Centenarians: 31.4% expressed willingness to live longer, 30.6% did not, & 38% presented no clear positioning; annoyance, uselessness, loss of meaning, disconnection, & loneliness were common justifications for reluctance

To Live or Die: What to Wish at 100 Years and Older. Lia Araújo et al. Front. Psychol., September 10 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.726621

Abstract: Previous research has shown that will to live is a strong predictor for survival among older people, irrespective of age, gender, and comorbidities. However, research on whether life at age 100 is perceived as worth living is limited. The available literature has presented evidence for good levels of positive attitudes and life satisfaction at such an advanced age, but it has also suggested that a longing for death is common. This study aimed to add to the existing data on this matter by exploring centenarians' will to live and the associated factors. The sample comprised 121 centenarians (mean age, 101 years; SD, 1.63 years), 19 (15.7%) of whom were males, from two centenarian studies (PT100). Answers to open questions were analyzed to identify the centenarians' will to live and the reasons behind it. Three groups were created (willing to live longer, not willing to live longer, no clear positioning) and further analyzed in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, health status, social functioning, and well-being. Of the total sample, 31.4% expressed willingness to live longer, 30.6% did not, and 38% presented no clear positioning. The presence of the Catholic religion (God) was referred for centenarians in all three groups. Annoyance, uselessness, loss of meaning, disconnection, and loneliness were the most common justifications for being reluctant to live longer. Positive valuation of life and good self-rated health, followed by having a confidant and reduced pain frequency, were the factors associated with being willing to live longer. The results of the study contribute to the understanding of the psychological functioning of individuals with exceptional longevity, particularly concerning the factors behind willingness to live at such an advanced age.

Discussion

Centenarians are an elite group, significantly exceeding the average life expectancy. This study explored the will to live and associated factors in a sample of these long-lived individuals by considering both quantitative indicators and qualitative data. The number of participants willing and unwilling to live longer was similar (31%) but lower than those without clear positioning (38%). Compared with the findings of studies of preferred life expectancy that also considered a non-response group, this was a very high percentage. For instance, in a study of 1,631 younger and middle-aged adults, Bowen and Skirbekk (2017) found that 15.9% of the sample did not clarify their preferred life expectancy. However, due to the lack of studies similar to the present one, whether the greater percentage was related to the centenarians' characteristics or the methodology of the study cannot be determined. Nevertheless, this group may have represented a stoic mindset in which individuals express a valuation of life per se and “as it comes” with discomfort or unwillingness to reflect about lifetime extension (Lang and Rupprecht, 2019).

Still, the qualitative exploration of this group's answers showed that almost everyone justified their lack of answer/positioning by mentioning God, stating that their remaining time to live was a matter that was not in “their hands” (i.e., one they could not control). This follows the idea that a sense of control through the sacred may come when life seems out of control (Wong et al., 2014). Although a sense of control is recognized as an important source of human life-strength, individuals who accept that declining control over environment comes with aging and focus on their ability to control their own internal states and behaviors demonstrate a more successful adjustment to aging (Hyer et al., 2011). Indeed, this group presented a satisfaction with life score very close to the group reporting willingness to live longer.

Regarding the reference to God, which was also present in the other two groups, religion and spirituality play an important role in the lives of older adults, as they help older people find meaning in later life (Frankl, 1963; Atchley, 2009; Wong et al., 2018) and are thus associated with how long one desires to live (Lang and Rupprecht, 2019). Different studies focusing on the centenarian population have confirmed the positive impact of religion and spirituality in well-being, which may be even more significant since this age group may fail to derive basic resources (Bishop, 2011). Archert et al. (2005) found that religiosity was one of the major themes that emerged from a qualitative analysis about adaptation and coping in the lives of centenarians; when asked about the most important thing in their lives, 58% of the respondents mentioned church and/or God. Interestingly, a female centenarian shared a sentence very similar to one of the participants in the present study, arguing that the future is held in God's hands (Archert et al., 2005). Furthermore, Manning et al. (2012) found that centenarians place considerable importance on divine support in their lives. This study found an interconnectedness of spirituality with religion for centenarians; in other words, these two constructs overlap. Through a phenomenological examination of life-satisfaction and compensatory strategies in Jewish-Canadian centenarians, Milevsky (2021) found that compensatory, cultural, and religious processes were imbued into several of the themes, such as “Maintaining connections with family, friends, and God” (p. 101) and “Remaining positive and kind” (p. 104). It is expected to have an intrinsic need to have hope that goes beyond this life and have faith either in something or in someone, which can be religiously oriented or without any religiosity (Saarelainen et al., 2020). But the huge presence of religion in centenarians' discourses found in the present study may echo the importance of church and military in shaping the lives of this older Portuguese generation (Birmingham, 2003), as well as the overall impact of religious beliefs, practices, and culture (Boerner et al., 2019).

