In contrast to North America results, anxiety, depression and neuroticism showed no increase in two big European samples

Age of anxiety and depression revisited: A meta-analysis of two European community samples (1964-2015). JanSchürmann, JürgenMargraf. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, Volume 18, Issue 2, May–August 2018, Pages 102-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2018.02.002

Abstract: Background/Objective: Based on studies using established psychometric scales, Twenge and coworkers have shown substantial increases in trait anxiety, depressive symptoms and neuroticism in North American population samples since the 1950s. Similar analyses for European samples have not yet been conducted. Our study therefore examined whether similar secular trends exist in German-speaking and British non-clinical samples together with possible connected societal factors. Method: A literature search identified 131 studies (N = 63,269) using the STAI, BDI or EPI in non-clinical samples between 1964 and 2015. Seven societal factors from national statistics were included. We conducted meta-analyses with displayed means and moderation analyses of publication year for all scales. Results: In contrast to North America results, anxiety, depression and neuroticism showed no increase in the two European populations. Publication year correlated negatively with and moderated trait anxiety (GER) and neuroticism (UK). Most societal factors were highly correlated with year of publication. Trait anxiety and neuroticism were significantly predicted by age at marriage and unemployment rate in German-speaking countries. Conclusion: The difference in secular trends between European and North American samples may indicate society specific developments connected to different societal factors.

Odor sensitivity correlated positively with sexual experience: Participants with high olfactory sensitivity reported higher pleasantness of sexual activities; and women with high olfactory sensitivity reported a higher frequency of orgasms during sexual intercourse

Olfactory Function Relates to Sexual Experience in Adults. Johanna Bendas, Thomas Hummel, Ilona Croy. Archives of Sexual Behavior, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-018-1203-x

Abstract: The olfactory system contributes significantly to human social behavior and especially to mate choice and empathic functioning. In this context, previous research examining individuals with impaired olfactory function indicated an influence of the sense of smell on different aspects of sexuality. However, the applied samples, methods, and results are diverse and an involvement of confounding factors, such as breathing problems, depression or social insecurity cannot be ruled out. The present study examined the potential correlation between odor threshold in healthy participants and their sexual desire, sexual experience, and sexual performance. In 70 adults (28 male, 42 female; mean age 24.8 ± 4.1 years), odor threshold was assessed using the “Sniffin’ Sticks.” The participants also responded to a battery of questions on sexual desire (Sexual Desire Inventory), sexual experience (orgasm frequency, perceived pleasantness of sexual activities on a visual analogue scale) as well as sexual performance (frequency of having sex, average duration of sexual intercourse). Odor sensitivity correlated positively with sexual experience: Participants with high olfactory sensitivity reported higher pleasantness of sexual activities. Further, women with high olfactory sensitivity reported a higher frequency of orgasms during sexual intercourse. These findings were exclusively present for sexual experience; no significant correlations were detected for sexual desire or sexual performance. The experience of sexual interactions appears to be enriched by olfactory input. We discuss that the perception of certain body odors may contribute to the concept of sexual pleasure by enhanced recruitment of reward areas.

Apes giving first aid: We argue that many of the core components underlying human empathy are deeply rooted in our primate past

Neuronal Correlates of Empathy: From Rodent to Human. 2018, Pages 53–66. Chapter 5 – Ethological Approaches to Empathy in Primates. Zanna Clay, Elisabetta Palagi, Frans B.M. de Waal. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-805397-3.00005-X

Abstract: Given that the cognitive and affective processes underlying empathy do not fossilize, studies of the empathic capacities of nonhuman primates provide us with a critical window through which we can explore the evolutionary origins of human empathy. Specifically, the comparative method provides an opportunity to determine which features of empathy are uniquely human and which are shared within the primate lineage. Here, we use the ethological approach to explore the affective and cognitive layers underlying empathy in primates. We review recent research exploring evidence for different layers of empathy, from the more basic forms such as yawn contagion and rapid facial mimicry, to more cognitively complex forms such as sympathetic concern and targeted helping. Combining evidence from both observational and experimental approaches, we argue that many of the core components underlying human empathy are deeply rooted in our primate past.

