Bodies were perceived as more threatening as they had added musculature & portliness, & less threatening with more emaciation, but threatening faces exerted the most influence when paired with non-threatening bodies

McElvaney TJ, Osman M, Mareschal I (2021) Perceiving threat in others: The role of body morphology. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0249782, Apr 8 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249782

Abstract: People make judgments of others based on appearance, and these inferences can affect social interactions. Although the importance of facial appearance in these judgments is well established, the impact of the body morphology remains unclear. Specifically, it is unknown whether experimentally varied body morphology has an impact on perception of threat in others. In two preregistered experiments (N = 250), participants made judgments of perceived threat of body stimuli of varying morphology, both in the absence (Experiment 1) and presence (Experiment 2) of facial information. Bodies were perceived as more threatening as they increased in mass with added musculature and portliness, and less threatening as they increased in emaciation. The impact of musculature endured even in the presence of faces, although faces contributed more to the overall threat judgment. The relative contributions of the faces and bodies seemed to be driven by discordance, such that threatening faces exerted the most influence when paired with non-threatening bodies, and vice versa. This suggests that the faces and bodies were not perceived as entirely independent and separate components. Overall, these findings suggest that body morphology plays an important role in perceived threat and may bias real-world judgments.

4. Discussion

In two preregistered studies, we found evidence supporting the hypothesis that systematic changes in body morphology can significantly influence how threatening a person appears. Judgment of threat was primarily driven by facial information, with the odds of perceiving a person as more threatening increasing nearly threefold with each unit increase in perceived facial threat. However, larger bodies also tended to be seen as more threatening than smaller bodies, both in the absence and presence of facial information. Indeed, the odds of perceiving a person as more threatening increased more than one and a half-fold with each unit increase in perceived body threat. While the association between body size and perceived negative traits is not novel, this represents the first study, to our knowledge, to demonstrate that perceived threat can shift significantly with systematic changes in body morphology. Using this methodology, we were able to directly measure the effects of body morphology on perceived threat. In Experiment 1, bodies were perceived as more threatening the larger they became, most notably with increased musculature. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2.

Our findings are consistent with Palmer-Hague, Twele & Fuller [30], who found that perceived threat in facial stimuli was significantly predicted by BMI. They are also somewhat in line with Hu et al. [25], who found that more muscular builds tend to be seen as more dominant. More generally, these results dovetail with the growing literature on the capacity of appearance to significantly affect character trait inferences, while also adding to the sizeable obesity stigma literature. It appears that larger people may be perceived as more threatening. This would make sense from an ecological theory perspective, with size potentially serving as an inferred cue of strength. This increased perceived threat may contribute to biases against larger people [28, 29]. For example, in the realm of courtroom decision-making, it has been shown that defendants who appear untrustworthy are more likely to fall victim to harsher sentencing [6]. It is conceivable that people who appear threatening may also be more severely judged.

The study also contributes to the literature on the joint processing of bodies and faces. In line with the emotion recognition literature, we found that two stimuli sharing the same facial information can be perceived as significantly different depending on body information. This common interaction of face and body information in both this study and previous work on emotion recognition is perhaps unsurprising given the link between emotions and trait perception. The perception of emotional expressions has been shown to fuel, and can directly contribute to, overgeneralisations about other people’s trait characteristics [45–47]. Indeed, work by Montepare & Dobish [48] showed that actors posed with angry emotional expressions were perceived to be high in trait dominance and low in trait affiliation, while actors posing with surprise and happiness were seen as high in both trait dominance and affiliation.

However, the current study diverges from findings in emotion perception in the nature of the observed interaction of the face and body information. In contrast with work on combined emotional faces and bodies stimuli [15, 43], the contribution of the body here was maximised when paired with faces of low threat signal, rather than ambiguous threat signal. This could be attributable to the more transient nature of emotions in comparison to more stable character traits. Emotions are short and distinct feelings, which tend to have a specific cause [17], while character traits tend to be consistent over many years [18]. Similarly, the perceived emotion of a face can be rather malleable, and highly dependent on contextual and body cues [13]. Hence, contextual cues may be of particular importance when the facial cue is ambiguous. However, a face that signals a “neutral” level of a character trait such as threat may not be ambiguous or uninterpretable. Rather, it may be signalling a “medium” level of threat, an amount that can be processed and interpreted.

These results suggest that, rather than simply summing the independent threat level of the face and body, the two are integrated into a single judgment, that tends to be more heavily driven by the face. In this way, the perception of the compounds diverged from the mere sum of their separately perceived properties. The relative contributions of face and body seem to be driven by discordance, with faces exercising their greatest influence when paired with discordant bodies, and vice versa. This may be attributable to a pop-out effect, in that faces that may not appear to “match” the accompanying body (and vice versa) may be more likely to capture attention, and thus more strongly drive the judgment of the overall compound [49]. Although not providing direct evidence for holistic processing per se, this significant interaction lends some support to the hypothesis forwarded by Aviezer, Trope & Todorov [10]; that people do not perceive others as separate body and face components. Rather, it seems likely they are perceived as elements of a greater, whole-person unit. In this case, the signals of threat from face and body are integrated such that their respective strengths are dependent on the nature of their paired signal. The holistic person-perception hypothesis has found rather consistent support, from the emotion/identity identification literature [11] to findings on gaze detection [12]. However, this study represents the first evidence for such complimentary face and body processing in the area of trait/character inference.

While we found strong evidence for our primary hypotheses, we found no effect of participant height or BMI on perceived threat. This could be attributed to the manner in which the stimuli were presented. Participants were presented with an image on screen, as opposed to judging a real-sized potential threat. In a more realistic environment, it may be that people judge potential threats in terms of the personal threat posed. In this sense, a large person may feel less threatened by a person of average build than would a small person. Here, the potential effect of relative size may have been nullified. In addition, we found that the relation between perceived attractiveness and perceived threat was somewhat inconsistent. Although more attractive faces were perceived as less threatening, males found more attractive muscular bodies to be more threatening in Experiment 1. This may be due to the male participants not finding the bodies attractive in a romantic sense, but rather in recognition of a typically attractive male form [50]. In this case, the more muscular bodies were perceived as more attractive, but did not detract from the signalled threat. However, as the current study did not record the sexual orientation of the participants, this interpretation is somewhat speculative. Future studies investigating perceived attractiveness and threat should record the sexual orientation of participants to elucidate more clearly the nature of this interaction.