The quantitative results of the present study revealed the significant contribution of health (pain frequency and SRH), social functioning (friends as confidants), and well-being (positive valuation of life). These findings confirmed that will to live is the summation of individuals' biopsychosociospiritual dimensions (Bornet et al., 2021) and depends on both external (e.g., social networks) and intra-personal factors (e.g., health and self-perceptions; Lawton et al., 1999). No sociodemographic variable was found to be relevant, which agreed with the findings of a scope review on will to live conducted by Bornet et al. (2021). Positive VOL had the strongest significant association with will to live, which was expected. Despite the great importance being attributed to variables like physical and health functionality in longevity and quality of life (Rowe and Kahn, 1997), some studies have emphasized the importance of psychological functioning and well-being, especially for very old individuals. For instance, a comparison of components in the World Health Organization's (WHO) active aging model by age group (< 75 years vs. ≥ 75 years) revealed the major relevance of the psychological component to the older age group (Paúl et al., 2017). Likewise, the operationalization of the successful aging model (Rowe and Kahn, 1997) in centenarians revealed the importance of subjective appraisals and psychological variables (Araújo et al., 2016).

The fact that the number of health conditions and levels of fatigue and functional capacity presented no significant association with will to live in this study supported the argument that individuals with problems related to physical health and functioning may be able to maintain subjective well-being. This agreed with the paradox of well-being, i.e., reporting experiences of positive psychological functioning despite decline in physical health, as the evidence of resilience in old age (Wiesmann and Hannich, 2014). Interestingly, pain and SRH, the two health factors with a significant impact on will to live, have also been associated with resilience in centenarians (Amaral et al., 2020). Gu and Feng (2018) argued that higher resilience could yield a greater protection for SRH and life satisfaction among centenarians compared with younger elderly groups. Thus, resilience may also be associated with will to live, as identified in younger groups (Bornet et al., 2021). This was supported by the qualitative analysis; aspects related to health, such as dependency, sense of burden, and fear of suffering, were referred to less than uselessness, annoyance, and loss of meaning by centenarians who were unwilling to live longer.

In advanced age, some aspects of purpose in life are more difficult to fulfill, such as having goals for the far future or feeling useful (Pinquart, 2002). This study found that these variables continue to be very important, specifically for (un)willingness to live. Conversely, will to live has strong, direct effects on well-being, including life and aging satisfaction (Jopp et al., 2017). The large influence of positive VOL on will to live meets Lawton et al.'s (1999) assumptions (i.e., years of desired life are mediated by VOL) in an age group in which this issue was not studied. Both existential beliefs and perceived control were higher in the group willing to live longer—that is, they represented important aspects for centenarians' reason for living, even under difficult conditions of functional impairment and disease. This confirmed that a “possible mechanism for the potency of VOL as a determinant of Years of Desired Life is the ability of people to adjust their standards for what is acceptable in everyday life in accord with changes in both their personal characteristics and the circumstances under which they live” (Lawton et al., 2001, p. 25).

Social factors also seem to have a contribution to will to live (Bornet et al., 2021), being an important source of meaning in life among older people (Saarelainen et al., 2020). Social relationships and support may be particularly important for centenarians (Boerner et al., 2016). The loss of friends and relatives that is typical in these long-lived individuals can make social contacts even more significant by reducing opportunities for (intra- and intergenerational) relationships (Randall et al., 2010). In the present study, the only social variable significantly associated with will to live was the number of friends as confidants. Thus, support—rather than size—may be the most significant aspect of social networks. Previous studies of the oldest old have shown the importance of having a close friend for independence (Pin et al., 2005) and well-being (Johnson and Barer, 1997). Indeed, maintaining a confidant is suggested as a strategy that centenarians use to compensate for losses and increase well-being (Araújo and Ribeiro, 2012). From the qualitative data, (social) disconnection and loneliness emerged as an important motive for losing will to live, as was also the case of feeling like a burden.

This last reason, which is typically referred to in studies on will to live (Bornet et al., 2021) since its related to the high burden of taking care of a person in the end of life, shows the need to acknowledge those who are supporting centenarians. The few studies that investigated will to live and end of life issues in centenarian's caregivers and offspring indicated concerns of family members that they'd become a burden for caregivers and would face the unavailability of family support if they became centenarians (Brandão et al., 2019). The fact that caregivers value this aspect so much, reinforces their potential burdens and needs. If being willing to live at 100 years old depends on the availability of social support, more must be invested in these caregiving offspring who are confronted with their own advanced age and the burdens of their parents' very old age (Eggert et al., 2020).

Despite the richness of this study's findings, some limitations should be considered. The cross-sectional design of the study prevented the ability to determine the direction of the relationships between variables, which could be of particular interest in this topic since willingness to live could be a predictor of well-being. Furthermore, those who shared their opinion (i.e., mostly individuals with mild or no cognitive impairment) represented only a part of the original sample, so these findings should not be generalized to the centenarian population.

Higher nut intake was associated with reductions in body weight and body fat; current evidence demonstrates the concern that nut consumption contributes to increased adiposity appears unwarranted

Are fatty nuts a weighty concern? A systematic review and meta-analysis and dose–response meta-regression of prospective cohorts and randomized controlled trials. Stephanie K. Nishi, Effie Viguiliouk, Sonia Blanco Mejia, Cyril W. C. Kendall, Richard P. Bazinet, Anthony J. Hanley, Elena M. Comelli, Jordi Salas Salvadó, David J. A. Jenkins, John L. Sievenpiper. Obesity Reviews, September 8 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13330

