Representing alternatives (self-generated possibilities, hypotheticals, simulations and non-actualities) to actual present experience is itself essential to the hippocampus

Imagination as a fundamental function of the hippocampus. Alison E. Comrie, Loren M. Frank and Kenneth Kay. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. October 31 2022. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0336

Abstract: Imagination is a biological function that is vital to human experience and advanced cognition. Despite this importance, it remains unknown how imagination is realized in the brain. Substantial research focusing on the hippocampus, a brain structure traditionally linked to memory, indicates that firing patterns in spatially tuned neurons can represent previous and upcoming paths in space. This work has generally been interpreted under standard views that the hippocampus implements cognitive abilities primarily related to actual experience, whether in the past (e.g. recollection, consolidation), present (e.g. spatial mapping) or future (e.g. planning). However, relatively recent findings in rodents identify robust patterns of hippocampal firing corresponding to a variety of alternatives to actual experience, in many cases without overt reference to the past, present or future. Given these findings, and others on hippocampal contributions to human imagination, we suggest that a fundamental function of the hippocampus is to generate a wealth of hypothetical experiences and thoughts. Under this view, traditional accounts of hippocampal function in episodic memory and spatial navigation can be understood as particular applications of a more general system for imagination. This view also suggests that the hippocampus contributes to a wider range of cognitive abilities than previously thought.

5. Organization and origin of generative activity in the brain

Having reviewed multiple types of generative neural activity in the hippocampus, we turn to our next question of how generative representations may be organized and ‘parsed’ from representations of actual, ongoing experience. One would expect that neural processes are in place to separate actual and generative activity to avoid their confusion, reminiscent of the subject-level ability to internally distinguish actual from imagined experience [4]. Multiple organizational schemes are possible; different sets of neurons could participate in actual versus generative representations, these representations could occur at different relative times, or some combination of these schemes could take place.

Findings in the rodent hippocampus indicate that neural firing corresponding to actual and generative representations occur at different relative times that are internally determined [105]. Generative representations tend to occur not only with temporal separation from representations of actuality, but also in alignment with underlying network-level activity patterns in the hippocampus that are internally generated: SWRs and the theta rhythm (figure 3a) [68,106]. This results in a serial alternation of neural firing corresponding to actuality and generativity, or a temporal ‘multiplexing’ of actual and generative representations in the brain.

This serial alternation is present across behavioural states. During immobility, neural firing corresponding to the animal's actual present location is maintained for prolonged periods, transiently suppressed during SWR events that typically contain generative replays (tens to hundreds of milliseconds), and then subsequently restored (figure 3) [106,107].

Similarly, during movement and exploratory behaviours, neural firing corresponding to actual present and non-actual alternative experience, or actual and generative representations, occurs serially and in alignment with characteristic phases of the theta rhythm [3,68]. More specifically, early phases characteristically contain representations of the animal's actual past and present experience, while late phases may contain firing corresponding to a variety of hypothetical experiences, resulting in alternating actual and generative representations (examples in figure 2, schematic in figure 3) [68]. Furthermore, there are multiple levels of alternation between actual and generative activity during movement—representations not only alternate within approximately 125 ms theta cycles (e.g. actual and upcoming position), but also across consecutive theta cycles (e.g. alternation of two possible paths ahead; figure 2) [68]. Additional findings are also consistent with the idea that multiple representations can be accommodated in the hippocampus via serial alternation at a sub-second timescale. For instance, studies in the rat hippocampus have reported theta-modulated ‘flickering’ between representations of two environmental contexts, as well as dynamic switching between two spatial reference frames, and separate reverse and forward-ordered location sequences within theta cycles [108–110].

The organization of actual and generative neural firing in the hippocampus also extends to other brain areas, consistent with the engagement of a distributed network in these representations [20,111,112]. Network-level neural activity patterns underlying generative representations can be coherent across the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex during replays and along the theta rhythm, with some reports of concurrent expression of actual versus alternative location representations across both regions [107,113–117]. Additionally, some generative firing events in the hippocampus are not only coordinated with but also predicted by the activity of cells in the medial prefrontal cortex [70]. Numerous other cortical and subcortical areas also share coordinated firing patterns with the hippocampus, during both replay events and the theta rhythm [67,118–125]. Recruitment of a large network of brain areas during activity related to actual and generative experience appears to reflect brain-wide organization, and the question of how firing patterns in other regions across the brain specifically contribute and respond to generative representations in the hippocampus remains an active area of research [113,122].

How might organized generative neural firing patterns in the hippocampus come about through hippocampal and extrahippocampal processes? This remains largely unknown, but some initial points can be made. First, one would expect generative firing patterns, which do not correspond to immediately ongoing circumstances, to arise primarily from internally driven activity patterns, as opposed neural activity driven directly by external stimuli. Consistent with this, generative events are observed during SWRs and in association with the theta rhythm—and both of these activity patterns are generated internally in the brain (spontaneously) rather than elicited by external stimuli [76,126]. More specifically, SWRs spontaneously occur during sleep in the absence of dynamic sensory stimuli and can be intrinsically generated in isolated hippocampal slices in vitro [76]. Hippocampal theta oscillations arise in vivo in coordination with a rhythm generator region, the medial septum, and can also be generated in isolated rodent hippocampus in vitro [127,128]. Furthermore, late phases of theta, during which generative representations tend to occur, are associated with increased recurrent network activity from within the hippocampus, and relatively weaker influence from cortical areas that are thought to provide multimodal information to the hippocampus [63,67,129,130].