In addition to our primary hypotheses, we also observed significant effects of age and education in our first experiment. Older participants tended to perceive less threat in the stimuli, which is in line with previous work [39]. Contrary to expectations, it was also noted that participants with third-level degrees tended to perceive more threat than those without a degree, which is contrary to previous indications that participants of lower educational status show more hostile reactivity to ambiguous social scenarios [40]. However, it has also been shown that those of lower social rank and education may be more adept at tracking hostility [40]. As our stimuli did not overtly indicate hostility, these participants may have thus ascribed lower threat ratings.

A number of limitations of the current study should be mentioned. First, our study was limited to body stimuli which consisted entirely of images of white males. In order to generalise these findings, it would be useful to replicate the study using both female and male stimuli. It would be particularly relevant to repeat this with stimuli of varying races given the documented bias of young black men being perceived as bigger and more physically threatening than white men [51, 52]. Furthermore, our stimuli were entirely CG. While this lent us a level of control over body morphology that would have been impossible with images of real people, it limits the ecological validity of our findings. Future studies could attempt to use photo-editing software to systematically vary the body morphology of images of real people. Finally, the stimuli presented in this study were relatively small, displayed on a computer screen. A study utilising virtual reality (VR) apparatus [53] to display life-sized human stimuli to participants, while manipulating facial information and body morphology, may tap into a more ecological measurement of perceived threat. Furthermore, a VR study could also manipulate the participants’ own virtual height, thus exploring the impact of discrepant size on perceptions of threat.

This study reinforces the notion that morningness and eveningness as explicit identities are associated with political ideology: Author found a relationship between morning orientation and conservatism

Political ideology and diurnal associations: A dual-process motivated social cognition account. Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz. Politics and the Life Sciences , First View , pp. 1 - 16, Apr 8 2021. https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2021.4

Abstract: Social scientists have begun to uncover links between sleep and political attitudes and behaviors. This registered report considers how diurnal morning-night associations relate to political ideology using data from the Attitudes, Identities, and Individual Differences Study, a large-scale online data collection effort. Measures encompass perceived cultural attitudes and social pressures regarding diurnal preferences and explicit and implicit measures of both morning-night attitudes and morning-night self-concepts. Together, the analyses demonstrate a relationship between morning orientation and conservatism for explicit morning-night self-concepts and, to a lesser extent, explicit morning-night attitudes. This relationship is not present for implicit associations, and associations with perceived cultural attitudes and social pressure are also largely absent. This study reinforces the notion that morningness and eveningness as explicit identities are associated with political ideology.

Attending to Social Information: What Makes Men Less Desirable

Attending to Social Information: What Makes Men Less Desirable. Ryan C. Anderson. Sexuality & Culture, Apr 8 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-021-09858-1

Abstract: Mate copying is a type of social influence whereby the desirability of a potential mate is modified as a result of being romantically chosen by an opposite-sex other. While research into mate copying typically focuses on how an individual’s desirability can be raised by having a previous partner, it can also be lowered. Here we present two studies that look at how a previous partner can influence how one is romantically perceived. Study 1 presented women (N = 103) with profiles of men alongside mate-relevant information offered by the former partners of the men, and had them rate the long-term desirability of the featured men. Using a similar methodology, Study 2 (N = 284) varied who was providing the information. Study 1 found that a man’s perceived desirability is lowered when a previous partner offers negative information about the relationship. Study 2 found that a man’s perceived romantic desirability can be lowered depending on who his previous partner was and how long they were romantically associated for. It was concluded that relationship decisions about a prospective romantic partner are influenced by both implicit and explicit information provided by their former partners.

Rolf Degen summarizing... People tend to belittle the extent of their meat consumption to mitigate the cognitive dissonance triggered by the meat paradox

Meat‐related cognitive dissonance: The social psychology of eating animals. Hank Rothgerber  Daniel L. Rosenfeld. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, April 7 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12592

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1380174005051740172

Abstract: As the practice of eating animals as meat faces increased scrutiny for its ethical, health, and environmental implications, a subfield devoted to its psychology has begun to flourish. Researchers have been especially interested in understanding how individuals morally care for animals and wish them no harm yet simultaneously eat them as food. Merging theories of cognitive dissonance, moral disengagement, and neutralization, the current review aims to provide a framework of meat‐related cognitive dissonance (MRCD) that explains this belief–behavior inconsistency. First, we evaluate the existing research on mechanisms that (a) prevent MRCD from occurring and (b) reduce MRCD once it has occurred. Second, we highlight promising avenues for further research on MRCD. The purpose of this review, ultimately, is to synthesize findings from this emerging area of research and to highlight its exciting future directions for the field of social psychology.

People tend to assign higher attractiveness to an individual viewed from the back than head on; this tendency is pronounced when males rate the attractiveness of women

Romantic Bias in Judging the Attractiveness of Faces from the Back. Fuka Ichimura, Miho Moriwaki & Atsunori Ariga. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Apr 8 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10919-021-00361-7

Abstract: People tend to assign higher attractiveness to an individual viewed from the back than head on. This tendency is pronounced when males rate the attractiveness of women. This study investigated reasons for the previously observed gender difference in this bias, focusing on the social relationship between raters (participants) and rated models (stimuli). To manipulate the assumed social relationship, we explicitly instructed participants in advance to rate the front/back view of an opposite-gender individual as a romantic partner (romance-based condition) or as a friend (friend-based condition). The back-view bias was robustly observed in both male and female raters under every condition. More importantly, male raters showed an enhanced back-view bias under the romance-based condition compared to the friend-based condition, whereas female raters showed less bias, irrespective of the assumed social relationship. We discuss these results in terms of gender differences in criteria used to form judgments of attractiveness.

