing less anxiety and depressed affect to themselves) and the meaning of specific items to how they measure a trait (e.g., items of Dutifulness). Future work will need to address whether these modest changes are long lasting and/or whether different patterns of change emerge if this crisis is protracted.

Pigeons try to overthrow a stable social order's hierarchy just adding weights to the revolutionaries' bodies; mass loading causes the low-ranked male birds to immediately become more aggressive and rise-up the dominance hierarchy

Artificial mass loading disrupts stable social order in pigeon dominance hierarchies. Steven J. Portugal, James R. Usherwood, Craig R. White, Daniel W. E. Sankey and Alan M. Wilson. Biology Letters, August 5 2020. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0468

Abstract: Dominance hierarchies confer benefits to group members by decreasing the incidences of physical conflict, but may result in certain lower ranked individuals consistently missing out on access to resources. Here, we report a linear dominance hierarchy remaining stable over time in a closed population of birds. We show that this stability can be disrupted, however, by the artificial mass loading of birds that typically comprise the bottom 50% of the hierarchy. Mass loading causes these low-ranked birds to immediately become more aggressive and rise-up the dominance hierarchy; however, this effect was only evident in males and was absent in females. Removal of the artificial mass causes the hierarchy to return to its previous structure. This interruption of a stable hierarchy implies a strong direct link between body mass and social behaviour and suggests that an individual's personality can be altered by the artificial manipulation of body mass.

4. Discussion

Over a 31-month period, the dominance hierarchy of the pigeon group did not significantly change, with individuals retaining their position within the hierarchy throughout the experimental period. Previously, it has been demonstrated that in animal groupings of less than approximately 10 individuals, stable hierarchies are more commonly observed than in larger groups [27]. The linear dominance hierarchy in the pigeons was significantly related to body mass. There is no clear pattern yet determined as to why body mass is such a strong determinant of dominance in some species but not others [11,28]. It is possible that body mass is significantly correlated with dominance in species where secondary-sexual ornamentations are less pronounced, and as a result, signalling is less clear. In such cases, body mass may become more of an important indicator of fitness. The hierarchy returning to its stable structure upon the removal of the additional mass load suggests that no carry-over or ‘memory' effects of mass loading persist and implies an instantaneous neurological feedback mechanism regarding changes in body mass (e.g. [29]).

It is possible that the addition of the extra mass to the backs of the subordinate birds aggravated or stressed the birds, causing them to exhibit higher levels of aggression. During the addition of the artificial mass, the subordinate birds did not show any obvious signs of aggravation at the lead weights attached to them, nor did they try to peck or remove them, either on themselves or on conspecifics (S.J.P. personal observation), suggesting this is an unlikely explanation for their increased aggression. Similarly, the composition of aggressive behaviours did not change between weighted and unweighted sessions, suggesting behaviours were not more focused on the back, where the weights were attached. An alternative explanation, however, is that the addition of artificial mass—although only for a short period—increased the energetic requirements of the weighted birds, thus requiring them to be more aggressive to ensure adequate access to food [30,31]. Such a theory is akin to ‘lead according to need', an idea which has previously linked to motivation and leadership in group behaviour [32].

Only males responded to the artificial mass loading by significantly increasing their aggressive behaviour, while females did not seemingly respond, suggesting that increasing aggression in response to artificial mass loading is sex specific. Previously, it has been demonstrated that injections of testosterone into male pigeons did not make male pigeons more aggressive or dominant, [33], yet a perceived possible increase in physiological condition through the addition of mass in the present study did elicit a response. This sex-specific response may be linked to competition for females, with female pigeons preferentially selecting males for partnering who hold dominant positions within a hierarchy [34]. An avenue worthy of further investigation is the impact that the pairing status of an individual has on their respective rank, as it has been previously demonstrated in birds that being paired increases your rank within a hierarchy [35,36].