While SWR and theta oscillations are understood to be internally generated and are associated with the occurrence of generative neural firing patterns in the hippocampus, the question of how specific groups of neurons (such as place cells with overlapping place fields) are recruited during generative events remains open [131]. In addition to mechanisms that support SWR and theta generation, it is likely the case that input from brain regions beyond the hippocampus have a role in this process [67]. One possibility is that the activation of particular sets of spatially tuned neurons during generative events is guided by extrahippocampal areas, such as the prefrontal cortex, that are also implicated in the default mode network [20]. This possibility is consistent with evidence that cortical activity can predict generative spiking during theta oscillations several cycles in advance, as well as SWR activity during sleep, and would argue against the idea that hippocampal ensembles are activated by exclusively unstructured input [70,125]. Studies focusing on the internal correlates of generative activity within the brain, over external behavioural correlates, may be especially important to understand what determines the generative neural firing patterns observed in the hippocampus.

The segregation of generative and actual representations in the hippocampus also raises the question of whether the hippocampus further differentiates subtypes of generative representations. For example, are events that reflect veridical experience from the past somehow distinguished from those that reflect constructed alternatives, or those that are predictive of future choices? At the level of neural firing, it remains unclear whether or how the hippocampus might separate these possible representations. However, two points of reference in the human literature offer clues that the relevant neural substrates may be outside the hippocampus. First, patients with hippocampal amnesia can entertain thoughts that distinguish the past or the future, despite impairments in episodic memory [132,133]. Additionally, hippocampal activation during mental simulations without temporal placement versus those specifically set in the future result in similar activation levels in the medial temporal lobe and default mode network [132,134]. These results are consistent with the idea that temporally differentiating representations related to the past or the future may not be hippocampally dependent. Second, healthy human subjects can subjectively discriminate internally and externally derived information, an ability known as reality monitoring [135]. Based on functional imaging studies in both healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia who experience hallucinations, reality monitoring is thought to rely primarily on prefrontal cortical networks [112]. By contrast, another study reports that hippocampal activation was similar across cases of true and false recognition memory [136], further suggesting that this ability does not strictly rely on the hippocampus. Although probing reality monitoring in rodents is not straightforward, it would be notable if, for example, frontal cortical firing patterns systematically differed based on the representation of possibilities in the hippocampus that reflected veridical experience versus constructed alternatives. Such a result would be consistent with the idea that the hippocampus alone may not distinguish subcategories of generative events, but that the brain may do so via the engagement of prefrontal circuits.

Looking beyond rodents, it remains an open question as to which patterns of generative activity in the hippocampus are shared across species [137]. On the one hand, SWRs have been observed in a range of vertebrates, as have neural reactivation patterns suggestive of replay [138–144]. In humans, replay and replay-like patterns have also been reported, including activity patterns consistent with reactivating prior experience, as well as inferred sequential activity that is not simply recapitulative [145–149]. By contrast to the ubiquity of SWRs across vertebrates, the theta rhythm appears to be more prominent and continuous in the rodent hippocampus than in various other species [137]. A notable example is the bat hippocampus, which shows network-level activity fluctuations that are not generally rhythmic yet still organize place cell firing according to phase [140,150–153]. This may suggest that actual and generative representations can be organized via temporal multiplexing even in the absence of strong rhythmicity. In nonhuman primates and humans, the hippocampal theta rhythm appears to occur in intermittent bouts and at a lower frequency [140,150–153]. Recently, theta phase coding has also been shown in single cells in human subjects [154,155]. In all, these results indicate some conservation across species of the organization of neural firing with respect to network-level hippocampal activity. More generally, they leave open the possibility that the brains of many species temporally multiplex actual versus generative internal representations.

Conspiracy theories explain distressing events as malevolent actions by powerful groups. Why do people believe in secret plots when other explanations are more probable?

Do Conspiracy Theorists Think Too Much or Too Little? Nadia M. Brashier. Current Opinion in Psychology, October 31 2022, 101504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101504

Abstract: Conspiracy theories explain distressing events as malevolent actions by powerful groups. Why do people believe in secret plots when other explanations are more probable? On the one hand, conspiracy theorists seem to disregard accuracy; they tend to endorse mutually incompatible conspiracies, think intuitively, use heuristics, and hold other irrational beliefs. But by definition, conspiracy theorists reject the mainstream explanation for an event, often in favor of a more complex account. They exhibit a general distrust of others and expend considerable effort to find ‘evidence’ supporting their beliefs. In searching for answers, conspiracy theorists likely expose themselves to misleading information online and overestimate their own knowledge. Understanding when elaboration and cognitive effort might backfire is crucial, as conspiracy beliefs lead to political disengagement, environmental inaction, prejudice, and support for violence.

Keywords: conspiracy beliefscognitive effortheuristicsdeliberationinformation seeking

Modeling Female Sexual Desire

Modeling Female Sexual Desire: An Overview and Commentary. Abigail L. Kohut-Jackson, Johnathan M. Borland and Robert L. Meisel. In Sexual Disorders and Dysfunctions, Ed. Dhastagir Sultan Sheriff, October 25th, 2022. https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/84390

Abstract: Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in women is a condition of low sexual desire that develops over time. Sexual desire normally diminishes over long-term relationships, but is also negatively affected by a demanding lifestyle, poor self-esteem and body image, and loss of intimacy in a relationship. HSDD elevates to a disorder when it is a concern for the woman, arising from conflict with a partner who is interested in a greater frequency of sexual interaction. Two drugs have been marketed (Addyi and Vyleesi) to treat HSDD. Neither drug was originally developed for this purpose, nor is either drug particularly effective. The lack of rational development of drugs to treat sexual disorders in women is due to the mistaken belief that components of female sexuality, such as sexual desire, cannot be effectively modeled in animals. To the contrary, sexual interest, desire, arousal, and reward are measurable aspects of sexual behavior in female rodents. Going forward, basic research using these pre-clinical models should be the starting point for drug development. At the same time, it is not clear that drug development represents the primary therapeutic approach to the problem, with behavioral therapies providing good options for first line of treatments for HSDD.