Attractive people are not only seen more favorably, but also more accurately, maybe due to their acceptance being relatively decoupled from their behaviors, which lowers inhibitions and allow for better "study" of their personalities

The Good Target of Personality Judgments. Marie-Catherine Mignault and Lauren J. Human. In The Oxford Handbook of Accurate Personality Judgment, edited by Tera D. Letzring and Jana S. Spain. Mar 2021, DOI 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190912529.013.7

Abstract: Being a good target, judgeable, or high in expressive accuracy plays a fundamental role in the accuracy of personality judgments. In line with Funder’s realistic accuracy model (RAM), targets are responsible for the quality and quantity of information—or cues—they provide to judges, and have the potential to influence how much attention and cognitive resources judges dedicate to those cues. In this chapter, target characteristics are discussed, such as psychological adjustment and social skills, which influence each stage of the RAM, thereby distinguishing good targets from targets that are more elusive or difficult to read. To conclude, possible intra- and inter-personal benefits of expressive accuracy and potential ways to enhance expressive accuracy are considered.

Keywords: good target, judgeability, expressive accuracy, personality judgment, psychological adjustment, social skill, realistic accuracy model

Estimating the Effect Size of Moral Contagion in Online Networks: Each message is 12% more likely to be shared for each additional moral-emotional word

Brady, William J., and Jay J. Van Bavel. 2021. “Estimating the Effect Size of Moral Contagion in Online Networks: A Pre-registered Replication and Meta-analysis.” OSF Preprints. April 7. doi:10.31219/osf.io/s4w2x

Abstract: Over 4 billion people now use social media platforms. As our social lives become more entangled than ever before with online social networks, it is important to understand the dynamics of online information diffusion. This is particularly true for the political domain, as political elites, disinformation profiteers and social activists all utilize social media to gain influence by spreading information. Recent work found that emotional expressions related to the domain of morality (moral emotion expression) are associated with increased diffusion of political messages--a phenomenon we called ‘moral contagion’. Here, we perform a large, pre-registered direct replication (N = 849,266) of Brady et al. (2017), as well as a meta-analysis of all available data testing moral contagion (5 independent labs, 27 studies, N = 4,821,006). The estimate of moral contagion in the available population of studies is positive and significant (IRR = 1.12, 95% CI = [1.06, 1.19]), such that each message is 12% more likely to be shared for each additional moral-emotional word. The mean effect size of the large, pre-registered replication (IRR = 1.15) better estimated the effect size of the available population of studies than the original study (IRR = 1.20). These findings reinforce the importance of replication and producing a pre-registered analysis to generate accurate estimates of effect size for future studies.

Rolf Degen summarizing... People are surprisingly reluctant to pressure others to behave prosocially, even if they themselves would act prosocially

Do People Intervene to Make Others Behave Prosocially? Viola Ackfeld, Axel Ockenfels. Games and Economic Behavior, April 6 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2021.03.005

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1379814104395882496

Abstract: We experimentally investigate people's willingness to intervene in others' decision-making in order to promote a charitable donation. We find that only a minority of those subjects who would donate themselves enforce the donation by banning the selfish choice from the decision-maker's choice menu. Bans are more acceptable if they are implemented only after the decision-makers could choose between the selfish and the prosocial option themselves. Also, many subjects decide against offering decision-makers a monetary incentive to switch from the selfish to the prosocial choice. We discuss potential hypotheses about underlying motivations for the (non-) usage of interventions, with a special focus on the hypothesis that interventions to promote prosocial choice are more acceptable the more they respect the autonomy of others.

Keywords: Charity experimentProsocial behaviorAutonomyBansIncentives

Pursued & implemented past civic activism in the offline sphere can mobilize further durable online political participation; the path from online to offline form of political behavior was found to be non-significant

A longitudinal study of the bidirectional causal relationships between online political participation and offline collective action. Maria Chayinska, Daniel Miranda, Roberto González. Computers in Human Behavior, April 7 2021, 106810. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106810

Highlights

•Using an exploratory approach, the present study provides a rigorous analysis of the bidirectional causal relationships between online political participation and offline collective action by assessing the strength, the direction, the dynamics, and the persistence of their effects in the real-life study context.

•Two longitudinal panel studies were conducted among university students (Study 1) and nationally representative sample of adults (Study 2) in the socio-political context of Chile.

•Using longitudinal cross-lagged modelling, the study provides compelling longitudinal evidence to the assumption that pursued and implemented past civic activism in the offline sphere can mobilize further durable online political participation, whereas the reverse path from online to offline form of political behavior was found to be consistently non-significant.

Abstract: The longitudinal causal relationships between individuals’ online and offline forms of civic participation requires further understanding. We provide a robust test of four competing theoretical perspectives to establish the direction of causality between online political participation and offline collective action as well as the persistence of their longitudinal effects. Two longitudinal panel studies were conducted in the socio-political context of Chile. Study 1 involved university students (a 2-year, 5-wave longitudinal study, N wave 1 = 1221, N wave 2 = 954, N wave 3 = 943, N wave 4 = 905, and N wave 5 = 786) and Study 2 used a nationally representative sample of adults (a 3-year, 3-wave longitudinal study, N wave 1 = 2927, N wave 2 = 2473 and N wave 3 = 2229). Results from both studies supported the spillover perspective compellingly showing that offline participation fostered subsequent online collective action over time, whereas the reverse causal path from online political participation and offline collective action was consistently non-significant. In Study 2, previous offline collective action predicted increased online participation after controlling for the effects of age, gender, and educational level. The need for further fine-grained longitudinal research on the causal relations between offline and online collective action is discussed.

Keywords: collective actioncivic activismlongitudinal studyprotestChile

Exploring the relationship between sex and gender, country income level, and COVID-19

Recorded but not revealed: exploring the relationship between sex and gender, country income level, and COVID-19. Sarah Hawkes et al. The Lancet, April 06, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00170-4

In 2020 we witnessed a seeming exponential spread of information about COVID-19. From understanding the pathogen to understanding its effect on populations, we have a wealth of evidence for decision making in pandemic control. Nonetheless, there remain some fundamental areas of investigation and response for which evidence remains oddly and inconsistently absent. The role of sex and gender in understanding the testing-to-outcome pathway of the pandemic is one such area.

Identifying the contribution of sex and gender to SARS-CoV-2 infection yields important evidence on both biological mechanisms that underlie differences in illness outcomes,1 and social and structural dynamics that influence individuals' risk and vulnerability depending on their position in the gender hierarchy in any country or community.2 Such information can help identify sites for tailored individual-level and population-level health interventions that are more responsive to sex and gender and potentially more effective. The minimum starting point for analysing the contribution of sex and gender to the COVID-19 pandemic, and identifying opportunities for reducing health inequities, requires data that is sex-disaggregated, which can be analysed to understand and explain gendered inequalities.3

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As we move towards the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, we believe that this moment must serve as a wake-up call for the importance of recording sex-disaggregated data accompanied by gender analysis. Monitoring the coverage of the vaccine by sex will be a vital component of ensuring equity and promoting equality. It could lead to more effective vaccine programmes. For example, a population-based survey in the USA found higher rates of COVID-19 vaccine scepticism in females compared with males.