Summary: Nuts are recommended for cardiovascular health, yet concerns remain that nuts may contribute to weight gain due to their high energy density. A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohorts and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted to update the evidence, provide a dose–response analysis, and assess differences in nut type, comparator and more in subgroup analyses. MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane were searched, along with manual searches. Data from eligible studies were pooled using meta-analysis methods. Interstudy heterogeneity was assessed (Cochran Q statistic) and quantified (I2 statistic). Certainty of the evidence was assessed by Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE). Six prospective cohort studies (7 unique cohorts, n = 569,910) and 86 RCTs (114 comparisons, n = 5873) met eligibility criteria. Nuts were associated with lower incidence of overweight/obesity (RR 0.93 [95% CI 0.88 to 0.98] P < 0.001, “moderate” certainty of evidence) in prospective cohorts. RCTs presented no adverse effect of nuts on body weight (MD 0.09 kg, [95% CI −0.09 to 0.27 kg] P < 0.001, “high” certainty of evidence). Meta-regression showed that higher nut intake was associated with reductions in body weight and body fat. Current evidence demonstrates the concern that nut consumption contributes to increased adiposity appears unwarranted.

4 DISCUSSION

The present systematic review and meta-analysis of nut consumption and adiposity involving six prospective cohort studies and 86 RCTs (114 trial comparisons) did not illustrate an increased risk of overweight/obesity or raise other measures of adiposity studied in adults.

Based on the long-term findings from the prospective cohort studies, a significant inverse association was observed across outcomes assessed. These findings align with those proposed by the systematic review of prospective studies by Eslami and colleagues.35 Suggesting that nut consumption may have a protective effect on risk of adiposity accumulation. This is further supported by the results of the present aggregate analyses from the RCTs, which showed a lack of a causal effect of nut consumption on the reported measures of adiposity. Previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses of trials involved differing inclusion and exclusion criteria yet showed similar findings in regard to a lack of effect of nut consumption on body weight, BMI, or waist circumference.36, 37 The lack of effect of nut consumption on waist circumference is further supported by Blanco Mejia and colleagues in their systematic review and meta-analysis assessing nuts and metabolic syndrome.3

Significant heterogeneity in the current analysis did exist. While this heterogeneity could not be adequately assessed categorically for the cohorts as there were too few cohort studies, subgroup analyses and meta-regression of the trials identified potential sources of heterogeneity. For the trials, similar to the previous publications,36, 37 energy balance was identified as a potential source of heterogeneity. However, in the current analysis, incorporating nuts into a dietary pattern involving an overall negative energy balance compared to a negative energy balance without nuts was observed to favour nuts in regard to not increasing body weight, BMI, or waist-to-hip ratio. Inclusion of nuts as a part of a dietary pattern without concern for increased body weight or adiposity measures is further supported by findings from the PREDIMED trial, where inclusion of nuts as part of a Mediterranean dietary pattern saw slightly reduced body weight and adiposity measures with no significant differences when compared with the Mediterranean dietary pattern with olive oil or the low fat dietary pattern.144 A sensitivity analysis involving the inclusion of the PREDIMED trial did not significantly affect the magnitude or direction of the current findings. In addition to energy balance, nut dose was detected as a potential effect modifier of body weight and body fat, where greater reductions were observed with increasing nut dose. In categorical analyses, nut doses ≥45.5 g/day indicated lower adiposity measures compared to lower doses. As nut doses of 1 to 1.5 ounces (~28 to 42.5 g) per day are often noted in dietary guidelines, as well as the FDA qualified health claim for coronary heart disease risk reduction, this suggests the provision often seen following nut recommendations, as well as stated at the end of the applicable qualified health claims asserting “see nutrition information for fat [and calorie] content” with the implied message that foods high in fat and calories lead to increased adiposity may be unwarranted.17-19 Likewise, continuous linear meta-regression identified dose-dependent relationships between nut consumption with both body weight and body fat, where nut dose was inversely correlated with body weight and fat. However, significant departures from linearity were observed in BMI, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio, where the maximum protective dose appeared to be around 50 g/day based on waist-to-hip ratio. Although the waist-to-hip ratio may have been confounded by the nonsignificant positive correlation observed between waist circumference and nut consumption. This positive association between nut consumption and waist circumference differs from findings in the literature, where nut and seed consumption has been associated with significantly decreased pericardial fat, and trends toward decreased visceral fat,145 and monounsaturated fat intake, which is prevalent in nuts, compared to carbohydrate intake has been shown to prevent central fat redistribution.146

4.1 Strengths and limitations

Strengths of the present systematic review and meta-analysis include its comprehensive design, comprising both prospective cohort studies and RCTs, using the GRADE approach to evaluate the certainty of evidence. The prospective cohort studies provide assessment of nut consumption over the long term in a large sample of participants in free-living conditions in relation to adiposity. The design of RCTs provides the best protection against bias; there were also a substantial number of trials identified (106 trial comparisons) for the primary outcome of body weight; the median follow-up period was 8 weeks, which allows for the assessment of a moderate duration of intervention. In addition, the meta-regression and subgroup analyses provide further insight as to various factors that have previously been hypothesized to influence the impact of nut consumption on adiposity.

These analyses are not without limitations. For the prospective cohort studies, we downgraded the certainty of the evidence for serious inconsistency in the estimates across the studies for body weight change as there was evidence of unexplained heterogeneity (92%). Although the inconsistency may have related to measurement error as there was a lack of repeated measurement of intake of nuts, use of a food frequency questionnaire measure that was not specifically validated for nut intake, and adiposity measures were mainly self-reported by participants. Risk of bias was also observed for body weight change as participants were primarily comprised of well-educated individuals, many of whom were health professionals, including university graduates from SUN and health professionals recruited from NHS, NHS II, and HPFS, and thus may not be generalizable to other populations.

