The assisted reproduction families generally showed high levels of family functioning and children's adjustment from early childhood through to adolescence

Love and Truth: What Really Matters for Children Born Through Third‐Party Assisted Reproduction. Susan Golombok. Child Development Perspectives, May 4 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12406

Abstract: Ever since the birth of the first baby born through in vitro fertilization in 1978, advances in reproductive technologies have raised new concerns about the outcomes for children. In this article, I summarize research on children born through assisted reproduction involving a third party, that is, children born through egg donation, sperm donation, and surrogacy, with particular attention to the findings of a longitudinal study of children born to heterosexual couples in the United Kingdom. The assisted reproduction families generally showed high levels of family functioning and children's adjustment from early childhood through to adolescence, suggesting that biological relatedness is less important than positive parent–child relationships for the well‐being of children conceived by third‐party assisted reproduction. Similarly, studies of families created by third‐party reproduction with two mothers, single mothers, two fathers, and single fathers have shown that these families function well.

Conclusions

Despite concerns to the contrary, in the U.K. Longitudinal Study of Assisted Reproduction Families, the assisted reproduction families generally showed high levels of family functioning and children's adjustment from early childhood through to adolescence. The differences identified did not point to dysfunctional family relationships but instead reflected variation within the expected range. The idea that third‐party assisted reproduction adversely affects parenting and children's adjustment comes, in part, from research showing an increased likelihood of childhood psychological problems in adoptive families (Palacios & Brodzinsky, 2010) and stepfamilies (Dunn, Deater‐Deckard, Pickering, O'Connor, & Golding, 1998), in which children similarly lack a biological link to one or both parents. However, the problems experienced by adopted children and stepchildren often arise from difficult family situations before being adopted, or before or after moving into a stepfamily. Adopted children often have suffered maltreatment before being placed with their adoptive parents, sometimes for years, and many have been moved from one foster family to another before being adopted (Palacios & Brodzinsky, 2010). Children in stepfamilies often have been separated from a parent to whom they were attached and are required to form relationships with new family members. Moreover, stepparents generally do not see stepchildren as their own children (Dunn, Davies, O'Connor, & Sturgess, 2000). In contrast, children born through assisted reproduction are raised from birth by parents who wanted to have them and who consider them to be their own children. Biological relatedness seems to be less important for the well‐being of children conceived by third‐party assisted reproduction than are warm and responsive relationships between parents and their children.

Although the absence of a biological connection between children and their parents does not appear to cause difficulties for children, not telling children about their origins or delaying disclosure beyond the preschool years is associated with less positive outcomes for adolescents' well‐being and family relationships. Moreover, just because adolescents born through donor conception and surrogacy are functioning well does not mean that their donor or surrogate is of no significance to them. Some donor‐conceived adolescents have little interest in finding out about their donor. But others search for information on the Internet. In investigations of motivations, adolescents and young adults who searched for their sperm donor and donor siblings were curious about resemblances in physical and personality characteristics, wanted to learn about their ancestry, and wished for a more complete story of how they were born (Canzi, Accordini, & Facchin, 2019; Jadva, Freeman, Kramer, & Golombok, 2010; Scheib, McCormick, Benward, & Ruby, 2020; Scheib, Ruby, & Benward, 2017). In many cases, these youth were more interested in their donor siblings than in their donors; they wanted information about their donor, and some wanted to meet him, but they usually did not see him as their father, and they were more likely to develop enduring connections with their donor siblings. In a study that explored why some adolescents are more interested in their donor relations than others, secure attachment relationships with mothers were associated with greater acceptance of and curiosity about donor conception (Slutsky et al., 2016).

The U.K. Longitudinal Study of Assisted Reproduction Families collected data from mothers, fathers, children, and teachers using standardized interviews, observational assessments, and standardized questionnaires. Nevertheless, it is the only prospective, comparative study of parent–child relationships and children's psychological adjustment in families formed through sperm donation, egg donation, surrogacy, and unassisted conception and the only in‐depth study of children born through surrogacy. Therefore, replication should be a priority, especially given the increasing numbers of children being born through assisted reproduction worldwide. Because the parents in the study were predominantly White and of medium to high socioeconomic status, the findings may not be relevant to more diverse families, who may struggle financially to afford fertility treatment, or who are from religious or ethnic backgrounds that do not accept third‐party assisted reproduction, requiring parents to keep their children's biological origins secret.

The study also focused on children born to heterosexual couples. More research is being done on lesbian‐mother families formed by sperm donation (Bos & Gartrell, 2020), single heterosexual‐mother families formed by sperm donation (Golombok, Zadeh, Freeman, Lysons, & Foley, 2020; Golombok, Zadeh, Imrie, Smith, & Freeman, 2016), families with gay fathers created through surrogacy and egg donation (Golombok, Blake, et al., 2017; Rubio et al., 2020), and single‐father families with children born through surrogacy and egg donation (Carone, Baiocco, Lingiardi, & Barone, 2020), all with similarly positive outcomes. These findings show that families created by third‐party reproduction with two mothers, single mothers, two fathers, or single fathers function well, irrespective of the number, gender, and sexual orientation of the parents. As with traditional families formed by assisted reproduction, in nontraditional families, the quality of parent–child relationships appears to be more important for children than the way in which the family is constructed.

The overall findings of research on children born through third‐party assisted reproduction are consistent with a relational developmental systems framework (Osher, Cantor, Berg, Steyer, & Rose, 2020; Overton, 2015): Relationships, such as those between parents and children, and context, such as the disclosure or nondisclosure of children's biological origins, interact reciprocally with characteristics of the child to influence development. Newly emerging family forms raise new questions about the psychological consequences for children. Transgender parents who have had children through fertility preservation and lesbian couples that use one partner's egg to create the other partner's pregnancy are just two examples of 21st‐century families made possible through advances in assisted reproduction. Researchers need to study the outcomes of parents and children in these families. However, based on what we know from current studies, warm and supportive relationships between parents and their children, and openness about the children's origins, seem to be what matter most for children born through third‐party assisted reproduction.