The present study demonstrates the plasticity of aggressive traits, and the rapidity with which they can be modified based on physiological condition. Fruitful future investigations would be to ascertain the attributes that lead to greater body masses in wild-type scenarios and in turn greater dominance. The ‘prior attributes' hypothesis [8,27,28], for example, suggests hierarchies are predetermined by personality or physiological differences in dominance ability. This in turn may be linked to leadership during flocking and associated energy expenditure [37–40]. How natural seasonal variations in body mass [41–43] manifest in terms of dominance and general social behaviour would further explore the interactions between individual physiology, energetics and social behaviour. Moreover, experiments that supplementary feed specific individuals over a longer period of time to increase body mass may yield different results with respect to the changes in their respective ranks. Our study focused on only one flock of birds, and to determine the full nature of these instantaneous changes in body mass, further studies are needed with larger sample sizes, both in terms of number of flocks and sampling sessions where mass was added, and ideally additional species.

Consistent with the proposition that people need to exert autonomy over their decisions, prosocial behavior is most likely to lead to happiness when actors have chosen to provide help

Helping and Happiness: A Review and Guide for Public Policy. Lara B. Aknin  Ashley V. Whillans. Social Issues and Policy Review, August 6 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12069

Abstract: Perhaps one of the most reaffirming findings to emerge over the past several decades is that humans not only engage in generous behavior, they also appear to experience pleasure from doing so. Yet not all acts of helping lead to greater happiness. Here, we review the growing body of evidence showing that people engage in a wide array of prosocial behaviors (e.g., charitable giving, volunteering, blood/organ donation, offering advice, food sharing) which can promote positive emotions. Then, using self‐determination theory, a foundational theory of human motivation, we consider when and how generous actions are most likely to boost the helper's happiness—and when they are not. Finally, we leverage these insights to consider how public policy and organizations can apply this information to make prosocial action more emotionally rewarding for citizens and employees alike.

Rather than the crisis fundamentally changing people psychologically, genetic differences between individuals seem to play a fundamental role in shaping psychological & behavioural responses to the COVID-19 crisis

Genetic correlates of psychological responses to the COVID-19 crisis in young adult twins in Great Britain. Kaili Rimfeld et al. Aug 2020. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-31853/v1

Abstract: We investigated how the COVID-19 crisis and the extraordinary experience of lockdown affected young adults in England and Wales psychologically. One month after lockdown commenced (T2), we assessed 30 psychological and behavioural traits in 4,000 twins in their mid-twenties and compared their responses to the same traits assessed in 2018 (T1). Mean changes from T1 to T2 were modest and inconsistent: just as many changes were in a positive as negative direction. Twin analyses revealed that genetics accounted for about half of the reliable variance at T1 and T2. Genetic factors correlated on average .86 between T1 and T2 and accounted for over half of the phenotypic stability. Systematic environmental influences had negligible impact on T1, T2 or T2 change. Rather than the crisis fundamentally changing people psychologically, our results suggest that genetic differences between individuals play a fundamental role in shaping psychological and behavioural responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

Keywords: COVID-19, lockdown, psychological and behavioural traits, twins, young adults, England and Wales


Discussion

How much has the COVID-19 crisis changed young adults psychologically following the unprecedented social experiment of one month of lockdown? As expected, the 30 measures in our study yielded many statistically significant changes in means. The largest changes in the negative direction were reduced volunteering and achievement motivation and increased hyperactivity-inattention. However, there were as many changes in the positive direction, most notably, reduced verbal peer victimisation. Changes were similar in direction and magnitude for males and females, with the single exception of general anxiety, which increased more for females than males. However, most of these mean changes have modest effect sizes, with an average d of 0.24. Although we expected that the crisis would affect some individuals more than others, we found no increase in variance at T2.  It is possible that the effects of the crisis will hit harder later or that longer lockdown or the economic aftermath of the crisis will have a greater effect. We will investigate these possibilities with three follow-up surveys during 2020.

