Demand for sexual services might be inelastic to both the market price & the implicit price of stigma; criminalization is not likely to be conducive to decreases in demand as is hoped for; rather, it worsens working conditions & safety

Quashing demand or changing clients? Evidence of criminalization of sex work in the United Kingdom. Marina della Giusta, Maria Laura di Tommaso, Sarah Jewell, Francesca Bettio. Southern Economic Journal, September 21 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12532

Abstract: The use of regulation of sex work is undergoing sweeping changes across Europe and client criminalization is becoming very widespread, with conflicting claims about the intended and actual consequences of this policy. We discuss changes in demand for paid sex accompanying the criminalization of prostitution in the United Kingdom, which moved from a relatively permissive regime under the Wolfenden Report of 1960, to a much harder line of aiming to crack down on prostitution with the Prostitution (Public Places) Scotland Act 2007 and the Policing and Crime Act of 2009 in England and Wales. We make use of two waves of the British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL2, conducted in 2000–2001 and NATSAL3, conducted in 2010–2012) to document the changes in both the amount of demand for paid sex and in the type of clients that have taken place across the two waves, and their possible implications for policies that frame prostitution as a form of crime.

5 CONCLUSIONS

As economists, we believe that public policy ought to be based on relative welfare considerations. In other words, under which arrangements are the actors, and the public, better off? As more countries follow the model of criminalization it will become possible to have a more careful assessment of its effects on welfare, but the case for it is certainly not clear cut. Criminalization typically hopes to quash demand, but the evidence is mixed, and ours, though not causal, not supportive.

Poor responsiveness of demand to deterrence—in our case criminalization of clients—is contemplated by different theoretical approaches but leads to similar policy indications. In the stigma model we used for our investigation, the final impact of criminalization on demand may be modest, if negative, depending on the distribution of clients with respect to risk and the resulting, aggregate elasticity of price with respect to stigma.

According to Lowenstein (Loewenstein, 1996; Loewenstein, 2000), so called “visceral factors” may be responsible for poor responsiveness to deterrence of the supply of acts made illegal—buying sex in our case. Loewenstein has long drawn economists' attention to the influence on behavior of “visceral” factors, namely immediate emotional experiences such as anger, fear, thirst, hunger, or sexual desire. The author argues that such factors have been traditionally discounted by economists, but in “hot” states, where visceral factors are operative, individuals “who otherwise display ‘normal’ decision-making behavior… behave in ways that give the appearance of extreme discounting of the future” (Loewenstein, 2000, p. 430, quoted by Cawley & Ruhm, 2011, p. 62). Ghasemi (2015) reviews 15 empirical studies on differential responsiveness to deterrence and finds confirmation that the response is significantly weaker for “crimes” where visceral factors play a stronger role. In the studies reviewed by Ghasemi, the crimes seen to be more affected by visceral factors are murder and assault (versus, say, property crimes) but buying sex would also fit this category. The author argues that in these cases prevention, not deterrence should be considered by policy makers.

Becker's rather different theoretical framework leads to not too dissimilar suggestions. In his original model on crime and punishment (Becker, 1968), sensitivity of crime supply to deterrence is captured by two elasticities respectively measuring how the amount of punishment and the probability of apprehension (and conviction) vary in response to variations in the number of offenses. If the supply of crime is inelastic in both respects, deterrence will not maximize social welfare. In the case of criminalization of prostitution, this obtains if risky clients of prostitution have a low elasticity to the amount of punishment and/or try to reduce the risk of apprehension and conviction by moving to secluded locations.

Becker returns to the same point with a later model, co-authored with Grossman and Murphy (Becker et al., 2006) where the government optimizes expenditure to curb supplies of illegal goods and services by maximizing a welfare function that depends on the difference between the social and private values of consumption of the goods made illegal. In the model, optimal expenditure also depends on the elasticity of demand for these goods, and the implication is that, if demand is inelastic, it does not pay to make goods illegal, unless important, negative externalities make their social value negative. Using this argument and producing evidence of low demand elasticity, Cunningham and Finlay (2015) recently questioned the effectiveness of interventions aimed at methamphetamine input markets.

In this line of reasoning it would still pay to make goods illegal if important negative externalities were involved, and in the case of prostitution, violence might be seen as one such externality. We would argue, however, that violence may increase with criminalization, not the opposite. Sex workers, or prostitutes, face risks to their health, risks of violent assault, and risk of fraud (not getting paid for their services). Clients face also health risks, reputational risks and, where prostitution occurs in criminal environments, risks of violence too. These risks are going to be higher where prostitution is criminalized, partly because criminalization makes collaboration with both medical personnel and law enforcement more difficult. Criminalization of sex work also makes the detection of under-age or trafficked people more difficult. For both clients and for sex workers, demand-side and supply-side, criminalization pushes the market into secluded and, for the workers, isolating places. Flats, clubs and massage parlors are more separate from the rest of society. The welfare of sexually trafficked women decreases in these dangerous environments. Our analysis of the move towards criminalization in the United Kingdom suggests that this has not decreased demand and possibly changed the profile of clients in ways that may worry those who are concerned about the welfare of prostitutes as well as public health. By and large, clients of sex workers tend to be risk-takers. There is a high correlation between paying for sex and engaging in other risky behaviors. To some of these men, criminalized prostitution is actually more attractive than decriminalized or legal sex work, and these are not the ones we necessarily want to encourage.