Keywords: consolation; emotion regulation; great ape; monkey; rapid facial mimicry; sympathetic concern; targeted helping; yawn contagion

Naïve apes used the shadow of hidden food to locate it; made use of the mirror images to estimate the distance to the hidden food; tended to interpret mirror images and pictures of these mirror images differently depending on their prior knowledge

Intuitive optics: what great apes infer from mirrors and shadows. Christoph J. Völter, Josep Call. Animal Cognition, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-018-1184-0

Abstract: There is ongoing debate about the extent to which nonhuman animals, like humans, can go beyond first-order perceptual information to abstract structural information from their environment. To provide more empirical evidence regarding this question, we examined what type of information great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans) gain from optical effects such as shadows and mirror images. In an initial experiment, we investigated whether apes would use mirror images and shadows to locate hidden food. We found that all examined ape species used these cues to find the food. Follow-up experiments showed that apes neither confused these optical effects with the food rewards nor did they merely associate cues with food. First, naïve chimpanzees used the shadow of the hidden food to locate it but they did not learn within the same number of trials to use a perceptually similar rubber patch as indicator of the hidden food reward. Second, apes made use of the mirror images to estimate the distance of the hidden food from their own body. Depending on the distance, apes either pointed into the direction of the food or tried to access the hidden food directly. Third, apes showed some sensitivity to the geometrical relation between mirror orientation and mirrored objects when searching hidden food. Fourth, apes tended to interpret mirror images and pictures of these mirror images differently depending on their prior knowledge. Together, these findings suggest that apes are sensitive to the optical relation between mirror images and shadows and their physical referents.

We respond defensively to risk messages impugning our own behavior; participants learned how being overweight could influence their own cancer risk or that of an opposite-sex close other. They expressed higher worry and experiential risk perceptions for their close others than for themselves

On Being More Amenable to Threatening Risk Messages Concerning Close Others (vis-à-vis the Self).William M. P. Klein, Rebecca A. Ferrer. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218769064

Abstract: People often respond defensively to risk messages impugning their own behavior. We explored whether people are more amenable to risk messages impugning a close other’s behavior. In two experiments, participants learned how being overweight could influence their own cancer risk or that of an opposite-sex close other. As predicted, participants expressed higher affective risk perceptions (i.e., worry) and experiential risk perceptions for their close others than for themselves. Participants in the close other condition also reported greater interest in diagnostic testing and additional information (Experiment 1) and greater interest in consulting a provider and more plans for remediation (Experiment 2). These effects were mediated by a combination of worry and experiential risk perceptions. The self/other difference emerged even though participants endorsed the messages as believable and relevant; participants were simply more willing to extrapolate from the message to their close other’s risk than to their own risk.

Keywords: risk messages, defensive responding, risk perceptions

Prisoner's Dilemma games: With stringent tests, we found no general decline over 300 rounds; we confirmed a puzzling gender difference: men cooperate much more than women

Persistent cooperation and gender differences in repeated Prisoner's Dilemma games: Some things never change. Andrew M. Colman, , Briony D. Pulford , Eva M. Krockow. Acta Psychologica, Volume 187, June 2018, Pages 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.04.014

Highlights
•    We investigated cooperation in the repeated Prisoner's Dilemma.
•    With stringent tests, we found no general decline over 300 rounds.
•    We confirmed an endgame effect as the known final round approaches.
•    We confirmed a puzzling gender difference: men cooperate much more than women.

Abstract: In the finite-horizon repeated Prisoner's Dilemma, a compelling backward induction argument shows that rational players will defect in every round, following the uniquely optimal Nash equilibrium path. It is frequently asserted that cooperation gradually declines when a Prisoner's Dilemma is repeated multiple times by the same players, but the evidence for this is unconvincing, and a classic experiment by Rapoport and Chammah in the 1960s reported that cooperation eventually recovers if the game is repeated hundreds of times. They also reported that men paired with men cooperate almost twice as frequently as women paired with women. Our conceptual replication with Prisoner's Dilemmas repeated over 300 rounds with no breaks, using more advanced, computerized methodology, revealed no decline in cooperation, apart from endgame effects in the last few rounds, and replicated the substantial gender difference, confirming, in the UK, a puzzling finding first reported in the US in the 1960s.