Polycarpa mytiligera, a chordate incapable of asexual development, achieves bidirectional regeneration & fully regenerates all body structures & organs after being cut in three pieces; each fragment got to be an independent, functional individual

And Then There Were Three…: Extreme Regeneration Ability of the Solitary Chordate Polycarpa mytiligera. Tal Gordon et al. Front. Cell Dev. Biol., April 15 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2021.652466

Abstract: Extensive regenerative ability is a common trait of animals capable of asexual development. The current study reveals the extraordinary regeneration abilities of the solitary ascidian Polycarpa mytiligera. Dissection of a single individual into separate fragments along two body axes resulted in the complete regeneration of each fragment into an independent, functional individual. The ability of a solitary ascidian, incapable of asexual development, to achieve bidirectional regeneration and fully regenerate all body structures and organs is described here for the first time. Amputation initiated cell proliferation in proximity to the amputation line. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated the close affinity of P. mytiligera to colonial species. This evolutionary proximity suggests the ability for regeneration as an exaptation feature for colonial lifestyle. P. mytiligera’s exceptional regenerative abilities and phylogenetic position highlight its potential to serve as a new comparative system for studies seeking to uncover the evolution of regeneration and coloniality among the chordates.

Discussion

Ascidians are unique among the chordates as they present robust regeneration abilities, including whole body regeneration, following an injury (Voskoboynik et al., 2007; Blanchoud et al., 2018; Kassmer et al., 2020). The current study has uncovered exceptional regeneration abilities in a solitary ascidian, a group of animals considered to be regeneratively deficient compared to their colonial relatives (Kassmer et al., 2019). P. mytiligera’s provides a valuable opportunity to elucidate the evolution of coloniality and reveal conserved pathways that regulate chordate regeneration.

P. mytiligera Regeneration Involves Extensive Cell Proliferation and Reorganization Processes

P. mytiligera presented an extraordinary regeneration plasticity, being able to reconstruct an entire animal from each small body fragment. Histological sections confirmed that despite no residue of essential organs, such as the heart and neural complex, remaining in the body fragment, the animal was nonetheless able to regenerate and regain its complete morphology and functionality.

P. mytiligera’s regeneration process can be divided into three phases: (1) wound-healing; (2) increased cell proliferation in the injured area; and (3) morphogenesis and formation of tissues and organs. These basic stages, underlying tissue regeneration, are highly conserved, being found in a wide variety of animals capable of regeneration (Alvarado and Tsonis, 2006; Ricci and Srivastava, 2018). In planarians, regeneration involves the assembly of a blastema composed of pluripotent somatic stem cells. Limb regeneration in salamanders and fin regeneration in zebrafish also require the formation of a blastema; however, there the blastema is composed of a mixture of cells with different and restricted potentials (Alvarado and Tsonis, 2006; Sánchez Alvarado, 2006; Tanaka and Reddien, 2011; Tanaka, 2016; Marques et al., 2019). In P. mytiligera, amputation initiated extensive cell division in proximity to the amputation line, resembling a blastema formation. Proliferating cell were also found in regenerating structures at later stages of regeneration, suggesting their direct involvement in the formation of the new tissue (see Figure 7 for summary). Undifferentiated circulatory cells were shown to be involved in tissue regeneration in solitary and colonial ascidians (Rinkevich et al., 2006; Auger et al., 2010; Jeffery, 2014, 2015, 2019). In colonial Styelidae species, a population of pluripotent or multipotent undifferentiated circulatory cells contributes to the formation of somatic tissues during budding and whole body regeneration (Laird et al., 2005; Voskoboynik et al., 2007; Brown and Swalla, 2012; Kassmer et al., 2020). In the solitary ascidian C. intestinalis, injury-induced regeneration resulted in the proliferation of circulatory cells located in the branchial basket. These cells were also labeled with alkaline phosphatase and anti-piwi antibody, indicating their undifferentiated state (Auger et al., 2010; Jeffery, 2014). In P. mytiligera, the branchial basket showed high level of EdU+ cells along the regeneration process. In addition, all dissected body fragments contained part of the branchial basket and the circulatory cells enclosed within it. While it is remained to be determined if these cells originated in the branchial basket or merely use it as a means of transport to the regenerating area, the high numbers of proliferating cells found in the branchial basket following amputation indicate a possible role in anterior regeneration.

FIGURE 7

Figure 7. Summary of proliferating cell dynamic in P. mytiligera inferred from EdU experiments. (A,A′) Control. (A) In vivo image, (A′) illustration. During homeostasis, proliferating cells (purple spheres) are evenly dispersal along the branchial basket (BB) and body wall (BW) [Oral siphon (OS), atrial siphon (AS)]. (B,B′) Amputation day. (B) In vivo image, (B′) illustration. The level of proliferating cells remains similar to that of the control. (C,C′) 5 days following anterior amputation. (C) In vivo image, (C′) illustration. Proliferating cells specifically accumulate at the amputation site in the branchial basket and body wall in proximity to the regenerating area. (D,D′) 10 days following amputation. (D) In vivo image, (D′) illustration. As the amputated structures regenerated, the level of proliferating cell decreased in relation to 5 dpa, although remaining higher than those of the control. Scale bar in (A,B): 1 mm, and in: (C,D): 500 μm.

While we focused on the cell division in the body wall and branchial basket in the current study, proliferating cells were also found in other structures as the digestive system and endostyle. The digestive system of the control animals as well as in animals in different stages of regeneration showed EdU positive cells. These cells, however, are probably unrelated to the regeneration signals, as intestinal and stomach tissues are continuously being replaced as part of their normal homeostasis (Ermak, 1981; Jeffery, 2014). The endostyle, which serves as a stem-cell niche in colonial species (Voskoboynik et al., 2008), showed EdU labeling at the early stages of regeneration, implying a local cell proliferation and its possible involvement in regeneration. However, it is important to note that the results of the DV axis amputation experiment indicate that the endostyle is not essential for regeneration to occur, as the dorsal body part was still able to complete the regeneration process following endostyle removal.

