Emotions and temperature are closely related through embodied processes, and people seem to associate temperature concepts with emotions

Barbosa Escobar F, Velasco C, Motoki K, Byrne DV, Wang QJ (2021) The temperature of emotions. PLoS ONE 16(6): e0252408, Jun 3 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252408

valance >>> valence

Abstract: Emotions and temperature are closely related through embodied processes, and people seem to associate temperature concepts with emotions. While this relationship is often evidenced by everyday language (e.g., cold and warm feelings), what remains missing to date is a systematic study that holistically analyzes how and why people associate specific temperatures with emotions. The present research aimed to investigate the associations between temperature concepts and emotion adjectives on both explicit and implicit levels. In Experiment 1, we evaluated explicit associations between twelve pairs of emotion adjectives derived from the circumplex model of affect, and five different temperature concepts ranging from 0°C to 40°C, based on responses from 403 native speakers of four different languages (English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese). The results of Experiment 1 revealed that, across languages, the temperatures were associated with different regions of the circumplex model. The 0°C and 10°C were associated with negative-valanced, low-arousal emotions, while 20°C was associated with positive-valanced, low-to-medium-arousal emotions. Moreover, 30°C was associated with positive-valanced, high-arousal emotions; and 40°C was associated with high-arousal and either positive- or negative-valanced emotions. In Experiment 2 (N = 102), we explored whether these temperature-emotion associations were also present at the implicit level, by conducting Implicit Association Tests (IATs) with temperature words (cold and hot) and opposing pairs of emotional adjectives for each dimension of valence (Unhappy/Dissatisfied vs. Happy/Satisfied) and arousal (Passive/Quiet vs. Active/Alert) on native English speakers. The results of Experiment 2 revealed that participants held implicit associations between the word hot and positive-valanced and high-arousal emotions. Additionally, the word cold was associated with negative-valanced and low-arousal emotions. These findings provide evidence for the existence of temperature-emotion associations at both explicit and implicit levels across languages.

General discussion

In the present study, we aimed to uncover how people associate a range of adjectives spanning the emotional circumplex model with different temperature concepts. To this end, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, we evaluated the explicit associations between twelve different emotion adjectives, varying in valence and arousal, and five different temperature concepts on native speakers of four different languages (English, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese). In Experiment 2, we evaluated native English speakers in terms of their implicit associations between temperature words (hot and cold) and emotion adjectives at the opposite ends of both the valence (Unhappy/Dissatisfied and Happy/Satisfied) and the arousal (Passive/Quiet and Active/Alert) dimensions.

Altogether, the results provided evidence for the existence of explicit and implicit associations between emotions adjectives and temperature concepts. The results of Experiment 1 showed that, regardless of language, the peak of the association ratings moved counterclockwise in the canonical circumplex model of core affect from the lower left side (third quadrant) to the upper left side (second quadrant) as temperature increased from 0°C to 40°C. The results of the IATs in Experiment 2 revealed that participants had faster response times when the word hot was independently matched with the positive-valence and the high-arousal emotion words, than when these emotion words were matched with the word cold. Furthermore, as evidenced by the magnitude of the D values, the associations in the arousal dimension were stronger than in the valence dimension, potentially due to a more linear relationship between temperature and arousal, compared to valance. Therefore, consistent with Experiment 1, the results of Experiment 2 revealed that participants implicitly associated the word cold with the low arousal emotion and the word hot with the high arousal emotion. While some studies have hinted at the existence of temperature-emotion associations, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to uncover associations between them explicitly and implicitly and explore their similarity across languages.

Our results may be interpreted from the theory of grounded cognition [51, 53]. It is possible that the associations uncovered here arise from the multimodal representations encoded in the brain incorporating the temperature (body or ambient) experienced during specific emotional states repeated. For instance, the robust associations of 20°C with positive valence, low arousal emotions can be a product of the physical comfort this temperature generates for most people. It is also possible that the associations between emotions and temperature arose because there is causal relationship between them, whether it is in the case where emotions trigger physiological responses that affect bodily temperature [92], or in the case where ambient temperatures trigger affective states [17].

The results of Experiment 1 showed that there was a positive relationship between temperature concepts and the arousal dimension of the emotions. In line with our hypotheses, the results also revealed an inverted U-shaped relationship between temperature concepts and valence since the extreme temperature concepts, both cold and hot, were associated with negatively valanced emotions, whereas the milder ambient temperature was associated with positive valanced emotions. A possibility is that valence is related to embodied process of comfort as warmer temperatures are comfortable but extreme temperatures at both ends can generate discomfort [47]. These results are consistent with Wilkowski et al. [93] as the authors suggested people from different cultures use metaphorical expressions of hot and negative emotions (e.g., anger). These results also are also in line with Baylis et al. [62], who found that expressions of positive emotions in social media were the highest at 20°C and decreased beyond 30°C, at which point negative emotions also increased. It is worth noting that the present study did not control for whether participants interpreted the temperature concepts presented as coming from the environment or from a specific object, despite the visual representations used. Hence the temperature range considered comfortable might differ. The results of Experiment 2 were partially consistent with studies that have implied that warmer temperatures are positively valanced [17, 59, 60]. It is important to note that only two temperature words were used. Experiment 2 also revealed that the association between temperature and arousal was more robust than that between temperature and valence, potentially because associations with valence at higher temperatures is less clear as hotter temperatures can be evaluated positively or negatively, as Experiment 1 showed.