10

 Will vaccine scepticism lead to lower uptake rates in women? We will not know unless we acknowledge that the purpose of sex-disaggregated data is not only to record it, but also to reveal it publicly, analyse it (including from a gender perspective) and, crucially, act on it.

Infidelity in Relation to Sex and Gender: The Perspective of Sociobiology Versus the Perspective of Sociology of Emotions

Infidelity in Relation to Sex and Gender: The Perspective of Sociobiology Versus the Perspective of Sociology of Emotions. Joanna Wróblewska-Skrzek. Sexuality & Culture, Apr 7 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-021-09845-6

Abstract: It is not the main intention of this paper to prove that people are unfaithful, neither does it present the scale of the phenomenon, as it is hard, for objective reasons, to obtain reliable data on the subject. The text analyses the motives for, and consequences of infidelity from two different perspectives: sociobiology and the sociology of emotions, while gender constitutes the axis of analysis. Regardless of whether we will explain infidelity as motivated by human nature, drives, desires and genes, or treat it as a social construct, the argumentation for infidelity remains different for men and for women. What is more, both subdisciplines bring into light different consequences of infidelity for representatives of either sex.

Cultural Correlates of Infidelity

Ulrick Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, having analyzed different types of sexual behaviors among men and women, propose a solution which centers around the cultural differences regarding sexuality and love. In their opinion, the development of a relationship between two sexes, starting with the first meeting and finishing with the sexual intercourse, proceeds according to an invisible protocol, socially pre-defined, of which the individual is usually completely unaware (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2013, p. 87). Not biology, but culture and the process of socialization, especially socialization towards gender roles, plays a decisive role in this process.

Biological explanations of human sexual drives are discarded with the concept of social scripting developed by Edwarda Otto Laumanna and Johna Henry Gagnona. The idea is based on the assumptions that: (1) patterns of sexual behaviors are shaped culturally and locally, which means that the designates of the word “sex” [i.e. sexual intercourse] can vary extremely across cultures; (2) throughout their lives individuals accumulate social scripts of sexual behavior, including those considered deviant in their culture, by means of primary and secondary socialization, e.g. through media; (3) individuals are only “mirrors reflecting social patterns of sexual behaviors, although they can modify them, adapting social patterns individually” (Szlendak, 2011a, p. 219).

It seems justified to analyze the motives behind infidelity, as well as the social functioning of men and women in the context of infidelity, from the perspective of gender. The concept of socio-cultural gender, as noted by Anna Titkow, reveals the meaning and spectrum of differences between women and men, which constitute their status and the rules defining the relationships among them in a given culture. It allows for a closer look at their “struggle” and the cognitive dissonances which they have to deal with (Titkow, 2011, p. 32). From this point of view, if one wants to address the question of the motives behind infidelity in a given society, they should trace the cultural determinants of femininity and masculinity, the social attitudes towards sexuality, as well as the entire set of relationships between the private life and the social structure (Szlendak, 2002, p. 140).

Why are we unfaithful? Of course, we can agree with the common stereotype stating that “men want only sex, while women want love.” Still, one might ask if it is actually true and whether it entails that women do not want sex. Nowadays, both women and men seek sexual pleasure to the same extent, as they perceive it as a basic component of their lives and relationships (Giddens, 2007, p. 85). When a relationship does not provide satisfaction in this regard, sexual needs will be fulfilled outside of it. The need for sexual fulfillment and pleasure is becoming increasingly important in the context of building a reflexive project of self. Sex bears, for men and women alike, a great promise of intimacy, something which—as Anthony Giddens puts it—touches upon the crucial aspect of the “self”. Nevertheless, considering their different starting points, implications of that fact are different for either sex (Giddens, 2007, p. 98–99). That is why in the case of adultery men and women will act—to quote Arlie Hochschils—in accordance with “gender strategies” (Turner & Stes, 2009, p. 57), so as to alleviate negative emotions triggered by the former. All of that for the sake of exciting experiences.

In consequence, engagement in any kind of sexual activity nowadays is related to the individual pursuit of pleasure. The fact that women and men in the modern world engage in “family oriented” activities originates from their egocentric and hedonistic impulses. According to Tomasz Szlendak, the contemporary times are governed by “the logic of individual autonomy” (Szlendak, 2011a, p. 226). As a result, if we are not able to fulfill our erotic and emotional needs within the family, we get involved in affairs. Men betray more often because they are licensed to do so by the pervasive male supremacy. Male infidelity is socially acceptable. Women betray their partners equally often, although they do not admit it—this results from the social expectations.

Results from this study indicate that marijuana use is not a reliable gateway cause of illicit drug use; as such, prohibition policies are unlikely to reduce illicit drug use

Is marijuana really a gateway drug? A nationally representative test of the marijuana gateway hypothesis using a propensity score matching design. Cody Jorgensen & Jessica Wells. Journal of Experimental Criminology, Apr 6 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11292-021-09464-z

Abstract: Marijuana use has been proposed to serve as a “gateway” that increases the likelihood that users will engage in subsequent use of harder and more harmful substances, known as the marijuana gateway hypothesis (MGH). The current study refines and extends the literature on the MGH by testing the hypothesis using rigorous quasi-experimental, propensity score-matching methodology in a nationally representative sample. Using three waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (1994–2002), eighteen propensity score-matching tests of the marijuana gateway hypothesis were conducted. Six of the eighteen tests were statistically significant; however, only three were substantively meaningful. These three tests found weak effects of frequent marijuana use on illicit drug use but they were also sensitive to hidden bias. Results from this study indicate that marijuana use is not a reliable gateway cause of illicit drug use. As such, prohibition policies are unlikely to reduce illicit drug use.

