Sociosexuality significantly predicted self-reported wellbeing during social lockdown for women, but not for men; those with high levels of desire for casual sex reported a greater negative impact on their self-reported levels of wellbeing

Changes in Sexual Desire and Behaviors among UK Young Adults During Social Lockdown Due to COVID-19. Liam Wignall et al. The Journal of Sex Research, Mar 29 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2021.1897067

Abtract: This study examined self-reported changes in young adults’ sexual desire and behaviors during the most significant social restrictions imposed to deal with COVID-19. Drawing on a survey of 565 British adults aged 18–32 collected at the peak of social lockdown restrictions, we document an overall decrease in sexual behaviors consistent with abiding by social restrictions. We found that the levels of sexual desire reported by women (but not men) decreased compared with reports of pre-lockdown levels. Participants in serious relationships reported more increases in sexual activity than people who were single or dating casually, and there were significant differences according to gender and sexual orientation. The perceived impact of subjective wellbeing of people with high sociosexuality scores was disproportionately associated with social lockdown but there was no effect for general health. Thus, the impact on sexuality and general wellbeing should be considered by policymakers when considering future social restrictions related to COVID-19 or other public health emergencies.

Discussion

Social policy measures put in place to deal with COVID-19 have had profound social and economic consequences (e.g., Ali & Alharbi, 2020). The impact such measures have had on sexuality has received little attention, although initial exploratory studies document changes in desires and sexual behaviors (Lehmiller et al., 2020; Li et al., 2020; Stephenson et al., 2020). The current study drew on a survey of 565 young adults living in the UK (Mage = 25.35, SDage = 4.13) to examine changes in sexual desire and behaviors during social lockdown, with data collection occurring at the end of the period of the strictest social lockdown restrictions. Men reported higher sexual desire levels compared to women both before and during lockdown. Women showed a significant reduction in levels of sexual desire overall during lockdown; men showed a similar trend, but this did not reach statistical significance. Living arrangement (i.e., friends or others, partner, family or children, alone, other) had no detectable association with sexual desire levels either pre-lockdown or during lockdown and did not interact with gender.

Regarding sexual behaviors, men and LGB people reported significantly more increases in various sexual behaviors than women and heterosexual people, respectively, during social lockdown, in the context of a general decrease in reported sexual behaviors during the lockdown. Participants in relationships reported more increases in various sexual behaviors during social lockdown than those who were single or dating casually.

Lastly, general health and changes in subjective wellbeing were not predicted by sexual desire and sociosexuality scores for men or women, overall. However, sociosexuality significantly predicted self-reported wellbeing during social lockdown for women, but not for men. Further analysis showed that it was the desire aspect of sociosexuality which was associated with perceived impact on subjective wellbeing – those with high levels of desire for casual sex reported a greater negative impact on their self-reported levels of wellbeing than those with less desire for casual sex.

The gender differences found in some analyses (women reporting lower sexual desire levels than men both during and prior to lockdown and reporting a greater reduction in levels of sexual desire) are consistent with other COVID-19 research (Li et al., 2020). This could be due to increased levels of stress for women as a result of additional domestic labor (e.g., Collins et al., 2021) and may be associated with other symptoms emerging as a result of the pandemic and social restrictions. For example, increases in anxiety and depression have been recorded during the pandemic among both men and women and are associated with multiple factors, including the presence of children in the household due to school closings (Shevlin et al., 2020). Furthermore, depressive symptoms have been found to disproportionately affect young women (Vizard et al., 2020). Previous literature suggests that anxiety and depression can have an adverse effect on sexual desire (Beaber & Werner, 2009), although they can also increase sexual desire in some individuals (Bancroft et al., 2003; Lykins et al., 2006).

The changes in reported sexual behaviors during social lockdown are similar to the findings of other studies (e.g., Jacob et al., 2020; Stephenson et al., 2020), and have significant implications. There was a decreased occurrence of all sexual behaviors, although mixed results about change in frequencies of these sexual behaviors. This could be indicative of people following lockdown rules, particularly given that increases in masturbation were not associated with increases in sexual intercourse, potentially because some people who could not have sex turned to masturbation instead. Participants with unrestricted sociosexuality were more likely to report lower levels of general health and perceived impact on subjective wellbeing. This may come from the restrictions placed on casual sex to reduce transmission rates of COVID-19. Given people with higher levels of sociosexuality can also face prejudice from broader society (Vrangalova & Bukberg, 2015), it is important to consider interventions that target such people, perhaps through sexual health services. Similarly, LGB people with high levels of sexual desire during lockdown reported greater perceived impact on their wellbeing – replicating findings in the US (Sanchez et al., 2020), where one-third of gay and bisexual men reported negative coping behaviors such as binge drinking during lockdown (Stephenson et al., 2020).

Since the initial social lockdown on March 16th, 2020, across the UK, there have been several more variations of social lockdowns, with tier systems introduced throughout the UK. Further social lockdowns have occurred at different times in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Island, and internationally. All these social restrictions lack advice on how to navigate sex, particularly for single people or couples LAT, thus privileging monogamous relationships. There was a de facto criminalization of sexual activity between consenting adults who did not live in the same household in the UK during lockdown, and legal restrictions on casual sex were effectively in place for much of 2020 in at least some parts of the UK because of the regional “tier” system introduced after the end of the first formal lockdown. Much greater recognition of the impact of lockdown restrictions on sexuality is needed, with consideration given to how social policy can minimize risk in sexual encounters without effectively banning them for extended periods of time: governments need to recognize the importance sex holds in the lives of individuals and society (Rubin, 2011).

In addition to the restrictions on sexual practice, there are other policy implications as they pertain to sexuality. Sexual and reproductive health services have been severely limited during social lockdown, with some closed altogether (Church et al., 2020; Nagendra et al., 2020), making access to treatment for STIs or fertility treatments more difficult. This may be particularly significant for people who continue to have sexual intercourse with others in contravention of social restrictions, including people who use sex as a coping mechanism against stress (Jaspal et al., 2021; Stephenson et al., 2020). This means that STIs may be currently under-reported and there will be significant public health implications as restrictions are eased. Likewise, public health bodies should plan for a potential significant increase in casual sex as restrictions ease and such behaviors no longer contravene lockdown guidance, given the drop in sexual behaviors found in this and other studies.