For the RCTs, we downgraded the certainty of evidence for serious inconsistency in the estimates due to unexplained heterogeneity in all the outcomes assessed, except BMI. Subgroup analyses indicated potential sources of heterogeneity; however, this was often observed when the covariate was unevenly distributed, as well as the differences in treatment effects between subgroups are unlikely to otherwise alter clinical decisions.

Weighing these strengths and limitations using GRADE, the certainty of evidence ranged from “very low” to “high.” A reason for the “very low” certainty of evidence observed is due to the GRADE approach starting observational studies at “low” certainty. Overall, the prospective cohort studies showed mostly “moderate” and the RCTs showed equally “high” and “moderate” certainty of evidence.

4.2 Potential mechanisms of action

There are several biological mechanisms which may explain the association, more specifically, the lack of association observed between nut consumption with overweight/obesity risk and other measures of adiposity, including: (1) unsaturated fatty acid content, (2) satiating effect, and (3) physical structure, each in a way associated with the bioavailability of nuts when consumed. Nuts are rich in unsaturated fatty acids (monounsaturated fatty acids [MUFAs] and polyunsaturated fatty acids [PUFAs]), which are suggested to be more readily oxidized147 and have a greater thermogenic effect148 compared to saturated fatty acids, leading to less fat accumulation. Nuts are also rich in protein and fiber and dietary components associated with increased satiety.149-151 In addition to the protein and dietary fiber content of nuts, the physical structure may also contribute to their satiating effect since the mastication process involved in mechanically reducing nuts to a particle size small enough to swallow activates signaling systems that may modify appetite sensations.152 The physical structure of nuts may also contribute to fat malabsorption due to the fat content in nuts being contained within walled cellular structures that are incompletely masticated and/or digested.153-156 Thus, due to these biological mechanisms which may be associated with decreased bioavailability, the Atwater Factor, a system for determining the energy value of foods which was founded over a century ago, associated with nuts, may overestimate the calories obtained by the body from nut consumption by approximately 16% to 25% depending on the nut type and form.157-159 This may potentially explain the present findings of a protective effect of nut consumption on measures of adiposity.

4.3 Practical implications

Current clinical practice guidelines already suggest the incorporation of nuts for the improvement of glycemic control and cardiovascular risk factors; however, there are often qualifiers regarding their fat content and energy density.14-16 With overweight and obesity respectively affecting 39% and 13% of adults globally and increased adiposity being a modifiable risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, body weight management is an important consideration in dietary and lifestyle recommendations.160 Evidence from this systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that nuts may continue to be highlighted as a nutrient dense component of dietary patterns for their cardiometabolic benefits without concerns of an adverse effect on weight control. Nuts are currently recommended as part of the Mediterranean, Portfolio, and DASH dietary patterns, yet despite tree nut and peanut intake increasing over the past 10 years, intake worldwide remains low at an estimated 16.7 g/day with about 15.2 g being contributed by peanuts.20 This is far below current recommendations of 1 to 1.5 ounces per day (approximately 28.3 to 42.5 g/day).6, 17-19 Based on the median nut intake in the trials of the current analyses and FDA qualified health claims, a dose of 42.5 g/day of nuts could easily be integrated into a daily dietary pattern by incorporating them into meals and/or consuming them as snacks. Except for individuals with nut allergies, no increase in side effects compared with control groups was reported in any of the cohort studies or trials, suggesting that dietary patterns which incorporate nuts as a regularly consumed component are safe. Future research may further assess the impact of different varieties of nuts and formats in which they may be consumed and how they are incorporated into the diet.

Average generation time is 26.9 years across the past 250,000 years, with fathers consistently older (30.7 y) than mothers (23.2 y), a disproportionate increase in female generation times over the past several thousand years

Human generation times across the past 250,000 years. Richard J. Wang et al. bioRxiv Sep 7 2021. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.07.459333

Abstract: The generation times of our recent ancestors can tell us about both the biology and social organization of prehistoric humans, placing human evolution on an absolute timescale. We present a method for predicting historic male and female generation times based on changes in the mutation spectrum. Our analyses of whole-genome data reveal an average generation time of 26.9 years across the past 250,000 years, with fathers consistently older (30.7 years) than mothers (23.2 years). Shifts in sex-averaged generation times have been driven primarily by changes to the age of paternity rather than maternity, though we report a disproportionate increase in female generation times over the past several thousand years. We also find a large difference in generation times among populations, with samples from current African populations showing longer ancestral generation times than non-Africans for over a hundred thousand years, reaching back to a time when all humans occupied Africa.