Why do these young adults in Great Britain show modest negative effect on average after being in lockdown for one month when it is generally assumed that the psychological effects will be substantial? Part of the answer is that research often focuses on statistical significance and mean differences rather than considering effect size and individual differences. With our large sample size, nearly all variables show significant mean differences, but they don’t make much of a difference, accounting for less than two percent of the variance on average. Another reason might be methodological. In the present study we did not focus on participants’ subjective reports of how the COVID-19 crisis changed them. Instead, at T2, we asked participants to report, for example, how depressed they felt during the month following lockdown, which we compared to their reports of depression on the same measures in 2018. We found no difference in depression on average.

Other reasons why we found few negative effects of the COVID-19 crisis could be that the lockdown was so widespread (we’re all in it together spirit?) or that our participants are British (stiff upper lip?) or that they are young adults (resilience? insouciance?). Concerning the insouciance hypothesis, we asked participants at T2 how much they were worried about their physical health and mental health during the month since lockdown. The frequency of those reporting that they were moderately, very, or extremely worried was 38% for physical health and 57% for mental health. In other words, they were, quite reasonably, worried, although on average they did not change psychologically, including their symptoms of general anxiety. This can be viewed as a hopeful message that young people on average, are resilient psychologically to an experience as seismic as COVID-19 and lockdown, although these mean differences mask individual differences to the COVID-19 and lockdown. It remains to be seen if similar results emerge in other countries, at other ages and after longer exposure to the crisis and its aftermath.

The focus of our study was on individual differences rather than mean differences. How much has COVID-19 shuffled the deck of individual differences? The rank order of individual differences was largely stable from T1 to T2, with stability accounting for about 70% of the reliable variance at T1 and T2 on average across the measures. From a genetic perspective, the most interesting finding was that the average genetic correlation was 0.86, indicating that genetic effects at T1 were highly correlated with genetic effects at T2, despite the intervening COVID-19 crisis and lockdown. It is also interesting that T2 changes, which are independent of T1, show genetic influence.

We conclude that inherited DNA differences are the major systematic force shaping individual differences in psychological traits at T2 as well as at T1. Genetic effects account for about half of the reliable psychological differences between people at T1 and T2. The environment accounts for the rest of the variance, but it is not the systematic effect of environmental factors often assumed to be important, such as shared family environment. Environmental factors of this systematic sort had negligible effects on variance at T1 and T2 and for T2 change. The environmental effects that make a difference are those that are not shared by twin siblings growing up in the same family or, in our study, by twins locked down together. These idiosyncratic ‘non-shared’ environmental factors are likely to be unsystematic, chance experiences (Plomin, 2018).

Our results confirmed seven of our eight pre-registered (https://osf.io/r58be/) hypotheses. This speaks to the replicability of findings from behavioural genetic research on which these hypotheses were based, which is noteworthy given the replication crisis in science in general and in psychology in particular (Plomin et al., 2016). The exception was the hypothesis that variance at T2 would be greater than at T1, which was a prediction not based on behavioural genetic research. The consistency of results from T1 to T2 also attests to the replicability of research in behavioural genetics.

Concluding that inherited DNA differences are the major systematic force shaping who we are psychologically does not imply that novel environmental interventions, including therapeutic interventions, cannot make a difference. It should be emphasised that heritability does not imply immutability.

Heritability is a descriptive statistic limited to a particular population at a particular time with a particular mix of genetic and environmental influences. Our study can be seen as an attempt to assess whether heritability changed as a function of a tectonic shift in environment, the COVID-19 crisis.

Concluding that the COVID-19 crisis has not fundamentally changed these young people psychologically is not to dismiss the pain some of them felt before or during the crisis, or will continue to feel after the crisis ends. Even though the crisis had little effect on means and even less effect on variances and covariances, genetically driven psychological vulnerabilities are especially important targets for preventive interventions in young adults because the twenties is a pluripotent tipping point for life-long psychological problems (Arnett, 2014; Smith et al., 2011).