Limitations and Conclusion

While the findings provide important insights into sexual practices and behaviors of young adults in the UK during social lockdown due to COVID-19, this study was not without limitations. First, we employed a cross-sectional analysis, recruiting participants during the peak social lockdown restrictions. Second, we relied on retrospective self-report data for levels of sexual desire, which may provide inaccurate or biased results (Schmitt & Di Fabio, 2005). Longitudinal research is needed to explore what happens as social lockdown restrictions ease and whether reported changes persist, how quickly they fade and whether social or health interventions are needed in this endeavor. Relatedly, participants’ interpretations of questions may have been different (e.g., “before lockdown” could mean in the last month or year preceding lockdown). Future research should be more specific in questions. Third, the perceived impact on subjective wellbeing measure was developed for this study and not validated prior to the study, due to exceptional time restraints posed by the lifting of lockdown measures. As such, further research with established measures of wellbeing is needed. Relatedly, our measure for general health consisted of a single-item question; a more substantial measure of general health would strengthen reliability. Fourth, the sample was limited to predominantly White, heterosexual young adults. Further research needs to explore the experiences of sexual and ethnic minorities, as well as other age groups. Fifth, there may have been some selection bias: participants were recruited through an online participant recruitment pool, resulting in a convenience sample of people already willing to participate in research. These individuals may perceive more negative impacts of the pandemic, potentially having more free time due to furlough or needing extra income through survey participation. Finally, most of the significant effect sizes were quite small. To address these final limitations, future research should draw on nationally representative samples with larger sample sizes.

In conclusion, this study of UK young adults aged 18–32 found a general decrease in reported rates of sexual behaviors during social lockdown. For those who continued to engage in sexual activity, increases were predicted by gender and sexual orientation. Women reported lower levels of sexual desire compared to men, and also reported a significant decrease in sexual desire during lockdown. Women’s perceptions of the impact of lockdown on wellbeing were associated with attitudes to casual sex. Given these findings and the likelihood of future lockdown measures, in the UK and internationally, it is important to consider the impact of such measures on sexual desires and behaviors and how negative effects from them can be mitigated.

Adult playfulness: An update on an understudied individual differences variable and its role in romantic life... including possible negative effects of playfulness

Adult playfulness: An update on an understudied individual differences variable and its role in romantic life. Kay Brauer  René T. Proyer  Garry Chick. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, March 16 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12589

Abstract: There is increasing interest in the study of individual differences in playfulness in adults; the way people frame or reframe situations in a way that they are experienced as personally interesting, and/or intellectually stimulating, and/or entertaining. In this review, we describe and discuss its role for romantic life. After a brief introduction, we will describe theoretical approaches as to why playfulness is important in romantic life (e.g., the signal theory of playfulness) and give an overview on empirical findings on assortative mating and its role in romantic relationships (e.g., for relationship satisfaction). Finally, we discuss future directions on playfulness in romantic life and singles and open research questions.

Check also Moraes YL, Varella MAC, Silva CSA, Valentova JV (2021). Adult playful individuals have more long- and short-term relationships. Evolutionary Human Sciences 3, e24, 1–10. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2021/04/adult-playful-individuals-have-more.html

6 OPEN QUESTIONS

While the majority of findings suggests that playfulness contributes positively to relationships, no study has yet examined negative consequences of playfulness in relationships. Drawing on Berger et al.'s (2017) hypothesis that a maladaptive reframing process might contribute to develop psychiatric disorders that are related to cognitive biases (e.g., anxiety disorder); one might expect that some types of playfulness are associated with phenomena such as jealousy, the perceived threat of one's relationship (Pfeiffer & Wong, 1989). Taking the findings on relations with the mistrust facet into account (Proyer et al., 2019a), one might expect that whimsical playfulness accounts for actor effects in jealousy, whereas partners of those high in Lighthearted playfulness might show greater jealousy due to perceptions of lower commitment to the relationship and greater concern of the dissolution of the relationship. Furthermore, attachment styles describe how people approach and deal with close relationships (Fraley & Roisman, 2019) based on the two orthogonal dimensional anxiety (i.e., worries over close relationships) and avoidance (i.e., reducing interdependence by avoiding closeness). It would be desirable to examine potential consequences (e.g., mediator effects) of attachment on the associations between playfulness and relationship outcomes. One might argue that playfulness would go along with secure attachment (i.e., low anxiety and avoidance) as playful people have learned to adopt positive views on their relationships when learning their social skills, boundaries, and needs of others in childhood, as discussed with regard to the literature on children's playfulness (e.g., Burghardt, 2005; Lieberman, 1977; Youell, 2008).

Couple‐centered variables have not yet been examined. For example, dyadic coping describes how couples deal with stress by examining the interactions and coping strategies of each partner (Bodenmann, 2005). Prior studies have shown that playfulness relates to adaptive coping mechanisms, which permits dealing with stressors and stress positively (Chang et al., 2013; Magnuson & Barnett, 2013; Qian & Yarnal, 2011). Amongst others, those high in playfulness actively seek social support and companionship to reduce stress. However, no study has yet examined how couples deal with stressors from within (e.g., disagreement) and outside the relationship (e.g., child loss). While one might expect that playfulness would contribute to dyadic coping, this needs to be empirically tested since Herzberg (2013) has shown that individual and dyadic coping are not redundant (e.g., dyadic coping being the stronger predictor of RS and mediating the association between individual coping efforts and RS). Thus, it would be desirable to examine whether playfulness relates to dyadic coping similarly to findings from individuals and to study its effects for outcomes such as RS or disagreement.

Longitudinal studies could help clarifying relationships with criteria such as dissolution or having children and also address partners' co‐development of playfulness over time. The latter could clarify whether partners might become (1) more similar in their playfulness and (2) whether one's playfulness might spillover to the partner's playfulness. There is evidence that playfulness is malleable through minimal interventions (e.g., raising awareness of how one uses playfulness in everyday life; Proyer et al., 2020; Proyer et al., 2021) and it is feasible that one could be stimulated by their partner to be more playful—or, at least, do more playful things and behave more playful. Moreover, effects of co‐development on outcomes such as the quality and quantity of conflicts and RS would be of interest (e.g., Allemand & Martin, 2016).

Prior research has relied mainly on self‐reports of playfulness. An extension to partner/peer reports of playfulness and instruments that allow a good description of playful behaviors in couples is desirable. For the latter, the PLC (Proyer et al., 2018b) might be a good starting point, pending revision of the initial list of items. Also, observational designs could help to learn more about how playfulness is expressed and used in couples. For example, how partners use their playfulness to solve practical problems and behave in situations that potentially go along with conflict could be examined.