Among ascidians, the ability to regenerate amputated body fragments into separate individuals is strongly associated with coloniality and asexual development, as no solitary species has to date been observed to possess such robust abilities (Jeffery, 2015; Kassmer et al., 2019). The model system, C. intestinalis, is capable of regenerating its anterior structures, such as the siphons and neural complex from the posterior parts; whereas the anterior parts failed to regenerate posterior structures such as the heart and digestive system, and eventually decomposed (Jeffery, 2014). P. mytiligera’s bidirectional regeneration and unusual ability to regenerate all tissue types and organ systems distinguishes it from other solitary ascidian species studied so far (see Supplementary Table 4 for summary) and suggests the activation of regeneration programs that might be compromised or inhibited in other solitary species (Liu et al., 2013; Sikes and Newmark, 2013).

P. mytiligera’s High Regeneration Abilities Might Constitute a Pre-adaptation (Exaptation) Trait for a Colonial Life-Style

P. mytiligera’s reproduction and developmental processes resemble those of most solitary ascidians and no indication of asexual development has been found for this species (Gordon et al., 2020). However, its ability to create “clones″ following dissection led us to further question its phylogenetic position.

The Stolidobranchia common ancestor is believed to have been solitary, and coloniality is assumed to be a derived life-style (Mukai et al., 1978; Zeng et al., 2006). The Styelidae is the only stolidobranch family composed of colonial and solitary species, with both presenting a wide range of developmental and regeneration processes (Alié et al., 2020). Phylogenetic analyses have indicated several independent acquisitions of coloniality in this group (Kott, 1985, 2005; Pérez-Portela et al., 2009; Alié et al., 2018, 2020). Further support for multiple transition events from a solitary to a colonial life-style comes from species that have diverged from the classical solitary or colonial characteristics, and which present intermediate morphological and developmental features. For example, solitary species of Polycarpa and Dendrodoa genera present colonial characteristics such as viviparity, a typical colonial feature (Millar, 1954, 1962; Svane and Young, 1989; Pérez-Portela et al., 2009).

Our phylogenetic results agree with Alié et al. (2018) and separate the Polycarpa genus from the exclusively solitary clade, placing it in a single mixed clade composed of colonial and solitary species. This topology suggests that the last common ancestor of the mixed clade was a solitary animal from which coloniality evolved at a later stage (Alié et al., 2018). According to this scenario, high regeneration abilities, as presented by P. mytiligera, might be a pre-adaptation (exaptation) trait for colonial life-style. The position of the colonial Polyandrocarpa zorritensis among members of the genus Polycarpa is especially intriguing, as it further supports the genetic similarity of Polycarpa to highly regenerative colonial species, as well as indicating a recent transition event from solitary to colonial form in this family (Alié et al., 2018; Scelzo et al., 2019).

To date, ascidian whole-body regeneration has been considered a colonial feature, as no solitary species had been shown before to possess such robust abilities. P. mytiligera’s ability to regenerate each individual body fragment into a whole animal has the potential to separate regeneration specific pathways from asexual development programs.

Our present findings present a valuable new model system for comparative developmental studies seeking to elucidate the evolution of regeneration and coloniality among the chordates.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated for this study can be found in the online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found below: Sequence data have been deposited under: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/660913. The phylogenetic datasets are available at: https://github.com/dorohuchon/Polycarpa_mytiligera_transcriptome. The maximum likelihood trees, the alignments, and the transcriptome assembly have been deposited at https://github.com/dorohuchon/Polycarpa_mytiligera_transcriptome.

CMIP6 models: They considerably overestimate the warming rate observed in 1998–2013, exhibiting an obvious warming acceleration rather than the observed deceleration

Could CMIP6 climate models reproduce the early-2000s global warming slowdown? Meng Wei, Qi Shu, Zhenya Song, Yajuan Song, Xiaodan Yang, Yongqing Guo, Xinfang Li & Fangli Qiao. Science China Earth Sciences, Apr 15 2021. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11430-020-9740-3

Abstract: The unexpected global warming slowdown during 1998–2013 challenges the existing scientific understanding of global temperature change mechanisms, and thus the simulation and prediction ability of state-of-the-art climate models since most models participating in phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) cannot simulate it. Here, we examine whether the new-generation climate models in CMIP6 can reproduce the recent global warming slowdown, and further evaluate their capacities for simulating key-scale natural variabilities which are the most likely causes of the slowdown. The results show that although the CMIP6 models present some encouraging improvements when compared with CMIP5, most of them still fail to reproduce the warming slowdown. They considerably overestimate the warming rate observed in 1998–2013, exhibiting an obvious warming acceleration rather than the observed deceleration. This is probably associated with their deficiencies in simulating the distinct temperature change signals from the human-induced long-term warming trend and or the three crucial natural variabilities at interannual, interdecadal, and multidecadal scales. In contrast, the 4 models that can successfully reproduce the slowdown show relatively high skills in simulating the long-term warming trend and the three key-scale natural variabilities. Our work may provide important insight for the simulation and prediction of near-term climate changes.

1985-2011: Elderly West Germans were much less satisfied throughout their last 5 years of life & spent a larger proportion of their remaining lifetime in dissatisfaction; mechanisms that contributed were health & social isolation

Increasing longevity and life satisfaction: is there a catch to living longer? Janina Nemitz. Journal of Population Economics, May 3 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-021-00836-3

Abstract: Human longevity is rising rapidly all over the world, but are longer lives more satisfied lives? This study suggests that the answer might be no. Despite a substantial increase in months of satisfying life, people’s overall life satisfaction declined between 1985 and 2011 in West Germany due to substantial losses of life satisfaction in old age. When compared to 1985, in 2011, elderly West Germans were, on average, much less satisfied throughout their last five years of life. Moreover, they spent a larger proportion of their remaining lifetime in states of dissatisfaction, on average. Two important mechanisms that contributed to this satisfaction decline were health and social isolation. Using a broad variety of sensitivity tests, I show that these results are robust to a large set of alternative explanations.