Keywords: Cooperation; Endgame effect; Gender difference; Prisoner's Dilemma; Social dilemma

Grammar-learning ability is preserved almost to the crux of adulthood (17.4 years old) and then declines steadily. This finding held not only for “difficult” syntactic phenomena but also for “easy” syntactic phenomena that are normally mastered early in acquisition

A critical period for second language acquisition: Evidence from 2/3 million English speakers. Joshua K. Hartshorne, Joshua B. Tenenbaum, Steven Pinker. Cognition, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.04.007

Abstract: Children learn language more easily than adults, though when and why this ability declines have been obscure for both empirical reasons (underpowered studies) and conceptual reasons (measuring the ultimate attainment of learners who started at different ages cannot by itself reveal changes in underlying learning ability). We address both limitations with a dataset of unprecedented size (669,498 native and non-native English speakers) and a computational model that estimates the trajectory of underlying learning ability by disentangling current age, age at first exposure, and years of experience. This allows us to provide the first direct estimate of how grammar-learning ability changes with age, finding that it is preserved almost to the crux of adulthood (17.4 years old) and then declines steadily. This finding held not only for “difficult” syntactic phenomena but also for “easy” syntactic phenomena that are normally mastered early in acquisition. The results support the existence of a sharply-defined critical period for language acquisition, but the age of offset is much later than previously speculated. The size of the dataset also provides novel insight into several other outstanding questions in language acquisition.

Keywords: Language acquisition; Critical period; L2 acquisition

A one pct point reduction in tax rates increases investment by 4.7 pct of installed capital, increases payouts by 0.3 pct of sales, & decreases debt by 5.3 pct of total assets

Ohrn, Eric. 2018. "The Effect of Corporate Taxation on Investment and Financial Policy: Evidence from the DPAD." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 10(2):272-301, doi 10.1257/pol.20150378

Abstract: This study estimates the investment, financing, and payout responses to variation in a firm's effective corporate income tax rate in the United States. I exploit quasi-experimental variation created by the Domestic Production Activities Deduction, a corporate tax expenditure created in 2005. A 1 percentage point reduction in tax rates increases investment by 4.7 percent of installed capital, increases payouts by 0.3 percent of sales, and decreases debt by 5.3 percent of total assets. These estimates suggest that lower corporate tax rates and faster accelerated depreciation each stimulate a similar increase in investment, per dollar in lost revenue.

Check also Trump Tax Windfall Going to Capex Way Faster Than Stock Buybacks
By Lu Wang. Bloomberg, April 26 2018,
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-26/trump-tax-windfall-going-to-capex-way-faster-than-stock-buybacks

After months of heated debate over whether companies would hand the biggest tax break in three decades back to shareholders or reinvest it in their businesses, there’s finally some hard data.

Among the 130 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results in this earnings season, capital spending increased by 39 percent, the fastest rate in seven years, data compiled by UBS AG show. Meanwhile, returns to shareholders are growing at a much slower pace, with net buybacks rising 16 percent. Dividends saw an 11 percent boost.

From 2014... Pleasure: An Initial Exploration

Pleasure: An Initial Exploration. Robert Biswas-Diener et al. Journal of Happiness Studies 16(2) April 2014, doi 10.1007/s10902-014-9511-x

Abstract: Pleasure has long been implicated as an important aspect of happiness. Unfortunately, the study of pleasure in the science of happiness has largely been relegated to positive affective states. While pleasure and affect are difficult to disentangle there is, we argue, utility in examining pleasure on its own merits rather than using proxy measures such as those of positive affect. Relatively little research exists directly connecting sensual pleasures and similar pleasurable experiences with happiness. In this research, we used a large international sample (N = 229,728) to explore individual and cross-national differences in pleasure. In particular, we examined the dominant pleasure profiles of nations as well as the relations of personality, gender and age to pleasure variables. These pleasure profiles were drawn from an examination of distinct pleasure leanings including those associated with taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing, achievement, relaxation, social connection and thrills. Our findings reveal significant relationships between personality, gender, age and culture—respectively—with pleasure. The specific relationships are discussed in detail.

The US stands out for its positivity among Western countries (44% saying their day was particularly good). Conservatives (48%) & moderates (47%) were significantly more likely than liberals (34%) to describe their day as good

‘Particularly good days’ are common in Africa, Latin America and the U.S. Courtney Johnson. Pew Research Center, January 2, 2018. Full article, with links and images, at http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/02/particularly-good-days-are-common-in-africa-latin-america-and-the-u-s/

[typical, good or bad day? http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2017/12/28120529/FT_18.01.02_typical_day_bars-1.png]

[Human Develoment Index http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/02/particularly-good-days-are-common-in-africa-latin-america-and-the-u-s/ft_18-01-02_typical_day_scatter]

If you live in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America or the United States, you are more likely than people in other regions of the world to say you’re having a particularly good day.

For the past several years, Pew Research Center’s annual Global Attitudes Survey has started with the following question: “How would you describe your day today – has it been a typical day, a particularly good day or a particularly bad day?” In 2017, we asked this question of nearly 42,000 people in 38 countries around the globe.