Found a significant, negative relationship between resting metabolic rate and Extraversion; less extraverted individuals had a 30% higher RMR than the most extraverted ones; seems an allocation energy trade-off

Bergeron P, Pagé A, Trempe M (2021) Integrating humans into pace-of-life studies: The Big Five personality traits and metabolic rate in young adults. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0248876. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0248876

Abstract: The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) predicts that personality and metabolism should be correlated if they function as an integrated unit along a slow-fast continuum. Over the last decade, this conceptual framework has been tested in several empirical studies over a wide array of non-human animal taxa, across multiple personality traits and using standardized measures of metabolism. However, studies associating metabolic rate and personality in humans have been surprisingly scarce. Here, we tested whether there was covariation among personality scores, measured using the Big Five Inventory test, resting metabolic rate (RMR) and preferred walking speed (PWS) in a cohort of young human adults aged between 18 and 27 years old. We found a significant, negative relationship between RMR and Extraversion; less extraverted individuals had a 30% higher RMR than the most extraverted ones. No other personality traits correlated with RMR and none correlated with PWS. The negative correlation between Extraversion and RMR may suggest an allocation energy trade-off between personality and basal metabolism. Our results yielded equivocal support for the POLS and emphasized the need for more research on human to test the generality of this conceptual framework and further assess its validity.

Discussion

Our goal was to examine the correlations between the Big Five personality traits and metabolism in young adults. This research was inspired by the vast literature on the POLS using non-human animals, with the hope that standardized personality traits could contribute to reducing the measurement noise around this construct [7]. Our main result was that Extraversion correlated negatively with RMR. All other traits showed no correlations with RMR, and none of the traits was correlated with PWS.

While never reported before, the significant correlation between Extraversion and RMR is coherent with previous personality work. According to DeYoung’s cybernetic model [14], Extraversion and Openness share a common variance and can be regrouped under the metatrait Plasticity, which indicates one’s “tendency toward behavioral exploration, using motor output to pursue potentially rewarding possibilities […]”. In addition, when assessed using the 44-item Big Five Inventory test (as in the present study), Extraversion included several questions pertaining to the facet Activity [26]. This language is strikingly similar to that used in animal studies, in which “activity” and “exploration” scores are personality traits that have been shown to covary with metabolism [3]. In fact, when used in animal studies, “personality” cannot be dissociated from behavior since observing the animal’s behavior is the only way in which researchers can infer the animal’s personality [27]. It therefore may not come as a surprise if, in our dataset, the only significant correlation between RMR and personality was obtained with Extraversion, the trait highest in visibility and the one that can be most accurately assessed by other raters [28]. Thus, our results suggest that the components of personality linked to behavior and movements are attuned to the body metabolism.

The negative correlation between RMR and Extraversion, however, adds to a growing number of reports failing to support the POLS [7]. More specifically, the POLS would predict that personalities associated with energy-demanding behaviors should positively correlate with basal energy expenditure and not the opposite [3]. In contrast, Careau et al. [29] suggested that a negative correlation between personality and metabolism could be observed if “fast” personalities are maintained via an energetic allocation trade-off with metabolism. In other words, individuals could be able to sustain energetically demanding personalities (or the behaviors associated with these personalities) by spending less energy at rest. Such a trade-off has been observed between metabolic rate and boldness in fall field crickets (Gryllus pennsylvanicus) [30] and with activity in mosquito fish (Gambusia holbrooki) [31]. In humans, there have been suggestions that total daily energy expenditure is bounded to a fixed level such that an increase in daily energy expenditure (e.g., by engaging in physical activity) is associated with a corresponding decrease in basal energy expenditure [32]. Our results support the energy trade-off model and suggest that the energy cost associated with Extraversion (and, indirectly, the metatrait Plasticity) are compensated for by a decrease in basal metabolic rate. This conclusion is also coherent with Terracciano et al.’s observation that individuals who scored high on Extraversion saved energy by increasing their walking efficiency [23]. Whether individuals can energetically “afford” to be extraverted because of their metabolism or whether metabolism adapts to sustain the energetically demanding behaviors of some personality traits remains open for investigation.

The finding that Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and, to a certain extent, Openness were not correlated with RMR can be interpreted in different ways. First, because these traits mainly encompass facets related to internal thoughts and affective states, it is possible that they vary independently from metabolism. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that a relationship does exist, but we were unable to capture it. As demonstrated before, these traits are higher in evaluativeness compared to Extraversion, indicating that social norms and values can influence how one responds to their associated questions [28]. Since our experiment was conducted on a small and intimate university campus, it is possible our participants’ responses were, intentionally or unintentionally, biased. This possibility could explain the rather low Cronbach’s alpha that we reported for these traits. In our context, an other-rater procedure may have led to a more accurate evaluation. Alternatively, our analysis may have been underpowered to detect a relationship of this size, making a larger sample size more desirable in future studies. Considered together, our results demonstrate the importance of further exploring the energetic costs of personality traits and their possible variations over the full life span.

The failure to observe a relationship between personality and PWS on a treadmill is difficult to interpret because the participants’ familiarity with this equipment was not homogenous in our sample. Future studies may want to utilize a more ecological measurement, such as the average walking speed over a 24-hour period assessed using a GPS or smartphone. In addition, the correlative nature of this research, using a single point measurement per subject and small sample size, requires caution in inferring causality since our approach does not allow for distinguishing among- and inter-individual contributions to the observed phenotypic correlation [33]. Additionally, we cannot exclude the possibility that a third, unmeasured trait affects the observed phenotypic correlation. For instance, ethnicity and time since last exercise could have been relevant control variables [22]. Nevertheless, our results raise important questions about the expected relationship between personality and metabolism within the POLS conceptual framework and highlight the importance of better understanding models of energy allocation. 

It is difficult for people to be persuaded by competing media accounts during a contentious election campaign; the real consequence of online partisan media may be an erosion of trust in mainstream news

The consequences of online partisan media. Andrew M. Guess et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, April 6, 2021 118 (14) e2013464118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2013464118

Significance: Popular wisdom suggests that the internet plays a major role in influencing people’s attitudes and behaviors related to politics, such as by providing slanted sources of information. Yet evidence for this proposition is elusive due to methodological difficulties and the multifaceted nature of online media effects. This study breaks ground by demonstrating a nudge-like approach for exploring these effects through a combination of real-world experimentation and computational social science techniques. The results confirm that it is difficult for people to be persuaded by competing media accounts during a contentious election campaign. At the same time, data from a longer time span suggest that the real consequence of online partisan media may be an erosion of trust in mainstream news.

