Our findings show fairly significant damage to the image of Russia as a country as well as the Russian government; however, the reputational damage of the Russian people is minimal

The reputational cost of military aggression: Evidence from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Peyman Asadzade, Roya Izadi. Research & Politics, May 12, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680221098337

Abstract_ Large-scale military aggression is argued to damage the international image of the aggressor and mobilize global public opinion against it. Previous cross-country research also finds that negative views of the aggressor are usually limited to the government and do not extend to the citizens of the invading country. Our article provides micro-level evidence on attitude change toward Russia as a country, the Russian people, and the Russian government after its invasion of Ukraine. We use data from a survey conducted between the morning of 21 February 2022 (3 days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine) and the night of 28 February 2022 (5 days after the invasion) in the United States to evaluate how the Russian invasion of Ukraine affected attitudes toward the country, its people, and the government. We also conduct a subgroup analysis to explore the magnitude of attitude change across sociodemographic and political subgroups after the invasion. Our findings show fairly significant damage to the image of Russia as a country as well as the Russian government. However, the reputational damage of the Russian people is minimal. The results also suggest that Republican and religious subgroups had the largest attitude change on Russia and the Russian government.

Keywords: War, public opinion, international image

Conclusions

Our study provides empirical evidence on the reputational cost of military aggression by using survey data that was collected amidst the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Our study offers a nuanced and more complex understanding of war and global public opinion. The findings demonstrate that unjustified military aggression does create negative global public opinion on the aggressor party but the negative attitude is mostly directed at the government and the country. The results show that the ordinary citizens of the aggressor government remain immune to the reputational damage.

While our study offers a nuanced picture of war and international image, several cautions should be noted. First, although our survey started 3 days before the attack, public discussion on the possibility of a Russian attack had already begun a few weeks before the attack. Especially, reports from the United States intelligence agencies on the likelihood of a Russian invasion prompted a wide range of speculations among political pundits as well as the public before the attack. Therefore, attitudes on Russia might have started to harden even before the invasion. Therefore, it is possible that our study underestimates the full magnitude of attitude change.

It is also important to emphasize that our study uses a student sample. While using student samples is a common practice in social science research, it is also argued that they are less externally valid compared to the samples drawn from the general population. We compared our results on unfavorable attitudes toward Russia to those of PEW and Gallup polling conducted in 2020 and 2021, respectively (the graph is reported in the appendix). Overall, our pre-invasion sample shows less negative attitudes toward Russia compared to the PEW and Gallup samples (5% less than PEW and 10% less than Gallup). Given the difference, it is possible that our sample somewhat underestimates negative attitudes toward Russia.

Furthermore, it is critical to highlight that the survey was carried out in the United States. While we have witnessed a fairly large number of rallies in support of Ukraine in Europe and North America (Schwartz, 2022), evidence for broad anti-Russian sentiments in the rest of the world is not quite as strong. It could be due to the difficulty of collective action in authoritarian environments (especially in countries with strong ties to Russia) or because of widespread anti-Western sentiments in a large number of countries in the Global South (Aydin, 2007; Lewis, 1993) where many citizens might perceive the war as a confrontation between Russia and the West. Given the presence of anti-Western sentiments in the Global South for a variety of historical reasons (e.g., colonialism or past interventionist policies), the findings need to be interpreted with caution. While the results may show us the magnitude of negative attitudes toward Russian in the United States or perhaps most of Europe, they do not necessarily travel to the Global South.

Beauty is associated with lower support for redistribution and with a higher likelihood of believing that economic success depends more on individual effort rather than external circumstances

Attractiveness and Preferences for Redistribution. Andrea Fazio. Economics & Human Biology, May 11 2022, 101145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101145

Highlights

• We show that beauty is associated with lower support for redistribution and with a higher likelihood of believing that economic success depends more on individual effort rather than external circumstances.

• We also find that attractiveness correlates with voting for the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which historically advocates a low level of taxation.

• The beauty premium in the labor market does not fully explain our results.

• The relationship between beauty and preferences for redistribution might depend on how attractive individuals rationalize the advantages they get thanks to their beauty.

Abstract: Using unique German survey data, we show that beauty is associated with lower support for redistribution and that attractive individuals are more likely to believe that economic success depends more on individual effort rather than external circumstances. These results are consistent with voting behavior, as we find that beauty correlates with voting for the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which historically advocates a low level of taxation. These associations do not differ by gender and remain also if household income and employment status are controlled for, suggesting that the relationship between attractiveness and political preferences is not fully explained by the beauty premium in the labor market. We test alternative channels that might drive our results, but the correlation between attractiveness and preferences for redistribution always persists. We suggest that our results might be explained by the way in which attractive individuals rationalize the advantages they get thanks to their beauty.

