Results indicate that although high self-control is associated with a wide range of socially desirable traits, choice of social partners does not depend or depends only to a small degree on the partner's high self-control

The Upsides and Downsides of High Self-Control: Evidence for Effects of Similarity and Situation Dependency. Lukas Röseler, Jacqueline Ebert, Astrid Schütz, Roy Baumeister. Europe's Journal of Psychology, Vol 17(1). Feb 26 2021. https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop/article/view/2639

Abstract: High trait self-control is generally depicted as favorable. We investigated whether this holds for social perception. Using vignettes, we tested whether a person with high self-control is 1) preferred as a partner for all or only certain social situations, 2) perceived as less likeable than a person with low self-control, 3) liked more if the person is female and the behavior thus fits the sex-stereotype, and 4) perceived differently from a person with low self-control with respect to a wide range of adjectives used to describe personality. Competing theories are presented for each area. Results indicate that although high self-control is associated with a wide range of socially desirable traits, choice of partners 1) depends on the type of situation in which the interaction will occur, 2) depends on the similarity between the respondent and the partner, 3) does not depend on a stereotype match, and 4) does not depend or depends only to a small degree on the partner's high self-control. The perception of individuals with high self-control is thus variable and situationally contingent, and more than a single theory is needed to explain it.

Discussion

A broad and high-powered vignette study provided detailed evidence for a wide range of effects of a person's self-control on social perception. Contrary to the view that high self-control is always better than low self-control (positivity hypothesis of self-control), we found that the type of person that is preferred 1) depends on the type of situation one is confronted with, 2) depends on similarity, and 3) does not depend on gender stereotypes. In terms of duty situations (e.g., getting advice for a decision), people with high self-control were the preferred partners, whereas in socializing situations (e.g., going for a walk, attending a party, having a nice conversation), people with low self-control were the preferred partners. Also contradicting the positivity hypothesis of self-control, we found that how much people liked people with low or high self-control depended on their own self-control. More specifically, people with high self-control preferred other people with high self-control, and people with low self-control preferred other people with low self-control, a trend that is consistent with similarity being a major factor for determining attraction in nonromantic contexts.

There was an apparent contradiction of the main effect of self-control: When the task was to choose a partner for socializing and duty situations, participants preferred partners with high self-control overall (high vignette self-control). However, when we asked for how much participants liked the vignettes and participants' self-control was controlled for, low vignette self-control received higher liking scores overall. Note that choosing somebody in a situation differs from liking somebody and that the overall mean effect across all 10 situations depended on these situations and could easily be different for other situations. For example, the duty situations might have been more diagnostic than the sociality situations, but at the same time, they might occur less often and thus weigh less.

Although there is evidence for stereotypical male behavior being less self-controlled than female behavior, and there are theoretical grounds for predicting that a stereotype match would be positively associated with how much a person likes another person, we found no such effect: Whether men or women were presented as high or low in self-control had no differential effect on liking.

We found that the similarity effect and the situation effect occurred simultaneously and independently and dominated the main effect of vignette self-control (positivity hypothesis) by far. That is, the choice of a partner depends on the situation that the partner is needed for (situation hypothesis), the resemblance between the partner and the person who is choosing the partner (complementarity hypothesis), but not or only to a very small degree on the self-control of the partner being high (positivity hypothesis). Future research should consider these aspects of social perception in relation to self-control. We did find an advantage of people with high self-control over people with low self-control when people look for partners in duty situations. Despite this corroboration of the positivity hypothesis, other factors such as similarity and the situation seem more important. This is surprising given that the definition of self-control includes aspects of social desirability. In other words, whether one likes somebody who is socially desirable (i.e., has high self-control) also depends on the perceiver's self-control. And whether one wants to work with somebody who is socially desirable depends on the situation. Ironically, in what we termed socializing situations (e.g., going on vacation together or partying), vignette characters with low self-control (i.e., a socially undesirable trait) were preferred over vignette characters with high self-control.

Finally, and more in line with the positivity hypothesis of self-control, an exploratory approach revealed that people with high self-control are associated with a wide range of other socially desirable traits, such as being assured, unassuming, and agreeable. Some of the results are seemingly contradictory: Although some factors theoretically correlate negatively (e.g., assured-dominant and gregarious-extraverted), differences between high and low self-controlled vignettes are not in the same direction with these factors. This could be due to patterns that are different in that population, possibly due to trans situational variability, than in a standard population. That is, people very high and low in self-control or the perceptions about these people could show other patterns of correlations between the dimensions that differ from those in a standard population.

Limitations

In our outline of the social perception of people with high self-control, we considered different kinds of situations, individual differences in the participants, sex stereotypes, and a wide range of traits. However, several factors merit further investigation.

First, we used vignettes only. Our setting was thus highly artificial, and the large effect sizes were probably due to the extreme manipulations. If actual people with less extreme differences were used, we would expect smaller effects.

Second, our study may have been affected by demand characteristics. It was evident that we were interested in perceptions that were based on the vignettes and on stereotypes. Even though people are not defenseless against demand characteristics (Hofmann, Gschwendner, Friese, Wiers, & Schmitt, 2008) judgments in everyday life may differ from findings in an experiment. The ratings of the vignettes might be subject to demand characteristics whereas spontaneous responses might not. Although tasks such as the Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) have been criticized heavily (e.g., Schimmack, 2019), they allow for an assessment of such spontaneous reports (Hofmann, Gawronski, Gschwendner, Le, & Schmitt, 2005) and can thus be helpful to avoid the problem of demand characteristics.