Conclusion

Given the rapid increase in human life expectancy throughout the last decades, this study asks: Are longer lives more satisfied lives? Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this study suggests that the answer might be no. Although expected satisfied lifetime increased for West Germans at the age of 60 by two years between 1985 and 2010, this increase likely did not compensate for the substantial losses of life satisfaction that occurred at the end of people’s lives. In 2010, average life satisfaction scores in the last five years of life were roughly one-third to half a standard deviation lower than in 1985. Moreover, the period of terminal satisfaction decline was substantially longer. With, on average, slightly more than two additional dissatisfied life years, 60-year-old survivors in 2010 were expected to spend 10% more of their remaining lifetime in states of dissatisfaction, which suggests a drop in this study’s measure of overall quality of life. Nevertheless, in 2010, the proportion of expected satisfied lifetime to expected total lifetime at age 60 was still relatively high, with an average level of about 65% to 70%.

To better understand what contributed to the decline in terminal life satisfaction in West Germany, I explored the role of two potential mechanisms: health and social isolation. Several health indicators (e.g., severe disability, number of hospitalizations) indicated a deterioration of the end-of-life health status over time and, thus, provided support for the expansion of morbidity hypothesis (Gruenberg 1977; Olshansky et al. 1991). Among all health indicators, the increase in legally attested disability had the most detrimental impact on terminal life satisfaction. All measures of social isolation contributed to the decline in terminal satisfaction over time, but individual-level life satisfaction regressions indicated that increased isolation mainly worked through the health channel. These results are in line with studies that show that the onset of disability relates to a lasting well-being decline (Lucas 2007; Oswald and Powdthavee 2008), and that a socially active life is associated with higher late-life well-being, less pronounced late-life decline, and a later onset of terminal satisfaction decline (Gerstorf et al.2016).

One likely explanation for the findings of this study is the decline in sudden death. Over the last three decades, age-standardized mortality from ischaemic heart disease has fallen by more than half in high income countries (Finegold et al. 2013; Hartley et al. 2016). So while in earlier times, when smoking was still very common, quite healthy and satisfied people suddenly dropped dead, nowadays new medical technologies (e.g., drug-eluting stents) allow the medical profession to extend people’s lives even with disease. As a consequence, people are much more likely to experience novel types of diseases as well as an increased burden and complexity of multimorbidity (WHO 2010). Moreover, thinking of slowly progressing diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease or dementia that come with a progressive decline in memory and cognitive function and eventually lead to severe disability (Alzheimer’s Association 2016), it is very plausible that people are much less satisfied throughout their final period of life nowadays. Overall, higher dissatisfaction levels may result from the burden associated with disease, including increased social isolation, as well as the fact that people know that there is no cure or modifying treatment for a disease (Daviglus et al.2010).

The final conclusion that the overall quality of life decreased with improved longevity between 1985 and 2011 rests on a very strong assumption, namely that at the age of 60, people value a high proportion of satisfied to total lifetime more strongly than the actual number of satisfied life years. Although consistent with the literature (Pennington et al. 2015; Ahlert et al. 2016; Fischer et al. 2018), this assumption may not hold. Another related issue is that of acceptable satisfaction levels. Many people would argue that satisfaction levels above the neutral (i.e., 5 on the 0 to 10 scale) are still quite satisfying and, thus, the elderly in our sample, though more dissatisfied in the final period of life, were still quite satisfied in 2011. However, there is a well-documented issue of over-reporting satisfaction scores in surveys with face-to-face interviews (see Diener et al. 2013for review). Even satisfaction scores of about four (on the 0 to 10 scale) may be predictive of suicide (Koivumaa-Honkanen et al. 2001). If people nevertheless believe that life is still satisfying at very low satisfaction scores (i.e., three and lower), then the final conclusion of this study will no longer hold.

Should people and policymakers further invest in life extensions? This study shows that it is important to complement investments that extend the length of human life with investments that improve the quality of life in old age. Under-investments in the latter result in declining satisfaction levels at the end of people’s lives. Quality-of-life-improving policies may have a more positive effect on increasing overall life satisfaction. This is because they would increase satisfaction during a person’s lifetime, and furthermore, may also extend the length of life itself since more satisfied people tend to live longer (Veenhoven 2008; Steptoe et al. 2015).

Which quality-of-life-improving policies should be targeted? As suggested by the analysis of potential mechanisms, potential candidates would be policies that aim to prevent noncommunicable diseases (e.g., via reduced tobacco use, healthy diets, or physical activity) and policies that aim to achieve a better integration of the elderly in today’s societies (e.g., via better provision of public transportation in remote areas). Further research on these and other potential mechanisms is required to decide upon the policies that are most promising. Moreover, future research needs to explore potential heterogeneity in order to better target policies to groups of recipients.

Agreeable individuals were more likely to have echo chamber-like consumption patterns and reported being upset by the news and disliking content which could be seen as offensive

Emerging political conflicts and the role of personality. Adam Peresman. PhD Thesis. University of Essex, 2021. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/30260/1/peresmanThesisUpload.pdf

Abstract

The political systems of many Western, democratic countries are undergoing large changes.  Particular issues are taking on greater prominence. Cooperation and compromise are becoming more difficult. And, arguably, we are seeing the resurgence of “populist” styles of politics. This dissertation, comprised of three papers, aims to show how personality is involved in some of these changes taking place.

My first paper focuses on immigration attitudes in the UK and investigates how people with different personalities respond to rising levels of immigrants in their local areas. I show that the likely response is dependent both on the immigrant group, as well as one’s personality.  Moreover, I found evidence that openness and extraversion may moderate the effects of local immigrant levels.