Furthermore, people may associate high arousal emotions, whether they are positively or negatively valanced, with higher temperatures because body temperature increases when they experience those emotions. Some studies that have shown that the temperature of peripheral body regions decreases during negative-valanced, high-arousal emotional states [31, 67, 94, 95]. Nevertheless, other studies have indicated that body temperature changes which are triggered by emotions generally accompany arousal, but are independent of the valence of the emotions [92, 96], which seems to be consistent with the associations of the higher temperature concepts in Experiment 1 and the smaller difference across dimensions of Experiment 2. Examining the inverse relationship between temperature and emotions, in which certain temperatures trigger specific emotional states, the associations can come from high ambient temperatures or activities that increase body temperature and hence arousal. For example, physical exercise increases body temperature and at the same time may increase excitement and energy levels. Similarly, it is possible that the associations between positive emotions with low levels of arousal and ambient temperatures arise because at this temperature, people are at their homeostatic optimum [1, 12, 30] and therefore feel calm, secure, or happy.

The results of Experiment 1 showed that the associations across the four languages exhibited a high degree of similarity and followed the same overall direction towards the two dimensions of the emotions. These findings are consistent with other studies that have found large similarities in associations between emotions and colors [49, 82, 97, 98] and emotions and brightness [99] across languages. The large similarity in temperature-emotion associations can be the result of highly comparable concepts linked to emotions across languages, which can potentially be captured by broad categories. As Ogarkova [37] suggested, emotional categories in most languages have similar hierarchical structures and the variance of emotion lexicons can be explained by a few relevant dimensions. Another potential explanation of these results is that the subjective experience of emotions did not differ significantly across speakers of the various languages. It is possible that the emotion-temperature associations are fundamentally driven by core affect, which according to the constructionist theory of emotion, is parsed into specific emotion categories [24, 100]. As Sievers et al. [101] suggested, there is a high degree of similarity in how people understand expressions of emotional arousal since they are signaled with a multisensory code based on variations in magnitude. Our findings agree with Jackson et al. [27] in that they seem to reflect the existence of a common semantic framework of emotions across language based on valence and arousal, which are linked to neurophysiological systems that keep homeostasis, although there exists cultural differences.

Despite the high degree of similarity in the emotion-temperature associations across languages, small differences were present. These differences may arise because of linguistic discrepancies and what the various emotions mean in across languages, as well as countries [27]. As Lindquist [36] suggested, languages encode emotions differently, and emotional perception is culturally relative. Additionally, these differences may be caused by environmental factors and the degree of exposure native speakers of a given language that predominantly live-in specific countries have with different temperature ranges. For example, Jonauskaite et al. [49] found that the association between yellow and the concept of joy varied depending on overall exposure to sunshine. Temperature may affect the expression of affect, as well as the subjective experience of similarly intense affective stimuli [12].

Regarding the lower temperature associations for high-arousal emotions in Chinese-speaking participants, it is possible that these differences are the result of a restrained view of the experience and reporting of intense emotions [102]. Intriguingly, there was a slightly higher correlation in the associations between Chinese- and Spanish-speaking participants compared to that between Chinese- and Japanese-speaking participants, as based on geographical and linguistic distance, the latter should be higher [103]. It is possible that this was caused by a greater international cultural exposure from both language groups. However, further research is needed to strip out the effect behind these differences.

Limitations and future directions

One of the main limitations of the present work relates to the set of emotions used. While we focused on emotions that derived from the valence and arousal dimensions, the pool of emotions that can be studied is virtually endless, and other emotions that could have associations with temperature were not included. For instance, romantic or sensual emotions were not analyzed. Future studies may focus on associations with a much more precise set of emotions that have greater relevance for specific fields or applications. That said, the emotion adjectives [70] have been validated across cultures in 23 consumer studies (each with 104–270 participants) involving New Zealand and Chinese consumers. The adjectives were also validated with different types of stimuli (i.e., text, images, aromas, and taste). The emotion circumplex covers a wide range of relevant emotions while remaining parsimonious and is applicable to extensive classes of stimuli. Another aspect to consider when applying these temperature-emotion associations in real world scenarios, is that both temperature and emotions can be product- or context-specific. For instance, while companies may want to generate associations between refreshing beverages and positive emotions, using warm temperatures associations would not be ideal.

Another limitation comes from the method in which the temperatures were presented (visual representations in Experiment 1 and temperature words in Experiment 2). Since no actual temperatures were used, it is not possible to rule out potential semantic effects. People could have also interpreted emotion or temperature words differently, thus introducing some variability. In Experiment 1, people from different countries may not be equally used to certain temperatures. in Experiment 2, people could have had considered diverse temperature ranges for the words hot and cold. Nevertheless, the results provide considerable confidence since the experiment captured relative differences given its within-subjects design. The five temperatures and their visual representations (along with the specific values in°C and°F) in Experiment 1 were chosen as way to cover a broad range of the ambient temperature spectrum, reduce potential language biases, and increase familiarity with temperature measurements. However, it is not certain that participants thought about ambient temperature with these representations. Future studies could expand the range of temperatures and represent them in different ways so that the meaning of temperature is less ambiguous. Moreover, exploring potential differences in the associations between emotions and environmental and object-based temperatures could generate interesting insights. For instance, similar versions of IATs could be designed using pictures of objects or scenes evoking different temperatures combined with facial expressions, such as emojis. Another limitation, especially in the IATs, comes from the possibility that, when evaluating the emotion-temperature associations explicitly or pressing a key in the IAT, participants may not have read the entirety of the pairs of emotion words but instead relied only on the first word. That being said, the use of these emotion adjectives has been extensively validated in multiple studies [70–72].

In recent years, the interest in crossmodal correspondences has seen a rapid growth from academics and practitioners. Research on these correspondences has found a myriad of associations between different modalities (see [104]), and temperature-based correspondences has recently regained the interest of researchers relates to temperature [105, 106]. Spence [107] has recently reviewed the literature on temperature-related crossmodal correspondences. The present study provides valuable insights to advance the study of crossmodal correspondences since the explicit and implicit associations found here may help deepen the understanding of temperature-based crossmodal correspondences mediated by emotions and the role language might play in them. More specifically, these results can guide future studies on the mechanisms behind temperature-based crossmodal correspondences.