Keywords: sexual arousalsexual interestsexual rewardhypoactive sexual desire disorderAddyiVyleesianimal modelsmesolimbic systemnucleus accumbensdopamineglutamatemelanocortin receptors

6. Commentary

Nappi [7] presented an expert opinion on the relative lack of drugs to treat female sexual dysfunction. She highlighted the wide range of causes for sexual dysfunction in women, as opposed to simply erectile dysfunction in men. She noted that we still have an incomplete understanding of a woman’s sexuality, which is a prerequisite to developing treatments. She also pointed out that female sexual dysfunction is not a life-threatening clinical problem, so that it is important to balance the clinical effectiveness of drugs with the drug’s safety for the women taking them. Finally, Nappi [7] was concerned with drugs that needed to be taken chronically (e.g., Addyi), and hoped that on-demand medications (e.g., Vyleesi) could be developed. Nappi’s commentary is still very current and meaningful, and rational drug development (in her view) will only be achieved through the cooperative partnership of sexual experts, pharmaceutical companies and medical agencies [7].

6.1 A rational approach to drug development

In Section 4 we described how Addyi and Vyleesi went to clinical trials with remarkably little preclinical data supporting their effects on sexual behavior in animal models. If developing drugs to treat sexual dysfunction in women is an important endeavor, the starting point has to be investment in basic research in both the public and pharmaceutical sectors. This research should be designed to take advantage of current animal models (and develop new animal models [81]) to identify potential molecular targets for therapeutics. This is how drug development begins for essentially all diseases and is only emphasized here because this message clearly was lost in the development and marketing of drugs for HSDD in women.

6.2 Pathologizing the normal

Basson et al. [9] developed a comprehensive model of female sexuality that emphasized the complexity of a woman’s sexual response. At the same time that this model is a valuable contribution to understanding female sexuality, it also highlights the individual variability in sexual responses among women, making it difficult to define what a normal response pattern is. If we cannot define a normal sexual response, then how do we define sexual dysfunction in women [82, 83, 84]. Basson et al. [82] disagree with DSM criteria that quantify numbers of sexual fantasies or whether a woman initiates sexual activity as determinants of sexual dysfunction. They assert that few or no sexual fantasies are not a pathology, nor is it pathological if a woman does not initiate sexual activity.

Based on earlier arguments, Meixel et al. [84] lay out a historical account of the many examples of the drug industry’s marketing strategy of “condition branding”. With condition branding, the drug company creates a medical condition to support the development of a drug. In the example of Addyi, HSDD was elevated in significance as a treatable source of distress as part of the rebranding of the drug to address the disparity in the treatment of sexual dysfunction in men and women. It is disturbing that drug-company supported continuing medical education (CME) modules were developed to “educate” clinicians about this disorder. Meixel et al. [84] note (p. 860):

“Specific marketing messages that we identified within the CME modules included the following:

Hypoactive sexual desire disorder is very common and underdiagnosed.

Hypoactive sexual desire disorder can have a profound effect on quality of life.

Women may not be aware that they are sick or distressed.

Hypoactive sexual desire disorder and distress can have other names.

Clinicians should initiate conversation with their patients about their sexual health.

Clinicians find it difficult to discuss their patients’ sexual concerns and lack training and confidence in the diagnosis of sexual problems.

Clinicians need tools and resources to help them diagnose hypoactive sexual desire disorder.

Simple tools, including the decreased sexual desire screener (DSDS) and Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) can assist clinicians in diagnosing hypoactive sexual desire disorder.

A major barrier to clinicians talking about hypoactive sexual desire disorder/female sexual dysfunction is the lack of medications.

It is problematic that there are medicines available to treat sexual problems for men but not women.”

Key elements in the continuing education modules to be noted here are that the lack (at the time) of medications for HSDD was an impediment for physicians to have discussions about sexual desire with their patients and that women may have HSDD even if they are unaware of it.

6.3 Therapeutic approaches

A starting point for therapy may lie in reassuring women that their sexual feelings are not abnormal and are shared by many other women [82]. This does not alleviate tensions and conflict in a relationship, but can more effectively set the stage for other therapeutic approaches. For example, changing a women’s view of herself can aid in communication with her partner about her sexuality to alleviate interpersonal conflicts [82]. Knowing that her feelings are normal and shared will boost self-esteem and relieve personal insecurities, both of which are barriers to promoting relationship satisfaction and feeling sexually desirable. This is clearly a simplistic approach that in isolation will not be sufficient for most women [85]. Still, this is an important component of any therapeutic plan.

Given that fatigue is a key factor underlying low sexual desire in women, approaches to reduce lifestyle stress and fatigue may be helpful. Mindfulness strategies can be helpful in this regard [86, 87, 88, 89] and have the advantage of being easy to apply and are inexpensive. Presumably other lifestyle approaches may also be beneficial when HSDD results from these types of life events.

Cognitive processes impact HSDD when women view their own behavior, rather than relationship issues, as central to their levels of sexual desire. A rather thorough review [90] supports a role of cognitive behavioral therapies in treating women with HSDD. The goals of these approaches are straightforward, aiming to increasing the rewarding experiences for women and improve relationships through cognitive restructuring and communication. As with mindfulness strategies, cognitive behavioral therapy can be conducted through online training as well as in person.

Drugs should be a last line of treatment [2, 91], and used perhaps in conjunction with behavioral therapies. The worry with drug therapies is that they necessarily carry side effects that vary in severity. This is unavoidable with any compound that affects neurotransmission, as there will be direct and indirect effects on chemical transmission that are spread throughout the central nervous system, beyond the specific circuits targeting the behaviors in question [36].

