Fatherhood Is Associated with Increased Infidelity In The Current Relationship

Fatherhood Is Associated with Increased Infidelity and Moderates the Link between Relationship Satisfaction and Infidelity. Tim Jonas Lacker, Andreas Walther, Patricia Waldvogel and Ulrike Ehlert. Psych 2020, 2(4), 370-384, December 21 2020. https://doi.org/10.3390/psych2040027

Abstract

Background: Relationship satisfaction has been identified as an important factor in terms of extradyadic sexual involvement. However, in men, fatherhood might be associated with infidelity by leading to changes in relationship satisfaction and the social life of parents. To date, no study has focused on the association of fatherhood and infidelity, nor the influence of fatherhood on the association between relationship satisfaction and infidelity.

Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, 137 fathers and 116 non-fathers were assessed regarding relationship satisfaction, infidelity, and potential confounds.

Results: Significantly more fathers reported having been unfaithful in the current relationship than non-fathers (30.7% vs. 17.2%). Fathers also reported longer relationship duration, higher relationship satisfaction, and lower neuroticism than non-fathers. Furthermore, fatherhood moderated the association between relationship satisfaction and infidelity insofar that only in non-fathers reduced relationship satisfaction was associated with infidelity.

Conclusions: The results suggest that fatherhood increases the risk of engaging in extradyadic sexual activities and moderates the link between relationship satisfaction and infidelity. However, results need to be interpreted with caution due to the cross-sectional study design and the lack of information about the specific time point of the infidelity incident(s).

Keywords: infidelity; unfaithfulness; relationship satisfaction; fatherhood; men

4. Discussion

The present study examined the relationship between fatherhood and infidelity, as well as the effect of fatherhood on the association between relationship satisfaction and infidelity. Since infidelity is one of the leading causes of relationship termination causing severe psychological distress in many individuals [6]. This issue is highly relevant in order to achieve a better understanding of the determinants leading to infidelity and to foster the prevention of infidelity.

The results showed increased infidelity in fathers as compared to non-fathers. This is surprising at first glance when considering the investment model, which suggests high investment and commitment for the relationship in fathers resulting in higher relationship satisfaction and a reduced risk for infidelity [15,16]. Previous research also indicates no association between the number of children or parenthood and infidelity, although the available studies are either limited to non-married individuals, used the actual number of children as predictors, while none of the studies focused on fatherhood, relationship satisfaction, and infidelity [31,32,33,34]. However, relationship satisfaction of the couple commonly declines as soon as the child is born [26,27,63]. Furthermore, fathers show an increase in depressive symptoms during the first phase after birth and a residual amount of symptomatology over the first seven years of their child’s life [64,65,66]. We argue that during this time, when the child needs a lot of the parental attention and the relationship satisfaction of the couple is challenged, men are at an increased risk for infidelity. This is supported by research showing couples transitioning to parents. For men, the frequency of sex is significantly more relevant than for women and that infrequent sex is associated with sexual and relationship dissatisfaction in men, but not women [67]. Although, it is known that paternity has several negative consequences for the relationship and the sexual life of fathers and mothers, this is more likely in couples with small children, while couples with older children such as eight years or older do not experience the same challenges anymore and regain some of the lost relationship and sexual satisfaction [63]. On the other hand, it has also been suggested that in couples without children, relationship satisfaction is very low, the relationship is terminated more quickly, while parents are more likely to stay together despite difficulties for the sake of the children [68]. However, this in turn might be associated with an increased risk of infidelity in fathers during difficult relationship periods. Unnoticed needs of fathers during the transition to fatherhood may thus lead to reduced relationship satisfaction resulting in an increased risk for infidelity.

In the present study, fathers showed higher relationship satisfaction than non-fathers. This contradicted previous research, which showed reduced relationship satisfaction in couples transitioning to parents or with young children [26,27,69]. However, our findings support a previously identified U-shaped relation between relationship satisfaction and age of the children in fathers with a decreased relationship satisfaction after birth of the first child and an increase after the child’s age of eight years [63,70]. When considering the characteristics of the present sample (e.g., average age of 47.5 years, average duration of intimate relationship 13.6 years, most of the fathers fathering two or more children), it was evident that many fathers were in the later phase of fatherhood, where relationship satisfaction increased again and even surpassed the relationship satisfaction of the childless couples [70]. Taking another perspective, extramarital sexual activities might positively influence relationship satisfaction in fathers. One could hypothesize that the higher relationship satisfaction for fathers, despite higher rates of infidelity, represents a cognitive coping mechanism to diminish cognitive dissonance after engaging in extramarital sexual activities. Moreover, a form of idealization of the family might play an important role here, since several of the included fathers were part of a study specifically focused on fatherhood [24]. A further possible explanation for the incongruent finding is that lower sexual satisfaction within the relationship may be compensated by extradyadic sexual activity [71]. This, in turn, might result in higher relationship satisfaction within the primary relationship due to the fulfillment of the aspired sexual activity. However, this explanation does not take into account feelings of guilt, and further research is therefore needed to clarify whether guilt has an impact on this association.

In addition, the results show a moderating effect of fatherhood on the association between relationship satisfaction and infidelity. In other words, the effect of relationship satisfaction on infidelity depends on if the participant was a father. More specifically, only in non-fathers was lower relationship satisfaction associated with increased infidelity. This effect can be interpreted according to the mate switching hypothesis, which suggests that non-fathers engage less in extradyadic sexual activities as long as the relationship is perceived as satisfying, while more quickly seeking a new partner in the face of relationship dissatisfaction [19]. This strategy is less appealing to fathers, since changing partners would require a great deal of adaptation with regard to the children involved. Therefore, the link between relationship satisfaction and infidelity among fathers seems to dissolve. Many parent couples come to the point to ask themselves whether it is better to stay in an unsatisfying and conflictual relation for the sake of the children or to separate [68]. And because there is no definite answer to this question, many parents decide to stay in the relationship and within this framework to satisfy their needs as good as possible, which in fathers are also often sexual needs and thus contribute to an increased risk of infidelity [67].

