The road to dietary sins is paved with the whisper of justifying self-talk

Examining dietary self-talk content and context for discretionary snacking behaviour: a qualitative interview study. Jordan Rose, Rebecca Pedrazzi & Stephan U. Dombrowski. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, Volume 10, 2022 - Issue 1, Pages 399-414, Apr 7 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2022.2053686

Abstract

Background: Consuming discretionary snack foods high in calories, salt, sugar or fat in between regular meals can have a negative impact on weight management and health. Despite the intention to refrain from discretionary snacking, individuals often report feeling tempted by snack foods. A cognitive process to resolve food choice related tension may be dietary self-talk which is one’s inner speech around dietary choice. This study aimed to understand the content and context of dietary self-talk before consuming discretionary snack foods.

Methods: Qualitative semi-structured interviews based on Think-Aloud methods were conducted remotely. Participants answered open-ended questions and were presented with a list of 37 dietary self-talk items. Interview transcripts were analyzed thematically.

Results: Interviews (n = 18, age: 19–54 years, 9 men, 9 women) confirmed the frequent use of dietary self-talk with all 37 content items endorsed. Reported use was highest for the self-talk items: ‘It is a special occasion’; ‘I did physical activity/exercise today’; and ‘I am hungry’. Three new items were developed, eight items were refined. Identified key contextual themes were: ‘reward’, ‘social’, ‘convenience’, ‘automaticity’, and ‘hunger’.

Conclusions: This study lists 40 reasons people use to allow themselves to consume discretionary snack foods and identifies contextual factors of dietary-self talk. All participants reported using dietary self-talk, with variation in content, frequency and degree of automaticity. Recognising and changing dietary self-talk may be a promising intervention target for changing discretionary snacking behaviour.

Keywords: Dietary self-talkdiscretionary snackeating behavioursnackingthink-aloud methods

4. Discussion

4.1. Principal findings

Dietary self-talk in the context of discretionary snacking behaviour was a commonly reported phenomenon. Individuals seem to regularly use self-talk to resolve conflicts between intentions to eat healthily and to consume a snack high in fat, sugar or salt. This study verified and extended a list of 40 self-talk content items, which highlight the universal thoughts which were recognised as being used to justify discretionary snacking. When participants reflected on dietary self-talk, recurrent contextual themes were the justification of snacks as rewards, social influences of snacking, convenience-based considerations, thoughts on and the evidence of automaticity in relation to dietary self-talk and snacking behaviour and hunger. Although most participants reported intentions to avoid discretionary snacking, dietary self-talk could change these priorities suggesting that self-talk prior to snack choice situations might be a potential target for eating behaviour change interventions.

4.2. Strengths and weaknesses of the study

Little research to date has specifically explored the uses and content of dietary self-talk before eating snacks that are high in calories, salt, sugar or fat. This study revised and extended a previously developed list of dietary self-talk items, systematically capturing self-reported thought content (see Table 2). The self-talk items were formulated at a general level, rather than a specific level (e.g. ‘I did physical activity/exercise’ rather than ‘I went for a run’), allowing participants to project their own personal situations onto the item. The high level of recognition of all self-talk items suggests that the level of formulation might have been appropriate.

Several weaknesses should be kept in mind when interpreting the results of this research. Although the self-talk items were developed with input from the Italian, UK and Canadian participants, their content relevance in different cultural contexts is unknown. Moreover, the current list is the first attempt to catalogue a general dietary self-talk content around snacking and will require further refinement and extension. Individuals may also use idiosyncratic self-talk items which are specific to them and do not generalise to others; these will not have been included in the list. The groupings of the self-talk items were undertaken by the authors and different categorisations might exist (De Witt Huberts, Evers, & De Ridder, 2014; Verhoeven, Adriaanse, de Vet, Fennis, & de Ridder, 2015). Finally, the self-reported recognition of the self-talk content was high in participants, but it is not clear whether the self-talk content are thoughts that are experienced in the moment of the snacking choice context, or whether these are used as post-hoc justifications for behaviour that has already occurred.

4.3. Relation to other studies

The current study complements other research which has examined cognitions around food-based temptations. These cognitions are often referred to by different labels, such as justifications (De Witt Huberts et al., 2014; Verhoeven et al., 2015), reasons (De Witt Huberts et al., 2014; Verhoeven et al., 2015) or compensatory health beliefs (Knäuper, Rabiau, Cohen, & Patriciu, 2004).

The current study suggests dietary self-talk as one potential explanation for eating behaviour that conflicts with previous intentions. Dietary self-talk might be added to existing mechanisms of giving into temptations such as ‘attentional bias’ and ‘temporal discounting’ (Appelhans et al., 2016). In line with the goal conflict model of eating (Stroebe et al., 2013), most participants reported intentions to make healthy decisions; however, at the opportunity of eating a discretionary snack food, they reported often justifying snacking with the use of dietary self-talk. Figure 2 applies the goal conflict model of eating behaviour to a snacking context and integrates dietary self-talk as a possible mechanism, which leads to the consumption of discretionary snacks.

Figure 2. Dietary self-talk integrated into the goal conflict model of eating (Stroebe et al., 2013) applied to the discretionary snacking context.