Imagining the future, remembering the past: Future events were simulated at proportionally higher speed than past events; the density of experience units representing the unfolding of events was lower for future episodes

The temporal compression of events during episodic future thinking. Olivier Jeunehomme, Nathan Leroy, Arnaud D'Argembeau. Cognition, August 6 2020, 104416. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104416

Highlights
• The unfolding of real-world events is temporally compressed in future simulations.
• Compression rates are higher for future than past events.
• Compression rates are lower for actions than spatial displacements.
• Temporal compression depends on the density of represented experience units.
• Experience units serve as an index for estimating past and future event durations.

Abstract: While the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie episodic future thinking are increasingly well understood, little is known about how the temporal unfolding of events is represented in future simulations. In this study, we leveraged wearable camera technology to examine whether real-world events are structured and compressed in the same way when imagining the future as when remembering the past. We found that future events were simulated at proportionally higher speed than past events and that the density of experience units representing the unfolding of events was lower for future than for past episodes. Despite these differences, the nature of events influenced compression rates in the same way for past and future events. Furthermore, the perceived duration of both types of events depended on the density of represented experience units. These results provide novel insight into the mechanisms that structure the unfolding of events during future simulations.

Keywords: Episodic memoryEpisodic future thinkingTemporal compressionTime estimationWearable camera

Trait mindfulness do not reliably translate into a pattern of healthful behaviours in general, although trait mindfulness shows a stronger associations with health behaviours under certain conditions

Trait mindfulness and health behaviours: a meta-analysis. Margarita Sala ,Catherine Rochefort,P. Priscilla Lui &Austin S. Baldwin. Health Psychology Review, Volume 14, 2020 - Issue 3, Pages 345-393, Aug 11 2019. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2019.1650290

ABSTRACT: Mindfulness is defined as bringing one’s attention to present-moment experience with acceptance, and is associated with engagement in various health behaviours. To synthesise and evaluate this literature, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analytic review and examined (a) the associations between trait mindfulness and health behaviours and (b) the extent to which these associations were moderated by study and individual differences. A total of 125 independent samples were included (N = 31,697, median male percentage = 38.8%, median age = 28.3). A multilevel random-effects model was used to estimate summary study-level effect sizes, and multilevel mixed-effects models were used to examine moderator effects. Mindfulness had a positive and small association with aggregated health behaviours (r = .08). Mindfulness was positively associated with physical activity, healthy eating, and sleep (rs = .08–.14), and negatively associated with alcohol use (r = −.06). Effects were larger for health promoting behaviours, the acting with awareness facet of mindfulness, and samples involving psychiatric patients. Although findings indicate that individual differences in trait mindfulness do not reliably translate into a pattern of healthful behaviours in general, trait mindfulness shows a stronger associations with health behaviours under certain conditions.

KEYWORDS: Mindfulness, physical activity, healthy eating, sleep, substance use

Increasing Population Densities Predict Decreasing Fertility Rates over Time: A 174-nation Investigation

Rotella, Amanda M., Michael E. W. Varnum, PhD, Oliver Sng, and Igor Grossmann. 2020. “Increasing Population Densities Predict Decreasing Fertility Rates over Time: A 174-nation Investigation.” PsyArXiv. August 5. doi:10.31234/osf.io/zpc7t

Abstract: Fertility rates have been declining worldwide over the past five centuries, part of a phenomenon known as “the demographic transition”. Prior work suggests that this decline is related to population density, however to date this work has either been largely atheoretical or cross sectional. We draw on life history theory to examine the relationship between population density and fertility over time both within and between countries across 174 countries over 69 years (1950 to 2019) using annual data. Using state-of-the-art methods, we find a robust relationship between density and fertility; increased population densities are associated with lower fertility rates, controlling for a variety of socioeconomic, socioecological, geographic, cultural, population-based, and female empowerment related variables. Importantly, we also generate predictions about the conditions in which this effect should be stronger vs. weaker. Consistent with these predictions, we find that where conditions are harsh and favor engagement in shorter-term strategies (i.e., high homicide rates, low GDP per capita, high economic inequality, and high pathogen prevalence), the effect of increased population density on fertility rates is attenuated. We also find that the density-fertility relationship is moderated by religiousness and strength of social norms. These findings shed new light on why, and under what conditions, rising population densities influence fertility rates.

