Women care more about a greater number of characteristics when considering sexual attractiveness in a potential mate, with highly educated women more keen on looks

Whyte S, Brooks RC, Chan HF, Torgler B (2021) Sex differences in sexual attraction for aesthetics, resources and personality across age. PLoS ONE 16(5): e0250151, May 19 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250151

Abstract: Because sexual attraction is a key driver of human mate choice and reproduction, we descriptively assess relative sex differences in the level of attraction individuals expect in the aesthetic, resource, and personality characteristics of potential mates. As a novelty we explore how male and female sexual attractiveness preference changes across age, using a dataset comprising online survey data for over 7,000 respondents across a broad age distribution of individuals between 18 and 65 years. In general, we find that both males and females show similar distribution patterns in their preference responses, with statistically significant sex differences within most of the traits. On average, females rate age, education, intelligence, income, trust, and emotional connection around 9 to 14 points higher than males on our 0–100 scale range. Our relative importance analysis shows greater male priority for attractiveness and physical build, compared to females, relative to all other traits. Using multiple regression analysis, we find a consistent statistical sex difference (males relative to females) that decreases linearly with age for aesthetics, while the opposite is true for resources and personality, with females exhibiting a stronger relative preference, particularly in the younger aged cohort. Exploring non-linearity in sex difference with contour plots for intelligence and attractiveness across age (mediated by age) indicates that sex differences in attractiveness preferences are driven by the male cohort (particularly age 30 to 40) for those who care about the importance of age, while intelligence is driven by females caring relatively more about intelligence for those who see age as very important (age cohort 40 to 55). Overall, many of our results indicate distinct variations within sex at key life stages, which is consistent with theories of selection pressure. Moreover, results also align with theories of parental investment, the gender similarities hypothesis, and mutual mate choice–which speaks to the fact that the broader discipline of evolutionary mate choice research in humans still contains considerable scope for further inquiry towards a unified theory, particularly when exploring sex-difference across age.

Discussion

Mating market preferences and decisions regarding attractiveness are arguably based on three core areas: appearances (aesthetics), personal characteristics and qualities (personality), and the ability to provide (resource) access and security to potential suitors. As our study shows, individual differences between preferences for each of these characteristics differ between women and men, as well as with age. Despite significant sex differences, however, men and women gave broadly similar priority to the measured preferences, consistent with a model of mutual mate choice [6] or the broader gender similarities hypothesis [5].

At its simplest, our study’s descriptive findings demonstrate that for all nine characteristics of interests, both males and females show similar distribution patterns in their preference responses. That said, there are statistically significant sex differences within traits for eight out of the nine traits explored; on average, females rated age, education, intelligence, income, trust, and emotional connection around 9 to 14 points higher than males on our 0–100 scale range. On the surface, one may make the observation that for the population sampled, and compared with males, females care more about a greater number of characteristics when considering attractiveness in a potential mate. Such findings lend confirmatory weight to previous research findings and broader historical evolutionary theory that predicts that females tend to be choosier than men [11, 12]

By standardizing the responses to the nine traits within subject, our relative importance analysis forced an effective ranking of the nine measured preferences. Interestingly, our findings indicate greater male priority for attractiveness and physical build, compared to females, relative to all other traits. For example, males rated attractiveness .29 SD and physical build .33 SD higher than the mean ratings (to all nine traits) given; whereas females rate attractiveness and physical build .11 SD and .05 SD higher than their average rating, respectively. Conversely, compared to males, females place relatively more importance on the two resource factors, namely education and intelligence. Such results are in line with previous research findings supporting sex differences according to the predictions from parental investment theory [1, 12]. Forced ranking of preferences exposes small but detectable differences in relative emphasis on preferences that are consistent with male resource-holding and female fecundity-nubility being important considerations in mate choice [48–50].

Our study also explored variation in perceived importance for sexual attraction of the nine characteristics, as well as their respective sex differences at different life stages. Our most novel findings again center on attractiveness and physical build (relative to other traits), with males exhibiting stronger preferences (than females) for both, across all ages. Interestingly, for both sexes, preference for attractiveness appears negatively correlated with age, but preference for openness and trust is positively associated with age. In many mating preference studies, the focus is on young adults, which means that we know relatively little about older cohorts’ preferences. The consonant changes shown by women and men with age suggest one possible source of age-dependent assortative mating, consistent with predictions that mutual mate choice may be worth consideration in addition to sex-dependent preferences [6]. Age-assortative preferences warrant further research.

The study also explored non-linearity in sex-difference preferences for intelligence and attractiveness across age, mediated by the importance of age: when exploring intelligence, we checked attractiveness as a mediator. Sex differences across age are the smallest for those who reported the lowest preferences for aesthetics (age and attractiveness); however, for those who care more about aesthetics, there is a larger sex difference and such differences depend on participants’ age. The sex differences in the preference for attractiveness were driven by the male cohort who cared more about age aesthetics, and were largest for the age group 30 to 40. Sex differences in the importance of intelligence were also positively affected by the importance of attractiveness and age, but sex differences for those with high aesthetic preferences were driven by females caring relatively more about intelligence, particularly for females age 40 to 55. Such findings indicating distinct variation within sex at key life stages may again speak to theories of sexual selection pressures resulting in biologically specific adaptions [11, 12].