Today’s Older Adults Are Cognitively Fitter Than Older Adults Were 20 Years Ago, but When and How They Decline Is No Different Than in the Past

Today’s Older Adults Are Cognitively Fitter Than Older Adults Were 20 Years Ago, but When and How They Decline Is No Different Than in the Past. Denis Gerstorf et al. Psychological Science, October 25, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221118541

Abstract: History-graded increases in older adults’ levels of cognitive performance are well documented, but little is known about historical shifts in within-person change: cognitive decline and onset of decline. We combined harmonized perceptual-motor speed data from independent samples recruited in 1990 and 2010 to obtain 2,008 age-matched longitudinal observations (M = 78 years, 50% women) from 228 participants in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) and 583 participants in the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II). We used nonlinear growth models that orthogonalized within- and between-person age effects and controlled for retest effects. At age 78, the later-born BASE-II cohort substantially outperformed the earlier-born BASE cohort (d = 1.20; 25 years of age difference). Age trajectories, however, were parallel, and there was no evidence of cohort differences in the amount or rate of decline and the onset of decline. Cognitive functioning has shifted to higher levels, but cognitive decline in old age appears to proceed similarly as it did two decades ago.

Discussion

Our findings indicate that later-born older Berliners tested in the 2010s outperformed their earlier-born age peers tested in the 1990s. Contrary to our hypotheses, results showed that later-born older adults did not exhibit shallower declines on perceptual-motor speed or a later onset of decline. The later born cohort’s cognitive performance was shifted upward from the earlier-born cohort’s, but trajectories of cognitive aging were parallel.

Historical change in cognitive performance

Consistent with the Flynn effect (Pietschnig & Voracek, 2015), results from our carefully matched longitudinal data obtained from same-aged older adults tested two decades apart provide more evidence of historical change in levels of performance. The effect size (d = 1.20) is striking and even larger than that obtained in our earlier time-lagged cross-sectional analysis of a subset of participants (Gerstorf et al., 2015: d = 0.85). This constitutes one more set of evidence that cultural changes over the last 30 years, including better access to individual resources (e.g., quantity and quality of education) and innovations in science and technology (e.g., advances in medicine and nutrition; Drewelies et al., 2019), have contributed to improved cognitive performance in old age. Future work should detail how the many different mechanisms that drive improvements in unique and specific resource constellations can further improve cognitive functioning (and productivity) of older adults.

Are old-age cognitive declines today shallower or postponed to later ages?

Our results parallel those of studies that did not find history-graded improvements in cognitive aging trajectories (e.g., Brailean et al., 2018) but differ from studies that had found such improvements (e.g., Dodge et al., 2014). Beyond similarities in the calendar years participants were born and tested, the discrepant findings may result from country-level differences in health care and differences in the studies’ measurement and analysis procedures.

In the 1990s, studies had documented that elevated blood pressure in midlife (rather than old age) is predictive of steeper cognitive declines in old age (Launer et al., 1995). Since then, widespread prescription and use of effective anti-hypertensive medication may have weakened those links. However, implementation in Germany occurred about a decade later than in the United States and other nations (Wolf-Maier et al., 2003). Consequently, our later-born older Berliners may have already been too old to have benefitted from widespread changes in delivery of health care. Back when this generation of older adults was in midlife, blood pressure treatment had not yet improved (Koenig et al., 2018). Going forward, cross-national studies can be used to test hypotheses about long-latency treatment effects of midlife blood pressure for cognitive decline in old age.

Interestingly, studies that reported cohort differences in rates of cognitive decline either did not include perceptual speed measures (Dodge et al., 2017 and Gerstorf et al., 2011: reasoning, verbal meaning, and memory), did not find cohort effects on perceptual speed measures (but on verbal fluency and working memory; Grasset et al., 2018), or found that cohort differences in perceptual speed measures were smaller than for other measures (executive functions; Dodge et al., 2014). Although measures of perceptual speed capture age-related declines well, they may not be very sensitive to history-graded changes in decline. More systematic charting of how cohort differences manifest across a wider set of aging-sensitive (e.g., memory) and more aging-resilient (e.g., crystallized) abilities is needed.

Our analytic approach also differed from approaches used in other studies. The nonlinear growth-modeling framework allowed us to account for a variety of potential confounds. First, the observation-level age matching between BASE and BASE-II samples drawn from the same underlying population provided a strong foundation for testing differences between same-age observations obtained from different cohorts. Second, we modeled and accounted for retest effects that often emerge with repeated test taking. Third, our model explicitly separated between-person from within-person age effects (age gradients vs. intraindividual change), allowing for more precise testing of hypotheses about history-graded shifts in cognitive aging—a distinctly intraindividual process.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to directly test cohort differences in the age of onset of cognitive decline. Contrary to the cognitive-reserve hypothesis, results showed no evidence for a shift in the onset of decline. However, this finding is consistent with both the preserved-differentiation perspective (Salthouse, 2006), by which level differences established in early life are maintained and carried forward into old age, and recent meta-analyses showing that differences in education have substantial effects on levels of cognitive functioning but null effects on rates of cognitive aging (Lövdén et al., 2020) or brain aging (Nyberg et al., 2021). It seems that history-graded improvements resulting from early-life education, cognitive stimulation, and health care persist into old age, but not because aging processes have been any kinder.

Limitations and future directions

Several limitations in our design and sample must also be noted. A time window of two decades may suffice to identify historical change in levels of perceptual-motor speed but may not be long enough to identify historical change in key features of cognitive aging trajectories. Further, because our assessments were obtained only in old age, we were unable to disentangle late-life processes from those unfolding during early life and mid-life. With the Flynn effect reversing among young men (Bratsberg & Rogeberg, 2018), future research should systematically examine how history-graded changes may proceed differentially throughout life.

Participants were drawn from one geographical region and represent a positively selected population segment. One key question is whether our findings apply to resource-poor population segments. Conceptual perspectives on manufactured survival (Olshansky & Carnes, 2019) suggest that some older adults today carry disease burdens longer than did older adults in the past. Future research should carefully examine whether cohort differences in decline emerge in more diverse samples and are moderated by access to resources.