Babbling in bat pups is characterized by the same eight features as babbling in human infants, including the conspicuous features reduplication and rhythmicity

Babbling in a vocal learning bat resembles human infant babbling. Ahana A. Fernandez, Lara S. Burchardt, Martina Nagy, Mirjam Knörnschild. Science, Aug 20 2021, Vol 373, Issue 6557, pp. 923-926. https://www.science.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abf9279

Abstract: Babbling is a production milestone in infant speech development. Evidence for babbling in nonhuman mammals is scarce, which has prevented cross-species comparisons. In this study, we investigated the conspicuous babbling behavior of Saccopteryx bilineata, a bat capable of vocal production learning. We analyzed the babbling of 20 bat pups in the field during their 3-month ontogeny and compared its features to those that characterize babbling in human infants. Our findings demonstrate that babbling in bat pups is characterized by the same eight features as babbling in human infants, including the conspicuous features reduplication and rhythmicity. These parallels in vocal ontogeny between two mammalian species offer future possibilities for comparison of cognitive and neuromolecular mechanisms and adaptive functions of babbling in bats and humans.

The ultimatum and dictator games were developed to help identify the fundamental motivators of human behavior, typically by asking participants to share windfall endowments with other persons

If you've earned it, you deserve it: ultimatums, with Lego. Adam Oliver. Behavioural Public Policy, September 9 2021. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioural-public-policy/article/if-youve-earned-it-you-deserve-it-ultimatums-with-lego/EB5907A941220FB244234AC8C355DBA5

Abstract: The ultimatum and dictator games were developed to help identify the fundamental motivators of human behavior, typically by asking participants to share windfall endowments with other persons. In the ultimatum game, a common observation is that proposers offer, and responders refuse to accept, a much larger share of the endowment than is predicted by rational choice theory. However, in the real world, windfalls are rare: money is usually earned. I report here a small study aimed at testing how participants react to an ultimatum game after they have earned their endowments by either building a Lego model or spending some time sorting out screws by their length. I find that the shares that proposers offer and responders accept are significantly lower than that typically observed with windfall money, an observation that is intensified when the task undertaken to earn the endowment is generally less enjoyable and thus perhaps more effortful (i.e., screw sorting compared to Lego building). I suggest, therefore, that considerations of effort-based desert are often important drivers behind individual decision-making, and that laboratory experiments, if intended to inform public policy design and implementation, ought to mirror the broad characteristics of the realities that people face.

The policy relevance

My small study of course has many limitations, several of which have already been acknowledged. The participants, for example, were chosen for their convenience, and are hardly representative of the general population. Moreover, to reiterate, some of the questions were not financially incentivized – sometimes, it is argued, after considering the merits and demerits of different methods, but nonetheless the potential problems with the approach adopted are fully appreciated.

Limitations aside, I contend that the results suggest that effort-based desert matters to people, and that if, rather than receiving windfalls, they have to earn their endowments, then, if asked, they will be willing to share, and be expected to share, a lower proportion of their endowments with others. This general conclusion applies not only to windfall versus earned endowments but also across different earnings-related tasks. For example, a task (or indeed a job) that is perceived to be generally more effortful (or less enjoyable) may provoke lower levels of generosity and less punishment for an apparent lack of generosity than those that generally require less effort. Or at least this will be the observation at face value, for if the different levels of effort are controlled for, we may find that generosity and punishment remain quite stable.

The recognition of the importance of effort-based desert leads me to propose that rewarding people for their effort sustains their effort. This was reflected in Akerlof's (1982) contention that a wage higher than the minimum necessary is met by employee effort that is higher than egoism dictates, because employees now think that employers deserve a fair return. In real work scenarios, there is a general acceptance of desert-based rewards that results in unequal distributions (Starmans et al., 2017), but, as noted above, the voluminous literature on the dictator and ultimatum games that uses windfall endowments fails to acknowledge the importance of desert. That being the case, this body of research lacks real-world policy relevance in relation to peoples’ propensities to share their resources with others or, in the case of the ultimatum game, propensities to punish others for perceived insufficiencies in sharing, at least beyond the limited circumstances where one might experience windfalls. At most, this research offers only very general conclusions that might be relevant to policy design, principally that people often appear to be strategically self-interested when they are aware that they may be punished for blatant acts of selfishness, but, at the same time, many people like to see an element of distributional fairness over final outcomes if no party can claim property rights over an endowment.

In short, the research using windfall endowments decontextualises decision-making too much, which is a little ironic if one is interested in real-world implications, given that the essence of behavioral public policy is that context matters. Of course, the research that uses earned outcomes also in many ways departs from the circumstances that people actually face – in terms of the small study reported in this article, for instance, there are very few people who earn an income from constructing Lego models. (NB. Sorting screws might be different – quite a few participants asked me if I was paying them to tidy up my garage.) But by requiring participants to at least do something to earn their endowments the study – like those principally focussed on the dictator game summarized in Table 1 – took them one step closer to reality. The policy lesson emerging from this body of work is that people respect property rights and that there is broad recognition and acceptance of effort-based desert. Consequently, when considering an endowment that one party to an exchange has earned, the willingness of that party to share, and the tendency for other parties to punish a perceived lack of generosity by that person, are much closer to the predictions of rational choice theory than the evidence using windfall endowments, where close to no effort is expended by participants, typically implies.

More generally, for laboratory studies of human motivations to hold relevance for policy design and implementation the context of the study ought to match, as far as possible, the circumstances that people actually face. I fear that insufficient attention is sometimes paid to this basic premise. For instance, in the real world, some people suffer extreme shortages, others face moderate scarcity, and still others enjoy abundance, and different motivational forces will come to the fore to facilitate flourishing, or even survival, in these different circumstances. Behavioral experiments ought to aim to reflect these (and other) circumstances to enable their results to offer better insights into what drives people as they navigate their way through life.