In this model, the presence of discretionary snacks leads to the activation of the discretionary snacking goal. Dietary self-talk facilitates the activation of the discretionary snacking goal, while simultaneously inhibiting the healthy eating goal, leading to the increased likelihood of snack consumption.

Some of the content of the 40 dietary self-talk items has been captured previously in the concept of compensatory health beliefs (Knäuper et al., 2004). Compensatory health beliefs are a cognitive mechanism used in the presence of failing to resist temptations and have been defined ‘as beliefs that certain unhealthy (but pleasurable) behaviours can be compensated for by engaging in healthy behaviours’, p. 608 (Knäuper et al., 2004). Evidence suggests that compensation-based beliefs are formed during the moments of dietary conflict, and can lead to the consumption of discretionary snack foods (Kronick & Knäuper, 2010). There is some overlap between compensatory health beliefs such as ‘Breaking a diet today may be compensated for by starting a new diet tomorrow’ and the dietary self-talk items such as ‘I will start being healthier later’. However, the current list of dietary self-talk items differs from compensatory health beliefs in at least three ways. First, the dietary self-talk items go beyond compensation-based cognitions, covering additional cognitions, such as momentary based justifications including social occasions (‘It would be rude to refuse the snack’), emotions (‘I don’t care anymore/Whatever’) or rationalisations (‘This snack is cheap/on offer’). Second, the current list of dietary self-talk items is specific to the behaviour of consuming snack foods that are tempting, compared to the application of general compensatory health beliefs across several different health behaviour contexts. Third, the dietary self-talk items are thought content specific. Even when compensatory health beliefs are assessed as behaviour specific items (e.g. ‘To what extent did you think that you would compensate your snack, for example, by a subsequent sport session or with eating less the next time?’) (Amrein, Scholz, & Inauen, 2021), this differs from compensatory-related items in the dietary self-talk list, which attempt to provide a closer capture of the precise thought content (e.g. ‘Just this snack. I won’t have a snack later’).

The findings of the current study are similar to Verhoeven et al.’s (2015) study examining reasons for unhealthy snacking, which developed the 35 item reasons to snack inventory. (Verhoeven et al., 2015) The inventory asks individuals to rate the frequency of various reasons for consuming an unhealthy snack (e.g. ‘because it is a party or a birthday’, or ‘because you are watching a movie’). These reasons were grouped into six categories using factor analysis: opportunity induced eating, coping with negative emotions, enjoying a special occasion, rewarding oneself, social pressure, and gaining energy. There are several similarities between the reasons to snack inventory and thedietary self-talk list including both individual items and broad categories. Several individual items are similar in content (e.g. ‘Because you deserve it’ vs. ‘I accomplished something. I deserve it’). Moreover, several categories are similar in nature (e.g. ‘Social pressure’ vs. ‘Social Occasions/Social Rituals’) further validating the potentially broad nature of many of the cognitions and identified categories. However, there are some differences in some of the content, categories and focus. For example, the ‘functional/rationalisations’ category (e.g. ‘You only live once’, or ‘This snack is just small’) did not feature in the reasons to snack inventory (Verhoeven et al., 2015). Moreover, dietary self-talk items are phrased as ‘in the moment’ statements which are intended to represent individual thoughts in snack temptation contexts, whereas the reasons to snack inventory list general snack motives that are not specifically tied to a temptation context.

Several studies have systematically developed lists of behaviour change concepts, including theoretical domains (Michie et al., 2005), behaviour change techniques, methods and strategies (Hartmann-Boyce, Aveyard, Koshiaris, & Jebb, 2016; Knittle et al., 2020; Kok et al., 2016; Michie et al., 2013) environment changing targets (Hollands et al., 2017), modes and forms of intervention delivery (Dombrowski, O’Carroll, & Williams, 2016; Marques et al., 2020) and decision making processes such as heuristics and biases (Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier, 2011; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). These lists inform research to systematically understand and change behaviour relevant processes. The current dietary self-talk list adds to this literature providing a more specialised list, by focusing on one particular phenomenon (i.e. self-talk) for one specific behaviour (i.e. discretionary snacking), in a specific situation (i.e. temptation resulting from conflicting intentions). Moreover, the themes identified around – accounts of and reflects on – dietary self-talk provide additional contextual information surrounding the phenomenon, enriching the ability to interpret individual items and groupings.

4.4. Implications and future research

There are several areas of future research. The current 40 items dietary self-talk list requires confirmation, extension and quantification. Future research might examine dietary self-talk when it occurs ‘in the moment’ during snacking temptation contexts. Moreover, understanding the quantity and variability of dietary self-talk and its relation to behaviour and behaviour-related outcomes would be useful.

It is likely that the self-talk items are used in combination and future research might examine the clustering of some of the self-talk content items. This might be specifically relevant in certain contexts. For example, the feeling of hunger was a key theme identified in reflections on self-talk and seemed to give rise to the use of a variety of self-talk. The themes identified in this study might present a starting point for examining contextual factors triggering the combinations of self-talk items.