My second paper, co-authored with Royce Carroll and Hanna Bäck, continues the research into immigration attitudes in the UK. Focusing on authoritarianism, we show that ‘right-wing authoritarianism’ is very strongly associated with immigration attitudes – much more so than competing measures, such as ‘social dominance orientation’, left-right placement, and even a measure of explicit prejudice. We also show that authoritarianism predicts a large preference for culturally similar immigrant groups, especially among high-skill immigrants.

My third paper turns to a new issue: affective polarization. I argue that personality may influence out-party hostility in a number of ways. Due to the wide variety of media choices available, personality may influence media selection, indirectly impacting levels of hostility.

One’s personality may also moderate the effects of news consumption. Finally, personality 9 may directly drive levels of hostility. While I did not find evidence of a moderation effect, personality traits were found to both influence media selection and directly impact levels of affective polarization.

These three papers demonstrate the importance of one’s disposition to many of the emerging  divisions we are witnessing in modern-day politics.

Can greater investment in infrastructure raise U.S. long-run output? Are infrastructure projects a good short-run stimulus to the economy? What about employment?

The Macroeconomic Consequences of Infrastructure Investment. Valerie A. Ramey. NBER Working Paper 27625, Jul 2020. DOI 10.3386/w27625

Abstract: Can greater investment in infrastructure raise U.S. long-run output? Are infrastructure projects a good short-run stimulus to the economy? This paper uses insights from the macroeconomics literature to address these questions. I begin by analyzing the effects of government investment in both a stylized neoclassical model and a medium-scale New Keynesian model, highlighting the economic mechanisms that govern the strength of the short-run and long-run impacts. The analysis confirms earlier findings that the implementation delays inherent in infrastructure projects reduce short-run multipliers in most cases. In contrast, long-run multipliers can be sizable when government capital is productive. Moreover, these multipliers are greater if the economy starts from a point below the socially optimal amount of public capital. Turning to empirical estimation, I use the theoretical model to explain the econometric challenges to estimating the elasticity of output to public infrastructure. Using both artificial data generated by simulations of the model and extensions of existing empirical work, I demonstrate how both general equilibrium effects and optimal choice of public capital are likely to impart upward biases to output elasticity estimates. Finally, I review and extend some empirical estimates of the short-run effects, focusing on infrastructure spending in the ARRA.

Morality is far more important than sociability (and competence) in predicting the evaluations we make of individuals and groups

The primacy of morality in impression development: Theory, research, and future directions. Marco Brambilla et al. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, May 3 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2021.03.001

Abstract: Over the past few decades, two-factor models of social cognition have emerged as a dominant framework for understanding impression development. These models suggest that two dimensions—warmth and competence—are key in shaping our cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions toward social targets. More recently, research has jettisoned the warmth dimension, distinguishing instead between sociability (e.g., friendliness and likeability) and morality (e.g., honesty and trustworthiness) and showing that morality is far more important than sociability (and competence) in predicting the evaluations we make of individuals and groups. Presenting research from our laboratories, we show that moral categories are central at all stages of impression development from implicit assumptions, to information gathering and to final evaluations. Moreover, moral trait information has a dominant role in predicting people's behavioral reactions toward social targets. We also show that morality dominates impression development, because it is closely linked to the essential judgment of whether another party's intentions are beneficial or harmful. Thus, our research informs a new framework for understanding person and group perception: The moral primacy model (MPM) of impression development. We conclude by discussing how the MPM relates to classic and emerging models of social cognition and by outlining a trajectory for future research.

Keywords: MoralityImpression developmentPerson perceptionGroup impressions

Why Working from Home Will Stick -- Plus: Only one-fifth of the productivity gains will show up in conventional productivity measures, because they do not capture the time savings from less commuting

Why Working from Home Will Stick. Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis. NBER Working Paper 28731, April 2021. DOI 10.3386/w28731

COVID-19 drove a mass social experiment in working from home (WFH). We survey more than 30,000 Americans over multiple waves to investigate whether WFH will stick, and why. Our data say that 20 percent of full workdays will be supplied from home after the pandemic ends, compared with just 5 percent before. We develop evidence on five reasons for this large shift: better-than-expected WFH experiences, new investments in physical and human capital that enable WFH, greatly diminished stigma associated with WFH, lingering concerns about crowds and contagion risks, and a pandemic-driven surge in technological innovations that support WFH. We also use our survey data to project three consequences: First, employees will enjoy large benefits from greater remote work, especially those with higher earnings. Second, the shift to WFH will directly reduce spending in major city centers by at least 5-10 percent relative to the pre-pandemic situation. Third, our data on employer plans and the relative productivity of WFH imply a 5 percent productivity boost in the post-pandemic economy due to re-optimized working arrangements. Only one-fifth of this productivity gain will show up in conventional productivity measures, because they do not capture the time savings from less commuting.

This research documents a “light = healthy” intuition, such that consumers perceive foods that weigh less are healthier than their heavier counterparts with the same serving size

The Light = Healthy Intuition. Yi Li  Nico Heuvinck  Mario Pandelaere. Journal of Consumer Psychology, May 2 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1249

Abstract: This research documents a “light = healthy” intuition, such that consumers perceive foods that weigh less are healthier than their heavier counterparts with the same serving size. Subsequently, consumers consume a larger quantity of lighter‐weight foods. The intuition is based on a co‐activation of two meanings of the word “light”: light in physical weight and light in calorie content. An implicit attitude test finds support for this association between physical weight and food healthiness. Two studies show that physically lighter foods are perceived to be healthier because they are assumed to contain fewer calories. In line with the proposed co‐activation mechanism, the intuition is bi‐directional, where consumers also expect healthier foods to weigh less. Consequently, they discredit health claims issued for heavier foods. Finally, it was found that activating a competing intuition is effective at debiasing the “light = healthy” intuition.