Third, our sample and vignettes targeted 20- to 30-year-old German people. Academic and social goals may vary across the lifespan and cultures, moderate the importance of duty and socializing situations, and thus affect their weight in choosing interaction partners and evaluating others. Even what is socially desirable might depend on these factors. For example, an interesting approach could be the longitudinal perspective on romantic relationships with respect to self-control. At the beginning of a romantic relationship, partners might exercise much more self-control in order to convince their partner of sustaining the rather fragile relationship than after a few months or years.

Although we identified situation type, similarity, and self-control as three parallel effects, with the last one being the weakest in our study, we cannot generalize their significance to contexts outside the laboratory. Generalization to other cultures where different traits are considered socially desirable may not be possible either. Replications, especially in non-Western cultures, are needed. Due to the artificial setting and different manipulations and measures (i.e., manipulation of vignette self-control but no manipulation of respondent self-control), the effect sizes might be skewed.

Most think about themselves, remember about themselves, & feel about themselves in positive rather than in negative ways; when we think negatively about ourselves, we tend to minimize the negativity

Chapter Five - On the utility of the self in social perception: An Egocentric Tactician Model. Constantine Sedikides, Mark D. Alicke, John J. Skowronski. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 63, 2021, Pages 247-298, https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2020.11.005

Abstract: This chapter describes the Egocentric Tactician Model. The model purports to account for the influence of the self on social thought. Such thought refers to the social world and those who inhabit it (i.e., characterizing or construing another's actions, predicting others’ preferences or behaviors, evaluating what is normative or right). The model posits that the influence of the self on social thought is contingent on both the content of the self-concept and the motives that work to maintain or increase the positivity of the self-concept. Two primary motives are self-enhancement and self-protection. The model further asserts that during social thought these motives affect, and are affected by, various cognitive processes and structures. Different chapter sections demonstrate that the Egocentric Tactician Model is empirically grounded, has a broad explanatory scope, is generative, and differs from other models in describing how the self affects social thought.

Keywords: SelfSocial perceptionSelf-motivesSelf-enhancementSelf-protection

Humans differ from chimpanzees more because of delayed maturity and lower adult mortality than from differences in juvenile mortality or fertility

Davison RJ, Gurven MD (2021) Human uniqueness? Life history diversity among small-scale societies and chimpanzees. PLoS ONE 16(2): e0239170, Feb 22 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239170

Abstract

Background: Humans life histories have been described as “slow”, patterned by slow growth, delayed maturity, and long life span. While it is known that human life history diverged from that of a recent common chimpanzee-human ancestor some ~4–8 mya, it is unclear how selection pressures led to these distinct traits. To provide insight, we compare wild chimpanzees and human subsistence societies in order to identify the age-specific vital rates that best explain fitness variation, selection pressures and species divergence.

Methods: We employ Life Table Response Experiments to quantify vital rate contributions to population growth rate differences. Although widespread in ecology, these methods have not been applied to human populations or to inform differences between humans and chimpanzees. We also estimate correlations between vital rate elasticities and life history traits to investigate differences in selection pressures and test several predictions based on life history theory.

Results: Chimpanzees’ earlier maturity and higher adult mortality drive species differences in population growth, whereas infant mortality and fertility variation explain differences between human populations. Human fitness is decoupled from longevity by postreproductive survival, while chimpanzees forfeit higher potential lifetime fertility due to adult mortality attrition. Infant survival is often lower among humans, but lost fitness is recouped via short birth spacing and high peak fertility, thereby reducing selection on infant survival. Lastly, longevity and delayed maturity reduce selection on child survival, but among humans, recruitment selection is unexpectedly highest in longer-lived populations, which are also faster-growing due to high fertility.

Conclusion: Humans differ from chimpanzees more because of delayed maturity and lower adult mortality than from differences in juvenile mortality or fertility. In both species, high child mortality reflects bet-hedging costs of quality/quantity tradeoffs borne by offspring, with high and variable child mortality likely regulating human population growth over evolutionary history. Positive correlations between survival and fertility among human subsistence populations leads to selection pressures in human subsistence societies that differ from those in modern populations undergoing demographic transition.

Grafting new functions (e.g., reading) onto older brain structures can improve even the skills (e.g., object recognition) for which the old infrastructure had originally evolved

Does Neuronal Recycling Result in Destructive Competition? The Influence of Learning to Read on the Recognition of Faces. Jeroen van Paridon et al. Psychological Science, February 25, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620971652

Abstract: Written language, a human cultural invention, is far too recent a development for dedicated neural infrastructure to have evolved in its service. Newly acquired cultural skills, such as reading, thus recycle evolutionarily older circuits that originally evolved for different, but similar, functions (e.g., visual object recognition). The destructive-competition hypothesis predicts that this neuronal recycling has detrimental behavioral effects on the cognitive functions for which a cortical network originally evolved. In a study with 97 literate, low-literate, and illiterate participants from the same socioeconomic background, we found that even after adjusting for cognitive ability and test-taking familiarity, learning to read was associated with an increase, rather than a decrease, in object-recognition abilities. These results are incompatible with the claim that neuronal recycling results in destructive competition and are consistent with the possibility that learning to read instead fine-tunes general object-recognition mechanisms, a hypothesis that needs further neuroscientific investigation.