Our analyses do not establish causality; the small effect sizes suggest that increased screen time is unlikely to be directly harmful (mental health, behavioral problems, academic performance, peer relationships) to 9 & 10-yo children

Paulich KN, Ross JM, Lessem JM, Hewitt JK (2021) Screen time and early adolescent mental health, academic, and social outcomes in 9- and 10- year old children: Utilizing the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development ℠ (ABCD) Study. PLoS ONE 16(9): e0256591, Sep 8 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256591

Abstract: In a technology-driven society, screens are being used more than ever. The high rate of electronic media use among children and adolescents begs the question: is screen time harming our youth? The current study draws from a nationwide sample of 11,875 participants in the United States, aged 9 to 10 years, from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD Study®). We investigate relationships between screen time and mental health, behavioral problems, academic performance, sleep habits, and peer relationships by conducting a series of correlation and regression analyses, controlling for SES and race/ethnicity. We find that more screen time is moderately associated with worse mental health, increased behavioral problems, decreased academic performance, and poorer sleep, but heightened quality of peer relationships. However, effect sizes associated with screen time and the various outcomes were modest; SES was more strongly associated with each outcome measure. Our analyses do not establish causality and the small effect sizes observed suggest that increased screen time is unlikely to be directly harmful to 9-and-10-year-old children.

Discussion

These results have important implications. The lack of consistently significant interactions between screen time and sex—but often significant main effects for both screen time and sex—demonstrate that generally, both screen time and sex predict the outcome variables, but that the effect of screen time on the outcome variables often does not depend on sex, and vice versa. For the outcome measures with non-significant interaction terms but significant main effects of both/either screen time and/or sex, it appears that screen time and sex are independent predictors of the outcome measure. For these outcome measures, the effect of either screen time or sex on the outcome variable did not depend on the other independent variable. A potential reason for that finding could be sex differences in how screens are being used. The only outcome measure demonstrating a significant interaction term, for Part 1 and for Part 2, is number of close friends who are males. It is possible that, because males in this study tend to use screen time for video gaming—which is often a social activity—more than females do (refer to Table 1), screen time and sex interact such that the effect of screen time (e.g., using screens for video gaming) on number of close male friends depends on the sex of the participant, where male participants who spend more time on screens video gaming have more male friends.

Screen time—above and beyond both SES and race/ethnicity—is a significant predictor of some internalizing symptoms, behavioral problems, academic performance, sleep quality and quantity, and the strength of peer relationships for 9- to 10-year-old children, in both boys and girls. However, the effect of screen time was small (<2% of the variance explained) for all outcomes, with SES—which was demonstrated to be a significant predictor for the nearly all outcome variables of interest—accounting for much more of the variance (~5%), perhaps because parent SES contributes to nearly every facet of children’s physical and mental health outcomes [28]. Taken together, our results imply that too much time spent on screens is associated with poorer mental health, behavioral health, and academic outcomes in 9- and 10- year old children, but that negative impact on the subjects is likely not clinically harmful at this age.

The significant association between screen time and externalizing disorder symptoms was in line with previous research [13]. However, this association is not necessarily causal; for example, it has been suggested that parents/guardians of children who display externalizing disorder symptoms, along with oppositional defiance disorder and conduct disorder, are more likely to place their child in front of a screen as a distraction [29], so it is possible that externalizing disorder symptoms feed into additional screen time rather than the reverse.

The negative association between screen time and academic performance may be of some concern to parents; another group of researchers reported a similar trend in a sample of Chinese adolescents [30]. We speculate that more time dedicated to recreational screen use detracts from time spent on schoolwork and studying for exams, though this proposed explanation should be examined further. In data collection for the ABCD Study, academic screen time (e.g., using a computer to complete an academic paper) was not recorded; it is possible that academic screen time could be positively associated with academic performance, suggesting, as previous studies [22, 23] point out, that the type of screen time use is more important to consider than screen time itself.

The negative association between screen time and amount of sleep has been demonstrated previously [17] and, as in the case of academic performance, it is possible that time on screens takes away from time asleep. The positive association between sleep disorder score and screen time is of interest, though how that relationship is mediated is a topic of future research. It could be that when children and adolescents struggle with sleep, they turn to electronic media as a way to distract themselves or in an attempt to lull themselves back to sleep, or that screen use contributes to delayed bedtime, as has been suggested in previous literature [17].

The lack of significant relationships between screen time and internalizing disorder symptoms (i.e., depression and anxiety) was surprising and does not align with prior findings by researchers who also used the ABCD study to examine screen time as a predictor variable. To examine the discrepancy, we conducted a replication of their study [11], using the early release data of 4528 participants, which is less than half the sample size used in the current study. We replicated their findings closely, which suggests that the discrepancy in our results primarily arises from the differences in the sample as it doubled in size. Overall, both the current study and the previous [11] find only weak associations of screen time with internalizing problems in the baseline ABCD sample. It is possible that because internalizing disorders typically develop throughout childhood and adolescence [31, 32], 9- and 10- year old children are simply not displaying immediately noticeable internalizing symptoms.

The finding that more screen time is associated with a greater number of close friends, both male and female, is in line with previous research [21] and suggests that when on screens, adolescents are communicating with their friends via texting, social media, or video chat, and the social nature of such screen time use strengthens relationships between peers and allows them to stay connected even when apart.