JEL: D63D69D72Z1

Keywords: BeautyPolitical PreferencesPreferences for Redistribution

Interpersonal distancing is attentionally demanding and hence vulnerable to unintentional lapses due to inattention: 97pct of all participants reported unintentional lapses due to hyperfocus and spontaneous mind-wandering, inter alia

Brown, Chris R. H., Dr, and Sophie Forster. 2022. “Lapses in the Person Radar: Attentional Traits Predict Difficulty in Interpersonal Distancing.” PsyArXiv. May 11. doi:10.31234/osf.io/2yrfj

Abstract: Within the psychological literature and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the regulation of interpersonal distance has typically been viewed as a voluntary choice, with implications for public health interventions. Here we highlight that lapses in interpersonal distancing can also occur unintentionally. Using a novel measure across 3 undergraduate samples (total N = 1225) we found that almost all (>97%) participants reported unintentional lapses in maintaining interpersonal distance, with 16% experiencing such lapses frequently. Thirty percent of the variance in these reports was accounted for by attentional traits: Inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive ADHD symptoms jointly predicted difficulties with interpersonal distancing, with the former relationship fully mediated by hyperfocus and spontaneous mind-wandering. The results are consistent with a view of interpersonal distancing as attentionally demanding and hence vulnerable to unintentional lapses due to inattention. We discuss the implications for epidemiology, social cognition and functioning, and design of social spaces.

Sex-differentiated components of sexual morality: Women expressed more moral condemnation of short-term sex, and especially transactional sex-for-money exchanges; sexual infidelity more morally condemned by women than by men

Asao, K., Crosby, C. L., & Buss, D. M. (2022). Sexual morality: Multidimensionality and sex differences. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, May 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000297

Abstract: Despite the increase in the scientific study of morality over the past decade, one important domain remains relatively underexplored—sexual morality. The current article begins to fill this gap by exploring its multidimensionality and testing several evolution-based hypotheses about sex differences in moralizing distinct components of sexual morality, including incest, sexual coercion, sexual infidelity, and short-term mating. Study 1 (N = 920) and Study 2 (N = 543) tested predictions derived from evolutionary psychological hypotheses and used factor analysis to identify seven core factors of sexual morality separately for male and female actors: infidelity, short-term sex, sexual coercion, outgroup sex, long-term mating, same-sex sexuality, and paraphilic sex. Study 3 (N = 380) provided an independent test of the evolution-based hypotheses and factor structure. Results strongly support sex-differentiated predictions about short-term sex, but not sexual coercion or incest (possibly owing to ceiling effects). Discussion centers around sexual morality as a complex domain not readily explained by more domain-general theories of morality and the necessity of comprehensive theories of morality to include sex-differentiated components in their formulations.

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Small differences, but women are also more opposed to incest, sexual coercion, paraphilic sex; more approving of outgroup sex and less disapproving of homosexual sex.

“Meating halfway”: Exploring the attitudes of meat eaters, veg*ns, and occasional meat eaters toward those who eat meat and those who do not eat meat

“Meating halfway”: Exploring the attitudes of meat eaters, veg*ns, and occasional meat eaters toward those who eat meat and those who do not eat meat. Sara Pabian et al. The Journal of Social Psychology, May 10 2022. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224545.2022.2074288

Abstract: Empirical studies have persistently reported negative attitudes of meat eaters toward vegetarians and vegans (veg*ns), but scant attention has been paid to veg*ns’ attitudes toward meat eaters. We aimed to investigate the attitudes of meat eaters and veg*ns from both perspectives. In addition, we explored the attitudes of occasional meat eaters. We performed a cross-sectional study (Study 1) among meat eaters, veg*ns, and occasional meat eaters, as well as a content analysis of publicly available tweets (Study 2). Study 1 (N = 477, Mage = 23.45, SD = 5.91) showed that the attitudes of veg*ns toward meat eaters are significantly more negative compared to the attitudes of meat eaters toward veg*ns, but both were lower than the midpoint on scales measuring negative attitudes toward the other. Study 2 showed that only a small portion (<1%) of tweets (N = 1,328) on meat eating or veg*nism contained signs of negative attitudes. The two studies provide little evidence of the existence of strong negative attitudes.

Keywords: Meat eatersoccasional meat eatersattitudesin-group biasintergroup perception veg*ns

Across cultures, women are much higher than men on fearful personality traits. Why? The sex difference in fear is mediated by that in physical strength.