Keywords: reading, face perception, literacy, neuroimaging, open data, open materials

Discussion

Our findings are incompatible with destructive competition and consistent with neuroimaging evidence (Hervais-Adelman et al., 2019) that learning to read may fine-tune object-recognition mechanisms, namely, that reading acquisition results in increased sensitivity to visual stimuli in addition to reading-related enhanced attentional and oculomotor capacities (Kastner et al., 2004; Skeide et al., 2017).

Importantly, the comparatively better object-recognition abilities of literates than illiterates appear to be directly related to reading acquisition. Such abilities are very unlikely to be a secondary effect of literacy, such as increased verbal working memory (Demoulin & Kolinsky, 2016; Smalle et al., 2019), general cognitive ability, or familiarity with test taking, because in the present study we regressed out common variance associated with these traits. To more directly assess causality, we recommend further investigation of the results from the present large-scale cross-sectional study with a longitudinal design (cf. Goswami, 2015; Huettig, Lachmann, et al., 2018). The positive relationship between reading ability and object-recognition memory in the present study casts serious doubts on the viability of the destructive-competition hypothesis. Whereas this hypothesis views the brain as a system with finite processing resources for which different functions are competing, the present findings raise the intriguing possibility that the brain, remarkably, is able to support new abilities in such a way that related older abilities can be enhanced rather than impaired. Further behavioral and neuroscientific research could explore this possibility in more detail, for instance, examining whether literates’ better object-recognition abilities are related to shared (neural) processing between face and word reading, as both skills require sophisticated foveal processing.

From 2016... This paper argues that panhuman cognitive tendencies explain, in part, the spread and recurrence of ideas about what provides evidence of reincarnation

The Cognitive Foundations of Reincarnation. Claire White. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, Volume 28, Issue 3, Pages: 264–286. Aug 4 2016. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341381

Abstract: Anthropological records and psychological studies demonstrate the recurrence of ideas about how to determine the identity of reincarnated persons. These ideas are often incoherent with corresponding theological dogma about the process of reincarnation. Specifically, even though reincarnation is represented as a process of change, people often seek out and interpret particular similarities between the deceased and reincarnated agent as evidence that the two are one and the same person. This paper argues that panhuman cognitive tendencies explain, in part, the spread and recurrence of ideas about what provides evidence of reincarnation: specifically, representations of reincarnated agents are informed and constrained by everyday cognitive intuitions that govern representations of continued identity for intentional agents generally. The paper concludes that these constraints go some way towards explaining the recurrent features of reincarnation concepts and behaviors cross-culturally. 

Keywords: Reincarnation; Personal identity; Cognitive science of religion; Theological incorrectness.

III. General Discussion

This paper is underpinned by the following key question: why do people across the world judge particular types of physical and psychological similarities between the deceased and reincarnated agents as evidence of continued identity? This observation is especially perplexing because the continuity of these features explicitly contradicts the concept of reincarnation as entailing a bodily (and often psychological) change. The findings presented here, from trends observed in the anthropological record – including a quantifiable analysis of the existing reports in North America, a series of controlled studies with U.S. and Jain participants with different beliefs about the afterlife and a survey with western participants who believe they have lived before, suggests a role for the mundane processes of social cognition in explaining the cross-culturally recurrent features of reincarnation beliefs and associated practices. Namely, that despite representing reincarnation as a process of physical change and, in some instances, also subscribing to a view of the self in a process of constant psychological change, people everywhere represent reincarnated agents as retaining distinctive physical features and assuming an underlying psychological stability through the retention of episodic autobiographical memory. These processes are governed by intuitive expectations for agents everywhere, and in the face of explicit doctrine they do not simply “shut off”, but rather, facilitate and constrain so-called “religious” practices in predictable ways. In line with other research in the cognitive science of religion, there are thus cognitive, or natural, foundations to religious concepts. To be clear, the argument advanced here is not that such cognitive processes, in isolation, explain the recurrence of the use of these signs in reincarnation without reference to the sociohistorical processes that also give rise to, and facilitate them. Rather, the claim is that accounting for these representational biases contributes towards a better understanding, and ultimately, explanation, of the transmissive success of reincarnation concepts. Thus, acknowledging the role of the human mind can strengthen existing explanations of reincarnation that hinge upon other psychological or social processes. Take, for instance, the explanation of such practices in the anthropological record previously discussed, that they serve a purpose for the bereaved to have their deceased kin reincarnate to their clan or lineage (Obeyesekere 2002). It may be the case that, for example, these low-level cognitive constraints for human agents previously outlined (i.e., representational content biases), when combined with the strong motivation to identify kin, spread rapidly, especially when such ideas are reinforced by leading religious authorities or they have important consequences for the organization of society (e.g., see Gervais et al. 2011; Nichols 2004). Future programs of research should consider how cognition interacts with culture to produce the similarity, and differences, of reincarnation concepts and associated behaviors cross-culturally. The current research project has taken the first step towards identifying what some of the basic cognitive features in this ultimate explanatory story would be. 