High levels of partisan polarization are in place well before early adulthood, unlike the developmental pattern that held in the 70s & 80s (early childhood was characterized by blanket positivity toward authority figures & partisanship gradually intruded)

Political Socialization in the Era of Polarization. Shanto Iyengar, Matthew Tyler. August 31, 2021. https://www.dropbox.com/s/5go8ja05l9vwhfx/Socialization_and_Polarization_maintext.pdf

Abstract: Early socialization research dating to the 1960s showed that children could have a partisan identity without expressing polarized evaluations of political leaders and institutions. We provide an update to the socialization literature by showing that children today are just as polarized as adults. We compare our findings to a landmark 1980 socialization study and show that the most dramatic increase in childhood polarization occurs through increased distrust of the opposing party. We go on to show that the onset of polarization in childhood is predicted by parental influence; adolescents who share their parents’ identity and whose parents are more polarized are apt to voice polarized views.

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Me: Is this discord endogenous, spontaneously developed?

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Excerpts:

We have shown that the onset of partisan polarization occurs early in the life cycle with very little change thereafter. Today, high levels of in-group favoritism and out-group distrust are in place well before early adulthood. In fact, our 2019 results suggest that the learning curve for polarization plateaus by the age of 11. This is very unlike the developmental pattern that held in the 1970s and 1980s, when early childhood was characterized by blanket positivity toward authority figures and partisanship gradually intruded into the political attitudes of adolescents before peaking in adulthood.

When we considered the antecedents of children’s trust in the parties, our findings confirm the earlier literature documenting the primacy of the family as an agent of socialization (Jennings and Niemi 1968; Jennings, Stoker, and Bowers 2009; Tedin 1974). Polarized parents seem to transmit not only their partisanship, but also their animus toward opponents. It is striking that the least polarized youth respondents in 2019 are those who have not adopted their parental partisan loyalty.

In closing, our findings have important implications for the study of political socialization. Fifty years ago, political socialization was thought to play a stabilizing role important to the perpetuation of democratic norms and institutions. In particular, children’s adoption of uncritical attitudes toward authority figures helped to legitimize the entire democratic regime. Indeed, researchers cited this functional” role of socialization in justifying the study of political attitudes in childhood (Kinder and Sears 1985; van Deth, Abendschön, and Vollmar 2011).

In the current era, it seems questionable whether the early acquisition of out-party animus fosters democratic norms and civic attitudes. Extreme polarization is now associated with rampant misinformation (Peterson and Iyengar 2021), and, as indicated by the events that occurred in the aftermath of the 2020 election, with willingness to reject the outcome of free and fair electoral procedures. The question for future research is how to transmit party attachments, as occurred in the pre-polarization era, without the accompanying distrust and disdain for political opponents.

The “drunk utilitarian” phenomenon suggests that people are more likely to accept harm for the greater good when they are under the influence of alcohol; this study finds significant effect on moral judgments

Paruzel-Czachura, Mariola, Katarzyna Pypno, Jim A. C. Everett, Michal Bialek, and Bertram Gawronski. 2021. “The Drunk Utilitarian Revisited: Does Alcohol Really Increase Utilitarianism in Moral Judgment?.” PsyArXiv. September 21. doi:10.31234/osf.io/hb69x

Abstract: The “drunk utilitarian” phenomenon suggests that people are more likely to accept harm for the greater good when they are under the influence of alcohol. This phenomenon conflicts with the ideas that (1) acceptance of pro-sacrificial harm requires inhibitory control of automatic emotional responses to the idea of causing harm and (2) alcohol impairs inhibitory control. The current preregistered experiment aimed to provide deeper insights into the effects of alcohol on moral judgments by using a formal modeling approach to disentangle three factors in moral dilemma judgments and by distinguishing between instrumental harm and impartial beneficence as two distinct dimensions of utilitarian psychology. Despite the use of a substantially larger sample and higher doses of alcohol compared to the ones in prior studies, alcohol had no significant effect on moral judgments. The results pose a challenge to the idea that alcohol increases utilitarianism in moral judgments.

Moderate alcohol linked to lower risk of erectile dysfunction, high alcohol linked to higher risk; alcohol should be taken in moderate quantities in order to obtain the dual effect of disinhibition and relaxation

A Meta-Analysis of Erectile Dysfunction and Alcohol Consumption. Li S. · Song J.-M. · Zhang K. · Zhang C.-L. Urologia Internationalis, September 14, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1159/000508171

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the association between alcohol consumption and risk of erectile dysfunction (ED). Methods: PubMed was searched for reports published before June 2019. Data were extracted and combined odds ratios (ORs) calculated with random-effects models. Results: Finally, 46 studies were included (216,461 participants). The results of our meta-analysis indicated that there was a significant association between regular alcohol consumption and ED (OR 0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.81–0.97). There was no indication of publication bias (Egger’s test, p = 0.37). In the stratified analysis, the pooled OR of ED for light to moderate and high alcohol consumption was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.72–0.94) and 0.82 (95% CI: 0.67–1.00), respectively. No variable related to the source of heterogeneity was found in univariate and multivariate meta-regression analyses. A dose-response meta-analysis suggested that a nonlinear relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of ED was observed (p for nonlinearity <0.001). Conclusion: A J-shaped relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of ED was observed. Alcohol should be taken in moderate quantities in order to obtain the dual effect of disinhibition and relaxation. If taken chronically, it could provoke vascular damages.