Physical Strength Partly Explains Sex Differences in Trait Anxiety in Young Americans. Nicholas Kerry, Damian R. Murray. Psychological Science, April 2, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620971298

Abstract: Among the most consistent sex differences to emerge from personality research is that women score higher than men on the Big Five personality trait Neuroticism. However, there are few functionally coherent explanations for this sex difference. The current studies tested whether this sex difference is due, in part, to variation in physical capital. Two preregistered studies (total N = 878 U.S. students) found that sex differences in the anxiety facet of Neuroticism were mediated by variation in physical strength and self-perceived formidability. Study 1 (N = 374) did not find a predicted mediation effect for overall Neuroticism but found a mediation effect for anxiety (the facet of Neuroticism most strongly associated with grip strength). Study 2 (N = 504) predicted and replicated this mediation effect. Further, sex differences in anxiety were serially mediated by grip strength and self-perceived formidability. These findings add to a nascent literature suggesting that differences in physical attributes may partially explain sex differences in personality.

Keywords: anxiety, Neuroticism, personality, sex differences, physical strength, formidability, open data, open materials, preregistered

General Discussion

In two studies, grip strength negatively predicted anxiety, and sex differences in anxiety were serially mediated by grip strength and self-perceived formidability. These findings suggest that some sex-based variation in personality may be partly attributable to variation in physical attributes.

These results suggest the testable hypothesis that other psychological and behavioral sex differences could be partly explained by differences in physical attributes. For example, there is evidence that social dominance and aggression—both of which tend to be higher in men—also covary intrasexually with physical strength (Farrington, 1989; Gallup et al., 2007; Price et al., 2011). Future research might investigate whether these and other psychological sex differences can be partly explained by differences in strength or stature.

Important limitations of this work should be noted. First, within-sex associations between strength and anxiety were small and somewhat inconsistent, and sex still accounted for some variance in anxiety beyond that explained by physical strength. Imperfect measurement of the key variables may have contributed to the small effects observed (see the Supplemental Material). Another possible explanation for the small within-sex effects is that the measures of strength and formidability employed here acted as a proxy for another variable, such as health or attractiveness (which both covary with grip strength; see Gallup & Fink, 2018). Although we cannot rule out this explanation, analyses reported in the Supplemental Material found relationships to be robust when controlling for several potential confounds, including body mass index, age, and a measure of self-perceived attractiveness. Similarly, though, these effects could be explained by a common underlying physiological factor, such as developmental testosterone levels (testosterone levels correlate negatively with anxiety in both sexes; see McHenry et al., 2014). Finally, a key limitation relating to the causal interpretation of these findings is that the mediational models presented here use cross-sectional data and cannot alone demonstrate causality. Thus, although the data here are consistent with the hypothesis that lower physical strength leads to higher anxiety, we cannot rule out alternative causal explanations.

Further, several additional questions remain unanswered. Is the association between strength and anxiety best explained by developmental calibration (i.e., people adapting behaviors to their strengths and weaknesses), genetic pleiotropy (i.e., genes associated with physical formidability also being associated with lower dispositional anxiety; see Lukaszewski & Roney, 2011), or facultative epigenetic processes whereby methylation of genes associated with strength also has consequences for anxiety? And, importantly, will these relationships generalize to other cultures, and would effects be larger for cultures and populations in which formidability is a more functional part of social life? Although these and other questions must be addressed in future research, the studies presented here support the hypothesis that sex differences in anxiety can be partly explained by differences in physical strength and self-perceived formidability. These findings suggest that further work on sex differences in personality may benefit from an increased focus on the role of physical attributes.

Honor cultures research centered almost exclusively on men and physical aggression as a means of reputation defense; present research indicates honor endorsing women also active in reputation maintenance and defense (spreading rumors, social exclusion)

Honor-endorsing women and relational aggression: Evidence for the presence of feminine aggression norms in southern U.S. women. Stephen Foster et al. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 194, August 2022, 111668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111668

Highlights

• Culture of honor research has failed to focus on female-centric aspects of the culture.

• It is expected that women may engage in relationally-aggressive behavior to defend one's reputation.

• Relationally-aggressive reputation defense only emerges when honor-endorsing women do not fulfill honor norms and values.

• Provides first evidence for feminine aggression norms.

Abstract: Research on honor cultures has centered almost exclusively on men and men's use of physical aggression as a means of reputation defense, while tacitly overlooking women's role(s). Across three studies (N = 813), we examined whether honor endorsing women, like men, exhibit aggressive tendencies, albeit in the form of relational aggression. We found that women's honor endorsement predicted greater use of reactive relational aggression (e.g., ignoring and excluding others; Studies 1 and 2), but only among women who felt they were not achieving what it means to be an honorable woman (Study 2). Lastly, we found that women higher in feminine honor endorsement were more supportive of women who relationally aggressed (i.e. spreading rumors, social exclusion) in response to reputation threats (Study 3). Taken together, the present research indicates that honor endorsing women are more active in reputation maintenance and defense than prior work has acknowledged.