Given the seemingly general nature of some of the self-talk content, research focusing on the origin and function of general self-talk items might reveal how individuals come to embrace and use certain cognitions to overcome situations of temptation in favour of the health impairing behaviour.

Self-talk is an everyday occurrence and other behavioural domains where intention conflicts occur might be a target for future study. Potential areas for identifying the content of temptation related behavioural self-talk might, for example, be physical activity, alcohol consumption or sleep.

There are some areas of potential application of the current list of dietary self-talk items. The list could be used to inform the use of behaviour change interventions, such as coping planning based techniques like the volitional help sheet (Armitage, 2015), which aims to help to overcome situations of temptations by linking these to goal-directed responses in line with health-relevant intention.

In addition, interventions might focus on changing the style of the self-talk items that people typically use. An experiential study, for example, found that when participants are asked to engage in ‘distance self-talk’ (i.e. referring to themselves in the third person and by name) enhanced the pursuit of eating healthier compared to ‘immersed self-talk’ (i.e. referring to themselves in the first person).

Finally, participants’ contextual accounts and reflections largely suggested a lack of an ongoing internal dialogue when using dietary self-talk, with self-talk leading to a swift enactment of the snacking behaviour. Interventions might promote both the recognition of dietary self-talk when it occurs and the introduction of self-talk using counter arguments which could bolster health enhancing intentions.

Cultural Variation in Communication Directness in Romantic Relationships: Chinese preferred indirect (vs. direct) communication more than European Americans; effect was more strongly pronounced in positively valenced situations

How You Talk About It Matters: Cultural Variation in Communication Directness in Romantic Relationships. Fiona Ge, Jiyoung Park, Paula R. Pietromonaco. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, April 3, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221221088934

Abstract: Communication plays an integral role in shaping romantic relationship quality. Yet, little is known about whether people from different cultural backgrounds communicate differently in their romantic relationships. Here, we addressed this issue by examining (a) whether the extent to which individuals communicate directly or indirectly in their romantic relationships varies by culture, (b) what mechanism underlies these cultural differences, and (c) how the fit between culture and communication style contributes to expected relationship satisfaction. Three key findings emerged across three studies (total N = 1,193). First, Chinese preferred indirect (vs. direct) communication more than European Americans, and this effect was more strongly pronounced in positively (vs. negatively) valenced situations (Studies 1–3). Second, interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal mediated the cultural difference in indirect communication both in positive and negative situations (Study 3). Finally, both cultural groups anticipated greater relationship satisfaction when they imagined their partner using the culturally preferred mode of communication—that is, indirect communication for Chinese and direct communication for European Americans (Study 3). These findings advance theory on culture and romantic relationship processes by demonstrating cultural differences in preferred communication styles across different situational contexts, identifying self-construal differences underlying these preferred communication styles, and highlighting the importance of congruence between culture and communication style for the quality of relationships.

Keywords: culture, communication directness, interdependence versus independence, romantic relationships, relationship quality

Illusory improvement: Participants remembered their romantic relationship one year ago more negatively they had reported it originally, creating a sense of improvement over time

Projecting current feelings into the past and future: Better current relationship quality reduces negative retrospective bias and increases positive forecasting bias. Johanna Peetz, Justin P. K. Shimizu, Courtney Royle. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, April 7, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075221084280

Abstract: We examine bias in how people perceive their romantic relationship over time. Participants appraised their relationship 6 months and 1 year ago on average more negatively than they had done at the time (retrospective bias) but showed no significant mean-level forecasting bias. Higher relationship quality at the time of appraisal was linked to less negative retrospective bias but to more positive forecasting bias (Study 1). Similarly, participants who were experimentally manipulated to focus on the high relationship quality aspects in their relationship (vs. considering challenging aspects of their relationship) showed more forecasting bias and less retrospective bias (Study 2). This pattern occurred due to participants’ projecting positive current feelings onto predicted relationship quality in the future and remembered relationship quality in the past. This projection reduced the overall negative bias in recalled relationship quality for those currently perceiving higher relationship quality but increased positive bias in forecasted relationship quality.

Keywords: Temporal appraisal, illusory improvement, relationship change, relationship bias

Illusory improvement

People like to see improvement over time and prefer to remember the past in a way that implies such improvement—even if this means remembering the past self as worse than it actually was. For example, students rating themselves 4 months apart showed similar ratings at each point in time. However, when reflecting on what they were like 4 months ago, students rated their past self more negatively than they had at that time, creating a sense of improvement over time (Wilson & Ross, 2001). In the realm of relationships, people similarly distort their memory of their relationship over time, creating a sense of relationship improvement (Frye & Karney, 2004; Karney & Coombs, 2000; Karney & Frye, 2002; Ogolsky & Surra, 2014; Sprecher, 1999; Zygar-Hoffman & Schönbrodt, 2020).

Retrospective bias

People can be motivated to see improvement in their relationships even where none exists. Such illusory improvement might be expressed in direct judgments of change (e.g., “My relationship has improved”) or might be expressed in how the relationship is judged at different points in time (e.g., “Last April my relationship was good, now my relationship is great”). Thus, in retrospective judgments, people might judge the relationship more negatively in the past than it really was, creating a sense of improvement.