Adult playful individuals have more long- and short-term relationships

Moraes YL, Varella MAC, Silva CSA, Valentova JV (2021). Adult playful individuals have more long- and short-term relationships. Evolutionary Human Sciences 3, e24, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2021.19

Abstract: Number of romantic/sexual relationships is suggested as a proxy of potential reproductive success. Cross-culturally, both sexes desire playful long-term mates and playfulness predicts relationship quality. It is yet to be tested, however, if playfulness is associated with number of long- and short-term relationships. We hypothesised that specific playfulness dimensions would correlate with the number of lifetime short- and long-term relationships. We expected that lighthearted playfulness would be associated with more short-term relationships, while other-directed playfulness would be associated with the number of long-term relationships. In total, 1191 Brazilian adults (mean age = 28.7 years, standard deviation = 10.2) responded to online sociodemographic questions and a playfulness inventory. Other-directed playfulness positively predicted the number of short-term and long-term partners in men and whimsical playfulness predicted the number of short-term relationships in women. This suggests that playfulness is used by both sexes to compete for access to more and better mates, but in slightly different ways. For the first time, we show that playful adults have more partners and that playfulness can be used as a part of mating strategies.

Keywords: Short- and long-term relationships; adult playfulness; mate selection; sex differences

Although the men indicated a willingness to pursue slightly older partners in surveys, they rarely acted on these statements in real-life dating

Partner preference and age: User's mating behavior in online dating. Marketa Setinova, Renáta Topinková. Journal of Family Research, Mar 29 2021. https://doi.org/10.20377/jfr-540

Abstract

Objective: We test whether real online-user mating behavior corresponds with expectations from both the sociobiological and social perspectives and explore the age differentials that individuals opt for when searching for a mate and how this evolves relative to the user’s age and gender.

Background: Age plays a vital role in partner choice. Previous studies have focused primarily on age differences between couples and their self-reported preferences for partners of a certain age. However, little is known about how age affects behavior in the online dating market.

Method: We use behavioral data from a Czech online dating app, Pinkilin and analyze 197,519 invitations that users sent to each other in July 2017.

Results: Men strongly prefer young women, and women prefer partners of their age or slightly older. At older ages, men’s preference for younger women widens, while women's preferences become more diverse. Homogamous tendencies are stronger among younger users and women.

Conclusion: Overall, our results corroborate those of previous research on online dating, but we extend this research in terms of age differences in the Czech context.

Keywords: online dating, age homogamy, partner preference, Czechia

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In surveys, men state an acceptable partner age interval of 10 years younger and five years older. As they age, their willingness to pursue younger women increases, but their non-acceptance of older women remains constant (Conway et al. 2015; Schwarz & Hassebrauck 2012). Data from online dating confirm men’s strong preference for young women and their avoidance in terms of contacting older partners (Fiore & Donath 2005; Rudder 2014; Skopek et al. 2011). Our research is in line with the previous evidence. Young men showed a preference for women their age. However, this preference declined with age, and they gradually shifted to younger partners. With age, they grew more ambitious and were willing to cross larger age gaps toward younger partners. Overall, the men in our data set avoided older women, including women who were only slightly their senior. This avoidance was stable for all ages, thereby confirming that although the men indicated a willingness to pursue slightly older partners in surveys, they rarely acted on these statements in real-life dating. This highlights the importance of mixing digital trace data with traditional surveys, as stated preferences may not necessarily translate to future actions (Schmitz et al. 2009).

As for women, their stated partner age interval was eight years older and five years younger. With age, they grew accepting of younger partners and became less willing to contact older men (Conway et al. 2015; Schwarz & Hassebrauck 2012). Looking at the online dating market, women showed a tendency to mate with partners of their age and slightly older. Women under 30 were not open to contact from younger men, but as they aged, their openness toward younger partners increased (Rudder 2014; Skopek et al. 2011). Again, this was largely supported in our Czech data set. The youngest women had a preference for older partners over partners their age. However, up to 30 years old, they preferred partners of the same age or up to nine years their senior. As women aged, they were more open to younger men and more restrictive toward older men. The older the woman was, the more willing she was to cross larger age gaps toward younger partners. As mentioned earlier, the same trend could be observed for men. However, there was a lag as to when this shift toward younger partners occurred. Women started initiating contact with significantly younger men (5–9 years younger) later, in their mid-forties, while men developed this preference around their mid-thirties.

The support for evolutionary theory in our analysis is, therefore, fairly strong. Two interesting findings are noteworthy. First, in comparison to previous research, men were, from an early age, very hesitant to contact older women. This can be seen as an impact of strong local gender norms that, at least in men’s eyes, may highlight the importance of reproduction in dating and support the paradigm that the husband should be older than his wife. Men’s tendency to avoid older women in the early stages of dating could also be one of the mechanisms behind the higher incidence of male age hypogamy in Czechia (Katrňák 2008). Second, we observed older women around their mid-forties contacting significantly younger men. This tendency was visible in past online dating research (Rudder 2014; Skopek et al. 2011) but did not fully correspond with expectations from evolutionary theory. Perhaps older women are aware of the marriage squeeze and believe they have more chances with a younger partner who might be attracted to their experience and status. Alternatively, they may be more economically independent than younger women and may not be drawn to older partners because they already have their own resources (Rudder 2014, confirms that response rates to older women’s messages from younger males are fairly high). Growing levels of female hypogamy by older women in Czechia might support this hypothesis (Katrňák 2008). Another interpretation could be related to seeking a sexual partner rather than one for reproduction. Not all dating site users are in search of a serious relationship, and older women seeking younger males for sexual pleasure, called “cougars” in popular culture, can offer noncommitted sex and demand no financial provision or status from men in return (Lowen 2019). Furthermore, in the post-reproductive phase, women may not place such importance on status, even when seeking a serious relationship. Without further data, however, it is difficult to understand the reason behind these two inconsistencies.

We expected people to feel less culpable about the outcome if they acted in accordance with their superior’s injunction than if they made the decision themselves, but they felt more culpable when they followed orders

Feelings of Culpability: Just Following Orders Versus Making the Decision Oneself. Maayan S. Malter, Sonia S. Kim, Janet Metcalfe. Psychological Science, April 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211002821

Abstract: In five experiments (N = 1,490), participants were asked to imagine themselves as programmers of self-driving cars who had to decide how to program the car to respond in a potential accident: spare the driver or spare pedestrians. Alternatively, participants imagined that they were a mayor grappling with difficult moral dilemmas concerning COVID-19. Either they, themselves, had to decide how to program the car or which COVID-19 policy to implement (high-agency condition) or they were told by their superior how to act (low-agency condition). After learning that a tragic outcome occurred because of their action, participants reported their felt culpability. Although we expected people to feel less culpable about the outcome if they acted in accordance with their superior’s injunction than if they made the decision themselves, participants actually felt more culpable when they followed their superior’s order. Some possible reasons for this counterintuitive finding are discussed.