Keywords: Culture of honorFeminine normsRelational aggressionAggression

Higher levels of perceived tightness in own jurisdiction were associated with higher levels of mask wearing & handwashing during COVID-19, more endorsement of future policy changes to contain the pandemic, higher reported feelings of responsibility for one’s life

Does State Tightness-Looseness Predict Behavior and Attitudes Early in the COVID-19 Pandemic in the USA? Ashley Gilliam et al. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, March 30, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221221077710

Abstract: We investigated how tightness-looseness, reflecting strictness of social norms, of state of residence in the USA predicts behaviors and attitudes related to COVID-19. Because individual-level tightness may better capture current attitudes during the pandemic, whereas state-level archival measures reflect historical factors, we assessed the extent to which tightness-looseness at both levels predicted adherence to public health guidelines and biases toward outgroups related to COVID-19. In Spring 2020, 544 mTurk participants, primarily from the 13 tightest and 13 loosest states, completed survey questions about health behaviors in response to COVID-19, endorsement of future policy changes, feeling of responsibility for lives, and attitudes toward groups marginalized during the pandemic (i.e., Asians, older adults). State-level results indicated some associations with attitudes toward Asians and older adults, but effects were not robust. Results based on individuals’ ratings of the tightness of their state indicated that higher levels of perceived tightness were associated with higher levels of protective self-reported public health behaviors (e.g., mask wearing, handwashing) during COVID-19, more endorsement of future policy changes to contain the pandemic, higher reported feelings of responsibility for one’s life, and stronger negative attitudes toward Asians. The relations between tightness and health outcomes persisted after controlling for political attitudes and demographics. Thus, individual, more than state, tightness-looseness accounted for some degree of public health behaviors (unique contribution of individual tightness: R2 = .034) and attitudes toward marginalized groups (R2 = .020) early during the COVID-19 pandemic. The implications of these findings for interventions to support behavior change or combat anti-Asian bias are discussed.

Keywords: COVID-19, culture, behavior change, attitudes, outgroup

Hunter-Gatherer Children’s Object Play and Tool Use: An Ethnohistorical Analysis

Hunter-Gatherer Children’s Object Play and Tool Use: An Ethnohistorical Analysis. Sheina Lew-Levy et al. Front. Psychol., May 11 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.824983

Abstract: Learning to use, make, and modify tools is key to our species’ success. Researchers have hypothesized that play with objects may have a foundational role in the ontogeny of tool use and, over evolutionary timescales, in cumulative technological innovation. Yet, there are few systematic studies investigating children’s interactions with objects outside the post-industrialized West. Here, we survey the ethnohistorical record to uncover cross-cultural trends regarding hunter-gatherer children’s use of objects during play and instrumental activities. Our dataset, consisting of 434 observations of children’s toys and tools from 54 hunter-gatherer societies, reveals several salient trends: Most objects in our dataset are used in play. Children readily manufacture their own toys, such as dolls and shelters. Most of the objects that children interact with are constructed from multiple materials. Most of the objects in our dataset are full-sized or miniature versions of adult tools, reflecting learning for adult roles. Children also engage with objects related to child culture, primarily during play. Taken together, our findings show that hunter-gatherer children grow up playing, making, and learning with objects.

Discussion

Learning to make and use tools is central to our species’ success. Many features of object play—including non-functional non-stereotypical actions, and joint social engagement—have been hypothesized to help children efficiently develop physical, cognitive, and social skills needed to make, modify, and use tools (Smith, 1982; Bjorklund and Gardiner, 2011; Bateson and Martin, 2013; Solis et al., 2017). In the present paper, we took an ethnohistorical approach to exploring object play and use in hunter-gatherer societies. In doing so, we help shed light on how objects are incorporated into the everyday lives of children outside the post-industrialized West. In what follows, we relate our findings to current research on play across cultures and discuss emerging research questions.

Most objects in our dataset were used in play. This finding echoes those from observational studies, which show that play makes up a large proportion of hunter-gatherer children’s time budgets, and that children incorporate many objects manufactured by themselves or others, as well as raw materials, into their play (e.g., Boyette, 2016; Froehle et al., 2019; Salali et al., 2019; Lew-Levy et al., 2020a). It is important to note that in some cases, children may engage in activities that are simultaneously playful and instrumental (see also Crittenden, 2016). For example, children may engage in target practice with the goal of improving their hunting skill, even if they do so during a game with peers. Similarly, children engage in instrumental activities in the service of play by making their own toys. Much of this nuance is lost in our coding scheme, partially because we have opted to use binary coding to simplify analyses, and partially because it is often not possible to identify children’s own goals via ethnographer descriptions. Nonetheless, these findings raise the possibility that children may be proficient at using a variety of objects to meet both playful and instrumental goals.