To conclude, our findings provide evidence of the existence of consistent associations between emotions and temperature concepts at the explicit level across languages. The findings also provide evidence that some explicit associations also translate to the implicit level. The present study also adds to the literature on emotions and their associations with abstract concepts, and to research on the bidirectionally causal embodied processes between emotions and temperature. Furthermore, the present article contributes to the discussion of how conceptual metaphors can help people understand abstract concepts by interpreting them in terms of concrete experiences, and how using these metaphors can change both how people view the world and their subsequent behavior.

Similar to humans, Eurasian jays are susceptible to magic effects that utilize fast movements, but unlike us, they do not appear to be misled by magic effects that rely on the observer’s intrinsic expectations in human object manipulation

Exploring the perceptual inabilities of Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) using magic effects. Elias Garcia-Pelegrin, Alexandra K. Schnell, Clive Wilkins, and Nicola S. Clayton. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 15, 2021 118 (24) e2026106118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2026106118

Significance: While we know that humans are often deceived by magic effects, little is known concerning how nonhuman animals perceive these intricate techniques of deception. Here, we tested the susceptibility to be misled by three different magic effects on a sample of six Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius). We demonstrate that, similar to humans, Eurasian jays are susceptible to magic effects that utilize fast movements. However, unlike humans, Eurasian jays do not appear to be misled by magic effects that rely on the observer’s intrinsic expectations in human object manipulation. Magic effects can provide an insightful methodology to investigate perception and attentional shortcomings in human and nonhuman animals and offer unique opportunities to highlight cognitive constraints in diverse animal minds.

Abstract: In recent years, scientists have begun to use magic effects to investigate the blind spots in our attention and perception [G. Kuhn, Experiencing the Impossible: The Science of Magic (2019); S. Macknik, S. Martinez-Conde, S. Blakeslee, Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions (2010)]. Recently, we suggested that similar techniques could be transferred to nonhuman animal observers and that such an endeavor would provide insight into the inherent commonalities and discrepancies in attention and perception in human and nonhuman animals [E. Garcia-Pelegrin, A. K. Schnell, C. Wilkins, N. S. Clayton, Science 369, 1424–1426 (2020)]. Here, we performed three different magic effects (palming, French drop, and fast pass) to a sample of six Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius). These magic effects were specifically chosen as they utilize different cues and expectations that mislead the spectator into thinking one object has or has not been transferred from one hand to the other. Results from palming and French drop experiments suggest that Eurasian jays have different expectations from humans when observing some of these effects. Specifically, Eurasian jays were not deceived by effects that required them to expect an object to move between hands when observing human hand manipulations. However, similar to humans, Eurasian jays were misled by magic effects that utilize fast movements as a deceptive action. This study investigates how another taxon perceives the magician’s techniques of deception that commonly deceive humans.

Keywords: magicperceptionattentioncomparative cognitioncorvids

Popular version: Magic Tricks May Fool You, but These Birds Can See Through Them - The New York Times

Observed significant increases in frequencies of alleles of more body fat in females contradicts hypotheses that sex differences have adaptively decreased following subsistence transitions from hunting & gather'g to agric

Arner AM, Grogan KE, Grabowski M, Reyes-Centeno H, Perry GH (2021) Patterns of recent natural selection on genetic loci associated with sexually differentiated human body size and shape phenotypes. PLoS Genet 17(6): e1009562, Jun 3 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009562

Abstract: Levels of sex differences for human body size and shape phenotypes are hypothesized to have adaptively reduced following the agricultural transition as part of an evolutionary response to relatively more equal divisions of labor and new technology adoption. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by studying genetic variants associated with five sexually differentiated human phenotypes: height, body mass, hip circumference, body fat percentage, and waist circumference. We first analyzed genome-wide association (GWAS) results for UK Biobank individuals (~194,000 females and ~167,000 males) to identify a total of 114,199 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with at least one of the studied phenotypes in females, males, or both sexes (P<5x10-8). From these loci we then identified 3,016 SNPs (2.6%) with significant differences in the strength of association between the female- and male-specific GWAS results at a low false-discovery rate (FDR<0.001). Genes with known roles in sexual differentiation are significantly enriched for co-localization with one or more of these SNPs versus SNPs associated with the phenotypes generally but not with sex differences (2.73-fold enrichment; permutation test; P = 0.0041). We also confirmed that the identified variants are disproportionately associated with greater phenotype effect sizes in the sex with the stronger association value. We then used the singleton density score statistic, which quantifies recent (within the last ~3,000 years; post-agriculture adoption in Britain) changes in the frequencies of alleles underlying polygenic traits, to identify a signature of recent positive selection on alleles associated with greater body fat percentage in females (permutation test; P = 0.0038; FDR = 0.0380), directionally opposite to that predicted by the sex differences reduction hypothesis. Otherwise, we found no evidence of positive selection for sex difference-associated alleles for any other trait. Overall, our results challenge the longstanding hypothesis that sex differences adaptively decreased following subsistence transitions from hunting and gathering to agriculture.

Author summary: There is uncertainty regarding the evolutionary history of human sex differences for quantitative body size and shape phenotypes. In this study we identified thousands of genetic loci that differentially impact body size and shape trait variation between females and males using a large sample of UK Biobank individuals. After confirming the biological plausibility of these loci, we used a population genomics approach to study the recent (over the past ~3,000 years) evolutionary histories of these loci in this population. We observed significant increases in the frequencies of alleles associated with greater body fat percentage in females. This result is contradictory to longstanding hypotheses that sex differences have adaptively decreased following subsistence transitions from hunting and gathering to agriculture.