Keywords: decision making, judgment, morality, autonomous vehicles, perspective taking, COVID-19, trolley problem, agency, Nuremberg defense, open data, open materials

Women find men less attractive as new long-term partners if they have first imagined them as one-night stands; men find women less attractive as one-night stands if they have first imagined them as new long-term partners

Short term, long term: An unexpected confound in human-mating research. Paola Bressan. Evolution and Human Behavior, April 2 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.03.003

Abstract: Here I report that, when partnered people judge the facial attractiveness of potential mates for a short- and a long-term relationship, the order in which the two conditions are presented biases responses in a systematic manner. Women and men display symmetrical biases. Women find men less attractive as new long-term partners if they have first imagined them as one-night stands. Men find women less attractive as one-night stands if they have first imagined them as new long-term partners. On a total sample of over 3000 individuals from different studies, I show that both biases are robust and replicable in partnered people and neither is found in singles. Alas, so far no study has statistically controlled the effect of the order in which participants consider the two types of relationships. Whatever their interpretation, these biases are capable of producing spurious or inconsistent associations and mislead us when we compare studies that on the surface appear similar—most notably, direct and conceptual replications.

Keywords: Facial attractivenessMate choiceShort-term relationshipsLong-term relationshipsPartnership statusOrder effectsSex differences

Great apes, like humans, possess impressive knowledge of their social world: they remember social partners for decades, encode their dispositions and relationships, & even track their perspectives in surprisingly rich ways

Origins of the social mind: Cognition in humans and other apes. Christopher Krupenye. European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association, 15th Conference, Mar 2021. https://ehbea2021.com/

Abstract: Few traits characterise humans more profoundly than the complexity of our social lives, and the depth of our insights into the social and mental lives of others. To predict behaviour and make decisions in a dynamic and uncertain social world, we track others’ social relationships, evaluate others based on their behaviour or identity, and even attempt to infer their thoughts and emotions. That our potential social partners possess these skills, too, is precisely what makes the social world so complex. In turn, we must manage our reputation and relationships, adhere to the norms of our group, and strategically navigate manifold cooperative and competitive interactions. Cognition is at the heart of what makes social life so demanding and thus, to characterize the origins of human social complexity, we must understand the origins of our social cognition. I will present a series of comparative experiments with humans and our closest phylogenetic relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus), aimed at identifying shared traits that were likely present 6-9 million years ago in our last common ancestor, as well as spotlighting unique features of the human mind. This work demonstrates that great apes, like humans, possess impressive knowledge of their social world: they remember social partners for decades, encode their dispositions and relationships, and even track their perspectives in surprisingly rich ways. Together, this body of research suggests  that the roots of our social minds are discernible in the minds of our closest relatives, and extend deep into our evolutionary history.

Happy people retain their jobs because they enjoy doing their work; happiness leads people to place more weight on enjoyment than on competence in the enjoyment-competence trade-off context

Enjoyment Versus Competence Trade-Off: Happy People Value Enjoyment Over Competence More Than Unhappy People. Mina Jyung, Incheol Choi & Yerin Shim. Journal of Happiness Studies, Apr 2 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-021-00374-5

Rolf Degen's take: When compared with unhappy individuals, happy people value work they enjoy more than work that they perform well

Abstract: Do people prefer a job that promotes feelings of enjoyment, or of competence? The present research examined the role of individuals’ happiness in choosing the type of work to engage in when selecting between two characteristics of the work—enjoyment and perceived competence. Studies 1, 2, and 3 revealed that happier people are more likely to value (Study 1) and to choose (Studies 2 and 3) work they enjoy over work in which they expect high competence. In Study 3, a direct manipulation of happiness increased preference for enjoyment, but not for competence. Finally, Study 4 found that happy people, when compared with their unhappy counterparts, retain their jobs because they enjoy doing their work. Together, the findings suggest that happiness leads people to place more weight on enjoyment than on competence in the enjoyment-competence trade-off context.

Cues associated with food trigger release of homeostasis regulating hormones, which regulate hunger, prevent hypoglycemia, & improve metabolism; those anticipatory hormonal responses are largely learned phenomena

Food anticipatory hormonal responses: a systematic review of animal and human studies. Aleksandrina Skvortsova et al. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, April 1 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.03.030

Highlights

• Cues associated with food trigger release of homeostasis regulating hormones.

• Food anticipatory hormonal responses are consistently found in animals and humans.

• These responses regulate hunger, prevent hypoglycemia, and improve metabolism.

• Food anticipatory hormonal responses are largely learned phenomena.

• Food anticipatory hormonal activity is impaired in eating and metabolic disorders.

Abstract: Food anticipatory hormonal responses (cephalic responses) are proactive physiological processes, that allow animals to prepare for food ingestion by modulating their hormonal levels in response to food cues. This process is important for digesting food, metabolizing nutrients and maintaining glucose levels within homeostasis. In this systematic review, we summarize the evidence from animal and human research on cephalic responses. Thirty-six animal and fifty-three human studies were included. The majority (88%) of studies demonstrated that hormonal levels are changed in response to cues previously associated with food intake, such as feeding time, smell, and sight of food. Most evidence comes from studies on insulin, ghrelin, pancreatic polypeptide, glucagon, and c-peptide. Moreover, impaired cephalic responses were found in disorders related to metabolism and food intake such as diabetes, pancreatic insufficiency, obesity, and eating disorders, which opens discussions about the etiological mechanisms of these disorders as well as on potential therapeutic opportunities.

Keywords: anticipatory hormone releasecephalic responsesfood

4. Discussion

There is a large body of research demonstrating that cephalized organisms (ranging from insects to mammals) anticipate food intake via environmental cues with the aim to maintain homeostasis by adjusting their hormonal levels. Anticipatory hormonal changes, so-called cephalic responses, were found in a wide range of hormones but most evidence exists for insulin, ghrelin, pancreatic polypeptide, glucagon, and c-peptide. Animal research is very consistent in finding anticipatory hormonal changes with almost all studies demonstrating significant results, while the majority of human research also finds anticipatory hormonal changes. There is also some evidence for impaired cephalic responses in several metabolic and eating disorders in comparison to healthy participants, although more research is needed. Taken together, the current systematic review shows that the release of a wide range of hormones happens prior to food consumption both in animals and humans and it plays an important role in preparing the organisms for the food ingestion.