Partisanship and the trolley problem: Partisan willingness to sacrifice members of the other party

Partisanship and the trolley problem: Partisan willingness to sacrifice members of the other party. Michael Barber and Ryan Davis. Research & Politics, October 28, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680221137143

Abstract: Do partisans view members of the other party as having lower moral status? While research shows that partisans view the out-group quite poorly, we show that affective polarization extends to expressing a willingness to sacrifice an out-partisan’s life. We report the first study to consider partisanship in the classic “trolley problem” in which respondents are asked whether they would sacrifice an individual’s life in order to save the life of five individuals. We explore this issue with a nationally representative survey experiment in the United States, inquiring about politicized variants of the trolley problem case. First, we vary the political affiliations of both the group of five (to be saved by turning the trolley) and the single individual (to be sacrificed by turning the trolley). We find that individuals are less willing to sacrifice a co-partisan for the sake of a group of out-partisans. These findings go beyond earlier work by suggesting that partisans not only hold negative attitudes and judgments toward political out-groups but also they will at least signal approval of differing moral treatment. We take stock of how these results bear on normative questions in democratic theory.

Discussion

Our findings offer evidence that partisan loyalties do extend to moral judgments. Negative partisan attitudes appear reactive—directed toward opposing partisans themselves, rather than merely targeting circumstances of inter-partisan interaction. Finally, these attitudes appear quite serious. People treat out-partisans comparably to other dehumanized and denigrated groups. Partiality to co-partisans cannot explain the comparison between out-partisans and the most extreme outgroups we considered. Congruent with other findings affirming the pervasiveness of negative partisanship, our results appear driven at least in part by negative attitudes toward political opponents. In our case, these negative attitudes include not only affect but also the judgment (at least, the expressed judgment) that out-partisans occupy a lower moral status.

Our result considers the total effect of partisan identity. Because stereotypes about opposing partisans are unreliable (Ahler and Sood, 2018) and negative affect may be partly driven by partisan misperception (Lees and Cikara, 2021), further work would be needed to determine how much the result results from partisanship alone—independent of overlapping identity categories.

Partisan violence is not a new phenomenon in American politics (e.g., Kalmoe (2020)). What, if anything, might justify political violence (or threats of such violence) is, of course, a further normative question. At the outset, we noted a normative aspiration to civic friendship as an ideal of shared citizenship. Our results tend toward pessimism about this normative ideal. There is little indication that partisans invest much positive value in shared citizenship. The idea that co-citizens, even of opposing political tribes, share a common project of ruling together, and further that this common project gives them special obligations to each other, is absent from our picture (Scheffler, 2010; Kolodny, 2014). Insofar as they require that opposing partisans share a valuing relationship (Scheffler, 2005; Rawls, 2005; Viehoff, 2014), normative theories of citizenship look untethered from political reality.

However, other normative theorists affirm a distinctive normative value to partisan attachment. These theorists see partisanship as an expression of a political commitment that makes ongoing political action possible (Ypi, 2016). Our results offer grounds for a more sanguine perspective on this value; however, our findings also offer a cautionary note for proponents of partisan loyalty. Such bonds appear not to be constituted merely by partiality to one’s political allies or ideas. They include, as well, a willingness to compare opponents with disliked and even reviled groups. This may extend to seeing them as less deserving of moral concern. The partisan ideal may be one about which one might be appropriately cautious—and not only when approaching a trolley crossing.

As expected, women denigratory posts derogate women’s sexuality, personality, and mothering qualities, but also found derogations about women’s resource extraction, mate poaching, and substance use

She’s a Gold-Digger, Bad Mom, and Drug-Using Floozy: Women’s Rivalry Gets “Dirty.” Maryanne L. Fisher, Mackenzie Zinck, Jaedan Link, Jessica Savoie & Arianna Conrod. Evolutionary Psychological Science, Oct 28 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-022-00339-8

Abstract: Gossip is an inherent part of human sociality and can be used to manipulate other’s reputations. Women’s reputations in particular are the subject of derogatory gossip, and are more vulnerable, compared to men’s reputations (Hess & Hagen, 2002, 2006; Reynolds et al., 2018). Here, we explore how women’s reputations are presented via anonymous posts on the gossip website, The Dirty. Using a qualitative analysis, trained blind coders performed thematic analysis of 25 posts about women for each of the five most populous cities in Canada and the USA (N = 250). We support our prediction that posts derogate women’s sexuality, personality, and mothering qualities, but also found derogations about women’s resource extraction, mate poaching, and substance use. As well, posts often contained a direct warning about associating with the woman. Sexuality was the most commonly mentioned aspect, followed by personality, and warnings, while resource extraction, mate poaching, and substance use were equally derogated, and mothering qualities least mentioned. We review these findings in light of women’s intrasexual mating competition and the importance of women’s reputations.

The Simbari people & their semen ingestion practices

Simbari people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simbari_people

As of today, the article says:

The Simbari people (also known as the Simbari Anga,^[1] called Sambia by Herdt^[2]) are a tribe of mountain-dwelling, hunting and horticultural people who inhabit the fringes of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, and are extensively described by the American anthropologist Gilbert Herdt.^[3][4] The Simbari – a pseudonym created by Herdt himself – are known by cultural anthropologists for their acts of "ritualised homosexuality" and semen ingestion practices with pubescent boys. In his studies of the Simbari, Herdt describes the people in light of their sexual culture and how their practices shape the masculinity of adolescent Simbari boys.^[3]

Video: Sambia Tribe of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific's have a weird and strange Initiation of boys to manhood.