Additionally, the results revealed a discrepancy between directly and indirectly reported infidelity, which was particularly apparent among the fathers. According to the indirect questioning, significantly more fathers had engaged in extradyadic sexual activities than non-fathers (36.6% vs. 21.8%). The reported rates of infidelity are in line with the literature. For instance, Allen et al. [72] reported that around a quarter of married men have engaged in infidelity, with this rate rising to almost 50% in dating relationships [73]. The findings are also consistent with a more recent study from Germany, in which heterosexual men reported infidelity rates of 49% [12]. As most of the participants in this study were married, a rate of just over 30% was seen as representative for the investigated population of Swiss men.

Age and length of relation were positively correlated with infidelity. As the majority of the participants had been married or in a relationship for more than one year, with a mean relationship length of 13.6 years, their relationships can be considered as long-term, which has been shown to increases the risk for infidelity [25]. Fathers and non-fathers did not significantly differ with regard to age, and fathers showed significantly longer relationship length (16.5 years vs. 10.2 years). This was likely contributed to the identified group difference with regard to infidelity. From an evolutionary perspective, higher infidelity rates in longer relationships or older age might be interpreted as a form of ensuring the passing on of genes to as many partners as possible and thus increasing evolutionary fitness. Within the evolutionary psychology framework, another interpretation may be provided by the sexual strategies theory [74], according to which men (and women) follow distinct strategies for short- and long-term sexual relationships, which have evolved during an evolutionary process. Both sexes face different adaptive problems, which they try to solve by weighing up costs and benefits adapted to the needs of the respective situation, i.e., short- or long-term sexual mating. For instance, distress promotes more short-term mating strategies. In contrast to the evolutionary perspective, dissatisfaction and neglect are covariates of sexual motivation for infidelity [75], which might become significantly more important in early fatherhood due to the fact that a couple might experience a shift in lifestyle and responsibilities.

Taken together, we explain the observed findings in such a way that fathers show a substantially reduced relationship satisfaction during the early phases of paternity (e.g., first seven years) and, at the same time, show an increased risk of infidelity. However, since most couples do not want to separate because of their children, this difficult time is eventually overcome followed by an increase in relationship quality and satisfaction. In addition, by raising the children as a couple, one is proud and stronger connected with each other, further leading to increased relationship satisfaction in later phases. Therefore, it will be important for future research to concomitantly map the temporal dynamics of the likelihood of infidelity [34,35] and relationship satisfaction [63,70] over the course of transitioning to parents and raising children to adulthood.

4.1. Limitations and Strengths

The current study had several distinct limitations and strengths. First, infidelity was only assessed with the question of engagement in extradyadic sexual activities, without defining the exact boundaries of “sexual activities”; thus, it was left to the participants’ interpretation how sexual activities are defined. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to assume that the subjective perception of the committing partner is crucial in terms of effects on relationship satisfaction and well-being. However, infidelity was also examined in an indirect way, and thus anonymously, which enabled us to control for social desirability. Furthermore, the question about infidelity did not ask whether infidelity occurred before or exactly when after the birth of the child, and also did not ask about the exact number of incidents or the amount of extradyadic sexual partners. Thus, future research needs to address this issue and capture as precise as possible the time of the extradyadic sexual activity. Another shortcoming of the study is the lack of information about the age of the children, although the number of children was assessed and added as a covariate the age of the oldest child is particularly relevant to identify the period of increased relationship strain due to the first newborn and the period when relationship satisfaction starts to increase again.

Despite these limitations, the study also had several strengths. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to explicitly focus on the topic of fatherhood, infidelity, and relationship satisfaction. Moreover, we investigated a rather large sample of 253 men, and used validated questionnaires and measurements that enables us to control for possible confounding variables. The questionnaires enabled us to specifically target potentially influencing personality traits and aspects of mental health as covariates. The relatively large sample size allowed for the generalization of the results. Finally, the study investigated indirect effects, which can be regarded as strengths, since infidelity is a complex behavior encompassing multiple aspects. Thus, the measurement of indirect effects enables deeper insights into mechanisms and is more appropriate due to the consideration of the complexity of the behavior.

4.2. Implications

This investigation extended the knowledge about infidelity, especially for fathers. Couples confronted with infidelity experience severe distress. The discovery of infidelity is a critical life event and can cause PTSD-like symptoms with increased anxiety or depression [12,44]. Therefore, it is crucial to provide information about this topic within couples’ therapy. In particular, fathers or expectant fathers and their partners should be educated about relationship changes within fatherhood and the distress this might cause, in order to adequately prepare the expectant parents and prevent infidelity.