The direction of the hormonal changes in response to food anticipation mirrors the hormonal changes in response to food digestion: insulin, ghrelin, glucagon, pancreatic polypeptide, gastrin, and c-peptide levels increase. These processes indicate early adaptive preparation of the organism to the food digestion. The only hormone that does not have a direct relation to metabolism, but was repeatedly investigated in the context of food anticipation, is cortisol (corticosterone in rodents). Cortisol and corticosterone increase were found during food anticipation (Ott et al., 2012) (Coover et al., 1984; Moberg et al., 1975). Moreover, levels of cortisol and corticosterone dropped rapidly after food consumption (Moberg et al., 1975). Speculatively, food anticipation triggers a stress response in the organism and, therefore, leads to cortisol release. Possibly, an increase in stress hormones is necessary to increase alertness in animals in anticipation of food (Feillet, 2010).

It is still not entirely known to what extend cephalic responses are triggered by classical conditioning and whether some of them can be inborn. The only study included in this review that investigated this question directly, (Bernstein and Woods, 1980) demonstrated that cephalic insulin release in response to sweet taste is absent in newborn rat pups but already present in 21-22 day-old rats. Also, multiple experiments in both animals and humans showed that cephalic responses are present in subjects who followed fixed eating pattern in contrast to subjects who were fed ad libitum or without a fixed pattern (Holmes et al., 1989; Moberg et al., 1975; Woods et al., 1977). Therefore, evidence points that cephalic responses are to a large extent dependent on classical conditioning. That is, organisms learn that certain stimuli predict the availability of the food, and respond to these stimuli with cephalic hormones release to prepare the body for food consumption. Cephalic responses have been shown to be elicited not only by the cues that naturalistically predict food (such as time of eating/feeding or smell of food) but also by conditioning to neutral stimuli such as the sound of a door opening (Strubbe, 1992), or a mixed stimulus of a sound and a light (Storlien, 1985).

In addition to memory processes, such innate component, as circadian modulation, seems to affect food anticipatory hormonal responses. One study included in this review investigated a role of circadian clock in the cephalic responses (Patton et al., 2014). Patton and colleagues (2014) demonstrated food anticipatory corticosterone and ghrelin release to be more pronounced in the mice that were fed during the dark phase, than in the mice fed during the light phase. Mice are nocturnal animals, and free fed mice tend to exhibit food anticipatory activity during night. Therefore, the food anticipatory activity seems to be enhanced in the cases when feeding schedule corresponds to the light-dark rhythms. In case when there is a mismatch between dark-light cycle and the feeding pattern, for example, if food is given only in the usual sleep phase, the food anticipatory hormonal responses still appear (Feillet, 2010; Mistlberger, 1994) but might be of a smaller magnitude than in cases when there is no such a mismatch (Patton et al., 2014).

Another not well understood question about the cephalic responses, is what stimuli trigger it and in what cases. There is a discrepancy between animal and human research regarding the question whether mere taste elicits anticipatory hormone release or consumption of whole organoleptic stimulation of foods is needed. A large number of human studies failed to find anticipatory insulin release in response to a sweet taste of a nun-nutritive or low caloric substance alone (Abdallah et al., 1997; Bruce et al., 1987; Cedernaes et al., 2016; Härtel et al., 1993; Morricone et al., 2000; Smeets et al., 2005; Teff et al., 1995). At the same time, the response was found in the large number of studies that used sham feeding with whole foods (Buysschaert et al., 1985; Glasbrenner et al., 1995; Goldschmiedt et al., 1990; Teff et al., 1995, 1993, 1991). Moreover, a number of studies found that there are responders and non-responders to the taste stimulation (Bellisle et al., 1985; Dhillon et al., 2017; Teff et al., 1991). This might indicate that a combination of tactile, olfactory and taste stimulation provided by whole foods is needed to elicit a reliable cephalic response in humans. At the same time, it seems not to be the case in animals. All animal studies included into this review found cephalic hormone release to the sweet taste alone. Various reasons can explain this discrepancy between animal and human research. For example, cognitive factors play an important role in food anticipation in humans. Also, most people have previous experience with tasting various sweeteners that might affect their cephalic responses, while laboratory animals usually follow standard diets and are naïve to low caloric sweeteners.

Underlying neural mechanisms of the cephalic hormonal responses were investigated only in a few animal and human studies. It is proposed that in response to the food cues, the brain initiates insulin secretion by directing the signal through the vagus nerve to the pancreas (Woods, 1991). Animal research demonstrated that vagotomy, a surgical removal of a part of vagus nerve, leads to the disappearance of cephalic responses (Bernstein and Woods, 1980; Herath et al., 1999; Storlien, 1985). Human research confirms these results: administration of atropine, a drug that opposes the actions of the vagus nerve by blocking the acetylcholine receptors, was shown to abolish cephalic insulin (Sjöström et al., 1980) and pancreatic polypeptide release (Veedfald et al., 2016). Another substrate that has been proposed to underlie cephalic responses is the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus, a brain area that is linked to satiety (Kurrasch et al., 2007). Animals with lesions of this area exhibit no cephalic responses to sweet taste and a complex stimulus previously associated with food (Berthoud et al., 1980a,b; Storlien, 1985). Another human study demonstrated that the upper hypothalamus might play a role in cephalic hormone release but only when stimulated by both sweet taste and high energy content: they showed that the injection of glucose, and not aspartame (sweet non-caloric taste) or maltodextrin (non-sweet carbohydrate) leads to significant decreases in the activity in the upper hypothalamus (Smeets et al., 2005).

