Children distributed fewer rewards to high performers who were motivated by the pursuit of profit

The profit motive: Implications for children’s reasoning about merit-based resource distribution. Shuai Shao, Jingrong Huang, Li Zhao, Gail D. Heyman. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Volume 226, February 2023, 105563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105563

Highlights

• Judgments about how to reward high performers were examined among 6- to 11-year-olds.

• Intrinsically-motivated performers were compared to performers motivated by profit.

• Participants distributed less to the high performers who were motived by profit.

• With age, the distributions were increasingly sensitive to the motive information.

• Wariness of individuals who have a profit motive may have its origins in childhood.

Abstract: How to distribute resources in a fair way is a fundamental source of conflict in human societies. A central dilemma that people begin to grapple with during childhood is the extent to which individuals should be rewarded based on merit at the expense of equality. The current study examined children’s reasoning about this dilemma by testing whether they are sensitive to information about the motives of highly productive people when determining whether they should receive extra compensation. Across two studies, children (6- to 11-year-olds, total N = 143) judged high performers to be less deserving of extra resources when they were motivated by profit rather than being intrinsically motivated, and this pattern was more pronounced among the older children. The findings demonstrate that, with age, children increasingly consider motives when deciding whether productivity should be rewarded and that the tendency of adults to view profit motives as problematic has origins during childhood.

Keywords: Profit motiveUlterior motivesIntrinsic motivationExtrinsic motivationResource allocation

General discussion

The current research examined the effects of motives for performance on children’s judgments about the extent to which people should be rewarded based on merit. In addressing this question, we hypothesized that high performers motivated by profit would be seen as less worthy of extra rewards than intrinsically motivated high performers. We found evidence for this systematic tendency by 7 years of age in Study 1, and it was highly robust among 10- and 11-year-olds in both studies. These results show for the first time that information about ulterior motives can have implications for children’s merit-based distribution decisions.

Notably, older children in Study 2 tended to preferentially reward intrinsically motivated high performers over profit-motived high performers even when they had the option to reward both equally. We also found evidence that older children thought that profit-motived high performers should be given no extra rewards at all (Study 2) or even should be penalized (Study 1) relative to typical performers. This provides the first evidence that there may be a profit motive penalty that erases any notion that merit should be rewarded.

Our findings of a profit motive penalty are similar to anti-profit beliefs that have been observed among adults. For example, Bhattacharjee and colleagues (2017) found that profit-seeking businesses were viewed as harmful and immoral even when they were able to bring about salient social benefits. Our results suggest that children showed a similar pattern of reasoning by as young as 7 years, as indicated by the findings of Study 1 in which profit-driven high performers were rewarded less than typical performers despite their higher level of contribution to the class.

Our findings of age-related change are in line with the developmental research showing age-related changes in reasoning about ulterior motives. For example, Heyman and colleagues (2014) found that when judging people’s prosocial behaviors, 8- to 10-year-olds recognized ulterior motives associated with reputational enhancement, but 6- and 7-year-olds did not. Taken together, these findings suggest that children become increasingly sensitive to the implications of a broad range of ulterior motives during middle childhood and that, with age, children increasingly view individuals who hold such motives as both less altruistic and less worthy of being rewarded.

Our findings contribute to research on intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation given that the profit motive is a form of extrinsic motivation. Previous research in this area has mainly focused on the behavioral consequences of extrinsic rewards and motivations (see Deci et al., 1999, for a review). For example, Ulber and colleagues (2016) showed that rewarding children for their prosocial behaviors attenuated their subsequent costly sharing. Good and Shaw (2022) showed that this distinction could also have evaluative implications; by 6 years of age, children showed a preference for an individual who was intrinsically motivated over one who was extrinsically motivated by reputational gain. The current work extends these findings by showing that the negative evaluative implications apply to another type of extrinsic motive—the motive for profit.

The current research also enriches the moral development literature by showing the important role of intentions in judgments and decision making. Previous research has documented that even young infants are sensitive to other agents’ intentions (Geraci et al., 2022, Hamlin, 2013, Kanakogi et al., 2017, Strid and Meristo, 2020). In particular, considerations of helpful or harmful intentions emerge within the first year of life (e.g., helping: Hamlin, 2013; distributing: Geraci et al., 2022). Our results, along with those of Good and Shaw (2022), build on these findings by showing that intentions that have no salient moral valence can also have evaluative implications. Our research is also in line with research showing that intentions, but not outcomes, are central to children’s moral judgments (Cushman et al., 2013, Killen et al., 2011).

One critical question that needs further exploration is why children and adults dislike or even penalize profit motives. It is likely that profit motives can signal selfishness and therefore are viewed as incompatible with societal good (Bhattacharjee et al., 2017). This may occur because the negative implications of profit motives are more salient in daily life than the positive implications (Bhattacharjee et al., 2017). In addition, it should be noted that the current research does not distinguish between rewarding high effort versus high productivity, which will be important to examine in future research (Noh et al., 2019).

It is worth noting that the current research was conducted in China. One important question to address in future research is the extent to which our findings are culturally specific versus generalizable. At least some prior findings on children’s resource allocation suggest that there may be cross-cultural differences. For example, a recent study showed that when recipients differed in their productivity, children from more individualistic cultures were more likely to distribute rewards equitably than children from collectivist cultures (Huppert et al., 2019). This may be because collectivist cultures tend to emphasize consideration of what is beneficial to the group (Triandis, 1989). However, it is also possible that there is a greater focus on rewarding individual achievement among children in China than in the West given that Chinese school culture is highly competitive and success is commonly defined in terms of relative achievement (Zhao & Heyman, 2018).