Keywords: Alcohol consumptionErectile dysfunctionMeta-analysis

Autistic& nonautistic groups did not differ in age of sexual activity onset or contraction of STIs; autistic males are uniquely more likely to be bisexual; autistic females are uniquely more likely to be homosexual

The sexual health, orientation, and activity of autistic adolescents and adults. Elizabeth Weir, Carrie Allison, Simon Baron-Cohen. Autism Research. September 18 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2604

Abstract: Small studies suggest significant differences between autistic and nonautistic individuals regarding sexual orientation and behavior. We administered an anonymized, online survey to n = 2386 adults (n = 1183 autistic) aged 16–90 years to describe sexual activity, risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and sexual orientation. Autistic individuals are less likely to report sexually activity or heterosexuality compared to nonautistic individuals, but more likely to self-report asexuality or an ‘other’ sexuality. Overall, autistic, and nonautistic groups did not differ in age of sexual activity onset or contraction of STIs. When evaluating sex differences, autistic males are uniquely more likely to be bisexual (compared to nonautistic males); conversely, autistic females are uniquely more likely to be homosexual (compared to nonautistic females). Thus, both autistic males and females may express a wider range of sexual orientations in different sex-specific patterns than general population peers. When comparing autistic males and females directly, females are more likely to have diverse sexual orientations (except for homosexuality) and engage in sexual activity, are less likely to identify as heterosexual, and have a lower mean age at which they first begin engaging in sexual activity. This is the largest study of sexual orientation of autistic adults. Sexual education and sexual health screenings of all children, adolescents, and adults (including autistic individuals) must remain priorities; healthcare professionals should use language that affirms a diversity of sexual orientations and supports autistic individuals who may have increased risks (affecting mental health, physical health, and healthcare quality) due to stress and discrimination from this intersectionality.

DISCUSSION

Autistic adolescents and adults may be less likely to engage in sexual activity than nonautistic individuals but may be more likely to have diverse sexual orientations; further, sex-specific patterns of sexual orientation and activity may be different between autistic and nonautistic adults. Overall, our results do not suggest differences in lifetime risk of STIs or age of sexual activity onset between autistic and nonautistic adolescents and adults. These findings may have important implications for the healthcare of autistic individuals, and in particular regarding sexual health screenings and support for mental health.

Our findings bolster previous evidence that autistic individuals identify with a wider range of sexual orientations than others (Bush, 2019; Bush et al., 2020; Dewinter et al., 2017; George & Stokes, 2018a; Pecora, Hancock, et al., 2020; Pecora, Hooley, et al., 2020; Rudolph et al., 2018). Our results clarify that autistic males are uniquely more likely to identify as bisexual than other males and autistic females are uniquely more likely to identify as homosexual than other females—suggesting that autistic adults do not conform to the same sex-specific patterns of sexual orientation observed in the general population. Autistic individuals are 8.1 and 7.6 times more likely to self-report identifying as asexual or ‘other’ sexual orientation than nonautistic individuals, respectively. These odds ratios are far higher than those previously reported in a large sample of individuals with high autistic traits (ORs: 1.7–3.1) (Rudolph et al., 2018), and in a smaller sample of autistic females (ORs: 2.3–2.4) (Pecora, Hooley, et al., 2020). These results align with previous findings in the field to confirm relatively greater likelihood of identifying as a nonheterosexual sexual orientation and relatively lower likelihood of identifying as heterosexual; however, future research should focus on replicating these findings in population-based samples of both autistic females and males to confirm actual odds of identifying with each sexual orientation and the sex differences therein.

Further, when comparing autistic females and males directly, our results suggest that autistic females tend to identify with a wider range of sexual orientations (except for homosexuality), are more likely to engage in sexual activity, and are more likely to do so initially at a relatively younger age. Further, our results confirm previous findings showing that the majority of both autistic males and females endorsed engaging in sexual activity (Bush, 2019; Dewinter et al., 2013; Sala et al., 2020), even if the relative proportion of individuals was smaller than nonautistic males and females (Bush, 2019; George & Stokes, 2018a).

Our results refute previous findings suggesting that autistic individuals have reduced risk of STIs compared to others (Fortuna et al., 2016; Schmidt et al., 2019), instead supporting that there is no significant difference in relative lifetime risk of STIs. While our age-stratified results suggest that younger autistic adults (aged 16–40 years) may be less likely to engage in sexual activity than younger nonautistic adults, this effect was eliminated after removing individuals who have not ever engaged in sexual activity from the analysis. It is also possible that our results differ from the two previous studies in this area for practical reasons: The first study only included a sample of 255 autistic adults which is unlikely to be demographically representative of all autistic adults (Fortuna et al., 2016) and the second study only considered STI risk among individuals with any intellectual or developmental disability, grouping together a highly heterogeneous sample of individuals with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, spina bifida, intellectual disability, as well as those with fragile X, prader willi, and fetal alcohol syndrome (Schmidt et al., 2019). Thus, it is likely that previous studies have not accurately captured the sexual activity and behavior of sexually active autistic individuals specifically.

The results from our main analyses also support that risk of STIs may be partially mediated by high rates of asexuality and lack of ever engaging in sexual activity among autistic adults overall, as significance and odds ratios attenuated after accounting for these factors separately and additively. Although our study does not directly inquire about interest in sexual activity, our results confirm that asexuality may play a key role in reducing sexual activity among autistic individuals—and particularly among autistic females. The results from Adjusted Model 1 suggest that autistic females were 38% and autistic males were 22% as likely to report ever having engaged in sexual activity compared to sex-matched peers; however, the group differences decreased to autistic females being 48% and autistic males being 24% as likely to report ever having engaged in sexual activity compared to sex-matched peers in Adjusted Model 2, after accounting for self-reported asexuality among the participants. Interestingly, asexuality does not account for all of the variance between autistic and nonautistic females and males (respectively) regarding sexual activity. It is possible that this difference could be accounted for by reduced libido previously reported among autistic individuals (Bejerot & Erikson, 2014; Bush, 2019; Pecora et al., 2019), or that autistic adults' actual sexual activity may not meet their desire for it, due to differences with social communication, sensory sensitivities, or mental health conditions such as anxiety, which can often co-occur with autism (Croen et al., 2015; Hand et al., 2019). Taking into account reports of limited sexual knowledge/ education, low healthcare satisfaction, and high odds of unmet healthcare needs (Dewinter et al., 2013; Mason et al., 2019; Nicolaidis et al., 2013; Pecora, Hancock, et al., 2020), existing research may have underestimated true rates of STIs among autistic adults. Future research should focus on clarifying true lifetime prevalence rates of STIs among autistic and nonautistic adults comparatively.