Intelligence manifests itself in the brain in breaking a problem down into multiple subtasks, which are worked on in widely distributed processing units, showing signs of being focused on the common plan

Integrated Intelligence from Distributed Brain Activity. John Duncan, Moataz Assem, Sneha Shashidhara. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, August 5 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2020.06.012

Highlights
.  Fluid intelligence tests predict success in many activities, suggesting cognitive mechanisms of broad importance.
.  We propose a core process of attentional integration. Complex problems must be segmented into simpler parts. Attention to each part integrates cognitive fragments into a computational structure.
.  Fluid intelligence is linked to the brain’s multiple-demand (MD) system, defined by common activity across different cognitive demands. Across the brain, MD patches shows anatomical and physiological properties adapted to attentional integration.
.  Neurophysiology of putative MD regions shows adaptive coding of task-relevant information. Suiting attentional integration, many neurons show conjunctive coding (e.g., binding cognitive operations to their target objects).
.  In broad outline, these results suggest how distributed brain activity builds organized cognition.

Abstract: How does organized cognition arise from distributed brain activity? Recent analyses of fluid intelligence suggest a core process of cognitive focus and integration, organizing the components of a cognitive operation into the required computational structure. A cortical ‘multiple-demand’ (MD) system is closely linked to fluid intelligence, and recent imaging data define nine specific MD patches distributed across frontal, parietal, and occipitotemporal cortex. Wide cortical distribution, relative functional specialization, and strong connectivity suggest a basis for cognitive integration, matching electrophysiological evidence for binding of cognitive operations to their contents. Though still only in broad outline, these data suggest how distributed brain activity can build complex, organized cognition.

Keywords: intelligenceattentioncognitive controlbrain networksneural coding

Concluding Remarks and Future Directions

Many issues are raised by the integration account. Here we discuss two: the interface of short-term cognitive activity and long-term knowledge, and the nature of attentional capacity limitations.

As implied by our discussion of positive manifold, a core question is interface between on-line cognition and long-term knowledge. As in classical symbolic artificial intelligence (e.g., [97]), a complex problem is divided into simple parts on the basis of long-term knowledge of the structure of the world and relations within it. It is knowledge that tells us how travel to Japan can be divided into component steps, how a useful move can be made in proving a mathematical theorem, or where we should look in seeking a solution to a spatial puzzle. In the brain, knowledge that might shape current cognition is distributed across multiple brain systems. Semantic memory, for example, may be based around a proposed hub in the temporal pole [98], while episodic memory, spatial knowledge, and social knowledge are linked to distinct components of the default mode network [99]. To understand MD activity in constructing solutions to cognitive problems, we need to know how multiple aspects of knowledge feed into this process. Again, this is reminiscent of the widespread connectivity of MD regions (Figure 5) and our finding that multiple networks have representatives in the MD penumbra.

In classical artificial intelligence, problem solutions were often built up in an unlimited working memory, keeping track of a progressively more complex structure of goals and subgoals. For biological cognition this is not plausible; for goals such as travel to Japan or solving a scientific problem, only a small fraction can be represented in active neural firing at any one time, with the rest of the structure in long-term memory, ready for retrieval when required. At the same time, the current active focus of attention must remain bound to the long-term structure, so that, for example, a failure to progress to a goal by one route can trigger a search for an alternative. The issue is reminiscent of recent biological accounts of working memory, combining active neural firing with storage through short-term synaptic change [100,101]. It is presently unknown how the focus of attention in active cognition can be situated within a complex, long-term representation of the larger-scale problem.