Several studies have shown a memory bias when recalling how one’s relationship has changed over time (Frye & Karney, 2004; Ogolsky & Surra, 2014; Sprecher, 1999). For example, newly dating people reported retrospectively that their commitment had increased in the past 7 months, whereas concurrent rating actually stayed the same (Ogolsky & Surra, 2014), and newlyweds reported remembering an increase in relationship satisfaction in the past 6 months at each point of assessment over 2.5 years, even though actual ratings declined across time points (Frye & Karney, 2004). Thus, it appears that people want to believe that their relationship has been improving, despite actually stable or declining relationship appraisals over time.

While these studies looked at perceived retrospective trajectories rather than a comparison of how the relationship was rated at a given time and how it is rated retrospectively for that same time, there exists also evidence of such retrospective memory bias. In a study assessing marital satisfaction of the wives of university staff over two decades, retrospective reports of marital satisfaction 10 years ago were negatively biased, such that they reported remembering their relationship to have been worse 10 years ago than they had reported at the time (Karney & Coombs, 2000). This negative retrospective bias also extends to evaluating specific emotions rather than global relationship judgments: Two experience sampling studies comparing relationship partner’s online reports of annoyance at their partner over 2 weeks with their remembered annoyance at the partner at the end of the 2 weeks showed exaggerated annoyance in retrospect (Zygar-Hoffman & Schönbrodt, 2020). To sum up, people tend to perceive illusory improvement in their relationships by recalling their relationship as having been worse in the past than they actually thought at the time.

Forecasting bias

Do people also expect improvement for their relationship in the future? When asked to predict the future of their relationship, the tendency is to be optimistic (MacDonald & Ross, 1999; Murray & Holmes, 1997). Does this optimism extend to predicting how the relationship quality will develop in the future? Evidence on whether people expect their relationship to get better over time is mixed. In a large sample of newlywed spouses, the vast majority predicted their marriage would become better (82%) and less than 1% predicted that their relationship would get worse in the next years (Lavner et al., 2013). However, when actually tracking their marital satisfaction over the following 4 years, participants showed, on average, a decline in marital satisfaction (Lavner et al., 2013). This represents illusory improvement in forecasted trajectories, at least in newlyweds. However, in another study, married relationship partners rating their relationship problems expected these problems to be about as severe in 6 months as they were currently, suggesting no overall forecasting bias (Frye & Karney, 2002). Similarly, an experience sampling study tracking couple’s forecasts of their partners’ prorelational (responsive) behaviors for the next day found both positive and negative forecasting errors (Lemay et al., 2015). Instead of a general tendency toward forecasting positive change, Lemay and colleagues found that relationship partners exhibited a temporal projection bias, where forecasts were biased by current feelings. Participants who experienced more positive affect today or perceived more positive behaviors from their partner today predicted more positive affect and more responsive partner behaviors tomorrow, independent of actual feelings and behaviors the next day (Lemay et al., 2015).

The role of relationship quality

Positive illusions about relationships can be beneficial: for example, people who idealized their partner more reported more increases in relationship satisfaction after 1 year (Murray & Holmes, 1997). In a meta-analysis across 14 studies that assessed relationship quality and bias about various relationship-relevant outcomes, Fletcher and Kerr (2010) found that greater relationship quality was on average linked with perceiving the partner or the relationship overly positively. Furthermore, expectations about the future quality of a relationship tend to be a better predictor of relationship commitment than current relationship quality (Baker et al., 2017; Lemay, 2016), suggesting that perceiving illusory improvement may function as a relationship maintenance strategy (also see Rusbult et al., 2001). If illusory improvement serves a relationship maintenance function, higher current relationship quality should not only be linked to more positive forecasting bias (i.e., more improvement into the future), but it should also be linked to more negative retrospective bias (i.e., more improvement from the past).

On the other hand, it is possible that current relationship quality simply biases appraisals of past and future relationship quality to be more similar to current relationship quality—a temporal projection bias. The temporal projection bias has been shown to influence future affect and future behavior predictions in close relationships (Lemay et al., 2015). Outside of close relationships, similar projection biases have been shown to distort both memories about past loneliness and expectations about future loneliness (Teneva & Lemay, 2020) and past and future emotions more generally (Chang et al., 2018). Such a temporal projection bias would predict that higher current relationship quality should be linked to more positive forecasting bias in relationship quality—but linked to less negative retrospective bias. When projecting current feelings on past relationship appraisals, the more positive participants feel about their relationship in the present, the more positively they would see the relationship in the past (rather than seeing the relationship in the past more negatively to support illusory improvement perceptions).

Forecasting bias

Both illusory improvement and temporal projection patterns would predict that relationship quality at the time of forecast should increase the tendency to predict more change to the better in global relationship judgments for the future. Indeed, this has been borne out in past research (Baker et al., 2017; Frye, 2006; Lemay, 2016; Rusbult et al., 2001). In a study on temporal comparison, Frye (2006) found that the more satisfied participants reported being in their relationship, the more positive change in relationship problems they expected (although the extent to which this expected change might be illusory could not be determined in this particular study, since actual change was not assessed). In the present studies we examine the link of perceived relationship quality with the extent of bias in predicted future relationship quality (Study 1) and examine whether experimental manipulation of relationship quality at the time of forecast increases the extent of positive forecasting bias (Study 2).