Interestingly, human research shows an important role of cognition in food anticipatory hormonal releases. For example, a mere discussion about food triggered insulin release (Feldman and Richardson, 1986) and expected food palatability influenced cephalic responses (Rigamonti et al., 2015). Moreover, Crum and colleagues (Crum et al., 2011) demonstrated that the decrease of ghrelin levels after food consumption was larger in magnitude in participants who thought that they had consumed a high caloric shake in comparison to the participants who thought that the shake was low caloric (in reality it was the same shake). Cognition might also explain the discrepancy in the results between the studies that measured cephalic responses in humans to food consumption and sham feeding. While animal research found that both of these methods are very successful in eliciting anticipatory hormone release, a number of human studies that involved sham feeding, found no such responses. Participants in the studies with sham feeding knew that they would have to discharge the consumed food, and possibly, this knowledge might have affected their anticipatory hormonal responses. These studies point to the importance of conscious expectations in this physiological process: mere thoughts about food that people have might affect their hormonal responses. Additionally, the role of cognitive capacities in food anticipatory responses have never been studied before. For instance, no research in this topic have been done in infants or in people with cognitive disabilities. Future research should look at how cognition about food and cognitive capacities influence learned food anticipatory responses.

Studies that investigated cephalic responses in clinical populations demonstrate that anticipatory hormonal responses were affected in patients with diabetes with cardiac autonomic neuropathy (Buysschaert et al., 1985; Glasbrenner et al., 1995), obesity (Brede et al., 2017; Johnson and Wildman, 1983; Osuna et al., 1986; Sjöström et al., 1980), eating disorders (Broberg and Bernstein, 1989; Monteleone et al., 2010, 2008; Moyer et al., 1993), pancreatic insufficiency (Wøjdemann et al., 2000), and kidney and pancreas transplantation (Secchi et al., 1995). However, the number of studies that included clinical populations is limited. It remains unknown whether disturbed cephalic responses play a causal role in the development of some of these disorders, or, alternatively, are consequences of them. Future studies should investigate the role of cephalic responses in the development of metabolic disorders and the possibility of using cephalic responses as a diagnostic tool for some of these disorders.

Several limitations of the studies included into the current review should be mentioned. First of all, the risk of bias assessment demonstrated that the majority of the studies included in this review did not report enough information to make it possible to objectively assess the bias. Particularly it applies to the animal research that did not provide information regarding the method of assigning animals to different conditions and blinding of the personnel. Similar problems, but to a lesser extent, are present in human studies. Only one study preregistration was available in open access and the majority of the studies did not report whether the analysis of outcome was done by blinded personnel. Moreover, none of the studies described whether the statistical power calculation had been done prior to the study what makes it difficult to interpret null findings. Furthermore, we found that while almost all animal studies found cephalic responses, human research varied more with respect to the results. This phenomenon can be explained by several reasons. Firstly, a larger publication bias might exist in animal research. It has been recently demonstrated that animal studies with null-findings are often not published creating a large bias in the animal literature (ter Riet et al., 2012). Secondly, additional factors might play a role in humans that are presumably less important in animals, for example, cognition. Most of the human studies, however, did not take into considerations such factors, such as expectation of participants, even though cognitive factors have been shown to affect cephalic responses (Crum et al., 2011; Feldman and Richardson, 1986). Ignoring these potential confounding factors, might have led to the occasional null findings in human studies. Most of the animal and human research has been done either in males or in mixed-sex samples. Only one study included in this review looked at sex differences: they demonstrated that anticipatory ghrelin release peaks at different times in male and female mice and also in orchidectomized mice. Sex differences have been also found in glucose and lipid metabolism (Gur et al., 1995), which may potentially also affect anticipatory hormonal responses. Therefore, it is essential that future research focus on potential sex differences in the food anticipatory hormone release. Furthermore, many different methods and protocols were used for measuring anticipatory hormonal responses, and almost no study compared different methods. These differences complicate interpreting null-findings of some of the studies. For example, several studies that involved sham feedings found no cephalic insulin release (Crystal and Teff, 2006; Teff et al., 1995), however, as every study used a different procedure of sham feeding (different foods, various times of chewing, various moments of sample collections), it remains unknown whether these null findings can be explained by the protocol used or whether cephalic insulin release does not occur in all cases.

Better understanding of cephalic hormonal responses brings several clinical possibilities. First, consumption of artificial low-caloric or non-nutritional sweeteners increases in modern society as these sweeteners are often added to common beverages and foods. It is still poorly understood how such discrepancy between the sweet taste and a low nutritional content can affect cephalic responses and whether it plays a role in the development of obesity and metabolic disorders. Moreover, the evidence from the current review indicates that cephalic responses might be affected in patients with metabolic disorders, however, the number of studies on this topic is limited. For example, it is unknown how impairment of cephalic responses progresses from obesity to metabolic syndrome and diabetes type 2. Possibly, measuring cephalic responses might be used as a predictive tool for the development of metabolic disorders.

The present review confirmed that there is a large body of literature supporting the existence of food anticipatory hormonal release. Moreover, there is some preliminary evidence at impairment of anticipatory hormonal responses in a range of disorders related to metabolism and food intake. More research is needed to understand the role of such impairments in cephalic responses and possibility to use cephalic responses as a predictor for the development of metabolic disorders.

Only-children prioritized benevolence values less and power values more than those with siblings; only-children’s value priorities became relatively less self-centered with age

The Values of Only-Children: Power and Benevolence in the Spotlight. Neil L Griffiths et al. Journal of Research in Personality, April 1 2021, 104096. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2021.104096

Highlights

• Personality differences between only-children and siblings were revealed through their values.

• In their value priorities, only-children tended to be more self-centered than individuals with siblings.

• Only-children prioritized benevolence values less and power values more than those with siblings.

• Only-children’s value priorities became relatively less self-centered with age.

• Effects on values complement effects on traits that were previously considered unnoticeable.

Abstract: The stereotype that only-children are more self-centered than others has gained little support from studies on personality traits but had not been previously tested with respect to personal values, which are also an important part of personality. Data from 3085 Australian adults revealed that only-children give more importance to power values and less importance to benevolence values than individuals with siblings. These differences, which are consistent with the stereotype, were strongest in young people but diminished gradually with age and disappeared in those over 62 years old. The results challenge the view that personality is largely unaffected by shared life-experiences associated with family structure, at least regarding the values aspect of personality.

Keywords: Only-childrenPersonal valuesPersonalityPersonality Development

Latent assets: Despite the past centuries’ economic setbacks and challenges, are there reasons for optimism about Africa's economic prospects?