Are Men Who Buy Sex Different from Men Who Do Not?: Exploring Sex Life Characteristics Based on a Randomized Population Survey in Sweden

Are Men Who Buy Sex Different from Men Who Do Not?: Exploring Sex Life Characteristics Based on a Randomized Population Survey in Sweden. Charlotte Deogan, Elin Jacobsson, Louise Mannheimer & Charlotte Björkenstam. Archives of Sexual Behavior, Dec 22 2020. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-020-01843-3

Abstract: The buying and selling of sex is a topic of frequent discussion and a relevant public health issue. Studies of sex workers are available, while studies addressing the demand side of sex are scarce, especially based on robust population data. The current study provides national estimates of the prevalence of and factors associated with having paid for sex among men in Sweden. We used a randomized population-based survey on sexual and reproductive health and rights among ages 16–84 years, linked to nationwide registers. The sample consisted of 6048 men. With a logistic regression, we analyzed what sex life factors were associated with ever having paid for or given other types of compensation for sex. A total of 9.5% of male respondents reported ever having paid for sex. An increased probability of having paid for sex was identified in men who were dissatisfied with their sex life (aOR: 1.72; 95% CI: 1.34–2.22), men reporting having had less sex than they would have liked to (aOR: 2.78; 95% CI: 2.12–3.66), men who had ever looked for or met sex partners online (aOR: 5.07; 95% CI: 3.97–6.46), as well as frequent pornography users (aOR: 3.02; 95% CI: 2.28–3.98) Associations remained statistically significant after adjustment for age, income, and educational attainment. Sex life characteristics such as poor sex life satisfaction, high online sex activity, and frequent pornography use are strongly associated with sex purchase. These findings can help guide and support counselling and prevention activities targeting sex buyers.

Discussion

In this study, we took advantage of unique data from the randomized population-based survey SRHR2017, linked with Sweden’s extensive and high-quality nationwide administrative registers, to identify the proportion of men ever having paid or given other types of compensation for sex in Sweden. Our results confirms that the proportion of men reporting ever having paid for sex in our survey (9.5%) is comparable to previous studies and with other Nordic as well as western European countries (Haavio-Mannila & Rotkirch, 2000; Jones et al., 2015; Schei & Stigum, 2010). The age-group with the highest proportion of men having paid for sex was men above the age of 45 years (11%), and men 30–44 years (10%) reported a similar proportion. The lowest proportion was reported among men 16–29 years of age. It is unclear whether this is due to the question, which provides us with a lifetime prevalence that naturally increases with age, or that sex purchase became illegal in Sweden in 1999.

Our results regarding education and income of buyers also confirm previous studies (BRÅ, 2008; Priebe & Svedin, 2011), that buyers are from different socioeconomic backgrounds and educational level is not associated with having paid for sex. However, having a very low income seem to be associated with having paid for sex, which may indicate underlying vulnerability and deprivation. This contradicts the findings of Priebe and Svedin (2011) and Milrod and Monto (2017) that a higher proportion of buyers had high income. This could potentially be due to differences in the participant characteristics since Priebe and Svedin (2011) was based on an online panel which in Sweden usually tends to hold a larger proportion of males, and individuals that are better educated and have higher incomes than the population in general (Bosnjak et al., 2013).

To our knowledge, no study based on a randomized population based survey has explored the relationship between sex life satisfaction and sex purchase, however it does seem reasonable to assume dissatisfaction drives demand, including having less sex than one would have liked to. In our findings, we see a strong association between having looked for or met sex partners online and sex purchase. Our results confirm previous findings that buyers do use internet and/or mobile apps for sexual activity to a higher extent than non-buyers (Monto & Milrod, 2014; Priebe & Svedin, 2011).

Our results show a strong statistically significant association between frequent pornography use and ever having paid for sex. Swedish research has shown that frequent pornography users also have higher levels of risk taking such as alcohol and drug use as well as higher sexual risk taking such as early sex debut and experiences of selling sex, in comparison with non-frequent pornography users (Mattebo, Tydén, Häggström-Nordin, Nilsson, & Larsson, 2013; Svedin, Akerman, & Priebe, 2010).

In all, sex life dissatisfaction and not having as much sex as one would have preferred, as well as online sexual activity and frequent pornography use are strongly associated with having paid for sex among Swedish men. This tells us that these individuals differ from men not having paid for sex in terms of sex life characteristics. It also gives us an indication that they may differ in terms of other factors related to sex life and sexual risk taking but it remains unclear how. Need for intimacy and social dimensions could also play a role (Birch & Braun-Harvey, 2019; Monto & Milrod, 2014). These insights are of importance in the prevention of disease and promotion of sexual health. The understanding of who pays for sex and why is key to reduce demand of sexual services and is of importance not only for law enforcement but also for public health interventions and support activities targeted toward both people paying for and people receiving money or other compensation for sex.

The strengths of this study include the use of the unique data SRHR2017, enriched with high-quality nationwide register data. In prior research, information on sex life factors such as satisfaction, pornography use and online partners is lacking while in our study the results contribute to the understanding of mechanisms driving demand for sex. Some study limitations needs to be taken into consideration in contextualizing the results. First, while the SRHR2017 is a population based sample, the response rate was 31% (i.e., 14,500 participants). Non-response might have biased our results, because many people resist disclosing information about sensitive topics such as sexual activities and experiences of illegal actions. Hence, our outcome measure is likely to be underreported. The outcome measure was “Have you ever paid or given other compensation for sex?” A total of 9.5% of men reported ever having paid for sex, of which 2.8% (of the 9.5%) reported having paid for sex during the past year. However, the question was unfortunately vaguely formulated, where all options was put together in the same question. Hence, we cannot differ between non-response and a selected “no” response. Only 0.26% of all men reported they had purchased sex within the last 12 months, hence we chose not to use this estimate in our analyses. It is unclear as to what extent this may include online purchases since the question did not define online versus offline. Second, the variable of sex life satisfaction referred to the past year, while the rest of our variables measured lifetime prevalence. This is a limitation that sets back our possibility to identify correlations to recent sex purchase. Thirdly, in our study, we have no information on relationship status, which would have helped us further in the understanding of the results.