Although most people worldwide described their day as typical (median of 62%) and relatively few described it as particularly good (median of 30%), people in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America were more likely to view their day positively. Roughly half of Africans (median of 49%) and Latin Americans (48%) surveyed said their day was particularly good. Other regions – especially Europe (73%) – overwhelmingly described their day as typical; only 22% of Europeans said their day was good.

The share of upbeat people was notably higher in several countries surveyed. Half or more responded that their day was good in Nigeria (73%), Colombia (61%), Ghana (60%), Brazil (56%), the Philippines (53%) and Peru (50%).

The U.S. stands out for its positivity among Western countries, with 44% saying their day was particularly good. American conservatives (48%) and moderates (47%) were significantly more likely than liberals (34%) to describe their day as good.

Why would we ask such a conversational question as part of an in-depth research project? As survey researchers, we spend a lot of time thinking about how best to write and organize our questionnaires. We kick off the Global Attitudes Survey with this type of question for a couple of reasons: First, asking people about their day is a pleasant way to start an interview, and it helps build rapport between the interviewer and respondent. Second, starting with an easy-to-answer question helps respondents get comfortable with the format of the survey. As the survey continues, we introduce more difficult questions – but still make an effort to intersperse easier or more interesting questions among the harder ones.

Perhaps surprisingly, responses to this question were negatively correlated with one measure of national well-being, the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI). Countries with higher HDI scores have, on average, higher gross national income per capita, longer expected lifespans and higher educational expectations and attainment. Yet people in countries with higher HDI scores are less likely to say their day has been particularly good. In 2014, we similarly found that a country’s GDP per capita was negatively correlated with the percentage of people who said their day was good.

We find that for men, particularly among younger cohorts, the physically stronger are more likely to be married (no relation for women), consistent with a hypothesis that women increasingly have selected male marital partners based on preferred individual traits

Women’s Spousal Choices and a Man’s Handshake: Evidence from a Norwegian Study of Cohort Differences. Vegard Skirbekk, Melissa Hardy, Bjørn Heine Strand. SSM - Population Health, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.04.004

Abstract: Both high grip strength and being married independently relate to better functional capacity and health at older ages, but the combined effect of marital status and strength have not been investigated. Especially at older ages, declining strength can have adverse health and social consequences, where having a spouse could potentially help with everyday support and alleviate some of the negative effects of sarcopenia. We investigate how grip strength relates to being married among two cohorts of 59–71 year olds (born 1923-35 and 1936-48) in the Norwegian city of Tromsø, controlling for a broad set of health variables and sociodemographic characteristics. The baseline included N=5009 participants of whom 649 died during follow-up. We find that for men, particularly among younger cohorts, the physically stronger are more likely to be married, but no relation is found for women. This is consistent with a hypothesis that women increasingly have selected male marital partners based on preferred individual traits, whereas men do not emphasize strength when selecting women. We find that both marital status and grip strength independently affect mortality, but there is no significant joint effect. However, the distribution of strength and marital status implies that more men than women and increasing shares of later born cohorts have a “double-burden” of low strength and a lack of support from a spouse.

Keywords: Sarcopenia, Marriage, Gender Differences, Older Adults

Why Hate the Good Guy? Antisocial Punishment of High Cooperators Is Greater When People Compete to Be Chosen

Why Hate the Good Guy? Antisocial Punishment of High Cooperators Is Greater When People Compete to Be Chosen. Aleta Pleasant, Pat Barclay. Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617752642

Abstract: When choosing social partners, people prefer good cooperators (all else being equal). Given this preference, people wishing to be chosen can either increase their own cooperation to become more desirable or suppress others’ cooperation to make them less desirable. Previous research shows that very cooperative people sometimes get punished (“antisocial punishment”) or criticized (“do-gooder derogation”) in many cultures. Here, we used a public-goods game with punishment to test whether antisocial punishment is used as a means of competing to be chosen by suppressing others’ cooperation. As predicted, there was more antisocial punishment when participants were competing to be chosen for a subsequent cooperative task (a trust game) than without a subsequent task. This difference in antisocial punishment cannot be explained by differences in contributions, moralistic punishment, or confusion. This suggests that antisocial punishment is a social strategy that low cooperators use to avoid looking bad when high cooperators escalate cooperation.