Retrospective bias

On the other hand, when it comes to the link between relationship quality and retrospective bias about the relationship in the past, the conception of illusory improvement biases as relationship maintaining is at odds with temporal projection biases. How is relationship quality linked with retrospective biases about the relationship? When examining participants’ recollections of their marriage 10 years ago, those who were most satisfied with their marriage at the time of recall were least likely to bias their recollections of the relationship whereas those least satisfied with their relationship were most biased (Karney & Coombs, 2000). Similarly, those with better global relationship satisfaction at the time of recall showed less retrospective bias about their annoyed feelings toward their partner in the past 2 weeks (Zygar-Hoffmann & Schönbrodt, 2020). Thus, higher relationship quality at the time of recall appears to be associated with less, rather than more, retrospective bias about the relationship in the past. In the present studies we examine the link of perceived relationship quality on the extent of bias in recalled past relationship quality (Study 1) and examine whether experimental manipulation of relationship quality at the time of recall affect the extent of negative retrospective bias (Study 2).

Some kinds of play are more individually or socially adaptive than others; thus, we must not forget that hazing, bullying, animal cruelty, gambling, risk taking, compulsions, & addictions of many kinds can have their origins in play

The centrality and origins of play: The mystery and evolution of animal play. Gordon Burghardt. Apr 6 2022. https://iai.tv/articles/the-centrality-and-origins-of-play-auid-2095

The existence of play in non-human animals is a direct challenge to old-fashioned scientific ideas. Play is dismissed as a human projection or as functional practice for adulthood that only ‘higher”  mammals are capable of. Not so, writes Gordon Burghardt, the contemporary study of play finds it across the animal kingdom from birds to spiders, and help makes sense of why, for us humans, play can be spontaneous, purposeless and fun.

---

The Meaning of Play

Rather than search for the “true” or “real” meaning of play, as if it is a unitary phenomenon, the conceptual framework outlined above suggests that we look for the factors in both the environment and the organism that facilitate the performance of play. Some kinds of play are more individually or socially adaptive than others. Thus, we must not forget that hazing, bullying, animal cruelty, gambling, risk taking, compulsions, and addictions of many kinds can have their origins in play.

Why males go to war? Study shows a deep evolutionary legacy for mammals — male bias in intergroup conflict & female bias in collective movements ("female guides")

Sex bias in intergroup conflict and collective movements among social mammals: male warriors and female guides. Jennifer E. Smith, Claudia Fichtel, Rose K. Holmes, Peter M. Kappeler, Mark van Vugt and Adrian V. Jaeggi. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, April 4 2022. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0142

Abstract: Intergroup conflict is a major evolutionary force shaping animal and human societies. Males and females should, on average, experience different costs and benefits for participating in collective action. Specifically, among mammals, male fitness is generally limited by access to mates whereas females are limited by access to food and safety. Here we analyse sex biases among 72 species of group-living mammals in two contexts: intergroup conflict and collective movements. Our comparative phylogenetic analyses show that the modal mammalian pattern is male-biased participation in intergroup conflict and female-biased leadership in collective movements. However, the probability of male-biased participation in intergroup conflicts decreased and female-biased participation increased with female-biased leadership in movements. Thus, female-biased participation in intergroup conflict only emerged in species with female-biased leadership in collective movements, such as in spotted hyenas and some lemurs. Sex differences are probably attributable to costs and benefits of participating in collective movements (e.g. towards food, water, safety) and intergroup conflict (e.g. access to mates or resources, risk of injury). Our comparative review offers new insights into the factors shaping sex bias in leadership across social mammals and is consistent with the ‘male warrior hypothesis' which posits evolved sex differences in human intergroup psychology

Woman faces that appeared as attractive drive imitation more; in contrast, the facial attractiveness of men had no significant influence on imitation

The influence of facial attractiveness and personal characteristics on imitation. Jie Shen et al. The Journal of Social Psychology, Mar 30 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2022.2052002

Abstract: Imitation plays a crucial role in learning and communication, although a little is known whether individuals imitate each other based on particular personality traits. Facial features and personal characteristics are the major components of personal impressions. This study adopted the color paradigm to explore the effect of the two factors on imitation. Experiment 1 examined the effect of facial attractiveness and face gender on imitation. The results showed that woman who appeared attractive drove imitation more than woman who did not. However, men who appeared attractive and unattractive differed insignificantly. Experiment 2 investigated the effect of facial attractiveness and personal characteristics on imitation. The results of Experiment 1 were verified, stating that positive personal characteristics drove imitation more than negative personal characteristics. The study found that facial attractiveness still affected imitation when characteristics information appeared. Regarding negative personal characteristics, individuals who appeared attractive drove imitation more than individuals who did not. The results indicate that imitation is automated, influenced not only by face types but also by personal characteristics.