Various indicators of moral character (justice sensitivity, moral value, & moral identity) predicted harsher judgments of others’ than own transgressions, specially when people possessed strong "reputation management" motivation

Dong, Mengchen, Tom Kupfer, and Jan-Willem van Prooijen. 2020. “Being Good to Look Good: Moral Character Is Positively Associated with Hypocrisy Among Reputation-seeking Individuals.” PsyArXiv. December 22. doi:10.31234/osf.io/s4c6y

Abstract: Moral character is widely believed to guide a moral and prosocial life, navigating individuals through decisions about right or wrong. People with a strong moral character therefore may not be expected to behave hypocritically, by imposing stringent moral standards on others but not on themselves. But from an evolutionary perspective, moral character partly functions to maintain a positive reputation, prompting a motivation to appear moral. This account does predict a positive association between moral character and hypocrisy, particularly for individuals who are strongly motivated to gain a positive reputation. Three studies (employing vignettes, large-scale multination panel data, and a behavioral experiment) revealed that various indicators of moral character (justice sensitivity, moral value, and moral identity) predicted harsher judgments of others’ than own transgressions. These self-other discrepancies emerged particularly when people possessed strong reputation management motives. The findings highlight how reputational concerns moderate the link between moral character and moral judgment.

Rolf Degen summarizing... Groups are as susceptible to "choice blindness" as individuals, failing to notice that they had been given false feedback about their previous choices, making the case for the planted ones

Pärnamets, Philip, Jorina von Zimmermann, Ramsey Raafat, Gabriel Vogel, Lars Hall, Nick Chater, and Petter Johansson. 2020. “Choice Blindness and Choice-induced Preference Change in Groups.” PsyArXiv. December 22. doi:10.31234/osf.io/zut93

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1341427051413327872

Abstract: Contrary to common belief, our preferences do not only shape our decisions but are also shaped by what decisions we make. This effect, known as choice-induced preference change, has been extensively studied in individuals. Here we document choice-induced preference change in groups. We do so by using the choice-blindness paradigm, a method by which participants are given false feedback about their past choices. Participants are given a second round of choices following the choice blindness manipulation´measuring preference change resulting from accepting the manipulation. In Experiment 1 (N=83), we introduce a roommate selection task used in this paper and use it to replicate choice-induced preference change using choice-blindness in individuals. In Experiment 2 (N=160), dyad members made mutual choices in the roommate selection task and then receive either veridical or false feedback about what choice they made. The majority of the false feedback trials were accepted by the dyads as their own choices, thereby demonstrating choice blindness in dyads for the first time. Dyads exhibited choice-induced preference change and were more likely to choose the originally rejected option on trials where they accepted the manipulation compared to control trials. In Experiment 3 (N=80), we show that the preference effect induced by the choice blindness manipulation at the group level does not generalize back to follow up choices made by individual participants when removed from the group. In all studies, response time analyses further support our conclusions. Choice-induced preference change exists for both individuals and groups, but the level at which the choice was made constrains the influence of that choice on later preferences.

Many people take an essentialist stance toward social categories, leading them to infer that being gay is genetically determined & not subject to free choice or moral responsibility, nor mutable & worth attempting to change

Kumar, Victor, Aditi Kodipady, and Liane Young. 2020. “A Psychological Account of the Unique Decline in Anti-gay Attitudes.” PsyArXiv. December 22. doi:10.31234/osf.io/rvp57

Abstract: Anti-gay attitudes have declined in the U.S. The magnitude, speed, and demographic scope of this change have been impressive especially in comparison with prejudice against other marginalized groups. We develop a psychological account of the unique decline in anti-gay bias in the context of background cultural and political conditions. We highlight two key psychological mechanisms: interpersonal connection and social category classification. First, many people have discovered that a close friend or family member or an admired individual is gay, motivating them to identify the harm and discrimination faced by the individual they know, and catalyzing moral consistency reasoning such that they generalize this interpersonal insight to strangers. Second, many people take an essentialist stance toward social categories, including sexual orientation, leading them to infer that being gay is genetically determined and not subject to free choice or moral responsibility, nor mutable and worth attempting to change. We contrast this to the relationship between essentialism and attitudes toward women and people of color, and provide an account of the difference. This psychological account has implications for the future decline of anti-gay attitudes, in the U.S. and other countries, along with the nascent decline of anti-trans attitudes.

From 2019... Two million faces detected from greater than 6 million photos: Much of the emotional variation at different places can be explained by a few factors such as openness

From 2019... Extracting human emotions at different places based on facial expressions and spatial clustering analysis. Yuhao Kang  Qingyuan Jia  Song Gao  Xiaohuan Zeng  Yueyao Wang  Stephan Angsuesser  Yu Liu  Xinyue Ye  Teng Fei. Transactions in GIS, June 18 2019. https://doi.org/10.1111/tgis.12552

Abstract: The emergence of big data enables us to evaluate the various human emotions at places from a statistical perspective by applying affective computing. In this study a novel framework for extracting human emotions from large‐scale georeferenced photos at different places is proposed. After the construction of places based on spatial clustering of user‐generated footprints collected from social media websites, online cognitive services are utilized to extract human emotions from facial expressions using state‐of‐the‐art computer vision techniques. Two happiness metrics are defined for measuring the human emotions at different places. To validate the feasibility of the framework, we take 80 tourist attractions around the world as an example and a happiness ranking list of places is generated based on human emotions calculated over 2 million faces detected from greater than 6 million photos. Different kinds of geographical contexts are taken into consideration to find out the relationship between human emotions and environmental factors. Results show that much of the emotional variation at different places can be explained by a few factors such as openness. The research offers insights into integrating human emotions to enrich the understanding of sense of place in geography and in place‐based GIS.