In sum, we examined whether children’s beliefs about rewarding merit-worthy behavior depend on the motive of the individual exhibiting the behavior. We found that children perceive profit-driven high performers to be less deserving of rewards than intrinsically motivated high performers and that, with age, motive information increasingly affects children’s judgments. These findings advance our understanding of deservingness in resource allocation and the development of intention-based judgments and decision making. They also provide evidence that the concerns about profit motives observed in adults have developmental roots and can be understood in terms of intuitive ways of thinking about motives that emerge early in life.

Listening speaks to our intuition while reading promotes analytic thought

Geipel, J., & Keysar, B. (2022). Listening speaks to our intuition while reading promotes analytic thought. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Nov 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001316

Abstract: It is widely assumed that thinking is independent of language modality because an argument is either logically valid or invalid regardless of whether we read or hear it. This is taken for granted in areas such as psychology, medicine, and the law. Contrary to this assumption, we demonstrate that thinking from spoken information leads to more intuitive performance compared with thinking from written information. Consequently, we propose that people think more intuitively in the spoken modality and more analytically in the written modality. This effect was robust in five experiments (N = 1,243), across a wide range of thinking tasks, from simple trivia questions to complex syllogisms, and it generalized across two different languages, English and Chinese. We show that this effect is consistent with neuroscientific findings and propose that modality dependence could result from how language modalities emerge in development and are used over time. This finding sheds new light on the way language influences thought and has important implications for research that relies on linguistic materials and for domains where thinking and reasoning are central such as law, medicine, and business.

People's impressions of others' traits became increasingly unfavorable over time, while their impressions of their own traits improved

Perceived changes in trait attributions to others and the self. David M. Sanbonmatsu, Taylor Adams & Paul H. White. The Journal of Social Psychology, Nov 16 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2022.2136060

Abstract: A study was conducted to examine the perceived changes in the impressions of others or self on 133 trait dimensions. Attributions to others were reportedly more negative over time whereas attributions to self were more positive over time. Perceived changes in others’ traits appear to be guided by basic behavioral inference processes. Trait beliefs about others tend to be revised when the traits are common and disconfirming behavior is infrequent and more diagnostic. Positive trait impressions of others change more frequently because they are more prevalent and because negative behaviors (that disconfirm positive attributions) are less frequent and more diagnostic than positive behaviors. In contrast, revisions of trait impressions of the self appear to be driven heavily by self-evaluation motivations such as the desire to see self-improvement. The favorableness of changes in trait self-concepts were positively correlated with self-esteem. The consequences of the observed patterns of attributional change for interpersonal relations are discussed.

Keywords: Attributioncorrespondent behaviorself-conceptdisconfirmation

Rolf Degen summarizing... The amount of time people objectively spent using social media was unrelated to their subjective self-reports, casting considerable doubt on previous research findings that almost always rely on self-reports

Assessing the validity of self-report social media use: Evidence of No relationship with objective smartphone use. Tamsin Mahalingham, Peter M. McEvoy, Patrick J.F. Clarke. Computers in Human Behavior, November 17 2022, 107567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107567

Abstract: Social media use research remains dominated by self-report measures, despite concerns they may not accurately reflect objective social media use. The association between commonly employed self-report measures and objective social media use remains unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the degree of association between an objective and commonly employed subjective measures of social media use. The study specifically examined a single-estimate self-report measure, a problematic social media use scale, and objective use derived from smartphone data, in a sample of 209 individuals. The findings showed a very weak non-significant relationship between the objective measure and the single-estimate measure, (r = −.04, p = .58, BF10 = 0.18), and a weak significant relationship between the objective measure and the problematic social media use scale (r = .19, p = .01, BF10 = 3.04). These findings converge with other recent research to suggest there is very little shared variance between subjective estimates of social media use and objective use. This highlights the possibility that subjective social media use may be largely unrelated to objective use, which has implications for ensuring the rigor of future research and raising potential concerns regarding the veracity of previous research.

All over the world, the percentage of people in pain increased from 26.3 in 2009 to 32.1 in 2021

Pain trends and pain growth disparities, 2009-2021. LucíaMacchia. Economics & Human Biology, November 16 2022, 101200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101200

Abstract: Physical pain is a major public health concern. Yet evidence on trends in physical pain around the world barely exists. Using nationally representative data from 146 countries (N = 1.6 million respondents), this paper finds that, all over the world, the percentage of people in pain increased from 26.3 in 2009 to 32.1 in 2021. This rising trend was present in both higher- and lower-income countries. This article also documents pain disparities: In the worldwide population, pain grew faster among women, the less educated, and the poor. Although the aggregate level of pain was greater among the elderly (> 60 years old), the growth in pain was faster among the younger (< 35 years old). These findings hold after controlling for sociodemographic factors. Disparities of pain growth in higher- and lower-income nations and potential explanatory factors are also discussed. Understanding how the level of pain varies over time and across demographic groups is crucial to evaluate and shape public health policies.

Introduction

Physical pain is a common health problem with vast individual, economic, and social consequences. Pain influences people’s health, wellbeing, and risk of mortality (Smith et al., 2018, Zajacova et al., 2021a), the economy and the healthcare system (Frießem et al., 2009, Gaskin and Richard, 2012), and the individual’s immediate social environment, such as the family and the workplace (Bendelow and Williams, 1995, de Vaan and Stuart, 2019, Dueñas et al., 2016). Understanding the growth and the distribution of pain growth in society is crucial to improving citizens’ welfare and the public health system. Yet evidence on pain trends and pain growth disparities in the worldwide population barely exists. This paper uses nationally representative data from146 countries (N = 1.6 million respondents) to examine pain trends between 2009 and 2021, potential explanations for these trends, and sociodemographic disparities in pain growth.