Keywords: Facial attractivenesspersonal characteristicsimitationcolor paradigm

Being More Educated and Earning More Increases Romantic Interest: Data from 1.8 M Online Daters from 24 Nations

Being More Educated and Earning More Increases Romantic Interest: Data from 1.8 M Online Daters from 24 Nations. Peter K. Jonason & Andrew G. Thomas. Human Nature, Apr 5 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-022-09422-2

Abstract: How humans choose their mates is a central feature of adult life and an area of considerable disagreement among relationship researchers. However, few studies have examined mate choice (instead of mate preferences) around the world, and fewer still have considered data from online dating services. Using data from more than 1.8 million online daters from 24 countries, we examined the role of sex and resource-acquisition ability (as indicated by level of education and income) in mate choice using multilevel modeling. We then attempted to understand country-level variance by examining factors such as gender equality and the operational sex ratio. In every nation, a person’s resource-acquisition ability was positively associated with the amount of attention they received from other site members. There was a marked sex difference in this effect; resource-acquisition ability improved the attention received by men almost 2.5 times that of women. This sex difference was in every country, admittedly with some variance between nations. Several country-level traits moderated the effects of resource-acquisition ability, and in the case of unemployment this moderating role differed by sex. Overall, country-level effects were more consistent with evolutionary explanations than sociocultural ones. The results suggest a robust effect of resource-acquisition ability on real-life mate choice that transcends international boundaries and is reliably stronger for men than women. Cross-cultural variance in the role of resource-acquisition ability appears sensitive to local competition and gender equality at the country level.

Discussion

Using 1.8 M online dating profiles, we found that resource-acquisition ability and sex had a small, but robust influence on the amount of interest a dating profile received. Specifically, being a woman or having higher resource-acquisition ability led to increased numbers of messages, “winks,” and “likes” from other members (i.e., IOI). These patterns showed considerable cross-cultural consistency: resource-acquisition ability generally increased IOI in all countries, and, except for the USA, profiles of women generally received more IOI than those of men. Even in the USA, this sex difference reversed only at high levels of resource-acquisition ability (more than 2 SD above the mean). There was some variability between nations in the enhancing effect of resource-acquisition ability and its differential effect on the sexes, but this was simply a matter of degree. That is, resource-acquisition ability enhanced dating profile attention broadly, and for men more than women specifically, in all countries, though some more than others. These national sex differences accounted for only a slither of the total variance in attention received among the population. Nonetheless, we were still able to associate this variance with some country-level traits: gross national income, sex ratio, unemployment, and gender development.

Besides informing on the roles of culture, sex, and resource-acquisition ability on mate choice, we examined how differences in social, political, and economic differences in the various nations accounted for mate choice and sex differences therein. Although we cannot claim our results are definitive (given, e.g., sampling homogeneity in the countries), our results reveal that (1) sex differences persist in all countries sampled and (2) they appear relatively insensitive to the nation-level variables we considered. This may be more in line with evolutionary models of sex differences in mate choice than sociocultural ones because the latter treat sex differences as artifacts of culture (e.g., Eagly & Wood, 1999). Our results showed considerable agreement with studies from labs, smaller datasets, and mate preference research suggesting that even when people are actively choosing mates from the comfort of their couches, regardless of their country of origin, evolved mate selection tendencies are expressed.

Our research draws attention to the unique challenges of working with data of this magnitude (e.g., everything was significant). To cope with these challenges, we relied on confidence intervals to understand country-level patterns and descriptive differences (i.e., percent increase) as prima facie evidence of ostensible population-level effects. This process revealed just how small some of these effects might be. This may, in part, be the result of being unable to account for the primary feature that predicts romantic interest—physical attraction (Jonason & Antoon, 2019; Jonason et al., 2019; Kenrick et al., 1993; Li et al., 2002). At the same time, as both epidemiologists and evolutionary theorists have appreciated for some time, small effects over large populations and periods of time are not bereft of impact (Dawkins, 1996; Rose et al., 2008). In the online dating space, one additional message received might, for some people, change their mating trajectory entirely, with real consequences for their happiness and their reproductive success. One fruitful approach to deal with these kinds of data in the future may be to adopt Bayesian analyses instead of null-hypothesis-testing procedures.

Limitations and Conclusions

Despite the size and scope of our study, it still had several limitations. First, we focused only on two predictors of romantic interest even though our data have several more. We did so because of the exponentially increasing complexity afforded by including more variables, and instead of focusing on describing who gets more IOI, we focused on theory-testing of microscopic issues. Of all the variables we have, we felt that resource-acquisition ability was the timeliest (e.g., the rise of the topic of sapiosexuality), the most useful for considering mate choice in relation to two theoretical paradigms, and one that has applied implications for mate searching and child mortality (Egebark et al., 2021; Hopcroft, 2021). The magnitude of these data is simply too much to conscientiously allow for exploratory tests when everything is likely to be “significant” but unlikely to be meaningful. Subsequent studies will examine the effects of height, marital status, number of children, and more. We presented here the first of a series of studies relying on “real” and “really big” data to understand cross-cultural patterns in mate choice using those seeking mates and people’s bone fide interest in them, not some hypothetical interest.