Our multiple regression analysis explores factors impacting preferences for all nine characteristics individually, as well as their three groupings. Here, we find a consistent statistical sex difference (males relative to females) that decreases linearly with age for aesthetics. The opposite is true for resources and personality, with females exhibiting a stronger relative preference, particularly in the younger cohort of our sample.

Finally, our principal component regression results demonstrate interesting associations between individual differences in personality traits and our measures of preference, indicating a clear relative sex differences for single males’ preferences for resources compared to females. More highly educated females express a higher relative preference for aesthetics, and more attractive females exhibit a higher relative preference for personality. We also find absolute differences for females with offspring, who place more emphasis on personality, whereas males with offspring report this trait as less important.

Overall, our study provides descriptive findings concerning sex and individual differences in self-reported mating preferences, most of which are consistent with predictions made by existing theories about attraction to aesthetic, resource, and personality traits. That so many of our findings align with theories of both parental investment and mutual mate choice speaks to the fact that the broader discipline of evolutionary mate choice research in humans still contains considerable scope for further inquiry before reaching any unified theory. The fact that such rapid advances in modern technology (such as the internet, and big data more broadly) now allows behavioral science a gamut of new avenues for analysis suggests a growing opportunity for more rigorous analysis and continued scientific debate on the topic of human mating behavior [43].

The authors acknowledge several limitations to the current study. Firstly, our sample population is the result of self-selection; naturally, any online open access national survey generates an unavoidable selection bias. While our sample population is extremely large compared to previous mate choice studies (n = 7325), it is important to acknowledge limitations due to representativeness of the Australian general population. The second problem lies with the subjectivity of the participants’ ratings and self-ratings; for example, the term “sexual attractiveness” may not be homogenous in meaning or interpretation for all participants in our sample, a methodological issue that is, however, present across all fields of behavioral science research. Likewise, surveying such a large number of individuals may induce “noise” around individual decisions and responses compared to the results from a more controlled laboratory experiment setting. Nevertheless, not only were the survey questions standardized for all participants in terms of both the dependent variables and their relation to the respondent’s own sexual attraction, but the study delineated nine different characteristics for which the participants made their own independent assessments. Further, the large sample (n = 7325) and age distribution (18–65 years) of real-world online dating participants provides a unique robustness check for comparative mate choice research that has traditionally sampled more homogenous undergraduate student samples. Admittedly, however, in 21st century cyber mating markets (just as all historical mate choice settings) stated preferences are not always definitive indicators of actual behavior [51]. Future revealed preference research would do well to collect longitudinal data that explored individuals’ stated preference and actual mate choice decisions across time. Further, it is important to note that linear high/low scales may not necessarily be the most efficient way to capture data on preference, mainly due to participant indifference. Positive-negative scales do not necessarily allow an individual to respond with indifference, and rather only permit choice of a middle 50-point marker on a 0–100 scale. Such methodological constraints are an important and ongoing consideration for future work in this space. Finally, while the current study analyses and reports the sexual attraction preference for an extremely large population of Australian online dating participants (n = 7325), the authors caution over-emphasis of statistically significant results stemming from such a large sample size. Any and all descriptive analysis in the current study were reported so as to provide scientific transparency, and in accordance with the current standards across the evolutionary behavioral sciences.

At different life stages both sexes prioritize (or favor) different (or similar) characteristics in a mate. For example, given that peak female fertility is essentially restricted to the (late) second and third decades of life, it seems logical that preferences will differ between males and females across these years. But this is not to say that these differences are absolute, with parental investment being a good example; not least because modern developed societies exhibit probably the most homogenous gender roles in human history. Traits and proxies for parental care and investment are thus highly valued in both sexes–although, as our research repeatedly shows–they can differ relatively at different life stages. As such, future mate choice research would do well to take into account both relative and absolute perspectives when conducting sex difference research. Given the importance of sexual attraction in reproductive decision making, ongoing research is warranted into this large-scale decision process. That the broader field of evolutionary mate choice is yet to reach a unified theory of sex differentiated stated preference across the life span speaks to the need for greater descriptive analysis of large-scale real-world mating market participants such as those included in the current study.

Improvements in religious liberty tend to precede economic freedom; increases in religious liberty have a wide array of spillovers that are important determinants of economic freedom & explain the direction of causality

Makridis, Christos, Religious, Civil, and Economic Freedoms: What's the Chicken and What's the Egg? (April 24, 2021). SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3833196

Abstract: This paper studies the relationship between religious liberty and economic freedom. First, three new facts emerge: (a) religious liberty has increased since 1960, but has slipped substantially over the past decade; (b) the countries that experienced the largest declines in religious liberty tend to have greater economic freedom, especially property rights; (c) changes in religious liberty are associated with changes in the allocation of time to religious activities. Second, using a combination of vector autoregressions and dynamic panel methods, improvements in religious liberty tend to precede economic freedom. Finally, increases in religious liberty have a wide array of spillovers that are important determinants of economic freedom and explain the direction of causality. Countries cannot have long-run economic prosperity and freedom without actively allowing for and promoting religious liberty.