Children were more likely to engage with objects socially during play than during instrumental activities. Such social object play may be an important avenue for observing and imitating others, receiving teaching, learning about cultural norms such as sharing, and for innovating with peers (Bakeman et al., 1990; MacDonald, 2007; Imamura and Akiyama, 2016; Lew-Levy et al., 2017, 2020b,2021). Children were also more likely to use safe objects while in play than while in instrumental activities. Many ethnographers note that children in hunter-gatherer societies are free to play with dangerous objects (see Lancy, 2016 for review). Our findings support these observations: our dataset includes several examples of children engaging in play with risky objects such as knives, canoes, or stilts. Play with risky objects may have developmental benefits by helping children master age-appropriate challenges (Sandseter and Kennair, 2011). Further, play contexts may be created such that risk, including object-related risk, is minimised (Gopnik, 2020). Nonetheless, our findings suggest that children use relatively less risky objects when in play than when engaging in instrumental activities. This may be because some risky objects, such as knives and bows, are more instrumental in nature and thus, might invite more instrumental activities.

We found that many of the objects used by children were full-sized or miniature versions of adult tools, and that a majority of children’s objects were composite in nature, overall reflecting the observed complexity of adult material culture across societies (Boyd et al., 2013; Sterelny, 2021). Miniature or full-sized versions of adult objects may help children learn about adult roles and activities as well as object affordances (Riede et al., 2018). Further, adult objects were more likely to be used during instrumental than play activities, reflecting their functional nature. This finding echoes ethnographic studies which demonstrate that children learn through participation across a range of cultural contexts (Lancy, 2012; Rogoff, 2014; Lew-Levy et al., 2019). In contrast, objects reportedly used by children only such as dolls, figures, and games, were overwhelmingly used in play. Engaging with child culture artifacts during play may facilitate the acquisition of child-specific ecological knowledge (Gallois et al., 2017), the retention of technologies which have been abandoned by adults (Imamura, 2016), and the development of strong social ties with their peers (Corsaro and Eder, 1990). Some objects may facilitate learning about both future adult roles and peer cultures. For example, while they are not scaled-down tools, dolls nonetheless commonly represent babies. By making and playing with dolls, children may simultaneously learn about object affordances, practice adult social roles, and reinterpret adult culture to meet the concerns of their peer world (Corsaro, 1993; Edwards, 2000).

There were no gender differences in objects used in play vs. instrumental activities, reflecting findings from time allocation studies on the topic in hunter-gatherer societies (Boyette, 2016; Lew-Levy et al., 2020a). Boys were more likely to use risky objects, which may echo cross-cultural findings regarding gender differences in risk taking (Apicella et al., 2017). Our results regarding age were imprecise and hence inconclusive, largely because few ethnographers provided enough detail to confidently attribute age categories to object users, resulting in most user ages being categorized as “unknown.” Tentatively, however, our results suggest that children in middle childhood and adolescence (i.e., seven years or over) were more likely to use objects during play and more likely than infants and children in early childhood (i.e., six years or younger) to use risky objects, suggesting that children’s use of objects becomes more varied with age. Note that the increased use of risky objects with age need not signify actual increased risk in object use; this could be an expression of older children having acquired the necessary skill to wield risky objects safely.

Our study has several limitations. We had few observations for precise age categories, limiting our ability to infer developmental trends in object play and use. In the case of object complexity, values were not missing completely at random, but instead are biased toward missing values for girls. Gender differences related to complexity should thus be interpreted cautiously. By focusing on inanimate objects, we have overlooked how children play with babies and animals, the form and learning function of which may share similarities with some forms of object play. The records included within eHRAF reflect biases inherent to the ethnohistoric literature: virtually all ethnographers were adults, and most were men. In addition, all observations were made before the full advent of interest in children as culture-bearers and prior to the emergence of systematic studies in this domain. As a result, many aspects of children’s activities may be less systematically recorded compared to other aspects of culture. In addition, eHRAF is known for its bias toward North America. While it does represent the single best source for comparative cross-cultural analysis, and while we used statistical methods to overcome such biases, the sample’s representativity in the strict sense cannot be claimed. Finally, the present study used binary coding of variables of interest to facilitate analysis and because ethnographer descriptions often lacked the details necessary for more continuous coding (e.g., ratings). We acknowledge that this approach obscures much of the nuance inherent to children’s activities, and indeed, human behavior more generally.