Second, resource-acquisition ability, as a factor influencing mate choice, is likely to have several related indicators, such as ambition, social status/level, and earning capacity (Buss, 1989; Li et al., 2002). We were only able to examine two of them—treated as a single index—given the limitations of what was collected. Although the two may not fully represent the larger construct of competence or resource-acquisition ability as we envision them, we think the results are more than defensible given their alignment with theory and having, themselves, been used as indicators of research in the past (Egebark et al., 2021; Hopcroft, 2021; Jonason & March, 2021). Indeed, the moderate correlation between the two may be reflective of the fact that we have only two indicators on a much larger mate-choice determinant (along with potential error in that data).

Third, despite the cross-national nature of this data, our sample was still WEIRD. (Henrich et al., 2010). Although countries such as Chile and Mexico might not traditionally be considered “Western,” they are educated, industrialized, and rich enough to have online dating services and Internet access. This may have created some range restriction and limit our results to just the countries where the dating service operates. It remains to be seen whether these patterns would hold up in African, South American, and Asian nations. Nevertheless, if we take an evolutionary perspective, differences in countries are a matter of degree for local calibration; Homo sapiens are humans everywhere (Buss, 1989; Thomas et al., 2020).

A final limitation involves our ability to account for country-level variance. Members in our dataset came from 24 countries, which allowed us to develop an understanding of how consistently resource-acquisition ability affects dating profile attention and how much this varies from country to country. However, even with two dozen nations, this aspect of our analysis was underpowered. Thus, we took a conservative approach when adding them to the base model. In contrast, other studies on the idea of “evoked culture” tend to examine country-level effects while controlling for variables such as longitude and latitude (Gangestad et al., 2006), though arguably, even then, such analyses are underpowered. Including more countries, particularly from non-WEIRD nations, would help us draw firmer conclusions.

In conclusion, we have provided the most definitive answers yet to the questions of the role of resource-acquisition ability in mate choice, whether there are sex differences in that role, and what nation-level factors might account for national patterns overall and in the sexes. We showed that greater resource-acquisition ability leads to more dating profile interest in data from more than 1.8 million people living in 24 nations who use the services of an international, online dating company. While both sexes received a boost in interest when they had more resource-acquisition ability, the increase was almost 2.5 times stronger in men than in women. And last, resource-acquisition ability tended to be slightly less important in richer countries with more women of reproductive age than men, and slightly more important in cultures with greater gender equality. Higher levels of unemployment also seemed to make resource-acquisition ability more important, but this effect was restricted to the amount of attention women’s profiles received. The relative primacy and robustness of sex differences suggest evolutionary models of mate choice may be more powerful than sociocultural ones when it comes to resource-acquisition ability.

Mandarin Chinese speakers overestimated how well native English-speaking Americans understood what they said in Chinese, & understood their intentions, even when informed that the listeners knew no Chinese

Lau, B. K. Y., Geipel, J., Wu, Y., & Keysar, B. (2022). The extreme illusion of understanding. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Apr 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001213

Abstract: Though speakers and listeners monitor communication success, they systematically overestimate it. We report an extreme illusion of understanding that exists even without shared language. Native Mandarin Chinese speakers overestimated how well native English-speaking Americans understood what they said in Chinese, even when they were informed that the listeners knew no Chinese. These listeners also believed they understood the intentions of the Chinese speakers much more than they actually did. This extreme illusion impacts theories of speech monitoring and may be consequential in real-life, where miscommunication is costly. 

Men who pervasively gaze at women’s bodies more likely to assume women invite/tolerate rough sexual conduct toward them; women who pervasively gaze at men’s bodies more likely to attribute responsibility to women for their role in sexual assault

Body Gaze as a Marker of Sexual Objectification: A New Scale for Pervasive Gaze and Gaze Provocation Behaviors in Heterosexual Women and Men. Ross C. Hollett, Shane L. Rogers, Prudence Florido & Belinda Mosdell. Archives of Sexual Behavior, Mar 29 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-022-02290-y

Abstract: Body gaze behavior is assumed to be a key feature of sexual objectification. However, there are few self-report gaze measures available and none capturing behavior which seeks to invite body gaze from others. Across two studies, we used existing self-report instruments and measurement of eye movements to validate a new self-report scale to measure pervasive body gaze behavior and body gaze provocation behavior in heterosexual women and men. In Study 1, participants (N = 1021) completed a survey with newly created items related to pervasive body gaze and body gaze provocation behavior. Participants also completed preexisting measures of body attitudes, sexual assault attitudes, pornography use, and relationship status. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses across independent samples suggested a 12-item scale for men and women to separately measure pervasive body gaze (5 items) and body gaze provocation (7 items) toward the opposite sex. The two scales yielded excellent internal consistency estimates (.86–.89) and promising convergent validity via positive correlations with body and sexual attitudes. In Study 2, a subsample (N = 167) of participants from Study 1 completed an eye-tracking task to capture their gaze behavior toward matched images of partially and fully dressed female and male subjects. Men exhibited body-biased gaze behavior toward all the female imagery, whereas women exhibited head-biased gaze behavior toward fully clothed male imagery. Importantly, self-reported body gaze correlated positively with some aspects of objectively measured body gaze behavior. Both scales showed good test–retest reliability and were positively correlated with sexual assault attitudes.