Keywords: Economic Development, Economic Freedom, Human Flourishing, Religious Liberty

JEL Classification: E61, H41, O43, O47

7 Conclusion

While there is a large literature on the importance of of institutions for economic growth and

development, there has been almost no discussion of the role of religious liberty. Using a sample of

over 150 countries between 2006 and 2018, recent results from Makridis (2021) show that religious

liberty is predictive of human flourishing even after controlling for cross-country in demographics,

macroeconomic performance, economic freedom, and other time-invariant heterogeneity.

Since it is now clear that religious liberty matters, how does it relate with economic freedom?

Theoretically, religious liberty could be a prerequisite for at least two reasons. First, the freedom

to choose what to believe is a prerequisite for assigning meaning to our actions. Second, religious

liberty provides a foundation for other freedoms to emerge, such as property and contracting

rights. Using similar data as Makridis (2021), this paper investigates whether increases in economic

freedom precede religious liberty, or whether it is the other way around. The results suggest that

religious liberty is not only a much stronger predictor of economic freedom than the other way

around, but also that lagged increases in economic freedom do not show up as increases in religious

freedom, but they do the other way around. Furthermore, this paper provides new evidence on

the spillover benefits of religious liberty on other behavior in society and the public sector.

Admittedly, a number of questions for future research remain. What are specific examples of

policies that affect religious liberty? How do these policies affect individual human capital and

investment decisions? How does religious liberty influence governance at more local levels? These

are all questions that should be addressed in future work, but require more granular data.

Consequences of slowly gaining olfactory function after lifelong lack of it: Most of odors are unpleasant and intense

Consequences of gaining olfactory function after lifelong anosmia. Robert PellegrinoORCID Icon,Coralie Mignot,Charalampos Georgiopoulos,Antje Haehner &Thomas Hummel. The Neural Basis of Cognition, May 18 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/13554794.2021.1921221

Abstract: We present a rare case in which a patient has gained her smell after lifelong anosmia. The patient was objectively tested and diagnosed with functional anosmia at age 13 and reported they were experiencing a new sensation of smell at age 22. Our results show an electrophysiological signal for two unimodal odorants. The patient had a retronasal score in the hyposmic range and self-reported the ability to smell non-trigeminal odors, but reported being disturbed by the presence of the new sense and co-occurrence of phantosmia. We discuss our case in routes of neurogenesis and non-forming memory association with odors.

KEYWORDS: Ansomiaolfactory recoveryneurogenesiscongenitalnew sensememoryphantosmia

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Some people with cochlear implants also find intolerable some sounds.

Almost 58% of the participants indicated that they would use three or more strategies in order to detect their partners’ infidelity; 17% would spy on the partner

Strategies for Detecting Infidelity: An Explorative Analysis. Menelaos Apostolou & Maria Ioannidou. Evolutionary Psychological Science, May 19 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-021-00287-9

Abstract: People frequently adopt extra-pair mating strategies, which could be potentially harmful for their legitimate partners. In order to protect themselves from the costs of cheating, people need first to detect infidelity, and for this purpose, they employ specific infidelity-detection strategies. By using a combination of qualitative research methods, we identified 47 acts that people perform in order to detect their partners’ infidelity. Using quantitative methods, we classified these acts into six broader strategies for detecting infidelity. Participants indicated that they were more likely to employ the “Observe changes in her/his behavior,” followed by the “Ask and observe her/his reactions,” and the “Check where she/he is” strategies. Almost 58% of the participants indicated that they would use three or more strategies in order to detect their partners’ infidelity. We also found that higher scorers in Machiavellianism and psychopathy were more likely to employ the identified strategies than lower scorers. In addition, sex and age effects were found for most strategies.

From 2020... Biculturals—who identify with at least two cultures—often frame switch, adapting their behavior to their shifting cultural contexts; are perceived as inauthentic, less likable, trustworthy, warm, competent

From 2020... The Cost of Being “True to Yourself” for Mixed Selves: Frame Switching Leads to Perceived Inauthenticity and Downstream Social Consequences for Biculturals. Alexandria L. West, Amy Muise, Joni Y. Sasaki. Social Psychological and Personality Science, August 12, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620944049

Abstract: A growing population of biculturals—who identify with at least two cultures—often frame switch, adapting their behavior to their shifting cultural contexts. We demonstrate that frame switching biculturals are perceived as inauthentic by majority Americans and consequently seen as less likable, trustworthy, warm, and competent compared to biculturals who do not frame switch or a neutral control (Studies 1–3, N = 763). In Study 2, describing the bicultural’s behavior as authentic despite its inconsistency partly alleviated the negative effects of frame switching. In our preregistered Study 3, majority American women were less romantically interested in and less willing to date a bicultural who frame switched in his dating profiles (mediated by inauthenticity). The way biculturals negotiate their cultures can have social costs and create a barrier to intercultural relations.