The current study is not without limitations. Because participants are 9 and 10, they simply are not using screens as much as their older peers; means for screen time use are low, especially for texting and social media, two aspects of screen time that may have the most impact on peer relationships and mental health outcomes [21]. The frequencies of mature gaming and viewing of R-rated movies are also low. Similarly due to the age of the sample, the majority of participants do not display signs of mental ill health. Follow-up interview studies conducted as the sample ages would likely be more powered as adolescents increase in their screen use and they evidence more mental health issues at older ages. Beneficially, however, the longitudinal nature of the ABCD Study will allow continuation of study of these potential associations over the course of the participants’ adolescence. Next, the measures used by the ABCD Study at baseline have some limitations. By restricting the screen time maximum label to “4+ hours” for all subsets of screen time apart from total screen time, it was not possible to examine extremes in screen time (e.g., the present data do not differentiate between four hours of texting and 15 hours. Additionally, the majority of outcome measures were evaluated through parent report rather than child self-report, and it is possible that parent evaluations are inaccurate, especially for more subtle symptoms such as internalizing problems. However, for the majority of outcome variables, parents responded to the Child Behavior Checklist, which demonstrates strong psychometric validity [33]. Additionally, parent report is preferred for assessing some outcome measures of interest; in externalizing problems and attention problems specifically, the positive illusory bias skews youth self-report to overly positive reports of their performance in comparison to criteria that reflects actual performance [34, 35].

Increasing interaction with others enhanced well-being as expected, up to some point, after which the effect of interaction quantity was reduced or became nearly negligible (but did not turn negative)

Ren, Dongning, Olga Stavrova, and Wen Wei Loh. 2021. “Nonlinear Effect of Social Interaction Quantity on Psychological Well-being: Diminishing Returns or Inverted U?.” PsyArXiv. September 8. doi:10.31234/osf.io/nm2ds

Abstract: Social contact is an important ingredient of a happy and satisfying life. But is more social contact necessarily better? While it is well-established that increasing the quantity of social interactions on the low end of its spectrum promotes psychological well-being, the effect of interaction quantity on the high end remains largely unexplored. We propose that the effect of interaction quantity is nonlinear; specifically, at high levels of interaction quantity, its positive effects may be reduced (Diminishing Returns Hypothesis) or even reversed (Inverted U Hypothesis). To test these two competing hypotheses, we conducted a series of six studies involving a total of 161,836 participants using experimental (Study 1), cross-sectional (Studies 2 & 3), daily diary (Study 4), experience sampling (Study 5), and longitudinal survey designs (Study 6). Consistent evidence emerged across the studies supporting the Diminishing Returns Hypothesis. On the low end of the interaction quantity spectrum, increasing interaction quantity enhanced well-being as expected; whereas on the high end of the spectrum, the effect of interaction quantity was reduced or became nearly negligible, but did not turn negative. Taken together, the present research provides compelling evidence that the well-being benefits of social interactions are nearly negligible after moderate quantities of interactions are achieved.

Incels, who struggle with a lack of sexual & romantic intimacy, negative body image, shyness, & poor social skills, have a view that celibacy is a permanent state and that life is hopeless (ideology known as ‘’blackpill’’)

Stijelja, Stefan. 2021. “The Psychological Profile of Involuntary Celibates (incels): A Literature Review.” PsyArXiv. September 8. doi:10.31234/osf.io/9mutg

Abstract: This narrative review provides a qualitative synthesis of more than 40 years of research on involuntary celibacy, late sexual onset, and adult virginity. Studies suggest that Incels struggle with a lack of sexual and romantic intimacy, and that their negative body image, shyness, poor social skills compounded by inexperience with sexual and romantic relationships contribute to further restrict their opportunities to build rapport with potential romantic or sexual partners. In line with life course theory, many feel as though they have missed an important development milestone and, consequently, feel ‘’off time’’ relative to their peers with regard to sexuality. This can lead to a view that celibacy is a permanent state and that life is hopeless, a feeling encapsuled in an ideology known as ‘’blackpill’’. Stereotypical standards of masculinity and masculine sexual scripts may contribute to further increase the sense of embarrassment and stigma among reluctant virgins. While it is important for future studies to ascertain whether these various mental health issues were present prior or after their ‘’Inceldom’’, current results nonetheless describe a community characterized by a high prevalence of mental health problems.

Both parents and non-parents lie and do so to a similar extent; however, when parents are reminded of their children prior to the task, they lie less compared to a treatment without a reminder

Kajackaite, Agne, and Pawel Niszczota. 2021. “Lying (non-)parents: Being a Parent Does Not Reduce Dishonesty.” PsyArXiv. September 8. doi:10.31234/osf.io/zry9k

Abstract: Many studies point to how parenthood can affect behavior. Here, we provide a large-sample (N = 2,008) analysis of whether people with children are less likely to cheat in a private die-rolling task. Our findings suggest that both parents and non-parents lie and do so to a similar extent. However, when parents are reminded of their children prior to the task, they lie less compared to a treatment without a reminder.