Abstract: What role do ideologically extreme media play in the polarization of society? Here we report results from a randomized longitudinal field experiment embedded in a nationally representative online panel survey (N = 1,037) in which participants were incentivized to change their browser default settings and social media following patterns, boosting the likelihood of encountering news with either a left-leaning (HuffPost) or right-leaning (Fox News) slant during the 2018 US midterm election campaign. Data on ≈ 19 million web visits by respondents indicate that resulting changes in news consumption persisted for at least 8 wk. Greater exposure to partisan news can cause immediate but short-lived increases in website visits and knowledge of recent events. After adjusting for multiple comparisons, however, we find little evidence of a direct impact on opinions or affect. Still, results from later survey waves suggest that both treatments produce a lasting and meaningful decrease in trust in the mainstream media up to 1 y later. Consistent with the minimal-effects tradition, direct consequences of online partisan media are limited, although our findings raise questions about the possibility of subtle, cumulative dynamics. The combination of experimentation and computational social science techniques illustrates a powerful approach for studying the long-term consequences of exposure to partisan news.

Keywords: mediapoliticspolarizationcomputational social science

Brain shape shares significant signal w/most neuropsych traits, as well as all behavioral– cognitive and subcortical volume traits; in contrast, face shape does not show significant sharing with any neuropsych disorders or behavioral–cognitive traits

Shared heritability of human face and brain shape. Sahin Naqvi, Yoeri Sleyp, Hanne Hoskens, Karlijne Indencleef, Jeffrey P. Spence, Rose Bruffaerts, Ahmed Radwan, Ryan J. Eller, Stephen Richmond, Mark D. Shriver, John R. Shaffer, Seth M. Weinberg, Susan Walsh, James Thompson, Jonathan K. Pritchard, Stefan Sunaert, Hilde Peeters, Joanna Wysocka & Peter Claes. Nature Genetics, Apr 5 2021. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00827-w

Abstract: Evidence from model organisms and clinical genetics suggests coordination between the developing brain and face, but the role of this link in common genetic variation remains unknown. We performed a multivariate genome-wide association study of cortical surface morphology in 19,644 individuals of European ancestry, identifying 472 genomic loci influencing brain shape, of which 76 are also linked to face shape. Shared loci include transcription factors involved in craniofacial development, as well as members of signaling pathways implicated in brain–face cross-talk. Brain shape heritability is equivalently enriched near regulatory regions active in either forebrain organoids or facial progenitors. However, we do not detect significant overlap between shared brain–face genome-wide association study signals and variants affecting behavioral–cognitive traits. These results suggest that early in embryogenesis, the face and brain mutually shape each other through both structural effects and paracrine signaling, but this interplay may not impact later brain development associated with cognitive function.

Women who support far-right parties in Europe do not fit the stereotype

Individual- and party-level determinants of far-right support among women in Western Europe. Trevor J. Allen and Sara Wallace Goodman. European Political Science Review, Volume 13 , Issue 2 , May 2021 , pp. 135 - 150. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773920000405

Abstract: Support for Western Europe’s far-right is majority-male. However, given the sweeping success of the party family, literature on this ‘gender gap’ belies support given to the radical right by millions of women. We examine differences between men and women’s support for far-right parties, focusing on workplace experience, positions on economic and cultural issues, and features of far-right parties themselves. We find that the received scholarship on blue-collar support for far-right populists is a largely male phenomenon, and women in routine nonmanual (i.e. service, sales, and clerical) work are more likely than those in blue-collar work to support the far-right. Moreover, while men who support the far-right tend to be conservative on other moral issues, certain liberal positions predict far-right support among women, at both the voter and party level. Our analysis suggests that gender differences may obscure the socio-structural and attitudinal bases of support for far-right parties and have broader implications for comparative political behavior and gender and politics.

Discussion

This analysis is an early scholarly step toward elucidating the complex relationship between voting behavior, gender, and far-right populism. We have suggested that the sometimes murky picture of far-right party voters is actually due to an incomplete treatment of gender. As our analysis shows, multiple characteristics predicting far-right support differ between men and women. Where there is a consistent relationship between blue-collar work and far-right support among men, most of the women who support far-right parties are employed in routine nonmanual (service, sales, and clerical) work.

Moreover, while anti-immigrant attitudes are correlated with far-right support among both men and women, other forms of social conservatism – operationalized here as attitudes toward gay equality – only predict support among men. Strikingly, tolerance toward gays and lesbians predicts greater far-right support among women. This, coupled with the finding that negative mentions of traditional morality (i.e. support for divorce, abortion, and secularism) in far-right party platforms predict support among women but not men, suggests some far-right parties’ cultural progressivism – often but not exclusively paired with castigation of Islam as anti-modern and an anathema to European values – might attract women to the far-right (Akkerman, 2015; Campbell and Erzeel, 2018). Indeed, this might suggest the strategy by which some far-right parties have rhetorically defended liberal values in the first place. Future research might clarify this interaction with analyses of campaign data, or voter studies at the national level where larger samples for particular parties and candidates are available.

These findings unsettle dominant narratives about support for far-right parties. Existing work paints a picture of culturally, morally conservative men in certain occupations expressing support for radical right parties based on perceptions of declining status – implying a fixed group of male voters (perhaps, ‘working-class authoritarians’) available to right-wing populists. But the correlates of female support are different. Blue-collar work and cultural conservatism seem to only predict far-right support among men. For women, a picture emerges of someone engaged in routine nonmanual work – service, sales, or clerical occupations – for whom cultural progressivism on issues outside of immigration might resonate.