Keywords: frame switching, authenticity, bicultural, multicultural, intercultural relations, intergroup relations

Graduating during a period of high unemployment increases entry to entrepreneurship; the firms founded by these forced entrepreneurs are more likely to survive, innovate, & receive venture-backing, compared to voluntary entrepreneurs

Hacamo, Isaac and Kleiner, Kristoph, Forced Entrepreneurs (April 29, 2021). Journal of Finance, Forthcoming. SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2801637

Abstract: Conventional wisdom suggests labor market distress drives workers into temporary self-employment, lowering entrepreneurial quality. Analyzing employment histories for 640,000 U.S. workers, we document graduating college during a period of high unemployment does increase entry to entrepreneurship. However, compared to voluntary entrepreneurs, firms founded by forced entrepreneurs are more likely to survive, innovate, and receive venture-backing. Explaining these results, we confirm labor shocks disproportionately impact high-earners and these same workers start more successful firms. Overall, we document untapped entrepreneurial potential across the top of the income distribution and demonstrate the role of recessions in reversing this missing entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, labor markets, recessions, innovation, venture capital

JEL Classification: L26, L25, M13, J23, E32, O31, G02

Individually-housed monkeys exhibited consistently blunted sensitivity to ostensibly threatening stimuli as compared to socially-housed monkeys

Social Housing Status Impacts Rhesus Monkeys’ Affective Responding in Classic Threat Processing Tasks. Joey A. Charbonneau, David G. Amaral, Eliza Bliss-Moreau. bioRxiv, May 17 2021. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.16.444352

Abstract: The established literature clearly demonstrates that whether or not monkeys are socially reared has long term consequences for their affective behavior. Yet, in the context of behavioral neuroscience and pharmacological studies, social context of adult animals is often ignored. When social context has been studied in adult monkeys, such studies have typically focused on welfare-related issues, as social isolation often leads to the development of abnormal behavior, rather than the impact on outcomes in behavioral neuroscience studies. Variation in social housing conditions for adult animals could have an impact on affective responding and may have significant implications for the interpretation of data from biopsychiatry and behavioral neuroscience studies. We evaluated the affective reactivity of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) maintained in one of four housing conditions (individually-housed, grate-paired, intermittently-paired, and continuously-paired) using two classic threat processing tasks—a test of responsivity to objects and the Human Intruder Test. Individually-housed monkeys exhibited consistently blunted sensitivity to ostensibly threatening stimuli as compared to socially-housed monkeys. Within the three socially-housed conditions, intermittently- and continuously-paired monkeys behaved similarly to each other and grate-paired monkeys exhibited relatively enhanced sensitivity to threatening stimuli. These findings suggest that the adult housing conditions of monkeys can robustly modulate affective responding in a way that may be consistent with behavioral phenotypes observed in human psychiatric conditions. Results are considered in the context of the broad behavioral and psychiatric neuroscience literatures, which have historically used individually-housed animals, pointing to the potential need to reconsider inferences drawn from those studies.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents in consensually nonmonogamous relationships navigated public health directives to social distance and avoid contact between households & adapted via creative strategies

Consensually nonmonogamous parent relationships during COVID-19. Melissa H Manley, Abbie E Goldberg. Sexualities, May 15, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607211019356

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, parents in consensually nonmonogamous (CNM) relationships navigated public health directives to social distance and avoid contact between households. Many parents practicing CNM share romantic, sexual, and coparenting relationships across households, and the pandemic introduced challenges and opportunities for innovation in maintaining connection. This qualitative study sought to explore the experiences, challenges, and adaptations of CNM parents, using survey and interview data from 70 US parents collected between May and December 2020. Thematic analysis highlighted that many parents spent less time with non-cohabiting partners and more time with cohabiting partners and children, but also adapted via creative strategies such as incorporating partners into a quarantine pod, inviting partners to move in, or connecting over technology. These data illuminate the diverse ways that CNM parents engaged in and “queered” family and partner relationships during the pandemic.

Keywords: consensual nonmonogamy, polyamory, COVID-19, family relationships, parenthood

Born to Be Managers? Genetic Links between Risk-Taking and the Likelihood of Holding Managerial Positions

Lin, Jinjie and Zhao, Bingxin, Born to Be Managers? Genetic Links between Risk-Taking and the Likelihood of Holding Managerial Positions (April 18, 2021). SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3830040

Abstract: Do genes determine who will become managers? Using the UK Biobank data, we study the phenotypic and genetic correlations between the likelihood of holding managerial positions and physical, cognitive, and mental health traits (n = 297,591). Among all traits we examine, general risk tolerance and risky behaviors (e.g., automobile speeding and the number of sexual partners) have the strongest phenotypic and genetic correlations with holding managerial positions. For example, the genetic correlation between automobile speeding and being managers is 0.39 (P = 3.94E-16). Additionally, the genetic correlations between risk-taking traits and being managers are stronger for females. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) shows holding managerial positions is associated with rs7035099 (ZNF618, 9q32), which has been linked to risk tolerance and adventurousness. Overall, our results suggest individuals with risk-taking-related genes are more likely to become managers. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first GWAS of the genetic effects on leadership.