Later analyses show that the percentage of people in pain around the world increased from 26.3 in 2009 to 32.1 in 2021. Approximately, an extra half a billion people were in pain in 2021 as compared to 2009. Pain grew faster in countries with lower (vs higher) median age, lower (vs higher) healthcare spending, lower (vs higher) general government spending, and higher (vs lower) stress. This article also shows that pain growth is unequally distributed: The growth in physical pain was faster among women, the younger, the less educated, and the poor.

People artificially inflated the moral value of personality traits they had been led to believe they possessed

Vonasch, Andrew, and Bradley A. Tookey. 2022. “Self-serving Bias in Moral Character Evaluations.” PsyArXiv. November 16. doi:10.31234/osf.io/su79g

Abstract: Are people self-serving when moralizing personality traits? Past research has used cross sectional methods incapable of establishing causality, but the present research used experimental methods to test this. Indeed, two experiments (N = 669) show that people self-servingly inflate the moral value of randomly assigned personality traits they believe they possess, and even judge other people who share those same traits as more moral, warm, and competent than those who do not. We explain various methodological challenges overcome in conducting this research, and discuss implications for both psychology and philosophy.

The more one has ghosted, the more they have been ghosted themselves, with the reverse also being true that the more one has ghosted, the more they ghost others

To Ghost or To Be Ghosted: An Examination of the Social and Psychological Correlates Associated with Ghosting. Jacqueline M. Di Santo et al. EvoS Journal, Nov 2022. https://evostudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Di-Santo-et-al.-2022-Vol12Iss1.pdf

Abstract: This paper examines the modern phenomenon known as “ghosting,” which can be defined as avoiding another individual (such as a family member, friend, or partner) by suddenly cutting off communication without providing an explanation. From an evolutionary perspective, given that our ancestors lived in small-scale societies, cutting ties with others would have had devastating consequences. To address variables connected with this kind of outcome, we conducted a study with 292 participants (M age = 21.45, SD = 4.19; 26% male, 72.6% female, .3% not listed, 1% preferred not to say). Significant correlations were found between scales measuring particular psychological constructs (e.g., adult attachment, sociosexuality) and ghosting experiences. A regression analysis found that specific constructs independently predicted ghosting experiences. A notable finding was that the more one has ghosted, the more they have been ghosted themselves, with the reverse also being true that the more one has ghosted, the more they ghost others. Overall, in examining the social and psychological correlates associated with ghosting, our findings suggest that those who had been ghosted and those who had ghosted others had a proclivity toward relatively difficult social, emotional, and psychological functioning compared to those with fewer ghosting experiences.

Keywords: Dark Triad, Light Triad, Ghosting, Estrangement, Big Five, Adult Attachment, Sociosexuality

Those higher in cognitive ability have a higher incidence of realism and pessimism in their expectations and a lower incidence of unrealistic optimism

Dawson, Christopher. 2022. “Cognitive Ability and Looking on the B/right Side of Life.” PsyArXiv. November 15. doi:10.31234/osf.io/3q4xp

Abstract: Evidence claims that looking on the bright side of life is a hallmark of high cognition. Our claim is those with high cognition—as measured by a broad range of cognitive skills, including memory, verbal fluency, fluid reasoning and numerical reasoning—tend to look more on the right side. Using data from a large nationally representative UK sample (N=36,540), we find that those higher in cognitive ability have a higher incidence of realism and pessimism in their expectations and a lower incidence of unrealistic optimism. We operationalize unrealistic optimism as the difference between a person's financial expectation and the financial realization that follows, measured annually over a decade. Our results suggest that the well documented negative consequences of unrealistic optimism may be a side product of the true driver, lower cognitive ability. However, even those high in cognition are found to display significant errors in judgement.

Men with pedophilia who committed child sexual offenses on average had a 47 mm3 smaller hypothalamus per side

Hypothalamic volume in pedophilia with or without child sexual offense. Melanie Storch, Maria Kanthack, Till Amelung, Klaus M. Beier, Tillmann H. C. Krueger, Christopher Sinke, Henrik Walter, Martin Walter, Boris Schiffer, Stephanie Schindler & Peter Schoenknecht. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, Nov 12 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00406-022-01501-w

Abstract: The hypothalamus regulates sexual behavior and is simultaneously associated with aggression and violence. Consequently, this brain region is relevant in research of pedophilia and child sexual offenses (CSO). The distinction between these two phenomena is of great importance and was the object of consideration of this study. We analyzed exclusively men, including 73 pedophilic offenders who committed CSO, an equal number of people with pedophilia but without such offenses, and 133 non-pedophilic, non-offending subjects who formed the control group. All data were collected in a multicenter in vivo study and analyzed using a semi-automated segmentation algorithm for 3-Tesla magnetic resonance images. Men with pedophilia who committed CSO on average had a 47 mm3 smaller hypothalamus per side than people without committed CSO. This effect was driven by both the group of non-offending people with pedophilia and the control group. By contrast, the exploratory comparison of pedophilic persons without CSO with the control group showed no significant difference. The present study demonstrates a deviant hypothalamic structure as a neurobiological correlate of CSO in pedophiles, but not in people with pedophilia who have not committed CSO. Thus, it strengthens the argument to distinguish between sexual offending and paraphilic sexual preferences.

Discussion

Child sexual offenders show hypothalamic volume reduction

In agreement with our first hypothesis of a reduction of hypothalamus volume in CSO, we observed a hypothalamic reduction in persons with pedophilia who committed CSO. The effect was evident in both hypothalamic hemispheres in absolute volumes and after correction for the two confounders ICV and age separately and simultaneously after outlier exclusion. Following contrasts confirmed our hypotheses that the effect was driven by the control as well as the P-CSO group. In our study CSO is related to hypothalamic volume reduction in pedophilic men and this effect is driven by the control group as well as the pedophilic non-offender group.