Africa's Latent Assets. Soren J. Henn & James A. Robinson. NBER Working Paper 28603. March 2021. DOI 10.3386/w28603

Abstract: Despite the past centuries’ economic setbacks and challenges, are there reasons for optimism about Africa's economic prospects? We provide a conceptual framework and empirical evidence that show how the nature of African society has led to three sets of unrecognized “latent assets.” First, success in African society is talent driven and Africa has experienced high levels of perceived and actual social mobility. A society where talented individuals rise to the top and optimism prevails is an excellent basis for entrepreneurship and innovation. Second, Africans, like westerners who built the world's most successful effective states, are highly skeptical of authority and attuned to the abuse of power. We argue that these attitudes can be a critical basis for building better institutions. Third, Africa is “cosmopolitan.” Africans are the most multilingual people in the world, have high levels of religious tolerance, and are welcoming to strangers. The experience of navigating cultural and linguistic diversity sets Africans up for success in a globalized world.

Increasing taxes leads to lower GDP & personal consumption; consumption taxes are likely to have the smallest effects on saving & work decisions and hence the smallest negative consequences on future economic growth

The Economic Effects of Financing a Large and Permanent Increase in Government Spending. Jaeger Nelson, Kerk Phillips. Congressional Budget Office, Working Paper 2021-03, March 2021. https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2021-03/57021-Financing.pdf

Abstract

In this working paper, we analyze the long-term economic effects of financing a large and permanent increase in government expenditures of 5 percent to 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) annually. This paper does not assess the economic effects of the increased government spending and focuses solely on the effects of their financing.

The first part of the paper reviews the channels through which different financing mechanisms affect the economy. Specifically, the review focuses on how taxes on labor income, capital income, and consumption affect how much people work and save. The general finding is that increasing taxes leads to lower GDP and personal consumption. Of the different tax policies examined, consumption taxes are likely to have the smallest effects on saving and work decisions and hence the smallest negative consequences on future economic growth. Finally, deficit financing leads to higher interest rates, a lower capital stock, lower GDP, and a greater risk of a fiscal crisis.

In practice, the Congressional Budget Office uses a suite of models to assess the economic effects of fiscal policy. The second part of the paper uses one of CBO’s modeling frameworks—the life-cycle growth model—to illustrate the economic and distributional implications of raising revenues to finance a targeted amount of government spending (either 5 percent or 10 percent of GDP) through three different tax policies: a flat labor tax, a flat income tax, and a progressive income tax. To maintain deficit neutrality, tax rates for all three tax policies must rise over time to offset behavioral responses that result in smaller tax bases. After 10 years, the level of GDP by 2030 is between 3 percent and 10 percent lower than it would be without the increase in expenditures and revenues. In those scenarios, younger households experience greater loss in lifetime consumption and hours worked than older households. Additionally, the fall in lifetime consumption and hours worked is largest for higher-income households and smallest for lowerincome households when a progressive income tax is used. A progressive income tax generates the largest decline in total output. It also generates the smallest decline in consumption among the bottom two-thirds of the income distribution.

Keywords: government spending, financing, taxes

JEL Classification: E62, H2, H31, H62

Intergenerational Standard of Living

The percentage change in lifetime consumption across different birth cohorts is a useful metric for understanding the relative trade-offs across generations, but it does not capture underlying trends in economic growth and the rising standard of living (that is, the rise in real per capita consumption over time). Although the financing mechanisms analyzed in this paper generate the largest reductions in lifetime consumption among younger generations, those same generations also experience higher levels of real consumption over their lifetime than their older counterparts because of the rise in labor productivity over time.

In the model’s benchmark economy, the average household born in 2020 experiences 2.4 times as much real consumption over its lifetime as the average household born 80 years earlier, in 1940 (see Figure 9). Although financing large government spending programs reduces real lifetime consumption, on average, among households born in 2020, they still are projected to have real lifetime consumption equal to between 1.7 and 2.1 times that of their 1940 counterparts, on average.

Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany: The evidence suggests that “good” weather attracts individuals to outdoor (safer) environments, thus, deterring people from indoor (less safe) environments

Home alone? Effect of weather-induced behaviour on spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany. Slava Yakubenko. Economics & Human Biology, April 1 2021, 100998, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2021.100998

Highlights

• Weather had a significant effect on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Germany during the “first wave”.

• Regions reported lower growth rates of the number of new cases after days with high temperatures, no rain and low humidity.

• The empirical evidence shows that “good” weather attracted people to parks, while “bad” weather caused more visits to residential areas.

• The weather effects on the growth rate of infections are significantly stronger during the full contact ban imposed in some regions.

• Jointly this evidence suggests that weather had not only biological, but also behavioural influence on the epidemic of COVID-19 in Germany.

Abstract: In early 2020 the world was struck by the epidemic of novel SARS-CoV-2 virus. Like many others, German government has introduced severe contact restrictions to limit the spread of infection. This paper analyses effects of weather on the spread of the disease under the described circumstances. We demonstrate that regions reported lower growth rates of the number of the infection cases after days with higher temperatures, no rain and low humidity. We argue that this effect is channelled through human behaviour. The evidence suggests that “good” weather attracts individuals to outdoor (safer) environments, thus, deterring people from indoor (less safe) environments. Understanding this relationship is important for improving the measures aiming at combating the spread of the virus.

Keywords: COVID-19WeatherBehaviourGermany

We examined whether violent media exposure would be associated with increased aggression, which would then spread within social networks like a contagious disease

Violent media use and aggression: Two longitudinal network studies. Martin Delhove &Tobias Greitemeyer. The Journal of Social Psychology, Mar 30 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2021.1896465

Abstract: Exposure to violent media has been widely linked to increased aggression. In the present research, we examined whether violent media exposure would be associated with increased aggression, which would then spread within social networks like a contagious disease. Two groups of first year psychology students completed a questionnaire three times over the course of a year, measuring their media exposure, aggression, personality, and social relations within the group. Cross-sectional analysis provided mixed results in regards to the link between violent media and aggression. Siena analysis found no evidence of homophily (i.e., participants were not more likely to be friends with others similar to themselves) nor of social influence (i.e., participant’s behavior did not predict a change in their friends’ behavior). However, given the relatively small sample sizes and the weak ties between participants, more work is needed to assess the spread of violent media effects.

KEYWORDS: Video gamesviolent mediaaggressionsocial networklongitudinalSiena

General discussion

The present work had three main goals. First, we aimed at replicating the link between violent media exposure and increased aggression, bringing new evidence in the current debate within media psychology. Second, we tried the case for homophily, the preference of individuals toward befriending others alike to themselves, in the context of aggression and media consumption. Third, and most importantly, we meant to test the recent claim that violent-media-related aggression could spread from consumers to their close ones (e.g., Greitemeyer, 2018).