Keywords: UK Biobank; manager; CEO; risk-taking; mental health; GWAS

In addition to counseling students about pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection risk, clinicians might assess patients’ engagement in choking/strangulation during sex, given the risk for serious outcomes

Herbenick D, Patterson C, Beckmeyer J, et al. Diverse Sexual Behaviors in Undergraduate Students: Findings From a Campus Probability Survey. J Sex Med 2021;XXX:XXX–XXX. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1743609521003106

Background: Probability-based surveys of college students typically assess sexual behaviors such as oral, vaginal, and anal sex. Little is known about the broader range of sexual behaviors in which students engage.

Aims: In a random sample survey of undergraduate students, we aimed to: (1) describe how recently participants had engaged in solo and partnered sexual behaviors, (2) examine how frequently participants enacted certain rough sex sexual behaviors (e.g., light spanking, hard spanking, choking, slapping, and others), (3) assess participants’ frequency of experiencing certain rough sex behaviors, (4) describe participants’ frequency of threesome/group sex, (5) assess the characteristics of participants’ experiences with choking during sex; and (6) examine choking and face slapping in regard to consent.

Methods: A confidential, online cross-sectional survey of 4,989 randomly sampled undergraduate students at a large U.S. university.

Outcomes: Participants reported having engaged in a broad range of solo and partnered sexual activities, including rough sex behaviors.

Results: The most prevalent general sexual behaviors were solo masturbation (88.6%), oral sex (79.4% received, 78.4% performed), penile-vaginal intercourse (73.5%), and partnered masturbation (71.1%). Anal intercourse was the least prevalent of these behaviors (16.8% received, 25.3% performed). Among those with any partnered sexual experience, 43.0% had choked a partner, 47.3% had been choked, 59.1% had been lightly spanked and 12.1% had been slapped on the face during sex.

Clinical translation: College health clinicians and educators need to be aware of the diverse and evolving range of solo and partnered sexual behaviors reported by students. In addition to counseling students about pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection risk, clinicians might assess patients’ engagement in diverse sexual behaviors, such as choking/strangulation during sex, given the risk for serious outcomes including death.

Strengths and limitations: Strengths of our research include the large sample size, use of random sampling, high response rate for college populations, broad range of behaviors assessed, and novel data on choking during sex. Among our limitations, we did not assess to what extent the experiences were wanted, pleasurable, or appealing to participants. Except for in relation to choking and slapping, we also did not assess issues of consent.

Conclusion: Participants reported engaging in diverse sexual behaviors, some of which have important clinical implications, are understudied, and warrant further research.

Key Words: Sex behaviorSexual activityRough sexSexual asphyxiationStrangulationCoitusOral sexanal Sex

Mental disorders were 3- to 4-fold more prevalent in children with parents in the lowest income percentiles; parents’ own mental disorders, other socio-demographic factors etc. did not fully explain these associations

Parental income and mental disorders in children and adolescents: prospective register-based study. Jonas Minet Kinge et al. International Journal of Epidemiology, dyab066, May 11 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab066

Abstract

Background: Children with low-income parents have a higher risk of mental disorders, although it is unclear whether other parental characteristics or genetic confounding explain these associations and whether it is true for all mental disorders.

Methods: In this registry-based study of all children in Norway (n = 1 354 393) aged 5–17 years from 2008 to 2016, we examined whether parental income was associated with childhood diagnoses of mental disorders identified through national registries from primary healthcare, hospitalizations and specialist outpatient services.

Results: There were substantial differences in mental disorders by parental income, except for eating disorders in girls. In the bottom 1% of parental income, 16.9% [95% confidence interval (CI): 15.6, 18.3] of boys had a mental disorder compared with 4.1% (95% CI: 3.3, 4.8) in the top 1%. Among girls, there were 14.2% (95% CI: 12.9, 15.5) in the lowest, compared with 3.2% (95% CI: 2.5, 3.9) in the highest parental-income percentile. Differences were mainly attributable to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in boys and anxiety and depression in girls. There were more mental disorders in children whose parents had mental disorders or low education, or lived in separate households. Still, parental income remained associated with children’s mental disorders after accounting for parents’ mental disorders and other factors, and associations were also present among adopted children.

Conclusions: Mental disorders were 3- to 4-fold more prevalent in children with parents in the lowest compared with the highest income percentiles. Parents’ own mental disorders, other socio-demographic factors and genetic confounding did not fully explain these associations.

Keywords: Mental disorders, income, inequality, childhood, adolescence

Key Messages

- Mental disorders in children decreased continuously with increasing parental income for all mental disorders, except eating disorders.