Significance was initially lost after simultaneous correction for ICV and age in the global univariate group comparisons of hypothalamus volumes and reemerged after excluding the statistical outliers. This suggests suppression effects due to multicollinearity and a sensitivity of the parametric models to non-normal outliers. The statistical outliers could not be explained by variations in clinical characteristics, measurement, or sampling. To account for the known sensitivity of parametric tests to outliers, we reported results before and after excluding statistical outliers for the purpose of transparency and reliability.

Since one contrast of volume reduction was not significant in the right hypothalamus, we may expect that the effect is more prominent on the left side. This would be consistent with the findings of a volume reduction of the right amygdala [24] and a functional connectivity between the right amygdala and the left hypothalamus in pedophilic offenders [65]. Blinding the rates to the hemispheres minimized the likelihood that the algorithm was applied differently.

Pedophilic participants both with and without histories of committed CSO consumed material depicting child sexual abuse, indicating the alteration in hypothalamic structure appears to be associated with implementation of CSO at the behavioral level. Our findings corroborate studies highlighting the hypothalamus and its subsequent cascades and regulatory mechanisms in violence [13,14,15,16,17]. Furthermore, our results are consistent with previous studies that focused on sexual violence against children and showed an activity reduction in the hypothalamus in pedophilic offenders [27] and acquired pedophilia and CSO after hypothalamic damages [18,19,20]. More precisely our findings possibly confirm our initial assumption that a reduced hypothalamic volume may indicate a reduced HPA axis activity. The deficit of glucocorticoids, induced by the hypofunction of this axis, may be related to aggression and CSO through epigenetic changes in the prefrontal cortex [31, 32]. In our sample Kruger et al. [37] found no cortisol reduction in CSO, but it is not unlikely that this may be due to methodological limitations, such as measuring at different times, despite cortisol levels fluctuating throughout the day.

Voxel-based morphometry studies are less sensitive for small structures, such as the hypothalamus [66]. For this reason, this analyses of this area [23,24,25,26] may not have yielded results. Additionally, except for Schiffer et al. [25], the field strengths of the MRIs were lower in the mentioned studies and the sample sizes were smaller.

No significant differences in non-offending people with pedophilia

In contrast to the results regarding CSO, we found no significant difference in exploratory comparisons of left or right hypothalamic volumes between non-offending pedophilic men and the control group. This was in line with our expectations. Differences remained non-significant even with correction for ICV and/or age. This suggests an unchanged hypothalamic macrostructure in non-offending people with pedophilia. Interestingly, there was no gradually progressive increase in hypothalamic volume between the groups (e.g. P + CSO < P-CSO < controls), not even descriptively. Thus, the P-CSO group does not appear to be an intermediate stage between pedophilic offenders and the control group. Contrary to our conclusions previous studies attributed structural changes of the hypothalamus or other brain regions to pedophilia [22, 23, 26]. It can be speculated that their results were influenced by sexual offenders.

General assessments of the observed hypothalamus volumes

The bilateral hypothalamus volumes measured in vivo with a total mean of 1543 mm³ (SD = 146.6 mm³) are slightly higher than the volumes previously measured with the same method (1427 mm³ to 1478 mm³) [52]. However, this was to be expected, as our sample consisted exclusively of men and a sexual dimorphism of the hypothalamus, postulated to be larger in men, has been shown before [67,68,69,70,71]. Furthermore, the correlations of hypothalamic volume with age and ICV are consistent with previous reports [66, 67, 72, 73]. The P + CSO group also had the lowest ICV. This finding has to be questioned in future studies by exploring several distinct brain regions involved in control of behaviour and sexual functioning.

Strengths and limitations

Probably one of the greatest strengths of this study is the distinction between offenders and non-offenders and thus also the fundamental distinction between offenders and people with pedophilia. A disadvantage is that the classification regarding the offender status was necessarily dependent on the self-reporting of the participants, which risks a probability of false statements in, theoretically, both directions. Attempts have been made to mitigate this by ensuring anonymity. Balancing too many or too few exclusion criteria is difficult as excluding individuals with specific diagnoses or medications increases homogeneity at the cost of generalizability. The distribution of lifetime mental and personality disorder diagnoses was significantly different between all groups and the hypothalamic volume may be affected by these. Violent crimes other than CSO, which were not exclusion criteria, may have influenced the results. Even though the sample size is large compared to previous studies in the subject area, it is not sufficient to calculate an equivalence test [64] between the hypothalamus volumes of pedophilic non-offenders and the control group. Since the study is designed cross-sectionally, no conclusions about cause and effect can be drawn. Unbalanced sample distribution among different locations and thus scanner models may have an effect on the GM-TPMs. The evaluated 3-Tesla MR images provided a strong basis for measurements of the brain structures, but a higher field strength would reduce the partial volume effect. Manual segmentation at submillimeter resolution is the most accurate method for this, which is unfortunately hardly feasible for higher case numbers such as in our study due to high time expenditure.

Our large-scale multicenter sample consisted of only men; therefore we can only draw conclusions about males. However, men are most relevant for the research on sexual violence against children, as they are the major group of offenders [74]. To answer whether the results are not only valid for people with pedophilia who committed CSO, but also for CSO in general, exploring non-pedophilic CSO subjects is needed. The structural analysis was based on group comparisons and cannot serve as a basis for a diagnostic criterion or to draw reliable conclusions about individuals.