Our age-stratified results also suggest that older autistic adults may be uniquely likely to identify as bisexual, whereas younger autistic adults may be uniquely likely to identify as homosexual compared to peers of similar age ranges (respectively). These findings provide some evidence that social norms (which change across time) may have affected individuals' acceptance of their specific sexual orientation; yet, our results support overall that autistic individuals of both age groups are more likely than others to identify with diverse sexual orientations and less likely to identify as heterosexual—which may be affected by social norms, biological differences, other factors, or a combination of these. Our findings do not support a difference in the mean age at which autistic and nonautistic adults report first engaging in sexual activity; however, Figure 1 above shows a relatively wider distribution among autistic adults, with a greater number of outliers on both sides. This is particularly concerning regarding sexual activity prior to the age of 13 years, which may relate to child sexual victimization; however, as our study did not define sexual activity specifically or ask about child sexual abuse, no definitive conclusions can be drawn from these findings at this time.

Our online, self-report, and cross-sectional methodology enabled recruitment of a large cohort of autistic adolescents and adults (aged 16–90 years; mean age approximately 41 years), providing the unique opportunity to describe the sexual health and orientation across the lifespan. This is the largest study of sexual orientation of autistic adolescents and adults and the first to consider asexuality and likelihood of ever engaging in sexual activity in measures of sexual health. This is also the first study that quantifies the odds of identifying with a particular sexual orientation, as well as the relative sex differences of those patterns while controlling for key demographic confounders, such as age, sex (where appropriate), ethnicity, education-level, and country of residence.

Limitations

Despite recruiting a large number of autistic individuals (particular older and female autistic individuals), the results presented are unlikely to represent the experiences of all autistic individuals. Our survey design and recruitment methods inherently exclude individuals without access to a computer and/or the internet, as well as those who are not physically or intellectually able to fill in a self-report survey. They also exclude non-English speakers, as the survey was only distributed in English; this is reflected in the demographics of our sample, as the vast majority of participants reported countries of residence with English as the native language (over 80% of the population resided in the United Kingdom, United States, or Australia). Further, white individuals, UK residents, and females were overrepresented in our sample; as such, our results may not be representative of all individuals. In particular, as attitudes toward sexual orientation and sexual activity may depend on norms within different languages, religions, and cultures, differences between our findings and past work in the area may simply reflect sampling biases (e.g., our study oversampled individuals from the UK and US whereas previous studies may have oversampled individuals from Europe and Australia). Additionally, our recruitment methods may have also biased our control group toward individuals with an interest in autism, including those who may have undiagnosed autism—underestimating true group differences between autistic and nonautistic adults; to minimize this risk, we excluded all individuals who suspect autism, are awaiting autism assessment, and/or self-diagnosed as autistic from both the autistic and nonautistic control groups.

There are also several other limitations of the study that should be considered. First, it is possible that the odds of identifying as a nonheterosexual orientation are greater among actually autistic individuals compared to those with high autistic traits; however, it is also possible that our study is underpowered to provide true effect size differences, and that the odds ratios represented here are artificially inflated due to “winner's curse” (a statistical phenomenon common to epidemiology and genetics where the effect size reported first is greater than the effect sizes reported in later studies of the same group) (Ioannidis, 2008). Second, our survey did not specifically define the terms “sexual activity”, “STIs”, or “sexual orientation”; however, our results largely align with several previous studies in these areas (Bush, 2019; Bush et al., 2020; Dewinter et al., 2017; George & Stokes, 2018a; Pecora, Hancock, et al., 2020; Pecora, Hooley, et al., 2020; Rudolph et al., 2018), and our results did not change when more strictly defining “STIs” in a sensitivity analysis. Third, sexual health and sexual activity are complex and attitudes toward them may change over time; this study cannot accurately describe all aspects of these multifaceted experiences. Fourth, the study relied on a self-report methodology on topics that may have been taboo or sensitive for some participants. For this reason, we explicitly told participants that the survey was anonymous and that all questions regarding sexual health were optional; however, we maintained high response rates even through this section (>99% for all questions related to sexual orientation and health). Still, it is possible that autistic individuals may have been more candid about their experiences than others due to differences in communication style and/or lessened concerns about adherence to social norms. Fifth, as we do not yet understand the factors that contribute to an individual's sexual orientation, the group differences observed regarding sexual orientation may correspond to these factors or to differences in acceptance of one's own sexuality (again, possibly due to differences in communication style/lessened adherence to social norms typical of autism).

Clinical implications

Currently, autistic individuals overall report lower satisfaction and self-efficacy within healthcare, as well as higher odds of unmet healthcare needs than others (Mason et al., 2019; Nicolaidis et al., 2013); and LGBTQA+ autistic individuals may be particularly vulnerable to worse mental and physical health, as well as inadequate healthcare (George & Stokes, 2018b; Hall et al., 2020; Pecora, Hooley, et al., 2020). Previous research that suggests that current sexual education of autistic individuals remains inadequate (Dewinter et al., 2013; Pecora, Hancock, et al., 2020), and that autistic females have self-reported lower rates of cervical cancer screenings (Nicolaidis et al., 2013). Our results also suggest that autistic adults are just as likely to contract STIs as others; further, other studies suggest that autistic females may be more likely to have gynecological and/or hormone-associated conditions (including polycystic ovarian syndrome) (Cherskov et al., 2018; Ruta et al., 2011), which can increase risk of diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, and cancers (Bhupathy et al., 2010; Brand et al., 2011; Cherskov et al., 2018; Mantovani & Fucic, 2014). Thus, improving sexual education and ensuring regular gynecological/ sexual health appointments for autistic adolescents and adults across the spectrum should remain a priority.