But things changed... From the same article above:

Modernisation

In 2006, Gilbert Herdt updated his studies of the Simbari with the publication of The Simbari: Ritual, Sexuality, and Change in Papua New Guinea. He noted that a sexual revolution had overtaken the Simbari in the previous decade. "To go from absolute gender segregation and arranged marriages, with universal ritual initiation that controlled sexual and gender development and imposed the radical practice of boy-insemination, to abandoning initiation, seeing adolescent boys and girls kiss and hold hands in public, arranging their own marriages, and building square houses with one bed for the newlyweds, as the Simbari have done, is revolutionary."^[9]

Personality Traits of Sex Workers: higher scores of conscientiousness, openness, & Machiavellianism; earlier age of first menarche, earlier age of first drug use

Personality Traits of Sex Workers. John E. Edlund, Zachary Carter & Nathaly Cabrera. Sexuality & Culture, Sep 29 2022. https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-022-10021-7

Abstract: Although numerous studies have looked at what lay people think of sex workers, comparatively few studies have directly looked at the sex workers themselves. The current study compared a cohort of predominantly female sex workers with a matched control across several personality constructs (including the Big Five, the Dark Triad, and Life History). Some of the observed differences in personality included higher scores of conscientiousness and higher scores of openness to experience in the sex worker group. The sex worker group also showed higher scores in machiavellianism. A variety of indicators of a faster Life History Strategy were also found in the sex worker cohort including an earlier age of first menarche and age of first drug use.

 

Results revealed negative attitudes toward civil liberties among leftist participants, with left-wing self-identification, radical-cultural feminism and left-wing authoritarianism negatively predicting support for civil liberties

Attitudes Toward Civil Liberties and Rights Among Politically Charged Online Groups. Angelo Fasce and Diego Avendaño. Volume 53, Issue 4, on-line October 27, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000496

Abstract: Civil liberties and rights such as freedom of expression, press, thought, religion, association, lifestyle, and equality against the law are being subjected to controversies in Western countries. We developed two hypotheses aimed at explaining divergent attitudes toward civil liberties among politically charged online communities on each side of the political spectrum. A study using a cross-sectional sample of social media users (N = 902) suggests that, as expected by our hypotheses, support for civil liberties tend to be higher among online groups of rightists – with economic conservatism being the only direct positive predictor and left-wing authoritarianism being a strong negative predictor. These results are discussed in relation to polarization over civil liberties and perceived power imbalances between online groups.

Authors saw "a general preference for products made by women over products made by men"

Made by her vs. him: Gender influences in product preferences and the role of individual action efficacy in restoring social equalities. Benedikt Schnurr,Georgios Halkias. Journal of Consumer Psychology, October 17 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1327

Abstract: In response to the growing standardization and impersonalization of the market—side effects of new technology and business automation—consumers increasingly seek more personized purchase experiences, such as buying products directly from the producer. While extant literature has documented the positive effects of personizing market offerings, there is surprisingly little insight about whether knowing who made a product influences consumers' product preferences. We aim to fill this gap by focusing on the critical role of the producer's gender. In 13 studies, including field and online experiments (ntotal = 2978), we observe a general preference for products made by women over products made by men, with female consumers consistently showing a strong preference for products made by women and male consumers showing no systematic preference for either product. We find that this difference between female and male consumers' product preferences occurs because female consumers, in relation to male consumers, hold stronger action efficacy beliefs—beliefs that their individual purchase choices can contribute to restoring gender equalities in business.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Thirteen experimental studies, employing different sample populations, different stimulus products, and different study designs suggest that the producer's gender plays an important role in shaping consumers' product preferences. Studies 1–5 establish this phenomenon, demonstrating that female consumers prefer products made by women, while male consumers display no preference between products from producers of a different gender. We hypothesized that this relative difference in preference for products made by women (vs. men) occurs because female, in relation to male, consumers hold higher action efficacy beliefs—beliefs that their product choices can meaningfully contribute against gender inequalities in business. Study 6 offers support for this account while Studies 7A to 7C provide further empirical evidence, indicating that buying conditions and/or consumer perceptions that minimize the relevance of individual purchase decisions for restoring gender equalities decrease the influence of the producer's gender on consumers' product preferences. Finally, Studies 8 and 8 S suggest that action efficacy beliefs explain the discrepancy between female and male consumers' preferences for products made by women (vs. men) beyond perceived manufacturing expertise and judgments of consumers' self-congruence with the product choice. In sum, while we acknowledge that, as with many real-life phenomena, the effect of producer gender on female versus male consumers' product preference is likely multiply determined, we find strong and diverse empirical evidence suggesting that female (vs. male) consumers' stronger preference for products made by women can be explained by a systematic asymmetry in action efficacy beliefs.

Theoretical implications

First, our findings are directly relevant to the growing literature on market personization (van Osselaer et al., 2020). While extant literature has been mainly studying the potential benefits of personized market offerings (Fuchs et al., 2021; Kulow et al., 2021), we shift the focus on whether knowing who made the product can influence consumer behavior. In this context, we investigate consumers' preferences for products made by women versus men. Such gender influences are not straightforward, especially considering that female and male consumers may be differentially affected by producers' gender. The direction of the anticipated effects seems rather unclear to determine a priori, as different theoretical lenses seem to suggest different patterns of results. Acknowledging this theoretical pluralism, our studies identify the best fitting theoretical paradigm to understand the phenomenon at hand and, in doing so, reveal that egalitarian sentiments—driving forces against social inequality—affect seemingly trivial and disconnected decisions, such as whether to buy a product made by a woman or a product made by a man.

Second, in explaining the observed differences between female and male consumers' preferences for products made by women (vs. men), we bring forward the notion of action efficacy beliefs which we defined as the belief that engaging in a particular action (such as making a particular product choice) can effectively contribute toward achieving a collective goal. Action efficacy beliefs are conceptually different from previously investigated forms of efficacy which refer to whether individuals or groups are capable of performing actions to achieve certain individual or collective goals (Bandura, 1977; Gibson et al., 2000; Prussia & Kinicki, 1996; van Zomeren et al., 2013; Yaakobi, 2018). Thus, unlike most previous research focusing on individuals' or groups' capabilities in performing actions, action efficacy concerns the belief that individual actions can effectively bring about certain goals; irrespective of people's general motivation to achieve these goals. Our theoretical explanation rests on the idea that perceived action efficacy is elevated when identity threats are more psychologically proximal to the individual. This proposition resonates with recent research indicating that self-relevant threat strongly motivates individuals to counteract (Ward & Broniarczyk, 2011) and also draws from work on altruistic behavior suggesting that people are generally more sensitive to inequalities that disadvantage, as opposed to benefit, themselves (Silk & House, 2011). Thus, given that women represent an underprivileged group in business (England et al., 2020; International Labour Organization, 2019), female, as opposed to male, consumers should weigh the potential contribution of their individual purchase decisions more heavily. In line with this, we find a clear relative difference in that female consumers more strongly believe that buying products made by women (action) can contribute to restoring gender equality in business (goal). Overall, our findings contribute to research on efficacy perceptions by emphasizing the action as the point of reference and suggesting that linking a very specific, individual action to a broader collective goal can motivate behavior.