To our knowledge, no other study has accurately investigated the structure of the hypothalamus in pedophilia with or without CSO. In addition to theoretical considerations about understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of CSO in pedophilia, the study may add to additional impact in the future, as trait markers of risk factors for committing CSO are needed to stimulate early in the clinical course specific sexual therapeutic treatment which covers more than general psychotherapeutic intervention. The present results need to be replicated in further studies and assessed in relation to, for example, endocrinological and behavioral functions before practical implication can be raised. Implementing an equivalence test would be an important challenge for future studies to discuss the hypothesis of similar brain structures in pedophilic non-offenders and subjects of a control group. However, the required sample sizes for the populations of interest are difficult to realize. Further studies are warranted using functional brain imaging to investigate emotional processing according to the development of pedophilia or CSO over the lifespan. Another interesting question to examine is whether the hypothalamic volume reduction can also be found in a (large) non-pedophilic CSO group to clarify whether our results apply explicitly to the P + CSO group or are valid for CSO exclusively.

The topics of pedophilia and CSO are undeniably emotionally charged. Research such as ours not only provides a better understanding of neural mechanisms underlying pedophilia and CSO, but also contributes to education and public discussion about these matters, rather than reinforcing threats to child welfare with silence and stigmatization.

We like to imagine that those from the opposite political camp are more susceptible to misleading media content than those from our own side

Perceived Influence of Partisan News and Online News Participation: Third-person Effect, Hostile Media Phenomenon, and Cognitive Elaboration. Seungsu Lee and Kyungmo Kim. Communication Research, November 13, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502221127494

Abstract: This study suggests a unified framework to examine the third-person perception (TPP) in the context of partisan news use. By amalgamating social identity theories with the elaboration likelihood model or the heuristic-systematic model, Study 1 investigates the role of message features (source cues and content slant), targets (in-group vs. out-group), and audience characteristics (political identity and elaboration) on TPP. Two online experiments conducted in the US and South Korea show that differences between pro- and counter-attitudinal content are larger when the target is an out-group member. TPP is also amplified when audiences have high elaboration. Study 2 explores the interplay between TPP and the hostile media phenomenon (HMP) on news sharing and commenting online. The result reveals that TPP reduces news sharing/commenting intention by decreasing perceptions of news quality. In addition, HMP strengthens the indirect effect of TPP on news sharing/commenting for out-group members, but mitigates it for in-group members.

Rolf Degen summarizing... A vast majority of all people experience persuasion fatigue, the frustrating realization that others are too dumb to bow to the wisdom of their arguments

‘Persuasion Fatigue’ Is a Unique Form of Social Frustration: When people argue, a kind of frustration called persuasion fatigue can cloud their judgment and harm relationships. Nathan Ballantyne, Jared Celniker, Peter Ditto. Scientific American, November 14, 2022 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/persuasion-fatigue-is-a-unique-form-of-social-frustration

Excerpts, full text in the link above:

[...]
 

One common scene plays out as follows. You want to convince a friend or a family member of something you know they disagree with you about, so you share information and walk through your reasoning with them. They reject your case. Undaunted, you brush up on the issue and try again, optimistic that more facts will shift the other person’s thinking. You repeat yourself—maybe more loudly and slowly. But your audience remains unmoved.

How do you react when your powers of persuasion fail? You might dismiss the person who doesn’t heed your arguments as biased, dimwitted or otherwise out of touch with reality. You naturally feel your own logic is irresistible. You might decide to stop talking about that particular issue. You might even cut ties. Indeed, these unresolved debates can contribute to social estrangement and parent-child breakups.

The whole experience may feel like trying to guide someone on a journey when they refuse to follow. They drag their heels, wander off in the wrong direction and throw away the map you made for them. We have coined a term, persuasion fatigue, to describe this unique form of frustration.

In ongoing research, we are investigating the consequences of this experience. Our initial findings—still unpublished—suggest that persuasion fatigue is widespread. Of 600 people in the U.S. who participated in recent studies, 98 percent reported having experienced this fatigue, sparked by discussions of topics such as politics, religion and health. Our work also suggests that most people believe debates hit dead ends because the other person in the conversation was at fault.

There’s a lot to unpack here, and we’re hoping our data will begin to answer important questions about this phenomenon. But in the meantime, there’s a notable pattern emerging. Persuasion fatigue may make it harder to successfully navigate challenging conversations.

Past research demonstrates that feeling frustrated can make you more resistant to changing your mind. We think it may also diminish your ability to recognize why your arguments don’t succeed. Feeling burned-out could obscure whether your audience is open to persuasion and, if so, how to get your point across better. Persuasion fatigue may also explain why, when debates break down, people tend to blame their conversational opponent. As Mark Twain once wrote, “In all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.” In our findings thus far, for example, people generally reported three times as many reasons why others’ failings led to failed debates rather than their own shortcomings.

When we imagine how things could be, we imagine how things could be better, even though it's easier to come up with ways things could be worse

Mastroianni, Adam, and Ethan Ludwin-Peery. 2022. “Things Could Be Better.” PsyArXiv. November 14. doi:10.31234/osf.io/2uxwk

Abstract: Eight studies document what may be a fundamental and universal bias in human imagination: people think things could be better. When we ask people how things could be different, they imagine how things could be better (Study 1). The bias doesn't depend on the wording of the question (Studies 2 and 3). It arises in people's everyday thoughts (Study 4). It is unrelated to people's anxiety, depression, and neuroticism (Study 5). A sample of Polish people responding in English show the same bias (Study 6), as do a sample of Chinese people responding in Mandarin (Study 7). People imagine how things could be better even though it's easier to come up with ways things could be worse (Study 8). Overall, it seems, human imagination has a bias: when people imagine how things could be, they imagine how things could be better.