Healthcare professionals should be aware of increased risk of sexual victimization and abuse among autistic individuals across the lifespan (Brown-Lavoie et al., 2014; Pecora et al., 2019), and should take extra time and care to communicate effectively with autistic people when discussing relationships, sexual contact, and sexual health to ensure appropriate safeguarding; these risks may be particularly acute for autistic females and those with diverse sexual orientations (Pecora et al., 2019; Pecora, Hooley, et al., 2020). As challenges with social communication are a core feature of autism, practitioners providing these wellness checks (including sexual health screenings, as well as screenings for abuse during pediatric visits) may need extra time with autistic individuals and should focus on asking specific, rather than open-ended questions; further, practitioners should allow individuals to communicate in the way they feel most comfortable, including via written communication (Nicolaidis et al., 2015). Providers should also be aware that autistic individuals may be more likely to identify with a wider spectrum of genders and sexualities, and their language should be affirming and inclusive of all these identities, particularly when discussing sexual education, sexual health, and consent. Psychiatrists should also be aware of possible intersectionality between gender, sexual orientation, and/or disability, as their autistic patients may be particularly likely to experience mental or physical health problems due to discrimination and minority stress (George & Stokes, 2018b; Hall et al., 2020). Healthcare providers should work cooperatively with autistic and nonautistic individuals alike to communicate effectively and make plans to ensure that sexual relationships and sexual contact remain affirming, safe, and fulfilling.

Stronger correlations between self-esteem and mate value were found for men

Digging deeper into the relationship between self-esteem and mate value. Gary L.Brase, Meghan H. Dillon. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 185, February 2022, 111219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111219

Highlights

• Overall self-esteem (SE) is correlated with both gender and mate value (MV).

• Both SE and MV, however, are often considered multidimensional.

• The current study replicated the prior findings, extending into subscales.

• Overall scores remained strongest, consistent with sociometer theory.

• Stronger correlations between self-esteem and mate value were found for men.

Abstract: Self-esteem is correlated with both gender (women reporting lower scores on average) and mate value. Both self-esteem and mate value, however, are often measured with multidimensional scales, and the documented relationship between these overall constructs has not been studied in terms of subcomponents. Using multidimensional measures of both self-esteem and mate value, the current study (n = 192) found expected sex difference in self-esteem and a correlation with mate value. These correlations extended pervasively into subscales, with a few notable exceptions, and the strongest relationships were with the overall scale scores. These results are consistent with sociometer theory and the idea that self-perceived mate value is a component of overall self-concept and esteem. Generally stronger correlations between self-esteem and mate value were found for men, relative to women, and further research is needed to assess the generalizability of these findings across more diverse samples.

Keywords: Self-esteemMate valueSociometerMultidimensionality

No support was found for the hypothesis that social media use contributed to the level of affective polarization; instead, it was the level of affective polarization that affected subsequent use of social media

Affective polarization in the digital age: Testing the direction of the relationship between social media and users’ feelings for out-group parties. Maria Nordbrandt. New Media & Society, September 19, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211044393

Abstract: There is considerable disagreement among scholars as to whether social media fuels polarization in society. However, a few have considered the possibility that polarization may instead affect social media usage. To address this gap, the study uses Dutch panel data to test directionality in the relationship between social media use and affective polarization. No support was found for the hypothesis that social media use contributed to the level of affective polarization. Instead, the results lend support to the hypothesis that it was the level of affective polarization that affected subsequent use of social media. The results furthermore reveal heterogeneous patterns among individuals, depending on their previous level of social media usage, and across different social media platforms. The study gives reason to call into question the predominating assumption in previous research that social media is a major driver of polarization in society.

Keywords: Affective polarization, echo chambers, Facebook, reversed causality, social media, Twitter

Check also other literature with references: Politically partisan left-right online news echo chambers are real, but only a minority of approximately 5% of internet news users inhabit them; the continued popularity of mainstream outlets often preclude the formation of large partisan echo chambers

Conclusion and discussion

The study shows that starting using social media or elevating usage did not impact an individual’s level of affective polarization over time—contrary to H1 and to common assumptions. Instead, the results suggest that affective polarization affects social media usage, in line with H2, depending on the history of previous usage, as suggested in H3. These results should essentially be good news from a democratic point of view and should alleviate the widespread worry that social media is a major driver of polarization in society.

As with any study, some remaining questions and limitations need to be discussed. To start with, as others have previously noted (Prior, 2013), in strict terms, causal inferences require exogenous variation. Nonetheless, there is widespread agreement in the literature that panel data are the best non-experimental data for approaching making causal inferences (Allison, 2005: 1). Moreover, I have taken several important measures to reduce the risk of temporal and non-temporal confounders and the patterns remain the same regardless of model specification. It furthermore deserves to be highlighted that panel data often have the upper hand vis-à-vis experimental treatments in providing a picture of processes as they naturally unfold rather than in a manipulated setting.

Turning to a discussion about the measures of affective polarization and social media use; I only had access to a measure of polarization that tapped into the respondents’ sympathies for political parties, but polarization can take on many other, and perhaps more troubling, expressions. Nevertheless, to the extent that dwindling sympathies for out-group parties appear in concert with increasing inter-group hostility and distrust that follow political lines, it is arguably something we need to be wary of.

Because of data limitations, the scope of the study was furthermore limited to inferences about the average effect of/on usage of various social media platforms. This measure had the important property of providing a picture of whether social media use as such seems to be a driver of affective polarization in society from an aggregate point of view. Nonetheless, qualitative aspects, such as purpose of usage and the content users are exposed to, are likely crucial for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which affective polarization and social media are connected.