The evidence from human intervention studies supports the use of low-calorie sweeteners in weight management

The effects of low-calorie sweeteners on energy intake and body weight: a systematic review and meta-analyses of sustained intervention studies. Peter J. Rogers & Katherine M. Appleton. International Journal of Obesity volume 45, pages464–478, Nov 9 2020. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-020-00704-2

Abstract: Previous meta-analyses of intervention studies have come to different conclusions about effects of consumption of low-calorie sweeteners (LCS) on body weight. The present review included 60 articles reporting 88 parallel-groups and cross-over studies ≥1 week in duration that reported either body weight (BW), BMI and/or energy intake (EI) outcomes. Studies were analysed according to whether they compared (1) LCS with sugar, (2) LCS with water or nothing, or (3) LCS capsules with placebo capsules. Results showed an effect in favour of LCS vs sugar for BW (29 parallel-groups studies, 2267 participants: BW change, −1.06 kg, 95% CI −1.50 to −0.62, I2 = 51%), BMI and EI. Effect on BW change increased with ‘dose’ of sugar replaced by LCS, whereas there were no differences in study outcome as a function of duration of the intervention or participant blinding. Overall, results showed no difference in effects of LCS vs water/nothing for BW (11 parallel-groups studies, 1068 participants: BW change, 0.10 kg, 95% CI −0.87 to 1.07, I2 = 82%), BMI and EI; and inconsistent effects for LCS consumed in capsules (BW change: −0.28 kg, 95% CI −0.80 to 0.25, I2 = 0%; BMI change: 0.20 kg/m2, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.36, I2 = 0%). Occurrence of adverse events was not affected by the consumption of LCS. The studies available did not permit robust analysis of effects by LCS type. In summary, outcomes were not clearly affected when the treatments differed in sweetness, nor when LCS were consumed in capsules without tasting; however, when treatments differed in energy value (LCS vs sugar), there were consistent effects in favour of LCS. The evidence from human intervention studies supports the use of LCS in weight management, constrained primarily by the amount of added sugar that LCS can displace in the diet.

Unattractive (vs. attractive) individuals were judged to be more likely to engage in purity violations compared to harm violations; the observed effect was driven by the upper half of the attractiveness spectrum

Klebl, Christoph. 2021. “Physical Attractiveness Biases Judgments Pertaining to the Moral Domain of Purity.” PsyArXiv. February 26. doi:10.31234/osf.io/3bnge

Abstract: Research on the Beauty-is-Good stereotype shows that unattractive people are perceived to have worse moral character than attractive individuals. Yet research has not explored what kinds of moral character judgments are particularly biased by attractiveness. In this work, we tested whether attractiveness particularly biases moral character judgments pertaining to the moral domain of purity, beyond a more general halo effect. Two pre-registered studies found that unattractive (vs. attractive) individuals were judged to be more likely to engage in purity violations compared to harm violations and that this was not due to differences in perceived wrongness of the violations (Studies 1 and 3). We also found that the observed effect was driven by the upper half of the attractiveness spectrum (Studies 2 and 3). The findings shed light on how physical attractiveness influences moral character attributions, suggesting that physical attractiveness particularly biases character judgments pertaining to the moral domain of purity.

Student sex work is a current phenomenon all over the world; study found no difference in happiness between student sex workers and non-sex working students

Students in the Sex Industry: Motivations, Feelings, Risks, and Judgments. Felicitas Ernst1 et al. Front. Psychol., February 25 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.586235

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1364960192933343233

Abstract: Student sex work is a current phenomenon all over the world, increasingly reported by the media in recent years. However, student sex work remains under-researched in Germany and is lacking direct first-hand reports from the people involved. Further, sex work remains stigmatized, and therefore, students practicing it could be at risk of social isolation and emotional or physical danger. Therefore, this study examines students working in the sex industry focusing on their personal experiences and attitudes toward them. An online questionnaire was completed by 4386 students from Berlin universities. Students who identified themselves as sex workers (n = 227) were questioned with respect to their motivations to enter the sex industry, characteristics of their job, feelings after the intercourse, and perceived risks. Student non-sex workers (n = 2998) were questioned regarding knowledge of and attitudes toward student sex workers. Most student sex workers reported that they entered the sex industry due to financial reasons (35.7%). The majority reported offering services involving direct sexual intercourse. Disclosing their job to friends, family, or others was associated with less problems with social isolation and in romantic relationships. With a total of 22.9%, student non-sex workers reported never having heard about students working in the sex industry. The most frequent emotions mentioned by them with regard to student sex workers were compassion and dismay (48.9%). There was no difference in happiness between student sex workers and non-sex working students. Through this research, it becomes evident that there are similarities between the student’s motivations to enter the sex industry, their feelings, and the problems they have to face. Moreover, prejudices still prevail about the life of student sex workers. Increasing understanding of student sex work might help those sex workers to live a less stigmatized life and thereby to make use of support from others. The universities as institutions could form the basis for this, e.g., by openly supporting student sex workers. This could help to encourage the rights of student sex workers and to gain perspective with respect to the sex industry.

Discussion

The aims of this exploratory study were (a) to gain a first insight into primary motivations driving students in Berlin, a major German metropolitan area, to enter the sex industry and to examine characteristics of their work, their feelings, and risks connected to the work; and (b) to investigate judgments and attitudes by non-sex working students toward student sex workers.