The bewildering, complex picture presented by human evolution in the Middle to Late Pleistocene should be seen as a feature, not a bug, reflecting evolutionary processes in all their messy glory

Evolution of Homo in the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Katerina Harvati, HugoReyes-Centeno. Journal of Human Evolution, Volume 173, December 2022, 103279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103279

Abstract: The Middle and Late Pleistocene is arguably the most interesting period in human evolution. This broad period witnessed the evolution of our own lineage, as well as that of our sister taxon, the Neanderthals, and related Denisovans. It is exceptionally rich in both fossil and archaeological remains, and uniquely benefits from insights gained through molecular approaches, such as paleogenetics and paleoproteomics, that are currently not widely applicable in earlier contexts. This wealth of information paints a highly complex picture, often described as ‘the Muddle in the Middle,’ defying the common adage that ‘more evidence is needed’ to resolve it. Here we review competing phylogenetic scenarios and the historical and theoretical developments that shaped our approaches to the fossil record, as well as some of the many remaining open questions associated with this period. We propose that advancing our understanding of this critical time requires more than the addition of data and will necessitate a major shift in our conceptual and theoretical framework.

Keywords: Homo heidelbergensisNeanderthalsModern human originsSpeciationHybridization

5. Conclusions

While the issues presented and discussed here do not represent the full extent of questions related to human evolution in the Middle to Late Pleistocene, this brief review has shown that, although the human fossil record of Middle Pleistocene Homo is significantly more abundant than it was half a century ago and innovative methodologies have greatly expanded our ability to study it, the greatest gains in our understanding are likely to result from a theoretical and conceptual shift toward more complex and nuanced evolutionary concepts for both species and speciation. Additional challenges include a better understanding of the chronological and paleoenvironmental framework of the Middle to Late Pleistocene, as well as the lack of integrative, synthetic study of the fossil record in its entirety. We expect new fieldwork and fossil discoveries to continue to bring novel insights, and for genomic and paleoproteomic approaches to play a central role in deciphering the record, especially if they can be developed to be applicable in lower latitude and earlier contexts. Gene annotation methods that link genotypes and phenotypes and their modularity in diverse environmental contexts (Gokhman et al., 2017; Brand et al., 2022), as well as evolutionary modeling approaches, will be particularly useful in the absence of a more complete fossil record. However, the envisioned integrative approach will only be possible through broad sharing of fossil data, something which is still rare in paleoanthropology, even after the development and widespread use of scan data, which can be shared digitally much more efficiently among researchers, more than two decades ago (Weber, 2001; Gibbons, 2002; Tattersall and Schwartz, 2002).

In closing, we emphasize that the bewildering, complex picture presented by human evolution in the Middle to Late Pleistocene should be seen as a feature, not a bug, reflecting evolutionary processes in all their messy glory. We look forward to the next unexpected discovery!

Present-day countries composed of citizens whose ancestors experienced a degree of “state-ness” in previous centuries should experience fewer homicides today; found less support for alternative channels (economic development or current state capacity)

Homicide and State History. John Gerring and Carl Henrik Knutsen. American Sociological Review, Nov 9 2022. https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224221131758

Abstract: We argue that cross-national variability in homicide rates is strongly influenced by state history. Populations living within a state are habituated, over time, to settling conflicts through regularized, institutional channels rather than personal violence. Because these are gradual and long-term processes, present-day countries composed of citizens whose ancestors experienced a degree of “state-ness” in previous centuries should experience fewer homicides today. To test this proposition, we adopt an ancestry-adjusted measure of state history that extends back to 0 CE. Cross-country analyses show a sizeable and robust relationship between this index and lower homicide rates. The result holds when using various measures of state history and homicide rates, sets of controls, samples, and estimators. We also find indicative evidence that state history relates to present levels of other forms of personal violence. Tests of plausible mechanisms suggest state history is linked to homicide rates via the law-abidingness of citizens. We find less support for alternative channels such as economic development or current state capacity.

Cephalopod retinal development shows vertebrate-like mechanisms of neurogenesis

Cephalopod retinal development shows vertebrate-like mechanisms of neurogenesis. Francesca R. Napoli et al. Current Biology, November 09, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.10.027

Highlights

• Retinal progenitor cells in the squid undergo interkinetic nuclear migration

• Progenitor, post-mitotic, and differentiated cells are transcriptionally defined

• Notch signaling may regulate both retinal cell cycle and cell fate in the squid

Summary: Coleoid cephalopods, including squid, cuttlefish, and octopus, have large and complex nervous systems and high-acuity, camera-type eyes. These traits are comparable only to features that are independently evolved in the vertebrate lineage. The size of animal nervous systems and the diversity of their constituent cell types is a result of the tight regulation of cellular proliferation and differentiation in development. Changes in the process of development during evolution that result in a diversity of neural cell types and variable nervous system size are not well understood. Here, we have pioneered live-imaging techniques and performed functional interrogation to show that the squid Doryteuthis pealeii utilizes mechanisms during retinal neurogenesis that are hallmarks of vertebrate processes. We find that retinal progenitor cells in the squid undergo nuclear migration until they exit the cell cycle. We identify retinal organization corresponding to progenitor, post-mitotic, and differentiated cells. Finally, we find that Notch signaling may regulate both retinal cell cycle and cell fate. Given the convergent evolution of elaborate visual systems in cephalopods and vertebrates, these results reveal common mechanisms that underlie the growth of highly proliferative neurogenic primordia. This work highlights mechanisms that may alter ontogenetic allometry and contribute to the evolution of complexity and growth in animal nervous systems.

Popular version: How squid and octopus get their big brains https://phys.org/news/2022-11-squid-octopus-big-brains.html

Study finds differences in brain structure between boys and girls with binge eating disorders

Sex differences in regional gray matter density in pre-adolescent binge eating disorder: a voxel-based morphometry study. Stuart B. Murray et al. Psychological Medicine, October 28 2022. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291722003269

Abstract

Background: Binge eating disorder (BED) is a pernicious psychiatric disorder which is linked with broad medical and psychiatric morbidity, and obesity. While BED may be characterized by altered cortical morphometry, no evidence to date examined possible sex-differences in regional gray matter characteristics among those with BED. This is especially important to consider in children, where BED symptoms often emerge coincident with rapid gray matter maturation.