The study was furthermore limited to the study of one particular country. Recent evidence suggests that The Netherlands exhibits lower levels of affective polarization than most other western countries (Reiljan, 2020) possibly making it a least likely case for detecting a relationship between these. Theorizing from a comparative perspective is beyond the scope of this study, but cross-country differences should certainly be of interest to future research.

The most striking, and complex, finding of the study calls for some reflection; namely that there was heterogeneity in how polarization affected the amount of social media usage. First of all, those who were non-users to moderate users in the previous wave increased their level of Facebook use and decreased their level of Twitter use significantly as they gained more polarized attitudes. One possibility is that individuals who developed an expressive need turned to platforms such as Facebook because they judged their chances of impacting their strong-tie and weak-tie offline relationships to be greater than their chances of impacting their more distant Twitter followers. Others may increasingly have shied away from Twitter because of unease or anger as a result of exposure to polemical Twitter debate and instead resorted to platforms that allow users to take part of a larger share of apolitical content. A third possibility can also be raised. Some strongly polarized and frustrated social media users may have abandoned conventional social media platforms in favor of other more alternative and niched platforms or even abandoned them altogether (Purhonen et al., 2021). In fact, this happened among many Trump supporters following the suspension of the account @realDonaldTrump from Twitter in the aftermath of the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021. All these explanations may have some element of truth to them, but the former should be less troubling than the latter ones. For instance, people can have legitimate reasons for feeling upset. Social media doubtlessly fills an important deliberative function as an arena for people with an expressive interest “to call something to the attention of a wide audience” (Moles, 2007: 54). However, to the extent that social media increasingly becomes a megaphone for aggressive or divisive rhetoric, this is more troublesome. There is a risk that some people with an expressive need engage in a “spiral of silence” and refrain from voicing their concerns because of a worry of being subjected to resentful comments or social exclusion (Kruse et al., 2018; Noelle-Neumann, 1974).

Second, according to the results, rising levels of polarization exerted a much stronger effect on previous non-users or moderate users than more regular users, in line with H3. This gives some substance to the notion that a variety of rationales besides affective polarization drives frequent usage and that everyday users are more resilient to reducing their level of usage, even if they acquire more polarized attitudes.

A final thought on perhaps the most consequential finding of the study vis-à-vis previous research; namely that increased social media use did not seem to amplify affective polarization. It is probably warranted to be skeptical of unlimited usage of social media for several reasons. For instance, it may gradually make us more tolerant of uncivil behavior, invoke unhealthy social comparison, and reduce occasions for in-depth in person contacts. Still, the results give reason to doubt the notion that elevated affective polarization is among the suggested sinister consequences. Insofar as the findings translate to other contexts as well, they suggest that social media may not be a reliable barometer for assessing affective polarization in society and that explanations for any surge of polarization should primarily be found elsewhere. This discursive correction is important because the stronger the impression that we are deeply polarized, the higher the risk that we eventually judge it as pointless to engage in cooperation and dialogue across ideological lines. This would surely be detrimental for society and for democracy. My hope is that these results spur an interest in future evaluations of the causal direction of the relationship to avoid unnecessary consequences of what may potentially be an erroneous perception.

Optimal sexual passion outcomes were found at both higher and lower levels of religiosity, whereas mid-level religiosity was associated with the less beneficial sexual passion outcomes

Religious Piety and Sexual Passion: What Is the Connection? Rebecca W. Clarke, Chelom E. Leavitt, Dean M. Busby. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, Sep 19 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2021.1979702

Abstract: The association between religiosity and the construct of sexual passion was examined to see whether religiosity is associated with harmonious, inhibited, and obsessive sexual passion styles. Using multiple regression and checking for interactions between religiosity, gender, broad categories of religion (Catholic, other Christian, other religious, nonreligious), and the three sexual passion styles, the following associations were found: Religiosity had a significant curvilinear relationship to all three sexual passion styles, suggesting an overlap in levels of religiosity and the construct of sexual passion. Optimal sexual passion outcomes were found at both higher and lower levels of religiosity, whereas mid-level religiosity was associated with the less beneficial sexual passion outcomes. Religious men were significantly more obsessively passionate than religious women, and religious men and women were similarly high on levels of harmonious and low on inhibited sexual passion. There were no significant interactions between religiosity, broad categories of religion, and sexual passion styles. Understanding how religion and sexual passion are associated could be useful for applied researchers as well as those who work with religious individuals who want to help these individuals develop beneficial patterns of sexual passion.

How truthful is GPT-3? A benchmark for language models

TruthfulQA: Measuring How Models Mimic Human Falsehoods. Stephanie Lin, Jacob Hilton, Owain Evans. arXiv, Sep 8 2021. TruthfulQA: Measuring How Models Mimic Human Falsehoods

Abstract: We propose a benchmark to measure whether a language model is truthful in generating answers to questions. The benchmark comprises 817 questions that span 38 categories, including health, law, finance and politics. We crafted questions that some humans would answer falsely due to a false belief or misconception. To perform well, models must avoid generating false answers learned from imitating human texts. We tested GPT-3, GPT-Neo/J, GPT-2 and a T5-based model. The best model was truthful on 58% of questions, while human performance was 94%. Models generated many false answers that mimic popular misconceptions and have the potential to deceive humans. The largest models were generally the least truthful. For example, the 6B-parameter GPT-J model was 17% less truthful than its 125M-parameter counterpart. This contrasts with other NLP tasks, where performance improves with model size. However, this result is expected if false answers are learned from the training distribution. We suggest that scaling up models alone is less promising for improving truthfulness than fine-tuning using training objectives other than imitation of text from the web.