Third, our research contributes to recent work on how social and economic inequality affects consumer behavior (Hagerty & Barasz, 2020; Ordabayeva & Chandon, 2011; Walasek et al., 2018; Winterich & Zhang, 2014). The findings suggest that recognizing gender discrimination against women in business and being intrinsically motivated to restore gender equality are necessary attributes, yet not sufficient on their own to drive restorative behavior. The extent to which consumers meaningfully link the means (purchase choice) to an end (social change) seems critical in driving behavior accordingly.

Finally, our work contributes to the recent debate about the deductive paradigm that dominates research in consumer behavior (Janiszewski & van Osselaer, 2021). We avoided forcing our investigation into a strictly deductive narrative, and instead adopted a more flexible paradigm, combining exploratory and confirmatory empirical findings, which enabled us to identify several theoretical and methodological nuances pertinent to the phenomenon at hand. Our investigation critically reflected how gender influences in consumers' product choices could unfold under different theoretical lenses. Inductively, we drew on a series of studies and revisited our theorizing in light of the empirical data, identifying egalitarianism as the paradigm best describing the observed effects. Deductively, we then outlined a formal theoretical account which we tested across multiple confirmatory studies. We hope that our approach can motivate other scholars to adopt open and more flexible practices in developing and reporting their research projects.

Practical implications

Our findings suggest that female producers selling their products on electronic platforms, such as Etsy, or other media, may gain relative benefits over their male competitors. Specifically targeting potential female buyers seems to be an overall effective strategy to secure sales against male competitors. To do so, female producers should communicate and emphasize their gender to potential buyers. For example, female producers may use their actual name (in case their name is identifiable as female), a shop name implying that products are made by a woman (e.g., “Sarah's Accessories”), and pictures that identify them as women. Female producers can also highlight their gender in personal communication with prospective buyers or their shop description (e.g., “Hi! This is Sarah. I make these bags.”).

The managers of such electronic platforms and marketplaces can also utilize our findings in boosting sales by promoting products made by women. For instance, managers can encourage prospective customers by reinforcing action efficacy beliefs, especially among male customers, using relevant prompts (e.g., “Promote women in business. Your choice matters!” or “Support women in business. Every penny counts!”). Another way to motivate action efficacy beliefs might also be to highlight stories of successful female producers such as Amy Yee, who started selling refurbished vintage clothes on Etsy in 2012 and now owns several stores in New York (Brucculieri, 2018). Consumers are increasingly looking for ways to make an impact through their consumption choices (Haller et al., 2019). In this context, our findings imply that electronic marketplaces can benefit from leveraging the societal contribution of their business.

Finally, our research provides policymakers with important insights on how to close the gap between consumers' beliefs about social inequality and their corresponding actions. Our findings suggest that even when consumers recognize that women face gender discrimination in business and even when consumers are motivated to change respective gender inequalities, whether or not they align their actions accordingly depends on the perceived efficacy of those actions. Our findings suggest that policymakers should educate consumers about the potential impact of their individual product choices and deflect “drop in the ocean” perceptions. Broadly speaking, policy interventions can promote socially responsible consumption behavior by acknowledging social anomalies and by connecting individual responsibility with the collective good, emphasizing that seemingly trivial actions can meaningfully contribute to social change.

Future research opportunities

Producer characteristics

Our work offers fruitful ground to explore the broader nomological network in which the observed effects are expected to unfold as well as to identify additional mechanisms underlying these influences. For instance, it may be that women producers are perceived as more caring and considerate by female, but not male, buyers and, thus, be differentially preferred. Future studies might test whether such beliefs can explain the documented differences in preferences for products made by women (vs. men) between female and male consumers. Scholars can also extend this work by looking at demographic characteristics other than gender. Would consumers belonging (vs. not belonging) to an ethnic minority prefer products made by producers from ethnic minorities? Or would they opt for products offered by ethnic majorities as part of their acculturation process? Unlike in our study, where essentially two social categories (females and males) are involved, power and status distribution across several disadvantaged groups (i.e., multiple ethnic minorities) might suppress action efficacy beliefs and not sufficiently encourage support for a specific minority group. That said, it may be that such social categorizations (i.e., that involve imbalance across multiple categories) trigger antagonistic feelings against the dominant, high-status group.

Product characteristics

Although we varied product characteristics other than the producer gender in several of our studies (e.g., design, price, star ratings), the relevant variations were counterbalanced across the producer gender conditions. We acknowledge that systematic differences in these characteristics may influence the results and, thus, warrant further investigation. For example, it may be that consumers find themselves in a situation where they need to make a trade-off between a product made by a woman versus a man with the latter being of higher quality. Moreover, while we found that women and men are perceived to be equally skilled in producing the kind of products we used in our studies, some products are stereotypically considered men's products, such as handmade tools and furniture. Would female consumers still prefer the product made by a woman or would they sacrifice the collective good in the face of individual interest? Consistent with prior work on altruistic behavior (Silk & House, 2011), our findings imply that prosocial consumer behavior is more driven by concerns for the welfare of others and less by individualistic concerns and self-interest. However, more research is necessary to explicitly account for the intersection between self-centered and altruistic motives in consumers' product choices.