- The parental-income gradient was largest for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, followed by anxiety and depression.

- Our study suggests that associations between lower parental income and children’s mental disorders were partly, but not fully, attributed to other socio-demographic factors, parents’ own mental disorders and genetic factors.

Discussion

Three major conclusions can be drawn from this study. First, despite relatively equal access to health services, childhood mental disorders were found to decrease continuously with parental income and there was no dividing line above or below which additional income was no longer associated with mental disorders. The associations varied with child age and sex. Second, the association with parental income was present for all mental disorders except eating disorders and largest for ADHD. Third, the association of parental income with mental disorders could partly, but not fully, be attributed to parental mental disorder and socio-demographic factors. In addition, the associations were present, but less pronounced, in children genetically unrelated to their parents.

Association of parental income and mental disorders by sex and age

The observed patterns of association and sex differences are similar to those of differential life expectancy by income in adults aged ≥40 years in Norway.18 This supports the suggested link between childhood family income and the subsequent socio-economic inequalities in health in adults.33

Association of parental income and subcategories of mental disorders

Previous studies have found associations between parental income and selected mental disorders in children.1 However, studies covering a range of categories are lacking. This study found that the most pronounced associations with parental income were for ADHD in both boys and girls. The prevalence of eating disorders did not vary with parental income in girls. Although varying associations were detected, these findings may be related to the pervasive co-morbidity within mental disorders.34

Evaluation of factors associated with differences in mental disorders by parental income

This study replicates previous findings that one-parent households, low parental education and mental disorders in parents are factors associated with children’s mental disorders.1,35,36 Further, the results show that absolute differences in mental disorders by single-parent household status, parental education and parental mental disorders were greater in children with parents at lower income levels.

Associations between parental income and children’s mental disorders were attenuated when adjusted for household and parental characteristics such as age, education, employment status, mental disorders and one-parent household. Nonetheless, adjusted parental income remained an independent predictor for mental disorders in children, which is in line with previous findings.3

The influence of a genetic component is also suggested. Children of parents with mental illness are at a higher genetic and environmental risk of developing psychopathology.37,38 Low income can be a consequence of psychopathology in parents.37 The largest income difference was found for ADHD, a mental disorder with a strong heritable component, which is also associated with reduced income in adulthood.38 In contrast, the difference across the income spectrum was smaller for anxiety, which has been shown to have a large environmental component.38 These differences suggest confounding by underlying genetic susceptibility on the relationship between parental income and offspring mental disorders. In addition, the associations between parental income and mental disorders in adopted children were weaker compared with children living with their biological parents. The differences in the associations with parental income observed among adopted children and Norwegian-born children were also greater for ADHD than for anxiety disorders.

Although weaker than in children living with their biological parents, the statistically significant associations between parental income and mental disorders in adopted children support that at least some mental health problems are a result of social factors.3

Studies from other countries suggest that registries do not fully capture interview-based diagnoses in children from lower-income families.11 If parental income is associated with use of health services for mental disorders given equal need, diagnoses from health registries could be biased indicators of income gradients in mental disorders. To explore this, we conducted supplementary analyses of the association between psychological-distress score, from the SHLC Survey,17 and health service. This analysis did not suggest that this bias the estimates for Norway.

Also, a strength of our study was that we used primary-care data in addition to specialist-care data, whilst most prior studies have included only specialist services.5 Furthermore, comparisons of diagnostic data from the Composite International Diagnostic Interview with health registry diagnoses on major depressive and anxiety disorders in Norway have been published previously.8 As indicators, registry-based diagnoses have moderate sensitivity and excellent specificity, with 0.2–4.2% false positives.8 The health survey and registry data used in this study have been found to measure the same symptoms.8

This study has some limitations. First, as the diagnoses of mental disorders in children were obtained from health registries, information was only available for individuals in contact with health services. Individuals with less severe cases of depressive disorders and anxiety do not all seek care.8,39 Thus, children with mild or transient symptoms may be underrepresented. Second, primary and specialist healthcare use different standards of diagnostic codes. ICPC2, used in primary care, relies on broader diagnostic categories than the ICD-10 used in specialist care. Thus, some specific mental disorders, such as those in the autism spectrum, do not have specific codes in the primary-care database. In Norway, however, children with autism and other severe conditions are unlikely to not have been under specialist care during the study period. Third, particularities of the setting and potential non-random assignment of adopted children to adoptive parents can affect the interpretation of data on the association between income and mental disorders in adopted children (Part II in the Supplementary Material, available as Supplementary data at IJE online).