Despite these caveats, our descriptive study points to several new avenues of research which can help further our understanding regarding the learning function of object play across individuals and societies. First, many experimental studies examine how children’s play with raw materials (e.g., clamps, sticks, pipe cleaners) contributes to their ability to modify and recombine these into functional tools. However, these tasks often represent ill-structured problems in the sense that children lack information about the transformations needed to accomplish the desired end goal (Cutting et al., 2011). Our data suggests that in contrast to playing with component pieces, hunter-gatherer children often play with composite objects. By engaging with the end-state first, children may more easily come to understand the functional properties of component pieces, and thus, may more easily apply their knowledge to tool selection and modification tasks (Cutting et al., 2014; Riede et al., 2018). Some experimental studies investigating the learning function for play also focus on children’s solo play with objects. However, our findings suggest that most play with objects occurs socially. Developmental research has long demonstrated that collaborative learning bolsters children’s ability to solve novel tasks (Azmitia, 1988; Perlmutter et al., 1989; Rendell et al., 2011) and their logical reasoning skills (Tomasello et al., 1993; Kruger and Tomasello, 1996). Such socio-cognitive capabilities may also be central to children’s ability to make and innovate tools (Gönül et al., 2019; Lew-Levy et al., 2021). Next, most experimental research on object play focuses on deferred functions related to tool use and tool making skill. However, our findings hint at the possibility that playing with objects may more immediately have a central role in the development and maintenance of peer cultures. Finally, if object play contributes to the development of problem solving skills, then the diversity and complexity of children’s play objects should covary with that of adult toolkits (Riede et al., 2018). Testing this possibility requires careful attention to potential confounds such as environmental risk, population size, raw material availability, and subsistence strategy (Kline and Boyd, 2010; Collard et al., 2013). We are in the process of expanding our dataset to include these variables in the hopes of further investigating how children’s learning through object play contributes to the observed cross-cultural variation in material culture. Such analyses will help shed new light on how object play and play object provisioning may have bolstered technological innovation in the past.

Letters To A Spanish Youngster CCXLI

Letters To A Spanish Youngster CCXLI

[...]

Your Honor of the great fire in the heart,

L'amour, la tendresse, la gratitude que j'ai pour toi,* dear human but also archangelical being, are so big that sometimes I feel "desamparé... sans direction"*.

I remember well my anguish every day after losing sight of You when You were at my company's headquarters, high priestess... The writer said*:

Chaque foi que je te quitte, j'ai une angoisse et un tremblement au fond du coeur. Où es-tu ? Où es-tu, mon amour ? Tu m'attends, n'est-ce pas, comme je t'aatends, avec la même forte et longue fidélité, avec crainte et certitude.

[Every time that I leave you, I have an anguish and feel a tremor at the bottom of my heart. Where are you ? Where are you, my love ? You are waiting for me, aren't you, as I am waiting for you, with the same strong and consistent loyalty, with fear and certainty.]

At times, Tout cela est stupide et n'a aucun sens* (all is stupid and have no sense), dear master and absolute governor. To lose You, to have no access to Your grace, Your Grace, is really unfortunate and hurtful. If only You could write to me! [Vous] ne peux pas savoir le bonheur que m'apporte la chère écriture.* (You cannot know the happiness that the dear writing provides me with.)

You, mystical person of the highest qualities, are so high in the hierarchy of human beings, that I cannot say, as the writer said, "avec toutes nos différences, nous sommes si semblables, si fraternels et si complices (au beau sense du mot)"*. On the contrary, we are really different, and very distant in the cosmic order.

Even with this belief, is it possible que nou pouissons enfin nous appuyer l'un sur l'autre, vraiment ! Il me semble qu'alors il n'y aurait pas de limite à mes forces. Et, pour tout ce que je veux faire, j'ai besoin de forces sans limites (we may finally be able to lean on each other, really! It seems to me that then there would be no limit to my strength. And, for everything I want to do, I need strength with no limits.)*

After re-reading this last paragraph, I think it is applicable to me what Camus wrote, who said to his beloved*:

Tu vois, je suis un incorrigible imbécile. [You see, I am an incorrigible idiot],

:-)

My person of the ҉ incomprehensibly wonderful members, incapable of being grasped with the mind, hard even to look on ҉ ,** despite the years already passed I cannot forget Your divine voice, graceful movements, & treatment of the others.

Of course the memories fade :-( , and have no longer Your sacred words and laughter in a part of my brain from which to recall them with ease, but even so, I feel at times I am right next to that secret temple where encapsulated in gold we Your sad followers could find the vibrations of air that You uttered so much time ago. :-)

Your spiritual attributes were so magical, Your Honor, that at times it seems to me that just with a bit more effort I could recover those air waves stored in the hidden shrine and hear Your voice again, as if time didn't pass.

But what I am saying? Obviously je suis désorienté, bizarrement inapte, incapable de rien faire (I'm disoriented, unfit in an indescribable way, unable to do anything)*. In great part is my not having Your light in my life.

In other part, I am sure that endogenous reasons would make me suffer all the same, even if having everything I needed or wanted. Even if You paid attention to me, my frail nature would be the source of sufferings.