Consumer characteristics

Future research could also explore whether the observed discrepancy in preferences for products made by women (vs. men) between female and male consumers is explained by differences in self-verification tendencies. One could argue that being a member of a disadvantaged social group leads female consumers to have a stronger desire for seeking self-verifying product options (Chen et al., 2004; Stuppy et al., 2020). Consistent with recent work by Stuppy et al. (2020), researchers could employ verbalization tasks about choices between products made by women (vs. men) and subsequently explore response protocols to identify whether decision making is guided by a desire to confirm their self-views.

Future research should also consider our findings in more idiosyncratic consumer segments. Our work rests on the assumption that egalitarianism, and gender equality, in particular, are shared beliefs among members of society. In this context, we considered individuals' sense of own gender (all studies), gender identification strength (Study 6), female discrimination beliefs (Study 7B), and social change motivation (Study 7C). Importantly, our results show that regardless of any relative differences, both female and male consumers hold rather strong beliefs that women are discriminated against in business (Study 7B) and are rather highly motivated in restoring gender equalities in business (Study 7C). Nonetheless, there might be a specific segment of—both female and male—consumers characterized by a particularly high social dominance orientation (Sidanius et al., 1994). Among those consumers, overall preference for products made by men might increase, with female consumers showing less preference for products made by women and male consumers showing a higher preference for products made by men. Likewise, we cannot exclude the possibility that there may be a specific segment of malevolent women who—possibly driven by feelings of envy—would choose products made by men over products made by women. Although envious and ill-intentioned feelings do not reflect a general behavioral tendency, it may be that in contexts characterized by increased competition for limited resources, anti-social or anti-egalitarian behaviors can be observed. On the other hand, there may be a particular set of male consumers who hold strong enough action efficacy beliefs to prefer products made by women over products made by men. Witnessing discrimination against (close) female coworkers, for example, or having friends tell them about their experiences of gender discrimination may make the issue more psychologically proximal to men, increasing their action efficacy beliefs.

On a broader scale, our investigation is limited to Western (predominantly U.S.) consumers segments and does not apply to cultures, political systems, and religions subscribing to fundamental differences in the role men and women play in human society (Inglehart et al., 2002; Poushter & Fetterolf, 2019). Drawing on Studies 7B and 7C, we would anticipate that the general preference for products made by women is less pronounced, or even reversed, in socio-cultural contexts where gender equality is not desired or even frowned upon.

Market context

Our investigation focused on one-off purchases and did not consider multiple or repeated purchases. It would certainly be interesting to explore behavioral consistency and wear-out effects. Will the observed pattern of results still materialize when considering second, third, and fourth purchase decisions? Under the assumption that repeated purchases do not change the inherent belief that buying decisions meaningfully contribute to restoring gender equalities in business, one would expect the effect to also hold true or even be reinforced. However, it may also be that the effect fades away with multiple purchases, similar to the attenuation effects found in individuals' support for social issues on social media (Kristofferson et al., 2014).

Finally, future research may investigate whether our findings hold beyond the market for handmade products. We chose to focus our investigation on electronic platforms where individuals sell their self-made products because gender cues are displayed prominently along with the products in this market. However, another peculiarity about this context is that the individual producer is the sole beneficiary of the purchase (besides the platform), which maximizes the potential impact of a purchase for the sellers. The belief that a purchase can contribute to gender equality in business may thus be particularly high in this context. Future studies may explore gender effects on product preferences in other contexts in which information about gender may be known to consumers, such as female-run companies. On the one hand, one could argue that buying from a company with a female (vs. male) CEO may further strengthen this company's position in the marketplace and thereby contribute to gender equality. On the other hand, exposure to a female-run company might suppress perceptions of gender inequality. Most importantly, it is unclear whether buying products from a female-run company predominantly supports women, men (who may also work in the company), or both. Ambiguities in terms of who is being supported would thus confound with individuals' efficacy beliefs that their purchase decisions contribute to restoring gender equality in business.

Chivalry norm has pervasive effects on the behavior of men during their disputes with women: Men make less violent threats/engage in less physical attacks when the adversary is female, even after been physically attacked by her

When men fight with women (versus other men): Limited offending during disputes. Richard B. Felson et al. Criminology, Oct 27 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12324

Abstract: What transpires in a dispute, even a violent dispute, is affected by the tendency for adversaries to engage in “limited offending.” We focus on one restraint: the tendency of men to limit their aggression in their disputes with women. Analyses are based on an incident-level survey about interpersonal disputes administered to 503 men who are incarcerated and 220 men who had never been incarcerated. Using multinomial and logistic regression models, we examined the extent to which an adversary's gender predicted dispute-related behaviors. The evidence suggests that the chivalry norm has pervasive effects on the behavior of men during their disputes with women. Men are more likely to engage in remedial actions (e.g., apologies) when their adversary is a woman, as opposed to another man. In addition, men are less likely to make violent threats and engage in physical attacks when their adversary is a woman, even after they have themselves been physically attacked. When men are violent, they are less likely to injure a woman than a man. However, the chivalry norm does not inhibit verbal aggression in these disputes: men are just as likely to engage in verbal attacks and nonviolent threats when the adversary is a woman.

The Oath Keepers' national organization is unusual among groups conducting political violence in that they seem to behave as a business

Klinenberg, Danny, Selling Violent Extremism (October 5, 2022). SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4239242

Abstract: The Oath Keepers' national organization is unusual among groups conducting political violence in that they seem to behave as a business. Using leaked membership data, internal chat forums and publicly available articles posted to their website, I show that, unlike other far-right organizations, such as the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers do not organize as a club. Rather, its behavior is better explained as a firm that adjusts the price of membership over time to maximize profit. I then estimate the Oath Keepers' price elasticity of demand for new membership using five membership sales between 2014 and 2018. I find the organization's demand is highly sensitive to changes in price. These results imply that political violence can be motivated by nonideological entrepreneurs maximizing profits under current legal institutions -- a chilling conclusion.

Keywords: Extremism, Applied microeconomics

JEL A10