Motivations to Enter the Sex Industry

The most frequent services offered by students working in the sex industry were prostitution in the narrow sense, meaning sexual intercourse for money (21.6%) and escort services including sexual intercourse (18.5%). Previous studies, however, reported that student sex workers more often offer services excluding rather than including direct sexual–monetary exchange (Roberts et al., 2013; Sagar et al., 2015a). As these studies by Roberts et al. (2013) and Sagar et al. (2015a) were conducted in countries demanding relatively high student fees, the different results are surprising. Since in Berlin student loans do not exist to this extent, one could assume that the students would not have to improve their financial situation by means of sex work. In this study, most sex workers (35.7%) stated that their primary motivation to enter the sex industry was indeed the possibility to obtain a higher income than in other jobs; only 4.0% stated that this was not important for them. A few (20.3%) opted for financial hardship as primary motivation, while nearly the same amount (15.9%) stated that this was not important. Financial hardship might therefore not be the only reason to enter the sex industry. Other reasons might include the flexibility of the job, as students are often not able to work regularly due to their studies. This is in line with the finding of Jenkins (2006), who also ascertained that financial hardship was not always the most relevant motivation for students to enter the sex industry. It was rather the fact of gaining higher income in a more flexible way than in other jobs. However, there are some students who stated that they entered the sex industry due to a critical financial situation.

Research by Sagar et al. (2015a) stated that both female as well as male students are working in the sex industry; sex work was even found to be more common among men than women. The current study did not find differences in gender within the student sex workers. Additionally, the study showed no difference between female and male sex workers with respect to several variables: no difference was found, among others, in the services they offer, in the motivations to enter the sex industry, or in experiencing violence. Regarding experiencing stigma, this study took a more generalized approach and did not take into account the differences between people’s experiences (e.g., with respect to gender or ethnicity), which would be of interest for future studies.

Frequency and Payment

Regarding the appointments with clients and the payment student sex workers receive, the results found in this study were similar to previous studies (Kontula, 2008; Sagar et al., 2015a). Sagar et al. (2015a) reported that most students (54.1%) work less than five hours per week and 51.3% earn less than €300 per month.

Disclosing Work to Others

Most students stated that they chose to disclose their job to friends or to their partner, which mirrors findings from Roberts et al. (2013). Only a few student sex workers stated not having disclosed their job to someone else; consequences were increased problems in their partnerships and increased social isolation. Furthermore, there was a tendency of student sex workers who disclosed their job to someone else being happier than those who did not disclose their job. Previous studies showed that student sex workers suffer most when they feel like they are not able to talk to anyone about their profession (Sagar et al., 2015a). This might be a consequence of the taboo and the stigmatization of sex work. A previous study examining sex workers in Hong Kong showed that stigma can have several negative effects on mental as well as physical health (Wong et al., 2011): this includes direct forms of bullying, physical and verbal violence, as well as rather indirect forms through which the sex workers feel the need to isolate themselves socially and fear utilizing the help available (e.g., health services). As seen in the study at hand, there are several problems that sex workers have to face. However, lowering the taboo of the profession and being able to talk openly about it might help to reduce some of these problems, such as social isolation, mental stress, and health risks (Wong et al., 2011; Armstrong, 2019).

Experiences of the Work

In our study, 37% of the students working in the sex industry did not experience violence while conducting their job; only 5.7% stated having experienced violence. This might be due to the fact that many student sex workers (43.6%) stated being protected by someone while conducting their job. These results are in line with the finding reported by Sagar et al. (2015a) that only a minority of student sex workers reported a lack of safety in the job; 75.5% stated to feel safe very often or always while conducting their job. Despite this, there are some students who stated to have experienced violence to which one should pay attention. The types of violence students referenced included both physical violence from clients as well as verbal abuse from others. It is assumed that removing the stigma around student sex work may help to make the profession safer (Armstrong, 2019). Previous studies showed that violence perpetrated against sex workers is often a consequence of stereotypical and hostile views toward sex workers (Sanders, 2016). Challenging such negative stereotypes and stigmatization may therefore help to build respect for sex workers and, in doing so, work toward reducing violence.

For both questions regarding feelings and experience with violence during sex work, there was a high prevalence of missing values. These were notably higher than for other parts of the questionnaire, which could be due to these questions being perceived as particularly sensitive and the students felt intimidated or ashamed to answer the question through an online questionnaire. As a result, there may have been a bias toward individuals with less negative feelings toward their work. Future studies could attempt a more personal interview approach in order to gain a greater understanding of these factors.

Students’ Views Toward Sex Workers and Differences Between Groups

Roberts et al. (2010) reported in their study that the majority of the students (58.5%) are aware of students working in the sex industry. This study found similar results. Over 62% of the non-sex working students reported to be aware of it through the media. Nonetheless, there is still a substantial number of students (22.9%) who reported never having heard about the phenomenon before. Research by Long et al. (2012) showed that people who know someone working in the sex industry have more positive views toward sex workers than others. This study supports these findings. Students who have never been confronted with student sex workers prior to the study reported more often the feeling lack of understanding when thinking of student sex workers than students who were aware of the phenomenon. Moreover, they reported less often the feelings respect and curiosity than students who were aware of students working in the sex industry. These findings point out the importance of increasing the awareness of student sex work. Research shows that there is still limited acceptance of sex work as a profession (Long et al., 2012; Ma et al., 2018). Despite its legalization, many prejudices exist concerning sex work (Sagar et al., 2015a). In the past, sex workers were often seen as culprits, spreading sexually transmitted diseases (Vanwesenbeeck, 2001). Even until now, sex workers in general are seen as victims, which experience several problems. The fact that the majority of the students answered that they felt compassion and dismay while thinking of student sex workers emphasizes this observation. Regarding happiness, however, the current study showed that there was no difference in happiness with respect to working in the sex industry or not.