Cross-sectional results provided mixed support for the link between violent media use and aggressive outcomes. In Study 1, the relationship between violent media use and aggressive behavior and trait aggression was not consistent. In Study 2, higher consumption of aggressive media was linked to the perception of aggressive behavior as more socially normative, but anger and aggressive behavior did not relate to violent media use. Across all six time points of the two studies, neutral media use related frequently to the different measures of aggressive outcomes, suggesting that frequency of media use, rather than the actual violent content one is exposed to, relates to some aspects of aggression. The longitudinal social network analyses did not support our hypotheses either. Homophily did not appear to influence the creation and continuation of relationships when looking at media use and aggression. Moreover, we could not find signs of social influence, be it on aggressive behaviors or norms about aggression. Overall, we did not find violent media to have a longitudinal effect on aggression.

Limitations

As any work, the present research has several limitations. One of which concerns our samples. We may have lacked a sufficient sample size in order to uncover some of the effects. After exclusions, we had at most 137 participants filling our questionnaire for one time point. Assuming p < .05, the effect size we could detect with a power of .8 was r = .24. Recent meta-analyses in the context of violent video game (Anderson et al., 2010; Greitemeyer & Mügge, 2014) have estimated the effect size at r = .19, which could even be an over-estimation (Hilgard et al., 2017). Hence, even with our best cross-sectional analysis, we were lacking sufficient power.

Unfortunately, because we conducted the study over the course of two following years, there are some potential overlap between participants in Study 1 and 2, meaning that we could not conduct an integrated data analysis to improve our statistical power. Adding to this, we had a high turn-over with only slightly over half of our participants completing all three data collection phases in both studies, hindering the capacity of our Siena analysis to establish the actual effects present in our networks.

Moreover, the use of students as participants in research has been criticized (Peterson, 2001; but see Druckman & Kam, 2009). Most importantly for the present context, participants in our study indicated that the ties to the fellow students were not very close. In fact, our participants did not know each other before data collection started, that is, all of the ties consisted of newly acquainted individuals. Our hope was that by selecting a recently formed network, we would be able to observe the creation of stronger ties as the year went by, giving us an opportunity to evaluate the many changes that would appear as students started to know each other. Although we observed stronger ties at later time points (see Tables 2 and 5) this may not have been sufficient or we may have needed to continue data collection at a later time, once our participants had the opportunity to form more significant friendships. Given that individuals are most strongly affected by their relatives and close friends (Christakis & Fowler, 2009), future work examining the impact of stronger relationships on the spread of aggressive media-related aggression might support the social influence hypothesis.

Adding to this, the specific use of psychology students may be problematic when studying aggression. Indeed, research on the differences in personality among study majors found, among other things, that psychology students tended to score higher on agreeableness (Vedel, 2016) and lower on dark triad traits (Vedel & Thomsen, 2017) than some of the other majors, especially economics or business students. This could be part of an explanation as to the low scores we found on reported aggressive behaviors and norms. Replications using a different sample would be beneficial in the future.

Finally, although it is a great tool for social network analysis, RSiena cannot make use of the whole data we collected. As we have previously stated, behavioral dynamics of continuous variables cannot be implemented yet. In combination with the aforementioned low variance in our aggressive behavior measurement, we could have failed to find some patterns that are actually present in our sample. Another piece of information that would have been beneficial for a more precise model in the future is the relationship type. As stated above, one is more likely to be influenced by those who are closer to her/him. That is, acquaintances typically have a much lesser impact than one’s best friend. Hopefully, future improvements of Siena will allow testing of more complex models in the future, which could shed a new light on works like ours.

Future perspectives

The present work provides some insight on how media use and aggression interact in human networks. However, there are still many things to explore in this field. In the following, we present some ideas that we deem interesting for future works.

First of all, aggression is manifold, and studies on the effect of violent media took interest in many different outcomes. Potential measures of interest include hostile expectation bias (Bushman & Anderson, 2002) or desensitization to violence (Bartholow et al., 2006). Similarly, in light of Vachon et al.’s (2014) finding that empathy and aggression are only weakly related, one may want to use more sound measures of empathy (i.e., by using measures which also include dissonant responses such as sadism or schadenfreude) to explore its role in the context of violent media use in society. As a matter of fact, everyday sadism (Greitemeyer, 2015) and dark personality (Delhove & Greitemeyer, 2020) have been found to relate to violent video game use. Furthermore, based on the correlations between neutral media use and some of our aggression measures, it would be pertinent to compare the effects of violent content and of overall frequency of media consumption on aggression.

Another promising direction could emerge from exploring the effect of prosocial games on prosocial behaviors. An example of such effect stems from the work of Greitemeyer and Osswald (2009, 2010). These authors asked their participants to play either a prosocial or a neutral video game and found that prosocial games decreased hostile expectation biases and the accessibility of antisocial thoughts as well as increased prosocial behaviors and the accessibility of prosocial thoughts. Outside of a laboratory setting, Prot et al. (2014) conducted a large-scale, cross-cultural correlational study and a two-year longitudinal study. They found that prosocial media use was linked to higher levels of helping behaviors which was mediated by increased empathy. Meta-analysis of prosocial video game use found that this effect was of a similar magnitude as that of violent video game use (Greitemeyer & Mügge, 2014). We would suggest that future work also delve into the eventual spread of positive effects of prosocial media.

In both a sample of dating, engaged, and married individuals & a dyadic sample of married couples, the strongest predictors of overall desire for touch were sex (being female) and high relationship quality (actor & partner)

Individual and relational differences in desire for touch in romantic relationships. Brittany K. Jakubiak, Julian D. Fuentes, Brooke C. Feeney. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, March 25, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211003331

Abstract: Although touch is common in romantic relationships and is generally beneficial, people differ in the extent to which they desire to give and receive touch. The current research identified individual and relationship characteristics that predict overall desire for touch and unique desire for overtly affectionate versus indirectly affectionate forms of touch. In both a sample of dating, engaged, and married individuals (Study 1) and a dyadic sample of married couples (Study 2), the strongest predictors of overall desire for touch were sex (being female) and high relationship quality (actor and partner). Attachment avoidance also predicted lower desire for touch overall (Study 1), and actor and partner attachment avoidance predicted lower desire for indirectly affectionate touch, in particular (Study 2). Finally, greater psychological distress predicted greater desire for indirectly affectionate touch in both studies. This novel descriptive information about desire for touch provides a foundation for future intervention work.

Keywords: Affection, attachment, individual differences, romantic relationships, touch