A further open issue concerns the well-known capacity limitations of ‘attention’, reflected in difficulty carrying out several tasks at once [102,103]. Shared demands on MD activity could provide an obvious basis for such limits and, indeed, various authors have linked capacity limitations to the functions of frontal and parietal cortex [16,22,104,105]. Such proposals find support in neurophysiological studies, showing that, in frontal and parietal cortex, there is interference between representations of different visual stimuli [106], working memory items [107], or task components [86,108]. Further work is needed, however, to understand the physiological basis of this interference. In the visual system, capacity limits in representing multiple stimuli are thought to arise through a process of competition or divisive normalization [109., 110., 111.]. In such models, each stimulus attempts to drive the activity of a neuron to a particular value, appropriate to representing the properties of this stimulus; with multiple stimuli in the field, opposing forces bring activity to a compromise value, reducing the fidelity of representation for any one. Similar patterns can be seen in the visual responses of prefrontal neurons [112,113], raising the possibility that divisive normalization is a general principle in MD cortex. Recurrent neural networks have become popular as models of working memory and cognitive control (e.g., [114]), and in a recent model, divisive normalization is the basis for limited working memory capacity [115]. Further experimental work is needed to test whether divisive normalization models may be extended to the broader attentional limits of MD activity and cognitive control.

Of course, our account of cognitive integration leaves much unknown. That said, like an early map of the globe, it provides an outline sketch of how distributed brain activity can assemble complex cognition. This sketch, we suggest, provides the skeleton we need to guide future, more detailed physiological study (see Outstanding Questions).

Outstanding Questions

How do different MD regions interact? Across the extended MD system, we know little of the dynamics of information representation and exchange during task performance. The very different connectivities of MD regions imply separate functional contributions to cognitive integration, but in fMRI, the dominant picture is one of corecruitment. This picture may reflect the low temporal resolution of fMRI, rendering the method blind to high-speed information development and exchange. Elucidating how task-relevant information arises and is distributed across the network calls for simultaneous electrophysiological recordings in separate MD regions, either in experimental animals or patients implanted for intracranial recordings.

How does MD activity bind together coherent processing across multiple brain regions? Again, this calls for electrophysiological studies, addressing questions that include directional information flow at different stages of a cognitive operation, and the role of precise timing relations (e.g., oscillatory synchrony) across brain regions.

How are brief segments of cognition combined into complex goal–subgoal structures? For example, we know little of how sustained goal maintenance directs brain activity in pursuit of a series of subgoals. Especially for complex behavior, a critical question is interaction between immediate cognitive activity and long-term knowledge of goals, subgoals, and their relationships.

What is the role of prominent MD foci seen outside cerebral cortex, especially in caudate and cerebellum? Almost nothing is known of cortical-subcortical and cerebro-cerebellar interaction as cognitive operations are carried out. High-field imaging may bring the spatial resolution needed for studies of small subcortical structures.

Creative behaviors seem to yield survival & reproductive benefits; however, individuals often have to violate social norms; this deviance entails consequences detrimental for both survival and reproduction

The paradox of creativity. Eric Bonetto et al. New Ideas in Psychology, Volume 60, January 2021, 100820. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2020.100820

Highlights
• Creative behaviors seem to yield survival and reproductive benefits.
• However, to be creative, individuals often have to violate social norms.
• This deviance entails consequences detrimental for both survival and reproduction.
• We propose to call this paradox the paradox of creativity.

Abstract: Creativity seems to yield survival and reproductive benefits. Creative behaviors allow individuals to solve problems in new and appropriate ways, and thus to promote their survival. They also facilitate bonding and constitute a signal of one's fitness, favoring attraction of mates. However, to be creative, individuals often have to violate social norms in order to promote change. So far, this deviance induced by creative behaviors had not been seen as an adaptive disadvantage. This deviance entails negative consequences as social exclusion or ostracism, which are detrimental for both survival (e.g., reduced access to resources within the group) and reproduction (reduced reproductive fitness). Thus, the adaptive benefits yielded by creativity have to be nuanced by these potential disadvantages. The paradox of creativity proposes a finer-grained vision of the adaptive reasons why creativity has been maintained within the human species, has evolved, and is collectively regulated. Research perspectives are also proposed.

Keywords: Evolutionary perspectiveCreativityParadox of creativity