Those with low self-esteem and a weaker sense of control over their fates are more likely to blame the political system for the challenges they face in their lives

Why Some Blame Politics for Their Personal Problems. Vanessa Baird, Jennifer Wolak. American Politics Research, May 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X211013463

Abstract: Why do some people blame the political system for the problems in their lives? We explore the origins of these grievances and how people assign responsibility and blame for the challenges they face. We propose that individual differences in the personality traits of locus of control and self-esteem help explain why some blame the political system for their personal problems. Using responses from a module of the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we show that those with low self-esteem and a weaker sense of control over their fates are more likely to blame the political system for the challenges they face in their lives. We also demonstrate that this assignment of blame is politically consequential, where those who intertwine the personal and the political are more likely to evaluate elected officials based on pocketbook economic conditions rather than sociotropic considerations.

Keywords: self-esteem, locus of control, personality, attribution of blame

Maternal grandmothers tend to improve child survival rates as do potential sibling helpers at the nest (though the latter observation is based on rather few studies); fathers have little effect on child survival

Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival. Rebecca Sear, Ruth Mace. Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume 29, Issue 1, January 2008, Pages 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.10.001

Abstract: Children pose a problem. The extended period of childhood dependency and short interbirth intervals mean that human mothers have to care for several dependent children simultaneously. Most evolutionary anthropologists now agree that this is too much of an energetic burden for mothers to manage alone and that they must enlist help from other relatives to share the costs of raising children. Which kin help is the subject of much debate. Here, we review the evidence for whether the presence of kin affects child survival rates, in order to infer whether mothers do receive help in raising offspring and who provides this help. These 45 studies come from a variety of (mostly) natural fertility populations, both historical and contemporary, across a wide geographical range. We find that in almost all studies, at least one relative (apart from the mother) does improve the survival rates of children but that relatives differ in whether they are consistently beneficial to children or not. Maternal grandmothers tend to improve child survival rates as do potential sibling helpers at the nest (though the latter observation is based on rather few studies). Paternal grandmothers show somewhat more variation in their effects on child survival. Fathers have surprisingly little effect on child survival, with only a third of studies showing any beneficial effects. Overall, this review suggests that whilst help from kin may be a universal feature of human child-rearing, who helps is dependent on ecological conditions.

Keywords: Cooperative breedingGrandmothersFathersChild mortalityLife history

Parental & sibling incarceration has beneficial effects on some important outcomes for children, reducing their likelihood of incarceration by 4.9 pct points and improving their adult neighborhood quality

The Effects of Parental and Sibling Incarceration: Evidence from Ohio. Samuel Norris, Matthew Pecenco, Jeffrey Weaver. American Economic Review, Apr 2021. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20190415

Abstract: Every year, millions of Americans experience the incarceration of a family member. Using 30 years of administrative data from Ohio and exploiting differing incarceration propensities of randomly assigned judges, this paper provides the first quasi-experimental estimates of the effects of parental and sibling incarceration in the US. Parental incarceration has beneficial effects on some important outcomes for children, reducing their likelihood of incarceration by 4.9 percentage points and improving their adult neighborhood quality. While estimates on academic performance and teen parenthood are imprecise, we reject large positive or negative effects. Sibling incarceration leads to similar reductions in criminal activity.

Reactions from academia: Emmerich Davies on Twitter: "What are we even doing here? "Parental incarceration has beneficial effects on some important outcomes for children, reducing their likelihood of incarceration by 4.9 percentage points and improving their adult neighborhood quality."

Check also Parental Incarceration and Children’s Educational Attainment. Carolina Arteaga. Department of Economics, University of Toronto. November 24, 2020. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5664c583e4b0c0bb910ceb3b/t/60253d569ce8df19c83b7999/1613053272962/Parentalncarceration_Nov2020.pdf

Abstract: This paper presents new evidence showing that parental incarceration increases children’s educational attainment. I collect criminal records for 90,000 low-income parents who have been convicted of a crime in Colombia, and link them with administrative data on the educational attainment of their children. I exploit exogenous variation in incarceration resulting from the random assignment of defendants to judges, and extend the standard framework to incorporate both conviction and incarceration decisions. I show that the effect of incarceration for a given conviction threshold can be identified. My results indicate that parental incarceration increases educational attainment by 0.78 years for the children of convicted parents on the margin of incarceration.

JEL No. I24,J24,K42

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Multiple mechanisms could explain a negative causal effect of parental incarceration on child outcomes. The incarceration of a parent is typically a shocking experience for a child (Parke and Clarke-Stewart, 2003). It is usually followed by financial hardship, disruptions in children’s daily lives, such as unstable childcare arrangements and moves among homes or schools, and growing up without a parent has been linked to adverse outcomes for children (McLanahan et al., 2013). Working in the opposite direction, there are reasons to believe that parental incarceration might be positive for some children. Parents in prison have very high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, are more likely to suffer from mental health disorders and to have experienced childhood trauma, and are also more likely to have engaged in intimate partner violence.1 As a result, for some families, removing a violent parent or a negative role model from the household can create a safer environment for a child. Furthermore, a large literature documents the intergenerational transmission of violence, substance abuse and crime (Hjalmarsson and Lindquist, 2012), and incarceration can help to limit or break such transmission. Ultimately, the sign and size of such effects are empirical matters, motivating the current analysis.

When asked to choose between two similar donation targets, we are more likely to opt out of donating than when asked to donate to a single target; due to a the conflict between the wish to be helpful and the wish to be fair

The Adverse Effect of Choice in Donation Decisions. Danit Ein‐Gar  Liat Levontin  Tehila Kogut. Journal of Consumer Psychology, February 22 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1230

Abstract: Many charitable organizations offer potential donors the option to choose their donation recipients—suggesting that organizations perceive the availability of such choice as beneficial to donation raising. Building upon research on choice aversion in the context of consumer goods and on the identifiable victim effect in the context of donation giving, we propose that the need to choose one target among multiple needy targets might, in fact, hinder donations. Results of six studies show that when prospective donors are asked to choose between two similar donation targets, they are more likely to opt out of donating altogether than when asked to donate to a single target. We show that the effect of choice on opt‐out rates in donation settings is driven by the conflict between the wish to be helpful and the wish to be fair. We further show that when the conflict is resolved and the choice does not raise fairness concerns, the effect is attenuated and opt‐out rates decline.