Limitations

Despite the fact that there was a total of 4386 participants, students who are engaged in the sex industry or who know someone engaged in it may have been more willing to fill in the questionnaire, leading to a sample bias. The study was conducted in a metropolitan city, which might have led to a distorted higher number of sex workers, even though other studies found similar prevalence. On the other hand, it is conceivable that there is a substantial number of unreported cases of sex working students who did not want to provide such intimate information in an online questionnaire, even though it was clearly stated that data were collected anonymously. Further, the study did not include a response option for transgender and non-binary identity, which would be important to include in future studies as such individuals make up a notable percentage of sex workers (Fitzgerald et al., 2015).

A self-report instrument was used to collect the data. Participants might not always tell the truth, particularly concerning a sensitive topic like this. In addition to quantitative research methods, other studies adopted qualitative methods such as interviews (Jenkins, 2006; Sagar et al., 2015a). Qualitative research methods might raise the expressiveness of the answers; at the same time, it might be more accessible for participants to answer questions on this topic in privacy.

The questionnaire used for this analysis was not validated. This is partly due to the fact that there is a lack of validated instruments for the study of sex work and in particular of sex work stigma, which should be dealt with in further research.

The question on “feelings after the intercourse” was displayed rather broadly in the questionnaire (e.g., lacking a comparison to either not having intercourse with a client or not having intercourse at all) and thus may have been more open to interpretation from the respondents. Therefore, the answers given on this question have to be interpreted with caution.

In this work, we derived the parameter of stigmatization mainly from the question about the feelings of non-sex working students toward sex workers, as we believe stigma (only partially dependent on the degree of perception of sex workers themselves) is mainly formed this way (Jonsson and Jakobsson, 2017). We asked the question of conceivable negative experiences to both sex workers and non-sex workers at the same time, which provides a certain comparison (presented in Table 3). However, this question involved various kinds of negative experiences, some of which only serve as a vague estimation for experiencing stigma (e.g., social isolation).

Lastly, the study at hand contains a relatively high number of missing data. As the aim of the research was to get an extensive insight into students working in the sex industry through consulting as many individuals as possible, all given answers from incomplete questionnaires were included. Also, the missing data might reflect the sensitivity of the topic and the results of the study should not be generalized. As mentioned above, in the future, the use of qualitative in addition to quantitative methods could be considered to gain a better understanding on some of the more sensitive topics surrounding student sex work.

Men more than women report regret passing up short-term sexual opportunities, while women regret having had sexual encounters; no evidence of mating strategy changes following sexual regret

The Function of Casual Sex Action and Inaction Regret: A Longitudinal Investigation. Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, Trond Viggo Grøntvedt, Mons Bendixen. Evolutionary Psychology, February 25, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704921998333

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1364901633872846849

Abstract: In several recent papers the sex difference in regret predicted by sexual strategies theory has been supported: men more than women report regret passing up short-term sexual opportunities (inaction regret), while women regret having had sexual encounters (action regret). However, the adaptive function of regret, to improve future behavioral choices, has not been tested. In this first longitudinal test of behavioral change following regret, we consider whether regret actually results in adaptive shifts of behavior: will men who regret passing up sex engage in more short-term sex following regret? Will women who regret short-term encounters either choose better quality partners, reduce number of one-night stands or shift their strategy to long-term relationships? Across two waves (NT1 = 399, 65.4% women and NT2 = 222, 66.2% women) students responded to questions about casual sex action regret and inaction regret, along with possible outcomes, intrapersonal traits, and concurrent contextual predictors. There was no clear evidence for the proposed functional shifts in sexual behavior. Casual sex regret was associated with respondent sex and stable individual differences, such as sociosexual attitudes, regret processing and metacognitions, but the effect of these predictors were not consistent across the two waves. Among the tested concurrent contextual predictors, sexual disgust was the most consistent across waves. Regret is considered a gauge of the value and quality of the short-term sexual encounter. However, tentatively we conclude that after this first test of function using longitudinal data, we find no evidence of a mating strategy shifting effect following sexual regret.

Keywords: sexual strategies theory, inaction regret, action regret, casual sex, sociosexuality, sexual disgust, sex differences, adaptive function, longitudinal

Discussion

Many emotions have evolved, including fear (Cannon, 1915; Kennair, 2007; Marks & Nesse, 1994) and disgust (Al-Shawaf et al., 2018; Tybur et al., 2009). Galperin et al. (2013) suggested an adaptive function of men’s sexual inaction regret and women’s sexual action regret, where both sexes should make more adaptive future sexual behavior choices, based upon the aversive emotional component of their regret. In general, action and inaction regret should result in more adaptive behavior, less regrettable behavior and thus less regret. This is the first empirical test of this functional hypothesis of regret.

We found no support for the hypothesis that inaction regret should increase short-term sexual activity, as inaction regret at T1 did not increase number of one-night stands or the likelihood of having a new one-night stand for either men or women between T1 and T2. We neither found support for the hypothesis that action regret at T1 would result in fewer short-term sexual partners at T2, especially for women. In addition, and contrary to the functional hypothesis, level of casual sex regret at T1 reduced the odds of entering a committed relationship at T2. Furthermore, the level of regret about having had casual sex was not associated with changes in perceived partner short-term attractiveness between T1 and T2 for those reporting a new casual sex partner (Hypothesis 3). This was also true for perceived partner long-term attractiveness (post-hoc, explorative analysis). Finally, there was no clear-cut conclusion based on the analysis that regret is a manifest functional mechanism that results in reduced future regret. Women reported lower levels of action regret at T2 relative to T1, while men reported more. Still, those who regretted more at T1 reported lower levels of regret at T2, but this may also be an effect of regression toward the mean as those who reported being ‘glad’ they had casual sex (or passed up having casual sex) reported more regret at T2.