Cultural similarity among coreligionists within and between countries: There are a pervasive cultural signature of religion & a role of world religions in sustaining superordinate identities that transcend geographical boundaries

Cultural similarity among coreligionists within and between countries. Cindel J. M. White, Michael Muthukrishna, and Ara Norenzayan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September 14, 2021 118 (37) e2109650118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2109650118

Significance: Do people who affiliate with the same religious tradition share cultural traits even if they live in different countries? We found unique patterns of cultural traits across religious groups and found that members of world religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism) show cultural similarity among coreligionists living in different countries. People who share a particular religious tradition and level of commitment to religion were more culturally similar, both within and across countries, than those that do not, even after excluding overtly religious values. Despite their heterogeneity, religious denominations reflect superordinate cultural identities, and shared traits persist across geographic and political boundaries. These findings inform cultural evolutionary theories about the place of religion and secularity in the world’s cultural diversity.

Abstract: Cultural evolutionary theories suggest that world religions have consolidated beliefs, values, and practices within a superethnic cultural identity. It follows that affiliation with religious traditions would be reliably associated with global variation in cultural traits. To test this hypothesis, we measured cultural distance between religious groups within and between countries, using the Cultural Fixation Index (CFST) applied to the World Values Survey (88 countries, n = 243,118). Individuals who shared a religious tradition and level of commitment to religion were more culturally similar, both within and across countries, than those with different affiliations and levels of religiosity, even after excluding overtly religious values. Moreover, distances between denominations within a world religion echoed shared historical descent. Nonreligious individuals across countries also shared cultural values, offering evidence for the cultural evolution of secularization. While nation-states were a stronger predictor of cultural traits than religious traditions, the cultural similarity of coreligionists remained robust, controlling for demographic characteristics, geographic and linguistic distances between groups, and government restriction on religion. Together, results reveal the pervasive cultural signature of religion and support the role of world religions in sustaining superordinate identities that transcend geographical boundaries.

Keywords: religionculturecultural evolution

In a large and diverse international sample of older adults, they found that abstinence from alcohol is associated with an increased risk for all-cause dementia

Mewton, Louise, Rachel Visontay, Nicholas Hoy, Darren Lipnicki, John D. Crawford, Ben Chun Pan Lam, Dr., Tim Slade, et al. 2021. “The Relationship Between Alcohol Use and Dementia: A Combined Analysis of Prospective, Individual-participant Data from 15 International Studies.” PsyArXiv. September 8. doi:10.31234/osf.io/7835k

Abstract

Objective: To synthesise international findings on the alcohol-dementia relationship and provide a cross-national comparison of the alcohol-dementia relationship with critical evidence for the relationship between alcohol use and dementia in under-studied populations.

Design and setting: Individual participant data meta-analysis of 15 prospective epidemiological cohort studies from countries situated in five continents. Cox regression investigated the dementia risk associated with alcohol use. Sensitivity analyses compared lifetime abstainers with former drinkers, adjusted extensively for demographic and clinical characteristics, and assessed the competing risk of death. Participants: 24,472 community-dwelling individuals without a history of dementia at baseline and at least one follow-up dementia assessment.

Main outcome measure: All-cause dementia as determined by clinical interview.

Results: During 151,574 person-years of follow-up, there were 2,137 incident cases of dementia (14.1 per 1,000 person-years). In the combined sample, when compared with occasional drinkers (<1.3g/day), the risk for dementia was higher for current abstainers (HR: 1.29; 95% CI: 1.13, 1.48) and lower for moderate drinkers (25g/day-44.9g/day; HR: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.64, 0.98). When the combined sample was stratified by sex and gross domestic product, current abstainers had a greater risk of incident dementia when compared with light-to-moderate drinkers in both sexes and in the higher income countries. When comparing lifetime abstainers and former drinkers there were no consistent differences in dementia risk. Among current drinkers, there was no consistent evidence to suggest that the amount of alcohol consumed in later life was significantly associated with dementia risk. Adjusting for additional demographic and clinical covariates, and accounting for competing risk of death, did not substantially affect results. When analysed at the cohort level, there was considerable heterogeneity in the alcohol-dementia relationship. 

Conclusions: In a large and diverse international sample of older adults, the current study found that abstinence from alcohol is associated with an increased risk for all-cause dementia. Among current drinkers, there was no consistent evidence to suggest that the amount of alcohol consumed in later life was significantly associated with dementia risk.

Sex differences in genetic architecture in the UK Biobank: Our results suggest the need to consider sex-aware analyses for future studies to shed light onto possible sex-specific molecular mechanisms

Sex differences in genetic architecture in the UK Biobank. Elena Bernabeu, Oriol Canela-Xandri, Konrad Rawlik, Andrea Talenti, James Prendergast & Albert Tenesa. Nature Genetics volume 53, pages1283–1289, Sep 7 2021. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00912-0

Abstract: Males and females present differences in complex traits and in the risk of a wide array of diseases. Genotype by sex (GxS) interactions are thought to account for some of these differences. However, the extent and basis of GxS are poorly understood. In the present study, we provide insights into both the scope and the mechanism of GxS across the genome of about 450,000 individuals of European ancestry and 530 complex traits in the UK Biobank. We found small yet widespread differences in genetic architecture across traits. We also found that, in some cases, sex-agnostic analyses may be missing trait-associated loci and looked into possible improvements in the prediction of high-level phenotypes. Finally, we studied the potential functional role of the differences observed through sex-biased gene expression and gene-level analyses. Our results suggest the need to consider sex-aware analyses for future studies to shed light onto possible sex-specific molecular mechanisms.