Discussion

Using a sex-stratified GWAS framework for five sexually differentiated anthropometric phenotypes, we identified 3,016 SNPs that were disproportionately associated with either female or male trait variation at a low false discovery rate (FDR<0.001). We confirmed the biological plausibility of these results by showing that genes with known roles in sexual differentiation are significantly enriched for SexDiff-associated SNPs. Together, these results confirm the importance of considering sex differences when investigating the genetic structure of human polygenic traits [43]. We then used a statistic that quantifies changes in the frequencies of alleles underlying polygenic traits over the past ~3,000 years to identify a signature of recent positive selection on SNPs associated with increased female body fat percentage in the British study population.

We must emphasize that inferring selection signals from GWAS data should be approached with great care, as even subtle uncorrected population structure can impact GWAS and downstream results [44]. For example, data from the GIANT consortium were previously used to identify strong signatures of polygenic selection for height across the genome [20]. However, subtle population structure in the GIANT sample led to effect-size estimate biases, in turn resulting in false signals of polygenic selection for SNPs not crossing the genome-wide significance threshold and impacting results for significant SNPs as well [44]. In contrast, these issues were much less prevalent using GWAS summary statistics from the UK Biobank, in which population structure is minimized [44–46]. In light of these considerations, in our study we have i) used UK Biobank GWAS summary statistics only, ii) focused solely on phenotype-associated SNPs below the genome-wide significance threshold, and iii) restricted our evolutionary analyses to direct comparisons between SNPs significantly associated with individual phenotypes and a sub-phenotype (i.e., sex differences).

Our study further demonstrates the value of GWAS-based approaches for testing anthropological hypotheses [47]. Concerning the evolution of human body size and shape phenotypes, our results fail to provide support for the prevailing notion of recent (i.e., subsequent to agriculture) adaptive reductions in levels of sex differences for such traits. Specifically, using large samples of genomes from British individuals we did not observe significant differences in the recent evolutionary trajectories of SNPs disproportionately associated with female or male variation in height, body mass, hip circumference, and waist circumference relative to the trajectories of SNPs associated with these traits generally.

We note that we made a number of conservative choices (for example, with aggressive pruning to account for linkage disequilibrium) in our analytical approach, meaning that our failure to reject the null hypothesis for each of these four traits should not be interpreted as evidence that no selection on them occurred. Still, even with our conservative analytical approach we did find evidence that the average frequencies of alleles disproportionately associated with greater female body fat percentage significantly increased over the past ~3,000 years, a pattern consistent with polygenic adaptation. Given that females have higher average body fat percentages than men in historic and contemporary populations, the direction of polygenic adaptation in the population we studied would actually be opposite to expectations under hypotheses of recent adaptive reductions in anthropometric trait sex differences in agricultural societies. However, since SNPs can be pleiotropically associated with multiple phenotypes [35], we cannot definitively conclude that positive selection acted directly on female body fat percentage. Regardless, at the very least we did not find positive support for the prevailing hypothesis concerning the evolution of sex differences in recent human evolution.

Young men & women overestimate their future wages; when given realistic future wage information, women properly adjust down, but men adjust even further up

Gender differences in wage expectations. Ana Fernandes, Martin Huber, Giannina Vaccaro. PLoS One, June 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250892

Abstract: Using an own survey on wage expectations among students at two Swiss institutions of higher education, we examine the wage expectations of our respondents along two main lines. First, we investigate the rationality of wage expectations by comparing average expected wages from our sample with those of similar graduates; further, we examine how our respondents revise their expectations when provided information about actual wages. Second, using causal mediation analysis, we test whether the consideration of a rich set of personal and professional controls, inclusive of preferences on family formation and number of children in addition to professional preferences, accounts for the difference in wage expectations across genders. Results suggest that both males and females overestimate their wages compared to actual ones and that males respond in an overconfident manner to information about realized wages. Personal mediators alone cannot explain the indirect effect of gender on wage expectations; however, when combined with professional mediators, this results in a quantitatively large reduction in the unexplained effect of gender on wage expectations. Nonetheless, a non-negligible and statistically significant direct (or unexplained) effect of gender on wage expectations remains in several, but not all specifications.

6 Conclusion

Using novel survey data from students from the Business School of the Bern University of Applied Science (BUAS) and the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Fribourg, this paper advances the literature related to gender differences in wage expectations in two specific ways. First, it determines whether these gender differences are rational by comparing expected wages from our respondents to realized wages from comparable graduates; and, further, by investigating how respondents adjust their wage expectations when information about actual wages is provided. Second, using an inverse probability weighting method in the context of causal mediation, it examines whether the consideration of a rich set of professional and personal controls accounts for the difference in wage expectations across gender.

In line with the literature, we confirm the presence of gender differences in wage expectations in our survey results. The difference between male and female expected wages is about one salary class (CHF500) upon graduation and roughly 1.4 salary classes three years thereafter (roughly 19 and 17% of female average expected wages, respectively). The evidence suggests that both males and females overestimate their wages relative to realized wages from comparable graduates. Further, results from an information intervention—about median wages earned in Switzerland—show that males alone (incorrectly) revise their expected wages upward by about 0.6 of a salary class (CHF300) when forecasting wages three years after graduation. This is possibly the result of over-confidence.

Using mediation analysis (which permits explicating endogeneity issues), we find that the inclusion of a rich set of personal and professional mediators—not commonly included in survey data—greatly reduces the direct, unexplained effect of gender on wage expectations. While personal mediators alone do not contribute to the indirect effect of gender on wage expectations, when added to professional mediators they lead to a reduction of about 30% in the contribution of the direct effect of gender on wage expectations and to a similar increase in the indirect effect (when the decomposition of these effects takes the male as the reference). Further, when professional and personal mediators are jointly considered, the direct, unexplained effect of gender is greatly attenuated, both in size as well as in statistical significance. Nonetheless, a non-negligible and statistically significant direct (or unexplained) effect of gender on wage expectations remains in several, but not all specifications. Our results are stable under different specifications and trimming thresholds.