The competing hypotheses that regret is non-functional and maintained by stable, intrapersonal factors or a result of concurrent, contextual factors were supported. The first of these suggests that sociosexuality, metacognitions and regret processing, independent of behavioral change, would predict regret. However, these predictors were not consistent across waves. Action regret showed moderate association with sociosexual attitudes at T1, but weak at T2. Regret processing was moderately associated with action regret across both waves, while positive and negative metacognitions were less consistently associated. The newly developed measure of regret processing is probably closely related to the personality trait neuroticism. As such, it is possible that these more stable traits and individual differences explain who will regret having had sex: more neurotic individuals will process negative aspects more and less restricted individuals will experience less reason to regret a physical encounter.

Of the concurrent, contextual factors included in the study (sexual disgust, sexual gratification, intoxication when having had sex, sexual initiative, and partner’s short-term mate value), only sexual disgust consistently predicted action regret across both waves, while sexual gratification was stronger associated with less regret at T1 relative to T2. We also found that higher partner short-term mate value and taking the initiative reduced regret at T1. Again, this replicates the gist of previous research into proximate mechanisms (Kennair et al., 2016, 2018). However, without any identified behavioral change above, we are left with the conclusion that in addition to some effect of personality, what we find is that regret largely is a dynamic gauge of whether the casual sex being evaluated was good or bad.

An important aspect of a functional emotion is that it should produce change in behavior, and thus reduce the necessity of experiencing the emotion. Pain due to a stone in one’s shoe should motivate removing said stone, and thereby discontinuing the pain. Fear of a venomous spider should motivate avoidance and reduce the present level of fear. Without behavioral change as a result of an internal state there is no interaction with reality, and thus nothing for selection to work on. It was therefore surprising, from a functional perspective, that regret as counterfactual cognitive-emotional process was both continuous and relatively stable across different one-night stands for the same participants. There was further little evidence of behavioral change, which of course may be because we have not managed to define or operationalize this well enough. However, in sum, the tentative conclusion after the current investigation is that regret is to some degree maintained by individual differences and a result of concurrent, contextual factors, rather than a process that changes behavior in any predictable, functional direction.

It seems that men do not change their mating strategy after regretting having passed up casual sex opportunities some months earlier. Future research is therefore needed to further investigate men’s strategy shifts as a function of regret. However, while the preliminary conclusion needs to be tentative, there is no evidence in current data to suggest a function of inaction regret. For women there is more evidence in the literature that a maintained short-term strategy (more short-term sex) is associated with increased emotional discomfort (Townsend et al., 1995; Townsend & Wasserman, 2011). Thus, the conclusion that negative emotions do not necessarily motivate a change in sexual strategy might be considered more robust. However, that begs the question of why regret exists, given that it shows evidence of sex specific responses, as predicted by sexual strategies theory (Buss, 1998; Buss & Schmitt, 1993, 2017). One possible explanation is that different mental adaptations have different and uncoordinated effects on different behaviors: Tendencies toward regret and engaging in short-term mating are influenced different individual differences in both neuroticism and emotional lability as well as sociosexuality and other mental mechanisms that motivate sexual behavior within different domains (Kennair et al., 2015; Meston & Buss, 2007, 2009). All of these will not increase personal happiness (Buss, 2000). Another explanation may be that modern mating scene is evolutionary mismatched (Goetz et al., 2019). Finally, many mental and emotional responses exist despite not being functional. For example, rumination probably does not solve problems (Kennair et al., 2017), while discontinuing rumination seems to actually increase adaptive behavior as measured by increased quality of life and improved workforce participation or study activity 3 years after treatment (Solem et al., 2019). Panic disorder exists, but in different countries how patients misinterpret, in a positive feedback loop, bodily sensations of anxiety such that in some Arabic countries they will perceive a Djinn sitting on their chest while in Western countries people may fear a heart attack. Since neither perception is correct, despite systematic symptoms, panic disorder is primarily merely a misinterpretation disorder (Clark, 1986; Kennair, 2007). While worry might be a good anti-confirmation bias program at low levels, the worry involved in Generalized Anxiety Disorder is debilitating, not functional, and discontinuing worry provides efficient treatment (Kennair et al., 2020; Nordahl et al., 2018). Any functional explanation of the disorder will therefore be incorrect, although many of the underlying mental mechanisms involved may be adaptations (Nesse, 2018). However, we need to consider that despite the current findings, there may be other explanations and functional aspects of short-term sexual regret that may be discovered through more thorough and formal analysis of the design feature and behavioral outcome of a functional regret program. We suggest that two recent theoretical papers—Lukaszewski et al. (2020) and Al-Shawaf et al. (2016)—might aid this conceptual functional analysis.

One of the most surprising findings is that action regret reduces the likelihood of entering a long-term relationship. This was in the opposite direction of our functional prediction. It is possible that some of the more successful one-night-stands resulted in long-term relationships over time, or that regret was increased when one at some level desired a long-term relationship from the short-term encounter, but this did not happen, although it is not possible to discern these processes from the available data. Another possibility is that underlying personality factors cause those who are happier with their short-term experiences to be more positive toward other romantic relationships. Neuroticism decreases long-term relationship satisfaction (Gerlach et al., 2018), and might conceptually, given our current finding of the effect of regret processing, also, be associated with dissatisfaction after short-term encounters.