New normal for body size perception: Participants consistently mis-categorized overweight male bodies as normal weight, while accurately categorizing normal weight

Misalignment between perceptual boundaries and weight categories reflects a new normal for body size perception. Annie W. Y. Chan, Danielle L. Noles, Nathan Utkov, Oguz Akbilgic & Webb Smith. Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 10442. May 17 2021. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-89533-5

Abstract: Combatting the current global epidemic of obesity requires that people have a realistic understanding of what a healthy body size looks like. This is a particular issue in different population sub-groups, where there may be increased susceptibility to obesity-related diseases. Prior research has been unable to systematically assess body size judgement due to a lack of attention to gender and race; our study aimed to identify the contribution of these factors. Using a data-driven multi-variate decision tree approach, we varied the gender and race of image stimuli used, and included the same diversity among participants. We adopted a condition-rich categorization visual task and presented participants with 120 unique body images. We show that gender and weight categories of the stimuli affect accuracy of body size perception. The decision pattern reveals biases for male bodies, in which participants showed an increasing number of errors from leaner to bigger bodies, particularly under-estimation errors. Participants consistently mis-categorized overweight male bodies as normal weight, while accurately categorizing normal weight. Overweight male bodies are now perceived as part of an expanded normal: the perceptual boundary of normal weight has become wider than the recognized BMI category. For female bodies, another intriguing pattern emerged, in which participants consistently mis-categorized underweight bodies as normal, whilst still accurately categorizing normal female bodies. Underweight female bodies are now in an expanded normal, in opposite direction to that of males. Furthermore, an impact of race type and gender of participants was also observed. Our results demonstrate that perceptual weight categorization is multi-dimensional, such that categorization decisions can be driven by ultiple factors.

Discussion

By providing corroborating evidence from univariate and multi-variate analyses to investigate body size perception, we are able to identify the complex relationship between gender and race types of the stimuli and of the participants, and the impact of these factors on body size categorization. In particular, we have revealed that performance (percent accuracy) for body stimuli is not uniform, whereby participants performed best for Normal weight and worst for Obese stimuli. We also revealed evidence of an interaction between weight category and gender of the stimuli; participants were more accurate for Underweight and Normal male stimuli (leaner size) relative to the same weight category of female bodies, but they were more accurate for overweight and obese female stimuli compared to male bodies of the same size.

Multi-variate decision tree analysis provided not only consistent results but has pinpointed the direction of estimation errors. Specifically, it revealed that while our participants were reliably making more under-estimation errors for Overweight and Obese male stimuli, they were quite accurate when categorizing Overweight and Obese female stimuli. The overall decision tree pattern (Fig. 2 and Supplemental Figure 2) suggests a strong bias for male stimuli where participants showed an increasing number of errors from leaner to bigger bodies, particularly under-estimation errors. Importantly, there was an expansion of Normal weight category, such that for male stimuli, while a high percent accuracy was found for Normal weight (Fig. 2B), there were also substantial under-estimating errors for identification of Overweight male bodies (Fig. 2C), where participants consistently mis-identified Overweight as Normal weight. Thus, it ndicated that the perceptual BMI for Normal male bodies is now higher than the recognized BMI. For female stimuli however, an expanded boundary for Normal size was found in the opposite direction. Participants have categorized Underweight as Normal (Fig. 2A) as well as accurately categorized Normal bodies (Fig. 2B), suggesting that the averaged perceptual BMI for ormal female bodies is now lower than the recognized BMI. The fact that both male and female participants shared many of the same biases also suggests that visual learning plays a critical role in developing these specific biases. Part of these results was consistent with previous findings; for example, it has been reported5,6 that participants (predominately Caucasian women) make more under-estimation errors when judging Caucasian Overweight or Obese male bodies. It is also worth highlighting that due to the diverse range of our stimuli and equal sampling across both gender and race of participants in the current study, we are able to capture opposite response patterns when judging male vs female bodies, thus, a more complex pattern than previously reported.

As mentioned earlier, prior work has primarily reported perceptual biases for own body weight that might associate with race or gender types, while others have reported biases when judging others’ bodies, but theyhave primarily focused on a particular gender, race, and/or weight category of the stimuli or participants. Our current study focused on assessing others’ body weight as observers, accounting for race and gender of both stimuli and participants. We found that perceptual errors could be associated with characteristics of the participants and the stimuli. For example, all participants, regardless of their race and gender, showed more under-estimating errors by mis-categorizing AA female overweight bodies as normal (Fig. 3). Intriguingly, (Fig. 2A) when judging female underweight bodies (all race types), AA participants (both genders), showed a stronger over-estimating bias for female underweight bodies, mis-categorizing those images as normal weight. CA participants, however, did not exhibit such bias.

It has been well-established in the face perception literature that people are more accurate in recognizing and identifying faces of their own race compared to other race groups. This discrepancy in performance is known as the “other-race effect”32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40. In the context of body weight perception, our current results did not show any other-race effect; no interaction between stimulus and participants’ race types was found in the univariate analysis or multi-variate analysis. However, we identified various participant-specific race effects from the multi-variate results. For example, we found that AA participants were slightly better at categorizing Obese male bodies relative to CA participants. AA participants also over-estimated Underweight female bodies, as they had consistently mis-categorized Underweight female bodies as Normal size (and this effect was not present in CA participants). For normal male bodies, AA performed better than CA, but AA made more over-estimation errors than CA. Interestingly, some stimuli-specific race effects were also identified. Overall, categorization performance was slightly (but significantly) better for Avatar stimuli in terms of percent accuracy. Multi-variate analysis further revealed that during categorization of female overweight stimuli, participants showed higher accuracy for Avatar and CA bodies than for AA (Fig. 3). A recent study20 had used visual adaptation to study the after-effect following repeated exposure of Asian or Caucasian female bodies, and their results seemed to be consistent to our findings. They also reported a lack of “other-race effect” at the stimuli level, but they reported that Asian participants seemed to show a weaker adaptation effect relative to Caucasians; however, the effect was not specific to Asian or Caucasian stimuli.