How do we reconcile this voter profile, between nativism and individual progressivism? It suggests the prevalence of a type of progressive chauvinism: ‘equality and tolerance for me, not for thee’. Far-right parties, for example, the Danish People’s Party, have gained a lot of traction in support by advocating policies scholars have described as welfare chauvinism, wherein individuals support broad social safety nets so long as they exclude immigrants from accessing entitlements (Careja et al., 2016). This is a strategy adopted by the far-right that successfully diffuses to mainstream parties (Schumacher and Van Kersbergen, 2016). That far-right parties simultaneously offer what we term progressive chauvinism may broaden their base, attracting a new type of (female) supporter just as the social democratic parties of the left experienced historically unprecedented declines. Further research in this area might examine far-right policy framing, issue linkages and ownership within party systems, and voter mobilization. By examining the socio-structural roots of the party family, and taking seriously the large number of female supporters who have heretofore largely been overlooked in analyses of far-right support, we have identified several important predictors of female far-right support distinct from their male compatriots. As far-right parties gain in popularity, it is essential that comparative approaches to voting behavior push beyond simplistic narratives of far-right supporters as simply jackbooted radicals or ‘angry young men’. The results suggest that men and women have different profiles and motivations for supporting the far-right, and that the way gender has been encoded in research on the far-right may have obscured important features of the party family. A more nuanced view of far-right supporters – and party positioning to expand their base – reveals distinct, gendered dimensions.

Taller respondents (proxy for formidability) are likelier to approve of police officers hitting male citizens in several circumstances, as well as corporal criminal-justice punishment in the form of the death penalty

Physical formidability and acceptance of police violence. R. Urbatsch. Evolution and Human Behavior, April 6 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2021.03.008

Abstract: Individuals whose threats of force are more effective, such as those with greater bodily formidability, have advantages when the social environment condones violence. This benefit shapes incentives regarding norms and preferences allowing aggressive behavior. More physically imposing people may, in particular, be likelier to approve of police use of violent tactics, one recent social flashpoint concerning attitudes to physical aggression. Archival data concerning more than 1600 respondents to the 2014 and 2018 iterations of the United States' General Social Survey confirm this hypothesis, with taller respondents (as the proxy for formidability) likelier to approve of police officers hitting male citizens in several circumstances, as well as corporal criminal-justice punishment in the form of the death penalty. Black respondents show less relationship between physical size and condoning of violent policing.

Keywords: ViolenceFormidabilityHeightLaw enforcementOpinionUnited States

Physical Strength Partly Explains Sex Differences in Trait Anxiety in Young Americans

Physical Strength Partly Explains Sex Differences in Trait Anxiety in Young Americans. Nicholas Kerry, Damian R. Murray. Psychological Science, April 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620971298

Abstract: Among the most consistent sex differences to emerge from personality research is that women score higher than men on the Big Five personality trait Neuroticism. However, there are few functionally coherent explanations for this sex difference. The current studies tested whether this sex difference is due, in part, to variation in physical capital. Two preregistered studies (total N = 878 U.S. students) found that sex differences in the anxiety facet of Neuroticism were mediated by variation in physical strength and self-perceived formidability. Study 1 (N = 374) did not find a predicted mediation effect for overall Neuroticism but found a mediation effect for anxiety (the facet of Neuroticism most strongly associated with grip strength). Study 2 (N = 504) predicted and replicated this mediation effect. Further, sex differences in anxiety were serially mediated by grip strength and self-perceived formidability. These findings add to a nascent literature suggesting that differences in physical attributes may partially explain sex differences in personality.

Keywords: anxiety, Neuroticism, personality, sex differences, physical strength, formidability, open data, open materials, preregistered

General Discussion

In two studies, grip strength negatively predicted anxiety, and sex differences in anxiety were serially mediated by grip strength and self-perceived formidability. These findings suggest that some sex-based variation in personality may be partly attributable to variation in physical attributes.

These results suggest the testable hypothesis that other psychological and behavioral sex differences could be partly explained by differences in physical attributes. For example, there is evidence that social dominance and aggression—both of which tend to be higher in men—also covary intrasexually with physical strength (Farrington, 1989; Gallup et al., 2007; Price et al., 2011). Future research might investigate whether these and other psychological sex differences can be partly explained by differences in strength or stature.

Important limitations of this work should be noted. First, within-sex associations between strength and anxiety were small and somewhat inconsistent, and sex still accounted for some variance in anxiety beyond that explained by physical strength. Imperfect measurement of the key variables may have contributed to the small effects observed (see the Supplemental Material). Another possible explanation for the small within-sex effects is that the measures of strength and formidability employed here acted as a proxy for another variable, such as health or attractiveness (which both covary with grip strength; see Gallup & Fink, 2018). Although we cannot rule out this explanation, analyses reported in the Supplemental Material found relationships to be robust when controlling for several potential confounds, including body mass index, age, and a measure of self-perceived attractiveness. Similarly, though, these effects could be explained by a common underlying physiological factor, such as developmental testosterone levels (testosterone levels correlate negatively with anxiety in both sexes; see McHenry et al., 2014). Finally, a key limitation relating to the causal interpretation of these findings is that the mediational models presented here use cross-sectional data and cannot alone demonstrate causality. Thus, although the data here are consistent with the hypothesis that lower physical strength leads to higher anxiety, we cannot rule out alternative causal explanations.

Further, several additional questions remain unanswered. Is the association between strength and anxiety best explained by developmental calibration (i.e., people adapting behaviors to their strengths and weaknesses), genetic pleiotropy (i.e., genes associated with physical formidability also being associated with lower dispositional anxiety; see Lukaszewski & Roney, 2011), or facultative epigenetic processes whereby methylation of genes associated with strength also has consequences for anxiety? And, importantly, will these relationships generalize to other cultures, and would effects be larger for cultures and populations in which formidability is a more functional part of social life? Although these and other questions must be addressed in future research, the studies presented here support the hypothesis that sex differences in anxiety can be partly explained by differences in physical strength and self-perceived formidability. These findings suggest that further work on sex differences in personality may benefit from an increased focus on the role of physical attributes.

Some navigation abilities decline in midlife and differ by sex, but others (path integration) do not decline

Age-Related Changes in Spatial Navigation Are Evident by Midlife and Differ by Sex. Shuying Yu et al. Psychological Science, April 5, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620979185

Abstract: Accumulating evidence suggests that distinct aspects of successful navigation—path integration, spatial-knowledge acquisition, and navigation strategies—change with advanced age. Yet few studies have established whether navigation deficits emerge early in the aging process (prior to age 65) or whether early age-related deficits vary by sex. Here, we probed healthy young adults (ages 18–28) and midlife adults (ages 43–61) on three essential aspects of navigation. We found, first, that path-integration ability shows negligible effects of sex or age. Second, robust sex differences in spatial-knowledge acquisition are observed not only in young adulthood but also, although with diminished effect, at midlife. Third, by midlife, men and women show decreased ability to acquire spatial knowledge and increased reliance on taking habitual paths. Together, our findings indicate that age-related changes in navigation ability and strategy are evident as early as midlife and that path-integration ability is spared, to some extent, in the transition from youth to middle age.