Recent studies of proximate predictors of the sex difference in action and inaction casual sex regret have suggested that a high degree of disgust is associated with higher levels of regret (Kennair et al., 2018). Within each sex there is an effect of sexual gratification (Kennair et al., 2016), and particularly among women who take the initiative to have casual sex (Kennair et al., 2018). In the current findings these factors were not as robust, however, for some analyses we had few participants. Despite this, given the current findings, bad sex will increase regret, good sex or a sexy partner will decrease regret—which thus may act as an online emotional and cognitive gauge of one’s experience. Evolved sexual psychology, as predicted by SST, will influence that process and evaluation based on sex specific likelihoods and thresholds for what is considered desirable or what is adaptive. However, much as our ability to track our relationship satisfaction in long-term relationships dynamically and online (Conroy-Beam et al., 2015, 2016), also based upon our evolved sexual psychology, we might track discrete sexual encounters more with emotional-cognitive processing akin to regret or rumination. We might use terms like satisfaction or dissatisfaction about long-term or ongoing processes, and regret about discrete choices and events, such as short-term sexual encounters. However, as in our relationships, we do not necessarily always make decisions based directly on this gauge of satisfaction, and other personality features, including or level of satisfaction may decide whether we stay or leave a long-term relationship or change our behavior within the relationship. Actually, reasons why we think we stay or leave and what we actually do are probably not as closely connected as people believe (Machia & Ogolsky, 2020).

Limitations and Future Research

While this is the first longitudinal investigation of behavioral changes following regret, there are some limitations that need to be addressed. First, the time lapse between the first and the second measurement was only 4.5 months on average. Although two-third of the single participants reported at least one new one-night stand during this period, this may be too short a time, or involve too few encounters for any adaptive mechanism to be activated. Despite the longitudinal design of the study, the reports on the most recent sexual encounters are retrospective in nature, and therefore subject to possible response biases. Second, there seems to be some self-selection and selective dropout at follow up. Relative to those reporting at T1 only, those with complete data at both T1 and T2 reported having had more casual sex, and less regret and regret processing at T1. Still, this selective dropout did not affect the relative sex differences in action and inaction regret at T1. However, the overall lower level of regret for those with complete data most likely have constrained the variance in regret in the longitudinal analyses increasing the risk of false negatives. This is sustained by the relatively low number of cases eligible for analysis. Finally, one important limitation is that we did not measure ambivalent feelings for action regret or passing up opportunities for having sex. By following the Galperin et al. (2013) measurement approach, we forced people to either be happy with their decision, neutral (neither happy or regret), regret somewhat or regret strongly. Most people may be more ambivalent, though, and may therefore describe their regret best along two dimensions: (1) degree of satisfaction with their choice, and (2) degree of regret/dissatisfaction for making the same choice. Future studies on sexual regret may want to include measures capturing this ambivalence to examine changes in either or in both these aspects of choice to have a one-night stand or to pass up.

As the first investigation of the function of inaction and action regret, hypothesized by Galperin and colleagues, we need to be cautious: as we note above, there may be other functions or other operationalizations of Galperin et al.’s ideas. These need to be considered both in depth theoretically and in future empirical investigations.

Finally, we have presented a new measure of regret processing, which needs to be tested further in future studies. The scale measures ones’ processing of negative past choices and counterfactual processing of more desirable behaviors. The scale was highly internally consistent and moderately stable across waves with different partners. This scale may provide a better measure of regret after discrete experiences. We expect that the scale to large degree correlates with trait neuroticism and recommend also measuring this trait specifically in future research.

Social media use for news is positively associated to uncivil political discussion & social media unfriending

Social Media Filtering and Democracy: Effects of Social Media News Use and Uncivil Political Discussions on Social Media Unfriending. Manuel Goyanes, Porismita Borah, Homero Gil de Zúñiga. Computers in Human Behavior, February 24 2021, 106759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106759

Highlights

• Social media use for news is positively associated to uncivil political discussion.

• Social media use for news is positively associated to social media unfriending.

• Uncivil political discussion positively predicts unfriending.

• Uncivil political discussion moderates the association between social media use for news and unfriending.

• Social media unfriending is important to understand digital citizenship.

Abstract: In todays’ progressively polarized society, social media users are increasingly exposed to blatant uncivil comments, dissonant views, and controversial news contents, both from their peers and the media organizations they follow. Recent scholarship on selective avoidance suggests that citizens when exposed to contentious stimuli tend to either neglect, avoid, or by-pass such content, a practice scholarly known as users’ filtration tactics or unfriending. Drawing upon a nationally representative panel survey from the United States (W1 = 1,338/W2 = 511) fielded in 2019/2020, this study seeks to a) examine whether social media news use is associated to exposure to uncivil political discussions, and 2) explore the ways in which both constructs causally affect users’ unfriending behavior. Finally, the study investigates the contingent moderating role of uncivil political discussion in energizing the relationship between social media use for news and unfriending. Our findings first find support for the idea that social media news use directly activates citizens’ uncivil discussions and unfriending, while uncivil political discussion directly triggers unfriending behavior and significantly contributes to intensify the effect of social media news use over citizens’ unfriending levels. These findings add to current conversations about the potential motivations and deleterious effects of social media filtering in contemporary democracies.

Keywords: Social Media News UseUncivil Political DiscussionSocial Media FilteringSocial Media Unfriending