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In the human nature department, I wanted to share with You, my lord, these newspieces... Beyond what is diffcult to know and needs lots of work (learning about our hospital surviving rates for surgery and illnesses), we focus in the easy to process, things like how warm are the nurses, or having hotel-like rooms†:

Abstract: Consumer-driven health care is often heralded as a new quality paradigm in medicine. However, patients-as-consumers face difficulties in judging the quality of their medical treatment. With a sample of 3,000 U.S. hospitals, we find that neither medical quality nor patient survival rates have much impact on patient satisfaction with their hospital. In contrast, patients are very sensitive to the “room and board” aspects of care that are highly visible. Quiet rooms have a larger impact on patient satisfaction than medical quality, and communication with nurses affects satisfaction far more than the hospital-level risk of dying. Hospitality experiences create a halo effect of patient goodwill, while medical excellence and patient safety do not. Moreover, when hospitals face greater competition from other hospitals, patient satisfaction is higher but medical quality is lower. Consumer-driven health care creates pressures for hospitals to be more like hotels. These findings lend broader insight into unintended consequences of marketization.

The second paper, summarized here, tells us that demagogues do not mobilize the unconvinced, but coordinate the already prone to resort to violence‡:

Abstract: Large-scale mobilization is often accompanied by the emergence of demagogic leaders and the circulation of unverified rumors, especially if the mobilization happens in support of violent or disruptive projects. In those circumstances, researchers and commentators frequently explain the mobilization as a result of mass manipulation. Against this view, evolutionary psychologists have provided evidence that human psychology contains mechanisms for avoiding manipulation and new studies suggest that political manipulation attempts are, in general, ineffective. Instead, we can understand decisions to follow demagogic leaders and circulate fringe rumors as attempts to solve a social problem inherent to mobilization processes: The coordination problem. Essentially, these decisions reflect attempts to align the attention of individuals already disposed for conflict.

To close this letter, friend of the beautiful, and the honest, and of what is good, I wish to show You some of what Don Denis of Portugal wrote to his lady. Just a common case of unrequited love֍:

Prazmi a mí, senhor, de morrer,                   [Pláceme a mí, senhor, morir,

e prazm’ ende por vosso mal,                       y pláceme también por vuestro mal,

ca sei que sentiredes qual                            que sé que sentiréis tal

mingua vós, pois ei de fazer,                        mengua vos (pues así lo haré),

ca non perde pouco senhor                          porque no pierde poco la senhor                                      

quando perde tal servidor                             cuando pierde tal servidor

qual perdedes en me perder.                       como el que vos perdéis al perderme.

E con mia mort’ ei eu prazer,                       Y con mi muerte tengo yo placer,                                        

porque sei que vos farei tal                           porque sé que a vos haré tal                                     

mingua qual fez omen leal,                           mengua, como la de un hombre leal,

o máis que podia seer                                  todo lo más que se puede ser

a quen ama, pois morto for,                          por quien se ama, hasta la muerte,

e fostes vós mui sabedor                              porque supisteis vos 

d’ eu por vós atal mort’ aver.                         que yo por vos tal muerte tendría.

E pero que ei de sofrer                                 Y ya que he de sufrir

a morte mui descomunal                              una muerte tan descomunal,

con mia mort’ oimais non m’ én cal,             con mi muerte desde hoy nada me importará,

por quanto vos quero dizer                           y por eso os quiero decir

ca meu serviç’ e meu amor                           que mi servicio y mi amor

seravos d’ escusar peior                               serán a vos de excusar peor

que a min d’ escusar viver.                           que a mí de excusar vivir.

E certo podedes saber                                 Y ciertamente, podéis saber

que pero s’ o meu tempo sal                        que ya que mi tiempo se acaba

per morte, non á ja i al                                  por la muerte, y ya nada importa,

que me non quer’ end’ eu doer,                    y no me quiero de ello doler,

porque a vós farei maior                               porque a vos haré mayor

mingua que fez Nostro Senhor                     mengua que la que hizo Nuestro Señor

de vassal’ a senhor prender.                        cuando a este vasallo arrancó de su senhor.]

(senhor = the lady)

Rien, rien n'a plus de sens pour moi, Your Honor... Je ne sais plus vivre.* Yours faithfully

a. r. ante Su Señoría

--

Notes

* Albert Camus & Maria Casarès's Correspondance. Paris: Gallimard, 2017. Page 109; 109; 103; 97; 96; 92; 92; 92; 89; 98.

** enūma eliš ("When Above," or "The Marduk Exaltation Poem," or "The Babylonian Creation Epic"), tablet I, adapted from the ETANA webpage, digital version at http://www.etana.org/node/581.

† Patients as Consumers in the Market for Medicine: The Halo Effect of Hospitality. Cristobal Young, Xinxiang Chen. Social Forces, soaa007, February 13 2020, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/02/quiet-rooms-have-larger-impact-on.html

‡ The Evolutionary Psychology of Mass Mobilization: How Disinformation and Demagogues Coordinate Rather Than Manipulate. Michael Bang Petersen. Current Opinion in Psychology, February 20 2020. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/02/we-got-psychological-defenses-against.html

Highlights

• Violent mobilization is often attributed to manipulation from, for example, demagogues.