Keywords: cognitive aging, virtual reality, path integration, wayfinding

Check also Gender differences in spatial navigation: Characterizing wayfinding behaviors. Ascher K. Munion et al. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, August 20 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/08/gender-differences-in-spatial.html

And: A meta-analysis of sex differences in human navigation skills. Alina Nazareth et al. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, July 3 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/07/a-meta-analysis-of-sex-differences-in.html

Discussion

The present study tested the effects of age and sex on three core aspects of spatial navigation in young and midlife adults: path integration, spatial-knowledge acquisition, and navigational strategy. Building on previous chronological-aging studies (Driscoll et al., 2005; Zhong & Moffat, 2016), we found that some age-related differences in spatial navigation are evident by midlife. Although path-integration ability was largely preserved with age in the loop-closure task, pronounced age-related differences were observed in the ability to acquire spatial knowledge in the maze-learning task and in the selection of a navigational strategy in the dual-solution paradigm. No major sex difference was observed for path integration, but sex differences were found for acquiring spatial knowledge and navigation strategy. Overall, sex differences present in young adults tended to be reduced with age.

Previous findings indicate poor path integration in adults 65 years or older (Adamo et al., 2012; Coughlan, Coutrot, et al., 2018; Harris & Wolbers, 2012), but we saw no such change in midlife adults, suggesting that age-related changes arise later in the aging process. In previous studies, older adults had access to a single cue (vision or proprioception), whereas our task provided participants with multiple cues. Future studies should examine whether reduced performance is evident in midlife when performance is constrained to a single cue. Although there was a sex difference in degrees traveled, with women tending to overshoot and men tending to undershoot, this difference did not affect the overall position error. The tendency to overshoot could be a cautionary measure by women to ensure they reach the start (e.g., Gagnon et al., 2016). In sum, we found little evidence for sex or aging effects in path integration.

Sex differences were evident in measures of spatial-knowledge acquisition from both unrestricted free exploration (maze-learning task) and route-based learning (dual-solution paradigm). In the maze-learning task, midlife adults did not explore as much as younger adults. After accounting for differing numbers of exploration moves, we found that sex differences remained robust in young adults and diminished in midlife adults. Floor effects were present in the maze-learning task for midlife adults, making sex differences less detectible. It is possible that age-related changes in the brain hinder the ability for midlife adults to create a comprehensive cognitive map, which in turn makes sex differences in performance harder to detect. In the dual-solution paradigm, wayfinding success indicates how well participants learned the environment from a route. Despite equal exposure to the route, midlife adults were less successful than younger adults, consistent with previous studies on learning from routes (Harris & Wolbers, 2014; Wiener et al., 2013; Zhong & Moffat, 2016). Together, these findings suggest that spatial learning is impaired as early as midlife. These data are consistent with findings from an earlier study demonstrating age-related performance decrements in a virtual Morris water-maze task by midlife (Driscoll et al., 2005).

Navigation strategies in the dual-solution paradigm indicated that young men took more shortcuts than young women, a finding that echoes previous results by Boone et al. (2018, 2019). Our study provides the first evidence that age-related differences in navigation strategies are evident by midlife, with midlife adults using fewer shortcuts than younger adults. This result is consistent with reports that older adults use more habitual routes when navigating (Harris et al., 2012; Lester et al., 2017; Wiener et al., 2013) and suggests that strategies have already shifted by midlife. In addition, we found that the sex difference observed in young adults did not persist in midlife adults. Further, the heat maps indicated that although young men were more likely to take shortcuts through the middle of the maze, all other groups relied on the learned route to navigate within the maze. Thus, the major change with age was a reduction of place-based strategies in men.

Several limitations should be considered when interpreting these findings. First, it is possible that older adults have less experience with using computer gaming controls (such as those used in the dual-solution paradigm) compared with younger adults, and this could contribute to navigation inefficiency in the desktop virtual environments. However, age-related differences also existed for the maze-learning task, which requires the use of only a single button press at each intersection. This indicates that poorer performance for midlife adults is unlikely to be due to computer experience alone and is likely to be related to age-related changes in participants’ brains that deterred successful acquisition of spatial information from the environment. A direct assessment of participants’ gaming experience and experience in virtual environments was not acquired, so this issue cannot be fully resolved.

Second, the midlife period is characterized by significant neuroendocrine changes in women. Our sample included midlife women, spanning the spectrum from late premenopausal to early postmenopausal. Although the study was not powered to assess performance by reproductive stage or endocrine status in the current sample, this will be a major focus of our future research. Further, young adult women were tested independently of menstrual-cycle stage. Given accumulating evidence that menstrual-cycle stage and sex-hormone concentrations impact spatial cognition (Courvoisier et al., 2013; Hussain et al., 2016) and aspects of navigation (Korol et al., 2004), future studies should clarify the extent to which these relationships hold across measures of path integration, wayfinding, and navigation strategy.

Finally, the largest age effects were observed in men, with a steep decline in wayfinding success (maze-learning task) and a shift toward taking habitual routes (dual-solution paradigm). It is possible that these unexpected effects have a neuroendocrine basis. Testosterone production in men begins to diminish when they are in their early 30s and gradually declines throughout the adult life span (Feldman et al., 2002). Testosterone loss influences cognitive and brain function in aging men, including visual and verbal memory and spatial cognition (Moffat, 2005). Driscoll and colleagues (2005) found that the male spatial advantage in a virtual Morris water-maze task is related to circulating testosterone. Thus, the role of testosterone should be considered as a factor in future studies of navigation and aging.

In sum, we examined signatures of early aging in three navigational tasks, opening up new avenues for understanding healthy aging. The differing patterns of age and sex across our three navigational tasks suggest that different aspects of navigation could tap into separate brain systems. Although path integration has typically been used as an early marker for dementia (Coughlan, Laczó, et al., 2018; Kunz et al., 2015), our findings suggest that spatial-knowledge acquisition and strategy use are more sensitive to the earliest stages of the aging process. Understanding the trajectories of healthy aging—and how they differ for men and women—will help pave the way for developing behavioral and neural markers for dementia.