Summarized: How truthful is GPT-3? A benchmark for language models. Owain Evans. Sep 16 2021. https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/PF58wEdztZFX2dSue/how-truthful-is-gpt-3-a-benchmark-for-language-models

3. Larger models are less truthful. 
Across different model families, the largest models were generally less truthful (Figure 2). This “inverse scaling” trend contrasts with most tasks in NLP, where performance improves with model size. For example, the 6B-parameter GPT-J model was 17% less truthful than its 125M-parameter counterpart. One explanation of this result is that larger models produce more imitative falsehoods because they are better at learning the training distribution. Another explanation is that our questions adversarially exploit weaknesses in larger models not arising from imitation of the training distribution. We ran experiments aimed to tease apart these explanations.

An attractiveness judgment for one face part can be highly predictive of the attractiveness of the whole face or the other parts

Predicting attractiveness from face parts reveals multiple covarying cues. Chang Hong Liu,Andrew W. Young, Jiaxin Li, Xinran Tian, Wenfeng Chen. British Journal of Psychology, September 20 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12532

Abstract: In most studies of facial attractiveness perception, judgments are based on the whole face images. Here we investigated how attractiveness judgments from parts of faces compare to perceived attractiveness of the whole face, and to each other. We manipulated the extent and regions of occlusion, where either the left/right or the top/bottom half of the face was occluded. We also further segmented the face into relatively small horizontal regions involving the forehead, eyes, nose, or mouth. The results demonstrated the correlated nature of face regions, such that an attractiveness judgment for one face part can be highly predictive of the attractiveness of the whole face or the other parts. The left/right half of the face created more accurate predictions than the top/bottom half. Judgments involving a larger area of the face (i.e., left/right or top/bottom halves) produced more accurate predictions than those derived from smaller regions, such as the eyes or the mouth alone, but even the smallest and most featureless region investigated (the forehead) provided useful information. The correlated nature of the attractiveness of face parts shows that perceived attractiveness is determined by multiple covarying cues that the visual system can exploit to determine attractiveness from a single glance.

The evidence that COVID-19 infection causes or impacts Erectile Dysfunction is compelling

The Epidemic of COVID-19-Related Erectile Dysfunction: A Scoping Review and Health Care Perspective. Tung-Chin Hsieh et al. Sexual Medicine Reviews, September 20 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sxmr.2021.09.002

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 infection is expected to be associated with an increased likelihood of erectile dysfunction (ED). Considering the high transmissibility of COVID-19, ED may be a concerning consequence for a large segment of the population.

Aims: To (1) summarize existing published evidence for the impact of COVID-19 on the prevalence, severity, treatment, and management of ED; and (2) identify health-related trends in the emerging literature and identify gaps in the existing research literature and make recommendations for future research needs in the area.

Methods: A scoping literature search was conducted on April 27, 2021. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist was followed. The literature search was performed in PubMed using the terms: COVID-19, erectile, sexual, and dysfunction. A total of 693 publications were screened for relevance. Studies were appraised for their level of evidence based on study design and the rigor of methodology.

Results: The evidence that COVID-19 infection causes or impacts ED is compelling. Four topics emerged regarding the nature of the association between COVID-19 and ED: (1) the biological impact of COVID-19 infection on ED; (2) the mental health impact of COVID-19 on ED; (3) the impact of COVID-19 on the management of ED and access to ED treatment; and (4) health disparities and the impact of COVID-19 on ED. Long-term and well-designed studies are needed to clarify the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on ED. The pandemic exposed several vulnerabilities within worldwide healthcare and social systems.

Conclusion: COVID-19 has a uniquely harmful impact on men's health and erectile function through biological, mental health, and healthcare access mechanisms. As the pandemic wanes, strategies to identify long-term effects and additional health care support may be needed to adequately mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on men's health.

A greater tendency to have negative thoughts and feelings about people with a homosexual orientation was associated with an increased likelihood of avoiding cross-sex friendships

Avoiding cross-sex friendships: The separability of people with and without cross-sex friends. Tobias Altmann. Current Psychology, Sep 19 2021. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-021-02315-0

Abstract: Prior studies on individual differences in the preference for cross-sex friendships found that this preference was not normally distributed but was instead bimodal. In one group of people, the preferences for higher or lower proportions of cross-sex friendships appear to be normally distributed, whereas in a second and unexpectedly large group of people, the preference for cross-sex friends is exactly zero. If the people in the second group with no cross-sex friends at all actively avoid forming cross-sex friendships, then these individuals may be expected to differ systematically and meaningfully from individuals who report having at least one cross-sex friend. The present study tests this hypothesis. The Big Five, homophobia, physical attraction to the opposite sex, and demographic variables from a data set of 491 adult participants were used as potential predictors of group membership. Results showed that most predictors except the Big Five contributed to supporting the separability of the two groups. Findings are discussed with regard to the differentiation between close and general friends and the potential influence of cultural factors.

Discussion

The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that people who categorically avoid forming cross-sex friendships (i.e., individuals who report having no cross-sex friends) differ systematically from individuals who report having one or more cross-sex friends. This hypothesis was tested and cross-checked using person characteristics, personality characteristics, and physical attraction as potential differentiators.

Predictors of the Avoidance of Close Cross-Sex Friends

Homophobia was found to be the main determinant for avoiding close cross-sex friendships with a large effect size. A greater tendency to have negative thoughts and feelings about people with a homosexual orientation was associated with an increased likelihood of avoiding cross-sex friendships. This supports findings by Martino (2000), who stated that homophobia in men is related to a fear of appearing too feminine such that men tend to avoid close cross-sex friendships. Interestingly, Martino (2000) also found that homophobic men try to secure their views and beliefs by encouraging other men to comply with and follow their behavior. It may be interesting for future research to also explore the effects of the beliefs and attitudes of an individual’s closest friends on the friendship choices of this individual (Parker et al., 2008). Research is also needed to clarify the role of homophobia in women in general as this is still a severely understudied phenomenon (Basow & Johnson, 2000).