Reward processing is remarkably robust against brain damage; reward circuitry is also surprisingly robust against neurodegeneration

Nummenmaa, Lauri, and David Sander. 2020. “Reward and Emotion in the Brain.” PsyArXiv. December 22. doi:10.31234/osf.io/jvahk

Abstract: Pleasure and reward are central for motivation, learning, feeling and allostasis. Although reward is without any doubt an affective phenomenon, there is no consensus concerning its relationship with emotion. In this mini-review we discuss this conceptual issue both from the perspective of theories of reward and emotion as well as human systems neuroimaging. We first describe how the reward process can be understood and dissected as intertwined with the emotion process, in particular in light of the appraisal theories, and then discuss how different facets of the reward process can be studied using neuroimaging and neurostimulation techniques. We conclude that future work needs to focus on mapping the similarities and differences across stimuli and processes that lead to pleasures and rewards and propose that an integrative affective sciences approach would provide means for studying the emotional nature of reward.

Liberals show more Openness/Aesthetic Sensitivity, Intellect/Intellectual Curiosity, Compassion, & Withdrawal/Depression, as well as less Orderliness/Organization, Politeness, & Assertiveness

Beyond Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness: Testing links between lower‐level personality traits and American political orientation. Xiaowen Xu  Christopher J. Soto  Jason E. Plaks. Journal of Personality, December 21 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12613

Abstract

Introduction: Research has consistently revealed positive correlations between political liberalism and Openness to Experience, and between conservatism and Conscientiousness. Most of this research has made use of domain‐level models of the Big Five personality traits. Recent work suggests, however, that each Big Five trait domain can be divided into distinct aspects or facets, which offer more nuanced characterizations of each trait.

Methods: Across four studies (Ns ranging from 1,123 to 116,406), the present research examined the degree to which distinct lower‐level traits would be associated with meaningful differences in political orientation. United States residents completed two different hierarchical Big Five personality measures (the Big Five Aspect Scales and the Big Five Inventory‐2), as well as a range of measures of political orientation.

Results: Across both personality measures, liberal political orientation showed distinct positive associations with the lower‐level traits Openness/Aesthetic Sensitivity, Intellect/Intellectual Curiosity, Compassion, and Withdrawal/Depression, as well as distinct negative associations with Orderliness/Organization, Politeness, and Assertiveness.

Discussion: By examining individual differences at a higher level of granularity, these data provide insight into specific motivations that predispose individuals toward different ends of the political spectrum.

Perceiver’s Agreeableness & Extraversion were uniquely associated with liking targets; targets who expressed positive emotions, looked relaxed, were physically attractive, & looked healthy & energetic, were the most liked

Who likes whom? The interaction between perceiver personality and target look. Jan Erik Lönnqvist, Ville-Juhani Ilmarinen, Markku Verkasalo. Journal of Research in Personality, Volume 90, February 2021, 104044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2020.104044

Highlights

• We investigated determinants of liking at zero-acquaintance.

• Perceivers (N = 385) viewed portrait photographs of Targets (N = 146)

• Different perceivers were differently influenced by appearance cues.

• Targets who displayed non-Duchenne (fake) smiles were generally rated less favorably.

• Those high in N or C, but not those low in A, especially disliked fake smiles.

Abstract: We investigated determinants of liking at zero-acquaintance, focusing on individual differences in perceivers’ reactions to appearance cues. Perceivers (N = 385) viewed portrait photographs of Targets (N = 146). Perceiver’s Agreeableness and Extraversion were uniquely associated with liking targets. Targets who expressed positive emotions, looked relaxed, were physically attractive, and looked healthy and energetic, were the most liked. There were substantial individual differences in how Perceivers were influenced by appearance cues. For instance, Perceivers generally rated targets who displayed non-Duchenne (fake) smiles less favorably than targets who did not smile or targets who displayed Duchenne (authentic) smiles. However, non-Duchenne smiles elicited especially negative ratings from Perceivers high in Neuroticism or Conscientiousness, but not from Perceivers low in Agreeableness.

Keywords First impressionsZero-acquaintanceAttractivenessSmilingRelationship effects

What Makes Things Funny? An Integrative Review of the Antecedents of Laughter and Amusement

What Makes Things Funny? An Integrative Review of the Antecedents of Laughter and Amusement. Caleb Warren, Adam Barsky, A. Peter McGraw. Personality and Social Psychology Review, December 21, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868320961909

Abstract: Despite the broad importance of humor, psychologists do not agree on the basic elements that cause people to experience laughter, amusement, and the perception that something is funny. There are more than 20 distinct psychological theories that propose appraisals that characterize humor appreciation. Most of these theories leverage a subset of five potential antecedents of humor appreciation: surprise, simultaneity, superiority, a violation appraisal, and conditions that facilitate a benign appraisal. We evaluate each antecedent against the existing empirical evidence and find that simultaneity, violation, and benign appraisals all help distinguish humorous from nonhumorous experiences, but surprise and superiority do not. Our review helps organize a disconnected literature, dispel popular but inaccurate ideas, offers a framework for future research, and helps answer three long-standing questions about humor: what conditions predict laughter and amusement, what are the adaptive benefits of humor, and why do different people think vastly different things are humorous?