Accepting non-classical logic is associated with having had a self-transcendent experience; non-realism regarding aesthetics and morality is associated with having used psychoactive substances such as psychedelics and marijuana

The psychology of philosophy: Associating philosophical views with psychological traits in professional philosophers. David B. Yaden & Derek E. Anderson. Philosophical Psychology, Apr 27 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2021.1915972

Abstract: Do psychological traits predict philosophical views? We administered the PhilPapers Survey, created by David Bourget and David Chalmers, which consists of 30 views on central philosophical topics (e.g., epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language) to a sample of professional philosophers (N = 314). We extended the PhilPapers survey to measure a number of psychological traits, such as personality, numeracy, well-being, lifestyle, and life experiences. We also included non-technical ‘translations’ of these views for eventual use in other populations. We found limited to no support for the notion that personality or demographics predict philosophical views. We did, however, find that some psychological traits were predictive of philosophical views, even after strict correction for multiple comparisons. Findings include: higher interest in numeracy predicted physicalism, naturalism, and consequentialism; lower levels of well-being and higher levels of mental illness predicted hard determinism; using substances such as psychedelics and marijuana predicted non-realist and subjectivist views of morality and aesthetics; having had a transformative or self-transcendent experience predicted theism and idealism. We discuss whether or not these empirical results have philosophical implications, while noting that 68% of our sample of professional philosophers indicated that such findings would indeed have philosophical value.

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Digest: What Predicts Professional Philosophers’ Views? (updated) | Daily Nous / Justin Weinberg

Some of their results were negative, or findings of a lack of correlation:

• Age, gender, relationship status, income, ethnicity, professional status yielded no significant findings of correlations with particular philosophical views.
• None of the five factor model’s list of personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) were associated with specific philosophical views.
• Neither exercise nor meditation were associated with any views.
• “Anti-naturalism” (a cluster of beliefs including libertarian notions of free will, nonphysicalism about the mind, belief in God, non-naturalism, belief in the metaphysical possibility of philosophical Zombies, and the further fact view of personal identity) is largely unassociated with particular personality traits or well-being.

But they did find some positive correlations:

• Theism is associated with agreeableness.
• Hard determinism is associated with lower life satisfaction and higher depression/anxiety.
• Consequentialism, realism, physicalism, and correspondence theories of truth are associated with more numerical interest
• Believing philosophical zombies are metaphysically possible is associated with conscientiousness
• Theism and idealism are associated with having had a transformative or self-transcendent experience.
• Accepting non-classical logic is associated with having had a self-transcendent experience.
• Non-realism regarding aesthetics and morality is associated with having used psychoactive substances such as psychedelics and marijuana.
• Contextualism about knowledge claims is associated with supporting more public education about philosophy
• Naturalism is associated with the notion that projects such as this one by Yaden and Anderson have philosophical value

The authors also found evidence of correlations between being an analytic philosopher and supporting certain philosophical views, such as the correspondence theory of truth, realism about the external world, invariantism about knowledge claims, scientific realism, and that one ought to pull the switch (sacrifice one person to save five others) in the bystander part of the trolley problem.

Additionally, they found that being more politically right-leaning was associated with several philosophical views, such as theism, free will libertarianism, nonphysicalist views in philosophy of mind, and the correspondence theory of truth.

From 2012... Evolutionary debunking arguments in three domains: Fact, value, and religion

Evolutionary debunking arguments in three domains: Fact, value, and religion. John S. Wilkins, Paul E. Griffiths. In James Maclaurin Greg Dawes (ed.), A New Science of Religion. Routledge (2012). Phil Papers, https://philpapers.org/archive/WILEDA-3

Abstract: Ever since Darwin people have worried about the sceptical implications of evolution. If our  minds are products of evolution like those of other animals, why suppose that the beliefs they  produce are true, rather than merely useful? We consider this problem for beliefs in three  different domains: religion, morality, and commonsense and scientific claims about matters of empirical fact. We identify replies to evolutionary scepticism that work in some domains but not in others. One reply is that evolution can be expected to design systems that produce true beliefs in some domain. This reply works for commonsense beliefs and can be extended to scientific beliefs. But it does not work for moral or religious beliefs. An alternative reply which has been used defend moral beliefs is that their truth does not consist in their tracking some external state  of affairs. Whether or not it is successful in the case of moral beliefs, this reply is less plausible for religious beliefs. So religious beliefs emerge as particularly vulnerable to evolutionary  debunking.

5. Evolutionary skepticism and ethics

Since the late nineteenth century most moral philosophers have rejected attempts to derive moral principles from evolution. But most of these philosophers have not supposed that evolution actively undermines our moral principles. But there is an evolutionary debunking argument which has precisely this implication. The argument suggests is that evolution of the moral sense is an ‘offtrack’ process because it has no intrinsic tendency to produce a moral sense that tracks moral truths. This idea can be found in Darwin’s own discussion of the evolution of morality:

“In the same manner as various animals have some sense of beauty, though they admire widely different objects, so they might have a sense of right and wrong, though led by it to follow widely different lines of conduct. If, for instance, to take an extreme case, men were reared under precisely the same conditions as hive-bees, there can hardly be a doubt that our unmarried females would, like the worker-bees, think it a sacred duty to kill their brothers, and mothers would strive to kill their fertile daughters; and no one would think of interfering.”(Darwin 1981 [1871])vi

Darwin argues that if our ecology had been different, then we would judge different things to be right and wrong, just as different species of animals judge different things to be beautiful. Animals are aesthetically attracted to things to which it is fitness-enhancing for them to be attracted. Just so, Darwin argues, they will approve whatever actions which it is fitness-enhancing for them to approve. This would seem to imply either that evolution is an off-track process with respect to evaluative truth, or that evaluative truths are truths about what maximises reproductive fitness. If this is right, then the only alternative to moral scepticism would, indeed, be evolutionary ethics.vii There is no Milvian bridge connecting moral truth to pragmatic success and thus defending morality from evolutionary skepticism, because contemporary evolutionary explanations of morality, just like Darwin’s explanation, do not involve any adaptive advantages produced by detecting and acting in accordance with objective moral facts.viii But Kahane notes that the assumption that moral truths correspond to objective moral facts is one that is questioned by many moral philosophers for independent reasons.