Keywords: public-goods games, biological markets, partner choice, competitive altruism, do-gooder derogation, open data, open materials

Identity prediction errors in the human midbrain update reward-identity expectations in the orbitofrontal cortex

Identity prediction errors in the human midbrain update reward-identity expectations in the orbitofrontal cortex. James D. Howard & Thorsten Kahnt. Nature Communications, volume 9, Article number: 1611 (2018), doi 10.1038/s41467-018-04055-5

Abstract: There is general consensus that dopaminergic midbrain neurons signal reward prediction errors, computed as the difference between expected and received reward value. However, recent work in rodents shows that these neurons also respond to errors related to inferred value and sensory features, indicating an expanded role for dopamine beyond learning cached values. Here we utilize a transreinforcer reversal learning task and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test whether prediction error signals in the human midbrain are evoked when the expected identity of an appetitive food odor reward is violated, while leaving value matched. We found that midbrain fMRI responses to identity and value errors are correlated, suggesting a common neural origin for these error signals. Moreover, changes in reward-identity expectations, encoded in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), are directly related to midbrain activity, demonstrating that identity-based error signals in the midbrain support the formation of outcome identity expectations in OFC.

h/t: Sadashiva Pai

Antidepressant Use Prospectively Relates to a Poorer Long-Term Outcome of Depression: Results from a Prospective Community Cohort Study over 30 Years

Antidepressant Use Prospectively Relates to a Poorer Long-Term Outcome of Depression: Results from a Prospective Community Cohort Study over 30 Years. Michael P. Hengartner, Jules Angst, Wulf Rössler. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, doi 10.1159/000488802

Despite marked increases in antidepressant drug prescriptions over the last 3 decades, the burden and disability attributed to major depression are still on the rise. This calls into question the sustainable clinical benefits attributed to antidepressants. The efficacy of antidepressants based on mostly industry-funded short-term trials has been challenged due to selective reporting and systematic method biases (e.g., unblinding of outcome assessors), and the long-term benefits of antidepressants have also been debated [1, 2]. Two long-term effectiveness trials of 1 year duration found no clinically important effect in terms of sustained remission for long-term antidepressant use (the sustained remission rate was < 6% [3, 4]), and a meta-analysis of long-term parallel-arm efficacy trials of 6–8 months treatment duration found no significant difference between antidepressants and placebo with respect to both remission and premature treatment discontinuation [5]. Some prospective observational studies with 1- to 9-year follow-ups even reported a poorer outcome in antidepressant users relative to non-users [6–8]. In contrast to these findings, discontinuation trials of commonly 6–18 months duration suggest that long-term antidepressant use may prevent relapses (reviewed in Hengartner [1]). However, the validity of these trials has been questioned, because they include only participants who respond well to the drugs and randomise some of them to have the drug withdrawn rapidly and replaced by placebo, which can cause severe withdrawal syndromes that mimic depression relapse [1, 2]. Since extended observation periods of 10 years and more are not feasible within a randomised placebo-controlled trial design, the aim of the present work was to test in a representative community cohort study over 30 years whether antidepressant use, relative to non-use, would relate to a poorer long-term outcome of depression.

[...]

In this community cohort of 591 adults followed from the age of 20/21 to 49/50 years, we found that, independently of illness severity and distress at baseline, antidepressant use prospectively relates to a poorer long-term outcome in depression. These findings are in line with a growing body of evidence from several naturalistic observational studies suggesting that (long-term) antidepresant use may produce a poor long-term outcome in people with depression [6–8]. A neurobiological mechanism that may causally explain these findings is the oppositional model of tolerance by Fava [10], which proposes that continued antidepressant use may recruit pharmacodynamic processes such as receptor sensitization that results in loss of clinical effect and in some patients even in an increased vulnerability to depression relapse.

The present work is not without limitations. Most importantly, participants were not randomised to antidepressant use, which precludes causal conclusions. Antidepressant use relied on self-report, and we do not have data on the specific drug prescribed, its dosage, and on the duration of medication. Considering these limitations, our findings raise the possibility that antidepressants may worsen the long-term course of depression. It remains to be established whether this effect is causally related to antidepressant use or to uncontrolled aetiological factors differentiating antidepressant users from non-users, such as for instance coping skills, social support, or personality characteristics.

Fearmongering, according to Hans Rosling's comments in "Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think"

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. Hans Rosling with‎ Ola Rosling and  Anna Rosling Rönnlund. 352 pages. Flatiron Books (April 3, 2018), ISBN-13: 978-1250107817

Half of these are wrong, irrelevant, or a linear combination of both, but even so:

Some of the author's comments:




 

"Without trust, we are lost."