Methods: Pre-adolescent, 9–10-year old boys (N = 38) and girls (N = 33) with BED were extracted from the 3.0 baseline (Year 0) release of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. We investigated sex differences in gray matter density (GMD) via voxel-based morphometry. Control sex differences were also assessed in age and body mass index and developmentally matched control children (boys N = 36; girls N = 38). Among children with BED, we additionally assessed the association between dorsolateral prefrontal (dlPFC) GMD and parent-reported behavioral approach and inhibition tendencies.

Results: Girls with BED uniquely demonstrate diffuse clusters of greater GMD (p < 0.05, Threshold Free Cluster Enhancement corrected) in the (i) left dlPFC (p = 0.003), (ii) bilateral dmPFC (p = 0.004), (iii) bilateral primary motor and somatosensory cortex (p = 0.0003) and (iv) bilateral precuneus (p = 0.007). Brain-behavioral associations suggest a unique negative correlation between GMD in the left dlPFC and behavioral approach tendencies among girls with BED.

Conclusions: Early-onset BED may be characterized by regional sex differences in terms of its underlying gray matter morphometry.

Popular version: Study finds differences in brain structure between boys and girls with binge eating disorders. Nov 10 2022. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20221110/Study-finds-differences-in-brain-structure-between-boys-and-girls-with-binge-eating-disorders.aspx

Adherence to emotion norms is greater in individualist cultures than in collectivist cultures; in the more individualist countries, deviation from the mean emotional experience was linked to lower life satisfaction

Adherence to emotion norms is greater in individualist cultures than in collectivist cultures. Vishkin, A., Kitayama, S., Berg, M. K., Diener, E., Gross-Manos, D., Ben-Arieh, A., & Tamir, M. (2022). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Nov 2022. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000409

Abstract: It is generally assumed that there is greater pressure to conform to social norms in collectivist cultures than in individualist cultures. However, most research on cultural differences in social norms has examined norms for behaviors. Here, we examine cultural differences in norms for emotions. Relative to members of collectivist cultures, members of individualist cultures are more attuned to internal states and value them more. Therefore, we predicted that adherence to emotion norms would be greater in individualist than in collectivist cultures. In four studies with 119 samples from 69 distinct countries and over 200,000 participants, we estimated adherence to emotion norms in different cultures, and how deviation from emotion norms is associated with life satisfaction. As predicted, in countries higher in individualism, emotional experiences of individuals were more homogenous and more concordant with the emotions of others in their culture. Furthermore, in more individualist countries, deviation from the mean emotional experience was linked to lower life satisfaction. We discuss two complementary mechanisms that may underlie such differences.

Overall, research indicates that the risk of getting stuck in a filter bubble on intermediaries such as Google News, Apple News, Facebook, or Twitter is low and often exaggerated

News recommender systems: a programmatic research review. Eliza Mitova et al. Annals of the International Communication Association, Nov 11 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2022.2142149

Abstract: News recommender systems (NRS) are becoming a ubiquitous part of the digital media landscape. Particularly in the realm of political news, the adoption of NRS can significantly impact journalistic distribution, in turn affecting journalistic work practices and news consumption. Thus, NRS touch both the supply and demand of political news. In recent years, there has been a strong increase in research on NRS. Yet, the field remains dispersed across supply and demand research perspectives. Therefore, the contribution of this programmatic research review is threefold. First, we conduct a scoping study to review scholarly work on the journalistic supply and user demand sides. Second, we identify underexplored areas. Finally, we advance five recommendations for future research from a political communication perspective.

Keywords: News recommender systemsalgorithmsdigital journalismnews personalisation

Overall, research indicates that the risk of getting stuck in such a bubble on intermediaries such as Google News (e.g. Evans et al., 2022; Haim et al., 2018; Nechushtai & Lewis, 2019), Apple News (e.g. Bandy & Diakopoulos, 2020), Facebook (e.g. Bakshy et al., 2015; Beam et al., 2018; Bechmann & Nielbo, 2018; Moeller et al., 2016; Papa & Photiadis, 2021; but see Levy, 2021 for divergent findings), or Twitter (e.g. Bandy & Diakopoulos, 2021; Chen et al., 2021; but see Jürgens & Stark, 2022 for divergent findings) is low and often exaggerated

Similarity in physical attractiveness did not play a role in spousal relationship satisfaction & maintenance

Pávez, P., Polo, P., Valenzuela, N., Figueroa, O., Rodríguez-Sickert, C., & Muñoz-Reyes, J. A. (2022). Similarity in Indicators of Attractiveness in Heterosexual Couples, and their Relationship with Satisfaction and Trust. Psykhe. https://doi.org/10.7764/psykhe.2021.38903

Abstract: In our species, the formation and maintenance of romantic partners is a nonrandom process. In this sense, similarity between members of the couple can be relevant for the beginning of the relationship (i.e., assortative mating) and maintenance, being similarity in attractiveness one of the most interesting aspects of this phenomenon. Despite that similarity in attractive traits has been documented, there is a lack of studies including modern morphological measures like fluctuating facial asymmetry or body fat percentage when assessing the effect that similarity in attractiveness could provoke on behaviors and feelings necessary to maintain a long-term relationship (e.g., satisfaction and trust). We assessed the presence of similarity in attractiveness for self-perceived measures (attractiveness and mate value) and physical traits (body fat percentage, body mass index, and fluctuating facial asymmetry) in a population of 196 heterosexual young couples from Chile (n = 392). Then, using actor-partner interdependence models (APIM), we assessed whether satisfaction and trust within the couples were influenced by attractiveness. Our results indicated the presence of similarity for all studied traits with the exception of fluctuating facial asymmetry. In addition, we only found that self-assessment of attractiveness is important for satisfaction in women, and partner's physical attractiveness is important for satisfaction and trust in men. Our results suggest that similarity in attractiveness is not playing a major role in affecting relationship. It is probably that similarity could be better explained from the initial stages of relationship, where the mating market forces conduce to the conformation of similar couples.