Keywords humor, laughter, comedy, amusement, emotion, positive psychology

IBM, 3M, PepsiCo Among Leading US Firms That House Chinese Communist Party Units: Leaked Database

IBM, 3M, PepsiCo Among Leading US Firms That House Chinese Communist Party Units: Leaked Database. Eva Fu. Epoch Times, December 22, 2020. https://www.theepochtimes.com/ibm-3m-pepsico-among-leading-us-firms-that-house-chinese-communist-party-units-leaked-database_3628066.html

Hundreds of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members are embedded within the Chinese divisions of major U.S. corporations, from IBM to PepsiCo to 3M, a leaked CCP-member database revealed.

The existence of Party units within foreign companies in China is hardly surprising, given that the regime mandates any organization with at least three CCP members to form a Party branch. But the 1.95 million CCP member list, which includes names, levels of education, ethnicity, and the Party branches they belong to, was to date the biggest revelation on the scale of the CCP’s influence on international companies.

Most of the members in the database are from the country’s southeastern coastal metropolis of Shanghai.

New York-headquartered tech firm IBM has at least two dozen Party units with 808 members in China.

3M, a manufacturer of consumer and health care goods, including N95 respirators and other medical products critical to preventing COVID-19 spread, employs at least 230 CCP members within five Party units.

PepsiCo, the multinational snack and beverage company, has 45 employees listed under the company’s Party branch committee.

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Dow Chemical Company, one of the world’s three largest chemical producers, lists 337 CCP members in four Party committees.

Other notable U.S. firms on the list include Westin Hotel & Resorts owned by Marriott International (23 members); analytics firm Nielsen Holdings (94); leading food company Mars Food (14); and insurance provider MetLife (31).

The U.S. companies and Party branches mentioned are by no means exhaustive. As of 2016, around 75,000 foreign businesses—accounting for over 70 percent of the roughly 106,000 foreign firms in China—have established Party units, according to state-run media People’s Daily.

The development of CCP units picked up pace from 2002, after Beijing’s top leadership “wrote the obligations of nonpublic firms’ Party organizations into the Party charter, providing evidence for the nonpublic firms’ Party organizations to host activities and play their roles,” according to Chinese media reports from 2002.

State media reported that the country currently has nearly 92 million CCP members. While the database represents only a small fraction of the total membership, it’s a key piece of the puzzle for uncovering the regime’s penetration of international companies, said Bill Gertz, national security correspondent for The Washington Times in an interview.

Early this month, the Trump administration imposed travel restrictions on CCP members and their immediate families, reducing the maximum duration of stay for those with B1/B2 visitor visas from 10 years to one month.

The Party Network

Creating more Party units within companies in China has been one of the top priorities for the CCP’s Organization Department, a core Party organ that oversees staffing of government officials nationwide, according to Qi Yu, a former deputy head of the department.

Qi, who currently serves as the Party committee secretary at the Chinese foreign ministry, said at an October 2017 news conference in Beijing that the regime requires corporate Party organizations to “organically integrate Party activities with the firm’s production in order to support companies’ healthy development,” according to People’s Daily.

Most Party organization activities center around patriotic education to ensure employees toe the Party line.

Mars Food’s Shanghai Party branch, for example, marked this year’s traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival by providing products to an event organized by local authorities meant to promote the CCP’s history in the region.

IBM’s Party unit in Zhangjiang Town in Shanghai’s Pudong district was one of 30 foreign firms that participated in local events to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the CCP’s founding in 2011, while members of its Shenzhen branch “actively joined” 2019 activities with the theme “Stay true to the original heart and follow the Party.”

Such activities have met with resistance from staff within some Western firms. The Westin Beijing Financial Street, which opened in 2006, created its Party branch in 2009 with 10 CCP members out of a total staff of 600.

Xu Tao, the hotel’s Party branch secretary, said that he had tried to “incorporate political things into activities accepted by both Chinese and Western employees” to give Westerner staff the impression that “Party branch work are infusing more Chinese elements into the Westin brand and thus make the hotel more locally competitive,” according to a report by state media Xinhua. Xu had organized events to have workers stitch national flags together and to study the “spirit of the Long March,” the CCP army’s retreat in the 1930s.

The “membership in the Chinese Communist Party makes those people devoted not to the nation of China, or to the people of China, but to the political party of the CCP,” said Journalist Gertz. He called such efforts the CCP’s “ideological drive” to “basically take over the world.”

“They [CCP members] see themselves as besieged by the capitalist world, they see themselves as, basically, at ideological war with a non-communist world,” he said on The Epoch Times’ American Thought Leaders program.

“Now the West, the free world, needs to wake up and start fighting back against the Chinese Communist Party.”

3M declined to comment. IBM, PepsiCo, Dow Chemical, Marriott, Nielsen, Mars, and MetLife didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.

Nicole Hao contributed to this report.

The explosion in happiness studies of the last 20 years did has not improved effect sizes of happiness interventions; the supposed epistemological superiority of positive psychologists has not produced more effective happiness advice

Diminishing Effectiveness of Happiness Interventions: Positive Psychology Stumbles on the Dodo Verdict. Ad Bergsma. Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy, Sep 6 2020. https://www.longdom.org/abstract/diminishing-effectiveness-of-happiness-interventions-positive-psychology-stumbles-on-the-dodo-verdict-58408.html

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1340924363856556033

Abstract: Some positive psychologists claim that quantitative research leads to the most effective interventions for the intentional pursuit of happiness. A similar claim made in psychotherapy research resulted in failure; fifty years of experimental research has not improved psychotherapy outcomes. In this essay it is argued that the explosion in happiness studies of the last twenty years did has not improved effect sizes of happiness interventions. The supposed epistemological superiority of positive psychologists has not produced more effective happiness advice. This should not be taken as an encouragement to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If we follow current reasoning in psychotherapy research, we can conclude that positive psychological research can correct misguided or counterproductive happiness advice, but will not offer definitive answers. The individuals making his their own choices on the basis of a personal life philosophy count. A further conclusion is that happiness interventions should not just be about acquiring skills to correct the affective system in our brains, so that we are able to overcome our negativity bias or hedonic adaptation. Intervention should also be about following our emotional action tendencies; promoting doing to do more of what feels right to us and avoiding what causes pain.