“Own-gender biases” have also been reported in face perception literature41. People are better at recalling or recognizing faces of their own gender relative to faces of the opposite gender41,42. Limited work has been conducted regarding gender-biases in body perception. Our recent study43 investigated gaze-pattern during perception of upright vs inverted bodies, but observed no differences in eye-movement patterns between male and female participants during a same/different categorization task of male body images. Multi-variate analysis in the current study has identified significant differences in performance between viewing female and male body images. There is a stimuli- and participant-specific gender effect that is particularly prominent for Obese bodies. Specifically, a marked difference was found between male and female participants, where male participants showed significantly higher accuracy for female Obese bodies. For male Overweight bodies, male participants performed better than female, while female participants showed more under-estimation errors. This suggests that under-estimation bias for Overweight male bodies was primarily driven by female participants. A stimuli-specific gender effect was also observed whereby, consistent with the univariate analysis, participants performed more accurately for Underweight male bodies than female Underweight bodies. Overall performance for Normal weight images was also better for male than female bodies. For Obese bodies, performance was better for female bodies, and there were also more under-estimation errors for male Obese bodies. These findings demonstrated that, by increasing the diversity in the stimuli and participants tested and by adopting a multi-variate approach, a more complex categorization pattern can be revealed. Furthermore, our observations of behavioural biases for higher BMI male stimuli and for lower BMI female stimuli seem to be consistent with the idea that partial overlapping or multiple gender-specific neural mechanisms may be at play during body size perception24,25.

Two major theories have been adopted to elucidate perceptual weight biases: the Weber’s law and contraction bias12,13,44. Specifically, the Weber’s law would predict that since detection of change of one’s body size is in constant proportion with one’s own weight, it is more diffcult to notice the change when one is overweight/obese. Alternatively, contradiction bias predicts that one’s perceived own BMI is inversely correlated with their own actual BMI. It has been reported that such correlation was only found during size estimation of participants’ own avatar, but did not generalize to estimating others’ body size12. While these theories may be helpful for explaining error in estimating one’s own weight, it is rather difficult to apply them to explain errors/biases during identification of others’ weight, especially when there are a lot more variables (race, gender, body weight, etc.) when dealing with “other bodies”. As we have shown here, estimation accuracies and errors interact with the type of stimuli presented in the experiment, thus illustrating that with increasing diversity in the stimuli, it might not be possible to show an “one-to-one mapping” using the above theories, as estimation decisions might be more complex than previously thought. While it is important to recognize that people have different body sizes, shapes, and other physical characteristics19, and that even BMI cut-off points may not capture variations in physiological measurements across cultures45, our current approach aims demonstrated that it is possible to capture and quantify some of the multi-dimensional visual characteristics, and it is critical that future work should also harness similar approaches.

Our findings here certainly do not attempt to capture categorization patterns for all types of bodies, and despite the constraints in our well-controlled paradigm (in real life, people with the same BMI may have different body shapes, and we see bodies from many different viewpoints other than straight-on), we have taken an important first step to quantify complex patterns in body weight perception. Finally, we believe that providing a careful characterization of perceptual biases in body weight here may lead to better diagnostic decision-making and development of personalized intervention programmes in both clinical and non-clinical settings.

Quantifying collective intelligence in human groups

Quantifying collective intelligence in human groups. Christoph Riedl et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, May 25, 2021 118 (21) e2005737118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2005737118

Significance: Collective intelligence (CI) is critical to solving many scientific, business, and other problems. We find strong support for a general factor of CI using meta-analytic methods in a dataset comprising 22 studies, including 5,279 individuals in 1,356 groups. CI can predict performance in a range of out-of-sample criterion tasks. CI, in turn, is most strongly predicted by group collaboration process, followed by individual skill and group composition. The proportion of women in a group is a significant predictor of group performance, mediated by social perceptiveness.

Abstract: Collective intelligence (CI) is critical to solving many scientific, business, and other problems, but groups often fail to achieve it. Here, we analyze data on group performance from 22 studies, including 5,279 individuals in 1,356 groups. Our results support the conclusion that a robust CI factor characterizes a group’s ability to work together across a diverse set of tasks. We further show that CI is predicted by the proportion of women in the group, mediated by average social perceptiveness of group members, and that it predicts performance on various out-of-sample criterion tasks. We also find that, overall, group collaboration process is more important in predicting CI than the skill of individual members.

Keywords: collective intelligencehuman groupsteam performance