Higher order cognition is related to baseline pupil size; baseline pupil size is uniquely related to fluid intelligence

The relationship between baseline pupil size and intelligence. Jason S. Tsukahara, Tyler L. Harrison, Randall W. Engle. Cognitive Psychology, Volume 91, December 2016, Pages 109-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2016.10.001

Highlights

• Higher order cognition is related to baseline pupil size.

• Baseline pupil size is uniquely related to fluid intelligence.

• Implications for resting-state brain organization and locus coeruleus function.

Abstract: Pupil dilations of the eye are known to correspond to central cognitive processes. However, the relationship between pupil size and individual differences in cognitive ability is not as well studied. A peculiar finding that has cropped up in this research is that those high on cognitive ability have a larger pupil size, even during a passive baseline condition. Yet these findings were incidental and lacked a clear explanation. Therefore, in the present series of studies we systematically investigated whether pupil size during a passive baseline is associated with individual differences in working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. Across three studies we consistently found that baseline pupil size is, in fact, related to cognitive ability. We showed that this relationship could not be explained by differences in mental effort, and that the effect of working memory capacity and fluid intelligence on pupil size persisted even after 23 sessions and taking into account the effect of novelty or familiarity with the environment. We also accounted for potential confounding variables such as; age, ethnicity, and drug substances. Lastly, we found that it is fluid intelligence, more so than working memory capacity, which is related to baseline pupil size. In order to provide an explanation and suggestions for future research, we also consider our findings in the context of the underlying neural mechanisms involved.

Keywords: IntelligencePupil sizeLocus coeruleus

The intensities of felt shame and of various motivations of shame (hiding, lying, destroying evidence, & threatening witnesses) vary in proportion to one another, & to the degree to which audiences devalue the disgraced individual

Are Emotions Natural Kinds After All? Rethinking the Issue of Response Coherence. Daniel Sznycer, Adam Scott Cohen. Evolutionary Psychology, June 1, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049211016009

Abstract: The synchronized co-activation of multiple responses—motivational, behavioral, and physiological—has been taken as a defining feature of emotion. Such response coherence has been observed inconsistently however, and this has led some to view emotion programs as lacking biological reality. Yet, response coherence is not always expected or desirable if an emotion program is to carry out its adaptive function. Rather, the hallmark of emotion is the capacity to orchestrate multiple mechanisms adaptively—responses will co-activate in stereotypical fashion or not depending on how the emotion orchestrator interacts with the situation. Nevertheless, might responses cohere in the general case where input variables are specified minimally? Here we focus on shame as a case study. We measure participants’ responses regarding each of 27 socially devalued actions and personal characteristics. We observe internal and external coherence: The intensities of felt shame and of various motivations of shame (hiding, lying, destroying evidence, and threatening witnesses) vary in proportion (i) to one another, and (ii) to the degree to which audiences devalue the disgraced individual—the threat shame defends against. These responses cohere both within and between the United States and India. Further, alternative explanations involving the low-level variable of arousal do not seem to account for these results, suggesting that coherence is imparted by a shame system. These findings indicate that coherence can be observed at multiple levels and raise the possibility that emotion programs orchestrate responses, even in those situations where coherence is low.

Keywords: emotion, valuation, response coherence, adaptationism, culture

Discussion

We asked if response coherence in shame can be observed in the general case where input variables to the shame system are specified minimally. We observed internal coherence: Five shame responses—felt shame and the motivations to hide, to lie, to destroy evidence, and to threaten a witness—in general covaried with one another in direction and intensity from one event (scenario) to the next. This is in line with the internal coherence that has been documented in some (but not all) of the previous research on response coherence in emotion.

In addition, we observed two novel patterns of response coherence predicted from an adaptationist framework: external coherence and cross-cultural coherence. Regarding external coherence, five shame responses in the individual in general covaried in direction and intensity with the devaluation expressed by audiences from one event to the next. We observed internal and external coherences within the United States and India. And regarding cross-cultural coherence, five shame responses in one country in general covaried in direction and intensity both with the five shame responses and with audience devaluation in the other country from one event to the next. Importantly, the intensity of the motivation to communicate reputationally damaging information to other people—a response that involves arousal—failed to correlate positively, and in fact correlated mostly negatively, with the intensities of audience devaluation and with the five shame responses across events. This is expected if the internal, external, and cross-cultural coherence observed here reflects the operation of a shame orchestrator. But this is not expected if response coherence in emotion stems from low-level affective variables such as arousal. Of course, the alternative evaluated here (communicate event) is but one of a large set of possible alternatives involving arousal. Thus, future research is needed to test against additional alternatives involving arousal, as well as valence and culturally-variable emotion concepts.

Adaptationist thinking suggests that the hallmark of emotion is the capacity to adaptively orchestrate multiple adaptations. And that response coherence is incidental to adaptive orchestration. Evidence on response coherence—whether positive, null, or negative—is therefore not dispositive of whether or not emotion programs are natural kinds. Notwithstanding this critical point, evidence on response coherence can be of value. Data on incidental phenomena are valuable as raw data after all, and anomalies (in affective science, inconsistent observations of response coherence across studies, for instance) can catalyze scientific progress (Kuhn, 1970). The present findings go beyond internal coherence, however. That shame responses can cohere between cultures and also externally, matching in intensity the devaluation expressed by audiences (i.e., matching in intensity the adaptive problem hypothesized to have selected for shame), suggests that shame, and perhaps other emotions (Sznycer & Cohen, 2021; Sznycer, Sell, & Dumont, 2021), are functionally specialized adaptations.