Trend that seems to be increasing: Many women in the world’s richer countries appear to seek Mr. Perfect, while their male counterparts are more willing to accept Ms. Goodenough

Skirbekk, V. (2022). Finding a Mate: Contemporary Partnership and Conception. Chapter in: Decline and Prosper!. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Pp 217–245. Apr 1 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91611-4_12

Abstract: In many countries, marriage is no longer considered a prerequisite for childbearing. Cohabitation and children born outside of marriage are both on the rise. Advances in assisted reproductive technology have made it more feasible to have a child without a partner or within the context of a same-sex union, at least for women. In this chapter, I discuss the delay and decrease in marriage, the spread of cohabitation, how people find a mate, trends in same-sex unions, and how changes in partnerships have affected fertility. Although fewer people are married, marriage continues to be one of the most persistent and strongest determinants of fertility. Many individuals also appear to have problems finding a partner, although the reasons differ fundamentally for men and women.

Keywords: Partnership Union formation Mate selection Cohabitation and Marriage Same-sex partnerships In vitro fertilization

More life satisfaction: The "sickly sweet" smell of death (putrescine) may prompt individuals to love their lives more

Smelling Death, Loving Life: the Impact of Olfactory Chemosignals on Life Satisfaction. Michael D. Barnett, Ben K. Mokhtari & Jenna M. Moore. Chemosensory Perception, Mar 16 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12078-022-09297-8

Abstract

Introduction: Previous research suggests that putrescine — the chemical compound that gives decomposing organic matter its distinctive odor — may trigger an inborn evolutionary mechanism that prompts individuals to avoid the smell of decay. The purpose of these two experiments was to investigate the effects of exposure to putrescine on human cognition.

Methods: Two between-subjects experiments (experiment 1 N = 109; experiment 2 N = 108) compared individuals exposed to either putrescine, ammonia, or water. Experiment 1 measures included odorant ratings (i.e., intensity, familiarity, repugnance, goodness), implicit measures (i.e., word completion task, moral judgment vignettes, and opinions on the death penalty), and explicit measures (i.e., death attitudes, self-esteem, and life satisfaction); experiment 2 measures included odorant ratings and life satisfaction.

Results: In experiment 1, there were no differences by odorant condition on implicit measures; however, those exposed to putrescine reported higher life satisfaction than those exposed to water. These results were replicated in experiment 2.

Conclusions: Exposure to putrescine may activate psychological threat management processes, which are then interpreted as higher life satisfaction.

Implications: Human olfactory perception is sensitive to putrescine, and putrescine may exert some subtle psychological effects on human cognition.

From a Survey and Twin Study: The belief that human attributes are determined by biology belongs to the few psychological traits that are not influenced by genes

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Biological Essentialism, Heuristic Thinking, Need for Closure, and Conservative Values: Insights From a Survey and Twin Study. J. J. Morosoli, F. K. Barlow, L. Colodro-Conde & S. E. Medland. Behavior Genetics, Apr 3 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10519-022-10101-2

Abstract: Biological essentialism, the belief that human attributes are determined by biology, is a core component of essentialist thinking. Previous studies have shown that individual differences in essentialist thinking are associated with heuristic thinking, cognitive ability and style, conservative values, and prejudice. None, however, have examined whether biological essentialism is itself heritable, or the extent to which familial aggregation explains associations with core correlates. In order to do this, we analyzed data from a genetically informative sample of families with twins in Australia (N = 2,103), as well as general population samples from the UK (N = 501) and the US (N = 500). Genetic factors had little influence in individual differences in biological essentialism or in its relationship with heuristic thinking. Conservative values were genetically correlated with cognitive styles (i.e., need for closure and heuristic thinking). These findings support a bigger role of genes in explaining the relationship between cognitive processes and moral reasoning and ideology than they do the association between cognitive processes and essentialist thinking.

Participants with dark personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy) didn't feel like they needed to reduce them, while the others would have liked even a little more of them

Lighten the darkness: Personality interventions targeting agreeableness also reduce participants' levels of the dark triad. Nathan W. Hudson. Journal of Personality, March 14 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12714

Abstract

Objective: Previous research suggests that people want to change their big five traits—and moreover, they may be able to do so. This paper extends these findings in three ways. First, I examined the extent to which people want to change their levels of the dark triad—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Second, I tested whether desires to change the dark triad predicted actual changes in the corresponding traits across approximately four months. Finally, participants received an intervention designed to change their big five personality traits. Consequently, I tested whether this intervention could also facilitate changes in the dark triad.

Method: The present study was a 16-wave, weekly, intensive longitudinal design (N = 467).

Results: Results revealed that participants generally did not want to change their levels of the dark triad. Nevertheless, individual variance in desires to change the dark triad did predict actual changes in the dark triad across four months. Moreover, interventions targeting agreeableness spurred changes in all three dark triad traits.

Conclusions: This research suggests that taking small steps to become more agreeable may also reduce individuals' levels of the dark triad. These findings may have implications for future research, as well as therapeutic treatments.