The second determinant in this domain was the tendency to feel physically attracted to one’s close cross-sex friends. This finding was expected and is in line with previous research (especially Bleske & Buss, 2000; Bleske-Rechek et al., 2012) that stated that physical attraction is subjectively associated with greater costs than benefits. Consistently, individuals who avoid cross-sex friendships reported more of a tendency to feel physically attracted to their cross-sex friends in the present study. Although a smaller effect, this attraction may be speculated to be a potential cause for some individuals to either approach a cross-sex peer as a potential mate or avoid the potential relationship altogether. This causal inference is of course speculative and not directly supported by the cross-sectional data from the present study.

In sum, with respect to close friends, individuals who avoid cross-sex friendships do not appear to differ with respect to the basic personality dimensions as conceptualized in the Five Factor Model or with respect to basic demographic characteristics. However, they may be described as more homophobic and as having more of a tendency to feel physically attracted to their cross-sex friends, factors that may partly explain their friendship choices.

Predictors of the Avoidance of General Cross-Sex Friends

Determinants of the avoidance of general cross-sex friends were relationship status and migration background with rather large effect sizes. As expected, individuals in a relationship were more likely to avoid forming cross-sex friendships. Such friends might be considered a relationship threat, and thus, it appears plausible that long-term changes in the friendship network favor the reduction of cross-sex friends (Bleske-Rechek et al., 2012; Milardo, 1982).

Individuals with a migration background were also more likely to avoid forming general cross-sex friendships. This finding may be explained by findings on the values of immigrants. Wakil et al. (1981) showed that immigrants in general were inclined to focus on and fortify their core values rather than adopt the values of the host country. Focusing on differences between cultures of origin, Arends-Toth and van de Vijver (2009) demonstrated that Turkish and Arabic cultures scored highest on traditional values. Considering these findings in connection with the fact that immigration in Germany is largely from Turkish and Arabic states, as was also found in the present sample, having a migration background was associated with a greater likelihood of avoiding cross-sex friends because this is an untraditional type of friendship (Bleske-Rechek et al., 2012). However, this finding was also (or perhaps even more so) expected for close cross-sex friends and not only for general cross-sex friends.

The same finding can also be interpreted from the perspective that the people without a migration background (i.e., Germans) may be more open to forming cross-sex friendships than people from other cultures. This finding might also be explained by the specifics of how friendship is defined and lived in Germany. The narrow cultural context of the present study is a noteworthy limitation (see below), and future studies are needed to understand cultural influences on cross-sex friendship formation (see Altmann, 2021).

In sum, with respect to general friends, individuals avoiding cross-sex friendships do not appear to differ with respect to the basic personality dimensions as conceptualized in the Five Factor Model or with respect to homophobia and physical attraction. However, they may also be in a relationship or may have a migration background (with respect to Germany), two factors that may also have an influence on their friendship choices.

A secondary finding of the present study is that the significant predictors differ between close and general friendships. These differences are likely due to the different procedures that must be followed to become a close or a general friend. A close friend will be selected on the basis of a person’s individual criteria, such as the tendency to avoid a particular type of person, for instance, people of the opposite sex. By contrast, a person’s general friends may likely also include the friends of one’s close friends, colleagues at work, and so forth. Here, the mechanisms of individual selection may be less effective because, for instance, (cross-sex) colleagues are harder to avoid without causing conflicts at work. Therefore, it may be the case that close friends are typically being selected from the people in one’s environment, whereas general friends are typically being accepted as the people in one’s environment. Again, this finding may also be specific to the present sample from Germany where the distinction between close and general friends is common. In other countries or cultures, this distinction may be less relevant or less common, and thus, the predictors may depend on the type of friendship only in certain cultural contexts.

Limitations

There are several limitations that have to be considered when interpreting the present findings. Three of them will be elaborated on in the following: the bimodal distribution, the sample, and the cultural context.

First, the hypothesis was based on the finding that the distribution of numbers of cross-sex friends in relation to total numbers of friends was not normal but was instead bimodal. This bimodality was indeed distinct with regard to participants’ close friends, but it was less distinct with regard to general friends. This may indicate that the tendency to avoid forming cross-sex friendships is considerably stronger with respect to one’s close friends than among one’s other or more general friends. Therefore, the latter findings may be less reliable, and the focus on participants’ close friends may be the more relevant focus. Replications are needed to confirm the validity of the present findings as well as the assumptions of bimodal distributions for both close and general friendships.

Second, the sample contained predominantly students so that findings cannot be generalized to other parts of society. Age as well as achieving a higher level of education may be associated with certain traits, such as conscientiousness and the need for cognition, which in turn may influence priorities with respect to friendship choices. The present findings are therefore limited to young and educated populations.

A third limitation lies in the narrow cultural context in which the study was conducted. As has been argued above and has often been shown in cross-cultural studies, the definitions, mechanisms, and individual experiences of friendship differ substantially between cultures (Adams & Plaut, 2003; Baumgarte, 2016; Gareis, 1995). The study was conducted in Germany so that the findings may be limited to this country or this cultural region. This limitation pertains to several aspects of the present study, such as the basic definition of friendship, what kinds of relationships are considered “friendships,” the relevance of the distinction between close and general friends, and the relevance of each predictor included in the present study. A variable to control for cultural influences was included in the model—at least it was expected to do so to some extent by capturing the potential specificity of the German culture. However, future studies could benefit from applying a more comprehensive approach to studying cross-cultural differences in cross-sex friendship formation processes.