An alternative account, one that is consistent with the theory of constructed emotion, is that the cross-cultural coherences observed here were imparted by the English concept of “shame” and not by a shame neurocognitive system. This is plausible, considering that our stimuli were presented in one and the same language (English) both in the United States and in India, because emotion words have meanings that are more similar in language groups that are closer in linguistic space (Jackson et al., 2019). Similarly, the US–India similarities observed here may have stemmed from culturally-specific concepts or schemas with which people interpret their own affect in shame (see Barrett, 2014). These concepts may be similar across industrial societies such as the United States and India even when they are idiosyncratic of industrial societies; and so these concepts may be shared by our American and Indian participants even when these concepts are not universal. However, we note that previous research has shown cross-cultural commonalities in the feeling of shame across 15 small-scale societies with highly diverse subsistence bases (e.g., horticulture, pastoralism, fishing) and speaking highly diverse languages, including: Igbo, Icé-tód, Nepali, Tuvan, and Mongolian (Sznycer, Xygalatas, Agey, et al., 2018). This suggests that the cross-cultural coherences among multiple shame responses that we observed here may have been driven by an evolved shame system. Nevertheless, further inquiry is needed to determine how generalizable the present findings are across different cultures, ecologies, and language-groups.

Further research is also needed to determine whether the patterns of coherence observed here generalize to other discrediting actions and personal characteristics, to the reactive (vs. prospective) operation of shame in response to actual discrediting events, to the various cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses that shame appears to control (other than the motivations studied here), and to responses measured within-situations and within-individuals (see Mauss et al., 2005; Reisenzein, 2000). In addition, further research is necessary to know whether and how patterns of response coherence are modulated by a host of situational variables that are relevant to shame (e.g., co-presence of an audience, characteristics of the audience, actual responses of the audience) but were not studied here.

It is important to reiterate that the kinds of comprehensive tests that are necessary to corroborate or deny the hypothesis of adaptive orchestration (for shame or for other emotions) have, to our knowledge, not been conducted yet. We suspect that mapping emotion decision trees systematically and comprehensively will be challenging. Shame, for instance, is likely to be sensitive to many input variables and to implement many contingencies. Moreover, high-order interactions between input variables are expected. The simple (hypothetical) conditional appease (or blame or threaten) when others have seen your disgraceful action, but not when they haven’t seen you might be conditioned further by additional external and internal variables. For example, when others have seen your disgraceful action, active shame responses might be delivered in general. But there might be exceptions. Active shame responses might not be delivered when you have been seen if the individuals in the audience are few or have low physical formidability or status or if they are known to lack strategic information to grasp the true meaning of the disgraceful action.

The ontological status of emotion—perhaps the primary point of contention in the affective sciences (see, e.g., Adolphs & Anderson, 2018; Barrett, 2019; Barrett et al., 2019; Cowen et al., 2019; in press; Lange et al., 2020; Lindquist et al., 2013; Mobbs et al., 2019; Scarantino, 2015; Scherer, 2009)—remains an open question. Nevertheless, the present findings suggest that adaptationism is a promising framework to elucidate emotion.

Protective techniques: Turkana in our sample had a high prevalence of PTSD symptoms, but those with high symptom severity had lower prevalence of depression-like symptoms than American service members

Combat stress in a small-scale society suggests divergent evolutionary roots for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Matthew R. Zefferman and  Sarah Mathew. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, April 13, 2021 118 (15) e2020430118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020430118

Significance: Did PTSD and combat stress evolve as a universal human response to danger? Or are they culturally specific? We addressed this question by interviewing 218 warriors from the Turkana, a non-Western small-scale society, who engage in high-risk lethal cattle raids. We found that symptoms that may have evolved to protect against danger, like flashbacks and startle response, were high in the Turkana and best predicted by combat exposure. However, symptoms that are similar to depression were lower in the Turkana compared to American service members and were better predicted by moral violations. These findings suggest different evolutionary roots for different symptoms which may lead to better diagnosis and treatment.

Abstract: Military personnel in industrialized societies often develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during combat. It is unclear whether combat-related PTSD is a universal evolutionary response to danger or a culture-specific syndrome of industrialized societies. We interviewed 218 Turkana pastoralist warriors in Kenya, who engage in lethal cattle raids, about their combat experiences and PTSD symptoms. Turkana in our sample had a high prevalence of PTSD symptoms, but Turkana with high symptom severity had lower prevalence of depression-like symptoms than American service members with high symptom severity. Symptoms that facilitate responding to danger were better predicted by combat exposure, whereas depressive symptoms were better predicted by exposure to combat-related moral violations. The findings suggest that some PTSD symptoms stem from an evolved response to danger, while depressive PTSD symptoms may be caused by culturally specific moral norm violations.

Keywords: PTSDcombat stressmoral injuryevolutionary medicinecross-cultural psychology

Discussion

Our findings demonstrate that combat-related PTSD symptoms are not limited to industrialized societies and can occur even in small-scale societies where warriors are venerated and socially embedded in tight-knit communities. In particular, learning-and-reacting symptoms are potentially evolved responses to acute dangers such as those encountered in combat. These symptoms had high prevalence among both American service members and Turkana warriors. Moreover, among the Turkana, combat exposure and combat outcomes were more consistently associated with learning-and-reacting symptom severity than with depressive symptom severity.