People with psychiatric diagnoses typically recall fewer specific and more general memories than diagnoses-free people

Barry, Tom J., David J. Hallford, and Keisuke Takano. 2020. “Autobiographical Memory Impairments as a Transdiagnostic Feature of Mental Illness: A Meta-analysis of Autobiographical Memory Specificity and Overgenerality Amongst People with Psychiatric Diagnoses.” PsyArXiv. December 21. doi:10.31234/osf.io/ab5cu

Abstract: Decades of research has examined the difficulty that people with psychiatric diagnoses, such as Major Depressive Disorder, Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, have in recalling specific autobiographical memories from events that lasted less than a day. Instead, they seem to retrieve general events that have occurred many times or which occurred over longer periods of time, termed overgeneral memory. We present the first transdiagnostic meta-analysis of memory specificity/overgenerality, and the first meta-regression of proposed causal mechanisms. A keyword search of Embase, PsycARTICLES and PsycINFO databases yielded 74 studies that compared people with and without psychiatric diagnoses on the retrieval of specific (k = 85) or general memories (k = 56). Multi-level meta-analysis confirmed that people with psychiatric diagnoses typically recall fewer specific (g = -0.864, 95% CI[-1.030, -0.698]) and more general (g = .712, 95% CI[0.524, 0.900]) memories than diagnoses-free people. The size of these effects did not differ between diagnostic groups. There were no consistent moderators; effect sizes were not explained by methodological factors such as cue valence, or demographic variables such as participants’ age. There was also no support for the contribution of underlying processes that are thought to be involved in specific/general memory retrieval (e.g., rumination). Our findings confirm that deficits in autobiographical memory retrieval are a transdiagnostic factor associated with a broad range of psychiatric problems, but future research should explore novel causal mechanisms such as encoding deficits and the social processes involved in memory sharing and rehearsal.

In English there are few words for smell qualities, smell talk is infrequent, and people find it difficult to name odors in the laboratory; however, there are many languages across the globe that have large smell lexicons

Human Olfaction at the Intersection of Language, Culture, and Biology. Asifa Majid. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, December 18 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2020.11.005

Highlights

*  The human sense of smell is far more acute than previously thought, yet it is still commonly believed that there is no language of smell.

*  In English there are, indeed, few words for smell qualities, smell talk is infrequent, and people find it difficult to name odors in the laboratory. However, the cross-cultural data show a different picture.

*  There are many languages across the globe that have large smell lexicons (smell can even appear in grammar) in which smell talk is also more frequent and naming odors is easy.

*  In different cultural and ecological niches odors play a significant role in everyday life.

*  These differences in smell language can have consequences for how people think about odors.

Abstract: The human sense of smell can accomplish astonishing feats, yet there remains a prevailing belief that olfactory language is deficient. Numerous studies with English speakers support this view: there are few terms for odors, odor talk is infrequent, and naming odors is difficult. However, this is not true across the world. Many languages have sizeable smell lexicons — smell is even grammaticalized. In addition, for some cultures smell talk is more frequent and odor naming easier. This linguistic variation is as yet unexplained but could be the result of ecological, cultural, or genetic factors or a combination thereof. Different ways of talking about smells may shape aspects of olfactory cognition too. Critically, this variation sheds new light on this important sensory modality.

Keywords olfactionlanguageculturecognitionolfactory expertspsycholinguistics

Do Different Ways of Talking About Smell Affect How We Think About Smell?

What, if any, cognitive consequences are there as a result of these diverse smell vocabularies? The realization of differential linguistic coding of olfaction has only recently been taken seriously by the cognitive science community, so studies of the cognitive consequences are nascent (see also Box 3). The studies to date suggest a mixed picture.

Box 3

Hunter-Gatherers and Wine Experts: Everyday versus Institutional Language and Cognition

The fact that some cultures have smell lexicons has been interpreted by some as a type of ‘expertise’ affecting language and thought [28] (Figure I). While lay English speakers show a lack of regard for smell, wine experts, perfumers, and the gourmand have cultivated their noses. So, are the wine experts’ and hunter-gatherers’ smell knowledge equivalent? The answer appears to be no. Although expertise certainly has relevance for understanding the relationship between olfaction and language, there are important differences between everyday cultural knowledge and institutional expertise.

The trajectory of learning is critically different between everyday and expert knowledge: people acquire cultural categories effortlessly in childhood, via language, and with little explicit instruction; experts, by contrast, acquire categories from institutions effortfully, usually later in life through explicit instruction, and knowledge has to be mapped onto language. In addition, I propose three specific properties that differ between everyday and institutional olfactory language and cognition.

Experts Individuate, Cultures Categorize

Everyday categories generalize over exemplars to capture broad similarities. Jahai, for example, distinguishes plʔeŋ smells (characteristic of blood, raw meat, fish, etc.) from cŋɛs smells (e.g., bat dropping, smoke, petrol, etc.) and haʔɛ̃t smells (e.g., shrimp paste, sap of rubber tree, rotten meat, etc.), all of which are simply stinky in English. By contrast, experts are trained to distinguish very closely related entities, for example, distinguishing fake jasmine from the real thing. This is why when experts develop lexicons, they tend to focus on specifying and identifying an exact odor [121,122].