Citizens express higher trust in less politicized scientific fields (mathematics, astronomy, etc.) than politicized ones (economics & climate science), & these trust gaps stem from different ideological biases against the politicized fields

Don't Tell Me What I Don't Want to Hear! Politicization and Ideological Conflict Explain Why Citizens Have Lower Trust in Climate Scientists and Economists Than in Other Natural Scientists. Thor Bech Schrøder. Political Psychology, November 11 2022. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12866

Abstract: Studies suggest that citizens have higher trust in some groups of scientists than in others. However, we still know little about the causes of these trust gaps. The current study fills this knowledge gap by examining Norwegian citizens' trust in climate scientists, economists, and so-called “less politicized natural scientists.” I argue that trust in climate scientists and economists is lower than trust in less politicized natural scientists because the former fields are politicized, while the latter are not. Politicization strengthens ideological conflicts between citizens' ideology and research produced by climate scientists and economists, which leads to lower trust in these groups of scientists. I test this argument by running regression analyses on data from a representative survey of the Norwegian population. The results support the argument: Citizens have significantly higher trust in less politicized natural scientists than in both climate scientists and economists, and these differences can be explained by ideological biases in trust. Citizens with a proeconomic growth ideology have significantly lower trust in climate scientists than in less politicized natural scientists, and citizens with a left-wing economic ideology have significantly lower trust in economists than in less politicized natural scientists.

Discussion

The study provides evidence for the argument that citizens express lower trust in scientific areas which are politicized and ideologically dissonant. However, the study also has certain limitations that should be discussed. First, while the study only investigates ideological explanations of trust gaps in one country, Norway has several characteristics that makes it a good empirical case for investigating ideological biases in trust in scientists. Because science is only partly politicized in Norway (some scientific fields are politicized and others are not), the country provides a good case for investigating how politicization affects trust in scientists. By showing that citizens do in fact express higher trust in less politicized scientific fields (mathematics, astronomy etc.) than politicized ones (economics and climate science), and that these trust gaps stem from different ideological biases against the politicized fields, the study provides strong support for the politicization hypothesis. Further, given that we generally observe lower trust in scientists across the board in the United States, where most scientific fields are politicized (Blank & Shaw, 2015), the findings are likely generalizable beyond the Norwegian case. However, future research should test whether these findings can be replicated in other Western countries. The study also underlines the importance of science politicization beyond the Norwegian setting because Norway provides a strong test of the politicization hypothesis due to its' low levels of political polarization (Knudsen, 2021; Lindqvist & Östling, 2010). Citizens with more extreme attitudes are more likely to engage in motivated reasoning, and motivated reasoning has been shown to increase attitude polarization (Taber & Lodge, 2006). Therefore, we should be less likely to observe ideological biases in trust in scientists in countries with low political polarization, like Norway. Since we still find ideological biases in trust in different scientists in Norway under these conditions, we should also expect to find ideological biases in citizens' trust in scientists in countries with higher political polarization. Second, my measure of environmentalist ideology has some weaknesses because it forces citizens to make a trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth and a high standard of living. However, this trade-off is a theoretical construction that not all citizens necessarily agree with, as many mainstream European parties argue that technology and “green” economic growth is the solution to the climate crisis (Nisbet, 2009). Thus, citizens with a moderate environmentalist ideology might not feel that either ends of the scale accurately reflect their attitudes. This could force them to give an answer that does not accurately reflect their attitudes or to answer “do not know.” Third, the environmentalist (growth-protection) and economic ideology dimensions used in the study are conceptually related. Having a right-wing economic ideology (supporting the free market) is associated with prioritizing economic growth with other environmental protection (Crawley, 2021), and this association is theoretically attributed to ideological conflicts between economic growth-oriented right-wing economic ideology and environmentalist policies of market regulation (Crawley, 2021). Therefore, the association between right-wing economic ideology and progrowth environmentalist ideology and trust in climate scientists is likely related to the same mechanism (conflict between climate science and free market/economic growth ideologies). This study cannot directly assess whether this is case, but future research should try to solve this conundrum. Fourth, it might affect the results that the data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Political crises are known to lead to high levels of political and government trust through so-called “rally ‘round the flag” effects (Mueller, 1970; Oneal & Bryan, 1995). Citizens feel that the crisis calls for national unity, and therefore they express trust in the government even if they would not do so in a no-crisis situation. Because the COVID-19 pandemic was a global health crisis, where scientists played an important role in the crisis management (Christensen & Lægreid, 2020a), citizens might have reacted with similar rally effects and expressed higher-than-normal levels of trust in scientists out of a sense of public duty. Since public health scientists were the most visible experts in the COVID-19 crisis management in Norway (Christensen & Lægreid, 2020a), they are more likely to have experienced a rally ‘round-the-flag trust boost than climate scientists or economists. This could lead to an overestimation of the size of the trust gaps between economists and climate scientists and less politicized natural scientists if citizens expressed abnormally high levels of trust in health scientists but maintained their prepandemic trust in economists and climate scientists. Fifth, because the study relies on cross-sectional survey data, I cannot directly test the motivated-reasoning mechanisms that I argue to be the causal mechanisms through which politicization and ideology leads to trust gaps between more politicized and less politicized groups of scientists. The study can only show that environmentalist and economic ideology statistically explain variations in the trust gaps between less politicized natural science and economists and climate scientists respectively, which still is an important contribution to the literature. Future studies should use experimental methods to better test the argument that trust gaps between different groups of scientists stem from motivated processing of scientific information.