Our findings have implications for understanding the roots of moral injury (59, 71, 72), trauma causedy “perpetrating, failing to prevent, or bearing witness to acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations” (ref. 59, p. 695). For example, moral injury can occur when soldiers violate morally held beliefs against killing civilians (73). Moral injury might also be the primary cause of combat stress in drone pilots who, even though they are flying combat missions from a control room far from danger, have a high-definition view of the human suffering caused by their missile strikes (74). Our statistical models suggest a relationship between moral injury and depressive PTSD symptoms in particular. Combat exposure and outcome measures are not as important predictors for depressive symptoms as they are for learning-and-reacting symptoms among the Turkana. Instead, predictors assessing exposure to moral violations as perpetrators or victims and experiencing social sanctions are associated with depressive symptoms. Additionally, having moral concerns for a larger segment of people from the opposing side was more strongly associated with depressive symptoms than with learning-and-reacting symptoms. All of this supports the idea that depressive symptoms may be a response to expected social sanctioning due to moral violations, which is consistent with some evolutionary theories of depression (56, 57). However, it is also possible that depressive symptoms, whatever their cause, may make instances of moral injury more salient to study participants. Additional experimental, longitudinal, and cross-cultural research may resolve the direction of causality.

Consistent with the association in the Turkana between expected social sanctions and depressive symptoms, Turkana warriors with high symptom severity were less prone than American service members to experience some of the depressive symptoms of PTSD. This could be because the actual or perceived social risks of participating in war are lower for Turkana warriors than for American service members. Turkana warriors are venerated and there is widespread support from their community for going on raids and defending the Turkana from raids. They do not expect to face moral disapproval for participating in combat (43) (although they do face moral disapproval for cowardice and can be blamed for the death of comrades). In fact, those who have killed in combat are often celebrated in Turkana society with many warriors undergoing akiger, a ritual that scars the warrior’s body to mark him as someone who has killed. Warriors with akiger scars are highly regarded by both men and women. Additionally, raid participation is high among Turkana men, so warriors are almost always in the company of other warriors with similar combat experiences. Many women and children too have experienced raids by other groups. As such, combat experiences are a commonly shared and a frequent topic of discussion in Turkana society. There is little to no stigma associated with sharing the details of combat (43).

By contrast, in the United States and other industrialized nation states, support for war and those who participate in war is often far from universal, and killing, even in combat, is rarely celebrated. American soldiers fight in foreign countries away from the civilian population and, upon returning, they may perceive disapproval of their experiences and actions from friends and family. Additionally, most Americans cannot relate to the experiences of those who have participated in combat. Consequently, warfare presents a moral conflict because what is considered a soldier’s duty in combat can violate prevailing moral norms within the soldier’s society. American soldiers may therefore have a heightened awareness of potential social repercussions especially as they integrate back into civilian life. Veterans’ support groups and group therapy replicate some aspects of Turkana society by allowing veterans to share their experiences with each other, but Turkana warriors receive stronger signals of social support and understanding from all members of their communities.

Since most PTSD research has not focused on symptom-specific causes, moral injury research is relatively new, and combat trauma research has not taken a functional evolutionary perspective, there has been little attempt to associate depressive PTSD symptoms with moral injury in the Western context. A better grasp of symptom-specific patterns of PTSD in Western military personnel, as we have done with the Turkana, would be useful to further evaluate the proposed theory, delineate what moral injury manifests as, and assess how it relates to PTSD.

The effect of killing in combat on PTSD is more ambiguous in the Turkana than in American service members. While killing in combat is an important contributor to PTSD in American service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan (70, 75), it was not present in the top models of total, learning-and-reacting, or depressive symptom severity in the Turkana. On average, the direction of influence is to reduce learning-and-reacting symptoms but increase depressive symptoms, opening the possibility that it might be a contributor to moral injury even in a population where killing in combat confers prestige. While this was counter to our prediction, it is consistent with some ethnographic observations. The Turkana, as well as neighboring pastoral groups, have culturally specific idioms of distress associated with killing in the war zone, including perceptions of being polluted, beliefs that killing portends future misfortune, and feeling haunted by the enemy’s ghost, which suggest that killing of enemies is a potentially morally hazardous event (76). Among Samburu pastoralists, war zone mercy occurs even in circumstances where killing of the opponent would be normative, indicating that warriors may feel empathy toward their opponents (76) and can thus perceive killing as morally hazardous.

Our results imply that while killing is potentially morally hazardous across cultures, culturally specific institutions mediate its role in causing PTSD, which clarifies why killing is more risky for American service members than for Turkana warriors. First, norms regarding killing of individuals from the opposing side are less restrictive among the Turkana than in nation-state warfare. Unlike in nation-state warfare, the Turkana have a high level of moral autonomy in who they kill in combat, a pattern noted in other pastoral societies (76). Additionally, systems of social support within Turkana society may help alleviate its moral ambiguity. In particular, the Turkana have three postraid rituals that warriors can engage in that are specifically designated for those who have killed enemies in combat (43). In addition to akiger which is optional, akipur is a purification ritual which is viewed as mandatory for anyone who has killed an enemy in combat to protect them from weakening and slowly wasting away. Another ritual, ngitebus, protects a warrior from the ghosts of slain enemy warriors. It is considered optional, but it is almost always performed preventatively in conjunction with akipur. It can also be performed any time after a haunting occurs. For instance, one warrior, due to repeated hauntings, estimated that he underwent ngitebus 11 times over 20 y. These rituals, which require the participation of other community members, could serve as a cue to warriors that the community views their act of killing as morally acceptable. The lack of such rituals pertaining to killing, especially in populations with expansive moral beliefs and restrictive norms of killing in combat, may contribute to the heightened depressive symptoms and moral injury experienced by US military service members.