Specialist Knowledge Is Subdomain Specific, but Cultural Knowledge Is Domain General

The hunter-gatherer Jahai name odors with higher consensus than their Western counterparts and apply their basic smell terms to novel odors they have never previously encountered [39]. Wine experts, too, show high consensus when describing the smell of wine [123., 124., 125., 126.], but this ability does not generalize beyond their domain of expertise: they are no better than laypeople at describing the smell of coffee or naming other everyday odors [123,125]. Similarly, wine experts have better memory [123] and imagery [127] only for odors in their domain of expertise (see also [122]).

Specialist Olfactory Cognition Is Language Independent, but Cultural Cognition Is Language Dependent

There is a strong link between language and memory for odors in everyday cognition: odors named correctly are remembered more accurately [128,129]. However, specialists do not show this relationship between odor naming and odor memory for their domain of expertise and inhibiting the use of language during encoding does not impair odor memory [123]. In sum, the evidence to date suggests that everyday but not specialist olfactory memory relies on language in the moment.

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Figure I. Everyday Olfactory Cognition Differs in Key Ways from Olfactory Cognition in Specialist Expert Contexts.

American woman at a wine tasting (left); ritual healing of Seri infant by shaman using desert lavender (right).

Olfactory Language and Emotion

Within a language, the same odor is experienced as pleasant or unpleasant depending on the label it is given [100,101], raising the question of whether cross-cultural differences in naming strategies may likewise affect the perceived pleasantness of an odor. It appears they do not. Jahai and Dutch speakers use different strategies to talk about odors (abstract basic smell terms vs concrete source-based descriptions) and this may therefore lead to differences in the perceived pleasantness of odors, with some accounts predicting that abstract concepts are more valenced whereas others suggest they are more detached from sensory experience. By comparing facial expressions elicited by monomolecular odors while participants were engaged in an odor-naming task, Majid and colleagues found that both groups had the same initial affective responses to odors, regardless of the odor language they used [39]. These results suggest that the pleasantness of an odor is experienced swiftly and universally, whereas odor identification is slower and cross-culturally diverse. Critically, the role of language in odor perception may differ in important ways depending on whether it is recruited during production or comprehension (Box 2).

Olfactory Language and Cross-Modal Associations

Olfactory and visual information are intimately tied, with connectivity analyses showing that integration happens as early as the primary olfactory cortex [102], and when people are asked to associate odors with colors they do so in systematic ways [58,103., 104., 105., 106.]. This could happen in at least two ways: odor perceptual representations could link directly to color due to statistical co-occurrences in the environment or the association between odors and colors could be mediated by language. According to the language-mediated account of odor–color associations, if people use basic smell words to name abstract odor qualities (e.g., musty) they should show weaker odor–color associations than those who refer to their source (e.g., smells like banana). To test this, one study compared urban-dwelling Thai and hunter-gatherer Maniq (who both have basic smell vocabulary) with urban-dwelling Dutch participants (who overwhelmingly use source-based odor naming) and found that odor–color associations were mediated by language [103]. People had weaker odor–color associations when they used basic smell vocabulary, but when source-based vocabulary was used, color choices more accurately reflected their source. By the time a child is 6 years old, odor–color associations are culture specific, and odor naming plays an important role in their development [104].

Concluding Remarks

Human olfaction serves diverse functions some of which are shared across species. But humans also uniquely use olfaction deliberatively for religious, medicinal, and aesthetic purposes — and language plays a critical role in coordinating these activities. Despite the prevailing view that there is no olfactory language, this review highlights diverse communities worldwide that have basic smell vocabularies and where smell talk is more frequent. Rather than focusing on constrained experimental tasks, olfactory researchers could benefit from considering human olfaction in all of its contexts to study how people across the globe use, manipulate, and talk about odors in their day-to-day contexts (see Outstanding Questions).

Outstanding Questions

Are smell words more likely to lexicalize some odors than others? Is there a predictable order of lexicalization or is each odor vocabulary uniquely fitted to its ecological and cultural niche?

Do languages with basic smell terms also have more smell-associated words? Modality exclusivity norms from English reveal a set of smell-associated words, although these are fewer in number than for the other senses. Studies have confirmed the same trend in several European languages (Dutch [130], Italian [131,132], Russian [133], Serbian [134]) and in Mandarin [135]. Critically, no norms have yet been collected from languages with attested smell vocabularies.

Non-literal metaphorical use of smell language appears in some languages (e.g., Seri [80]) but not others (e.g., Jahai). What smell metaphors are used across languages and how common are they?

Before abandoning the deodorization hypothesis, it is worth considering some complications. Words and meanings change over time: words currently with a smell meaning may not have had that meaning in the past and vice versa. Historical comparison is reliant on text written in a standardized, formal register. Smell may be less frequent there because of taboos surrounding smelliness [136]; conversely, smell may be more evident in slang. Intriguingly, there is a large slang lexicon for the ‘nose’ [137], but no systematic study of smell itself.

Language plays a critical role in odor–color associations but perhaps not in odor–temperature [138] or odor–music [139] associations. Which cross-modal odor associations are mediated by language and culture?

Is the relationship between language and olfaction symmetrical or asymmetrical? Evidence from Western languages suggests it may be symmetrical (Box 2); is the same true for languages with basic smell terms?

Does the trajectory of learning olfactory language differ between children and adults (Box 3)? What conditions give rise to domain-general versus domain-specific olfactory abilities?