The evolutionary skeptical argument against ethics would be better stated as follows:

1. Causal premise. Our evolutionary history explains why we have the evaluative beliefs we have. 

2. Epistemic premise. Evolution is not a truth-tracking process with respect to evaluative truth.

3. Metaethical assumption. Objectivism (moral realism) is the correct account of evaluative discourse 

 C. Evaluative scepticism. None of our evaluative beliefs is justified.

If we deny the assumption that evaluative beliefs denote moral realities then conclusion fails to follow. Non-cognitivist ethical theories, according to which the function of ethical judgments is not to express facts but to express allegiance to a norm, remain viable in moral philosophy (van Roojen 2009). Moreover, it has been argued that some forms of cognitivism also evade the argument because their account of moral truths does not involve the existence of moral facts which need to be ‘tracked’ in the manner envisaged by the argument (Harms 2000; Carruthers and James 2008). So the evolutionary debunking argument is best conceived as an argument against strong forms of moral realism, rather than simply against moral truth. The case of ethics shows that there are two responses to an evolutionary debunking argument. The first is to build a Milvian bridge, and argue that evolution will select cognitive faculties that track truth in a domain. The second is to argue that ‘truth’ in a certain domain is not a matter of tracking some external state of affairs, so that the question of whether evolution is an off-track process in that domain does not arise. In the next section we ask if either of these responses is available when evolutionary skepticism is applied to religious beliefs.

Behavioural sex differences are to some extent related to sex differences in brain structure, but that this is mainly driven by differences in brain size, and causality should be interpreted cautiously

van Eijk, Liza, Dajiang Zhu, Baptiste Couvy-Duchesne, Lachlan T. Strike, Anthony J. Lee, Narelle K. Hansell, Paul Thompson, et al. 2021. “Are Sex Differences in Human Brain Structure Associated with Sex Differences in Behaviour?” PsyArXiv. April 28. doi:10.31234/osf.io/8fcve

Abstract: On average, men and women differ in brain structure and behaviour, raising the possibility of a link between sex differences in brain and behaviour. But women and men are also subject to different societal and cultural norms. We navigated this challenge by investigating variability of sex-differentiated brain structure within each sex. Using data from the Queensland Twin IMaging study (N=1,040) and Human Connectome Project (N=1,113), we obtained data-driven measures of individual differences along a male-female dimension for brain and behaviour based on average sex differences in brain structure and behaviour, respectively. We found a weak association between these brain and behavioural differences, driven by brain size. These brain and behavioural differences were moderately heritable. Our findings suggest that behavioural sex differences are to some extent related to sex differences in brain structure, but that this is mainly driven by differences in brain size, and causality should be interpreted cautiously.

Grumpy face during adult sleep: A clue to negative emotion during sleep?

Grumpy face during adult sleep: A clue to negative emotion during sleep? Jean‐Baptiste Maranci  Alexia Aussel  Marie Vidailhet  Isabelle Arnulf. Journal of Sleep Research, April 29 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13369

Summary: Negative facial expressions and frowns have been studied (albeit more rarely than smiles) in fetus’ and neonate’ sleep, but they have not been investigated during adult sleep. Video polysomnography (including corrugator muscle electromyography and face‐focussed video) was used to study negative facial expressions in sleeping adults, including healthy subjects and patients with/out parasomnia. Frowns were observed during sleep in 89/91 (97.8%) adults during normal (29 healthy subjects) and abnormal sleep (29 patients without parasomnia, 15 patients with disorders of arousal and 18 patients with rapid eye movement [REM] sleep behaviour disorder [RBD]). In healthy subjects, the following events occurred in decreasing frequency: isometric corrugator activations, brief frowns, and then prolonged frowns and raised eyebrows (both similarly rare). Frowns predominated in REM sleep, and had a lower frequency in non‐REM sleep. In healthy subjects, frowns were elementary and not associated with other face movements to the point of composing negative expressions. In contrast, frowns were occasionally associated with overt negative facial expressions in REM sleep in patients with RBD and a young patient with night terrors. They included mostly painful expressions and rarely sadness and anger in connection with apparently negative behaviours (shouts, painful moaning, and speeches). Frowns persist during normal sleep (mostly in REM sleep) in adults, but overt negative facial expressions are restricted to patients with parasomnia. Whether elementary frowns translate a negative dream emotion should be determined, but overt negative facial expressions during RBD could be used as a direct access to dream emotions.

Why surprisingly? "Surprisingly, sons—and not daughters—have a systematic negative effect on feminist self‐identification & support for electing more women, & a positive effect on support for traditional gender roles"

The Effect of Children's Gender on Parents’ Attitudes Toward Women. Nicole Y. Wesley  James C. Garand. Social Science Quarterly, April 26 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12976

Abstract: Scholars have found that the gender of children—particularly, having daughters—has a discernible effect on parents’ attitudinal and behavioral support for the empowerment of women. In this article, we explore how the gender of children affects the gender attitudes of parents. Using data from the 2016 American National Election Study (ANES) survey, we estimate the effects of children's gender on parents’ feminist self‐identification, support for more women representatives, and attitudes toward traditional gender roles, both in general and separately for men and women. Surprisingly, we find that sons—and not daughters—have a systematic negative effect on feminist self‐identification and support for electing more women, as well as a positive effect on support for traditional gender roles. The effects of sons on feminist self‐identification and traditional gender roles are observed for both men and women, while the effects of sons on support for more women representatives are limited to women. It appears that having a son decreases support for feminist and egalitarian gender attitudes in both men and women to varying degrees across a variety of dimensions.