Personal values are desirable, trans-situational goals guiding principles in people’s lives; they have wide-ranging effects on attitudes, emotions and behavior

How Do Values Affect Behavior? Let Me Count the Ways. Lilach Sagiv, Sonia Roccas. Personality and Social Psychology Review, May 28, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/10888683211015975

Abstract: The impact of personal values on preferences, choices, and behaviors has evoked much interest. Relatively little is known, however, about the processes through which values impact behavior. In this conceptual article, we consider both the content and the structural aspects of the relationships between values and behavior. We point to unique features of values that have implications to their relationships with behavior and build on these features to review past research. We then propose a conceptual model that presents three organizing principles: accessibility, interpretation, and control. For each principle, we identify mechanisms through which values and behavior are connected. Some of these mechanisms have been exemplified in past research and are reviewed; others call for future research. Integrating the knowledge on the multiple ways in which values impact behavior deepens our understanding of the complex ways through which cognition is translated into action.

Keywords: personal values, values and behavior, personality structure, individual differences

From 2010... Insecure individuals presented themselves as warm, engaging, & humorous people when communicating with potential mates; insecure people have numerous dating tactics & positive qualities to display to win over romantic partners

Adult attachment and dating strategies: How do insecure people attract mates? Claudia Chloe Brumbaugh, R. Chris Fraley. Personal Relationships, November 4 2010. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6811.2010.01304.x

Abstract: When asked to choose among secure or insecurely attached partner prototypes, research shows that people tend to select secure individuals as their first choice. Despite this pattern, not everyone chooses secure partners in reality. The goal of this study was to examine the ways in which insecure individuals present themselves that might make them attractive to others. To achieve this goal, participants were led to believe that they were interacting with a possible date. That insecure individuals presented themselves as warm, engaging, and humorous people when communicating with potential mates were found. These findings suggest that insecure people have numerous dating tactics and positive qualities that they display to win over romantic partners.

Women in different-sex couples less likely to report taking care of distressed spouse’s tasks or giving spouse more personal time/space (compared to same-sex women or men); men in different-sex couples less likely to report encouraging spouse to talk

Support in response to a spouse’s distress: Comparing women and men in same-sex and different-sex marriages. Mieke Beth Thomeer, Amanda M. Pollitt, Debra Umberson. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, March 3, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407521998453

Abstract: Support for a spouse with psychological distress can be expressed in many different ways. Previous research indicates that support expression is shaped by gender, but we do not know much about how support within marriage is provided in response to a spouse’s distress outside of a different-sex couple context. In this study, we analyze dyadic data from 378 midlife married couples (35–65 years; N = 756 individuals) within the U.S. to examine how men and women in same- and different-sex relationships provide support when they perceive that their spouse is experiencing distress. We find women in different-sex couples are less likely to report taking care of their distressed spouse’s tasks or giving their distressed spouse more personal time and space compared to women in same-sex couples and men. We also find that men in different-sex couples are less likely to report encouraging their spouse to talk compared to men in same-sex couples and women. Being personally stressed by a spouse’s distress is positively associated with providing support to that spouse, whereas feeling that a spouse’s distress is stressful for the marriage is negatively associated with providing support. This study advances understanding of gendered provisions of support in response to psychological distress in marriage, moving beyond a framing of women as fundamentally more supportive than men to a consideration of how these dynamics may be different or similar in same- and different-sex marital contexts.

Keywords: Distress, dyadic data analysis, gay/lesbian relationships, gender, gender differences, marriage, mental health, social support, stress

Are couples w/at least one secure-attach person satisfied (buffering hypothesis)? Contrary to the author's expectations, secure partners do not “buffer” insecurely attached individuals

Dyadic effects of attachment and relationship functioning. Elizabeth B. Lozano et al. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, March 5, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407521999443

Abstract: Some scholars have proposed that people in couples in which at least one person is secure are just as satisfied as people in which both members are secure (i.e., buffering hypothesis). The present investigation tested this hypothesis by examining how relationship satisfaction varies as a function of the attachment security of both dyad members. Secondary analyses were performed using data from two studies (Study 1: 172 couples; Study 2: 194 couples) in which heterosexual dating couples were asked to complete self-reports of their own attachment style and relationship satisfaction. To evaluate the buffering hypothesis, we fit a standard APIM using SEM and added an actor × partner interaction term to our model. Contrary to expectations, our results suggested that secure partners do not “buffer” insecurely attached individuals. Moreover, partner attachment did not explain satisfaction much above and beyond actor effects. This work addresses a gap in the literature with respect to the dynamic interplay of partner pairing, allowing scholars to better understand attachment processes in romantic relationships.

Keywords: APIM, attachment, dyadic data, romantic relationships, satisfaction

The authors argue eating behavior is highly intertwined with learning and memory processes; they suggest memory systems may have evolved to help animals obtain food

Eating Behavior as a New Frontier in Memory Research. Benjamin M. Seitz, A. Janet Tomiyama, Aaron P. Blaisdell. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, June 2 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.05.024

Highlights

• We argue eating behavior is highly intertwined with learning and memory processes.

• We review a wide range of literature to support this position.

• We identify existing gaps of knowledge and highlight areas for future research.

• We suggest memory systems may have evolved to help animals obtain food.

Abstract: The study of memory is commonly associated with neuroscience, aging, education, and eyewitness testimony. Here we discuss how eating behavior is also heavily intertwined—and yet considerably understudied in its relation to memory processes. Both are influenced by similar neuroendocrine signals (e.g., leptin and ghrelin) and are dependent on hippocampal functions. While learning processes have long been implicated in influencing eating behavior, recent research has shown how memory of recent eating modulates future consumption. In humans, obesity is associated with impaired memory performance, and in rodents, dietary-induced obesity causes rapid decrements to memory. Lesions to the hippocampus disrupt memory but also induce obesity, highlighting a cyclic relationship between obesity and memory impairment. Enhancing memory of eating has been shown to reduce future eating and yet, little is known about what influences memory of eating or how memory of eating differs from memory for other behaviors. We discuss recent advancements in these areas and highlight fruitful research pursuits afforded by combining the study of memory with the study of eating behavior.

Keywords: memoryeating behaviormnemonic control of eatingepisodic memoryobesityevolution