• The human mind contains psychological defenses against manipulation, also in politics.

• Mass mobilization requires that the attention of group members is coordinated.

• Demagogues and disinformation can be explained as tools for achieving coordination.

• Mobilized individuals are predisposed for conflict rather than manipulated into conflict.

֍ Adapted from María Gimena del Rio Riande's Cantigas del rey Don Denis. In "Un libro oscuro. 105 poemas negros". Buenos Aires: Bajo la luna, 2012. https://www.aacademica.org/gimena.delrio.riande/135

In aged mice, the kinds of memory problems common in old age can be reversed, and all it takes is some cerebrospinal fluid harvested from the young

Young CSF restores oligodendrogenesis and memory in aged mice via Fgf17. Tal Iram et al. Nature May 11 2022. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04722-0

Abstract: Recent understanding of how the systemic environment shapes the brain throughout life has led to numerous intervention strategies to slow brain ageing1,2,3. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) makes up the immediate environment of brain cells, providing them with nourishing compounds4,5. We discovered that infusing young CSF directly into aged brains improves memory function. Unbiased transcriptome analysis of the hippocampus identified oligodendrocytes to be most responsive to this rejuvenated CSF environment. We further showed that young CSF boosts oligodendrocyte progenitor cell (OPC) proliferation and differentiation in the aged hippocampus and in primary OPC cultures. Using SLAMseq to metabolically label nascent mRNA, we identified serum response factor (SRF), a transcription factor that drives actin cytoskeleton rearrangement, as a mediator of OPC proliferation following exposure to young CSF. With age, SRF expression decreases in hippocampal OPCs, and the pathway is induced by acute injection with young CSF. We screened for potential SRF activators in CSF and found that fibroblast growth factor 17 (Fgf17) infusion is sufficient to induce OPC proliferation and long-term memory consolidation in aged mice while Fgf17 blockade impairs cognition in young mice. These findings demonstrate the rejuvenating power of young CSF and identify Fgf17 as a key target to restore oligodendrocyte function in the ageing brain.

Popular version, excerpts from Old Mice 'Rejuvenated' With Injections of Brain Fluid From The Young (sciencealert.com), by Jacinta Bowler:

While immortality might forever be out of reach, a long, healthy retirement is the stuff dreams are made of.

To that end, a recent study suggests that the kinds of memory problems common in old age can be reversed, and all it takes is some cerebrospinal fluid harvested from the young. In mice, at least.

If this is sounding a little familiar, you might be thinking of a similar series of studies done back in the mid-2010s, which found that older mice could be generally 'rejuvenated' with the blood of younger animals – both from humans and from mice. The FDA even had to warn people to stop doing it.

This new study instead examined the links between memory and cerebrospinal fluid fluid (CSF), and the results show considerable promise, even providing a mechanism for how it works, and highlighting a potential growth factor that could mimic the results.

"We know that CSF composition changes with age, and, in fact, these changes are used routinely in the clinic to assess brain health and disease biomarkers," Stanford University neurologist Tal Iram told ScienceAlert.

[...]

To investigate, the researchers, led by Iram, took older mice (between 18–22 months old) and gave them light shocks on the foot, at the same time as a tone and flashing light were activated. The mice were then split into groups, and either given young mouse CSF (from animals 10 weeks old) or artificial CSF.

[graphs]

In experiments like this, if the mice 'freeze' when they see the tone and light, it means they're remembering the foot shock, and are preparing for it to happen again.

In this study, three weeks after the foot shocks were conducted (which the team called "memory acquisition"), the researchers tested the mice, finding that the animals that had been given the CSF from young mice showed higher-than-average freezing rates, suggesting they had better memory.

This was followed up by a battery of other experiments to test the theory, which revealed that certain genes (that are different in young-versus-old CSF) could be used to get the same response. In other words, without needing to extract someone's brain fluid.

"When we took a deeper look into gene changes that occurred in the hippocampus (a region associated with memory and aging-related cognitive decline), we found, to our surprise, a strong signature of genes that belong to oligodendrocytes," Iram told ScienceAlert.

"Oligodendrocytes are unique because their progenitors are still present in vast numbers in the aged brain, but they are very slow in responding to cues that promote their differentiation. We found that when they are re-exposed to young CSF, they proliferate and produce more myelin in the hippocampus."

[graphs]

In the mice, an infusion of a fibroblast growth factor called FGF17 was able to boost oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in a similar way to the CSF injection.

Oligodendrocytes are particularly helpful because they produce myelin, a material that covers and insulates neuron fibers. The infusion of FGF17 was itself able to help the older mice increase memory ability.

While this field of research has a very very long way to go before we can use such insights to increase memory in older humans, the findings are exciting [...]